Chapters 41 and 42: I'm Going to Be Famous

Hello!!!

Wow what a crazy week it's been!! This week started off a little weird, but first some background. 

A couple weeks ago on our Mission Line group (just like a huge messenger with all the missionaries in the mission on it) one of our APs sent out a list of like 40 people and said "if you're name's on here, you're going to be famous! Well kind of, the church is making new safety videos for missionaries and they want us to be the missionaries in the videos! So if your name is on this list, you should be getting more information later about where and when you will be filmed." And guess who's name was on the list. It was yours truly :) So on Tuesday morning they called me and were basically like "Cancel all your plans and come to Taibei to get filmed doing exercise. Wear exercise clothing." And so we did! It was fun and I got to see some old missionary friends from the MTC. So all you future missionaries, when you watch those safety videos rolling out in 2019, watch for me walking briskly up the stairs on a hiking trail ;) haha

In other news! We met a super sick new investigator this week! Her name is Shi JieMei and she's a former investigator! She actually got baptized 2 years ago, but never got confirmed and kind of disappeared. So she needs to get baptized again! We found out it was because she got really sick and couldn't come to church and then she just felt bad, but now she is willing to change and she set a baptismal date for the end of the month! She is honestly so cool and so prepared, I can't wait to see what else happens with her. 

Another miracle!! This week we started our free English class in Yilan! I was soooo nervous because I am English Unit Leader and the responsibility of it succeeding or failing kind of rests on me, but we have been going hard inviting people to come, and we actually had a really good amount of people come! It was definitely a miracle and I'm so thankful that people came and we were able to teach them English!

On Saturday after English class, Tu JieMei and I had a lesson in NanFangAo, like 25 km away. Unfortunately there were NO trains that you could take your bikes on, so we had to bike from Yilan to NanFangAo, then bike back home from NanFangAo. The hardest part of riding our bikes wasn't the distance, it was the bugs! Taiwan has been heating up lately (it's been in the mid 80s) and that means the bugs are coming back! (or more are starting to appear, they never really went away haha). Anyways, Sister Tu and I had to keep stopping every km or so to help each other get the tiny fruit flies out of our eyes hahahaha. Needless to say, it was definitely one of the most painful, weirdest bike rides I've ever been on, but it was totally worth it because we got to meet with our investigators! 

I hope you all have a great week this week! Keep reading the Book of Mormon! I would love to hear about what you are reading and how it applies to you! 

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Larson

Pics:

1-6. Our ward mission leader Guo baba and his wife Guo mama took us out in their huge car last p-day to fun places in Yilan! We went to some hot springs and cooked corn and eggs and put our feet in the water, and just saw some other pretty cool things too. 

7,8. Us with the filming crew and selfie of where we were filming

Hello!

This week was another great week here in Yilan! We saw a lot of miracles, we didn't have to bike for a thousand kilometers, and we taught some super cool lessons! 

I think one of the biggest miracles this week was the improvement we saw in a family we've been teaching for a while. For a long time they weren't coming to church, weren't reading their scriptures, and weren't really keeping any commitments, so when we went to go teach them this week, we had planned to drop them. We were just going to tell them that we loved them and would love to continue to meet with them, but if they weren't going to keep their commitments, we had better ways to use our time. (unfortunately sometimes you have to have lessons like that). But we went in to this lesson prepared to just hit them hard with the importance of the Book of Mormon, and during the lesson, they really listened and really paid attention to what we were saying. When we asked them if they were willing to read the Book of Mormon, they actually said, Yes! Not just, We'll try. And then they committed to come to church! So yesterday, the husband ended up bringing his little son to church! It was so awesome. Such a miracle. The Book of Mormon has such power!

Lately in my studies, I have been studying in Ether 12. It's such a good chapter about faith. Study and read it and you will learn so many things. But I think my favorite part about this chapter is in the last verse, verse 41. It says, "And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written..." Wow. I just thought that was so good! Just a simple invitation to "Seek this Jesus." So I don't care how you have to do it, but do whatever you possibly can in your power to always being seeking for Jesus and striving to become like Him. I know that our lives will be happier and we will have more peace in this life and in the life to come. 

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Larson

It rains all the time here (if you weren't aware) and so a couple of weeks ago I finally swallowed my pride and did as the Taiwanese do, I bought a floor length raincoat. It's huge because it was the only one long enough for me haha. Also it has little Snoopys all over it. Because Taiwanese people are obsessed with Snoopy haha. 

Today we went to the National Center for Traditional Arts and took these cute pictures!! We also saw a performance of the 12 zodiac animals and it was way cool!! They were all super good at dancing and doing cool tricks! Try to spot your animal  Also when we were going to get pictures with them, one of them just kind of said 耶穌基督 (ye1su1ji1du1) Which means Jesus Christ (the big characters on our nametags) and it was kind of fun haha. Actually, I hear a lot of people say 耶穌基督 under their breath all the time as we walk or do things. It's so cool to always be representing Jesus Christ!