4/20/14 Easter Is Not Really Observed In Taiwan!

1). What is Easter like in Taiwan?  Does it involve chocolates?
Easter? It was Easter? Whoa! Haha! No... Easter.... wasn't really celebrated.  It was weird.  There was like NO mention of it at church... except by me, since I had to do my introduction testimony.... It was kind of sad....

2). What can I do to make up missing you something for Easter?
It's fine, Easter isn't about gifts from the bunny. It's about celebrating the life of Christ, because: HE LIVES!

3). So, how do you like Zhonghua?  How is this mission area different from your previous ones?
IT's huge! And.... we have NO investigators and almost NO ONE is willing to meet with us... so.... But the ward is great!

4). Tell me a bit about your companion.  Are you guys getting along?  Do you weak English or Chinese together?  How is her Chinese?  Do you guys have similar interests?  Did she initially think that you were a native?  
Sister Fuller is AMAZING! I love her!  She is so diligent, spiritual, beautiful and fun!  We use English together.  Her Chinese is good.  Haven't really found any similar interests except Chocolate and Music.  IDK on the last question.

5). What is your companion's best attribute? 
Her faith!

6). Do you think that you will get to do some sightseeing on P-days with your current companion?  I appears that y have done considerably less than other people I know in Taiwan.  Danny seem to go to a lot of places.  His parents went on vacation there recently.  Didn't know if he met with them but they did meet with the Blickenstaff's.  Whitney has been able to meet with some of her relatives it appears.
We are going to Lu Gang today.  And another day we are going to see the huge Buddha (which I can actually see from the apartment!)

7). What do you miss the most about Tainan?
The food... Haha! I miss a lot of people.... That was the hardest thing.  I didn't really have a chance to say good bye....

8). What are your plans for the day?
Going to Lu Gang.  Shopping.

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Happy Easter! I hope you all had an Easter full of happiness and joy!  The Lord Christ Lives! And because He lives, we too will live a life full of eternal joy with our Father in Heaven!  I'm sure all of you are also had fun with the annual Easter Egg hunts and Easter Bunny Baskets.  But, it was actually a bit refreshing to celebrate the holiday without the worldly distractions.  However, it was also a bit saddening, since Easter wasn't really mentioned at all, and it passed as quietly as the other days of the week for the Taiwanese people.  We had the chance and the blessing to go and proclaim that the Lord lives on Sunday and to go to church and celebrate Him by partaking of the sacrament and keeping him in our thoughts.  But Easter isn't the only day that we can celebrate and show our love and gratitude for the Lord. We can and we should do that every day!  He loves us! He died for us! And He lived for us!

So, I start off this move call with hopes for finding miracles.  Also, me and my companion are hoping and praying for the "resurrection" of our area.  It is DEAD.  Like.... We don't have any investigators, and barely any LA's and RC's are willing to meet with us....  We had one investigator (Luo JM) who we just baptized on Saturday... so now we have NO ONE!  I've never faced such a hard predicament as of yet on my mission.  We were always meeting with someone... but here....

We have our work set out for us.  We've been working on being more bold and using more testimony when contacting people.  But as of yet, it feels like we are talking to closed ears.  Yesterday, the majority of the people wouldn't even let us talk.  They just kept saying: "We don't need your church.  We don't want to listen.  We are Buddhist/Daoist.  We have our gods.  We are busy.  To change would be impossible.  Go try the neighbors."  Even if they let us talk, they were fixed on having their hearts closed.  Sometimes it's so frustrating! No, it's ALWAYS frustrating!  We are sharing something that could potentially change their lives! But they aren't even willing to give us the time of day.  I know they have their agency, but it's just frustrating as a missionary to face so much rejection.

Anyways, aside from all of that.  This weekend, despite the fact that most of us missionaries in Zhang Hua lack investigators.  We had three baptisms in our Zone! Which was super cool!  One of them was ours, a Luo JM.  She is super rock solid in the Gospel! And she is only 16!  She is already saving her money for a mission!  Her faith is so great! She was willing to get baptized, even though Satan was mean and made her sick.  She was like: "I know Satan will try to stop me.  But I know that the Gospel is true.  So I'm still getting baptized tonight."  Another person who was baptized was in our ward as well.  The elders were working with a 67 year old man, who said he wanted to become a disciple of Christ, even though he's been Daoist for his whole life!  How crazy is that?!?!  See!!! People can change!! And he's pretty awesome!  It was cool too see this big burly old man start to tear up. :D

The ward here has a good feeling.  I mean, it was really fun watching all the kids running around, with loving moms trying to give talks in Sacrament meeting about how to raise your children with humility.  In Relief Society, they had a few minutes of "Hug your neighbor time" in which everyone got up and started hugging everyone.  Also in Relief Society I watched as an AWESOME mother quieted and calmed her baby by showing him pictures from the Gospel Art book and whispering teachings of Jesus to him.  It was sooo cute! And the baby kept staring intently at the pictures!  Babies can learn the Gospel too!

Oh, also, I learned something really cool from the Zhang Family.  It's a family of five, with one daughter and two sons who are all pretty young.  We played the Sacrifice Game with them, in which we showed them three choices of things such as Food, TV, and Church etc.  And asked them to choose one, and when they did, we would give them two other choices so they could decide what was most important to them.  It's funny, every time we play this game with adults, it takes them forever to decide between things like work, family and cars.  But with the kids, the choices were quick and full of faith.  They were holding a picture of family when we put down the picture of church.  Immediately they switched their choice to church, and after that they made the quick snatch to grab the picture of Jesus, when we put it as the last choice.  They knew that by choosing Christ they would be blessed in all other assets of life.  They loved the gospel! They were only kids! You could tell their parents really loved them and had taught the gospel!

So, as to the rest of this week... it was a lot of tracting and contacting.  But, the work still goes on!  We are praying to find those who are willing to receive us.  We are striving to do His Will.  We love the Gospel.  We live the Gospel.  We share the Gospel!  I love you all so much! Thank you for your support and your love!  Until next time!

Can anyone explain the meaning of this shirt?

Love, Sister Nicholle Peng