July 8, 2013

such a great week!! being in nanzi with sister hill is the life! we are having a great time and the people here are amazing! i love our ward so much and i'm so grateful for the leadership in our ward. the RS president is on the ball- despite the fact that she's very pregnant- and working with us to find and help less active sisters. the sister in the RS wrote letters to the LA sister whom they knew and now we're working on delivering them. we have a sister Huang getting baptized this friday and she is so ready. she is wonderful. she had her baptismal interview on saturday and we got a chance to talk to her for a little bit after that. she told us that she has been super stressed and worried about the baptism all week. she was debating whether or not to call us and change the date for her interview and baptism. that saturday morning, she told her husband how she felt and he told her to go pray and see how she felt. she said she prayed and she felt like someone had stopped her pounding heart. she felt an amazing sense of peace that came over her whole body and the interview went perfectly. she said that she was just so full of peace. i am so grateful for a Heavenly Father that hears and answers prayers. i am so grateful for the Holy Ghost that comforts and teaches and helps us feel God's love. i really felt this in my own life on sunday- i was having a rough morning and Heavenly Father, through the Holy Ghost and through the members in our ward, really let me feel His love for me. He loves us so individually and knows how to make us happy. riding on my bike after church, i had the scripture "seek me diligently and ye shall find me. ask and you shall receive" come to my mind. i know that as we turn to the Lord, however small the action, we will be blessed so much

right now we're training the members in our ward how to help us teach the new member lessons. i love being around the members. they are so amazing and one day you will meet all of them. we went and visited a Hong JM who lives with her mother and sister. we were able to talk with her about some ways to strengthen her family and help them be prepared to hear the gospel. and then of course, as we were leaving she gave us a ton of fruit and crackers. typical taiwan. these members are so passionate about the gospel and about being a Latter day saint. being around them is the strength and encouragement i need to keep serving.

sister Hill is brave and funny and amazing. we've been teaching quite a few lessons and she has so much love for these people. she is the kind of missionary that helps people. when an investigator is having a hard time keeping a commitment, she is really great at figuring out a loving way to help people. her composure and calmness is something that i need. haha. i am very grateful for her companionship. its been better recently as we have learned to work more in unity. 

in the book of mormom, i read about the faith of the brother of Jared and i was really touched by his example. he saw his weakness but he came to the Lord with what he had and plead for a miracle. i feel that way a lot on my mission. we make these plans for the next day and sometimes, it looks a little weak. but we pray and we work and we pray A LOT and Heavenly Father touches our lives. He creates the miracles. we were contacted at an intersection the other day and it was hot and nothing was really coming of it. but we said a prayer and kept going. and i met this amazingly cute girl named robyn. her english was perfect and she was really interested in Jesus Christ. i shared with her (in english...weird) about how Christ has blessed my life and now she is going to start meeting with the sisters in JiaYi. Heavenly Father hears our prayers and He puts people in our path that are ready to hear about the gosple. we just need to seek His guidance and blessings. we watched this video clip in chruch the other day and it really touched me.  https://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening/special-broadcast?lang=eng#media=16902107223790014226-eng 

i am so grateful for all of your examples. i am so grateful for our family! it's so fun to hear about all of you and whats going on. the wedding pictures look GREAT! i love our family so much. thank you for your prayers and supports. i love being a missionary and i love being a member of this church. Christ lives and loves us. God is our Heavenly Father. Prayer blesses lives. keep the faith. 

love you all so much

Sister Newman