Week of joy

Dear Family,

First off the happy news! Tina, one of my investigators from my former area is getting baptized this week. Oh I could cry. I love her. She said her big change was she knows now that she has a Heavenly Father. That's what it is all about. Once they know that, they progress like crazy.

I feel like this week I read over and over again in the scriptures, talks, and in school that keeping records and writing things down is super important and I didn’t do it and now I can't even remember what happened this week. It was so busy crazy. We had exchanges this week and I got to show Sister Adams around. She is an absolute angel. She looks like one and acts like one. The exchange helped me learn just what I needed to prepare for this week. Mainly being:

1. love your companion and serve her like crazy 2. follow the spirit and just step back.

Jia Yi is so busy. So many needs. I wish we had that time stopper thing Herminie has in the Prisoner of Azkaban so we can just have the time to do everything, but oh well. That's why we need to get members on board. They too are Christ hands. I didn’t realize it until Sister Adams pointed it out but our relationship with the ward has changed dramatically. She had been on exchanges here 4 months ago so she saw JiaYi 4 months ago and then this week. When I first got her just 3 months ago the relationship with the ward was pretty zao gao. There wasn't much trust and relationship. Well, my sweet companions and I worked hard. Met with leaders. Planned activities. Served. Did what they asked. Smiled and loved and hugged. And now Jia Yi is becoming more alive. There's a light here again. It's hard to explain, but there is just a light about this place now. It's getting ready and there's going to be some major kingdom building going on soon. You can just feel it! It's the Lord's Kingdom as some like to say. The Bishop is considering our advice and listening to us and helping us and working with us now. It feels so good!

Let me tell you about the sweet woman of faith Chen Yue Wen. CAN YOU PLEASE, PLEASE PRAY FOR HER? She is a true woman of faith. She is the mom we started teaching about a month ago. She has read the Book of Mormon every day and is now in Mosiah. It has helped her overcome all that stupid anti-Mormon stuff she read on the internet. I'd never been so angry with the internet the day she told us she looked up all this anti-Mormon stuff and temple stuff. Ah! Yikes. It was so rough. She said she couldn't believe Joseph Smith anymore. We told her to pray about it and read the scriptures and stop looking at that stuff. Then the next day we saw her and she had the light again and everything was okay. She said that she read the BoM and it said to stop rejecting the words of the prophet and so she did and she was okay. THAT is the power of the Book of Mormon. She came to all 3 hours of church yesterday. Her husband wasn't too happy about it. She is supposed to be baptized on the 31st. She is good, but her family absolutely opposes, but she knows it's what she needs to do. She can't be baptized without spousal consent and her husband said he'll divorce her if she is baptized. See this crazy mess? But she has this amazing awe inspiring faith and knows the Lord will help her. Tonight we are taking the Elders to meet her husband. Honestly, I'm nervous and a little scared but so excited to see what happens. She is amazing.

Next is our sweet Yang Mama. She is our running buddy. She also plays the erhu (look it up!). She came to church for the first time and loved it. SHE taught us about faith in gospel principles. Her and her husband's relationship is really zao gao, but she is excited to learn to make it better.

Also, remember crazy Ivy? She's back! She is the one whose parents I met in the hospital when I was there. She isn't crazy anymore! She wants to be baptized and came back because she said her life was missing something and she prayed and realized it was church. Cool. The Lord does work in his time.

Well my dear family. This week was so tiring, but so awesome it really felt successful and it was super rainy. I love you all

xoxox

Sister Burr

Try and guess what I'm saying with my eyes. The scarf is from a former investigator (Willy) from Gangshan (my first area) that came and visited today. The mask is from one of the other Gangshan members. I loved that area.

It's us at Cafe Grazie (or crazy because it's where I ate snails. fancy snails). Some Gangshan members came up today so we went out to eat.

Happy Mother's Day!!

Just pictures. It was so good to see your faces today.

XOXO Family

A member made us theses and really wanted us to eat them all

It was Sister Biancardi's Birthday!

Don't Shy

Dearest Dearests,

Wow! Well, see you next week over Skype. You know what that marks? That marks my one year on the Island. Oh man how did that happen? It really was just yesterday I was Skyping you all last Mother's Day and trying to impress you with my horrible Chinese. How was Missy's birthday? This week was so amazing. The Lord is always in the work but it was really easy to see it this last week.

I haven’t told you about the most wonderful investigator yet. She is a Sister Chen. Her English name is Beryl. Yes BERYL. Also we have an investigator whose English name is Deace. How do they come up with such good names I'll never know. But this wonderful Chen. Wow! I love her so much. We had the most wonderful week with her. We met her about 4 weeks ago and have been teaching her for 2 weeks now. Back when Sister Mangelson and I were companions we went contacting in the park and we ran into this Lai JM. We invited her to English and we wanted to teach her so bad. Everyone needs the gospel, but you could tell she really needed that gospel light. She just looked so worn. She came to English and the next week she brought her friend, that Chen JM. Two weeks ago after our spiritual share on the Book of Mormon, Chen JM came up to us and said she wanted to learn. The first time we prayed with her and taught her she was just crying and feeling the Spirit so strongly. We shared about the Book of Mormon and invited her to start reading it. That was two weeks ago and she has blown through Jacob. HOW? We haven't even done anything and she has the most faith and trust in God. It was just a testimony how this is God's work. Our goal was to get her to come to church this week. We prayed and fasted and encouraged so hard and she came. Not only did she come but she brought her little 1 ½ year old daughter with her (she left her 4 year old at home with her husband) and was just tending to the cute, squirmy child and trying to listen. She has the cutest kids, I don't understand it at all. It's so distracting in lessons. While we were sitting in sacrament meeting I was just so touched and wanted to cry looking around and seeing all these faithful mothers who bring their children to church by themselves because their husbands aren't members. It's the most touching thing. I really hope we can start teaching her husband as well. We invite him to listen and he kind of sits there but Chen JM just quotes scripture to us and says oh "his heart is hard like Laman and Lemuel". She's so funny. She is absolutely amazing.

And then there is Emily. We met her just at a 7-11 and wow! We taught her a first this week and when we testified of God being her Father she was so touched and just never even thought of that and so moved because her relationship with her Dad isn't that good. When we invited her to be baptized the Spirit was so strong and I'd never seen someone so happy about that thought of baptism right off the bat and it was so crazy because I felt it too and just that pure happiness. The Spirit was there! Usually people are afraid or hesitant but it was just so different with her. The Lord DOES prepare hearts.

I just have to get this off my chest. So in Taiwan the people are the nicest in the world. I don’t know if there is a nicer group of people. They are so nice and they just think everything is good, including every religion. This week I was just thinking of how whenever we share about the gospel people say "oh yeah it's just a church and you pray when you need help or are sad, but my life is good and I'm happy". Every time they say that I just think NO! Yeah the gospel will lift us and the gospel will help us in times of need and improve our lives, but the gospel isn't here just to improve our lives those are just the fruits of living the gospel. What the gospel really is the way (2 Nephi 31: 20-21). It's the way back to God. Our special message isn't that you can have happiness our special message is that we have a living loving Heavenly Father that WANTS us to have happiness and gave us a PLAN to find that happiness in this life and the next. Oh man. It's not just for those that are sad, need help, or need direction but it for everyone. Whether or not we want to believe in Him, God is there and we will be brought back to his presence and he loves us so so-so-so much. So much! The gospel is for everyone no matter what their circumstance. So isn't it so important to live and share it? Yes. I feel like I'm just in one of those cry repentance modes were I want to go super powerhouse cry repentencey. I just really love these sweet Asian brother and sisters.

 I read a talk "The Abundant Life" By Elder Wirthlin. I highly recommend it

"One of the great comforts of the gospel of Jesus Christ is our knowledge that this earthly existence is merely a twinkle in the eye of eternity. Whether we are at the beginning of our mortal journey or at the end, this life is merely one step—one small step.

Our search for the abundant life is cloaked not only in the robes of this mortal clay; its true end can only be comprehended from the perspective of the eternities that stretch infinitely before us.

Brothers and sisters, it is in the quest of the abundant life that we find our destiny.

As illustrated in the story of an old, discarded horse that had within him the soul of a champion, there is within each of us a divine spark of greatness. Who knows of what we are capable if we only try? The abundant life is within our reach if only we will drink deeply of living water, fill our hearts with love, and create of our lives a masterpiece."

Family, I love you sosososo much. See you next week!

xoxoxo

Sister Burr

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