Sister Rachel Caroline Edwards: Monday September 9, 2013

Monday September 9, 2013

Dearest Loved ones!

"This week has been good! We just had a miracle this morning when the girl at the email place desk asked US about trying out our church!! It was so cool! I'm LOVING Danshui! I don't know if it's the people here, or Sister Taylor, but it is EASY to get people's numbers! And I know this doesn't seem like a big miracle, but the other night I called a referral and they set up with me!! It was a miracle for me! I hate calling, because I don't understand what they say so much of the time, which results in really awkward and confused communication . . . but I did it! And being in a city with a university that is about to start school . . . is a HUGE blessing! We went to Dan4jiang1 University this week (I think it was this week), and it was so FUN contacting people! And so many people were willing to give us their numbers! It's funny the way Sister Taylor and I contact--I think we might almost smile TOO much, and we get to the point almost too fast, just because when we're both in it, we just go for it! But it sure is fun. Although we don't even go contacting that often on the street because Sister Taylor is so good at getting set ups with RC's, LA's, and referrals, and traveling to a lot of people's houses takes forever (which does make for good contacting on buses though!)

Would you want contact with this person?

I LOVE the ward in Danshui! The members are so good to us. We had an investigator come to church for the first time on Sunday (woo hoo!!) and the members who knew her from helping peike were so friendly. Also . . . miracle! . . . we had a girl randomly show up to our ward on Sunday to check it out! She didn't speak Chinese, she was Malaysian. One of the members immediately took her under her wing and translated the whole time. Another member, who had served in the Singapore, Malaysia mission also went over and talked to her. It was so cool to see.

I think these must be random pictures of members of the ward that Rachel is growing to love.

The investigator who came to church is YYY. She is progressing really well! It's hard to teach too much too quick because she likes to talk a lot . . . but she is doing really well! She ALWAYS does her reading assignments and keeps her commitments and has been telling us about her answers to prayers! The only thing I'm worried about is that she is doing this for her daughter. Her daughter told her that she needed to find a religion, doesn't matter which one, and stick with it. So the only thing I'm worried about is that she doesn't understand the importance of really knowing it's true, not just good, but TRUE. But she's great!

We all love having someone put their arms around us

This week we had a really spur of the moment run-in with a girl named XXX, whose information we got, and set up an appointment with her. Actually we ran into her. We were rushing across the street to buy something from the bookstore, and she just happened to be in the right spot at the right time. We were STOKED. When the time came for our meeting she didn't show! We were all disappointed. Then she called us the next morning and told us that her work had gone overtime and she was sorry! We couldn't set up another appointment right then because she didn't know her schedule but I think she has real potential!

We spent all Saturday at a wedding reception. The bride is a Danshui ward member, and Sister Taylor was helping with the music, Afterwards a member introduced us to a family she had brought who were GOLDEN! They are LOOKING for a church, and were super interested! They did a temple tour, and we went with them. They wanted to go to church the next day. They live in Zhonghe so I hope the Zhonghe missionaries were able to pick up on them. It was so cool to see such prepared people.

Temple tours this week are good! I'd never done them before. I'll be honest I wasn't that excited and I didn't want to do them. But it turned out to be really fun! The first one I lead went horribly, but the next time I'll know how to plan so that disaster won't happen again! The other tours were fun! I realized that I really like smiling at people."

Danshui is wonderful and . . . BEAUTIFUL. This is a hot tourist spot in Taiwan. One day I WILL return, and I WILL swim in that water that is calling out to me! Thanks for your letters!