August 1, 2011

Ok holy cow, funny you should mention change of heart because I have the greatest story to tell you. Ever. Seriously. Are you ready for this? Ok. So the first week I was here we met with these Li sisters. They have been members for a couple of years but inactive for most of that time. They were one of my very first lessons and it made a huge impression on me, I remember because I remember being so sad and trying so hard to understand and them being super patient with me to help me understand. We were talking to them a little bit about their conversion and stuff and about prayer and the Book of Mormon. Long story short, they said they don't believe in the Book of Mormon, they don't believe in prayer, they don't even believe that God exists and they only got baptized because the missionaries kept telling them to. They don't want to come to church, they don't want to read scriptures, they don't want to pray, basically they don't want anything to do with it anymore. They were really nice about it the whole time, but just very straightforward that they weren't interested. I started crying. (I cried a lot in the first few weeks, mostly because I was so exhausted all the time but this time it was because I was totally and completely heart-broken that I knew that Heavenly Father loved these ladies so much, how could they not feel that and believe?) So they said we could come back the next week but then later they rescheduled and then just cancelled. Fast forward about 10 weeks. I am now with Sister Lew, and as we are looking for less actives to go visit due to our total lack of investigators I keep thinking about these sisters. So they're on our list of people that we'll call one day to set up with. One day when we are out in the sun, just gone to visit the 5th person in a row that wasn't home, totally spent, we get a phone call. Li jiemei something something. I'm terrible with first names and everyone has the same last names here. So you lose track of which Li is which. Finally it clicks that it is one of these sisters! They called us out of the blue, and said they felt so bad about having cancelled on us before and could we come one day that week. 10 weeks later! So we set up with them, but then the day before they rescheduled for the next week. I started to worry that they would cancel again, so we never called them to confirm because we didn't want to give them a chance. Haha. Sometimes it works better that way. So this past Thursday we show up at their house. I haven't seen these ladies since the first time I met them 11 weeks ago but I can still picture them perfectly in my mind, I can still remember everything from that first conversation, and I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen but we sit down with them and a miracle unfolds in front of us. The older sister says she's been reading the scriptures. They felt bad about what happened last time, and they kept remembering that we had borne our testimonies about the Book of Mormon and told them they needed to read it, so they had started again. And one day she was reading, actually in the Bible, and she came across Isaiah 54:7 I think, and it totally changed her life. And she believes. She believes in God, she believes He is her Heavenly Father, she believes the scriptures are true, they read them together every day, they pray, and they have both totally gone from one extreme of almost completely apostatizing to now having all of this faith that Heavenly Father hears their prayers and loves them and finding answers to their questions in the scriptures, and me and Sister Lew are basically just sitting there the whole time with our jaws dropped because this never happens. The miracle came full circle when they came to church on Sunday. At first they said they weren't sure if they would come because they were worried that they had been gone for too long and they weren't sure how people would react or if it would be awkward, but when they got there all of the ward members that knew them went up and talked to them and were totally cool about it and made them feel so loved and so welcome and it was so amazing to see. It really was such a miracle to see the way the Spirit touched their hearts, and because they listened to it they were able to remember why they really joined the church in the first place, and they said that no, it wasn't because the missionaries pressured them into it, it was because they felt it was true they had just forgotten that along the way. I felt so blessed that I got to be there to see this whole thing through, it really was a witness to me that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of His children, and no matter how far we may wander it is never too far or too late to turn around and come back home.

Last night we had another miracle- we were walking in to the hospital to go visit an investigator we are seeing there and I see this girl and I say, Sister Lew, we know her! I don't know how but we do! Neither of us can remember if she is an investigator or a member or what, so we just kind of follow her and when she sees us she says hello, asks why we're there, we tell her we're visiting a friend, and she invites us to come visit her son a few floors up. So we go and finally I remember that she owns this super cute little shop on the side of the road that sells bohemian skirts where we stopped at one p-day to shop. So we go in and see her 2 kids and teach her a lesson and it was totally Shen de Ampai because there is no way it was coincidence that we would catch a glimpse of her just happening to walk in to the same hospital at the same time and that we would recognize her and she would recognize us. I love seeing all of the little miracles that happen every single day, they are all around us and they remind us just how much the Lord needs us to take His gospel to each and every one of the amazing people here in Taiwan. I love it!

I love you guys!

Have a great week!

Love,

Danielle