Sister Museus, October 26th, 2010

Ni Hao Jiating (Hello Family), I miss you all very much and get excited to hear from each of you. Your emails always help me get through each week since missionary work is so strenuous and tiresome (both physically, mentally, and spiritually). However, things are going great in my new area. My companion and I are teaching several lessons a day, which means I can practice my Chinese more and we are in an air-conditioned church. However, the downfall to this is that we cannot find as many investigators. But, the investigators that we have are progressing so well. We have the best peike (a member who comes to our lessons and helps teach the lesson by providing their insights, experiences, and testimonies) her name is Sister Huang who will come to at least 5 lessons a week. Last night her and her husband came to an investigator's house to meet her parents and help us get parent permission to get her baptized. For the past couple of months Sister Peng has not be able to get baptized because her parents didn't think she was ready and still wanted her to bai bai (worship her ancestors). However, they came over last night and explained to them the importance of ancestors to our church and provided their experiences, etc. Because of them we will be having a baptism this weekend and another one the following weekend. The second baptism is to a girl named Sister Lai who is a mother and enjoys the gospel so much and is willing to do anything for it! She passed her baptismal interview this Sunday and will get baptized in two weeks! So far things are going great and I love seeing success from our efforts. Sister Liu is an excellent missionary and knows how to communicated well with our investigators and the people here in Taiwan (since is from Taiwan). I feel like I have more confidence with my Chinese with her and I speak it more often since we are teaching more and since we talk a lot in Chinese. I don't feel as intimidated as with my last companions since she is trying to learn English better from me by asking me questions and I am doing the same with her. Sister Liu and I continually practice teaching the lessons back and forth to each other in Chinese which has really helped me speak more clear and freely. Today for our preparation day, Sister Liu and I went to Taizhong (Taichung) to go and eat at "TGI Fridays". It was delectable! I ended up getting some yummy grilled chicken. I miss eating American food, but eating fruit, ice drinks (bing), and bread has helped me lose weight. I do need to be better at eating less still if I want to continue losing weight. After our yummy lunch we stopped by a cultural store where they sell so many goodies (Taiwanese paintings, wood work, pottery, etc......the kind of stuff that we all like to buy. I will definitely take you all to this place when you come to Taiwan). I ended up buying some really neat paintings that are hand-painted on scrolls. I will definitely be saving them for some of you, especially one for Mom and John. Mom, it was so good to hear from you again. I'm sorry that you had a dream that I came home and that you thought you saw me riding a bike. Sometimes I have dreams that I'm home as well with all of you....these kinds of dreams make me miss you all even more. I guess one of my weaknesses is...after having something deprived from you (such as my family and great homemade food and American food) you miss it even more since you are not around it and you cannot keep in contact with it. However, going to college away from home and serving a mission here in Taiwan has helped me realize even more how important families are (especially since I share this message every day) and how much I miss and love each and every one of you. Anways, I'm glad to hear that Mama Norma is doing well and her health is progressing. Thank you all for taking care of her since I can't be there to help her. I'm also glad to hear that everything is still okay with the business even though the economny is still horrible. In addition, I'm glad you were able to get away for a while and spend some time in Phoenix. I hope we can do that when I return home (which is in less than 11 months). I love hearing from you Mom each week. Thank you for always writing me. I miss you so much Mom and think about you every day. You are such a shining light in my life, please remember this! Whit, the area is something to get use to since it is a lot bigger than little Huwei (a lot). My language is coming along a lot more since I have a local companion and since we are teaching a lot more lessons throughout the week. We already have two baptisms coming up and we even have two progressing investigators who are amas (grandmas who are in the 80s and 90s, you can't get older than this, better late than never!). It was funny to hear of your all nighter with Lexie doing your scrapbooking. If I was there I would be with you two as well. I need to catch up on my scrapbooking when I return home. I'm glad to hear that you are taking care of Mama Norma, thank you for doing this. In addition, I'm glad you went to Amanda's luncheon (even though she got married way too soon). It was funny hearing you speak of missionaries talking about their experiences. I guess I will be one of those people when I return home :). Paige, it is always good to hear from you, especially since you are so funny in your emails. You scared me a bit when you talked about going to the hospital, but I'm glad to hear that it was only a air bubble from eating so much fruit and veggies. I've also been trying to eat more fruit and veggies lately so I can continue to lose more weight. It was really nice of you to celebrate Charles' birthday so big and fancy. I apologize for not being able to celebrate with you and the rest of the family. I'm glad you loved your letter that I sent you and I'm also shocked that you received it so soon. I will write you another letter soon when I get a chance. Love and miss you Paige, keep up the good work! I miss you all very much. I was going to show so more pictures of my last day with Sister Roper and some new ones with Sister Liu, but I ran out of time. PLease forgive me and I promise to send them to you next week. Please send this to sister Roper when you have a chance her email is:anneroper4@gmail.com and if you any of you want to hear her homecoming talk just email her and she will tell you the place and time. It will be at the end of this month. Love you all.SIster Museus

Sister Museus, October 25th, 2010

Hey Everyone, It was so good to hear from so many of you this week. I'm glad Mama Norma is doing well and the rest of you. This week has been very busy and crazy. First, we had a scary incident happen with an investigator who has epilepsy (who get seizures all the time and she can't control them). She had one while we were teaching her and it scared me. It almost seemed like she was possessed by something and I felt so useless since I didn't know how to help her. I just sat there stunned and shocked with what was going on. I just don't know how Paige, Ash, and Whit do as nurses. I could never know how to help someone in that situation or in any scary situation like that. In addition, on Friday night our carbon monxide monitor went off in our apartment and we started smelling it. We could the assistants and they immediately came and picked us up and drove us to the mission home in Taichung (about 15 minutes away by car). We were able to stay in a carpeted and fully air-conditioned home with the mission president and his wife (all four of us since I'm in an apt with two other sister missionaries....and one of them is Sister Brownell my MTC companion). I got the best rest there in the mission home and in the morning President Bishop and his wife cooked us breakfast. It was really nice having something homemade again. They made us scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and some frest fruit. After our studying time, the assistants took us back to our apt. so we could start our missionary work for the day while they fixed the problem in our apt. Thank goodness our last president made us install the carbon monoxide alarms in our apartments or we would have had some health problems. We also had Combine Districe Training Meeting this week where the zone leaders and the mission president taught some missionary things, checked our daily planners, and had an interview with the president. In addition, we had stake conference and afterwards we had our baptism. I don't have any pictures to send you since my camera died on me, but I will send some through the mail next week or send them in my next email with Sister Liu's camera. The baptism went well and we were so excited for her to want to make these great baptismal covenants with God. We were going to have a baptism next week, but we can't since the ward has a temple trip since we will do it the following week. Today, my whole apt and I went on a crazy hike in the mountains. It was a blast even though I fell off my bike two times from exhaustion. We stopped a fun Buddhist temple and took some fun pictures and grab some free souvenirs. We then stopped at bat cave and got our feet drenched in the tunnels. Afterwards, we biked up to a waterfall and found out we came at the wrong time of the year since there was very little water coming down the mountain. However, it was a very beautiful hike and bike ride. I'll make sure to send you more pictures next week when I have more time. Mom, it was sad to hear that you might have to sell the condo. I love spending time there as family, but I understand that things are still not going well with the economy and all. I hope I'm not being a financial burden. I will try my best to spend less money. Just make sure to look at my account once in a while to make sure that I have enough money in there. I apologize again if I'm causing this problem. For the most part I get along with my companion even though we spend so much time together. Our focus is our investigators and not each other so we never get too bothered my each other. It was so good to hear from you Paige and how much fun you had at the corn maze. I will definitely have to go next year with you and everyone else. I can't believe Boston is getting so big. I will make sure to keep Charles in my prayers as well as you and the rest of the family. It was funny to hear about you cold call experience. I have the same problem with people thinking I'm very young or very old. Whit, thanks for you email. I'm glad Rob is doing well and it will be exciting to see you and the family next year. Thanks for always keeping me updated with things. Things are pretty busy here, but I like it that way since time sees to fly by faster. We do have a baptism coming up, but not for two weeks since the ward has temple trip in the way. John, it was really good to hear from you. I don't know where I put my 2009 taxes for work or school unless they're in my drawer somewhere. However, I know you can all Zupas in Provo and they will get you a copy. I also know if you call BYU they will also give you a copy of my tuition and such. I hope this helps, if not let me know I will try and remember where they are or what other help I can give you. Thanks for all you hard work John. I love you family and I apologize that I wasn't able to write more to you. I love you all and keep doing what is righteous. Miss you all! Love you Always,Sister Museus

Sister Museus, October 11, 2010

Hey Everyone, It was so good to hear from those who wrote me this week. It has been a very bumpy roller coaster ride. We were so close to having some baptisms before Sister Roper and I left Huwei (since we received a call from our President Bishop that they would be closing the area for a while since very few sisters will be coming for the new few months. It was still sad to receive this news since no missionary wants to close their area and have over their investigators and area book to the elders. We ended up having no success in our last move-call together in Huwei, however, we planted many seeds in many hearts and several of them will get baptized in the new few months after they resolve some issues such as Xiao Ba (she told us she's getting married in November and will get baptized in December after her college class ends since it gets in the way of attending church for her). In addition, Linda will soon get baptized after she continues to gain a testimony and can answer the baptism questions without any doubts. Moreover, Sister Ji who I contacted and added will also get baptized in the near future. She is going through a hard time with her husband, but feels that the church makes her feel like she is home and is saving a seat for her. She came to part of General Conference and brought her cute son as well. In addition, others such as Sister Liao will also get baptized after she fixes her working schedule so she can always come to church. She was actually influenced by her "big boss" who started the "Sunrider" company and is a Mormon. Sister Liao started investigating the church after she noticed that her boss was a Mormon. We also have a family that we've been working with that we handed off to the elders and I can as well see them getting baptized and going to the temple together as a family. At first it was very difficult for me and Sister Roper to accept that we did not have any baptisms during this move-call (and especially since it was Sister Roper's last move-call and the only move-call where she did not baptize). However, we both learned how to be more diligent, worthy, and obedient missionaries. We also saw many tender mercies that took place. In addition, for me I learned how to love my mission. It was very difficult to drop off Sister Roper at the mission home and say goodbye to her. We actually pulled an all-nighter as we talked and talked to each other about everything. We then got up at 5:30 am to catch an early train to Taichung so we could spend some time in the big city and she could show me around since my area (Taiping) covers a lot of Taichung). We ate a delicious bakery that had cranberries and cream cheese in the middle. Sister Roper loved the bread so much she wanted to go later before she headed back for the U.S. Afterwards, we spent an hour talking to others in the mission home until my new companion arrived. It was and still is very difficult for me to say goodbye to a great companion that I had for 3 months. Sister Roper helped me see the positive in everything and everyone. She made sure to tell me that every person I meet is a golden investigator and a child of God who needed and must hear the gospel. My first companion made missionary work so stressful, but Sister Roper helped me enjoy every minute of it even through the rainy and deary days when everyone was missing their appointments and no one was on the road to contact. I will always be grateful for such a fun, loving, and very funny companion. Sister Roper could get me to laugh at anything no matter what mood I was in. She reminds me so much of Morgan Hill in so many ways, since they see life in a positive light and make everything very funny. In addition, she has such an amazing voice that I would always ask her to sing some of my favorite hymns. Hearing her sing the hymns so well always brought the spirit and made me think of all of you and dad. Don't be too surprised if she gives you all a call at the house and Alex as well. Sister Roper wanted to let you know how I am doing through her and wanted to get some great music from Alex (since Alex and Sister Roper have very similar tastes in music). I hope this is okay with you family and doesn't make you too upset to hear from someone that I just served with. She may not call for a month or so since she will be visiting her family in Ohio, California, and be taking a vacation in Hawaii with her dad. Mom, I've mentioned your gourmet food so much that Sister Roper is dying to eat some of it; maybe you could invite her over for dinner and she could share some of the fun experiences we had together (but be careful because she doesn't eat meat, except for fish but she told me she will probably start eating meat again since she does miss it). I hope this won't be bothersome to any of you, but if you do end up talking or meeting with her you will be able to hear first hand experience of what I've been doing on my mission. Well, General Conference was really amazing to watch on Saturday and Sunday the past weekend. There were so many good talks given by the prophet and other servants of the Lord. There were so many of them that reminded me of so many of you that needed to hear it. I hope each and every one of you took the time to watch and listen to them and if you didn't you will read them in the "Ensign" this coming month. What a privilege it is to hear from them every 6 months and I wish I could hear from them more often. The words they speak to each of us is help guide and direct us in this frightening world. Some other great things that happened the past week was the generosity shown by so many members in the Huwei ward. On Tuesday and Friday night two of my favorite members took Sister Roper and I to eat at some very lovely restaurants that served delicious food. I was able to have some yummy lemon chicken one night and the other I had some yummy bacon and onion alfredo pasta. I wasn't use to eating such good food that it didn't settle well with my stomach both times, but it was to die for good. In addition, two weeks before that the Relief Society president and her husband took us to a hot pot place where you add whatever vegetables and meat you want to cook in your own personal pot of broth. We also ate a lot of desserts with them since it was an "all you can eat place". Moreover, we received delicious brownies from a white family in the ward (which were so good since you cannot find brownies here in Taiwan unless you by the mix at "Cosco") and several other gifts from the ward. We also took several pictures with them and gave out our contact information. All of them were grateful for our service and were sad to see that there would be not sisters in Huwei for a while. Now I am in Taiping with a new companion named Sister Liuo who is a local missionary (from Taiwan). She is really nice and can help me increase my Chinese skills. I was lucky get a local who speaks really good English and has more of an American culture, but she does have diabetes so I will have to checkup with her on it and makes sure she is following the guide lines to keep her blood sugar at a good level. Sister Liuo actually was in Huwei before me and was companions with my trainer, Sister Anderson. The world is such a small place. In addition, I'm following Sister Roper's footsteps since she started her mission in Taiping and struggled with her first companion and grew to love her mission with her second companion she also had for two move-calls. Anyways, I love you all and it was so good to hear from you. Thank you Mom for keeping me updated on things and answering my questions that I sent. I'm glad you had a fun time in Cali with John. Please continue to take care of Mama Norma and I can't wait to bake yummy pies with you! John, thanks for the sweet email and I'm glad you enjoyed my letter. Thank you for always pampering and spoiling my mom too much, I wish I had someone who would buy me such nice rings :). Whit, you sound quite busy, but thanks for taking the time to write me this week. Keep me updated with your school work and nursing. Thanks for giving me the deets on Amanda (as well as Mom doing that for me too). I love you all and continue to pray for you daily. I miss you and can't wait to see you again! Love you Always,Sister Museus

Sister Museus, October 3rd, 2010...Last week in Huwei

Hey Everyone, Mom, it was really good to hear from you again and to hear that Mama Norma is doing much better. I'm really glad you loved the necklace and the whole family got together to play bad minton. We will for sure beat the boys when I come back from my mission. John's enchildas do sound really good right now. I've actually started a list of the great food you make Mom as well some of John's yummy food; and Alex's delicious crembule (don't know how to spell this) and Whit's rum cake. I hope you all will make your extravagent food when I return. Of course Mom, I will be back to make more delicious food with you. I talk about this so much that my companion, Sister Roper, really wants to try some of it. Remember Alex, she will probably give you a call shortly since this is her last week in Taiwan. Mom, how was your trip to California? What did you and John end up doing? How did Ash's hearing go? How is Mama Norma doing? Know that you and everyone else are always in my prayers. I have to admit that sometimes I get too distracted thinking about all of you and how much I miss each and everyone of you. It's hard to hear when things are being difficult for you at home and I can't be there to give you my love and support. I miss you too Mom and everyone else. Just please continue to do what is right so we can be an eternal family. I preach and share this to everyone I meet on the road and teach at the church. My testimony of it continues to grow and all I want and desire to be together forever and what a great blessing and promise that this is that our Heavenly Father has given to us. Please continue to do what is right and I can't wait to see all of you again. Thank you so much family or whoever sent the cute Halloween package. Smaller packages must take a shorter amount of time to get here since I got within two weeks (and the Taiwanese government didn't go through this package as well so it took a shorter amount of time). I miss American candy. It was soo good to have some delicious candy. I thought it was pretty hillarious that some put that "Halloween wouldn't be the same without me", especially since we all know the mess that me, Alex, Megan, and Cole got ourselves into. Just try and stay out of trouble this year Alex and Cole and don't want to have a repeat of what happened last year. The cookies in the package were also really good and shared them with my companion. Thank you again for the suprise package, it really means a lot to me when I hear from you or get stuff in the mail. I have to admit that I really missed Sadie and Keisha yesterday when my companion and I saw the sweetest puppy on the street. We were tracting (door knocking) a street and noticed that the neighbors kept being really rude to this sweet puppy, but it ran right up to us and Sister Roper started petting it. We finally named the dog Pounce since she kept pouncing our feet when we were trying to talk to people. There were even a few times that I had to play tug-a-war with Pounce since she kept biting my skirt. We couldn't help, but stop and play with the puppy for a while. It reminded me so much of my cute Sadie. I hope you're keeping good care of her as well as Keisha. The past week went pretty well. We still have a lot of faith that Linda and Jenny will get baptized this weekend during General Conference. Linda's mom isn't against our religion as much as we thought and found out that Linda's sister was actually baptized into a Christian church and her mom was fine with it. We were able to meet with Linda again and taught her about the Plan of Salvation, which she thoroughly enjoyed, especially realizing that she can have a perfect body again after the resurrection (since if you recall she is paralyzed in a arm and a leg). Tonight we will be seeing her again and talking to her about some important commandments and to see more how she feels about baptism. I talked to her last night and she felt at peace with the decision to get baptized and feels that her prayers are getting answered. It is so good to hear this from investigators and watch them make progress and see the light in their eyes begin to grow as they learn more about the gospel and the Savior. We may be able to get Jenny finally baptized, but her parents are a little sketchy, but she has been keeping the Word of Wisdom and everything else. We will try our best to see what we can do for her this week. We would love to see Elaine and Sister Fang baptized, but the chances are very slim since Elaine's parents won't give her permission and Sister Fang still doesn't have the desire to be baptized. Sister Roper and I continue to pray and have faith that we can still see a little miracle happen in Huwei before we both leave this area (since they will most likely close this area since less sisters are coming to Taiwan and Huwei is one of the smallest areas that sisters get sent). I will find out this Saturday night where I will be sent for the next 6 weeks or so and I will let you know where I am on Monday. It has been a lot of fun being companions with Sister Roper. She has taught me a lot about the importance of having fun while doing missionary work. It was really stressful being with Sister Anderson, but Sister Roper helped me open my eyes and see all of the little tender mercies that our Heavenly Father places in our lives each day. It will be hard to see her leave, but she promises to keep in touch once she returns to the U.S. She may be getting in touch with you. We are all excited for this weekend since we will be able to watch General Conference in English. People outside of the U.S. don't watch conference until a week later. We hope to see many of our investigators come and watch at least one session while the missonaries will watch it in a separate room (since ours will be in English). I hope that all of you were able to watch all 4 or 5 sessions of General Conference. What a great opportunity we all have to hear from the prophet and other church leaders; to hear the great revelations and prophecies that they received for us. Please take the time to watch all of them, remember you can always watch them on the computer and they will come out next month in the Ensign. Please, family take the time to watch and listen to them carefully since we can only hear from them twice a year. I really excited to hear what they will talk about since last conference it was centered on families and the priesthood. Remember to listen to them because they are speaking for the Lord and our Father and Heaven and they will protect us from harm just like a life guard does. He can see the danger in the water when we cannot. Thank you Mom for the great scripture. I have also loved this scripture as well. Please keep up the good work family and I can't wait to see you again real soon.! P.S. I received a letter from Bonnie Hendricks that had a wedding invitation for Amanda. Amanda is getting married real soon! Have any of you met the guy or heard anything? She just sent the wedding invitation and didn't tell me anything else. Let me know what you know about this. P.S.S. More questions: Did you ever give Alicia my wedding card that was for her? Mom, did you ever give your talk in Relief Society about my mission? Mom, did you ever give the letter that was addressed to the Young Women and Men in our ward (if not, just give it one of the YW leaders and have them read to them, I felt inspired to write them a little something that I had noticed about the amazing youth in Taiwan). P.S.S.S. Mom, ask Lisa Allen or someone who as picked up their missionary before. I need to know how I can tell the church or maybe just my mission president not make fligh plans for me when I return home next year. Let me know what I need to do if you can. I love you all and miss you very much! Love you Always,Sister Museus

Sister Museus, September 19, 2010....Huwei and the Typhoon

Please have a great birthday Mom. I wish I could be there to celebrate it with you. Your birthday last year was awesome and everyone did a great job in setting it up; all I did was bring home a chocolate cake. Nevertheless, I did get you a little something and sent it off last week. You should be getting it within the next couple of days. Please don't open it until it's your actual birthday. I wanted to send off another tape, but it's not quite done. I'll make sure to send it off within the next couple of weeks. Cole, it was really good to hear from you. I'm glad that swimming is starting up again for you. I know you will do awesome if you put your whole heart into this (I already know you will do great since you can already swim faster than me). I know by experience that as long as you are diligent and have fun you will do an amazing job. I learned through playing softball and enjoyed every bit of it (I still miss playing this sport too). It's neat to hear that Erika is going to serve in Chile. Let me know what her address is when it's on the back of the ward program and I will write to her. Have fun with school while you can Cole. Sometimes I miss highschool because of the fun memories I had. Make sure you take as many college classes as you can (AP classes and concurrent enrollement so you can have a lot of college credits by the time that you graduate). You will not regret this decision and you can graduate college as fast as I did. Cole, kick Alex in the butt for me since she has not emailed me for quite some time when she made a promise with me too. I keep asking her questions about her boutique and such and she isn't responding. Let me know if she ever got the little suprise from me in the mail. On Tuesday of last week, we had a Mission Tour (more like a Zone Conference) where Elder and Sister Pratt came and spoke to us. (Elder Pratt is in the Area of the Seventy). It was really good to hear from them as well as our mission president and his wife. Each of their talks were based on the new lessons called the Fundamentals of the Gospel that are now being taught to every missionary in the field and in the MTC. These lessons will be taught to us which will help us better teach our investigators. Some of these lessons include teaching to the needs of the investigators, receiving personal revelation through prayer, scripture reading, and church attendance, etc. Our Missior Tour was based off receiving personal revelation through prayer, scripture reading, and chuch attendance. It was neat to her Sister Pratt describe the Tree of Life as being the temple. Too often missionaries only see the main goal for the investigators to get baptized, but in reality the main goal is getting them to the temple. It is only there at the temple that we can receive eternal joy and happiness. In addition, it was neat to have the realization that when we feel that we are not feeling the Spirit as frequently in our lives it is because we are lacking in one of these three areas: prayer, scriptures, or church attendance. Remember family that if you want to feel closer to our Father in Heaven and Dad you must do these three things. It is through these three things that we can have personal revelation and feel the comfort, joy, peace, and guidance that we need each and every day. We had a typhoon yesterday, but were lucky enough to have at least one hour of church. There were only three wards in all of Taiwan that had at least sacrament and we were one of them. We were really blessed for this because we were able to get one of our investigators named Linda to come to church. I met her during my English class on Wednesday (the Elders had tracted into her and invited her to English class). She is in her 40's and has already suffered a major stroke that has left her partially disabled in her arm and a leg. She speaks really good English since she majored in it in college. Linda is a very humble person and really wants some friends and more to her life. She lives with her mom who is really nice and served us some yummy fruit. We were able to get her to church, which enables us to get her baptized before the end of our move-call (since investigators have to come to church 3 times and two of the three have to be to all three hours of church). We continue to have faith and hope that things will work out for her. She seems very excited to learn more and has already been reading the Book of Mormon and met some great people at church in the ward. We will meet with her again on Wednesday after English class. We have a few other progressing investigators as well that could be baptized during our move-call. Yesterday, it actually felt like the Sabbath day since most of the businesses were closed and very few people were outside. The wind was horrible and there were a few times that I almost got knocked off my bike, but we made sure to stop and get off our bikes when this occurred. It started to pour in the evening and my rain coat didn't help. I came back to the apartment feeling like I was wearing a wet suit since I was completely drenched from the rain and wind. I love you all dearly and please continue to write me each week. I haven't heard from John and Alex for quite some time. Alex, my companion Sister Roper wants to give you a call in the next month or so (since she wil be going home in three weeks) because she has heard you have a great taste in music. She will want the updates with the music these days. Please continue to do righteous things and I know you will be blessed. Don't worry too much about me. Things are going great I just worry about all of you. Remember to keep the eternal goal in mind that we all have....to be an eternal family forever and at the tree of life tasting the joy and the sweetness that this gospel brings. Love and miss you all terribly. Love Everyone of You,Sister Museus

Sister Museus, September 12, 2010...More Faith in Little Huwei

Hey Everyone, I wish you all would email me more. It's times like this on my mission when I really need to hear from all of you. Thank you Mom for always writing me each week; it means the world to me and helps me get through each week. It really helped me to hear from you Mom and just barely Paige as well :) (I just received your email Paige while I was writing this email). My companion and I found out a few days ago that Sister Liao cannot get baptized until later since we found out she was living with her fiance. We failed at asking her this question when we went over the Law of Chastity and she didn't know that you cannot do this since it was never mentioned in the Gospel Principles book (that she read from cover to cover). Sister Liao desires to be baptized more than anything and wants to eventually get married in the temple with her fiance. However, she doesn't know where to live since both their parents live far away. Most likely we won't be able to see her get baptized since she doesn't plan on getting married until next year. Nevertheless, it has been a really neat experience to watch her change so much. I already mention to you why so wears less make-up and more decent clothes since she feels that the gospel is making her a beautiful person. In addition, she told us that she is starting to cook and clean more because Sister Liao knows that these two things are important to do in order to have a successful marriage and raise a great family. Throughout my own life I've seen what a difference it has made in our family. What a joy and blessing is has always been to have a clean house and a homemade dinner each day. I believe this skills continue to lack even more as time goes on and I feel so blessed by you, Mom, for always doing these things. Remember I can't wait to come home and cook with you again so we can spend some more time to together and I can learn some better cooking skills. We had Sister Exchanges on Tuesday where I was sent to Yongkang (which is next door to Tainan...where I spent my last two previous Sister Exchanges). I was companions for the day with Sister Dewyea. It's sad to say that many missionaries have warned me about her since she does things very strangely and is just an awkward person to be around. However, it wasn't too bad as I spent time with her and learned how she likes to do missionary work. She is a very sweet person, but she does need to learn to be more obedient and follow all of the mission rules. Nevertheless, it was neat to see how supportive her ward is in Yongkang and to be in such a nice church (since we meet in a building in Huwei). I almost felt like I was home as I spent time in the church teaching lessons with Sister Dewyea. I hadn't seen carpet for such a long time so it was neat to see it again. Nothing exciting happened this week. The weather hasn't been good so it's been really hard to try and contact, teach lessons, and add more investigators. However, yesterday we did have a family show up for church that we've been teaching for the past two months. It was really exciting to see them come since we've been trying to get them to come to church for quite some time. Things have been pretty rough since our investigators seem to progress and then not progress. Lately, I feel like it keeps going in a cycle with our investigators. This coming week is our last week to be able to add investigators and get them baptized during our move-call since they have to go to church at least 3 times before they get baptized. Sister Roper and I continue to have faith that Heavenly Father will help us pull through and find some great people who want to get baptized. It's been a struggle here since Huwei is one of the smallest areas that they send missionaries to, which makes it harder to find people who are ready to get baptized. Anyways, I'm glad you all went caterpillar hunting this year. I remember trying to do that last year and we had such a hard time finding them. Hopefully it was easier to find them this year. It was also good to hear that you spent some time with Papa Jun and Mama Norma on the dam. I loved hearing that each of you took you turn on the big Molecule. I can't believe that Boston wanted to go on it and wanted Papa Jun to drive faster! I wasn't suprised to hear that Carter was crying when Ash got on back of the Molecule. He gets too worried for his mama :). You better save me a spot on the Molecule when I get home; though I do regret getting on it every time I get on that thing, hehe. Thank you Mom for writing me and telling me what you've been doing each week. I'm surprised to hear that John is already getting a new truck, but I'm not suprised to hear that looks like his last truck. However, it will be nice not to squish in the back of it. By the time I get home you will probably have a new family car as well :). It was really good to hear from you Paige. I just received you email as I was writing this one :). I'm glad you and Charles had a fun time in California. It did sound like you did the same thing we did with mom and dad. However, I wouldn't mind taking that trip again since I was pretty young when I went. It sounded like you had a great time. I'm suprised you didn't stop by the the famous jail Alcatratz (oops, I don't know how to spell this one). That place did creep me out a bit, but it was interesting to learn about it. Maybe we'll have to go one this trip again when I get back. Thanks for telling me about Mama Norma. No one told me that she had another bad fall. I'm glad to hear that she is doing fine. It was also good to hear that you are starting school again. I know how stressful that is and I am very impressed that you can do it with going to work full time. Go Sista!!! I am always proud of you and the rest of the family for always caring so much about the business and still continuing your education all at the same time. Keep up the good work everyone! Alex, what happen to you writing me every other week? I loved getting your package in the mail last Monday. It has been really nice eating something that is familiar and really delicious. I already wore the cute necklace you sent me and will wear the scarf when it gets colder here in Taiwan. I loved getting pictures of what the boutique looks like. How is your business doing? Do have employees who work at the boutique? I sent you a letter with a little something to thank you for sending me such a great package (even though you should have never spent so much money on me). I love you Alex and I hope to hear from you more often. My year mark is today, which means I will be home within a year now. I apologize for confusing you Paige. The earliest I would come home is in the end of August and the latest is in the middle of September. I would love for you to wait for me for your wedding, but I understand if you cannot since I know you've been already waiting for so long. I love you all very much and I'm so grateful to hear that you are all spending so much time together. It makes me a bit sad thinking I'm missing out on these great memories with you, but I know this is where I need to be for the next year. It's great to hear that you are still roasting marshmallows and cooking hot dogs outside. I failed to mention that last night my companion and I had some roasted marshmallows last night. We decided to stop by at a former investigator's house and she kept feeding us so many roasted marshmallows since she knows it's a American thing to do. It was such a tender mercy for us since it was raining all day yesterday and then to stop by and have a friendly conversation with Shelly (who speaks really good English) and roast marshmallows was really nice. It actually reminded me all of you and the great times we spend together. Keep making memories with each other and remember that I will be home in no time. I love you all very much and can't wait to see you all again! Love All of You,Sister Museus p.s. It was cool to hear that Erika Ewing is going to serve in Chile for her mission. Tell her congrats from me. Today, I'm going to look for a little something for you Mom for your birthday that is coming up. By the way, I was able to figure out the pin number, thanks Mom for your help. I love and miss you all!!!

Sister Museus, September 5th, 2010...A baptism coming

Hey Everyone, Thank you Mom for always being willing to email each week. I know I can always count on hearing from you. Thank you for your willingness to do this. It is always good to hear what you and the family are up to these days. I especially loved last week receiving so many great emails from everyone. They were very spiritual and uplifting. I hope all of you will take time to email me each week. I love to hear what all of you are doing. Mom, I hope you received my suprise in the mail (hopefully it didn't break). I thought you would like it since it is a very popular thing to wear here in Taiwan. Many of the women here wear them. I'm glad you and the family are going to Bear Lake together. I love to hear that all of you are still spending so much time together. Families are what it's all about and I'm very grateful that my whole family still live very close and not in some far off state. I'm also excited to hear that you are going to Swiss Days with your friends. I would love to come with you when I get back from my mission. Hopefully we'll get back in time to go; if not I promise to go the following year. By the way, how is Janae doing with her broken collar bone and Viki and her mom? I do hope to see pictures real soon of the boys in the cute Halloween outfits. Mom, I love that you pick out the cutest Halloween outfits for them each year. Maybe you can get my sisters to send some Philippine pictures while they're at it as well. Mom, it's funny to hear you already talking about the plans of coming to get me. My release date is probably still September 13, 2011. It may three weeks earlier, but since I've already graduated college they may want me to stay until my release date. I would love to stop in Hong Kong on way back. I've only been to the airport and I hear they have great shopping and fun things to do. I would say we should probably stay at least a week here in Taiwan. However, I've only served in one area and seen part of another area during Sister Exchanges. You would probably laugh at me since I've already gathered several brochures of Taiwan so I can start doing my homework for when all of you come to get me. Let me know the earliest you want this stuff and I will do my homework better and see what I can find out. I love you Mom and I'm glad that you are already excited to pick me up even though it's still in a year. John, I apologize for not mentioning you in my emails lately. I haven't seen an email from you so I don't know what to mention to you. Though I did have a weird dream last night and you and Alex were in it. There were a ton of slugs all over the carpet outside of my room and I made you and Alex clean them up. You were so willing to help me since they were so nasty. I guess this relates to all of the hard work you put into our family (as well as Alex and the rest of the family). Please forgive me John and I promise to mention you in my emails each week. I'm also sorry for not telling you more often how grateful I am that you are a part of our family and you have brought so much more joy and happiness in each of our lives. Thank you for all that you do John and remember I would love to learn more about antique shopping and how you refurbish everything so well. Alex, I was so excited to get your package today! My companion and I picked it up before coming to email today. You should have never spent so much money on sending so many goodies with your neat pictures and sweet letter. I loved the scarf and the necklace. I will definitely wear while I'm here in Taiwan. My companion and I have started a diet, but I guess I can eat a few of your treat at a time (so I can savor it longer :) ). My goal is to lose at least another 20 pounds while I'm here in Taiwan. Which won't be too hard to do since there is so much yummy fruit and we're biking all day. All of the treats that you sent me I cannot find in Taiwan (except for the Pringles) so thank you for sending me some yummy things. I'll have to find you something extra special here in Taiwan and send it to you. I was really happy to finally get pictures of your great boutique. It looks amazing! You will need to start saving the best things for me since I know you will need to help me with my wardrobe when I get back from my mission. Sister Roper loved your boutique and the many owl things (she is a big fan of owls). She was wondering if your named your store "Violet Hill" after a Coldplay song. Let me know if you did she is very curious. Sister Roper actually reminds me of you since she is into music and know every song and artist. I will make to write you a letter Alex. I am not very deserving of the package that you sent me. Thank you again for everything and I hope to hear from you more often. I know you are very busy, but I would love to hear from you (we are twins and everyone that I tell here seems really excited to hear that). I love you Alex. Keep up the good work and please take some time to write me. I promise to write you a letter real soon expressing my thoughts to the letter that you wrote me. I apologize that the package took so long to get here (it went through customs). Paige, I'm sorry that I failed to mention the dresses here in Taiwan. The style of their dresses are pretty much the same in America. However, I feel that they are more unique since a lot of them I've never seen before. Just in this small town of Huwei I've seen at least 3 different formal dress stores. You would definitely find a beautiful dress here and the majority of them are pretty modest since the Taiwanese people don't like to show their cleavage at all. Thank you again for your uplifting email last week. Please continue to write me. I love hearing how life is going for you. I know you are more busy with school, but I know you can still find just a little bit of time. Please send pictures of the Phillippines and let me know how the trip was. I just found out in Alex's letter that you never got to go to Marinduque. Where did you spend all of your time? I love you Paige and keep up the good work that you are doing. Ash, it was really good to hear about the spiritual dream that you with dad. I actually received a letter last week from Grandma who told me that you were preparing for the temple. It is very exciting to hear that you are doing so. How very proud I am of you. Just make sure that you feel prepared and worthy to go because the best and most glorious blessing await there for you. I love you Ash and I am so glad that you are turning your life around. All of you us are very proud of you. Continue to do righteous things and you will continually be blessed. I will write you a letter real soon and express my thoughts to you more. Whit, I didn't hear from you this week, but I know you are very busy with school. I'm glad that you are doing so well and Rob too. I hope to hear from you next week. It's always a treat to hear you and how uplifting and positive you always are. How is nursing school? I love you Whit and miss you. I'm glad that you are home since you are very needed there. I am so glad that we all live so close to each other still. How blessed I am that we have the opportunity to see all our family members each and every day (and you will see me sooner than you realize). I love you Whit and keep up your amazing work! Cole, I haven't heard from you for quite some time. How is school? How is swimming? I hope you're not spending too much time on the computer and more time with your family and friends. I love you Cole and I hope to hear from you real soon. Sometimes I worry about you Cole. Please keep in touch with me. So far things are going great on the mission. We have another sceduled baptism for September 18th with a girl named Sister Liao. She is in her twenties and doing awesome. I have to admit that when I first saw her I didn't think she would have much interest since she wore tons of makeup, big eyelashes, big hair, and dark clothes. However, over the past month she is really changing and progressing. She stopped smoking within a week and was keeping the law of chastity (even though she is engaged). She has stopped wearing less makeup and told us last week that she knows she doesn't have to wear so much makeup because the Gospel has helped her realized how beautiful she has always been (sorry too many shes). Sister Liao even told her friends that they need to be nice to us when we try and contact them since she knows how hard we work to bring other to Christ. We are very excited for her baptism and I will tell you more about it when it is closer. My companion and I had a very spiritual lesson on Saturday with Sister Fang (the eternal investigator) who is actually progressing since she believes the Book of Mormon to be true and is reading and praying. We decided to watch a cheesy 80s LDS video on a family who all gets baptized after their little girl passes away. I had already seen this video a long time ago in seminary, but throughout the whole movie I was holding back tears since I was thinking about dad the whole time. I was able to hold everything in until Sister Roper started sobbing when she started talking to Sister Fang. Seeing her cry just made me cry as well. I couldn't hold in the tears any longer. We both sat their crying as Sister Roper bore her testimony on eternal families and related a personal experience of seeing her sister who she never met who passed away at birth. Afterwards, I related my experience about dad and gave my personal testimony on eternal families. How grateful I am each and every day to know that we can be an eternal family if we do what is righteous. How blessed I am for mom and dad's decision to marry in the temple and raise our family in this marvelous gospel. John, you are now a part of this eternal family as well and I hope and pray that you will realize this and soon accept this great gospel. Thank you all for being the great people you are. It makes me so happy to know that we can always be an eternal family. Please continue to do what is right so this can come true. I forgot to mention that I talked to the Hong Kong doctor on Tuesday night about my fingers. Don't get too worried Mom. He just told me that I need to take care of the problem now so I don't permanently damage the nerves in my hands. Luckily, last Monday I took care of this problem by getting the old-fashioned handle bars which has been taking the pressure off my hands and today I'm going to buy some dorky bike gloves that will give cushion on the palms of my hands. The doctor suggested that I get some. He also told me that I should get a priesthood blessing so I did on Wednesday night (my district leader gave it to me and his companion). The blessing was really spiritual and said to continue to be diligent and to remember that angels are around me helping accomplish the Lord's work. It went on to say not to worry about my fingers and they would get better in the future. The doctor told me that it might take so time before the numbness goes away since I've had so much pressure on them for three months, but he believes I'll be fine. I hope this doesn't worry any of you too much. I just wanted to let you know everything that is going on without leaving anything out. Tomorrow I go on Sister Exchanges. I don't know where I'll be going yet, but I will let you know how it goes next week. I failed to mention last week for Sunday was Stake conference where I was able to meet Sister Cooper (she was the black girl that I was roommates with at the MTC). It was really good to see her and to hear how she is doing. I hope one day I can be companions with her because she is such an amazing person full of light and energy. I bet she gets a lot of stares from people since she is the only black person around, haha. I love you all very much and thank you being so great. It's always good to hear from you so make sure to continue to write me. Here are some photos of the hike, the ghost festival, and the baptism, enjoy! Love you Always Everyone,Sister Museus

Sister Museus, August 29, 2010...Third Move Call in Huwei!

Hey Everyone, It was good to hear from so many of you. Thank you so much for taking the time to email me; I really do appreciate it. Wow, many of you made me cry this time around with your stories of dad and having so much fun together as a family. However, it makes me realize how much more I love each and every one of you. I apologize that I forgot again this week to bring my camera with me. I would love to show you the baptism pictures, but you will have to wait until next week for me to send them, sorry! Well, we were suppose to have two baptisms on Saturday, but we found out that Jenny had been drinking tea the week before her baptism and this isn't acceptable. Investigators cannot be drinking tea and other things for at least week before their baptism. Her parents who knew the commandments actually told us since Jenny wouldn't admit to it. It was hard for my companion and I to see this happen one day before her baptism (and this has already happen with Jenny before). Nevertheless, it was really nice to have at least one baptism during our move-call. It's been hard for us to get use to adding 15 to 20 investigators each week when in the big cities (or in most areas) you add double the amount (and I experienced this during my two sister missionary exchanges in Tainan). When you can add double the amount you have more chances to find people who are ready to hear the gospel. However, I have learned to love little Huwei and........................my companion and I (Sister Roper) found out Saturday night that we will be companions again for another 6 weeks in Huwei. We both thought I would move since I am the junior companion and have already by in Huwei for 3 months now. We are both excited to be companions again. Sister Roper is so easy to get along with and makes missionary work so much fun and not so stressful. On Tuesday of last week, Taiwan celebrated one of their biggest holidays called the Ghost Festival. For the whole before the festival there were so many fires, feasts, dancing, and singing going on in Huwei. My companion called it the war zone since the sky was very smoggy and their were so many fires going on. They believe that ghosts come out during this time of the year so they need to burn lots of fake money and have feasts to give to the ghosts and their ancestors. Tuesday was the worse since it's the day that the festival ends. It almost looked like the summer festival that had "gone wild". Their were so many booths full of sick food, games to play, things to buy, etc. Moreover, they were so many different sacrifices of animals going on. We saw dead pigs and lambs everywhere that the people were trying to give to their gods, the ghosts, and their ancestors. Sister Roper told me not to look over at their feasts too long because the people already see us as really white and they could mistake us for ghosts, haha. The traditions here are very strange and crazy. Even during the night they setup several stages where they were performances of some singers and pole dancers. Fireworks were going off like crazy as well. One was right outside of our apartment. It was sad things like this were little children could watch such things. I couldn't understand any of the singing since it was all in Tawainese (which was probably a good thing). After we got home Tuesday night, my companion and I wanted to celebrate the ghost festival so we bought some face masks and put a sheet around us and took so pictures. I would love to share them with you, but I will have to send them to you next week. We took some out on the balcony so you can see the huge amounts of people in the background. We also roasted some marshmallows in our big toaster with a chocolate digestive cracker (it tasted so good and was pretty close to a smore). We even roasted some Sugus (a candy that is similar to Mambas) over the burner (they were also very yummy). Paige, it was so good to hear from you and your golfing experience. I'm glad you all went golfing together. We should try and do it more often. I would love to go with all of you when I get back. I'm also not very good at it, but we could get better in the future together :). It was really cool to hear of your experience with dad and you being able to hit the ball over the swampy area. I know dad is always with us Paige, more than we actually know. Never wonder or doubt that he isn't. Just make sure that you are doing righteous and great things and he will be with you even more and you will be able to feel his presence with you as well. I'm glad the guy at the golf course remembered dad. It is good to hear people talk about dad like that. You made me cry as you related your golfing experience to me. However, it was funny to hear you think of me over a Pocahontas song; don't worry I'll be home in just one year and we can do more fun things together. Good luck with school. I know you will do awesome since you are a very diligent worker. It also funny to hear you relate your experience at the cabin. I'm glad that all of you were able to spend more time together and I am very impressed that you were able to get Chuck to jump in the waterfall. We better go to the cabin several times together when I get back. I miss all very much! Whit, I know how stressful school is, but I know you will do an awesome job. I am very proud of you for getting into the nursing school program. Keep up the good work! I promise to send more pictures of my companion, of what Taiwan looks like, and of our baptism, and of course of the Ghost festival (and some more pictures of our hike). Sorry that I forgot my camera again. I will send some pictures in the mail this week. It was funny to hear about Rob's experience on the Soap Box. I haven't meant anyone who has actually sworn at me, but than again I don't think I would know if they did since I don't know any Mandarin swear words. The people here are actually pretty nice, but you will get some who will mock you, make fun of your Chinese, or speak rudely to you. However, for the most part people are really nice. However, since Huwei is so small we sometimes run into the same people that we've already contacted before and we can never remember the person because we meet so many different people each day. I love you Whit, keep up the good work and I promise to send pictures next week. Mom, I'm glad you loved the tape that I sent. I hope you will all send me another tape real soon. I loved the first tape you sent me. I promise to send at least one tape every move call. This third tape is almost half full. I'm glad you all spent time at the cabin wearing nerdy bandanas and having Papa Jun and Mama Norma up for dinner. I love to hear when all you spend time together and with our grandparents. Jumping off the waterfall, eating dutch oven, roasting marshmallos, and four-wheeling sounds so much fun. I'm suprised to hear that you didn't play bad mitton together. However, you can save that for when I get home and going down the river since Cole forgot the tubes. The corn picking actually sounds fun. I didn't know Papa Jun had some corn fields. I was really happy to hear that you all had so much fun together. Thank you mom for always keeping me updated on what you are doing as well as the rest of the family. I miss you very much and I hope you like the suprise I sent in the mail last Monday. You should be getting really soon. I thought you would like a little something since I know you've had a hard time with me gone. Just remember that I love you and you are the greatest Mom!!! Ash, thank you for relating your experience with about your dream with dad. I've actually never had a good dream with dad in it. Usually he's just in the background if he's in a dream. However, I'm really glad that you had a special and spiritual experience with dad. You made me cry as I read your experience. I know dad is always with us, more than we can possibly imagine. I know he came to you to help you put your life back together (which you have already started doing). I am very proud of you Ash. Please keep up the good work and I know you will be blessed abundantly. I know it must be really hard raising two kids by yourself, but I know you will find someone very special if you continue to do righteous and great things. I want to be an eternal family and we can only do it through the gospel, through our Savior. I teach this to people every day and I know this to be true. I love you Ash, please keep up the good work. Carter has grown up too fast! I can't believe that he has aleady started first grade. Which means I could be teaching him right now. Just make sure to continually make good memories with your boys because I know time flies by too quickly. I'm really glad you put him and soccer. Do help him with his confidence that will help him in the future. It was funny to hear that Boston beat up the Nanny's kid. However, I'm glad that Carter and Boston have become best buddies. I miss those two so much, just as well as the rest of you. Thank you everyone for emailing me this week. You all made me cry, but it was also very comforting and uplifting. I promise to share pictures with you next week. Please continue to do what is righteous and I know you will all be blessed.

Sister Museus, August 23rd, 2010...Two Baptisms this Saturday!

Hey Everyone, Thank you Mom for writing me each week. I hope all of you in the near future will make it a habit to email me at least once a week. I miss hearing from everyone and I still have not heard much about the Philippines or seen pictures. Please take the time to email some of your exciting pictures from the Philippines. I will also try my best to send you pictures when I am able to take some. So far things are going great! We have two baptisms coming up this Saturday. We already new was in the process as we were helping her get ready and prepared. Her name is Sister Chen and my companion contacted her on the street one day as she noticed her cute school uniform. We were running out of time so my companion almost didn't contact her, but luckily (since Sister Roper loves the school uniforms here) she started talking to the girl about the Gospel. Sister Chen has been coming to church every week since we contacted her and she loves reading the Book of Mormon. Her Book of Mormon is well marked and is very excited to get baptized. There was no family problems because her family is Christian. She is a high school student and will be starting her senior year of high school. Our other very surprising baptism is Jenny. I've mentioned her quite a few times in my past emails. Sister Anderson (my old companion) and I were going to have a baptism with her, but the day before we had to cancel it because of Jenny's prank of water ballooning a school with her friends. We finally got a hold of Jenny after she came back from summer school and her dad was willing to let her be baptized again. Since she has gone to church several times and we've taught her all of the lessons and many more she could be baptized really quickly. My companion and I are very excited that the Lord blessed us with having two baptisms on our last week together and in the small town of Huwei. It's exciting to see people progress in the gospel and to see how much a difference it is already making in their lives as we continue to help them progress. Their countenance does change and they do begin to have a brighter light in their eyes as they come to know the truthfulness and the sweetness that this gospel brings. To celebrate this great blessing, we are going to have Dominoes for dinner on Saturday night after the baptisms. I'm real excited since I haven't had Dominoes since I've been here and pizza once (which was Costco pizza at one of the Zone Conferences). I believe one of the reasons that Sister Anderson and I did baptize my first move call because we were spending too much time on people who were not progressing towards baptism because of family problems and lack of desire. In addition, we were also spending too much time on the less-active members and not focusing on our purpose as missionaries: finding, teaching, baptizing, and helping them endure to the end. Another great miracle that happen to us the past week was on Saturday. My companion and I decided to ride out to Da Pi (45 minute bike ride one way) and Tuku (30 minute bike ride one way) all in the same day (since we weren't meeting with any investigators until the evening) to go visit an "eternal" investigator and a recent convert. We first stopped in Da Pi to see Sister Fang who is an eternal investigator (since she's been investigating the church since February). She loves coming to church, but will not pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true because she is fine with just learning about the church. However, after we visited her she finally committed to pray about the Book of Mormon (no past missionaries have been able to do this). The following day at church, she thanked us for taking the time to visit her and was thinking about not coming back to church until we came to visit her. She also told us that she probably knows this church is true, but still needs to think about baptism. This is a huge step for Sister Fang and I hope to hear that she gets baptized in the near future. The recent convert (Sister Li) hadn't been going to church for quite some time and wouldn't answer our phone calls. (I actually went to her baptism the first week I came to Huwie). We decided we would take the chance to go visit her (even though her parents don't know she got baptized and she didn't need to get permission since she is in her 30s). We ran into her at her house and she was willing to start coming back to church and then was brave enough to tell her parents that she was baptized and they were fine with it. The following day at church she expressed her gratitude to us for taking the time to visit her and gave her the courage to talk to her parents. I failed to mention that I went on Sister Exchanges with someone from Taiwan named Sister Chen. I actually went to the same place I had my last Sister Exchange (Tainan). It was really cool getting to know her and hearing her testimony about the gospel. Her whole family joined the church from two missionaries who knocked on their door. It was neat to go to a new place and to see how she likes to do missionary work (since everyone does it just a little different). It was really good to hear from you Mom. It always a treat to hear how things are going with you back at home and to hear your thoughts and feelings on things. I'm sorry to hear about Vicky's mom. I hope she gets better quickly in the near future. I also hope Janae is doing well with her broken collar bone. Don't worry too much about me Mom. I know the Lord is looking out for me and I try my best to avoid any accidents with the crazy driving here in Huwei. I'm never going to fast to actually get too hurt. The bike shop was closed last Monday so I will try today to get some new handle bars for my bike. Hopefully this will stop the numbness in some of my fingers. I do hope that you continue to cook with Janae and Vicky. It was always a treat to eat new and exciting food that you three came up with to make. I do miss cooking with you Mom, each and every day. It's neat to hear from the Oprah Winfrey show that we are gaining weight from the fast foods, frozen foods, and preservatives that we eat too much of. Maybe that's why people in Taiwan stay so skinny is because they eat really fresh things. Hearing this from you makes me really grateful for you taking the time to cook homemade meals each night for all of us. What a blessing it is to have a mother who still does this when many do not. My companion gets jealous when I tell her some of the many delicious things that you make. We often talk about the yummy meals or foods that we miss (I don't know if this is the best thing to do, but it does make me even more grateful for having such a wonderful mother like you.....thank you Mom for everything). I would still love to cook with you when I get home so I can spend more time with you and so I learn to be a wonderful cook like you. I want to be able to cook gourmet meals to my own family in the future as well. When I get back you need to teach me all of your great tricks. I am also counting down the days until I can see you again Mom. My love and gratitude towards you continue to grow and I can't help but have tears in my eyes as I think about you and the family. I have only a year left of my mission. I know that sounds long, but continue to do righteous things and I know time will fly by. Alex, I apologize for still not getting your package. I guess they can take up to a month or a little longer to get bigger packages, especially if customs decides to look at it. I would love to comment on what you said, but I will promise to do it when I receive your great package. I still haven't heard from you for a while. Please keep me updated with her life and how your new boutique is doing. Megan said it is really cute. I hope to hear from the rest of you as well. Your emails honestly help me get through each week since it is a roller coaster ride. Some things I wanted to mention that I keep forgetting to tell all of you: 1. Did you ever receive my name tags?2. You will need to change my tires real soon, especially since winter is coming up. When I got my tire fixed he told John and I that they needed to be replaced.3. Please some some family pictures of all of you (I love the one I have all of my siblings, but I need one of Mom and John and my dad). People continually ask to see these things and I don't know why I never thought of bringing these, please forgive for this.4. If you ever want to send a package (such as a birthday package) remember you need to send it probably a month in advance since it takes a while to get here, especially bigger packages. 5. I would like some women's a day vitamins if you could send them. I keep getting a ton more of those bumps on my arm and found out that they are from the lack of Omega 3 or Omega 6 fatty acids (sometimes called fish oil) in 1000 mg. I guess I'm not getting enough fat in my diet so I continually get more bumps on my arms and this would clear it up if you send this pills as well. I love you all very much! I think of each of you continually and pray that all of you are making correct decisions in your life so we can be an eternal family. Please keep me updated on what you're doing. Love you Always,Sister Museus

Sister Museus, August 15th, 2010

Hey Everyone, It was really good to hear from some of you this week. I would love to hear more in detail what you all did in the Philippines with some pictures (just send them through the email). I know our relatives probably took you to similar places, but I would still love to hear it from each of you. I haven't heard from some of you for quite some time. Please let me know what each of you are doing and the fun time you had in the Philippines. Alex, I apologize for still not getting your package yet. It should be coming sometime this week and I promise I will respond to it next week. However, I haven't heard from you for quite a while as well. How is your store doing? Meg wrote me a letter and told me how cute it is and how amazed she was for you accomplishment in opening the store. I am also very proud of you for being able to open up your own boutique. I hope you save some of the good stuff for me because I will be definitely buying a lot of things there since I probably will need a whole new wardrobe by the time I get home. Are you bringing in a lot of business? Are things looking good for your boutique in the future? I know life must be really stressful for you since Jolene just quit and you're still running a store on the side and you'll be starting school real soon....wow you are very busy (as well as everyone else). Whit, it was really good to hear from you. I'm glad you enjoyed your birthday card and rose ring. I apologize that they got to you a little late. I know the ring must be a bit big, but it reminded me so much of you. Mom, I'll make sure to send you something real cute soon since Whit told me you were a bit jealous of the ring. I actually already have something for you, but was enable to send it because it's glass. However, I'm going to one of our favorite stores today (which we like to call the D.I. store because it has about everything and is really cheap); I'll make sure to grab something there for you Mom. Whit, I apologize that the past two emails haven't been going to you. For the past two weeks I've been getting an email that said it failed to send to your email and it did it to Cole this week as well. Sorry Whit I'll try my best to make sure my emails go to you. Thank you for always sending me an email each week I really appreciate it. Getting letters or emails each week actually provide the comfort, energy, and strength I need to get through each week. Every week is always a roller coaster ride so I always need something to lean on such as my family and the Lord. Thank you Whit for everything. I'm glad you're keeping yourself busy with our family, friends, work, and soon with school. See if you have time to start up Mom's scrapbook for her for our grandparents. Also, try my email and facebook account again, you probably can answer my secret questions if my password isn't working. I know it's ladeeda_60@hotmail.com and the password is mydaddy8 for my email account and facebook too. Thanks Whit for doing this for me....love you! Mom, I trust that you and everyone made the best decision about Skylar so don't worry I know he was getting really old. Ash, I appreciate you so much for taking care of him while I was gone to college. Thanks Mom for getting me something from the Philippines I really appreciate it! I would love to get our relative's address so I can thank her for the gift she sent back with you. Let me know what it is and I will write her a letter. Last week is was good to hear you Mom speak about the importance of our family and doing their work for them. I would love to get started on that with you when I get back and do their work in the temple for them as well. I love you Mom and can't help but think how blessed I am for just a great mother in my life. I sent you another card to show my appreciation for you. It should be coming anytime this week. My companions get so jealous when I talk to them about the amazing dinners and home-baked goodies that you make. The majority of roommates and companions I've had always say that their mothers never cooked for them. I'm just really blessed for having such great homemade food each day. Sister Roper (my companion right now) would love to come and visit me when I get back because she has heard me talk about your wonderful food that you make. Remember, when I get back I still want to cook with you each day so I can spend more time with my amazing mom and so I can learn how to cook as great as you do. Thank you Mom for always writing me each week. By the way, how did Relief Society go when you had to talk about my mission or have you not done this yet? Also, please try and send me my 4-digit password for my credit card so I can start using that instead. Today I have to get new handle bars for my bike so the numbness in my fingers can go away. Some of my fingers are still pretty numb and I need to take care of this before something else happens, but don't worry I have no other health problems. I'm sorry to hear about Mark MOm. Know that he is in my prayers as well as you. Things will work out for him and his family, I promise. YOu had great parents and eventually their kids will come back to the gospel. Remember this. Ash, it was really good to hear from you. I will be so excited to get some new drawings from Carter and Boston. I miss you and the boys so much. I now by the time I get home they will be so old and different. I hope they will remember me by the time I get home. I'm glad you were able to find a new nanny for them. Let me know how things go with her. I'm also glad to hear that Boston is getting potty-trained; just keep up the good work and he will come along. I hope things are going okay at work since a few of the employees have recently quit. However, I know the whole family does a great job in running the place and I would love to help as much as I can when I get back from my mission. Please keep doing what is right Ash and I know you will be blessed. Keep being a great mother to your kids and they will really appreciate it (just as I do). I'm glad that you, Paige, and Whit were able to scrapbook together. I would be doing the same thing if I was there....I sure do miss all of you. So I guess you and Paige don't like scrapbooking online....I figured you might go back to the old way since the computer does take sometime to get use to. Finally I will talk to you about this week. Well, it was a lot of contacting, tracting, and visiting some less-active members. We met up with Mandy (the Filipino that I mentioned in my last email) on Monday night and the lesson went really well. We gave it in English, which made it easier for me. She enjoyed all of it and was writing down scripture references that we mentioned that she could look up and read to herself. We couldn't find her a bible in Tagolic, but we were able to give her a Book of Mormon in her native language. After the lesson was over she continually thanked us for sharing our message and was really excited to read the Book of Mormon and especially the part when Christ visits the Americas. We tried visiting with her last night, but the dad of the house wasn't to happy that we were there so we are going to try to visit Mandy tonight. We continually do a lot of traveling on our bike and went to two different small towns near Huwei called Dounan and Tuku. There, we went and visited with less-active members, former investigators, and tried to contact and tract in the two towns. One of our progressing investigators that I contacted named Ellen (I think I've mentioned her before to all of you; she's the one that took us to a yummy restaurant in Huwei), we went and visited with her on Saturday. Her parents were there so we spent some time explaining our religion and what we believed to her parents. The majority of our conversation was in English (since they speak English fluently), which was nice since I felt like I could really express my thoughts, feelings, and the doctrine. I shared my experience about dad and the importance of the gospel and temples and that it's only through this gospel that families can be eternal. They really enjoyed our message (especially since Ellen's mom is Christian) and wanted to learn more, but they live in Taichung and only wanted to hear more of our message if we met with them and not other missionaries. I just hope and pray that Ellen will continue to progress and maybe help her parents receive baptism as well. Before we left they gave us a yummy pineapple cake (which is very different to our kind of cakes...you'll have to try it when you come out here) and some pop stickers. I only ate a little bit of the yummy cake and gave the rest to my companion since I'm trying to lose a lot more weight while I'm out here. On Sunday, we found out that one of your investigators named Chen is ready for baptism and received her answer through reading the scriptures and praying. She will get baptized on the 28 or 27th of August right before our move-call ends. It will be really exciting to finally have a baptism and see that your efforts are working. We have several other people still who can get baptized this week, but we are still waiting for parent permission. I love you all very much. I'm sorry that I didn't send you more pictures of our great hike last week. For some reason this computer isn't allowing me to and I can't really figure it out since everything is in characters (Chinese). I love you all very much and I hope to hear from you next week! Two more weeks of this move-call and then something different will probably happen. Most likely I will be sent to a new area. I love you all! I did fail to mention that we did have another Zone Conference on August 5th with our zone and our mission president and his wife. It was really good and I guess they're coming out with a new curriculum to use with Preach my Gospel for missionaries. Also, tomorrow is Sister Missionary Exchange and I found out that I will be going to Tainan again for the day. Remember to do what is right and the Lord will bless you and I can already see He is blessing all of you as it is. Keep up the good work! I'll be home a year and one week. Love you Always,Sister Museus

Sister Museus, August 9th 2010

Hey Everyone, I'm really glad that you all had a fun time in the Philippines. I have to admit that I was a little worried knowing all of you would be in a different country, but then I realized that I stupid that sounds because you all probably feel the same way with me. I knew our great relatives would take such great care of all of you. I'm also glad to hear that mom loved Green Hills shopping area. That was also one of my favorite places to shop because it has EVERYTHING you need from clothes to pearls to culture items. It was really funny to hear that mom and probably the majority of you had to sing for our relatives. I bet you all sounded very good compared to our cousins, haha. Tell me more about the Philppines, provide more details of what you did each day as well as several pictures (just upload them on the computer and email them to me). Today, my companion and I got up early (6 am instead of 6:30) so we could go on an amazing hike. The bike ride took us 2 hours to get to our destination. However, we could not find the trail after basically carrying our bikes all the way up a mountain. We finally called the elders since they took the hike not too long ago, but they were no help (never get directions from an elder). We decided to find it for ourselves, but it was not working out. We were completely drenched from head to foot in sweat from the humidity here in Taiwan. We decided to head back down since it was getting late and we still needed to shop for food and email. We ended up being for over 6 hours, but we were able to take some great pictures in the mountains and found a great restaurant that looks like it's from Holland since it has dutch looking pictures and a gigantic windmill next to a waterfall. I will have to take you there and we can eat dinner there. The scenery was amazing and it smelled so clean, fresh, and flowery. The pictures I'm sending with this email are all from our hike. On the way back my companion got a flat tire so we ended up walking her bike for another half hour until we found a bike shop. We both ended up getting really sunburned and we hurt everyone. I was very tempted to get a massage, but I will wait until I see you all here in Taiwan before I get a massage. However, I have to admit that I have gone to a salon twice to get my thoroughly washed and my head, neck, and arms massaged while they're washing my head. Since my hair is up pretty much every day, it feel nice to get really clean and done nice. (Whit, I actually do my hair like you do it when you put your hair up. I got the idea from the great pictures you sent me when you were in Atlantic City with Lexi. It is a lot easier to do this way because my hair is out of my face and not on my back and I don't have to put a lot of hairspray in it). Things are going pretty good in Huwei. We actually have a few great progressing investigators who are getting ready for baptism. I just hope and pray that we can have some baptisms during this move call. Of course we have plenty of people who could get baptized any minute, but we still need parent permission for them. One of our great progressing investigators is named Ellen (she is in her late 30s and won't have family issues since many of her family members are in different religions. On Saturday night she took us out to dinner. I was pretty nervous to where she was going to take us since there are so many different places to eat here in Taiwan that don't look very appetizing. However, she took us to a place that was vegetarian (which it is really easy to be a vegetarian here since most of their meat is disgusting to me. I really miss eating grilled chicken and of course mom's great homemade dinners and goodies). We didn't have to worry about the kind of meat they were serving because they were pretty much serving only different kinds of vegetables. The restaurant was a hot pot places were you pick your own broth for your soup and you put whatever you like into your soup to cook up. It was really neat because they had a train come out that had all of the different things you could put into your soup and they were also playing many different Disney songs sung by good musicians such as Celin Dione and such (I have to admit it is always nice to hear good music like that and not only church music). We also had some yummy fruit and some ice cream (my first time eating ice cream here in Taiwan....it was delicious. Anyways, I will have to take you to this great restaurant and John will some how have to survive without having meat for a meal. Yesterday, my companion and I had a neat experience with a Filipino. There are many Flipinos, Indys, and people from India that come to Taiwan to earn money for their families. It sad to see them here because they are almost treated like slaves because they work all day and all night with very little time off. However, most only stay for a certain amount of time and then go back to their home country. Well, we ran into a Filipino and started sharing the gospel with her. When she asked about our church and if we had a bible she started to cry. She was Christian in the Philippines and missed going to church and reading the bible. My companion gave her a hug before we left and she just melted in her arms and clung to my companion just crying. It melted my heart to see this Filipino miss the gospel in her life and probably her family back in the Philippines. Luckily, tonight we're going to visit with her and bring her a bible and the Book of Mormon in Tagolic (her native language, though her English was really good). I give you more updates on how it goes. I hope it goes really well because (like I said) the hardest thing about a mission is to see so many people have so much potential and seem to be the most golden investigator and then they seem to have fallen off the planet because you cannot get a hold of them or they just stop wanting to progress and there is no good apparent reason for it. I hope this weekend wasn't too hard for all of you. I know it was a little for me because we were all probably thinking a little bit more about dad. Please continue to do what is righteous and I promise we will be with him again real soon. I know he would be very proud of all of you and the choices you have made such as keeping his great business running. I'm sad to hear that Jolene quit. I hope it won't be too hard for all of you to find a replacement, but in the mean time I know Alex will do a great job in keeping things up and going as well as the rest of you. It was really good to hear from you mom and John and Whit. I'm glad you all understand somewhat now of the humidity that I feel each and every day. It sounds like were all still keeping in shape by going exercising in the Philippines, I guess I need to do the same....though they make me do it here each and every day with our 30 minute work out and bike riding all day. It brought joy to me to hear you Mom speak of the importance of wanting to do Mama Norma's genealogy. We should both work on it when I get home. Aunt Bonnie already wants me to help her when I get back and then we can take their names to the temple together. John, your emails always make me laugh. Thank you for sending me an email this week. I hope Sadie is doing okay without me :). I'm glad you liked me letter Mom, I meant every word....just remember how great you are as well as everyone else. I know I don't express it enough so I will make sure to work on that. Alex, I haven't received your package yet, but I guess they take longer than letters do. I'm still really excited for it, especially to hear how you are doing and about your great new store, to see pictures from it, and to receive some goodies! I love you all very much and I hope to hear more about the Philippines. Thanks whit for checking my email accounts. Maybe Alex can help you with it because I swear that is my email and facebook account. Mom, let me know more about Skylar's condition and try to get me my credit card password for the ATM and I will use that than my debit card. Love and miss you all very much. Just 13 and half more months to go! Love you Always,Sister MuseusI will send more pics next week from the hike

Sister Museus, July 25th, 2010

Hey Everyone,

I know most of you (except for Alex) are all having fun in the Philippines. I hope you all enjoy yourselves there and really get to know our great relatives. I also hope your enjoying the great humidity...haha. Actually, the humidity hasn't been too bad for the past few days because of the amount of rain we've been receiving. Though, I think I prefer the humidity than getting completely drenched by the rain. We put rain gear on, but when it's pounding down so hard and your sweating at the same time, you end up getting pretty wet. On Thursday, we had Elaine (the amazing non-member who is waiting for parent permission) and Rose (the amazing 17-year-old member) go and do missionary work for the day with us. However, it raining pretty hard all day long. We all ended up getting pretty wet and they were good sports to stick it out to the end. Nevertheless, I did end up getting into not only one bike crash, but two and they ended up being within one hour of each other. I guess the rain here makes people drive even more crazy. The first crash with a scooter really hurt and my shoes went flying as well as my things in my bike. I ended up getting a few bruises and scratches from it. Of course, the lady on the scooter wasn't watching where is was going and hit right into me (and I was just on the side of the rode). My second crash happened to be with a car but I just barely hit into them and fell down. They thought they could hurry and cut me off at a light and I slammed into their car. People get so embarrassed here that they just make sure that you are okay and then hurry and drive off. Anyways, don't worry too much about me, nothing serious happened...I just needed to get a rim fixed on my bike.

Things are going pretty good with my new companion. She is getting a hang of everything here in Huwei. Luckily, she has a very positive and humorous mood to lighten things up a bit. Since my last companion spent so much time on getting parent permission from most of our progressing investigators, we now have very little progressing investigators. So most of our time is spent contacting and tracting to find more investigators. At times it's hard because I rather be teaching people the Gospel, but I know we need to find people before we can teach them. Sometimes I get too worked up thinking that I'm doing something wrong and that is why I haven't seen very many miracles or people baptized. I see little miracles here and there with some of the people here, but then they end up not following through. It's almost like they get to the tree of life and tast the sweetness of what the Gospel brings in their lives, but then they turn away from and walk away. I believe this is one of the hardest things in a mission. To see so much potential in people and then watch them turn away from the joy they felt.

I'm glad you haven't used my scrapbooking stuff :). But, will you let me know if you will do that favor for me and mom and get started on that scrapbook online for our grandparents? Will you or Alex let me know that my facebook and email accounts still work? Please respond and let me know on some of these things. By the way no one mentioned to me what were the complications with Skylar. Please let me know so I have more peace with the situation.

I'm glad your birthday went really well Whit. I am also sad that I'm going to miss two of your birthdays. You never mentioned if you and Mom got by cards that I sent. Let me know if you both received them so I know they didn't get lost. It does stink that you had to be on the airplane the whole time for your birthday, but then again you get to celebrate in the Philippines with everyone. You're lucky that your birthday is during the summer because we always end up doing something fun with the family.

Thank you Ashley for emailing me. I'm glad that Boston finally went #2 in the toilet, congrats! Good luck with potty training him and getting Carter to use the toilet at night. However, it will eventually come. I miss you Ash and those cute little boys of yours. It makes me sad to think that I will be missing so much with watching those two grow up. Make sure you savor these moments with them because they are so cute and innocent at that age and it only happens once. Keep up the good work Ash and I know will be blessed all throughout your life. Continue to take them to church and you go as well. I know you will find that special someone as long as you are doing righteous things in your life. I hear that you have a tape for me. Don't worry if you think it will make me homesick. It actually helps me feel better and gives me more energy to continue this great work. I hope you will send it off soon and I will do the same with mine. I hope you all took the recorder with you to the Philippines. If not please make sure you tell me everything you did in the recorder when you get back from the Philippines. Please promise to send me pictures of your trip as well. I want to be able to try and enjoy the experience with you. You can either send the pictures through email or get some developed. Whatever is easier for you, just please send some soon.

Thank you for writing me Mom. It's always good to hear from you. Don't worry if you don't find time to write me while in the Philippines. Just make sure you all have a fun time with each other and our relatives. If you do get this email while there....I would love to get a third wise men for my nativity set that I got there in the Philippines. Just ask Tutu to take you to the place and he will show you where we bought them wood nativity set. But I know this is asking a lot, so don't worry too much about it. Just make sure you send lots of pictures to me and record your fun experiences in the recorder. I promise to send another tape within the next week.

I haven't heard from you Alex for quite some time. How is your new business going? You need to give me more details on what you're selling in your new store. What is the name of the store? Please send me a bunch of pictures this week through the computer so I can see how great it looks. I've actually been thinking about you a lot Alex. My companion loves to play music in the morning and she actually put one of our favorite songs on that reminded me so much of you. You found the song one day when we were watching the winter olympics and Cole was getting so annoyed that we kept playing the song over and over again. It went something like "You are the center of my universe". My companion said she also sings another great song called "Healing Waters". Anyways, it was great to hear that song and think about the great times we had together. I miss you Alex. Please try and write me each week. I've noticed that those who write me the most, the more I have been able to grow closer to them. I regret Alex not developing a closer and better relationship with you and I know you've mentioned this before as well. Please forgive me for not doing a better job and making you feel that I left you behind when I went to BYU for college. I hope through the rest of my life I can make it up to you and the rest of the family. We are twins Alex, something that is very rare to experience. I still love and remember the experience you related to me of how you think we came down to earth as twins. I believe it and it continues to increase every day. While I'm gone for the next 13 months, please write me Alex so I can begin to mend our relationship and that we can begin to grow closer together. I love you Alex and everyone in our family as well.

Paige, I keep seeing a lot of great wedding dresses here in Taiwan. I know you are very picky about choosing your wedding dress since you want something that is very unique. You might want to think about getting your dress here since they are very unique and beautiful. I hope you end up waiting to have your wedding when I get home. However, do what you think is best. I love you Paige and thank you for doing an amazing job with keeping our family together and working so hard at the office and with your schooling.

Cole I haven't heard from you lately either. How is the summer treating you? I hope Whit and Alex will take to Hyrum so all of you can go down the freezing cold river again. I also hope the family takes some time during this summer and spends so time having fun at the cabin during a weekend. Let me know how you are doing Cole. I would love to hear from you.

Thank you John for taking care the yard and everything else while I'm gone. I know you are needed in our family and we all love you dearly. Thank you for your great efforts, kindness, and love.

I love you Mom dearly....more than you will imagine. I hope you and Whit were able to get my letters. I don't know how my new mission president is about families picking missionaries up, but don't worry about it because I want all of you to come no matter what. I want to be able to show all of you where I lived and labored for so long. I want you to see the amazing culture and things they have here....and of course the great shopping and food they have here as well.

Mom, I want to try and use my credit card more than debit when I need a little more money. However, I don't remember the 4-digit number for my credit card. When you get home from the Philippines will you please go the bank and send the number to me when you can. I want to try and build my credit while I'm here and then you won't have to worry about putting more money into my checking account.

I love you all very much. Thank you for sending me emails so I can here how everyone is doing. Things are going fine here. I just need to have more faith and confidence in my Savior that He will do what is best. I just hope that we will see miracles happen and actually see people come unto Christ and get baptized. I love you all very much and have a blast in the Philippines. Alex, I hope to hear how your great store is going while the family is in the Philippines. I will try and take more pictures today so I have some to send to you. I love you all very much!!!!

Love You Always,

Sister Museus

p.s. Whit, Cole, and Alex what movie did you see in New York that I would not like? I would like to know the name of the movie if that is alright.