Such a happy surprise! Yang Ming Fang, Lai 
JieMei, and Sister Haupt!

Another happy moment shared with my favorite family from
 MuZha!! The Lin Family :) 

Hello everyone!

I just love missionary work! It's been another great week of teachin and preachin and just doing our best. I've gotta say it's not the easiest thing in the world starting from rock bottom, but I think it's really inspired that I've been blessed to whitewash an area twice in a row because I've seen how the diligence and patience really pays off. Right now we're in the phase of no one to teach, so our days are filled with finding activities! Here's a great idea for every member of the church: introduce your friends to the missionaries! It's the most effective way for us to find people with interest, and it will bring you and your friend so much joy.

It's been really, really humbling being in this situation and realizing that the things we do as missionaries is just crazy without God's help. Really, how else could anything get done if the only thing trying to make a difference was two little missionaries trying to talk to a bunch of people that are busy in a country with not a lot of Christians and most people work or go to school every single day and claim to not have 20 minutes of time to meet, and then when they say they do, they don't show up. It sounds ridiculous and I can't think of a single person that would want to do something like this voluntarily if there wasn't a God of miracles that will work through us to change peoples' lives. So the cool thing is, it'll only go up from here! In every phase of my mission, whenever I've been in an area that is struggling, it ALWAYS picks up after a lot of patience, faith and diligence. So right now, we're just doing our best to do the things we love to do and be happy while we do it. The rest is up to God and His plan for the people in this area.

Also, we had the greatest experience doing Temple Tours last Saturday. I loved my last area so much, but I didn't want to spend this whole transfer thinking about those people and that ward, so I've been praying to be where I am now and experience this amazing new area with my companion. And when we went to do temple tours, it just happened to be Temple Day for the HuaLien ward, and guess who came to the temple for the first time? Yang Ming Fang!!! I was so happy to see her. Sister Haupt and her new companion went with her and we were able to give them a temple tour! It was such a tender mercy. Just another reminder that God loves us and knows the desires of our hearts.

Sister Hendricks

Look who I saw!

​This moment was just extremely happy. I am so grateful for the amazing life-long friendships I've developed here. I love Sister Stevens! She's in Taiwan visiting with her family. What a coincidence that I was able to see her!

My new companion, Sister Lee!

Our apartment from the outside

Welcome to my 6th area!

 Hello~

Welcome to my 6th area! Yep, I've moved again! I'm back to the very center of Taipei in a place called 板橋 (BanQiao) It's been a bit of a culture shock since I've been far far away from the city for about 5 months. I kinda forgot how many people are in Taiwan. My new companion is Sister Lee! She's about 31yrs old from Taiwan GaoXiong, and just finished training. I'm excited for this transfer!

Yang Ming Fang!

For a while, I was just praying that I wouldn't leave HuaLien. Everything about that area was just perfect, and I feel I grew so attached to the members, the missionaries, our investigators, my companion, even the mountains and beach! There was nothing within me that felt comfortable with leaving this perfect area on my last transfer, especially with all the times I've had to say goodbye on my mission already. But the night before we got moving calls, I was saying my prayers and the thought came to me that there's a lot more to life than just being comfortable, and I felt impressed to ask God for what I needed rather than what I wanted. I wanted to see if I could handle whatever challenge lays ahead with all the things that my mission has taught me. The next day during District Meeting, we received the text saying that we would move and I just had a pit in my stomach. I don't think I've ever experienced such anxiety on my mission. It was probably the hardest thing saying goodbye to those members and to Yang Ming Fang and Li Chong Wei. My heart was just broken. But I didn't want to go into this new area with this anxiety. So I decided to go in with faith. I knew it was where I was supposed to go. It's been the biggest blessing seeing that God has helped me learn how to deal with difficult situations. I really believe this is where I'm supposed to be. 

Li Chong Wei!

This area is basically being whitewashed. We have about 2 investigators. But the best part is it can only get better from here :)

Also! Li Chong Wei got baptized :) Even though I wasn't there to see it, I'm still so happy for him!

Have a great week!

Sister Hendricks

I will never ever forget this district!!

Our TaiQi Class! (Guess who that is in the back? Sister Griffin! She came to visit and helped us peike!)

I will miss our roommates!

Our whole zone woke up at like 5 in the morning to go to the beach on our last day together

Best place on earth!

I'll never forget our ultimate frisbee games!

Buffy!

This is my leaving smile

Helloooooo

I LOVED this week. I don't even know where to start. We had two zone meetings and two exchanges, so time just flew by. Sitting here emailing feels pretty weird. It feels like it's been 2 days since I last came to this internet cafe. But here I am!

Speaking of which, time is just going way too fast for me. This is the last time I have to anxiously wait for "the moving call". It has randomly stressed me out a couple times this week, but one day I sat down to talk with my companion about how I was feeling and as we talked, I received a clear impression that I just needed to work hard and enjoy every minute. So simple, right? Almost too simple. But it works! There's a million things I can't control, but I can control my happiness. We exchanged with our roommates the other day and Sister Tinsley and I got fang'd (they didn't show up), cancelled and dropped the entire day, but it was probably the funnest day of the week and we actually had a lot of success the rest of the day! And I realized it was because my focus was more on talking to people and "finding" because I love them and I believe in them. There's nothing happier than just talking to as many people as you can and relating their concerns to the gospel and helping them feel the spirit. It's so much more simple than I sometimes make it out to be in my head. 

Li Chong Wei after his interview! So so so happy

The best part of the week was Li Chong Wei passing his baptismal interview! He hasn't smoked in 5 days, and he feels like he's completely done. We had him over at a member's home, Lai JiaTing, and they just love him so much. They are such a big support to him. He voiced a concern that a lot of his friends are questioning him for coming to church and preparing to be baptized, quitting smoking and drinking tea etc, and he said that's the hardest part for him. But after talking about it, he felt like his true friends will support him in the positive decisions he's making. A lot of them came to visit him this weekend and we were a little nervous that he'd smoke again with them but he was just beaming when he came to church on Sunday and told us that his friends and family support him, and he hasn't smoked again! We are so happy for him! He's getting baptized on March 12th!

I just hope I don't leave this place. It's funny, in Chinese the word Zion is 錫安 (Xi'An) and the place we live in HuaLien is called 吉安(Ji'An), which sounds pretty similar. So we always refer to this place as Zion! It's just been the most incredible experience seeing such a difference in this area - especially in our ward. I feel like we started from nothing and we've come so far and I have grown so close to the people here. I've never put so much effort into building up an area, and the results have just been so fulfilling and joyful. I'm so humbled by the power of God and how much He loves His children. I know that God places us where we need to be...but please pray that I stay!

Sister Hendricks

Elder Crawford gave him his interview.

Let me tell you a story. Our zone consists of 2 sets of sisters and 6 sets of elders. The choice of where we go to eat for zone lunches is almost never in the sisters' power. So, this is me documenting my first McDonald's meal in Taiwan. Yes, it's just as terrible as it is in America.

​We have this really cute Philippino investigator that bought us cake haha 

We will all fail! :)

The classic temple photo every MLC. I will 

never get sick of this view.

I love the Beach!!

Hey family and friends,

We got to go up to Taipei again for MLC this week. I learn so much every time. President Jergensen is so inspired and I really believe his faith has made a deep difference in our mission, and to each missionary individually. It's crazy seeing the change in the last couple months with how many people have been baptized. It would be so hard to understand how it all works without faith. MLC was what I needed this week. President Jergensen shared a story from 1 Nephi 3-4 and talked about how simple faith is. Sometimes we think too hard about whether or not we have enough faith, or when someone doesn't listen to us, maybe I didn't focus hard enough on believing in them, or whatever it is - he said having faith is simply believing, being obedient and action. When God commanded Nephi to get the plates, he did it. And he failed - twice actually. But he believed that God would provide a way, and he worked hard to try again instead of giving up. When he failed, he acted by coming up with a new plan. 

One of the coolest lessons I learned from this is that the most important thing is how we respond to the tasks God gives us, with failure and all. Whether it's to get the plates from Laban, or to find a new investigator in the next 30 minutes, or to serve a mission, or apply to college, or apply for a new job. We will all fail in this life. God wouldn't put us into a perfect world with no challenge or trial to face. How would we ever experience joy without them? How would we ever grow? I think it's easy to feel like my failures have outweighed my successes as a missionary when I'm focused so much on the things I've messed up on. But I'm learning how to respond in faith. I could just give up, and see myself as a failure and take the easy way out. Or, I can trust that God will provide a way, and keep trying.

It's been the perfect lesson to learn as we've experienced many cancelled appointments and investigators not showing up to lessons all week. It's pretty tough when we go out to work really hard every day and our hopes are high for the people who set up with us, and then they don't show up to the appointments we set. But I'm glad there's a better way out of it than getting resentful! You just keep going, and hope for the best and be happy with what you can do. Sister Haupt and I have decided that our biggest strength is companion and teaching unity. We're working hard to get even better at it, because there's nothing better than doing what you do well to get your hopes up!

And the good news is, Li Chong Wei is still preparing for baptism!! He's still working on quitting smoking, but he's doing so much to overcome it. He told all of his friends and co-workers that he's quitting so that they wouldn't offer him anymore cigarettes, and is even looking for a new job that has a better environment. We asked him what has been the biggest help for him to quit smoking and he said prayer has helped him more than anything. He said it's amazing feeling like there's another person there to love you and remind you when you're tempted and want to give in. I'm so happy for him! He can't get baptized this week since he smoked once last week, so we moved it back to the 12th to give him enough time to be free from smoking for a good amount of time. But he went to a baptismal service the other day with us and he said after going, he knows for sure this is what he wants. I hope I don't move next week, but either way, I am so happy that I've been blessed to see these changes he's made in his life.

Have a great week!

Sister Hendricks

Sometimes I forget that I live on an island until I take a second to look at all the
 palm trees. I'm so lucky to be here.

Beautiful day last Pday!

We had some fun last Pday. I love Sister Haupt!

Sister Haupt and I in front of a statue of MaZu媽祖, a sea goddess.

楊明芳 Yang Ming Fang was baptized!!!

Isn't she just glowing?

Yang Ming Fang was baptized!!! It was probably the happiest day of my life. This week, we met with her and she said she had the most amazing experience through prayer. She told us she invites her family to church every week but they never come, and she was really nervous to invite them to her baptism because she really wanted them to come, but didn't want them to say no. She didn't know what to do, so she said a prayer and then their family sat down for dinner and her husband asked her if they could attend her baptism. She was just glowing with joy as she told us this story. She said she really feels like God answered her prayers. 

Her baptism was so beautiful. As she stepped into the font, I wish I could just capture the moment. There's really nothing as special as watching someone make all these steps to return to God. I just felt so overwhelmed with joy and gratitude that I could see the gradual change in her life over the past month. 

The best part was her family came to church the next day to see her confirmation! And Li Chong Wei got back from Taipei so he came, too! It was the best Sunday ever. After sacrament meeting, Yang asked our Bishop (he gave her the confirmation) how he knew all of her struggles and weaknesses that he mentioned in the blessing, and he told her that the blessing wasn't from him, it was from God and God knows her perfectly. She was just so touched.

This is us with Yang Ming Fang and her family!

That night, we met with Li Chong Wei to go over the baptismal interview questions with him to see if there's anything we needed to review before he gets baptized. I was a little nervous because he's been gone for 2 weeks, so I wasn't sure if he still wanted to be or not. But it went so great. And guess which member accompanied us? Yang Ming Fang! It was the perfect lesson. We set a goal with him to quit smoking by this last Saturday so that he could have 2 weeks of no smoking before his baptism on March 5th. I was so happy when he said he was following it and didn't smoke at all on Saturday or Sunday! We went through all of the questions, and he didn't have any problems with any of them. He had some questions about other churches, and still didn't understand what other churches believe in comparison to ours, but he believes that Joseph Smith restored the priesthood authority to the earth and he can feel that the Book of Mormon is true. Everything that Yang said was what he needed to hear, too. She said that the Spirit will testify of truth. Watching her in this lesson was amazing. It's like she's known these things her whole life. By the end, he just stopped and he said "I just really feel that this church... it's true." The spirit was so strong. It was so cool watching Yang and Li share their testimonies with each other. It was just the best day of my life.

It was a great week! I'm so excited for more miracles to come :)

Sister Hendricks

It's been an incredible Chinese New Year!

Such a beautiful day! We sat there staring at the ocean for like an hour and a half. So serene.

First GuoNian dinner!

It's been an incredible Chinese New Year! It was different than I expected, but in a good way. I arrived in Taiwan a week after Chinese New Year last year so this was my first one. A lot of missionaries that were here for the holiday last year told me all about how Taipei turns into ghost town and the streets are just empty for a whole week long and the only interaction you get with people is when you eat dinner at member's homes and they invite their relatives and stuff you with food and don't let you leave until all the food is gone... Good thing Chinese New Year on the East Coast is a completely different experience! It was really lively all week because everyone came from Taipei to HuaLien to visit grandparents. We didn't find many people that lived in our area, but it was a really fun week. I was afraid we'd be walking the streets all day with no one to talk to, but we had the coolest experience the other night. We met this guy from China, and shared about the Book of Mormon with him. He was just SO interested and had so many questions to ask. He was only here for travel and when he goes back to China, there weren't going to be any missionaries for us to refer him to. We meet SO many people from China here in HuaLien, and the more I talk to, the more excited I get for China to allow missionaries to go and proselyte. More than half of the people we talk to that are from China want to keep meeting with us. Anyways, so we gave him a Book of Mormon and taught him how to pray because that was the most we could do for him. Then we kept talking to other people and we met this other guy named Lin, and taught him about baptism and showed him a picture of Christ being baptized. His eyes were so fixed on the picture and he was so eager to meet with us again. Then his sister walked out of the 7-11 and we started teaching her too at the same time. And then the guy from China came back and started talking to Sister Haupt again to ask more questions! It was amazing. There we were in the middle of Chinese New Year talking to three people at the same time. As we shared our testimonies with these people, my heart was so warm. I felt like I could stay in that moment forever.

So beautiful!

The night just kept getting better, as we talked to a lady from TaoYuan shortly after. Her name was Chen. We asked if we could pray for her and she said of course. So we prayed and shared about Jesus Christ and then invited her to say her own prayer. She said she was Christian a long time ago and hasn't been to church or prayed in a long time, so she was really nervous to do it again. Nonetheless she decided to do so right then and there (outside of the 7-11 once again). As she closed her prayer I looked up to see a look of worry on her face, and I heard the words come out of my mouth asking if she was doing alright, and she began to cry. We sat there for about 3 minutes as she cried. Sister Haupt shared a simple sweet testimony that God loves her and knows her worries, and then Chen hugged us both and that same warm feeling in my heart grew so strong. I still don't know what was troubling her, or what she was feeling. But it was such a tender moment for Sister Haupt and I. It really reminded me that the things we do really can influence peoples' lives.

Skyping w/ Li Chong Wei!

So Sister Haupt and I have been working on developing more faith in our area, in our members, and in helping people to be baptized. We wanted to prayerfully set a goal of how many people we need to help be baptized in this area next month. After fasting and praying about it, we set the goal for 4 people to be baptized next month. At our zone meetings this week, we talked a lot about making inspired goals. If it is truly inspired of God that we help 4 people be baptized next month, we really believe we can do it under His direction. It was AMAZING seeing how God is already making it happen for us. Li Chong Wei has been gone for Chinese New Year, so we moved his date back to the beginning of March. And we've set many many baptismal dates in the last week and not to mention we got the best referral, Wang Yong Xiang. He was found by the other missionaries and he came to church yesterday and is so prepared to be baptized. I don't know why I haven't had faith my whole mission! It's so true that there are people being prepared in our areas. It's going to take a lot of diligence, faith, and love to make this goal.

Me, Yang Ming Fang, Sister Haupt, Sister Yao and Sister Li.
Yang Ming Fang is making so many friends already!
All the members love her so much :)

The best part of the week was Yang Ming Fang passed her first baptismal interview yesterday!! She gets baptized this Saturday! Seeing her progress towards baptism has been the most joyful part of my mission. I'm so excited for her. I just have to testify that faith can change lives. Faith and love is literally what has made the difference in this area. I'm so happy to be a missionary!

Sister Hendricks

Perfect day at the beach!

We were just enjoying a beautiful sunny day at the beach and these travelers became our friends!

Last P-day!  This is a 5-minute ride from our house! 

This has been the weather all week. You can actually see the sky~

​At Yang JiaTing's

This is our area's boundary line. Pretty fancy boundary line, right?

Our Bishop and his family!

Li JiaTing's vegetables and fish!

​All you can eat Hot Pot!

Sister Chen fed us curry :)

​This is what it looks like when you see someone you want to talk to, but there's awkwardly a bush blocking your path from sharing the gospel

 Some guy gave this to us on the street! My very first HongBao紅包~

I love my companion!

I forgot all about Valentine's Day until our roommates did this!