Yay for cheese, 6 months, 1 in 200, ponder anew, power

Pizza we got to celebrate my birthday. Yay for cheese! Notice the upside down American flag-- nice attempt :)

13 April 2015
Qishan

6 months
On Wednesday, I will have been out on my mission for 6 months! Woo hoo :)  

Crazy to think that just 6 months ago I was at home and picturing what my life would be like in Taiwan. I remember hearing about the visa issues and thinking how much I hoped that wouldn't happen to my group. So of course, it's exactly what ended up happening. I never pictured myself being a missionary in Idaho, but I wouldn't change anything. That time really turned out to be a huge blessing to me and I view it as a tender mercy from the Lord. 

Tu Jiemei (Young Women's President) took us all out to lunch--so nice!

And now here I am, finally in Taiwan. I've been here for almost a whole transfer now. I have 6 more weeks of training (with my 3rd trainer) and then I will be a "seasoned missionary". Well, not really.

Things are great here! I continue to love Qishan and all the people I have the pleasure of meeting. 

1 in 200

One night we were doing church contacting.  This is when we stand on the corner of a busy intersection on the street of our chapel. When people are stopped at the traffic light for about a minute, we can point to our chapel, and invite them to learn more. Usually people aren't super interested and are somewhat anxious to drive off as soon as the light turns green. 

But about 1 in every 200 will pull over to the light and be willing to hear more. So it was with Huang & Shen.

Went "neighbor tracting" one night this week.
Thought we'd get to know our next door neighbors
 by dropping off a papaya and short message.

We started a conversation with them and learned they had just moved and were actually looking for a church. (What?!)  So we've started visiting them ever since and they're adorable. 

They're a really sweet couple and I've loved getting to know them. Huang jiemei definitely is interested and has a lot of faith. Shen dixiong doesn't quite believe, but he came and watched general conference with us yesterday which was awesome! 

Ponder anew

The highlight for this week was definitely General Conference. It was just so good! I was trying to pick a favorite talk to highlight, but I couldn't. So I thought I might pick my top 3 and I still couldn't. But I guess that's a good thing that the messages from our prophet and apostles were all so good! 

I enjoyed hearing the choir sing "Praise to the Lord the Almighty God".  It was perfect timing for me. I recently received a letter from my Dad about some of his favorite hymns and he wrote me about a line in that song: 

"Ponder anew what the Almighty can do"

So that had been my focus for the week--to work on increasing my faith and trying to recognize the Lord's hand more in my life. 

Power

Along with that, I've been thinking about Moroni's counsel in the last chapter of the Book of Mormon (Moroni 10:7): 

"I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, according to the faith of the children of men."

I know that God has a plan for each one of us, and that He watches over us and is always mindful of what we're going through. 

Love you all! 

Sister Sinclaire Hancock