Sister Peng Survived Typhoon Usagi! A/K/A "The worst storm this year on the planet"

Due to the news report of the "biggest storm on the planet this year", Typhoon Usagi, my question to Sister Peng was:

Are their any damages to your apartment from the typhoon?  The "typhoon" didn't do anything... like ANYTHING.  And we live on the 13 floor, so it's impossible for us to flood, since God promised Noah that he wouldn't flood the entire earth.

Dearest Mother and everyone else who is cool enough to read these updates,

How are you?  I'm good.  Frustrated.  I've changed computers twice since the computers here keep freezing... grrr....  Time is of great value!  Especially email time!  It's like my favorite time of the week.  Probably shouldn't be, but I'm not the perfect missionary.... Anyways, I just love people too much.  Especially people I love... If that makes sense.  I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Wow, time really moves quickly... or slowly... or all of the above.  I still feel like I'm in some sort of time paradox or something.  I think when you are tired, time always moves in a weird fashion...  Anyways.... This is the last week of September!  That is so weird!!!  It feels like it was just August.  I would say that it feels like it was just June, but I don't really remember much of MTC life.  It seems like a life time away....

Anyways, apparently the biggest typhoon of the year hit Taiwan this week.  I don't know, I wouldn't have known it was the biggest typhoon of the year without people telling me that it was...  Everyone was freaking out about it, canceling lessons with us, canceling schools and work... yeah... We pretty much got a sprinkling of rain and a bit of a breeze here in Ping Dong.  I've seen worse rain storms in Utah...  And I've definitely been through worse storms here.  So yeah, don't worry about us, because nothing really happened.  We haven't gotten too much rain lately.  I've managed to stay mostly dry.  Last Monday was when we had rain, and even then it wasn't bad, since most of it happened while we were in Carrefour, which is a large large large store thing that has like 5 levels of randomness stuff.  It's like our Walmart, only Taiwan style.  Yup, 24 hours of fun! Every Day!  Only not for missionaries... we only get Mondays... Yup!  Carrefour is where we normally buy our food stuff for the week, and any other thing we think we need.

This week was also the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival! So happy holiday!  I don't really know much about the holiday, save the fact that everyone goes crazy for moon cakes, bbq, and saying how round the moon is.  Yup.  We were mostly on the Moon Cake receiving end of this holiday.  I never imagined how many different moon cakes there were.  I've had everything from ice cream to mushrooms.  The most exciting thing is that no one really tells me what's in them.  They just tell me to eat.  I've liked all of them so far.... except the mushroom... that was weird... it was a green been moon cake with mushrooms in the middle... weird weird weird...  Everything else was yummy! Especially the ice cream one.  I actually just ate some moon cake today for a snack.  We had Taro moon cake with mochi.

Yum!!!!  So yup! Happy Mid-Autumn Moon Festival!  Oh, we also did some "bbq" we went to a hot pot place and ate ourselves sick with the other missionaries, less actives, and investigators.  Yup.  I am NEVER eating that much again.  It was expensive though, so had to get the money's worth.... not really... bad decision... Happy Mid-Autumn Festival....!!!!  Oh, and the same day that we ate the hot pot we were invited to a members house to eat stuff as well.  That was pretty okay.  Interesting... but okay.  We didn't really get full though, so Liu JM and I went to get mango ice.  Yum!  That day was a lot of food.  Never again... but it was very yummy!

Talking about food, on Friday, Liu JM and I went to a Taiwanese restaurant thing for dinner, since we were super busy.  So we both got bowls of rice and meat and we each ordered a soup.  Since I had no idea what things were, Liu JM decided to order me an ancient Taiwanese soup called Fuo Tiao Chang.... Which translates to Buddist Jump Wall.  That soup pretty much is stuffed full of randomness.  It had taro, meat, bamboo, chestnuts, bird eggs, mushrooms, and a lot of stuff I’m not sure what they were... It's yummy, just a bit overwhelming.  I ended up having to bring home my left overs, in which they added even more soup (which was funny, because then it made it look like I didn't eat any of it.) Yum!

So, the reason why we were so busy on Friday was the fact that we went to a Zone Conference.  My First!  Zone conference is just a conference where we meet together as a whole bunch of missionaries, and the mission president and his wife talk to us.  This conference we talked about the steps of conversion, and what it means to repent.  The discussion on repentance was based around a talk called "The Meaning of Repentance" A great talk that talks about the true meaning of repentance.  Repentance in English has a somewhat heavy and a bit of a negative connotation.  People sometimes feel like repentance means sorrow, punishment, guilt.  But in the original writings of the Bible, written in Hebrew, they used the word shube, which means to turn back.  Repentance is a turning towards God.  It means that we turn away from our mistakes, our sins, and start doing the things the Lord wants us to do.  The word for repentance in Chinese is Hui Gai.  The character for "hui" is a combination of the heart radical and the radical for every day. "Gai" means to change.  The word represents everyday changing your heart.  Changing to follow the example of Christ.  Changing your life, so you can leave the darkness behind you and step towards the light.

This week, we had the chance to go with the elders to give a blessing to a lady who will be going in for surgery for breast cancer.  She is Buddhist, but her daughter's friend is LDS (she called us to go and give the blessing).  You could see the faith the lady had, and that she really could feel the spirit.  After the blessing, she was crying, and she was asking us why she was crying, and why her heart felt weird.  She was feeling a change.  She was feeling the impression of the Lord.  We didn't go there to preach the gospel.  Only to serve.  But I think that had even more power.  Service is better than words.  Action is stronger than speech.

So anyways, I'm running out of time...  Always running out of time....  One day, I'll have enough time to do things I want to do... Hahaha! Probably not!  Anyways, stay strong, be wonderful!  Come unto Christ!

Love, Sister Nicholle Peng

"I Don't Mind The Heat Anymore!

 My question for Sister Peng this week:

Are you doing well?  I got another email regarding the seriousness of depression in the mission field from the Missionary moms site so I wanted to be sure.

I'm doing well! Really! Don't worry about me!  Yeah, I know about depression, but I think I've got myself pretty well handled.  When I start feeling a little blue, I sing or I eat chocolate... Singing and biking is one of my favorite pass times.... My companion thinks I'm weird.  If you want to help, send me lyrics to some songs that I can memorize and sing.  The ones in my head are getting a bit repetitive.  Disney songs would be great.  I have a hymn book to... I love going to 7-11s and family marts... they have English music....  Yup!  I'm very music deprived!  Church music is okay and all, but I'm going crazy.

Sister Peng and her bike

Dearest Madre and other terrestrial and extraterrestrial beings,

How are all of you?  I hope all of you are doing well, and that you are all still alive.  It’s weird being on a mission, I feel so excluded from the rest of the world.  Especially since we can't watch the news, look at news online, and I can't read the newspapers.  Of course, the Lord probably wants me to focus on the people here in Taiwan, but it's hard not knowing about what's going on in America....  I'm sure you are all fine, and that God is watching out for you.  I just miss you all!

Cool fact:  I finished my first move call here in Taiwan!!!  Yay!  Now onto my second!  My companion is on her 12th.  She's old.  Just kidding! Haha! She's not that old. :D  She's just more experienced. :D  Anyways, time is still moving quickly.  We've been so lucky with the weather! No rain (or very little rain while we are indoors) for a whole two weeks!!!  I've decided I don't mind the heat anymore.  I'm used to it.  I will go back to Utah, and I'll hopefully be grateful for all the extremes of weather we get there.  Taiwan has really flipped my perspectives about weather... Now I don't like rain.  In Utah, I loved the rain.  Here, I don't mind the heat.  In Utah, I am such a wimp about the heat.  Weird.....

Sister Peng's bike

Anyways, Last Monday was good.  Don't remember what I did... oh! I finally got a chance to send some letters!  They are more like notes... but yeah... we don't have time to ever write....  But if I don't write you, know that I still love you and care! I just don't have time!  Gah! That's one thing I wish I had more of.  Time.  But it just goes so quickly....  I need a time machine... or A Tardis... :P  Anyways, we haven't done anything really exciting on any of our p-days.  Just shopping.  Which is still okay.  Perhaps today I'll actually have an opportunity to buy a watch... My watch doesn't work anymore... and the strap broke... So I've been going through most of my day wondering what time it is, since my companion isn't very concerned with time.  You know me, I have to be on schedule for things... I always feel embarrassed if we are late to things.  My companion doesn't care.... But she's Taiwanese.  They are all laid back.

Happy Missionaries

Tired Missionaries

Tuesday was fun.  We got to go do a ZTM.  For ZTM we take our bikes by train to Feng Shan and go to their chapel.  During ZTMs we talk about our goals, we learn things that will help us be better missionaries, and then we practice the things we learned.  ZTMs always take up a lot of our day, mainly due to traveling...  But it's all good.  Oh, and while we were in Feng Shan, I had to do 2 of my Phase 1 pass offs. That was fun.  I was only a "little" stressed out.  But I'm glad I got it over with.  My companion and I bought Cold Stone after we got back to Ping Dong for a reward.  I love Cold Stone.  Especially when it is buy one get one free.  It takes me a few days to finish it, since I like savoring it.  I like ice cream in general.  Especially when in Taiwan, because it's super-duper hot here...

English Class "roller coaster' ride

On Wednesday, we had our English Party.  That was a busy, busy day.  All of it, pretty much, was spent preparing for the English party.  But it was a success!  So, our bishop wanted to do something with moon cakes since it's the Mid-Autumn festival here.  But since it's an English party, we had to figure out how to mesh moon cakes with American culture.  So we did an activity about the moon landing.  And had the people watch a clip about the moon landing.  The elders were so funny!  They taught the people who attended how to do their own roller coaster.  It doesn't make sense written down... ah well... People just pretend they are on a roller coaster, which involves a lot of waving your body to and fro with your arms above your head and a lot of saying "WHAOOO!!!"  Yup....  Anyways, the people who came also could learn how to make a type of moon cake with red bean and egg yolk in the middle.  They are so yummy! And so bad for you!  And they take forever to make...  But the activity was fun!  The missionaries were all running here and there just making sure everything was going smoothly.  So we were all exhausted at the end.

Sister Peng hard at work!

On Thursday, I got to teach Amber, so I taught in English.  English is hard to speak after not using it very often.  The lesson took forever, since Amber was distracted by her baby.  He's very... active.... very very active.  Anyways, so this week we've been so very very busy.  So on Thursday, we ate at McDonalds so we would also have a place to do our language study.  I thought it was so funny.  Liu JM ordered a Big Mac, the most American thing ever.  I ordered a curry rice fun wrap.  Which you can pretty much only find here.  It was so yummy!  Anyways, we always do things flipped.  She chooses American things, and I chose Taiwanese things.  :P

Friday and Saturday both started out with service projects, where we went to two member's gardens to "ba cao"  Which means to weed... which means to use a hoe and shovel and such to massacre weeds that have grown up to your knees in huge masses.  Everything grows like crazy here, since the soil is so rich.  But it makes "weeding" very difficult and not fun.  Everyone sweats buckets of sweat... it's gross... very gross...

Service project

Oh! On Saturday, we also had the opportunity to go to a park (we were waiting for a LA, who didn't show up).  But, the park had a pond with hundreds of huge fish.  They are huge since people feed them.  And since people feed them, they will gather together if you stand at the edge of the pond.  Since I didn't have any bread to give them, I tried sharing the message of the "Living Bread" (the gospel) but they didn't seem interested.  I hope I can be a better "fisher of men" then "fisher of fish" because those fish were not interested at all.

Sunday was good, as usual.  I love going to church!  I don't understand most of what's going on, but that's okay.  When I'm completely lost, I just read my scriptures, so I am still learning.  The people here are super nice, I love the ward.  :D

Anyways, yup.... Sorry, I got tired towards the end of this email.  I'm always tired.  But, I am pretty much always happy too, so it's all good! 

So, I guess I'll end with a spiritual thought.  As always! :D

I was reading the Liahona the other day, and I came upon a talk by President Uchdorf, that really was interesting.  It talked about the perspective of being in the "middle of things" Often in life we get caught up in the excitements of beginnings and endings.  But often times we forget about the middle.  We forget about the journey, which is perhaps the most important part.  Savor every day.  Don't live for the high points in life.  Make every moment a good moment.  Don't waste your days waiting for the next big event, holiday, etc.  Make every day count!

Sorry, I probably should go... I'm running out of time, and I still have to upload pictures!  Love you all!  See you in like 15 months! :D

Sister Peng

Sister Peng's first baptism!

Every week, I ask Sister Peng a few questions to see how things are going.  Here's her response to a few of them.

 

Are you staying healthy?

Pretty much.  Yup! Not sick! Just tired.  Oh, and my back hurts, because of my bed...  We only have the box spring... not a mattress... we are supposed to have a mattress, but yeah....  I don't know what's the deal.  We gave operations manager a call, they said they would go to IKEA when they have time.

How is your companion staying dry or dealing with the rain? 
She doesn't, she also gets wet.  She is a Taiwan person.  She is used to it.  I'm from Utah, and I have the personality of a cat.  Rain in Taiwan is not my friend.  I think it would be better if I could just wear a t-shirt and shorts while biking in the rain, or if I didn't have to care about my clothes looking nice.... But... I'm a missionary.

 

What do you do while at church?  Any callings?
Umm... I'm a missionary... we don't have callings since we have enough members.  I sit with investigators or recent converts and then sit and listen to the lessons and such... Don't understand much of it.

 

Now on to her letter

 

Dearest Madre and lovely people who still read my updates,

Wow! Another week!  It's funny how time moves while you are on a mission.  Everyday is still an eternity, but at the end of the week, you keep wondering where all the time went!  It's really weird... I don't understand it... someone should do a research project on it...

The curry chicken

Anyways, this week was a rollercoaster.  Good some days and frusterating/ not fun the other days.  Of course, everyday can't be good.  That would be too boring and monotonous...  And you can't grow without having trials, so yeah.... 

Last Monday was pretty okay.  We just went shopping for groceries.  Oh! And then we made curry.  Like a lot of curry.  Then we ate curry and froze the rest of it in little packets so we can eat curry whenever our little hearts desire.  We also made soup out of pork bones and winter melon.  All of it tasted good, but not as good as the stuff my mom and grandma makes.  I'm In Taiwan, craving Taiwanese food... from Utah....  I guess the food here is missing one important ingredient.  Love.  Haha! Anyways, in question about the food.... My companion and I are cooking about half of our dinners and lunches.  Just because the eating places here in Ping Dong are a bit more expensive for some reason.  I like eating out a bit better, because the food we cook gets a bit boring after a while... Perhaps I'll try and buy more exciting things to cook with this week....

Oh! Something fun to share, I am now teaching an investigator in English, because she is from America!  Her name is Amber and she is super nice and open to learning about the gospel.  She came into contact with missionaries about 5 months ago, but for some reason then never followed through with visiting with her.  My companion has been wanting to meet with her, she's met her once before, but hasn't had a way to communicate effectivley with her until I came along.  So now the roles are switched!  She's the one who doesn't know what to say and is lost in the lessons.  I told her now is a good time to start practicing her English. :)  Anyways, Amber met her husband in the US, he's taiwanese, and then moved to Taiwan with him.  She has a 15 month old named Logan who is the most energetic toddler I've ever seen.  His favorite thing to do is run around and say "YAAAAAAYAAAAAAYAAAA"  He did that for about 45 minutes straight.  We were in an indoor playground and his grandma was watching him.  He's so cute though!  Amber and her husband both have interest in the church, so hopefully in a few months, we'll have a new family in the ward!!!!

Talking about English, I know I barely ever mention teaching English Class... Probably since it's not my favorite thing to do... I teach the kids, ages 3 to 12... which is a very wide span of ages, and none of them have anything in common.  We have about 30 kids on average every class... so it gets a bit crazy.  Sister Liu and I have begun dividing the class into two, so half of the kids will spend time with me, and the other half will spend time with her, and then after thirty minutes we will switch.  It's still crazy, since the younger kids don't have attention spans to learn english, or they take a very long time to write.  And then the older kids do everything really fast and get impatient and rowdy....  I keep telling Liu JM that we should divide the class by ages, but she doesn't think that is a good idea...  But yeah....  I kind of wish I was teaching adults....  But ah well, I don't think the Elders could handle the kids, honestly.  Elder Buckwater, our District Leader, has shared some pretty funny stories about the times he had to teach the kids...

So, the biggest news this week is the fact that Xuen Xuen (her nickname so it's okay to share it) was

Sister Peng with her trainer, Xuen Xuen and her cousin

baptised and confirmed!!!  Yay!!!  After only two months of meeting with missionaries, she's completely changed.  She used to be bai bai, but now she has complete faith in God.  She is super cute!  She's only about 22, but everyone always thinks that she is way younger.  And she is super funny.  She is already a strong member in the ward! I think it helps that her cousins are members, and also the fact that she has made great friendships in the ward.  Her family still don't know that she got baptised, because they are super against our church.  I pray that their hearts will be softened.  That's a problem here in Taiwan.  Well, it sounds weird to call it a problem, but the family ties here are super strong.  You have to do what your parents tell you to do, even when you are in your 30s or even older...  It causes difficulties, because then you get people who believe with all their heart that the gospel is true, but they don't get baptized because their parents say "no".... There's nothing we missionaries can do, but pray for our investigators, and help our investigators develop more faith in God.  Because in the end, that's where it comes to.  Do you want to follow God, whose council is perfect?  Or do you want to follow the council of parents, who are just mortal and aren't perfect?  It becomes a trial of faith....  And one that is not easy to face.  But for me personaly, through following God, I learn how to strenghen myself and then strengthen my family.  I know God will help all of us in any of our trials, even when those we are standing against are those who may love us the most.

Sis Liu, Sis Peng, Xuen Xuen, Elder Buckwater and Elder Teerlink

So, missionary work here is still continuing.  We've been searching for investigators.  Actually, we've been searching for people who have an earnest desire to listen, learn, and develop a relation with God.  Because we have a lot of investigators, but many of them don't have a desire.  They just meet with us because they are bored, or they like us.  But our purpose isn't to entertain or make friendships.  It's to invite people to come unto Christ.  We have found a few people.  There's a former investigator that has begun meeting with us. Her name is Y JM.  Before, she didn't have a desire, because she was content with life.  But recently, something has changed, and my companion isn't sure what.  But she listens intently, and even attended Xuen Xuen's baptism and came to church!  She is searching for something more in life, because now, she isn't content.  She is in need for guidance and love in her life.  Something that the Lord and his church can perhaps provide for her.  I really love her! Of course, I love everyone we teach, and I desire for their progress.  But more than that, I desire for their happiness and joy and peace which they can attain through the Gospel.

Oh, on Sunday, we also met with someone new.  There was a girl, who is in PingDong for college and wanted to attend church.  She is a member of the Zhang Lao Church, which is extremely agains our church, but when she was asking around for a church to attend, someone referred her to our church.  So she came, and she liked it!  And she is hoping to be able to come next week, and she wants to meet with us to learn about our church!  Super exciting! I really hope something happens!  She is a super sweet and nice girl.  And Xuen Xuen, our newest member, took her under her wing and was showing her around.  Perhaps Xuen Xuen should become a missionary herself! Haha! :D

Also on Sunday, we met with some other people, members and missionaries, at a member's house and made rice balls.  Yum!  Basically, rice balls have stuff in the middle that you add yourself, and then you pack rice around it.  Super yummy!  We also played uno, which I haven't played for a while. And many people didn't know how to play it. It made me miss playing Uno with family and friends.... But that's okay.  We'll make Uno champs out of these people in no time!!!! :D  Haha!

Anyways, to conclude, since I've written a novel again...  I just want to let all of you know that God loves you.  Whenever you are in the midst of trials, never forget the Lord can help.  Pray.  Also, when in the middle of trials, don't use them as an excuse to become less diligent in following the council of God and keeping his commandments.  For in our darkest hour, is the time that we will be tested.  But if we remain true, the blessings of heaven will be poured out upon us.

Mango Ice cream Yum!!!

Also, never forget what is most important in life.  Don't let worldly cares distract you from eternal treasures.  "For where your treasures lie, there lies your heart also."  Trust in the Lord.  By keeping the commandments and doing his will, he will bless us in this life and the next.  Of course there will be times where you have to sacrifice worldly pleasures for eternal blessings. The things of the world will all expire with time.  But the blessing of God will last beyond time itself.

Love you all!  Be true to who you are!  I hope you have a good week! Until next time!

Love, Sister Nicholle Peng