Sister Nicole Scharman: Da Jia Hao!

Da Jia Hao!

This week was so busy! YES!

Last p day I said we were going to go help a member move.. Well, the language barrier kinda got me. We did go over to a members house and help them move. But we ended up helping the members parents (who were non members) move a huge water log up a hill. Different type of moving then I expected lol. That log was super heavy. We had seven people lifting and dragging that thing. I am glad we didn't help them move from their house, because their house is BEAUTIFUL. It was so dreamy. Perfect view of the ocean. If their house was Telestial Kingdom then I am dying to know what the Celestial Kingdom will be like.

Ruisui English class was really good last week! One of our students is an English teacher at a school, and he is starting to bring his students with him!! HUGE miracle!! We also had the coolest experience in the Yuli English class. We have this student names Jackie who shows up every week. This week he was the only one that showed up.. At first I was really disappointed.. we had a good planned lesson for class but because he was the only one we threw the plan out the window and sat down to just talk to him. We went around in a circle introducing ourselves and sharing something that we haven't told before. When it was Jackie's turn he completely opened up to us. He told us about his past, and how he didn't want to have that life anymore. The conversation lead to us discussing what he wanted in the future, and how he was going to change. He said that change was scary and he really wanted to but he didn't know how. It was cool to testify to him about how we can do hard things, and that change is possible through Jesus Christ. The spirit was so strong. When time came for our spiritual share we showed him "The Hope of Gods Light" video, discussed about it, and invited him to meet with the elders after. He is now their new investigator!! Sometimes you have hard times (like having one person show up) but afterwards you get to see the miracles out of it. (like getting to know Jackie's needs) I am so grateful he was the only one that came. I will never forget that experience.

Thursday we had interviews with President Jergensen! I love that man. He is truly called of God. (and as wise as Yoda) He really helped me this week. I am SO lucky to have him as my mission president! We had to wake up at 4:30 and catch a train to Taidong to have interviews. We stayed the night in Taidong with the other sisters there because Zone meeting was the next day! It was like the mtc again.. almost.. It was so fun to live with 7 other sisters for a night. Me, Sister Tadd, and Sister Barber were supposed to be life long friends. We for sure knew each other in the spirit world.

Back in Yuli we met with Ding JM! The spirit is so strong in all of the lessons we teach her. When we followed up with her Book of Mormon reading, she told us that while she was reading she had a prompting from the Holy Ghost telling her that she didn't need to drink alcohol, tea, or coffee. Within the next few days she went to the doctor because of some stomach problems she's been having. The doctor told her to not drink alcohol, tea, or coffee. It was a really cool moment to see Ding Jiemei recognize that Heavenly Father knows what is best for us. We then taught her about faith, repentance, and baptism. I loved that lesson so much. It perfectly fit in with her needs. We also set a baptismal date!! She is finally preparing for baptism! We set her date for December 17th. We could have it sooner, but we felt strongly that she needed another month to really gain and strengthen her own testimony.

I finally met a massive spider here in Taiwan. It was the size of my hand.. it was so creeeeepy and right outside the door of our room. I can kill any cockroach.. but I still have my fear of spiders.

While we were out finding one night we were trying to find a specific street that a less active lived on. we turned down the wrong street so I quickly turned around while my companion behind me got stuck at a red light. opps lol. So while I was waiting on the side of the road waiting for her, this couple came out of the house I was in front in. Well they invited us in, I met their 1 year old baby. They tried to hand me him to hold.. it was so hard to tell them no. We talked to them about the Book of Mormon, and prayer. We invited them to church, and they showed up.. 30 minutes after it ended.. hahaha. They were really sad they missed it and tried really hard to be there. We ended up just giving them a one minute tour of our cute chapel and then meeting with them.

Fun fact! I texted a 4 sentence text in under ten minutes. RECORD!!! bopomofo is so hard.. (its pronounced like bapamafa)

At zone meeting we talked a lot about faith. Faith is something you can study over and over but still always learn something from it. Also I have learned a lot about it from my mom and dad.

“No, the purpose of faith is not to change God’s will but to empower us to act on God’s will. Faith is trust - Trust that God sees what we cannot and that He knows what we do not.

Faith means that we trust not only in God’s wisdom but that we trust also in His love. It means trusting that God loves us perfectly, that everything He does—every blessing He gives and every blessing He, for a time, withholds—is for our eternal happiness. With this kind of faith, though we may not understand why certain things happen or why certain prayers go unanswered, we can know that in the end everything will make sense. “All things [will] work together for good to them that love God.”

I hope you have a good week! Thank you so much for all the love I get every week! I really appreciate it! Keep on praying and believing.

Sister Scharman

Elder Budd