Dear family,
Greetings from Cyberdome! Instead of going to the sketchy internet cafe close by to our house (and right next to the church), we decided to step it up a notch and go to the farther, nicer, fancier, pricier, and excellentier Cyberdome. I've actually been dying to go here ever since I saw it - the name just makes it seem like a ride in Tomorrowland in Disney's Magic Kingdom. Plus the elders and us have had a joke about Cyberdome for a while now - whenever one of us looks tired or anything, we'll just say, "Oh yeah, well I was up all night playing video games at Cyberdome." It's completely a joke, but it's also a little sad because there are people who stay up all night playing video games here. Pretty common, actually.
Anyway, enough about Cyberdome! This week. This week was good. I'm still getting a little used to the responsibilities of being a trainer (I think remembering everything is normally the hardest thing!), but I really love being Sister Marler's companion - her hard work, her willingness to be 100% obedient, and her love for the people around her are such great examples to me. I think she's getting used to everything relatively quickly, and she's always willing to go outside and talk to people. Her language is going great - she led about half of our lessons together last week. I think one of my favorite moments with her was when we were teaching someone with her same first name, Angela. Angela came to English class and we met with her afterwards. We found out that Angela's father had passed away when she was about two years old and now her grandfather was in really bad health. Angela didn't believe in God, but she confided to us as tears streamed down her cheeks that she desperately wanted to believe in Him. She wanted to know that there would be a chance to see these people whom she loved after she died. I then bore my testimony that she would, and that the Gospel provided answers to those questions she had been asking her entire life. Then Sister Marler shared a powerful experience about her grandmother, who had passed away last year. She shared that although it was very hard for her to know that she wouldn't see her grandmother again in this life, she knew from the Gospel that she would see her again. I know it was that experience that she shared that really touched Angela's heart.
So a funny experience that I knew the family would love (people who aren't in my family - judge me if you'd like): every week we go to our branch missionary leader's restaurant to have a meeting and then eat dinner on the house. It's always really fun - sometimes we get a little carried away with all of the free food that we're able to order, though. So in order to assuage (yes, I just used the word "assuage") our guilt of spending too much on appetizers, we normally order kid's meals (less money). And, great thing about these kid's meals is that they have toys in them as well! Well, this week was even better than normal, as we got some Pokemon figures as our toys that day. Elder Relyea pulled out a Steelix and said proudly, "I got an Onyx." Before I knew it, the words were out of my mouth: "That's not an Onyx. That's a Steelix." Everyone looked at me in amazement as I tried to think of a way that I could deny that moment of extreme nerdiness. Nothing came, and everyone had a good laugh about it. "Yeah," said Elder Relyea, "I guess Steelix is Onyx's... his..." And then it happened again: "...his evolved form," I said. Wait, what?! No! I couldn't believe it I had said that out loud. That's what I get for having younger siblings and playing Pokemon with them, I guess. Everyone at the table (especially Elder Relyea) was DYING with laughter. I've got to admit that I thought it was pretty funny too, and may have made some jokes about it since. There were some good consequences from it, too - the elders seem to have a new-found respect for me since that incident. Now, whether or not that kind of respect is the kind I'm looking for, I'm not sure...
In exciting news for this week we have a baptism coming up! Yes! Her name is Susan, she's 11 years old and both of her parents are deaf. Even though she's probably had a hard time with that, she's really happy all the time, and really great. I met her about six months ago when I came to Taidong on exchanges and had a lesson with her. I'm so excited that she'll be receiving all of the blessings of baptism this week. Come to find out five of the people that I taught in Hualian have been baptized since I left as well - it's really wonderful and humbling at the same time to see how Heavenly Father's been willing to use me to help His work a little bit here in Taiwan.
Hmm, in other news, I'm getting my hair cut today. Pray that it goes well. Women mullets are pretty common here, along with unhealthy amounts of hair thinning. Last night a member was telling me about these things that women put their hair on - kind of like curlers, I think, except you sleep on it and then when you wake up you take out the curlers and the hair comes out with it. Boom! Hair-be-gone! I think one of my goals for today might be to not to go prematurely bald. Not something I thought I'd plan on for my mission, but hey, surprises happen every day. If you could also pray for Sister Yang and the Word of Wisdom, that'd be great. Oh, and for Sister Winters to keep her head on straight and remember everything, that'd be nice too.
Oh, da jia! You all are the best. Thank you for all of your support, prayers, love - all that jazz. Best of luck this week!
Love,
Sister Winters
PS - Sorry, but pictures seem to be down this week. Sorry!
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