Yang Ming Shan!! 

Family and friends~

It's still really hard to see our recent convert, Xie Yi Ling fall away so quickly. She hasn't been to church once since her baptism, and it's hard setting up times to meet with her. No matter how hard we try, she still has her agency. Of course we have to respect that as our Father in Heaven does to all of His children, but it just breaks my heart. She says she's noticed it's really hard for her to feel the spirit since her baptism, and things just don't seem to be going well. We try helping her understand that she needs to obey God's commandments in order to receive the blessings He promises to us. She knows what she needs to do. The hard part is watching her do her own thing that isn't bringing her the happiness she needs. I pray she can have a change of heart.

On the other hand, we were able to attend the most amazing baptism of our investigator, Zhui JieMei on Saturday! They are such an amazing family. She's wanted to be baptized for a long time but has waited for her husband to be ready to be baptized with her. But last week, we invited her to be baptized when SHE'S ready, and accepted the date of September 12th. We promised her that her family would follow her example. God really blesses those that are faithful and believe in him. This week her husband, Wand DiXiong had an incredible experience through prayer that was a turning point in his personal conversion. On his own, he decided he needed to quit smoking and set a baptismal date! Even though he won't be baptized until Oct. 3rd, it was still the most amazing baptism - seeing this cute family make their first big step to unite as an eternal family. Zhui JieMei is seriously so full of faith and has made the biggest impact on her family, and will continue to as they all continue to prepare to be sealed together in the temple. I'm so so excited for them!

Man, I really learned a lot this week. I'm so so so lucky to be a missionary. I've learned so much and continue to learn everyday. I've noticed that I go into every transfer with high hopes and a lot of confidence, and a short week after every transfer meeting, I'm very humbled and realize so quickly that with every new transfer comes God's creative way of showing me what I need to improve. This time it's through having two companions. There's definitely a reason trios usually only last a few weeks or so. We're the only trio in the mission that's been together for a whole transfer. All I'm gonna say is Heavenly Father really loves us so he's just testing us to see how long we can go haha. I love my companions though. Even though we all have different ideas and sometimes don't all agree on one idea, I've learned that we are all here with the same intentions to serve God and to do good. None of us is "better" than the others, and none of us have terrible ideas. We're all the same in God's eyes, and we're all doing our best to build up our companionship and area despite the weaknesses we all obtain. 

We had an Outdoor Zone Conference this week and it was the BEST day of my life. We went HIKING up Yang Ming Shan, the most beautiful place in the universe. I LOVE Taiwan. It was so nice to shake things up a bit and receive personal revelation through hiking up a steep mountain to a very peaceful place where feeling the Spirit was so easy. Something that I really learned specifically is that I need to stop being a perfectionist. I focus so much on my weaknesses and the things I do wrong, that it makes me unhappy with myself and my performance. Instead of focusing so much on the things I need to change to the point where I stress myself out, I've realized I need to focus more on repentance. Because we are imperfect, God gave us His Son. If I'm not using His atonement to repent daily and actively choose to change, then I'm taking the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for granted. His sacrifice should give us hope. I know who I am because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ - I'm an imperfect being with too many flaws to count. But I'm one who is always looking up.

Sister Hendricks

Splits with Sister Li! (Carol Lee)

I found a lizard!

​Hey I'm Sister Hendricks. Yes, I live in this beautiful country known as Taiwan to be a missionary of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. And, YES I am the happiest person to walk the face of the earth!

South Zone Sisters!!

The famous TRIO!

Ahh - too beautiful!

This was the best ward activity ever. Our Ward Mission Leader put together this activity to have a bunch of members come finding with us in a part of our HUGE area that takes a lot of time to travel to. We split up and got with our "companions" and went finding! It was so incredible to see so many members attend, so excited to be apart of missionary work. I really am in the best ward ever. 

My first time seeing a monkey!

Our last day together as a district! Celebrating at Juicy Buns. Elder Roe got a call the other day and he's being emergency transferred today to be Zone Leader somewhere. I'm going to miss our tiny district!!