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.