First off I would like to say that being a missionary is AWESOME!Iabsolutely love being here and I love sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am learning a lot and I am growing. I still have a long way to go but I am loving life right now. If any of you are thinking about going on a mission. DO IT! You find so much joy bringing others to Christ.
So the big news of the week is that Sister Voss and I are being split. We have been together for 2 transfers and it has been soooo much fun! I am really going to miss her. We have worked so hard and we have had so many adventures together. She is going down south to QiShan. It is a country area. So I am staying here in 北屯. Iam so nervous and really excited. It's kind of like graduating from high school. I am really going to miss Sister Voss and her sass. But I know it is time for her to bless other people's lives. My new Companion is going to be Sister Crawell (actually I have no idea how to spell it). And I saw some pictures of her. She seems really cool and what I have heard is that she is really chill. She came on island just a few months before me. But she was trained by a native so her Chinese must be really good!! In our apartment we are going to have a girl from Korea - Sister Eo. She is the FUNNIEST person ever and I am really excited to be with her.
Tuesday: Prayers were definitely answered today. We were supposed to see a family with the ward Elders. But they were going on exchanges. Sister Voss and I were really nervous because we didn't know exactly how things were going to work out. We prayed and felt at peace. And it all worked out and went very smoothly. I love seeing the hand of the Lord in our work :)
We went to the Yao’s house for dinner tonight. IT WAS DELICIOUS! The menu was:
pumpkin and potato with mayo
egg drop soup
fried popcorn chicken
most delicious salad with dragon fruit
bamboo
vanilla ice cream with frozen mango :))
Most families here like to eat out but this mom (Sister Yao) likes to make a feast every night. Her kids are awesome too! Benson, Ivy, Berry and Brian. They are wild little stinkers.
Fish and rice
bamboo
mango
veggies
onion pancakes
cheese cake (its very light) and mochi
We ran into Chen Ama. She is a former investigator. She speaks Taiwanese and only a little Mandarin. So it is super hard to understand her. But she taught us what she does in the morning for exercise! I love the old people here :)) Every morning sister Voss and I go tot the elementary school and do tai qi with the old people. A couple of them speak English. They let us use their sticks and fans for the dances. SO cool!! The culture here is awesome and it is so much fun!
We had our English party tonight. The theme was "exercise". Spiritual share was the Word of Wisdom. And then we just exercised! Sister Voss and I were in charge of yoga. Oh and after the party and eating (there was a bunch of fruit) we had a wrestling competition and it was SOOOO MUCH FUN! Sister Voss and I put on a good show. And Zhang Jie Mei is so funny to watch. A member got video and pictures. I will have to send them.
Thursday: The miracle today is that we got hot water! After 5 days its back!!
We tried something new today. Tracting - but sharing about family history. No one was home. We gave out tracks to 2 people. And they didn’t seem too interested … hmmm
Tonight we got to go “Dan Jones”-ing!!!! Yay!! The newbees are so cute! I took a girl out who was not afraid to talk to everybody. I didn’t have to do anything. Once in a while she would be stumped on her Chinese but she was awesome!! And I will be in this area for the next move call so I will be here when the August missionaries come in! SO Elder Cook I will most likely see you one of your first days here. And same with sister Munns. Yay! I was kind of hoping that I would still be here for you guys. I love seeing new missionaries especially if I know them. I still don’t know if I will be the one to take you out to “Dan Jones” - but most likely. :))
Friday: We taught a less active member today. She is actually preparing to go to the temple in September!! Yippee! To help her prepare, we are sharing the lessons with her again. So today was the first lesson, the restoration. Sister Voss and I have great companionship unity!! I feel like we have finally "established" the way we teach together. SO sad that we are separating. It is going to be weird having a new companion and going with another teaching style. |
Today Wang Jie Mei got baptized!! She is awesome and it was really cool to see her get baptized. The other sisters are going to be teaching her. But we were the ones to give her some of the lessons. Actually there are 3 sets of missionaries that taught her. So I got to have a picture with her and it is up on the bulletin board at the chapel :)) She is sooooo great - I'm so proud of her!
Sunday: This is the last Sunday for Sister Voss. She went up to share her testimony in sacrament meeting. We both just cried. Yup - I am a bawler (thanks mom and dad). I am really going to miss her.
We went to a family's house for dinner. Had couscous, chicken with a tomato and pineapple sauce, egg rolls, veggies, mulberry juice (best thing ever!) oh and for dessert I tried this ice cream bar that is better than Magnums! They also gave us really cool traditional Taiwanese stamps and a marble charm thingy. Really cool! Oh we were talking about food afterwards and I totally messed up on my Chinese. I told everyone that my favorite fruit is pineapple and America. I meant to say mango! oops! Well it was funny!
You know when you just stop to take in moments? Sister Voss and I took out the garbage today and it was pouring rain! On the way back we found snails and just sang and played in the rain. It was so much fun! It was a great moment. Can I just say again that I am really going to miss Sister Voss!
This weekend we found out who was going where for the next move call. Sister Hancock is staying and her new comp is sister Eo. Sister Liu is going to Dong Ying (still in Taizhong) and then sister Voss is going to GaoXiong. We had another sister here for the weekend. Sister Carleson. She was my MTC STL!! All four of us spent the whole night just talking, catching up on life, taking pictures and just chillin. It was fun!
Oh and Sister Liu scared the crap out of me tonight!!! We have a balcony and she went outside and put her face to the window and yelled. I was terrified!!!! I screamed soooo loud. I am not one to get scared - but I get startled like NONE OTHER!
You know the song "abide with me" and the parable of the tree and branches. Christ is the tree and we are the branches. He is our foundation and we can't grow without him. We can’t do anything without him. With Christ we are just sticks. There is no way that we can be what we are meant to be. We can’t produce the fruit that God expects us to make. So Abide in Christ. Go to Him because He is reaching out to us. He loves us. I know that he loves us. I know that if we walk by his side we will never feel alone and we can work miracles.
Love you all! Adventure is out there - go enjoy it! :))
-Sister Graham
This is our butterfly from last week!