To be continued...

 Wow my LAST pday email~ 

UNREAL

ROADTRIP WITH THE YANGS

Update: roadtripping with the president and Sister Yang was the funnest thing ever. I thought I was gonna bug them for food or say "are we there yet?" but NO President beat me to it😆 辛苦 to Elder Sung for driving us haha. There we saw the beautiful coast of Hualien~

We drove up to Taipei after my last Zone Conference to my first/last STL meeting. I have been seeing some SERIOUS blessings the last few weeks its unreal.  At the meeting I saw 3 of my past comps and it was a super happy moment to see them all again.

On Saturday 美娜 got baptized! After waiting for a LONG long time, we were finally able to hold the service~ she walked away beaming and we are seeing how these things are helping her life already.

I'll keep it simple today, the biggest thing I've learned is about love. The most difficult experiences on my mission taught me all about love. 

For instance, we taught a woman and as we kept meeting with her we realized we really loved her and her son so much. After a while she stopped meeting with us even after we saw her progress so much, so it hurt. so. bad. We were at an activity when we heard and this Sister Suisse cried so hard in front of a lot of people haha super awkward. After that experience, though, I realized that if we really didn't love her, this wouldn't have wrecked us the way that it did. Love hurts haha~ We've also felt so much happiness seeing people change their lives and become better. It helps us improve too.

My heart is aching to leave this place. I came wondering if it would really feel like home or not and now I can't imagine my life without it. If you want a place to become your mission, or your home, start with loving the people. That is the key to no regrets and I've found (through much trial and error) that it's the very best way to find yourself. 

4 Nephi 1:15 

And it came to pass that there was no contention in the land, because of the love of God which did dwell in the hearts of the people.

This is true! We need to ask questions we need to find it for ourselves, but it is absolutely true. We have a purpose here and it is to love the best we can and to learn and grow.

Love you!

蘇曉葵姐妹

Quakes and shivers

 Waaahh

THIS WEEK

For starters we had 30+ earthquakes in one day! They're pretty little and I feel a little worried  because we're getting kind of complacent😆

Started a calligraphy night this week and it was a big success! We're getting to know the people in this area better and finding out that they are really awesome.

Today we're going to Taroko! Its wicked beautiful (might hafta send pictures next week) but holy cow we are feeling super blessed.

Our sweet friend 涵雅 is a GEM and she got baptized this last Saturday! She was in 淡水 and she has kept learning from the missionaries over the past few months. We LOVE her and she was baptized in a kiddie pool outside of the chapel to follow local laws~amazing.

Meanwhile we've been working hard and will keep it up all the way to the end. One of the missionaries in our district shared,

 "God works through simple means and really awkward missionaries"

 I have never heard anything more true haha.

So all you missionaries, at home or abroad, know that the Lord will use your awkward self to bring peace to people who need it. If it's just asking how someone's doing or if you're just there to listen to them, keep at it.

Love you! Stay safe!

蘇曉葵姐妹

America explain

 I'm 21, I'm a grandmother.

It has been an AWESOME birthday, we had cutie little mug birthday cakes (credit to my sweet parents) and my comp and our members took real good care of me. Finished it off with a Taro cake (芋頭蘇姐妹) so it's good times. Never would I have EVER expected two have a second birthday quarantined in Taiwan but that's how it goes what a life ha~

Went on exchanges wih 宜蘭 sisters and they are the best, so happy and each time we're with them it just reminds us why we're here and doing what we're doing~but ALSO one of them ate the kit kat I had hidden in the fridge so 👀

Quarantine got extended again to the 26th but some of the rules are letting up, 美娜 still can't get baptized but she's still holding strong~

This week while meeting with some members, one of them shared a super cool analogy. He said: 

"If there are two people waiting for the bus, one of them prays for it to not be late and one doesn't. This bus comes at the same time for them. At that point you'd think, why did the first person have to pray? The bus came for them both regardless." His answer was this, "The one who prayed, who hoped for the bus to come, ended up growing and being enlightened from the experience."

That's the thing about faith, sometimes we have no idea why we need it, we don't see why some have it and some do not. We sometimes really dont feel an answer to our questions. That is a real feeling. This is why faith is so hard but so worth it. When we really use our faith, we grow. It's not about the things we get or what kind of answers we feel, it is about the person we become in the process. 

SO with that being said, I wanna invite 大家 to do one prayer of faith. I'll do it too because boy do I need faith right now, ha. It might feel really small but it might be just the step to put you back on the right path.

Love you, stay safe~

芋頭蘇姐妹

An avocado... thaanks..

 Alma 5:26

"If ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?"

Reflecting back on my mission let's me see just how much I've grown and changed. I feel like I've grown in patience, not perfect, but I've grown into a person I'm really proud of. 

That being said, something that has absolutely NOT changed is my sense of direction QQ 

We got lost last week and what should have been a 15 minute bike ride turned into an hour and our Taro soup was not looking so good in the back of our bikes haha~

Not too much this week, but we met our new mission president! Hes super sassy and he sticks up for missionaries so I'm excited to have him for the next... 30+ days... Holy cow time goes by so fast AHH

This week we also had exchanges with 賀姐妹 and 葛姐妹 we big time love them and SO COOL I can finish my mission with my first companion Sister Hutchinson~

Lots of video calls, lots of mangoes, lots of miracles, and that's our week~

Stay safe, love you!

Chinglish is still my first language

 Sooooo

小sister Hu went home! And now there are just sister kou and I holding down the 花蓮fort.

This week after 3 years our President and Sister Peterson went home! We love them and had a few sweet devotionals leading to their departure. 

Meanwhile President Yang is getting ready to lead! He's from Taiwan, AND he went to the same college as me in sweet USU (go Aggies, yeeeh)~

Taiwans covid situation is....

The same pretty much. The numbers have gone down quite a bit but quarantine got extended to July 13th, QQ 美娜 will have to wait a bit longer.

We went on a secluded hike wearing masks in the SCALDING heat but it was just what we needed after a week of all video calls. So beautiful and a good reset for us all.

I had a moment this week, not super sad but it was a pretty bleh feeling, I was not made for the indoors QQ. We were cutting up veggies in the kitchen when the music turned to I'll go where you want me to go. The words "It may not be on the battle's front, the Lord will have need of me" cut real deep and all of the sudden my perspective changed. I'm where I need to be and if I'm meant to spend the rest of my mission indoors, I think I can come to terms with it.

If we're doing what we can (sometimes that's a little, sometimes a lot) God will help us through. 

Ok so these pictures:

1. sweet oldy lady and her cat

The rest you can see I just wanted to emphasize the precious gem that is Sister Yang

I can ride my bike with FOUR handlebars

 We got an exchange bike from the mission office sent all the way down here and this sister had to bring it all the way back so I rode two bikes home one day and I'm a little proud of it.

This week we went a little WILD, Sister Hu is going home so we decided to set a massive goal of 12 new friends and through a lot of miracles we got... 13! People in this area are sharing with their friends and because everyone is at home, their siblings are picking up the phone, and we're finding that they also want to know how to be better. MIRACLES.

Sad news, 美娜 is not getting baptized because of local laws and it's not safe for her to go all the way up to Taipei so that will be postponed but it's a good chance for her to meet more people and such哭哭

Cutie Sister Kou is gonna be my last companion on the mission! I'm so stoked to see soooo many miracles~

Last, happy fathers day to all those dads! Little braggy moment, my dad is the BEST. He's helped me through all the ups and downs of my mission and my life. I've seen him work hard even when he's tired, I've seen him serve even when it is not convenient.

 He has taught me that I have great worth and because of this I want to let others know that they do too.

 His dad jokes are pretty good too, ha.

Love you, stay safe

蘇曉葵姐妹