HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! i love you so much. Your letters are so wonderful every monday and i feel such strength from your example and love. you are such a support to me. i am so grateful for your encouragement and your love. i could not ask for a better mother and example. i have a present that i should be sending out today- i'm sorry that it is late but it will get to you! haha i love you so much. happy birthday- i hope it is a wonderful day

this week has been amazing. seeing everyone get ready for Chinese new year is so fun. LOTS OF CLEANING! and dejunking and visiting family. it is the most wonderful time of the year (for taiwan). their new year is exactly like our christmas and thanksgiving. we are seeing families every where and it's just so happy. tracting this week has been really fun as we have been visiting LA's and tracting in their area. we see a lot of families together- eating, liao tian-ing, cooking. i love this time of the year. we truly have been led this week to prepared souls. we found one woman Zhang JM who was just resting in her home. SHE invited US in and we ended up talking about God and prayer. She told us that she knows other people say that there are multiple gods or that our God is different from the 'asian god', but she believes that there is only one God :D we told her that we believe the same thing- we know it is true! we are meeting with her next saturday. we are so excited.

a lot of our investigators and members are out of town this week- visiting family or just vacationing. those members that AREN'T out of town are all feed us. haha we have lunch and dinners taken care of for the rest of the week. it doesn't beat dad's 5 meals/day but i feel very taken care of. i love meeting with members and just spending time with them. our ward here is amazing. they are so willing to help and sacrifice for our missionary work. i feel very honored to have their support. Sister GC is amazing and she knows everyone's name and story and family. i'm really praying for that gift and it is coming slowly :) i love the members here in tanzi. the picture of the boy with the cake is a part member family we are teaching. the grandmother is our RC and she invited us over for an AMAZiNG meal and cake (celebrate birthday and new years) the grandson, yoyo, is so guai. he is so well behaved and is so much fun to teach. they are praying together and he loves coming to church. the mother Zhang JM is also amazing and so fun- but she is also really busy. we are trying to teach her when we can.

i love serving with sister GC. you will all love her. she is graduated but is going back to school for nursing- my soul sister. so right now we're studying medical terms and anatomy in language study. haha it's so great. she's going home after this move call. we are working and teaching in unity and it feel so great! we decided to set some un-goals for chinese new years. it's like a bucket list of sorts. we want to have a foot spa- we're doing that later today. we are also eating chocolate fondue for valentine's day. we are also going to learn one un-vocabulary a day. i love it. our ward has a goal to have every family be doing FHE weekly and so we made them the FHE charts. we've been passing them out as we go over for dinner or visiting...along with cookies. the examples of faithful families in this ward are amazing. so many of the members are referrals from family members. this ward is a testimony to the power of referrals. they are so strong. our RC from last week (who got confirmed this week :D) is a referral from her sister. they are now strengthening each other and helping their other family members. i love our church's emphasis on families. i know that helping family members grow in the gospel is one reason that we are put in families. i love you.

we have mission tour next week on monday so we'll be doing emails on wednesday. this work is amazing. i learned so much about goals this week. i am always so amazed and grateful for how the Lord helps us accomplish our goals. HE does so line upon line, one step at a time. we don't set goals for the week to accomplish them on the first day. He helps us one step at a time. as we make a daily effort, He helps us accomplish our desires. whether it's developing a christ-like attribute, getting a good grade, or finishing the Book of Mormon, Christ will help us accomplish our goals. success comes as we make the effort and have faith in Him. I have learned that from sister GC- she sets goals and hits them. love her. 

this work is good. families are forever. Jesus Christ lives. keep the faith

i love you more than i can say. thank you for your support and prayers.

yours

Sister Newman