Typhoon Season!

Our favorite RC, Huang Mao Yu! He moves this week:( We will miss him!

This was a great week! Experiencing my first typhoon in Taiwan was exciting. Not as scary as I thought it would be, but probably because we were told to stay indoors. So I'm not sure if that actually counts as "experiencing" a typhoon. Nonetheless, I feel like everyday in XiZhi is a typhoon to some extent. Gotta love those summer downpours!

Lately, I haven't written much about our investigators because I feel like our most important investigator right now is myself and my companion. But lately we also have two really awesome investigators that are progressing! It's such a blessing and so exciting for Sister Peng and I. One is a guy named You Kai Jie. We were finding one day and had about 5 minutes left before our lunch time, but we both saw him across the street sitting on his motorscooter and felt impressed to talk to him. At first he said he has no time to listen about Jesus Christ, but after agreeing to say a prayer with us he kept listening and when we asked if we could set up a time to meet with him, he said he's free every morning before 12. He came to church the next day and yesterday as well. He's super great! Our other progressing investigator is Xie Wen Yun. She's an english class student that came a few weeks ago because some missionaries gave her a flier in a different area. She's very humble and wants to learn about God, and came to church as well. We're so grateful for these people and the opportunity to share this message with them!

This week was pretty cool. Sister Peng and I decided to follow every prompting we got no matter how ridiculous it may seem. The other day, we were riding our bikes after doing some service and had about an hour before a dinner appointment. We rode across this bridge and saw this guy sitting on a bench. We kept riding and then Sister Peng stopped and said she wanted to talk to him. So we turned around and started talking to him. Turns out he had absolutely no interest in what we were saying. So we kept going. And for the rest of that hour, we did the same thing, over and over again. Every time each of us felt to talk with someone, we stopped and turned around. It was interesting because I felt really good about it - I felt like we were really following the promptings of the spirit. But almost everyone we talked to had no interest in our message. I think only 1 person was at least willing to take an English Class flier in that whole hour.

Sister Peng asked me how we can know if we're really following the spirit or not. I said I believe that if it's a good impression, or a good feeling then it has to be from God. Then she said she doesn't feel like any of those "promptings" were a good feeling or a bad feeling. They were just thoughts that popped into her head. I thought about that for a while, and then realized that the thought in itself that came to her head - which was to share the gospel with someone even if they might not listen, IS a good thought. Therefore, it is a thought from the spirit. God encourages us to do good and to be good to everyone, even including those who won't accept the message. I learned that those thoughts do come from God, and when we follow them, we are showing God that He can trust in us.

Our purpose is to talk to as many people as we can, and give everyone a chance to hear the gospel. Our purpose and success as missionaries is not based on how many lessons we teach, how many people we help prepare to be baptized, or how many new/ investigators we receive, etc. We don't need to be a sister training leader, or seek the praise of others to be successful. Our success is measured by our desire and commitment to serve God with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength. Talking to all of those people that day strengthened my faith. I want to serve God with everything I have. Doing so brings so much happiness to this work.

Love you all!

Sister Hendricks

p.s. Our new mission president has created this website with videos and pictures from events in our mission. Go on, give it a look.

taiwantaipeimission.com

p.s.s. Next week we go to the temple! So our Pday won't be until next Wednesday.