Sister Winters - March 25, 2013

Dear family,

 

Good morning! It's honestly been a fantastic week - the best one number-wise since I've been here. And maybe the best otherwise, too. I don't really keep track of these things. Life is wonderful every week as a missionary!

 

Investigator update: there are a good five people who have firmly set dates for April 20th. That's the last Saturday before I go home. PLEASE PRAY FOR THEM. Rena ("Layna"), Annie, Sister You, Oprah, and Lisa. They are wonderful and I've seen incredible miracles from prayers and faith on our behalf. Probably the biggest one happened yesterday: YOU JIEMEI CAME TO CHURCH. Yes, this is the same has-been-investigating-for-five-years-but-has-never-once-in-her-life-been-to-church You Jiemei that I've talked about before. I honestly still can't believe it. She was progressing and we were hoping and putting our whole hearts into it but then she hit a rut and said that she just couldn't come to church and I was devastated. And we didn't come for a while because honestly, I just didn't know what to talk about. But I think in that time she changed, because she made up her mind she was going to come at least once. And so she came. And she loved it. I could have kissed the members I was so happy and proud of how well they cared for her at church (okay, I couldn't have kissed them and wouldn't really wanted to kiss them, but you get what I mean). They were awesome.

 

For those of you wondering how my new companion is, I'm happy to report that Sister George is fantastic. Last Monday we were out finding on our way to dinner and then ended up finding a new investigator instead of eating dinner. I apologized that she was probably really hungry, but she smiled and said, "That's fine! Finding a new investigator is better than eating dinner any day!" I knew from that point on that we'd work hard together and see a lot of success. We're trying to get her to a point where she can train next transfer, so we'll need your prayers. I'm confident that she'll be great - yesterday she felt a prompting to ask one of our investigators if they wanted a priesthood blessing and it turned out to be a great spiritual experience.

 

We've still been doing more service lately, and it's been so awesome. Ya Ting's little sister (the one who was terrified of the missionaries) prayed on her own this past week at her lesson! So amazing. We're definitely seeing progress there. We also went to an orphanage for disabled children this past week and I gave a special violin performance. It's been so rewarding to use the talents God's given me to help His children here.

 

Time is running short but I wanted to share a quick insight on grace that I heard this past week. Christ's grace is like a mom paying for piano lessons. The piano lessons are a free gift from Mom that she has paid for. We don't pay for the lessons - Mom does. Even when we practice, we don't "pay" for the lessons - our practicing is a way that we show Mom that we're grateful for the gift she's given us. And that's what we do when we follow Jesus Christ. Nothing we can do can "pay the price" for our sins - we've sinned and we need Him to rescue us. But we live a Christlike life because it is our way of showing Christ that we love Him and are profoundly grateful for His wonderful Gift. We live a Christlike life to show that we accept His Gift. Anyway, you all probably got this already, but for me it was a lightbulb moment. I love Jesus Christ and I love that He is a God of mercy and of grace. I need it - every single day of my life.

 

Anyway, I'm loving life and I'm loving all of you! Make this week a great one!

 

Love,

Sister Winters

 

Sister Winters - March 18, 2013

Top o' the morning to ya! And happy St. Patrick's Day! ...Just in case you were interested, no, they do not celebrate that here in Taiwan. Even the missionaries don't - I wore a nice long green skirt to commemorate the occasion, but the other missionaries: nothing. Well, they were wearing clothes, just not green ones. Anyway, I didn't quite live up the occasion as much as I normally do, but I was happy in a green skirt. And I hope you've all been happy as you've had fellow St. Patrickers out in the USA.

 

This week has been a newsy one! First things first, I have a new companion! Sister George from St. George - fun, right? She was Sister O'Brien's MTC companion, so I already creepily knew all about her even before she became my companion. She's a hard worker and an obedient missionary and we've already seen miracles together - it's going to be a great last transfer. Oh! One more thing - she was trained in Taidong, of all places, and was able to tell me about two more people that I taught there who are now baptized. Life is good.

 

Speaking of Taidong, I've got great news: one of my recent converts will be able to go through the temple before I leave! She asked me to help her - I'm not sure if that means I'm her actual usher (we'll see about the whole Chinese thing), but I get to go through the temple with her on April 19th before I go home. I originally was supposed to leave on April 20th, which means I wouldn't have been able to go with her. But because the mission schedule changed with the MTC, I now get to go. I know that that is one of the many reasons that God lengthened my time here on island.

 

Another person that's moved up with Sister George into the district is none other than Elder Michael Slawson, who (if you remember) was my friend in my freshman year at BYU, then moved into my district in Taidong, and now moved up to the district here. Fate is a funny friend - we keep joking that when we both have our own families and are in our mid-forties or something that we'll randomly move into the same ward or something. I'll keep you posted.

 

Sister O'Brien and I made sure to love life before she moved - her last day with me was actually her birthday, so I made the most of that. Just in case you were interested, it is very hard to pull off a surprise party for someone that you're around 24/7. But I managed it, with the help of one of our members. She actually was surprised, which was delightful. And then of course eating Thai food for dinner made life even more delightful. All in all a very good day. :)

 

Okay, I've got a great story this week. So there's this member in Shilin named Donna who wants to go on a mission this year... but who hasn't been coming to church lately. Not good. We've been wanting to visit her for a while, but the only problem is that her house is on the very top of this huge mountain in our area. And she hasn't been answering our calls, so it seemed like visiting her was our only option. We knew she didn't work on Saturdays and actually had a big chunk of time on Saturday afternoon.... so we went up the mountain! Even after riding up to the top on a bus, and then changing buses to ride another one even further into the mountain, we still had a little distance to go on foot. I, of course, was sort of freaking out that we were spending so much time on only one person, but I kept repeating "leaving the 99 and going after the one" in my head over and over again. On our way up to Donna's house we came across a hiking party, led by a man with long hair and a very deep voice - perfect mountain man. They were actually going in the same direction as we were, and they invited us to join them. So we walked and talked with them for a while, but they were walking kind of slowly, so we decided it would be better to try and move on ahead. Well, surprise surprise, we still couldn't find the address and the mountain man caught up to us again. He was so nice and decided to accompany us on our quest to find Donna. His help really did come in handy, since he had an iPhone and Taiyu-speaking abilities, which were both things that we lacked. He used the iPhone (and directions in Taiyu) to find the house... and then used some more Taiyu to talk to Donna's grandpa when she wasn't there. Then he helped us arrange for Donna to pick us up at the top of the street. As we hiked back up to the top of the road, he came across a tree with some fruit and said, "You can eat the fruit of this tree. Here, try some." He picked one and ate it, so we did as well. He said, "This tree is a rare form of guava tree that's indigenous to the mountain climate - the fruit's not quite ripe yet, but still has a satisfying sour flavor." So cool. Then when we were waiting at the top of the street he pulled out some oranges that he'd picked on the mountain earlier that day - they were delicious. As we tried to stammer our thanks, he kept trying to make it seem like it was nothing. We shared a little about who we were, what we were doing, and what kind of message we were sharing. He in turn told us that he was a retired Chinese teacher who now serves as a guide for a bunch of different mountains. He said that "when [he's] not doing anything, [he's] on the mountain." I want to be like him when I grow up.

 

Oh, most important part of that story - Donna did not come to pick us up at the top of the street, but she was so touched that we would go all the way to the mountain to try and see her that she came to church yesterday. SUCCESS!

 

This week we met a girl named Jingle (yes, as in "jingle bells"). Sister O'Brien and I were contacting, and then I felt like we should go and talk to this girl on a scooter. But she was talking on the phone - not a super-good condition to talk to someone. When Sister O'Brien pointed that out, I said that we could still try and walk up slowly and hope that she'd be done talking on the phone by the time we got there, and Sister O'Brien said, "like now! She's done now! Go go go!" And so we did. And we talked to her. And she set up. Her lesson was fine (we had a few crazy things happen with the members that were there, but that's another story), but nothing really special happened until the end. She said that she's already Christian, and normally would not talk to other Christian churches to find out about what they believe. But when she saw us on the day we contacted her, she felt like she should hang up her phone so she could talk to us. And then when I tried to set up a time, she said that she asked God in her heart, "Do you really want me to do this?" and she felt like she should. And then when I called her the day before her appointment to confirm, she said the same thing happened. "So," she said, "I already know that what you're saying is what God wants for me. I already know that it's good." Talk about cool, right? I loved hearing that, and feeling like we were a direct answer to her prayer.

 

Speaking of answers to prayer, I've had a few more experiences lately where I've been an answer to someone's prayer. It's humbling and powerful. I really do think that that's one of my favorite things about being a missionary - really feeling that you're a tool in the Lord's hands as you answer prayers. I think the best part is that I can keep trying my best to do that (and get better at doing that) every day of my life, and not only for a year and a half. I really do love this work. It is marvelous and life-changing. Please keep praying for our investigators and for me. I love you all! Have a fantastic week.

 

Love,

Sister Winters

Sister Winters - March 11, 2013 "…And Which One is the Fattest?"

Dear family,

 

Good morning and welcome to another week of my life! It's been great, as usual. Let me tell you about it:

 

So first and foremost, lately for service I've been teaching a few music lessons. Half-price if members bring a friend! Just kidding, they're free. :) It's been a good way for me to show my love for the members and help them. I think it will also bring in some awesome missionary opportunities. There's a member who's sister has been TERRIFIED of meeting the missionaries. But she went to a baptismal service the other day, met us, and then decided that we weren't scary when I taught her how to play my violin a little bit. She said she wants to learn piano and I offered to teach her a little bit. Well apparently since that time she's been asking her sister non-stop when she can see the missionaries again and learn piano. I'm hoping that as she becomes more familiar with the Church and what we do (maybe starting and ending our piano lessons with a prayer?), she'll be more prepared to accept the Gospel. Woohoo for service!

 

Oh, speaking of Zoya (that member I was just talking about), she served me this past week by teaching me a little Taiyu. "Taiyu" is "Taiwanese," or the mother tongue of the Taiwanese people. Unfortunately, it doesn't really have a written form - it just is passed down from generation to generation. It's based off of Mandarin so if you're really familiar with Taiyu you can kind of guess the Mandarin words you don't know based off of syllables.... but I haven't gotten there yet. Anyway, I was on the subway with Zoya and she was very patiently teaching me useful phrases like "I'm a missionary!", "How are you today?", "Have you eaten yet?" (the traditional greeting here in Taiwan - love it), etc. It was really fun. And really hard to remember (further proof that my Chinese abilities are all God's help). Anyway, I got to use them this week! I was calling a number that the elders gave us and the lady wasn't understanding anything. Finally I started using my very basic Taiyu to talk to her. I asked her if she understood Chinese and she said, "Tiabo, tiabo" ("I don't understand, I don't understand"). So I hung up, turned to my companion who was looking at me with a dazed expression and said, "She doesn't understand Chinese." Then I heard a laugh next to me and realized that the high school student sitting next to me had just heard (and understood) everything that was going on. I asked her if she spoke Taiyu and started chatting with her. Before we left I asked if she had interest in English class - she said that she didn't. I said hopefully, "Well, what about the Gospel of Jesus Christ?" She looked at me for a second and said, "Yeah, alright." So she set up! And all because of a wrong number of someone who tiabo'd!

 

We also had a lot of miracles when we did temple tours this past Friday. One of them was seriously one of the coolest miracles I've seen on my mission. I was on exchanges with Sister Ochoa (our new temple sister), and we had some time to find. So we went to say a prayer to start our finding. Sister Ochoa asked what we wanted to achieve in the hour that we had to find people to teach. I told her that we hadn't found any new investigators all week, so I hoped that we could find someone who lived in Tianmu or Shilin. Keep in mind that Tianmu and Shilin are about a half an hour away, so the chances of finding someone by the temple who lives in Shilin are very slim. But we said "the prayer of faith," and left the chapel full of fire to find. So... we talked to everyone. And met some people who were interested... and a lot of people who weren't as interested. :) And then we had about fifteen minutes left and I felt like we should cross the street to talk to this lady on the other side who was coming down the sidewalk. When talking to her she first said, "I'm not interested!" But then stopped to listen to us. After about thirty seconds she said, "Actually, I've been to your church before." Apparently her aunt is a member and she still remembers going to church with her, even though it was probably 40 or so years ago. We kept talking to her and she agreed to let us say a prayer - right afterwards she asked, "So why is your church different from other churches?" We asked her how much time she had - if she had 10 minutes, we could give her a tour of the chapel right next to the temple. She said, "Oh no, I really am busy." And then talked to us for another ten minutes or so. :) And then she said her own prayer at the end! It was great. After our lesson, we tried to set her up for another time to do a tour, and she said, "Oh, I live far away... it wouldn't be convenient." I asked (with bated breath) where she lived and she said, "I live in Shilin." It was like Sister Ochoa and I had had an electric shock. I got her phone number and she agreed that I could call her to set up a time and then bore my testimony that I knew that God wanted us to meet her and help her accept the Gospel. Then she went on her merry way and Sister Ochoa and I walked away with shocked expressions still etched on our faces. God had answered our prayers! Even with such a small thing, He was still willing to listen and help us.

 

Another much smaller but still great miracle happened later that night when the elders brought in a Swiss woman and her Taiwanese friend to take a tour. We taught them about the Restoration (neither of them had much of a religious background) - in English, which was hard for both of us. We were getting to the First Vision and I started praying, "Please, Heavenly Father - I need to be able to recite the First Vision in English, which I'm definitely not accustomed to. And I need to do it smoothly so that these people can feel the Spirit. Please help me." Well, it worked! Everything came to my mind perfectly and the tour went very well. I think they both left edified and interested to learn more. Mission accomplished.

 

As far as other miracles go, we've had some great ones with our own investigators in Shilin and Tianmu. Probably the biggest ones this week were with Oprah. As you all know, we met her a couple of weeks ago and she's shown a great interest in the Gospel. Originally we had set her date for April 27 (the normal 8-week period between meeting the missionaries and the baptism), but after we did that we felt like it was way too long. Plus we'd set a goal for having baptisms in March. And we needed to achieve it! So we decided to act on our goal and invite Oprah to move up her date to March 30. She was willing! She loves church and the feelings she has when she's there, when she prays, and when she reads the scriptures. Yesterday she shared an experience about how she was on her scooter, going to the church when she realized she was out of gas. But she didn't want to be late for church, and she couldn't see any gas stations close by. So she said, "I was praying so hard in my heart, saying, 'Heavenly Father, I want to go to church and I don't want to run out of gas. I want to be there on time. Please help me.'" And she had enough gas! She knows that God answered her prayers. I love Oprah!

 

I also love Rena (pronounced "Layna" - apparently it's Japanese?), another one of our investigators. Yesterday was her first time at church - I was worried it was going to be her only time at church, since her acceptance of our invite to go to church was "I guess I can give it a try this once." Of course with an enthusiastic response like that, I started praying that Rena would like church and would feel the Spirit. Well, she came, and in her words, "when the speakers started after the sacrament, I just couldn't stop crying - I was so touched. I don't know why." I know why - Heavenly Father answered my prayers. She wants to come to church every week now.

 

I think the fact that these two investigators like church is even more of a miracle when I think about how weird Sunday School was for both wards. One of them was a super-deep discussion about exaltation and whether or not we thought it was super-hard to become like God, and the other one had to do with prophets. Actually the one on prophets was really good - there were just a few weird parts. We opened up Gospel Principles to the page with all 16 modern-day prophets and then the teacher started asking, "Which one is the youngest?" "Which one is the oldest?" "Which one has the longest beard?" "Which one is the skinniest?" And then... "Which one is the fattest?"

 

ONLY IN TAIWAN.

 

Truth: I'm scared to death that I'm going to come home, see someone I knew before my mission, and then say something like, "Wow, you've gotten fatter since I last saw you." Can you see why? Anyway, after the fat question and then commenting on how Joseph Smith was the most handsome of all of the prophets, we moved on to spiritual things and everything was good again.

 

Dajia, life is GOOD! I love being a missionary. I love all of you. Have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Sister Winters

Sister Winters - March 3, 2013 Blessed are the Christmas Carolers!

[Editor's note: Rebecca is coming home on April 27th!!  She is speaking in our church meeting at 1pm on Sunday, May 5th and all are welcome to attend.  The address is 5995 Spalding Drive, Norcross.  She has even promised to take me to the Asian market where we will buy food and she will prepare Taiwanese food for any and all who would like to come to our house after our block of meetings.  I promise no jellyfish, squid, or octopus will be served.]

Dear family,

 

Zaaaaoooo! I'll miss not saying "zao" or "zao-an" to people in the States - it's so much more fun to say than "morning" or "good morning." Maybe I'll just say it to people anyway and deal with others' weird looks.

 

Anyway, good morning! Thank you for your fantastic, fabulous, fun emails. This week's been a good one - not any baptisms (yet), but they're coming! Soon. But more about that later.

 

This week's supply of funny stories is a little lower this week, but it's still been great - a lot of miracles. First let's start out on this week's Chinese BofM study highlights:

 

Mosiah 4:9 "Believe in God...." in Chinese it actually just says "Believe God." I really like that subtle difference. The Chinese are very detached in their beliefs - "oh, if you believe in that god then he exists, but if you don't believe, then he doesn't exist..." etc. This scripture just says for us to believe God - there's no choice on whether or not to actually believein Him, because He already exists, regardless of your choices. Just believe Him and follow Him and you'll be happy.

 

Mosiah 14:2 "...there is no beauty that we should desire him." I've always thought that the wording on that is interesting. The word desire in Chinese is translated into "xianmu," which means to envy or admire. Makes a lot more sense in my mind.

 

Favorite - Mosiah 15:18 "O how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings..." In Chinese the word for "bringeth good tidings" is "baojiayin," which is also the word for "to carol," or "to Christmas carol." O how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the Christmas carollers! So fun. I love Chinese.

 

This week I celebrated my Taidong one-year anniversary. It's crazy to think that it's already been a year since I was transferred to a place that I love so much. I actually found out some news about Taidong this past week from some people - three people that I taught down there are getting baptized in the next two weeks! It made me so happy to hear that. The sister who told me said, "Yeah, you're still famous down there - every person we talked with was like 'Wei Jiemei this' or 'Wei Jiemei that.'" I'm not worried about being famous in Taidong, but I'm happy to hear that people I love and care about still remember me. I had a miracle with Becky this week as well. No, she's not baptized yet, but I'm still confident she will be someday. Anyway, she's been writing me ever since I left and she's never seemed very happy, which of course has been worrisome for me... especially since I can't do very much about it while I'm in another area - I've just been praying that she'll be alright. This past week I had three missed calls from a number I didn't recognize. When I called back there was no answer, but then I got called by it again a few hours later. I answered, and a voice said, "Is this Wei Jiemei? ...This is Becky." We're not supposed to call investigators from other areas unless we have special permission, so I was so surprised! But it was so good to hear her voice and talk to her for a bit. I know that her calling me was an answer to prayer - she was able to be reassured that I still love her and care about her, and I was reassured that she'll be okay, even if I'm not in Taidong still. I know that God answers our prayers.

 

Even though I loved Taidong and Hualian, I do feel that I love Shilin and Tianmu as well. This past week in church I just felt a surge of love for the members and investigators that I have here. I finally feel like the members are giving me referrals and are familiar with who I am and what I'm doing. And we're moving forward! Yesterday Sister O'Brien and I had a fun time in one of the ward's YW's class - we'd brought investigators to their class the past two weeks and the girls were AWFUL. Cold, unfriendly, and unwelcoming - even after we cajolled them to at least sit with our investigators. A week before yesterday I went straight up to the YW leader right after class and asked if Sister O'Brien and I could share a "special message" with the YW the following week. So yesterday was the day of our "smackdown message," as Sister O'Brien and I called it. We opened up 3 Nephi 27:27 and talked about how we need to be like the Savior. Then Sister O'Brien and I did a series of role plays as the investigator and the member - one where the member was super-cold, one where the member was way too friendly in a fake sort of way, and one where the member did a great job. I was the member and Sister O'Brien was the investigator, and between my over-exaggerated acting and Sister O'Brien's perfect responses, we had the whole class roaring in laughter. And I felt the Spirit confirm to me that I think they got the point, which is the best part.

 

As far as our investigators go, the ones that we're planning on with March 30 hopefully (their baptismal date is actually the week after that, but I have faith we can move faster) are Annie and Oprah. Oprah's actually scheduled for the day I leave, but I still have faith that she can get baptized sooner than that. Sister O'Brien and I don't want to rush anything, but we do want to help our investigators as quickly as possible! I'm positive that as we have faith and move foward with the Spirit then we'll see miracles. We saw one with You Jiemei this week - we'd been praying for her to have spiritual experiences, and this past week at the end of her lesson she started to cry as she pleaded with Heavenly Father to give her time to go to church so she can be baptized and go to the temple with her family. God's working miracles on this small island!

 

I love you all so much. Have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Sister Winters

Becca watching Jacob open his mission call (she was sitting in the mission president's chair):