February 28, 2011

Dear Friends and Family,

Hello again from paradise! This week was a great one! We really saw some amazing miracles!

This week a lot of people set appointments with us but then stood us up. :( But I really learned this week the value of not wasting time when people do not show up! Every time we got stood up we went outside and started talking to people, and we found like FIVE people willing to listen to the gospel and a few of them even said they want to be baptised! WOW! If every time we get stood up we find that many new people, I hope we get stood up more often! It was seriously great.

Also, last week for preparation day we went to an aborigine craft center and it was AWESOME! I forgot to bring my camera cord, so sorry, no pictures, but worry - we will probably go back there next week because the have an activity where you can make your own aborigine glass beads but last time we didn't have enough time to do it so we absolutely NEED to go back. I loved it!

Today I am really excited because we are going to go to Yuli and have a Hualian District Exercise competition. All of the members and missionaries are getting together from the Hualian district and we are gonna run and do all those other cool things people do at a family track meet. I couldn't be more thrilled!

Also, yesterday in Sacrament meeting for the second branch all the missionaries got to give a talk on missionary work. It was great because I got to share come of my experiences with the branch, and since practically all of my mission is here in Taidong, all the miracles I got to share are about people that they know and see every week in sacrament. I have already shared most of them with you, but today I want to share a couple others...

The prophet recently told us missionaries that we need to be inviting EVERYONE to be baptized. I mean EVERYONE. We walk out the door and the first person we see we need to invite. We meet people on the back of a scooter and we need to invite them. It had proven to be the most exciting thing about missionary work! I have two experiences that I want to share with you.

One is pretty funny. A few weeks ago our drains got all plugged up by stuff, and we didn't' have any time to fix them or buy drain cleaner so we were just dealing with it. Well, one day we went out the door and ran into one of our neighbors. We started talking to her and asked her if she wanted to be baptized. She said, "No, but I have something I want to give to you. It is an organic cleaning mixture that will clean out anything - including clogged drains." What?! Yes, this really happened! We did not tell her beforehand at all that we had a problem, she just handed us the bottle, told us how to use it and said goodbye. That was the most out of the box miracle I have ever seen. It was fantastic!

Another time I was contacting a man at a stoplight on a scooter. he was an interesting man, we talked about how religion helps people and how important it is to have faith. He was quite the talkative fellow and it was hard to get a word in. He started sharing about how he believes any religion that teaches good things is good and it doesn't matter what religion people are in the end. I told him that of course religion should teach us good tings and Jesus does! He said, "Well, if I already believe in doing good and serving others, then why do I need Jesus?"

I said to him, "Sir, are you perfect?" He said, "No."

I said, "Sir, none of us are perfect. We all do bad things. WE all have guilt form those bad things that we do, and except through faith in Jesus Christ's atonement, repentance and baptism you will never be able to fully rid yourself of the guilt from your sins. Without Jesus and baptism it is impossible. Will you be baptized?"

on that busy street corner that day, I have never felt the spirit testify so strong that these things are true. Although the man did not set a baptismal date, he set up a time to meet with the Elders and continue to learn.

I know that the doctrine of Christ is as simple as this - Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, receiving the gift of the Holy ghost, and enduring to the end. It is true. I know it is true. Without Jesus Christ and his atonement none of us can be rid of the guilt that comes from our wrongdoings. I am so grateful that I know this and am so happy that my full time responsibility every day is to share this good news! I love being a missionary!

I love you all and hope all is well with all of you! Remember to pray and read your scriptures and go to Church!

Love,
Sister Collyer