Missionary Report from Xinzhu, Taiwan Taipei Mission

Okay! This week I'm spending time stealing pictures from other peoples cards and memory gidgets and gadgets, so not much time to write, but it's better that way because there is not that much to say.

Still getting used to my new area. We have 3 wards we go to on Sunday, so it was a little interesting giving my testimony a bunch of times, and knowing that in just a couple weeks I will be doing that all over again...And I just did it last week too...to say goodbye to Taoyuan. Moving a lot makes you bear your testimony a lot. I guess that's a good thing :) I get to practice my Chinese. I've never had a Taiwanese companion on my mission, so my Chinese is kind of up to my own efforts (and God's blessings of course...but he won't give me those without my own efforts).

As for investigators and stuff, still getting used to the area and such, but we are teaching a couple people I'm excited about. One is a girl named Ranae (Hong Ruiyin). My companion gave her that name, so spelled the Sister Mac way.:) Well, she's really great. She's really willing to keep the commandments and is really taken care of in the ward and everything. She really wants to be baptized, but she's 18, so she has to have parental permission. In Taiwan you have to be 20 to be baptized without permission, because of the culture. So, we are working on getting mom on board with understanding and giving her permission. Mom has agreed to meet with us this Tuesday...and if all goes well, Ranae will go to interview at the end of this week. So that's what we are hoping for. This week, because her mom can't go to her High School graduation, due to work, we are going to attend. It should be fun. I haven't been to a high school graduation in Taiwan before. Hehe.

The only other investigators that I really remember to write about this week is a really cute family. The Fan family. My companion met with them once before they moved here. It is a mother and 4 daughters. She has a son as well, but he's really young, and so he didn't even come to the store when we went by. They are a referral from the Xiangshan Elders, because I guess the husband is really shy. I've never met him myself. The mother works in a small Avon store, and we met with her and her 4 daughters in her store. We taught them a first lesson, using the cup game. I've only done that game twice my whole mission, but I think kids like it...so it went pretty well. I'm excited to teach this family. They have been doing family prayer ever since Sister MacIsaac and Sister Collyer (who I switched places with)taught them about it. So that's really good to hear that they are doing it and seeing blessings. There are a lot of people and thus a lot of concerns, not to mention they can't meet super awesome, but we think they are a really good family and we are doing what we can to help them see the blessings of this gospel.

That's pretty much it in the area of people I feel like writing about....pretty much nothing super worthy of writing home about happened this week. Today,we are going to go out to eat with the Elders for lunch...it's raining and has been raining this whole week, so as the elders say,bu hao wan. We were going to go to the beach, but that's not the best thing to do in the pouring rain right?

But, as for my feelings on the the rain, even though it is true, it's a little hard to be soaking wet because the on and off heavy rains, I'm just grateful I haven't been dying from heat. Last year this time of the year I thought every day was deathly hot! Haha, I'm sure I'll be there for a little of the deathly hot, but for now it's been pretty mild...thanks to the extremely heavy rains. So yeah. That's this week! Until next time. Love you.

Sister Flora Bruno