Missionary Letter: Paradox

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 11:52 PM

Okay here's a secret, I hate subject lines. I have no paradox for you at the time being, but it's the first word that came to my head when I had to fill in the blank. But actually, my English is getting really bad, i could not for the life of me remember how to spell envision. I couldn't remember if it was an e or an i. I finally decided it is probably an e. There is an Elder in my district that is an English major in college...and we discussed how to spell it three times already, with the conclusion that it is probably e, but neither of us would put money on it. Both of us agree that not reading a variety of books and learning a new language that is in almost no ways similar to your original language makes the original language skills decrease if you aren't keeping them up. I constantly find myself scratching things out in my journal and spelling them 3 or 4 times before I feel good about what I just wrote. My punctuation is completely sporadic, and i find myself often wondering what the meaning of words, such as remission are. Even though I already know...but then I just covet an English dictionary. Haha. And the Elder said that he just doesn't read his emails over twice anymore to combat feeling bad about his decreasing English skills, I'd kind of already adapted that policy way back in the MTC.

This week has been a crazy, crazy week. Yesterday we were in Taipei, and I was talking to one of the random Elders that showed up in the office with me at the same time...since my companion was in a going home job seminar, and I was just hanging out at the office. And we came to the conclusion that Heavenly Father knows us so personally, that if we are people that respond to humorous happenings, he uses a very funny sense of humor to teach us a lesson or six. So that you can sort of even understand because I couldn't even write it all out, I'll just tell you about one of the funny days out of the 2 or 3 I've had this week...since you already know the first part, or at least mom does...

So Thursday morning, we left our apartments like a normal day, and started the bike out to Neili, a pretty quick ride for us, because it is downhill. We were scheduled with a girl named Smile, who actually had saw me on the side of the street and turned around on her motorcycle and asked if she could meet with us. She is new in town and doesn't know the area, so we had planned 2 weeks ago to meet at the Carrefoer, a huge store here, kind of like a Walmart or something. Well, at that time my companion hadn't really asked which Carrefoer and just assumed the one in Zhongli, so we went over there, and found out she was at a different Carrefor...and she had to go, so she said we'd reschedule for her next day off. That was Thursday. People here work crazy hours...so she just gets a day off a week and works like 14 hour days. So yeah, we are biking to Neili, and we are going fast downhill, down tiny alley roads...and I come out into a small intersection, and there is a car down the hill a little ways, and I quickly evaluated breaking, but was scared I'd be thrown forward on my bike, so I decided to speed up instead, and should have cleared before the car got to the same point as me...unfortunately, for a reason I'm unsure of, the car also sped up...and so, hit me pretty hard in the back tire. I'm glad I sped up though, because then I was blessed to not fly off my bike and distroy my face or get hit in the middle, and have my body bruised up or anything...so yeah, my bike flew up pretty high in the air, but fortunately I was able to react fast enough to turn the bike to a more upright position with my thighs and land on my foot still holding my bike up. All that I felt, since I was probably in shock, was that my thighs hurt really bad from shoving my bike into a certain position in the air. The man got out of the car and apologized and asked if I was okay, and after I said I was fine, he looked at his car, and then was like, whatever...and told me I could go on my way. And these people that saw it all came up to me and patted me on the back and said I'd be okay, and xingku (respectable?) me. So yeah, we were not far to the Carrefor, so we finished riding out there, but my companion said my tire was pretty bent up...so it was riding really slow and took a LOT of effort, but since it was only a couple blocks we made it no problem. Then we waited and waited for Smiles...and in the end found out that she was at yet another Carrefor, on the same road, different section, 20 minute bike ride down the street! Well, she had time to wait for us this time, but my bike wouldn't ride, and I had a bad feeling it was only getting worse, so we had to cancel on her again!! Wrong Carrefor twice! So once again, we didn't get to meet with her! We called and said it's probably Satan or something, and we are lucky, she said she'd re set-up when she knew her schedule on Sunday...So then we went to the bike shop, and I had to spend all the rest of the money I had for the month to repair my bike.

Well, I thought, no problem, I have money in my bank account, I'll just find somewhere to withdraw the money...but no ATM would take my card from Wells Fargo, and I was suspecting after a couple banks, that it was blocked, which I suspected since to this point I've been unable to withdraw money from it on my mission. So then, Friday, I called President, and told him I had 200 kuai left and had to go to Taipei twice before we got paid and eat...so I needed to be able to withdraw money from my home card. Especially since bike repair, our mission account we sign says to use money for home. So yeah, i want to follow the rules too. So...a phone card to America costs 200 kuai, so I knew I couldn't eat until I got money from my home account....since I had about 5 kuai left, which is nothing...100 kuai is like 3 dollars. So, despite the late time in America, I phoned home with permission, and had to get everything straightened out with mom! Thanks...haha. But that didn't mean the bank was straightened out...I called the toll-free Taiwan number to Wells Fargo, and they were saying they couldn't confirm my identity, and just wanted me to look online and check something, or give them my account number, which I didn't have...and I kept telling her my last POS purchase, but she said it was wrong, so after like 20 minutes of kind of going in circles with this Wells Fargo person, I changed the date of when I said the POS purchase was, and she unblocked my card. I'm not sure if she gave in or I was just saying it wrong seriously. But she said she found it, and I was really grateful, but then had no time for lunch because we had meetings, but it was okay, I was able to get money out so that we could ride the bus out to Rita's...who is scared to be baptized tomorrow, but I think she'll be ready soon, she just has to overcome a little bit of a family disagreement problem, she hates doing things her sisters don't agree with, so she's praying about it right now...but yeah...so I withdrew some money and we rode the bus up there...and now I only have 4 minutes left, because I took too long reading emails...but what ended up happening, is we parked our bikes, rode up and back to Ritas, and I ended up dropping my key in a gutter and so we had to pay again to get back on the bus and ride it to our apartment, get my spare key, and ride the bus back up to the bikes...it was a crazy week with stuff like that happening all week!

I'll send pictures next week, I was going to send them this week, but no time and I don't want to spend money on another hour! We are going to play with the Elders and some members at the church today, make food, play some games...because it's sister hill's last p-day she'll have time, next week she'll be packing since she leaves Thursday morning. Still not sure what will happen to me, I'll tell you next week when they decided and tell me! bye bye!

Missionary Letter: People Learn in Steps

Tuesday, June 2, 2009 11:59 PM

Hello, and welcome to another Preparation day in the hot and humid little island of Taiwan. This week was kind of discouraging if you think transfer wise, but happy if you think long term wise. Both of our people with dates for Saturday reset them for next transfer in week 2. I'm just glad they reset their dates and that they are still progressing and growing. Because that matters more than if we are here or not. I might still be here next transfer though, since my companion is going home in the middle of next transfer. But you just never know. There's still 3 weeks before I have to worry about it.

I'm getting used to Zhongli... I know how to get to all the places we go regularly. The first transfer here, I didn't really pay attention and everything just seemed different and I watched the stuff on the side of the road more than the paths. But now I can ride in front sometimes if I'm in a petal fast mood...and if we are going down hill. Going uphill no way...I'm slow.

So this Friday is my companions birthday. Not really sure what I'm going to do for it since we are going on exchanges...so I'll only be there in the morning for it anyways. We'll see.

Hmm, I have my planner in front of me to try to figure out what to write but it all seems pretty boring and repetitive. Even though each person and lesson is unique, hearing about what missionaries are up to probably isn't SUPER interesting. We are in lessons, riding bikes, etc etc all day.

On Tuesday Yvonne's baby piao piao had her 2nd birthday. It was us and the Neili Elders, and Lin jiemei and 2 of her 3 sons. We thought it was pretty convenient that Yvonne invited a peike (member) for us. :) It was a little ... for her husband though, because S. Lin tried to commit him to baptism, but I'm sure it's fine. It never hurts to hear about baptism. We didn't know if he was ready for it yet though. Well, we know he wasn't. We had to explain to Yvonne that you have to learn principle by principle, and we met with her a lot to prepare her for baptism...and that we could still prepare her husband, but we just had to meet with him more often and teach him principles. You can't just in one day say...you can't drink coffee or work on Sunday and you need to pay tithing all in one day. Or at least not generally. Of course their will be the exception. But that's an exception. Most people learn in steps. I know I do. So yeah, the birthday party was a lot of fun. The baby was really cute and we had a lesson with the Elders. Ate cake...Wooo. Yeah then we met with Yvonne again later in the week about baptism. Her date was set for Saturday, but we already knew she wasn't ready for that, she had told us on Sunday. We reset it for her husbands birthday. It's still over a month away, so I know that if we are really diligent we can get her husband ready for that date as well. We might give him to the Elders. We are waiting to see how that works out, because it's easier for them to get over there, but he's not there that often, and his wife is always there when he is, so it might be better to just keep teaching them together. We'll see what happens though. We set up to meet on Thursday with the both of them.

Our other person with a goal, Wang Zixia missed church on Sunday. Her husband had family over and wouldn't let her go. She also talked about how she didn't feel ready. We talked about teaching her smaller lessons over again and meeting twice a week so she could remember everything. She said that sounded okay as long as it was times when her husband wasn't home. We tried to set a date at the end of the transfer, but she thought that sounded fast. We told her to pray about it and told her that Yvonne had a date for 7/14 next transfer, and she could do that if she wanted too, since she knows Yvonne. So we just had her commit to pray and we'd set a goal on Saturday at Eddie's baptism. Which she is coming to. Woo. Eddie is a really amazing investigators the Elders have been teaching. We are all excited for Saturday.

We had a really amazing Sunday. We had 10 investigators show up to Zhong1, or afternoon church. It was a miracle really. We invited one girl to try to come on the bus, and she came! With 2 friends too.

We are also meeting with this young mother who I already love a lot. She's married to a Canadian. Her name is Rita. She came and brought her baby to church. She said that she really loves the feeling singing hymns brings. And that she just is happy at church. She has a big testimony of prayer because once her husband lost his dogs 30 minutes from their house, and he prayed and promised God he would go to church for a month if he could find his dogs, and his dog found his way home. He really loves his dogs. And he said the dog was kind of a stupid dog so it was amazing he didn't get hit by a car and found his way home. He's a nice guy. And Rita is really cute and sweet. He is also a blogger. He recorded me and my companion singing a hymn in Chinese, so somewhere out there is me messing up a couple times a hymn in Chinese. That's the only English I'm aware of, but I also know there are a lot of people here that take pictures of us and say they will put it on their blog. Yikes. I'm on Chinese blogs. Ooooh blogs...haha.

It's really hot and humid here lately. It's definitely getting to be summer. We go to Taipei twice a transfer and do the temple tours. We went this last week and it was really hot in Taiwan. As I walked to the church from the train station, I noticed how even breathing here is different because it's just really thick. The smells are new, the people look different. There isn't even a lettering system. Just characters. So I understand now why my teacher in the MTC said that life seemed a little surreal sometimes. In Taipei, for a few minutes it really did seem surreal. I was in a place completely foreign and it seemed like a dream for about 15 minutes. Then I remembered how I can't see objects or color in a dream, so clearly it wasn't. But I'm starting to understand that feeling. haha.

Today we are going with the Taoyuan Sisters to make pots in Yingge. It should be fun.

Anyways, there are only 4 minutes left and 2 weeks ago I think my letter didn't send because I waited too long...so I will now send this! Byebye.

Missionary Letter: I Don't Like Emails

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 11:18 PM

So I came to the discovery really fast on my mission that sending weekly emails can be quite a task, so here's the deal, unless people actually start writing me letters every week, I will send a couple sentence email home saying that I am still alive to comply with my mission rules to be exactly obedient and weekly email home, then I will reply to Gigi, or another random email or two that happens to my mailbox every month from someone else. Especially from my parents. You guys are supposed to write me every week. That's a rule they tell you. I don't think it's a lot to ask for either. Because the way I figure it, I am putting effort into thinking and putting together a nice interesting email every week, and it's not fair for me to get online every week to nothing. I'm writing this stuff in my journal, so a lot of this is a repeat of things I've already written, and since I'm sending this email to my parents and my SEVEN siblings. That is 9 people..plus Stuart. So 10. So I expect to hear from you. I've gotten more emails now from Aunt Allison than a lot of you.

I know what a busy life is like, even before my mission I overloaded myself, and I still had time to write Gigi emails, even if I just told her nothing happened and included a random boring story. I should have 9-10 emails every week, since Gen and Stuart when they write usually write in the same email. And mom and dad, I feel as my parents you should be following up with your kids at home to make sure they write me. A word of advice, Gigi usually responds the day after my email arrives, or even the same day, since it is night when I send this there. That will probably help the rest of you respond if you start writing when you get my emails an email in response.

Now, this last week was okay. Today we are going to Taipei to Taipei 101, because my companions trainer wants us to, and she's in Taiwan right now, so that's what we are going to do. It's really interesting because her trainer and her husband are in Taiwan on vacation for a little while, and when we met her trainer last Sunday at stake conference, I found out her companion is married to a Jeff Cook, a boy that was in my ward at BYU-Idaho. He went to Taipei on a mission too, just not Taipei. He was writing to this Sister Brady (Cook) girl back when we were in the same ward together. What a small Mormon world, but I shouldn't be surprised because stuff like that happens all the time.

She's a nice girl though. My trainer is really excited about meeting up with them. And she was excited to see them Sunday too. This last Saturday, we had Xie Wenrui (Daidai)'s baptism. It was really cool. She was so nervous before the baptism, but it was really cool, because she talked after her baptism about how she felt, and she said she was so nervous before, but after she was actually baptized, she felt really comfortable and happy. Her friend and another of our investigators, Lin Yaqing was there, and we had a quick lesson after the baptism with them. We were really confused where to put the number though, because we weren't sure if DaiDai counted as a member yet or not since she hadn't received the Holy Ghost, but I figure not, since they raise their hand to welcome them into the church after they receive the Holy Ghost, or baptism by fire.

It was good though because we asked Yaqing she needed to set a goal for baptism, because originally they wanted to get baptized together, but then Ya3qing1 didn't have a testimony of Joseph Smith yet, and wasn't willing to commit to the Sabbath yet because of her job. And she said she just wasn't as fast as DaiDai, but she was willing to get baptized sometime next month. She's a really great investigator. She asks sincere questions and is really good about reading and praying. She is just progressing slowly though, and that's okay. I know that she's a very dedicated girl, so once she goes through with baptism, she'll be very committed. It's is funny though, because DaiDai's friends all had a dream (like 2 or 3 different people or something) that she died and decided she needed the protection of the Holy Ghost, I can't remember if I already told you that. But yeah, they are SOOO excited for DaiDai to get the gift of the Holy Ghost this Sunday coming. DaiDai just wants to do it because she believes, but all her friends want her to do it because they want her to have the Holy Ghost's protection.

Our next baptism goal is a week from Saturday with a Wang Zixia. She's the one we met at the church because a member saw her looking at it and invited her in. She's really great. She made that baptism goal at her first lesson. And she's been really good about remembering it. She mentions it every time we meet. We've had to start meeting with her twice a week to prepare her for it. She's really going to have to keep her commitments to gain a testimony of Joseph Smith and everything else we are teaching her. She has a lot of questions, she was really surprised at first to find out that we believed in a Pre-mortal life and the spirit world and everything. But she's really great. She keeps her commitments to read and she comes to church every week. She's from mainland China and her husband is really possessive of her though, so I hope she makes some friends in the ward and stuff soon. She can understand the language, and a lot of characters, but it's different here in Taiwan.

The accent is different and the characters are harder to read. Since we use traditional here instead of simplified. We have another investigator though Wei Yan who is also from China. She has lived her for 7 years. She had us have Wang Zixia call her before we started the lesson. They set up to play together sometime.

They have a lot of similarities. They are both from Mainland, and they have husbands who are Buddist and Taiwanese. However, Wei Yan's husband don't let her be baptized yet, she comes to church every week, but works with her husband and they let her come to church, but she has to break the Sabbath a lot because she can't have Sunday off, and they refuse to let her get baptized, I think because they don't want her to pay tithing. So I think Wang Zixia's husband is a little better because she doesn't work like Wei Yan, so he just lets her worship how she wants. He's not opposed to her religion. He just wants to know where she is when she leaves the house, and wants her to schedule her appointments with us when he isn't home. So I have a feeling they will both be really good friends.

Right now besides who I have already talked about, we have one more lady with a baptism goal. Her name is Zhu Di. Or in English, Judy. Haha. She's really great. She was found by our zone leaders E. Rice and Huang. They are really excellent missionaries. They are always giving us really great investigators. They have a whole lot of faith. They met her in the park when E. Rice's tire popped, then after we set-up with her, before our appointment, E. Rice had another tire pop, and he ran into Judy again. So he told us before we ever met with her that she is really special. And she is.

She told him that she had been meeting with Jehovah's Witness missionaries, but felt like something was missing. She's already really great about reading the Book of Mormon,E. Rice had given her one, and she had already read the introductions to the BOM before we had our appointment. She's willing to be baptized and everything. The only set back is that she is without a job, and so she has been moving from place to place living with other people. I'm really hoping she can find a job. She said the Jehovah's Witness missionaries gave her food and clothes. So she is really grateful to them. I'm sure as she keeps her commitments and comes to church and starts to learn and keep the commandments, she will be blessed. She's read the Bible 5 times, so everything we teach her clicks really fast in her head. It's really great because usually since we mostly teach non-Christian's, you have to take it very slow and simple. But Judy get's things really fast. I'm excited to keep working with her.

We have a lot of excellent investigators besides that, in fact, these last couple weeks we've had appointment after appointment. Our time is not empty. On Monday we had president interviews, then immediately after had 3 appointments every hour. 4, 5, 6. Then we rushed over to Neili to do FHE with a part member family. It was crazy. And so was yesterday, we had appointments all day. We actually ate dinner with a lady who we met that day. She was so excited she insisted we come back to eat with her after the appointment we were headed to, so we did. Neili is a great area! We've found 3 new investigators there in the last week and a half.

It's great to be busy. It means the work in Zhongli is going really well.

I only have 1 minutes left...so bye!

Missionary Letters: Exchanges are Great

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 10:54 PM

Hey everyone,

This week was fun! First I'll actually answer questions because I usually run out of time and don't. And ARC is an Alien Residence Card. So it's like my green card. A Dan Jones is when you get up like in the front of a bus or on some kind of thing that is high, and you start preaching the gospel in a really loud voice and testifying for everyone in the large group of people that the gospel is true. It's unique.

This week was pretty for finding investigators. We had a girl, Chen Zixia, show up at the church one day, and we invited her to come to Sunday church. She came! And stayed for all 3 hours too! Then we set up for Monday, she got there early (Woo that excited!) so our zone leaders taught her, and she already has a baptism goal for the last Saturday of the transfer! And she already plans on coming to church again, since last Sunday when a member asked her about next Sunday, and she said "of course I'll come." It was a miracle. One of the members saw her looking at the church and asked her if she wanted to come in, then we showed up with like perfect timing. But yeah, we have a couple members that are amazing missionaries! :) Having a really good ward is so nice in the missionary work. I'm blessed to be in Zhongli...

On Monday before I left for splits, we were on our way to a morning appointment and ran into a member, and she was just like, OH I'll go with you! And then we had a peike (lesson taught with member present). It was awesome. She was a great asset. Especially since my speech is very limited and it takes lots of time and effort for me to say things, so if we are on a time limit sometimes I'll talk less than I already do. I'm getting slowly better about talking though.

And not to worry about my health, because 4 of our investigators, which we call the "Herbal Life team" are concerned for me. Peiyu told her mom that at 6 at night before a lesson with her, I was eating chocolate, because she had showed up early and we were eating. She was like "BU XING!!!!" Or, that is not okay. They say it a lot. Lin Jiazhen has tried to commit me to drinking 4 of my water bottles worth of water a day, and that is a lot, because she gave me this HUGE water bottle that I carry around with me now. But I try, since we committed her to read the Book of Mormon. Her husband died from a heart attack, so they got really into health. She wants to help people who are overweight become normal. Her daughter was overweight and is now really thin. They are always trying to get me to buy the shakes and stuff for my "own health" and instructing me on how I shouldn't go to McDonalds and eat more vegetables. Haha.

Taiwanese people are really blunt. People always tell me "did you know you are fat? Riding that bike will help you lose weight." Or once even, a member spend a lot of money to take us to drink grass and other gross "natural foods" Then I'm supposed to say thank you for calling me fat. That's so kind of you to tell me riding my bike will help me lose weight. :) It makes me laugh a lot though. I love their bluntness. It's amusing.

However, the food is taking longer to adjust to. I've eaten some pretty nasty things...pig's foot, grass, weird fishes of every kind, gross slimy things that I've never even seen in america so I couldn't tell you if I wanted to...But there is also food that is amazing

You know Desi, I don't think I would have sat down and cried walking on some pioneer trek. I wish I could walk! Riding a bike to Neili and all kinds of other cities since the sister's area is huge is a lot worse...well for the straight uphill part. The return trips, or going trips depending on where we are going aren't bad.

I'm glad you guys already got my package. It came fast! I just sent it last p-day a week ago! That's amazing! Sending packages here is really cheap, so I sent one to the Sneddons too. It cost like 12 dollars (American), including postage to send both of them. That's less than sending some stuff from the MTC was. Give Annika that piano pencil! I didn't realize she'd be home already when I sent it. I'll send another one in a couple months with candy once I figure out what the good stuff is. Don't worry about sending me anything until I ask for it, oh except in an envelope I'd like a family picture please, sending stuff from America is way more expensive! Americas postage is bad I found out. For us to send a letter to America here, it is less than the equivalent of sending a letter in the US to another state in the US.

So exchanges in Taoyuan were really fun! It was like a party. And my Chinese improved a lot. I was with 2 other sisters, so a threesome for 24 hours. One was a bendiren, or native Taiwanese. So if I used English it generally had to be translated, so I was forced to try REALLY hard to express myself in Chinese when I wanted to. They were so good for me. Planning was like a party, and we ate junk food, even though my trainer lectures me when I eat at night about storing fat...but nobody lectured me...and we just had a lot of fun. It was pretty much like a sleepover with lessons and tracting, etc during the day. In Taoyuan, they had a very distracting boy, about 10, so they had me teach him the ABC's while they taught his mom. I felt useful and in my element. His ABC's aren't perfect, but now he has V down, so that's an accomplishment. His mom gave me mangoes for payment for my English lesson. We tried to refuse, but she insisted. I ate one this morning. So yummy! That's a plus on food for here, the fruit. So good!

Sister Zhang and Bernardo were really sweet! I love them! They snuck a candy bar in my suitcase when I left. I need to get them something today in Taipei when we go to our once a transfer temple trip right after this email...and leave it in their mail. Sister Shi, the companion that split and went to Zhongli is really cool too! She left me a note and a bookmark and some candy on my desk. Aww. They are so sweet. I love bendiren (natives).

Oh ...something kind of funny about Taiwan...the weather is crazy! One day I'm dripping sweat, the next I'm dripping soaked from the rain...and yesterday I almost got knocked off my bike a couple times the wind was blowing so hard. Ah the joys of the tropics!

Xie Dai Dai's baptism date is mother's day. I'm excited! I love her. She is so cute. we drew "I love dai dai" in characters on the white board and she was like "OHHHHHH I LOVE IT...and took pictures...haha!

Yeah, so a mission is fun. Hard, but fun! I miss you guys!

Congrats on your job Gigi! Thanks for getting addresses. That's good about Matt and Felicia. I'm glad you are updating me about them, since our p-days we keep getting random lunches and dinners and temple trips so thus far I haven't had a single second to write a hand written letter besides those packages I sent. Keep me updated on the SC boys Annika, and Desi...Maybe that way I can have friends when I come back indirectly by hearing about it.

Love ya

Fu jiemei