Still breathing Transfer NINE: Week 1

Written Feb 23

first- happy birthday dad and grandpa reid!! two wonderful men, another year 

older.

i'm still in jiayi! hooray. i was really excited to get the call that said i'd 

stay here. i'm really excited about the district we have this transfer... elder 

welling stayed and his new companion is elder cornelius from our mtc district! 

president hsu took two elders out of an area next to us, so the two left are now 

part of our district... elder cleaver, american, nice i guess and elder tang, a 

sarcastic taiwanese elder. you don't understand the commodity that a sarcastic 

taiwanese is! they are hard to come by, so i look forward to our weekly 

meetings.

my companion is sister hornberger from orem, utah. i don't know her very well. 

but this move is going to be good. it's going to be good. 

last night we visited a less active member. she has an amazing testimony and her 

husband and children come every week, but since they moved down from taipei she 

hasn't been able to find a place in the ward and feels really uncomfortable with 

how clique-y everyone is. she has told everyone that she's sick and that's what 

we thought too but when i said that i was a psychology major she said, "i'm so 

happy! i can talk to you. other people wouldn't understand," and then told us 

the real reason's she's not coming to church. she told us some of the things 

that have happened since she came, as extreme as they were, sister chen and i 

were not surprised. like i mentioned in last week's email, we've faced weird 

challenges in dealing with third ward. (i thought that after meeting with the 

relief society president last week things would get at least a little better. 

nope. we visited a less-active member that hadn't been to church in a long time 

on saturday. she came on sunday. i tried to talk to the rs president about it 

after church but she walked away from me mid-sentence. i was stunned, but not at 

the same time.) as we rode home i realized how much work needs to be done in 

these wards. it's kind of stressful, but i also really look forward to having to 

fight and work hard for these people. does that make sense? 

as i pondered all that is ahead for the next six weeks, i also realized how not 

right my mindset since move calls came has been. my past experiences with sis h 

haven't been super positive and i worried that this move would be tough. all i 

could see between potential companion issues, ward problems and investigators 

that we may have to drop were challenges and trials. i started trying to be 

positive by thinking, "after the trial comes the blessing. great things must be 

in store for jiayi." as we rode, sister chen said to me, "i think you're in 

jiayi for a reason. i know you'll help them." i realized then that sister 

hornberger was coming to jiayi for a reason as well. why was i choosing to look 

at everything as a challenge with a blessing waiting afterwards. sometimes 

heavenly father just gives blessings. sister hornberger could very well be 

exactly what this area needs. our companionship (involving both of us together!) 

might be able to find the key to bring unity to third ward! so, things are going 

to be good this move. i'm going to work unceasingly for companionship unity and 

to have the spirit to help me know what is best for those around us. 

it has only been a few days since i last wrote, so i don't have a whole lot to 

report. i do, though, want to tell you about the grossest thing i have 

experienced since i got to taiwan. all of the disgusting things i've 

seen/felt/heard seem to involve the fauna of taiwan. my swollen lip was pretty 

sick, my bite covered legs were nasty and my elephantitis wrist was hard to look 

at (fear not, it has gone down to near normal size. my watch is again latched on 

the 2nd notch rather than the 4th as it was on wednesday. i worried over the 

weekend that i may permanently have one chubby wrist and one normal one. 

luckily, i'm almost completely healed.) on friday morning i went into the 

kitchen to make some oatmeal. as i put my cup into the microwave i noticed a 

whitish thing moving on the floor, at first i wasn't sure what it was. i got a 

closer look and concluded it was some type of larvae. as i stepped back i 

noticed a handful more and decided they were probably maggots. i started to 

become nauseated and called for sister chen in the most pathetic voice ever, 

pathetic enough that she RAN to the kitchen. we started inspecting and found 

tons of them. we sprayed them with the only bug spray we had, but they didn't 

die, so we swept the up and flushed them. a few hours later, before heading out 

for the day, i went back into the kitchen to find more all over the floor. we 

had no idea where they were coming from. i was totally freaked out, so i called 

sister hsu. she laughed a bit and then said, "if they don't die, don't worry. 

they'll turn into flies and then die eventually." real comforting! telling this 

story makes me sick! our apartment is super clean, yet has somehow turned into a 

maggot farm!! gross gross gross. sister chen and i did all we could think to do, 

and it seems to have taken care of the problem. but since then i can't enter the 

kitchen without inspecting the corners, prepared to find a little wriggling guy. 

sick sick sick. (dad- not good sick, gross sick.) 

friday we spent the day in minxiong, about an hour away. it felt so good to 

spend a day visiting less-active members. my heart goes out to them. i want so 

badly to help them come back. we are making headway with a few. we'll see how 

the next while goes. it's going to be good! (i'm saying that over and over and 

over again, if you haven't noticed.)

so, things are good here. i miss you all. i love you all! i'll have wonderful 

stories next week, i'm sure. 

love, 

sister jlo

 

another one down transfer 8: Week 6

i can't believe it's the last week of this move. crazy! the last week has been a 

good one, an amazing one, so far. we have some amazing investigators, actually 

never in my mission have i had so many investigators with so much potential. 

yesterday we had 7 lessons, tomorrow we have 6 planned. jiayi is good to me. 

three of the best we have these days are member referrals. MEMBER REFERRALS ARE 

THE GREATEST THING EVER! SHARE THE GOSPEL WITH YOUR FRIENDS. 

-yu peizhen. i'm sure i've mentioned her. she won't be able to make her 

baptismal date, march 6, but i think it's better this way. we have a member that 

is a great help and a great challenge. she pressured us into the date, but my 

companion and i both think peizhen won't be ready. a little bit later will be 

better. yesterday we shared with her about the importance and gravity of 

baptism. right now the biggest obstacle is that she lives with her boyfriend of 

3 years. she has pretty much been abandoned by family, is without many friends 

and has no job. so, he's about all she's got. when we taught the law of chastity 

she said she'd try her hardest. i believe her, she's honest and sincere. but to 

be baptized she'll either have to move out or get married. i think the next few 

weeks will be interesting as far as helping her prepare goes. 

-chen jing. we met her last week. she read a copu of the liahona and the booklet 

"3 simple ways to a happier family" at a member's restaurant. she's amazing and 

so prepared. in the two times that we've met with her she has shared a lot of 

her ideas and perspectives. they always seem to be right in line with our 

doctrine. friends from the christian church she attends try to persuade her not 

to meet with us. they tell her that we're a cult and practice polygamy. she 

responds by asking them how much of our doctine they understand. right now her 

biggest question is why does everyone hate us so much. we struggle to answer 

concretely because we're baffled too.

-shen katherine. she grew up in america, in a baptist family. they work to 

persuade her the same her the same way chen jing's friends do. but she has a 

similar attitude and wants to understand for herself first. the first time she 

came to the church the ward rallied around her and made her feel really at home. 

i know that this helped a lot. i think sometimes we as members forget our role 

as vehicles of heavenly father's love. think about it this way. how easy would 

it be for someone in a barren room with not acquaintances to feel god's care for 

them? not easy, we need each other to help us see his love. we can be his love 

on earth. i invite you to love someone this week, in order to help them feel 

heavenly father's love for them! 

on thursday we're meeting a fourth member referral. the member, lin jixuan, is a 

recent convert found by elder peterson, my friend's brother. she says that her 

friend is really anxious and excited to meet with us, which in turn makes us 

anxious and excited to teach her.

other investigators are doing well too. 

-gao xiaoting came to church on her own this sunday. her desire seems to be more 

and more, she just struggles to hear heavenly father's answers. last week we had 

a really great lesson about recognizing blessings and promptings rather than 

brushing them off as coincidence. 

-li peixuan will be baptized next month. she's 9 and adorable. she reminds me so 

much of phoebe and naomi.

-luo qianrong will also be baptized next month. her mom is still a challenge. 

they intentionally stood us up on sunday to go to dinner. i think some parents 

struggle to see that they may be in the way of their children's salvation. that 

sounds harsh. but qianrong's mom is a member. we still don't know why she's 

being the way she is. we're grateful that they're coming to church lately. 

-luo yuchun went missing in action after chinese new year. i called on a whim on 

sunday and she answered. then she accepted the invitation to come to a family 

home evening on monday. we'll see how the rest of the week goes.

-lin yujing is seventeen and may have bisexual tendencies, but each time we meet 

with her she seems less interested in america and more interested in the gospel. 

there are more but these are the ones that i'm most excited about these days. 

i'm excited to know that i'll probably stay in jiayi next move! i love this 

city.

why will i stay in jiayi you ask? the wards are kind of a mess and need 

consistency. 

last week we met with the first ward relief society president. i walked out not 

feeling like a missionary, more like a high school student. the "discuss how to 

help less-actives" meeting was a "ward gossip" hour. we were told not to visit 

certain people because if they come back to church it may negatively affect the 

ward. i refuse to not visit members beause their children have offended active 

member.

last week we also met wtih the third ward relief society president. this meeting 

was opposite. she wouldn't tell us anything! i tried to run through the members 

we're assigned to visit. it was like this... 

"we're not sure how to help her. do you know much about her situation."

"i know her circumstances." =long pause=

"so, how can we help her come back to church? do you know why she doesn't come?"

"yes, i know why she doesn't come." =long pause=

this is how it went with about every member we "discussed". i'm not sure why 

there is such a big barrier there. i'm grateful she's actually speaking to us, 

she used to blatantly ignore the sister missionaries so i made lots of cookies 

and wrote lots of thank you notes for her service.

time is almost up. things are great here. yesterday we celebrated sister chen's 

birthday. i treated her to a thai lunch and the elders helped me surprise her 

during dinner. i have never seen so much silly string in my life. my english 

class is cute. i love them. they call me ozawa as if it were my first name and 

they ask me funny things. one asked, "what are the requirements for your 

husband?" i laughed out loud. the next week one brought a ny times article for 

me about finances and their affect on marital bliss. crazy taiwanese housewives. 

oh really quick... remember how in pingdong my lip swelled. same thing happened 

last night to my arm. my left wrist is about twice as large as normal size. 

weird. i'll update you on MONDAY!

love you all. write a couple of days early next week.

muah!

sister jade.