August 22, 2011 + pictures

Hello! I am so glad to hear that everyone had so much fun in California. I have some news for you guys- I am in Gaoxiong. Today was mini-move call, which means that all the people who are going home to start school left today and they had some spaces to fill, so I got moved down to the way way south part of Taiwan. I was soooooo sad to leave Xitun, since that is where I was "born" and the people there are all like family to me. I am going to miss all of them sooo much! I got to say goodbye to a lot of people yesterday, and I am going to be keeping in touch with them for sure. A lot of them will be adding me on fb, if you guys want to check and see. The hardest ones were Peng Jiating, the family with the little boy that I have told you about, and Anne, the girl that got baptized in May, but there were so many more that tugged at my heart and I didn't want to say goodbye to them! Did you guys get notes in the mail to Yuan Ling? She was a super hard one too. But she said she will come down in a couple of weeks to visit. I am attaching some pics- some of me and Sister Affleck- one with Gao Shi Yuan, one of our good friends in the ward, and one with Sister Rigby and Sister Gandolph. Sister Gandolph is one of my very favorite people in the mission. She's amazing. There's one of me and her on the train. Then there's one of my new companion, Sister Morey. She is the one I replaced when I got to Xitun, so it's super fun because we know all the same people there and we have already been catching up and sharing stories and it's really sweet. So this morning we went to breakfast with Shi Yuan and then took a bus to the mission office to meet up with Sister Gandolph and then we took another bus to the train station, took the train down to Gaoxiong, met our new companions there- Sister Gandolph is comps with Sister Lethco- and then Sis. Morey and I took a taxi from the train station to our apartment. So really, I cried a ton when I first found out late Saturday night and then I cried quite a bit yesterday but today I am good and I am just ready to meet new people and just jia you here in the South. It's not as big-city as Xitun, but it's really beautiful and everyone who has served here tells me it's amazing, so I can't wait!

One of our greatest miracles this week happened yesterday at church. We have a girl who got baptized last July... and she hasn't been to church since. She had work on Sundays forever but about a month ago she quit her job and then she just wasn't coming because she was too bu-hao-yisi. But we have been visiting her at least once a week since I first got to Xitun. So Saturday we go to visit her and we just tell her, you have to come to church tomorrow! And she was all nervous because she was afraid she wasn't going to know anybody and she wasn't going to have any friends and we told her we would sit by her and it would be fine. So yesterday we're at church and it's relief society... and sunday school... and finally right before Sacrament she shows up with her little brother (the little kid who tried to pee on us last week) and before we even get a chance to say hello to her all of these different ladies run up to her and guan xin her and totally make her feel welcome and take her to sit with them in Sacrament meeting and it was the sweetest thing! I was so glad that all of these sisters remembered her and were so excited to see her, especially since I won't get to keep visiting her it is soooo good to know that there will be a lot of people there for her. I really love my Fengjia and Donghai members, and I'm so thankful for them. I know all of our investigators and new members will be in good hands :). It just goes to show how even the simplest things like saying hello or inviting someone to church or to sit by you can make the biggest difference in the way that person feels about coming to church and the experience that they have when they get there. I know when I get home I want to be way better about going out of my way to people who are new or just haven't been in a while and make sure they feel loved when they come.

To answer some of your questions-
Not all of our work is reactivating, but it's been really really hard to find new investigators lately so we have been working a lot with our recent converts and less-actives to get them to come to church. We talk to people on the street ALL THE TIME. Our mission is VERY unique in the way we contact people. This is how it works: we ride our bikes down the street, and any time we come up to a red light we talk to people stopped next to us on their scooters or if there aren't any scooters in their cars. This is how we find almost all of the people that we teach. We talk to 40 or 50 people a day just as we are going to and from other teaching appointments. Amazingly enough there are actually a lot of people who will write down their information on contact cards and set up a time to meet with us. A lot of times these people never show up, but a lot of times they do. There is a girl in Xitun, Ya Zhi, who Sister Lew met on the street a week or so before she left. This girl came to English class and then to church that Sunday and she is getting baptized in a couple of weeks. This is the biggest way that we find investigators. It's really cool because we don't have to spend huge chunks of our day tracting to find people- we can fill in almost all of our time with lessons and then find people on the way, and it lets us talk to a lot more people every day. It hasn't been raining a lot lately, but Sis. Affleck and I got caught in a rainstorm the other day and since it hasn't been raining a lot lately... we didn't have our rain gear. We were completely drenched from head to toe. We were freezing, but it was actually a lot of fun. I have everything I need. I will be saving any money for souvenirs when I come home : )

When you meet up with Sister Lew tell her I love her and I miss her and I am in Yuan Shan and San Min.

I love you! The Church is true!

Love,

Danielly