The Number 20 is Awesome!!!

This was how I spent my very last day as a teenager. Splashing through the puddles of Taiwan and contacting people who didn't want to talk to us. :) It was really just... glorious. And I mean that. I just... I was so happy to be a missionary. haha This picture was taken by a woman who tried to slam her door on us. But she was willing to take this picture for us :) haha 

So we were asked to sing together as a choir at a public event this week! It was pretty cool. We sang the EFY medley and it was beautiful :) I was blessed to have the opportunity to introduce our group with Elder Tang. It was a big testimony to me of how far I've come on this mission. If you had told me during my first transfer that I would be asked to introduce us missionaries at a public event... I definitely wouldn't have believed you :) haha. 

 A beautiful bike trail in Taidong!!!

Dear Family and friends,

I've had a lot of reasons to celebrate the number 20 on my mission. August 20 is the day I reported to the MTC. During my first transfer, Sister Burckle and I hit our standard of excellence for 20 member presents. Then this week I had even more reasons to celebrate... I turned 20 years old....

AND WE PLACED 20 COPIES OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

This is by far my loftiest goal for copies of the Book of Mormon placed. We decided we would just give it a shot. We had nothing to lose and we were pretty excited. But then this week... didn't go very smoothly and so we didn't have as much of an opportunity to place copies of the Book of mormon. So by Sunday we had placed 12. Which is  AWESOME! But that meant that we had to place 8 copies of the Book of Mormon in 1 day. Which was going to be very hard considering that we only had 3 more copies to give. PRAYER MY FRIENDS! PRAYER!

Sister Walker and I were able to get 4 copies of the Book of Mormon from our Zone Leaders and so we were at 6. Then we decided we would just bring our copies in other languages and see how things went. We had an English copy and a Vietnamese copy. 

So then last night at the concert, with all of our copies of the Book of Mormon in hand, we went searching. We talked to everyone we could and we miraculously were able to place 6! I was ecstatic! that meant for the week we had placed 18 copies of the Book of Mormon! But Sister Walker was disappointed. I was already very happy, but I wanted to help my companion.

We had to leave right away and as we were riding home, I said a prayer in my heart that we would somehow be able to place our last 2 copies of the Book of Mormon so that we could acheive our goal of 20. We had 1 Vietnamese copy and 1 Chinese copy left. We knew there was a Vietnamese restaurant on our way home and so we stopped by right as a woman was running out. She said she was very busy and didn't have time. She tried to run us over with her scooter! But we held up the Vietnamese Book of Mormon and once she saw that it was in her native language, she stopped... grabbed it... and then rode off into the dark. We had 1 more left!!

So then we rode right accross the street to one of those fried food stands and there was a very irritated woman standing there. I wasn't sure if we would be able to get our last one placed... but then the young woman working behind the counter came around and started talking with us. She was adorable! AND SHE TOOK A BOOK OF MORMON. 

So we were at 20.

20. WE were so excited and we rode home in pure jubilation. I know that God hears us. He knows we're weak. He knows our lives. He knows our every thought and feeling. I'm so thankful that he hears us. He knows our goals and dreams and ambitions. Where would we be without a loving Heavenly Father? I know He cares about us.

THE CHURCH IS TRUE! THank you for all the birthday wishes and support and just everything! I think you're all amazing :) 

Gu Jiemei

PS. My birthday was awesome. You'll never guess what I did to celebrate? Ate cake and watched the members play charades in Chinese. It was my favorite thing ever. haha So the night before my birthday Hou HZ's wife invited us over to do FHE with them and Liang (Hunter) family. I didn't really know what was going on but after our spiritual share everyone disappeared.... then I heard the singing. They sang and gave me cake and presents and cards and it was just... I felt so loved :) It was so fun. Then on the day of my actual birthday we were invited over to the bishop's house. They also gave me cake and presents :) The gave me a little bird that sings to you when you talk to it (mechanical) and they said "it's because you love to talk so much!" haha. Once again,  a sign of how far I've come on my mission. Also, There's a little dian on the corner of our street where we always talk to the workers and somehow one of the women knew it was my birthday! So she told me happy birthday! haha It caught me so off guard but it was awesome! 

Sometimes you just have to jump for joy!!! Especially on your birthday when you are in Taiwan:)

Opening the birthday package! 

Best part of all, cards and letters from family and friends!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

Birthday party at the Bishop's house including charades and b-day cake!!

More birthday cake:) 

After the party at the bishop's house they got me good with water balloons:) haha. (A chinese tradition on birthdays and holidays)

Sam's Burger with our zone!!! 

Sister Walker and I!  We love Sams Burger:)