No more going easy!!!

We have an apartment lizard named William. He's a good one. He likes to make sounds in the night (Who knew lizards make sounds?), and he eats the spiders. I love him. 

This week has been a really good one, and this week we are hitting transfers, which means my trainer and I will be splitting and one of us will move and things. I will be sure to update you all on that next week!

I am a happy missionary! I love seeing this gospel bless people, and seeing the change in people's hearts. Our precious LinYongLiang is getting baptized on Saturday and last Thursday completely quit smoking. He has such faith in the Lord and has completely shown it. As we have gotten to better know him and teach him I have come to love him so much. I rejoice in his successes and feel sorrow when he falls short, I feel eager to see where this gospel will take him. Interestingly enough, in teaching him, my personal gratitude for this gospel and specifically my family, has grown. His life lacked so much and still does, and the only difference is that my family has had the gospel. I know that God gave us families in order to bless us and this gospel will shape any family into something that will help its members. 

We also dropped Jeremy permanently this week. One thing stops him from receiving this gospel, but he isn't willing to change. It was a sad night, because I love that man, but I know that when the time is right he will accept the gospel. 

Taiwan is amazing, last week we went to the beach and it was beautiful!!! We also get to drink fruity milks and eat Guava almost everyday. We really live the good life. :) I have been able to play my violin quite a lot and this week did a musical number in church, it was amazing and spiritual and I love being able to share the gospel through music!

We had a mission conference yesterday and I got to learn some awesome things about teaching more repentance and baptizing more converts. And faith! It all contributed to the moral of what I learned this week, which is that I can no longer go easy in this work. I think missionary work is supposed to be hard, I think it is supposed to be something that pushes me harder than ever before, but I know that we missionaries have the capability to do the things the Lord asks. I have Big Faith, and I know that though I have weakness, the Lord will help me overcome it all, and use me to the best of my ability. I know this is true of everyone. We are weak, and we need help, but we have the most amazing force pushing us along- the Savior;s atonement and His love. Our trials are never too much for us to handle. I love you all and hope that this week we can all push ourselves to be our best selves in whatever capacity that we are in. 

Big Faith, and even Bigger Faith. 

We moved! Our new apartment is happier and we have windows, so that's pretty nice. We have a really nice security guard that hands out our English tracts for us and says in broken English "I get to see you everyday!" Ha ha we love him. 

This week has definitely been an adventure! We have been figuring out exactly how to be the missionaries that God wants us to be, and I wouldn't say we are even close, but we are working on getting there together. I am here because I love the Lord and I know we are here to do His work.

Quick miracle moment! Our investigator LinYongLiang has had an 11 year smoking addiction and didn't think he could quit and has tried with us, but then made his own plan to quit in 9 days and thought it could work. We had faith and emphasized the importance of the atonement and the Savior and he started, and in 6 days he has quit 16 cigarettes a day, with only four left to quit in two days. The Atonement and this Gospel is real. I am seeing the importance of true conversion in a person, seeing that is if they want it enough and rely on the Lord that they can accomplish anything! I love this gospel. Sorry my

email is so short this week, I love you all! 

                                                                   Ice Cream!!!!!!

The Red Killer - level 5 Burning Hot

The Cuban Chilis - level 1 mild hot

The American Beauty-level 1 mild hot

The Belize chap -level 2 super hot

The Pink trap - level 0 not hot for children

The Devils Kiss level 3 extreme hot

Super Dog Nose - level 7 explosive hot

Well, it's been another week and I'm just not sure how the time passes so quickly! We have been having a wonderful time eating mangoes, drinking passion fruit drinks, eating a lot of fried rice and teaching the Gospel!

I don't have a lot of time this week, but I will update all that I can. 

Our investigator LinYongLiang is doing amazingly and is preparing for baptism on the 27th of August. He created his own plan to quit smoking which is starting today and I have complete faith that he will be able to accomplish his goals and be baptized! I may not see him be baptized because our transfer ends on the 25th, and it is likely that I will leave the area and get a new companion. But I know that this will be such a blessing for him. It is amazing to see this gospel work in people's lives and see them grow closer and learn to rely on the lord. Sometimes I think they teach me much more than I teach them!

I will be getting a new companion in three weeks and will miss Sister Roberts. She is a rock star and really works hard to make the Lord proud of her. We heard the final word on our apartment. We found one last week and are moving in on September 1st.

 I might be gone anyway, but at least the next missionaries will have really good housing. :) We had a good zone meeting this week and I learned a lot about becoming successful missionaries and serving the Lord in the best way that we can. This work really is amazing and I am happy to be here doing God's work. 

Today I will just bear a humble testimony that I know that this church is true. I know that in 1820 Joseph Smith asked a question that would change my life. I know that this gospel has blessed my family and my life in every way imaginable as we have been able to rely on the Lord and know that we have eternity. I know that the Savior atoned for me and for you, to help us be free of our sins and also so that we might be able to rely on him in times of need. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that we truly will grow closer to God by reading it. You are all amazing!

Big Faith,

Hayley

  

Pictures;

1-My family sent me a package !!!! Yea for fun stuff from home.

2-Personalized shoes for me!
3- Sister Roberts. I will miss her!!

4- More of the shoes.

I love the Book of Mormon!!!

This week's escapades were some good ones. Apparently I thought it would be really funny to leave the keys in our apartment because that is what I did and then we couldn't get inside. So we asked our security man if he had a key and he said that he doesn't have the keys to our apartment. So I looked at the building and did some thinking. Back story: Everyday of our time together Sister Roberts asks me if we have the keys and I always tell her that if we don't I will just climb up the building. So naturally that's what had to happen next. Luckily I was wearing bike shorts, so I took off my skirt (Not sure is that is kosher, but I did) and climbed up to our balcony on the 2.5 floor. It was surprisingly easy, but nonetheless very thrilling. Anyway I grabbed the keys and we were good. Now we aren't so scared to leave the keys. But we probably never will again.

We also made cakes at a bakery with a lady who loves Americans. Then she gave us those cakes and gave us a lot of bread. Then other people gave us bread. We have been given 29 different kinds of bread this week. I counted.

On Saturday we did an amazing activity! We always get together once a week as a district to hand out fliers for our English class and this week we decided to make things interesting. So an elder brought his guitar, I brought my violin, and the others brought their voices. We sang a lot of hymns and then I walked around the night market playing hymns and beautiful songs while people followed and handed out fliers. It was cool to see the spirit that it brought to such a packed night market, but it made a real difference! We actually ended up getting some new investigators from it because they liked it so much! I loved being able to play my violin and to use it to share the gospel through music. Music really is so powerful!

I have learned more this week about the power of the Book of Mormon in teaching. We saw miracles. I will share a couple. We have been teaching a man who has been investigating the church for a very long time and his heart is very unwilling to change. He is living with his girlfriend and says that he will get married in five years and then can get baptized, constantly unwilling to put the gospel first. So we decided to drop him and went into our last lesson with every intention of that being the last one. But we wanted to leave him with some food for thought so we read in Alma 34 about procrastinating the day of your repentance. He was really quiet after we read and asked if he got married, would he be fully repented and be able to be baptized? We told him that was the first step and definitely getting married would make it so he was not procrastinating his repentance. So now he is talking to his girlfriend about getting married. It was amazing to see the change that the Book of Mormon wrought in him. We have been telling him these things for weeks but he wouldn't listen to our words. The Book of Mormon is real and I know allows the spirit to carry truths into people's hearts.
Another is that we have been working with our investigator LinYong Liang and has wasn't progressing until he started reading the Book of Mormon and then this week has read about half of first Nephi and is asking questions and his life is so different. We shared a passage about prayer also in Alma 34 (It's a good chapter, you should read it) and it allowed him to understand prayer better and he finally committed to a baptismal date. We also got him a priesthood blessing yesterday to help him overcome his smoking habits and it was amazing. The spirit was so present and he was promised some amazing blessings. He is getting there, and has the faith required to overcome his addiction.

I am amazed at the love that I feel for these people. I think God has really allowed me to see a fraction of the love that He feels for His children and I am so blessed. I love workling with people to help them become better and I love seeing the change that the gospel makes in these people's lives. I am so grateful to have been born into this gospel and to have the knowledge that I do. We are all so blessed. I love this gospel, I love the Book of Mormon and I love being a missionary. Love you all! Big Faith!

Sister DeWitt

1- I built this cake
2- I got to the top!
3- Our musical activities
4- Climbing up
5- LinYongLiang and us. :)

Love you all!
Hayley