Mysteries

Hi Everyone!

So about two weeks ago, President Card texted into our mission Line chat saying he had two important announcements to give when we met for Zone Conference in a week or so. He also told us all to 'save the date' for our p-day today, and he'd tell us what was happening at Zone conference. Of course, rumors started erupting, speculating temple trips, a surprise visit from the prophet, or even a mission-wide vacation to Japan. To allow you to experience some of the suspense that we did, I will leave off saying what our mystery p-day activity is until the end of the email. But, as a result this activity, I will be cutting my email pretty short today.

First off, miracles are real, and we found real, live Kraft Mac and Cheese at Taiwan's equivalent of Walmart this week! The package of five boxes cost NT275, so we've been rationing, hoping to spread the cheesy goodness out over the course of a few weeks.

The highlight of the week was zone conference! We were combined with Tainan zone, so I got to see all my friends from last transfer, plus all my friends in my current zone in Jiayi! In total, counting Sister Bast, my current companion, four of my companions were at the conference. I felt surrounded by all my favorite people, and it was amazing!

At the conference, we talked a lot about how to flood the earth with the gospel through technology. We really have the capacity now to reach more people than ever before through our smartphones. We talked a lot about new ways to touch even more people's lives and help them receive the truth of the gospel. The STLs also gave a super great training about how we need to be teaching the gospel at every opportunity. They compared the gospel to chocolate cake. If we were trying to get people to eat chocolate cake, we wouldn't just tell them it was good, we'd give them a bite right there! Then we don't have to tell them anything because they can taste it themselves. The gospel can speak for itself, we just have to give people a chance to experience it.

Other quick highlights:

We met a Philippina woman whose employer is also Christian. She told us that the other day her employer wasn't really feeling like going to church. She told our friend that she was feeling a little lazy, and would maybe just stay in bed. Our friend told her boss, 'If you're gonna get lazy about going to church, God's gonna get lazy about giving you blessings!' Her boss went to church.

We met two adorable Corgis and a super fluffy white dog named Mr. Bean

Our ward is absolutely amazing and has helped us out so much this week. We have a lot of investigators with some complex challenges, but we keep having members who know exactly how to help them and encourage them to keep pushing forward. Members are the best!

Ok, I'm out of time, but I know you're all dying to know what our big p-day surprise is. It is... Mission Wide Fall Cleaning!!! Yup, we're all spending all day cleaning out our apartments. The zone that gets the most done gets a free lunch in a week or two. We sprayed for cockroaches this morning, and in about 8 minutes we're headed back to sweep up their carcasses and get to work. Wish us luck!

The other announcement was more exciting. Starting next transfer, President invited the mission to read the entire Book of Mormon before the end of the year. I'm really looking forward to spend the last two transfers of my mission going through the Book of Mormon one more time. Any study ideas?

Ok, now I'm really out of time. I love you all! Have a great week!

lots of love,

Sofi