Hello Fam Bam

This week has been BUSY BEE! Literally with getting Sister Daye out and Sister Boyer in and helping all of Xin Zhuang transition, I've been very busy. Let's add one more thing in there too. Our dryer broke last week and I have a million clothes to wash today. I have NO IDEA what I'm going to do about this. It's quite stressful.

On the other hand though my language has DEFINITELY stepped it up. At the ward activity on Saturday night we watched the Joseph Smith movie. I wasn't sure if that was allowed since it wasn't P-day, but we had a few investigators there so I thought it was okay. PLUS the film was all in English so I had to translate. Yes. I translated an entire movie as I watched it for the people sitting around me. It was the craziest thing. It was rough, for sure, but nevertheless, the people we able to understand what was going on and feel the spirit. Afterwards they invited all the missionaries to bear their testimonies and share why we decided to come on a mission. At this point the other elders in our ward had to leave (because they forgot something they had to do). Sister Boyer and I bore our testimonies. The spirit was so strong after the movie and  I had the privilege of standing up first. I felt the spirit so strongly and started to tear up a little bit along with one of my investigators and the girl who is fellowshipping her. I love those moments.

My new companion is great. She's from utah and she's nineteen years old. I feel a great amount of responsibility to help her out in these next two transfers so that she can become the kind of missionary that she wants to be and work as hard as she wants to. We've come up with some good goals and we have plans for many miracles this transfer. Also, we've all been invited to flood Taiwan with copies of the Book of Mormon. Each companionship is asked to give out a case of 36 copies this transfer. We are definitely going to make it happen. I'm excited for the way things will play out. Although I feel a lot of weight on my shoulders, I have felt supported for sure. Mostly I'm just so shocked by my language improvement. The Lord has DEFINITELY blessed me and I just hope that I can do Him proud and bring many souls unto Christ.

So something I found in the scriptures recently that I really liked. We often get the question from people about needing to get baptized again. I don't know if it's because we're not explaining authority correctly or what, I think we totally are, but the question still comes up about needing to be baptized again. Well I found a golden scripture to use in Acts 19:2-6. You read it and tell me if it says what I think it says... a whole group of people all got baptized again because they didn't get the gift of the Holy Ghost the first time. It's okay to need to get baptized again by the proper authority. It doesn't take away from the first baptism, it simply adds to it and has a much deeper meaning.

Some other changes happened here in Xin Zhuang. We originally had 3 sets of missionaries in our area (2 elders and 1 sister). Now we just have one set of elders and one set of sisters. It's a super fun group for sure. It's Sister Boyer and myself, and Elder Beck (who was here before) and Elder Hagedorn (who I was in the MTC with). We all rode our bikes to a dinner at a members home last night. It was cool to just bike really fast and stop at every red light talking to people about the gospel. It's a cool group of people and I feel very blessed to work with some awesome missionaries.

In other news... actually I don't really feel like I have other news right now, I just wanted to say that.

This week doesn't have much to say because I had a lot of meetings to become a trainer. The Lord expects a lot from his trainers. I just hope that I can live up to that standard. It was definitely hard to say bye to Sister Daye though. She's by far one of my best friends and I just love her so much and we worked well together. Anytime there is a change it is hard. The change itself is fun and good and my new companion is great, the added responsibility on the other hand is nuts and I appreciated Sister Daye all the much more now that I realize how much she did for me and Xin Zhuang.

Oh yesterday and church was the first time that I understood everything and didn't have a hard time focusing. (Okay didn't understand everything, but the bulk of it). So for all the missionaries who think they're never gonna get the language, don't worry about it. If I could do it, you DEFINITELY can.

Well that's pretty much it. We're praying for many miracles and working hard. Literally working hard and taking names... and then referring them to other missionaries.

Also it's weird that I feel so much pressure on my shoulders and yet can feel pretty relaxed at the same time!

Anyway, I love you all.

I know that this church is true and that I'm engaged in a good work. I won't lie, missions are hard, but they are worth it and the time flies (most of the time). In fact, it flies like an arrow. Guang1yin1 Si4jian4 Moral of the story is that I'm a happy girl and I can't believe I've already been on a mission for 6 months. It's absolutely insane. I just hope that I can live up to what is expected every day that I'm out her and help my companion succeed. She is so hard working, so she'd totally succeed with out me, but I hope I can assist in anyway. I want to be an instrument in the Lords hands.

Love you all,

Cae <3

Big News Week

This week has been long. And busy. And awesome. Per usual.

I'm excited to go to the temple today but scared I'll sleep through it because I'm so so so so tired. And I'm only gonna be more tired... for the whole rest of my mission because of the big news I got this past Saturday.

I'm not really sure what to write about this week because I didn't remember to write down about the cool things that happened to me. So now I've forgotten. Well it's all written in my journal. I guess I'll share some cool things that I learned from the scriptures this week.

Oh wait I have one story! This last Saturday we went to lunch with a part member family. We went to a hot  pot place. It was so delicious and we stuffed ourselves all up. I did try something new and different. Pig ear. Never saw that one comin'! 

Also last Saturday, Elder Peterson, one of the AP's called me. He called to ask about how my preparation to pass of Phase Two of our big language tests is coming. We set up a time for me to pass it off in a week and a half (hopefully I'll be ready by then). But then he told me that it's a good thing I'm doing so well in the language and that I'm really gonna need it because I'm training a new missionary next transfer (well the next two because you train for two). Wow. I was speechless. I don't feel at all prepared for something so big, but I guess if the Lord thinks I'm ready and my other leaders think I'm ready then I'll do it.

As I studied the scriptures this week I also came across a scripture that really makes me happy and feel much better about this big task coming up. If you think about the 2000 stripling warriors and think about how much they were actually NOT qualified by the world's standards to do what they did. But the Lord supported them. I asked Sister Daye what I can do to be a good trainer and see success as a missionary/trainer/senior companion. She said be obedient. It's true. In Alma 57:21 we learn that the 2000 young men had so much success because they were STRICTLY obedient. Done. That's what I'll do. I know that it will pay off and I know that I'll be supported in my new role. I'm excited. Nervous. A little stressed. But mostly just really happy that I get to be here in the service of God helping people come closer to him.

This last week we had a baptism. It was awesome awesome awesome! I'll send pictures.

The church is true.

Love you all,

Cae

Ps. I got a letter from Sister Ash yesterday. Thank you! I loved it. I'll write back soon when I get the chance (: Love you!

Pictures:

Elders setting up the camera

District picture from past transfer

At the baptismal font before a baptism

A picture from lunch

Japanese Book of Mormon

Funny ad while proselyting. "Please note: he's holding a calculator!"

A picture in front of a temple they visited on P-day

 New mission vehicles

An ice dessert with peanuts on it

A place where people can eat snakes

Pictures!

Hey...so its Micaela's older sister here updating her blog this one time with a blog full of pictures! Pictures are in order from most recent to the oldest.

"We find some interesting things in grocery stores.. Kiwi cereal"

"And almonds and fish. Mmmm delicious."

The Hot Pot Place..."SO DELICIOUS"

"The dog of the people that make us breakfast almost every morning" (with her companion )

One of many dinners she has gone to

Book of Mormon that she found in Portuguese at the temple

 Book of Mormon in Marshallese

"When I was on an exhange with Sister Sutton we at cow horns. It's pretty much a croissant. Yum. I took a picture by that cow horn statue."

"Also we had a delicious dinner. I had curry with a ball of rice wrapped in an egg in the center. SO GOOD! My eyes are really dark in that picture... because I'm exhausted. And because the lighting was nuts (:"

"Lastly I had a panda bear bread... He had some raisins inside that i picked out with chopsticks (:"

"The picture of the squid being touched is actually Sister Daye's hand. She has the picture of me touching it on her camera."

"We went to Ikea for lunch one day. I had to pee. Of course I didn't pass up the opportunity to use the worlds smallest functioning toilet! SO HILARIOUS!"

Some Elders from her mission with her and her companion.

Here is one of her two of favorite puppies from the pet store. The crazy eyed one is my favorite. I named him spot because its typical and anti climactic.

After rearranging their apartment.

Sister Wu

There's also a picture of a neat taxi she saw in Tucheng. 

And last is a picture of someone making bamboo juice. It was super cool to watch. It just went through this machine that crushed it and squeezed all the juice out!

I hope you enjoy all the pictures!

Catch the wave!

Hey family!

I love that I get to write every week. You are all so great! Love you! Don't forget-- next week I will have P-day on Wednesday instead of Monday because we are going to the temple! I'M SO EXCITED TO GO TO THE TEMPLE! EEEK! Moral of the story is that it will take a little longer to hear from me.

This week was mostly just full of a lot of meetings so no big stories or anything. I loved conference though. I love that there are so many missionaries and the the family is still super important. And the role of woman! HOLLA! 

Something I forgot to mention last week that was hilarious. We have an investigator who is really special and forgets everything. We met with her last Sunday and in discussing the spirit I asked her how she feels when she reads the Book of Mormon. She says she feels a "good good feeling." Then I asked what that "good good feeling" was called. She said excitedly "Sister Daye!" So cute. I gently reminded her that Sister Daye helps us to feel that good feeling but it's actually called the spirit. She is so precious. I adore her.

I went on exchanges with Sister Thomsen on Thursday. It was the craziest experience because she is still so new. She relied on me to understand what people were saying a lot and more often than not she would rely on me to speak to people (because she is still so new in learning Chinese). She is doing an amazing job. She is so hard working and really has a desire to serve the Lord and follow the spirit. That was a big learning experience for me because for the first time I was the companion who was ahead in the language. Not because I'm amazing at it, but because I've been here a transfer longer. We had a busy day. It was rainy. And busy. In all of our interactions I knew that she was depending on me to understand everything. So if I didn't understand I had to speak up and clarify. And if she didn't understand I had to translate. It was the weirdest thing. We had a lesson that evening that had a LOT of Chinese in it. I mean most lessons do, but the peike and the investigator both spoke a lot. It really tested my listening skills. I understood the entire lesson and felt like I knew when and how to respond appropriately. I thought Sister Thomsen understood too because she always said the right thing at the right time. It wasn't until after that I found out she really didn't. I was happy to assure her that it had gone smoothly and that things will work out-- a fact I only knew because of the Spirit and the gift of interpretation of tongues which He has given me. It was a really really neat experience where I learned that I can do hard things. I don't need to lean on Sister Daye as much anymore. Although I'm not perfect and if she suddenly disappeared I'd cry, I learned that I'll be okay when I get a new companion next transfer regardless of her language ability.

Also while I was on exchanges, Sister Daye was here... and crashed. Now she is tender. Like an old person... which makes sense because if every transfer is the equivalent of 10 years of our life, she's ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHT YEARS OLD RIGHT NOW! What a trooper!

WE HAVE A SOLID BAPTISM COMING UP NEXT SATURDAY! I'm so excited. Of all the baptisms we've had this is the first one that I've been with every step of the way. I've watched her grow and progress. I've heard her prayers change from thanking God that she could meet with us and hear new stories to thanking Him for letting her receive personal revelation. I've seen this quite girl find strength in the Lord and open her shell. I've seen someone who was tired and wanted to sleep when she wasn't at work wake up and have a light in her eyes that you can't deny. She truly has changed and she has been a joy to teach. The last lesson we taught her about was tithing. She has such faith. We told her all the blessings of tithing and how it works and where the money goes (including to help missionary work go forward). She said she would pay it. When we asked why she felt she wanted to, she said because I want other people to hear the gospel. Her tithing is going to missionary work in her eyes. How great is she?! We're VERY excited for her (:

Oh not all yet. Last week during English class, we had the doors open for new comers (typical)... well A DOG RAN INTO CLASS AND JUMPED ON ONE OF OUR STUDENTS. Then they all got up and left before we finished the spiritual message that we share at the end. It was REALLY hilarious. And super frustrating too because I was going to invite them all to come watch conference. Satan has many tactics. Anyway-- dogs. I love dogs. But I'm a missionary. So by default the hate me... and I'm not their biggest fan right now either.

Love you all! 

Cae

Love you all!

Sorry today's letter will be short. I usually write through out during the week things that I want to mention. This week wasn't all that special though. Don't get me wrong, we definitely had miracles, but it just wasn't as jam packed. Also I had a headache all week so I don't remember much.

Here's a good story though.

This is about our golden investigator. We absolutely love her so so much!  She is distancing herself from some of her friends that want to go to another church because she realizes that they have different standards now and she wants to live with God's standard. It's amazing. She absolutely knows this is the true church. We can tell her level of commitment by the tactics that satan uses against her. (REALLY THOUGH). So here's how committed she is. Last week she had promised a friend to go to church with them (months ago) so she had to go, but she brought a copy of the conference Liahona that we lended her and read it during church. She also brought the boy she likes and when he thought it was weird she said "don't worry, my church is much more peaceful." Then we hadn't gotten in touch in a while so we stopped by her house. Apparently we rang the doorbell just as she was about to call us. She set up for that night. We started teaching the third lesson. She stopped us at baptism and said she's nervous because she's having a hard time with one particular hurdle. We started talking about priesthood blessings and fasting (because these things will help her quit). She really wants a blessing and wants to know more about fasting. We ran out of time so set up for the next day when we were doing temple tours. We'd have her come to the temple to do a tour with us. By the time her appointment came, she wasn't there. We were getting worried. This is where satan comes in. HE HIT HER WITH A CAR! Yes, Satan knows that this investigator is NOT going to budge...SO HE HIT HER WITH A CAR. SO RIDICULOUS. Needless to say, she couldn't make it to the temple because she got run over (exaggeration). The situation is laughable. Anyway, she is perfectly fine and not hurt, but that night she was sore enough that she couldn't really do anything. The next day she was going to come to church and we had her blessing all scheduled. She got a fever. I don't blame her for not coming. A cold and a fever are very different. The moral of the story is that Satan is hitting her with things she can't control (like cars). That is how we know she is solid (:

I absolutely love her so much. Our sweet little miracle. You all would love her too. 

I read a cool thing in the scriptures too. Alma 35:6-10 The People of Ammon were threatened for standing up for their brethren. How committed are you to standing up for family member? Friends? New members of the church? I hope that all of us are willing to go out of our comfort zone to stand up for people. Especially our family members.

Wow I really don't have much to say. I've moved on to phase two in my language study. This means I just have 2000+ words to learn. I plan to test it the end of this month when Sister Daye leaves.

I haven't eaten anything too crazy this week. They do something cool here where they wrap  fried rice in an egg. It's the best thing ever. I don't know how they do it though.

Also I think my language has improved this week.

Also I read a lot of conference talks. I HATE THAT I HAVE TO WAIT AN EXTRA WEEK FOR CONFERENCE.

Wow I'm sorry I don't have more to say. I have some pictures though. *Still trying to learn to post them..

We did temple tours last Friday. They went really well. We had a woman come in with her son. He was interviewing to go to BYU. We did a tour with them. She had a question about the Book of Mormon half way through the tour so we changed directions and talked to her about that and how it is our convincing evidence that Joseph Smith was a prophet. They LOVED IT! They both gave us two referrals and were so excited to have their own copy of the Book of Mormon. It was super exciting. After our tour they went and sat on the couch and started reading and praying on their own. GOLD! That was a really cool experience to be part of. 

Also, we went on exchanges this week so I spent a day in Tucheng with Sister Sutton. While there we found this AWESOME girl. She seemed really interested in the feel of families and respect for families so I felt like I should mention the temple. She was so excited to hear about that because it's different from her church and was more than willing to set up, take a Book of Mormon, read the intro, and exchange contact information. She is super adorable and so I'm really excited that the Tucheng sisters get to start meeting her. Sweet sweet girl.

Wow this week really was good. It's a shame I missed it all because of my headache. Oh well. I get many many more weeks out here. 

Also I've been on a mission for almost 6 months. Weird. AND i've been on island for almost 3 months. When you look at it that way, time is FLYING BY.

(:

Love Cae

Gewei xiondi jiemei dajia zao an!

* Micaela sent a picture of her eating "chicken butt".  Sadly, I do not know how to post pictures yet.  Sometime I will try to get someone to help me.  Unfortunately, her editor is a techno-idiot.

Hi family. The subject essentially means good morning brothers and sisters. That's what people say at the beginning of talks. After they say it then everyone in the congregation responds by saying "zao" which means morning, but really is like good morning. It's cool. I'll definitely teach the ward during my homecoming talk in a million years.

Something I missed the other day a lot was family naptime. I told Sister Daye about it. She laughed.

Also, conference for us is not next week. It will be broadcasted here the second week in April.. So no spoilers!

We had a baptism this week. SJM.  She's so great. She was a former that just showed up. We set a baptismal date with her for 4/27 but after teaching (reviewing ) a few lessons that she'd already been taught we realized that she was ready. Last Saturday we met with her and she moved her date up to the next Saturday (two days ago). It was awesome. After her baptism we had a ward activity. The ward just welcomed her with open arms. We also had a few other investigators/potentials at the ward party. We have the best ward for missionary work here in Xin Zhuang!

While at the ward activity I told PJM about how mom put me in a circus class. Then I juggled paper towels for her. You would be surprised. Juggling paper towels is very hard. I will practice. I want to learn to juggle balls. Wow. I am quite the odd cookie.

Last Tuesday we had a zone conference. While we were having a workshop, I was taking notes. I wrote this at the top of my page (good thing to because I forgot about it until I re-read it last night. "Please note: there was an earthquake in Taiwan March 27, 2012 at 10:03 am during zone conference."

Lol.

It was a REALLY shaky earthquake. Not like my first one. Much stronger. I do appreciate the fact once again that I was not sitting on the toilet during it. That would have been stressful.

Oh yesterday we went to an investigators house where she fed us stinky tofu. This time my companion told me it was good stinky tofu. Last time it had gotten cold and I didn't eat it with anything. I tried one bite. It was definitely much better than last time. I don't love it though. It's just tolerable. Now I can refuse it next time i'm offered. The whole zoo thing really disturbs me though.

Also. I FINALLY PASSED OF PHASE ONE! Thank heavens! It was super hard. But now I can work on phase two. I have about 2000 words to memorize. It will really help my language improve a lot I think.

I was feeling really down the other day-- and unappreciated. I read a talk by Elder Holland that I came across. "Because of your faith" It really helped a lot. You should read it. http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/because-of-your-faith?lang=eng

Also it made me realize that I don't thank you all enough. Especially mom and dad. Thank you so much for paying for my mission. And for everything else you do. It really means a lot to me.

Okay miracle time:

We've had some really neat miracles this week that I want to share. On our way home from Zone conference we took a taxi from the MRT station to our apartment. We've made a practice of teaching lessons to our  taxi drivers. And actually we decided to take a taxi that day simple because we haven't had a taxi lesson recently and we wanted to have one. Well the desires of our hearts were answered. While we were talking I asked how business was. It lead to a conversation about how he does not enjoy his job. He used to be a bus driver and he really doesn't enjoy that either. I asked him if he wanted a new job. He said yes, but there aren't any available. Then we told him that he ought to try praying about it. We taught him all about what prayer was and told him he could even ask God questions. He can ask God where to look for a job, what type of job would suit him, etc. He lit up like a child at the candy store. He had never known this before. We testified powerfully together that He can pray at anytime and taught him how to recognize answers to his prayers. He told us he definitely will start to pray. It was neat to see him learn that prayer is more than a chance to ask for blessings, but rather a chance to discuss things with a Heavenly Father. We gave him a few tracts and asked if we could get his number for the elders. He didn't want to give out his number but he said he'd read the tracts and we gave him our number. I think he's one step closer to where he needs to be.

A few days ago my companion was feeling really sick. After talking to Sister Day we concluded to take her to the doctor. After she met with the doctor we started talking to him a little about where we are from. He said he had an uncle who lived in Utah for a little bit who is a Mormon like us. He went on to talk about how he and that uncle are very close. When his family (the doctors family) moved to California, the uncle was really helpful in getting their young family settled and  comfortable. He was always willing to lend a hand. Needless to say, his relationship with his uncle was very deep and very meaningful to him. He told us that his uncle  passed away just a few days ago from cancer. He also said that the funeral was today (as in the day that we were talking with him). It was obvious that he was in a lot of pain from missing his uncle. He mentioned that he is traditional buddhist and that his wife is Christian so they didn't really know much about their uncle's beliefs, but they are pretty sure that he's probably in a happy place. We asked if he was willing to let us share exactly what his uncle believes about life and the plan of salvation. He said of course. We taught him (and his wife who was listening from the door way) about the plan of salvation. The spirit was so strong and they were so touched. We talked a lot about the spirit world and read a scripture about what it's like up there from the Book of Mormon. We also talked a little about eternal families and the role of the temple in that. By the end he thanked us a lot for being there for him. He told us that it really was nice to have someone who understood what he and his wife were grieving about to share that with them. His wife eagerly took a Book of Mormon and they committed to checking out mormon.org. The lesson was one of the most powerful I've been in. I really like teaching the Plan of Salvation to people. It answers a lot of questions. We will go back to check on them sometime for sure.

The other day we had another miracle. We have an awesome investigator (J.). She is solid. She knows this is the true church and we've had a lot of amazing spiritual experiences with her. Plus she receives personal revelation all the time. She reads the gospel principles manual at work... so she has a really good doctrinal foundation. It's the craziest thing. She is so solid and she is so determined to get baptized on 4/20. Anyway we had a lesson with her last week. Something crazy happened and it's obvious that it was all anpai'd by God. Her lesson started late, but two other investigators (who are about her age) came while we were still talking with J. We just followed the spirit and taught them all together. Our peike had to leave part way through and what happened is the J. totally jumped into the role of the peike. She shared experiences and taught correct doctrine and really had a powerful influence on these other two girls. It was the most insane thing ever. I couldn't have arranged it myself. Those girls really needed J. in their lesson to answer their questions and help ease any of their concerns. Cool cool cool!

Oh and also this week I ate a chicken butt. So hilarious. Americans don't like chicken butt. Taiwan gets a lot of chicken butt from America. I took a video. I'll send it if it's not to big.

Love you all.

-Micaela

Ps. I learned a lesson this week about being nice to people. Our words really have a big impact on people. Be nice!