May 20th, 2013

Dearest fambamily

i am still thinking about seeing all of you and i am so grateful for your prayers and support! it was so great to see you all and feel together. Happy mother's day mom. you are the best, way above all the rest. thank you so much for the amazing!! package that we received this week. it was perfect and the chocolate is going to last much longer! i was perfect. thank you so much for all you all do. i am so grateful to have such an amazing family. i was praying this morning and i started thinking about each of you and whats going on in your life (even though i'm totally out of the loop and don't really know). but i do know that i am so proud of each of you!! our family is so great. i hope everyone's week is going super great.

this week, i have bruises on BOTH of my elbows. the first one is really lame. my left elbow, i was stepping ouf of my bathroom that had a very wet floor. i slipped and fell. and then i didn't get up for a couple minutes. haha i just lay there on the ground. haha my RIGHT elbow however is a better story. but not really. we were biking to our area that is a little farther away. i was raining and we were lost. typical us. and we start back up on our bikes and i totally fall over. i like slid down the road and tore my new rain gear. haha but except for the bruise on the elbow, i am ok!! life is so good. i love serving in nanzi. its been so great and it continues to be!

we had our investigator receive her baptismal interview this week!! she walked out of it just glowing!! she was so stressed going in (the elders can be a litte scary sometimes haha) but when she came out she said that she has never felt this happiness and peace. she is getting baptized on this saturday and we are so excited. the ward loves her and we're working on getting her more friends. her and her 4 year old son love church. she loves the standards of the church and we are so excited for her to receive all the blessings. she is so prepared. i love teaching these taiwanese mothers. they are so special.

i am so grateful for the little opportunities that Heavenly Father gives us to serve. I just really felt the power of "the one" this week. we had one day where we did a lot of biking in a more rural area. We didn't talk to as many people as we would have had we stayed in the city. But we visited an LA in that area and she was so touched by our visit. we also left a note at the home of a part member family. The husband called later and thanked us- he was really touched. our numbers weren't really high that day but i really felt the importance of the things that we did accomplish. i love being put in the right place at the right time. seeing the Lord bless others through us really motivates me to work harder and pray harder and seek His direction and will. i love meeting these people that are prepared to be touched by the spirit
in the scriptures, i was reading in alma 62 after all the wars it talks about how the different people reacted to the past couple of years of trials. some were hardened while others were softened and humbled and blessed. it really helped me see that we all experience trials in our lives. my mission hasn't been what i thought it was coming out here- but it has been exactly what i have needed. Heavenly Father has blessed me so much than i ever would have expected- even if its not in the way i thought it would be,

i love you all so much. i am so happy. i am so grateful for an eternal family. i love each of you so much and i'm praying for you. thank you for your support and love. you make this mission even better than it already is!! i know your prayers are blessing me. 

i love you all

yours 

Sister Newman