Sister Winters - June 25, 2012 The Start of Something New

....Yeah, that was just a High School Musical reference. :) Sorry - I'm out of ideas for clever titles this week.

 

Family! Friends! It's been an awesome week here in the Promised Land! Which is good in and of itself, but it's even better because it means it was a great last week for Sister Rosander. She's leaving this morning - it's really surreal to think about. She's been awesome and has been 100% focused - I hope I can be like that when I get to that point.

 

...But I'm not at that point yet! And I'm sure you want to know what's happening next transfer (and if you don't care what's happening, then I guess you can skip this part?). I will be.... co-senior companion in Taidong next transfer. And coordinating sister (I'm in charge of taking care of the sisters in the zone and of setting up/going on exchanges with them). I'm also now the one in the district who has been here the longest (aka: "the one who should know the area the best"). Yikes! Let's just say that I've been saying: "Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies" to myself over and over again for the past two days. :) BUT, I know that this next transfer is also probably going to be the best one I've ever had. Why? 1) I'm really going to have to depend on Heavenly Father's help, maybe more than I ever have. 2) My new co-senior companion is none other than Sister Tiffany Burton from Florida, one of my best friends from the MTC! She's so excited, I'm so excited, and even though neither of us can read Chinese and we're the same "age" on the mission (really young), we know that we're going to have an amazing time. 3) One of my friends from college, Elder Michael Slawson, will be moving into the area too. We were friends in my freshman year (he started school when he was 16 and had to wait three whole years to go on a mission) and I completely forgot that we were in the same mission, so it'll be really fun to see him here in the "deeeeeeep south". 4) For those of you who didn't know, we're getting a new mission president this week, someone from the South! I have no idea when he'll make his way down here, but I'm sure I'll find out soon. I'm excited to see his ideas and methods with helping this mission become even better. 5) I set a bunch of new goals to make me work even harder and be even better (hopefully), so I'm excited about those.

 

Well, there goes my big news for the week (so those of you who skipped that last part, you actually might want to go back and read it). Oh, wait! There was sort of a typhoon here last week. That is, everyone thought it was coming, but it ended up hitting the west coast instead. But the people from our mission headquarters called us and told us to prepare three days of food and everything. Not to mention every single person that we talked to on the street or called on the phone talked about how a typhoon was coming and advised us to be careful. I have to admit that we were all pretty excited to see what a typhoon would be like, so we were all a little disappointed when it didn't come. Oh, and this last Saturday was the Dragon Boat Festival. But I didn't go, since we had lessons that whole day. :) It's fine, it's just some rowboat competitions - I think I'll live. And I sure did get to celebrate it with food - in order to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, the Taiwanese make zhongzis, these steamed rice dumplings with stuff like eggs and meat and mushrooms in them. They're really good. And we had them like 5 times this week by members, with an extra 8 or so people who gave us free ones.

 

Let's see, other traditions... I wanted to write a little this week about "bai-bai," or worshipping ancestors. That's what everyone does here. It was really surprising to come here and to see that something like that is a common practice, when you don't hear of anyone doing that in the states. Anyway, there are a lot of different methods of doing it, but this week I'll only mention a couple. One of them is burning this incense filled paper that counts as money for the dead. They'll strip it off in chunks and then burn it in this little stove in front of their houses so that their ancestors (I'm assuming) will have money on the other side. Another one of them is burning incense and then offering fruit on this altar to the ancestor. There's controversy in Christian churches whether or not you can eat the fruit on the altar, etc... For more information, see the writings of Paul in the New Testament. All that stuff is reality here. :) But anyway, it's a little awkward when you contact someone at their house and you ask them to come to church and then they say, "Oh, sorry, but I'm actually sacrificing some fruit on an altar to give my ancestors right now." People typically bai-bai more at the beginning of the month and also at holidays (Dragon Boat Festival), so we've run into that a lot lately. :)

 

Spiritual thought for the week - I've been thinking about faith a lot lately. Here in the Church we'll say that faith is the first principle of the Gospel. Why? Because faith is required in order for us to do anything else. Last week I shared Helaman 14:8 with one of our investigators, which flat-out says if you have faith, you'll receive eternal life. That's a huge promise! Why doesn't it say anything else about baptism or repentance in that scripture? Because when we have faith, we'll believe in God, and we'll act on that belief - we'll be willing to repent, to be baptized, to go to the temple... Basically we'll be willing to do anything that's required of us in order to make it back to God's presence. So, as aforementioned, I'm a little nervous about the responsibilities/expectations of next transfer. But I also know that I need to have faith - yeah, I can't read very many characters and still might not know exactly what people are talking about all of the time, but God can! So if I have faith in Him, I'll be okay. Because my belief in Him from my faith will help support me, and the actions from my faith will help me learn Chinese, understand Chinese, speak Chinese, and do whatever it takes to help my investigators.

 

...That being said, I could use all of your faith too, so please keep praying for me and my investigators. :)

 

That's it for today! Have an amazing week, everyone - I'm planning on doing the same.

 

Love,

Sister Winters

 

Sister Winters - June 17, 2012 Happy father's day!

Dear family,

 

Happy Father's Day! Father's Day here is celebrated on August 8th, but I hope it was a wonderful holiday here (there - I still say "here") in the USA. This week was... wow, this week was really great. Really really great, actually. Which is funny, because there were some pretty darn rough times this week as well. I always heard RMs say: "Oh, on my mission, it was like a roller coaster of emotions every week." Even though I'm not sure about the "every week" thing, there are some roller coaster weeks every now and then. :) But we totally came out on top! And life is great.

 

Some highlights of this week (besides numbers, which were awesome): our movie activity! We filmed those Bible/Book of Mormon stories last Saturday, and it was, as a member said: "absolutely awesome." I was thrilled with our success - I was pretty much beaming the whole time. Well actually not at the beginning because nobody came at first. But eventually a ton of people came by the time we ate the food at the end - we think that there might be a link there... And the missionaries are thinking that we might have the food at the beginning next time and eat it all before everyone gets there, just to teach them a lesson! Just kidding. Maybe.

 

Another highlight this week was English class. Well, it kind of broke my heart a little too. Let me explain: the kids in my class all decided that it would be great to learn what people say on... facebook. So I had a lesson on jk, lol, brb, g2g, totes, presh... you get the picture. I also talked about how people will exaggerate words (ex: "im soooo happyyyyyyyy"). Anyway, we had a competition where I described a situation and then the kids were on facebook chat and they had to write how they would describe the situation - using facebook language, of course! It kind of made me feel all sad and empty inside when I said that I was delighted and a kid wrote: "Ish = I soooo happppyyyyyyyyy." Who knows, maybe by the time I get back "ish" will be an accepted word. But anyway, I'm thinking of teaching them all how to say "whom" or something like that next time in order to make sure they'll actually be able to use English properly.

 

Yesterday was pretty great - we got permission to go to a free little recital for Melody's (one of our investigators) son who played the violin, plus his friend played the viola. Although there were pretty young - 18 or 19 - they really were excellent. Nothing like hearing some Beethoven, Ravel, and yes, even Hindemith to get you going. :) But, I'm going to have to admit, there were still times where I'd be judging them and analyzing their performance - still haven't quite given up my major while I've been here, I guess. Anyway, Melody was really happy we came - she even gave us treats afterwards! Well, sort of - they were actually really weird, and we didn't eat very many of them. I included a picture of one of my favorites - it's like bread dough that's dyed yellow with a bunch of weird meats, vegetables, and tofu inside. It actually didn't taste too bad (hence why I ate about half of it), but the whole dough thing was just a little bit too weird. I found out this week that the Taiwanese don't eat cookie dough - they think it sounds disgusting, actually. I personally think that if they are able to stomach weird dyed bread dough with tofu then they can probably eat cookie dough, but whatever.

 

Okay, I'm including some pictures from last week's P-day in here. We went to the big ice or ice big place and ate an ENORMOUS bowl of ice cream! Apparently it's meant for 30 people, but yeah, 8 missionaries plus a member downed it. :) The poor worker had to call her friend to help her out because she'd never made it before. They were so surprised that we wanted it, since it was raining outside - I don't think they have that "buy one scoop get one scoop free when it's raining" deal here like they do at Bruster's. We also went to a cool place called Siaoyeliou (look it up). Actually, I found out all of the places that we've gone to and I wrote down their names: Luye Gautai, Sansiantai, East Coast National Scenic area, Taitung Forest Park and Seashore Park, along with Taitung Railway Art Village. Look 'em up if you want!

 

Alright, my time is running out. But before I go I just want to let you all know that the Atonement is real. The Savior suffered for us, because He loves us. But not just "us," but us, on an individual level. I still don't even have a very good understanding of how much He did for us, but I've come to a greater knowledge of it since being here. He loves us, and He wants us to be happy! He suffered so that we don't have to ("take my yoke upon you..."). I've felt it. It's real.

 

That's it for this week! This week is the last week of our transfer - next week I'll find out about my new companion! Stay tuned and pray that we can keep adding oil this week...

Love,

Becca

Pictures of Sister Winters

Hello! Here are some pictures from the zone conference a few weeks ago. :)

 

Love,

Hello! Here are some pictures from the zone conference a few weeks ago. :)

 

Love,

Becca

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Sister Winters - June 11, 2012 "It tastes like… how do you say… candle?"

[Editor's note: Sorry, I initially entered the correct subject then it was switched when I put in the email addresses.]

Dear family,

 

Amongst the brain-dead computer-addicts at this internet cafe, there is a bright-eyed, happy sister missionary just loving life. I have the best family and friends ever! Thank you for making my weeks even better than they already are. This week was pretty darn good, and we're determined that it's going to just keep getting better.

 

I think I'm first going to address the story with the subject line. I know that the Taiwanese people (either companions, district members, or church members, or all of the above) have gotten a kick out of watching white people (such as myself) trying to stomach weird/gross food such as chicken feet, pig's blood sausage, shrimp with guts all over them, etc. Well this week the white people got a chance to enjoy the fun. It all started a week ago when our district leader got his hands on some twizzlers (licorice) from home and decided to share them with everyone. We were all really excited, and the Taiwanese missionaries were all really curious. When the first one, Elder Lin, took a bite, all of the emotion drained out of his face and he slowly said, "This tastes like... how do you say... candle? Yeah, candle." It was so funny - especially when he kept eating it afterwards ("I don't know - there's nothing else to eat."). Next was Elder You. He had a big smile before he tried it, then took a bite and tried to keep smiling. Then he desperately looked at all of our faces and said: "Wait, wait, Wei Jiemei - do you actually like this?" I loved it. It was equally delightful to watch them eat "Fruit by the Foot" (a member visiting from the States gave us some), something that they had never tried before. They were so puzzled and intrigued as they tried to figure out how they would eat it - should I just take it bite by bite directly off of the wrapper? Should Ieat the wrapper? Should I see how long it is and try to stuff it in my mouth? They said it was really sweet and then asked why everything in America is so sweet, but I beg to disagree - I think the sweetest stuff I've ever had in my life has all been from Taiwan.

 

I've also enjoyed seeing some of the fashion statements that are common here in Taiwan. One of them that I particularly like is seen amongst the "less-classy" men of Taiwan - it's really hot here, so they'll wear their wife-beaters and some short shorts. But, because it's just too hot, they'll pull up their wife beaters so that their stomachs are bare and poking out. Another one that I sported myself this morning is the yuyi. You know those big yellow ponchos that they sell at Disney World that look like giant trash bags that nobody wants to wear? Well EVERYONE wears them here. They're called yuyis, and at the slightest sign of rain everyone brings them out. It's really great. And they don't want to get their shoes and socks wet in the rain, so they'll wear flip-flops as well. So you can all probably guess what I wore in this morning's thunderstorm on the way to the email place - an yuyi, complete with flip-flops. I'll try and remember to take a picture sometime.

 

Okay, one more thing about the Chinese and then I'll go to my spiritual thought for this week. The Chinese refer to the family all the time in the vocabulary they use to address people. For example, when they say, "I hope that everyone here has a great day," they'll say "Wo xiwang dajia hui you feichang hao de yi tian." The word "dajia" literally refers to "big family." So they hope everyone in this big family has a great day. :) Something else I've noticed is that they don't really use names very often. Instead, they'll just use words like "didi" (little brother - Mulan, anyone?), "meimei" (little sister). If they don't know my name (or even sometimes after they know my name), they'll tell their kids: "Can you tell Jiejie (big sister) 'hello?'" Or sometimes they'll use "aiyi" (aunt) to address me instead. At first I thought it was a little weird - his name isn't little brother, just use his name! - but now I really like it. The focus on family heiarchy is something that's really neat about the Chinese culture.

 

Spiritual: This past week we had a zone conference up in Hualian, and it was great. We studied Chapter 4 of Preach My Gospel (a handbook for missionaries) on Relying on the Holy Ghost. That chapter is actually the first one I read from that book - a long time before my mission, when I wanted to learn more about how to recognize and rely on the Spirit. I loved that chapter then, but I love it even more now. I came out of the conference even more inspired to try and rely on the Spirit in every aspect of missionary work. Something that one of the assistants said that I really liked was that sometimes the Spirit will prompt us to do something that will pull us out of our comfort zones ("or else," as one of the other missionaries said, "he probably wouldn't have to prompt us to do something!"), but we'll always be better off when we follow. Heavenly Father gave me an opportunity to practice this principle really soon after the conference. This past Saturday was the infamous Chapel Tour time. And, as usual, nobody really set up. So we had to find the people who would [hopefully] have interest! We had a sister helping us, so she and I set off talking to everyone while Sister Rosander called some people and wrote a record she needed to finish. Anyway, Sister Zhang and I weren't really having too much success, but then at the intersection on the other side of the road was a lady and her two kids on a motorscooter. But the light for the street going through was green, so I couldn't go over. But when her light turned green, she would zoom off and I wouldn't get a chance to talk to her! Then I had a thought: "just use a really loud voice to talk to her." At first I thought, "well, that's really weird, and I don't want her to think that I'm really weird. That is so out of my comfort zone." But then I remembered what I learned at zone conference. :) So I yelled across the street, "HEY, have you been to church? No? Well do you want to come in for a chapel tour?" Well as soon as the light turned green, she slowly made her way over. And at first she said no, that she didn't have time, but eventually she agreed! And she and her kids really liked it, and she's meeting with us again this Wednesday! So my point is - miracles really do happen when we're willing to follow the Spirit. Although I would not normally recommend yelling at people across the street.

 

Well, that's about it for this week. Keep praying for me and the people here in Taidong - we need it! I love you all.

 

Until next week!

 

Love,

Sister Winters

[Editor's note: Rebecca promised to send her brother, Joseph, pictures of cool or creepy animals.  I didn't include the HUGE picture of the creepy bug below.  Joseph did, however, think it was the best picture that Rebecca has taken thus far!]

Sister Winters - June 3, 2012 Um…I have to go take a shower

Dear family,

 

Amongst the brain-dead computer-addicts at this internet cafe, there is a bright-eyed, happy sister missionary just loving life. I have the best family and friends ever! Thank you for making my weeks even better than they already are. This week was pretty darn good, and we're determined that it's going to just keep getting better.

 

I think I'm first going to address the story with the subject line. I know that the Taiwanese people (either companions, district members, or church members, or all of the above) have gotten a kick out of watching white people (such as myself) trying to stomach weird/gross food such as chicken feet, pig's blood sausage, shrimp with guts all over them, etc. Well this week the white people got a chance to enjoy the fun. It all started a week ago when our district leader got his hands on some twizzlers (licorice) from home and decided to share them with everyone. We were all really excited, and the Taiwanese missionaries were all really curious. When the first one, Elder Lin, took a bite, all of the emotion drained out of his face and he slowly said, "This tastes like... how do you say... candle? Yeah, candle." It was so funny - especially when he kept eating it afterwards ("I don't know - there's nothing else to eat."). Next was Elder You. He had a big smile before he tried it, then took a bite and tried to keep smiling. Then he desperately looked at all of our faces and said: "Wait, wait, Wei Jiemei - do you actually like this?" I loved it. It was equally delightful to watch them eat "Fruit by the Foot" (a member visiting from the States gave us some), something that they had never tried before. They were so puzzled and intrigued as they tried to figure out how they would eat it - should I just take it bite by bite directly off of the wrapper? Should Ieat the wrapper? Should I see how long it is and try to stuff it in my mouth? They said it was really sweet and then asked why everything in America is so sweet, but I beg to disagree - I think the sweetest stuff I've ever had in my life has all been from Taiwan.

 

I've also enjoyed seeing some of the fashion statements that are common here in Taiwan. One of them that I particularly like is seen amongst the "less-classy" men of Taiwan - it's really hot here, so they'll wear their wife-beaters and some short shorts. But, because it's just too hot, they'll pull up their wife beaters so that their stomachs are bare and poking out. Another one that I sported myself this morning is the yuyi. You know those big yellow ponchos that they sell at Disney World that look like giant trash bags that nobody wants to wear? Well EVERYONE wears them here. They're called yuyis, and at the slightest sign of rain everyone brings them out. It's really great. And they don't want to get their shoes and socks wet in the rain, so they'll wear flip-flops as well. So you can all probably guess what I wore in this morning's thunderstorm on the way to the email place - an yuyi, complete with flip-flops. I'll try and remember to take a picture sometime.

 

Okay, one more thing about the Chinese and then I'll go to my spiritual thought for this week. The Chinese refer to the family all the time in the vocabulary they use to address people. For example, when they say, "I hope that everyone here has a great day," they'll say "Wo xiwang dajia hui you feichang hao de yi tian." The word "dajia" literally refers to "big family." So they hope everyone in this big family has a great day. :) Something else I've noticed is that they don't really use names very often. Instead, they'll just use words like "didi" (little brother - Mulan, anyone?), "meimei" (little sister). If they don't know my name (or even sometimes after they know my name), they'll tell their kids: "Can you tell Jiejie (big sister) 'hello?'" Or sometimes they'll use "aiyi" (aunt) to address me instead. At first I thought it was a little weird - his name isn't little brother, just use his name! - but now I really like it. The focus on family heiarchy is something that's really neat about the Chinese culture.

 

Spiritual: This past week we had a zone conference up in Hualian, and it was great. We studied Chapter 4 of Preach My Gospel (a handbook for missionaries) on Relying on the Holy Ghost. That chapter is actually the first one I read from that book - a long time before my mission, when I wanted to learn more about how to recognize and rely on the Spirit. I loved that chapter then, but I love it even more now. I came out of the conference even more inspired to try and rely on the Spirit in every aspect of missionary work. Something that one of the assistants said that I really liked was that sometimes the Spirit will prompt us to do something that will pull us out of our comfort zones ("or else," as one of the other missionaries said, "he probably wouldn't have to prompt us to do something!"), but we'll always be better off when we follow. Heavenly Father gave me an opportunity to practice this principle really soon after the conference. This past Saturday was the infamous Chapel Tour time. And, as usual, nobody really set up. So we had to find the people who would [hopefully] have interest! We had a sister helping us, so she and I set off talking to everyone while Sister Rosander called some people and wrote a record she needed to finish. Anyway, Sister Zhang and I weren't really having too much success, but then at the intersection on the other side of the road was a lady and her two kids on a motorscooter. But the light for the street going through was green, so I couldn't go over. But when her light turned green, she would zoom off and I wouldn't get a chance to talk to her! Then I had a thought: "just use a really loud voice to talk to her." At first I thought, "well, that's really weird, and I don't want her to think that I'm really weird. That is so out of my comfort zone." But then I remembered what I learned at zone conference. :) So I yelled across the street, "HEY, have you been to church? No? Well do you want to come in for a chapel tour?" Well as soon as the light turned green, she slowly made her way over. And at first she said no, that she didn't have time, but eventually she agreed! And she and her kids really liked it, and she's meeting with us again this Wednesday! So my point is - miracles really do happen when we're willing to follow the Spirit. Although I would not normally recommend yelling at people across the street.

 

Well, that's about it for this week. Keep praying for me and the people here in Taidong - we need it! I love you all.

 

Until next week!

 

Love,

Sister Winters

[Editor's note: Rebecca promised to send her brother, Joseph, pictures of cool or creepy animals.  I didn't include the HUGE picture of the creepy bug below.  Joseph did, however, think it was the best picture that Rebecca has taken thus far!]

Sister Winters - June 3, 2012 Um…I have to go take a shower

Dear family,

 

Hello from paradise! Today they're playing weird Chinese music in the place where I'm writing my email, which is kind of fun. I like listening to it, but it all honestly kind of sounds the same (at least from my perspective) - a little bit of Chinese harp, a lot of Chinese flute, and you're good!

 

I'm doing really well. We had SO MUCH success last week!!! I told Sister Rosander it was because she was such a trooper and still worked hard even when she was sick. She's doing a lot better, and no, she hasn't touched the opium stuff since. As for me, I'm staying as healthy as ever. Growing up with five other children who got sick all the time certainly does wonders for your immune system. :) I also found out last week that I can speak Chinese with a southern accent, so I guess you could say that I'm doing better than ever.

 

A lot of funny contacting experiences this week. There's this lady whom we've seen a few times who always gets so excited to see us. She always waves really frantically to get our attention. So then we ride up next to her and talk to her and she always says: "I'm sorry, but I don't have time to talk to you! I really would like to just sit and chat, but I just don't have time! I've got a meeting like RIGHT NOW!" So then I'll ask her if I can write down her phone number and call her at a more convenient time, but she always says: "Um... that's not very convenient. Sorry, but I just don't have time. But, oh wait! Here! I can give you this!" And then she'll bring out something and give it to us for free, whether it's fruit or tea (that we probably can't drink) or something like that. Really nice, and really funny. She's kind of like the White Rabbit from Alice and Wonderland except she gives us free stuff all of the time. But, speaking of excuses for not being able to stay and talk to us, I've heard a lot of really good (aka bad) ones here. I remember when I was in high school and I'd hear of and laugh at all of these lame excuses for not wanting to go on a date with a boy that girls would use. But here, those excuses have been my reality. Most of the time people say that they don't have any time, but those reasons for not having any time are somewhat hilarious. So far I've heard: "I have to clean my house," "I have to cook my vegetables," "I'm watching TV," "I've got... things" (I hear that one a lot :)), and, my personal favorite from this past week: "Um... I have to go take a shower." We were in the rain at the time, so I was tempted to say that I'd be willing to go buy some shampoo from the 7-11 across the street and she could just make it work, but I didn't want to leave her with the impression that all missionaries are crazy (even if it's a little true), so she zoomed off with out too much of a protest.

 

Along with noticing that people have excuses that maybe don't carry that much weight, I've also noticed that it seems like the problems other people have often seem a little more (in my opinion)... trivial. It's bad - I need to try and have more empathy. I just think it's a little funny when I'm worrying about the eternal salvation of peoples' souls and then we meet someone who says that they've had a terrible day because it's raining, because of what someone said on facebook, or because their cat wasn't very hungry that day so they're worried. This mission has definitely helped me see what things are most important, but I'm still going to work on trying to see things from their side more. :)

 

So a little miracle I just had to share from this past week: one day this past week I met a man whose last name is "Wang." He was talking with his kids outside his car. Now, the sisters don't normally talk to men as much, because the elders are the ones who teach them, but I felt like we should talk to him... so I did. At first he said, "Bu yong! Bu yong!" ("I don't need it! I don't need it!" - we get that a lot too :)), but eventually I got him laughing and he started being more receptive and even had a lesson on prayer with us and set up for this past Saturday to come with his family to have a tour of the church. Anyway, later that day, my companion had a thought that she should call one of our investigators. So while she was calling I saw this lady down the road, so I raced down the street so I could talk to her. She was really really nice, but also really really Buddhist. She gave me her phone number (I felt like I was sort of squeezing it out of her though), and then left. Sister Rosander and I were a little perplexed as to why she would have that prompting when our investigator didn't answer and that lady didn't set up, but whatever. Friday came, and we called Brother Wang to make sure he was still coming with his kids. We asked him if he was bringing his wife as well, to which he answered the affirmative. YES! Anyway, Saturday came around, and guess who was there? Brother Wang, one of his daughters, and the lady that I had contacted while my companion was calling our investigator! They were husband and wife! I was completely shocked. They told me that it wasn't that surprising since Taidong is so small, but still! There are thousands and thousands of people here! It was a miracle. The lesson was fine - we'll see how things go this week. Regardless of what happens, though, I could see that Heavenly Father really wants this family to find the truth, and His hand is definitely in this work.

 

Okay, spiritual thought and then I'm done. One reason our week was so successful is because we had a ton of investigators at church yesterday. Normally that's something that's really hard for us, but we've been focusing on it for the past few weeks, and yesterday our efforts showed. That was great, but something that made me just as happy was the fact that three less actives who haven't come to church for at least a year came yesterday as well. We've been working a lot with the new converts and people who don't come to church, and yesterday they came! There was a dad and his daughter who got baptized like 20 years ago but who really didn't come to church very much at all who came, and when I saw them, I was seriously speechless. Obviously that doesn't happen with me too often, so you know that's a big deal. But anyway, the part I loved best was when we took the sacrament. At that time these people who just lack the Holy Ghost in their lives were able to renew their baptismal covenants and to have the promise of "having [His] Spirit to be with them" always if they try and do what's right. I was so so so happy, because I've been renewed and made clean again by that weekly ordinance, and I felt so blessed to see people I love and who need it so badly also have it as well.

 

Alright, that's it for this week. Today we're going to Yuli, a town that's in our district but that's about an hour train ride away from here. I've heard it's really really small (way smaller than Taidong), but also really really beautiful. I've heard it's even like a rainforest in some parts. Rainforests and rice fields - I love this place. :) Thank you for being wonderful - I love you and pray for you every day. Be good this week!

 

Love,

Sister Winters

 

Sister Winters - photos

She really is serving in paradise!

Sister Rebecca Winters - May 28, 2012

Editor's note - Our computer was in the shop for a week, sorry for the delay.  I should be getting another email out tonight or tomorrow.

Dear family,

 

Huanyin to another week in Taidong, the Promised Land! I'm doing great, it sounds like you're all doing great, the people here are doing great - life is good. This week was really, really good with a lot of really, really weird things that happened too. I don't have time to write about all of them, but I hope that I can share a few (along with maybe a spiritual insight or two) in this email.

 

The new district is doing well. I miss having everyone together like we did for the past two transfers, but the new elders here seem to be doing well. I heard one of them bear his testimony in church yesterday and it was awesome - he talked about the meaning behind church and he seems to be really willing to serve. The other is none other than the kid that Joshua Benson trained on his last transfer here - he seems nice and ready to work hard too. He also got the Coke scholarship and went to Harvard for his freshman year, which of course isn't intimidating at all.

 

In random news, there might be an employee at the 7-11 across from the church who has a crush on us (or one of us, but doesn't want to make the other one feel bad so he's nice to her too). Let me tell you a little bit about 7-11's here - they're really nice, unlike the sketchy gas stations in the States. And they're not gas stations. They have food, drinks, and air conditioning (not every place has that luxury). Plus they have regular toilets (not the pit kind), which basically makes it a missionary's dream come true. ANYWAY, we were writing records and calling people at the 7-11 when a really nice employee came up to us with two cups of coffee and said, "there are these two guys outside who want to treat you to coffee. You just are working so hard and they thought this would help you relax a little bit." We looked outside and there were these two older guys with beers in their hands, grinning at us. Yikes. We were a little embarrassed and apologetic as we explained that sorry, but we didn't drink coffee. He stubbornly said, "well, they gave it to you," and left. My companion and I just started to laugh. We ended up giving the employees the coffee back, and then left. My companion and I were talking about the experience later and she said, "I just hope it wasn't actually the 7-11 employee who wanted to give it to us. Because I didn't even see those two guys come inside... But it's probably not him, right?" WRONG. Yesterday we were writing records outside and the same 7-11 guy had just gotten off work and was getting ready to go home. So we chatted with him for a bit and then he went back inside. When he came back out a few minutes later he said, "Here, it's cold and rainy outside, so I think you two should have this. It's hot chocolate with milk added." Just to let everyone know, it's almost June on a tropical island... it is NOT cold, even if it was raining a little bit. But it was a very nice gesture. I hope the elders baptize him.

 

Sarah, you asked about Brusters - sadly, it doesn't exist here. First, I didn't know how I was going to survive, but I've found a substitute that'll help keep me going until that blissful day when I can eat Brusters ice cream again. If you go to http://www.icebig.com/tw (or maybe it's "bigice.com" - there were two different signs with two different websites, and of course I can't really check), you'll see what I'm talking about. My personal favorites are the chocolate banana one and the mango one. I might even say that one time this week it was so hot that we went there for lunch since the Taiwanese don't believe in summer salads.

 

 My companion's been really sick this week. She's been a trooper and we've still been out working every day (plus the mission nurse hasn't given her permission to stay at home), although we did go to the hospital to get her checked out. I say "hospital," but it's really like a doctor's office. Here in Taiwan they have a hospital with like every single kind of doctor available - from dentist to a doctor for a cold to a plastic surgeon - all in one place. It's really convenient. It also gives me the creeps. Anyway, we had a fun learning experience there and my companion got a bunch of pills. But then later that day we were going to an investigator's house and I saw this lady outside so I went up to her and talked to her. She was also Christian and had gone to our church before. We ended up having a quick lesson with her. After we were done I was talking to the member who had arrived to help with our investigator's lesson, and my companion was chatting with the Christian lady. Apparently, this is how the conversation went:

 

Christian lady: "Oh, you're sick!"

Sister Rosander: "Yeah, it's fine - I went to the doctor's and they gave me some medecine."

CL: "Oh! I went to the doctor not too long ago and they gave me some medecine too. It worked so well, and I got some extra! Here, let me give you some!"

SR: "Wait, what? Are you allowed to do that? That is totally illegal in the US."

CL: "Trust me, it helped! Here, let me open it for you! Actually, just try some right now!"

*POURS THE MEDECINE DOWN SISTER ROSANDER'S THROAT*

SR: *cough* *splutter* "...Thanks!"

 

...And that's not all. After we got home later that night, she said that the medecine was called "Brown Liquid Mixture." I said, "Let me take a look at that." Turns out the medecine has opium in it! I know you're not allowed to smoke that stuff, but I've never heard about drinking it before. I shouldn't have been so surprised - after all, China did fight a war over it.

 

So, I'm not really sure if I've talked about this before, but my companion and I give "chapel tours" every week at the... well, at the chapel. We try and get members to come and bring their friends, but every time it's just been us finding people on the street and bringing them in for a few minutes. We just do it to have them look around, to teach them a little bit, and to help them realize the differences between being outside and inside the chapel. Well, chapel tours time came around this past Saturday, and guess what? Members came and brought their friends! The first one was a Chen Jiemei, who brought her friend with a slight physical/mental? handicap. Apparently she said at the beginning of the tour that normally once every week or two, she'll randomly collapse and have a seizure (except not shake?). Everyone nodded to show that they understood, myself included... although of course I had no idea what she had just said. So we took her on the tour and got to the part inside the "chapel" part of the chapel. I did my normal routine of playing a little piano to help the touree feel the Spirit, and then we ask them after I'm done how they're feeling in the chapel, and then we identify that feeling as the Spirit. That's how it normally goes, anyway - when I got to my V7 chord right at the end of "I Stand All Amazed" I heard someone collapse to the floor. I'm ashamed to admit that my first thought was: "Just wait a minute! I haven't resolved the chord!" ...But my better self got a hold of me and I left the hymn unresolved as I rushed to Xie Jiemei, who had collapsed. She ended up being fine after a few minutes, but it was a little startling. Lesson learned: when someone comes in who seems like they might have some sort of problem, ALWAYS make sure you know what that problem is, even if it means swallowing your pride and asking someone for help.

 

In spiritual news, though, we got 7 received referrals and 12 contacted referrals this week. That's incredible! The members this week have been giving us so many of their friends to talk to. I've found that when we teach those people, they really are the best. They are normally more prepared and more receptive, and they feel a lot more natural having us talk to them in their home or in a friend's home than they would if we just approach them on the street and invite them into a building that they've never been to before. Member missionary work really is so important! Alright, that's my soapbox issue for this week - thank you for your time.

 

This work is God's work - I love doing it! And I love you. Be good and take care this week.

 

Love,

Becca