1) Did you have a good day on your
birthday? Did you get my birthday card to you? Did you feel of my
love for you? Did you get Regan's card? Did you get cards from many
people? I had a great birthday.
I haven't gotten any cards except the one that Reed sent me and the one
Kara's mom sent me....
2). Have you been more opinionated
this week? Heeheeehee! I've
tried to be. But yeah, I don't like being opinionated, it makes me grumpy
when I don't get my way. I kind of don't understand this...
3). Did you talk to President
Blickenstaff about your release date? No...
I probably should do that....
4) Any members invite you and
your companion to dinner? You guys don't seem to get as many dinner
appointments as some other missions. Nope.
Yeah, Taiwan missions don't really get fed often.
5). How many investigators do you now
have? How many people average attend sacrament meeting? Uh.... it's not a happy number, a lot of them
have yet to come back.
.JPG) |
| Budda Fruit |
6) Are the New Year celebrations how
over? Did you ever end up anything unusual for New Years? I got a
picture of my fruit. I'll try and upload.
7). Were you able to get some cute outfits
for your birthday? Nope. but I got
a cute bag that is designed with pictures from England.... heehee
8). Have the distance you have to bike
reduced drastically? How about the traffic? Is it much worse?
Are you adjusting to the change well?
Yeah, not really. We get lost, and we ride back and forth a lot.
Traffic is fine. I miss my bigger area though.
9). How is your toe healing?
Good, I don't think I'll even lose the
nail, since there wasn't too much pressure from blood, since a lot of it bled
out. Only half the nail is purple and it doesn't
hurt. I can run. :D
*********************
Hello Mum and all the
fantastic people in this world (yes, you are all fantastic-stop being so
humble),
Well, this week was
pretty "bei-bai"- Taiwanese for "bu cuo" in Chinese- which
directly translated into English means "not bad" which means it was
GOOD! Yay! Well, for all of those who know me, you may have noticed that
it was MY
BIRTHDAY! Isn't
that weird? I am now 20 years old, which means I would still not be
eligible to serve a mission in the good’ olé days when the mission age
requirement for sisters was 21. In fact, it's so weird to think that by
time I get back, I'll still be 20! People keep joking that I'm getting
sooo old, but I still feel so young....
Anyways....it was
also the end of Chinese New Year, Sister Kara Ann Beckstead's Birthday,
Abraham Lincoln's Birthday, Charles Darwin's Birthday, the Death day
of the 9 Day Queen (Jane Grey?) and it was also Valentine’s Day. So Happy
New Year! Happy birthday! And... um...(death day's aren't really happy
so...)... Happy Valentine’s Day!
So, as to my
birthday, I am so grateful for my companion, who really went all out. She
kept surprising me with treats and cards that I don't even know how she got a
hold of, since we were together 24/7. Pretty sure she got the help of a
really cute member named Guan Tin. I need to do something to thank them.
Anyways, it was super great. And I also bought myself some treats,
before I knew she got me treats so... there goes my plans for not eating
treats.... haha! I'll try and upload some pictures. I still don't know if
I trust these computers, but it hasn't harmed any of the other missionaries SD
cards... so....
 |
| Sister Park & Sister Peng |
Anyways, a word
to describe the rest of this week would be: COLD. It was COLD
in Taiwan. Like, I wore my trench coat thing (which reminds me of
Sherlock Holmes and I was still cold. Sister Park, being from
Korea, refrained from wearing anything thicker than a sweater... so she was
cold.... even though she said she wasn't going to be.
As to actual
missionary work... well... yeah, it's been a bit rough. Still praying
that our investigators come back soon, so I can actually meet them. We
did meet with our investigator who goes by the English name Eileen. She
is so awesome! I really think she will get baptized though, we
might have to refer her back to the sister missionaries
who referred her to us, since, even though she lives in Tainan during
the weekend (she takes care of her parents) she can't come to our church
because of the time (she volunteers on Sunday Morning) and since the church
that is close to her actual home starts at a later time, it's
more convenient for her to go back... so.... Ah well, as long as she
gets baptized and is converted, I'll be happy because I know she'll
be closer to the Lord.
We also met with
Huang JM who is our investigator and is the wife of our ward's mission
coordinator. She is awesome and will for sure be baptized in
March (she will be baptized by her son who is currently serving in Taipei,
but he has permission to come home for a day to baptize her!). Her faith
is so strong! Yay! And she is the only person in her family who
isn't a member, so after she is baptized, they can prepare to be sealed
together forever as a family!
We've been working a
lot with Less Actives, since this area has a TON. Though, most of them
still refuse to come to church. But we have three who have started coming
back in the period I've been here, so that's been fun. I especially love
a Su JM. She is so cute! She has a lisp! But she is so eager
to learn about Christ again. So awesome!
Oh, almost forgot, on
Sunday, we had our stake conference. It was exciting, because I noticed
that I understood pretty much everything! Also, it was a miracle that we even
got to the church, since it was a church neither me nor my companion had ever
gone to, and we had to bike there. We prayed that we would receive
guidance to be able to get their smoothly, and sure enough we ran into a member
who was going to stake conference, and was willing to lead us. Yay!
I kept thinking about how life really needs heavenly guidance in order
for us to reach our true destination, and it was cool that the first talk was
talking about how our scriptures are like our map back home to our Father in
Heaven.
So, during stake
conference a major topic was about member+missionary work. EVERY MEMBER IS A
MISSIONARY! That's something I didn't ever think about before I started
preparing for my mission. But did you know that one of
our baptismal covenants is that we will share the gospel with
those around us, so that they too can partake of the love and blessings that
come from the gospel? So reach out to those in need, you can either
straight out share with them, you can serve them, and then you can introduce
them to the missionaries. This is a work of Love! So share God's
Love through your own.
This week I compiled
a short list of interesting/weird things here that I've come across in
Taiwan....
- "Pudding
Burger American School"- I saw a billboard for this school. I
want to go! Perhaps they serve pudding and burgers every day to make the
students more "American" like.... Or they put pudding on
their burgers.....
- Tomatoes in
Honey bunches of Oats with Bananas- My companion says it's actually pretty
good.... uh....
- Tomatoes in
FRUIT SALADS. I know that tomatoes are really fruit... but I still
can't bring myself to eat them in my fruit salads.... even if they are good
for you....
- The English
translation of: Hot Dogs as "Submarine Burgers"
- English
translation mix up: It was a waffle cart that said :MUFFINS
- Ice-cream on
french bread- shared by my companion... actually not bad
- Chicken flavored EVERYTHING!
Like.... CHEETOS
- Walking your pet
rabbit down the street...
- Walking your pet ferrets down
the street.
Anyways, that pretty
much sums up my week.... Oh! I also ate a BURRITO! But it was interesting,
since inside had Indian curry flavored chicken.... and I ate it with some
Korean grilled veggies.. soo... I'm being very culturally diverse.
I hope you all have a
good week! Love you all! Thank you for your love and encouragement!
Until next time!
Sister Peng
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