Ni Hao!

Picture Credit: Sister Vatcher (:

Ni hao! 

This week has been a looooong one. But good of course! It started out getting rejected like crazy. It felt like there wasn't a single person in the world that wanted to talk to us. I even got the worse rejection I have ever had this week from one of our investigators. It is one that I will probably never forget. I had just poured my soul out to him about how the Book of Mormon has blessed my life and how I know it is the word of God and that if he reads it he will come to know for himself that it is true. Do you know what he said back? He flat out told me he will not read the Book of Mormon. It like shattered my heart in a way I didn't know it could be shattered. BUT we met with him again yesterday and he committed to reading it everyday! 

So let's discuss how Satan uses the littlest of things to keep people from hearing the gospel. That new Pokemon game has become my enemy. The Taiwanese are obsessed with it. When we are out trying to talk to people we get told they have no time to talk to us cause they are busy playing it. It happens ALL the time. We have only had a few put their phones down for us. Satan is so sneaky. 

We had been planning a fireside for members for so long and it finally happened!! It was super fun and super successful. We had it for all three wards in the Jin Hua chapel and themed it after the Book of Mormon. We had dinner, had a play of Ammon's story, and then had different rotations based on Book of Mormon prophets. Me and Sister Xie were the brother of Jared (I was also the Daughter of Lamoni, and a sheep!) After we came back together and talked about the roles of members in missionary work and got lots of member referrals! Members are so important in this work! 

Guess what! We had Mission Conference yesterday! The whole mission was there and we heard from Elder David F. Evans from the Quorum of the Seventy and the new member of the Asia Area Presidency! It was a good reunion to see my friends (it's been so long) (and it was Sister Menzies birthday) and have a powerful conference. I really have the best mission, and the best leaders ever. I am so grateful for them and all they do for us. 

We had a huge miracle this week. Zhang Dx our long time investigator that me and Sister Knapp met my first week here has not gotten baptized because of his mother. She does not like that he is going to church, and never wanted to meet us. But guess what. Heavenly Father has answered our many prayers, and she agreed to let us come over TONIGHT. This feels like the biggest/most important day of my life. 

Transfers are TOMORROW It's crazy how fast each transfer goes by. I will let you know next week what happens! (: Have a good week! Thanks for all the love and support! 

I love these girls!

King Lamoni's daughter being offered as a wife to Ammon

We were Sheep in our play!

Ward Fireside (PLAY)

The Cast (Picture from Sister Vatcher)

The Cast (Picture from Sister Vatcher)

Our Brother of Jared signs, None of the members believed I made my own sign ha ha ha

Ammon

1+2 MY BEST FRIENDS LOVE THEM!

MTC Roommates: Sister Clawson, Sister Menzie (MTC Comp) Sister Apsley

Mom Note: HER HAIR!  Humidity and Curls!

This elder just returned and served in France with my friend Cami Brown!!!!! 

Me and Ama in my ward (:

 FHE with a family in our ward, and our investigator (in the grey shirt by me)

 Last district meeting of the transfer!

Temple Tours

Sister Scharman has served in the Wanda area near the Taiwan Taipei Temple. Her and her companions have had the opportunity to serve as Temple Tour Sisters often.  These are pictures we found from the templesquaretours.tw website. 

Sister Scharman and her trainer (mom) Sister Knapp

Sister Scharman and Sister Xie

Sister Scharman and Sister Xie taking primary children on a tour.

Sister Scharman and Sister Xie 

Temple Square building where tours are started.

Hall where tours are taken

Sister Scharman and Sister Chan on a tour

Sister Davis and Sister Scharman

Sister Scharman and Sister Davis. Taiwan Taipei Temple in the background

Sister Scharman and Sister Knapp and an Investigator

Sister Knapp, Sister Scharman and two other Temple Tour sisters.

Hao Jiu bu jen! (long time no see)

This week really was a testimony builder. 

After emails last week we hiked one to one of the prettiest waterfalls I have ever seen. I loved every minute of it. And I soaked it all in. Taiwan is beautiful and definitely one of the prettiest places on earth! I am so grateful that Jesus Christ created this beautiful earth and that I am able to serve in this little island of Taiwan.

When we met with our investigator who is overcoming her addictions, we based our lesson on the scriptures Alma 7:13-16. Some of my favorites. (the whole bom again is my favorite) 

The power in conversion that the The Book of Mormon combined with the Holy Ghost has is incredible. It was a really good lesson and didn't only strengthen our investigator's testimony but it strengthened mine.

We taught Zhang Xuan Ye the Word of Wisdom this week. It was one of the funniest/intimidating lessons I've ever had hahaha. The beginning of the lesson we reviewed prophets and why it is important to follow them. Right when we started to talk about the Word of Wisdom, the Ama came in with a packet and asked me to translate it for her (it was in english) I told her it was cha (tea) and she put it down right by me and sat down, we were like welp this is great. Then the dad comes in smoking and puts his pack of cigarettes right next to us too hahahaha but we went on teaching it. We talked about how cigarettes and tea are bad but my companion decided to use coffee as our example while we talked about addictive substances so we didn't totally offend someone in that room. Right as we mentioned coffee, Zhang Xuan Ye pointed at his ama and started laughing at her. She loves Coffee. Lol anyways that was a fun lesson. And he committed to keeping the Word of Wisdom! 

I haven't talked much about Chinese! Its coming!! We got a new lesson learning program at the beginning of this transfer. It is so good, I absolutely love it!! It's helping me become a Ching Chong Chinese Jedi Master (inside joke between me and Elder Lin our district leader). This morning for a little bit of language study my companion helped me translate the songs Army of Helaman and Book of Mormon Stories! It was fun! 

We had a night full of miracles...Seriously me and my companion were practically so amazed with how Heavenly Father has things happen. I wish I had time to type it! Next week..ba? (: 

Guess what? DAVID ARCHULETA CAME TO OUR MISSION. He is in Taiwan right now. And guess what else, he did a special fireside for us missionaries. It was incredible. (hao ting!) We decided it would be a good missionary opportunity too so we had two of our investigators come (James and Yu Dx) and it was. He sang songs and told us stories from his mission. It was one of the most inspiring/influential firesides I have ever been to. My favorite song of his is "He Showed Me How" (go listen to it right now) It is my favorite and probably will be for the rest of forever because I feel like it is literally written for/about me. The change that it talks about, is the change I have felt on my mission. Every word. I am grateful I have had the opportunity to change, I am grateful I have changed, and I am grateful for the opportunity to keep changing. Because I know no matter how hard I try I will sometimes fall short. That's why I NEED my Savior. That's why we all need our Savior. Through his Atonement we can find that change. We can become better. There is more to all of us that we could ever imagine. If we want that change, if we want to find out our potential we need to come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. It is the only way. I know and I testify that if we do we can feel and see that change in us. I know, because he showed me how. 

I have lots of pictures this week I apologize for the over load. 

Be safe and thanks for all the love! 

You know when you get a picture with a celebrity and you look so bad ahahhahaha 
but I love this picture because it is so awkward. 
(what do you do with your hands? missionary problems.)

President and Sister Jergensen + David = My favorite people

Yes I did take a creepy stalker picture of him.. Sorry he is so.. shuai

Sister Lu and Sister Xie! 

願原力與你同在 - May the Force Be With You!

First off, IT'S FATHER'S DAY IN TAIWAN!! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD I LOVE YOU! AND TO MY BROTHER JAMES LOVE YOU TOO AND TO MY GRANDPA LOVE YOU! 

Fathers day is always August 8th here. Because the date is 8/8 and the letter eight is ba in chinese and baba is dad!! So special! FU QIN JIE KUAILE (happy fathers day) 

This week I had so many spiritual experiences. I am very grateful for those experiences because I definitely needed them.

The first miracle I want to share might be a small one, but its one that really touched my heart. We were out finding and we met this lady at a park. We talked to her, then asked to pray for her. When she said yes we asked her what we could pray for. She told us about some health problems she has been having. So when I prayed for her, I prayed for her to get better. Immediately after the prayer she put her hand on her heart and told us that she felt a very warm, peaceful feeling. We explained that it was Gods love for her, who God is, how we can communicate with God through prayer, and then taught her how. She said her first prayer that night. I've witnessed and heard a lot of first prayers, but this one was so special and sincere. Before we left she thanked us for stopping to talk to her, and for helping her understand that God answers prayers. We are meeting with her again tonight and I am very excited. I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost and that I can see the hand of God touching lives through a simple prayer.

Second miracle starts out pretty funny. Again we were out finding. I can't help but start laughing while I type this. We kept getting bu yonged. (rejected) and it wasn't fun. Me and my companion agreed that we should go down a different street. So we turned around and across the street there is this girl sitting on her phone by her scooter. I felt a really strong impression to go talk to her, so we did. We introduced ourselves and then asked to pray for her. When she said yes we were both so relieved, she was the first person to say yes all night. My companion out loud said "woah ni zhende hun tebie" (woah you are very special). Sister Xie looks at me with the face saying "did I just say that out loud?" hahahahha the girl said.. "weisheme" (why). There was an awkward silence for a second because my companion was still in shock she said that out loud and the only answers I could think of was 1. you are letting us pray for you. 2. You are a daughter of God. So I went with number 2 and said "ni shi shen de nu er" she said okay and then we continued on with our conversation, and got her number for our elders. She was really awesome and now is the elders investigator!!

 When me and Sister Davis were companions one time during our English class there was this new 16 year old girl. After class she came up to me and started asking me questions about myself, why I am in Taiwan, and asked me if it was hard to leave my family. We had a really good conversation and I got to share my testimony. She is now our elders investigator, and comes to church almost every week. She is such a cutie. On Wednesday during English she brought me a gift and said thank you for being her friend and for my testimony. She is not able to come to English anymore because of school, but she said she will still see me at church! Love her so much. 

We were temple tour Sisters more then once this week! (we had to cover for the actual temple sisters because they had a lesson, and then we had our assigned day) 

It was full of miracles!! We were inside and there was a couple outside (I honestly thought they were members because there were so many members there) I waved to them and they waved back. We were with one of our members Huang Jm and she opened the door to invite them in. Turns out they are not members and they actually live in Datong!! our area!!!!! So we gave them a tour. The husband isn't a big fan of religion, but his wife was loving every minute of us teaching her and showing her pictures of Jesus. The husband wouldn't let the wife give us her number. But me and Sister Xie are going to pray to find her again. We gave a tour to a bunch of primary kids! It was so fun to teach them about the temple. We had so many tours this week it hurts my head to think about hahahaha 

So the reason I needed these miracles this week (these are just a few of them, I so wish I could tell you all of them) was because I felt a little down, actually more like heartbroken. Just because I have been in Taiwan for 5 months now and I haven't seen the success I would have wanted to see. I have the best investigators. They are still progressing so much! I didn't write much about them this week though, sorry about that. They truly are my best friends. I have found them all on the street, and witnessed them change their lives for this gospel. As I have seen the change in them I have also been changed. Unfortunately none of them have gotten baptized YET. I emphasize yet, because they will. Just in Heavenly Fathers due time. I honestly think submitting yourself to the Fathers will is the most demanding of all spiritual struggles. It has been for me on my mission so far. Because I am obedient, I study, pray, think, dream, fast, love, teach, and testify for my investigators. Everything I do is for them. I have asked over and over, what am I doing wrong? What can I do better? How can I help these people that I love so much be baptized? I give my whole soul to these people, then I just have to hand it over to them and Heavenly Father to finish the rest. I would think the handing over part would be the easiest, but its definitely the hardest. I love the quote by David A Bednar "Strong faith in the Savior is submissively accepting of his will and timing in our lives. Even if the outcome is not what we hoped or wanted." Transfers are coming up and I will most likely leave Wanda. It would be the best day of my life to see my best friends be baptized before I leave. But maybe it won't happen. The love I have for them is what makes it so heartbreaking. But I have to remember that Its all going to happen how, and when Heavenly Father wants it to. So I remind myself each day that It will all workout how it is supposed to, smile, Read Alma 17:9-11 and go to work (:

[9 And it came to pass that they journeyed many days in the wilderness, and they fasted much and prayed much that the Lord would grant unto them a portion of his Spirit to go with them, and abide with them, that they might be an instrument in the hands of God to bring, if it were possible, their brethren, the Lamanites, to the knowledge of the truth, to the knowledge of the baseness of the traditions of their fathers, which were not correct.

 10 And it came to pass that the Lord did visit them with his Spirit, and said unto them: Be comforted. And they were comforted.   11 And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls.

Have a good week! Remember God loves you! And.. 願原力與你同在 (May The Force Be With You)

(my companion taught me how to say that and how to write it lol this week) 

Lots of pictures of the Temple because I was there a lot this week! 

This was a letter we wrote for our investigator and my companion drew us hhahaha

Sister Chan came back for a visit and got to see Nicole!
#WalkingWounded #WoundedStriplingWarriors #MiracleSisters

Broken Records and Sunburns!

My favorite bike ride!

Okay this week was great. Also really really really hot. We broke the record 104 degrees for 4+ days. This might not seem like a lot, but with the humility it felt like we were in a oven. There was no rain and I think I know what a drought feels like now. Since my area is completely city The heat is the only thing reminding me I am on an island.

We started off in Beitou on exchanges with our sister training leaders. It was great! Always learn so much from exchanges. I also learned to wear sunscreen. It was so hot me and Sister Westover were dying. Also found out that Beitou has a cosco so I got some mango muffins (the best things in the entire world.) I put them in the back of my bike box after lunch while we were finding. They cooked in there and you could smell the mango. So good. 

Oh which reminds me! I CAN BIKE AGAIN. Best thing of my life. I love my bike. 

We were biking to our investigators house and we were talking to people at the red lights like normal, when we arrived and started to park our bikes my companion tells me that while she was handing this guy an English tract she ran over his foot hhahaha smooth move sister. I hope he is still interested in English class. 

We were daily contacting our Investigator Yen Dx who attends our English class. We called him and his wife answered so she handed him the phone and in his funny/cute english "hello I am Johnny" I wish you could hear it. Me and my companion were dying for about five minutes after that phone call.

So Zhang Xuan Ye's dad still doesn't want him to get baptized.... So we thought and pondered and prayed about ways to soften his heart. We came up with the Idea of having a member go and visit him to talk and get to know him. We got one to go and we are hoping for the best!! He has been sitting in our lessons with us! So has the Ama!

This weeks letter is not good, sorry. Chatting with my parents is more important lol 

At our investigators house! they have 6 dogs hahaha

View from our apartment

My Cute Companion (: 

CUTIE ZHANG XUAN YE he loved the view of the temple from the room we met in!

After being inside for a whole transfer don't forget to wear sunscreen.