Zao an!

OKAY HONESTLY I AM CRYING BECAUSE OF JOY RIGHT NOW. MY INVESTIGATOR LAN JIEMEI IN WANDA GOT BAPTIZED! When we found her on the street it was one of the sweetest experiences on my mission. I emailed about it a few months ago but I am going to retell the story :) 

We were out finding and we met 藍姐妹 (Lan Jiemei) 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. I am so grateful for the Holy Ghost and that I can see the hand of God touching lives through a simple prayer. Now she is baptized. Wow my heart is so full. 

Well this week was a fun one! It started out with me eating octopus.. yep. It was really chewy but not bad. 

This week we met this couple, turns out they are the parents of one of our English students! They are so cute. Everyone here pretty much has a English name and if they don't, we give them one. The mothers name is Mary, but surprisingly the father didn't have one. So guess what I name I gave him.. Bill :) I tell them they are my Taiwanese parents lol. They are really cute and we are so excited to start meeting with them! That same night we met a whole group of girls and one boy from Malaysia! They were also here for some service, and they were really interested in missionary work! It was really fun to talk to them!! 

On our way to English class in Ruisui we met a member who lives in California! He is Taiwanese, and used to be Bishop for the JinHua ward. (in the huge chapel in Taipei) The funny thing was that we were just walking and said hi to him. You never know who you are going to meet. He is really cool! Our English class in Yuli was about the elections hahahah. Everyone here is obsessed. (Trump in Chinese is pronounced trumpu) 

This week we had two really good lessons with our investigators Yang JM and Ding JM. With Yang JM we talked about the importance of prayer, asked some questions, and then related her to Enos and read his story together. The spirit was strong and we found out some of her needs. Ding JM's was about baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, sacrament, and enduring to the end. It was so good. She really understands, everything just makes sense to her. YAY!

We had Stake conference this weekend up in Hualien. We were lucky enough to have a member drive us! Its about a two hour drive, and so beautiful. All the talks were amazing. I especially loved President and Sister Jergensen's. Sister Jergensen even spoke in Chinese for a little bit (: Ding Jiemei came, which shows how committed she is. I am so lucky to be able to teach her.

Transfers are this week! I feel like I am going to stay here another transfer, but anything can happen. "the only thing you can expect from life is the unexpected" lol 

I am reading in Alma right now, which I love. Alma and the sons of Mosiah are such amazing missionaries. I am so grateful for their story and their examples. I was reading in Alma Chapter 29. I am in love with this chapter. The whole thing is so great but I want to share two verses.

9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

10 And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me.

This chapter and these verses really stood out to me. Especially because what has happened the last couple months of my mission. When I came to Yuli, we were basically going through the refiners fire. We had no solid investigators. I probably taught a solid 5 lessons that whole transfer.. and it was hard. So hard. But now I look at what we have and I can see how Heavenly Fathers hand has been in everything. The blessings are so great we have been getting calls from our zone leaders telling us that President said that "Yuli is on fire" and asking us what we have been doing. And all this progress is not because of us, but because our Lord is blessing us. I am reminded everyday how I am so reliant on the Lord. I am literally nothing without him. The song Holocene//Bon Iver has a line that says "and once I knew I was not magnificent" If you think you can do anything without our Savior please, attempt to learn Mandarin Chinese and get fed pig intestines with rice for dinner. lol, but really. We are NOT magnificent. Our Heavenly Father and Savior are so good to us. 

Love you all! Thank you for all of the love and support! Be safe and have a good week!

Shi Ni Ke Jiemei

施妮可姐妹

(if you google translate my name.. thats not what it means lol)

Lan jiemei!!

Bill and Mary :) 

Wu DX

Pan mama and Pan Didi 

Group from Malaysia!

Wu Jiatings baby 

We took care of Xin Dixiong and Xin Jiemei's dogs and cat this week

Octopus

More sea food dongxi I ate

Service for members!

English Class lolol

Me in front of a pretty lake on our drive to Hualien

Dr Seuss got his plants from Taiwan

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

Massive bamboo

Inside of the house

4 Me on the side of the house yay!

We ate at the Eders investigators restaurant. This is how he cooked the meat 

The cat is Chiang-Kai Shek's mustache lol 

 Ama exercises to wake us up!!

Sister Tadd!!!

The SPIDER and me and the dead spider LOL

Liu Jie! she loves hello kitty 

Face masks for fun

Love when people try to text us back in english lol

Friends in Taitung! 

Happy Halloween!

I can't believe its Halloween already!! I love Halloween. This morning for p day we woke up at 4:30 and went on a well known bike trail with the Elders. It was so beautiful. It felt unreal to watch the sunrise as we were biking with mountains and rice fields surrounding us. I love how open and spread out our area is. It is absolutely breath taking. 

I don't have a lot of time today to email cause we are going to go help a member move.  Our mission has again changed one of the rules! We now wake up at 7am and we go to bed at 11. I really think this is going to help our area because more people are out at night. 

This week was full of biking. I wish I had a tracker to keep count of all the miles I've biked so far. Its probably 109298383938. We went to visit a recent convert Li Yu Mei, (she's so cute) she lives in Gu Feng which is about 8 miles away from Yuli. That bike ride was also really pretty. Everything is pretty here. We rode through mountains, past graveyards and of course rice fields. By the time we were done at Li Yu Mei's house it was getting dark. So we decided to bike the 3+ more miles to the town called Fuli, where we could take the train home. 

This week we wanted to do something nice for our members so we decided to write them notes... to finish one note took me a very long time.. I had to space it out between two days ha ha ha ha, so hard. But it was so fun! We had to use every recourse available (the dictionary, missionary language tools, the Book of Mormon, and our phone dictionary) We just hope and pray they are readable.. While my companion was writing hers she yelled out "Yes! I finally wrote Yesu Jidu (Jesus Christ) without looking at my name tag!!"

This week we had some really cool experiences. We met this couple from Switzerland who was in need of a hotel but knew absolutely no Chinese. I saw them and they looked lost so I walked over to them to ask if they needed help. Before I could say anything they said pretty frantically "we need a hotel!!!" I had no idea how to say hotel in Chinese, but now I will never forget. It was a cool experience helping them. We met an Ama who was 94 years old and still walking around. She had blue eyes and knew a lot of Japanese. I love meeting these people and being able to share about Jesus Christ. 

Our investigators are all doing so good!! I love them with my whole heart and I am so grateful to have this opportunity to teach them. On my mission I have come to have a greater understanding of the Atonement. I am so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and that I have this opportunity to help others apply it to their lives as well. I love being a missionary, and so thankful for this opportunity. I know this gospel can bless us all so individually. I am so grateful for our loving Heavenly Father and his loving tender mercies. I JUST HAVE A HAPPY HEART AND WANT TO SHARE IT WITH YOU ALL. 

I hope you have a fun week, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Love, Sister Scharman

1The field is white (or gold) already to harvest

2-5 Bike ride to Gu Feng

6 Li Yu Mei!

7 My companion when we arrived at Gu Feng hahaha she's awesome! 

8 My card that I worked so hard on! lol

9 The 94 year old AMA

10 Our investigator Lou Yu Ting

11-13 Who is more tired?? ha ha ha

14 - 15 Our district!! Love them!! 

16-18 Pictures from our bike ride this morning.

HUGE Miracles!!!

This week was so crazy busy and full of HUGE miracles!!! 

MIAO

The first miracle is with our investigator Ding JM. So she had a concern with getting baptized because her boyfriend is hard core Buddhist. We prayed really really hard to know how to help her overcome this problem.. AND GUESS WHAT.... THEY BROKE UP. I was going to get up and dance and jump up and down when she told us!!!! But... that's rude. I feel a little bad for being happy about it, because I would never wish a break up on anyone BUT this was an answer to our prayers and a HUGE miracle. We still have more things to overcome. She loves coffee. Ding JM doesn't speak any English to us so it took us by surprise when she said "no coffee, no life" hahaha. I almost died from laughing so hard. (everyone else was laughing too so its okay) So we have a little word of wisdom problem, but she is willing to overcome it. A willing heart is all we need. Another miracle she told us was that one night she decided to drink a little bit of alcohol. Right after she drank it, we called her asking her how she was. She said that she felt really bad for drinking the alcohol and doesn't want to feel that way again. Heavenly Father is working some amazing miracles. The lesson we taught her went really well. We taught her the first part of the Plan of Salvation. We really focused on agency and she was soaking it all in. She loved every thing about it. In her prayer at the end of the lesson she told Heavenly Father that she knew what we were teaching was true, and thanked him for giving her agency. My heart is so full. 

Another HUGE miracle was our cute friend Chen Zhi Yun. She is 12 and is the daughter of a member in our branch. But Chen Zhi Yun lives with her dad. (after divorce the government here favors the dad) Which is really hard because he doesn't like the church at all and she comes to church without him knowing. She loves church and everything about it. She is really cute and I am grateful we have become good friends. Her mom came up to us yesterday after church and asked us to start meeting with her daughter! We are starting to meet with her and we are going to try and help her the best way that we can. I know that with many prayers, and the Lords help, her dads heart can be softened. 

We met a really cute mom and son at English class this Tuesday, and on Wednesday we went to visit the mom at work at ate lunch with her!! She works at an insurance company, and when I walked into that office..  it felt like I was in an Asian version of The Office. Not even kidding. Her co workers were so funny. We got to meet all of them and invite them to English class! 

Our English classes have been improving so much! When I first got here there was only 1-3 people who would show up to English class in Ruisuai. But now there are a solid 11!! It is really fun, but also really stressful. Sister Brinkerhoff and I are the only missionaries that teach in Ruisuai so I teach adults and she teaches the children. But I have adults that have no English experience and some that have really good English. It has been hard to teach them both at the same time. But his week I decided to split them into two groups on different sides of the room. I get reallllly busy from running back and forth in between the two groups but it works out better for the students. Our English class in Yuli has also improved!! This week we had 6 people come. We had a request to learn some English songs. So we taught them Let It Go from Frozen and then taught them I Am a Child of God. It was really fun. 

We also went to Hualien this week on exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders!! It was really fun. Many things happened, including me getting hit by a scooter.. I am totally okay though no worries! I saw the biggest miao (Buddist temple) that I have ever seen in my life. They were having some kind of parade too which we accidentally rode through the middle of it after playing Frisbee for morning exercise. I waved at some people and they smiled so they didn't seem too upset. My whole mission I have only lived with just my companion so going on exchanges are always fun because I get to live with 6 sisters for a night. And after planning it always turns into some kind of party. 

Well on Sunday I was sick and running a fever. I don't really understand why I get sick so easily here. But today I am feeling a little bit better. Counting the blessings.

TODAY IS MY SISTERS BIRTHDAY YAYAYAY I love my sister and hope she has the best birthday ever!!! #teamwait And my family has gone to Oregon so many times without me.. what is that all about??

The Lord has been blessing me and Sister Brinkerhoff so much. I am so grateful to be able to know and teach the investigators that we have. I have seen the Lord's hand in every step of the way. Sometimes times get hard. But if you have a smile on your face and a prayer in your heart everything will be okay. And remember, if you are looking for direction you can find it on your knees.

Wo ai nimen! xie xie ni! zhu ni yukaui de yizhou.

Sister Scharman

施姐妹

1 We rode on a hello kitty train hahaha

2 Coco is a girl we found on the street and she came to english class, she wrote me this note. "coco ai shi jiemei"

3 A home

4 Elder Carson and Elder Budd

5 The OFFICE. They even had Christmas decorations up.. probably have been there all year haha and everyone in that building is Buddhist so I was a little confused. But it made me happy!