Art Teachers Scooting About with Birds in Taiwan

There is a less active member in the ward who is returning to activity. She is so funny.  Her name is Sun Jiemie.  She is an art teacher, and her teenage son just got baptized.  This week we asked her to go with us to visit a member who is in the hospital to sing to her.  She was worried about not having enough time, but I told her it wasn't that far away, and she agreed to come and said that she would leave right away.  15 minutes later I call her, and she is like, "Sister Gibson I am leaving right now."  She came, but at that point she has about 20 minutes till she has to start work.  She pulls up on her scooter with her birds in a cage on the floor of her scooter.  We agreed that maybe she didn't have enough time to go with us.  She apologized profusely and promised us she would go with us next week.   

Later that night we came out of the church and she was outside waiting for her son.  She had her birds there and wanted to show us all of the pictures that her art students drew.  She makes us laugh so much.  She takes her birds with her like one might take a dog.  She is just so happy and spacey, but her testimony is really growing.  She spoke in church last week.  I really love working with less actives and seeing them return and remain strong in the gospel.  It is so important.   

Eating Bing

Zhu Jiemie is doing really well this week.  She continues to LOVE repenting.  She told us on Tuesday that she has been telling Heavenly Father about all of her past sins and apologizing for them.  She says that whenever she prays and says in the name of Jesus Christ she feels really sad in her heart because she knows how much pain she has caused Jesus Christ.  It has been really cool to see her repent because she is someone who has had a very sinned filled life up to this point, and it is so wonderful to see her recognize the gift that the atonement (Christ’s redeeming sacrifice) is.  I feel like so often we take for granted the gift of repentance, but she is truly someone who sees and recognizes her sins and her nothingness before the Lord and how he can make her whole and new.   

She reminds me of those Lamanites in the Book of Mormon who repented so thoroughly and had no desire to return to their old way of life because they knew and had felt the joy and redeeming power of the atonement.  She is working on giving up smoking and has agreed to work on green tea as well.  She keeps asking us about commandments.  We have been trying to explain that we can't just teach her all of the commandments at once (a lot of people want you to list off the commandments for them).  Her attitude truly has been changing.  Last week she told us that she was not interested in being restricted in any way.  This week her heart really is changing.  We had a lesson in church about obedience; she seemed to be very open and receptive and much more understanding of why we obey.  That it is not to restrict us and limit us as much as they are simply markers on the path of righteousness and happiness.  Of course they are very definite non-negotiable markers. 

A big bai bai oven where they burn paper money to pay respect to the Gods

We also had a great miracle this week.  Back at the beginning of the move call one of the Taiwanese sisters in our mission gave me her little sister’s information. She is going to college in our area.  The whole move call I have called her many, many times trying to get in touch with her but to no avail.  On Tuesday, I thought I would call her one more time, which I did, and she answered!  She was really willing to meet, and we met on Thursday.  She brought a friend who is also really interested.   I was so happy. What a huge blessing for her sister!
  

There is actually a new companionship of sisters moving into our apartment this next week.  Because we are over two wards, they are splitting our area in two.  I am actually a little bummed about it.  Our area is tiny, and they are splitting us because our apartment is big enough to have two sister companionships in it. The other sisters have huge areas, and I have been in areas with 3 wards.  It just doesn't seem to make sense to me to split a tiny area when there are sisters with three wards on the plates.  OK, I am murmuring...I shouldn't do that.  I am mostly just sad about having to say goodbye to all the people I love.  I am sure that the Lord has a greater purpose, and I shouldn’t be so shortsighted.