Sister Museus, April 11th, 2011

Hello Beautiful Family, Oh, how I miss all of you, especially since we had such a hard week. To our disappointment, many of our great investigators are not meeting their baptismal goals and I think because Satan and the rest of the world is getting to them (Satan has gotten a hold of our APR-Active Progress Record :) Our sweet Sister Zeng is ready for baptism, but her father hasn't been having a very good attitude and wants her now to wait even longer (after she chose the day she wanted to be baptized. In addition, Sister Lan (who I self-contacted) is too scared to try and keep all the commandments and the commitments we have given and taught her. So therefore, she has now stopped meeting with us. I had tears in my eyes as we received this disturbing news. Sister Lan knows the gospel is true and there have been so many occasions where I have seen her light-up because of the truths she was being taught. We do occasionally call her and have sent some letters to her. She does have a great attitude and everything, but is letting the outside world and other things distract her. She even left us with a gift the book called, "The Secret", (which I know all of you have heard and seen on "Oprah"). She wanted us to read the great book (but we can't because of mission rules and I can barely read it since it's in Chinese). I think insprational books such as this and "Impact" are good things, but they are not the best. Too many people think these things can fulfill their spiritual needs and such, but they are missing so much more. This is why I struggled wanting to go to "Impact" because I was introduced to someone who thought this program was the answer to her prayers in finding a religion. Please remember family that things are good, but don't get lost in them and distracted on what really matters in life; the family and the true gospel. Please, don't get too caught-up in our daily routines that you fail to do the little that matter most such as reading the scriptures, praying, etc. I have to admit that when I return home there are several things I will be changing (and have already changed) and will try and do with all of you so we can continue to strengthen our relationship with each other while we progress in the gospel as well. (Please forgive for going on a soap-box speech; you all just mean the world to me and I thought this might help you all). In addition, Sister Lian is doing to good as well. She still struggles drinking tea and some coffee and is getting to caught-up with her job as a professor while working on her doctorate. We haven't seen her for over a week because of this, but we have some great plans ahead to help her get off her bad drinking habit (by giving her homemade wheat tea that is okay to drink and tastes similar to the tea she like to drink and sending her some insprational messages each day). She is ready for baptism, except for her Word of Wisdom problem. We hope and pray we can see these great investigators get baptized this month so they can receive the fulness of blessing that are awaiting them. Right now I believe it's in God's hands and we will try our best to follow the spirit and strive to help them overcome their challenges and concerns. On Tuesday, we had a great time going to Xitun and doing a service project of grave sweeping. I had mentioned this in my last letter about this holiday they have here. It was sad to see many graves not being taken care of; this shows disrespect to your ancestors. However, we did our best with the two hours that we had to fix and clean-up as many as we could. It was funny to watch the many Taiwanese people visit their ancestor's graves and start worshipping them burning fake money and bowing their head up and down. Afterwards, many were having a feast beside the graveyard. In addition, right next door to the cemetary was a very tall tower-looking building where are all of the cremated bodies that we put in vases were stored. Those family members would go inside the building and worship their deceased family member. (You're going to laugh and what I just did. I couldn't remember the English word for cremate and could only remember the Chinese name. Luckily, I have a great dictionary in my phone. I hope I'm not losing some of English vocab., hehe). Anyways, it was pretty fun doing such a fun service and many people noticed are great efforts. The following day my English class told me we were in the newspaper for our awesome service. Sister Cooper (the only black missionary) was in it as well as our mission president. You could probably find it on the internet somewhere I think the name of the newspaper was China Daily News or you could look up Saomu in Taiwan, Missionaries doing Saomu in Taiwan, etc. It will probably be in Chinese, but you can at least see the pictures from it. What a glorious opportunity it was to listen to General Conference on Saturday and Sunday. I never did hear if any of you took the time to watch in of the sessions. I hope you all will in the near future since it's on the internet or read the talks in the next Ensign magazine. I surely enjoyed every talk. They all helped me realize things I could do better in my life and the many ways my companion and I can help our investigators. I can't wait until the Ensign comes so we can use these great talks with many of our investigators and recent converts. I loved watching every bit of it realizing that all the amazing talks came directly through revelation from our Heavenly Father. Today, we went and ate huoguo (hot pot) again at "Shabu Shabu" (since a member keeps giving free coupons to us, but we limit the times we go there to once a move-call since it is a buffet). It was fun getting together with the Sister Liu's and my new amazing recent convert Sister Chen (who invited to come and eat with us). They all loved hearing about the many places I've traveled to and I owe it all to my great mom, dad, and step-dad. We've made some great memories together through these fun places and I am so appreciative towards you, Mom and John. Thank you both for all that you do for all of us. You have given us all to many wonderful experiences and opportunities in our lives. Mom, you would be proud to know that I've been talking to my companion and the Sister Liu's (who live in our apartment as well) about the many places we would visit. They believe (like I said) that the main places we need to visit are Taibei, Taichung, Tainan, and Gaoxiong (sorry don't know how to spell Gaoxiong in English). The other cities I listed we probably don't need to go to. They believe we need to stay at least two days in each of these places and maybe three days in Taibei. I already have some great information on the different parts of these cities we should visit (because of my great companion and roomies). If you need more information on this and hotels let me know and I will go over it more specfically in a letter that I will send soon with the different places we can visit. I will also send a copy of the brochures and hotels that you can look up if you are having a difficult time. I still need to get additional information from my Taiwanese roomies so I will send this off probably next week. Mom, please call the Missionary Travels Office and inform them that you are coming to get me so they don't get me ticket. Please do this soon. Alex can help you find the number on the internet or ask or bishop for it. John, it was so good to hear from you. I'm glad you loved your gift. I apologize that it got to you a bit late. By the way, please open the big box that I sent home because I put some more treats in there for you and my mom (and the rest of the family). I know you all loved the Hi-chews so I out some in there. You can look at the other stuff, but most of it is a gift to you and my mom. Thanks for telling me it got there safely and that you put it away in my room (hopefully Gabby won't take a looksy, hehe). I'm glad to hear that you so much fun in New Orleans with my mom. Your plantation and swamp tour sounded like fun. I bet you both had so much fun together. I can't believe my mom ate so much cat fish. I thought she wasn't a big fan of stuff like that; I guess I was wrong, hehe. I hope you all had fun in Disneyland together. Please tell me all about it and send some pictures. Love you John and thanks again for all that you do for the family. Please take care of yourself. Love and miss you lots! Mom, I hope you're feeling better after getting pneumonia. I do wish I was home so I could have been your nurse I made you some great rice pudding; I miss eating great stuff like that (I always miss your delectable cooking; we will definitely cooking-up a storm in the kitchen when I return home). You must be a pretty tough cookie to go to Disneyland after getting real sick. You are just too nice Mom; always thinking of others. I hope you all had fun in Disneyland together. Please tell me all about it and send some fun pictures. I always miss you Mom and love you very much. I can't wait to talk to you and the rest of the family in less than a month. Love and miss you lots! Paige, I see that you keep getting on the same time as I do, but somehow I miss you every time; sorry. However, I would still love to hear from you. How are your wedding plans coming? Alex, Whit, and Cole---I haven't heard from you all for a quite some time (especially Alex). Please write me soon and tell me what you are all up to (especially how the Rome trip went). Love you all family and can't wait to talk to you all soon. Please keep making righteous decisions we can always be together forever. Love you all dearly and miss you terribly! Love you Always,Sister Museus