Sister Museus, May 23rd 2011

Hello Dearest Family, Please forgive me for sending such a short email to you all and not being able to write to each of you individually. However, I promise to do better today :). I'm glad to hear that you are all set to pick me up on Aug. 15th. I am all very excited to see you all in less than 3 months. Things have been going great in Taiping. We had an awesome baptism over the weekend with Sister Liu, who everyone called a "Dry Mormon" since she literally had no problem to overcome. She grew up Christian and had been searching for the true church and found us on the road who contacted her. Everytime we taught her a new commandment and though to myself, "this is where her problem lies", since most investigators I've taught had some type of concern to overcome (well I guess Sister Chen and Gu didn't have any problem either). However, Sister Liu was different since she already new about tithing and had the 10 commandments memorized (I believe they are very few people in the church who have them memorized in order, but as missionaries we do). We had a fun time teaching her and watching her come to life as we shared gospel truths to her. Sister Liu is going to be a wonderful new member and will help many others find this restored truth. Moreover, we have another great baptism this weekend with Sister Lin. We were somehow able to help Sister Lin overcome her smoking habit that she had for almost 20 years. Sister Lin had tried on several occasions to stop, but wasn't successful until she met us. Thanks to the amazing "Preach My Gospel" book (and of course our Father in Heaven), we were able to develop a specific plan for her to overcome her smoking habit that included: the times, places, and people that cause her to smoke, other things she could other than smoking, what her future holds if she stops smoking and if she continues, goals on how to stop, etc. We even developed a calendar full over excellent scriptures for her to read to prepare for her baptism and give her encouragement on overcoming her smoking habit. Well, on Wednesday and part of Thursday, we did started a fast with her (and ended it together as well). This amazing fast helped her completely stop smoking and was able to pass her baptismal interview on Satruday. Sister Page and I are very excited that she is completely prepared for her baptism. I have loved teaching her as well, especially since Sister Lin always expresses her gratitude towards us and continues to say how amazed she is by the love, patience, and kindness we always express and show to her and others. I love hearing this from our investigators and others, especially since I feel like I could do a lot better in all of these areas. The Lord continues to bless us and hopefully the following week we can finally get Sister Fu and Sister Huang baptized. However, they still have some problems to overcome and we are trying our best in helping them with these. We would also love to see Sister Xiang and Sister Lin (a different Sister Lin or who we call Linda). I can't believe we have already seen many miracles already with my new companion. We have some new bumps in the road (since Sister Huang cancelled her baptismal interview since she thinks they are too many commandments, but some members are working with her right now), but the Lord continues to bless us. Nothing else new happened over the week. Today for preparation we biked almost an hour to Beitun to see Sister Zhen (Sister Page's former companion) who has cancer and has to go into surgery next week. We did another fast this week for her (all of the missionaries did) so things can go well for her. We also stopped at the huge market in Taichung so I could look for a gift for John (Father's Day), Alex (graduation), and for Whit (having such a little gift), but I did come back with much since most of it you could find in America (and I don't know what is in style these days). I even tried to find some new blouses I could wear (since I am very tired of wearing the same things), but all of the cute blouses I found would not go with the skirts that I have. Oh well, I guess I keep wearing the same things every week, opps :). Mom, I am glad you were able to get the tickets and all. I'm sorry to hear that were still a bit pricy. It sounds like we will only be here for 7 days in Taiwan. If that is the case maybe we should cancel one of the cities or maybe not. It only takes about 5 hours to get from the bottom of the island to the top. Please let me know what you think so I can figure out what we will do each day. Maybe we could spend two days each in Taipei, Taichung, and Kaoshiung and maybe one day Tainan. Please let me know what you think and if the hotels that I provided with you helped. Let me know about the hotel situation when you can. We can also start from the bottom and work our way up, which would be easier. Once you arrived in Taibei, we would take a train to Kaoshiung and work our way up. I'm things went well with Jessica. How exciting to hear that she was able to receive her Masters' degree. I love you Madre and can't wait to see you in less than 3 months! John, we can start in Kaoshiung and work our way up to Taipei. We would do this to by taking a train. It does make more sense to do this, especially since we would be saving the best for last. I haven't found a great and cheap massage place, but I will keep my eyes open for one. I know you do love massages as well as my mom. Thanks for always taking care of the yard at the home and office. I do love hearing that you are still taking so good care of them. I would love to help you when I return home. It will be perfect timing since I can help you with the fall clean-up. I guess the almost 20-yr-old fence is finally come to an end. It sounds like a lot of work replacing it, but you are the perfect man to do it, thanks John. It's really good to hear that Jess was able to graduate with a Masters, how exciting and now Johnny is next. Take care John and I can't wait to see you soon. Thanks for all that you do for everyone (as well as my awesome mother). Cole, I'm glad to hear you're almost done with school and that you are lovin' swimming still; keep at it! It was neat to hear you talk about this new Dr. Rhea guy. You'll have to give me updates on how your new workouts go and if your swimming improves (which it will). This "Water Elephants" movie sounds interesting. You and the family will definitely have to spend some time watching some movies with me so I can get caught up with you all. I hope you have fun at the Fray concert. I promise to go to more to these when I return home so I can spend more time with you and the rest of the gang. Love you Colie and please keep up the good work. I hope to hear that you get your Patriarchal Blessing real soon; get preparing for it! I am so proud of you! Alex, I still cannot fathom that you own a boutique that is going so well. I have had such a hard time finding something for you since I keep thinking that you probably have this item in your awesome store. I'm glad to hear that it is doing so well. I will definitely be getting a lot of new clothes from it so I can look decent when I return home (hopefully you can give me a discount and you'll start saving the best stuff for me :). The new pics you sent look great and they will help me keep my fashion senses updated :). It was funny to hear about your biking story today to find a gift for Kylie and then you and Whit ending up buying new running clothes. However, please try and do it on a different day since it is very important that we keep the Sabbath Day holy. I would love to see your Graduation pic and invitation. Please send it soon and email your store's pics as well. I can't wait to see you too sis. I'm sorry that the tickets were a bit pricy, but I promise it will be worth it! I love you sis, keep up the great work! I am very proud of you! Paige, please forgive me for not emailing you last week after you sent me a great email. It was funny to hear that because you all are shopping fanatics, we showed up late to get your dress (which we went down to get :). Boy, does our family love shopping :). Your wedding date sounds awesome, what a perfect date. I am so excited that I can attend it, which means I need to do better on my diet and running in the morning. Right now I can run two miles in 16 minutes. But, I want to get it down to 14 minutes. I also need to do better at eating more veggies than fruits. However, I do love the tropical fruit here and mango season is just around the corner. Your Ipad sounds fun, even though I briefly know what they are. You all will have to catch me up on so many things :). I would also love to run a half marathon with you and maybe a full one, good luck! The radio add that you did for Alex sounds fun. You should send it to me if you can. In addition, I loved hearing about Bossy and Cartery and their completely different personalities. It's funny to hear that many think that you are like Bossy and Ash is like Cartery, hehe. Love Paige and can't wait to see you soon. Good luck on the house organization and the wedding! I can't wait to see it! Ash, I loved the pics that you sent. You all look the same and happy, which is great. I'm glad you all had fun at Debs for Mother's Day eating delectable food without me :). I'm glad to hear that Cartery and Bossy are doing so well and that Carter has loved first grade. It's weird to think that I could actually be teaching him. I love you Ash and I'm so glad to hear that you are doing so good and raising your precious boys so well. I am very proud of you and can't wait to see you soon! Whit, I hope the new release date helps so you can come and see me. You owe me big time since I had to talk to my mission president about this. However, I would just need a big hug from you and emails to make up for it. Love you and can't wait to see you soon! I love you all family and thank you for your lovely emails each week. Please continue to keep me updated. I always love hearing that you are all spending so much time together. Keep it up and I can't wait to see you all real soon! Love you Always,Sister Museus