Dearest Family Who I Can't Wait to See, How exciting it was being able to talk to you all one last time before you all come and see me and take me home. I'm glad Mom finally answered the phone. President Bishop gave me permission to call you so I could tell you the new plans of how I would be meeting you. Mom and John I hope I didn't confuse you both on how to get from Taipei and Kaohsiung. Here the instructions again as you wanted again: 1. From the hotel take a taxi to the Tapei Main Station (in Chinese it is the Gaotian Zhan, this is Roman Pinyin...you might pronounce it in English phoenics saying "Gaow Tien John" 2. After you arrive at the station go directly down the stairs.3. On the left side you will find a place to buy the HSR tickets (this will all be in English too)4. Buy tickets from Taipei to Zuoying (which is in Kaohsiung). The tickets will be a little pricy since it is a very fast train and will get you to Kaohsiung in 1 hr and 30 min. One ticket will be about $1,500, which is $45 dollars in America.5. After buying tickets go back towards the stairs and head straight until you see two sides where you can board the train.6. Go on the left side, which will be #1 A platform (make sure this is still the right one to get on because I don't know if they change, just ask someone who works near by and they will direct you)7. #1 A platform will be down the escalators.8. Board the HSR train on your right side (make sure you get on the right car # and seat #.9. The train ride will take about 1 hr and 30 min. Once the train stops at Zuoying (they will say it in English and on the lighted sign) make sure you get off.10. Once you get off take the stairs that go up.11. You will now need to find the MRT station (subway station), which you will find a sign on your left side that will say MRT station Exit #2 (in yellow). 12. Keep going straight until you hit the ticket place where you need to put your ticket in the machine.13. Afterwards, keep going straight and follow the MRT Exit sign.14. Once you get outside go in the next building right across from it (if you keep going straight you will run into it). This is the MRT station that will take you down the escalator. Make sure you don't drink or eat anything in the MRT because they will fine you.15. Once you go down the escalator, you will find a 7/11 store on your right side. Next to the 7/11 is a ATM and where you get tickets for the MRT subway station. It is a touch screen.16. Push the place for Kaohsiung Main Station and then how many tickets you want. (These tickets are really cheap, about a dollar per person.17. The machine will give you your change and your tickets, which consists of a small, blue, plastic-looking coin. 18. Afterwards, you will need to show your coin on the touch screen in order to get through the small-looking gates.19. Next, find the Siaogang Direction sign and follow it down the stairs. 20. Next, make sure you are getting on the right train that leads to the Siaogang direction (there will be signs in English that will tell you).21. Next, get off the subway station on the Kaohsiung Main Station (which is 5 stops over from Zuoying, the stop number is R11). You will find a map on the subway that will say all the stops that the subway will stop at. 22. Once you get off take the escalator upstairs and make your way towards the train station, which is next door and there you will find me waiting outside to greet you all :). Sorry that I gave you so many steps to follow. I thought I would try and be more specific so you wouldn't get lost. Just remember if you get lost just try and ask someone. A lot of the Taiwanese people know some English and most of the workers at the subway and train station and speak pretty good English. Please forgive me family for not being able to talk to you more. I would have loved to hear more from all of you, but I had only so many minutes left on my phone card. I am really excited to see you all and to visit the island of Taiwan. I hope the schedule that I gave you for each day sounds like fun. I did tweek it a bit and changed/added some things to them. I failed to bring the schedule for Taipei, but some things that we will do consists of going on a cable car in the rain forest, visiting the temple, seeing Taipei 101 (very tall building), going to the jade and flower market, visiting the art and science museum, seeing some fun historical sites such as the National Palace Museum, Yat-sen Museum, go to some night markets, etc. The plans can definitely change, but I thought a planned schedule would help and we can go over the stuff we would like to visit. President Bishop would like to meet you all. He will be in Kaohsiung at the same time for Combined District Training Meeting and will meet us all at our hotel lobby in the morning around 7:30 (Wednesday, before we head off to Tainan). He is really excited to see you all and had some things that he still needed to give me and I needed to give him my mission debit card. Most likely he will ask about Paige's wedding so please tell him that it is still on because that is why he is allowing me to leave earlier. Please don't get me into trouble with him. In addition, my fun English teachers (who all graduated from BYU, a couple and a girl) want to meet you all. What a blessing they have been to us as we have been to them. It just felt like a taste of home when we see or meet with them. I just thought we could have lunch or dinner together and maybe go see a tourist sight together. Some fun things happened this week as well as some bad news with some of my investigators. On Monday and Tuesday I spent the day in Taichung and Taipei. I did my final interview with my mission president, then I had a career workshop, homemade dinner at the mission home, a fun devotional and then we went to bed at the senior couple's apartment. Afterwards, we woke up early and headed to the temple in Taipei. Afterwards, I go onto the train and headed back to my area. It was really fun, but it helped me realize that my mission was coming to an end real quick. On Sunday, Nathan and Carlee (English teachers) invited us over for a delicious pasta dinner and then went to visit our Nigerian investigator. Sister Lee and I found out that our investigators couldn't get baptized before I left because of family problems, which was sad, but we did help two people get baptized while we were companions. Last night Sister Lee and I only got 2 hours of sleep since we stayed up talking (it was basically our last night together since her new companion we are going to pick up real soon. We will have a three-some for a week so I can help her new companion out since she is a new senior companion). Today, we got up early and hiked to Monkey Mtn. with our English friends. We enjoyed each others company and the fun monkeys we saw in the trees. We were going to go to an island, but we knew we didn't have much time so we just had lunch together. I will definitely take you all on this fun hike and island. Mom, I'm glad you had fun with Johnny and Jessica and the boat ride/bad mitton game. Your Terrace workout sounds like fun :). I'm glad to hear everyone is still having fun with the boys. I can't wait to see them. I asked my English friends if they could get more info. on car rentals for me, but still try and find some. We could ask our hotel for some info. if you can't find any. Love mom and can't wait to give you the biggest hug. Whit, thanks for the email. Love you tons and can't wait to see you. Thanks for helping mom out packing up some of my shorts and shirts so I don't have to wear my old skirts. Love Whitee and will also give you the biggest hug and your b-day present. Love you lots and I cannot wait to see you all sooooo SOOOOONN!!!!! Love you Always,Sister Museus p.s. I did get into another car accident almost 2 weeks ago that involved me getting doored. It was pretty bad; I will tell you about it later :).
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Sister Museus, August 1st 2011
Hello Everyone, I would love to write you a long email today, but I am actually at the mission home writing this and I have only 15 minutes or so since I have a workshop to go to, my final interview, dinner with the mission pres., and a devotional. In addition, tomorrow I will be able to go to the temple and then head back to Daliao for my last two weeks. I will make sure to take tons of pictures again and let you know how things go. I did have the opportunity to go to the Taipei 101 building with all of the other missionaries leaving, but I knew I was going to take you all to this fun place so I told them it was okay that I didn't go. Nothing happened over the week, except for a wonderful baptism. Sister Guo was able to get baptized and how excited she was for it. She bore a wonderful testimony on how the gospel has changed her life and what blessing it has been for her family. It has been so neat to watch now three people that were orginally from China get baptized. Because I just found out from Sister Page (since ｒａｎ ｉｎｔｏ ｈｅｒ ａｔ ｔｈｅ ｍｉｓｓｉｏｎ ｈｏｍｅ） ｔｈａｔ Ｓｉｓｔｅｒ Ｘｕ （ｆｒｏｍ Ｔａｉｐｉｎｇ） ｊｕｓｔ ｇｏｔ ｂａｐｔｉｚｅｄ． Ｈｏｗ ｇｒｅａｔ ｉｔ ｗａｓ ｔｏ ｈｅａｒ ｔｈａｔ ｏｎｅ ｏｆ ｍｙ ｅｔｅｒｎａｌ ｉｎｖｅｓｔｉｇａｔｏｒｓ ｊｕｓｔ ｇｏｔ ｂａｐｔｉｚｅｄ． Ｗｈａｔ ａ ｍｉｒａｃｌｅ ｉｔ ｗａｓ ｔｏ ｈｅａｒ ｔｈｉｓ ｓｉｎｃｅ ｍｙ ｃｏｍｐａｎｉｏｎ ａｎｄ Ｉ ｓｔｒｕｇｇｌｅｄ ｆｏｒ ｓｏ ｌｏｎｇ ｏｎ ｇｅｔｔｉｎｇ ｈｅｒ ｂａｐｔｉｚｅｄ． Ｐａｉｇｅ， ｉｔ ｗａｓ ｓｏ ｇｏｏｄ ｔｏ ｈｅａｒ ｆｒｏｍ ｙｏｕ． Ｉ ａｌｗａｙｓ ｌｏｖｅ ｇｅｔｔｉｎｇ ｙｏｕｒ ｅｍａｉｌｓ ｓｉｎｃｅ ｔｈｅｙ ａｒｅ ａｌｗａｙｓ ｌｏｎｇ ａｎｄ ｆｕｌｌ ｏｆ ｓｕｃｈ ｇｏｏｄ ｓｔｕｆｆ． Ｙｏｕｒ ｐｅｒｓｏｎａｌｉｔｙ ｔｏｔａｌｌｙ ｃｏｍｅｓ ｏｕｔ ｉｎ ｔｈｅｍ． Ｉ’ｍ ｓａｄ ｔｏ ｈｅａｒ ｔｈａｔ ｙｏｕ ａｎｄ Ｃｈａｒｌｅｓ ａｒｅ ｄｅｌａｙｉｎｇ ｙｏｕｒ ｗｅｄｄｉｎｇ． Ｉ ｈｏｐｅ ｙｏｕ ｗｉｌｌ ｂｏｔｈ ｇｅｔ ｍａｒｒｉｅｄ ｓｏｏｎ ｉｎ ｔｈｅ ｎｅａｒ ｆｕｔｕｒｅ． Ｉｔ ｗａｓ ｎｅａｔ ｔｏ ｈｅａｒ ｔｈａｔ Ｃｈａｒｌｅｓ ｆｉｎａｌｌｙ ｗｅｎｔ ｔｏ Ｉｍｐａｃｔ． Ｉ’ｍ ｇｌａｄ ｈｅ ｅｎｊｏｙｅｄ ｉｔ．．．．ｍａｙｂｅ ｍｙ ｔｕｒｎ ｉｓ ｎｅｘｔ． Ｍｏｒｅｏｖｅｒ， Ｉ ｌｏｖｅｄ ｈｅａｒｉｎｇ ａｂｏｕｔ ｔｈｅ ｆｕｎ ｔｉｍｅｓ ｙｏｕ’ｒｅ ｈａｖｉｎｇ ｗｉｔｈ ｔｈｅ ｔｗｏ ｂｏｙｓ． Ｔｈｅｙ ｓｏｕｎｄ ｓｏ ｍｕｃｈ ｆｕｎ． Ｉ ｗｉｌｌ ｄｅｆｉｎｉｔｅｌｙ ｓｐｅｎｄｉｎｇ ｍｏｒｅ ｔｉｍｅ ｗｉｔｈ ｔｈｅｍ ａｓ ｗｅｌｌ ａｓ ｔｈｅ ｒｅｓｔ ｏｆ ｔｈｅ ｆａｍｉｌｙ ｗｈｅｎ Ｉ ｒｅｔｕｒｎ ｈｏｍｅ． Ｉ’ｍ ｓａｄ ｔｈａｔ ｙｏｕ ｃａｎ’ｔ ｃｏｍｅ ｔｏ Ｔａｉｗａｎ， ｂｕｔ Ｉ’ｍ ｇｌａｄ ｙｏｕ ａｎｄ Ａｓｈ ｈａｄ ｆｕｎ ａｔ Ｒａｇｉｎｇ Ｗａｔｅｒｓ ｗｉｔｈ ｔｈｅ ｂｏｙｓ． Ｔｈｅｙ ｓｏｕｎｄ ｓｏ ｍｕｃｈ ｆｕｎ ｔｏ ｂｅ ｗｉｔｈ． Ｉ ａｌｓｏ ｌｏｖｅｄ ｈｅａｒｉｎｇ ａｂｏｕｔ ｙｏｕｒ ｂｏａｔｉｎｇ ｅｘｐｅｒｉｅｎｃｅ ｗｉｔｈ ｅｖｅｒｙｏｎｅ ａｎｄ ｙｏｕｒ ｂａｄｍｉｔｔｏｎ ｃｏｍｐｅｔｉｔｉｏｎ． Ｗｅ ｗｉｌｌ ｄｅｆｉｎｉｔｅｌｙ ｈａｖｅ ｔｏ ｄｏ ａｌｌ ｔｈｅｓｅ ｔｈｉｎｇｓ ｗｈｅｎ Ｉ ｒｅｔｕｒｎ ｈｏｍｅ ｗｈｉｃｈ ｉｓ ｓｏ ｓｏｏｎ！Ｉ ｌｏｖｅ ｙｏｕ Ｐａｉｇｅ ａｎｄ ｔｈａｎｋｓ ｆｏｒ ｔｈｅ ｅｍａｉｌ． Ｉ ａｐｏｌｏｇｉｚｅ ｔｈａｔ Ｉ can't write more to you. You're the best and keep the good work up at the office. Love you mucho! Mom, I didn't hear back from you. I hope all is well. Remember that my last time to email you all will be next Monday. I hope everything is set with the trip. I will give you more details on Taipei next week. Love you all mucho and I can't wait to see you all soon. I need to go, sorry! Love you Always,Sister Museus
Sister Museus, July 25th 2011
Hello Well-Missed Family, The days are beginning to fly by since I only have three more weeks until I see many of you. How excited I am to see show you around my little island that I've been living on for so long! Since I spent some time emailing you all a bunch of pics I won't be able to type as much this week, sorry! However, I thought you might like to see some more pics since I haven't send a lot for a while (luckily, Sister Lee helped me with my camera ordeal). Happy Birthday Whit!!!! Please forgive me for not saying this in my last email. However, I do have your B-day gifts and I cannot wait to give them to you when I see you in three weeks. I hope you're okay that I didn't end up sending them to you. I hope you had fun with the family in Phx. I bet you all will come back with a nice tan with how hot it is in Phx (however, you cannot beat the super, hot, humid weather here in Kaohsiung). In addition, I bet you all got in a lot of shopping and swimming! Oh, do I miss those days with being while the whole clan! However, I know I will see you all real soon! Things are going great in Daliao. We have a baptism coming up this weekend with Sister Guo who is from China. She is actually getting baptized into a different ward since she will be moving soon. However, I got permission from our mission president to attend her baptism since we are the missionaries who taught her and helped her get prepared for her baptism (they call us their Fuyin Jiemei, which means Gospel Sisters, there isn't a name for this in English). We are so excited that Sister Guo decided she was ready even though she wanted to read the entire BOM before she was baptized. It has been neat teaching her and watching her life and attitude change (or what we call her "faguang", which means the light within her, the light of Christ). In addition, we have some other great investigators who are looking to be baptized in the near future. Sister Wang had her baptismal interview this week, but right before her interview we found out that when she came to church she was skipping school and now her professor doesn't want her to. Sister Wang still ended up doing her interview and passed, but she won't be able to get baptized until she goes to church on a regular basis and we are still working on getting parent permission from her. Right now Sister Wang just needs more faith and confidence since she still hasn't given us permission to meet with her parents and explain baptism and our church to them. However, Sister Liu (who is in China right now for a week) and Nina are still looking great to be getting baptized next weekend. I don't think I've mentioned who Nina is to you all. She is an amazing 18-yr-old who just finished highschool. She loves meeting with us, but is still struggling if God exists since she is an Atheist. But, she is beginning to believe and is starting to see God's hand or miracles in her life. Nina already is a great person and believes her purpose is life is help and love others. However, she sometimes lacks the faith she needs in order to believe in God and our true church. However, we are seeing more success with Nina and we meet with her almost every day since she loves it (and she also loves going to church as well). You would all love Nina since she is so sweet and innocent. Hopefully, we can get her dunked before I leave . Nothing much has happened here in Daliao. We are just trying our best to find new people to teach and such. Luckily, the weather has been better, but occasionally it will rain. Today, we didn't do anything special. We ended up staying inside and running errands. The other sisters wanted us to go to some cool art display, but Sister Lee needed to write a million letters and I needed to finalized our Taiwain plans. Mom, I hope you all had fun in Phx for Whit's B-day. I bet you did a lot shopping, tanning, and swimming while you were there. I do miss those days spending time with you all. I hope when I get back we can take another trip to Phx together (Sister Lee is from Utah, but her family recently moved to Phx so maybe in the future you could all meet her). Madre, thanks for your hard work in getting this whole Taiwan trip figured out since I can only do so much. Your plan to leave Taipei sounds great, but I cannot meet you at the train station. President Bishop specifically told me that I need to meet you all at the mission home since I will still be a missionary until I return home. I hope it's okay that you all take a taxi with your bags and meet me there. I will make sure to give you the specific address to the mission home next time I email. I promise to be at the mission home by 10:30 just in case you get off the train earlier. The train station isn't too far away from the mission home (about a 10 minute drive). In addition, when you come and pick me up I wanted you all to meet some of my recent converts. (I've been able to talk to them once in a while since our mission gives us their numbers and other information before we leave Taiwan). They are all very excited to meet you all and some of them will be able to speak some English with (don't worry I will be there to help translate). Moreover, Mom I understand we will be back to visit Taichung so that is okay that right afterwards we head back to the train station so we can get to Kaohsiung. (Sorry, I know this is annoying, but I know Pres. Bishop will make me meet you all at the mission home in order to leave). Mom, I'm glad you decided to get a rental car for the trip. Will we have a rental car for Taipei as well? Let me know if you need help how to get from you hotel to the Taipei train station so you can all head to Taichung to see me. I saw that you asked about tickets. Don't worry about the tickets until you get here. They are more pricy online and there is always plenty of room on the train (especially in the middle of the day). I know they will not be sold out. Plus, the price of all the tickets sounded way too much (maybe you made a mistake) since you would be sending about 800 dollars (who is overboard). Just from Taichung to Kaohsiung costed me 15 dollars. Every $1,000 NT (Taiwanese) is $30 dollars in America. In addition, don't worry about the rooms that you already paid for. The schedule of them all looks great and I pretty much finalized the plans for all the cities except for Taipei. Here is a list of the things we would do each day:Kaohsiung: do some shopping the first day since all government buildings are not open on Mondays -Shopping: Dream Mall, Treasure Island, E21 Mega store, New Juejian Shopping area, etc. -Evening time: go to the famous Love River (take a boat ride) and eat dinner) -Night: Urban Spotlight and Nanhua Tourish Night MarketNext Day: -Morning: visit Cijin Island and other close historical sites -Afternoon: Museum of Hakka Culture (makes handmade paper umbrellas and other handifcrafts--can buy them, they are the aborginals), and Museum of Fine Arts Late Afternoon: Grand 50 Tower (famous tower in Kaohsiung) kind of like the empire state building -Evening: Natural Science and Technology Museum or Chengcing Lake (famous lake in Kaohsiung) -Night: Liouhe Tourist Night Market Tainan: has a lot of historical sites that we will see -Morning: Cigu Mountains (huge mtns made out of salt, this is where they get there salt, famous) -Afternoon: Sihcao Temple and grove (can take a fun boat ride in the swamps) -Afternoon: visit a bunch of historical sites -Night: shop at some night markets and do some underground shopping Taichung: tons of stuff to do -Morning: Sun Moon Lake (most famous lake in Taiwan), vist the neat aborginal villages near by with fun shopping -Afternoon: Formose Aboriginal Culture Village and Snake Kiln Ceramics Cultural Park (fun handicrafts and pottery) -Evening: Jingming District shopping and Zhongang -Night: Chung Tai Chan MonastryNext Day: -Morning: Lukang Village and visit other historical sites (went here for Christmas and has the best handicrafts and shopping) -Afternoon: National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts -Evening: Art Museum Parkway -Night: Zhonghua Night market and mall Here is what is have so far. I will send more info next week, but my time is up. Let me know is this sounds fun. I'm still working on the night stuff since I doubt we want to shop every night. Love you all lots! Love You Always,Sister Museus p.s. MOm, if you have any other questions let me know! love you so much!
Sister Museus, July 18th 2011
Hen Ke Ai De Jiating (Very Adorable Family), Hello everyone! I cannot wait to see you all real soon! I am so excited that most of you will be able to come and visit my island; the place I've been living for over a year! Thank you Mom for helping me put this trip together; I don't know what I would without you. I hope to hear for more of you next week since I only heard from Mom. Whit, you owed me an email on what you would like for your b-day, but I went ahead and bought a few things for you today instead. Things were a bit crazy this past week. On Thursday was my last and final Zone Conference. I always love these meetings since they really get you re-energized to continue doing missionary work. It was fun getting re-acquainted with old missionaries like Sister Brownell (who I served with in the MTC) and Sister Cooper (the only black missionary on this island). In addition, I was able to give my last farewell speech (called my reflection). Sister Lee (my companion right now) loved the talk that I had written down (I didn't write the whole talk of course, but just some thoughts, questions, scriptures, stories, examples, etc.). However, she knew (as well as I did) that it was definitely too long, especially for a 3-minute talk. So I ended up shortening it a lot, but when I still gave my talk I competely ran out of time and just started rambling on about the last half of it so they understood it (since I talked about the 6 hidden treasures that I found on my mission; this is something Pres. Utchdorf asked us to do as missionaries when he visited Taiwan last year). Anways, the Zone Conference was great! I loved learning from Pres. and Sister Bishop, the Assistants and other missionaries on how to continue being a better missionary. Pres. Bishop talked a lot about the importance of faith and what it consists of and how we can help our investigators have more faith. The assistants talked to us really listening to our investigators and asking soul-searching questions in order to understand and teach to our investigators' needs. Saturday was a bit of a crazy day that didn't turn out the best. We had two great baptismal interviews set-up for the day, but while our district (he had to give the interview) was traveling to our investigator's house (which he lives in a different town, 30 minutes by bike) his tire burst. So, he ended up being over 30 minutes late and ended up running with his bike for 3-4 miles and because of this he ended up being too late to give our other baptismal interview since she had Gram School. We ended having to push her baptismal date back one more week because of this (but, she also couldn't come to church as well so we would have ended up pushing it back anyway). It was a very hectic day because of this big mess and the weather (for the past week) hasn't been helping since it's continues to rain on and off (because of the typhoon season). In addition, our investigator Sister Guo (who is from China and just passed her baptismal interview) will be getting baptized into the Fengshan ward since she will be moving there within a month. Because of this she cannot be counted as one of those that we helped get baptized, but it is for the best she gets baptized where she will be soon living and plus they will put her on my recent convert list. Hopefully, President Bishop will give us special permission to attend her baptismal service since Sister Lee and I taught her the entire time. Moreover, today we were able to meet with Sister Wang (who is 17 yrs-old and the one who waited for us at the church and couldn't do her interview since our district leader's tire was ruined). We had an amazing lesson about being fully committed and she is all for it. Her biggest struggle is still with her parents and them being against her baptism. However, she is now willing to let us come over and visit with her mom and our great new member, Sister Shi said she would definitely help us with this (since she came with us to visit Sister Wang). We will also see Sister Wang receive baptism before I return home. In addition, we also have Sister Lin who is amazing, but still struggles with getting work off on Sundays so she can attend all three hours. We are still working with her with this, but she is still so golden and loves reading and praying every day. We will meet with her on Tuesday and set goals and make plans to help her overcome her work situation; I know we can do it! Today was another adventure since our American friends, Carly and Nathan Weller and Anne, all came to Fengshan with us to do some more shopping and to eat at the famous hot pot restaurant called Shabu Shabu. We had a lot of fun with them as we found another Taiwanese pawn shop and some fun shoe shops as well. I did buy a few things again, but some of them for Whit's b-day. I have to admit that one of my favorite places to shop is still the Taiwanese pawn shop. Everyone always comes out with something that they loved and wanted. After shopping for about an hour we went to Shabu Shabu and ate. I also have to admit that I am sick of eating at this place, but I will definitely have to take you to one when you all come here since Taiwan is famous for their yummy hot pots. Later, we biked here to the computer place and said goodbye to our American friends. I think all of us enjoy each others' company since it's just a taste from home. I even told Sister Lee that the only time that I got real home sick was when I was with my Taiwanese companions because they are nothing like Americans and you cannot relate to them culture wise. I even failed to mention that yesterday night we stopped by their apartment (since they still don't have cell phones) to see if they would help us teach a Nigerian who only speaks English. However, we ended eating American food at their house and talking about fun things together (especially for Carly since she has had a bit of a struggle living her all by herself with her husband and has never been outside of the U.S. before). We did stay over at the apartment a bit too long, but we definitely lifted up Carly and Nathan's spirits as we talked to them and share a short spiritual mesage. Our Nigerian friend ended up cancelling his plans, but we are suppose to meet him tonight and Carly and Nathan are still willing to come with us. I know I only have one month left, but Sister Lee and I are working our tails off and we are looking forward to have at least 3-4 more baptisms before I completely end my mission. Mom, thank you so much for being the Saint you are and giving me the information and dates for the hotels. I noticed that you made a mistake on saying that we were staying in Tainan on the 17th and 18th and Taichung on the 18th and 19th. But, I am pretty sure you met to say only one day in Tainan, which is the 17th since I saw that the hotel confirmation one for only one night in Tainan. Let me know for sure that this is the case since I didn't see hotel confirmations for Taichung and Taipei (the final destination hotel). I'm glad you were able to get your International Driver's license and John and Alex did as well. We will just need you three to have them if we plan on going by scooter. I still don't know what would be best to travel with because they are pros and cons to both of them. I will tell them to you and then you can decide: Scooter: can have at up to two people on them, you can get around the town faster and easier, there is no room for things we buy to be put on the scooters, and if the weather is bad scooter are also bad (especially in rain and it is the typhoon season right now until September) Car: more room, can't get around as easy, shelter for bad weather, safer, air-conditionedMom, I don't know what would be the best one to travel by just because some of the fun places we want to travel are a little farther away, which might make it hard to travel by scooter. However, most places are near each other, which would cause it to be easier to travel by scooter. Do what you think is best Mom and just make sure you look up what the weather will be like the week you arrive here. If the weather says that it's going to be rainy then it would be best to travel by car. I know you are wondering if a car rental or scooter rental are available right when we get off the subway/train, but I don't know. I have actually never seen any near the subway stations just taxi cars. I will try and ask around and see what I can do. But, I am guessing you might have to do some research on the internet and see what you come up with on this subject. I will try my best to see what I can do. I am still narrowing down our traveling plans and seeing what would be the best sites to see. I will try and give you a list of all of them next week. It's cool to hear that Alisha Watterson will be serving here in Taichung on her mission; maybe she will be taking my spot. I hope Alicia is doing okay with her baby being overdue. In addition, I am glad to hear that Mama Norma is doing better. I also can't wait to see you soon Mom! I did talk to President Bishop about when I can see you. I will be doing my exit interview, final devotional, career workshop, and such on August 1st so it doesn't get in the way when you come and get me. He said it was entirely up to you when you want to come and get me on the 15th. I was thinking the earlier the better. Maybe around 9 or 10 in the morning? Let me know what you think and I will try and give you directions and such on how to get to Taichung by yourself and to the mission home. I can't go to Taipei and see you since I will still be a missionary and cannot travel by myself. In addition, I have a lot of stuff that I have bought you and the family so I need you all to help me with it (so make sure everyone brings two big suitcases). I love you all family so much and cannot wait to see you all in 4 weeks! I am also now counting down the days until I see you all. Please don't be too scared of how bad I look in this humidity :). Love and miss you all tons!!! Love you Always,Sister Museus p.s. I failed to mention that we are now meeting with a great new investigator who is Athiest and doesn't even believe we have a spirit. However, she is doing great and came to church. In addition, she told us about her prayer experience where she ended up crying the entire time because she wanted to know if God exists. I will give you more updates on her (Nina is her English name) next week.
Sister Museus, July 11th, 2011
Da Jia Hao (Hello Everyone), It was so good to hear that your 4th of July went well. Ours here in Taiwan was pretty fun as well. We were able to take our American friends (who are English teachers and found this job opportunity from BYU; their names are Nathan and Carly Weller) along for the ride. We biked to Fengshan (30 minutes away from Daliao) to celebrate the 4th of the July with more missionaries. We had some fun eating at a fake American restaurant (meaning the food tried to be American style, but wasn't very good). It was funny to see Nathan order a huge steak and ended up eating only half of it because of how much fat was on it. In addition, the steak was only pan fried as well. Anyways, afterwards we went on the subway system (which is good that I did so I can show all of you had to use it) so we could head over to a haunted house. On the way there we stopped at took some fun pictures at some statues. Once we got there all of the sister missionaries including the couple decided not to go in, but you would all be suprised that I decided to go and give it a try. I wasn't quite sure if it was okay for a missionary to do, but in the end it wasn't even scary. There was just one particular part that scared me a bit where a real lady jumped out of the mirror. Other than this scene, all of the rest were operated by machine and had not other scary people coming out at you. After we go back we showed our American friends around and then went shopping for food and such. However, on the way back we stopped at a fun shoe store and I bought my first pair of real cute shoes (that the American couple and a new missionary said they were really in style; hopefully you all will like them). Nothing too exciting happened over the week. The work has been a bit slow since Daliao is such a small town. However, Sister Lee and I are getting along really well and are striving to get our investigators moving along. Lately, we've been going to less-actives' houses and trying to get them back to church (since there are about 300 members in Daliao and only about 50 come to church); however, we haven't had much success. Because of this (and that the work is slow), we will be doing more contacting and tracting in order to have more investigators. Nevertheless, we do have some great progressing investigators who will most likely be baptized this month and one in particular will be baptized on Whit's B-day. Sister Guo is from China and has loved learning about the gospel. Her husband is actually a less-active member and is still living in China. However, Sister Guo is doing great and loves reading the Book of Mormon. She has told us on several occasions how much the gospel has blessed her life and has changed her attitude (especially when she reads the BOM). She is awesome, but is most likely going to move to the Fengshan area (since she already knew this we've been getting her to attend the other ward since she will most likely get baptized there). Because of this she can't count as one of our investigators, but as a referral, but that's okay. Sister Lee and I have just loved watching her continue to grow in the gospel. Sister Wang is also very close to baptism, but her parents oppose her baptism. She is 17-yrs-old and loves reading the BOM. Within just 2 weeks she read all the way through 2 Nephi and started marking her favorite scriptures (without us suggesting this). Sister Wang is great, but we still need to develop her faith and confidence and in the near future visit her parents and see if we can get permission for her baptism. This might work (it has in the past), but these are always tough and sticky situations. In addition, we found out she wants to go on a mission since she has been reading Sister Lee's blog that is all about her mission. I ended up giving her my blog since she wanted to read about my mission as well. We are also teaching a mother named Sister Lin. She is awesome and met us through eating at her restaurant (which is next door to the church). She loves coming to church and hearing the members bear testimony to her. She even reads the BOM to her family and has taught her husband how to pray. However, she can only come to church for an hour because of work. So, this is another sticky situation that we need to work with since she needs to come to church for all three hours. I did fail to mention that on Thursday I was able to spend the entire day with Sister Cooper (the African American who I was MTC buddies with) in Fengshan. President Bishop has decided that the junior companions all need to be more acquainted with the new Fundamental of Preach My Gospel. In addition, many of the new missionaries coming out on the field have struggled a lot (emotionally). Because of this, President Bishop had a meeting with all of the junior companions and so I was able to spend the day with Sister Cooper. We had a blast doing missionary work together and talking about the fun experiences that we've had. She was able to take me to a famous restaurant known for the baozi (which is steamed bread with stuff inside). We were both on diets, but we decided to give these a try since I had never been there before and had such yummy baozi. We ended up getting delectable baozis (ones with cheese, pineapple and cheese, and real chocolate). They were all very good. We were suppose to meet our companions at 6, but got a call from the assistant that there was another meeting going on that Sister Cooper should have been to. Since our zone leaders didn't tell us this, our junior companions had to go the meeting for her. Sister Cooper was pretty upset, but we just ended up going to dinner with one of her investigators while we waited for our companions to return. Since I was outside in the dead heat all day with Sister Cooper I ended up getting pretty burnt on my arms, chest, hands, and face. However, it has turned into a nice missionary tan . Today, we showed our American friends around Daliao again for 2 hours. We just showed them some yummy places to eat that were near the church, had lunch together, and then went to a fun Pawn shop. Everyone seemed to enjoy since we all came out with a little something. I have found they are still one of my favorite places to shop at since it is cheap and full of Taiwanese culture items. Nothing else has happened today. I will be spending more time on the computer since I have to send some pictures and a miracle story to the mission office so they can get something prepared for me before I finish my mission. In addition, this Thursday is Zone Conference where I will be giving my reflection talk. It's weird to think that I'm almost done and now have to give a final talk to the all the missionaries in the South. I failed to mention that last night we had fun going over an investigator's house named Any (he's from Nigeria and very good-looking). The lesson went really well and he was such a gentlemen. It was definitely weird teaching the gospel in English (I never thought I would get to that point). Anyways, I thought I would mention this since I do have a slight crush on him and I would know that Paige would be all over him (since she does like African American me, hehe). Whit, I'm so glad that you are preparing yourself for the trip here to Taiwan. Here are some answers to your questions (heads up to everyone). It is going to still be very hot in August with the humidity at its peak. So please don't try and look pretty. I suggest not bring a straightener since you will want to pull it up since it is so hot (and plus I have mine that you can use). In addition, just bring shorts because you will not be comfortable in pants because it is so hot. Whit, it is the rainy season so it will occasionally rain, but we can buy real cheap rain jackets at a Seven here that will work just fine. Whit, please do me a favor and bring my summer clothes with you or have some our other sister help you. I just don't want to wear missionary attire when I am with you all and my stuff is looking a bit shabby since I've been wearing the same thing each week for a year. Just bring some of my longs shirts and t-shirts that you will find in my closet and drawers (remember I took over Alex's side and drawers as well). Also, please make an appointment for me with Jen (our hair dresser or ask Paige to do this). You already know when we are returning home so make it the following day if you can. Also, make sure all of you bring 2 suitcases since I have a lot of stuff I need to give each of you and for shopping purposes as well. Whit, what would you like for your b-day? Would you rather have some kind of cultural item, shoes, jewelry? I hope it's okay with you that I won't be sending your gift and will just give it to you when I see you. I hope that is okay with you, but please tell me what you would like. Miss you Whitie. Mom, thanks for telling about the 4th of July. You are such a trooper and saint for allowing so many people to stay at the house. I hope Phx is okay when you go down for Whit's B-day after the huge dust storm that they just had. I hope Whit soon feels better after being under the weather. Thanks Madre for preparing my room and closet for me. However, I guess you took a look of my clothes and noticed they were a bit out of style, whoops. I guess you all will have to help me out with this. I surprised to hear that you will be okay traveling by scooter. This is the most easy and convenient way to get around in Taiwan. But, it is more dangerous so it is completely up to you on how we should travel. I know you do need some kind of international license, but I don't know at all about it. I will try and ask around, but that is all I can do. I will try my best and let you know next week what I find out. Mom, have you set up the hotels in each of the three cities? Do you need any additional information? I am getting closer at being done with our plans. I am just writing descriptions down of each of the places and figuring out what we should go and see each day. I am trying to narrow it down and see how much we can get done each day. Mom, I would love to take Lexie's spot at the office when I return home. I do need to save up some money and start studying for GRE (masters test) and I would like to get my insurance license on the side. Thanks for your help Mom and allowing me to go work at the office. My sisters will definitely have to show what to do since I don't remember a lot. Also, Mom please make an apt. for me with the dentist as soon as I get home. I would love to get them checked to make sure they are okay. And if Whit doesn't get around to calling Jen for me please do that as well. Love you lots and miss you. Love you Fam and can't wait to see you so soon! I'm sorry I didn't send more pics again, especially of my 4th of July. I promise to do it next week. Love you all!!! Love you Always,Sister Museus
Sister Museus, July 3rd, 2011
Hello Memorable Family, It's bit sad having to miss to 4th of Julys with all of you, especially since this is one of my favorite holidays. I love the 4th of July because of the fact that we spend so much time together: there's the fun cruise-in, fireworks at the house and in Hyrum, boating with the cousins, the Hyrum parade, and eating with everyone at PJ's house. What a fun holiday I am missing out on, but my companion and I are going to have some fun in just a minute. Our whole zone is going out to lunch together and then going to some kind of haunted Taiwanese house (or something like that). It sounds like fun, especially since I can spend some time with Sister Cooper (the black missionary from the MTC, she is a hoot). I'm not quite sure what the haunted place consists of, but I will make sure to tell you all more about it next time with many pics. It's still been a struggle getting use to this little place, the members, recent converts, etc. However, I have a great companion who is very proactive, but I have noticed that she does like to focus on less-active members a lot, which I don't think is the best thing since it means less time focusing on our invesigators. Nevertheless, we are working things out together and the ward is being so good to us. Nothing new has happened over the week, except that the weather has been a bit weird with rainy days and then really hot, humid days. I do love eating the yummy fruit with ice. I know Mom and John will love them a lot since they are similar to shaved ice, but a lot better. Since we have to travel about 45 minutes every Tuesday to another chapel in order to go to District Training Meeting, my companion showed me a delectable burrito place with fresh homemade pineapple and barbecue salsa. They are so delectable and is owned by some Europeans. This is the first time I was able to have Mexican food since I left the U.S. So now every Tuesday we stop there to eat another delectable burrito. I will definitely try and take you all there when you all come :0. Our investigators are doing alright. Many of them didn't come to church because of work or they didn't wake up on time so we need to be a little more bold with them on what we expect. I don't like being bold, but I know that last move-call we were able to have 5 baptisms is because I was being bold (and loving) and stated our expectations. Hopefully things will work out. We just have so many great investigators, but they all seem to have some kind of concern that we need to work out with them. Cole, it was so good to hear from you again; keep up the emails because I do miss hearing from you. I'm glad to hear that you are still swimming away. I bet you are great shape with the amount of swimming you are doing. Your schedule for the summer seems very busy and hectic, but it is always good to keep ourselves busy and spending less time on the computer. Mom and John are way too nice to give you such a nice car; I do miss driving a Wrangler around (or driving in general :) You will definitely have to let me drive your car around just so I can get a feel for it. I hope you are helping Mom and John out at the house since they are way too good to you and everyone else. Love you Cole and can't wait to see you soon. Thanks for counting down the days for me!!! I am so proud of you!!!! Remember to take as many college classes as you can this coming year for school. Try and talk to your school counselor and graduate with an Associates; it's definitely worth it! John, what a trooper you are to grill 50 hamburgers during the Cruise-in in the middle of the heat. This will prepare you for the heat and humidity hear in Taiwan :). Thank you John for all your hard work and I hope you are having fun with your sister, her husband, and the cousins. You must have a full house with so many people. However, I bet it has been fun having everyone around and doing so many fun activities. Have fun tomorrow with the boating and parade and all. I do miss you John and can't wait to see you soon! Love you tons! Whit, I'm sorry my last email didn't work. I will try and send it again to you or having one of our siblings do it. I'm glad you having fun with the fireworks, cruis-in, etc. I do miss you all, especially during this fun holiday. We will definitely playing lots of badmitton and volleyball when I return home (we will even go down the river together). I'm glad to hear you had fun the cousins playing these fun games. And Yes, I will definitely be on the weenie and molecule next year and this year when I return home. We'll try and get Mom and John to take us out when I get back. Don't worry about sending Pj's letter. I was able to open it up this time using a different computer. Let him know it was very sweet of him and I will send him and Norma a letter soon. Love Whittee and can't wait to see you in 6 weeks!!! Alex, I'm glad to hear that your boutique and Protective are still doing so well. You still need to send me updated pics of your place. I can't believe you will have your 1 year mark at your boutique and I still haven't even seen it. I am so proud of you Sis and the accomplishments you are already making in your life. Just please save me the best things in your store since I am in need of a new wardrobe. I'm glad to hear that you loved your grad gift that I sent you. I actually bought a similar for me since I loved it so much. I failed to mention that I loved your grad pic. You looked so pretty in it and goregous!!! You also looked very stylish with your cute clothes and I especially loved the jacket. It's good to hear that you are all having fun playing our favorite game of badmitton. It does sound like a full house, but I bet it's fun being with everyone. You do sound like a dork trying to finish a 1,000 piece puzzle. Hopefully you can finish it by the time I come back. I can't wait to spend more time with you Sis. I am so proud of you keep up the good work!!! I also can't wait to show you around in Taiwan!!! Mom, Love you Madre. Thank you for putting the rest of our fun, Taiwain trip together; I bet it's a lot of work. Since it sounds like there aren't any good hotels in Tainan we can stick to the same schedule of visiting just Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Taipei. Let me know if you need any more help with the trip. I am pretty much done planning out the activities and just making it more specific. Let me know if you would like more information on what we would be doing each day. I'm glad to hear that Pj is still taking you to the canyon. I hope the hike with Jimmy went well. Let me know how it went as well as 4th of July. I miss you like crazy, especially during this fun holiday. What a trooper and Saint you are to have 4 people stay at the house, but I bet it has been fun having them around. Let me know how Bear lake goes as well. In addition, let me know if there is anything in the Taiwan book that you bought that sounds very interesting that we need to go and see. Love you lots Madre and I can't wait to see you in just 43 days!!!! Love you all family. I failed to mention that today we are also showing a couple from Utah around Daliao since they just arrived. They are here wanting to teaching English and explore Taiwan. Love you lots. p.s. We are teaching an extra cute Nigerian man. Love you Always,Sister Museus
Sister Museus, June 27th, 2011
Hello Lovely Family, Things seem to be going pretty good in little Daliao. We actually had a baptism over the weekend to Sister Meng. It was a great baptism and she will make an excellent new member. She is actually from China and moved here with her husband a few years ago. So, her family still lives in China. Maybe in the future she can teach and share the gospel to her family in China. I was a little disappointed by the lack of support from the ward with Sister Meng's baptism. Very few people showed up and none of the bishopric did as well. I guess I can never compare Utah baptisms to Taiwan baptisms. Plus, this is a small town with not so many members as Taiping did. My new companion Sister Lee is really great. She is very proactive, which helps a lot. I don't always feel like I'm carrying the load with her as my companion. However, it has been very difficult getting to know a whole new place with new members, investigators, recent converts, less-active members, etc. It's hard when mission presidents decide to move the missionary on their final move-call. But, I guess there must be some reason why I had to come to this place (it's like Huwei all over again). Nevertheless, we have some amazing investigators, but they do have some problems that we need to help them overcome: First, there is Sister Xu who is loving mother and works very hard. She owns a dinner place that is out of her home because of this she works on Sundays and can only come to church for an hour. However, today we are going to meet with her and write out a plan to get her to come to church for all three hours each week. This will be a bold commitment, but it will definitely help her progress toward her baptismal goal. We already gave her a great calendar that consists of scriptures she can read each day to help her get prepared for her baptism. Second, there is Sister Shi who is in highschool. She is an excellent investigator, but her mom is against her baptism. However, we are planning on meeting and contacting her each day so Sister Shi can learn how share her testimony and feeligs towards this wonderful gospel. Third, there is Sister Lin who is also another great mother. She loves coming to church and bringing her children. However, she has the same problem as Sister Xu, who works on Sunday. Next time we meet with her we going to share the Plan of Salvation and share with her our expectations so she understands the importance of the gospel. We have other great investigators and many of them are young mothers. Things are looking great so far and I know if we continue to work hard and with the ward we can help our investigators enter into the waters of baptism. We had a neat experience happen to us on Saturday night after returning home from a wedding reception. The wedding reception ended up being wasted time since we arrived late (too late to help our ward out in singing a song....whoops) and their reception are quite different from Americas. They ended up having a talent show and performing weird plays on the stage and because of this we couldn't sit down and talk much with our members, recent converts, less-active members, etc. However, on the way home we discovered a huge parade of huge, light-up cars carrying a bunch of Taiwanese religious stuff and going up and down the streets blaring Taiwanese music. My companion and I ended up following it for a while and took some fun pictures of it. I will definitely have to send you some. Today, Sister Lee and I went to a neat Buddhist temple that is pretty close to our house. Sister Lee kept making the funny comment on thinking that the big white Statue (which is enormous) was like having a Christus next to us instead (which I thought was pretty funny). We ended up spending over an hour at the fun place taking many fun pictures with the dragon statues, mosiacs, Buddhist statues, etc. We had a lot of fun taking many pictures of this fun place. Afterwards, we ended up going home for a couple hours to write letters, but I ended up get all of my reimbursement things ready to send to the office so I can receive almost 100 dollars (since traveling here and paying for other things (sine I'm the senior companion). Because of this I don't have much money in my missionary account and have been using my own, sorry. Please Mom look into my bank account and make sure I will be okay for the next two months if I need anything or for any emergency. I won't be spending much on anything just something for Whit's B-day in July. After emailing we will just be running more errands such as buying groceries, fruit, veggies, pictures, etc. I've actually almost become a vegetarian since the grocery stories in this small town don't carry in fresh fruit, veggies, or meat so I have to find it at the afternoon market. I actually haven't eaten any meat this whole week and only lots of fruit since it's hard to find fresh veggies when I need it. However, we are going to get some today so I can continue to eat more healthy. John, it was so good to hear from you. I'm glad you loved your Father's Day gift. I do know you love little cultural things so I thought you might like this. I hope the rest of the family and Alex loved theirs to since I didn't hear from them about it (except for Whit). I'm glad to hear that Sadie is still in good hands with my Mom always around and such. I hope Sadie can remember when I return home. I sure do appreciate your hard work on the house. I know it's a lot of take care of, especially when you are doing it by yourself (most of the time). However, I bet it looks great and I promise to do my share when I return home. I am so proud of you John and can't wait to see you soon! Mom, I'm glad you are starting to look for hotels, however, please let me know if you would still like to stop in Tainan. You never answered me last time if you would like to. I just know Tainan has some cool Dutch historical sites (since the Dutch settled Tainan), but not much else. We could just try and spend a half day in Tainan. Please let me know if you are interested in stopping in Tainan or not. I don't think you'll have to worry about catching the train from the hotel. We will just take a taxi from the hotel to the train station. Each of these big cities have huge train stations and the hotels that I gave you seem to be not too far off from the train stations. I don't know if you can take a rental car and leave it at the next city. You will have to search for this kind of information on the internet. You might could find the same rental car company in each of the cities and they would probably let you do this. But, it still might be best just to take a train to our next area, but I can see this being annoying since we would need to find a new car to rent for each city. Just see what information you can find on this, sorry that I don't know much on this particular subject. Mom, it sounds liks it's getting pretty hot in Logan, but at least you don't have the humidity. It's pretty bad here in the South. But, luckily we have a really nice apartment with two brand new a/c units, which we always use when we are at home. I do miss hiking and it sounds like the family is loving it. I hope we can all go the wind caves when I get back and other fun hikes. Please send pics of the fun hike you are going to take with Jimmy (and I guess is new girlfriend....). I do miss playing badmitton and I do hope my skills are still there when I return home because we will be playing this fun sport a lot when I get back. Of course, we will kick the trash out the boys again :). I am sad that I will be missing the 4th of July again. I do love this fun holiday since we get to go boating with PJ and spend time with so many relatives. Let everyone know that I will miss them and next P-day my companion and I are planning on doing something fun to celebrate this holiday. I am also glad to hear that some of our Philippine cousins are visiting. Thank you Mom for being such a Saint and trooper and letting them stay with you. I hope Deb continues to feel better after having kidney stones. I also hope Al is doing better since I heard he is recovering from having cancer removed. Did you say that the actual Beach Boys are coming to Logan? Or was it suppose to mean something else? Anyways, I love you Madre and I can't wait to see you so soon!!!! I love and miss you terribly! I will send some fun pics in my next email right now since Sister Lee fixed my camera, yahoo! Love you all and can't wait to see you soon! Love you Always,Sister Museus
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