11/24/14 ~ New Companionship

1). So, who is your companion?  Where is she from?  How old is she?  How long has she been out?  Do you have many things in common?

My companion, well, I'll write about her in my big email.  But her name is Sister Swan.  She's from St George. She is 21 she's been out for 9 months.  We are both missionaries, both have two eyes, both of us eat food... etc.

2). What are your plans for the day?  Umm... well, seeing as we are still lacking a bike for Sister Swan.... not much....  We can't really go anywhere...

3). Are you going to stay with this companion until you leave?  Would you affect by the next round transfers this coming week?

Probably, because she'll have to learn the area, and then she'll probably go senior companion here after I leave.  So, we'll probably get to be together for the next couple of weeks.

4) Are the investigators continuing to progress?  I loved the tea and tithing stories!  They made us laugh.

So far so good.  Update you in the big letter.

5). Did you get fed this week?

Umm... A member made noodles for us yesterday.... And a guy from single's ward gave me, and only me, spicy duck blood....

6) Any plans for Thanksgiving? MASHED POTATOES FROM IKEA!!!!!!!!!!!!  Oh, and Weekly planning...

7) Is the weather cooling down? Kind of?  I thought it was, but then it got hot again.

8). Did you get the thanksgiving card I sent?  Yup! Thanks!

9). How is your Taiwanese?  Can you understand it?  Wa ti a bo tai gee

10). Are you staying focused on the work?  Doing the best I can!  The lord has made me very busy, so that helps. :D

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Dearest Mum, Regan, and loved ones,

How does this beautiful bright and sunny winter day find you this morning?  Well, it's bright and sunny here.  Not even a hint of clouds.  I guess it's a bit different there in the states.  I mean, I've been hearing tales of snow and coldness.  Part of me forgets what's that is like.  Snow is like a dream once lived and since forgotten....  I'm sure once I get back it will be a cold sharp reality that will snap me back to my senses.  But right now I'll soak in the warmth of Taiwan.  Never thought I would be afraid of the cold... but now.... I'm always indecisive if I should bring a jacket when we go outside or not.

Anyways, this week’s highlights, well, as I mentioned Sister Thao was notified that she would move last week.  And last week, we were kind of hoping and praying that we would get a JK notice, and someone would tell us that she could stay.  But alas, on Wednesday morning we learned that she would be headed for the distant land of Gao Xiong, and would be leaving me for good on Friday.  It was something bittersweet for the both of us.  And only made better with the knowledge that we will still be able to see each other at the Christmas activity.  But we had been hoping that she would move to somewhere closer so that she could come up and visit when our investigator, Liu JM, gets baptized.... but seeing as she is so far away... I don't know what will happen....

So much of last week was spent with us meeting with people and Sister Thao having to say good bye to them.  She was sad she couldn't say good bye to Liu JM in person, since she was in YiLan, but at least she got to call her.  But on Friday, we took her up to the train station and went our separate ways.  Then I got to meet my new companion Sister Swan.  I actually got to know her when I was down in Tainan, we were in the same zone, and at that time she was being trained.  She is also from Utah, though she is from St George.  She is older than I am by a year, and she has been on island for 9 months.  She is really spiritual and easy going; which is good, since we've been going by foot for these last couple of days, waiting for her bike to be shipped up here.

Yes, walking has been an adventure, it's been kind of nice actually, though I constantly feel paranoid that we are going to get to places late.  But I guess there are missions in the world that are walking missions.  I'm just grateful that we normally have bikes.  I love biking.

So, as to investigators.  I mentioned Liu JM is getting baptized.  Her goal is on Dec 6th, and she is looking good on hitting it!  I even gave her the option of pushing it back a week, because this week and last week she keeps having to go back to her home in YiLan, which makes it so she has less time to meet with us, but we've been giving her a crash course on the missionary lessons and she is loving it!  When asked why she wanted to get baptized, she replied that she has been feeling that that's just what she should do.  She said that actually, when we shared about baptism a couple of weeks ago, she kept feeling like she was going to tear up, though at the time she didn't know why.  I love Liu JM so much!  And I believe that she would be a strong addition to our ward here in Nantun.  I am so grateful the Lord let me get to know her.  

Her baptismal interview is on this Wednesday, so we are super excited!  Keep praying for her! Thank you all for your support!

Also, Xu JM isn't doing badly either.  Her goal is coming up quick as well, though if she doesn't hit it it's okay, she takes a bit more time to absorb it all.  She really likes the Plan of Salvation though.  And we had a really good lesson with her and the two members who helped pei ke.  We checked to see what she felt about her baptismal date, and she said she still feels good about it, so if she wants to actually hit it, we'll have to start meeting with her quite often in the next few weeks.  But she said she is willing to do that as well. So, we'll see how things work out.

Yesterday at church was fun.  It was the primary program in the Nantun ward, which ended up being pretty similar to all the other primary program I've ever seen.  The kids are so cute! Though some of them yell-sing in their enthusiasm.  Their teachers and parents did a good job in preparing the kids.  I can bet it wasn't easy, but their hard work paid off.  Everyone was in smiles, and I don't think anyone fell asleep in the midst of all the cuteness.  There was one little boy, upon getting up at the pulpit, who took a long look over the congregation, pulled his notes out of his shirt pocket like a professional, and then started to read his talk at a very slow and careful pace.  Everyone was trying to refrain from laughing.  It was so cute!

Hmm.... well, anything else.... I can't think of anything.... This email is short, but that's okay, because I need to do some things in preparation for my finishing my mission.... they want us to send in a whole bunch of reflection things such as our talk, a miracle story and pictures..... It’s making me stressed, because I keep wanting to push it back....  I still have a ton of time here! A lot can happen in three weeks!  Sigh.... So much to do, so little time....

Well, this week, I just want to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!  May your heart be full of gratitude and your stomachs full of turkey!  Don't forget the things you are grateful for, always count your blessings, and you will find that the Lord will bless you even more.  

I love you all!  May you be safe and blessed during this winter season.  Until next time!

Love, Sister Nicholle Peng

11/17/14 ~ And They Fed Her...And Fed Her...And Fed Her.....

1). Plans for your P-Day?  I think you ought to sort out your stuff and get rid of anything that looks old and ragged and the go out and shop for things you want to bring home. 

  No p-day today.... This Friday is a "move day" since we got new missionaries coming in.  So they took away our p=day.  We are sad. And tired. And out of food... so pretty much we only had one p-day for two weeks....

2). Are the investigators still going strong?  Are they progressing toward their individual baptism goals?

So, we are down to only three goals now, since we dropped two of them.  But I am really feeling like we'll at least have one baptism coming up in the next couple of weeks.  It's Liu JM, she is AWESOME!!!!

3). Anyone feed you this week?  You know, it doesn't sound like Nantun is a great place for yummy food since I have heard much about yummy stuff that you have eaten. 

We got fed sooo much last week.  I don't know why everyone just decided to take us missionaries out last week but I gained like 2-3 lbs... grrrrr.... Normally we struggle just getting 2 or 3 member visits, but this week we had 5, and all of them invited us over, we didn't even have the chance to ask around to see who we could visit.

4). What is your greatest area of growth while you have been in Nantun?  What is the reason The Lord had President BliAnkenstaff place you there?

I just feel like this is the place I needed to be, especially for my Companion.  I love her so much!  I think I have tried my best to make her a stronger missionary.  I may not have been able to trained, but she says that she learned more from me than she did from her trainer.

5). What should We include in our prayers for you beside for the progression of your investigators?

That's about it.  We are doing good... Oh, pray that my next companion and I will have a great relationship as well....

Dearest Mum, Regan and Loved Ones,

Well, I've reached the scary moment when I realize I only have a month left here...  For some reason, the transition from going to 5 weeks left to 4 weeks left seems so big... Probably because everyone keeps telling me that I only have 4 weeks left... I received my envelope of things that I need to prepare and do before I leave... And then, the rest of these four weeks all have big activities and changes that is going to make the time go by even faster...

So, I counted, and this move call is going to have 4 move days.  The first one was on the first Monday of the move call, where only a hand full of people moved or went home.  The second is coming up this Friday, because tomorrow, a group of 18 missionaries will be getting on island and we all need to switch around to make room for them.  And then the week after on Wednesday we are expecting another group of 18 missionaries to come on island so there will probably be another move day so those missionaries will have places to go.  And then, a week before the move call ends, on Dec 15 (Mon) there will have to be another move day, since that's when my group leaves.  This is the most messed up transfer that I've encountered in my mission as of yet.

Anyways, so this week, Sister Thao will be leaving to go somewhere else... they haven't told us where yet.  We are so sad.  We don't want her to leave.  I wanted her to "kill" me (be my last companion as I end my mission.).  There are so many things we wanted to do with each other, but didn't have the chance.  And now, since today isn't p-day for us we don't even get to have a last fun day together...  Here is another lesson of never waiting to do things... just do them when you have the chance!  Anyways, every companionship in our district will be changing, since we will all have missionaries moving.

So last week was interesting.  We kept being "qinged" out by members who wanted us to eat with them.  We first ate with Wang JM, who is amazing! I absolutely love her, but she is going to China for a bit, so I am going to miss her.  She took us out because it was her birthday.  Cuz that makes sense, we should have been the ones "qing-ing" her out... ah well.. We did get her yummy chocolates. :)  But then she gave us this Essential Oil from Doterra (everyone here uses that brand, which was actually created by a member from our church and is based in SLC).  The oil is supposed to keep us from getting sick.  But I just like it because it smells like Christmas.  It's cinnamon based.  So yummy smelling!  And then we also met with Lin JM who pretty much shared her spiritual thought with us, and gave us very yummy red bean soup.  And then we met with Cai JM who wanted to go and eat Vietnamese food with her, and then she got really excited about the options that she ordered WAY too much food...  She's a ward missionary, and she is so awesome.  Then a You JM was having a bad day... so she did what made sense to her and invited us sisters to go and eat with her.  She loves the missionaries, and honestly, she is a lifesaver for us! She is a great pei ke and she often times can give us rides to stake activities (such as conference and such).  And then, last, but not least, Chen Family invited us over for dinner on Sunday.  They all made sooooo much food! And kept making us eat more! It was like a Chinese thanksgiving, since while we were eating, us missionaries gave a spiritual thought on gratitude and everyone shared what they were grateful for.  So yes, the members here do love us.  They are just busy.  I don't know what happened this week, but hopefully we'll be able to have more chances to meet with members next week.  We just need to tell them they don't have to feed us... we are getting fat... :P

Oh! And then I forgot that we got fed by this investigator named Xu Bao Zhen.  She's a funny lady.  Not to be confused with the other Xu that has a baptismal date.  We don't know why she keeps wanting to come over.  She doesn't really listen to what we have to share with her... Or so we thought... She just gives us tea (flower tea or fruit tea) and makes us eat food... a lot of food...  She also wants us to help her translate for the people that she randomly finds on the internet and strikes up conversations with.... she's lonely... Anyways, we asked her what religion she considers herself having, and she's like, well, I'm Mormon of course, like you!  And we just laughed, because she doesn't really know anything about the church.  Then the conversation turned to the matter of Tea, since she sells tea and other health things, and I asked her what kind of tea she has been drinking.  And she replied that she has been only drinking flower and fruit tea, because she knows that our church doesn't drink tea leaf tea or coffee.  So apparently, out of everything we've had the chance to share with her despite her rambling, she has learned the Word of Wisdom, and decided to start keeping it.  So cute! We were thinking about dropping her... but maybe we'll give her another chance..... Not really sure, she kind of confuses us...

We also met with Wei JM, another investigator who is pretty much golden.  Just busy... Sigh... She progresses, but she can only meet once every two weeks.  She is studying public health and sanitation laws, and has pretty much shut everything fun out of her life until her test which is next month.  But every time we teach the gospel to her, she just gets it, and she is keeping commitments except for church, which we are trying to work on... her mom just gets mad at her every time she comes or is about to come...

What else happened this week... hmm... Oh, it's cooler and it has started raining....  So winter is finally here!

We've met some cool people on the roads lately, so hopefully something will come of that...

We also had stake conference!  They talked about tithing and true conversion.  It was kind of hard to keep up with everything everyone was saying, but I did enjoy a few talks given by a few youth about tithing.  There was also a story shared about a woman who told her bishop that not only does she pay her tithing, but so does her nonmember husband.  The bishop asked her how was it possible that her husband would be willing to pay, seeing as he doesn't have to.  She replied that when he was sleeping she would help him pay it by taking money from his pockets.  She said that she was helping him receive the blessings from tithing....  Not sure that it works that way, but it was a funny story.  They had a member from the 70 there.  I don't know his name in English...  He was Taiwanese though.

Well, that's about it I think.  Sister Thao and I are planning on making this the best week ever, since it's our last.  So sad...  But I know that she'll do great wherever she goes.

I love you all, hope you have a good week!  Until next time!

Love, Sister Nicholle Peng