September 23rd, 2013

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD AND DAVIS!! i love you both so much and i'm so grateful that i'm in your family. you two are the best. it seems like whenever there is a birthday in the family, i end up getting a package. how lucky am i?! thank you so much for the granola and the earrings! i have gotten so many compliments and worn them almost every day. haha. i originally thought you were sending me some really sweet speakers- who is the lucky owner of those? haha thank you all so much for your support and love. i have felt a lot of love this week and i'm so grateful for a supportive family.

well first week in a new area. i feel like it's been a long time since i've been put in this situation. it's a learning experience! but TAINAN is such a wonderful place! i really love being here and the members that we have met so far are so amazing. i had one sister come up to me on sunday and ask to read my palm. she "prophecied' that i had just moved there from Nanzi. i was like HOW DO YOU KNOW? turns out her friends daughter told her. haha i love being with the members! the Church in Taiwan is being established and being a missionary here is so exciting. i get so excited to think about all the strong wards and stakes being established all over the world. this work is amazing.

we originally had a baptism set up for this past saturday but due to the dangers of a typhoon, it was cancelled. everything was shut down- school, work, we were wondering if church was going to be cancelled as well. we were all waiting and anticipating the 'biggest storm of the year so far". it got to about 6 pm that night and all we had was a little rain. it seems like the typhoon totally passed by us. we were a little disappointed. and sister Wu, who was going to get baptized on saturday, was sad. she is amazing and her faith is incredible. her two older sisters are already members of the church. she is 19 years old and she has been studying to be a professional bartender since she started highschool. she's been going to competitions and practicing for about 4 years. for a long time she hasn't had much interest in the church but about a month ago, she contacted the missionaries and said she wanted to get baptized. she is completely changing her major and her life. she wants to go on a mission after she graduates from college. the Atonement is real and i have seen it working in her life. i am so grateful for her example of doing what is right and following the spirit to make hard changes in her life. she is amazing. being around their family is really special. the oldest sister got baptized about a year ago and the middle sister got baptized a couple months after that. and now the third sister will be getting baptized in about 2 weeks. being around them reminds me of kelly carli and i. i am so grateful that we have been born into the gospel and that we have always had those blessings. 

the Tainan ward is amazing. we have two wards in the same chapel and our district is full of really amazing missioanaries. i have learned so much from their example already and i'm just really grateful to be surrounded by people who lift me up. is so amazing to be a missionary. every sunday afternoon we have the chance to go to a handicap hospital and sing with the residents there. it was so much fun. the man that sets it up is a grandpa that everyone calls guo baba. he is amazing and full of so much love. we all just sing hymns together and chat with the residents. they are all so sweet. it's amazing to have opportunities for service!! i love it! 

i was reading in alma the other day and i read Alma 5:13  "And behold, he preached the word unto your fathers, and a mighty change was also wrought in their hearts, and they humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God. And behold, they were faithful until the end; therefore they were saved." i thought about the need for us to be converted and then to help convert others. as we are humble- in our desicion making, in our callings, in our prayers- Heavenly Father will guide us. i know that He lives and l know that He loves His children. He answered Joseph Smith's prayer and He answers my prayers. i used to think that one day, i would just 'get it'. i would BE charitable or BE perfect at following the spirit or BE a great teacher. and then not have to worry about it any more. but i have learned that that is not the way. we need to plead for our 'daily bread' and daily earnestly seek those things that we need. we need to depend on the Lord daily, being grateful and humbly seeking His help. then we can be saved.

i am so thankful for the scriptures. i have really gained a lot of power and direction from them this week. The Book of Mormon is the word of God. it is Him talking to us. this week has been great. ups and downs but always great. i love you all so much. our family is forever. that is the best! good luck with rugby! congrats to kelly! happy birthday. the presidents say grood morning. i love you all so much. keep the faith 

love 

sister Newman 

September 9th, 2013

Hello Family! this week has been really amazing and i have really felt the Lord's hand in our work.

I told you a story last week about the family we tracted into. We have met with them twice this week and the Mom and the two kids came to church yesterday (the Dad had to work). They are so great and we are excited that we get to teach them. We can really tell that the Father (Brother Hou) really wants what is best for his family. The Lord has really prepared this family to hear this Gospel. The two sisters we have asked to help us teach them as peike's have turned out perfectly. I feel like the Lord is really directing us. The lesson that we had with them was really special. when it first started, there was kindof a 'what does this have to do with me?" feel in the lesson. our peike started bearing testimony of how prophet's councel has blessed her family. and Brother hou just really opened up about some concerns for his family. he also told us about his mother. He prayed for the first time at the end of this lesson. it was so special. I love this family.
We have another investigator who we met through English class that we met with once so far. She is Christian, but was interested in why there were so many different christian churches. When we taught her about Prophets, she said it makes sense that Heavenly Father would call another Prophet and she is really interested to find out for herself. She is so special and we really hope we can help her sincerely seek and find that answer.
We also had a girl who self-contacted the Elders come to church yesterday. She was a little late and nervous to come in, but a visiting family came late and saw her standing outside and brought her in. Then, it also turned out that she was really good friends with one of the members.It was PERFECT! We hope to be able to start meeting with her and teach her more about this wonderful Gospel.

sorry this letter is so short this week. i love you all so much. thank you for your support and prayers. i feel it daily

love

sister Newman

September 2nd, 2013

I can't believe it's already September! time flies and i've almost been in taiwan for a whole year. WHAT AN AMAZING YEAR! i've been reading over my journals and just thinking about all the great experiences i've been able to have. this mission has done more for me than i could have imagined. i feel like the unprofitable servant- i am receiving so many blessings! i am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father and His divine plan for us. we have english sacrament meeting every sunday night with some phillipeano sisters and last night was testimony meeting. one of the sisters talked about how she has spent the last 6 years working and striving to climb her 'ladder of improvement" she worked to come back to church, be active, prepare for the temple, get her patriarchal blessing. she is an amazing example of strength and faith. she testified how the church is the only way to happiness. it is only by living the restored gospel of Christ and keeping God's commandments that we can have complete happiness. i am so grateful for the examples i've been able to have on my mission. my companions are so amazing and continue to help and inspire me. the impact we have on others is huge! why not make it a positive impact. i'm so grateful for the ways others, my family, friends, companions, ward members/leaders, have changed my life. being a member of this church has so many blessings.

we had some flooding in some areas of our area and the rain was non stop on saturday. we were soaked! all day. despite the fact that we wore rain gear. we went to visit a member in the afternoon and we talked with her daughter a little about going on a mission and going to college. i love the youth. as we were biking away from her area, sister hill suggested we go back and tract. she said she's just trying to follow the good thoughts and ideas that come and pray that we are guided. what an example to me. so we turned around and prayed and started knocking doors. the second door was a family and the father talked with us. the wife is christian and the father doesn't really have a religious background. but they were interested in learning more about our church. we're meeting with them again on tomorrow. Heavenly Father does guide us! i was able to share this experience in Relief Society with the other sisters and talk about how this family is the neighbors of one of our members. we don't know who is prepared but we can reach out in love to ALL those around us. i loved hearing about all the cool teaching experiences and missionary experiences my family is having. it is not our responsibility to convert anyone- that is the responsibility of the Holy Ghost. our duty is to invite, to love, to serve, to bless. we truly can be tools in the Lord's hands

So it was pouring on saturday, and we had prayed for the chance to serve someone that day. as we were biking under a bridge, we saw a woman on the side with her scooter. it looked like it wasn't starting so we pulled over and offered help. turns out she didn't have her cell phone on her and her scooter was water logged (another reason i'm grateful we have bikes :) we were able to let her use our cell phone and call her sister. we have so many small chances for service every day. doing the little things is part of being tools in God's hands. i am so grateful for the little acts of service that others do to bless me and help me feel God's love.

well, my trainer is married!! she's beautiful and i love her and i'm so proud of the positive changes she has made in her life. sister hill is doing amazing and i'm so grateful that we are able to be together for 12 WHOLE WEEKS. i learn so much from her daily about being a better teacher and a more obedient person. she is sweet and we laugh a lot and just have a great time. i'm so grateful that Heavenly Father knew i needed her as a companion at this time. she's amazing

i love you all so much! has school started for everyone yet? good luck with that. i am praying for each of you. i miss each of you individually so much and i'm so grateful that we are an eternal family. i love you and i'm so grateful for each of your examples. thank you for your prayers and support. i love you

life is so good.

love you all

-sister Newman

August 26th, 2013

Hello everyone!

This week has been really great and sundays are always especially wonderful to me!! I have really felt the power of the sacrament more on my mission than ever before. The sacrament and church meetings really help me feel recharged and clean. I am so grateful for the Atonement and the opportunity to be weekly cleansed and purified. I've been thinking a lot about being pure in heart and having pure desires. I've been striving to think, with every decision, if what I'm doing is for the benefit my investigators or recent converts, and that I'm not doing something for my own benefit. We've been really praying for our investigators and for them to feel the spirit. i've noticed a change in the way a teach. a slow change. i'm really seeking the spirit. we were teaching a less active sister last night and it was haihao. but as we kept talking with her and seeking to ask inspired questions, she really opened and there was a difference in the spirit of the lesson. it became more about her having a spiritual experience talking with her Heavenly Father and less about us getting a less active sister to agree to pray daily. The spirit is so key in our lives. we're going over to this less active sisters house on wednesday and doing some service. she says if we can get her back yard cleaned before moon festival then we can have a BBQ there. THAT is enough motivation for me to do any service.

I'm learning from Sister Hill that being on the same page as the investigator and really knowing how they feel is so important. She is really good at asking inspired questions that help the person feel the spirit and help us better understand how they are feeling. When we are more focused on others and not so much on ourselves, God can truly guide us to know what is best for THEM. Charity is vital. a sister in our ward just returned from her mission to canada and it is really fun to be around her. she is a great example of charity and hearing her talk about her investigators is really special. i'm so grateful for all the people (members, investigators, missionaries, companions) that i've been able to have on my mission. i think Heavenly Father's greatest blessings are the people that each of us get to interact with.

I had a really great experience on sunday. I was fasting for some people we were working with and also for myself to have a increase of the spirit. I'm learning how very VITAL the spirit is in our work. Yesterday, we had the miracle of all our recent converts attending sacrament meeting. We also met an amazing woman on the street. I have really learned the power of fasting and prayer on my mission. As one lady in our ward said yesterday "Most people would just look at our blessings as coincidences. But WE know that they are blessings from a loving God who knows us personally." I've really learned that Christ has the power to change us- moment by moment. And it's so amazingly fun to try to be better daily.

we had the opportunity to go participate in a youth conference on friday. we got home SO LATE!! i haven't been out past 10:00 in about a year! it felt really weird. haha the life of a missionary. anyway, there were about 400 youth there and it was so fun to be around them. they had all those that were planning on going on missions stand. it was really powerful! the youth in our ward all stood. I love it! 80% of taiwanese young men and women in the church are second generation members. SO COOL! i love the church in taiwan

i love each of you so much. i'm praying for you as school starts and things get busy. I know that God can give us opportunities to bless the lives of others, no matter what we are doing in our life. i love you mom dad blake kenzie kelly davis luke and carli. you are my heroes and i love you! i am so grateful that i get to be with my BEST friends for eternity.

love

sister Newman

August 19th, 2013

Happy Birthday to Carli!! sorry i'm late in saying that. but a package should be coming your way. it's just a little s but i hope you like it! i was thinking about you alot on the 15th and we celebrated a little for you. i'm sorry to say that i cant remember how old any of my siblings are any more....lame i know. i just feel like you'll forever be the age you were when i left and when i think about you being older i'm like....."what?? no way. bu ke neng..."

this week has been really great. every week is really great! august i think is the hottest time of the month. but we are loving it! we had a really great lesson with a woman whom we contacted about 1 month ago. when we saw her the first time, she was super pregnant and heading up to her apartment with her 4 year old son. we started talking with her and she invited us up to her home. Her name is Ding JM. her son was scared of us so he was crying for some of the time.....haha. alot of kids react that way to us. not great for the self esteem. we talked to her about families and Christ and she was amazing and funny and we love her. so then we called her the next week and she had given birth! in taiwan, after a woman gives birth, she stays inside with her baby for a month! to rest and relax and take care of the little one. ding jm had gone back to her mothers home for the month with her baby. so we stayed in contact with her and last week, when we called her she said that she was back in Nanzi and we should come over! so we did. the baby is beautiful. it was all i could do to not cuddle her. not being allowed to hold kids is really hard!! Ding jm is amazing and she basically invited herself to church. she wants to come. we talked about Christ and how He can change us and our families. She accepted a baptismal date for the end of september! i'm really excited to continue getting to know her and helping her develop faith in Christ. it's so amazing how Heavenly Father prepares people to accept His message. our job is to invite and seek and have a spirit

i've really noticed the importance of the spirit in our lives recently. we can do many good things and be good people, but when we have the spirit, we will be able to know what is most good and necessary to do. He will teach us all things and guide us in all things. i know that sometimes we may not even know we are being guided by the spirit but our responsibility is to be seeking it and living worthy of it's guidance. i have felt an increased desire for the spirit in our work.  I have really realized this week that the presence of the spirit depends in part to how I am reacting to the situations I am placed in. The spirit can still be present when our plans don't go according to plan, but when I get frustrated or discouraged about changed plans, I can't feel the spirit. I am changing through the Atonement and learning how to react in more Christlike ways.With the changes in the mission, I have just felt a renewed desire to seek the spirit and study Preach My Gospel and improve my skills as a missionary. I love the feeling of being more dependent on the Lord. In my contacting now, I'm more concerned with the quality than with quantity. I have always really loved talking with people and I'm grateful for that blessing; however, what I am realizing now is the need to become a better tool in the Lord's hands. I want to improve at talking to people with the spirit guiding my words. I am seeking the spirit more in every aspect of the work. In my personal study recently, I have just felt an increased desire to teach and testify and share. THis work is so amazing!

We had a great experience this week with the Bishop. We had gotten fanged and we were getting ready to leave the chapel when the Bishop pulled us into a little interview with him. He talked about some of his concerns and we talked about some ways to work better with the ward and get the fire really going in Nanzi. We are creating 'area books' for all the leaders in our ward, so that they can be up to date with the less active and recently baptized members of the ward. I have been praying for an opportunity to serve the bishop and I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father gave us this chance to help. I am so grateful that He hears and answers prayers!

 Sister Newman