Hello everyone!! This week was awesome! We have a lot of new people that we are teaching and I feel like we are really getting to know the ward! :) I can't believe that 1/2 the move call has gone by! It is crazy! Next week I will only be on my mission for 1 more year. It is insane! But I love it!! The work here is awesome! I am learning lots and I am happy! Monday: We met a new investigator, Jenny! She is 17 years old and she is awesome! She loves to dance and listen to music. She is really good at popping too! She and I clicked pretty quick. She could be my little sister. We went to dinner with Lin Jie Mei and Jenny. We went to a sushi place. The sushi is on a rotating thing that looks like a railroad track. You pick up what you want and you pay by how many plates you eat. Each plate is about $3. It was really good! And I had the best Mango ice ever! It was ice with pineapple with ice cream and mangos on top. Ok the thing is that the ice cream is not that good here. The yogurt is better. So it is really special when you get yummy ice cream. Funny but McDonald's and Cold S tone is where it's at! |
Tuesday: I had my lesson 4 pass off! only 2 more pass offs and then I am done with phase 1! For those who don’t know what phases are - they are levels of learning Chinese. Lots of flashcards. There is phase 1-3. Phase 1 has all the words you need to know to teach the Gospel of Christ. Phase 2 has everyday words. Phase 3 is advanced. One day I will get there! It is definitely a whole lot easier to connect with people if you know words other than gospel terms.
Tender Mercy: 2 fresh mangos fell off of a tree. Yup - I think God is telling us “good job!"
We had our first exercise class. We did ZUMBA! Listened to Taylor Swift and danced. We didn't have a whole lot of people show up because it was raining. And when it is raining or really hot, Taiwanese people refuse to go outside. But for the people who were there it was really fun! We hope to get the Relief Society sisters closer together from this class. And we won’t be the only ones teaching it. People in the ward will take turns ... so if anyone wants to teach any skill that they have - then they can take a week to teach it.
Tender Mercy: 2 fresh mangos fell off of a tree. Yup - I think God is telling us “good job!"
We had our first exercise class. We did ZUMBA! Listened to Taylor Swift and danced. We didn't have a whole lot of people show up because it was raining. And when it is raining or really hot, Taiwanese people refuse to go outside. But for the people who were there it was really fun! We hope to get the Relief Society sisters closer together from this class. And we won’t be the only ones teaching it. People in the ward will take turns ... so if anyone wants to teach any skill that they have - then they can take a week to teach it.
Wednesday: We went to the Taipei Temple today!! Yay! We had to get up so early but it was definitely worth it. I absolutely love the Temple. It is such a beautiful and peaceful place! When we first went in we took off our shoes. It is Asian culture to take your shoes off before entering a house. I thought it was really cool that we did that. I felt very respectful walking into the Lord's house. I could really feel God's love while I was there. The Spirit was very strong. I am so grateful for the Temple and that we can make covenants with God inside. And be sealed to our family forever. I mean WOAH HOW COOL IS THAT!?!?!? My mind is really blown by the plan that God has for us. It is really miraculous. It just emphasizes how much He really does love each one of us.
We had a great English class tonight. I love teaching English class! We met someone named Vickie who is wanting to meet with us. She is 22 years old and loves to party. She lived in Washington for school for 2 years. She just came back and she has been Americanized like none other. I swear she is more American than me! That means that her English is very good! She asked us if we wanted to go watch movies with her, have sleepovers, go swimming and drink ... ummmm sorry honey … can’t really do any of that. "What do you guys do for fun?" Well our fun is … different. We still have fun - but it is very different than the fun she is used to. She still wants to hangout with us on P-days. Cool! And she wants to help out with our exercise class!
We had a great lesson with 2 new investigators, Emily and Grace. They are sisters. Grace is 18. Emily is 15. We gave them a Book of Mormon last time and they read a little bit of it. They had great questions about Nephi's story. Their questions were all questions that I have had in the past. So it was good to answer them and know that what I am saying is true. To testify is definitely a testimony builder. I love talking about the Book of Mormon! It is an amazing Book and it is TRUE! No doubt about it. :) Some parts of the Book of Mormon can be kind of hard to understand. And even if you study it and study it and read it over and over again, you are not going to get everything - ya know? I have read the Book of Mormon a few times and I definitely don’t know what each verse means. But that is ok. It is ok not to understand every little thing. With time, prayer and study, AND ESPECIALLY THE HOLY GHOST we can know the mysteries of God. We can understand what we need to understand. God will provide what we need :) Grace said an amazing closing prayer. She said, "Dear God, even though I am confused I will keep on reading the Book of Mormon and praying. I thank you for your sisters to help us." So simple and so powerful! You could tell that she really wanted to understand and know. I know that she will be blessed with that desire if she lets it grow and acts on faith.
Thursday: Today we met with a less active member who just got out of the hospital. We made a goal with her to go through the temple in August! YAY! Temple blessings are amazing and they are for everyone!
We had a great English class tonight. I love teaching English class! We met someone named Vickie who is wanting to meet with us. She is 22 years old and loves to party. She lived in Washington for school for 2 years. She just came back and she has been Americanized like none other. I swear she is more American than me! That means that her English is very good! She asked us if we wanted to go watch movies with her, have sleepovers, go swimming and drink ... ummmm sorry honey … can’t really do any of that. "What do you guys do for fun?" Well our fun is … different. We still have fun - but it is very different than the fun she is used to. She still wants to hangout with us on P-days. Cool! And she wants to help out with our exercise class!
We had a great lesson with 2 new investigators, Emily and Grace. They are sisters. Grace is 18. Emily is 15. We gave them a Book of Mormon last time and they read a little bit of it. They had great questions about Nephi's story. Their questions were all questions that I have had in the past. So it was good to answer them and know that what I am saying is true. To testify is definitely a testimony builder. I love talking about the Book of Mormon! It is an amazing Book and it is TRUE! No doubt about it. :) Some parts of the Book of Mormon can be kind of hard to understand. And even if you study it and study it and read it over and over again, you are not going to get everything - ya know? I have read the Book of Mormon a few times and I definitely don’t know what each verse means. But that is ok. It is ok not to understand every little thing. With time, prayer and study, AND ESPECIALLY THE HOLY GHOST we can know the mysteries of God. We can understand what we need to understand. God will provide what we need :) Grace said an amazing closing prayer. She said, "Dear God, even though I am confused I will keep on reading the Book of Mormon and praying. I thank you for your sisters to help us." So simple and so powerful! You could tell that she really wanted to understand and know. I know that she will be blessed with that desire if she lets it grow and acts on faith.
Thursday: Today we met with a less active member who just got out of the hospital. We made a goal with her to go through the temple in August! YAY! Temple blessings are amazing and they are for everyone!
We also met with that Vickie girl from English class. Her house IS HUGE! Actually its 3 houses - each with 5 floors! There is an elevator, marble walls and gold EVERYWHERE! She also has a huge court yard with swing chairs and her own exercising gym park. She is filthy rich it's insane! We think that she is interested in the church for social purposes. She did have some good questions about doctrine, but she was mainly concerned about the activities and such. And how available we are. She seems to be obsessed with white people. She spent some time in America and while she was there she partied hard and lived the college life. We think that she sees us two white college age girls to party with. She also didn't want us to meet her parents. She told us that if we see her mom then we should tell her that we are friends from college in America. Sorry Vickie but we are representatives of Jesus Christ. His name is on our chest. We won't hide it. So yah, she is a little sneaky ... but she is willing to pray and meet with us again, so we'll see how this goes.
For Language study I practiced with two members, Lillie and Amanda. Those two girls are awesome!! They helped me out a lot and we had some good laughs too.
For Language study I practiced with two members, Lillie and Amanda. Those two girls are awesome!! They helped me out a lot and we had some good laughs too.
Friday: I was totally stressing out because we had exchanges today. The STL was coming to my area and Sister Voss was leaving me to go to her area. So that means I was in charge for 24 hours. It was scary. I was just super nervous because it's like that unspoken expectation that everything has to go perfectly. I shouldn't have been so nervous. The STL who was coming with me is fluent in Chinese (can even read and everything) and full of the Spirit. I knew that she would take care of me and she did. At one of our lessons with a less active member, her husband came home. I have never seen him before because he works ALL day! He is not a member and he is from China. It was good to meet him. I hope that we have another chance to sit down with him and share something :) Lin Ya Ping, doesn't have a whole lot of support and I feel like life would be a whole lot easier for her if her family could learn more about the Gospel together. Her child is a wild child too. It is kind of a sad household actually. I hope that we can get the whole family together sometime and help them.
Saturday: I really missed my companion. She came back to me today after exchanges. It was wonderful! We have a lot of fun times together and inside jokes.
We had a great lesson with Jenny. And guess who she brought with her! Her older sister, Zoe (we actually gave her that name) and her friend, Jenna. Ya! It was a good lesson and went smoothly - but I feel like they got bored. 17 year olds - you know. Sometimes it is hard trying to make things exciting ... especially when you can hardly speak their language.
We had a lesson with an active member, Shi Jie Mei. She is the Gospel Principles teacher and she is awesome! She was telling us a story about a boy and she said the B word. It was soooooo funny! Of course she doesn't know that she just swore. That's the thing here. People learn words but don't know exactly what they mean - and they use them anyway. Sister Voss and I were laughing soooo hard! We gave her the english name, Olivia Paige. :)) Totally fits her.
We found a former investigator tonight. She is really old and pretty much only speaks Taiwanese. Which is very different than Mandarin Chinese. I learned how to say, "Peace and Happiness." and "Health and Happiness." You would say that while saying goodbye to someone. It's close to Chinese but not quite there. She had a really cute dog and I got to hold him. I miss pets. They make me so happy! She sang to us which was kind of startling. We couldn't understand her but we knew that she was talking about religious stuff. And then she just breaks out in this Chinese opera song. It was really funny! She kept on saying, "thank you thank you. I love you!" in English. :)) She gave us tea too. She was so excited to give it to us and we felt bad for turning it down, so we took it - but then found enough time to dump it out when she was distracted.
Sunday: Guess who came to church!! Jenny and Vickie! During sacrament meeting Jenny fell asleep on my shoulder. Vickie was really interested in the Hymn book for some reason. We saw a recent convert there who we haven't seen in a long time, Alexis. She used to help us out a lot and meet with us once a week. But we haven't seen her in like two weeks! It was really good to see her. She is awesome!
Some lady was making noodles in the chapel kitchen and offered to make us some. Uhhhh yes please! She was so cute. She tried to use her English with us. What I really liked about her is that she didn't know who the senior companion was and she talked to the both of us. Not just Sister Voss. A lot of people only talk to sister voss because she has been here longer and they know that she understands them completely. But this lady asked me questions too and got to know me. It made me really happy :))
Alma 37:36-37
Love to all -
Sista G
Here's photos of Ice skating last week:
We had a great lesson with Jenny. And guess who she brought with her! Her older sister, Zoe (we actually gave her that name) and her friend, Jenna. Ya! It was a good lesson and went smoothly - but I feel like they got bored. 17 year olds - you know. Sometimes it is hard trying to make things exciting ... especially when you can hardly speak their language.
We had a lesson with an active member, Shi Jie Mei. She is the Gospel Principles teacher and she is awesome! She was telling us a story about a boy and she said the B word. It was soooooo funny! Of course she doesn't know that she just swore. That's the thing here. People learn words but don't know exactly what they mean - and they use them anyway. Sister Voss and I were laughing soooo hard! We gave her the english name, Olivia Paige. :)) Totally fits her.
We found a former investigator tonight. She is really old and pretty much only speaks Taiwanese. Which is very different than Mandarin Chinese. I learned how to say, "Peace and Happiness." and "Health and Happiness." You would say that while saying goodbye to someone. It's close to Chinese but not quite there. She had a really cute dog and I got to hold him. I miss pets. They make me so happy! She sang to us which was kind of startling. We couldn't understand her but we knew that she was talking about religious stuff. And then she just breaks out in this Chinese opera song. It was really funny! She kept on saying, "thank you thank you. I love you!" in English. :)) She gave us tea too. She was so excited to give it to us and we felt bad for turning it down, so we took it - but then found enough time to dump it out when she was distracted.
Sunday: Guess who came to church!! Jenny and Vickie! During sacrament meeting Jenny fell asleep on my shoulder. Vickie was really interested in the Hymn book for some reason. We saw a recent convert there who we haven't seen in a long time, Alexis. She used to help us out a lot and meet with us once a week. But we haven't seen her in like two weeks! It was really good to see her. She is awesome!
Some lady was making noodles in the chapel kitchen and offered to make us some. Uhhhh yes please! She was so cute. She tried to use her English with us. What I really liked about her is that she didn't know who the senior companion was and she talked to the both of us. Not just Sister Voss. A lot of people only talk to sister voss because she has been here longer and they know that she understands them completely. But this lady asked me questions too and got to know me. It made me really happy :))
Alma 37:36-37
Love to all -
Sista G
Here's photos of Ice skating last week: