Sister Museus, January 12, 2011

Hello Lovely Family, I didn't hear from a lot of you again. Did you all forget about the promise you made me on the phone? However, I will forgive you once again and will wait and hope that this coming Monday I will have more emails from all of you. Thank you again Mom for always writing me each week even when I know your schedule is very hectic as well. First off, I apologize but this email is going to be shorter than usual and next week I will send the rest of the pictures. I cannot spend much time emailing today since we went to temple today and came back a little late, which meant less time to email all of you. However, what a glorious experience it was being able to go to the temple again. It was amazing. I have to admit that I usually get emotional while in the temple and I think it's because I feel Dad so close while I am there. I could feel him so close to me today.....it was so nice being able to feel his presence all around me. It really felt like he hugging me while I was in the celestial room. I'm so glad that we have the opportunity to go to the temple here because it really rejuvenates me and helps me continue doing this great work even when it's really difficult. I hope all of you will realize the importance of the temple and will make it your goal to go there soon and go continually. I discovered so many different things while I was there today....it definitely helped me understand the gospel even more and broaden my perspective. Please family, make the temple and our family the number one priority in your life....don't get distracted by other things that seem to be so important. I want to be with you all forever and I know you all feel the same way. Just remember not to get too distracted even by other good things in life. Yesterday, we went to Combined District Training Meeting where our zone leaders and our mission president talked to us. The zone leaders discussed the importance of always teaching about the importance of baptism and church in each lesson and principle. Our mission president shared his 2011 goals with us on wanting to baptize 1501 people during this year and how we could help him accomplish this goal. It was neat to see what exactly we needed to do each day in order to fulfill this goal (like how many lessons we should teach and the number of new investigators we needed to add, etc.). I hope you all wrote down some great goals you want to accomplish and how specifically you will get them done. Don't worry, I am still in the works of mine as well. Moreover, I had an interview with President Bishop and most likely the date I will be done is August 23. I will make sure to call him soon and get a permanent date so you all can get tickets for Taiwan, yippeee!!! I failed to mention that last Wednesday Sister Howard and I had the opportunity to participate in a council meeting with all of th zone leaders and the mission president and his wife. We were the only sisters invited to attend this meeting. They wanted our advice on how to apply Fundamentals from Preach My Gospel better in our teaching, adjusting the Taichung Mission rules, and clothing attire. (I will have you know that about a month ago they finally updated the sisters' wardrobe and now our skirts can be at our knees, we can wear bright colors, and we don't ever have to wear tights. However, it's a bit too late with all of this, but that's okay at least we don't have to look like nuns anymore). It was a neat experience being able to give advice to our leaders and mission president. In addition, our mission president's wife made a homemade American dinner. It was so delicious...I felt like I was home again. She made us some yummy spaghetti with homemade sauce, french bread, and a delectable salad ( I miss eating fresh salads....there is no such thing as salad dressing here unless you get some digusting kind). It was really fun even though we were the only sisters who attended this neat meeting and dinner. One of our great investigators name Sister Lin will be getting baptized next weekend. We are very excited and it has been so neat to watch her continue to grow in the gospel. She finally quit her job last week so she could attend church and she loves it. In addition, the Tanzi ward has been really good at helping her out and being so friendly. She loves meeting with us and desires to serve a mission in the near future. It's so nice having such great investigators like Sister Lin who love learning about the gospel. I will have so many miracle stories and investigator stories to tell you all when I return home. In addition, we also have some other amazing progressing investigators who are doing great as well. Right now we are teaching a mom and a daughter who will be baptized soon, a girl who I think has autism (who already acts like a member since she comes to church every week), someone that I contacted off the street who is golden, etc. Things are still going great here in Taiwan. I love my new companion and I hope we can stay together for at least 2 move-calls. She reminds me a lot of Sister Roper. She is very optimistic and can really teach to the needs of our investigators (since her Chinese is amazing). I continue to love my mission even more and Sister Howard is definitely helping me with this. The weather here continues to get colder and colder. I actually wear my knee-high socks every day so I can keep my legs warm. I'm starting to see my breath now outside since it's getting pretty cold. I should have been smart enough I kept the scarfs and hats that you bought me Mom, sorry. However, it's suppose to warm up soon (hopefully it will, I've been wearing my thermals to bed with at least two pairs of pants and coats on hehe). Mom, that was really nice of Papa Jun to fly all of you to John's mom's funeral. I hope he's doing okay. I hate death and I know it's really hard losing someone you love so much. Let him know that I am thinking about him a lot and him and the whole family were put on the prayer list by me today at the temple. I would love to hear about his special experience. In addition, how exciting that our Philippino cousins are visiting you all this coming Monday. You'll have to let me know how their snomobiling experience goes (especially since they've probably never seen or been in snow before). Let's just hope that they don't have a similar experience that I had one year (if you don't remember Mom, just Alex or Whit hehe. I'm so glad that you saved Bossy's life from his fun sledding experience. I'm glad that you all spent some time together and went sledding (I'll make sure to go with all of you next year). Moreover, I'm glad you liked the Hi-chews. I'll make sure to send you some more soon since I need to send a package home (I have a bit too much stuff and a lot of it is for you and the family). I love you Madre and thank you for being the most amazing Mom. I continue to be more appreciative and grateful for you and the rest of the family. I love you all dearly and can't wait to see you all again. Love you Always,Sister Museus