I am in Taiwan!

Oh hey! I loved talking to all of you that I was able to on Tuesday! I
am sorry David and Rachel that I wasn't able to give you a call. I
love you all!

I can't believe I am actually in Taiwan! Right now I am sitting in an
internet cafe in Feng Yuan Taiwan, just north of Taichung. This little
cafe is full of Taiwanese people wasting their day away playing games
on the internet. Well, minus the one unhappy man next to us that
thinks Sis. Howard and I are being way too loud. Little does he know
that Sis. Howard's Chinese is amazing and she understands all of his
grumblings. Poor man, he needs the gospel in his life.

Well, like I said, my companion is Sis. Howard and I love her! She has
amazing Chinese, is fearless about talking to people, and bikes like a
crazy woman. When I was still in the mission home I heard Pres. Bishop
say that there was one Sister that was training who was super goal
oriented and had all sorts of graphs showing her goals, and a Sister
that would be covering two church buildings and I thought I wanted the
first Sister and would probably get the second Sister. Little did I
know that the were both Sis. Howard and the she would indeed by my
companion. She helped me set all kind of crazy goals this morning and
each day we bike back and forth between our two chapels. Its pretty
insane.

Oh my goodness I have so much I want to tell you but my thoughts are
scattered all over the place. I apologize right now, but this letter
will probably go all over the place. :D

First, before I forget- I can only get AND receive emails from my very
immediate family. So that means mom and my siblings can email me and I
can email them. I am sorry to anyone who this inconveniences! I can't
argue with mission rules though. But- I would absolutely LOVE to
receive snail mail letters from anyone who is willing to take the time
and money to send them!

Okay, now that that is out of the way. Like I said, we have to
chapels. One is in Tanzi and is on the 15th floor of an office
building. It is crazy. And unfortunately for my legs it is at the
bottom of a pretty long, steady hill. That is not fun to ride up. The
second chapel, which really is a chapel (not an American looking
Chapel, but a nice clean chapel none the less) is in Feng Yuan. Having
two chapels not only means that we have to ride back and forth a lot,
but it also means that Sis. Howard and I have to split up on Sundays.
This week I went to the Tanzi Ward and she went to the Feng Yuan ward,
and next week we will switch. Its kinda crazy and it was really scary
having to go to church alone. Well, I wasn't entirely along because I
had a member "companion". But I didn't have my real, English-speaking,
know-the-ropes, trainer companion. It will be a great experience
though as I will really have to know our investigators and the members
of the ward. Luckily, our apartment is about in the middle of the two
chapels so that is somewhat convenient.

In our mission we have a rule that we talk to EVERYONE. And since we
are on bikes and most people are on scooters, this is really easy. At
every stoplight we just pull up next to someone and start getting
their information. We try and quickly set up an appointment with them
and then extend a baptismal commitment. Its crazy! I am still getting
up the courage to be really gun-hoe about it, but I do it! I don't
know the stats on how many of those appts and baptisms really go
through, but I don't think it is much. But the more we do it the
higher the stats we will have. We have had some pretty cool
experiences from talking to people already. The coolest one was when
Sis. Howard found a really-inactive Sister. Sister Howard was going to
talk to another person at the stoplight, but instead pulled up to this
sister, Sister Yang. We met found out she was baptized about 5 years
ago and after the Sisters that converted her were transfered, Sister
Yang just kinda fell away. But she is amazing! We met with her for
real yesterday and found out she is still keeping all of the
commandments! She has had some bumps in her life but is so anxious to
start coming to church again. She has been wanting to for awhile but
had no idea where it was. That is one hard thing about having the
church in an office building- it is not easily accessible. Anyway, she
is going to start coming again and we hope to help her prepare to go
to the temple. I am so excited. She truly is amazing and I am so glad
that Sis. Howard listened to the unaudiable prompting she had to go
talk to her. I love this work!

Kevin was so right when we said that members are important. Really,
they are essential. We can go find as many people to baptize as we
want, but having the Gospel won't help them any if the don't stay
active. Missionaries come and go but the members are always there.
Please, please, please help the missionaries! One of Sis. Howard's
stats that she keeps is lessons with members present. I have seen the
proof that the more that members are involved in the missionary work,
the more investigators get baptized. Don't leave the missionaries
hanging!

My love and testimony of missionary work has grown 10 fold just in the
last few days! The Gospel is true. Thank you for your love and your prayers!

I love all of you so much! God be with you!
Sister Amy Reece