Because He Lives!

Grave Sweeping - these next couple weeks is "Grave sweeping here" It's kind of a holiday. More of a superstition. 4 is an unlucky number in Chinese because it sounds like the word death. On the 4th day of the 4th month they all go and clean the graves so that their ancestor's don't get mad. So yeah, and around this time they eat spring rolls; powdered sugar, crushed peanuts, and vegetables and meat in a wrap thing (at least that's how the Taiwanese do it) Yum!

Hot Pot - This week we went with some college girls to eat hot pot, Yum!

Movie Night fail... Yeah.... we were planning a movie night for like 2 weeks and inviting a bunch of people and then the day of the one person we had confirmed to come canceled on us... Sad.

Teaching the Ward - This week we had an opportunity during church to talk to our ward about missionary work and help them with it (we taught the 5th Sunday combined 3rd hour). It was great!

People here don't know what Easter is, even more than they don't know what Christmas is. But I think it's fitting that their "Grave Sweeping" is so close to Easter. Christ overcame the grave. He lives. And because He lives, we all will too. We don't have to fear death, we don't have to mourn the loss of loved ones; we will see them again. As we come to learn of Him and accept Him as our Savior, we can better understand how he can save us, physically and spiritually. If you haven't seen it go online and look at the new Easter video on lds.org. I know through His grace and through our effort we can receive redemption as well as the resurrection.

Have a Happy Easter!!!

-Sister Biancardi

PS - Saturday and Sunday go online or to a local church building and watch God's living prophet and apostles speak to us! :D

Our Search for Happiness

Hello!!

This week....

Biked up the mountain to the college (thinking we could contact lots of people there)... It was quite the ride... But, apparently we went at a bad time....not very lively. But! We did get to talk to some people, so that was good.

I taught a real English class for the first time (not the little kid class). It was great. They actually listened and wanted to learn. Imagine that! We had fun.

Ate dinner at a member's house. She's a farmer and had little baby geese that had just been born that day. So cute!!

Taiwan is so different.... I can't describe it any more; I've been immersed in it for so long. But you should just come here and see for yourself; great place :D

This week I started reading a book again called "Our Search for Happiness" by M. Russell Ballard. It's a leader of our church who wrote it for the purpose of helping everyone come to better understand our church and our members and why we do the things we do. It's super good and not thick at all; you could probably read it in a day if you wanted. So if you have any questions or curiosity about our church, but don't want to talk to us scary missionaries, go read this book!! Or even if you don't....read it anyway! It's way good.

Have an amazing week! Remember to smile, and to help someone out.

-Sister Biancardi

Planning Ahead

Are they standing on a bench?

This week was great! Got a lot done and had a good time. Sister Hancock is awesome, she's teaching me so much. This week we focused on our goals and making plans each day to hit them. And you know what, it worked! We did super well this week and found so many awesome people ready and willing to listen to the gospel. So, moral of the story: when you make goals, make sure to make some plans to hit them.

One day this week we were sitting in the church and this American couple walks in and starts talking to us. Turns out they both served their mission here 12 years ago and are back for a visit. It was so awesome to talk to them! So glad I was called here to Taiwan to live and preach the gospel for 18 months. It's a great place.

Taiwan: One thing about people in Taiwan is everyone is so "buhaoyise" (which is hard to translate, but pretty much means don't want to offend people/just wants to agree/please people) So most people will use excuses to reject us, which is probably because they don't want to be mean, but it's so frustrating! So tip of the week: Don't be "buhaoyise" just say it straight. Haha.

Have an awesome week!

-Sister Biancardi

Filling up the rice fields 

Carry No White Flag!

Ward Activity! - This Saturday we had an activity at a member's house. She lives an hour away...by car. So that was fun! (Our area is so big!) We drove out there and went on a little hike. Then they cooked dumplings over a fire and we had a potluck. So good.

Zone Conference! - Friday we went to GaoXiong to have an all day conference. It was awesome we learned lots of stuff. I really liked what one of the talks we read said about carrying no white flags. I think so often in society people are so whishy-washy in their beliefs or opinions. But as we learn in the scriptures, we can't "serve two masters". We can not stay on the fence forever. We must take our stance on one side or the other or something will push us off. As a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ I have taken a stance and I can't be whishy-washy anymore. I know Christ is my Savior and I have accepted the call to declare it to the world. What is your stance? Are you still on the fence? It might be comfortable now, but the winds will come. "Choose ye this day who ye will serve" and stand true to it. Stand strong and "Carry no white flag." Your white flag might be fear, pride, laziness... whatever it is, get rid of it! Burn it! And stay true to what you know.

Have an awesome week. Smile. Keep your head up. 

Love you!

-Sister Biancardi

Huge 5 inch long grasshopper!

A big pot of dumplings - old school style

Tree grapes!

The Gateway to Happiness

Another Crazy week! As predicted...

Monday - POWER CLEANING

Tuesday - normal...

Wednesday - "Train the Trainers" Meeting in JiaYi!!! I was so excited to get to go back there for a day; that's where I started my mission. The meeting was great too. Afterwards I met up with a member and she had lunch with us. Yay!

Thursday - Last time meeting with FuJieMei and JiaXiang as investigators... :O Also we had to go to SanMin (GaoXiong) to sleep over with the sisters there because.....

Friday - We took a 6:15 train up to TaiZhong where we had another meeting and met the trainees. It was super weird being back there doing those things as a trainer instead of trainee; brought back some memories. Met my new companion; Sister Hancock. Yay!

Saturday - FuJieMei and JiaXiang got baptized! Yay! It was a great meeting and she gave a great testimony at the end. Happy time.

Sunday - Stake Conference. For us that meant meet at our church at 8:15 in the morning and carpool (actually they had this big bus) up to our stake center an hour away for the 2 hour conference at 10:00 (Bishop wanted to make sure we had good seats) So it took lots of the day.

About 2 months ago FuJieMei decided she wanted to start learning about this church; her sister in law had been a member for 4 years and she's seen the change in her and she wanted that same change. From the time she started learning she was so willing to do the things we asked (read/pray/come to church/obey God's commandments) because she knew it would help her to follow Christ and to eventually have the most happiness. Her faith overpowered any fear or obstable that got in her way and she's grown so much. Her son started by following his mom's example but has also grown a testimony of his own and has also changed a lot. I love this family and I'm so happy they've chose to follow Christ, I know it will help their family and bless their life.

This is why I'm here. To share this joy and truth with everyone. Not just those who needs some comfort or those who want a religion, but everyone. I'm declaring truth and inviting others to follow Christ. I know this is the only path we can take to find true peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come. So try it out!

Have a good week!

-Sister Biancardi

Happy Year of the Goat!!

Hello!!

This week was insane!!

Cars - SO MANY! There was so much traffic, and our little town of QiShan isn't really built for that; glad I wasn't driving a car.

Flower Festival - beautiful!

Flowers - Part of why there was so much traffic was a flower festival thing in MeiNong, people pretty much came from all over to take selfies in fields of flowers. Haha, but there was actually more than that and it looked pretty fun.

People - Lots! From all over!

Real Pizza made by Real Italians!

Mmmmm good!

Food - The members invited us over for meals once or twice a day (which is a lot for us) And they fed us a ton!! That's what they do for Chinese new Year's; eat.

Happy New Year - Year of the Goat!

Pig Ear - That's right. I ate pig ear this week...add that to the list.

This week was also full of miracles. Mostly our little miracle FuJieMei. She is so awesome and has overcome so much and her and her son are prepared to be baptized this Saturday. She's a great example of Faith and Obedience.

This next week will also be crazy and full of miracles as I've been called to serve as a trainer. There are 18 new missionaries coming to TaiZhong after a long Visa wait, and I get to be with one of them! I'm so excited for this new opportunity to learn and become better.

Keep being awesome! Keep looking for opportunities to serve! And never stop smiling!

Love you all!

-Sister Biancardi

Hiked another mountain! Fun!

GuoNian is Almost Here!

Beautiful Taiwan

Next week is Chinese New Year! (GuoNian). Woo-hoo! Which means we get to go over to member's houses for meals and almost no one else will want to meet with us, haha. It'll be so fun! (It's Taiwan's equivalent to Christmas. But it's a whole week, haha.)

This week we rode out to our investigator FuJieMei's house almost everyday. She's preparing to be baptized and she's so awesome! She's a mom with 3 boys, and she's got so much faith! But that was pretty tiring; it's almost an hour bike ride there and back, but worth it.

We also went to GaoXiong for Zone Training meeting. We didn't ride our bikes there, we took a bus, haha. We talked a lot about the importance of church and why we invite people to church. Church is important! You should go!

Truck-full of pigs! Common. Sometimes ducks or chickens!

Today we're going to go hike a mountain. I'll tell you how it goes next week :D

Last week we also taught a lot of people about the Book of Mormon. It's super important. We explained to some investigators this week about the keystone example. Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon from an ancient record of scripture by the power of God. If this book is true that means Joseph Smith was telling the truth, he's God's prophet, this church is God's church, Thomas S Monson is a living prophet today, and everything else with it is true. If the Book of Mormon is not true, Joseph Smith pulled off the biggest lie ever and none of it is true. Just like a keystone in an arch, the Book of Mormon holds all the truths we teach in our church together. So. Go read the Book!!

Have an awesome week! Tell me how your reading goes next week :)

-Sister Biancardi