Endure to the End Week.

This week was much like the week from eternity. It seemed to drag on and on and on. Probably much due to the fact that all of our previous investigators, so good just two weeks ago, have started not answering their phones. And standing us up at schedualed lesson times. Which puts us outside contacting all day. We contacted a ton this week, and were rejected a ton this week. New people were hard to come by. We tracted and talked to people on the street, in parks, in the metro station, on scooters and on our bikes. We took a member tracting with us on saturday and I felt bad for her because it was also solid rejection.

We labled last week endure to the end week.

Besides that our most golden investigator laid out a law of chastity problem for us this week. It will set her back by quite a bit and we a, wei fan, ctually aren't sure how to help her over come it. She has a lot of desire for baptism so we are hoping we can just build on that until we can overcome what holds her back. Her boyfriend.

We have another investigator, Lora, started a 180. She before has been really luke warm towards the gosple and meeting with us. She started looking into the church because she has a long time 'friend' from south africa that moved to taiwan and has been looking for a christian church that speaks english. He doesn't speak any chinese. Well we have some english wards here so she hooked him up and started taking lessons herself just to see what they would be teaching him, they are taking the lessons seperately. She hasn't kept any commitments before, and she is really shy and quiet and wont say much. Last time we met with her she looked like we were going to have to drop her. She said if she saw a change in her friend Frank she would continue learning. We met with her this time and her secret concern all came gushing out. She and Frank were fighting, because Frank hit her. Again. She has been struggling with an abusive relationship with him for 6 years. She said he doesn't hit her often, and usually not this hard, but it sounds like he is always very controling and very demanding and unappreciative. She loaned him a very large sum of money and this year he has started to pay her back little by little, but she said at this rate it will take him 5 years. She buys him everything, his clothes, his food, his toys, and he tells her that she doesn't have any friends but him and is basically a huge jerk to thank her.

She wants to get out of it I think, though she still cares a lot about him. But she is worried that if she stops talking to him he will not continue to pay her back. And besides that she really doesn't have any other friends or things to do. She was over at his house like every day. So we thrust her into the gosple. She came to church at our ward for the first time yesterday and I think she really liked it. She didn't really speak to anyone but she came and thats huge. After she came to a singles activity and again, she was to shy to go talk to anyone but she came. We have a lot set up with her this week and I am really praying that she can feel the power of this gosple take root in her life and see some changes.

Well thats about all that there is for this week so...I hope you are all doing splendid! I have a lot of letter writing to catch up on today, so write me more!

I love you all,

Sister Melissa Thiessen

Transfer 6

Transfer 6

So, before I get to the exciting point that I know you are all waiting for...move calls...let me recap a little of what happened this week!

Tuesday was at the temple, my favorite thing. We had an awesome day there doing tours and sharing the gospel right next to the house of the Lord. We even taught a tour in English, and Wu Jiemei, my native companion, did awesome. Her English is pretty good, but she is too shy to ever use it around anyone but me on occasion.

Wednesday we had an awesome district meeting with several object lessons and candy provided by the Zone Lords. They are an amusing couple. One of them is from Australia, there are quite a few of Australian's in the Taipei mission. Then I finally passed off phase 1! The mission provides a few study programs for the missionaries here, calling them Phases 1-3. Phase 1 is the lessons, useful lesson vocabulary, memorable phrases, and some grammar principles, and other things. To pass off phase 1 you must teach your district leader and zone leaders every lesson and have them test you on all the qualifications before you can move on to phase 2. I hate phase one, and it dragged me down for far too long. I'm excited to move on to some more freedom in my language study time. Phase 2 consists of a larger vocabulary not just limited to Gospel terms and useful sentence patterns on flash cards. Phase 3 is the character learning part.

Saturday was another baptism for the elders! It was another good one, and afterwards we had a ward family home evening where all of the missionaries, that being Sister Wu and I, and two elders (VanDrew and Woodruff) performed a wonderful song with our glorious musical talents. We were accompanied by our favorite two new members on ukuleles. It was actually pretty good actually. I think everyone was impressed.

Sunday we had church, and a surprise birthday for my companion. Her birthday is today, and since most missionaries (me excluded) only get one mission birthday we wanted it special. It was very hard to organize what with me being chained to her side all the time but we worked out a surprise. She thought we were headed to the church for a ward activity yesterday night, and she was all prepped to give her 'assigned' lesson. She spent an hour preparing in personal study haha. We got to the church and she wondered where everyone was, we opened the chapel door and almost died when everyone screamed "SHENGRI KUILE" or happy birthday. The curtains of the stage pulled back to dramatically reveal our dinner lovingly prepped by the same to new members (they really are our favorite) and we partied. Sister Wu was glowing. It was a good night.

Now, for the drum roll. Move calls were Friday night and we waited with anticipation, wondering who was going to leave. The calls came and the news was surprising. No one moved! Our entire district is still the very same. I have to say, this time around I am not too disappointed about this. Most of the time I get this antsy feeling around the end of the transfer and am ready for a change of scenery and faces. But I'm excited that Banqiao is my first place to linger more than one area, and I am excited to do so with Wu Jiemei. We get along in a most excellent way and she helps my Chinese so much. I will probably go senior next transfer so I need all the Chinese help I can get!

We should have some baptisms this next transfer so I am excited to start.

To everyone who so faithfully reads my emails, thank you all for your support. I really appreciate your prayers and your letters. I love you all!

Sister Melissa Thiessen

Little Miracles

This week crawled by in comparison to the per usual fast forward kind of feeling. We had a lot of finding time again, outside in the heat. That's ok though. We got some new investigators that just kind of fell into place. Little miracles.

Tuesday after District meeting we went on exchanges and this time Sister Peterson came here. She was my MTC companion so it was really cool that I got to be her companion for a day out in the field. Also it happened to be on our halfway point week which was pretty sweet. It was like a little progress report almost. A check up to see how far we've come and to motivate us to continue to press on. If anyone knows how much I've changed or how far I've come out here it is Sister Petersen. She has been right along with me since day one at the MTC an eternity ago. We were thinking about how fast it will go from here. 9 months seems like a long time. 36 weeks doesn't. 6 transfers. By my birthday I will only have a few weeks left, abut 1 or 2 transfers. By Christmas it will be in the 10s. June is almost half gone. On one hand I wish I could close my eyes and see the end. On the other I am afraid it will go too fast. I have so much that I want to see get accomplished before then. I wonder where the time will take me.

Wednesday after exchanging back we helped the a fore mentioned Huang Jiemei paint her house. It was blasted hot without an air conditioner (typical in a lot of Taiwanese homes) and only a couple of fans. The Elders in our area came with up to take advantage of the service opportunity. We painted for near three hours, four of us in a comparably small room, because we all had the old fashioned paint brushes, not the rollers. I don't know why or how people use those things, honestly, the rollers are 3 times as fast and 4 times as comfortable to use. Since I considerably take up the tall vote everywhere I go here I was assigned the ceiling since no one else can reach it. It felt like some kind of acrobatic game leaping from window sillto table to stool to couch back to get to the ceiling, constantly with my arm in the air and that dinky little paintbrush...it took me an entire 3 hours to paint the ceiling (most of the way I didn't finish the last 5 feet we were out of time) with that paint brush haha. Ridiculous.

Besides that, Friday is the fateful day of move calls. Maybe I'll stay this time. Its already pretty ridiculous how many times I've moved. But anything can happen at this point. I won't hold me breath either way. Everyone is thinking I will probably stay here in Banqiao another transfer at least with Sister Wu. Maybe my 7th I will go senior. That's pretty late actually but there are just no sisters coming on right now. I think we will only be getting three in the next two or three transfers. I won't complain about the lack of responsibility. I'm just fine with being xiao tongban a little while longer. I will enjoy it as a gift :p

Well that's pretty much it for this week. I love you all, jiayou and write your missionaries!
Sister Melissa Thiessen

Melissa at MTC

Blog Catch up!

15 May 2011
Week one in Banqiao, a week of self discovery.
My 1st week in my 5th area went over well. I am going to like it quite a bit I predict. But it was also a week of pretty intense introspection.

I realized this week that I have been really blessed so far with companions. They have all become my good friends (or even better friends in the case of Esther.) And all of them have been already fluent with the language, with the exception of sister Collyer and her Chinese was amazing anyway. It has sheltered me a lot I think. And I have been taking advantage of that fact maybe more than I should. I have been using it as a crutch more than I should.

This week I had a slump. love my new companion, Sister Wu is amazing. She is really non-intense and easy going. She loves people, she loves to laugh, and she is very outgoing with a Sunshine lit personality. But it outshines my own and I fade almost imperceptibly into the background. And I realize more and more how much that really bothers me. My entire life I've been shy, I don't like large crowds of people. All the energy confuses my everything and it gets overwhelming and I sort of press myself into a wall and disappear. And I hate it. People don't get to know who I am that way. I'm that tall girl that sometimes hangs out with so-in-so, or is the friend of so-in-so the the companion of sister so-in-so. I always sort of accepted shyness as a faucet of personality before, but I'm really starting to see it as a weakness. It hinders so much, and it bothers me it.

But on my mission, I seemed to have found something, at least in English I have taken a outgoing trait which was planted in college and started to grow a good seed. I found myself, and found that people can like me for my personality and for who I am. But I have to put myself out there for that to happen. And in a foreign language that is still neigh unreachable. I just don't have the words. They just aren't there yet. And it really gets me down.

Yesterday was one of those down days. We had some lessons with new investigators and by the end Sister Wu was good friends with them, where as they didn't even know who I was. I went home and prayed, hard. It was a little emotional. But by the end I was at peace. I believe that was the work of the Lord telling me to push harder, stop slacking, and it will come.
So the moral of the story is, don't be afraid to go outside of your bubble all you people! Go out and talk to someone! Go up and say hello, make a new friend this week. Because secretly everyone is wishing someone would, and everyone has the same fear that keeps them from doing it.
End! Love You All!
Sister Melissa Thiessen




24 May 2011
Well things are a lot the same this week in Banqiao. We had two baptisms in our ward on Saturday! The Elder's investigators. They were a set of happy guys. It was a great service and we missionaries delivered an astounding rendition of the "if you believe" song from the Prince of Egypt soundtrack.

We had exchanges on Monday (our P-day was pushed back, but more on that in a moment) and I went to a neighboring area, Xinzhuang, for the day. I was with an older missionary Sister Steinquist. She is pretty cool. She is much like I am in introversion however so it was interesting. I really enjoyed the experience and I learned a lot about myself and my abilities. It is a little harder for her to be outgoing for investigators too, so I really found out how much my Chinese is actually getting better. All of my companions before me have been fluent so I never really had to put in too much if they didn't stop speaking and give me space. Sister Steinquist had a lot of silent moments and I felt like for the first time in a long time that I was an important part in the lessons that we taught. It was good.

I also realized how much I have learned from the outgoing sunshine personality of my current lovely companion Sister Wu. I have gleaned from her a budding ability to be very friendly and outgoing with people. I was joking and laughing with the investigator and members we visited. My language is still really sub par, but I am so grateful for how far it has come.

I also had an experience while contacting. We did a lot of single contacting (contacting by yourself outside of a companionship) which is a very common thing but which I have previously not done much of. Which has been perfectly fine with me to be honest because I have an active disliking for it. But I learned that I can do it, and I can talk to people and they for the most part reject me but I do it pretty well. I contacted a father that night, it was raining and damp and very unpleasant. We had 15 minutes and the street we were on was almost completely empty. He was at his little fry cart absolutely void of costumers. We were walking by him for the second time so I stopped to talk to him, which was unusual because usually we don't bother the vendors, they don't appreciate it. We held a pretty good little conversation he and I. He had a family with two little girls. And as I was talking to him for one of the first times I really really had a desire to make him see the importance of the gospel. He was a sweet guy, I'm sure his family is great. I wanted to take him by the shoulders and shake him, "do you know that you could have the priesthood!? the power of God to lead and direct your family? The power to be sealed forever in Gods house? The power to bless your children?!" But I didn't. He turned down our offer to share the gospel twice, but I left with a good feeling in my heart. He will remember the missionaries.

Also, He said that he was surprised that at my Chinese. He said something like "Most foreigners come to study the language but I can't understand a word they say, and you are talking to me now and I understand everything!" Haha. That gave me a happiness. Most people give me this look when I talk to them that says 'you poor tall blond lost American, what are you doing in Taiwan?' hah.

Well today we are going to the temple! Which is always a good thing. Temple weeks our P-days get moved to Wednesday. So sorry for the late email. That's about it! I love you all! Send me letters :p

PS, I want to send a thanks to the Byers for writing me :D

Sister Thiessen



30 May 2011
Mid Mission Moment

This Wednesday officially marks the mid point of my mission. The nine months had passed away and I'm staring down the last half. Quite appropriately I think I've grown a lot this transfer already. So to commemorate this moment I am going to write this entry a little differently.

I'm beginning to realize just why a mission is such a great thing. Granted some of this is because of the hardships, and the pressure cooker struggle of being thrust into a foreign and mostly awkward world (honestly, talking to people you don't really know all day about Jesus in a foreign language has gotta be up there on awkward job descriptions) but I am beginning to grasp at much more than that. Really it prepares us for so much more.

I am beginning to see how much this has really affected my testimony. Going into this endeavor I had a belief, I knew God existed and that his Plan of Salvation was important. I knew that it blessed our lives and it was good for the human character, but I was never really sure about the how, the details of the why and the finer points of the plan there. But I am beginning to see them, and they are beautiful.

When we really understand these things, our relationship with our Heavenly Father and with each other, and our own worth and importance in the grander scheme of things everything takes on a different light and our priorities find their correct values. Some things that were highly important before we find out are actually on the second step, not the first. When we really search to know we will find, because we have the most powerful being in the universe rooting for us, and He has given us everything we will need to find our way back by giving us the sacrificial example of our older brother. It really all comes down to one simple thing. Love. It was all done out of love.

The things we learn here are important, and so are the experiences we have and the choices we make. They are crucial. And they are the only things that we will take with us. We are built up line upon line and precept upon precept but we have to seek first in order to find. And what if we don't seek? It wont be given. Don't be content with waiting to be taught, seek for the knowledge and be an active participant in revelation because every man and woman, son and daughter of God is entitled. Don't live below your privileges. God is power, power is knowledge, knowledge is light and glory. And if we don't seek for it and earn it here I'm not sure that it will just be handed to us in the hereafter.

I have begun to see the things that we study here change people. Change myself. It starts with a desire. I don't care who you are, prophet of God or the slum's heroin dealer, inside the human soul is the basal desire to be better. I honestly believe that. This Gospel gives you the way, and studying and applying the things within it affect that desire and it flames and becomes a change. We build attributes and responsibility when we read the scriptures, earnestly pray and go to church, then seek to apply and accept callings and do our utmost to fulfill them.

We learn how to work in our marriage, achieve the greatest happiness that the eternities can offer, coming from our family unit, and how to improve there in. We learn how to raise and treat our children and their study of this Gospel leads them from early on down the path that is lit with a light that the world cant see. That light is our Father in Heaven's way back to him. And it is the only way for true happiness. The only way under heaven whereby a man or woman can be saved.

Ok. Now I'll hop off my soap box. But wasn't it wonderful? See, I've learned so much :D ha. I hope y'all are doing well and having fun out there. I love you all. Write me yes?

Melissa Thiessen





05 June
Its getting HOT! Its really not a pleasant kind of feeling to be knocking doors in the dead of noon with blistering heat and sweat pouring down your every inch. Everything sticks to you. Your shirt, your skirt, the pamphlets that you are handing out, and when they don't stick to you they slip out of your hand. But nothing beats out a mountain of shaved ice piled high with fresh mango, just to let you all know.

We did a lot of finding this week, and it is not my favorite activity still when done for hours on end but that's ok. Its what I signed up for. We didn't really have much success however, we had a couple of new people set up every day that "fonged women de geze" or in other words, stood us up. That was disappointing. But we are really pushing for a raise in numbers this week.

We have been helping a new member here prep her house to paint this last week, and we will get to help her paint it this week. It was kind of a spontaneous thing. We were in a lesson with her and somehow the topic got digressed to her home and we mentioned that both sister Wu and I had some experience with painting houses and suggested that we could help her. She lit up like a newly strung Christmas tree. In Taiwan the walls get really dingy because of the humidity, the paint starts to peel and it turns a kind of gross grayish color. And she has a 10 year old that in previous years drew pretty scribbles all up and down most of the walls. She has only been baptized 1 month and she is so active, its great. She wants to reconfigure her whole home and make it a place the spirit will readily dwell. She wants to make it a place her family will love to spend time in together. She is a testimony to the changing power of the gospel this woman. Before her baptism and getting to know the church she had a really iffy relationship with both her husband and son. The family dynamic wasn't as good. She didn't really value being a mother and a wife. Now she says her husband enjoys spending time with her, he comes home to a clean house and a loving wife and wonders what in the world happened. That's a good thing for him to notice because he opposed to her accepting the church, now he is beginning to support her.

Anyway, today we will be going to watch the dragon boat festival. I'm not really sure on the history or the why yet, but they race dragon shaped boats down a river and its really cool. I'm pretty excited. But its going to be hot! We'll see if I melt or not.

Well that is it for today, sorry its a short one but I have a time issue. I love you all! Jia You and remember to write your dear missionaries!

Sister Thiessen