My Dear Family,
It was so good to hear from you, as always. Even when it is the day-to-day things. It is so nice to hear from home. It gives us the strength and the motivation to keep going for another week. We had interviews earlier this week and while we were waiting for our turn with President one of the elders was talking about how he was going through a "dry spell." He talked about how he has had about a month where he hasn't had any word from home.
I was listening to him talk with the other elders about this and was so grateful that I've never had to go through that. So thank you! It really means a lot!
It sounds like you are all staying busy, and I hope happy! I loved seeing Jemma at gymnastics! It is so great that she loves it so much. I hope everything goes well this week and that you get everything done that needs to get done! Time is crazy and seems to slip away from you no matter how hard you try to hold on to it.
This week was crazy and was a roller coaster as usual. Things change so quickly and without notice. Investigators, emotions, weather you name it it changes. I've always said that the only thing you can really control on a mission is your food, and sometimes that's not even that reliable.
After going to the beach last week we met with a return missionary from the Tainan 4th ward. We are only over the 3rd, but the elders over the 4th ward are in our district so we do a lot of activities with the 4th ward members and investigators. It was really enlightening talking to her. She has only been home a few months. I loved hearing about what she struggled with and what she learned from her mission.
After meeting with her we had set up to go with one of our members (Ya Lan) to go visit one of our recent converts; however the RC ended up canceling. We were just going to go tract, but we decided to sit down with our member for a little bit. We've felt that she has been struggling with something lately so we tried to talk to her about it. She didn't really want to, but eventually she was able to open up to us and I think we were able to help her. It took up more time than we expected, but I was really grateful for the opportunity to help her. She does so much for the missionaries! She deserves to be helped by others as well.
Then on Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Gangshan sisters! Sister Grigg is serving there right now and is training one of the new sisters that came on a few months ago. I ended up staying in Gangshan with Sister Cardon. She is extremely dedicated and is an incredible missionary already. It was interesting talking to her, because she reminds me a lot of myself when I first came on my mission. It made me think about who I was when I left and who I am now. I still feel like myself, but I know I have changed a lot and have grown so much closer to my Savior and have learned to trust in Him more than ever before. I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had to grow and improve! The sisters teach me so much and never cease to amaze me. They are all so focused and want to hasten this work so much. Their faith is inspiring!
While on exchanges I was actually able to contact this lady (at first I thought she was a man) who pulled over and talked to us a little more. I told her about how we were sharing how to help our families and have a happier life, then asked if we could share more with her. I don't think she heard very well, because she asked what message we wanted to share with her. I repeated it and she replied, "of course! When you have time you can come over to my shop!" We got her number and she said to call her and she would help the sisters find her shop when they wanted to come over. It was awesome! I hope she really has interest and that the sisters can help her progress in the gospel. If not, we planted a seed.
When I got back from exchanges we ate dinner and got ready to teach English. (Sister Chang and I get to teach the advanced class! It is a lot of fun and is showing me how bad my English is! Many of our students speak more advanced than I ever have.) Anyway before class was going to start one of the elders brought this lady to us and told us that she wanted to learn about Jesus Christ. Sister Chang talked to her while I continued to get things set up, but apparently she took and English flier from us while we were English proselyting and came just so she could learn about Christ!
We ended up meeting with Mei Lin (this English student) on Friday and it sounds like she is going through some family trials, but she is hoping coming to know God and Christ can help her through it. She is incredible and is so willing to learn! We're meeting with her again this next Wednesday. Hopefully everything keeps working out. It seems like we keep finding people and as soon as we find them they disappear a few days later. We've been praying really hard for investigators that will progress, so maybe she is an answer to our prayers!
We also met with the sassy LA I talked about last week. We had an investigator cancel on us so we asked if our member would like to go with us to find this LA. When we went to her house she had just barely got home and had a little bit of time before she had to go to the hospital for a check up. We were able to sit down with her for a little bit. She keeps telling us that she doesn't have a testimony and doesn't feel the spirit, but she is still reading. I think she is doing more than she lets on. She said she was going to come to church, but she ended up having a family member pass away so couldn't make it. Hopefully we can see her again next week.
Saturday was our day of miracles! We traveled to one of the farther parts of our areas to visit a former, Mery, who we had tried to meet with a week ago. She ended up being home this time and let us in. She is from Indonesia and doesn't speak a lot of english or Chinese. We will just say that communicating was a little rough. I found myself thinking back to our lessons at the MTC and tried to teach similar to that. It seemed to work and we think she got a little bit of it. She still reads some of the Book of Mormon and pulled it out as soon as she saw us. We are going to have to see if we can find someone to translate for us, but I think she has a lot of potential.
After visiting with Mery we went to find one of our RCs house. Neither of us have met her and she has been in the hospital a lot because of her cancer. We were originally going to just leave a note, but we ended up calling her and she said she was at a park nearby. It took us forever to find the park and by the time we got there I think we were all a little frustrated. She was really cute though and was really excited to see us, but it was obvious she wasn't very comfortable.
We talked with her for a few minutes, and she seemed to get more and more uncomfortable. She asked us to pray for her so we offered a prayer. We continued to talk to her a little bit and then offered to share a scripture. At this request she replied, "no, it will make me too tired." I was a little annoyed because I figured sharing a scripture was pretty much the same as talking to her so we continued to insist. She gave in and said, "okay well I guess I can have patience with you for a few minutes." Sister Chang and I both looked at each other a little annoyed, but Sister Chang shared a beautiful scripture and testified to her that God knew what she was going through and that He and Jesus Christ would be her light and guide her through her trial.
Sister Chang then asked her," when have you felt the love of God?" The RC looked up at us (she had crouched down in front of where we were sitting because she was in pain), and with teary eyes told us, "right now! I can feel it right now!"
She then proceeded to tell us how she was in so much pain she felt like crying, but after we shared the scripture with her it immediately felt a lot better. She continued to marvel at how incredible it was and how she now felt well enough to walk and could get back home. We testified to her that it was God showing His power and love for her. It was incredible to see. The scriptures really do have great power and God and Christ truly love us so much! I was so grateful to be able to witness the healing power of the word of God not only for spiritual and emotional needs, but for physical needs as well. Sometimes we take it too much for granted.
Well I'm just about out of time, but i'm so grateful for this week and for the slow progress that we are seeing. There are great things happening in Tainan! I know we will continue to see many miracles and that God will look after us as we do our part.
Have a great week! I love you all! Don't forget to see the miracles! They're out there!
With all my love,
Sister Fernley
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