Dear family,
Weird title, I know. I'll explain later. :) Hello! How was this week for all of you? Well, I ask that, but I actually already know the answer - thank you for all of your wonderful emails and for telling me about your lives!
I'm doing great. I think I may have confused some of you with when I'm transferring and when the baptismal services will be. I'll find out this week whether or not I'll be transferred (probably will - President hinted something to that effect, unless he was just trying to play some sort of joke on me), and I'll also be helping two people get baptized this week: Arwen and Sister Tian. Please pray for them! You can also keep on praying for Becky - not quite sure what's up with her right now... And Sister Wan, that she'll keep the Word of Wisdom so that she can get baptized before I go (that's what we're aiming for). Arwen and Tian Jiemei will be baptized on my one-year mark on a mission. Can't think of a better way to celebrate!
A lot of great things happened this week! Some awesome spiritual and funny experiences. I hope to share most, if not all, of them with you!
First, English class. It's been a while since I've talked about English! Probably because I've had mixed feelings about it lately - Sister Marler and I have taught the little kids' class for the past two transfers, and sometimes it is out of control crazy. Lately it's been a little bit better. Anyway, here are some updates:
1. There was a kid with hair just like Justin Bieber's who didn't have an English name when he first came in. Of course, I had to name him "Bieber!" Sister Marler and I loved it, but the elders who started teaching Bieber didn't exactly feel the same way... Apparently whenever Bieber meets with the missionaries, he brings in questions about lyrics from Justin Bieber songs, such as: "What's 'Never Say Never' Mean?", etc. Unfortunately for the elders, I have no sympathy for them whatsoever and just view the entire thing as hilarious.
2. Did you know that Dora the Explorer here teaches English to Chinese-speakers, and not Spanish to English-speakers? I kind of want to get permission from President to watch it...
3. Last week I had an amazing idea for the spiritual thought in English class. We put together a Bingo board of phrases from The Book of Mormon (ex: Jerusalem, 'I, Nephi,' "And it came to pass...", brass plates, behold, etc.). So they were supposed to listen as we read out loud from the Book of Mormon and then raise their hands when we said one of the Bingo phrases. It was so great. The kids got so excited and started yelling "And it came to pass! AND IT CAME TO PASS!" over and over again. Even though I was a little deaf by the end of it all, Sister Marler and I were definitely laughing. Hopefully we'll keep those types of games coming.
One super-random story: the other day we were outside of 7-11 and we saw this scary-looking man come out with tatoos all over his body. He was carrying a pack of cigarettes with him, which he promptly put in his scooter. The only thing that set this man apart from your ordinary, scary-looking guy was that he had this pink fleece shoulder bag with a little white dog on the inside. And whereas this man was kind of dirty-looking, the dog and his bag were spotless and in pristine condition. It was all I could do to say, "That dog is really cute. And I like your bag." and not laugh my head off.
Okay, last funny story. This past week I went up to Hualian for companion exchanges. My companion was a Taiwanese missionary who's in her first transfer. It was a great experience. Now, just to remind some of you, my own trainer was Taiwanese. I remember her telling me one day that I was the "most American" companion she had ever had. I was a little confused and hurt at the time, but I now see what she meant - I hadn't really had any sort of Taiwanese influence at all before that point, so I was the most "un-Taiwanese" companion she'd ever had. Well, this past week I had the "most Taiwanese" companion I've ever had. My companion hadn't really been around Americans up close that much before, and she was always amazed that I could like eating rice and other Taiwanese foods here. Finally I had to tell her that I had been here for nine months already and of course I had gotten used to the food. I think she still might be a little bit in shock that I like it, though. But by far the best and most Taiwanese part of the exchange was when I was explaining an area general authority. I told her his name, what he had spoken on in the past, where he had served a mission, etc. - all of these things to try and help her remember who this general authority was- but she still couldn't place a face to the name. She thought for a moment and said, "Oh! You mean the guy with the moles on his face?" Now it was my turn to stare. I looked at her with wide eyes and said, "Well, I don't know. I'd never noticed." And then she thought for a moment, nodded, and then said, "Yeah, it's the guy with the moles on his face." Such a Taiwanese thing to say! So funny. I loved it. And I LOVE the Taiwanese people. But yeah, I guess you can take this as a hint not to be offended if I say anything that might be construed as offensive in my first few weeks back home.
Okay, now onto the spiritual part! You might remember that we were hoping for four baptisms this month. Well, this past week, like all of them had their problems and part of me felt, "Well, I guess we tried, and they used their agency to choose not to get baptized. There's nothing we can do about it." On the day where I started having those thoughts, I just didn't have the Spirit with me as much. I wasn't sure what was wrong, but when I said my prayers that night and spent a lot of time pleading with Heavenly Father to let me know what I was doing wrong so that I could have the Spirit with me more again, I realized that my attitude was wrong. So that next day I told Sister Marler in daily planning, "Sister Marler, we're changing all of our plans!" I told her that before we had felt a spiritual witness that the goals we set were what Jesus Christ wanted us to do. And, conveniently, we had decided that our "theme scripture" for this transfer was going to be Moroni 7:33 - if we have faith, we can do whatsoever thing is expedient in Christ. Well, I knew that it was expedient in Christ for us to hit those goals. So, by golly, we were going to do everything in our power to hit those goals! So we spent that morning biking to Zhiben, a place about 40 minutes away, to meet with Sister Wan. She's had some difficult family situations lately that have made it hard for her to meet with us. Well, anyway, the bike ride was long and tiring (but also gorgeous), and Wan Jiemei was late, so we only had a few minutes. BUT: the Spirit was so strong. I know that she was touched that we had followed the example of the Savior and left the 90 and 9 in Taidong to go after the one in Zhiben. I knew that Heavenly Father was so proud of us and of our decision. And I'm so happy that He was able to use His words in the scriptures and in prayer to get some sense into me, His unworthy and still unprofitable servant. One other cool thing - I was reviewing old talks from the MTC and came across one from Elder Christofferson. He talked about how we'll work really hard on our missions but then look back and realize that the Lord is the one who's done most of the work. That is so true! I'm working hard and trying to focus on the most important things, but still. The Lord is doing practically all of it. It's very humbling, but very reassuring at the same time.
Okay, I am way out of time. I love you all! Have an awesome week.
Love,
Sister Winters
PS: The song "Baby, baby" by Justin Bieber just came on. YES!
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