July 9, 2012
It's that special time of the week, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, it's email time! It's that wondrous occasion when lucky folks get to hear about Sister Smart's adventures on her little island called Taiwan! Haha I realized I forgot to mention some key things about this neat place. Here's a few random tidbits... We can't flush toilet paper. We can't drink the water unless it's from a trusted filter aka our house and the church. Our washer and dryer are outside. We take off our shoes and leave them outside before we go into any house, including our own. No AC in our apartment except for in our bedroom while we sleep (such a blessing). The garbage trucks SING! Really. They play the same song over and over again REALLY loud and when the people hear the song, they come out and toss their garbage in the back of the truck. My companion tricked me the first time and told me it was ice cream truck... False. It was garbage. Oh well, still makes me laugh everytime I hear it. Most the toilets are holes in the floor called squatters. Our house and a few stalls at the church have normal ones, but the rest are the squatters.
I didn't know that Davido and Trevor served here, but that's cool! Is Mary Gibson's maiden name Burnham? I was going through the area book to check on some things and I came across her name on some baptism forms. Perhaps she sat right where I do a few years ago. Also, I have my bike! I got it last week and it is trusty as can be! We have to spray paint it today and grunge it up so it won't get stolen. I always lock it though, but still just in case. The bike works great! It now has a basket and box on the back so I can efficiently do heaps of missionary work. The clothes I have are good... but now that I'm here I'm realizing I need a few more shirts that are better for the weather here. It's blazing hot and we sweat SO much haha. Speaking of sweat, let me tell you about some of the food I tried in the last week. Everyday we try something new so I can try to get accustomed to it quicker. Sooo.... Mixie and choudofu... If you are like me and are not yet fluent in Chinese, let me tell you what I learned these were AFTER my companion had me eat them. Pigs blood rice. Stinky tofu. Yep. I ate that. I wish I could say they were not that bad, but no... they were that bad. Haha really really gross foods. We were in the presence of a member though who had just purchased them for us though so guess who sucked it up and just ate it. Yeah... hopefully that will never happen again, but I have a feeling it will. The fruit really does taste different here! There are some kinds that I have not yet learned to appreciate... but the rest are super super good. That's what I eat for breakfast every morning. The 2 best things I've had so far is a seaweed wrap type thing (that was in the picture last week) and MANGO ICE. Oh my gosh. I want to eat it everyday (thank goodness I have a frugal companion who keeps me in line). I have a feeling it won't be too long before I eat it again though. I am getting used-ish to the foods, but still got some ways to go. I like simple simple food. Here is is very spiced and random extras are ALWAYS added. I will soon learn to love it all I'm sure.
Question answer time-Those first few days in Taiwan, we stayed in Taizhong for a day and a half with President Bishop and his wife. We did trainings there and went over mission goals and rules. The next day we went with our trainers and have been in Zhonghua since! We jumped right into the work and have been living the normal missionary life. They asked me if I knew them and I told them they were my grandparents. Then Elder Liston said he knew dad from Springville as well! Do you remember him dad? Ron Liston... Craig liston... one of those two, I can't remember. My MTC companions are both serving in Taizhong but in different areas, I'm not sure which ones. We do our own laundry. We have an elevator to get to our floor. I woke up to a spider in front of my face yesterday, so lizards, cockaroaches, and spiders are all our "friends." We have not yet learned to appreciate them yet haha. Bummer than you weren't able to have fireworks this year!!! I hope you still had a great 4th of July though. We celebrated it in the morning before we left our apartment by singing America the Beautiful and reciting the Pledge of allegience to our little American Flags. At English Class (we teach a free english class every wednesday for anyone who wants to come) we taught them 4th of July type words and then ate SMORES! It was glorious. Well I wish I had more time but we must be off to go grocery shopping and such. I will write more next week! I love being a missionary here. We get to tell families they can be together forever and then teach them how. It's a wonderful feeling and I feel so blessed to be here right now. We have some new investigators that we will be teaching this week so I'll let you know how that goes. I love you all! I miss you and pray for you everyday.
Love, Sister Smart
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