Missionary Letter: Typhoon (Missionaries Safe in Taiwan)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 10:40 PM

The Typhoon here wasn't hardly bad at all. There was a little rain and debris and we stayed inside one day. But I hear down in the south it was pretty bad, but we don't watch the news so we don't know much...but I don't think there are a lot of missionaries down there, and they are probably all fine so that's probably why nothing was published. Typhoons are normal things here. They probably only mention them if they are awful. For us it was just a lot of strong wind and I probably would have felt fine outside, but they kept us inside to be safe.

Missionary Letter: What Typhoon?--The Innocence of Missionary Life

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 11:23 PM

Okay, okay...after all the emails I got this week about how you think I'm probably stuck inside and waterlogged and stuff, I better tell you that this week has actually been very good, and we were only put inside for 1 day. Sister Hill left Thursday morning, and I got my new companion, Sister Engela Chen I was only without a companion for maybe 60 seconds, after Sister Hill drove off, Sister Chen arrived...that day it started raining really hard. We started hearing back on Tuesday that a Typhoon was coming in Friday. After our morning studies, Sister Chen and and I went to go eat lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, and while there we got "the call" from our district leader saying he had an announcement...the announcement was that we needed to get enough food and water to last until Monday. So, after eating we had planned on going straight back home for WPS, but we ended up going to the store and buying cleaning supplies and other essentials, cleaning supplies because when a missionary dies, the apartment get trashed with all their goods they didn't want to take home. So we decided if we did have a typhoon day, we'd deep clean. After that we went and had WPS. I was able to tell my new companion about all our investigators and such...then we had an appointment at the church so we grabbed our raincoats, and headed out there..

When we got outside it was pouring pretty hard. My shoes and the bottom of my skirt was sopping wet after only a couple seconds. It took us a lot longer than usual to get to the church, and then once we got there, we were proceeded to get stood up by every appointment we had that night...probably because it was POURING rain, and later when we talked the the appointments they were like, WHY WERE YOU OUT IN THE RAIN? A typhoon was coming, do you think we are crazy? Haha something to that effect. So we spent that night inside the church making phone calls and waiting to see if this appointment or that appointment would show up. The Elders also all showed up at the church, they had appointments scheduled there too that all didn't come, but it's understandable. After only an hour at the church though, Elder Lords got a phone call saying they wanted us to go inside as soon as possible, but no later than 8. So we had an appointment at 7:30...so we waited for our appointment, but she didn't come, so we went back to the apartment at 7:45. We were also told we probably wouldn't leave the next day.

The next day was Typhoon day. We were told we couldn't leave the apartment, so to be honest, I'm not even sure how awful it was during the actual typhoon, the wind was really extremely loud, to the point of what I would call wailing... and the streets were deserted and it would pour really hard heavy rain on and off. We live on the 9th floor, so we just could hear the wind rushing through our patio in the back of the apartment. So yeah, we spent that day inside cleaning and talking. It wasn't too awful.

The rest of the week it's just been very rainy, but nothing so awful that we weren't allowed to go out in it. Not a lot of people showed up to church and we had to travel to other people's apartments to see investigators because everyone said we were crazy and weren't willing to go out themselves, but they let us come over.

As for the state of Zhongli, there was a little debris and I know the rain hit pretty hard for a couple days straight because the locks on our bikes are completely rusted and we probably need to go buy new ones because it's hard to lock and unlock them, and when we went out the next morning, bikes and the motor scooters everyone rides here were strewn across the ground. But there is nothing really to help anyone with. Everything was cleaned up in a couple hours because they have really good road service and stuff here. Someone, not sure who, even cleared up the fallen branches at the church. I've heard that it was really awful in the south, but that's not our mission, thus why our mission president really wouldn't have a reason to publish anything to our parents. None of us suffered through anything dangerous. Two of our investigators asked us why bad things happen to good people, like those in the south, so we knew the typhoon must have been worse in the south, but we don't watch the news or anything, so we aren't even aware of the extent to how bad it is. You'd have to ask Taizhong missionaries about how the service opportunities are down there. Up here in Zhongli, after Sunday night, people started showing back up to appointments and the rain is a lot lighter. So the only really affect was that we had really small numbers last week, but Rita got baptized!!!! It was last Wednesday night, so I probably mentioned it was happening. She got confirmed Sunday, and it was just really awesome. The Elders investigator Jenny got baptized Sunday too. Zhongli 1st ward has been seeing a lot of success. It makes me feel a little bad because we don't have much to show for our other ward, we are so busy with our investigators in the 1st and always finding more that live in Zhongli because every day we are riding our bikes here and that's who we contact, and we live in Zhongli...then we hardly ever get out to pingjhen and even further out there, so we don't meet people out there...but the Elders are doing a great job there and they should have a baptism soon here too, so I'm excited for Zhongli 2nd ward, but I hope to find some investigators out there so it doesn't seem so sad on our progress records for them every week. I'd like to get to know the 2nd ward better. I know a lot in the 1st because I always need peike's from that ward. So yeah, I think my companion and I are going to try diligently to get some time to get out to pingjhen at least once or twice a week.

In companion news, I really love my new companion a lot. She is really funny and we have a lot of good laughs so far. I'm excited to be with her, it is a little stressful at times because I have a LOT of responsibilities, being the one who has been in Zhongli 3 transfers, so I've been making a lot of phone calls, doing the progress records in Chinese characters, making plans for the day, etc, but I'm glad to have her because she can lead the lessons and teach me the words I don't know that she uses. She's been a lot of help and she's amazing at getting to know names, especially of people who I don't know their names but it would look bad to ask since i've been here so long...so I'm getting to know a lot more names since she's been here! This week has been good! I'm safe! Pray for the people in the south...

1 minute left, I have a lot more I could have written about, but I'm out of time, maybe one day you can read my diary entries. Haha...

Bye!

Fu jiemei

Missionary Email: Report from Taiwan

Tuesday, August 4, 2009 11:54 PM

Okay, so lately, I don't have much of an appetite, but since my companion is leaving everyone wants to feed us! So ahhH! I learned how to say appetite in Chinese the first time we had a meal with someone though, and so that's good, and people are understanding and say it's because of the weather, and don't force me to eat much, since they figure I can afford to lose weight. haha. It's been fun, every meal is an appointment the last like 5 days. So we've seen a lot of investigators and members and eaten a lot of different foods.

Yeah, so I found out what's happening to me when my companion leaves tomorrow finally...haha. I knew there was no way they would make me senior companion yet. My chinese has improved from what it once was, but it is not nearly good enough to be able to be senior quite yet. Maybe in 3 or 4 more transfers...and even then who knows. I'm just glad the Lord knows what I can and can't handle and didn't give me too much to handle. My new senior companion is going to be a Sister Chen. But there are 3 on the mission. I think I know what Sister Chen the assistants were talking about, E. Lin, the old office Elder, told me she was the ABC (American Born Chinese) Chen...he THINKS. But I guess I won't be POSITIVE it's who I'm thinking until tonight or tomorrow morning...probably tonight so we can coordinate her coming up to Zhongli and I can figure out if I need to try to set people up for tomorrow, depending on if she has a bike or not immediately will determine what we can and can't do. But with a new companion and me being the one familiar with the area, I will get a lot more responsibilities with my new companion. So that will be nice. I'd like to take on some new responsibilities and kind of repent for my laziness before and become a better missionary. Sister Hill was really good to me, she just let me do what I want when I wanted...but it's time for me to step out of my comfort zone and do what the Lord wants when he wants me to instead. But I have changed a lot over the months I think. One of the Elders even told me the other day he thought I'd grown up a lot since he first met me. Probably because I'm a stubborn person and my district has known me through some pretty bad moods. And my bad moods are a lot less frequent then they were back when I felt more inadequate and like I couldn't possibly speak to these people in a tonal language, or understand their food menus or weird squiggly line characters. Haha. Not that I'm all of a sudden always happy. I mean, I really respect that about some people who are always happy (I honestly believe there are some missionaries who are just always happy, and it's super respectable)...I don't know how they do it because I have ups and downs. But I have more ups lately and my mission has been a lot more fun...

So I'm excited for a new companion and for my old companion to go home, because she's excited to go. And she can get married and send me another wedding invitation, since I've gotten a few lately. It's fun to see people getting married and having babies. Haha, which reminds me...I told my companion about that Natasha Beddingfield Song, "I wanna have your babies" but she wasn't nearly as amused by it as me, so I think maybe I just have a weird sense of humor because a lot of things I crack up at...others don't so much...but what can you do. I haven't completely lost Babylon in that way, I still get random songs stuck in my head, but they aren't distracting and usually make me happy because I remember who I am and my personality and none of them have bad lyrics. It's interesting as a missionary to try to figure out what you can keep from before and what you need to give up. And then you just let your experiences and the Spirit shape you. I try to be an obedient missionary, or I made the goal to try to be obedient from the beginning and sometimes I fall short..but I think you need to learn to be obedient but remember who you are and have fun, because when the mission isn't fun, that's when it's unhappy. And work is and can be fun. So maybe I agree with the "it's not all fun and games" with the games part, but I think everything should be fun! Talking to everyone can be fun...and reading scriptures can be fun...seriously. Everything is fun when you have that attitude. So it's amazing.

Today, Rita is going to be baptized! I don't remember what I said about her last week, but her background is she was totally ready but then freaked out and didn't have her interview last last Sunday. So we've been really focusing on her, and this Saturday night, we still didn't know if I was leaving Zhongli to be with other sisters in their area, or they would send someone here, because the assistants had told me I wouldn't be with a duanchuan, for which I was grateful. But other than that, we still didn't know. So we called Rita Saturday and at first she had always been like that she would just be baptized in a few weeks and I'd be there and it would be fine. But my companion was really straight and said we weren't sure either of us would be here after today (wednesday) and that we knew she was ready and wanted to be by her side, but to just really sincerely pray that night, and God would give her her answer...and if she wanted to wait after sincerely asking, that's okay, there's still missionaries and other missionaries would love to keep working with her, because baptism is a start...and she will continue studying her whole life for the enduring to the end part. Well, church was crazy...we had 14 investigators at church, and 12 in the second ward, so it was just ahhh trying to make sure they all were talked to and sat by and happy and good. And we got to talk to Rita and she said she got her answer and showed us a scripture in Alma 38:9. She had opened up to that after her prayer and knew she needed to be baptized...so even though we were headed to Taipei that night, E. Lord's was amazing and did the interview with her...she passed and we set up the baptism for tonight (since her husband couldn't come yesterday) on our Preparation day, and we have English class at 7...but her baptism is at 6 and we will be fine and able to pull it together I'm sure, and it's worth it because she's amazing and really understands the gospel. More than any investigator I've met so far. Things just click for her. And I'm so excited.

Zhongli is amazing and we have a lot of investigators that are so prepared, they are just scared, so we have a lot of work to do, and I'm excited. Maybe a lot of change is coming up, with transfer calls next Friday (not this one), so Sister Hill is the first to leave, but tons of people could end up moving in my district/zone very soon here. But we had an amazing transfer, the Neili Elders have someone getting baptized next Sunday, a Jenny who is great! She spoke with me on Sunday and was like, "Sister, next Sunday I want to be baptized and change my life!" Aww. And the Zhongli Elders have had a lot of success lately too. Their newest convert, James who was baptized Saturday, is very friendly and had a lot of good input at FHE Monday. And yeah everyone is just really doing good right now here in Zhongli 1st and 2nd ward. My district has really been praying for each other, and we've been seeing a lot of miracles and seeing our goals really being reached. It makes me excited for the future and glad to be in Zhongli. I mean, I could move at transfer calls, but I highly doubt it. I think I still have a little bit more to do here. And so I continue my mission in my first area, Zhongli, and things are going pretty good.

Missionary Email: Paradox

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:52 PM

Okay here's a secret, I hate subject lines. I have no paradox for you at the time being, but it's the first word that came to my head when I had to fill in the blank. But actually, my English is getting really bad, i could not for the life of me remember how to spell envision. I couldn't remember if it was an e or an i. I finally decided it is probably an e. There is an Elder in my district that is an English major in college...and we discussed how to spell it three times already, with the conclusion that it is probably e, but neither of us would put money on it. Both of us agree that not reading a variety of books and learning a new language that is in almost no ways similar to your original language makes the original language skills decrease if you aren't keeping them up. I constantly find myself scratching things out in my journal and spelling them 3 or 4 times before I feel good about what I just wrote. My punctuation is completely sporadic, and i find myself often wondering what the meaning of words, such as remission are. Even though I already know...but then I just covet an English dictionary. Haha. And the Elder said that he just doesn't read his emails over twice anymore to combat feeling bad about his decreasing English skills, I'd kind of already adapted that policy way back in the MTC.

This week has been a crazy, crazy week. Yesterday we were in Taipei, and I was talking to one of the random Elders that showed up in the office with me at the same time...since my companion was in a going home job seminar, and I was just hanging out at the office. And we came to the conclusion that Heavenly Father knows us so personally, that if we are people that respond to humorous happenings, he uses a very funny sense of humor to teach us a lesson or six. So that you can sort of even understand because I couldn't even write it all out, I'll just tell you about one of the funny days out of the 2 or 3 I've had this week...since you already know the first part, or at least mom does...

So Thursday morning, we left our apartments like a normal day, and started the bike out to Neili, a pretty quick ride for us, because it is downhill. We were scheduled with a girl named Smile, who actually had saw me on the side of the street and turned around on her motorcycle and asked if she could meet with us. She is new in town and doesn't know the area, so we had planned 2 weeks ago to meet at the Carrefoer, a huge store here, kind of like a Walmart or something. Well, at that time my companion hadn't really asked which Carrefoer and just assumed the one in Zhongli, so we went over there, and found out she was at a different Carrefor...and she had to go, so she said we'd reschedule for her next day off. That was Thursday. People here work crazy hours...so she just gets a day off a week and works like 14 hour days. So yeah, we are biking to Neili, and we are going fast downhill, down tiny alley roads...and I come out into a small intersection, and there is a car down the hill a little ways, and I quickly evaluated breaking, but was scared I'd be thrown forward on my bike, so I decided to speed up instead, and should have cleared before the car got to the same point as me...unfortunately, for a reason I'm unsure of, the car also sped up...and so, hit me pretty hard in the back tire. I'm glad I sped up though, because then I was blessed to not fly off my bike and distroy my face or get hit in the middle, and have my body bruised up or anything...so yeah, my bike flew up pretty high in the air, but fortunately I was able to react fast enough to turn the bike to a more upright position with my thighs and land on my foot still holding my bike up. All that I felt, since I was probably in shock, was that my thighs hurt really bad from shoving my bike into a certain position in the air. The man got out of the car and apologized and asked if I was okay, and after I said I was fine, he looked at his car, and then was like, whatever...and told me I could go on my way. And these people that saw it all came up to me and patted me on the back and said I'd be okay, and xingku (respectable?) me. So yeah, we were not far to the Carrefor, so we finished riding out there, but my companion said my tire was pretty bent up...so it was riding really slow and took a LOT of effort, but since it was only a couple blocks we made it no problem. Then we waited and waited for Smiles...and in the end found out that she was at yet another Carrefor, on the same road, different section, 20 minute bike ride down the street! Well, she had time to wait for us this time, but my bike wouldn't ride, and I had a bad feeling it was only getting worse, so we had to cancel on her again!! Wrong Carrefor twice! So once again, we didn't get to meet with her! We called and said it's probably Satan or something, and we are lucky, she said she'd re set-up when she knew her schedule on Sunday...So then we went to the bike shop, and I had to spend all the rest of the money I had for the month to repair my bike.

Well, I thought, no problem, I have money in my bank account, I'll just find somewhere to withdraw the money...but no ATM would take my card from Wells Fargo, and I was suspecting after a couple banks, that it was blocked, which I suspected since to this point I've been unable to withdraw money from it on my mission. So then, Friday, I called President, and told him I had 200 kuai left and had to go to Taipei twice before we got paid and eat...so I needed to be able to withdraw money from my home card. Especially since bike repair, our mission account we sign says to use money for home. So yeah, i want to follow the rules too. So...a phone card to America costs 200 kuai, so I knew I couldn't eat until I got money from my home account....since I had about 5 kuai left, which is nothing...100 kuai is like 3 dollars. So, despite the late time in America, I phoned home with permission, and had to get everything straightened out with mom! Thanks...haha. But that didn't mean the bank was straightened out...I called the toll-free Taiwan number to Wells Fargo, and they were saying they couldn't confirm my identity, and just wanted me to look online and check something, or give them my account number, which I didn't have...and I kept telling her my last POS purchase, but she said it was wrong, so after like 20 minutes of kind of going in circles with this Wells Fargo person, I changed the date of when I said the POS purchase was, and she unblocked my card. I'm not sure if she gave in or I was just saying it wrong seriously. But she said she found it, and I was really grateful, but then had no time for lunch because we had meetings, but it was okay, I was able to get money out so that we could ride the bus out to Rita's...who is scared to be baptized tomorrow, but I think she'll be ready soon, she just has to overcome a little bit of a family disagreement problem, she hates doing things her sisters don't agree with, so she's praying about it right now...but yeah...so I withdrew some money and we rode the bus up there...and now I only have 4 minutes left, because I took too long reading emails...but what ended up happening, is we parked our bikes, rode up and back to Ritas, and I ended up dropping my key in a gutter and so we had to pay again to get back on the bus and ride it to our apartment, get my spare key, and ride the bus back up to the bikes...it was a crazy week with stuff like that happening all week!

I'll send pictures next week, I was going to send them this week, but no time and I don't want to spend money on another hour! We are going to play with the Elders and some members at the church today, make food, play some games...because it's sister hill's last p-day she'll have time, next week she'll be packing since she leaves Thursday morning. Still not sure what will happen to me, I'll tell you next week when they decided and tell me! bye bye!

Missionary Email: Earthquake!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 12:13 AM

So, this week has been a pretty fast one. I mostly say that because a lot of things have started to meld together and when I sit here to write my weekly email, I'm unsure of what happened this week and what happened last week for a lot of happenings. Other things I'm sure were this week. But time on a mission is a little bit different. I opened Paul Freeman's wedding announcement this week and I was shocked to see he was getting married in like 15 days, my initial thought was that they didn't have a long time being engaged at all...but I realized I shouldn't be shocked because it was almost 2 months ago I got the letter saying he was engaged. It's just the time has been so filled that it felt like a week and then I got the announcement. So that's just a pretty normal engagement period from what I experienced back in college. But it was funny how I felt like it was like 3 weeks. I was sooo excited though. It was a lot of fun back when Kimmy and Rocio got married to see that change happening. Now I'm getting to see it happen to my male friends who went on missions and come back experiencing the same thing. So yeah, the point of this story is to same time on a mission is not the same as it used to be.

My happening for the week though that I clearly can distinguish as this week, is that yesterday morning at 2am we experienced an earthquake!!! It wasn't too bad of an earthquake. But it was just funny hearing everyone experiences about how they woke up. And mine is one of the least funny. But for me, I was shook awake, and as my mind processed that it was an earthquake my companion screamed "EARTHQUAAAAAKE!!!" And my response was just..."yep." After that she wanted to know if we should stand in the doorway or get under the desks, but I just said, "Nah, lets stay in bed." The whole time I didn't move, I just laid there, to me it was just not too unordinary for some reason. It was bad enough to shake me awake, but it wasn't shaking things up and down, just side to side, so I figured I was fine. It got over pretty quick after that. Maybe another 30 or so seconds. Then my companion talked for a few minutes, and I didn't say much, I just tried to fall back asleep because it was 2 am and I was incredibly tired. The next morning though, it was so funny to hear the Elders stories. We has assumed some of them wouldn't wake up...but Elder Smith said he woke up thinking Elder Mauldwin was shaking his bed and he sat up, and the next thing he knew he was on his hands and knees on his bed, trying to hold balance, like a cat or something. And he woke up his companion, who probably would have slept through it. And E. Lord's also thought his companion was shaking him awake. So they had funny experiences. I feel like mine was boring, because my brain processed earthquake as my companion screamed it. I didn't think someone was shaking me awake and I didn't sit up and have to hold my balance...Sister Hill said she did too...but me...I was just rocked in bed...I guess I'm more used to natural disasters. It's probably from living in California. We used to have small earthquakes there too huh? From what I remember. And then the flood in Houston. I've been in Hurricanes, earthquakes...I just remain calm. I hear I'll experience some Typhoons here in Taiwan too. We'll see. In the morning though, I did notice our walls were slightly more cracked up than they had been the day before. But our apartment is still solid. Compared to cracks in some places I've seen, we have very few.

In other news, we've been getting fed a lot here in Taiwan lately. My companion leaves in like 3 weeks or something, and everyone wants to feed her before she goes. So we've been very blessed this week. Our schedules are pretty full and our stomachs too. Taiwan is a little different than other missions in America and stuff because a large majority of our meals are actually generally out. We eat breakfast at our apartments before studies, but then we eat at a stand/shop/restaurant for lunch and dinner...and then occasionally people will want to fed us, but mostly on Sunday. So it's been nice to get fed all the time this past week.

A lot of our investigators have been progressing towards baptism. They still have trials and obstacles, but they are slowly coming to know their Savior, and you can see the change occuring in their lives, and it's really amazing to be blessed to watch people change.

We had 14 people at church this week and most of our key indicators have went up, so Zhongli really is seeing miracles...

But I don't expect them to stay this high always because we will be in Taipei over and over, for things like Zone Conference, Sister Hill's last mission fireside, going home seminars...so yeah our schedules should continue to be pretty packed since we have less time during the week to meet with people and we have a lot to do with my companion going home. But it's been so neat to see them going up. Vacations coming up and people are leaving town. So there's a lot more change we are going to see this transfer. And the biggest change will be the companion one...but until that time comes, we are busy little bees working in earthquakes, temperatures over 90 one day, and an incoming typhoon with lots of wind and beating rain the next. The air is filled with humidity, and the streets are filled with thousands of people. There's a lot to do, and more lessons than I think my brain can fit sometimes occurring every day. Life is fun!

Missionary Email: 13 Investigators in One Week At Church

Wednesday, July 8, 2009 12:11 AM

Hello again from Zhongli. This week was a pretty good week. My companion and I are busy and we love it. This week was a really good week for us. We have definitely been seeing miracles. We had 13 people come to church. On Sunday our MM leader for Zhongli 1st ward, was like, Wow, you sisters have had a really amazing week. And I just realized, he's right! This was an amazing week.

Yesterday was quite the day, we biked all over our area, we started in central Zhongli, and went out to a place that almost is by Guanying 30 minutes away, back to Zhongli and up to Pingzhen, back down to the place by Guanying, then out to Neili, up to Pingzhen, and then back to central Zhongli for our MM meeting for Zhongli 2nd ward. So we spent quite a few hours on our bikes yesterday. I was so exhausted! I'm glad that today is Preparation day! But yeah actually yesterday was a lot of fun. My companion and I got fed both lunch and dinner. And dinner was super fun. One of our investigators is a 10 year old girl named Gu Junru whose mother is a member, Zhang Yutong. We went over to her house and we made pizza like things. We just bought bread that looks like the shape of garlic bread, and put cheese and sauce, and random assortments of toppings on it. It was a lot of fun. Even her sons, who are always unhappy and angry, for awhile came and made pizzas with us. Personally, I get the vibe her sons are depressed..but it's not my place to counsel her. We just told her maybe if she thought her sons had a problem to take them to the doctor or talk to the bishop, because she told us how her sons are always frowning and unhappy, and if she laughs, they yell at her, so she can't laugh or smile too much at home. Yikes. But they are slowly becoming accustomed to us, and even though they never smile, at least they aren't mean to us. And they acknowledge our existence. The first time I met her sons, they pretended I didn't exist. And sat there like a frowning stone. It's just a weird situation because their fathers parents super oppose her being a Mormon, they tell the sons that it is the devils church...and so sometimes her sons get angry and say she is possessed with devils. And even weirder, they don't believe in God. I don't get how people don't believe in God, but believe in devils. So yeah, interesting situation, but I really respect her. She has a really strong testimony, and is really trying to help her children. She has more patience than anyone I've ever seen. She never forces her kids to do anything and is very patient with them.

On July 4th had a dinner appointment with a Vietnamese girl...and we listened to people karaoke in Vietnamese, so that was interesting. We also drank a watermelon drink..so I had some watermelon. woo. They put watermelon in the blender here, and then a little sugar and flavoring and sell it for 20 kuai. It's really nice on a super hot day.

We also went to a fireside in Taipei on Sunday. It was fun, a young woman's from Zhongli came and some investigators, etc. President Grimley had all the missionaries that were going home yesterday get up and bear their testimony. I was happy to be there. I got to see Elder Atwood, my old district leader, and Elder Rice, my old Zone leader bear their testimonies as they prepared to head back home and start life in America. The spirit was really there, and it dawned on me that I understood pretty much every word they said...that their testimonies were something I learned how to understand in the MTC. They prepared us in the MTC for the most important and basic part of a missionary, bearing testimony of truths and principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ and how it came to be in this age and generation. And so, I know that my Chinese isn't anything amazing, but I'm getting to the point I need to be. I know how to bear testimony of basic principles, and I can teach things on a simple understanding. So yay. It also dawned on me that a mission is pretty fast. Pretty soon here, I'll only have a year left. It doesn't feel like 6 months have passed in a lot of ways...but I've been in Taiwan for 3 months today. It's crazy. But yeah, I've learned a lot and I still have oh so much to learn...

Now I have to go though! byebye!

Loveya!

Missionary Email: Becoming a New Person

Sunday, June 28, 2009 11:28 PM

Hello again from Zhongli. From the looks of it, I will be here forever...my companion leaves two weeks early during this transfer, so either I will go senior for 2 weeks with a native Taiwanese who will become a missionary for 2 weeks, or I will become a three-some with other sisters. That would be hard though because the closest sisters are Bade and Taoyuan. Both are a train ride and then like 10-15 more minute bike ride. So it wouldn't be easy to visit my investigators during that time. But it would be hard to be with a native Taiwanese who doesn't really know the missionary lessons and would be unable to speak to me in English. My Chinese is not at par to be able to handle that yet, and I highly doubt it will until I change companions....But yeah, I think white washing isn't a super common affair, so unless something uncommon happens, I'll be in Zhongli this and next transfer. But that's just my personal opinion...you never know.

President Grimley will be here on Wednesday. We saw President and Sister Nielson for the last time here in Zhongli on Sunday. They came and spoke in the 2nd ward. It was nice to see them for the last time...and we finally got those letters we wrote to them...My companion lost the letters twice...so we had to bike all over the world and waste a lot of time and energy both times just to get them...but I put a lot of effort into them, so that really was a blessing that we were able to find them again both times. The Nielson's told me I looked good and had a light in my eyes and stuff. I guess I was happy to hear that, because its true. I really have changed a lot from when I first got here and I'm a lot better. Still a lot of things I need to change, but as long as I'm making steps and becoming a better person a little every day, I figure that's what really matters. You can't become a new person in one day. I used to want to, and tried, and failed. I mean, maybe some people can, but for me, it's just step by step.

But yeah, it was really cool, President had us missionaries get up and we sang I am a Child of God. It was a really neat experience. I saw a lot of woman crying in the crowd. I think it was a good thing for our ward.

Then later that night, we had a missionary fireside for the other ward. So this was a good week for the wards.

This week has been pretty slow. It hasn't even been a week since we wrote. I guess the cool thing of the week is that 11 people were at church. So that's really good. Especially since we only have 2 people with dates. But honestly, I was still a little :( because I had a goal for 15, since 20 people said they were coming. My companion said she highly doubted that many would come. She was suprised 11 came. So I guess wo de xinxin bu gou. My faith wasn't enough. Maybe one day.

Mom and Dad...I need you guys to send me a family picture I asked for forever ago! Also I need a way to get my pictures from my camera to the computer...I've been borrowing my companions and she leaves in a couple weeks. I told dad forever ago for just a couple bucks you can get something that converts my sd card to a jump drive. So if you could find that really soon so I can keep sending pictures that would be great!

And Gigi, can you try to get me the following addresses, I would like to write....Amanda Lowder, Sara Medina, Nick Drake, and Cole. Matt Moses will probably have Cole's address, the other ones have facebook. So if you could do that for me, it would be great. I thought of other ones before, but now that's all I can remember.

Okay well time is up, byebye.