New Companion, New Adventures!

* In your humble opinion, what is the best thing about being a missionary?

Learning just how much the gospel has blessed my life. :)

* What food do miss eating the most?

Mexican food. Haha! Sounds funny, since in Mexico they eat Chinese food....  Oh! And Pero! I like Pero.... But they don't have that here..

* How are the mosquito bites healing? It looked most terrible and unpleasant! 

My legs looked diseased. And I keep getting new ones... so yeah... Thank goodness for chinese menthol medicinal ointment things and essential oils!

Hello! Como Estas? Ni Hao ma? 

Well, this week has been a fun, exciting, tiring one!  And I bet you guys are just dying to know why.  Haha!  Sometimes I just try to imagine all of you reading this, and then it makes me feel a bit embarrassed because sometimes these are a bit random.  I just write what comes to mind. I probably should have more organization, like what I used to do in the MTC, but that's boring. Haha!  I write as directed by my train of thoughts.  And sometimes that train kind of takes a weird course or crashes.... Anyways, enough of that tangent....

So, I have a new companion!!!!  Welcome to Ping Dong, Sister Schultz!  We've only spent a week as companions, but a week is long enough to know that this move call is going to be AWESOME! We get along super great, and we even have a bit of the same sense of humor and personality. :)  So, Sister Schultz is from Oregon (Which pretty much makes her awesome, just from association), she's almost 22, she comes from a family of 7, and she's super spiritual.  She'll be senior companion, which right now, doesn't really mean anything because she doesn't really know much about this area.  I've been having to kind of lead us through the work here, which has been pretty okay, though a little xin ku (hard/tough).  It really makes me appreciate all that Sister Liu had to do. 

Anyways, we've had a ton of fun this week.  We've decided that we are going to make this move call productive, spiritual and fun.  And so far, I think we've been doing pretty good. :)  It's funny how your mission experience really changes with a different companion.  Every missionary has different strengths, which I think is why they get sent to their different areas.  Every area needs a specific missionary to help them have miracles.  I really think Sister Schultz and I will see a lot of miracles here in Ping Dong. :)

So one of the experiences I had this week ties in really nicely with an article in the Liahona/Ensign by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf titled Walking in Circles

.  This week, on Wednesday, we went to go and find a less active member which my previous companion, Sister Liu, had set up an appointment with at her house.  I've been to this LA's house twice before, both a long time ago, and both using different routes.  So, I couldn't for the life of me think of where I needed to go to get to this person's house.  Sure, I had a map, that's all in Chinese, and sure I was trying my best to kick start my memory....  But I couldn't find where we wanted to go.  Sister Schultz and I ended up biking round and round the city.... for three hours before we found where we needed to go, which by then, it was too late to meet with the less active member. 

In President Uchtdorf's talk he talks about the saying that when people are lost, they tend to go in circles.  We need to have landmarks in our life, or things to guide us to where we want to go.  One of these aids that we have in our lives is the Scriptures.  The scriptures outline the basic path we need to take to get back to Heavenly Father.

On my adventure this week, my map was comparable to the scriptures.  It mapped out the streets, and though it was a bit confusing, and hard to translate and figure out, it got us to where we needed to go.  Just like when reading scriptures, we have to take time and ponder and think of how we can use them in our lives.

Thankfully, the Lord has also given us another help guide to getting through this life.  And that's through living, modern day prophets and apostles.  Prophets and apostles help us know what we need to do now, in our day, point blank.  They help us interpret the scriptures, so that we can apply them to our lives.  They give us modern day guidance from Heavenly Father.  They help us and act as guides, shining their lights towards the path Christ would have us take.

In my adventure, I could have really used a guide.  It would have made finding the house of the less active member sooo much easier.  Sure, I could ask people on the street where I needed to go, but many times they were just as confused.  I didn't have anyone who really knew, who could guide me and my companion.  So we were lost, very very lost.

Listen to the Lord's guidance in your life, from scriptures, from the leaders of the Church who he has called, from the Holy Ghost.  Be faithful, and keep moving forward, and I promise that you will be able to make it to the end, having gained experiences and knowledge from your earthly journey.

Another cool thing this week.  We had 5 investigators come to church!  That's like more than I've had in the last 4 weeks combined! Yay!  They only stayed for sacrament, for the most part, but that's okay.  At least three of them will continue coming back. Happy Day!  The Lord is really helping us in this work!  Getting people to church is very important.  Church is the Lord's house.  They can more clearly feel of his love there, and they can learn more of his teachings.  Go to church! All three hours! It's all important!

Fun things this week:

I noticed my first earthquake!  I used the word "noticed", because Taiwan gets a lot of small earthquakes apparently.  Most of the natives don't really notice them.  And you wouldn't notice them unless you are sitting still, or standing there.  I just noticed because Sister Schultz pointed it out.  We were outside, and our bikes were moving, without anyone touching them, and it felt like we were on a cruise ship.

We ended last week with a bang!   There were fireworks literally outside our apartment.  So cool! And they lasted for a good 30 minutes or so.  There is always fireworks here... so, it's not so special to the natives, but we wai guo ren (foreigners) rather appreciate them. :)

I need to wrap this up, since I still need to write my mission president.  Love typing as usual, as you can see.  I hope you are all doing well! Jia You! Be Awesome! Endure to the End! Fear Not!

Love,
Sister Nicholle Peng