Transfer 6 Week 6: Death and Personal Trials

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 3:43 AM

It's week 6 of the transfer!  That means next Preparation day is Monday, not Wednesday so you need to email me by Monday night.  And I need everyone's phone numbers.  I don't know them.  And how it will work when I call.  Like will you guys three way?  I used to be the one to figure all that out, does anyone else know how?  Who should I call first?  Who will be together? 

So yeah, so for all we missionaries know, we'll be with different companions, districts, etc for Christmas, and we still don't even know them!  They don't have a Christmas party this year, but I guess our district will get together and do service activity and then we will proselyte at night.  Nobody will be sure what their area will be until Friday night, and we won't know our new district (area if we move) until move day Monday, so it will be quite a Christmas. 

There is so much that happened this week, but I think I'll actually travel back to last Wednesday after I emailed, the long day that happened there.  So...last Wednesday, we emailed and then all the Sisters (all 4 of us) biked back to the church, went to the bathroom really quick, and ran and bought lunch to eat on the bus to Taipei.  It was our zone's temple day, so we were all excited to go to Taipei, go to the temple, etc.  Well, we get on the bus and I start to eat my fried rice, just eating, talking, all good. 

But lets back up to last transfer in week 4.  Something I never mentioned, because I forgot because a mission goes by fast, is...well, I have one root canal right?  It fell out when we went on exchanges last transfer.  I was with a Taiwanese missionary, Sister Zhang.  And I freaked out.  Teeth are expensive, and I don't think you guys can afford for my tooth to just be falling out.  I remember what a hassle Gen's teeth were on a mission.  And mom's teeth too.  Teeth are expensive.  So I cried.  I don't cry a lot or often, but I cried a little when my tooth fell out.  I told Sister Zhang, "I'm going to look like a Taiwanese man with no house, with no teeth, teeth are expensive." And another reason I was scared, is partly because  I'd never learned dentist words, I only learned tooth because sister Zhang kept saying my "yachi" fell out.   Well, it was too late to do anything, so we planned to find a dentist in the morning.  The next morning we went running, and on the way to the school track, we found a dentist right next to our apartment.  We found out it opened at 10 and went and moved language study to the afternoon.  Well, lucky that I am insured in Taiwan and Taiwan has a government run medical health care. It cost 150 kuai to get in and see the dentist.  That's like 5 dollars.  Well, he took my tooth, looked at it and talked about how my American doctor didn't put in a good support, and he hoped to save me money so he'd see what he could do.  He popped it back in, said it was still at risk because it wasn't done well in the first place, but it'd cost around 200 American dollars to fix (I think cheaper than America though?), but he hoped I wouldn't have to spend that... and Sister Zhang and I  were out and on our way to normal missionary work.  The dentist knew a little English and we were able to use Chinglish to communicate. It ended up being fine.  After that day it was fixed, I forgot it happened, minus a picture I have.

So yeah, I'm sitting there, last Wednesday, I'm finally not paranoid about my tooth, it's been a little while.  And I'm eating, and I swallow, and there is a HOLE in my mouth.  I swallowed my tooth.  (Which, now I know how to say swallowed in Chinese).  I got a little emotional, and maybe shed a tear or two (but not outright crying) my first reaction was, "Sister Kunzler!  I've been through this trial, but last time I didn't swallow it, why did I have to swallow my tooth." I didn't think you guys could afford 200 dollars right with Christmas coming. Then I was a little freaked out as I tried to figure out if I should puke it out on the bus.  We were stuck on a bus for 45 minutes.  My companion and Sister Chen said THEY would puke if I forced myself to barf in front of them.  I prayed and ended up not barfing, I couldn't imagine how people would react. I thought maybe we'd get on the bus and I'd puke right before going into the temple.  I hoped in 45 minutes it wouldn't digest too far.

Well, we get to Taipei and we are in between the temple and the big chapel, my companion and I are on our way to the big chapel so I can see if I can puke it out...well, we run into my old companion Engela Chen, and she gives me an envelope with a hymn book I left in Zhongli and a letter.  My companion stopped to talk to someone, so I take out the letter to read it.  I read the first sentence.  It says, "Sister Bruno, sorry this is kind of abrupt, but Chen Huiping passed away."  I didn't continue the letter at that time.  I just had a break down.  I seriously sobbed.  In a LOUD voice, in front of tons of missionaries headed to the temple.  It was a combination of the new member that got baptized when I first got to  Taiwan passed away and I never wrote her a letter after I left Zhongli, and I swallowed my tooth and my dad was going to be really mad at me.  And I cried and cried.  I couldn't get ahold of myself very well.  And then, there was no time to go puke, it was time to go to the temple session, or we couldn't go to the temple at all.  And so we went in, and got dressed, and I just was crying (softly now) and everyone kept looking at me, and I felt like an idiot, because I think crying looks dumb.  But once the temple session started, I felt at peace and calmed down, and stopped crying.  I'm glad we can find peace in the temple.  It is an amazing place and I'm glad I got to go.

As for my tooth situation, I won't go into extensive details, but I will say, I have the tooth in my mouth (although it's still a risk) and it's sterilized by me 3 different ways and the dentist sterilized it and said I didnt need to worry, it was perfectly clean.  So I trust in that and figure I'm a stronger person for it, and we don't have to worry about it...for now.

As for more details about Chen Huiping, she was hit by a car and needed surgery.  They called the missionaries in search of family.  She got surgery and it didn't go well.  The family decided to pull the plug a week later.  (nobody in her family was close to her, she lived alone and just had a daughter and grandson in the Taipei area 2 hours away) I know before she passed away she wished to see her grandson. That wish came true while I was in Zhongli and she was very happy that day.  I still remember.  She really wanted her daughter to join the church and their relationship to become better.  Her daughter gave Sister Enge Chen her number at the funeral.  She said her husband wasn't ready to hear our message, but at least her number is in our records now.  I know one day Chen Huiping will see her daughter/grandson blessed because of her decision to be baptized. In a way it was, she'd wanted to see her grandson since he was born. She did back in August. 

In other news, we've had quite the week!  Lin2 Li4zhen1 and her 2 sons are doing great.  We taught them the law of chastity.  And oh. my. goodness.  My old district leader told me we HAVE to teach no masturbation in the LOC, so, we did.  Well, I know the formal word for it, but Chen2 Sen1 didn't understand that word, so the mother says, "Ni bu ke gen ni ziji xiao jiji wan."  And to make it even more awkward, the older brother loves English and translates something we already understood into English, "You caunt play with your own little chicken!" And I was so red and felt so awkward, the rest I don't need to explain, but pretty much, Taiwanese people are very open and I know why Elders teach boys the law of chastity and not sisters!  But in great news, the boys are obeying the law of chastity and doing SO GREAT.  They set a baptism goal for my BIRTHDAY.  Let me tell you, when they set that date, it was like one of the happiest days of my life.  I don't even care if I stay here this transfer or not, but I will try my hardest to be here when they get baptized.  They are just so great and progressing and keeping all the commandments.  I love them so much!

Also, Jasmine is doing AMAZING. I love her so much.  She teaches us more and more every week.  She talked this week about how she never felt the protective love of a father in her life until she came to THIS church.  We taught prophets and listened to the prophets voice and all felt the Spirit SO strongly in that lesson.  Her interview is this Saturday.  Also this Saturday we are singing 12 songs and doing a Christmas pageant, time is running out, talk more about that next week!

Love you guys so much!

Sister Flora Bruno
Fu jiemei

Buddish Baibai Allowed if Praying to God

Tuesday, November 24, 2009 11:32 PM

Um, why is it that nobody writes me consistently?  You guys need to be better about that, especially since I write you EVERY week, even twice sometimes when my email decides to get lost.  Nobody answered my question last week about the name, and nobody has told me Nena's address even though I asked a lot of times, I can't find out myself, someone needs to find out for me.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and they don't celebrate American holidays here (duh), so with the exception of we might spend time searching for American stores to make something tomorrow like a pumpkin pie, tomorrow will not be a holiday in anyway at all for me.  And even Christmas here, all the missionaries used to get together as a mission, since there isn't a lot of Christmas here in Taiwan, but they decided missions shouldn't do that anymore as it comes out of the mission president's own pocket I think and they can't afford it, and the stress, so there is no Christmas get together...instead there is a transfer 2 days before Christmas, so there will be a lot of people who are with a companion they've never even met before, maybe in an area they are unfamiliar with...and so the least you guys can do is write me in between playing with a baby and eating cranberry sauce and candy canes, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate that is actually sweet!!!!!!   There is Thanksgiving and Christmas and my birthday all coming up, so you can't forget a week until Feburary. 

So yeah, basically start writing me so I don't have to waste time every week telling you guys to write and being sad because the only letter I got was from Gigi and it was all messed up so only 2 sentences sent through.

This week was really amazing and we saw a lot of miracles.  Our zone leaders have started an experiment and wanted us to start counting a new key indicator separate to our other ones in addition to everything else, to compare the old way of counting lessons and seeing how we were doing on contacting.  They are called seeds.  Us sisters made up the name for what they are called though.  Haha. Fake lessons didn't sound as good.  So anyways, to get a seed you have to share 2 principles from a lesson and invite someone to do something.  If it is on your bike to someone on the scooter next to you, and you only have 30 seconds to share two principles and an invite, if they don't want to pull to the side and set up, the invite is usually just if they will read the pamphlet we give them and try a prayer.  People usually say yes though.  So yeah, it started Monday and my companion and I got 22 so far (Monday and Tuesday).  Our original goal was 20 for the week we were counting them, but we went on exchanges Monday and Tuesday, and I went senior in the area for a day, and my companion is a Native Taiwanese, only 3 weeks into her mission, so she was just really willing to go with the flow, and when I told her to talk to someone on the train, and I'd go talk to and point, she'd sit down and try to talk to who I suggested.  She's so good.  It was fun to exchange with her, we met with our little Lin family (Chen family, the sons are Chen, mom is Lin) they are so good and meet with us 3 times a week.  It is a mother and 2 sons, but they are a little scared to set a baptism goal, but they are really accepting and I know if we give them time they will accept this gospel, this family really has seen change in their life learning the gospel.  They really had no knowledge of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father before we met with them.  Sister Li shared about her conversion story, and the importance of prayer and realizing God loves YOU individually and knows you.  Lin Lizhen started to cry.  It was touching, and she really opened up after that.  We got to practice the listening skills we had just discussed in District Meeting that day.

Another lesson with them I really liked was, the other week we had a really powerful lesson about Satan.  That morning my companion and I decided we should teach them about Satan.  I can't even remember what it was about their situation that made us decide that...but we get there and the mother and her youngest son, Chen Sen had just fought, so he didn't want to come and listen to the lesson.  He had a test the next day, and his mom was not happy with how he did his homework, so he had to rewrite all his characters.  They were both a little frustrated with each other.  We told them we prepared a lesson about Satan and asked if they knew who that was.  The mom had a vague idea and kept telling her son to come, after about 15 minutes of her and him in there arguing, he finally came out...then we read in the True to the Faith about who Satan is and his desires for us, verses God's desires for us.  It was amazing because as we taught them about Satan, they realized the reason they had been arguing was Satan did not want them to get along.  They both were excited about the prospect of praying to get Satan's influences out of their life, and that they could know why it was that sometimes they were unmotivated.  It was amazing, people who never knew about Satan before, how much realizing God and Jesus have an enemy and adversary can lead us to understand and follow them more, because we understand more why our trials can be so hard if we let Satan control our minds.  They responded SO well.   The next day Chen Sen had a really big test, he was originally scared to take that hour and meet with us instead of studying since his mom had just yelled at them.  After learning about Satan, he went back to the study room after we left and said a prayer and studied.  The next day before his test and after he finished the test he said a prayer.  He ended up getting a 93.  One of the highest marks he's ever gotten on a test.  His faith was really strengthened, as was his mothers.  The oldest son, Chen2 Jun1 is a little harder to meet with because he buxi's every day.  But Saturdays he meets with us and the other two, and although he is progressing more slowly than the other two, he's willing to read and pray.  He's already read the whole children's Book of Mormon.  He's really good.  Buxi here in Taiwan is what most Taiwanese students spend their life doing.  What that is, is cram school.  They go to school after school.  They all go to tutor schools to prepare for tests, so the life of a Taiwanese teenager is test after test after test, and preparing for those tests, and going to class after class, until 9 at night, then waking up at 6 in the morning to go to school again.  It's really crazy.  But yeah, they are super good!

Also, on exchanges we get a call from Lin Weitong.  A really sweet investigator of ours.  She has a date and is really diligent in wanting to make it, but last week she told us she had to go to Miaoli for 3 weeks, so she couldn't make her date, and would call us when she gets back and reset a new one.  Well, she called me Tuesday at one, and said she decided to come back to time, do we have time to meet today?  So I found a 30 minute block in my schedule, and had the zone leaders call my companion to tell her to make sure to be back by 5:30.  She had no idea who she was coming back for, but we were both sooo excited to see her.  We reset a date for December 20th, and she said she's really excited.  She said she knew being baptized was a really good thing for her, and her only concern was doing the Buddist baibai, a form of worship they do here.  However, the answer is not what some expect of our religion, because yes, you can baibai, as long as you know you are not worshiping family, you worship God, but you can baibai if it will cause a lot of family contention if you don't, which it would in her family.  So as long as she promises only to worship God, and is doing baibai as way to avoid family conflict and knows in her heart she's not worshiping idols.  After hearing that she was excited and very willing.  She's excited to prepare.

Also, we recently met a girl named Jasmine.  She lived in America 12 years and is really amazing!  She also set a baptism goal in December and has stopped smoking since we taught her the Word of Wisdom.  She hasn't smoked in over a week and carries around cookies.  She is the cutest person ever, and really has seen a difference in her life since getting to know the church.  I'm so excited!  We have some many good investigators and great things are happening here.  We also have a lot of fun with so many sisters in Jilong, but this week the other 2 have been sick, they are home sleeping right now to prepare for the rest of the week.

Well, I'm out of time, love you guys.  Don't forget to write me!

Sister Fu

Unwinding As Missionaries

Tuesday, November 17, 2009 11:26 PM

Hello from Rainy Jilong City.  It was nice to get your guys emails finally!  This week when I introduced my family (Here in Taiwan it is standard to introduce your family, and as a missionary you carry around pictures, which by the way most of you look bad in the pictures I show everyone because nobody ever wanted to give me a picture of us all at the wedding like I used to ask for back in my first transfer! So I collected random pictures you sent me and stuff already on my camera and I show people those...with Franny drinking pickle juice and other such pictures...hahaha) then I was like, yeah, my sister is pregnant, except probably not, she probably has a baby, but i don't know it's gender or anything about it...then people would laugh because you know, I just make really interesting comments all the time. That's so cool I have a niece.  Why did you guys pick the name Chiara like Nikita's middle name? Nobody told me. 

This week was a lot of fun.  Last week we went crab hunting on Preparation day with our district.  I was really determined to catch SOMETHING because I went all the way out there, but by the time I decided I wanted to do it, all the rest of the Elders were done, they had caught about 5 crabs.  Well, they said I could try to catch them but the water was too high in the really easy places to catch a crab, so a native Taiwanese Elder found a crab in a deep hole and tried to get me to catch it...well there was no way, but I wanted to catch something so I kept standing there really still waiting for something to come into the part I was standing in...Well, I finally see one in a really open spot...super easy to get right?  Right, so I put my foot on a spot on the rock, and the next thing I know, I'm totally sitting in the water, my waist down is soaking wet...and the crab ran away. And I was so disappointed I said, "I can't get up!  It's so salty!"  Now...the two thoughts had nothing to do with each other, but the Elders quote me all the time now, they think it was so hilarious.  I just was stuck for a second, and the water got in my mouth and was really strong and gross, and ridiculous I fell because there was hardly any water at all, and i had to fall in and got my behind pretty wet...we stayed on the rocks catching the crabs the whole time, because missionaries cant be in the water and we didn't want to even skirt breaking rules...I'm ridiculously a clutz!  but anyways, in the end, I decided to catch a fish instead and I caught a tiny fish...so I was unique and got something, but it wasn't an edible fish, and so nobody ate it...and it died in freshwater anyways when we went out and got some shaved ice before the elders went back to the church and killed and ate the crabs. 

This week has been a little bit fast, I can't remember much else that happened.  Our investigators are doing pretty good, we have to do a lot more contacting than I'm used to as a sister, but I think it's really good for our area to have a lot of sisters.  It's fun all the time. Today we will probably go into Taibei, it's only 40 minutes away and sister Chen, a native taiwanese being trained here in Jilong with her companion Sister Phillips needs some stuff, so they want it to be together.  I'm excited.  It's Elder Cazier's birthday today, but the Elders are going to TGIF Friday's doing something sister Phillips and her companion don't want to do, so we probably won't go.  We'll make him brownies instead :)

Transfer to Keelung in the Mountains of Taiwan: Missionary Email

Monday, September 28, 2009 3:12 AM

I have come to the conclusion that this transfer, is going to be incredibly xingku and tongku.  I don't even know if that's the right pinyin and i'm too lazy to try to think of what tones those really are, so I think even people who speak Chinese might not know what the heck I'm trying to say.  So I'll try to explain.  In Chinese, when they say this xingku word, they mean to say that what someone is doing is incredibly hard and admirable because of it's hardness, so it's xingku.  Tongku is something incredibly painful. Now, in all reality if you want you can say this is an extremely bad view on it, but it just happens to be my first impression of the surroundings I am put in. 

Oh, by the way, I've moved to a new area, it's called Keelung.  Well, correct pinyin is Ji1long. I've had to say it so many times over the last couple days telling everyone I was leaving, I don't even have to think twice to just know tones.  Most words I just say them and have to say them like 10 times to remember the tones.   It's a port town, and supposedly very beautiful.  I haven't seen much besides our super huge apartment with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms...yeah I get my own bathroom.  I liked my little apartment though, this one is going to be killer to clean..but on the plus side, since we have to sleep in the same room, my clothes get their own room!  They are very happy and get a lot of air.  My suitcoats even got their own closet.  They look very dark and missionary like.  I have more suitcoats than any other sister in this whole mission...Not kidding.  And it's too hot to wear them until December I hear.  But they do get used at mission conference and when we do temple tours.  They called in on Friday and told me I'd be moving to Jilong.  My initial response was not exactly excitment.  I believe I told my companion that God wanted me to be incredibly sore and learn something from it.  You see, something I was told I'd learn from my mission is humility.  In transfer one I was told to pray for it every day.  I can't say I'm exactly a very humble person.  I've probably changed a little...but I'm still very me...like...

So yeah, my area is known for having ridiculous hills/mountains...this is because it's...mountains.  I'm living in mountains and biking up and down them.  I live uphill and it's just ridiculous!  I have to shift from first geer to third geer all the time, i've only been here one day, and I was switching back and forth the 2 times I've gotten on a bike.  So yeah, when people heard where I was going, they told me it was the most hard area in the North.  This sweet member drew me biking up a 45 degree angle with the sun scortching hot, and rain in the distance...rain here, is often.  But I have to admit, it was an exaggeration, because I haven't biked up any 45 degree angles YET. Mostly just like 25 or 30.  But yeah, needless to say, it is not going to be easy to bike anywhere here in this new area, but Sister Kunzler says I'll get used to it if I make sure to run every morning?  That's how her last companion got used to it, but her last companion is not exactly as fat as me...haha.  Her companion was Taiwanese, so she was actually quite little and skinny. So we'll see if that helps.  Zhongli probably trained me a little since it was a HUGE area...and we had to bike up some pretty nasty hills...but usually only once a week, not every day, and I would walk up some of it if I got too tired!

Hmm..My new companion is a Sister Kunzler.  In meeting, we had a very awkward situation...you see, she's from South Carolina...and she has this best friend...well, this best friend of hers lived at my apartment back that semester I was graduating...well, not literally, but he was engaged to my roommate, so he was always there...and, as some of you might remember, the relationship that ended up occurring between me and those roommates and the fiance was one of I deleted them as my friends on Facebook right before my mission, because he was really mean to me and would mock my statuses.  And I wasn't  sad about it, because to be honest, I didn't know them that well and didn't feel too close.  I just felt sad we were all immature and unable to get along. 

So I'm sure we'll be fine, especially since this companion is an SYLer...so I think my chinese will get better...but it was just an awkward beginning, at least in my mind.  I was excited to hear though, that roommate of mine married that fiance of hers...they had a date and hadn't married, then were like, not boyfriend girlfriend, then like girlfriend boyfriend during that semester.  Quite complicated, so it's good that they figured it out.  Yeah!  She's a lot different from me, at least I get that impression initially, but nothing like my other 2 companions, so this transfer should be a blaaaaast. totally new people and area (minus my zone leader was with me back in Zhongli transfer one and 2...Elder Carter, a native...he's fun so it's good to be back in his district).  woo. That is, if I live through all the death biking. 

This areas investigators and numbers aren't exactly what I was used to in Zhongli, so I believe I will be seeing more what contacting is like in this area...I didn't really do it, hardly ever in Zhongli.  Maybe just talk to the person next to you on the scooter, or a couple really down days we'd go out there to try to find investigators in the ward we had like none in...but I have to be honest, I haven't seen a ton of success with the whole self contacting method of finding, but maybe I'll see more this transfer...if I remember I'll tell you next week...which, next week will be a normal so Preparation Day will be your Tuesday night. 

In last weeks news, Chen Yiting got baptized and it was a HILARIOUS story...well, you see...first of all, someone giving a talk didn't know and freaked out when they called her up...then we went downstairs to baptize her, and the water was only up to the first stair...the chain on the plug got caught underneath and so the water had been draining while we were upstairs!!!  So we went back upstairs while it refilled and had a testimony like meeting, then finally she was able to get baptized...but man!!!  So crazy!  But a lot of fun because I've never seen someone so excited about being baptized.  She was like jumping around and so excited.  I loved it.  It made the night totally fun.  She was sad I was leaving so soon after her baptism, but she has such a strong testimony, she'll be fine.  She wrote a cute note in my bye bye book and I promised I'd write her a letter.

Sunday was hectic packing and saying goodbye, but I survived through it and a nice member took me all the way here to Jilong!  She even took work off just to take me.  Aww Zhongli members are so great!  If you can't tell, I'm a little weary of the change, but excited at the same time.  It was hard to leave my district.  Some of us had been together 6 months.  But Elder Lords and Smith also moved!  So yeah, lots of change.  :) :/ Maybe I'll have a better attitude next week, probably!  Don't forget to write!

Time to go!

Fu Jiemei