One More Day as a Teen

It has been a very interesting week! Lots of ups and downs, but I survived!

Last week, we ate at a chidaobao (like a buffet but you also grill your own food in front of you), and then split off. The Elders went to Big City (a big mall), and the STL's went to go buy a watch for Sister Bain and groceries. I thought the Elders were just going shopping and I needed a watch, so we went with the STL's. It wasn't until later I found out that the Elders went bowling! I was mad that I missed the opportunity to go bowling, but I needed a watch, so it wasn't a complete waste at least. You know me, I really hate missing fun opportunities, especially on a Pday. 

Today for my last day as a teenager, we will go to the beach again! I was hoping we would, so I am happy that we are doing it. Plus, we will, hopefully, be meeting with some YSA buddies from Ba De at the Beach. I love and miss them so much. One of them will be going on a mission soon! There are so many young Taiwanese members who are going on missions, it's so inspiring. They have to "visa wait" a lot of the time, though, for US visas for the Provo MTC. 

I can't believe it's been 19 years since I had my birthday in Asia (my first birthday in Japan). It will be nice to finally be in around the right time zone. I can't believe I will be 20, I feel so old. I swear it was yesterday I was staying up late at my aunt's house in Cedar City (staying there before heading out to a family reunion) and looking at the clock, enjoying my last moments of childhood before I turned 13. Man, teenage-hood went by so quickly. It has been fun, I don't think I am quite ready for a lifetime of adulthood yet.  Oh well, can't do anything to stop it. 

It has been kind of a rough week. I realized that a third of my mission is already over (entered the MTC in January), and I still haven't seen any baptisms, which was a kind of a punch in the gut (and heart). Other than a bundi/native Taiwanese (who is waiting for his visa for Florida) who is being trained right now, I am the only one in my district who hasn't seen any baptisms yet. It has been killing me so bad lately. When you have been on a mission for 6 months and have baptism drilled into your head constantly, it's hard to go for so long and not see any. I'm trying to be patient and hopeful that I will see a baptism one day. I can't wait for that day to come. I'm trying not to give up hope that I will see a baptism. 

Tuesday was another rare miracle day, where we knocked on a bunch of doors and got new investigators! One a day is a miracle, let alone 5! Right after district meeting, we were challenged to go knocking for 30 minutes. So we went to a neighborhood by the church in our area with the Sister Training Leaders, one of who was my trainer. The STL's then knocked on one door (Monica and Vincent, will mention again later) and they listened to them and became our new investigators! The stl's then had to leave, but it helped us have faith, which led to meeting 4 other interested people on the same street! It was great!

After Tuesday, it went downhill. All week people either canceled their lessons because they were busy or didn't show up (fanged), which is really hard because that means finding, and I have been doing finding a ton since the beginning of the month and was hoping all that finding would lead to scheduled lessons at the end of the month. Except for two people's houses we randomly showed up to, all and I mean all of our lessons were canceled. I don't like finding, I would much rather do lessons. It's been so long since we've had a sit down lesson. We have a few scheduled for today and for tomorrow (what I wanted for my birthday, if not baptisms at least be busy with lessons). 

Alaina, the Filipino, wasn't able to come to church which was super sad. She is stuck taking care of an older member 24/7, so she rarely leaves the house. He was doing bad yesterday, plus the person who gave her a ride and took care of him last week wasn't able to do so again yesterday, so she couldn't come to church. Hopefully through God's help we will be able to find a way for her to attend church, even after she gets baptized. She just doesn't have the time or transportation to attend church. I haven't realized how much of a sacrifice it is to attend church for some people until now. It can be a simple commandment for some like us missionaries, but super hard for others like Alaina. I challenge you all to find people who might need help getting to church and see what you can do to help. We have been doing less active finding here and there (which can lead to referrals), but it would really help if the members could help more in trying to find and fellowship them. 

Fun story: So right after English boarding (giving our free English tracts) with the district, the Zone leaders stayed behind at the courtyard across from the station. Long story short, my companion left too quickly, and I didn't know where she went. So l called the zone leaders since they were right there and we share the same area with them and ask what to do. One of them came to get me (Elder Scovel, who I knew from Ba De), but then we didn't see his companion behind him and he realized he lost his companion too. We both went back to the train station and were without our companions for about 10-15 minutes. But then both of our companions borrowed other peoples phones and called us and asked where we were. So there's the adventure for the week: the zone leader and I losing our companions together. 

We had the 15-year old sister, Monica, and 12-year old brother, Vincent, come to church. It was cute how they were fellowshipped by the sunday school teachers, young women and boys. Vincent was so interested and had so many questions (his teacher told me later), and Monica seemed to be okay. Can't wait to teach them again.

I've also met a guy from Belgium and a lady from Thailand, which adds another person to my list of people I have met from around the world.

Cool story: So last Saturday we went to the Stake family history center in Zhunbei (30 min bike ride) to help with Recent Convert Huang Di Xiong get started on family history work. His dad died a while ago and his mom left the picture, so he was raised by his grandparents. He is 18 years old. He printed off his dad's name and will take it to the temple. It was amazing to see that happen. I realllllly hope I can go with him to the temple to see him do his dad's baptism, that would be sooo cool. The family history workers kept telling him over and over again how his future kids will be so happy he started the family history chart for them. It made me grateful mine has had a lot done. Also, while there, we met with a guy from California and his wife from Canada who lives in our area but goes to the English ward in zhubei. he served his mission in Hong Kong, so he recognized my companion Sister Shek. He saw her as a younger girl when he served in her ward. Her dad was the bishop of a ward for about 8 years and is now in the stake presidency. Even when Elder Wang came a few months ago, he brought her up and told everyone how her dad was his bishop. It was cool to see. 

It's been super hot and sweaty lately, super blessed and surprised that I'm getting tanned and not burned. 

Spiritual share

This week has been a rough one, but hopefully things will get better. I just need to have faith and trust in God that everything will work out. 

Love y'all!

-Sister Brinkerhoff/ Xiao Bei Jie Mei

There Can Be Miracles When You Believe

     
     Hey everyone! It has been another great week in Taiwan! I am starting to get used to the area, which is good, know a few streets here and there, which is great for a big city. One of my biggest worries is having my companion leave after this transfer (which is in 3 weeks), since she was trained here and has been here since March. Hopefully I will know the area pretty well by then. 

     We have about 6 new investigators; all but one are guys, which can be a problem because we can't teach lessons to them without peikes (member present) who is a female. They are usually busy, so peikes are hard to come by. Please pray that we will be able to get peikes this week, otherwise we can't teach the lessons. 

     I can't believe I will be 20 next Tuesday! I got to enjoy my last week of being a teenager! Anything I should do to get it out of my system before it's too late? :) It's funny, I am the youngest one in my district here, but I was the oldest one in my MTC district. 

     My district is composed of mostly leaders, which is super great!  More to learn from! The Zone Leaders (Elder Davidson and Elder Scovel, who I knew in Ba De) and us share an area. The District leader (Elder Meller and his companion Elder Zhang, his Bundi/native companion who is being trained and waiting for his visa to go to Florida), and the Sister Training Leaders (Sister Child and Sister Bain, my trainer) share the other half of the area. So 5 out of the 8 of us are leaders. It's been great, getting advice like crazy! It's exactly what we need, especially since my companion and I have been missionaries in Taiwan for only 3 months since we are breaking each other (meaning we both just got out of training). 

Miracles for the week:

     So we have this Filipino woman who is taking care of an older man 24/7. She has a 6-yr-old and an 11-yr-old in the Philippines. Super sad to see her far away from them. Made me grateful that I was able to grow up with both parents in the home and not have them have to go to a different country to work. Her name is Alaina, and she is awesome! She has been taught for the past 2 months but couldn't go to church (you need to attend 3 times before getting baptized).  After much help from God, Sister Shek and members, Alaina came yesterday for an hour! She was so excited, she kept telling us that she didn't think she was able to come and that she was grateful to God, Jesus and us for helping her get there. Made me appreciate being able to go to church. It was so cute, she was wearing a dress and getting ready and she was excited, since she usually wears a tank top and shorts to take care of the old man. She never leaves the house because of having to take care of him, but a member volunteered to watch him while she’s at church, as well as take her to and from church. (The member goes to a different ward).  Appreciate church, there are a lot of people here (especially the Filipinos and Indonesians who take care of the older people) who can't go to church because of work but want to go to church. Going to church is such a blessing.  

     We had and AWESOME ZONE CONFERENCE! One reason was that our zone as well as two nearby zones came to our stake center a 25-min. bike ride away in a different area. It included the missionaries in Ba De, so I got to say hi to some familiar faces (Elder Casper and Elder Welker) and see some new ones (the two sisters that just replaced us, one who is from the Dominican Republic who is training someone). They are both super awesome and sweet. Ba De is the perfect place to be trained.  The Dominican Republic family was there, so I was able to see why I was needed to leave. Plus, half of the people in my very first district in Ba De are here in Xinzhu (Elder Tan, Elder Scovel, and Sister Bain), which makes things easier. I also got to say goodbye to some missionaries who are leaving after this transfer for home (Elder Casper, Elder Rowe who is AP, and Elder Jacobson who was my classmate in 3rd grade). There are like 30 missionaries who are going home after this transfer, and about 20 or so replacing them. There will be a lot of areas being closed soon. I'm so sad, I know about 8 who are going home. 

     Back to Zone Conference. Guess what the topic was? You guessed it, PRIDE! We read President Benson's talk about Beware of Pride in the Sunday School manuals. It was a really good lesson. Last fall at BYU-Idaho, my very first Sunday of the semester, the bishop called me and asked me to teach that Sunday, which I did. My topic was from the very same talk about Pride as the one President Jergensen assigned us to read. It was an amazing lesson, I was really helped by the Spirit, and I think it humbled us all. 

     One roommate later said it was a good topic to start off with, since all these girls just left high school (My roommate, one other girl who just got off her mission, and I were the only ones out of 60 girls not just graduated from high school. I was the only one who attended college before; my roommate did culinary school for a little bit). Later that week, bishop asked me to be Relief Society President for 30 girls, since I was the only one out of 60 who have been to BYU-Idaho let alone college before. The one who just got off her mission was president of the other relief society. It was a very humbling experience, I really had to rely on the Lord, since it was a brand new ward and I didn't have anyone to look up to for help other than the new bishop and God. I'm feeling inadequate as the brand new English Unit Leader here in a new area, but I know through the Lord's help I can do it. 

     Anyway, because of that Relief Society Lesson, I was reminded of how dangerous pride can be. After all, pride is the very thing that felled Lucifer, someone who had potential.  It was a subtle reminder of how dangerous pride is. We don't realize it, but we have a lot of pride, and it is something that needs to be checked constantly. It is rare for someone to be completely free of pride. Even in the scriptures, pride is the one thing that occurs over and over and over again (pride cycle).  We also watched Pres. Uchtdorf’s 2010 priesthood session about pride. You should watch it; it was based on Pres. Benson’s talk. 

     At conference, President mentioned that we had 68 baptisms last month in our mission (which is pretty high). We have 194 missionaries and 29 districts. It was a good conference to, as Alma 15:17 says, to "keep our pride in check." I think I was sent to Taiwan to speak Chinese partly to humble me and to rely on God more, since I still struggle with Chinese. I also haven't had been able to see any baptisms yet (it's been 3 months), which is killing but humbling me. It's going to make me appreciate any baptism all the more. Also, it has made me realize that they are the Lord's baptisms and not mine, as well as the Lord's investigators and recent converts, not mine (hard lesson to learn after leaving all the potentials behind in Ba De). It made me remember how much God is in charge. 

     I think we had the conference to remind us on how much we need the Lord. I invite you all to read that chapter in the Sunday School book about President Benson from last year. He defined the heart pride as enmity. Enmity is hatred, hostility towards, or opposition towards anyone or anything. When we have enmity between God and man, we have pride. 

     President Jergensen's wife shared the story, "You are Special," the story about the wooden wimmick who learned to rely on his maker Eli and only care what he thinks, not what the world thinks. When doing so, the stickers (stars or dots) he would get would fall off. It's like us. If we don't care what the world thinks about us - good or bad - but only what God thinks, our dots and stars will fall off, which will make us happier. They can come off by constantly going back to God, just like Eli told the wimmick, Ponicello to go back and visit him often so he could remind him how much he is loved and valued by Eli. 

     Antidote to pride - humility, which comes from charity through serving others.  If we serve others and rely on God, we will be protected from pride.

Sorry!  Gotta go. Love y'all!

-Sister Brinkerhoff

Xiao Bei Jie Mei

A Day at the Beach

Ni Hao!

It's been another great week in Xinzhu. Last Pday after a 45 min train ride, we went to the beach! It was the first time in a few years I went. It was fun! We are on the west coast of Taiwan!

My comp, Sis. Shek is great! She is from Hong Kong but speaks amazing English. She went to BYU Hawaii last year. We both have been here in Taiwan for 3 months. We are still learning but with the Lord's help can make it. Our Zone leaders who we share the area with have been a big help (one is Elder Scovel from my first area in Bade) and said that they know that God really trusts us with the area and that we can do it, especially since we are both breaking each other. 

BIG NEWS! The Dominican Republic family in my last area is getting baptized on July 2nd! I reeallly hope I can get permission from President Jergensen to attend. It's about an hour train ride and a taxi ride away to Ba De one way, but it will be soooo worth it. It's kinda hard to attend baptisms unless its right after transfers (and it's close by), the person getting baptized explicitly stated that you needed to be there, or if you’re performing the baptism. 

Also, at the English unit leader meeting last week, president started getting emotional after telling the story of seeing that the 2 Spanish speakers were assigned to ba de. He had a busy few weeks with the 60th anniversary celebration of the first missionaries in Taiwan and transfers so he got caught behind in emails and felt terrible after reading Sister Bain’s and my email about needing Spanish speaking missionaries for the super prepared Dom. Rep. family. He felt super guilty and bad that he was too late, but then went over to the board and saw they were in ba de and got emotional because he knew God was helping him and that he was looking over this family. It was a cool reminder. He even told this story at a RC fireside in Taipei a few days before. I was grateful to be a part of it. 

I am now the English unit leader in our area. It's been kind of a rough ride, but hopefully I can get through it. Our district consists of Zone leaders, STL's in our apartment, and the District leader and his companion, so a lot of leadership position. It's funny, It was a Ba De party yesterday - 4 out of the 6 people from my first district in Ba De are now in Xinzhu. Sister Bain (with district leader) goes to church at 9 am, Elder Tan (he's in an area by Xinzhu) goes to church at around 11, and Elder Scovel (zone leader) and I go to the same ward at 1. It's been fun to be together again in Xinzhu.

A few weeks ago my trainer read an email from a friend of hers serving in an area by Russia, talking about having to help an elderly member go to the hospital after having a stroke (the country has really bad medical care), and then after her painful treatment by doctors and nurses, they had to walk her up 9 flights of stairs to her apartment since there was no elevator. After hearing that, it made me grateful to be here in Taiwan. I am also grateful for being here at a time the church is established.  Hearing Brother Kitchen's experience being one of the first four missionaries in Taiwan made me even more grateful. He told us that while on his mission, one of the missionaries was riding his bike one day on their way to play basketball with university students, and his tire hit a rut, he fell and hit his head. He was unconscious, and died 3 days later from the head injury. Because Taiwan didn't have embalming material at that time, his body had to be shipped to Hong Kong for embalming then sent to the US since the Mission President (President Heaton- probably a distant relative) is in Hong Kong.  Brother Kitchen then said that the body had to be frozen before being shipped to Hong Kong, and that it was a traumatic experience having to carry the missionary’s frozen body to be shipped to Hong Kong. He also talked about the struggle of learning the language, of not having much church material in Chinese (not even the Book of Mormon), but in the end after 3 years of his mission baptized 40 people, and there were about 300 total baptized.

I met a lot of foreign people here! I've met people from Korea, Dominican Republic, Caribbean (St. Vincent), Russia, Australia, and so on. I've met a girl from Sao Paolo, Brazil who is here as an exchange student who speaks English. She has a Mormon friend here too. She seemed interested. She goes home to Brazil next month so hopefully the missionaries in Taoyuan can help her and then she can join in Brazil. Miracle with her too, but I will write the story next week super sorry out of time. 

There's a new video on the mission website (taiwantaipeimission.com) that shows some people from my MTC district (Elder Johnson, Sister Goo and Elder Rushton). It's a good video for to see the missionaries in Taiwan.  It's about free English class that we teach in Taiwan. When you go on the website, click on the English class announcement on the webpage (picture of a free English class flyer), then the video should come up. 

My MTC district just finished with training and are now breaking. It seems like yesterday we were at the MTC. Our MTC district is doing super great! Even my trainer at the trainer-trainee follow-up meeting two months ago stated that we were an amazing generation. Elder Budd is helping baptize a family from the Dominican Republic that I helped teach in my last area, Sister Miller saw a whole family get baptized on the beach, Sister Goo was part of the 60th anniversary celebration of when the first missionaries came to Taiwan, and so on. 

Thanks for your love and prayers! This has been a great week, and I am realizing more and more how much of a blessing the gospel is to my life. I am super grateful for the Lord for providing it for me as well as for my family and friends. Remember to always follow the Lord and He will bless you!

 Love you all! 

-Sister Brinkerhoff

God is Real: A Miracle

WOW, IT HAS BEEN A ROLLER COASTER OF A WEEK!!!! I would describe it in one word: bittersweet. It has been a very sad but cool week for me. 

First off, our pday was very busy last week. I had to write a short email cause I had to print off pics for bye bye books (it was transfers week). Then, we went to Yingge. I wanted to do the ceramics museum so bad but a member wanted us to come to his house, have lunch and play some games. The games were kinda complicated and boring, but it's ok. Then we ate at an expensive chi dao bao (you are given a ton of meat and grill it yourself right in front of you). Then we went back to Ba De and taught a lesson. 

Then, last Wednesday, we got the transfer notices. BADE SISTERS ARE WHITEWASHED! So me and my trainer Sister Bain got sent to Hsinchu (she is now Sister Training Leader). It's weird cause trainers and trainees are separated, but we are living in the same apartment together. It's good though she can still help me out. My new companion is Sister Shek from Hong Kong. She has been in Taiwan for 3 months too (we came to Taiwan together on a mission), so we are both Senior Companions and we are breaking each other!!! It’s super hard, we have to figure it out for ourselves. Thankfully she was trained here so she knows where everything is.  Hsinchu is kinda next to the beach.  Still don't know what to do for pday today, but will let u know next week. 

I am really kicking myself hard for not enjoying Ba De more (as well as not going to the Yingge Ceramics Museum right after my aunt emailed me to do it). Really hard lesson learned- enjoy life and take advantage while you can.  I love and miss it so much. We had so many investigators so close to baptism, but I hope the Ba De sisters will take care of them. Even sister Bain wrote on a sticky note on the area book "take care of them, THEY ARE LOVED!" It's definitely the hardest part of a mission, leaving an area, members and investigators. I really thought I was gonna stay over and take over Ba De, but God has something better in mind. It was a good reminder that the investigators are God's and not mine. I definitely left my heart in Ba De. I don't know if it's possible (since we are the only two sisters in the area), but I hope one day I can go back and train in Ba De (as well as check on the investigators). I hope to love Hsinchu as much as Ba De. I talked with a Russian a few days ago in Hsinchu and there are some white people which is super rare to see. I’m totally gonna freak out when I get back to the us after my mission and see so many white people. 

So now I am in Hsinchu, the big city. Ba De is like Cedar City (smaller), and Hsinchu is like Salt Lake City. It's rough.  The sisters had baptisms recently, so now Sister Shek and I have to start from scratch-finding new investigators, which is hard. But like I've seen in Ba De, if we find really hard the Lord will bless us with awesome investigators (like the ones we left behind in bade). 

OKAY MIRACLE TIME!

So remember the Dominican Republic family I talked about?   Little background about them: they are living in an apartment right next to our chapel. They speak Spanish, a little Chinese and a little English. It consists of a dad, mom, and a six-year-old boy. They have lived in Taiwan for two months so far and have 16 more to go. The dad works in the military. They have time to meet with us on the weekends. We met with them once already. We gave them a Spanish Book of Mormon we found and introduced them to the church website in Spanish. They came to our English class. They also came to church last Sunday, but it was super difficult in Sacrament meeting for us missionaries to translate for them, since all of our Spanish is very limited. After Sacrament, they were leaving for home, thinking church was just an hour long. After we explained we have two more hours of church with classes, they said church was hard enough not having anyone being able to translate for them, so they went home. They are super ready to be baptized (the mom was crying when she read the introduction of the Book of Mormon), but it was very difficult without a Spanish speaker. 

Well, guess what people? Guess who was transferred to Ba De? That's right, THE ONLY SPANISH SPEAKING ELDER IN THE WHOLE MISSION, ELDER BUDD (who was in my MTC district) AS WELL AS THE ONLY SPANISH SPEAKING SISTER, WHO IS ALSO TRAINING IN BA DE (Ba de is where a lot of missionaries start their missions like me because the area is small and easy and the chapel is super close). It’s exactly what we needed. OUT OF 200 MISSIONARIES IN 29 DISTRICTS, THOSE TWO WERE SENT TO BADE!!!

So Sister Bain and I though it was because President Jergensen read our emails about them.  So we thought, Oh he sent them there cause he read our emails.  But guess what?  Guess who called yesterday after church and said they had not idea that the Domnican Republic family even existed until after transfers?  That’s right, brothers and sisters, President Jergensen called and said that he had just read my email ten minutes before about the family, five days after transfers!  This proves that God does exist and is aware of his children!

This family was too busy at work in the Dom Rep to go to church on weekends, and the fact that they LIVED RIGHT NEXT TO OUR CHAPEL IN BADE, that one night they stopped me and my comp and asked if they could come to English class then came to church, that the mom cried when we gave her a Spanish Book of Mormon, THEN have 2 Spanish speaking missionaries sent to them?  I AM TELLING YOU RIGHT NOW, THEY WILL GET BAPTIZED! I really hope Sister Bain and I will get permission from president to go after they are taught by the missionaries since it's kinda far away and its hard to attend baptisms out of your area without a really good reason. 

And did you know that Ba De means eight values/morals? And that Deguoren means Germany (morals country), Yingguo is England (hero country) and Meiguo is American (beautiful country)? Its probably based on how the country sounds like how Jianada is Canada and Moxi is mexico. 

Anyway, thanks for your prayers and please pray that the investigators in Ba de will get baptized even though I’m not there, that I will be okay (super sad to leave the Ba De investigators), and that we will find people here in Hsinchu (the sister here before me just went home-she was here for 9 months and had no baptisms until the last 2 weeks when she had 3).

Thanks for your love and support!  Love you all!

-Sister Brinkerhoff