Overcoming Addiction

This week, I hit my year on island mark. Now when people ask me how long I've been here, I can say over a year. I got my Alien Residence Card Renewed, and my companion bought me a cheese-bake (rice with stuff in it covered in cheese, so the closest you come to a casserole in Taiwan) for my anniversary marker. I remember when I first got here, and Sister Hill would tell everyone she was just over a year in Taiwan, and they'd praise her Chinese. I remember back then, I didn't think I'd ever be able to understand what the teenage girls were gossiping about on the bus/train next to me were saying, or what people asked me in a basic sentence even at times...but here I am, understanding a large majority....watching the young woman's broadcast in Chinese...and still getting most of what they were saying. There are still works I don't understand, but when I'm diligent, I just write them down and they commit to memory after looking them up, they usually are just there. That is not how it was to start with...so I'm just here to testify that the gift of tongues is real, and that Heavenly Father really does bless us when we are doing his work.