Dear best family in the world,
Hello from Hualien! Thank you for all of your fantastic emails - I can't tell you how happy they make me. This week has been a little crazy! But it's been great, too. :) So, as you can tell from the subject line, I am leaving the paradise of Hualien and going to... the paradise of Taitung! It's still on the east coast, but it's actually further down south (the farthest area from the mission home). This transfer has a ton of Taiwanese missionaries coming in, so my companion is training again - it's actually her best friend from home! Crazy.
So a couple of thoughts about moving. At first, when I found out that I was leaving Hualien, I wondered if it was because I wasn't working my hardest or if Heavenly Father felt like I didn't deserve to be here. I felt kind of ripped off - as my zone leader put it, "you're in the promised land for only six weeks and then you have to leave!" and I wondered if it was my fault. Plus we have so many BAPTISMS for next month! And I felt like I had worked really hard and JUST started to get to know/love my investigators and members and then I found out that I was moving. So I prayed about it. And I realized that my work here is done. I've helped these people come closer to Christ - I've fulfilled my purpose. And I HAVE worked my hardest, and I HAVE kept a positive attitude, so I don't need to feel ripped off, because I know that I'm going where Heavenly Father wants me to go, which is going to be the best place ever for me at this time. Does that make sense?
Anyway, here's a little bit about Taitung. We actually have a long and interesting history, so it'll be fun to talk about it a little bit. So when I got my mission call, I was freaked out/reluctant to go to Taiwan for a lot of reasons, which I won't really go into here. It sufficeth me to say that I didn't really want to go. But then I went out to Utah to visit some friends for a little bit, and while I was at my friend Anna's apartment, two guys from her apartment complex came to say hello. Turns out they had both served missions in Taipei, Taiwan! It was such a blessing to be able to talk to them, resolve some of my fears about going, etc. Anyway, when they were talking to me, they said: "I know you're going to be a great missionary. It seems to me like you're a Taitung sister." When I asked them what Taitung was, they both got these blissful expressions and said: "Taitung is the best area in the mission. It's the farthest place away from the mission home, so it means that the mission president really trusts you. And it's not really like a city - it's really rural, and the people are AWESOME there. And you seem like Taitung material." Well, I thought that sounded awesome. Another experience: I was at the MTC and we were teaching some volunteers. One of them had served in the Taipei mission, and she was in Taitung for a YEAR. I told her that I had heard about it, and she said, "I hope you're lucky enough to go! It's the best place in the world." Plus my companion that I have right now had been there for nine months. Basically what I'm trying to say is I already have a history with this place, and I feel lucky to go there! I feel especially blessed to have served both in Hualien and in Taitung - the only other sister I know that's been lucky enough to do that is Sister Wu. Wow!
Still, I WILL miss Hualien. Dad, if you DO come out to pick me up, we're going to Taroko Gorge together, okay? I've wanted to go since the MTC and bugged my companion about it every single week (Mom, I'm reminded of your mission journal entry...), but it never happened. I warned her that if I got transferred then I would haunt her for the rest of her life. After I found out that I was moving she promised personally to drive me there after my mission so we could go together, haha.
I also will miss the people - I've been so amazed and so grateful for the friendships I've made here, even though I can't speak the language! Lu Jiemei's kids actually moved up their baptismal dates to THIS THURSDAY (YES!), so I got to stay with them with Lu Jiemei as my exchange companion during their baptismal interviews while Wu Jiemei and Hualien's new sister, Mao Jiemei (the Kaiping guy on Mormon.org's daughter!), went out to teach some people. It was a really sweet experience to be able to talk to Lu Jiemei for like an hour about her life and how it's changed since she's had the Gospel. I honestly felt like it was a miracle that we could love each other like that and really care for the other's well being so much when we can't really communicate very well at all. :) But it's true! I guess that can be my miracle of the week - Wu Yi Xuan and Wu Yu Ze's (Lu Jiemei's kids) baptisms, and getting to talk to Lu Jiemei for so long (normally we can't meet with members longer than 5 minutes unless we're having dinner with them).
Contacting stories - well, I saw an African American man from California who speaks flawless Chinese last week. THAT is definitely an anomaly. His name was Dr. Willis, and he's actually here in Taiwan to help with this world religion that he's a part of. I'm ashamed to admit that I really can't remember what religion it was - I had never heard of it before. He agreed to meet with us, but he cautioned us that if we met with him and shared what we believed, he would also share what HE believed for part of the visit as well. I was up for it, but my companion wasn't too sure... So we'll see what happens with that. :) We also got to go up to Taipei this week (twice, plus going to Taitung, plus I've needed to buy some tickets for others, which is why the bill on my Visa is randomly so high, Mom. Sorry about that! But I'm getting reimbursed by everyone this week, so don't worry) for a trainee meeting! I'm a new missionary for my first 12 weeks, so I'm a "trainee." So at this meeting, I got to see all of my MTC friends! It was so great to see them. We all swapped stories about everything - crazy people we've met, crazy traffic incidents, crazy dogs chasing us (in my case), etc. A personal favorite of mine was from Sister Christensen - as usual, she talked about fashion. :) She was saying that her skirts aren't very bike-friendly, so she needed to get some new ones. Well a member volunteered to get her one for her that was "so fashionable." Turns out that it was this awful purple velour with weird sparkles on it. Poor Sister Christensen had to fake being happy about it - AND when she didn't wear it to church last Sunday, the member was like, "Why aren't you wearing that adorable skirt that I bought you?" So she had to wear it yesterday. :) I'm smiling just thinking about it!
It was awesome to find out that everyone at the meeting was going through a lot of the things that I was going through as a new missionary. It was also good to find out that my language skills aren't that bad for a new missionary! But then I was punished for comparing myself to others - Sister Mao has been with us the past couple of days, and it's been super-depressing at times to see how easily she's able to do things (like chatting with the members) that are practically impossible for me to do at times (since my language capabilities are about 99% church-related). I really needed to pray and remind myself that even though it SEEMS like it would be way easier/more productive if I had gone to an English-speaking country instead of Taiwan, this is where I'm supposed to be. And I've gotten confirmations of that over and over again - Heavenly Father's so good to me. :)
Well, that's about it for this week! I'm loving life, loving being a missionary, and I'm excited to be loving this new area that I'll be going to today. I'll be sure to tell you all about it next week (we'll see if I email around the same time - sorry in advance if I don't!)! I love you all - you're in my prayers.
Love,
Sister Winters
PS - My new companion is a sister from Hurricaine, Utah - her name is Sister Rosander. She's a vocal performance major at SUU, and we've been on exchanges together - she's super-great, and I'm really excited to work with her.
PPS - In case you didn't see the new church news (I'm almost positive you did), we found out who are new mission president is! His name is President Day, and he and his wife are from the SOUTH (Tennessee and Mississippi, respectively)! YES!
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