Dear family,
Happy Christmas! Thank you for all of your letters from this week. I got the Christmas card and loved it! Everyone looks so great and grown-up... I'm not sure if "grown-up" is necessarily an equivalent to "grown-up," but you know what I mean. I'm doing well - loving the Christmas decorations (I think that Sister Briggs is astounded that I still freak out every time I see Christmas lights on Christmas trees... I've been out here too long), the Christmas music (they play it in McDonalds and in 7-11, so I'm trying to always make our phone calls there so that we can listen), and of course the Christmas spirit. This past week we celebrated by using our service time to make Christmas cookies for less-actives in our area - we used the normal chocolate chip cookie recipe I always use (I had it memorized - so proud of myself. God really does use us for our talents!), except we couldn't find chocolate chips so we cut up Andes mints instead. Totally delicious! I was so happy with how it turned out (see pictures for proof of that fact) - I brought my speakers so that we could blast the Mormon Tabernacle Choir while we did it and even wore the most Christmas-y outfit I could come up with. Mom, you wondered what I've been using for ornaments for our Christmas tree - well, I've been using the little stars from that advent calendar you sent - every day we take one off and then hang it on the tree. It actually looks pretty good - I should take a picture... I also did end up celebrating St. Nicholas Day, and my companion surprised me by putting candy in my shoes as well! But unfortunately I did not take a picture of that one. Maybe I'll just put the candy back in my shoes and then fake it!
Taipei's still going fine - I just found out that I'm training again! This'll be my fourth (and fifth, since we train for two transfers) transfer training - after I'm done training this next missionary I'll have trained for one half of my time here in Taiwan. Crazy. I'm excited, though, because training's the best - it's so rewarding to see the transformation that a new missionary undergoes in that first 12-week period. I'll know on Wednesday whether it's Sister Briggs that's moving and I'm staying here, or if I'll be opening up a new area - I heard that they're opening up two new areas in my zone! Stay tuned...
I think one of the highlights of this week was when I went on companion exchanges. My companion was Sister Tsai, a member who volunteered to be a "duanchuan," or a full-time missionary for a shorter amount of time (it varies, but she's one for three weeks). It was awesome, and I learned so much from her example. Whenever she would talk to people on the street, she would lovingly touch her nametag on her chest and say, "I'm a missionary. I represent Jesus Christ." It was almost like Nephi when he says, "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people that they might have everlasting life." It was apparent that Sister Tsai knew her calling and knew the meaning of what she was saying. I love being a missionary, but sometimes it's easy to clip on the nametag without thinking about it very much. I'm really grateful that I had her example and her perspective - that being a missionary is amazing, and that this time is so so so so precious. It was also inspiring to hear her conversion story - she'd gotten into a lot of really rough patches before she met the Church. She said that often when bad things would happen, she'd say, "Hey! God! Can you help me out, please? I really need your help." And things would work out. So when she went travelling in France she felt like she should go to a chapel because she was grateful to God... And she found our Church. And she completely changed her life around. Like, completely. When I heard about the changes that she had made it made me inspired to lose myself even more in this wonderful work. If people can change so completely, then I should be able to give myself to God and let Him change me as well! I've been trying to do that and have seen wonderful changes in myself and in my investigators already as I've done so.
Oh, one other thing about Sister Tsai - she had a friend who lived in our area, and she (that friend) became our new investigator! Woo! Love those miracles. :)
Another miracle: I found out that someone I taught in Taidong got baptized last week! YES! That made me so incredibly happy. There's another area in the Taidong district that hadn't gotten a baptism in like two years that got one yesterday! Woohoo!!! Life is so good. It'll just keep getting better and better when baptisms start happening here as well. :) Keep praying! Oh, and you can also pray that I won't get sick. :) I feel a cold coming in and that probably would not be too great of a start for my new trainee next week...
Nothing else too exciting to report, I'm afraid... Today's P-day should be fun - I'm hanging out with a few sisters (and their companions, of course) that were with me in the MTC - we haven't decided if we want to play laser tag or go bowling (I know, so American-sounding, but after over a year stuff like that sounds really fun). Oh! We went to play laser tag a few weeks ago, actually. And they took pictures! They're on a website:photos.lazertreks.com (I went on November 19, 2012). I'm not sure if you can still see them, but my friend had his family print some of the photos and he gave me some of me and they're very funny. And some, yes, are extremely awkward-looking. I've said goodbye to being normal when I get back.....
Family, you are wonderful. I love you and I'm so thrilled that I'm part of such an awesome family. I can't wait to talk to you in a few weeks! Enjoy the Christmas season until then...
Love,
Sister Winters
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