April 1, 2013
Greetings one and all! I did indeed survive the 6.1 earthquake, so have no fear, more on that later! LAST WEEK WAS SO GREAT! And I took a pretty decent journal, one of the best journaling weeks of my mission. Turns out, all I need to do is write in crayon! Makes it way more fun and then I write in it every day. Let me give ya'll a few highlights. Monday was just normal p-day where we write our families, buy food, mail stuff, write a letter or two and then time is up haha, but its always nice. TUESDAY! Went to a great DTM from Elder James where we talked about asking good questions in order to help people. We then practiced teaching in ENGLISH and it was so awkward. I said the word "moreover" because I had to translate "erqie" back to the literal english... It was WEIRD. Another random fact: I was helping someone with their english and I spelled of "o-v" ........... I think I will fail school when I get back. Oh well! Anyways. Then we boiled 5 dozen eggs for our english party wednesday night... more on that in a moment.
Later we met with Zoey again! She'll be getting baptized here in a few weeks. She is the cutest girl and really loves what she's been learning. She lives at home by herself (some relatives live in the same apartment building) but is really lonely. Her mom lives in china and her dad lives in Heping a few hours away deep in the mountains. She only sees him once a month or so, so the knowledge of a perfect loving father in Heaven really has helped her. I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!! It's great. Wednesday we had the EARTHQUAKE!!! We live in a 4-man apartment with the Tanzi sisters. Sister Newman (tanzi sister) had just boiled her eggs for over an hour on accident, so the place smelled terrible. It was really funny. I had just gone into the kitchen to take a look at the exploded eggs when I saw the washer and dryer start to move. My companion yells in the most monotone voice ever "earthquake" and I look around to see everything start to move. I start to laugh and dance around cause the floor is shaking and its way bigger than the earthquake we had last week. After a few seconds, it was still going and we could feel the building swaying a bit, so I smartened up and stood under a doorframe, don't worry mom. Then it was over and life was just fine! I then wrote about it in my journal. We finished up studies as normal and then headed out the door to go to Houli! We took the train there and then rented free bikes to go around and visit folks! Lots of people ended up not being home, but we left them little love notes. After several hours, we headed back home to prepare for the worlds greatest easter english class PARTY.
We started off the last movecall with 16 people coming to english, its been increasing every week and we had 45 people come to the party!!! It was so much fun! We started off in our regular classes where I taught about the weather and how to pronounce R's and L's (they sound the same here) then we talked about the earthquake for a bit. Then we all went upstairs and split into 2 groups. The first went into the kitchen to DYE EASTER EGGS! We had bowls of food coloring out, spoons, and 5 dozen boiled eggs. It was hilarious! Most of them had never done it before and they got a kick out of it. We also taught them english easter words while they did it. The other group played "Do you love your neighbor" for a while and then they switched! Then we took a picture all together. I'll try to attach one for you to see. After it was over, nobody wanted to leave. Most the people all stayed and helped us clean up and we got to know everyone a lot better. So all in all, a great success.
Thursday morning we had one of the best lessons ever with Chen JM. She was baptized on Christmas and has a lot of family struggles. She's been having a really hard time lately but wasn't opening up a ton because I'm new here. Sister Burrows had found a general conference talk and printed it off for her that morning but we weren't sure whether it would really fit her or not. We've been praying that she would be able to trust and open up to us so we could better help her, and our prayers were answered. We asked how things had been and she answered with the normal "hai keyi" which means like, yeahh I can still do it. Then... we waited. A few seconds later she broke down and told us everything. Turns out that talk was exactly what she needed, and what the Lord wanted us to share with her. She was so touched. We all felt the spirit so strongly, and Sister Burrows shared the story of how her brother passed away on his mission, and how the Lord helped her and her family overcome that trial. I know that experience is extremely tender to my companion, and sharing it was not easy. However, it brought such a sweet but powerful spirit and testimony that the Lord gives us the strength we need to overcome difficult things. It was one of the most wonderful lessons I have ever had the priviledge of being a small part of. I love this work more than anything. She then gave us super sparkly rain shoes that are really cute that she bought for us a few weeks ago, which I am wearing right now since there is a huge storm outside.
That night we had our first ukulele class here in Fengyuan! A few girls asked me to teach them a little bit after I brought it to english class one night. It was so much fun. We talked about prayer, learned a few chords, helped them play some, and had a grand old time! While we were headed home, it was pouring rain. We were almost to Tianxin road when we see a scooter lying on the ground. Not a second later we see the BODY LAYING ON THE GROUND! We pull over immediately and run over there to see whats up. Everyone kept passing us, cause it was pouring rain, but we couldn't help but stop! Especially when Sister Burrows is a beast in first aid cause that's her major. We get to him and realize he is badly hurt. I start talking to him to make sure he's still awake and doesn't go into shock, while Sister Burrows looks at him. A man had stopped and called 119 (911 here) and pulled his car in front of the lane so nobody would hit us or the man. Don't worry, we know about laws and stuff so we didn't do anything risky or that could get us sued. My companion would tell me what questions to ask him (her chinese is still in the works) and then I would talk to him. The ambulance then came and took him to the hospital. We told them all we knew and then went home. We hope he's okay now, and pray for him daily. Talk about crazy!!!
Speaking of crazy, Saturday, we were at the chapel waiting for a friend to come when this crazy woman with schizophrenia walks in. She starts telling us that she's actually french on the inside and then starts writing nonsensical english letters on the board. Then she started singing and pulling sheets out of her backpack, and started tying them around her like dresses. Eventually she started yelling and freaking out. I didn't know what to do so I did the first thing that popped into my head! I started singing a hymn. Hahaha don't laugh! I know its cheesy, but it worked. She stopped, listened, attempted to sing with us, and then said she needed to go and walked home. It was really random. We had lots of other great things that happened but my time is almost up. I'm sorry, but I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. I'm so grateful for easter and the meaning behind it. I know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us more than we can imagine. He will always be there to strengthen us and guide us.
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