News of the week - slightly longer version

Thursday though we went over to our Ward mission leader's house and ate lunch with him and his wife. His wife is not a member and has some strong Buddhist beliefs. We taught her the Plan of Salvation though, and she said she could believe all of it. I really hope that as she's taught she can come to know the gospel is true, just like her husband. It would be so awesome if in just a little over a year they could go to the temple together and be sealed.

Saturday night was our second attempt at our fireside about the life of Christ. We had about 45 or 50 people attend, which we decided for a 3 ward activity on a Saturday night in Taiwan is pretty good. We know of at least 3 nonmember that attended,but the other wards certainly could have had had more people attend. It was a little bit crazy of a day for us as we had just come back from exchanges, but with some persistence and a while lot of faith, it was successful. There was such a strong spirit there testifying of the Savior, His life, works and Atonement and His reality. Sister Hendrix and I both felt the Spirit confirm that the Lord acknowledged and approved of the time and energy we put into using our talents and unique abilities to provide this opportunity for other to learn for Christ. I know many who attend were touched in just he way the Lord knew they needed, and Sister Hendrix and I both had very significant impressions throughout the evening. For me, it was the confirmation I was called to Taiwan specifically because of those living here. I looked around at the audience and I saw the members of my ward that I have come to love the people who have become my family and I just felt so grateful for the opportunity I have to be serving here, particularly in Zhanghua. The Stake President and bishops of the wards attended and the support from the members was really felt as they did what they could to support this activity and invite others to come unto Christ. I don't know if we will get new investigators because of this activity tomorrow, but maybe next week or next month those touched by the Spirit testifying of truth will be prepared to take the first steps toward covenanting with our Father to follow Christ. It is obvious that we cannot do this great work alone and wee need members to not only support us but actively participate in the process of finding, teaching and baptizing. I think this activity was a HUGE step in the right direction and those steps, couples with the Spirit surely will begin toe bless this area as members begin fulfilling their responsibility to share.  I think if the district and especially our district leader had been more supportive we would have had more success, but we did our best with what we had and the Lord really did consecrate our efforts.

I have some more thoughts about Book of Mormon contacting and exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders, but I will have to save those for next week as time is running out and we have to organize transfers today.


Hurrah for Israel!
With love,
Sister Keogh

News of the week - slightly longer version

Thursday though we went over to our Ward mission leader's house and ate lunch with him and his wife. His wife is not a member and has some strong Buddhist beliefs. We taught her the Plan of Salvation though, and she said she could believe all of it. I really hope that as she's taught she can come to know the gospel is true, just like her husband. It would be so awesome if in just a little over a year they could go to the temple together and be sealed.

Saturday night was our second attempt at our fireside about the life of Christ. We had about 45 or 50 people attend, which we decided for a 3 ward activity on a Saturday night in Taiwan is pretty good. We know of at least 3 nonmember that attended,but the other wards certainly could have had had more people attend. It was a little bit crazy of a day for us as we had just come back from exchanges, but with some persistence and a while lot of faith, it was successful. There was such a strong spirit there testifying of the Savior, His life, works and Atonement and His reality. Sister Hendrix and I both felt the Spirit confirm that the Lord acknowledged and approved of the time and energy we put into using our talents and unique abilities to provide this opportunity for other to learn for Christ. I know many who attend were touched in just he way the Lord knew they needed, and Sister Hendrix and I both had very significant impressions throughout the evening. For me, it was the confirmation I was called to Taiwan specifically because of those living here. I looked around at the audience and I saw the members of my ward that I have come to love the people who have become my family and I just felt so grateful for the opportunity I have to be serving here, particularly in Zhanghua. The Stake President and bishops of the wards attended and the support from the members was really felt as they did what they could to support this activity and invite others to come unto Christ. I don't know if we will get new investigators because of this activity tomorrow, but maybe next week or next month those touched by the Spirit testifying of truth will be prepared to take the first steps toward covenanting with our Father to follow Christ. It is obvious that we cannot do this great work alone and wee need members to not only support us but actively participate in the process of finding, teaching and baptizing. I think this activity was a HUGE step in the right direction and those steps, couples with the Spirit surely will begin toe bless this area as members begin fulfilling their responsibility to share.  I think if the district and especially our district leader had been more supportive we would have had more success, but we did our best with what we had and the Lord really did consecrate our efforts.

I have some more thoughts about Book of Mormon contacting and exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders, but I will have to save those for next week as time is running out and we have to organize transfers today.


Hurrah for Israel!
With love,
Sister Keogh

News of the week - Short version

Well, we had my first "real" transfer call! Sister Hendrix is leaving. My new companion is Sister Bello, Sister Hendrix's MTC companion. I'm excited for a new transfer and new adventures. We also had exchanges this weekend, so we had a temporary split with the Sister Training Leaders for additional training and feedback. It was amazing! We saw so many miracles and met so many amazing people. Someone called us and told Sister Greenhaulgh, (the sister I exchanged with) that he has been wanting to attend a a church for a while, but he didn't know which one. Somehow he met missionaries or something and got the number of the sister missionaries living in his area. He asked when Church was on Sunday, and what he should wear. There really are people searching for the Gospel!

Our investigators are all doing okay, but it is a little frustrating because although they are still learning about the Gospel, they aren't really progressing towards baptism and they don't come to church. :( We are trying our best to enlist our members to help us out in fellow-shipping them.

We also did our AWESOME fireside again and had a lot more success on it.

Updates 10/23

Well, this week was a baptism (not ours :( ) I got really sick, we had to drop Chester, which was pretty disappointing, the President of the Asia Area, President Funk visited our mission and President Teh had me sing at the  meeting. Ting Hui, our 9 year old, finally sit still for an entire lesson and we found a really yummy fall-like milk drink and no investigators came to church...

Here's some info about my area:
Population Totals
Zhanghua: 235,000
Lugang: 86,000
Population total: I'm guessing around 400,000 people live in our area

Spiritual thoughts to come
Love,
Sister Keogh

Weekly update

This week we had haircut, pizza, sickness, puppies, buses, and no-shows. I cut Sister Hendrix's hair and now she is SO cute!! Our FAVE member, Ke Jiemei bought all the missionaries pizza and we had a very awkward district lunch. The sisters in 1st ward gave us their cold/throat sickness thing, and we had to spend some time recovering. Chester, our investigator, showed us his ADORABLE puppies finally, and I learned I am still VERY allergic to dogs. :( Chester lives in Lukang which is a 10/15 mile bike ride, so we rode the bus to see him. We went to meet with him about 3 times this week. We really do love him, but right now he isn't making a lot of progress, or really trying at all... so we decided we may have to give him some time to decide if he really wants to find the truth. We have a new investigator who seemed really excited to meet with us, but then didn't show up to our lesson and it was pretty awkward because we had several members there to help us.

Sister Hendrix and I have 2 more weeks of training left and we are sadly ignoring the calendar! Haha. I'm learning so much, sweating a lot, eating wayyy too much good food, and loving Taiwan!!

P.S. Sister Hendrix washed my hair in the sink at the church this week lol... long story, she trimmed my hair again, then the people in our ward, our ward mission leader, literally forgot our names... awkward. We've only been here for THREE months!

P.S.S. you can use normal forever stamps to send letters here to Taiwan, here's the address!!
Taiwan Taichung Mission
#498-11 , Wu Chuan Road
Taichung 404-46 Taiwan

Typhoon!

Wow! What a week! We discovered new delicious food, had a typhoon, got stuck on the roof (in the typhoon...), went to birthday party, got lots of free food, had some outstanding study sessions, and saved the world! Attached are the videos of the typhoon that kept us stuck in the house allllllll day. We went up to the roof to check it out, and Sister Hendrix shut the door, locking us on the roof. We have been learning a lot about the Plan of Salvation, God's plan of happiness for us here on earth and in the life to come. I look forward to study time every day! I've been realizing how important that time is everyday to open your heart to the Spirit and the things God has to teach and tell us. It's such a blessing to have that time each day, and I encourage all of you to do the same. Take some time everyday for your thoughts, for prayer, for pondering, and reading the Book of Mormon; this is how we build our testimonies and find direction and peace. I love you all, enjoy the pictures from the storm! 

Hurrah for Israel!  - Sister Keogh