Wu an! 

"Behold the waters of Mormon (for thus were they called) and now, as ye are desirous to come into the fold of God, and to be called his people, and are willing to bear one anthers burdens that they may be light... to stand as witnesses of God at all times and in all things and in all places...if this be the desires of your hearts, what have you against being baptized in the name of the lord.... that he may pour his spirit more abundantly upon you?

And when the people had heard these words, they clapped their hands for joy, and exclaimed: this is the desire of our hearts"

Mosiah 18:8-11

He never ceases to help me and bless me and allow me to see miracles.  

Lin Shuang was baptized this week!! In the closest thing to the waters of mormon that Taiwan has.  And all who attended really did clap their hands with joy.  It made everyone remember the incredible blessing of baptism.  We met our ward at the church at 6:30 am on saturday morning and took a bus to Wulai.  Almost our whole ward came!! we and the elders have been working so hard to help our investigators towards this date and we had three souls being baptized.  It was a stake activity but our ward was the only one who was having baptisms.

Wu lai is the place that the first member of Taiwan was baptized about 50 years ago.  Every ten years our stake does this baptismal service.  Everyone took lin shuang in as a member of their family.  Wu lai is a yuan ju min place.  Like the native americans! They have crazzzyyy stuff there and tons of weird food and a million shops.  All of their stuff looks really similar to native american dongxi.  weird.

Before the baptism, we all sang a hymn.  At that moment, I realized the significance of what was about to happen. One of Gods children was entering into His fold.  As she got into the river with Elder Jensen, Sister Johnson looked at me and said "this is what it was like at the waters of mormon."  How powerful and beautiful it was to be there on that special day. 

I am so happy for Lin Shuang.  She is on her way to immortality and exaltation. 

This week, Sister Johnson and I got to go to the Temple.  

This was a turning point of my mission.  It is no secret that I have been struggling knowing that I will come home in december.  It has been eating at me and freaking me out.  I feel like I havent done enough and that I dont have enough time to do everything, even though everyday I have given my all to God.  Really I have worked as hard as I can everyday these past 13 months to try and give my all to God and my all to these incredible people.  There are times that because of my human weakness, I am unable to do all that I wish I could.  Lets be honest, all missionaries expect perfection from themselves because they are representing the Savior of the World.  But as I was in the temple, I realized, my thought process was wrong.  MY WHOLE MISSION.  It is not about making goals for these 18 months. 

 It is about change. 

 It isnt about setting goals for how many baptisms you will have or if you will read the whole book of mormon in characters before you head home.  Those are GREAT! but the point of this mission is to prepare me for my next mission that starts in less than 5 months.  It is all about Change.  Change of my desires. Change of my personality. Change from my natural state into.. a still very imperfect natural being who just has a better understanding of what I can be.  There is no end... That is the blessing of having a savior.  We can have eternal life! we can mess up over and over and over again and just stand up over and over and over again.  I am still making goals... trust me.  I have never been so ren zhen about my goals in my life.  And I am still going to work hard EVERYDAY. I am going to work harder than I have ever before to help these people and be a better representative of Christ.  But my "death date" isnt a death date at all... its a chong xin de kaishi.  

In sacrament meeting a sweet member as she was bearing her testimony asked "ni xiang jia ma?"  "Do you miss home?" . I thought about that for a minute "ni xiang jia ma?".  After she sat down I got up and with tears in my eyes said "Sister Yang, I definitely miss home... I miss my home in heaven."  We need to remember who we are.  We are spirit beings who have heavenly parents who love us.  We don't belong here.  We belong with them! We are only here to grow and to learn so that one day we can be more like them.  I can't wait to be home again...with them. and with you all!!  But while I am here, I don't want to leave.  Just like how in life, we fear death.  But really, if we think about it, wo men dou xiang jia.  

I love you all so much.  Don't feel bad when I say I dont want to go home.  I hope that this little biyu helped you understand more.  

I am so glad you had such a great week! 

Sister Johnson and I have one more week together and then who knows what will happen! All our investigators have pretty much died so Sister Johnson and I are just working hard all day everyday in the heat preaching the good word of God and inviting ALL to come unto their savior.  

Keep having fun:) 

Sister geng.

p.s (sorry dad. I wish I could figure out characters on this computer.. pinyin stinks).