Sister Winters - January 29, 2012 Shrimp guts, and pig feet, and octopus…oh my!

Hello from the other side of the world! Thank you for all of your emails this week - there were 20 when I checked my inbox!!! I feel your love and support daily. I think I'm starting to get the hang of mission life - I'm juuussssstttt to the point where I'm not very saddle sore when I get on my bike. :) Speaking of my bike, it's a good thing that I wear long skirts here that cover my legs, because I don't think that the people of Taiwan could handle my crazy-colored legs from all of the bruises that bike has given me! :) This week has had its ups and downs - it's Guonian, or New Year's, which is like a more-than-a-week-long holiday. Crazy! So for those of you whom I sent letters to last week, you won't get them for another two weeks, since my companion informed me that the mail wasn't in service at all last week. :( I'm sorry for the wait! Thank you for your patience. Guonian was good because I ate a TON (more about that later) with the church members, but then bad because I ate a TON with the church members, and we didn't teach as much as we would have liked to.

 

It's been pretty cold and rainy lately - and I think it's my fault. I was beginning to feel like it was a waste of space for me to bring my few winter clothes with me to Taiwan, but when it was cold, I was able to wear all of them! A little tender mercy for you. :) But now it's good and warm again - probably the equivalent of a nice May day in Utah. Last Friday was awesome - it was clear, warm, and beautiful. I ran to the beach, looked out at the ocean, looked to my right and saw a beautiful river, and then turned around and saw the spectacular green tropical mountains. There's a spiritual that I like to sing -  "I am Bound for the Promised Land" - except I sing "I am IN the promised land!" It really is true. Angela, you referred to my mission as an "adventure," and it totally is! When I was little, some of you know that I was always talking about going on adventures - well, this is it! I'm loving life here.

 

Just a couple of contacting highlights from this week - I talked to someone in a garbage truck at a stop light about Jesus Christ and had to reach up super-high to give him a pamphlet, I played the violin in the streets and next to a McDonald's to help talk about the Gospel and to help advertise for English class - we didn't get too much success, but I did have a lot of people take pictures with me while I was doing it... so at least I know that they liked my violin playing and my blonde hair/big green eyes even if they didn't like my message. :) I also ccontacted a person who was a church member already (I totally didn't recognize her), and called a man "Miss so-and-so" instead of "Mr. so-and-so"... whoops! To justify myself, though, he was wearing a pink jacket, he had a girly voice, and he was wearing tight khaki pants. One nice thing about the situation is that I could blame it on my Chinese. :)

 

I also have a whole lot to say about the food here. As mentioned previously, I had a lot of food this week. And whereas I normally eat out here (it's cheaper than making your own food) so I can choose what I eat, this time I was given what I needed to eat. And eat it. A lot of it, the vast majority, was really really good. A couple of things weren't. I would say that the worst were the feet that I had to eat - pigs feet and chicken feet. Woof. BUT, the chicken feet kind of looked like tarantulas at first, so I was actually pretty grateful when I ate them. Oh! Another thing - we had shrimp at a lot of the meals. I really like shrimp, but they had the ENTIRE shrimp cooked, and we took it apart when we ate them. No big deal, until I pulled of the shrimp head and shrimp brains and guts started oozing out - GROSS. I was temporarily at a loss for what to do for a second and then I pulled out a napkin, wiped off my shrimp gut fingers, and continued eating. Then I looked over at the girl sitting next to me (she's probably about Rachel's age), who was also beginning to eat a shrimp. She pulled off the head, sucked off all of the blood and guts and stuff from the shrimp's body, and then stuck part of the head in her mouth and started to slurp (very loudly) the stuff out of there, so when I looked at her there was a little shrimp head with eyes and everything sticking out of her mouth! I didn't know whether to laugh hysterically or to throw up (I ended up not doing either, which was probably good). They also had baby octopuses at one of the meals, but I didn't have the nerve to eat them - I kind of avoided them in the soup and just had broth and vegetables instead. :) The table manners of the Taiwanese are VERY different from Americans - think of everything that's rude at the table in America, and then do that in Taiwan, and you're a natural! One thing that was really neat about this whole experience though is how giving these people are. There was one family who doesn't even come to church and who doesn't have very much money, but they invited us over to dinner and fed us a VERY expensive meal! People here are so generous and so loving - it's not hard to love them back. :) It was also good to get to know the members here better  - on Sunday when I sat at the front to give a talk, I realized that I recognized a ton more members than I did the week before. Tender mercies every day!

 

All of the missionaries here say that you get "rice cheeks" by the end of the mission. Since my cheeks are already very chubby, this has worried me a little bit - but not enough to make me not enjoy the food here. :) My companion has noticed the same thing - when I told her that I was worried that I was getting rice cheeks already, she said, "Yeah, you are, but don't blame it on the rice." :) I'm not too worried, though, since it seemed like every one that we ate meals with last week was at the farthest boundaries of the mission, so I biked a TON. Plus it's a cultural experience to eat the food here! And it really is great. I think my favorites thus far are these breakfast sandwiches (bacon, egg, green onion, with some weird cinnamon sauce), papaya milk (all of the milk here is awesome, but really expensive), and this sweet peanut soup. Mmm. Life is good here in Hualian!

 

Okay, spiritual thought, then I'm out. I'm still on my "spiritual songs" streak. My favorite this week has been "Jacob's Ladder," a spiritual we've done in Peachtree Corners Ward before. Here are a few of my favorite verses (they say the same thing each line, so I'll just say it twice):

 

"Sinner, do you love my Savior? Sinner, do you love my Savior?

"If you love him, why not serve him? If you love him, why not serve Him?

"Rise! Shout! Give God glory! Rise! Shout! Give God glory!"

 

I'm so grateful that every day I'm able to show my love for the Savior and serve Him by rising, shouting, and giving Him glory every day. It's brought my life so much happiness already. I have a picture of the family that's always in my bag so I can show it to people that I teach or eat with - they all love it, and I do too. I'm so grateful for the wonderful influence you are on me and for everything you've taught me. I love you and I pray for you! Give God glory and serve Him this week.

 

Love,

Sister Winters

 

PS : Ben Snow - I haven't heard from you in forever. I hope that you're not dead. Or married.

Sister Winters - January 22, 2012 Xin Nian Kuaile!

Hey everyone, and happy new year from Hualian! Last night was "new year's eve," so I got to watch fireworks from our 13th floor apartment window after planning - it was awesome. We also ate a lot of food yesterday and will continue to do so the whole week (that's my kind of holiday!). Apparently my zone leader gained 15 pounds last year during this holiday! I hope it's not the same fo me. Anyway, food - so far I've had a lot of things, including really bitter bamboo stalks, raw fish with wasabi, squid, goose, and this thing I decided I wouldn't ask what it was until afterwards... Turns out it was 1000 dried fish eggs. Yum. Really, though, the food is good here; don't worry about me!

 

The weather right now is coldish and rainy. It's actually been pretty warm here before (again, think Florida), but I guess it is January. It's really funny - people are terrified of cold here. I'll go running outside in 70 degree weather in shorts and a t-shirt, and people will always tell me that I need to bundle up or that I'll be too cold. My companion is the same way - she has these big coats she'll wear if it's under 75 degrees. :)

 

I'm just going to be talking about a lot of different random things, just so you know. I'm glad you all liked the talking to the deaf guy story! This week I proselyted to an empty car (I hate those mirrored windows) and also had a small bug fly into my eye as we ran over to the beach (about 10 minutes away) for our exercise. I was also in a small earthquake - my legs were shaking back and forth during study time and I had no clue what was going on, and then my companion said I was in an earthquake. Go figure.

 

I'm singing a lot of hymns lately - they help me love life even more. :) My favorites kind of change every day - lately I've been singing a lot of spirituals. I don't know why, but it gives me a lot of pleasure to sing like a black person around a bunch of Asian people. :)

 

My hair and eyes are a pretty big deal here. While that's fun for me since they're not really that big of a deal to most people in the states, they also get annoying a little bit. People often feel the need to talk about it - "She has HUGE eyes!" "What color is your hair?" "Why is your hair like that?" And then I'll respond with something like, "I don't know, why is your hair like that?" Or people will just tell my companion - "She's tall, skinny, and beautiful!" Which I can understand. It's funny - people here talk about you in front of your face all the time. Maybe it's just me since they think I probably can't understand, but they'll say things like, "Your Chinese is good!" and then my companion will speak and they'll say, "...But your Chinese is a lot better." Or they'll compliment me to my companion, which I'm sure makes her feel a little weird - it makes me feel weird just hearing them say it. BUT, I love the Chinese people so so so much, and I'm really enjoying the difference in culture here.

 

One funny thing about them - they often have English names as well. Apparently they have to be given to them by an English speaker, but I'm not sure that that's true, since I've heard of people changing theirs. So far some of the best ones I've heard are: Elsa, George, Red, Polo, Pedro, Lucky, Chair, Janet, Oreo, Juice (one of our investigators - in her closing prayer, she prayed that my Chinese would improve - she also said it was already really good! So cute), and, my personal favorite, Quinn. :) It's so funny to hear a VERY Chinese person who doesn't speak much English refer to himself as Pedro. But it sticks!

 

The elders here have started calling me "Sister Dong." "Dong," or "dong tian," means "winter." They all think that it's really funny. I think that it sounds like they don't have enough amusement as missionaries.

 

I've had this weird thing here where I feel sorry for people, or, even weirder, animals, really easily. Seriously, it's so weird. I don't know if it's just an added measure of love for the mission or anything, but the slightest pathetic-looking thing will make me sad. Like when I saw these cows by the river and they were tied up and the poor things were trying to get untangled from the rope. Or a new all-time high is when I saw this three-legged dog limping down the street. It made me feel so sorry for him! Which is weird, because I'm terrified of dogs here. Before the mission, not too much of a problem. However. there are dogs EVERYWHERE here and I think a lot of them are strays. The worst they've ever done is barked at me, but I've heard too many "dog + missionary" stories not to be frightened. Everytime I have to ride through a bunch of them, I say a little prayer that I'll be like Daniel in the Lion's Den and be protected. :) Sounds childish, I know, but it works everytime!

 

A lot of you asked about violin. I actually haven't been able to use it to contact yet - we've had too much success with just contacting people on the street on the way to the places where I'm going to play! :) But I have used it a couple of times thus far. I played it at dinner last night, played it at a lesson, and, my favorite, played it at this hospital/nursing home for service last week. They had a New Year's party, and it was so much fun! The nurses gave all of the patients tambourines or little jars of beans to use to keep time. One of the patients started beating the beans against his little bald head since he liked the music so much - again, this new sentimental side coming out in me. My favorite part, though, was when they had these elementary school kids come in and perform. While my companion quickly became a fan of the girl in the middle in the front row who danced every step with exactness (much better than I ever could), my heart was won by this super-tall girl in the back row... You can probably guess why. :) I was so reminded of myself as I watched this girl dance in the row entirely comprised of boys and herself, as she danced not quite as well, but clearly loved being there. She would sing along with the songs too, which was hilarious - the nurse would hold up the microphone to her mouth but she was basically screaming - no sense of pitch at all. :) Violin should be tonight, though! We're going to a busy intersection, and everyone who stops or slows down will be chased down by my companion. :)

 

Spiritual thought and then I'm done. The beginning of last week was pretty tough - it's way better now but it was still pretty hard at that time. One thing that I was struggling with is why I can't talk to or hear from my family more than once a week during email time or more than 80 minutes for this next year and a half. I mean, I'm talking to everyone on the street why families are important, but I can't talk to my own! But then I knew that I should suck it up, work harder, and then I'd figure it out eventually. :) And I did! I was praying for my food the other day, and then a scripture came to my mind. It was one that I never really understood very well - Matthew 12:46-50. It's where Jesus is with his disciples, and His family is standing in the background, waiting to talk to Him. His disciples point this out to the Savior, who says, "Ye are my brethren!" I never understood that - why did the Savior not pay attention to His family? Weren't they important? The answer is yes, of course they were. However, they weren't the focus of His ministry - they weren't what was most important at the time. I think that as Jesus Christ's representative, the same is true for me right now. Of course I love all of you and miss you all, but you all aren't my focus at this point. And if that's what the Savior did, then I should try and do it, too. :)

 

Hopefully that makes sense. I love all of you and I'm so glad you're doing well! Please continue to keep me in your prayers - I'll do the same for you.

 

Love,

Becca

Sister Winters - January 15, 2012 Zao An from Hualian!

(Editor's note: Rebecca arrived safely in Taiwan on Wednesday evening.)

My body's adjusting alright to the time change - we've been waking up before 6, sometimes before 5, for the past few days for various reasons, so when my companion told me that she wants to take a nap today during P-day, I probably won't stop her (or myself) from taking one... Unless I have a miraculous burst of energy instead to study some Chinese. :)

 

Okay! A little bit about everything! I got onto EVA airlines and as I was walking down the aisle, I heard this weird classical music playing over the speakers. I call it "weird" because it had this interesting Chinese twist - I couldn't tell if it was actual Chinese music, or if it was elevator music for Chinese purposes, or if it was Western music trying to incorporate Eastern themes. In looking at that past sentence, I've realized that I am still a music nerd at heart - glad that part of me hasn't changed. :) Anyway, that isn't very important - I just thought it was a funny way to start my journey.

 

I slept for a LONG time on the plane - a little over 9 hours, I think! I'll tell you one thing - the MTC really wears you out... And it only gets better! Anyway, it wasn't the most comfortable or restful sleep that I've ever had, but it was good to sleep for so long. We got to Taiwan at 10:30ish, went through customs, got our baggage (they had "quarantine beagles on duty" that supposedly sniffed our luggage to make sure we had no agricultural products - I don't know why, but I thought that was so funny!), and met the mission president! I really like President Grimley. I expressed a few fears that he seemed pretty strict, but he's so nice and friendly. He and Sister Grimley are friends with Uncle Steve and Aunt Marcia, too! That was fun. We went running that next morning at 6:30 in a place called Freedom Square in the middle of Taiwan (look it up on Google Earth or something). It was awesome - the architecture made me feel like I was in a movie set or something, plus they had all of these old people doing Tai Chi and various "martial art" dances. So fun! We also went to the dedicatory site of Taiwan - I really felt the Spirit there as I thought about early missionaries there (some of whom are still alive) and as I dedicated myself to being a good missionary for the next 15.5 months and to serving with all of my heart, might, mind, and strength. This was next to the Taiwan Grand Hotel (I think that's what it's called?), which is an awesome building. We got to take some pictures in front of it and inside of it - I'd look it up so you can see what I'm talking about. Funny story - President Uchtdorf's twin nephews both served in Taiwan (both of them are now MTC teachers), so when they were done in his month off in July, he came out here to visit with his family. As a general authority, he's allowed to stay in any hotel in Taiwan - normally they arrange for general authorities to stay in nice Marriotts or something, but President Uchtdorf adamantly stated that he wanted to stay in the Taiwan Grand Hotel. So he did! I thought that was funny.

 

Anyway, during our orientation, President Grimley kept on talking about how all of us were going to stay in the Taipei area, except one of us was going to the East coast, or "paradise," as the Taipei missionaries call it. I really felt like I was going to be the one to go to paradise - not because I'm very different from the other missionaries or anything, but just because I had a feeling that I would be leaving. Well, when we met our trainers and found out where we were serving, I was right! I'm in an area called Hualian (or maybe Hualien is the English name - not sure). It's on the east coast, about 10 minutes running distance away. I've got the beach, the mountains, the trees, and the city - I totally lucked out! It's beautiful here, and I already really like this area. I'm sorry that I don't have pictures - my companion told me that I needed my SD card, but she actually meant a USB cable for my camera, so I don't have any that I can share with you. Next week, though! And you can look up pictures until then. :) I'd especially recommend Taroko Gorge - that's a place that I hope to go to next P-day, and it's one of the most beautiful areas in all of Taiwan. My companion says that President Grimley trusts us a lot and that's why he sent us to Hualian, but I'm inclined to think that it's probably because Heavenly Father knew I couldn't handle biking in Taipei city. :)

 

Okay, next, my companion! Her name is Sister Wu, and she's from Taizhong (the other mission in Taiwan). She's actually surprisingly tall for a Taiwanese person here (I feel extra tall in this country), she works hard, she follows the rules, and she's a little blunt, as most Asians are. This is good, because I told my MTC teacher before I left that I needed to develop a more humble attitude, and this will definitely help! :) She also bikes fast, which is another blessing - I told people before I left that I wanted to good at biking fast and navigating through this city, and this is already helping! Don't worry - if she's ever too fast, I'll tell her at companionship inventory or something. :)

 

Food - really good! I've liked almost everything that I've had thus far. Scratch that - I think i've actually liked everything I've had. I almost had pig ears for dinner last night, but since it was buffet-style, I felt okay in just skipping over that plate. :) I've felt really blessed, because I just put stuff on my plate (or in my bowl, which is more common here) and eat it, no questions asked (except for the pig ear, which is why I didn't eat it). I'm sure that I'll still have some interesting stories once I DO find out what stuff is, though! I'll keep you posted.

 

Weather - really similar to Florida, probably. This means that I have 80's hair every day, but it's great - I think that it's so interesting that it gets some people to stop and ask me about it, which will hopefully lead to more contacts! :)

 

Language - it's as good as it can be right now. President told me that I would have a really tough time at the beginning, but everyone does (even people who have studied Chinese for a long time). I can understand what's happening in lessons that we're teaching, and I get some stuff out of church and contacting, but the regular vocabulary is a little hard. Just keep praying for me! Everyone's so nice about it - the district president (Hualian is one of the few areas that has a district and not a stake, so pray for that too) spoke yesterday after I bore my testimony and said that I was a "qiji," or "miracle." It'll be really great for my Chinese to have a "Bundiren," or a native, as my companion. She also talks extraordinarily fast (and I've listened to natives speak before this, so I really can say that she's fast even in comparison to them!), so if I can understand her, then I should be able to understand most people, I think (as long as they don't have a really thick Taiwanese accent, that is). I have hope for the future, because the other missionaries in my district didn't take Chinese before, and now their Chinese is really good. They and President Grimley said that if I can speak this well now, I'll really catch on. I'm not sure if they were just practicing the Chinese custom of "giving face" or not, but it was comforting all the same.

 

What else has happened? The branches that we serve in (we cover two) are really nice. Most of them are converts themselves, so they really, really love the missionaries and help them in whatever ways they can. They're really nice to me, and I'm trying to give back (Dad, I said in my testimonies yesterday that I really want to help in whatever way I can; I didn't get to talk to the branch presidents, but I will! Thank you for that advice). Hmm... as far as crazy stories go, I've been rejected by an investigator with a giant buddha in their house, I've talked to an old man on the street for five minutes without realizing that he was deaf, I've been told that my eyes are so big and so beautiful that I look like I'm a comic book character, I've told a man that he was beautiful on accident, I've had some hard times, and I've had a lot of peace. We've already seen some miracles here in Hualian, and I know that more will come. Please pray that they will happen - I know that your prayers will help!

 

Last thought - most of you know that one of my biblical heroes is Paul. I love Paul. Well, I was reading in 1 Thessalonians 2 about missionary work, and I noticed that Paul said something along the lines of "I spoke to you not as a pleasing man, but as God, which trieth the heart." It's sort of hard for me to ask for people to pull over so I can tell them about the gospel, but when you think about it, Paul was kind of bothersome too! And he says later that he "not only imparted the gospel" to them, but his "whole soul." I hope to do that as I work and labor in this area. We've already seen a lot of success - we have many members with baptismal dates - and I know we can see more. Please pray that I'll have the courage to open my mouth and that I'll find people! This week we're going to try and use my violin for contacting - we might have to do it on the weekend, though, because people are always working here. Oh, and Guonian (Chinese New Year) starts this Sunday all through next week, so you'll get to hear about that in the next email!

 

Thank you for your love and your constant prayers. I LOVE you all so very very very much, and I miss you. But, I also know this is where I'm needed the most, and I'm happy to serve. Please continue to pray for me! I'll do the same for you.

 

Love,

Becca

 

PS - Sorry this is so long! I promise that I'll try and make it more "readable" next time.

PPS - I'll be writing at about this time every week.

Sister Winters - January 3, 2012 Mama ma ma

Dear All,

Thank you for all of the letters from the family last week! I loved them - they were awesome. In answer to your questions I am STILL finding things to entertain and amuse you (I'll talk about a few of them later in this letter). I hadn't really been able to talk to Daniel much - companions were making things a little difficult, but then I was able to talk to him quite a bit for the past couple of days, which was fantastic. I think he's really grown up a lot. I kind of strictly chastised him yesterday about something he said that all of the other elders say too, but he took it very well and promised that he'd stop. His Chinese is SO great, too! Both of us bore our testimonies on Sunday (I also said the closing prayer), and I was so proud of how perfect his tones were. I think he felt the same way about me, which was almost equally delightful.

 

I also want to let all of you know that I am SO EXCITED TO GO TO TAIWAN!!!!!! Really, I can't wait. We got our travel plans, and here they are:

 

I leave the MTC on 1/10/12 at 6:00 AM. My flight from the SLC airport is at 9:45 AM. I arrive in the LAX airport at 10:50. Then at 3:50 PM I fly from LAX to Taipei. Two awesome things about this travel plan. 1: I get a direct flight from LAX to Taipei! 2. I have a super-long layover and I'll get to talk to you! Oh, and fun fact - we arrive in Taiwan at 10:35 PM the NEXT DAY because of the time difference! I think if my calculations are correct without the internet to help me out, it's a 16 hour time difference from Georgia. That'll make things fun on Mother's Day and Christmas!

 

Oh, one favor I have to ask - I've finished my Mormon.org profile, and I need you to put a picture on it for me (choose a good one, please! No 13-year-old Rebecca on the internet). My username is rwinters404 and my password is the usual. Thank you!

 

Speaking of mormon.org, I have become almost obsessed with that website. It's just so great! I get inspired whenever I hear other people's stories about their lives. We recently discovered some Chinese/Taiwanese members and LOVED watching those - we could even understand a lot of what they were saying! My two favorites (yes, you should look them up even though there aren't any subtitles) are Kaiping the Taiwanese tour guide and this girls named Shi Ling? Something like that. She's a food and travel reporter in Taiwan and her "about me" says that she's "an extremely happy person." I can't describe how excited I am to serve the Taiwanese people! They seem so happy and polite and wonderful.

 

So, you might be wondering what my subject heading is all about. I learned a Chinese tongue twister (more like a way to demonstrate different tones): "Mama qi ma. Ma man. Mama ma ma." It means: "Mom rides the horse. The horse is slow. Mom scolds the horse." You need the tones to get the full effect (I've been practicing so I can say it to you next week), but isn't that crazy? It all sounds the same/looks the same, but the words all mean something different! More exciting news: I got my Chinese name! It's Wei (my last name) Bei Jia - translated it means "Bud" (like rose bud, or I like to connect it to the 'last flower falling' in Mulan) "Beautiful, good, happy, wonderful." Obviously I couldn't compain with a translation like that! The fun thing is that my teacher tried to match it up with our English names. So "Becca," "Bei Jia." Get it? I especially like that my whole name, "Wei Bei Jia" sounds like "Rebecca." It's just too perfect! Oh, funny story about my name really fast. When my teacher wrote my name on the board, she wrote the translation over it. The only thing is when she wrote "bud," it looked like "loud." I kind of ask a lot of questions and am a little talkative in class, so I got really worried for a second! But then it said "bud" and it was all good. :)

 

I really am doing so well - life is good in the MTC, and I have a feeling that life is going to get even better in a week! I'm still working on being more selfless - with okay results. I accidentally had a little Freudian slip last week with my teacher - she's switching districts because of her new class schedule, so I wrote her a note from the whole district. She loved it and explained that she would put it in her scripture case to remind her of us. My companion wasn't sure about what she had said, so I explained: "She's putting it in her scripture case so when she looks at it she'll be reminded of me.... I mean 'us.'" Oh, well - I've still got a while to work on that, right?

 

My other teacher, Mao Laoshi, said that we should work our hardest this week so we could "hit the ground running." I loved that analogy - I feel like I relate my experience with running and XC a lot to the mission - all about enduring and "no regrets." So, pray for me this week that I'll "hit the ground running!" I'll pray for all of you in return. Love to you all, and I'll talk to you next week!

 

Love,

Wei Bei Jia