Dear family,
Goooooooood morning from Taipei, Taiwan! It's been a great week. Here's the scoop.
It was wonderful having things get back into groove a little more after Guonian. I know that some people say that missionary work is boring because it's the same thing every day for a year and a half, but honestly, I find it nice to get back into more of a routine. As you know from previous emails, my life still ends up with having plenty of variety and spice, even with the same schedule day after day. :)
So first things first, let's talk about the mission conference. It was very short (only a couple of hours long), but very powerful. It's funny how in the MTC you're just filled to the brim with devotionals and addresses and stuff like that but here you're always hungry to hear them. Anyway, Elder Evans and Elder Watson did a great job. One thing that was frequently mentioned at the conference was faith. Elder Evans quoted President Packer and said that faith is as real a power as electricity - that really struck me. I know that I have faith, but the idea of "using" it like one "uses" electricity was something I hadn't pondered much before. I'm working on trying to make that idea a reality. Another thing that I personally got from the conference was more of a resolve to continue studying Chinese after my mission. I know all of you are probably thinking, "Well, duh," but it honestly isn't something that I thought I'd give a ton of time after my mission. Since I'm so close to graduating and already have my plate full (more like overflowing) of classes I need to take, I just assumed I wouldn't be able to give much time to Chinese. But I think that I want to at least take a couple more classes to get me more on my feet in Chinese - although I would say that I have a fairly good grasp on the language, I am still completely aware that I've only scratched the surface as far as a study of this complex language and its characters goes.
Speaking of which, I forgot to mention that I have a goal to finish reading the BofM in Chinese before my final interview with President Day. I'm in Mosiah right now (reading the teachings of Abinadi), and if I want to finish by my last week I'm going to have to read 10 pages a day. Whew! Wish me luck. Even though it's a little frustrating how long it takes me at times (my speed-reading capabilities are completely non-existent in Chinese), I really have loved studying The Book of Mormon in Chinese. The knowledge of the meanings behind characters adds a new life and perspective to the words in it. For example, instead of "mansions of my father," it says "My Father's home." I love that feeling of home, rather than a mansion. Or in Enos 1:12 where Enos says that he "prayed and labored with all diligence," in Chinese it says that he "exhausted himself with the most diligence I could muster." It adds even more feeling. So fun!
In other news, I went on exchanges to Danshui this week. It was great, especially since I didn't throw up this time. That morning we met a very interesting investigator who worked at this health shake shop. We went to go meet with her but the first thing she said was, "Here, drink! Oh, and take off your tights! We need to do a body scan!" So of course, not wanting to be rude, we drank a little bit of a protein shake and took off our tights so we could do a body scan. I'm not sure it was completely reliable, since she was able to extrapolate a whole bunch of statistics merely from my giving her my height, age, and from standing on a scale. But in case it is real, I should tell all of you that I'm quite skinny, that my bone mass is pretty good, that my "body age" is 19, and that I should get more muscle because "if someone hit you, it would hurt because you don't have enough meat on your bones." So that's that. The lesson wasn't that great - she seemed pretty interested but then got up in the middle of the lesson to show us some Jehovah's Witnesses pamphlets and was kind of hard to talk to after that. Plus my companion that day apparently had a body age of 44, so we both left the place a little less happy than we were when we went in, haha.
By this point you all are probably wondering (or have completely forgotten) what my subject to this email is all about. Well, in our morning exercise routine, Sister O'Brien run alongside the river to this "adult playground" where they have all of these exercise machine things that really probably don't improve your fitness but sure are fun to play on. Anyway, Sister O'Brien is a huge yoga fan and normally takes a few minutes of this time to go by the riverside and meditate and be one with nature and all that jazz. This past week, we had an exercise buddy - an old man who just happened to want to play on the same exercise machines at the same time we did. This means that when Sister O'Brien went to go do her yoga a few feet away, I was left with this old man (there were other people around too and Sister O'Brien really was super-close, so don't worry). Anyway, my exercise buddy asked what Sister O'Brien was doing over there by the riverside - I told him that I forgot how to say "yoga" in Chinese. He identified the word and said, "is that right?" I said that I wasn't sure, since I really didn't know the word, but he was probably right. He said, "Yeah, that's a Buddhist ritual. The whole sitting position with the hands out like that... Oh yeah, and the whole sitting-by-the-riverside thing.... Yep, total Buddhist ritual." It was hard to keep a straight face as I told my trainee that she would have to stop doing Buddhist rituals in public places so that she would do a better job representing the Church. :)
Last story: we have a new investigator who is AWESOME. And even better, her name is Oprah. As in Oprah Winfrey. It makes me smile every time we say her name. The elders found her and gave us her information. Anyway, I called her up and told her that we'd wait for her at the entrance of the church at our appointment with her. She said, "Really? I'm so touched that you would do something like that for me! Thank you so much!" Yeah. So nice. Anyway, she was really willing to work toward baptism and try to understand for herself if these things are true. And then yesterday she came to church and loved it! She said that she felt like everyone was a big, happy family, and that although normally she doesn't open herself up to people, she felt very accepted and welcomed at church. Then she said that she really likes prayer - I asked her if she'd prayed since we'd met the time before, and she said that she'd prayed that night, the next morning, and then right before she went out. During her lesson the night before I'd asked how her mom would feel if she (Oprah) didn't talk to her ever. Oprah said she'd be really sad, confused, and probably a little mad. I said, "Well, Heavenly Father loves us even more than your mom loves you, and He desperately wants you to talk to Him." She said the next day that that really made sense and she's been trying to talk to God more through prayer... and feels like He's answering. She also loves the Book of Mormon and already has some favorite scriptures picked out. I feel like God is blessing this area and that these seeds that I feel like I've been planting for forever are finally starting to blossom. It's a good feeling! I know miracles are happening and will continue to come.
Alright family, that is it for the week! Please keep praying for our investigators - You Jiemei, Vicky, and Oprah! You can pray for Becky, too. I love the work here and I love you. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Sister Winters
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