I'm Back!

God Be with You Til We Meet Again

Wow. 

So what happened lately: MIRACLES GALORE!

Pdays:

     Last week, we went hiking, then a member bought me and my companion dinner at an all you can eat buffet (hot pot). I ate there a while ago and ate some shark, it was ok. I have definitely eaten crazy things here. 

Today:

     We went to the  GRAND HOTEL in Taipei! It is THE fanciest hotel in Taiwan, the one where we went to on my very first morning in Taiwan to the site where general authorities said a prayer about 80 years ago or so to dedicate Taiwan to spread the gospel. 

   

      A sister from another ward named Wendy who got baptized recently who is kinda rich bought us all missionaries (8 missionaries, about  US $30 each) lunch at the buffet at the Grand Hotel. Let me tell you, it was fancy! So nice of her! The hotel is so cool, it's like an ancient Chinese palace. Reminded me of the palace at the Forbidden City in Beijing, but newer. Such an awesome experience. I ate some frog leg, it was pretty good! I definitely need to take you all there sometime, it is a must stop experience. My companion said it was even more Chinese than Taiwanese.

     Great way to spend my last pday-end it where I started my mission. 

Investigators:

     Cindy Zhang- we met her and her friend outside of a 7/11 (they are like gas stations here, but just the stores only, and they are cleaner than the ones in America). We started meeting with her. Turns out she is one of our member's classmates! She is 15 and starts high school soon. So cute and so smart! We met with her on the third time and her prayer has definitely improved! It was amazing to see! She said ever since she started praying, she could feel God more at her side. She came to church for the first time yesterday! So we went with her and another 15-year-old investigator named Olivia. We read 1 Ne 1 together and asked what she liked, she said she admired how Nephi really respected and honored God, it blew my mind. She will get baptized probably next month, she is awesome!

     Our other ones are Olivia, who is 15, very mature for her age, has some problems, but Christ and His gospel can fix them. 

Events:

     Jenny Oaks Baker concert- it was good, but she and her family seemed kinda exhausted. They were in Europe earlier that summer and they just did about a two-week tour of

Taiwan with about seven concerts. We were the last stop. Tons of people came, even investigators invited their non-member friends. It was overall a great concert, she is such an amazing person, so grateful for her and her family's sacrifice to do missionary work.

Last Testimony:

     Shared my last testimony in sacrament meeting, I told stories about how past apostles have seen Christ. I've written them in past emails before. It was great! In it, I said that even though I didn't want to leave Taiwan, I must do the Lord's will. I am at peace right now going home, I just keep on doing missionary work. 

     One elder said that where you serve becomes a holy place, and the Taiwan, Taipei mission has definitely become a holy place for me. I love the people, the food, the members, the language, and everything about it. I definitely want to come here later this year or next summer (or be like Elder Welker, who returned a month later). 

     Lately I've been thinking of Christ's last week here on earth, what it must've been like for Him to serve. He served all His life,  even after Gethsemane and even on the Cross. Even after His Resurrection, and right now and in the eternities. Like Christ, I strive to serve everyday like it's my last day.

     The Mission has been the best 18 months of my life. I have learned, grown, and changed so much. God really takes advantage of this time and transforms his missionaries to become His disciples. I am so grateful to be a part of this church, and I know it's true. I like in 1 Ne 11:21-23: the thing that gives us the most joy to the soul is God's love. 

     I love you all, and I love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  God be with you til we meet again, Taiwan. 

-Sister Annie Brinkerhoff, Bei Jie Mei

Third and Fourth of July/Mangoes: Taiwan's Manna from Heaven

Wed- Birthday Miracles

     It has been a good, normal birthday. We were on exchanges with the sister training leaders. all four of us ran up a hill for exercise. (It was literally like a jungle, super cool.) 

Miracle 1. When getting breakfast (soybean milk and two rolls), I realized that I ran out of money and needed to run to the atm to get some more. The lady was nice and just let me have the food. I paid her back later, it was so nice of her to do that for me. 

Miracle 2. Since it was the end of the month, a lot of the missionaries don't have much money. I thought I had at least 500 kuai (about 15 us dollars left) and that i would be ok. Turns out it was God's blessing - I had 1,100 kuai left (about 33 dollars). Out of gratitude, I paid for Sister Jensen's lunch since she didn't have much money left, and in return she bought me a notebook for a bday gift.  (15 kuai, about  50 cents. Taiwan is cheap.) 

     My comp with Sister Armstrong got home before us. We got home, and the sister training leader and I were on exchanges. Sister Jensen was knocking on the door for like five min; we thought she and my comp were showering. Her comp just opened up the door to the apartment, and we walked in. I was surprised when Sister Jensen and Sister Armstrong dove to the floor where my companion was with a sign they just made that morning that said, "Happy Birthday bei!" It was so nice and cute of them. 

     Since we had a zone conference the day before, our district meeting was moved to Wed, so my last two birthdays have been on district meetings. We taught English class that night about transportation. Let me tell you, after teaching kids English for 2/3 of my mission, my respect for primary, Sunday school, and for teachers in general have shot up. I am so grateful to have had a Taiwanese companion to help me, they are able to explain instructions more clearly, makes things easier.  

Investigators

     One guy my comp Huang JM and I found on the street through the Spirit after visiting a LA is getting baptized this Saturday. We had to give him to the elders since he is a single guy (mission rule), and honestly it was the best thing for him. It was funny, I remember one Sunday after passing him off to the elders, they were trying to get him to church. They called him, and he pretty much said he had stuff to do. They told him it was my last companion Huang JM's last sacrament meeting before she left for England, then he said he would be there. And he has been coming to church ever since! 

     We are teaching a Jian family who have two daughters, 11 and 8. The eight-year-old has autism. please pray they will come to church and be baptized. 

     I gotta go, love you all and I know the gospel is true! Love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

-Sister Brinkerhoff

Forever 21

Hey everyone!

     

     I will be turning 21 this Wednesday; I am so old! I am not even kidding. I graduated high school in 2014, most of the missionaries now have either graduated in 2015 or 2016. They are all 18-20, and I will be 21. Mission experience wise I am the oldest sister in the mission, which is insane. I am an old person, let me tell you. 

     I am so grateful and blessed to have two birthdays on my mission, 20 has been a good age fully dedicated to serving the Lord, and I am so grateful that I will spend my 21st birthday just serving Him; it's the best birthday thing to do.  All I want for my birthday is a baptism (which right now is not yet), so we will go for the next best thing which is being busy, which is probably gonna happen.

     Happy Father's Day (last week)!  I am so grateful to have an amazing dad! I can't tell you how grateful I am to have him. What I Iike about him is that he likes to travel, likes to have fun, values education, works hard, and is always there for me. But what I love about him the most is that he loves the Lord, my family, and people. 

     On my mission, I have meet many families who do and don't have the blessing of an active priesthood holder in the home, and let me tell you, it makes a whole world of a difference. They are getting harder and harder to find, and it makes me so grateful for my faithful dad. I just love how he is humble, obedient, faithful and willing to serve the Lord, despite the challenges he has had in life. His faith and actions have really blessed us as a family and so many others.  He also really loves his family. He would takes on trips so that we can experience the world. He as well as my mom encourages me and my siblings to pursue an education. 

     My dad has really blessed so many lives. I can't tell you the number of times people have come up to me to say that my dad is a great man, how he just loves and serves people. I really see that in my life, especially when he serves the members  of the church, helps Brazilian members get into school in the US and find stable jobs, as well as serving my brother Jace's friend Javier and his family. He really has a tender, soft spot and great love for South Americans, since he served a mission in Ecuador. 

So things that have happened:

     

     Got permission from my mission president to visit Cousin Brett last week, since it's against mission rules to see family and friends on a mission. I told my mission president that my cousin was LA and I was his closest family. He understood, and allowed me to go. My comp and I, and two other sisters went (can't have two sisters with one guy, mission rule) and had lunch at a deli. The guy who owns it used to live in America so his English was really good. I asked him if he was from New York and he was like, "How did you know?" The accent. It was so funny to hear a Taiwanese man with a New York accent. Brett and I caught up a bit with life (haven't seen him in eight years or so). He's lived in Taiwan for four years, has a three-year-old son and another born last March. He teaches at the Taipei American school. We just talked about our families and Grandpa and Grandma Barrus. I gave him a picture of them that my mom sent me, he loved it. He goes to California for a month next week and won't be back until two days before I go home, hopefully, I can invite him to church or something next week. 

     After, we went ice skating! It was fun, haven't been ice skating since high school. A ton of missionaries went, I got to see my junior high school and Chinese class buddy, Tiffany Chao, now Sister Chao. It was fun to catch up a bit. 

     Got to go back to my first area Ba De for my companion's investigator's baptism! Sister Zhong was in Ba De last transfer, but closed the area for sisters. It was weird but nice to go back really quick to see her investigator get baptized. I remember leaving Ba De last year and having a strange feeling I would be back. Gift of prophecy, anyone?

     Miracles like crazy! We have been doing this thing called two-day prayer, where we we would sit down with members and have them write over a list of people they know, family and friends they want or tried to share the gospel with. There is a promise from an apostle that as we do it, people will get baptized. It's so true! I heard missionaries did it in a nearby area and they saw two baptisms from it. It has really been awesome for us and lots  of miracles came from it. 

Facts about my mission:

     **Using a Nokia cell phone, I can text in Chinese characters, yay! God's blessing of gift of interpretation of tongues.

     **We get around everywhere by bikes. If I want to go somewhere far like Taipei, I would either take a bus or the train. In Taipei, I would take the MRT, which is like a Subway but newer and cleaner. If i really need to, I would take a Taxi if a place is far from the MRT or train station. 

     **People recycle a ton here, and even have places to throw away leftover food. 

Miracles

     My RC Sister Ding texted me and asked when I was going home. I called her for the first time in a few weeks, because she and I have been so busy. She has always been busy with work. She called and said that she was going back to church (she was too tired before because of work), and that she has been reading her scriptures and praying. I was so happy! She then said that before I leave, she wanted to visit me! That was super special, Hualian is super far away from Taoyuan (four-hour train ride). I can't wait to see her! Hope she and I can go to the temple together before she leaves.

Spiritual Share

     I was reading in the June 2017 Liahona and read Elder Oaks's article about how religion benefits the world. In it he talked about two different morals, resume morals or eulogy morals. Resume morals are the more worldly morals, ones you would put on the job application. The other morals are eulogy morals, the morals that will be stated at your funeral, the kind of person you are.  He then tells a story of an experience that changed his life. When he graduated law school, he met some other lawyers. At one point, he attended funerals of two different men a few days apart. One had resume morals, the other had eulogy morals. Elder Oaks calls them Rich and Faithful. Rich and Faithful have served honorable missions. When Rich got home, he married a woman, who became less active and then he became less active as well. Over time, he earned a lot of money, was Rich, had a big home and such, but he and his wife didn't raise their kids in the gospel. The kids never served missions, married outside the temple to nonmembers, and a lot of them at one point or another got divorced. At Rich's funeral, it was held at a regular mortuary or so instead of a chapel, nobody under the age of 50 other than Elder Oaks and Rich's kids and grandkids attended. The service was somber, and little was said about Christ. 

     Faithful, on the other hand, was completely different. After his mission, he married a member. They had a small business, which caught on fire, and other financial problems in life. However, he was a faithful priesthood holder, raised a family in the gospel, he and his wife served missions, and a ton of other stuff. His funeral was at an LDS chapel, it was centered around Christ, people of all ages were there, and it was a happy and joyous occasion.

     I liked this story, because right now I see a ton of people choosing world success over being faithful to God, and they aren't happy. The happy ones, even though not successful in the world's eyes, are truly happy because they were faithful to God and endured to the end. It was a good reminder about choosing God over the world, and how the gospel really teaches us about that. 

     Love my mission, and am so blessed to be a part of this work. I am so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ! I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. I know this gospel is true and it will give us a happiness, in this life and the next.

     Love you all! Have an awesome week!

-Sister Brinkerhoff