Fire Alarms and Bike Crashes

Hello my dearest family and friends!

 

No, my subject is not just a "cool phrase the kids are using these days", it is a five-word summary of my week. Yes. It has been an adventure since I last wrote. On Tuesday morning I was trying to warm some bread up in the microwave when before I knew it, it was completely up in flames. Yeah. To spare you all the details, it resulted in our entire complex being evacuted and five Taiwanese fire-fighters in my living room. The actual fire itself was small enough that I just blew it out with one big "huff", but there was lots of smoke. All is fine now, and a week later there is only a lingering smoke smell. :D

 

Now about the bike crash. That too was as a result of... well, me really. I was standing up and pedling when my foot slipped off my pedal. I tottered for a minute while trying to stop my bike. I failed though and ended up falling over and my bike falling on top of me. Again, all is okay except for a sore leg and shoulder and a gash on my bum. I don't feel like I was this much of a dunce before my mission. But in the last 16ish months I have had more little accidents than my whole life combined I feel like. I am very grateful though that they have all just been minor occurances. It is a testimony to me that the Lord really does protect His missionaries. Everything could have been serious but has turned out all right.  Oh, as I was ending the awkward phone-call with my Mission President telling him about the fire he said, "Well Sister Reece, do you have any more burning questions?" ha. ha. ha. He thinks he is so funny!  Apparently he was none for his "jokes" in the hospital where he worked before.  :D

 

Other than those two humbling events, this was a pretty good week. I learned a lot from my companions wonderful example. She is so great at just accepting my mess-ups and loving me anyway. She doesn't judge and never has an unkind look or word about anything. I am learning from her the importance of love. Both giving and receiving love. I feel like in my last six weeks with Sister Liston I have figured out so much about missionary work and being a good disciple of Christ that I never knew before. I think a lot of it has to do with the extra time that we have in the morning to study Preach My Gospel and the Scriptures (for her first 12 weeks we get 2 hours of companion sutdy instead of just one), but also a lot to do with our companionship. I love it! We're only halfway done with our time together and I can't wait to see what the next six weeks have in store for us.

 

This week we had a really great lesson with two of our investigators that we have been working with for awhile- Viann and Jenny. I don't know if I have ever mentioned them before, but they are great. They own a breakfast/brunch restaurant and because of that being open on Sunday haven't been able to come to church yet. A couple of weeks ago we commited them to keeping the Sabbath Day holy and they were willing to give it a try. After a couple weeks of prayer and discussion they have now commited to closing their store this Sunday and coming to church! A lot can change in a week though so we will be continually praying that they do end up coming. This week when we went to visit them with the Relief Society President we shared with them about the Law of Chastity. They had heard a little about it before but we hadn't actually "taught" it or commited them to living it. I was so grateful to have Sister Peng there with us testifying of the importance of chastity and families. Viann and Jenny are both 31, unmarried and have steady boyfriends. To them marriage and a family isn't something that they have ever really wanted. I hope that these two amazing women will come to understand the potential that they have as women and eventually as mothers. Both of these two big commandments are going to take Viann and Jenny's faith to live, but I know that once they start to see the blessings from living God's commandments, they won't want to turn back.

 

Yesterday at church we got stood up by most of our investigators that were "confirmed". That is the worst thing ever! But, on a happy note we had an investigator there that had never come before! She is a referral from a young women in the ward that we met with last week and then invited to church. I haven't had a teenage investigator for a while now. I love it! The young men/young women program in this ward is stronger than I have ever seen in Twaiwan! Yay!

 

Okay time is up for me and probably you too. :D Sorry to have taken so much of your day. I love you! I know that Christ lives and that our prayers really are heard. Even on the days when we may not feel like there is someone on the otherside, He is always there.

 

我愛你們!!

 

Sister Amy Reece

Hey!

Hello family and Friends!

 

Hello from Dali! Life is... going here in Dali. Unfortnately though we are not seeing as much progress as we wish we were. I still feel like I am doing lots of missionary things but not seeing the results. I hope the problem is not that is not that the links on my "missionary train" are not connected but rather this is just what the Lord has "set up" for me right now. I am not so sure though. We're getting a pretty good number of lessons each week, but it's not really showing with investigators coming to church and setting baptismal goals. So we are teaching lessons, but something is going wrong in that those we are teaching aren't showing real progress. Sister Liston and I have been discussing this and we think part of the problem is that we haven't done a very good job of helping our investigators and new members understand what real repentance is. This week as part of the First 12 Weeks (the new in-field training program we use) we studied the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As we did so I came to better understand how essential daily repentance is in all that we do- not just we as missionaries, but we as sons and daughters of God. We hope that as we focus more on helping those we teach truly repent we will begin to see real progress here in this area. I can feel in my heart that there are so many prepared souls around us each day. We just need to find and help them.

 

Yesterday we had a cool experience while visiting an investigator. This particular investigator likes to talk a lot and makes it hard for us to get solid doctrine in during our visits. But yesterday she said, "Sister Liston, you don't talk very much. I want to hear you speak Chinese." That opened a perfect opportunity for Sister Liston to bear a beautiful testimony about the Plan of Salvation and our Savior Jesus Christ. And the investigator listened intently the whole time. The investigator wanting to hear Sister Liston speak was a small, almost unnoticeable miracle. We have been wanting to really be able to share the Plan of Salvation but haven't been able to get her to listen much. But I know that yesterday she was touched by the simple, yet strong testimony my companion gave. It was awesome.

 

All in all I love this area and everything about it. And I love being a missionary for Jesus Christ. There really is no cooler thing than telling everyone about our Savior. There is a lot a still don't understand, but there also is a lot I do know. I know that families really can live together forever. But we don't have to wait till we die to experience "heaven". That can be created right now, in our homes on earth. Where ever we live we can have more happiness than we thought possible. If you're not sure how, ask your local missionaries or your friends LDS neighbor. I know they'll all be more than happy to help you better understand.

 

I love you all! Continue in the faith!

 

Sister Amy Reece

hello!!

Everyone-

 

I don't even know where to start this week. After reading the record-breaking 23 emails in my inbox I am not sure what to say. Thank you so much for all your emails and letters! Even if I don't address your letter personal I am very grateful for it.

 

First, Kevin and Reece are such an adorable little pair! These are going to be some treasured times for them. So fun!

 

Second, the family reunion sounds so fun. I don't know if knowing the plans is going to make it harder or easier to concentrate. Now I don't have to guess as to what we're doing, so maybe it will be for the good. But I think it would be best if you go ahead and leave me out of the loop on the rest of the logistical stuff and more details. I know I can't be of much help now, but I'll be ready to work when I get home so save a job or two for me. Oh and Kim- is there a China Town in the DC area? If there is I would love to take the family to try some authentic Chinese food.

 

Third, I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!! It is the best thing ever. We get to see miracles daily, and a ton of them. I love it. This last week, as I said we had our power week. Our power week was powerful in some areas and not so powerful in others. Some of our key-indicators increased while others decreased. One thing that we loved this week was the number of other-lessons taught. We were trying so hard to be looking for people to teach everywhere we went- and the Lord put them there. We were able to have some really cool lessons and meet some really great people. The unfortunate part though is that almost all of them either don't live in our area, were men or weren't interested in meeting with us again. So while we taught a lot of lessons it didn't reflect in a lot of new investigators. But we are still really grateful that we were able to find some investigators for some other missionaries. We joked a little bit this week about how we "planted lots of seeds". I like planting, but harvesting is a lot more fun! This area hasn't seen female baptisms in quite awhile and we all want one so badly. We're trying hard but still feel like we're trying to swim upstream a little bit. We have some really great people that keep progressing then degressing but still aren't progressing to baptism. Help! But we have the faith and determination to work hard. We know the prepared people are here.

 

Sister Liston is doing wonderful! Her confidence in finding and teaching is growing daily. She doesn't see it but I frequently try to help her step back and look. I can see her growing spiritually, emotionally and physically each day. It's so fun to watch! We're both doing great health wise and in all ways actually.

 

I've recently been studying the Bible and am gaining a stronger testimony, appreciation and understanding of it than ever before. It's been cool to see that as I have been gaining this added knowledge the Lord is giving me more and more opportunities to apply it in our teaching. I feel like we have more Christian investigators than I ever before have had. And even with the non-Christian investigators am I learning how to use the bible and the Book of Mormon to support each other. I love them and know that they both are the words of God for us to read, study, and apply in our lives today. Don't be like I was before and take them for granted. Gain your personal testimony of them. I was telling Sister Liston the other day how it has been so cool to learn how to use the scriptures to answer people's questions- both gospel questions and personal life questions. I didn't know how to do that before. I am so excited to take this (can I call it a skill?) blessing and use it to receive personal revelation in my life. It works! The answers are there, I promise!

 

A quick experience about that- yesterday we went and met with a mom that we had met at a convenience store a couple of weeks ago. I've kept her card with me during this time, but haven't really felt like it was time to call her. But on Saturday night I finally did it and she set up for us to meet with her on Sunday. When we got to their apartment it was obvious that this family is really struggling financially- there is little more than a couch and a tv in the front room. As we talked to this lady she started to weep as she told us of all the struggles and hardships she has been going through these last couple of years. Watching her cry and say she feels abandoned by her parents broke my heart. It was so wonderful though to read with her in Mosiah 24:13-15 and tell her that God really will, "ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage." I know that this scripture is a true promise to the people of the Book of Mormon, to our investigator, and to each on of us. The Lord is always there and willing to help us even when it feels like the rest of the world has left our side. Turn to Him- He's there. And help there's that don't know Him find Him.

 

Now that I have finished my novel for the week, I will wish you all a Happy Valentine's Day and be off. I love you!

 

Sister Amy Reece

 

p.s. this is a shout-out/request for some cute Church and/or American souveniors. The people here in Taiwan and specifically in WuFeng are SO amazing to me and I don't really have any way to show my appreciation. If anyone is able I would appreciate it more than I could explain if you would be willing to send me a couple small things I can share with these people to show my love and appreciation. Thank you in advance- and I'll swap you some Taiwanese souveniors for the Church/American stuff. :D Thanks!

I love being a missionary!

Sorry I have been getting on the computer really early the last couple of weeks. I can't make any guarantees that it won't be this early from now on though. It's kinda nice to get the emails writen first thing in the morning so we have the rest of the day to do our things. Okay, now that I've said all that- on to the news! 

 

Hello from Dali! Life is fabulous here with all sorts of miracles happening daily. This is an area unlike any other I have served in. I feel like the Lord is really preparing the hearts of so many women here to hear the gospel. Granted, we still don't have people lining up at the baptismal font, but we are seeing little miracles each day that are helping the work here move forward. I love it!

One really cool miracle happened on Friday evening. We had a lesson set up with a new investigator for that evening, but earlier in the afternoon she had called to say we couldn't meet with her because her family opposes (which actually has happened a lot recently). So while Sister Liston was doing some language study after dinner I was calling through the contact cards of people we have met on the street recently but didn't set up with. I asked one lady if we could go visit her the next day or the day after that and to my surprise she said, "I'm free right now." So we hoped on our little bikes and pedaled away to WuFeng. The lady, Hong Xiao Jie was sooo cool! She actually already had a Book of Mormon and had read to Mosiah 27! That's not even the end of the miracle yet. We invited her to come to church on Sunday but she said she had to go home to Jhang Hua to visist her mom so she couldn't come. Then, Sunday morning rolls around and guess who drove into the parking lot bright and early!?!? Yep, none other than our now Hong Jie Mei. She stayed for all three hours, was welcomed by the ward, and loved the peaceful feeling she had. It was so cool! I love being able to be a part of so many of the Lord's miracles.

Another couple really cool experiences happened this week as we planned, prepared, and went through with inviting our three most promising progressing investigators to be baptized on specific dates! Our zone leaders invited us to do this at CDTM on Thursday which gave us an extra boast to actually do it. I won't go in to all the details, but in the end 2 of the 3 accepted goals for the 3rd of March! The third one said she doesn't have enough faith to We're so excited! Now we have our work cut out for us to help all three actually enter the waters of baptism and prepare for an enduring conversion.

A down side of the week was when our investigator who is supposed to get baptized in two weeks didn't come to church- and as a result became a drop out baptism. That's the worst. Ya. We had confirmed her for church as well as the Relief Society President, but in the end she still didn't come. We were so disappointed because it wasn't work that kept her away from church. But, we and the ward are not giving up on her! She is so prepared and we love her so much. She is the Sister Huang who's 19-year-old daughter unexpectedly passed away a few years ago. She's so great!

 

This week is POWER WEEK! That means we don't get language study time at all during the week and all of our meals are eaten on the go. This allows us to have even more time finding, teaching, and rescueing! This is a mission-wide thing that we do every year after the Chinese new year to help get everyone all boosted up and ready to go! Each day has a special theme- Power Cleaning/Power FHE night, Power sit-down lessons, Power find new investigators, power lessons taught with investigators present, power recent convert/less-active member lessons, power talk to everyone day, and then power church day! So each day we'll focusing on getting whatever it is for that day. It's so fun! Do other missions do this as well? Do tell!

 

Now that I have written your eyes off I will go ahead and close. I love you all. And I love The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know that Jesus Christ is at the head of His Church leading and guiding us through His living Prophet. I know that the Book of Mormon and Holy Bible are the word of God. Study them and apply them in your life and you will see miracles. I promise you that because I am a living witness. I say all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

Love,

 

Sister Amy Reece

 

p.s. we went shopping last p-day and I ran into one of my recent converts from another area. Miracle! She is the one in the middle and her sister is on the end. Her name is Xuan Hui and I love her!