August 12th, 2013

Another great week in paradise! August is for sure the hottest month of the year though. every day i am sticky and sweaty and wet and very, very happy. being in taiwan is such a blessing!

our investigator, Huang JM, was confirmed yesterday! her husband gave her a beautiful blessing of health and strength and continued help in her progress. she is so amaizng. she gav a talk yesterday (that's a little stressful for a new member) and it was so perfect. i get to tranlate all the talks in sacrament meeting into english for some american members of our ward so i really get to pay attention to what the speakers are saying. It's Heavenly Father's way of keeping me very focused. haha She bore a beautiful testimony of the Savior helping her through some personal trials in her life. She said that it is through trials that she has been able to draw closer to God and develop more faith in Him. I have seen the spirit teach her and that is such a wonderful feeling. She talked about how Heavenly Father often uses the things that are most hard for us to endure in order to refine us. she hates headaches and she has been having serious headaches recently. she said that she used to drink tea to help the headache go away. she was really sick last week and was just praying that she could drink a little tea to help ease the pain. as she was praying, she got this thought that said "just try and see going without tea. trust me. i will help you." she kept praying and asking for help and strength. she took a nap and when she woke up, she felt like she had done a 180. her headache was gone and she didn't feel sick at all anymore. she really strengthened her testimony in the word of wisdom and in God's love for her. she is just such an amazing sister and she has so many insightful experiences everytime we visit with her. i'm learning way more from her than i think she is learning from me. why is it that i get to be so blessed?! i am so grateful that she is my friend and i love her so much. they are now progressing towards the temple. how cool is that?! i have been missing the temple recently. we're too far south to be going regularly like the more northern missionaries get to. i am so grateful for the temple and the strength that comes from being worthy of a temple recommend.

we have been working with the ward a lot and i'm seeing so many miracles in our ward. we have people bring their friends to english class. we have so many people bearing their testimony of missionary work. we have had the opportunity to teach some friends of our members. a recent convert here, Hou JM, invited one of our english students (a cute young mom) to church and i was able to attend primary with her and her daughter. so much fun! the ward was really welcoming and helped her feel really love. i know that as we missionaries are in the "spotlight of missionary work" there will be so much more success

sister hill and i are doing great. we are happy. we laugh a lot. we pray alot and she's a really great example to me of sincerity and love. Heavenly Father knew i needed her as a companion right now. she is just the support that i need :) i love her. we went to a BBQ with the phillipeano sisters in our ward and they were grilling fish and pork and it was delish. one of the sisters had seriously brought like 30 fish to grill and there were only like 10 people there. haha. sister hill was like "it's like we have to eat a whole school!" she is so funny and i love her

i love you all so much. thank you for your letters and emails. i am so grateful for your support and love. you have no idea. i love you all very much.

keep the faith

aloha

sister Newman

August 5th, 2013

AMAZING FIRST WEEK OF AUGUST! how is it already august? Daddy- thank you so much for the package!!!! as always, i was amazed at your packing skills. how you managed to fit it all in is amazing and i had to eat some stuff right then in order to fit the rest back in the box. haha. it's still hot. every day. and so wonderful. we have had an amazing week of finding and teaching many people for the first time. two big highlights from this week:

on sunday night, i started talking to this mom on a scooter with her three little girls. we just talked about families and being a mother (she asked me how many kids i have.....uh......none). but i shared with her about my amazing angel mother and the strength my parents are to me. anyway, we set up a time to meet with her at her apartment. as we were waiting in the lobby i was so SHOCKED to see her husband come down with her to meet with us. i was just thinking, WOW A FAMILY! he seems like such a great father and he was participating in the lesson. i am so excited to keep meeting with them! the ward mission leader and his wife are coming with us this week. as we were talking with them and some of our other investigators this week, i just got this amazing insight into how the Lord is preparing these people. They are His children and His hand is in each of their lives. It's so exciting to hear people talk about their lives- they don't see how the Lord has been interacting with them, but we do. i love helping people gain the ability to feel the Lords love for them. 

second highlight was a tracting miracle. we were knocking doors and a woman came out. she is like in her 30s and her name is claire. we were talking to her and her english is PERFECT which always throws me off a little. it's interesting when chinese comes out more naturally than english. haha. as we were talking to claire she seemed pretty interested but didnt really want to put down her information. we kept talking about her goals and how she is really driven. shes in graduate school studying government and she told us her big goal is to pass this test. as we kept talking to her about prayer, she suddenly blurted out "actually, i do want to put my information down." we kept talking to her and she blurted out again "another big goal i have is to have children. i really want to start a family" i really saw the spirit working within her as we talking and encouraging her to meet with us. i really saw how the spirit is the true teacher. she was willing right then to pray with us and she said it and now we're meeting with her on wednesday. we have been blessed with so many contacting miracles. 

sister Hill is SUCH A GREAT COMPANION! we are seriously laughing all the time. i love being with her. i just feel like we are sisters. being in this ward with her is so fun. our ward is just fun! the relief society president, who is extremely pregnant, bore her testimony this sunday and mentioned how grateful she is that there are sister missionaries in the ward. she feels like we have been able to help so much with the less active sisters. i don't feel like we've down that much but i am so grateful that Heavenly Father knew the she needed support and sent us here.

we took our recent covert contacting and teaching with us this week. IT WAS SO FUNNY! she decided that we should go to carrefour because it has air conditioning and good food. so we went and started talking to people about our english class. there was this huge display of balloons and she asked the sales person if we could have some. they gave us some and she started handing them out to kids and telling them about english class. haha she is such a rockstar and is seriously inviting like EVERY SINGLE PERSON to english class. haha i love her so much and she is so solid.

this move call is so crazy. there are like 30 new missionaries on island and so many changes are happening with the new president. i really like him. he's very focused on our personal development and progress. i think that is how Heavenly Father views us. it doesn't matter as much where we are, or what our calling is, or what we are doing, as much as it matters who we are becoming and how we are using the opportunities He gives us. 

i can't believe sister Hill is already half done with training. another move call like we just had and then we'll see what the Lord has in store for me. This work is amazing and it is all the same great work, no matter where we are or what we are doing. i am so grateful for all your letters and emails!! hawaii sounds like an adventure. sounds like you were hobos for a little while there. haha good olde times. love you all so much. i am praying for you! keep the faith. aloha

love

sister Newman  

July 29th, 2013

Hello all! 

Last week in July!! how does this happen? the months just fly by and i'm so grateful for every moment! i can't even believe how fast July has gone by.

This week was amazing. we were able to meet with so many new sisters who are so prepared and so special. yesterday, we met with a Chen JM who is a college student. her brother was baptized last december and he came with her. this family had been contacted by missionaries 7 years ago here in Nanzi and they had an old copy of the Book of Mormon with a note from the missionaries in it. the brother Chen Dixiong, met the missionaries last year again while he was at school up in taizhong. he was baptized and is now seeking to help his sister accept the gospel. she is so amazing. we were able to share with her the first lesson and when we asked if she would be willing to pray about it, she unexpectedly bowed her head right then and started praying. her prayer was so sincere and heartfelt. when she finished, we all just sat there in this beautiful, peaceful silence. the spirit was there and was touching her heart. i was so inspired by her willingness to ask right then. She is going to college up north in taibei tomorrow and is willing to continue meeting with the missionaries up there. she wants to get baptized. i feel so grateful that Heavenly Father allowed us to have a part in her conversion process. not a big part but i just feel so grateful that i was able to meet her. she could have just waited till she went up to taibei to meet with the missionaries but Heavenly Father knew that i had so much i needed to learn from her and her brother. We are keeping in touch by email now and i'm excited to hear about how she continues to progress.

we met with one of my favorite less active sisters this week, Su Jm. she is so amazing. we talked to her about doing her family history for her dad, who passed away about 7 years ago. she has a very special relationship with her dad and everytime we talk about him, she just lights up. we want to help her prepare for the temple. we found her about 4 months ago, just calling through a list of less active members. i am so grateful that we know her. she told us last week how she has not been in contact with the church for a long time and having us come to home is just a reminder to her that Heavenly Father has not forgotten her. she told us that she wants to come back to church and that she's working on it. i love this woman so so much! she's shorter than me and tell such funny stories and buys us mango bing every time we go over. what could be better?

we were going over to a lesson yesterday and had a minute so we tracted near her home. there was this one house that looked like it was covered in cacti (cactuses?). we go closer and found out that it was dragon fruit! google that plant- it looks so scary and the whole house was covered with it! anyway, we chatted with the man that lived there and although he wasn't very interested, he just reached up and plucked us two dragon fruits (you puck it? that's it? that's it.) taiwanese people are so nice! we are having an english party activity this week and all the sisters in our relief society were offering and cooridinating with us for what food they wanted to bring. someone has a BING machine and another woman is bringing all the ice for it and another woman is bringing mangos. being in taiwan is so wonderful. it got suggested to me like 3 times this week that i should marry a taiwanese man....hmmmmm. anyway.... haha

sister Hill and i are doing well. she's amazing. nuff said. we are just laughing alot and i love it. we really have become good friends. what more could i ask for? she encourages and inspires me to be better. life is good

i hope you all have a great time in hawaii! i love you all so much and i'm glad youre going as a family. our family is the best. i'm not kidding. i love you all so much and i pray for you individually. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE!!! exactly what i needed. chocolate. makeup. shorts. shirts. silly bands. it was perfect. my favortie part is always your letters or notes. they are the best. i love you all so much. thank you for taking the time and sending your love. i feel it every day!!

all my love

sister Newman