General Conference weekend!

What a great week! I just wanted to say my favorite part of the whole week was ENGLISH CLASS! We had some amazing miracles from English Class this week, and Sister Haupt and I just have such a big vision for our class here in MuZha. We went english boarding (handing out fliers, inviting people to come to class) outside of Zheng Da University in our neighborhood, and we seriously saw so much success. It was the best english boarding I have ever had on my mission. Most of the time, I feel like I'm just handing out fliers saying "mianfei de yingwen ban" (free english class) and it doesn't seem to be very effective. But this week, I discovered a new way to really get people's phone numbers and catch their interest: Talk in English with them! It's so simple. But it works! I just talk to people in English and act very friendly to them to give them an idea of what class will be like when they come. They love it! The Taiwanese LOVE practicing English every chance they get. So if you ask about them in English, they're hooked. It's like magic. From this week's english boarding, I got 15 people with A LOT of interest who all gave us their numbers and then on Wednesday night we had 4 new students show up, and they LOVED it. And the cool thing was, when I talked with them on the street, they didn't seem to have any interest in the gospel. But after coming to our church and being able to feel the spirit, ALL 4 of them came up to us missionaries after class saying they wanted to know more about our church and come to activities and meet with us. It was such a miracle, and it really opened my eyes to see how amazing of a program this is. Sister Haupt and I are seriously so excited for all the changes being made to English Class and we know it will give us so many opportunities to find new investigators and build up our area.

We had a really awesome experience doing Temple Tours this week. President Jergensen is making so many amazing changes to our mission. English Class is getting better, and he also has this vision for Temple Tours to become a lot more popular like they are in Salt Lake, and he has a vision to get a Visitor's Center some day. So some changes that have been made is there's a new calling in our mission, the Temple Tour Sisters. And they're just in charge of working with businesses and scheduling temple tour times and what not. Before, doing Temple Tours was hard if you didn't have any tours scheduled, and we'd have to go out and try to get people to do a Temple Tour. But the day we did it was the first day it started picking up and we had tours ALL DAY it was so crazy and exhausting but so fun. There was one tour we had with these elders that brought their investigator and we did this activity where the investigator and the elders stand at the top of the staircase and the investigator closes his eyes and the elders guide him down the steps to the picture of Christ with His arms opened wide. Him going down the stairs was supposed to represent us going through life. If our eyes are closed, we need someone to guide us to truth. The Spirit was so strong as the elders guided him down the stairs, and when he made it to the bottom, we invited him to open his eyes to see Christ in front of him and when he did, a peace filled the room. I thought a lot about this comparison afterwards and realized that the investigator, he definitely could have walked down the stairs without guidance, but it would be difficult and he would be alone. And most importantly, he wouldn't know where to turn after making it down the steps to return to our Father in Heaven. And he probably wouldn't know the importance of it either. But with guidance, it was safer, more comforting, and it made more sense in the end. It was a beautiful experience.

The rest of the week was incredible I loved General Conference so much so it was great having that time to listen to our prophet and his apostles and leaders. I really learned a lot from all that was said, but nothing can compare to the influence President Monson's talk had on me. The Spirit that accompanies his guidance is so real. As he spoke, I could see the struggle in his speech and he was really exerting all of his energy to testify of our Savior, probably as a result of his old age. But I have never been more sure in my life that he is a true prophet of God because of how he expressed his testimony with all of his heart.  I know the words spoken at conference were truth, but the feeling I felt while I listened to the many words of wisdom is something that cannot be denied or debated.  I know the Spirit testifies of truth.

Our area is doing great, and we are constantly thinking of ways to improve. Our closest investigator to be baptized is Chen Hong Yu. She's amazing! Her date is for November 8th. She is super super busy and has work from 8am-6pm and then class from 6:30pm-10pm. Every single day.... EXCEPT Sundays :D So she can meet with us on Sundays and come to Sacrament Meeting! Yesterday was crazy. After General Conference, we only had 45 min before our whole ward went to go finding together again as an activity, so the ward put together a lunch for everyone. But it was the only time we could meet with Chen JM so we skipped lunch to meet with her because we knew it was important. I know God blessed us for it, because it was an incredible lesson and she's just progressing so much. Then right after we met with her, our members gave us snacks to eat. It was such a miracle, and we are SO excited for her!

I seriously love this area more than anything. MuZha ward is so incredible and I'm so happy to work with them and serve them. 

Sister Hendricks

 Our washing machine broke, so we washed our clothes in the sink. haha

Us with Xiao Pei Xuan! She's from nan bu but goes to Zheng Da university so she comes to our ward during the school year. There's lots of members like that here, I love it!

We made pancakes for General Conference weekend! But we're limited in out kitchen utensils, so we had to improvise....