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
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