June 21, 2010‏

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello again from Taipei! I don't have much time to write this week, so sorry if this email is a little short!

This week was fantastic. We went on splits on Wednesday with the Temple Tour sisters. Basically, they are kind of like the sisters that help the president out and do Temple tours once a week. So I did Temple tours with Sister Chen, and MAN! She is an awesome missionary. We saw some great miracles! We found some people who were really interested in what our message is, and it was awesome!

Also, our investigators are doing great. One of our investigators, Eve, is just amazing! Every time we explain a principle of the gospel to her she always says, " and this is possible through Jesus Christ and repentance, right?" And All I can think is, "MAN! She has got a better grasp on the gospel than I do!" Really! She is overcoming a lot for the gospel, but the change in her is truly amazing. When I first met her she was sad and uncomfortable and not very hopeful and simply did not understand what life was about. Now, in two short weeks, her focus is completely on Christ, her mind centered on becoming better, and she is so hopeful about the future, and so , so HAPPY! This is truly a gospel of happiness. I am so grateful to God that this miracle is happening. It truly is amazing.

One of our other investigators is experiencing a lot of opposition in her efforts to follow the gospel, so we are pretty concerned about it! Her testimony is solid, but it is really hard to face the opposition she is facing! She is still meeting with us, so pray for us to be able to straighten her and help her see that any sacrifice is worth it for Jesus Christ. God will always support his faithful followers. I know this is true. Mosiah 24:14 tells us that God will ease the burdens on our back that we may be able to bear them. We will still have trials, but God is with us.

This Saturday we also had a really awesome ward activity where we went on splits with the ward members and did missionary work. It was great. I went out with Sister Ge who is a returned Missionary from Salt Lake Temple Square and sister Lin who just got baptized last month. They are fantastic missionaries! Their testimonies are so pure and so strong! Also, we had a really funny experience. We were visiting an Indonesian woman who said we should come by, and she ended up not being very interested, but the woman she works for invited us in to visit her. She is really, really old and can't hear very well. In fact, she reminds me a lot of Grandpa Timms. In the course of our half hour visit she told us about every five minutes, "You skin is so beautiful!" It was great. It was a really fun experience. We spent the rest of the afternoon contacting in a park and we found some really awesome people! Unfortunately, the people we found live in other areas, so we won't get the chance to teach them, but the missionaries in those areas are going to have some great new investigators this week!

The thing I really liked about the activity is that it was really a great opportunity to get to know the ward members. At the end of the day the whole ward came together and ate dinner and it was great to meet a lot of them and get to know them. I really think it was a worthwhile experience.

I love this work! I am so grateful for the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! It is true, and miracles are happening every day!

I love you all!

Sister Collyer

PS - The first picture is our almost-trio - me, Sister Allen, and Sister Lin. The other picture is one of the Elders investigators drew and gave to me. Pretty cool!