"i like them asian girls. and i like ozawa girls." transfer 10: week 7

i cannot believe it is already the last week of this transfer. it has
gone by so fast! on friday we'll find out if one of us will move. i
feel like it is totally up in the air. it would make sense for me to
stay here, but hsu huizhang always does crazy things. on monday you'll
know (remember to email me before sunday!!!!).

i have so much to report. two weeks worth. the date is for sure the
15th of june. kuai dao le!!! will my homecoming talk be on the 21st?
i'm assuming yes. let me know.

first let me say that it was amazing to hear your voices. you all
sound almost the same. chloe's is deeper (manlier?), phoebe and naomi
sound a lot older, but you are all still you! i'm grateful for that. i
love ozawas.

so the last two preparation days have been filled with excitement.
last last p-day an english student took us out to "a surprise
location" which turned out to be the local distillery. yes. we toured
the distillery and learned about the history of alcohol in taiwan. it
was pretty interesting. we saw lots and lots of expensive spirits. she
also took us to this guys house who collects art and antiques. it was
kind of strange. a special day to say the least.
last p-day we went to the southern tip of taiwan. (we woke up at 4 to
get there!!!) the aquariium was super cool. one of my favorite parts
was the squid ink flavored ice cream. apparantly it's really popular
in japan. that's probably why i liked it so much.
speaking of culinary delights... last week su jiemei, a member that i
love, took us out to eat. she knows that i'm willing and eager to try
anything, so we ate... frog, soft shelled turtle (including the
kidney, shell, liver and penis), whole bird (she gave me the head),
and pig spleen and kidney. it was all so good! my companion, who
doesn't eat meat, was a good sport and tried a bit of each. she thinks
i'm nuts. this week we're going to find snake soup and go to a place
that serves live shrimp! i cannot wait.
speaking of people i love... there are so many great people here in
jiayi. we are seeing miracles!
my new friend is named terry. he's in fourth grade and talks to me at
the track we run at daily. today he ran with me for half of the time.
we discussed languages of the world and my improving feelings towards
running. his english is amazing and he's really funny.
as of now we have two baptismal dates, and plan to have two more by
the end of this week!!
-yu peizhen is back! and getting baptized in august. she's going to
have to find a new job and a new house, but she's willing to. we
hadn't met with her for a while, but found out in our lesson last
monday that she's been keeping the law of chastity since we taught it
to her in february! amazing. she's good. i love her.
-zhuang wanting. she's new and great. she reads the book of mormon
like a maniac and will get baptized on june 19, her birthday.
-chen huirong is still spectacular. on friday we invited her to start
the book of mormon from the beginning, by tuesday she had read through
2 nephi! she is always quoting scripture and strengthening our
struggling members. she has changed so much. when we told her she said
that she could feel the confidence heavenly father and christ have
given her. she is a living testimony that "in the strength of the
lord" we can do anything. she used to be so shy and unsure of herself,
now she makes friends on her own at the church. she's praying about a
date. she has mentioned mid-june. maybe the same day as wanting!
-chen yulan. also new. also amazing. on sunday she wasn't able to come
to church but called us to say that she's so grateful that we've
introduced her to the book of mormon. we hope to set a date with her
tomorrow.

-hong yunling is still good. did i tell you about her mom said that
she needs to wait until she graduates from college before she can get
baptized? that's in two years! we're still working on this.
-zhai jiemei is another new one we love. she's actually a taichung
investigator and is getting baptized there this week. but she is in
jiayi every weekend, so she comes to church here and brings her neice
and son and daughter. we're going to start teaching her neice! i'm
excited!
-chen yihua is one we're struggling with. we love her and want to help
her, but she's terrified of everything. she's scared to come to any
activity. she's always questioning herself. we're focusing on LOVE
with her. LOVE is becoming the focus of my mission and the focus of my
life. i know that it's the most powerful principle in this work and in
the work of god. look at what his love has done to me! LOVE. it's all
about LOVE.

time is almost up. i still have so much more.
i know that the temple is the house of god. i can't wait to get myself
back into one!
i know that joseph smith restored christ church. it's true!
i know that keeping a journal helps us to recognize blessings.
i know that god's hand is in our lives daily, we choose to see it or not.
i know that keeping the sabbath day holy is super important.
i know the book of mormon brings about conversion. look at our amazing
investigators. they are progressing because of that book. it's true!
i know the gospel brings peace. i feel it.

i love you all. i miss you!

love,
sister jade!

Transfer 10: Week 4

i feel like my emails have been lacking lately. i'm sorry. my mind is
really scattered these days and i struggle to get it all out. my
letters, too, have gone downhill. consider this a blanket apology to
anyone disappointed by what they receive in the mail.

i'm happy that everyone in las vegas sounds happy. lauren- did the job
at body shop work out? just the other day my companion and i passed
one in the mall. i used the olive body butter. next time i see one i
will think of you, beloved sister. chloe- efy? are you serious? do
it!! cuba might be a counselor. you might see him. i will be honest in
admitting that i thoroughly enjoyed my efy experiences. phoebe and
naomi- your letters get shorter and shorter, but i'm glad to get them.

this week hasn't had too many exciting things happen...
last thursday was zone conference! it was a good one. every share
seemed to be directed to me in some way or another. sister hsu talked
about journal writing and shared some of the things she wrote when she
served here years ago. the aps did a share in which we received taught
each other as missionaries, focusing on receiving revelation as to
what to share. we watched clips from the joseph smith movie. i'm not
sure if i mentioned it last year, we watched it my second move in a
zone conference. it was cool to be able to notice a difference in my
testimony this time. did i ever tell you about the first time i saw
that movie? kyle asked me what my favorite part was. i said the
bagpipes. oh how things have changed.

some of our investigators are doing incredibly well.
-hong yunling no longer has a baptismal date because her mom wants her
to wait until she graduates from college. that's in two years! we
shared with her the blessings of the gift of the holy ghost and she
said she wants it. what ideas to you have, as parents, to overcome
this.
-chen huirong is probably our strongest at this time. i met her back
with sister hornberger. we had a great lesson then she stood us up
each time we rescheduled. she sounded really great on the phone, so we
kept calling. the first week of this transfer she finally came. it
seems like she hasn't left the church since. she comes to everything
including institute. last night she talked about the peace and
happiness she feels in the church.
-chen lin shujun has been an investigator for a while. each time we
try to drop her she starts progressing. yesterday we had a really
powerful lesson.
-luo yuchun is dead for real this time. i think. it makes me sad. she
has so much potential but doubts herself and her worth. watching her
has taught me how important it is for an individual to know that they
are loved and to know that they can change and that heavenly father
will help them make that change. she never let herself grasp that.
-a less active huang jiahua took us to visit her sister in the
hospital. she has breast cancer and is near the end. this time she was
a lot more optimistic and happy than last time i saw her. we're trying
to figure out what part of the gospel we should share with her to help
her to feel peace and to want to learn more. i'll let you know next
week what we decide.

i don't know what else to say beside that the church is true. i love
you all! may 10th is close! i'm sure your voices haven't changed much.
mine has a little. i say certain english words so weird. sister p
laughs. you probably will too.

love all around!
sister jade

mgh Transfer 10: Week 3

chloe- i fail. i fail you. i'm sorry. oh no! this is a problem. i
cannot name the song. i know i know it, but i cannot find it in my
mind. it's lost behind the motab hits that i've grown accustomed to.
i'm sorry, so sorry.

family! you all sound so good. everyone has exciting things happening!
lauren and chloe met fall out boy! phoebe still likes me. naomi is
toothless. mom and dad are still kicking it! i miss you all, but i'm
glad to be updated.

taiwan is getting hot and humid. lately it feels like we're biking
through the world's largest sauna. today is a bit cooler, with a light
rain. i like it.
this week has had ups and downs. luckily, the ups are all tied to what
matters most right now- missionary work! and the downs, for the
most-part, will work themselves out in one way or another. i'm glad
that life is in the hands of one who's abilities far far far exceed my
own.

last week elder bednar came for our mission conference. the rules we
were told before the conference were so strict. i was not excited. i
mean, i was excited, but kept thinking we can have fun and be happy
and laugh and still be latter-day saints. then he came and was
wonderful and funny and cool and i felt horrible for judging an
apostle of the lord. who do i think i am? he didn't prepare any type
of talk, he just read a few verses of scripture with us and we
discussed it, then he answered any questions we had. it was so cool! i
learned so much from him. my favorite thing that i learned/observed
was the fact that the gospel is so much a part of him. everything he
said was evidence that his life is lived serving the lord. he has made
the principles and doctrines of the gospel who he is. i love that. i
want that. as he talked to us he repeated several times three things
that we must do to be successful. i think that this are the things he
has focused on to become who he is. -be obedient -do your work -keep
the covenants you have made. these things are so simple! they are
exactly what we need to do (as missionaries and members). i know that
every mission rule and every commandment is given for our good. if we
keep them we will be happy and safe and we'll have he holy ghost's
companionship. our work as members is simple: be disciples of christ,
invite other to him through our words and actions, strengthen our
families. i guess they sound complicated and doing them can be tough.
but if we keep an eye constant to his glory and our own
salvation/exaltation, we can do it. keeping covenants is obvious.
baptismal covenants, temple covenants. they give us power! he also
talked a lot about prayer. it was his answer to tons of questions. i
love the simplicity of it. it's true that we should turn to our
heavenly father first.

oh no time is short. i want to tell you about all of our investigators
but can't. we have some really great new ones. yesterday we found a
golden family! mandi and ben sent a play cell phone in the v-day
package they made. i made a goal to find a family with a child we can
give it to. yesterday we met with them for the first time! on sunday
they'll be at church!

oh i have to really quick tell you about a thing that happened.
yesterday morning i was feeling kind of sad and friendless. i have
friends, i know that, but things change, people change. i flipped open
a 1996 liahona that i found. right in front of me was a picture of
bjorg and olaffur from the icelandic branch!! it was an article about
their son binni, he was on a mission when i was there! it was weird,
but felt comforted and like part of my family was in taiwan! i miss
iceland.

time is up.
i love you all.
next week!
muah!

love,
s. jade o.

Happy. Transfer 10: Week 2

this move is happy so far! it's so much better to be happy than not. i
love sister pickering's example of that. she's never not happy. it
made me laugh when she told me her first thought when she was told
that we'd serve together was, "cool. she's a happy missionary." she
also once said that she can't picture me getting mad. funny huh? we
still have 5.5 weeks ahead. we'll see... (this move is a seven week
transfer. i'm not sure why.) other happy things of late- tomorrow
elder bednar is doing our mission conference. i'll get to see sister
stratford, elder chen and an apostle of the lord, all in the same
day!!

ether 6. because i will not let another week pass without telling you
why i love this chapter so much.
ok, so the brother of jared and his family/friends are embarking on
their journey. christ has just touched the stones that the brother of
jared has gathered and they are set to go. verse 3 sets the symbolism
that i found throughout the next part. christ has given us his gospel,
light. it will always be with us, helping us through our life "across
the great waters". but why were the stones able to shine? because of
the brother of jared's faith, obedience and humility. when we move
forward in the gospel with faith, it will light the way undoubtably. i
know this. as they head on their way (verse 4) the group "commends
themselves unto the lord." i see them climbing on the ship saying, "we
don't know where we're going: we don't know exactly how we'll get
there. but, god, we trust you. we will give you our lives and do as
you ask us to." i rarely have this attitude, which is so wrong on my
part. this week i'm working on developing this type of faith and
humility, being able to turn it all completely over to the lord. in
verses 5 through 7 trials come. the barges are tossed all over the
place. i'm sure that it was frightening, and difficult. at the
beginning of verse 5 we see that trials come from the lord, they are
given to us. he caused the winds to blow. in verse seven we see the
best response- they pray, they cry unto him and they are, therefore,
brought to the top of the waters, brought to peace. verse ten is my
favorite. they had light continually! whether in a time of calm or
during a trying storm. i know that christ and heavenly father are
always there for us, if we choose it. the brother or jared was
constantly expressing gratitude (verse 9). he chose the light of the
gospel. they could have easily forgotten god during the times that the
sailing was smooth (literally). they could have relied on themselves
at that time. or they could have become angry and bitter during the
storms. but they didn't. and we don't have to either. they will help
us through any challenge that is given to us. they will lead us
through darkness. untill we get to the promised land (verse 12) the
celestial kingdom!!
that is why i like ether 6.

highlights from this week:
-amazing lessons filled with love. this transfer, one of my focuses is
loving everyone and properly expressing that love.
-singing at the train station. we have an investigator that lives
really far away, like 3 hours by bike. we don't see her very much, but
she has a "layover" at the trainstation this week, so we went there to
see her. she talked about how much she likes the hymns. sister p
offered to sing. i felt so uncomfortable. singing at the train
station? but we did and it was amazing. the spirit was strong, and a
woman came and asked what we were singing. we were able to share a bit
with her. it was really cool!
-our new investigator chen yihua! she's great. she came to conference.
she came to a family home evening. she's praying. she's good. we love
her!
-we rode to dalin (1 hr 45 min away) and did service with old people
there. they were so cute and took a million pictures of us. i think
that some of them had never seen white people before.
-hong yunling has a baptismal date! may 16!!!! she's so wonderful! she
was worried that her dad would oppose. we asked if she had a desire to
be baptized. she said yes, and then chose a day!
-conference was so so so great. i don't have time to write the best
lesson i learned, maybe next week. mainly , i'm too prideful. i have
too many of my own opinions. i'm changing this.
-i'm working this move to record what i learn. every day i learn so
much! why haven't i written it all down? i don't know. but, i'm making
an effort to ask myself, "so what? i learned this cool thing, but so
what? how will i repent and change accordingly?" i'm hoping to see a
lot of growth this move.
-how did it take me this long to realize that successful living
patterns are found in the gospel? we have perfect guidebooks. no
wonder the apostles are all such amazing, accomplished men. they live
the gospel. they live gods way. they live after the manner of
happiness. i am trying to too.

i love you all. i hope your easter was great! stay well.

love,
jade, sister jade

Transfer 10: Week 1

oh no. i am such an old missionary. i am the oldest missionary (in real age and mission age) in the area. weird.

move calls came... i'm still in jiayi! sister hornberger moved to gaoxiong first ward, the same ward that president hsu lives in. nerveracking. my new companion is sister pickering. she's on her fourth move, and this is her fourth area. if president keeps moving her around then i'll die in jiayi, and i'll die happy. sister pickering (pan jiemei) is from northern california. she grew up on the beach, surrounded by redwoods. she's really happy. i'm grateful- this move i'm working on optimism and having faith in others. i recently read two talks that made me realize how much i need to work on this. one mentioned that every doorstep is santified at the time that we're standing on it. the other talked about how we need to treat every home as if the family inside is waiting for the gospel and ready to accept. i'm going to work this move to treat others as they ought to be, even if that is not how they really are. i think this will change a lot about my missionary methods, and my relationships with others. i'm sure that this move will be good. sister pickering likes to eat organic food and already told me about a drink her mom told her to make that balances hormones, gives energy and detoxinates. it consists of apple cider vinegar, cranberry juice, lemon juice and water. i have grown to love drinking vinegar which is supposed to change the ph of your body so that mosquitoes leave you alone, and help with your digestion, so i can't wait to try sister p's concoction. also, she wants to have dreadlocks when she goes home. cool! i like her a lot already.

the last days of last move were up and down, kind of like the whole move. looking at our investigator board saturday night was depressing. we're going to be working on finding souls this move. on the bright side, hong yunling and wang sirong (kitty, haha) are great and i think/hope that they will be able to be baptized this move! "make it a goal, make it happen." that motto seemed to work well through my first few years of college. i'm sure it will not let me down here.

on friday my testimony of heavenly father's willingness to answer prayers was strengthened. it was a day of miracles. at correlation meeting that night we told the elders and they laughed (at us, with us i'm not sure.). don't laugh. this is true. and it's proof of god's love...
so, friday was a white day. WHITE. we had nothing going on until the evening, so we decided to bike to a part of shuishang that we hadn't been to before. on our way out there we stopped at a police station to ask for  directions because the neighborhood we were looking for was not on the map (sister h thought it was weird that i did that. and i guess considering the fact i would never go to a police station in america for anything, it is kind of strange. but i feel that police officers have an obligation to help people, i help them do that.). the officer told us where to go. we followed his directions to the T but rather than coming to a large intersection, as he said we would, we came to a crooked crossroads with three turn choices, all involving backtracking in some way or another. two men passed on scooters. we did not flag them down. the only men we talk to are ones in uniform. we decided to pray before anything else. sister hornberger asked heavenly father to send someone that would be able to guide us to zhongzhuang. the next person to ride past was a woman. at first we thought she was a man. i thought to myself, "only in rural taiwan would you see a man wearing a leopard print shirt." then we realized she was in fact a woman and quickly waved her down. we asked her where the neighborhood was, and showed her the address. it quickly became apparent that she did not speak a lick of mandrin. she apologized for being uneducated and unable to read then motioned for us to follow her. we did. she took us to some steel working shop, pretty creepy. we waited while she had a 10 minute conversation in taiwanese with the man there. i could understand some. the were conflicted between two opposite directions. in the end it was decided that we would follow the woman to zhongzhuang.  we ended up taking the same road we had been on, and went back to where we started. we followed her for close to a half an hour and finally made it to the right neighborhood. she was an angel, i'm sure of it. we then, miraculously, found the home we were searching for. it was kind of in the middle of no where. we knocked about 10 doors (it was an old tradition home. horseshoe shaped with no "front door". we were grateful to know people still lived there. we could tell by the well kept alter in the main room.) we left a note and rode to the next area. the address said it was in shuishang, another policeman (i love policemen here!) directed us to zhongpu, an area i had never ridden to. we rode forever, feeling somewhat discouraged and worried that we were getting lost. we kept remembering our angel. suddenly another police station popped out of nowhere. it seemed to have literally fallen out of the sky. we asked the man inside where #676 was. he told us we were on the right path and directed us to keep riding. we found another home in the middle of nowhere. after some time there we headed back to jiayi. as we rode into the city, my bike became hard to ride. i looked down to see a flat front tire. we stopped and started looking for a bike shop. literally right next to us was a little bike store!! right next to us! the man inside was amazing. he replaced my inner-tire, fixed my alignment, secured my basket, filled my back tire and sister h's tires, and tightened her brakes. all within 10 minutes. all for about 7 dollars (american)! we made it home with time to eat and prepare for correlation meeting! do you see the miracles! one after another. small ones, but miracles nonetheless.

oh no. time is almost up. i'm sorry. ether 6 next week. i love love love you all. miracles are all around, every day. watch for them. they are there. we get to watch conference this weekend! i am so excited. and in a few weeks i get to call you! horray!

love,
sister jade

Strange Transfer 9: Week 6

this transfer has gone by ridiculously fast. i really don't know where it has all gone. looking back i can see that a lot has happened and that i've learned loads. i feel really strange about it. i feel like some of the lessons i'm learning are really solidified in my mind. i feel like i'm making some of the same mistakes over and over.

as far as investigators go, things have been strange lately. we've gone through so many investigators this move. we have some good ones, but a lot that we can't seem to get our hands on and others that we can't seem to get progressing. i'm at a loss as to what to do. we'll get move calls friday or saturday. i would love to stay here in jiayi. i feel obligated to repair the places that are lacking. but i fear that my inadequacies are the reason that our teaching pool appears to be a small, murky pond and the third ward relief society president still won't tell us anything about the sisters we should be helping.  the biggest news to report about investigators are as follows (from happiest to saddest)-
-qianrong was baptized on sunday and will be confirmed this sunday. her understanding amazes me, and the changes her mom has made recently amaze me even more. last week we went to their house. it felt different inside, it was cleaner and happier and brighter. the spirit is there. i love that. i want my home, whether it is the caseda in vegas, the basement on federal heights or my dream home in seattle, to be filled with the spirit of the lord and a devotion to serve him.
-wang sirong, kitty (i still laugh every time i see/say her name.)- she's good! she came to our fireside on saturday. afterwards she said that she loved every part, but that she has a lot of questions. she also told us that she's worried about her parents. they still don't know that she's meeting with us to talk about the gospel. her mom is under the impression that each time she brings sirong to the church it is for english help (at least she likes us because she thinks we're offering free tutoring!). this week we're going to have to work on overcoming this problem.
-yu peizhen seems to be the apostasy in action. there are simple principles that she still doesn't grasp. she reads the book of mormon, but explains it with her own thoughts. she's working so that she can move out of her boyfriend's apartment, but works on sundays. we're going to try a new approach, teaching principle by principle purely from the book of mormon. she needs a testimony of the restoration and of the savior.
-li luo yiling was doing really well. she has so much faith!  but she doesn't know how to face her husband. during interviews president hsu told us to go to her house (uninvited) and meet her husband. we planned to do it this thursday. yesterday our lesson with yiling went well and we better understand their home situation. she said that this week she will write a letter to her husband and committed to getting a priesthood blessing on thursday. last night she called our house and said that she feels like she's not doing her part to the extent that she should be and that she's going to work on building up her courage. until then she doesn't think she should meet with us. my heart broke. like for real, it still hurts. she's so great. she has faith. she uses the gospel. i don't understand why things aren't working out. i'm baffled. i'm praying for understanding. why is jiayi falling apart these days?

on thursday this week i received a dreaded phone call... i have my departure date. june 26. i told the office that i'd be flying into mccarran. if that needs to be different let me know.
friday we had president's interviews. i cannot tell you how much i love the hsus. i love their love. this move i had such a good conversation with sister hsu while my companion was being interviewed. it didn't have much to do with the work, but i felt close to her for the first time ever. president was as hilarious and random as ever. i'm sure his advise will make sense somewhere down the road. for now i'm still trying to figure it out. ha.
saturday night we had a big fireside, planned by us missionaries. the turnout was good, a lot better than we expected, and many non-members came. we have an amazing new member in third ward. he's a college student and invited all of his friends to come. they did! the church was full of non-member men, the elders were in heaven! at one point brother he, our ward mission correlator in first, asked for 18 copies of the book of mormon because 18 of the guys that came wanted it! the elders have started teaching some of them, and we received some referrals ourselves! member referrals are gold to us. give the missionaries in your neighborhood referrals!

this week my thoughts keep falling back on love, and how essential it is to do this work. (my companion laughed at me this morning because earlier this move my study always seemed to fall back to judgement and now it's all about love.) i love taiwan. i love jiayi. i hope i love them enough. this morning i read president hickley's talk "the need for greater kindness". at one point he mentions that miracles are brought to pass by love, respect and kindness. i feel like my testimony is living proof of that. this week i'm going to focus on using kindness to bring miracles to this area!

oh no! time is up, i haven't talked about ether 6! next week. i promise.
remember next week i'll email on monday!!
oh really quick... good news... my bike is black, gold and flashy! and i haven't been bitten by a mosquito in 2 weeks! i owe it to drinking a glass of fruit vinegar each day for the last month!

i love you all. you are spectacular and you are my family. i am so blessed.

love,
sister jade