Sister Rachel Caroline Edwards: Monday July 29, 2013

Monday July 29, 2013

Dear Family and friends,

Thanks for your letter mom! Wow . . . I am so impressed with all the walking you are doing!! Every week you have more stories of crazy walks!! You are definitely prepared! I always forget when you leave, but I'm thinking it's soon. Have so much fun!! This is a copy from my letter to the president: (I'm so glad Sister Sutton mentioned that she just copy and pasted, because these are all the things I want to tell you and now I'm not wasting any emailing family time!)

"This week has been good! We've been trying so hard to teach new investigators, and we've had a few . . . one who came to church!!! This is the first time I've had an investigator come to church outside of the one who was already coming every week when we first came. It was kind of ironic, because in our first meeting this Investigator told us she'd gone to another church, but didn't like it because they believed homosexuality was wrong, and we also know that she lives with her boyfriend. The lesson in Relief Society was on Elder Bednar's talk "We Believe in Being Chaste." At first I was thinking "Oh no!!!!", but then I realized that there is probably no one better to explain this topic than an apostle, and now it's out in the open. And we even talked about it a little after and she didn't seem too upset (although she recognized she wasn't keeping it). And throughout church she was listening and flipping through the BOM to read the scriptures and things. Sunday school was about the Plan of Salvation, which might have been a little confusing, but now when we teach it hopefully she will remember a little and it will be easier to understand. I really hope we can keep meeting with her!!

Another exciting part of the week was teaching lessons Friday night . . . we had lessons with two new investigators at the same time, so we had to split. I was pretty nervous, and I know I made lots of mistakes, but it didn't go too badly! Mostly due to peike's--I was so grateful for them.

Last Monday, Sister Sutton and I started a forty day fast-- a fast from anything that "pokes" at our spirit. We are trying together to have a better attitude and more fire and desire for the work, and so we decided to take this challenge (purposed in an article someone mailed to Sis Su). It's been . . . harder than I thought for some things! There are two big ones for me, in line with avoiding distracting thoughts. One of them has been easier to not think about (mostly because it's about events happening at home, and thinking about missing all of it is painful). But the other is something I struggled with before the mission, and after covenanting with the Lord I wouldn't think about it . . . its gotten way harder! I think Satan is definitely working against me. But I love working together with Sister Sutton on this. I think our unity gets better and better as time goes on.

Sister Sutton has mentioned that it's been hard for her to have a good attitude this past week, which is something we're trying to work on together, but I'm not sure the best way to help her. There are some things, but I'm trying to think of something that will really help--I know probably the best thing I can do is just to have a good attitude myself, so I'm working on it. She is awesome. I love Sister Sutton and she is SUCH a blessing to me. I'm really grateful she is my companion!!"

That's my letter to the president! The sun shines fairly often . . . but it's cloudy a lot too-- plus we're almost always wearing helmets when we're outside, so I haven't gotten as much sun as I'd imagined. We ride bikes everywhere, but most of the time things aren't too far . . . except last week we spent a lot of time helping that member family I talked about last week (Cun1 family) paint their house . . . and that is really far away!! So we spent a lot of time on bikes last week. The streets aren't really built for bike riding, but Taiwan is full of scooters and some bikes (and even just a lot of people walking around), even in this country town, so people are really aware of us as bikers. It's not dangerous really at all.

JULY 24TH, TRULY PIONEERS
RACHEL PAINTING? WOULD NEVER BELIEVED IT WITHOUT THE PICTURE TO PROVE IT.

Good luck to Austin!! I want to say he's going to . . . Florida, right? I'm glad you got to go to his farewell! I hope he did awesome!

Tell Denise Crane congratulations for me on her big float, and thanks for the emails!

If you ever want to write through dearelder again, that might be fun! I know it cost a little money, and it's not as quick, but it's so fun to get something in the mail!

About the skirts: I can't go to other sites besides the missionary ones, so if you see something awesome, definitely send it! Plain but brightly colored skirts that are durable material but more flowly/not tight are best.

I love you so much!!! I miss you. Thank you for the faithful letters every week. Zai4jian4!

Love,

Sister Rachel Caroline Edwards

Pictures came this week. Here they are. I'll try to make some sense of them.

Eating a 1,000 year old egg. How do they know it is really 1,000 years old? Rachel says, "I loved it"

Rachel's 1st baptism. And our new member is excited and full of fire.

I WONDER IF THESE TWO COMPANIONS EVER CONFUSE ANYONE TRYING TO TELL THEM APART.:

THE REAL QUESTION IS: WHO IS WHO. IT IS ALL IN THE EYES.

"MY COMPANION AND I BOUGHT THE SAME SKIRT LAST WEEK AND WORE IT TO SPECIALIZED TRAINING ."

AWARD GIVEN FOR THE BEST CAPTION TO GO WITH THIS PICTURE

I GOT A PACKAGE FOR MY BIRTHDAY. HOW EXCITING!!

THE FOOD HAD ALREADY BEEN OPENED AND TASTED. NOW THAT IS THE KIND OF GIFT ANY MISSIONARY WOULD LOVE.

EATING CHICKEN. ARE THE GLOVES TO KEEP YOUR HANDS CLEAN OR BECAUSE THE CHICKEN IS SO HOT IT WILL BURN YOUR HANDS? THE QUESTION IS, ARE YOU GRIMACING OR SMILING?

VISITING SITES OF INTEREST. WE JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT SITES THEY ARE: