Esta Semana; 28.Mar.2011

Dear Family,

I think I am always the last one to write. It's nice because I get the most accurate information as I read and write. By the time ya'll write back, my email is almost a week old.

Amy- That's pretty neat that both of our companions are dying this move-call;) Elder Robles is trying to work hard and finish strong. I don't know if he has very many big mission goals that he is trying to finish. I like your transfer goal though. 25 baptisms this move-call will give Satan a good blow. Or as Elder Robles would say- it'll "beat his face in". By the way, I love Elder Robles. Every day is an adventure with him. I am excited to be with him for his last move-call.

Well it sounds like every one is doing good. Like Amy I want to stay posted on where everyone will be moving this year. And Mom, I am excited to hear how Tour went. I'm sure like always it had its ups and downs but was over-all a great experience. I hope Shorty will be joining you next year.

I thoroughly enjoyed my week. My companion not so much. for three days he had a stomach virus that has been passing through the Ward. A lot of members have gotten it. He felt sick Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Friday was so bad that he stayed in bed all morning and afternoon. And then when we had to leave to go to our set appointments, I took him to the Escobars house and he stayed there with Kevin Escobar while I went to our appointments with Ricky Yanez and Brian Cano, both awesome youth. If you don't remember, the Escobars are the one's who who were kind enough to let me use their computer to skype with ya'll on Christmas. They are arguably my favorite family in the Ward. But that is hard to say because I have so many favorites.

Another great thing that happened this week was a FHE that the Relief Society did last night. It was about Missionary Work and we were invited. The president showed a short clip called "By Small and Simple Things" and then talked about how we need to share our testimonies more with those around us because of the great message that we have. Then she gave each Sister a copy of the Book of Mormon to write their testimonies in. One of the neat things about that was that there was a non-member that was there that wrote in a Book of Mormon also. She said that she didn't have a testimony of the book but that she enjoyed her time spent with the Sisters in the Ward. It was really cool. Then Elder Robles and I went to the front and gave two examples of how to give a friend a Book of Mormon. I gave a bad example and Elder Robles gave a good example. Then we had each of the Sisters turn to their neighbor and take turns practicing giving a friend a Book of Mormon. It went so well. The Sister did a better job than we did. They are awesome. Now the plan is that each week in the Relief Society, a Sister will be given a copy of the Book of Mormon to give to a friend that week. Then the next week she will report on how it went and pass the assignment on to another Sister. I think it is a great idea and will be a great experience for the Sisters in the Ward. The activity last night was very spiritual and got all of the Sisters excited to go out and share their testimonies. I am excited to see the fruits.

Yesterday we had three investigators at Sacrament Meeting. It was awesome. Have I told you about the Covaci family? They are a Romanian family that our youth found during our finding activity two weeks ago. Roman(dad), Maria(mom), and Juliana(oldest daughter) all came. they have three other children too. All of them speak Romanian and a little bit of Spanish. It is interesting teaching them. We are trying to get more materials in Romanian so that we can teach them better. They are really neat. I hope the best for them. Half the family is driving up to NY this week so we won't see them this week. I hope that they get back before next weekend so they can come to General Conference. I am so excited for them. I really hope that they progress well and get baptized. Like always because I want the best for them, but also because I want the youth that found them to see fruits from their labors and to be able to see someone progress through the whole process before them leaving on their missions. It will be a powerful learning experience for them.

Wow, I gotta go. Before I do though I want to tell you all I love you. I love hearing from you every week. Keep up the great work. And keep your missionary siblings informed.

Have a great week and enjoy General Conference. Go to as many sessions as you possibly can. Have you invited any of your friends yet? This is a great opportunity to share the Gospel and invite people to feel the Spirit in a powerful way.

Con mucho carino,

Elder Reece

Move-call results...

Hello!

Good news... Sis. Howard and I are still spreading the Good Word
together in Tanzi and Fengyuan! I am so excited to get to spend
another transfer with her for lots of reasons. We have made big goals
and big plans for what we will do this move-call. This is Sis.
Howard's last move-call (yep, Kevin and I are both killing our
companions :D) and she has a lot of mission goals that she hasn't
quite reached yet that we are determined to hit. The biggest goal that
we are working on is 25 baptisms this move-call. Yep, you read right-
25. That is how many she needs to hit the goal she set at the
beggining of her mission. That is going to take a LOT of work but we
are starting the move-call off strong with one this weekend. It is
actually the baptim that was supposed to happen this last weekend but
wasn't able to go through. We are so excited though and can't wait to
see the miracles that will come about from striving to hit this goal.
I don't know if logistically it is even possible to get 25 baptisms in
6-weeks but we're going to work our hardest to make it happen!

Oh, move-calls. We call them move-calls because that is what it
"transfer" translates into in Chinese. I called them transfers for a
couple of weeks and then just felt funny cause all of the other
missionaries call them move-calls. :D

This was a crazy week for me as I had my first sister's exchange. It
was so fun! I had a native companion for a day and got to ride around
Fengjia and Donghai (south Taichung). It was interesting to see how
another missionary works and what another area is like. Being away
from Sis. Howard and our area made me so grateful for both of them! I
learned so much from Sis. Chu though and am so grateful that I was
able to spend a day serving the Lord with her. That was
Tuesday-Wednesday and then on Thursday Sis. Howard and I went back to
Taichung to teach the new missionaries that came in that day how to
set statistical goals for their missions. Sis. Howard was able to show
them all her cool graphs. She is such a rockstar. I am so grateful she
has showed me how to set and record awesome mission goals.

Other than being on the bus a lot we didn't have a lot going on this
week. Well that is besides a ton of rain on Saturday and Sunday. When
I got my mission call I thought I was going to a ridiculously hot and
sticky place that I would never need tights or scarves. Boy was I
wrong! I forgot that even though I was going to an island they would
still have winter- and the Taiwan winter is freezing! But it's never
to cold to stop us from spreading the good work and kicking Satan's
face in!

Today two other Sisters from our zone came up to our area and we all
went to a super yummy Taiwanese buffet restaurant. And let me tell
you, the Taiwanese buffet is MUCH different than the American buffet.
It included fun food like mini octopus' and chicken feet. Yum! And no,
I tried neither but Sister Page (American) and Sister Zheng
(Taiwanese) did and I just watched in aww as the chowed down. I'll try
and send pics next week.

Well I think that I have shared all of the news for the week. I love
you all and am so glad to hear that everyone is safe and sound! Be
sure to keep me updated on where everyone will be moving to in the
next few months. There are some exciting changes coming up in the next
few months. Yay!

Love you!
Sister Amy Reece

Esta Semana; 22.Mar.2011

Dear Family,

Glad to hear all is well everywhere. Things are great here too. We found out Transfer information and the news is that we are both staying. We are really excited. These last nine weeks with Elder Robles have been crazy and challenging, but I love him and am excited to be with him for another six weeks. These are actually going to be his last six weeks. Then he goes home. He is not very happy about it. But we are going to work hard in the meantime. As for me, I still think that I will be here in this Ward for another 4 or 5 months. At least that is what I hope. I still have the hope of being able to train in this Ward. But we will see what happens. I have learned to accept God's will in all things.

This week was really good. Brother Italo Inanami went to the Orlando Temple on Saturday. He said he enjoyed it. We are working on helping him with his genealogy. Since he has a pretty unique family history it is going to be really difficult, but I am trying to assure him that God will provide a way. He has realized how much work we have to do when we say we want to baptize EVERYONE that has EVER lived on the earth. It is a grand task, but God is with us. I am excited to get to work when I get home. Most of it is already done for us but I hope to be able to contribute is some way. I am planning on spending a lot of time with Aunt Linda when I get home so that she can help me and show me the ropes. (Fun side note- Did you know that in Spanish, linda means cute? Her name describes her well, doesn't it?)

Our Recent Converts are all doing really well. Unfortunately right now we still do not have any progressing investigators and definitely none with a baptismal date. But we are staying faithful. We have been working a lot with the Ward members and we trust that that will bring fruits soon. Working through he members is the inspired plan we have received from God to find, teach, and baptize God's children. And our members are awesome so it is just a matter of time. We have such a great relationship with almost all of them. They all love us and we love them. I can't say it enough that I love this Ward!

Another fun thing that happened was that Elder Robles and I got to cater for a Wedding on Saturday night. The wedding was for the brother of one of our favorite members, Sister Cano. Her brother goes to the Riverside Branch, the part of our Ward that split off six months ago, so I was able to go up there and see a lot of beloved friends from my time up there. I miss them. They are truly special people. And I love that they remember me even though I was only there for a month.

Also, Elder Lauck goes home this transfer. Crazy, my trainer is going home, and I have gotten to see him finish. It has been a neat experience.

Also, I gave five baptismal interviews on Sunday. It was pretty crazy but all five were super awesome. Two got baptized on Sunday and the other three will be getting baptized tonight.

Amy- congrats on the baptism coming up. Actually, by the time you read this it will have already happened. That is an exciting thing to see. keep up the great work. It is great getting to hear how the work is progressing on your side of the world. By the way, why do you call a transfer a move call? Is that just a nick name you have for it or does no one in your mission really use the word "transfer"?

But anyway, I got to get going. I love you all. Mom, I am fine right now. If I need anything I will let you know. Actually, when you get home could you check my bank account? My card hasn't been working for some reason. Have I spent too much money?

Mom and Jule's, I hope you had a great Tour. I am excited to hear how it went.

With lots of love,

Elder Reece

All is safe here on Taiwan

Hello one and all!

First off I need to correct an error I made in last weeks email. I
said that during tsunamis we still go out and preach. That however is
false. Oops! We actually have typhoons, which are a lot less scary,
and it is during them that we still go out. Sis. Howard says that we
rarely have tsunamis on Taiwan. As for the earthquake and tsunami in
Japan I still can't believe it. President Bishop addressed that in his
letter this week and didn't mention any concerns about the radiation
on Taiwan. Just to satisfy curiousty (if there is any :D) I am going
to put the part of his letter discussing Japan at the bottom of this
email. I am so relieved to hear that all of the missionaries and most
of the members are safe. God truly does love and protect His
missionaries.

Last week I said that the week flew by super fast and I feel like that
once again. I seriously can't believe it is already Monday again. Wow!
And this is the last week of the move-call. I can't believe I am in my
sixth week on island. That is so crazy. Sis. Howard doesn't think
either of us will be moving but of course there is no guarantee.
Apparently President Bishop decides two move calls in advance where
people will be going so before I even got on island he already pretty
much knew where I will be next move call. He is such a rockstar!

Big news of the week........ We are having our first baptism on
Friday!!!! Her name is Zhang Shu Qin and I am so excited for her! We
met her for the first time about three weeks ago and she is already
getting baptized! It's really rare to have a three week baptism so we
are stocked! It is our first and only baptism this move-call, but she
is so solid! Sis. Howard and I basically started with a clean slate of
investigator's when I got here and have gone from having zero actually
progressing investigator's to six this week. It's been hard, stressful
work, but it is so worth it. I have loved being able to watch Shu Qin
from the first meeting till now. She has complete faith that through
Jesus Christ she can do anything. We are hoping that her husband will
attend her baptism and will one day become interested in the gospel.
Eternal families are so important!

We have a couple more investigator's that are progressing really well.
I hope that I will still be here next move-call to see them enter the
waters of baptism as well. It is such exciting work!

Last week mom asked me how the language is coming and I forgot to
answer. I am actually really suprised at how much I can understand. I
definitely don't understand each word, but I can almost always pick up
on the general idea of what is being said. It is really amazing. Each
day though I feel like I am able to understand more na dmore actual
words they are using. Our mission has a special language program that
we are "required" to do. We have a book that has Preach My Gospel
broken down into English, Pinyin, and characters with specific words,
phrases and grammer that we have to memorize. We have to "pass-off"
each lesson with our district leaders and then zone leaders. It sounds
intense but it really is a blessing. It's nice to have a specific goal
to work towards in my language studys. After Phase 1 (teaching the
lessons) I will start working on Phase 2 and 3 which are reading and
writing characters. I have been given amazing tools to truly become a
master at Chinese. I am so grateful for the Lord's help each day as I
try and improve my Chinese. I can testify that the Lord really is
helping me learn Chinese. I have His very important message to share
with the people of Taiwan and He wants me to be able to share it with
them. I love when people ask how we white girls have such great
Chinese (well, Sis Howard's is great and mine is getting there :D) and
we can truly say that we have God's help. It is a great opportunity to
bear testimony!

Well, I think it is time for me to go. Thank you so much mom for
taking the time to write me before you left for tour. If Kim reads
this to you while you're still gone I hope you and Julie are having
fun. If not I hope you had a great time. Thank you also for sending
the packages. You are amazing! I am so grateful that you are so
resourceful and that I am lucky enough to have had it passed on to me.
This week I said "use it up, wear it up, make it do, or do without"
and Sis. Howard had no idea what I was talking about. I thought for
sure everyone knew that phrase. I don't know where you got it from but
thank you for teaching it to me!

I love you all!
Sister Amy Reece


Excerpt from President Bishop's letter:
"Most of you are aware of the tragedy in Japan. The Sendai area
experienced a massive earthquake, followed by a devastating tsunami,
which damaged a nuclear power plant. These series of events have
caused great suffering in Japan. Most of you know by now that all the
missionaries in Japan are safe. Most of the members are known to be
safe; there are still 3 congregations where the status of a few
members is unknown. The Church has reassigned missionaries in the
hard hit areas. The church is moving forward with humanitarian
efforts to help those affected by these series of disasters put their
lives back together. The Church has 125,000 members in Japan who are
being equipped and trained to administer relief to their countrymen.
Regardless of where disaster strikes, Latter-day Saints respond
quickly to bless the lives of all who stand in need.
While we in Taiwan are not directly affected by these events, we can
take time to pause and learn. We can and should continue to pray for
our Japanese brothers and sisters. We know that the last days will
be filled with these types of events. The Lord has told us, “if ye
are prepared, ye shall not fear.” (D&C 38:30)"

Buenos Dias; 14.Mar.2011

Dear Family,
Sorry. I spent a lot of time reading your emails today so I didn't leave myself very much time to write unfortunately. This week was really good. We were privileged to have another Seventy come talk with us. This time it was Elder M. Keith Giddens. He spoke to the mission as a whole on Friday. It was really enjoyable. You can see pictures on our blog. Have I told you about our Missions blog yet?
Anyway, yesterday was Stake Conference. Elder Giddens was there as well. Raul and Italo were both there. Unfortunately we weren't able to talk to Italo. Raul is doing well. We haven't been able to meet with him since his baptism and he goes to Peru today for a week. I am kinda worried that it's been so long since we have been able to meet with him but I trust that everything will be okay. He is showing great sings of progress by coming to all of the meetings.
A of right now, we don't have anyone with set baptismal dates. Over the last five weeks all of our really awesome investigators have gotten baptized so we are working from the bottom again. But luckily we still have a lot of people that we are working with. They are just not progressing very well right now. But we are working with them and with God's help many of them will be progressing toward baptism soon.
Saturday we had a neat activity with our Young Men. We all met at the Chapel at 8. We ate donuts and talked about missionary work and talking to people at their doors and in the streets. After some practices we headed out to go do the work. We made five companionships. Whats neat is that only two companionships had missionaries. The other three companionships just had priests as the Senior companions. It actually went really well. They said that they had a great time. I love the youth in this Ward. They are so willing to do this work. We have at least one young man out with us daily. They are awesome. I wish I could have worked with the missionaries that much when I was younger. They are learning so much that I had to wait until I was a missionary to learn. They are going to be outstanding missionaries from the get go. As I have said before I love this Ward.
Transfers are next week so we will see what happens. I think that I will stay here and possibly train. And I think that Elder Robles will leave. This transfer there are 19 new Spanish speaking missionaries coming in. There will be a lot of missionaries training. I hope I can have that opportunity. I think it would be a big challenge but I know it would be a great opportunity for me to learn and grow.
But anyway, got to go. Thank you for keeping me informed. I hope you enjoy your week. Julie, I'm excited to see the Musical when I get home. Thank you all for your love and your examples. I love you. Like Mom, I have been so blessed and I hardly show my appreciation to god for His bounteous mercy and blessings.
The pictures are pretty self-explanatory.
With love,
Elder Reece

Da gei huh!

Hello to one and all!

Well, this week flew by faster than I think any other on my mission.
Which is weird cause it was one of the craziest weeks yet. Sis. Howard
and I add 49 new investigators this week and only two of them actually
showed up to meet with us. Yes, that is really bad odds. I have gained
a testimony this week that the work I am doing here is not mine, it is
the Lord's. That means everything is done on His time and in His way.
We worked super hard and tried to do all we could to be sure people
came to our appointments or to church, but to little avail. But, one
of the investigator's that did show up is awesome and we have great
hopes for her. The Lord's way of doing things is so much better than I
could ever do. I love being a part of building His Kingdom here in
Taiwan.

We really do have some awesome investigator's though that are
progessing to baptism in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully we will
be able to have at least one baptism in this move-call. Yes, I am
almost done with my first transfer. Yikes!

As mom mentioned we too are very grateful that the earthquake in Japan
didn't cause any trouble on Taiwan. It broke my heart to hear about
all of the destruction in Japan though. They have been in our prayers.
Sis Howard says that we get some pretty crazy tsunamis on Taiwan too
and I am excited for those! I don't think they are anything like the
one in Japan though, just lots of rain. And we of course don't sit
inside during them. There is always work to do!

It sounds like everyone has a very stressful and busy week coming up.
The plans for tour sound awesome! Maybe one day I can tag along :D.
How did the play go? Julie looks fabulous in all of her many roles.
You're so talented J! Mel, I got your letter this week. Thank you
pookie!

Kevin mentioned again how long my letters always are. oops! I realized
that you don't have time to sit around all day reading my novels so I
am going to try and stick to the beneficial news and info. We'll see
how that goes. :D

I think I am actually done for this week. I am attaching a couple
pictures for your viewing pleasure. We can only take pics on Mondays
so we always get kinda picture happy. The ones of and from a big
building are one of our chapels. It is on the 15th floor of a huge
office building. Crazy, but awesome.

Love you all! I hope I can hear from mom next week. Be safe and have
fun with all of your crazy adventures.

Sis. Amy Reece

Buenos Dias! 7.Mar.2011

Dear Family,
Good morning to all of you. It sounds like everyone had busy weeks. Here in Florida we kept pretty busy as well. On Wednesday I had the privilege of baptizing Raul Acosta! It was a good baptismal service. His wife and two daughters were there and they were also at Church yesterday for his confirmation. We haven't started teaching them yet but we hope to have an FHE with them and the Sepulveda's soon( hopefully tonight). The Sepulveda's are one of the best families in the Ward. They are very missionary minded and love working with and helping us. We see them a lot. We are working with their inactive father and with Brother Sepulvedas family, all of which are non-members.
We also helped move the Mena/Orozco family into their new home. They are a family that used to live in the west area when I was over there. But they just moved into the east area and I am so excited to have them in my area again. They are another one of my favorite families. That is Ervin's family. He is the 17 yr old Ward missionary that comes out with us all the time. What's cool is that they moved in next door to the Sepulveda's. I think we are going to be around there a lot with those two families.
Oh what to say what to say? I don't know how you write so much, Amy. Whenever I sit down at the computer my mind goes blank. Oh ya. One fun thing that happened this week was that we played basketball last P-day. The fun part was that my big toe got in between the floor and Elder Robles foot. Now remember, he is a college lineman. He weighs over 300 pounds. I was able to hold out until the end of that game but then I went to the bathroom and washed off the blood. I walked with a limp for a few days but now I am just about all better. It was ironic though because a few weeks ago Elder Robles had ingrown toenails removed from both of his big toes and two or three times I either stepped on or kicked his recovering toes. We had a few good laughs at the irony that he got payback.
The work here is going well. There is still a lot of work to do. I constantly think about the great responsibility it is being a missionary. There really is so much to do and to worry about, especially now being Senior Companion and District Leader. But it is through trials and tests that the Lord refines us. Like I have said before, I am confident that God is shaping and forming me into the instrument He wants me to be. The work is rough. Heck, life is rough. You all know that as well as I do.
But we're here for a reason and we are blessed enough to know what that reason is. "I know who I am. I know God's plan." Recently I have had Primary songs come to mind. Looking back to the songs that I sang since I could, I realize how much more even our little ones know than so many adults of the world today know. I feel truly blessed to have been born into this family, where the Gospel was taught and lived and learned. How I wish I could help the people that I talk to every day see the things that I grew up seeing. The plan is so perfect. God is so perfect. Everything fits perfectly into place. Our challenge is figuring out how to help others see the perfect simplicity in God's perfect, all-encompassing Plan. He knows what He is doing. We all need to learn to trust Him more.
I love you all. Like Amy, I am happy and proud to see you all living the Gospel in you day to day to lives. It is truly through the day to day living of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that we develop Christ-like attributes and build up the strength that we need to face life's challenges.
The Gospel is true. Do you know how much that simple phrase means?
I love you all and look forward to hearing from you next week.
With love,
Elder Reece

ps-sorry there is no picture from Rauls baptism. I left the camera at home. Hopefully I remember next week.

1 month has already gone by!

Oh hey everyone!

I just want to start by saying that I love you all! You are such
amazing examples to me that we truly can live in the world but not
live of the world. Each week as I read your emails and stories of all
of the fun things you do I am impressed by the righteous was you have
fun. I love it!

Funny event for the week- a lady at church asked me how much I payed
for my curly hair. She was shocked and disgusted when I told her that
thanks to my mom it is free! :D She paid over $100 for her perm.
Thanks for saving me so much money mom!

This was a great week! I feel like I learned a lot about myself and a
lot about how to be a better missionary. My first 2-3 weeks here we
pretty much started with a clean slate of investigators in both of our
areas. We had a couple, but they weren't really progressing so we
dropped them all. That was hard but we knew that we would have more
time to find the people that really are prepared to receive the
gospel. So for awhile we just tried hard to find people to teach- and
it was hard. We contacted a lot, tracted a lot, set up a lot of
lessons, and got stood up a lot. And on top of that we prayed a lot.
And I can tell you that the Lord really does answer prayers. We don't
have 100 people ready to be baptized now, shoot, we don't even have 7,
but we do have 4 progressing investigators that are AMAZING! It has
been really cool to work with them from the initial point of contact
to now- a couple weeks out from their baptisms. Sis. Howard and I pray
everyday that we will know how to best help each of them individually
prepare to enter the waters of baptism. I love it!

Sis. Howard is such an amazing teacher! I have loved watching and
learning from her how to take the exact same doctrine and make it
personal to each person. All of our investigator's are so very
different but the doctrine is all the same. I am so far from being
able to teach like Sis. Howard does, but I feel so blessed each day to
be able to be a part of the lessons. We have definitely had to go over
a few bumps as we have been learning how to teach in harmony. I am so
grateful for all of the opportunities I had to teach in the MTC, but I
think I let all of my 2.5 months worth of experience get to my head.
Up until this last week I wanted to have a 50/50 portion in our
lessons. I thought that because I had taught all this doctrine in the
MTC I could teach it here too, no problem. But this week as Sis.
Howard and I have evaluated our lessons and as I have evaluated my
attitude I realized that I have been so prideful in thinking that I
can do everything Sis. Howard can do. I know, that sounds really
weird. But I was expecting to do with my 2 weeks on island everything
that Sis. Howard has learned from spending a year+ on island. I wish
that I had realized that before, but I am grateful to know it now.
While I will eventually be able to do all Sis. Howard can do, it is a
process. Each day I need to study hard, pray hard, and work hard and I
will one day be able to be as good of a teacher as Sis. Howard and all
of the other amazing missionaries that I will have the opportunity to
work with.

This week as I was reading in the Book of Mormon I found a little gem
of a chapter- 2 Nephi 22. It is all of six verses long and all six of
them are great! My favorite is verse 2: "Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength
and my song; he also has become my salvation." It is amazing to me the
strength and the courage that we can have if we truly trust in the
Lord. He has amazing strength that endured so much and He has promised
that we too can have His strength. I also love that Isaiah says that
the Lord has BECOME his salvation. Allowing the Lord to be our
salvation truly is a process. He is always there, but WE have to let
Him become our salvation. We have to do our part. I love the Savior!
He is so merciful and great. I am amazed each day at all that His
strength and power can accomplish. I am so grateful that I am able to
wear His name on my chest every single day for 1.5 years.

Well, as always, this turned into a long letter. Our mission President
is great and gives us one hour to write to our families and then
another 30 min to write to him. Which means that I have plenty of time
to write ridiculously long emails to all of you! If you take the time
and make it to the end of my letters I know you really do love me :D.
I love you all! Thank you for your love and support.

Until next week!
Sister Amy Reece.