We had the craziest Sunday yesterday; 14 people (and counting) in our ward have the chicken pox. Which meant that there was hardly anyone in church on Sunday (like, less than 50 people. The chapel was pretty sparsely filled.) and the people who were there had to wear face masks.s Which meant, of course, that they needed substitutes to play the piano. So I ended up playing the piano during all three hours of church, including Primary. It was actually really fun! I'm grateful I have the opportunity to serve in this way for the people of Taiwan. It's pretty convenient. Oh! And one of the elder's investigators got baptized on Saturday! So I played the piano for that too. It was a good weekend.
AWESOME miracle last night at 8:30pm when we decided to contact a few more people. We followed this lady with a dog until she stopped to talk to us and in the course of the conversation she told us that she had given up on God. I told her that God loves her and she said, "I believe he loves everyone else. But I'm the exception." Heartbreaking! I told her with all the fervor that I could that God definitely loves her, and even though she has given up on Him He will never give up on her. She has had a hard life including 13 miscarriages and even though she grew up in a Baptist church she doesn't believe church or God or anything can help her. Well, sister. Let me tell you. We tried so so hard to set up to meet with her again but she wasn't having any of it. "I know what you people are doing. You want to come over and make me believe what you believe." Me: "We want to come over and mop your floor. Is that okay? We can help you cook. We can draw you a picture. We can read with you. Will you give us your phone number? What's your phone number? Can we meet on Wednesday? Do you have time on Saturday? Will you take this Book of Mormon? You can take the Book of Mormon or tell us what time to come over. Two choices." Haha I was probably being kind of annoying. But she was laughing most of the time and said I was really smart. Also, I figure, I could not invite and she wouldn't come, or I could invite her a whole bunch of times and maybe finally she would say yes. We are going to try to find her walking her dog in a couple of weeks. It is going to happen.
Every week we teach English class and split up so that each companionship of missionaries teaches a different class. We have the kids class, beginner, intermediate, and advanced. We teach the beginner class here and we decided to do something different for our spiritual share last week (at the end of every class we share something about the gospel.) We had the elders come in with the kids class and everybody sit in a circle. I cut up some paper stars (because we forgot the candy) and asked everyone, "Do you want this?" if they said yes, Elder Osborne had to do 5 push ups in the middle of the room. At first I was just asking kids so they all said yes because they thought it was funny for him to have to do all these push ups. But then we got to an adult who took pity and said no--but Elder Osborne still had to do 5 push ups. "But he said no," someone protested. This is an example of Christ's Atonement. He already paid for all of our sins, weaknesses, infirmities, everything. If we don't accept the gospel or Him as our Savior, He still paid the price and suffered for us, but it was a waste because we didn't get the gift that we could have received.. But if we do accept and value the gift that He has already given us, then His sacrifice means a lot more. Eventually Elder Osborne was too tired to go on; his arms were trembling, he couldn't even get back up after the last few push ups and we just decided to stop there even though there were still more people in the room. It made the Atonement have so much more meaning for me, to imagine that Christ suffered even more than that, and He kept going even though He was tired and didn't want to go on. As missionaries we are just the people standing there and offering, "Do you want this?" Do you want to accept Christ? Do you want the eternal blessings that His sacrifice has brought to you? I personally am going to strive to appreciate the gifts that I have been given so much more now.
So that's been about what my week has been! Contacting lots of people and inviting them to come unto Christ. Striving to accomplish our goals. Figuring out how to teach better. Trying to get to things on time. It's great! I love Taiwan. I love missionary work. Life is good.
Love you all!
Sister Cardon
Picture: I feel as if this is the most Asian I have ever been in my life. Face masks are not comfortable with glasses because they steam up all the time. Also, I bought a new dress on P-day.
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