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.

Sister Museus, July 18, 2010

Hey Everyone,

It was hard hearing the news that Skylar passed away. I really did love that cat and I am sorry that I didn't do a better job of taking care of him when I was at the house. Thank you Ashley for taking care of him while I was in college and now while I've been on my mission. I owe big time for doing that for me. But like you all said and Whit in her email, I know he is in a better place and he was pretty sick for the past couple of years. Please let me know what the vet said was wrong with him. I would like to know more information on why he was getting so sick and losing so much weight.

I was pretty suprised to find out on Saturday that I would be getting a new companion. The majority of the time you end up being with her trainer for two move-calls. It was even more rare to find out that my companion would be leaving the area and I would be staying. In most cases, the senior companion stay behind in the area since they know the area and know how to do missionary work really well. My new companion is Sister Roper. She is actually a grandaughter to Elder Ballard (who is one of the 12 apostles). I actually mentioned her a little bit in one of my emails since I went on a missionary exchange with her. She is really nice and only has two more move-calls left (3 months). I have 10 more move-calls to do. I still shocked that they left me here to show my new companion around. My last companion think that I must be pretty "Lehi" (which means a hard-worker, strong, brave, courageous, etc.) since they left a trainee here to teach my new (senior companion) the ropes around here in Huwei. For example, I need to show her where the majority of the members live (which some live up to 40 minutes away on bike), the less-actives (which we have several pages of them....probably about 30 or so), getting to know our progressing investigators and potential investigators, etc. Hopefully within the next week I can show her how things work here in the small town of Huwei (which means tiger's tail).

I was very excited to get your tape last week. The mail that you send to me actually doesn't take too long....usually seven days. Tears came to my eyes as I listened to everyone. It was so good to hear how everyone is doing back in Logan. Thank you for taking the time to do this for me. It makes easier as I hear how good all of you are doing. My companion and I cracked up when I heard Boston say his new favorite phrase "What's up baby girl". I loved it and kept playing that part back over and over again. He is already speaking so much. I hate to miss those precious years of watching him and Carter continue to grow up....as well as the rest of you. I miss being able to play bad mitton with all of you. I'm glad to hear that you are continuing the tradition of playing it during the summer. I'm also glad to hear that everyone is trying to get into shape. I've been trying to do that myself and I've actually lost 5 pounds since I've been here. My new companion is trying to lose weight before she goes home so it will help me eat even better since sometimes the bread stores get to me (you will all of them when you come out to Taiwan and bring me home). Keep up the good work in running in all of these races and when I get back I will run in the with all of you as well. They make us run outside for 30 mintues every other day....lets just say it's a killer for me because of the humidity. Sometimes I feel like I'm running in a sauna or steam room. I come back from running and by shirt is completely drenched with sweat....it's pretty nasty.

Thank you John, Cole, and Whit for taking care of the yard for me while I'm gone. I promise to plant a garden and the flower pots when I get back (though I will miss next summers as well, sorry). I'm glad you're back John. I know the family really needs you because of the love, support, and encouragement that you give to all of us, thank you. I made me cry mom as I heard you talking about missing me when you were cooking or cleaning, I miss doing these things with you as well. I miss getting up in the morning and deciding what we should cook. You taught so much about cooking during those couple of months that I was home. I wish I would have done it more with you in the past. Know that when I come back that I want to continue to cook with you so I can spend more time with such an amazing mom and so I can learn how to cook really well (though I probably won't reach the expert level that you are at). Cooking not enough with you is something I deeply regret, please forgive for not taking more of this opportunity to spend more time with you Mom and learn your ways.

It was really neat to hear how much fun Alex, Whit, and Cole had in New York with each other. Thank you for taking the time to tell me about your fun experience in New York. Whit, I hope in the future we can visit New York again and you can so me around. I would love to see where you lived and what you did. It sound like you all had a blast being with each other. I love to hear that you all love spending time with each other......this is so important to do since family is the most important thing to us all and we've all experienced that they can leave us in just an instant. It was really funny to hear your experience with our Philippine cousins and eating duck....haha. I guess you now know I feel when I have to eat some pretty nasty things (like blood rice...yuck!).

It was also really funny to hear Ash describe Carter's diaper experience. Carter is starting to be very clever. Good luck Ash in getting Carter out of those diapers and Boston potty-trained. Oh how much I miss those two as well as all of you. Paige, I hope you will wait on doing your wedding until I come home. Since you plan on doing in next year in June....you should just wait until July to do it since I will be home by then. It was also good to hear from Mama Norma and Papa Jun. Thank you for getting them to talk to me on the recorder. It was really good to hear how they are doing and their thoughts on my mission. PLEASE take the recorder with you to the Philippines and tell me all of the fun things that you do. You could even get some of our cousins to say something to me. At least record what you do each day so I can try and relive the experience with you. I know all of you will enjoy it. Our couisins are awesome and the culture, the people, and the shopping is amazing. Just ask Marichu to take you to the great cheap shopping areas....you can get great religion jeans, other clothes, and a lot of culture items just was paintings and wood carvings (this is all in or near Manila). There is a great memory store that has the great wood pictures, table clothes, wood carvings that is near Tutu's sister's house. Other great wood carvings and my nativity set came from a town that is known for this stuff....just ask Tutu. The fun wood mats we got were on the Marinuque island. I hope you will be able to go their and on the private island. But if Mama Norma isn't doing too well it may be best not to go on Carmensita's private island. I hope this information helps....I know Whit wanted to know more about it.

I'm glad Whit is getting into scrapbooking. Just don't use my stuff Whit and if you do make sure you replace it because I was doing our Philippine trip with that stuff. Whit, try scrapbooking online. It's a lot easier and turns out to be just as cute. Have Mom show you our Hawaii trip that I did online. Whit, please do me and mom a huge favor and finish scrapbooking online the story and pictures of Mama Norma and Papa Jun's life. We had scanned in all the pictures and put it on flash drive. Mom even bought a book for it and some months to use the scrapbooking online. However, I ran out of time and didn't get to start the book. Please do this for mom and our grandparents. Please do this and I promise I will get you something special here. It was funny to hear Whit as doing scrapbooking because last week I kept thinking that I needed to mention to Whit to try and do that scrapbook of our grandparents.

Whit were you able to find my email accounts and facebook. Please make sure they are all still working. I have a lot of school stuff in the email accounts that I need to save and members and investigators keep telling me that my facebook account is not there. Please make sure that it is still there because they are more than willing to send pictures to it so you can see how I am doing.

I love you all very much. Thank for being such a great family. Last week, I got pretty sick with a horrible cold and had the flu for have the day (but don't worry I didn't throw-up). During that time and so many times....I keep feeling like a failure to all of you. I failed at sharing the Gospel with all of you. I hope that I am not too late when I get home to help each of you come unto the Savior and do those things that are best and not just good. I know all of you are already doing wonderful and amazing things, but I still feel like a failure and regret not sharing it and being a better example. I want to see all of you going to all three meetings to church and not being a less-active member. I want to hear that you are reading and praying each day. I know you are already spending time with each other and I'm so happy to hear it. Please go do these things if you are not and John I will work on you when I get back. I want you to accept this Gospel and be baptized so you can know and feel the true happiness and blessings that this Gospel brings. Please come unto the Savior if you are not. I try my best to know that our Heavenly Father will take care of you while I am gone (D&C 100). I also receive comfort to hear that you are all doing so well and from the scripture 3 Nephi 22....where it explains to forget your youthful days and not be a widower anymore (meaning not with Christ). It explains to take Christ hand and share the Gospel to everyone. It's hard seeing how hard I work to get investigators to come to church, keep their commitments, and be baptized....and realizing that I never do all of this with all of you. I promise when I come home I will work on it with each and everyone of you so we can be an eternal family.

I love you all very much and hope to hear from more of you next week.

Love you Always,

Sister Museus

p.s. I hope you like my card whit and mom. Happy Birthday Whit and I'm sorry that I cannot be their to celebrate it. Know that you will get something extra special from Taiwan. I'm also working on sending you a tape real soon! Love you all very much!!!

Sister Museus, July 11, 2010

Hey everyone,

It's so good to hear from many of you this week. Thank you for taking the time to write to me. I always appreciate hearing from you, it helps me get through the week. This last week (of course) has been a pretty bad roller coaster ride. We found out that the girl we were going to baptize this week ended up moving in with some of her family members to somewhere else in Taiwan to help get her away from some of her friends. So, we cannot baptize her even though she is ready and is already beginning to change into a better person. We have so many others that are ready for baptism, but we are still waiting for parent permission. One in particular that I've already mentioned is sweet Elain who is 15. Elaine and a member (Rose who is 17) decided that wanted to be missionaries for a day. So they went around helping teach lessons, add and contact people, and go tracting. They did an awesome job with contacting people and bearing their testimonies during our lessons. I know in the future they are both going to be great missionaries. I just hope that one day Elaine can get baptized and we are hoping for a miracle this week as she tries to get permission again from her mom. Luckily, we found out that her mom's friends are Christians and told Elaine they would try and help her out.

On last Monday night we had a cool experience of meeting a mom and her daughter. My companion found her from one of our phone referrals that our mission uses. When some other missionary contacts someone out of their area they can basically text the information to the correct area so then we can try to contact and add them. Anways, we met up with her and her daughter that night and once she saw the pamphlet that we use to contact and usually during our first lesson (since the pamphlet is about the restoration and the first lesson is about the restoration)....tears immediately started falling down her cheeks as the mention reads in traditional chinese (since Taiwan uses the traditional characters still)...Familiers are Eternal. She explained that she had been praying for years after her husband passed away from cancer (a couple of years ago) for an answer to her dilemma. She went on to explain that she even tried out a fortune teller and told her that she would meet the LDS church and would most likely join. (The church advises us not to go to these kind of people because they are not of God, but it was very interesting to hear her relate this to us). My companion and I felt the prompting that I needed to share to her about my own experience of my father passing away. I tried my best in broken Chinese and I could truly feel the Spirit bear testimony to her of the truthfulness of my words. We continued our lesson and everything was making sense to her.....the reason why there are so many different churches, how the church was restored through Joseph Smith, and everything. She was delighted to get a Book of Mormon from us as well as her daughter. I hope in the future she and her daughter will continue to progress in this Gospel because I know without a doubt that they already have tasted of the sweetness of the Gospel.....just like our family has and will continue to do so as long as we keep the covenants and commandments we have made with our Father in Heaven. This week I'm going to try my best on knowing my experience better with the passing of dad in Chinese so I can relate it better to our investigators. I've already shared this story several times and I know I need to be better at it with my Chinese skills.

Every week is hard, but yesterday was a very stressful and lonesome day. Our ward decided to make some seafood soup and they ended up giving some to me and my companion. Missionaries are not aloud to eat in church buildings so we went outside to eat it. I tried to eat the big bowl of fish soup, but my body would not allow it. I feel myself about to throw-up, but my companion would not hear it. She was so incredibly rude that I wouldn't eat the rest of the food and ended up putting in a bag that I had. For 15 minutes or so she chewed me out on being prideful, selfish, not putting the Lord or others before myself.....she actually ended up making me cry. This rarely happens, but I never felt so degraded in my life by someone. I have to admit, lately it has been really hard getting along with my companion/trainer. She can be very short tempered, rude, careless, etc. I don't mean to be rude or complain, but it has been very stressful and hard to be with her as my companion. Most likely I will be with her for another move call because you usually are with your trainer. However, this morning we had a long discussion about what happened yesterday and things that need to be fixed in our companionship. Hopefully in the future we can both do a better job in being companions and not let it effect our work. Don't worry though, I'm still doing okay.....I guess yesterday I just needed one of you to be there for me, but the Lord of course was there to provide the comfort that I needed.

Well, last Tuesday, we had combined district training (that happens every move call). This is where we meet other missionaries around our area with our zone leaders and learn how to be better missionaries. We also met our new mission president and his wife. They seem very awesome and I know they will do miracles here in Taiwan. During the meeting we had interviews with the mission president, the trainers, and zone leaders. It was pretty intimidating at first, but they definitely helped with becoming a better missionary.

On Saturday, we had the special privilege of meeting with President Uchtdorf and his wife, and the area of the seventy serving in Taiwan with his wife. Pres. Uchtdorf gave an excellent talk on finding hidden treasure here in Taiwan and the importance of converting ourselves to this Gospel. We each got to meet them personally and have a big missionary picture with all of them. I will try and send it to you when I get it.

Don't worry too much about me Mom. Things are tough, but I will get by. I actually worry more about all of you still. I worry about the decisions you make each and every day. Please do what is right because all of you are the most important thing to me and I want to be an eternal family.

Don't worry too much about what I'm eating. I've been pretty good at sticking to my diet of eating lots of fruit such as kiwi, apples, mangos, bananas, guavas, pineapple, etc. Some yummy things I've had here is their bread of course, some pancakes that have filling inside (usually some sort of pudding), zhong wa cha (which is a yummy tea drink that I love, but that we can drink because it doesn't have the tea leaf), their yummy bing (ice), which is a basically a shaved ice with a bunch of fuit on top with a dressing on it which is usually the zhong wa cha (but you can get the ice so its a milky ice, which my companion gets, but its unhealthy so I don't ever get it). They also have yummy pop stickers that I will get once in a while when I really need to eat some meat, but I will only get them when they are boiled and not fried. I also like getting some yummy soups here such as a corn, beef, or bamboo soup. But usually I stick with eating fruit, getting a salad from Seven Eleven (since there are too many of them), or a fruit smoothies. Usually once a week I will also get a turkey or ham sandwhich from the bread store.

Don't worry my companion finally turns on the air at night and in our office/study room.

I love you all very much. I will send letters to you today.

Love you Always,

SIster Museus