July 2, 2012
I ATE DUCK BRAIN! I absolutely love it here on my little island. The people are so wonderful and generous and have done a great job making me feel at home here. This email will be all over the place I'm sure, but here are a jillion things going through my head.
Our flight from Japan to Taiwan got delayed 1 more time after I got to talk to you (PS I LOVED TALKING TO YOU BOTH!!!) There was a woman I sat next to on the plane from Taiwan and we talked for around 3 hours... in mandarin. Don't ask me how because I can't speak a whit, but it was so fun! We got to know each other a bit and we talked about missions and why I learned Chinese, and then she asked if I could teach her during my stay here! Sadly she is not in my mission area, but I gave her information to other missionaries and pray she gets to talk to them. Then.... da da da daaa I arrived in Taiwan!!! Holy hotness. I sweat buckets. Literally. You could fill at least 4.6 buckets with my sweat, but I love it! We went through a little bit of training with the mission president and then went out to our first Taiwanese restaurant. The food was sooooo good. And weird. And gross. But mostly really really good. We tried heaps of things, but I was the only one brave enough to try some yummy duck brain. It was a little sqeaky. We then went and Dan Jones'd it up. That means we stood on top of a box, holding a Book of Mormon, and shouted our testimony in the middle of a night market. It was crazy. Then we went out contacting tons of people in the area with our very poor Chinese. It was fun!!! I mean, I have known my Chinese was ehhhhh, but holy moly my understanding ability is practically in the negatives haha. Oh well, it will get there eventually! I was kind of expecting more people to know English, but hardly any do. One girl's name was Suchi, and she said that she had been looking for truth, searching for answers, and praying that preachers would come talk to her. Lo and behold, I walked up to her and we ended up talking for a long time and she is going to come to Church and start reading the Book of Mormon. I hope she follows through, but she is in other missionaries hands because I am in a different area. Speaking of new areas....... TA DAAA! I am now in Zhanghua!!! What a beautiful city. And even better than that, is my AMAZINGGGG companion!!! I seriously couldn't have been more lucky. Her name is Sister Wainright, from Idaho, has 4 sisters, 4 months left here, and works harder that I could have imagined. I love it!!! When I had my interview with President Bishop, I told him that I want to work really hard and do everything I can to help the Taiwanese people. Wei Jiemei (my companion) was my answer! Our first night together aka my first real night in Taiwan, our 2 lessons canceled, it was POURING rain, and the people we went to visit weren't there, and she just kept going! No discouragement, no complaining, we laughed and had a great time contacting and eventually met with a sister who is less active in our ward. We had a great lesson with her and she commited to come to sacrament meeting. Hen bang! (awesome) The next day (Saturday maybe? days run together haha) was really busy. We had a few lessons, 2 baptismal interviews, an missionary activity with the Youth of the 2nd ward (We are the only sisters here, so we are over 2 wards) and then FHE at the 1 ward Bishops house. K. The slightly unfortunate thing was that they were a little over an hour bikes ride apart. An hour. I'm in terrible shape. It's a zillion degrees literally. My companion never slows down (which I am actually really grateful for) And there are hills... I never thought I'd make it. I was praying the entireeeee time. Every time I thought I could not go any longer, a gust of wind would come, or we'd pass a store with AC and get a teeny feel of it, or we'd get a red light haha, or I'd get a little more energy, etc etc the list goes on! I knew I couldn't do it on my own and the Lord blessed me the whole way. It was such a boost to my testimony that the Lord helps us do hard things. The FHE was wonderful and I got to know the ward members more. Every bike ride since then has felt pretty easy and I'm so grateful for that longgg fast bike ride that will forever remind me of the Lord's hand in my life. Since we are over 2 wards, we have 6 hours of Church on sundays haha. Seems long, but it actually was really great! I introduced myself in both meetings and only a few people laughed at my Chinese :) haha. Mondays are my preparation days. We are going to go maidongxi (shopping) for food and some necessities like bike baskets, a new bag since mine is in pieces, etc. Fun fun!!!
Okay... We freeze our trash in the freezer. We have some friends that live with us aka cockaroaches and lizards. Neither are too bad though. We share the road on our bikes with cars and scooters and are alive ONLY because Heavenly Father protects us. People drive interestingly here... I want to call it crazy but there is some kind of unspoken organization to it that also makes sense. It's fun! The food is very different. My legs are covered in mosquito bites. They don't really have houses... lots of tall stacks of living spaces. We live in an apartment on the 4th floor because nobody else will live there (si is 4, si also means death, so they won't live there.) Chopsticks always. Umm what else. All the signs are in Chinese (duh, but I still want to mention it because it's really cool looking) We buy our food from little markets. The fruit is to die for, I see why Davido is a fruit snob haha. The people give you tons of stuff everywhere you go. Well my time is up. I shall write more from my tiny island next Monday. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT HERE AND COULD NOT BE HAPPIER!!! I'm working hard, we're doing all we can to build the kindgom, and love my companion! No complaints here. Honestly! I am going to try and send some pictures, so we'll see if that works. I love you all! Let me know how you're doing!!! LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!
Love, Sister Smart
No comments:
Post a Comment