Still looking for miracles in Qishan

Our message from Sister Fernley arrived with several photos! Here they are:

Dearest family,

This week has definitely been interesting. President Blickenstaff has invited us to pray for miracles every day, and as we have been trying to do this we really have seen so many miracles come forth. I feel like this week has really helped me look for the small things again, and realize that no matter where we are serving we can see miracles and the work of God roll forth. I can be here in Qishan, or I can be in Taizhong, but both places have missionaries sent to them and both places have great potential to see miracles. 

So to just highlight a few things that happened:

Tuesday morning after studies we went over to the morning market here in Qishan (which is where everyone is in the mornings) and tried to get back in contact with one of the shop owners we had contacted a few weeks ago. Yet again her shop was closed, so we went on and contacted in the market. We were there for maybe five minutes when this old lady came up to us and invited us to come to her house. We hadn't even told her we were missionaries yet, but we went along with it and followed her down the street to her house. (It doesn't matter their first intent in talking to the missionaries, they can still accept the gospel) We talked to her and her son who is handicapped for a little while. It was really hard to teach, but we finally were able to introduce prayer and pray with them. They didn't sound too interested, but you never know. At least we planted a seed.

That same day we tracted into someone who had been tracted by the sisters that were here back in August and let them in. I couldn't find a teaching record so I assume they only went once, but they told us we could come back. 

Then as we were riding to where we were going to powerboard for our english class I glanced to the side of the road and saw this guy and thought he looked like someone who would listen, but because we aren't allowed to talk to men unless our companion is right next to us I didn't pull over. Then down the street about ten minutes later I saw him pulled over on the side of the road again. I though that was a little strange, but didn't think much of it. We then stopped at the gas station so Sister Anderson could go to the bathroom. While I was waiting outside that same guy pulled up and awkwardly tried to act like he was calling someone or washing his hands. Then when Sister Anderson came out he followed her out. I figured he was following us so I gave him an english tract and invited him to come. Then we left to go to our powerboarding spot. As we were parking our bikes he stopped at that stop light, hesitated, then drove up to us. He then started talking to Sister Anderson and asked her about church. I tried to help her explain about church, but he wouldn't look or talk to me...just her. Then as he was leaving he put his hand out for a hand shake and said to her (in english), "Hi, I'm Stephano." So we're not too sure about his motives, but we had to give him to the elders anyway. They called him and he said he doesn't have any time until next month, we'll see what happens.

Then on Wednesday we were sitting at a 7/11 eating lunch and doing language study. The guy who came and sat by me saw me studying my character flash cards and asked me why I was in Taiwan. (He asked in english, most people seem to assume we can't speak Chinese and try to talk to us in english). We were then able to explain who we were and what we were doing here. He was a Christian so he was really curious how our church was different with other churches. So we were able to teach a little and invited him to attend the church in Gaoxiong (where he lives). Then the lady sitting on the other side of him scooted over when he left and asked us if we were the Mormons. She had overheard our conversation and wanted to know why we couldn't drink coffee. She had heard a co-worker or someone decline coffee because they were a member. So I was able to explain a little bit about the Word of Wisdom to her. Neither of them gave us their numbers, but were both really nice. Suffice it to say my language study was shot, but we were able to plant some really good seeds.

That same day we were also able to go meet with a lady we contacted a few weeks ago at the morning market. We were able to sit with her and her husband and answer a lot of their questions about missionaries. They actually thought we were Catholic missionaries (there are several families here on missions). When we told them we were different I was afraid they weren't going to listen anymore, but they were still willing to listen. We had a basic first lesson and talked about prayer. They were both willing to listen, but we are also not too sure about her motives. As we were leaving she told us we could set up with her son and teach her son the gospel because she wants him to go on a mission. We told her he would have to believe and get baptized first, and she still wants us to teach him. We're going to see this week if we can teach them as a family.

Friday all of our lessons fell through, it was a rough day, but we got through it!

I don't know if I've told you about one of our LAs named Xu Zhao Hui. We found her in the list we have of members and went to go find her. She fell asleep on us the first time we went and visited her and kept telling us she did not want to accept our church. She was offended by someone shortly after she was baptized and hasn't been back since then. She has one leg, an incredible mullet and acts really drowsy all of the time. Since the first time we visited her we've seen her one the streets a lot and say hi to her as we pass by. We have also stopped by and written her notes, and gave her a new Book of Mormon. We stopped by her house this week and almost got a lesson in with her, but she feel asleep before we could share a scripture. She seemed a lot more open to us though and was a little happier. It is just really awkward, and hilarious when you are talking to someone and mid conversation they pass out on the couch. We just wrote down the scripture we were going to share and set it in front of her so when she woke up she could read it. Maybe if we keep fellow-shipping her she'll come back to church someday.

Sunday we didn't have any investigators come to church, but Shao Jie had her little brother come with her. I guess their uncle (who is a less active member) told him he would give him food if he went to church. So he did, haha! The stake president also came and talked in Sacrament meeting. He is also really on board with missionary work. He asked us all before we left what our biggest problem was. We just said we didn't really have any investigators and he replied with, "it's because you don't get referrals do you? What about peikes, do members attend your lessons? I'll talk to the bishop." He's so cool! If everyone was as enthusiastic about missionary work as he is the work would move forward like a tidal wave.

That night we went and visited Huang Jiemei (our only investigator right now). She didn't come to church so we were a little worried. Turns out she had guest over that morning, so couldn't come. We taught about the Gospel of Christ and invited her to be baptized again. She told us that she thinks her destiny with Jesus Christ (it sounds a lot weirder in english) has come and that one day she will get baptized, but she will let us know when she's ready. She is just worried about not completely obeying the commandments (well coming to church, we haven't gotten to the rest yet) after she is baptized. She said she would feel like she was betraying Christ. We tried to explain to her we aren't perfect and just need to try our best, but I don't think we will push it again for a little bit. Her ten year old son sat with us too and was really into the lesson. The last time we were there he sat by me and was intently looking over my shoulder and reading my scriptures I had open. Huang Jiemei asked him if he wanted to be baptized and said she thought it would be a really good thing for him to have guidance and follow Christ. He was seriously thinking about it, but wasn't sure. We invited him to pray about it, but I think he is really interested. Maybe he can help his mom and be an example for her. This family has a really good feel about them, I know someday they will accept the gospel. They are what's keeping us going every day in Qishan right now.

I loved seeing your pictures! That exhibit looked like a lot of fun. Jemma looks like she had fun playing in the tube. I miss our family outings, but time will go faster than we know and I'll be home. I'm about half-way which is crazy! I'm glad you're getting the pictures too. Sorry there aren't a ton. We aren't allowed to take pictures other than P-Day. So I'm trying to be better. 

As always I hope you are all doing well. That you are happy, healthy and always looking forward with hope. I pray for you always, and can't wait to tell you about the miracles that come forth this week.

There's always another miracle just around the corner.

With all my love,

Sister Fernley

Skype Call for Mother's Day

We got to Skype with Sister Fernley last Sunday night, and it was so fun to see her and hear her voice. She sounds incredibly happy and upbeat…and tired. :) Here's the quick message she wrote after our chat:

So I just talked to you, and I don't really know what else to say. Honestly this week not much happened. We taught Huang Jiemei last night and she is incredible! She is reading the scriptures and we are trying to get them to pray as a family now.

Other than that we are just trying to find new investigators and trying to stay happy. It's hard, but we know that God is on our side and all we can do is our best.

I went on exchanges to Tainan again this last week. I love Tainan! It was fun to be in an area with more city and people to talk to for a little bit. Someday I hope that becomes my area, but I will go where God wants me to go.

 

Tell Jemma I love her with all my heart! I loved talking to her and I'm so glad she loves Pre-school. She is getting so big! I can't believe it.

 

That's about all I can think of. I love being a missionary! I love Taiwan. I love that I get to learn Chinese. I love my companions. I love Nantou, and I love Qishan. It will be interesting where the Lord sends me next or if He keeps me here, but until then we will keep working our hardest and looking for the miracles just around the corner. I know there are people out here to teach, we just need to find them.

 

With all my love,

 

Sister Fernley

Fun and exhausting times

Sorry--I forgot to post this last week. Busy times around here! Anyway, here is Sister Fernley's latest message:

My Dear family,

I don't know what it is about this move call, but I am exhausted! Sister Anderson and I are giving all that we can just so we don't fall off our bikes while we are riding. It's really pathetic. When I first got on island I was really proud when my biking ability was growing. I would switch my bike to a higher gear every week until I got to the top and could ride a lot faster. I think I've hit the point where that ability is going to slowly deteriorate. My legs get tired a lot faster, and what used to seem pretty easy before seems ten, well...maybe five, times harder. I thought it was funny when dad was talking about how he was getting old, because its exactly how I feel on a mission. My eyes aren't getting worse yet, but my body hurts like it never used to before. Haha! But I'm glad to make the sacrifice. And I guess that just shows that I'm trying my hardest. I had a goal in the MTC to go home and be so tired I collapsed, knowing I gave my all for a year and a half. I don't think that goal is going to be hard to hit, I'm on my fifth move-call and already feel like I could just fall over anytime if I let myself.

Before I forget we are planning on Skyping you on Mother's Day! We will probably do it Monday morning here, so your evening there. We haven't been able to find someone to help us yet, but the elders might have found a computer we can use. If all else fails we can go to a wenka. So we will probably try to do it around the same time we did for Christmas? Not too sure yet...sorry!!!

Anyway, enough of that. We are tired, but we are also two happy missionaries. We are trying really hard to keep a positive and happy attitude. Its not very hard with Sister Anderson though. She is really easy to get along with and we are already really good friends. 

 This week has been a trying one. We've gotten stood up for so many lessons. We would have lessons set up and even find members that would help us peike and then would have to call the member and cancel because the investigator canceled. Friday after weekly planning even ended up being a complete day of tracting because everything fell through. By the end of the night we were exhausted and didn't want to tract anymore doors, but of course we did. We didn't really have any success, but we did have a lot of time to talk which made it not as bad.

A few tracting stories from the week:

On Friday afternoon we had picked a neighborhood to tract and as always there was a Daoist temple nearby. We were walking down to the next row of houses when when this 60 year old man walked by us. As is typical here he looked at us and said a barely understandable "how are you?" and started chuckling. (Men yell it out their windows to us all the time. I'm not sure if they really know what it means and that it implies an answer should be made, but we get it a lot.) He then went and sat on one of the chairs right outside the Daoist temple. Then every single time we walked past or within eyesight he would yell another barely understandable "how are you?" and chuckle like a mad man. It was hilarious! He was possibly drunk or maybe just a little crazy, but it made tracting a little more bearable.

I can't remember what day it was, but we were yet again tracting another street and tracted into this 90+ year old man. His hair was completely white, he didn't have any teeth, and he was living completely alone. We tried to talk to him, but he didn't speak Chinese he only spoke Taiwanese. We could pick up a little bit of what he was saying and just about guess the rest. He tried really hard to give us money saying that he lived alone and didn't need all that money for himself. We thanked him profusely, but told him to keep it for himself and continued tracting the street. He stood out on his porch or sometimes walked out into the middle of the street holding his can of change just watching us. When we were walking back to our bikes he stopped me and once again tried to give us some money. He ended up grabbing my hand and shoving a 50 kuai coin into my hand (just a little under two dollars) and wouldn't take it back. We thought about going back and giving it back, but felt awkward about it. So I now have this 50 kuai coin that will always remind me of the goodness of people. There are so many good people here and sometimes I forget that amid all the rejection and scorn. He was so willing to help us and even though he had every right to save for himself he was willing to give some of what he had to two American missionaries that he didn't even know. 

Really not much else happened this week. Huang Jiemei (the mom who brought her kids to church last week) came to church again this week! Sister Anderson and I walked into church and had quite a few LAs and RCs at church but no investigators. We were a little discouraged, but glad that we had some people come. Then during the opening prayer we heard the door open and someone start walking to some seats in the front. Sister Anderson and I both peeked to see who it was (hoping it was her). And it was! We were so happy.

We went and visited her Sunday night and finally finished teaching the first lesson. She's not quite ready to commit to baptism yet, but she has an open heart. She is willing to learn and listen, but just wants to understand a little more before she is willing to accept. Several of the members have already talked to me and mentioned that she seems like a person who will be really open to accepting the gospel. She loves the values that her kids are learning at church and loves that we focus so much on family. What is even more miraculous is that her mom is completely open to it too. 

The older generation here is very traditional and don't like the idea of their family members breaking from tradition. Their culture here also includes the children having the responsibility to bai their parents and ancestors to help them in the afterlife. The parents are afraid that if their children become Christian they won't give them the respect and help they need when they are spirits.

Anyway I hope that we can continue working with her and that nothing happens to allow the interest she has now to go away. She leaves for China in a couple of months, so we need to use the time that we have the best we can.

Of course Shao Jie came to church again this Sunday, but I was so proud of her because she fasted! She didn't even need us to remind her. We went to go meet with her and she brought it up and asked us exactly what she needed to do. She is incredible and continues to amaze me!

We've also been able to meet with some new LAs. Sometimes LAs are really frustrating. They know what they need to do, they just don't want to do it. We do have some awesome ones that have extenuating circumstances that prevent them from coming to church very often etc, but most of them are just lazy. 

We have been focusing on a Ju Jiemei lately and try to visit her at her barber shop when she doesn't have customers. The few times I have visited her she has almost bragged about not coming to church and being less active, but says that she has a lot of faith. So the next lesson we had with her I shared the scripture in the Bible that says "faith without works is dead." She laughed...because she knew she wasn't doing anything. 

Then we found a new LA who was offended by a member and won't come back. We tried to teach her, but she kept saying she didn't wan't to accept "Mo'ermen Jiao," but she already has.

We've seen these two on the streets several times and they try really hard to avoid us. It might just be that I'm a little stubborn, but I don't want to let them crawl into the wood work again. They are frustrating sometimes, but they are precious children of God. They had testimonies once and have just forgotten it. I hope maybe if we show them that we really do care about them and are trying to help them they might be willing to come back.

We also have an LA that we go visit every Sunday afternoon who we are currently trying to get to stay for more than just one hour of church. She always pulls out the excuse that her husband will yell at her if she stays too long. This week though she also talked about how on Sunday the vegetables and food she goes and buys is all sold out at the market by the time church is over. After she said that Sister Anderson and I paused for a little bit, not knowing quite how to start, then taught her about what keeping the Sabbath Day really includes. We tried to invite her to not buy anything on Sunday and she continued to make a bunch of excuses, one of which being a particular vegetable is only sold on Sunday so she has no other time to buy it. It was an interesting lesson, and we got pretty blunt again. 

After that lesson Sister Anderson and I were talking about how so many of the prophesies in the scriptures are fulfilled today. We were talking about how our LA was complaining that our church has so many commandments that other Christian churches have, and that the world is flattering people away from the truth. And then there's the story of Zezrom who believes he is a man of learning and denies Christ, wanting a sign before he is willing to believe. We have been coming across so many similar instances and really are seeing the scriptures being fulfilled.

I'm finding that recently I've had to confront and say things to people that I never thought I would say to someone in my life.I hate that we have to sometimes, but other times its really satisfying. We are literally crying repentance to the people.

And that's about it, and on a more positive note we have a lot of potential investigators. We have several people that we need to go back and visit or get in touch with that we have contacted recently. We're hoping some of these people will stick with us so we can find some new investigators. Almost all of the investigators we had before have dropped, so we are back to square one in finding new people to teach.

I almost forgot about another Sunday miracle we had! We have a Sister in our ward named Lu Jiemei. She is Vietnamese and has been a member for just over a year. She is incredible and she and her husband are so good to the missionaries. We go over there for FHE a lot and share with her family. Her husband isn't a member, and I'm not quite sure why. Every time we have gone over and talked about the scriptures he is right here participating in the discussion and sounds like a member.

We were sitting in Sacrament meeting and only had about ten minutes left when Lu Jiemei's husband walks in with their little daughter and sat down in one of the empty chairs in front of us. Lu Jiemei was sitting in front of us so I saw her face when she turned around and saw her husband walk into church. She was shocked and amazed. She moved over to sit by her husband and was just glowing for the rest of church. As far as the missionaries know he has never come to church before this week. I know Lu Jiemei is an incredible example to her family and hope and pray for her that her husband will some day be willing to be baptized, hopefully this Sunday was just the beginning.

I also forgot to tell you last week...don't be mad...but I bought a violin! I've been dying without one and have wanted to find one to just play for a few minutes. Then a couple of weeks ago Yeh Jiemei emailed me telling me there was a violin in Gangshan on sale for 4500 kuai (about $120). So she helped me buy it and brought it down during the baptism. Sister Yeh's new companion bought one too and says its actually a really good violin for the price. I'm so excited! I never realized how much I would miss it until I didn't have it anymore. Hopefully it can be a tool for helping our members and those we teach feel the spirit.

Anyway I love you all, my time is about up. But I did get your package and absolutely loved it! I love those pictures of Jemma. They are now up on my wall and make me smile every time. I can't wait to talk to you! Have a great week!

There's another miracle just around the corner!

Sister Fernley

We had a baptism!!!

Wonderful news from Sister Fernley this week. Here is her latest message. Also I've added a couple pictures to the last two blog posts, so you may want to scroll down just to see them.


Yaaayyy!!! We had a baptism this week!! So excited! And it turned out just incredible.

I loved reading your emails and it sounds like you are all doing well. Sister Anderson and I were talking this week about how we miss just going out and doing stuff with our families, or being able to come home and have a lazy movie night with your family. Its the simple and mundane things that I miss the most.

Anyway, enough of that. This time will be over faster than we know it. (Did you know next month I hit half way!? Time goes by so fast!)

I just want to tell you about the baptism, but I'm going to force myself to start from the beginning of the week. We actually got "fonged" a lot this week. (There's a saying here "fonged women de geze" which literally means left us sitting like pigeons. The missionaries use it all the time when we get stood up for lessons.) But thus is the life of a missionary I guess. 

Despite getting stood up a lot and having our plans fall through we still worked really hard. We met with one of the ladies we had tracted into the first week of the move call and were able to teach her and her husband a little about the Restoration. We invited them to be baptized, and they told us there was absolutely no possibility, but are still willing to learn so we are going to keep going back. (The Hong family, my RCs in Nantou, started off that way too.) So we got two new investigators!

We dropped Ma Jiemei this week. We went back to go see if she prayed and she hadn't. The whole time we were there we felt like we were being mocked by her and her son. Her son had a friend come over and they told us to teach him how to pray and that he could have a lot of interest. I was trying to include them all and have Ma Jiemei talk about prayer (because she knows what it is), but they wouldn't. So I gave up and focused on the friend. We taught him how to pray using the Plan of Salvation I miraculously had in my bag, maybe the Plan of Salvation is what he really needs. He even said the prayer. He was so willing to try and listened to everything we said. The Spirit was definitely there when we were teaching him, but when we turned back to Ma Jiemei and her son it was not there. 

If nothing else my mission has definitely taught me how to be bold. We were really straight forward with her and I asked her some pretty bold questions. Sister Anderson was so mad that she couldn't speak so I took the lead. I can't remember everything I said, but I know I asked her why she would let us in. She said she wanted us to play Mah Jhong. So I asked her what was more important Mah Jhong or her salvation. She said Mah Jhong was more important. I also asked her what she was afraid of, she just pushed that one off and made a ton of excuses. We then testified as much as we could and with all our hearts. I testified to her as a representative of Christ that our message is true and that she could know it. We prayed, left the door, and aren't going back. Maybe one day she will be prepared. Maybe she will be humbled enough to "experiment on the word," but for now we need to move on and find those who are prepared now for the gospel.

Actually we ended up dropping a lot of our investigators. They weren't progressing or didn't really want to learn. There are so many people here who just want to learn about Americans or are too embarrassed to reject us. We need to focus our efforts elsewhere. Its really hard to drop investigators, but sometimes it needs to be done.

On Friday we had interviews with President and Sister Blickenstaff as well as planner and area book checks. So since we are in the middle of nowhere we spent most of the day traveling. To get to Sanmin (where we have ZTM and interviews) we have to ride the bus for about an hour and then have to take a taxi to the chapel for about twenty minutes. We got there and had a great time. I love getting suggestions from our leaders on how we can better do this work and be better servants of the Lord. 

Perhaps one of my favorite things was walking down the hallway and seeing all the other missionaries together. It truly is a pick-me-up to be gathered together. The companionship of other young men and young women also trying their hardest to do the work of the Lord, who are going through the same trials, the same joys and understand every single thought and experience you go through (because they've had the same ones) is an incredible blessing. It makes me think of how incredible and how much more joy and comfort we will have when we come face to face with our Savior. He knows us completely and individually. That feeling of security will be ten times greater and how much greater will be our joy. 

I know that my redeemer lives! He knows us, and He loves us! How great is our joy!

As soon as we walked in we were also greeted by one of our zone leaders and one of the assistants to the president who were waiting for their next planner check. We were able to talk to them for a minute and our zone leader (who moved into the zone the same time I did) said to us, "You are tearing it up in Qishan! What are you doing?" 

And you know what, I have no idea. I don't know why the Lord has let us see so many miracles. All I know is we are doing our best and having faith. I guess that's enough. It is such a good feeling though to see an area completely change for the better.

Then Saturday was our baptism! The rest of the day wasn't super eventful or incredible. We went and found an LA who wants nothing to do with the church because she was offended then feel dead asleep while we were talking to her. (we left a note) Then did some tracting and that was about it. We went to the church super early to make sure the font was clean and start heating up the water and testing it. While we were waiting I called some phones and Sister Anderson worked on writing the program for that night. We ran and got some dinner and then went back to the church. Around that time I started feeling really sick. My stomach pains came back like they would before and recently I've been catching a cold so I was really uncomfortable. I felt really bad, but Sister Anderson set up and let me sit down for a little while. Thankfully it went away completely right before the baptism (prayer works!).

Anyway I loved being at the church and seeing the font. Whether we were testing the water, moping out the font, or checking the water temperature every single time we walked back there I just took a minute to look and to take it in. And every single time I was hit by the spirit. It is so strong there! It is such a sacred place and that was manifest to me as we were preparing for the baptism. This is where people start new lives, they covenant with God and start a life turned toward Christ. 

Yeh Jiemei was actually able to come to the baptism because they found out it could only take them an hour if a member drove them to Qishan (President won't let us go if it takes more than an hour.) So we had a very happy investigator and it was great to see her again. 

The program went well and so many of our members showed up to support Shao Jie. It was incredible and I was so proud of our ward! When it was time for the ordinance we helped her get back to the stairs and we all watched from the side as she was baptized. She had to be baptized three times to finally get her all the way under the water. I was really nervous because she was so afraid of going under water in the first place. When she walked out she was breathing hard and I asked her if she was okay. She stopped for a second then said to me, "When I was under the water it felt like I had Jesus Christ by my side."

I lost it. I was doing really good until then, but that tipped me over and I started crying. She is only 12 and is so close to God and the spirit. I am so privileged to know her. She bore her testimony after and then at church on Sunday and said she was afraid at first so she said a little prayer before she went in and it helped her feel more calm. I love seeing the faith of these people! It is something so foreign at first to them, but when they believe they hit the ground running and are incredible examples to me.Sunday Shao Jie received the Holy Ghost and was absolutely beaming! 

On Sunday we had another day of miracles! Besides Shao Jie receiving the Holy Ghost we had miracle investigators show up as well as a ton of RCs and LAs. It was another one of those days where every single time I hear the door open behind me and look back I am amazed and the blessings of God! About half way through Huang Jiemei (the mom of the family we tracted into and had a ton of questions) walked in with her mom and two of her kids. They stayed through the whole three hours and are planning on coming again. She loves that church teaches her children good values. I can't wait to see where this family will go!

We were also privileged to have President and Sister Blickenstaff come to our ward and speak in Sacrament meeting. I love them so much! They are so full of power and of the Spirit. (Also I was extremely proud that the Sunday they come to Qishan, a small city in the middle of nowhere in Taiwan, they were able to see a confirmation.) Tender mercies. 

After church the ward members had prepared an even more elaborate meal than usual for the missionaries and President and Sister Blickenstaff. It was a little strange being with them in a normal setting, but we were able to sit, talk, and eat lunch with them before they had to leave. 

That night we went back and visited Huang Jiemei and taught her about the Restoration. She was completely intent on what we were teaching and had so many questions we ended up teaching bits and pieces from all the other lessons. We gave her a pamphlet and she started reading the definitions in the back to understand better and even started asking us about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

After that we mustered up all the energy we could and biked back to Qishan. I don't know what it is, but we both have been completely exhausted the past couple of weeks. Thank goodness today is P-day!

Well I'm almost out of time. So much happened this week! I'm glad Jemma got her stickers and likes them! To answer dad's questions Chinese is coming along. I feel like I can pretty much communicate with everyone now and have recently been trying to work on my reading and writing, because in that aspect I am practically illiterate. So hard! Why can't they just have an alphabet? I'm safe and eating fine, probably too much. At least we are biking all the time right?

I love you all and miss you! We will try to figure out what we are doing for skype this week and I'll let you know. Love You!

There's another miracle just around the corner.

Sister Fernley

Love you all 8080808090808080908090908090. Give Jemma a hug for me!

I love being a missionary in Taiwan!

Here is Sister Fernley's latest message:

My dear family!

First off I love you all so much! I am so grateful that my Heavenly Father loves me so much that He gave me such an incredible family and that I've had the privilege to grow up in the gospel. I am so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and for the Resurrection. He lives! I know it and I cannot deny it. I love testifying of Him everyday! 

The sad thing is, I actually forgot it was Easter. There is absolutely no indication of Easter anywhere. No eggs, no bunnies, no mention of Christ and His miraculous rising from the dead. Nothing. Actually Sister Anderson and I went to try and contact at a market in Qishan and as we were walking away from someone who, once again, rejected us he muttered a barely audible FuHuo Jie (Easter, literally Resurrection Holiday. Sometimes Chinese makes so much sense.) Sister Anderson and I just looked at each other and sheepishly kept moving forward because the two white, Christian missionaries amid all the Buddhist, Daoist, and Amitofu Taiwanese forgot about Easter. Zao Gao!

Anyway, aside from forgetting about Easter this week has been fantastic! I have absolutely loved serving with Sister Anderson! She is hilarious and we have laughed so hard this week together. Laughter really is the best medicine, plus ice-cream, plus super awesome members and investigators.

At the beginning of the week we were talking about Qishan and the numbers here. Sister Anderson shared with me another missionary's tips for hitting mission standards and we decided to try it! We didn't hit it yet, but we have seen so many miracles. Our numbers as far as members attending our lessons with investigators, Less active lessons, and such have been higher than I have had since training. Needless to say we were extremely excited to report numbers this morning. Heavenly Father loves us! The work is moving forward in Qishan! It really is a place of miracles!

As far as our investigators go Shao Jie is getting baptized this week!!! YAY! She passed her interview yesterday and is really excited. She is so golden. I just love her so much. I also just found out Sister Yeh couldn't get permission to come so I am going to have several very sad, disappointed investigators in the next couple of days. Pray for me, I'm going to need it. 

Zong Jiemei (actually I figured out this week is is actually Zhong, Yeh Jiemei just has a terrible Taiwanese accent) has a new baptismal goal and I think she is starting to get it. We will she if she starts progressing, we need to start teaching the commandments to that might be the make-it or break-it.

We went and visited Ma Jiemei again this week. We even had a few member present lessons with her. Our first lesson with her this week we had one of our RCs come with us and I absolutely loved seeing her teach Ma Jiemei and testify of what she knows. 

The second time we went and visited her one of our Sisters who just got home from her mission came with us. The lesson before we had invited Ma Jiemei to pray about the Book of Mormon and our message to know if it is true...She hadn't done it. So we spent the whole lesson teaching about prayer and why we need it. We asked why she hadn't prayed; she said she didn't know how to do it. So we taught her how to do it; she said she didn't know why we needed it. So we talked about how God can help us; she doesn't think she needs help. So we taught about God helps us in our trials and with our weaknesses; she doesn't think she has any. So we talked about her kids and how she can pray for her kids in their trials; she doesn't think they have any. Her son said he did. She still wouldn't pray. I told her Jemma is four and can pray; still nothing. We told her Sister Anderson's niece is two and can pray; still nothing. I scripted a prayer for her to say; still wouldn't do it. It was one of the most extremely frustrating lessons ever!!! But it was also super funny! She said she wants to practice and then will tell us when she is ready. Mostly I think she is just afraid to pray because she's afraid of getting an answer.

We have several other new or potential investigators that could start progressing soon. We will see this week. Of which include our RCs eight year old son, that family we tracted into several weeks ago (that I felt we needed to tract), a former, a contact at the morning market who works at the coffee shop, and an old english student. I'm excited to see so many miracles this next week!

In addition to all of our miracles we has some extremely funny experiences. It's times like these that I love being a missionary in Taiwan.

I think it was Tuesday, but we went tracting and ended up on this super small street in the middle of nowhere. Most people weren't home, but we went up to one house that sounded like it had people home. Their glass door was slid open and we could hear two people talking back in the kitchen through the screen door. They didn't hear our knock so we yelled, "Is there anyone home? We're missionaries and have a happy message to share with you." They went completely silent. It reminded me of when I was at home alone and when anyone would come to the door I would stop moving and pretend that I wasn't home until they would go away. That is exactly what they did, but they were adults. We waited for a minute to see if they would come to the door. After a couple of minutes they started talking again, but we were still there. We chuckled a little bit and as we were leaving I yelled through the door that we welcomed them to our church. Woops, we were still there. Their plan was foiled. They stopped talking again.

Also, I don't know if you know this, but Christ is coming next year on my birthday. I learned this from a very reliable source, an investigator who will not pray for anything! Yep, Ma Jiemei informed us this week that the Savior is coming October 4, 2015. So prepare, its coming fast. She says she read it in the Bible and wouldn't believe us when we told her no one knows. So she's convinced, maybe we can use that to get her to pray. 

I also had one of the most terrifying experiences of my mission the other day. We had gone to tract an area farther out in Qishan. We were biking back and a man on the other side of the street started frantically walking toward us. I stopped my bike, a little afraid and not sure what he was doing or if he needed help. He mumbled something in a frantic voice that sounded like a question but I did not understand what he said. At first I thought it might be Taiwanese. He asked it again and I still didn't know what he was saying. The third frantic time I understood what he was asking us. "Is today Saturday?!" As soon as I understood I told him, yes today was Saturday. That seemed to satisfy him and he awkwardly walked back to the other side of the street. I tried to ask if he needed help, but he was already gone and wasn't paying attention to us anyway. Really strange, but we had a good laugh about it, still do. 

That's about the recap for this week. It was been incredible, funny, exhausting, patience-trying, and miracle filled. I'm so grateful to serve here in Qishan and that Sister Anderson and I can serve together.

I loved the Easter pictures you sent me! They are absolutely beautiful and it looks like you had so much fun! Jemma's dress is beautiful! Mandy did a great job! I love Jemma's poses, really cute. 

Also glad you had a good time in Idaho. I miss the dry climate. It is getting really hot here and I feel like my skin is constantly wet. It's gross. Anyway I love you all and loved your emails. Tell Jemma I love her and that I'm so glad Easter was fun for her. Give her a giant squeeze for me :)! I can't wait to talk to you soon! (Mother's Day is in three weeks!)

Have an incredible week. Know that I love you, pray for you, and think about you all the time. Love every moment, even when it's hard. Trust in God and find ways to improve. For that is our purpose here, to improve and grow closer to God and Christ. There is no greater gift! 

There is another miracle just around the corner!

With all my love,

Sister Fernley 

New Companion in Qishan

Sister Fernley is still having a wonderful experience in Qishan--and she got a new companion! Here is the message we received from her on Sunday:

Hello dear family!

Today was move call! I can't believe the last move call is already over. I have been in Qishan for six weeks and it has flown by so fast. I am still in Qishan and Sister Sadie Anderson is my new companion! We were in the same zone when I was being trained. We both also went to Viewmont. Shes a year younger than me, but we know a lot of the same people. (Weird, this seems to be happening to me quite often.) I am so excited! This move call is going to be so much fun! I'm a little nervous about leading the area, we will probably get lost...a lot, but it will all work out. I also seem to be everyone's guinea pig. When I was trained it was my trainer's first time training, and every companion after that it has been their first time as senior companion.

I loved the pictures Nicole sent this week! The prayer photo shoot looks like it went really good. I love the positive take on power. Prayer really does have so much power. I have seen it time and time again. 

Jemma is getting go big! Her new bed looks like a blast though and I'm so glad she likes it. She's growing up too fast...so tell her to stop. :) I got her email and it made me smile. I love to hear from her.

I'm glad dad had a good time in New York. I love that he just likes to go on adventures on his own. I'm glad he learned a lot and that what he has learned will help him at North Star. I'm sure you were all happy when he got home and the family was back together again. (Also, what is a yarmulke?)

I hope you have a great time in Idaho! Can't wait to hear about your adventures, and see the pictures. Haha.

This week, I can't remember much of this week. Things have slowed down a  little bit, but I know we will be able to see miracles still and that Qishan can progress even more. 

We still have Shao Jie who has a baptismal goal for the 26th. She is golden. Seriously. She's only 13, but she accepts everything. She has told us that when we go and visit her she has a warm feeling and is really happy. We've been trying to help her recognize the Spirit and help her know that God really has been answering her prayers. I love being able to guide these people to realize the hand of God in their lives. She also says when she prays she feels really peaceful, but has felt that she hasn't received an answer yet. We explained to her that she has, she just didn't realize it. She was really sad when Sister Yeh had to leave (she has gone to Gangshan). I think her fear of water has been staunched, she seems to be doing well and is excited to be baptized.

Zong jiemei is still willing to learn, but I'm a little concerned about her motives. Sometimes it feels that she doesn't really understand the importance of baptism, that is just another experience that you can check off. Sometimes it also feel like she just wants to be friends with us. She hasn't come to church for the full time yet so we had to drop her baptismal goal. We are going to try and set another one with her, but I think it should be farther out. I want to make sure she is baptized because she believes and that she understands that it is a big deal and is really important. So we are going to step back for a little bit and take it slow.

Ma jiemei (the kind of crazy one): its always an interesting experience going to visit her. Honestly I can't even remember what we taught her, I think it was the Plan of Salvation. We invited her to be baptized, but she does not want to because she does not want to have to come to church every week. She says she doesn't like having a set time to have to do anything. She also thinks it would be best to just wait until shes going to die and then get baptized. At that time I didn't really have a very succinct answer to give her and the conversation turned anyway, but conference helped me so much and I feel like I can answer her very specifically now. She also seems to think that it would be a good idea for me to meet her son and become his girlfriend. We keep trying to tell her about our rules and counter her attempts, but she is still persistent in asking. She also it trying really hard to get us to come to her house and play Mahjhong with her and her sons. She doesn't take no, we can't, it's a rule for an answer. So we may need to find a member who will be willing to help us appease her and go play. She believes the Book of Mormon is true and has already read a good chunk of 1 Nephi (which is more than most people) she just doesn't want to get baptized yet. But I know we can continue to work with her. Maybe if she keeps reading and learning she will develop the desire.

Other than that not much has happened. We haven't found anyone new yet, but I know they are out there! A lot of the people we were meeting with before have gotten really busy lately. Maybe that's Heavenly Father telling us we need to move on to other people. 

I was able to listen to General Conference finally! The bishop set up a TV with it in english for the missionaries, but the elders wanted to listen to it in Chinese and Sister Yeh doesn't speak english. She ended up sitting in the back of the chapel so we could open the folding wall a little bit so we could see each other. So I got to sit in a little room all by myself listening to conference in English. I loved it though! I learned so much and was able to learn about how to help some of our LAs and investigators. My favorite talk was President Uchtdorf's Sunday morning about gratitude. Developing an attitude of gratitude will bring us true joy and happiness. If we are grateful in every situation, happy or sad, we will be blessed and will be better able to lift the burdens that we have to carry. I also can't wait until we can read and study the conference talks and study even more. There were so many invitations given and I can't wait to apply them and become a better disciple of Christ and strengthen my testimony.

To answer Dad's question new converts are considered RCs for the first year after their baptism, unfortunately a lot of them go less active soon after baptism. In Taiwan a member is considered less active if they come to church less than once a month. (I know, really crazy. That would never be considered active back home.)

The teenager that has shown up to church the last couple of weeks didn't come this week. We met with her last week and taught her about the Restoration. We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and pray, but she was really scared about praying because she is nervous her ancestors will get mad at her (her family is Buddhist). She didn't show up this week and we have no way to contact her because she would never give us her address or cell phone number. I'm afraid she might disappear.

Anyway, that's about it. We worked hard, we were happy and I know if we continue the Lord will bless us. I am so excited for this next move call with Sister Anderson! I know we can see miracles if we just keep trying! I love you all, you are always in my prayers!

With all my love,

Sister Fernley

Small and simple things

Sister Fernley sounds like she is doing fabulously well! Qishan is ready for the harvest it seems. Here is her latest message:


Dear Family,

Well another week has gone by and this move call is almost over! What! Move call comes in on Saturday night. Sister Yeh and I are pretty sure that she will be moving (she's been in Qishan for four and a half months), and I will be staying in Qishan, but you never know. 

This week started out as a pretty normal week. It didn't seem like there was anything outstanding happening. Actually we have had a really hard time getting a hold of any of our RCs or LAs. But the past couple of days I've been able to look back and realize that there have been so many miracles. Many are small, but it is through "small and simple things that great things are brought to pass." 

Tuesday morning we went to go try and visit an LA that our Relief Society president requested we go visit, but once again she wasn't home. The last time we tried to visit her and she wasn't home we decided to tract her street. We were just about out of time but decided to tract a few more doors. At one of the homes a lady answered the door and we were immediately engulfed with the smell of smoke. This lady looked pretty disheveled and was wearing pretty skimpy clothing. She also sounded a little drunk. It reminded me a little bit of Dad's story about Patty Thurston (?). We told her we were sharing a message that will strengthen families and that has blessed our lives. I asked if we could come back and share more with her and she said we could. 

So when our LA wasn't there again we decided to try and visit the lady we had tracted into. She was home and let us in. She said she had had missionaries come over before and pulled out a bunch of pamphlets and magazines from the Jehovah Witness missionaries. We have actually run into a lot of people who have had Jehovah Witnesses share with them before. When we told her we were a different church and that all Christian churches weren't the same she started asking why there were so many. She said it didn't make sense. We started the first lesson and were telling her about how the Lord calls prophets and how the prophets in the Bible were called of God. 

When my companion was telling her about Moses and Noah this lady exclaimed, "yea, but they are all dead. Right?"

I replied, "Yes, but we know that we have a living prophet."

As soon as I said this she very excitedly asked, "where!?"

We were then able to testify to her about our living prophet and talk to her about the authority of God, and luckily I had the conference edition of the ensign in my bag so we could show her pictures of the Prophet and his Apostles. Through this whole thing she was very attentive and started telling us that all the churches should combine into one and that we should tell our prophet to arrange it. We taught her more about the priesthood and when I was telling her that without the priesthood we didn't have authority of God and that we need prophets and apostles to guide us and help us know the will of the Lord. I told her that other churches didn't have this authority. She then pointed at the pictures of the prophet and apostles and said, "well they should ask them."

She was so willing to accept that these men were called of God, it was incredible. We taught her the first lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon. When we told her about Joseph translating the book into english she asked us what language it was in before. We showed her Nephi 1 where it talks about it being the language of the Hebrews with Egyptian characters. 

We then continued to invite her to read the book and pray about it, and if she would do these things she would know it was true and is the word of God. 

Her reply..."I already believe it is true."

Me: "Why do you believe it is true?"

Her: "Well translating that must have been really hard. He had to have the help of God."

Incredible. We invited her to read and then she started talking about how she has read a little bit of the Bible and doesn't like it. She started reading in Genesis when the Lord tells Abraham that he is going to destroy Soddom and Gommorah. She doesn't like the idea that the Lord would destroy a whole city because they were completely wicked. So she told us, "I believe the Book of Mormon is true, and I believe in Jesus Christ, but I don't like His actions."

 She doesn't like Jesus Christ. What? That's a problem. 

We didn't have time to sit with her much longer, but we testified of Christ and of the gospel to her and invited her again to read and pray. This week we will hopefully be able to go over again and share from the Book of Mormon about Christ and the atonement. We'll see if that helps. 

For the past week every time I have thought about this lesson or flipped through our Area Book and saw her information it has made me laugh. She is probably my favorite contact so far.

Anyway, other miracles we have seen:

We tracted into a member's mom who was really lonely and discouraged because her daughter didn't come home for the weekend holiday. (Friday everyone went grave sweeping. Basically they just clean the graves of their family members and then go and bai bai.) We were able to cheer her up and comfort her a little bit and now have the ward on board to help her.

We went to go find an LA family and had an incredible lesson with the mom. She is really willing to come back to church. We asked about her conversion story and I could see her eyes light up as she talked about it.

Our 7/11 contact did come on Wednesday, but she came super late and her grandma (who had driven her) was really irritated because of a ton of mis-communication with her granddaughter. So we spent a lot of time explaining who we were. Her grandma had no objections though, she was just mad because her granddaughter hadn't told her why she wanted to come to our church or what she wanted to learn. So around 9:30 we left the church with a slightly less irritated grandma and a pretty sad teenager. But she came to church again on Sunday. And guess what the lesson in Young Women's was? The Restoration...perfect. We are going to meet with her again this week.

Shao Jie also came to church again and is on track for her bapismal goal. We just need to finish teaching the commandments and commit her to live them. She started to get a little afraid of baptism because she is afraid of water, but between us and the elders I think we've lessened her fear.

Zong Jiemei wasn't able to come to church this week, but when we were trying to asses her desire to be baptized she told us she want's a happier life and believes baptism will help her have that. We haven't been in contact with her for a few days, so we aren't completely sure where she's at right now. But we hope to meet again with her soon.

Last week we were riding our bikes to find a place to tract and I looked into the window of a house and though we should tract it. Before I could tell my companion to stop she stopped and parked her bike so we could tract that street. When we knocked on their door the husband said they were getting ready to leave but that we could come back another time. Last night we had an extremely long lesson with him spending most of our time answering his questions. I think he has a lot of potential, but we will see. They will be really busy for the next couple of weeks, but he said we can come back after then.

The slew of cockroaches has slowed down. For a few days we were finding a bunch of little ones and every once in a while some bigger ones, so we think a cockroach had babies and they were periodically showing themselves. The past couple of days we haven't had any though. Hopefully we've found the last of them. 

And we have found a ton of referrals for the elders lately!

I'm sure I've forgotten a lot of things. You can find miracles everyday if you just look for them, but that's all I can think of right now.

Last week I said it was nice to be living out of one apartment. Before we moved in we were going up to our new apartment on the ninth floor to shower because our previous apartment had no hot water. The people who lived there before had already moved out and they were just having people go in a fix things up and clean the place. So its nice to be able to shower in the same apartment we live in now. 

It sounds like conference was great. I'm so excited to listen to it next week. I can't wait to hear what they will invited us to do and learn how we can become better. 

As always the pictures are so much fun. The cake pops look like they turned out great and that Jemma had a good time doing them. 

I hope dad has a good time in New York and that he gets to go to Elis Island like he wants to (he's right, I would have gone to see Newsies on Broadway :) ). 

Nicole's photo shoot idea sounds really cool! I hope it works out. If it does I think it could be really inspiring and spiritual. 

Our musical number has been moved to the last week of April. So we may have to start practicing all over because new missionaries will probably come in next week. President and Sister Blickenstaff are coming to Qishan to speak in church that Sunday so the Bishop wants us to sing then. I'm excited to see what kind of influence that will have on the members (hopefully I'm still here.)

Well this email is already long enough and I'm just about out of time. I love you all and love hearing about your week. (I loved the picture of Jemma reading her scriptures! So cute! It makes me really happy that that was the book she grabbed. She is definitely benefiting from the example of her parents.) Have an incredible week and remember that we have the incredible  gift of the gospel. He provides miracles every day of our lives.

You are always in my prayers.

With all my love,

Sister Fernley