So many miracles...

Here is Sister Fernley's message from Sept 14, accompanied by some fun (and a couple really creepy) pictures. Sounds like she is doing remarkably well!

Dear family,

Thank you so much for your prayers! I've been praying so hard, and I'm sure you have added prayers as well, that we would be able to see progression in this area and with our investigators. As a result, this week was incredible! We saw so many miracles! I know without a doubt that the Lord is blessing us. Weeks like this are what give me the strength to keep pushing forward when nothing seems to be happening. 

So I guess I'll just start from the beginning (because that's a very good place to start right?). 

Right after we finished emailing last week we headed over to Yi Zhong Jie, which is the market I sent pictures of several weeks ago. It is also the place they take all the new missionaries to for the Dan Jones experience. We were just going over to find something to eat, but when we parked our bikes this man saw us and started yelling and walking toward us. I'm not sure what disorder he had, but he had a hard time controlling his body and couldn't speak very well. His arms were mostly held over his head and were jerking all over. I was a little nervous when he started walking toward us and had no idea what he was saying. After he repeated what he was yelling several times I realized he was saying "dao gao" (prayer). He was asking us to pray for him. We ended up talking to him for a while, got his number to give to the elders, and told him we would pray for him. He was an extremely nice man who is truly humble in his circumstances. I thought it was really interesting that when he was talking to us about church and about God it seemed like he was able to speak better and his twitching calmed down. He told us he was looking for a church that could help him and could bless him. I hope the elders in his area can help him. It sounded like he had a pretty solid grasp on God and prayer.

Anyway, the rest of the day we spent with Judy. Who is one of our newer investigators. She was found through english class and just never had time before to meet with us. We went with her and her two sons to a local college that had lots of trails to walk on and a famous church. The church is on the campus and is famous for the architecture. It was an incredible building, but it is always interesting how it never feels the same as our church. I'm so grateful that we have that truth and that we have the authority of God. I'm grateful for that we believe in an unchanging God and that He is, and always will be, a God of miracles. I'm grateful that our church buildings, our temples, are not just pretty buildings, but are places of refuge and places where we can receive personal revelation. I love that we can feel the spirit and feel of God's love when we enter into His house, but I'm even more grateful that we know we don't have to rely on a place to feel that way. We can feel it every minute of every day! What an incredible blessing!

We were able to meet with Shi Yue again this week and it was incredible! I wasn't too sure where her testimony was, so we decided to review the Restoration and figure out where her faith was. We ended up inviting her to be baptized and she accepted! Sister Schultz and I had invited her several times and she would never accept a date, but this time she did and is dedicated to do what it takes to receive and answer from God. She said that she absolutely believes in God (which is a big step forward), but that she just hasn't felt Him in her own life yet. I pray with all my heart that she will see His hand in her life. I've seen her progress so far and hope she keeps going. Her family is incredible and I know the gospel will help them become even better. 

As always we got to meet with several others, but it seemed like this week almost everyone was pretty earnest about seeking out an answer for themselves. When we meet with people like this and at least invite them to search for an answer I feel like I am doing my job, and that I'm doing it right. I'm so grateful that the Lord allowed us to meet these people, and at least start preparing them to receive the gospel in their lives. 

This week Sister Murdock and I were focusing really hard on hitting the mission standards that President Blickenstaff has set for us. We saw a lot of miracles and were getting really close to hitting them. By the time Saturday came along we only needed two more lessons with members present (which is one of the hardest standards to hit), and had two set up already. We had our first lesson that morning (which was great) and finished up our studies at the church while we were waiting for Yi Jun who was our other appointment that afternoon. While we were doing studies she texted us and told us she wouldn't be able to make it. 

We were both a little disappointed and tried to think of ways that we were going to get another lesson. We called a few people to see if they had time, but no one did. I thought of calling the member and telling her our lesson was canceled, but didn't because I was still hoping for a miracle. The rest of the afternoon I was wracking my brain and the only thing I could come up with was english proselying. That is when we go to an intersection and hand out fliers for our english class to people on the street. I thought that maybe, if we talked to everybody we could find someone who would be willing to listen and would be able to have a lesson with us. Maybe we could find someone prepared for the gospel. We were out on that intersection for about half an hour and it didn't seem like we were going to find anyone. I was praying so hard and asking Heavenly Father for a miracle. Then with only about ten minutes left the old lady walked up to me and started asking about english class. I told her about it then ended up getting into a conversation about America and why we were in Taiwan. She was Christian, but not very devout. Basically she had just gone to church a few times in America. I told her a little bit about our church and invited her to walk with us down the street and take a tour of our chapel, and she accepted! We ended up taking her into the chapel and talked to her about God and the Restoration and how much he wants to help us in our lives. She had so much faith in God! She ended up not living in our area, but is excited to learn more and happens to live on the same street as one of our chapels! We may not have gotten a new investigator or even a member present lesson, but God truly answered our prayers and provided a small miracle in the midst of the bustling streets of Taiwan. He loves us and knows our hearts desires, and every once in a while miracles like this happen to remind us He is listening.

And now probably the biggest miracle of the week and of my mission so far! I've told you about Lerma and her situation a couple of times. She is one of the most faithful and patient woman I have ever met. She loves the gospel and has the strongest testimony. She just can't get baptized because her boss doesn't want her to have anything to do with us. We meet with her when she gets a minute to leave the house to take out the trash. We thought she might be able to get baptized when she goes back to the Philippines for Christmas. Well yesterday Sister Blickenstaff told us at church that when she and President were in Hong Kong this week they talked to the old mission president of the Phillippines about her situation and were trying to work out her baptism in December. It's a long story, but basically he told us that if we just take her the sacrament one more time we could just find a time to take her to the church and get her baptized! So tonight when Lerma gets a minute to leave we are going to teach her a few last things, the elders will prepare and bring the sacrament for her so she will have had it three times. Later on this week her boss is leaving for America and Lerma has four days consecutively that she can meet with us. So with President's permission we will be able to arrange a baptismal interview one night then take her over to the church so she can finally get baptized! It is super crazy and only happened through connections President has throughout the church, but by the end of the week Lerma will finally be baptized! She has been waiting for almost a year! 

Well, I'm almost out of time. We saw so many miracles this week and the Lord gave us so many experiences to strengthen us and build our trust and faith in Him. I love being a missionary and facing the unexpected. The Lord truly loves us and knows exactly what we need to keep us going. Have an incredible week! I hope Jemma loves school this week and that work goes well for everyone else! 

There's always another miracle just around the corner!

With all my love, 

Sister Fernley

Miracles are given to us every day

PIctures and message from Sister Fernley for the week of September 7:

Hello my wonderful family!

I never know how to start my emails anymore. I feel like I always start them the same way, so I try to be original and think of something new, but can never think of anything so I always resort back to the same old thing.

I hope your week was a good one full of miracles. The ceramic place looks fun and Jemma looks completely entertained. I think art will be fun for her. She's always liked that kind of stuff. As far as sports goes....maybe you could start a hula-hoop class and then it will become an Olympic sport and she would go pro. Haha whatever she gets into I'm sure it will be great.

As always I feel like I can never remember what happened throughout the week. I think its getting worse. Like my brain capacity has been overloaded so when new information gets shoved in something else has to get shoved out to make room. Sometimes I wish we worked like computers and could just add extra memory storage. 

But since that isn't an option I have to resort to looking back to my planner and hopefully can dig up some of this weeks happenings. Thank goodness for planners. It's genius. 

I don't know if I talked about her, or if you remember her, but we were finally able to contact En Man again and meet with her this week. She took me about three weeks of consecutive calling to finally get a hold of her and set up a time, but once we got to meet with her she was golden. She invited herself to read, pray and come to church every week but ended up disappearing for several weeks. I called her one day and she told me not to worry because she was going to another church....

What! Of course I'm going to worry. 

Anyway we were able to set up with her and discovered that she is still reading the Book of Mormon. She just doesn't want to come to our church because she doesn't know anyone. (I don't know where we stand, but I guess we don't count.) I told her that she would never get to know anyone if she never came, so maybe in a few weeks when she isn't as busy we can get her to come. She needs it so much! I don't want her to let the truth slip through her fingers, but everyone does have their agency. 

We also had the opportunity to share the Plan of Salvation with a woman who just lost her brother. Her brother and his immediate family are all members of our church, but she isn't. Her family members called us and asked if we could share a little bit with her hoping that it could help her calm down. We testified, taught, and listened as well as we could but she wasn't taking comfort in anything. Her family testified and she still wouldn't believe. She had the one message that could bring her the most comfort right in front of her, but wasn't willing to stretch forth her hand and pick it up. Sister Murdock started crying because she felt so sorry for her. She might not have understood everything, but she could feel how lost this woman was and how unwilling she was to trust. She did say at the end that if we said prayer could help her she would keep trying. I hope she receives peace, but unless we pray with faith, even a little, we won't be open to God's help. Seeing her struggle and how lost she was made me so much more grateful that God was merciful enough to give me the gospel from the very beginning. I've never had to be lost, I've never had to doubt or be afraid. Because I am human I do, but I don't need to. The truth is always there as long as we are open enough to receive it. 

Later on that afternoon we had an unexpected opportunity to see Lerma! Sister Blickenstaff was taking her to the police office to do some reports for the accident she was in last year and asked if we had time to come see her. Of course we have time for Lerma! We dropped our plans and were able to have an incredibly inspiring lesson. She is so incredible and inspires me to become better. She takes care of an old man and has to help him take his medicine and follow the doctor's orders. 

While we were in the car she was telling us about the other day she ran into President Blickenstaff just outside of a 7-11. She then told us that later that same day she was pushing man she tends in his wheelchair and ended up in the same spot. She said he wanted to go in and buy something to eat, but she has been given doctor's orders to not let him eat that kind of stuff because of his blood sugar. So she didn't let him, but he got angry with her and started yelling and trying to hit her from his wheelchair. She told us that at that moment she remembered meeting President at the same spot and realized that God probably put President in her path so that when she was having this trial she would have the strength to overcome. She said because she had met President there she felt like she couldn't get mad or have bad thoughts. 

She really is an incredible example. She sees the blessings of the Lord in her life and remembers God at all times. She always says we were sent to her to lift her up, but I believe it is the other way around. 

This week we were also able to get back in contact with a lot of people who have disappeared for the past couple of weeks! Honestly it's a miracle we were able to get back in touch with them, and they are all still willing to keep learning. 

We were able to meet with Shi Yue again, and she is just incredible. I was really nervous to go back and discover that she lost interest or ran into some anti-literature or something. But one night we just stopped by to see if they were home and they invited us right up. We talked to a minute and then she turned to her husband and asked him if he had told us about what happened when they went to bai bai (when they went to worship the buddhist gods). My heart dropped and I painfully waited for the worst. She then told us that she got baptized. I was devastated. 

She then told me the following story: 

They were in Taibei visiting her husband's family for the Moon Festival (which is actually today) and his aunt asked them to go bai bai with her. Shi Yue just thought she was being nice and in turn agreed to go with her to support her. (Shi Yue has never gone to bai bai before because she's from China.) She told us she went and was completely confused about all the food and incense and the prayers they were doing, but just did what everyone was telling her to do. Then she said they gave her this paper with her name on it and were really nice and good to her, but didn't tell her much about the paper or what she just did. She said later when she was in the car with her husband her turned to her and told her that she was just baptized into the Iguandao religion. She had no idea and freaked out! I guess her husband didn't really know either until the end because he's never learned about Iguandao before either. 

So she got baptized without even knowing it, and no one else would tell her what was going on. We laughed about it and told her if it was against her will it doesn't really count for much. She asked us that if she gets baptized into our church if we will tell her what is going on. We assured her that there would be no secrets. 

So if you come to Taiwan, I guess you have to be careful or else you could get baptized into another church without even knowing it. We'll stay on our guard. :)

As far as her progress goes I don't think she has received a specific answer about the Book of Mormon yet, but she is understanding the scriptures and the commandments so much more. We had talked to her about fasting before and she had a little bit of a problem with it, but we went back and she said she was thinking about it and realized that fasting does have its benefits (besides all the blessings God promises us). I asked her what that was and she said she realized it would help you develop self-control and give you confidence to know that you can do hard things. Yea...she just gets it. I really hope she gets baptized someday. She says she has a lot of time and is just at home now, so we have the invitation to come over whenever. (The best kind of invitation for a missionary.)

We weren't able to meet with the girl we ran into and gave a Book of Mormon to last week. She just has no time. Hopefully some day she won't be as busy, but at least for now she has a book and knows where the chapel is. 

We did get to meet with one of our english students who came to church last week though. She was super interested and said that she feels so happy at our church. She said she thinks it is a really special place and that she feels really lucky to get to be there. We taught her about the Restoration and Joseph Smith's vision and she loved it! I can't wait to continue teaching her. 

Well, I could probably keep writing about different things forever. (See planners work miracles.) But my time is about up. 

I love you all and am grateful for you every day. I love this gospel. I love this church. I love that I get to be a missionary. I love my companion. I love my investigators. I love seeing the change in people. I love knowing that no matter how often I get rejected, prepared people are just around teh corner. 

Remember that I love you all so much and that miracles are given to us every day.

With all my love,

Sister Fernley

Another week whizzes by

Sister Fernley's message and pictures from the week of August 31, 2014:

Dear Family,

Well another week has gone by and honestly I don't even know what we did this week. It's not that I don't remember, like sometimes happens, but more that I don't know if what we did this week did much. Last night it was getting close to time to report in our numbers for the week and we weren't quite home yet so we stopped and quickly counted them up. This has happened to me a lot on my mission; you go to count up numbers, feeling a little embarrassed and disappointing, then once you count everything up you realize that your week was a lot more productive and useful than you thought. Sometimes numbers are depressing, other times they are a boost. This week they were a boost, which I am extremely grateful for. Sometimes it is the small miracles that I am most grateful for...and this was one of them.

I loved what dad talked about in his letter to me this week about treasuring up those instances when people accept our message, or listen for even just a minute. It reminded me of something Nicole wrote me when I was in Qishan, that some days are so hard that you don't know what you are doing out here, other days are full of miracles, and thank goodness for those miracle days because they make the hard days worth it. It is so true! The rejection rate is high, but it makes the acceptance rate so much more precious!

Speaking of hard days and miracles we had a day that fell into both categories this week. This week we tried our best and worked really hard, but as usual we didn't end up accomplishing what we had planned to do. But despite other days not going quite as planned we ended up getting an awesome plan set up for Saturday. We had several lessons, a few with members set up to help us out, and a meeting with a new family to teach later that night. Then....you guessed it...a few hours after we woke up the phone started ringing and over the next couple hours almost every single appointment canceled. Thus goes the life of a missionary. So we ended up spending most of the day calling people or contacting, trying to do something productive. Then after dinner and our extra half hour of language study (because Sister Murdock is training we get an hour and a half, which is really great) we headed out to go tract before we needed to head in for the night. I told Sister Murdock that we were going to find a place to tract and that she was going to take us there.

We walked out and started getting our bikes ready for take-off...really that's how it feels at night. With all the lights, locks, bike reflectors, helmet, and reflective gear it feels like I'm getting the Enterprise prepped for take-off sometimes. If only we could bike as fast as warp-speed...

Anyway, we got our bikes prepped and this lady walks up to us on her own. I'm thinking she is our miracle for the night, but she just keeps talking to us about all the presidents of America and keeps getting distracted every couple of minutes. Sister Murdock is standing off to the side almost completely oblivious to what this lady is saying and I'm desperately trying to get a word in about the gospel and give her our church address. This crazy fiasco goes on for about ten-fifteen minutes then this lady randomly stops talking and walks away like we weren't even there. 

Not thinking much about this, besides that it was a little weird, we rode off and Sister Murdock led us to a street to tract a little bit. We start walking down this street and I am determined to talk to everyone that we see because there had to be a reason all our plans fell through. We talked to this lady outside cleaning the front of her building. She said we could come back and share more, but didn't sound pretty committed. I wrote her down anyway and we started walking down the street to see if we could find the number of that building, but I couldn't find it anywhere. I finally decided to talk to two girls who had just walked out of the same building and ask them. I got the number from them and started sharing about the gospel and asked if we could find time to share more with them. They nodded their heads, but didn't say anything. I asked if we could get their numbers and they just stared at me. I think I asked them four or five times until one of the girls said they could just come find us if they wanted to hear more. Yea.... that's code for I don't want to listen, but I'm too embarrassed to just tell you. I invited them to church and Sister Murdock and I headed back to our bikes to head back to the church to call more people. 

As we were once again gearing up our bikes The other girl comes running down the street and asked me where to go and when if she has time for church. I told her where and she started talking about how she has gone to Christian churches before and even has a bible. Luckily I had a Book of Mormon in my bike box, so I told her a little bit and told her that the Book of Mormon has helped me so much. To that she replied, "Oh, I need that." and excitedly took the book. She ended up not being able to come to church, but we got her number and hope that we can continue sharing with her about the Book of Mormon.

It definitely was a huge miracle. The rest of the day didn't matter because we met her. We were talking about it after and realized that if our plans hadn't fallen through, if that crazy lady hadn't stopped us, and if she didn't randomly walk away, if we hadn't talked to that lady cleaning and needed to get the number of the building we would have never run into this girl. We would have never known that miracle was waiting for us. After she walked away Sister Murdock turned to me and asked, "Did that just happen?" Its funny because that still what I feel like after every occurrence like this. Every time someone gives me their number, agrees to learn more, or accepts a Book of Mormon that thought still runs through my mind. Maybe it is a bad thing, but it makes me so much more aware of the hand of the Lord. He is the one really guiding this work. We just get to stand back and be amazed.

We were also able to had two new investigators come to church this week. They are our english students who requested Books of Mormon after our spiritual share. (Yes we still teach english. Every area, every wednesday.) They loved it and we have a lesson set up for later this week to share with them. They have both been reading, but don't quite understand. Hopefully we can help with that.

Dad asked if any of our referrals have turned into investigators. Unfortunately not yet, but we are still trying. 

Training is good. Sometimes it is hard, because you have to pick up the slack for everything your companion can't quite do yet, but Sister Murdock is doing great! I know I wrote about it last week, but it is really cool to see how fast she is adjusting and how fast her Chinese is improving. The gift of tongues is real! I remember hearing my trainer tell me the same thing, but never believed her. Now it is kind of fun to be on the other side and see it for myself. I was actually telling her this morning that I don't even know where I learned most of my Chinese from. There are some things I could tell you exactly what book or study guide, or person I leaned it from, but for the most part I have no clue. It just came, its still coming. It will never get perfect, but at least we have a whole lifetime and beyond to keep learning.

I actually did have one of our investigators tell me when she answered the phone she thought it was a Taiwanese person who was calling and was a little surprised it was me. I'm not sure how true that is, voices get altered over the phone...haha, but it made me feel a lot better. But that also means I have an accent, dang.

It was so good to hear from everybody and how your week went. Happy Birthday Nicole!! Sorry I forgot to say that last week. We walked out of the internet cafe and I realized I had forgot. Anyway, it sounds like it was pretty relaxed, but fun nonetheless. I'm glad Jemma is doing so well and that she is loving school. I knew she would. She is such a smart kid. I loved the restaurant drawing as well as the pictures! So fun! 

It sounds like Jemma is going to have to teach me how to use technology when I get home. Seriously, I'm regressing. It's sad. Maybe someday when our mission gets the i-pads they've been talking about for years there will be some hope for me. Haha. 

Oh do you remember the Lin Jiemei from Qishan? She was a member referral and was super golden! She got baptized a few weeks ago! So exciting. Apparently she is helping her kids take the missionary discussions as well and they are getting ready to get baptized! Miracles, every day.

Well, that's about all I've got for now. I'm sure as soon as I walk out of this cafe I will remember more stories I could have told, but this will have to do.

I love you all! Thank you so much for your prayers, letters, emails...everything. I couldn't do this without you!

Remember there's another miracle just around the corner!

With all my love,

Sister Fernley

Oh, one last story...I thought you might like this one. The other day while we were at a member's house I went to go put my shoes on after our lesson only to find someone else trying to use my shoe. I put my foot in, felt something weird, took it out and watched a cockroach the size of a small Snickers candy bar run out and down the hall. It was disgusting. But I think I was just so tired I didn't even think to react much. So, if you ever come to Taiwan check your shoes before you put them on.

 (Random photo from Sister Fernley…we're not sure why she sent it to us, but she did, so we're posting it.)

Training, training, training...

Sister Fernley's message from 24 August:

Dear Family,

It was so good to hear from you! This week has seemed longer than usual. You all mentioned the missionaries that passed away this last week in your emails. They were two elders in the Taibei mission. We aren't completely sure about the circumstances, but pray for their families and for the safety of the rest of the missionaries in Taiwan. It is sad to lose loved ones, but I know that those elders were doing the best work they possibly could have. They were dedicating their time to the Lord and I know that they are continuing their missions on the other side. They will always be there helping us continue our work of preaching the gospel.

Honestly I can't remember much of what happened this week. A lot of our investigator are disappearing or didn't have time this week, so we focused a lot on contacting and finding. As a result we ended up finding three new investigators! (Yea! I haven't done that for a while.) Then sadly only one of them actually lives in our area...so once again we will pass them off to the other sisters. But good news is we have been getting a lot of referrals as well lately. 

I talked a few weeks ago about our "no companionship left behind" week. The week where we got left behind. Haha. We were talking about it in DTM the week after and Elder Vandiford (our old AP who just went home) told us that what goes around comes around. He was right. We've been getting more referrals lately than I have gotten my whole mission combined. It's great! Hopefully we can contact some of them who will be willing to hear the gospel.

That's pretty much it for this week honestly. For a while I felt like I was killing my area again. It seems like every time my companion moves out and I'm given the responsibility of leading the area everything just drops. It's annoying. But it always picks up again, so I'm just waiting for the miracles to start happening. They're just around the corner. ;)

Aside from not much happening as far as investigators, new investigators etc. go, it has been really cool working with Sister Murdock this week. I remember when I was training my trainer told me that it was really cool to see a new missionary open up and start getting the hang of missionary work. Now it's my turn to watch that happen. It has been incredible to watch from the other side and see what I must have looked like a little less than a year ago. 

Sister Murdock is incredible! She is doing so great, and she doesn't even know it. She has just been soaking everything in and has been trying so hard to do what she can to help me out. I am so grateful for her spirit and for her effort to do her best. She is doing a lot better than I was at this point. By this time in my training I had already broke down because of stress, couldn't sing most of the hymns during companionship study because they made me emotional, and already didn't like my bike much. Sister Murdock tells me everyday how much she loves her bike, hasn't broken down yet, and got her first phone number on the street the other day. She says it was only because that person spoke english, but I don't believe it. 

It has been really interesting this week, because I've had to kind of test out the waters and see what my trainee can take. You have to find a balance and figure out how much you can push them so that they are pushed out of their comfort zone, but aren't pushed too far that they break. It's like a science. But with Sister Murdock it's not that hard, because she will tell me when she doesn't want to do something. Usually when that happens I will give an example a few times (like with contacting, or calling on a phone) then turn it over to her. She's doing great, and after occurrences like this usually tells me afterward how fun it was, or how it wasn't as scary as she thought it was. She is going to be a great missionary. She is already so focused on our investigators, and is always ready to give suggestions on different ways to try and teach, contact or find investigators to teach. It's been a privilege to work with her and I can't wait to see what happens this next three months.

This week I did have the opportunity to spend a little bit of time with one of the members from Qishan. She was up in Taizhong and got a hold of me and Sister Anderson (who is now a sister training leader up here) and we went out to lunch. It was a little bit strange being with my old companion with one of our members from our old area. I was thinking about it after and realized how much I love this place. I was telling Sister Murdock that after you are here for a while and move to a few areas every time you see old companions or members from your old areas it's like back-to-school night. I feel like over the past year I have created my own family here in Taiwan; all the missionaries I have worked with and around, President and Sister Blickenstaff, the senior missionaries, the members, the investigators....everyone. They have all made this island a place that I love.

This member, Tu Jiemei, even gave me and Sister Anderson the little book she made with pictures of us with the members and activities we had in Qishan. She put all these pictures in them and had members from the ward write in them. It is probably one of my favorite things I've gotten in Taiwan. I think I've pulled it out almost every day, and tried to read as much as I could (most of it is in Chinese). The members in Qishan are so incredible. I loved working with them and building friendships with them. I can only hope that Sister Murdock and I can do the same in this ward in Beiqu.

Sorry this email is shorter than normal. I honestly don't know what else to talk about, and have a shortage of profound thoughts today. 

I know this gospel is true. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know He loves us. I know He loves me because He gave me the family that I have. He loves me because He sent me to Nantou, to Qishan and not to Beiqu. He gave me my incredible companions. He gave me this opportunity to learn Chinese. He gives me my challenges and my trials because He knows who He wants me to become. He has given me a life where I could grow up in the church, which is the greatest gift of all.

I love you all and pray for you everyday. I couldn't do this without you. 

Remember, there is always a miracle just around the corner!

With all my love,

Sister Fernley

Crazy week in Taichung

Here is Sister Fernley's message from August 18:

Dearest family,

This week has been absolutely crazy! The new missionaries actually ended up coming a day later than expected. Apparently church travel forgot to tell President and Sister Blickenstaff about the change in plans, so they went and waited at the airport for about three hours before they figured out what was going on. 

Sister Schultz and I were supposed to have some of the new sisters stay at our apartment that night, so we had gotten some beds prepared and tried to get as much sleep as we could until they arrived. Our alarm ended up going off at four in the morning (we had forgot to change the alarm from when we went to the temple) and we both jumped up, afraid we had slept through the call, but they hadn't called us yet. We went out to our living room to see if they had sneaked them in without us knowing...there were no missionaries out there either. So around seven we called the assistants, worried that something had happened. That's when we found out the missionaries were just coming in a day later than planned.

So....Thursday night the new sisters came in and we ended up having all four of the american sisters staying with us. It was the weirdest situation. Sister Schultz and I knew that I would be training, and that one of the sisters that would be staying with us for the next couple of days would end up being my companion, but we couldn't say anything. We didn't want the sisters to find out. 

We ended up doing the morning exercises with the new missionaries, which was painful the second time around as well. Sister Schultz and I opted out of running bleachers the second day. Lately I've been waking up every morning feeling like I got hit by a truck, and I figured I did that once I didn't need to do it again. Some privileges come with getting 'old.' 

Anyway, things were pretty crazy with trying to get Sister Schultz packed and ready to go without letting the new missionaries know as well as getting ready for my new trainee. But the time finally came and Sister Murdock is now my knew companion. She is incredible. She doesn't need me to train her at all. She came here trained. She actually reminds me a lot of myself when I was training. She is nervous about the language, but is picking up on it so fast. I kept expecting to have to deal with some stress or help her through a break-down, but she hasn't even gotten close. I'm so grateful for her and her faith! She is going to do incredible things and I can't wait for all the miracles we will see together.

We just left the internet cafe to go eat lunch with the Hong family, who came up to say goodbye to Sisters Anderson, Fuller and Packard. The three of them are all going home this Wednesday. So out of the four of their missionaries I will be the only one left here. They are still as incredible as ever. Hong Jiemei's baby is due next month and they will probably be going to the temple in December. Hopefully President Blickenstaff will let me go, because that would be incredible!

Today is move-call so a ton of missionaries are meeting at the mission home (which is in our area). We were just down there and it felt like back to school day, or a high school reunion or something. There are so many incredible sisters going home that I've gotten to know on my mission. We will miss them so much! There are also a ton of crazy changes going on because so many sisters are leaving. Sister Anderson who was my companion is Qishan got called as a Sister Training Leader in North Taizhong. Those sisters actually share our chapel, so I will be able to see her all the time. It should be really fun! 

I don't have anything super spiritual or a crazy miracle that happened this week. I did call Yang Jiemei earlier this morning. She is our investigator who wasn't reading or praying. She said she read and prayed like we asked and still doesn't feel like she has an answer, so she said she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. That was probably the hardest phone call I have ever made, and once it was over I fell on my knees and I cried. I cried to Heavenly Father and asked Him to help her one day receive an answer. I know this gospel is true, and that it can help everyone as long as they are willing to accept it. It hurts to have investigators reject this message, but I pray with all my heart that some day another pair of missionaries will go back to them and then they will be prepared to receive this incredible gift that will bring them so much happiness.

Last night we were able to meet with Lerma again. Every time we meet with her I am strengthened. She truly is a prepared spirit and is closer to God than anyone I have ever met. We met her inside a 7-11 along with Sister Schultz and the other sisters she is staying with, the assistants, the Wheelers (a senior couple in the office) and Sister Blickenstaff. It was a pretty big group, but it was an incredible experience. We sang together and Lerma bore her testimony and talked about how grateful she was for all of us walking into her life and for bringing the gospel to her. Elder Vandiford, who is one of the assistants, actually found her when he was a zone leader here. He and Sister Schultz are both going home, so it was kind of a sending off meeting. It was so full of the spirit and really touching. Lerma always says that we bring the light into her life, but really I think she brings it into ours. She is an inspiration and is one of the most christ-like people I have ever seen. 

Well that's most of what has been going on. I love my new companion! I love the Taiwanese people. I love being a trainer. I was riding my bike the other day and I realized that after this my mission will never be the same. It has only been a few days, but it all has a different feel. One sister was telling me that training brought her mission to a higher level, and I think I'm already beginning to feel that. It's so much fun! It is such an incredible opportunity to learn and grow.

I love you all so much! The fair looked like so much fun! I think it is really cool Nicole won so many ribbons! Jemma's pictures were beautiful, as usual. I can't believe how grown up she is! I guess we all change a lot in a year. (Can you believe I went to the MTC a year ago this week?) Time goes faster than you think possible. 

I hope school goes well, for dad and Jemma both, and that you all have an incredible week. I hope I have loads of miracles to tell you about next week!

There's always a miracle just around the corner.

With all my love,

Sister Fernley

I have grown so much!

Here is Sister Fernley's message from 13 August 2014:

Dear family,

So I'm sitting here in the internet cafe with almost a whole hour before me, no emails needing to be written to President, no numbers to enter in, two days since my last email, eight hours until the new missionaries walk in our door tonight, and a day and a half until I meet my trainee and new companion for the next three months and I don't quite know what to do with myself.

I don't even know how to express what I am feeling right now. We just got out of the temple which was incredible, and the fact of what I'm about to do for the next three months is always in the back of my mind. To explain what I feel: I'm nervous, excited, overwhelmed, privileged, all of the above.

Tuesday morning we had a train the trainers meeting for the north part of our mission conveniently at our chapel. (There's lots of perks to living near the mission home.) It was really good. It helped me relax a little more, realize what an honor it is to have the opportunity to train, and get excited for the opportunity to learn so much and have hopefully a good lasting impact on our trainees. We have the incredible opportunity to start a new missionary off and get them standing on their own feet and ready for the rest of their missions. Then at the end of the training Sister Blickenstaff treated us all to her mission famous cinnamon rolls!

Its really interesting being called as a trainer, because you start thinking back to the time when you were training. You think about your trainer, what kind of an impact they had on you, what they taught you, what they might have not taught you, how you want to be like them, how you want to be better...you think about everything. You remember back to your first day on island. How scared you were. How excited you were. How long you spent with a deer-in-the-headlights look on your face struggling to figure out your bike, falling off your bike ;), fighting to speak chinese and constantly fishing for english translations when people start talking to you. 

It all seemed so long ago, but it also feels like it was just yesterday. And we have grown so much! I have grown so much!

I'm no longer afraid. I'm no longer nervous of the unknown. I hope I don't always have a deer-in-the-headlights look on my face. I feel stressed out when I'm in a car because I don't have control like I do on my bike. (I haven't fallen off my bike again yet.) Chinese comes naturally now (gospel Chinese), sometimes I even dream in Chinese, and now just understanding Chinese comes faster than trying to translate it back into english. 

But I think the biggest change is I have grown closer to my Savior and know that this gospel is true more than anything else. I've learned that miracles happen and we are all able to see them if we would just open our eyes.

After I sent in my email last week Sister Schultz and I went back out on the streets, the intersections, and the church classrooms to preach the gospel! We had a lesson go longer than we planned and by the time we were ready to leave the church we only had about fifteen minutes until our next appointment at the church. Neither of us wanted to go outside. My first instinct was to suggest that we stay inside and call and set up appointments until our investigator got to the church, but I was looking at my planner and figured if we had planned to contact we should contact. If we don't follow our plans how can God plant miracles in our paths. So I suggested we take one round around the church and see if there was anyone to contact. We walked out the gate and around the corner and saw a girl about middle twenties sitting on a bench listening to her music. We hesitated for a second then waved and started talking to her. She looked up, saw who we were and instead of rudely waving us away gave us the biggest smile and sounded ecstatic to see us. 

We started talking to her more and she told us that she worked at the big department store down the street and sits on that bench right outside our church almost every day. She said she saw missionaries all the time and always wanted to go to our church, but she didn't know how to come in or when. She said she always wanted to learn more, but no one had ever "chuanjiao-ed" (preached the gospel) to her. We were the first. 

Sister Schultz and I walked away from that contact with goose bumps and completely shocked. If we hadn't planned to contact around the church the night before, if we had stayed inside and called phones for fifteen minutes, if we had walked past her bench we would have never found her. We would have never known there was a prepared soul right outside the gate. She ended up not living in our area (like everyone else around), but we found an incredible investigator and handed her over to two amazing sisters who will take care of her.

Miracles happen just around the corner. Literally. 

Sister Fernley

Temple Trip and a BIG Change!

Big news from Sister Fernley on 10 August 2014:


Dear Family,

Sorry this week's letter isn't going to be as long because we only have an hour to email this time. Sister Schultz and I are going to the Taibei temple on Wednesday so our email time is cut so we can go out and proselyte today. 

This week was INSANE! And this next week is going to be even more crazy. We had an activity going throughout our mission called "no companionship left behind." For this whole week we had a mission goal of getting three new investigators for every companionship in our mission. So we were trying as hard as we could as well as trying to help out and find people and refer them to other areas for other missionaries. If we were nearing the end of the week and were looking like we weren't going to hit the standard our Sister Training Leaders or Zone leaders would come into our area and help out. It was really cool! 

Unfortunately Sister Schultz and I got left behind....zao gao. 

We tried really hard though! Throughout the week we had a total of seven new member lessons set up. All but one didn't show up or canceled. Agency is hard sometimes. We were a little discouraged, but hopefully these people will become new investigators in the future. 

There's one contact that I remember in particular. Sister Schultz and I were sitting inside of a 7-11 eating lunch and the seats we were sitting at had a view looking out onto the street. I was enjoying people watching when I watched this girl come up to the bus stop right outside the 7-11 and look at the schedule to see when her bus was coming. I didn't think much at first besides I thought her outfit was cute and her hair was really pretty. I kept eating and about five minutes later I looked up at her again and had this picture of myself running out to contact her before her bus pulled up. I dismissed the thought because I thought that would be weird and not very like me. But as I waited I got more and more nervous that her bus would pull up and she would be gone. We finished eating and she was still out there, so as we walked out I motioned to Sister Schultz to come with me and went and contacted her. I was really nervous and thought it would be really weird at first, but she was really nice and gave me her number to call back later and try to set up. I walked away from that contact a little surprised. I've done this before and even turned around to talk to people I've already passed, but most of the time they don't talk back or wave us away. So I'm really grateful Heavenly Father allowed me to strengthen my testimony in contacting, even if this girl doesn't become an investigator right away maybe she will someday, and at least I was strengthened because of this experience.

As for the rest of the week we set a baptismal goal with Bonnie! She really thought about it too, so we feel like she was pretty genuine. Since then we haven't been able to meet with her, so we are hoping she is doing okay and won't disappear. Shi Yue hasn't had a lot of time this week either, but she has shifted from saying that "if God really exists she will think about becoming Christian" to "when I feel that this is true I will join the church." Its really cool because we have been able to she her attitude change and her perception toward what we are sharing has shifted from very logical to more spiritual. When we went and visited her this week she was breaking up the scriptures we were sharing and teaching herself from them, only looking at us to clarify what she was understanding was right. It was really cool! 

We did go and visit Yang Jiemei again and almost lost and investigator. We walked in and as soon as we sat down she told us she feels like the Book of Mormon isn't right for her and that that would be the last time meeting with her. I've had this happen several times on my mission and every single time my heart just drops, you take a second and look at your companion, gather up all the faith you have and try to testify as hard as you can so they will feel the Spirit. Every other time nothing has come of it, but we found out with Yang Jiemei that she hasn't been reading and she has never asked God if the Book of Mormon is true. She also visits with the Jehovah's Witness missionaries so we have a sneaking suspicion that they saw her Book of Mormon and are influencing her decision. Anyway we committed her to read the Book of Mormon every day this week and pray after she read to know if it is true that God would give her an answer. We called her a few days ago and she still hadn't felt anything. We are going over tomorrow and I've never been more scared to go back and visit an investigator before. I hope and pray we will see miracles, but I also know whatever happens is God's will and all is in His timing.

I'm almost out of time, but I have some news to tell you. Saturday night Sister Schultz and I were just finished planning when President Blickenstaff called. He talked to Sister Schultz for a little while about how our new investigators were going, but then asked to talk to me. As soon as the phone rang my heart dropped and I knew what was going on. He asked me to TRAIN for the next two move calls! I didn't expect it at all because I haven't even gone senior yet, but I guess I'm just going to do it all at the same time. There is a trainers training meeting tomorrow morning, then the new missionaries come in on Wednesday and meet their trainers on Friday. So Sister Schultz will be leaving the area a little early so I can take my new trainee home and get to work! I'm really nervous, but super excited for the next two move calls and all that I can learn. I feel completely inadequate to train, but I'll try my best to do what the Lord and what President call me to do.

Well I'm almost out of time, we might write more on Wednesday we might not, I'm not sure. So next time we write I may have my new companion!

I love you all! Have a great week!

With all my love,

Sister Fernley