Shaved ice the size of my head!

This last one is of me eating bing.  In taiwan they eat shaved ice with a bunch of cool toppings on it.  It is delicious.  mine is mango bing.  It was the size of my head. 

We have had a great week.  Wang Jiemei is doing wonderfully.  We are still worried about her parents who don’t' particularly like us, but she still is planning on getting baptized. They let us visit at their house.  She is in her 30's and doesn’t' need her parents’ permission, but sometimes family opposition, regardless of age, can really put a kink in things. But she seems to be doing ok.   

It has been cool to teach her because at first, I was really worried that she was just kind of blindly following what we were saying. However, as we have continued to work with her, I have been impressed with her own understanding and how she is really taking personal action to learn and understand.  It is almost like she has become smarter, so to speak, in a spiritual sense. She reads the scriptures and understands them.  She sees connections between gospel principles.  She still needs to know and understand a lot, so pray for her, but I think she is going to make it.

 Me with the Hsiao family.  I love them!  My face looks so red in this picture it almost looks fake.  Dad you cursed me.  The Hsiao family is doing great. Brother Hsiao has the Melchizedek priesthood and both have callings in the ward.  They are moving into the other ward's boundaries soon, which shouldn't be too big of a transition. They will still be in the same building and still have the same missionaries watching over them.  They are doing great.

Yao Jiemei is not doing as well as we hoped. She works the night shift and in order for her to come to church she has to come right after working for like 12 hours.  It is really hard, but she was willing to do it.  She came to church on Sunday and was really tired but we hoped that she was still feeling the spirit.  The next meeting we had with her did not go so well.  She said she didn’t' think she could be baptized because she is just too tired to come to church, and even in our lesson, she was so tired she could hardly keep her eyes open.  She knows that baptism means a commitment to keep the Sabbath day holy, but she just doesn’t' think she can do it.  It is hard. I have worked a night shift and then come to church being extremely exhausted.  You don't get too much out of it other than just the obedience of being there, so I understand her concern, but at the same time, we know that obedience and baptism are more important than anything.  We had one of her friends from the ward call her.  Her friend said that when they talked, Yao Jiemei really acknowledged that if this is going to work she needs to change jobs.  This gives me hope because at least she is looking for solutions rather than just thinking there is no way.  There are a lot of miracles that need to happen but God is a god of miracles so I have faith.   

So the top one is of me with two of my investigators from Sanmin.  They came up from Gaoxiong to visit a elder who was going home, and they stopped by to see me as well.  They are boyfriend and girlfriend.  Their process of studying the gospel has been a long one, and they are still in the middle of it. I have faith for them in the future. 

I love being a missionary.  This week I have made a renewed commitment to be positive and faithful in my missionary work.  I have set a goal that whenever something doesn't go right to stop and count my blessings.  I feel like I was just focusing too much on what wasn't going right and what I wanted to happen that wasn't and I was selfishly not acknowledging all of the tremendous blessings and miracles all around me.  I think that optimism really is a sign of faith and it is something I have been lacking lately.  I have really tried to change my attitude over the last few days and the spirit has been with me so much more strongly.   

This week has been a great reminder to me of the importance and power of repentance, as I am trying to improve my thinking and faith.  I am so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven.  I am so grateful for this life and a chance to improve and become better.  I know that this is God's true church.  I know He is watching out for us and He wants to mold us into something more wonderful than we could ever be on our own.  He truly is a merciful God and a God of miracles.