"I'm peanut butter and she is jelly and we're so happy on our little piece of bread"

Will Sis Smith and I still be together after this week's transfer meeting? That remains to be seen! Sometimes I think we will stay together for our last transfer and sometimes I feel like one of us will move. So basically I have no idea. :D

I had one of the most tender experiences of my mission yesterday afternoon. This weekend was our stake conference, and during the Sunday morning session, we sustained Brother L (baptized in Feb) with a group of other men to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood and be ordained to the office of Elder. After the meeting, Sis Smith and I saw him and a couple other men going in to a room to be ordained and quickly got permission from President Day to go in and watch. As he sat in the chair and the brother ordaining him took a moment to prepare spiritually, the Spirit filled the room so strongly. I couldn't hold back tears during the entire blessing~ there was a power there in the room. At one point I opened my eyes, and noticed that just behind him on the wall was the painting of Jesus Christ ordaining His apostles. That made it all the more significant to me that today we have that same priesthood power on the earth in full force- and that now my recent convert was blessed to be a holder of it. In the blessing, he was promised that if he continues faithful in the gospel, his daughters will also join the church and they will be sealed as a family. This was one of those moments that just makes it all worth it. 

President Day's big board of missionaries

Our less active member's wife, W, set a baptismal date! 6/13. And we talked with her husband about being worthy to use the Aaronic priesthood which he has to be able to baptize her on that date. I am so excited for them. The two of them have been having family prayer and scripture study every day and are loving it. 

A is still great. She found out that in her contract, it says that she should either be getting a day off or extra money, neither of which she is getting. So, she is working on trying to get that resolved, and maybe that will allow her to come to church. She is such a sweetheart. Sis Smith and I were like, "is this what serving in South America is like? having all your investigators be this incredible?" hahahaha! 

Well, that's about it. Love you!

Sis Murri

"In God we trust...in craziness we thrive!"

It was so good to see all of you....so glad we have an eternity to talk because I think we could have chatted all day long! :D (We got 45 minutes to skype with Nicole on mother's day)

A is such an angel. She is every missionary's dream investigator. We fasted with her last week, and met with her on the evening of the fast. At the end of our lesson, I said to her, "you did eat dinner, right?" She said no- she had been fasting since the previous day's dinner, and it was almost 9 o'clock at night and she still hadn't eaten! We told her to go eat right away. But that's just the kind of faith she has- she is so willing to sacrifice for what she feels is right. We met with her last night and told her we wanted to receive some revelation together about when God wanted her to be baptized. We asked her to say the prayer- she said, "Heavenly Father, I really want to go to church. I want to enter into the covenant of baptism." She closed her prayer, looked at the calendar, and then said "June 27th". So that's her goal. I don't know what kind of miracle God's going to do to get her to church. It might involve her having to quit her job. I sort of hope it's not that, because I know that if that's the answer, she will do it, even though it would mean a huge blow to her family, and to her credibility as a worker. But if that's what God wants her to do, I know He'll make a way. 

I've learned a lot about following the Spirit as I've been with Sis Smith. That is really one of her gifts. Last week, we were out looking to visit less active members of the church, and had planned to go at a specific time to go to another road to find. As we were getting on our bikes to go to the road we had planned to go finding on, we kept feeling like we should stop and knock on other houses. None of the houses we knocked on had people who were interested/home. But we really were feeling the Spirit to knock on them, so we kept doing it, even though it didn't seem to make sense. Eventually we made our way to the place we planned to find. We parked, locked our bikes, prayed, and started walking. There was a miao to our left, and we said hi to the people who were getting on their scooter leaving it. The lady said, "sisters, hi!". Turns out she is a less active member that wasn't on our ward list! It was really neat to see how the Spirit had guided us the whole night so that we could be there at the exact right time. 2 minutes earlier and they would have been inside bai-bai ing and we would have passed by without a thought; 2 minutes later and they would have already left. Even all the impressions that didn't seem to yield any fruit were just to get us to meet her at the moment God needed us to. 

God answered another one of my food prayers this week. :D That is one thing I will be really happy for- some good meat that's not deep fried. Taiwan just doesn't understand a good chicken breast. Anyway, we had a meal appointment set up with one of our members. This member is so funny- she's super sweet but what she usually cooks us are a little lacking in meat and veg. During the afternoon, I said a little prayer in my heart that somehow we could get some meat in the dinner (we had eaten at a vegetarian place for lunch). Just before we went to her house, the lady called and said she was taking us out...and she took us to a super yummy place with lots of good meat and vegetables!!!!! God loves me! And if he loves me enough to answer prayers about things like meat that don't even matter that much, I know He will answer my prayers about things that I really need revelation for. 

I love you so much! Be good, remember who you are, say no to drugs and yes to chores, and all that. And don't forget to pray. And also email me (ahem, you know who you are... :D) Until next week,

Sis Murri

Following the Spirit

FIRST: Skype info for next week. Monday morning, 8:30 am my time- which, if I've calculated correctly, is Sunday night, 7:30 pm my time. I want to do something a little different this time- I want to have 5 minutes with each person individually, and then the last 10 minutes all together. Mom and Dad, you can decide if you want 5 minutes individually or if you want 10 minutes together. Also, I would love to have a family prayer together at the end. 

 Sis Smith and I saw so many miracles this week in getting referrals and new investigators. 

-We get a pretty good amount of new investigators from english class, but they are ALWAYS in the XinZhu3 ward. Always. Well, last week, Sis Smith and I decided that we wanted a new investigator from English class this week, and we were going to pray specifically for it every day and see what happened. Wednesday night english class came and went...no new investigator in our area. But after then we got a call from the XinZhu 3 elders saying that two of their English class students stayed after class to ask some questions, and then set up for Saturday. Two new investigators for us!

The following is an actual phone conversation I had with A on Saturday night at about 9:45 pm:

"Hi! This is Sis Murri. Sorry to call you so late- were you sleeping?"

"No, I'm just reading the Book of Mormon right now."

[little moment of speechless excitement]

"Wow! That's great! What part are you at?!"

"I just finished reading chapter 8."

Yeah, she's amazing. We met with her last night, and she pulled out her Book of Mormon, which she had highlighted with her favorite parts, as well as a notebook, in which she had written an entire page of the verses that she liked. She told us, "when Ama sleeps, I just can't sleep because all I want to do is read the Book of Mormon." She has the strongest desire to come to church- which is incredible in and of itself, because she won't be able to understand a lot of it since her Chinese isn't that great. We taught her about fasting last night. I have so much faith that God will provide a way for her to come to church so that she can get baptized. We asked her to pick a day this week to fast, and we will do it with her. We also asked her to pray to know what day God wants her to get baptized (her date expired since she couldn't come yesterday). I think if she receives the revelation herself about what day God wants her to get baptized, she will have more faith in the miracle that He is about to do to help her get to church. I REALLY want her to be our May baptism. SO BADLY. But I will trust God's timing and if that's not what He's got in the cards, I'll be okay with that too, although I totally have faith that it can happen.

Another neat experience this week: we were riding our bikes, and I saw a door and sort of felt like I should hop off my bike and ring one of the bells. At first I thought, "nah...." but then I just decided to do it anyway. Well, the lady who answered the speakerphone said it was inconvenient (which is what most people say when they don't want to talk to us...) but then I asked her when would be a more convenient time, and she gave me her cell phone number to call her and set up a time! One of the things I was promised in my setting apart blessing was that my ability to listen to and follow the spirit would get stronger on my mission- and  I really feel like I have seen that come to pass. I feel like I have a better understanding of how the Holy Ghost communicates with me, and have more of an ability to hear the "ideas" he puts into my mind and just do them, even if I don't really understand why. 

I love prayer. I feel like it's only taken me 20 years to understand how to REALLY do it. But now I think I am starting to get it. I have come to see that there really are so many blessings God wants to give us that He is just waiting for us to ask for. What do we as missionaries really want from our missions? To see many baptisms, to have our RCs go to the temple, to achieve the standards of excellence, to experience personal conversion....then why aren't we always praying for those things. Or really, why am I not always praying for those things? Just because God CAN read our mind doesn't mean I don't need to tell him what is on it. :D Prayer really is the key to not living beneath our privileges. 

Well, that's about all for this week.... love you!

Sis Murri

"There is sunshine in my soul...and a wiener dog on my shoulder"

There's just never a dull moment in Taiwan.  People here are a little obsessed with their pets....they carry them around everywhere and push them in strollers and put diapers and tutus on them. But this past week, well...

We were riding home from an appointment and pulled up to a stoplight, only to see a guy with a cat clinging to his shoulder. I looked over at sis smith, and she pulled up to contact the guy, starting with, "woah....your cat." Poor thing, the cat looked terrified. And the guy was just riding all around the city with it. We seriously laughed the entire way home. And the only thing that makes this whole experience funnier is that earlier this week when we were biking over to the church, we saw a guy standing on the side of the road with a wiener dog standing on his shoulder. It was like a pirate with a parrot, but instead just a Taiwanese guy with a little wiener dog, just chilling on the side of the road like it was no big deal.

This week was so good! I feel like I grew so much spiritually and had some really neat experiences. 

One thing I've been doing this week is using a prayer journal. I bought a little notebook, and I use it to record the things I ask Heavenly Father for in prayer. As I've written down the things I ask for, it's been so much easier for me to see all the little ways Heavenly Father answers my prayers- and it makes my prayers so much more meaningful because I'm really thinking about what things I need and what things my investigators need. One really neat experience I had this week with this was on our mission tour on Friday. Elder Gong of the Seventy came and we had a day-long training meeting with him and President and Sis Day. I had two specific things that I had really been thinking and praying about and wanting God's direction and guidance on. President Day stood up to do his training, and talked about the EXACT thing that I had been pondering about. His first sentence answered my question to a T. 

This week we also had interviews with President Day. I love President Day so much; he is probably my biggest hero. I really feel like one of the reasons I had to come to this mission at this time was to learn from his Christlike leadership and example. Anyway, as I was sitting there with him, discussing my goals for the next two months, I just had a feeling that this is what judgement would be like. Not scary, or filled with fear or guilt. Just like having an interview with President Day and feeling the love of God that we can recognize because we have come to know Him. 

We had a couple of great exchanges this week with brand new missionaries. I love working with them because they are so willing to learn and just full of energy.

Quick update on investigators:

-A is still as golden as ever. We taught her the plan of salvation last week, and at the end, asked her if she believed it was true. She said yes, and when I asked her why, she said, "because I can feel the holy spirit". Yep. She loves reading the Book of Mormon and telling us her favorite parts. Her biggest obstacle is still church. We tried inviting the ama that she takes care of to church, thinking that if we could get the ama to come, then of course A would have to come with her. But she was not interested at all. It's a really tricky situation, because if we push too hard, the ama's son (A's boss) could forbid us from coming over, or A could lose her job. So we have to be really careful. She wants to come to church SO BADLY. I am not stressed about it though. Parting the red sea seemed like an impossible thing too, and you see how that turned out. :D 

 Well, we still have no washer or dryer, and our patio flooded, so they have to bring in a plumber to drill a hole through the brick wall to get to the pipe or something. Sis Smith and I are always laughing because at the beginning of our time together, we struggled with unity in lessons, but now after all the crazy situations we've been in, we have the best unity of anyone ever. hahhaha!

Love you!

sis Murri

"Hitting people over the head with the chair of righteousness"

Wow, another crazy week! I feel like I've hardly had a moment to breathe!

I asked Sis Smith yesterday how on earth to summarize our week...she said, "hitting people over the head with the chair of righteousness". I feel like that's pretty accurate, actually. 

with other missionaries at the church

 Basically, after a really inspiring temple square tour training last week, Sis Smith and I decided we were done being things to be acted upon and that we were just going to be so straight up with people. And it is so refreshing! I feel like before my mission, and even on it, I've been the type of person who just tries to keep everything smooth and not rock the boat, even if that means not being as forward as I should be with people because it just feels awkward for me. Missions change you, and that's all I have to say about that! We said what needed to be said to less active members, investigators, sisters in our zone- and it was so neat to see the Lord fulfilling our calling and speaking through us. Everyone progressed this week. The spirit was there, and we had love. We were able to help a less active sister see how her actions are influencing her life now and her future, and able to help some sisters in our zone who were struggling with obedience see how being exactly obedient literally brings miracles. Literally the day after we had a pretty straightforward conversation with them about following certain rules, they decided to change- and had 4 other lessons during finding, something that was HUGE for them. I learned this week that we don't need to be afraid of saying the "hard things" when we are led by the spirit and have charity for people. God backs us up.

This week Sis Smith and I individually and as a companionship asked the question, "Lord, is it I?". The answer to that question is simply always yes. We we working hard before, but we have completely redoubled our efforts and our desire to reach the goals we set has increased 10 fold. We worked so hard last week and there are still so many places for improvement, but it felt really good to really get fired up again.

At the end of a long crazy day

I'm not sure if I've mentioned her before....we are teaching a beautiful Filipino woman named A. I don't think I've ever met someone so ready to embrace the Gospel before. We were knocking doors one day, and we were about to turn around but just felt like we should knock on one last door on the corner. And that's when we met her. :D She said she had been praying to God to be able to keep hearing His gospel even though she was far away from home and her church. She is here taking care of an ama (grandma). She is Catholic. We left her a pamphlet about the first lesson...and she actually read it! Such a difference from all the investigators we just dropped who wouldn't do anything without being dragged along. We taught her the first lesson and she said that she had always been confused as to why in the catholic church, they don't baptize by immersion like Jesus was baptized, and why they believe in the trinity when it just doesn't make sense according to the Bible. Yep, incredible. We didn't have a Tagalog book of Mormon for her in that lesson, so we just left her with an English one and asked her to try to read the introduction. The next lesson, we had a Tagalog one for her. She was so happy. She had read not only the introduction, but all of Joseph Smith's testimony as well. And loved it. Her challenge will be coming to church- with her work it will be hard, so pray for her. I've realized through this experience how willing God is to answer my prayers...I just have to pray for the things I want! How often do I want something, but not actually vocalize that in prayer? And why not? Bruce D Porter said, "Prayer was never meant to be ordinary. It can be among the most exalted of privleges we enjoy in this mortal sphere." I want my prayers to be more like that. I need them to be more like that. 

This week we were riding home in the pouring rain because we forgot our ponchos. A fruit stand lady waved us down and told us she was going to run to her scooter to get us ponchos because she was afraid of us catching cold. So sweet. The taiwanese really have compassion and hospitality down to a 't'. I want to follow their example. 

Love you!

me

Chaos, Craziness, and Comfort

Just when you think things can’t get any crazier…they do! 

We had a transfer this past week....and I'm still in XinZhu with Sister Smith! I was SO surprised~definitely thought I was moving. But I don't think I'll stay here until the end of my mission so who knows, maybe I'll move on my last transfer.  I love working with Sis Smith.

On friday morning we got a call that there would be sisters opening the Xinzhu 3rd ward...and moving in with us in a few hours! We already have another set of sisters living with us since their house got broken into a few weeks ago. We were also informed that the new set of sisters would be sharing a cell phone with us since the mission office somehow ran out. Needless to say, the next few hours were a rush of getting keys copied, rearranging our house, pulling an ancient desk out of the depths of our patio and getting it cleaned off, taking apart our beds and moving the box springs into the living room for the other sisters to sleep on, getting them roughly acquainted with the area and meeting with the elders to get boundaries figured out. Whew! We didn't end up eating dinner until 8 pm- luckily there was a little place still open. That was the hand of God, let me tell you! :D 

One of the other crazy things that happened this week was that we went through our investigators and dropped the vast majority of them. We had a lot of people who just weren't keeping commitments, and it was wearing us out to have to keep dragging them along. So, we're starting fresh.

General conference was so good. so so so good!  I really focused on receiving personal revelation, and writing the things I was being taught by the spirit, rather than just what people said, and I got so much out of it.  It's so interesting to me how much I feel like the past year of separation has strengthened my relationship with my family. Being away from them has caused me to recognize so much all that they have given me and how lucky I am. I've been thinking a lot about the temple lately, especially with Jared preparing to go soon, and us having another two years of separation. Because of the temple, no separation need ever be permanent. Without the temple, permanent separation is always imminent. I'm so grateful that we are led by a prophet, too. That is just so comforting to my soul! I don't think I ever realized until recently how much peace it brings to not have to worry about any decisions that are made by church leaders. They're prophets, seers, and revelators, so the choices they make or policies they enact or doctrines they teach are from God through inspiration, and that's just that. 

love you!

Sis Murri

our faces say it all....

Swept Graves and Empty Tombs

JARED IS GOING TO BE A MISSIONARY IN SWEDEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When I opened up my email and saw stuff about missionary calls in the subject lines of emails, my heart got the same feeling as it had when I got my own call- excited and nervous and fluttery and wow, so many feelings.

Good thing I love him, because that whole leaving 3 days before I get back thing really stinks. Just want to cry a little over here in this internet cafe....

Anyway, as far as my week...hahaha I can't even remember anything I was going to say to you because my mind is all occupied with Sweden and Jared being a missionary.

The subject of my email this week comes, of course, from Easter. Here in Taiwan, there is a holiday called Grave Sweeping Day. People return to the place of their ancestry and clean off the graves of their ancestors and do ancestor worship rites. I don't know if it usually works out like this, but this year, it was on the same weekend as Easter. It was so neat for me to realize that because of Easter, the grave is not the end. There is life, both now, and to come.

So excited for conference this coming weekend! And also, I finished reading the Book of Mormon in Chinese, woohoo!

Sorry, I'm so distracted with all this Jared being a missionary stuff that my brain is not even working....just going to send a pic and call it good :D

Love you! 

Me