More pics! We love pics!

me and Sister Teh (picture to give to members to thank them)

English class with Yan Jie Mei and her son Matt, and their friends

Sister Teh and I resting with our Santa hats after English class

me and sister Teh in front of Xizhi chapel taking a jumping shot (yep, thats the church... neon signs)

Transfers (and a cute haircut!)

Okay, well, we got move calls and I'm in a place called ShuangHe right now. Its really two areas- Yonghe and Zhonghe, and in the church they call it Shuanghe. I'm really sad about leaving Xizhi, I really loved it over there and I'm going to miss it a lot. Ding Jie Mei passed her baptismal interview! She is getting baptized on Saturday, and I don't know if I'll be able to go :( But this week has been really good. We have been meeting with Yan Jiemei and her son, Lin yi pin, and they have grown so much since they have started meeting with us and coming to church. They have started to recognize the blessings of the gospel and their testimonies are growing stronger and stronger. They will definitely be baptized this next transfer... but I won't be there :(
But its okay! I'm here in my second area, with Sister Pitts, from Nevada, who has almost been on the island for a year now. She is very different from me, tall, blonde, and very quiet... but it will be a good experience to learn from her and work with her. This area is nothing like Xizhi... they tell me its the most densely populated part of the world, apart from a place in India. There are huge buildings everywhere and just tons and tons of people. Ahh! It will take some getting used to. I loved Xizhi and its beautiful scenery and quiet atmosphere. Anyways, I'm looking forward to working hard and starting fresh.

Cool story: Sister Teh and I were riding our bikes yesterday and we were stopped at a stop light when the couple Sister Teh was talking to agreed to stop so they could get a pamphlet. Well she asked them when they had time to meet, and then they said, "Well, now would be good." So we rode over to the chapel and had a lesson about prayer and about how we can directly talk with God. It was a really cool experience and it was awesome to share with them that they could have their frustrations and pains taken away when they prayed.

The work in Xizhi

Things are going good! I am still with my companion Sister Teh here in Xizhi and we are excited for Yan Jiemei and her son Lin yi pin. Their testimonies are growing and they are slowly recognizing the changes that come from this gospel. Yi pin loves learning and he is a really smart boy, and we like him a lot. We just need to help him make some friends at church so he won't be so bored.
In this area, I never realized how lucky we are. The Xizhi ward loves sister missionaries and they are all awesome! We get a lot of support from the ward and its faithful members. Our chapel is a little sad, though. Church is held in a building that looks a little run down... there is no carpet, and there a neon sign that says, "YesuJidu houqishengtu jiaohui" and we use ping pong table halves as classroom tables... its great. But the ward is wonderful and I love it.

Some recents pics from the mission

Sorry it's been a while since the last post but Sister Chang is doing well in Taipei. Here's a little excerpt from her.

We also had an amazing lesson with Ding jiemei on Friday. The spirit was so strong. She has had interest with Buddhism and wanted to see what made our church different. We really focused on the Restoration and she said she knows this church is true. Woohoo! The Spirit was really testifying to her. She said, well, I should join this church, because this is where I can find truth. We were excited. The Lord does work in his own way. On the way to that appointment, it was raining SUPER hard,and the wind was pretty strong... and well, even though we were wearing ponchos, we got drenched. We had to wring out our skirts and socks, it was pretty funny. But after the trial, comes the blessings. I have a testimony of that. We just have to pull through and endure, and then there's something good waiting on the other end.

Sister Teh and me jumping in the rain on the roof of the apartment building in Ba de, her last area, and where I was for a few days. Yep, those are our rain coats that we wear riding our bikes. Stylish, huh?

Our English class had a Halloween party, I'm the one with the blue mask on. It was a fun night.

This is of the district with a couple Xu daughters, Elvita and Andrea, who are super cute. There is one native Taiwan Elder in the district, from Taichung, and all the rest are from USA. Elder Bastian (in the middle) is leaving today back to the US, so we took this picture.

Great people in Taiwan

We are working with some really cool people and we are excited.
Yan Hai Lan and her son Matt are progressing nicely. They came to church yesterday and I think it went really well. The mom has a really great desire to learn and her son is getting more and more interested. We had dinner at their house with a member dad (who is a midget, and his wife is a midget- remind me of Sal, piano teacher) and his son (15, and not a midget) and it was great! We had a lot of fun, and they were great encouragement.

I'm excited for this next transfer. I'm not a trainee anymore, and I feel like we can really make a difference here in Xizhi.

This church is true! Missionary work is tough, but its worth it. I'm so grateful to be a servant of the Lord, what a great calling!

Love, Zhang Jie Mei

Why was it so hard for me to decide in the first place?

Things are going great in Xizhi. My first transfer only has 1 week left, ahhh, crazy! But I love it here and we are building some good relationships with our investigators.

We set a baptismal date for Yan mama (whose in her 30's, but we call her mama) and her 10 yr old son, Matt for Nov 11. They are awesome! Although the don't have much background in Christianity, they are so willing and just so... good! She talked about how hard the Book of Mormon was to understand, and we thought she wasn't really reading. But, we got with her last night and she has been reading for almost 30min everynight and is done with 1Nephi. WOW, blew our minds.
We are also working with Chen Shu Hui, and we are trying to get her to realize that there are a lot of different religions out there, but there is one truth. Sure is searching for satisfaction and reads tons of books. We had an awesome lesson the other day and testified and promised that if she read everyday and prayed, that she would receive a witness... we are praying for her!

Tonight is our Evaluation night for our english class, which means: big Halloween Party! It should be fun. Every 6th week we do a fun activity for Evaluation night.

We went on exchanges yesterday... my companion Sister Teh went to Sanchong and I stayed in Xizhi. So, me, the trainee, was senior companion for 24 hrs and it was interesting! I was nervous to lead in the city because I'm not too good with my sense of direction (we all know) and to decide where we were going to go... but it worked out! I think it built my confidence a lot. And I found out that contacting with a white skinned American is a lot different... people actually want to talk to us! Haha, when Sister Teh and I contact, they see us two ABC's that look like we are from Taiwan, but sound like we... have guai guai de kouyin's (strange accents). But it is fun to ask someone, "how are you?" and they get very taken aback that I speak English so.. naturally.

I know this church is true and I am so glad that I made the decision to come out on a mission. Why was it so hard for me to decide in the first place?? I have learned so much, and it makes me so happy to help the Lord in this work.

Teaching the Gospel

Things in Xizhi are going well, I think typhoon season has passed, but this area is known for its incessant rain. So we wear ponchos and my companion has these rain booties (remind me of space boots) to keep dry. Yep, it rains almost everyday, and they say it rains more in the winter... haha. But its fun, its as close as I will be to swimming in a pool, so I enjoy it :)

We are doing a lot of teaching here and helping our investigators to progress. We are teaching a Yan Mama and her son, and I think their family situation isn't too great, so they are willing to hear the gospel. But they are full of faith and they are so sweet.

Its kind of sad the types of people I run into here. A big majority of people here have depression and aren't the happiest of people. Right now, we are teaching quite a few sisters that have depression, and we know that with this gospel they can find hope. We are teaching a sister named Angel-Linda, she added the Angel later because she wanted everyone to know that she always has angels with her. She is from Burma but has lived in Taiwan for 30 years, and we know she needs the gospel. We are also working with Cherry, who is awesome! She is keeping the word of wisdom and stopped drinking tea and she said if God wants her to do it, then she'll do it.. woohoo!

We are doing our best and Heavenly Father is helping us along the way. Oh, did I mention the Liang Jiating? Mom and dad and 3 kids. We are starting to work with them. Pretty much they are a Mormon family without the gospel. We don't want to push them, but are building a relationship with the kids. And well, the kids really like us now, so we think thats a good start :)

Just wanted to share some thoughts from Conference-
"Put your trust in the Lord, do your best, and the Lord will do the rest."-Elder Wirthlin's talk
"The will means nothing without the will to prepare." Sis Elaine Dalton's talk
"There is no pain that the Savior's love cannot heal." Elder Quentin Cook

Ni Hao

All is well here in Xizhi. We are still trying to get our bearings, but we are continuing in faith, teaching, and building relationships with those we teach.

So guess what? There was another typhoon, they called it a super typhoon this past weekend. So we didn't get to go to church... again. It was pretty scary outside and I'm glad we weren't in that storm riding our bikes. We stayed inside and did a lot of studying and writing notes and such.

We are working with a few sisters. Chen Shu Hui, or Sophy who has a lot of thought questions and is searching for that "satisfaction." We are trying to build her testimony to know that these things are true and that she can stop her search. She is a 40yr old, not married, and she says she has a lot of time to... think about life. She came to a baptism with us and she said she felt really happy and good, and we got to talk about her overcoming some of her doubts, so we are on the right path!
We are also working with an inactive Ai Jiemei and her daughter Lily, who is 11. They are awesome and they have testimonies. But, they both think church is boring and can't stand it for 3 hours.

Everything is going well. Funny story.. just biking to this email place, a taxi driver ran into me. Well, I was stopped at a light, and he came up behind me, and kept driving slowly... and kept going. It was really the oddest thing. He then proceeded to ask us if we knew a member of the church in Neihu, a neighboring city, without even apologizing... a bit strange.


The language is coming. I'm getting a bit better at chatting at Chinese and understanding what people say. I just have to get past that initial..."Where are you from?" which means "Why do you have such a funny accent?"

Work in Xizhi

It has been good here. We have been visiting a lot of inactive members and getting to know the church leaders here. We have a few new investigators that we are teaching. Most of the time I can understand what people are saying, but sometimes we run into someone where I cannot understand their speaking at all. For example, we visited an inactive sister (about 50 yrs old) and her vocabulary was very complicated and it was hard to understand her. But I am learning slowly and the Chinese is coming :)

Everything is great here in Xizhi, just need to establish a foundation and we are going to be changing lives! Love you all!

Love, Zhang Jie Mei

1 Ne 22:25-26
Good scrip

Quite the unusual start

I must say that I have quite the unusual start to missionary work. Where do I begin. After the flight (to LA and then Osaka and then Taipei) we were met by Pres. Nielson, his wife, the assistants and the bendiren missionaries from other parts of Taiwan. I was the only sister from Provo MTC, but there were 4 Taiwanese sisters that I roomed with and spent the next couple of days with. We trained at the mission home and spent some time with the pres. and his wife.

One of the mornings we went to the Grand Hotel in Taipei to a place where Elder Mark E. Peterson dedicated the church in 1959. It was in a more secluded place with lots of trees... and well, we all know the mosquitoes feichang ai wode xie... and because they love my blood so much they bit through my nylons. Lets say that while we were supposed to be saying our own "dedicatory prayer" that the only thing I could prayer for was for the mosquitoes to stop biting me. I took some fun pictures of my bites :)

Well, we met our trainers and my trainer is a fellow ABC from Georgia, CA who also went to BYU. Sister Teh has been here for over a year and she is great! Its going to be fun working with her. And her most recent companion was Sister Lai, and the 3 of us have been living together for the past few days in an area called Bade. Tim, Sis Lai worked at Teriyaki Stix at BYU, so she knows us from my freshman year, haha.

Sister Teh and I

So the reason why I say that my first few days have been unusual is because there was a typhoon that came through that wrought all havoc. We couldn't leave the apartment and we were stranded inside and I thought we were going to go crazy. We couldn't even go to church and 2 Elders had to help us with the sacrament on our ironing board. But, I guess it was HEavenly Father's way of telling me that I need to be more excited and have more desire to get out and get tired. And well, I am excited to be able to walk around!

The first night out, before the typhoon however we bought a bike for me and rode to an appointment at the chapel, which was about a 20 min ride. Wow, I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life. It was pouring rain, and it was night time, and tons of cars and scooters all around us... But I toughened up and made it, soaking wet, to the appointment.

So this morning we banjia-ed and moved from Bade to Xizhi and we are in the process of moving into our new apartment, which is very nice :). I've had my first taste of real Taiwanese food and I know I am going to enjoy it very much.
So even though I've been eaten by mosquitoes and have been forced to stay inside for days (only to eat ramen noodles and toast... gross) I know that this is what I need to be doing right now and that this area, Xizhi- (did I mention that we are whitewashing the area? 2 missionaries that both don't know the area and don't know the members, lucky us) has elect people and that we need to find them! I know this gospel is true and that it truly can bring happiness into our lives.

Heading for Taiwan...closer than ever!

Guess what? I am leaving tomorrow morning, 9/9/08! I'm leaving for Taiwan, woohoo! I am so very excited and I really want to just get out there and start the work. The time in the MTC has been great, but the time has come. We meet at 5am, so its going to be a rough travel day. But we'll see how many people on the plane commit to baptism...

This gospel is true! This gospel is so full of hope!! Moroni 7:41- we have hope through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. My testimony has already been strengthened so much with my time in the MTC. I know that with the Lord's help that I can become an effective tool in his hands.

Miracles through the Spirit

Our district goes to the TRC every Saturday morning to teach volunteers the lessons in Chinese. These volunteers are most of the time members and want to help. Well, my teach Brother Hodges found some Taiwanese people that weren't members and played basketball with a couple teenage boys with a bunch of other Chinese MTC teachers. Well, Brother Hodges brought these teenagers to the TRC on Saturday.

When we found out we were going to teach these real investigators our companionship got really excited and nervous and must have said about 3 prayers. Well, we taught a 35 minute lesson and it went great! We taught about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and how we can pray to him. He is the creator (Mosiah 4:9) and loves his children. We taught them about receiving answers and feeling the Holy Ghost. Well, there was an aunt and two cousins from Taiwan. The 2 boys were both 17, Xu dixiong and Lin dixiong. The spirit was soo strong as we bore testimony of our loving Heavenly Father. We helped him recognize what he was feeling. He felt nervous at the beginning but then felt comfortable and we told him that this was the Spirit.

Okay, well, thats not even the best part. We heard later that Lin dixiong was taught by 2 more Elders in our zone. They taught him about prophets and Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. The missionaries asked him what he knew about prophets and he told him that he thought they were men called of God that received revelation to teach the Church because God couldn't come down to earth. Amazed at his knowledge, the missionaries asked who had taught him and he said that "The sisters taught me this morning." What!?! We didn't even say the work prophets and we didn't even mention about what a prophet is. The Spirit was teaching him!

Wow, what a wonderful opportunity to be an instrument in the Lord's hands. The Spirit is the real teacher, the missionaries are just the ones trying to bring that Spirit. Its so awesome! Missionary work is great!!

Thank you for all the support. Love you all!

Identity theft

Things have been going good in here, same old thing. There was one day that I accidently took the wrong name tag from the desk in the morning, and it wasn't until about 3 hours later that we noticed that I was Sister Son for the day. I happened to see Tim's old roommate, Ryan Beauchamp (something like that) in the MTC cafeteria, and he said "Hi Sister Chang!" but then looked at my name tag and got very confused. It was very funny, but don't worry, I let him know that I was really Sister Chang.

New missionaries came in, 24 of them! 4 of them are sisters. Its exciting to see so much enthusiasm come in.

ps. Funny story about Chinese that I'm not sure if I've told you yet. We were teaching a lesson a couple weeks ago in Chinese with another companionship. I asked the "investigator" what kind of work he did, he said he was a butcher and I asked him what type of meat was his favorite. I told him that "wo hen xihuan chi nu rou" instead of "niu rou" which translates to " i really like to eat women flesh" instead of beef. Our teacher found it very funny.

Savor each moment

Anyways, just wanted to share some cool quotes from this week. Our teacher, Brothers Hodges read us this cool poem about the importance of time. I will paraphrase:

Want to know the value of an hour? Ask a woman in labor.
Want to know the value of 30 minutes? Ask a friend who has been waiting for you.
Want to know the value of a minute? Ask someone who just missed the train.
Want to know the value of a second? Ask someone who just avoided a car accident.
Want to know the value of a milisecond? Ask someone who received a silver medal in an Olympic spring competition.
Yesterday is history,
Tomorrow is a mystery,
today is a gift, that's why they call it the present.

So savor each moment of the day and make everything count! Don't forget to read your scriptures. There are so many treasures found in the Book of Mormon its amazing. My testimony has been growing and growing.

Alma 26:12-this is the Lord's work! He is the gift giver and we are the postmen.
Have a great week!

100% SYL

Anyways, this week has been good. Starting with this week, we are 100% SYL (speak your language) which means we are only supposed to speak English when we are talking with our Branch President, or having companion study, or a gospel discussion. Our teacher, Brother Hodges, or He Laoshi, said that we should be prepared to get very frustrated because he will not be speaking English anymore! The Elders in my district are still struggling with the language but they are making great progress.

My companions are doing great. It is a little different working in a three-some and teaching gets a little tough, but we are working on it. Our teachers say it is a blessing in a way because it will be easier to teach with members when we are out in the field. But we are trying to learn how to teach off of each other without reteaching. And right now they are emphasizing teaching the investigator, not the lessons. So that has been a big part of our learning, learning how to find the needs of the investigator and teaching according to what we find out instead of a rote presentation. It involves getting comfortable with asking some pretty straightforward questions, but I'm sure its going to help so much in Taiwan.

Anyways, we are having a lot of fun in the district. There are 5( one 3 some companionship) Elders and 3 Sisters. Yesterday Sister Son said something really funny... she was eating her first York peppermint patty ever, and she said, "It's like eating chocolate... and toothpaste." It was really funny in her Korean accent, but she likes toothpaste so she loved the candy! Haha.

Another funny story. We were playing a game where we were in partners and one person had to describe a word in chinese without saying the word... to the partner who had to guess the word. Elder Day, from St. George was describing binqilin (icecream) and he explained it like, "Ruguo ni chi kuai, ni tou..leng!" So in other words, if you eat fast, your head gets cold. We all thought it was really funny. And whenever our team would get a point, we say "cheng gong!" meaning, "success!"

Have a great week everyone!
Omni 1:26
3 Nephi 17- I love this chapter

Hello from Sister Chang!

Time is really short today because these computers are working at the pace of... dehydrated camels and are taking forever to load. Therefore I only have a few minutes to tell you about the wonderful things I am learning and doing.
MTC life is great. I have 2 companions, Sister Fisher from London and Sister Son from South Korea. We have so much fun together and we are learning how to work together as a companionship.

Bro Hodges (our chinese teacher who also served in Taipei), Sis. Son, me and Sis. Fisher

We have a lot of class, and do a lot of gospel discussion and Chinese study. They teach us the speaking part of Chinese and concentrate on having us learn how to communicate. We learned to pray and bear testimony before anything and learning some other tidbits on the way.
I've memorized Joseph Smith's First vision, 1 Nephi 3:7, and James 1:5 in Chinese, and its coming. I love speaking and we are doing a lot of SYL- speak your language and pretty soon everyting will be in Chinese.

I love this gospel! I love the Book of Mormon. There is so much power is reading the Book of Mormon with a purpose. I encourage all of you to do the same and decide that you are going to get something out of it before you begin your study. And always begin with a prayer.

Off to the land of no return: MTC

Sister Chang entered the MTC on June 25, 2008

Sister Chang and Mama Chang

No mom and dad for a year and a half

Keep in touch!

That's me

Me being tortured by 5 yr old nephew Ethan

Yeah, we like to be silly

3 year old nephew Daniel actually looks like an obedient child, huh?

1 year old Evie loves the hammock :)


mission picture, thanks to Jen

Hello Family and Friends!

Well, that time is coming near when I officially become a full time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am so excited to be serving an 18 month mission in Taipei, Taiwan!

If you are in the area, I would love for you to come to my farewell talk on Sunday, June 22 at 9 AM in Yorba Linda, California (hey, it's a great excuse to come to Southern California). There will be a gathering of happiness and joy at the Chang residence at about 11 am and you are invited for some brunch/lunch munching. The address of the church is 17130 Bastanchury Rd Yorba Linda, CA 92886 (map) and my home address is 4328 Kaye Lane Yorba Linda, CA 92886 (map) a couple blocks away from the church.

I would also love to keep in touch with you! I will be available by snail mail (sorry that postage has gotten more expensive) or you can use dearelder.com to send me a note.

I report to the Provo MTC June 25:
Sister Kimberly Hannah Chang
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

and then about 12 weeks later off to Taiwan:

Sister Kimberly Hannah Chang
Taiwan Taipei Mission
4/F, #24, Lane 183
Chin Hua Street
Taipei 106
Taiwan

I love receiving mail and I am actually quite excellent at keeping in touch within decent amounts of time. And just for your information, my favorite candies are sour patch kids, symphony bars with toffee, and almond joy. Oh, and I love mashed potatoes, but don't worry about that one.

I want to tell you all that I know this Church is true and that I am so excited to go out and serve the Lord! I love you all so much and appreciate your support!

With love,
Sister Kim Chang

1 Nephi 11:22-23

Yea, it is the love of God, which sheddeth itself abroad in the hearts of the children of men; wherefore, it is the most desirable above all things.

And he spake unto me, saying: Yea, and the most joyous to the soul.

Guess what? I'm going on a mission!

Welcome to my blog!
The main reason for me creating this blog is so those of you interested in what I am up to can see for yourself! I have been called to serve as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I will be serving in Taipei, Taiwan! I report to the Provo MTC on June 25, 2008 and will leave for Taiwan during mid-September.
If any of you feel so inclined, feel free to send me a letter at the below addresses. I am actually really good about keeping in touch, so don't worry about that. I am also very good at eating any goodies that may be sent my way :).


I report to the Provo MTC June 25,
Sister Kimberly Hannah Chang
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

and then 12 weeks later send them to

Sister Kimberly Hannah Chang
Taiwan Taipei Mission
4/F, #24, Lane 183
Chin Hua Street
Taipei 106
Taiwan

I love you all so much and hope to hear from you soon! Best of luck during these next 18 months.