Transfer 9 Week 1: Sister Bruno in Taoyuan City with Under Four Months to Go

This week we did Temple Tours again.  We had a really touching experience with 3 members.  2 mothers, and one of their husbands.  They were from Taizhong and came up to Taipei for a tour.  Well, we went up to show them the temple book we have, which maybe one day I'll take pictures of it.  What it is, is pictures that kind of run through a plan of salvation in some ways, so we review plan of salvation with the temple for our members.  Well, we did this for this lady, and when we get to the place with a memorial and a lady laying flowers I usually just explain we will all die one day, then we move on to talk about resurrection and returning to God...the more important parts, but in this tour I felt prompted to mention sometimes people around us die also, then my companion testified about the comfort of knowing we'd be resurrected and return to God, and the lady, since I had talked about death had been sobbing, her husband was patting her...then I testified also about God comforting us and welcoming us home.  I was a little worried, but we just continued on, to show them a movie put out by our Mission called Believe, which talks about how we need to believe in the growth of Taiwan, and the gospel, etc.  It's good and has pictures and music.  At the end, the lady shares with us, that her oldest son recently passed away after suffering for 2 years, and that she felt some comfort in doing this tour, even though sometimes she didn't know what her son was doing.  By the end, there wasn't a dry eye in the room, and Sister Collyer shared her testimony on eternal families.  It was really a faith building tour.  I was glad to be a part of it.  That woman had some strong faith.  She's been through some hard trials. I was glad to see she had such a loving and supportive husband, who could go to the temple with her, and stay by her side in her trials. So yeah.  They were really wonderful and even gave us these onion cakes that were absolutely delicious after the tour.  It was a special experience.

Transfer 8 Week 6: Translating Materials for Lady Met on the Bus

Monday, March 8, 2010 12:07 AM

First off, question, around Christmas time I sent a big envelope to the bishop, and wrote letters back to everyone in our ward who wrote me during Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas time, like to every priest and young woman who wrote, and to a cute little Griffin family, to the ward, and the bishop, etc...but I wasn't so positive I could read his handwriting on the address...but it never came back to me, did the ward get my letters? Nobody ever told me.

Transfer to Keelung in the Mountains of Taiwan

Monday, September 28, 2009 3:12 AM

I have come to the conclusion that this transfer, is going to be incredibly xingku and tongku.  I don't even know if that's the right pinyin and i'm too lazy to try to think of what tones those really are, so I think even people who speak Chinese might not know what the heck I'm trying to say.  So I'll try to explain.  In Chinese, when they say this xingku word, they mean to say that what someone is doing is incredibly hard and admirable because of it's hardness, so it's xingku.  Tongku is something incredibly painful. Now, in all reality if you want you can say this is an extremely bad view on it, but it just happens to be my first impression of the surroundings I am put in. 

Oh, by the way, I've moved to a new area, it's called Keelung.  Well, correct pinyin is Ji1long. I've had to say it so many times over the last couple days telling everyone I was leaving, I don't even have to think twice to just know tones.  Most words I just say them and have to say them like 10 times to remember the tones.   It's a port town, and supposedly very beautiful.  I haven't seen much besides our super huge apartment with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms...yeah I get my own bathroom.  I liked my little apartment though, this one is going to be killer to clean..but on the plus side, since we have to sleep in the same room, my clothes get their own room!  They are very happy and get a lot of air.  My suitcoats even got their own closet.  They look very dark and missionary like.  I have more suitcoats than any other sister in this whole mission...Not kidding.  And it's too hot to wear them until December I hear.  But they do get used at mission conference and when we do temple tours.  They called in on Friday and told me I'd be moving to Jilong.  My initial response was not exactly excitment.  I believe I told my companion that God wanted me to be incredibly sore and learn something from it.  You see, something I was told I'd learn from my mission is humility.  In transfer one I was told to pray for it every day.  I can't say I'm exactly a very humble person.  I've probably changed a little...but I'm still very me...like...

So yeah, my area is known for having ridiculous hills/mountains...this is because it's...mountains.  I'm living in mountains and biking up and down them.  I live uphill and it's just ridiculous!  I have to shift from first geer to third geer all the time, i've only been here one day, and I was switching back and forth the 2 times I've gotten on a bike.  So yeah, when people heard where I was going, they told me it was the most hard area in the North.  This sweet member drew me biking up a 45 degree angle with the sun scortching hot, and rain in the distance...rain here, is often.  But I have to admit, it was an exaggeration, because I haven't biked up any 45 degree angles YET. Mostly just like 25 or 30.  But yeah, needless to say, it is not going to be easy to bike anywhere here in this new area, but Sister Kunzler says I'll get used to it if I make sure to run every morning?  That's how her last companion got used to it, but her last companion is not exactly as fat as me...haha.  Her companion was Taiwanese, so she was actually quite little and skinny. So we'll see if that helps.  Zhongli probably trained me a little since it was a HUGE area...and we had to bike up some pretty nasty hills...but usually only once a week, not every day, and I would walk up some of it if I got too tired!

Hmm..My new companion is a Sister Kunzler.  In meeting, we had a very awkward situation...you see, she's from South Carolina...and she has this best friend...well, this best friend of hers lived at my apartment back that semester I was graduating...well, not literally, but he was engaged to my roommate, so he was always there...and, as some of you might remember, the relationship that ended up occurring between me and those roommates and the fiance was one of I deleted them as my friends on Facebook right before my mission, because he was really mean to me and would mock my statuses.  And I wasn't  sad about it, because to be honest, I didn't know them that well and didn't feel too close.  I just felt sad we were all immature and unable to get along. 

So I'm sure we'll be fine, especially since this companion is an SYLer...so I think my chinese will get better...but it was just an awkward beginning, at least in my mind.  I was excited to hear though, that roommate of mine married that fiance of hers...they had a date and hadn't married, then were like, not boyfriend girlfriend, then like girlfriend boyfriend during that semester.  Quite complicated, so it's good that they figured it out.  Yeah!  She's a lot different from me, at least I get that impression initially, but nothing like my other 2 companions, so this transfer should be a blaaaaast. totally new people and area (minus my zone leader was with me back in Zhongli transfer one and 2...Elder Carter, a native...he's fun so it's good to be back in his district).  woo. That is, if I live through all the death biking. 

This areas investigators and numbers aren't exactly what I was used to in Zhongli, so I believe I will be seeing more what contacting is like in this area...I didn't really do it, hardly ever in Zhongli.  Maybe just talk to the person next to you on the scooter, or a couple really down days we'd go out there to try to find investigators in the ward we had like none in...but I have to be honest, I haven't seen a ton of success with the whole self contacting method of finding, but maybe I'll see more this transfer...if I remember I'll tell you next week...which, next week will be a normal so Preparation Day will be your Tuesday night. 

In last weeks news, Chen Yiting got baptized and it was a HILARIOUS story...well, you see...first of all, someone giving a talk didn't know and freaked out when they called her up...then we went downstairs to baptize her, and the water was only up to the first stair...the chain on the plug got caught underneath and so the water had been draining while we were upstairs!!!  So we went back upstairs while it refilled and had a testimony like meeting, then finally she was able to get baptized...but man!!!  So crazy!  But a lot of fun because I've never seen someone so excited about being baptized.  She was like jumping around and so excited.  I loved it.  It made the night totally fun.  She was sad I was leaving so soon after her baptism, but she has such a strong testimony, she'll be fine.  She wrote a cute note in my bye bye book and I promised I'd write her a letter.

Sunday was hectic packing and saying goodbye, but I survived through it and a nice member took me all the way here to Jilong!  She even took work off just to take me.  Aww Zhongli members are so great!  If you can't tell, I'm a little weary of the change, but excited at the same time.  It was hard to leave my district.  Some of us had been together 6 months.  But Elder Lords and Smith also moved!  So yeah, lots of change.  :) :/ Maybe I'll have a better attitude next week, probably!  Don't forget to write!

Time to go!

Fu Jiemei

Missionary Letter: Loss of Investigators When Missionary Goes Home

Monday, August 17, 2009 12:42 AM

Yeah! I finally figured out how to have the computer let me write pinyin, since everyone here uses a system called bopomofo, which makes no sense to me, however, I only figured out how to write pinyin for simplified characters...but I study traditional these days, which I actually have time to study characters at all. Mostly I focus on passing off lesson principles to my wonderful district leader E. Lords!

So, my computer messed up and had to be restarted, so I only have a 9 minutes! You probably realize that it was move calls since this e-mail is coming on Monday. In both wards I cover, Zhongli 1st and 2nd, only one person was moved. Elder Mauldwin is going down to Taoyuan, only a bus stop away. He's still in our stake. Haha. As for me, I'm in Zhongli another transfer of course. I'm really old in my area. Only E. Smith has been here longer than I have. Everyone says new missionaries don't usually get put in their area longer than 2 or 3, but I'm in for 4. We'll see what happens in 6 weeks, but for now my companion and I are doing some weeding out, because we have a whole lot of people who are not progressing, so we aren't going to focus on them anymore. We are focusing our efforts on people who are willing to keep commitments, and the rest if they find time and desire to start actually keeping commitments, we will pick them back up. It's hard when a missionary dies. A lot of investigators die with them, but there is still a lot to do here in Zhongli and we've really gotten to change some things and start developing some better relationships with a lot of people. Especially Zhongli 2nd ward. The relations in that ward could use improvement ...I know way more people in the other ward, because my companion did. So we've really been working on getting investigators way out in Pingzhen and getting to know that ward.

I've had a lot of responsibilities, and so it's been a little stressful, but I'm starting to get used to having more responsibilities and it's turning out to be good. I'm speaking more Chinese...meeting more people, and learning how to skirt around things I don't understand instead of freaking out. Haha. So yeah! This transfer should be fun. And now I have 2 minutes left. Sorry this email was like, hardly no substance, but the last one I spent like 40 minutes on...and now it's gone...so yeah not much choice. Write again next Wednesday!

Missionary Letter: EarthQuake!!!!

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 12:13 AM

So, this week has been a pretty fast one. I mostly say that because a lot of things have started to meld together and when I sit here to write my weekly email, I'm unsure of what happened this week and what happened last week for a lot of happenings. Other things I'm sure were this week. But time on a mission is a little bit different. I opened Paul Freeman's wedding announcement this week and I was shocked to see he was getting married in like 15 days, my initial thought was that they didn't have a long time being engaged at all...but I realized I shouldn't be shocked because it was almost 2 months ago I got the letter saying he was engaged. It's just the time has been so filled that it felt like a week and then I got the announcement. So that's just a pretty normal engagement period from what I experienced back in college. But it was funny how I felt like it was like 3 weeks. I was sooo excited though. It was a lot of fun back when Kimmy and Rocio got married to see that change happening. Now I'm getting to see it happen to my male friends who went on missions and come back experiencing the same thing. So yeah, the point of this story is to same time on a mission is not the same as it used to be.

My happening for the week though that I clearly can distinguish as this week, is that yesterday morning at 2am we experienced an earthquake!!! It wasn't too bad of an earthquake. But it was just funny hearing everyone experiences about how they woke up. And mine is one of the least funny. But for me, I was shook awake, and as my mind processed that it was an earthquake my companion screamed "EARTHQUAAAAAKE!!!" And my response was just..."yep." After that she wanted to know if we should stand in the doorway or get under the desks, but I just said, "Nah, lets stay in bed." The whole time I didn't move, I just laid there, to me it was just not too unordinary for some reason. It was bad enough to shake me awake, but it wasn't shaking things up and down, just side to side, so I figured I was fine. It got over pretty quick after that. Maybe another 30 or so seconds. Then my companion talked for a few minutes, and I didn't say much, I just tried to fall back asleep because it was 2 am and I was incredibly tired. The next morning though, it was so funny to hear the Elders stories. We has assumed some of them wouldn't wake up...but Elder Smith said he woke up thinking Elder Mauldwin was shaking his bed and he sat up, and the next thing he knew he was on his hands and knees on his bed, trying to hold balance, like a cat or something. And he woke up his companion, who probably would have slept through it. And E. Lord's also thought his companion was shaking him awake. So they had funny experiences. I feel like mine was boring, because my brain processed earthquake as my companion screamed it. I didn't think someone was shaking me awake and I didn't sit up and have to hold my balance...Sister Hill said she did too...but me...I was just rocked in bed...I guess I'm more used to natural disasters. It's probably from living in California. We used to have small earthquakes there too huh? From what I remember. And then the flood in Houston. I've been in Hurricanes, earthquakes...I just remain calm. I hear I'll experience some Typhoons here in Taiwan too. We'll see. In the morning though, I did notice our walls were slightly more cracked up than they had been the day before. But our apartment is still solid. Compared to cracks in some places I've seen, we have very few.

In other news, we've been getting fed a lot here in Taiwan lately. My companion leaves in like 3 weeks or something, and everyone wants to feed her before she goes. So we've been very blessed this week. Our schedules are pretty full and our stomachs too. Taiwan is a little different than other missions in America and stuff because a large majority of our meals are actually generally out. We eat breakfast at our apartments before studies, but then we eat at a stand/shop/restaurant for lunch and dinner...and then occasionally people will want to fed us, but mostly on Sunday. So it's been nice to get fed all the time this past week.

A lot of our investigators have been progressing towards baptism. They still have trials and obstacles, but they are slowly coming to know their Savior, and you can see the change occuring in their lives, and it's really amazing to be blessed to watch people change.

We had 14 people at church this week and most of our key indicators have went up, so Zhongli really is seeing miracles...

But I don't expect them to stay this high always because we will be in Taipei over and over, for things like Zone Conference, Sister Hill's last mission fireside, going home seminars...so yeah our schedules should continue to be pretty packed since we have less time during the week to meet with people and we have a lot to do with my companion going home. But it's been so neat to see them going up. Vacations coming up and people are leaving town. So there's a lot more change we are going to see this transfer. And the biggest change will be the companion one...but until that time comes, we are busy little bees working in earthquakes, temperatures over 90 one day, and an incoming typhoon with lots of wind and beating rain the next. The air is filled with humidity, and the streets are filled with thousands of people. There's a lot to do, and more lessons than I think my brain can fit sometimes occurring every day. Life is fun!