Having a departing companion is so fun, you get to hop on all the 请's from the members haha but also you get to see all the members everyday and be with them which is special! I learned from them everyday this week
☆ Monday: Furness Fam! We went and visited them in their apartment and had hotpot together. It was fun getting to know them better and their teenage life. They shared some of the fun activities they used to do when they were younger. We shared a message about starting the new year with more goals that help and challenge us to "become". Something I liked from their sharing was when Nephi was bound with cords: he asked to shake off the bands when he was tied but instead God loosed it. He was expecting to have this big manifestation of God's power but God had a different plan on how He wanted to show His power. That was cool!
☆ Tuesday we went to the temple and I had a really cool experience! I came with a question and as I was pondering I picked up the scriptures and tried the trick that other missionaries try: to open a random page and read it. I did it and it didn't work on me but I had a thought to open Doctrine and Covenants 31:11. So I read the whole chapter and it was so meaningful and an answer to my prayers. The chapter was directed to a missionary and blessed him and his family. I felt that it was for me too! A very timely message. We then had a meal with Nancy from our branch and got to hear some of her mission experiences when she was younger. She was one of the pioneer sister missionaries in the Taiwan mission. I love how the mission stays forever, the memories may not be as clear but the feelings will always be strong and unforgettable.
☆ Wednesday we met a couple from Mainland, they were so cute hahaha. They're from Jiangshu. We tried teaching them about prayer and Jesus Christ, it was a little hard because they were old. Their kids and grandkids were really hoping that they could get baptized but didn't really see it coming. I just loved their smiles so much, it was so contagious hahaha. I love every single Mainlander we meet. At night, we visited the Lee family and had a sweet family home evening, I got to teach Seona how to play the ukulele. We all sang I am a Child of God. President Lee shared some funny experiences learning English in Utah. He shared how one night this little girl knocked on their door, she didn't speak a lot of English and so did he, so he asked her in his broken English "what's your name?" and she didn't understand but she was holding a tortilla and so she said "tortilla!" and because he didn't know what a tortilla was he said "nice to meet you, tortilla!" Haha that was so funny! The spiritual thought was super cool, we talked about how we need to humble ourselves even to the dust and the kids shared a really cool thought that I never thought of. They asked why we had to be humble even to the dust and she said "because the dust doesn't really have any worth or it's kind of useless but if we humble ourselves even to the most little things then we can humble ourselves to bigger things."
☆ Thursday we had our zone conference, wah! My second to the last conference. Crazy! We went to the Tai family's apartment and prepared a message. I was so nervous beforehand knowing what would the perfect message be for them, so I did a lot of praying and thinking about what message we could share. We shared about spiritual gifts and how we can seek earnestly for more spiritual gifts that we may not have right now but we can develop if we do things that will help us develop it.
☆ Friday the mainland baptism happened with the old couple hahaha we didn't expect they would get baptized but they did!
☆ Sunday, we had an awesome friend come to church for the first time. Her name is Ella! She came to break the fast and met the members. She had a really spiritual experience during the lunch. She got to hear more about Christianity and her eyes just sparked wanting to learn more. It almost seemed like she was craving to know everything for a long time but only knew more about it now. It was awesome, you could just see her eyes change. Sister Wright shared her last talk in her departing devotional which was very special!
大家新年快乐！Happy Chinese New Year! 
PICTURES:
☆ jia 弟兄
☆ 杜姐妹
☆ anne + kari
☆ philippines group
☆ second language zone
☆ ella + new year decorations
☆ devotional with elder renlund
☆ break the fast
薛姐妹
XUE JIEMEI
SISTER SY
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