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