This week, I hit my year on island mark. Now when people ask me how long I've been here, I can say over a year. I got my Alien Residence Card Renewed, and my companion bought me a cheese-bake (rice with stuff in it covered in cheese, so the closest you come to a casserole in Taiwan) for my anniversary marker. I remember when I first got here, and Sister Hill would tell everyone she was just over a year in Taiwan, and they'd praise her Chinese. I remember back then, I didn't think I'd ever be able to understand what the teenage girls were gossiping about on the bus/train next to me were saying, or what people asked me in a basic sentence even at times...but here I am, understanding a large majority....watching the young woman's broadcast in Chinese...and still getting most of what they were saying. There are still works I don't understand, but when I'm diligent, I just write them down and they commit to memory after looking them up, they usually are just there. That is not how it was to start with...so I'm just here to testify that the gift of tongues is real, and that Heavenly Father really does bless us when we are doing his work.
This week was a lot of fun with conference going on. Since the Taoyuan church here that we serve at is the stake center, I saw a lot of missionaries and old Zhongli members on Saturday when it was just broadcast here. It was really awesome to see everyone. It also was just a really unique experience to watch conference with a group of missionaries. We laughed really hard, like when they called names, and 2 peoples uncles got called...then Sister Hintze, was like, "Man...everyone's uncle" then...a Carter was called, and everyone high fived Elder Carter...and we were like, "Is that your uncle?" "Nahhh.". Boys will be boys :). Yet we were reverent when the time was appropriate for silence. No crying children...no people snoozing off and bored. We were all intensely listening, and it just brought a special spirit, so even when Elder Holland brought up a serious topic, we were able to laugh at the jokes he dropped in, while still seeing the pertinence in what he was talking about. Of course the Sisters got a lot of slack and the Elders kept a watch to see that we were taking notes on what they found important...haha, but we were thankful for the counsel for us...may we be good mothers when the time comes.
This week has been a pretty good week. After e-mailing, we went to Window on China in Longtan for Preparation day. It was a lot of fun, and we were able to become a lot closer as a district as we just went and took pictures and played together at the tiny theme park. My companion had never gone before, and she loved it.; I was grateful for the opportunity to become closer to my district. They wanted to hang out again this week and go to the beach together, but I had to go to the doctor in Taipei, so that wasn't an option...but I was just really glad that they wanted us to hang out with them. At the beginning of the transfer, they didn't want to go with us, but then last week they did, and we just all became closer friends. That's important in a district. When your district is close and has unity, you pray for each other, and you just see so much success and miracles as your district works together doing this wonderful work the Lord has allowed us to do.
With investigators, we've been following up with our investigator Vera every day. Her faith is so big, but it's not easy to overcome addiction. Nicotine is killer. On Tuesday the bishop attended our lesson, and he was a great help for her. He himself understands what is is like to be addicted, so he was a great benefit to the lesson. Vera has improved a whole lot. She is almost there. She is stressed though, and I was a little at a loss for words as she cried into the phone about always giving in to Satan and how her head would feel like she needed to explode. I've never been in that experience. I can't tell her I understand at all. I've never touched what we call the "big 5" in the Word of Wisdom ever. My struggles are just that I need to more diligently exercise and I eat too much sugar especially lately...just whenever I feel stressed...kind of problems. But yeah, basically I can't really understand what it's like. I'm not going to tell her I do. But yeah, Sister Tedjamulia and I have just been really emphasizing the relationship she has with Jesus Christ, and how when nobody else can understand he can. I really love Vera, and every day, even when she doesn't do as well as she might have hoped, she commits to trying again. I know she will do it. I just know that it takes time too. So we are doing what we can to be encouraging. She's changed so much lately, and there is more of a light in her eyes. She's awesome.
We also had a really amazing lesson with Joline this week. Sister Hong came out with us, and Joline really opened to us. Before we were really worried because we thought she went to the liliangtang this church a lot of Christians here go to. We've had some not too positive encounters with people from there, because, well, they didn't like us...so we just really wanted to help Joline. She really opened up to us. She asked a ton of questions and shared about how church eventually became a negative experience for her so she hasn't attended. We hope to address more of her questions, since we had no way of getting to them all, next lesson. We also hope we can help her in developing faith so she can have positive experiences at a church and be willing to come attend. I'm excited to continue teaching her. I've taught Christians before, but never one whose understanding of the Bible is as clear as hers, but she's so willing to listen and ask questions. It's a unique experience for me here in my mission, as most people I have taught are more exposed to the Buddist or Daoist religion, and so teaching is a lot more simple, and usually doesn't get too deeply into the Bible.
Crystal's mother said she might want to wait until she is older to be baptized, since she is so young and her sister who takes her to church might go to college soon. We are now leaving it up to the members to arrange rides for her and talk to the mother, and whatever else needs to be done. We will continue working with the ward on anything they want us to do, and still visit them, but we figure this is a situation best to leave to the ward for the time being. Luckily we have a pretty awesome ward, so I'm sure things will get done.
We also had a really good lesson with Ji Rushuang this week as well. She finally opened up and shared some of the pressure and stress she had been feeling with us. It was the first time she had a question for us, so we were happy to answer her concerns. We also taught her about the sabbath day, and she will come to church this next week she said.
Also, something fun this week, was that on Thursday we did splits with some members, and Sister Zhang and I went out to visit Li Yijing. She has been coming to church for quite some time, to the wrong ward. Lately though, she's finally committed to coming to this ward, and always even brings a friend. Sister Zhang and I taught her about the plan of salvation and set a baptism date with her. She said she doesn't know if she will be prepared so fast, but she trusted us and Heavenly Father would help prepare her, and made goals, and committed to coming to church and activities. On Wednesday, we saw her and her friend, Xu Jialin, at English class, and Jialin said she didn't have a BOM, so we were able to give her one. It's great to see Jialin's interest grow as Yijin progresses. She is a great friend, and already a wonderful missionary. The members like her a lot, because she's very cute and just very interested in the gospel. She told SIster Zhang she likes to go to church because she always finds the lessons very educational and learns new things. We like hearing that.
Times running fast so that's all I'll say about investigators this week.
Tuesday we had Zone conference in Zhubei (Xinzhu county). It was a good conference. It's the first time I have been over in Xinzhu. It only became part of our mission recently. As it just so happened, all the sisters going home this transfer were all there in the same zone conference. I was happy to see Sister Kunzler giving her last zone conference testimony. She's really a sweet girl and I was glad I got to see her again. I thought when we left Jilong, i wouldn't see her again since she was going so far away, and I was staying over in Danshui, but in the end, I saw her at least 4 more times, before at zone conference we said a goodbye...for now. When she's in SC and I'm in SC, we can just set up to go to the temple the same weekend. Of all my companions, I'll probably most likely see her again.
That's pretty much all that went on this week, and the computer will turn off in 1 minute, so great timing. Haha. Love you guys!
Sister Flora Bruno.
Showing posts with label Sister Zhang. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sister Zhang. Show all posts
Monday, April 12, 2010
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
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
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
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Missionary Email: Exchanges are Great
Hey everyone,
This week was fun! First I'll actually answer questions because I usually run out of time and don't. And ARC is an Alien Residence Card. So it's like my green card. A Dan Jones is when you get up like in the front of a bus or on some kind of thing that is high, and you start preaching the gospel in a really loud voice and testifying for everyone in the large group of people that the gospel is true. It's unique.
This week was pretty for finding investigators. We had a girl, Chen Zixia, show up at the church one day, and we invited her to come to Sunday church. She came! And stayed for all 3 hours too! Then we set up for Monday, she got there early (Woo that excited!) so our zone leaders taught her, and she already has a baptism goal for the last Saturday of the transfer! And she already plans on coming to church again, since last Sunday when a member asked her about next Sunday, and she said "of course I'll come." It was a miracle. One of the members saw her looking at the church and asked her if she wanted to come in, then we showed up with like perfect timing. But yeah, we have a couple members that are amazing missionaries! :) Having a really good ward is so nice in the missionary work. I'm blessed to be in Zhongli...
On Monday before I left for splits, we were on our way to a morning appointment and ran into a member, and she was just like, OH I'll go with you! And then we had a peike (lesson taught with member present). It was awesome. She was a great asset. Especially since my speech is very limited and it takes lots of time and effort for me to say things, so if we are on a time limit sometimes I'll talk less than I already do. I'm getting slowly better about talking though.
And not to worry about my health, beacause 4 of our investigators, which we call the "Herbal Life team" are concerned for me. Peiyu told her mom that at 6 at night before a lesson with her, I was eating chocolate, because she had showed up early and we were eating. She was like "BU XING!!!!" Or, that is not okay. They say it a lot. Lin Jiazhen has tried to commit me to drinking 4 of my water bottles worth of water a day, and that is a lot, because she gave me this HUGE water bottle that I carry around with me now. But I try, since we committed her to read the Book of Mormon. Her husband died from a heart attack, so they got really into health. She wants to help people who are overweight become normal. Her daughter was overweight and is now really thin. They are always trying to get me to buy the shakes and stuff for my "own health" and instructing me on how I shouldn't go to McDonalds and eat more vegetables. Haha.
Taiwanese people are really blunt. People always tell me "did you know you are fat? Riding that bike will help you lose weight." Or once even, a member spend a lot of money to take us to drink grass and other gross "natural foods" Then I'm supposed to say thank you for calling me fat. That's so kind of you to tell me riding my bike will help me lose weight. :) It makes me laugh a lot though. I love their bluntness. It's amusing.
However, the food is taking longer to adjust to. I've eaten some pretty nasty things...pig's foot, grass, weird fishes of every kind, gross slimy things that I've never even seen in america so I couldn't tell you if I wanted to...But there is also food that is amazing
You know Desi, I don't think I would have sat down and cried walking on some pioneer trek. I wish I could walk! Riding a bike to Neili and all kinds of other cities since the sister's area is huge is a lot worse...well for the staight uphill part. The return trips, or going trips depending on where we are going aren't bad.
I'm glad you guys already got my package. It came fast! I just sent it last p-day a week ago! That's amazing! Sending packages here is really cheap, so I sent one to the Sneddons too. It cost like 12 dollars (American), including postage to send both of them. That's less than sending some stuff from the MTC was. Give Annika that piano pencil! I didn't realize she'd be home already when I sent it. I'll send another one in a couple months with candy once I figure out what the good stuff is. Don't worry about sending me anything until I ask for it, oh except in an envelope I'd like a family picture please, sending stuff from America is way more expensive! Americas postage is bad I found out. For us to send a letter to America here, it is less than the equivalent of sending a letter in the US to another state in the US.
So exchanges in Taoyuan were really fun! It was like a party. And my Chinese improved a lot. I was with 2 other sisters, so a threesome for 24 hours. One was a bendiren, or native Taiwanese. So if I used English it generally had to be translated, so I was forced to try REALLY hard to express myself in Chinese when I wanted to. They were so good for me. Planning was like a party, and we ate junk food, even though my trainer lectures me when I eat at night about storing fat...but nobody lectured me...and we just had a lot of fun. It was pretty much like a sleepover with lessons and tracting, etc during the day. In Taoyuan, they had a very distracting boy, about 10, so they had me teach him the ABC's while they taught his mom. I felt useful and in my element. His ABC's aren't perfect, but now he has V down, so that's an accomplishment. His mom gave me mangoes for payment for my English lesson. We tried to refuse, but she insisted. I ate one this morning. So yummy! That's a plus on food for here, the fruit. So good!
Sister Zhang and Bernardo were really sweet! I love them! They snuck a candy bar in my suitcase when I left. I need to get them something today in Taipei when we go to our once a transfer temple trip right after this email...and leave it in their mail. Sister Shi, the companion that split and went to Zhongli is really cool too! She left me a note and a bookmark and some candy on my desk. Aww. They are so sweet. I love bendiren (natives).
Oh ...something kind of funny about Taiwan...the weather is crazy! One day I'm dripping sweat, the next I'm dripping soaked from the rain...and yesterday I almost got knocked off my bike a couple times the wind was blowing so hard. Ah the joys of the tropics!
Xie dai dai's baptism date is mother's day. I'm excited! I love her. She is so cute. we drew "I love dai dai" in characters on the white board and she was like "OHHHHHH I LOVE IT...and took pictures...haha!
Yeah, so a mission is fun. Hard, but fun! I miss you guys!
Congrats on your job Gigi! Thanks for getting addresses. That's good about Matt and Felicia. I'm glad you are updating me about them, since our p-days we keep getting random lunches and dinners and temple trips so thus far I haven't had a single second to write a hand written letter besides those packages I sent. Keep me updated on the SC boys Annika, and Desi...Maybe that way I can have friends when I come back indirectly by hearing about it.
Love ya
Fu jiemei
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