10/5/14 ~ New city, new adventures

1). Plans for the day?

Not sure.  We may go exploring.  This area has Costco and Ikea!

2). Best thing about Nantun thus far? Are you close to church?  Mission home?

I don't know... My companion!  We live like 3 minutes away from the church biking.  We live about 20-30 minutes away from the mission home biking.

3). Best thing about your companion.  How long has she been out, how old is she, etc.

My companion is super chill and she has a lot of faith!  She has been out for three months (This is her third move call.  I am her 2nd companion).  She is 22 years old.  She is Mong.  She is awesome! She is shorter than me!  She is a convert- baptized when she was 17.

4). Tell me about your apartment.  Floor?  Size?  Comfy Bed? Etc...

Floor... tile.  Size, pretty good, not too small.... I love my bed. I wish we had better mirrors... we only have two.  in the bathrooms... so I don't know if my outfits look good when I get ready in the morning...

5). Many investigators and LAs to teach?  How large is each ward?  Are they friendly and welcoming?

Not very many.  The branch is small.  The ward is like 40 people.  They are all lovely.

6). Does it feel different being in an YSA ward?

A little bit.  A lot quieter.  No kids running around

7). How large is your area?  Lots of biking?

I don't know exactly.  It's pretty decently sized.  We haven't gone too far yet.

8). Good food in Nantun?  What are they known for? Anyone feeding you?
Yeah, pretty good.  Not sure what they are known for.  A lady fed us noodles and cheese cake (You JM)

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Dearest Mum, Regan, and Loved Ones,

Wow, another week has gone by.  Though, to me, this week feels like it went by slower than normal... probably because I'm trying to get used to it here.  I normally take a while to adapt to a new area and new people unfortunately... and with the sudden move, my head is trying to reboot to clear up some space for new memory.  So far, I think I'm going to like it here in Taizhong's Nantun.  It's apparently a pretty good sized area, and much of it has that "big city" feel.  I'm still trying to get used to cities.  They seem to intimidate me more.  But there are people everywhere, so I guess it's the missionary's dream.  I just feel like I am continually lost, because right now, everything looks the same to me.  I keep trying to "lead" when we are biking, but I just seem to get all turned around.  Ah well...  My other areas felt like they were easier to learn... but this will be an exciting challenge.

So, as for Nantun, it's really fun because we have Costco in our area, as well as Ikea.  The Church building we use is in our area, and it's a really pretty chapel.  The ward seems pretty nice, though it's hard to get people who can help us with our lessons because most of them have work or families and just don't seem to have the time.  But they are very good at making people, such as our investigators or LA's feel very welcome when coming to church.   I am excited to get to know more members.  Though, right now I'm struggling with learning their names.  I want to learn their full names, because there are like 50 people with the last name of Chen etc....  Oh, and then I also have both the branch and the ward, so there are even more people for me to get to know.  The Singles Branch is all the singles in Taizhong and the surrounding areas.  So many of them don't even live in our area.

My Companion is great.  I love Sister Thao! She is so cute!  She is 22, so she is older than me, and she has been on island for two transfers.  She and I have pretty similar personalities, and points of view, so we've gotten along great so far.  We keep expressing how great it is to talk to someone who understands! Haha!  Especially since her Trainer was Sister Park and I was also companions with Sister Park, so we had some similar experiences to relate about.  She is a stellar missionary! She isn't afraid to contact anyone, and you can tell the ward loves her.

So, where do I start...? Perhaps I'll just share a few experiences thus far... seeing as most of what we have been doing is finding... we are lacking investigators and less actives who are willing to meet with us.  Also, we have suddenly found ourselves blending in very well, as opposed to when you have companions who obviously look foreign, so people are always staring at them or wanting to speak to them.  Like with Sister Park, everyone wants to talk to her, because she is obviously Korean and Korean Drama TV shows are very "in style" right now.  Everyone wants to learn Korean.  And then with Sister Berrey, she had gorgeous red hair, like in Brave, and white skin, so people were always staring.  When both of us look Taiwanese, everyone seems to ignore us... its okay, we are working on being more bold and friendly, so we obviously are different.  We want people to know we are representatives of Christ, and that we have something different that can change their lives.

Oh! We have a cute investigator named Maggie! She is 13, and her mom is a convert, who just moved here from MiaoLi.  We taught her the plan of salvation, and we had a member, Sister An, help.  Sister An (An JM) was very motherly to her, which is good.  Since her own mother is always busy with work and doesn't really have time for her.  An JM as well as a Qiu JM have decided to take this family under their wings, and even got Maggie to come to church.  She was very warmly welcomed by the ward, for which we are grateful.  She seemed to be happy and so curious about everything.  We are planning time to go and play basketball with her, since she likes basketball.  I really do like her, and hope we can become great friends, and hope we can help her find friends in the Church, since she doesn't really have any due to her being new in the area.

We also have an investigator named Emma.  She is so good as well!  She is a mom of a 10 month old and really wants the gospel to be a part of her life as well as the life of her son.  She has a baptismal goal for her birthday 12/6 but we are hoping to get her to move up the goal, so it's not so far away.  She was at church this Sunday and she was just like all the other members! She even shared what she thought and learned in the lesson.  Yay!  She is going to be a great member!

Hmm... Who else... Oh, on Monday I got to attend the Single's ward FHE.  That was fun.  They were all so funny, and we played signs as well as this other animal clapping game thing.  So weird being in the Single's branch.  It's a little bit like being back in college again with the YSA ward...

This week’s English class was pretty okay as well.  There were like 25 kids in a small room, but they all seemed to just sit and listen and obey.  I was worried it was going to be crazy, but it seemed to go alright.  I think I'm pretty much going to just stick with teaching kids in English, seeing as I don't believe my teaching skills and language ability are suitable for the adults and the Advanced classes.  Hahaha! My English is getting worse....

So I don't know really what else I should report... nothing really exciting... just same old missionary work.  I really am praying for some miracles, seeing as this area doesn't really have much investigators...  I've never ran into so many Christians while contacting before! In country areas, more of the people are Buddhist or Taoist... but here most of our people are Christians.  Teaching is different.... sometimes harder.... but I'm sure God has it all worked out.

I am so excited to watch conference this weekend! I know that you guys got to watch it already... Not fair! Haha! But I am so excited! How blessed are we to be able to hear from the Prophet and apostles of Christ!

I love you all!  May you all be blessed!

Love, Sister Nicholle Peng