6 Months

Hello Family and Friends!

 

This last week has been pretty good week, also a little rough. I had a little bit of cold earlier in the week, which really wasn't that bad. However, my companion has been sick for the past 3 days which means we haven't gone outside.

 

Just some highlights from this week

 

- We met with the 郭家庭 (Guo family) this week, and we read from the Book of Mormon with them. We read 1 Nephi 17 and 18 when Nephi is building the boat. They liked how when he relied on God he was able to do something that seemed impossible at first. They've also started saying family prayers together every night! I'm so excited to see them keep progressing!

 

- we also have a new friend this week! Her name is Claire, she actually met the Elders who than referred her to us. She is golden! She set a baptismal date for April 6th, and is accepting everything we teach! She came with us to the new member fireside on Sunday, where someone spoke about the word of wisdom at one point. She asked me if we don't drink coffee and tea (we hadn't taught that yet). I told her yes and she looked me and said "ok, I can give all those things up". Like what!?!? I'm so excited for her!

 

- We also played sand Volleyball as a district this week, it was so much fun! It wasn't overly competitive but we had a pretty good time! 

 

- Sister Distajo and I decided to mix some stuff up this week so we moved beds out to the living room for a night because why not.

 

- all day Sunday we were inside because Sister Distajo is sick. She slept all day, which left me to myself. I had a lot personal study and language study which was good! I got a lot of stuff done, but I was also a little bored after 5 hours or so. I can just say how much I appreciate missionary work and being able to go out talk to people! And am looking forward to her feeling better!

 

I absolutely love this gospel, and having this opportunity to share it with people! I only have a year left on my mission and I'm so excited to be serving the people here in Taiwan! 

我愛你們!

Love, Sister Porter 

包姐妹

Blessings of the Temple

哈嘍!

 

What an amazing Pday! I was able to call my family this morning and talk with them! What a blessing! I'm so excited to be able join my family in doing 'Come Follow Me' and pray with them. As a mission we have had a focus on working/uplifting our members, and as a companionship we have been inviting our members to start or continue doing 'Come Follow Me' and have promised them blessings of closer family relationships and have the spirit in their home. I'm looking forward to seeing those same blessings for my own family. 

 

Today we had the opportunity to go to the temple. I don't think I can say it enough of how much I love the temple and the feelings when I'm there. A couple of days ago I was studying about the temple and what blesses come from going to the temple. I came across a scripture in D&C 109:22 that says when we leave the temple we are armed with God's name, glory, power and Angels. I was looking forward to going to the temple and feelings those blessings, and now that I've gone I feel rejuvenated and ready to face the world! 

 

We also had the amazing opportunity to have Zone Conference and be taught by our amazing Mission President, his wife and fellow missionaries. It was exactly what I needed and everything that was mentioned where things I had been studying in my personal study. It was confirming everything I had been learning and gave me more clarification for answers I've had. 

 

I think the hardest thing of being a missionary is knowing how much this gospel bless people's lives but them being too busy to meet or come to church. I've come to love these people so much and I want to help them all! I'm learning patience and diligence everyday, and learning to rejoice in the moments when people agree to meet with us.

 

I love this gospel so much! And I'm so grateful to be a missionary! 

 

我愛你們!

 

Love, Sister Porter 

包姐妹

A Funny Picture from Jill

Hello!!!!

Weekly Email:

恭喜發財!!!

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year! I'm so excited to learn more about this amazing culture and spending time with our amazing Members!

This week has been full of some amazing miracles and good times!

- We played frisbee 3 days in a row this week! It's been a party and so much fun! Funny story: we play at this field that is next to a river and between the river and field is this ginormous thicket of random bushes and other plants. Well at one point the frisbee went into this thicket, haha and it took all 6 Elders to find it. It was hilarious to watch them trying to find it when 1 of the Elders was less than helpful by running around trying to scare them. It might have been a had to be there moment but it was fun!

- We ate dinner with 2 of our members this week.
1. One of the Ward Missionaries and her son. They are absolutely amazing, well we had a planned this amazing spiritual share on faith. Well Emily (the mom) started telling us how God has been testing her faith recently but because of it she has been growing! Totally took the words right out of our mouths! Its amazing to see how when we study for our friends/members how God prepares them to receive our messages.
2. We ate with our Relief Society President and her adorable daughter. After we ate we were talking to the RS President when he daughter asks me to come play Chinese Chess with her. So we go and she is telling me how to play, I'm only understanding about 20% of what shes saying because shes talking super fast and its a 6 year old explaining a game. Well we played, and it consisted of me moving random pieces and her winning. It was hilarious and so much fun!

- Amazing miracles we've seen this week have been from street contacts. That is something I've never been very good at, but Sister Distajo is amazing at! We've been able to get about 6-8 phone numbers and set ups from talking to people. It's so cool to see the miracles from just opening your mouth and doing what the Lord asks. I'm still not the best at it but I'm learning a lot! I absolutely love Taiwan and the people here! They are so nice and incredibly sweet! I've been so blessed to serve them!

I love you all!
Love, Sister Porter 包姐妹

Pictures 2-4-2019

1. The Relief Society President 

2. Emily and Edwin

3.  The field we play Frisbee

4. The district plus a couple sisters (yes sister Griffin!!!) Playing Frisbee

5. The district playing frisbee 

6. And JC, a really cool guy we met who speaks chinese, English and tagalog!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures 1-28-2019

1. Sister Distajo made it up the hill on her first day in Bitan to go to English class! We had to take a picture 

 

2. Us wish Sabrina, her mother in law and two kids.

3 & 4. I decided to give the road a hug this week. I lost my footing when my gears popped and I took a nice skid on the road. But I'm all good! Just a few scratches and a bruised pride.

 

 

5. Sister Distajo and I being silly

 

6. The district at Frisbee

 

7. Dinner with the youth!

 

8. Sister Huang took us to the Bu to drop Sister Garner off

 

9. Our District at District Meeting

 

10. Sister Garner was trying to scare the fishes with her water bottle.... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekly Email: Out of Training

大家早安!

I hope you are all doing amazing and enjoying yourselves this beautiful January day. Another Transfer has come and gone which is so weird because I feel like I got to Taiwan just a couple a week or so ago. I'm sad to report Sister Garner was transferred down to Hualian (it's the same distance from Logan to Provo, about 2-3 hours on a bus). I was very sad to see her leave, I'll admit I cried (no surprise there). Its amazing to see how much one person can influence your life in only a few months, I learned a lot from her and I'll miss her.

But to every end there is a new beginning, I recieved a new companion, Sister Distajo! She is from the Philippines ( that is 2 companions from the Philippines now), she has been in Taiwan for 5 transfers now and before that visa waited in the Layton/Ogden mission for 1 transfer. She is hilarious and is constantly making me laugh.

Some highlights from this week:

- We played frisbee on the last day of the transfer, it was so much fun! Sister Garner I spent more time goofing around than actually playing, but we had a party! - We had dinner with a bunch of the youth and our friend Izzie came with us!

- Sister Distajo and I ate dinner with one of our friends Sabrina and her family. We didn't get much of a spiritual share in at dinner but on the car ride back we talked the whole time about Christ and how we know personally that this gospel is true. It's amazing to see that when you're trying your hardest to do God's work how he will help you. Sister Distajo and I both were able to bear testimony to her of how we know this gospel is true. For me personally I expressed some thoughts I didn't think I knew how to Express in Chinese. The gift of tongues is real and I feel blessed to know that my Savior is watching over me.

- All of our friends are progressing, Chinese New Year is coming up so they've slowed down a little bit. But our friend Elisa is almost ready to be baptized, and will be making her date for February 12th! We are so excited for her. She has been golden the whole way through, and I couldn't be happier for her. In my personal Study I've been reading 3 Nephi when Christ comes to the Americas and is teaching the people. I feel so blessed and closer to my Savior when I read these chapters. I know that his restored gospel is on the Earth today!

I love you all so much! 我愛你們!

Love, Sister Porter 包姐妹

Chinese New Year Cards!!!!

Instead of postcards I sent red envelopes ( more taiwanesey) to everyone! They are in the mail today! Let me know when you get them! 

 

 

Weekly: End of Training & FHE

大家午安!

This week was my last full week being in training... weird! The time is flying past, I honestly feel like I got to Taiwan just a week ago but it's almost been 3 months. I'm so excited to see what the rest of my mission holds but I'm also sad to say goodbye to Sister Garner. I have honestly learned so much from her, and she's shaped my mission. Its interesting how much impact one person can make in someone's life.

This Thursday I get to pick up my new companion, I'm so excited! And ready for the next chapter.

This week was full of amazing miracles!

- we've had the opportunity to eat meals with some members and really be able to connect with them. They all try so hard to do missionary work, and it makes our lives so much easier. I'm so grateful for the people in Taiwan because they all want to share the joy they receive from the gospel with others!

- We met wit Izzie this week, she's been super busy lately with final exams. It was so fun to down and talk with her. We shared part of the Book of Mormon with her and it was cool to see her connect bits and pieces together.

- We met with the Guo family twice this week. Once with our Bishop's wife and a second time at a Family Home Evening at our Bishop's house with another family. It was so much fun!!! We taught them the Plan of Salvation, played a fun game and Sister Huang (the Bishop's wife) is the sweetest lady on the planet, she found out my favorite food was my mom's quesadillas so she found a recipe and learned how to make them and shared them with us at family home evening. I've been so blessed to have such an amazing ward family!

- We tried to have language study outside this week but kept getting eaten by bugs so that ended quickly..

I'm honestly so grateful for my mission, and all the opportunities I've had while I'm here. I'll be honest there had been some hard times, having confidence in my abilities to speak Chinese is something I've struggled with but I've really come to trust and rely on the Lord. Whenever I teach a lesson or am just talking to someone and I mess up grammatically or with a word I remember that my Chinese is never going to be perfect but if I try the Lord will help the people I'm talking feel the spirit. 

This is truly the Lord's work and I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of it. I love all the moments I've had the good and the bad. Because in every opportunity I grow. 

I love you all so much and hope you are all doing amazing!

我愛你們!

Love, Sister Porter  包姐妹

Pictures 1-14-2019

1. We got New Book of Mormons that are tri-colomn! So exciting!!

2,3,4. Some of the Gorgeous views of Bitan!

 

5. The amazing South Zone!

 

6. Jenny (the little girl from the family) got ahold of our phones while talking to them, and we found this gem.

 

7. Our amazing STLs, Sister Meeks and Sister Elliott

 

 

 

 

Weekly: We found a Family!!!

哈嘍!

Hello everyone! I hope you've all had an amazing week! Our week has been busy, busy, busy! 

- We had Zone Council this week, it was so funny to see everyone! We talked a lot about working with members because that's the best way to do missionary work. It was interesting to see how everyone does their member work differently. Also to see what works and what doesn't. 

- We did language study down by the river on Thursday this week, it was so pretty! Maybe not the most effective but it really pretty!

- We had interviews with President this week. The transfer is almost over (24th) and sadly my trainer will be leaving me... Sister Garner has been absolutely amazing and I love her so much! I've learned so much from her, I was honestly blessed with the best Trainer in the mission. 

- We found a family!  In one of English classes we met this adorable family who had interest in the church. They have 2 girls, Jenny is almost 8 and Jessie who is about 3 or 4. We taught the the first lesson and gave them a chapel tour on Saturday, the lesson went for about 30 minutes. The spirit could be felt, and they agreed to meet with us again and come to church next week. The funny thing is that after lesson they talked to us for about an hour, we really got to know them and we are looking forward to meeting with them again! 

- Our friend Elisa has been improving so much! We are super excited because if everything goes to plan she will be baptized this upcoming Saturday! She is absolutely adorable and tries her hardest to get to know the members in the ward. She feels the spirit so strongly and it's been amazing to watch her grow!

I love you all so much! 我愛你們! I hope you all have an amazing week!

Love, Sister Porter 

包姐妹

Pictures 1-7-2019

These are all pictures from our last pday, we went on a really pretty hike in a place around Neihu. Super gorgeous! Only bad thing was it was my companion and I and about 20 elders...

Weekly Email: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 新年快樂!

It's been so exciting to start a new year while on my mission, setting new gloals and resolutions that are all focused on missionary work has definitely helped me learn to make better goals. 

This week in our English class we talked about setting goals, and resolutions. Which was amazing because I now get to keep all my English students accountable for their goals, and they get to keep me accountable for mine! 

My companion had this brilliant idea to help our primary and ward get more involved in missionary work. We made all the kids in our primary future missionary nametags, and every time they invite someone to church they get to add a sticker to the back of their tag and get a piece of candy. They're so cute and were all very excited to tell us about their friends they invited to church. 

We also had the amazing opportunity to go on exchanges this week. I went with Sister Meeks, who is absolutely adorable! We spent the day talking and her sharing her wisdom about working with members, and getting out of my comfort zone. 

Our mission has really been focusing on member missionary work, because it's been proven that when members are involved in missionary work it goes a lot better and more efficient. This has definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone because our members only speak Chinese, and so talking to them can sometimes be hard because I don't know everything they're saying. But I've realized the more I talk to memebers the more I've come to love them and really get to know them. I absolutely love the members in my ward, they're absolutely amazing and I'm so lucky to have them!

I love you all and hope you all have amazing weeks! 

Love, Sister Porter 

胞姐妹