Sister Collyer: June 7, 2010

Dear Friends and Family,

Hello from.......TAIPEI!!! That is right. I moved again. This time I am right up in Taipei - Chin hua Street! AKA The chapel that is across the street form the mission office and right smack next to the temple. Moroni is looking down on me right now. I can't believe I moved! Ah! It went so fast! I am really going to miss Xinzhu and Sister Mac Isaac, but I am really excited for the new adventures that are to come here! I really did not expect to move, and I never would have guessed I would come up to this area, but it seems like it is going to be great! My new companion is Sister Allen, and she seems awesome. I am really excited to work with her!

My last week in Xinzhu was fantastic. We met with Hong Raeyin (Ranae) again, and I am really going to miss her a lot. I don't know how to tell you how fantastic she is. When we met with her, she had made a case for her scriptures and had little post it markers in her book of Mormon and we asked her when she had marked and she said, "When you share a scripture is a lesson, I like to mark it." When we asked her where she was in reading the Book of Mormon, she has already finished 1 Nephi, and when we asked what her favorite scripture so far was, she said 1 Nephi 19:9, "And the world, because of their iniquity, shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men." Holy cow! Her faith in Christ is amazing, especially for someone without a Christian background. It really reminds me of Ammon speaking to King Lamoni's wife when he said, "Blessed art thou because of thy exceeding faith; I say unto thee, woman, there has not been such great faith among all the people of the Nephites" (Alma 19:10). I have never been so blown away before. God truly has prepared some amazing people in Taiwan to join the saints here! The only thing that is a little concerning right now is that Ranae's mom at this point opposed baptism. Here in Taiwan, the legal age for signing documents is 20, so if her mom does not give permission she has to wait two years to get permission. Please keep her in your prayers!

We also had this amazing miracle - on Friday we went to an appointment set up with the Fan family. We had never met them before, but the Elders set them up for us. Ok, they are AMAZING! It is a mom and her four daughters and one little son, and they are absolutely inspiring. We went to visit them and the were watching TV and we asked them if they would turn it off to talk to us, and they ALL agreed - even the younger daughters! Then we taught them about prayer and how the gospel blesses families and challenged them to all pray together every night, and they all said ok! Then we kneeled to pray and one of the daughters offered her first prayer ever and it was so special and I could almost feel God's presence there. It was amazing. Afterwards, the mother thanked us for bringing her the gospel. Wow! It was a real miracle. I have never been so shocked and edified before. I love families!

Sunday was a happy and sad day. Happy because it was fast Sunday and it was fantastic, but sad because it was my last day! I got to see everyone for the last time and it just about broke my heart to leave. Sister Wang and her daughter. A couple of ward members I will especially miss - Sister Chen (The one in front of the white board) has been so amazing at helping us teach Ranae. I don't know how we would ever get along without her!

And MaoMei (Madasse) (the one with the mask) - she just turned 21 and is hoping to go on a mission! and her brother MaoDi (Jasper) just turned 18 and is going to do the military for one year and then go on a mission after that. Wow. They are just so amazing.

Also, Ranae gave me a really touching letter (I can only read about 1/4 of it since it is in Chinese, but I am working on translating it) and drew me this picture of Jesus and I though I was gonna cry I was so touched! Sister Chen also gave me a letter and she read it out loud to me since it was in Chinese too and it was so touching and I just am so sad to leave them! Ah! Still, I know that this is where God needs me, and I am really excited to work with Sister Allen.

We took a picture as a district with Jasper and Madasse and Ranae and I just love both of these pictures! My district leader - Elder Cui - is form Korea. He is the one accidentally making the really funny face in one of the pictures. Ah! I am going to miss all of them! Elder Yeh and Elder Vanwagoner are the Zone leaders, Elder Li and Elder CHumway are awesome, and Elder Cui and Elder Raskey are some of the happiest people I have ever met. They were a really wonderful district!

Lastly, I also saw this gigantic snail, and I just had to take another picture. :)