(Mom, that's how you pronounce it. :)) Hello, all you wonderful people! It's been a really wonderful week here in Taitung - I love this place, and I would honestly be thrilled if I could stay here for the rest of my mission. The return sister missionary I met at the MTC was here for a whole year of her 15 months in Taiwan, so I'm praying that I'm the next Sister Kollyer. :)
Okay! Lots of questions and things to talk about, and very little time. :) So - some things I love about Taitung:
-The lack of people here. Taiwan is TINY, but it has 22,000,000+ people that live there. That means that there are people and crowds everywhere! ...Except here. Which means that there are trees and nature and birds (Dad, I thought you'd appreciate that) instead. I can actually wake up to the birds chirping every day! I love it! Of course, the lack of people is pretty funny when we're contacting - sometimes there's nobody on the streets and if one person walks out, we chase after them with our bikes. :) Mom, to answer your question about contacting, we pretty much do the same thing, but we really need to make sure we plan to contact people at really "busy" intersections so we can actually find people to talk to. :) Oh, one other thing about the scenery - we live so close to the mountains! AND the beach! We climbed a mountain for our first day in the field for our exercise and then looked at our "kingdom" (I felt like Simba in Lion King) - I felt like the luckiest person alive. And then we were going to go play ultimate frisbee at the beach with the elders on Friday but they accidentally didn't wake up early (6:00) like we did and so it didn't happen. Next week, though! I'm so excited.
-The food. I've heard that everyone gains weight in Taitung, and I'm not surprised. The food here is GOOD, and it's CHEAP. Two really bad/good combinations. I've discovered some new favorite foods: this corn chowder that everyone has here, except it has this croissant puff thing baked on top so you eat the two at once (yum!), the peanut butter here is super good (it's really sweet, like the stuff in the Reeses cup), and tarot bread (it's this weird root thing, but it is absolutely delicious! I love it). I normally eat the Tarot bread and some milk for breakfast, and then I go out to eat for lunch and dinner. As far as those meals go, normally it's rice. With stuff on top. :) That's what's cheapest, and that's what's best. But I'm hoping to experiment a little more over the next five weeks - and hopefully I won't gain 30 pounds in the process.
-There's a flautist and a pianist that live in our same apartment complex, so I can hear them practicing. :) It makes me so incredibly happy!
-There's this boardwalk that's really close to our house that really must be what Heaven is like. It has all of these trees, tropical flowers, butterflies, etc. There are a lot of Filipina women who take care of Amas (the old grandmas here) who often take them there. There was this one Filipina lady I was talking to and then the Ama said something, gesturing to her mouth. I turned to the Filipina for interpretation and she said, "She thinks your lips are cute." That's definitely a first!
-My companion. She's so great! We had a lot of success this past week, even though she was sick! 30 lessons taught in one week! We're determined that it's going to be a pattern for the rest of this transfer. Oh, and Dad, her dad apparently collects Coke stuff! She said that she's been to the world of Coke and they had a guy who her dad knew who took them around. She said it might be you... is it?
-The members. The members here are absolutely amazing. When I was on the train to Taitung I told Sister Rosander that I want to make sure I talk to people. Like talk to them and get to know them. I sometimes feel like my language is a barrier (because it totally is), but that shouldn't prevent me from talking to people and trying to get to know them and showing them that I love them. Well, it's already working! I feel like I've already developed some wonderful friendships and relationships with the branch members. It's like Hualien - we oversee two different branches. And then I was sitting in church with a member, trying to listen and set a good example, but then she kept asking me about my family, boyfriend, etc. and I didn't want to reject her and ruin our relationship, so... yeah. We'll see what happens. Plus it's tough because we still have our four hours of study afterwards, so we don't get outdoors until like 6 PM. It's tough to proselyte. Next transfer though I'll have only 2.5 hours so much more time.
-The investigators! We have fewer here, and the work is a little slower here, but I love them already. One of them got baptized this past week! Her name is Kiki. She's about 20 years old, and she's super-cute. One thing that I thought was super-awesome about her story: so the Word of Wisdom was really hard for her (it's hard for everyone here because they drink tea all the time). She actually relapsed once and had to start over again with trying to get over it, so we were kind of worried. Well, we met with her this past week before her baptism, and she said: "My older brother came home, and he doesn't want me to get baptized. And he brought this really, really, really delicious tea with him." So we all waited to see what she'd say next. Then she sighed and said, "...But I didn't drink it." We were elated. When we asked her why, she said, "it's because I knew that I wanted to be a part of this church, and in this church, we don't drink tea." That, my friends, is a miracle! I was so proud of her, and I really look up to her example. One other experience - I think we've found a golden investigator! We were at the church and I saw these two teenagers down the road, so I told my companion to wait a second and I ran up to them to talk to them. Well they were busy, but I told them that i'd love to give them a tour of the chapel and I set up for the next day with one of the girls. I was worried about it, but... she came! And she committed to be baptized! And she's not worried about leaving her other church! And she came to church on Sunday! *Sigh* I'm so happy about it. I'll keep you posted on her - her name's Han Jiemei.
-English class is still really fun. I heard from our Zone Leader that my old English class said that they really miss me (which broke my heart a little bit), but I'm still teaching advanced here and I'm having a blast. This past time we played the game where you have the name of a famous person on your back and you have to figure out who you are. Well, one of the guys is named Paul and he was Albert Einstein, since he (Paul) was a biology teacher and I figured he like science. Well, Paul later told me that he liked it best when he could ask me questions and I'd answer them. I told him that was fine, and waited for his question. It was: "How do you feel about the atomic bomb that you created?" I'm assuming he thought that the game was still going and that I was Albert Einstein! I wasn't really sure how to respond. "Um... I'm sad that it was weaponized." "Well, you know that it's brought destruction and death." "I know, and I... regret that." Definitely a weird conversation.
A couple last things: 1) I realized that I'm not a very good missionary, because we were at Subway for lunch the other day and I heard a Justin Bieber song along with "Party in the USA" and I couldn't stop smiling. 2) I'm going to "monkey mountain" today - there are live monkeys there that apparently we aren't supposed to feed but everyone there sells stuff to feed the monkeys. So I'm going to. And if I get in trouble I'll say that I couldn't read the signs. Sometimes I love not being able to speak this language. :) 3) Heavenly Father uses us specifically for who we are and what talents we've been given! I was riding my bike and stopped to talk to this lady who's from Indonesia. Her English was pretty darn good, but she said she natively spoke Arabic. I told her that I had gone to Jordan, and that I took a little bit of Arabic (and I mean a little). She was absolutely delighted when I used the two phrases that I remembered. I gave her and English class pamphlet (since she couldn't read the Chinese characters in our gospel one) and invited her to come. I don't know if she'll come or not, but it just struck me that Heavenly Father used me for who I was to talk to that lady and plant that seed. :) The church is true!
Okay, that is it. I'm about to go use chocolate cake mix to make some pancakes and then go feed some monkeys. You kids have fun!
Love,
Sister Winters
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