Sister Winters - March 5, 2012 Hello from Tai Doughng!

(Mom, that's how you pronounce it. :)) Hello, all you wonderful people! It's been a really wonderful week here in Taitung - I love this place, and I would honestly be thrilled if I could stay here for the rest of my mission. The return sister missionary I met at the MTC was here for a whole year of her 15 months in Taiwan, so I'm praying that I'm the next Sister Kollyer. :)

 

Okay! Lots of questions and things to talk about, and very little time. :) So - some things I love about Taitung:

 

-The lack of people here. Taiwan is TINY, but it has 22,000,000+ people that live there. That means that there are people and crowds everywhere! ...Except here. Which means that there are trees and nature and birds (Dad, I thought you'd appreciate that) instead. I can actually wake up to the birds chirping every day! I love it! Of course, the lack of people is pretty funny when we're contacting - sometimes there's nobody on the streets and if one person walks out, we chase after them with our bikes. :) Mom, to answer your question about contacting, we pretty much do the same thing, but we really need to make sure we plan to contact people at really "busy" intersections so we can actually find people to talk to. :) Oh, one other thing about the scenery - we live so close to the mountains! AND the beach! We climbed a mountain for our first day in the field for our exercise and then looked at our "kingdom" (I felt like Simba in Lion King) - I felt like the luckiest person alive. And then we were going to go play ultimate frisbee at the beach with the elders on Friday but they accidentally didn't wake up early (6:00) like we did and so it didn't happen. Next week, though! I'm so excited.

 

-The food. I've heard that everyone gains weight in Taitung, and I'm not surprised. The food here is GOOD, and it's CHEAP. Two really bad/good combinations. I've discovered some new favorite foods: this corn chowder that everyone has here, except it has this croissant puff thing baked on top so you eat the two at once (yum!), the peanut butter here is super good (it's really sweet, like the stuff in the Reeses cup), and tarot bread (it's this weird root thing, but it is absolutely delicious! I love it). I normally eat the Tarot bread and some milk for breakfast, and then I go out to eat for lunch and dinner. As far as those meals go, normally it's rice. With stuff on top. :) That's what's cheapest, and that's what's best. But I'm hoping to experiment a little more over the next five weeks - and hopefully I won't gain 30 pounds in the process.

 

-There's a flautist and a pianist that live in our same apartment complex, so I can hear them practicing. :) It makes me so incredibly happy!

 

-There's this boardwalk that's really close to our house that really must be what Heaven is like. It has all of these trees, tropical flowers, butterflies, etc. There are a lot of Filipina women who take care of Amas (the old grandmas here) who often take them there. There was this one Filipina lady I was talking to and then the Ama said something, gesturing to her mouth. I turned to the Filipina for interpretation and she said, "She thinks your lips are cute." That's definitely a first!

 

-My companion. She's so great! We had a lot of success this past week, even though she was sick! 30 lessons taught in one week! We're determined that it's going to be a pattern for the rest of this transfer. Oh, and Dad, her dad apparently collects Coke stuff! She said that she's been to the world of Coke and they had a guy who her dad knew who took them around. She said it might be you... is it?

 

-The members. The members here are absolutely amazing. When I was on the train to Taitung I told Sister Rosander that I want to make sure I talk to people. Like talk to them and get to know them. I sometimes feel like my language is a barrier (because it totally is), but that shouldn't prevent me from talking to people and trying to get to know them and showing them that I love them. Well, it's already working! I feel like I've already developed some wonderful friendships and relationships with the branch members. It's like Hualien - we oversee two different branches. And then I was sitting in church with a member, trying to listen and set a good example, but then she kept asking me about my family, boyfriend, etc. and I didn't want to reject her and ruin our relationship, so... yeah. We'll see what happens. Plus it's tough because we still have our four hours of study afterwards, so we don't get outdoors until like 6 PM. It's tough to proselyte. Next transfer though I'll have only 2.5 hours so much more time.

 

-The investigators! We have fewer here, and the work is a little slower here, but I love them already. One of them got baptized this past week! Her name is Kiki. She's about 20 years old, and she's super-cute. One thing that I thought was super-awesome about her story: so the Word of Wisdom was really hard for her (it's hard for everyone here because they drink tea all the time). She actually relapsed once and had to start over again with trying to get over it, so we were kind of worried. Well, we met with her this past week before her baptism, and she said: "My older brother came home, and he doesn't want me to get baptized. And he brought this really, really, really delicious tea with him." So we all waited to see what she'd say next. Then she sighed and said, "...But I didn't drink it."  We were elated. When we asked her why, she said, "it's because I knew that I wanted to be a part of this church, and in this church, we don't drink tea." That, my friends, is a miracle! I was so proud of her, and I really look up to her example. One other experience - I think we've found a golden investigator! We were at the church and I saw these two teenagers down the road, so I told my companion to wait a second and I ran up to them to talk to them. Well they were busy, but I told them that i'd love to give them a tour of the chapel and I set up for the next day with one of the girls. I was worried about it, but... she came! And she committed to be baptized! And she's not worried about leaving her other church! And she came to church on Sunday! *Sigh* I'm so happy about it. I'll keep you posted on her - her name's Han Jiemei.

 

-English class is still really fun. I heard from our Zone Leader that my old English class said that they really miss me (which broke my heart a little bit), but I'm still teaching advanced here and I'm having a blast. This past time we played the game where you have the name of a famous person on your back and you have to figure out who you are. Well, one of the guys is named Paul and he was Albert Einstein, since he (Paul) was a biology teacher and I figured he like science. Well, Paul later told me that he liked it best when he could ask me questions and I'd answer them. I told him that was fine, and waited for his question. It was: "How do you feel about the atomic bomb that you created?" I'm assuming he thought that the game was still going and that I was Albert Einstein! I wasn't really sure how to respond. "Um... I'm sad that it was weaponized." "Well, you know that it's brought destruction and death." "I know, and I... regret that." Definitely a weird conversation.

 

A couple last things: 1) I realized that I'm not a very good missionary, because we were at Subway for lunch the other day and I heard a Justin Bieber song along with "Party in the USA" and I couldn't stop smiling. 2) I'm going to "monkey mountain" today - there are live monkeys there that apparently we aren't supposed to feed but everyone there sells stuff to feed the monkeys. So I'm going to. And if I get in trouble I'll say that I couldn't read the signs. Sometimes I love not being able to speak this language. :) 3) Heavenly Father uses us specifically for who we are and what talents we've been given! I was riding my bike and stopped to talk to this lady who's from Indonesia. Her English was pretty darn good, but she said she natively spoke Arabic. I told her that I had gone to Jordan, and that I took a little bit of Arabic (and I mean a little). She was absolutely delighted when I used the two phrases that I remembered. I gave her and English class pamphlet (since she couldn't read the Chinese characters in our gospel one) and invited her to come. I don't know if she'll come or not, but it just struck me that Heavenly Father used me for who I was to talk to that lady and plant that seed. :) The church is true!

 

Okay, that is it. I'm about to go use chocolate cake mix to make some pancakes and then go feed some monkeys. You kids have fun!

 

Love,

Sister Winters

 

Sister Winters - February 27, 2012 I'm moving!

Dear best family in the world,

 

Hello from Hualien! Thank you for all of your fantastic emails - I can't tell you how happy they make me. This week has been a little crazy! But it's been great, too. :) So, as you can tell from the subject line, I am leaving the paradise of Hualien and going to... the paradise of Taitung! It's still on the east coast, but it's actually further down south (the farthest area from the mission home). This transfer has a ton of Taiwanese missionaries coming in, so my companion is training again - it's actually her best friend from home! Crazy.

 

So a couple of thoughts about moving. At first, when I found out that I was leaving Hualien, I wondered if it was because I wasn't working my hardest or if Heavenly Father felt like I didn't deserve to be here. I felt kind of ripped off - as my zone leader put it, "you're in the promised land for only six weeks and then you have to leave!" and I wondered if it was my fault. Plus we have so many BAPTISMS for next month! And I felt like I had worked really hard and JUST started to get to know/love my investigators and members and then I found out that I was moving. So I prayed about it. And I realized that my work here is done. I've helped these people come closer to Christ - I've fulfilled my purpose. And I HAVE worked my hardest, and I HAVE kept a positive attitude, so I don't need to feel ripped off, because I know that I'm going where Heavenly Father wants me to go, which is going to be the best place ever for me at this time. Does that make sense?

 

Anyway, here's a little bit about Taitung. We actually have a long and interesting history, so it'll be fun to talk about it a little bit. So when I got my mission call, I was freaked out/reluctant to go to Taiwan for a lot of reasons, which I won't really go into here. It sufficeth me to say that I didn't really want to go. But then I went out to Utah to visit some friends for a little bit, and while I was at my friend Anna's apartment, two guys from her apartment complex came to say hello. Turns out they had both served missions in Taipei, Taiwan! It was such a blessing to be able to talk to them, resolve some of my fears about going, etc. Anyway, when they were talking to me, they said: "I know you're going to be a great missionary. It seems to me like you're a Taitung sister." When I asked them what Taitung was, they both got these blissful expressions and said: "Taitung is the best area in the mission. It's the farthest place away from the mission home, so it means that the mission president really trusts you. And it's not really like a city - it's really rural, and the people are AWESOME there. And you seem like Taitung material." Well, I thought that sounded awesome. Another experience: I was at the MTC and we were teaching some volunteers. One of them had served in the Taipei mission, and she was in Taitung for a YEAR. I told her that I had heard about it, and she said, "I hope you're lucky enough to go! It's the best place in the world." Plus my companion that I have right now had been there for nine months. Basically what I'm trying to say is I already have a history with this place, and I feel lucky to go there! I feel especially blessed to have served both in Hualien and in Taitung - the only other sister I know that's been lucky enough to do that is Sister Wu. Wow!

 

Still, I WILL miss Hualien. Dad, if you DO come out to pick me up, we're going to Taroko Gorge together, okay? I've wanted to go since the MTC and bugged my companion about it every single week (Mom, I'm reminded of your mission journal entry...), but it never happened. I warned her that if I got transferred then I would haunt her for the rest of her life. After I found out that I was moving she promised personally to drive me there after my mission so we could go together, haha.

 

I also will miss the people - I've been so amazed and so grateful for the friendships I've made here, even though I can't speak the language! Lu Jiemei's kids actually moved up their baptismal dates to THIS THURSDAY (YES!), so I got to stay with them with Lu Jiemei as my exchange companion during their baptismal interviews while Wu Jiemei and Hualien's new sister, Mao Jiemei (the Kaiping guy on Mormon.org's daughter!), went out to teach some people. It was a really sweet experience to be able to talk to Lu Jiemei for like an hour about her life and how it's changed since she's had the Gospel. I honestly felt like it was a miracle that we could love each other like that and really care for the other's well being so much when we can't really communicate very well at all. :) But it's true! I guess that can be my miracle of the week - Wu Yi Xuan and Wu Yu Ze's (Lu Jiemei's kids) baptisms, and getting to talk to Lu Jiemei for so long (normally we can't meet with members longer than 5 minutes unless we're having dinner with them).

 

Contacting stories - well, I saw an African American man from California who speaks flawless Chinese last week. THAT is definitely an anomaly. His name was Dr. Willis, and he's actually here in Taiwan to help with this world religion that he's a part of. I'm ashamed to admit that I really can't remember what religion it was - I had never heard of it before. He agreed to meet with us, but he cautioned us that if we met with him and shared what we believed, he would also share what HE believed for part of the visit as well. I was up for it, but my companion wasn't too sure... So we'll see what happens with that. :) We also got to go up to Taipei this week (twice, plus going to Taitung, plus I've needed to buy some tickets for others, which is why the bill on my Visa is randomly so high, Mom. Sorry about that! But I'm getting reimbursed by everyone this week, so don't worry) for a trainee meeting! I'm a new missionary for my first 12 weeks, so I'm a "trainee." So at this meeting, I got to see all of my MTC friends! It was so great to see them. We all swapped stories about everything - crazy people we've met, crazy traffic incidents, crazy dogs chasing us (in my case), etc. A personal favorite of mine was from Sister Christensen - as usual, she talked about fashion. :) She was saying that her skirts aren't very bike-friendly, so she needed to get some new ones. Well a member volunteered to get her one for her that was "so fashionable." Turns out that it was this awful purple velour with weird sparkles on it. Poor Sister Christensen had to fake being happy about it - AND when she didn't wear it to church last Sunday, the member was like, "Why aren't you wearing that adorable skirt that I bought you?" So she had to wear it yesterday. :) I'm smiling just thinking about it!

 

It was awesome to find out that everyone at the meeting was going through a lot of the things that I was going through as a new missionary. It was also good to find out that my language skills aren't that bad for a new missionary! But then I was punished for comparing myself to others - Sister Mao has been with us the past couple of days, and it's been super-depressing at times to see how easily she's able to do things (like chatting with the members) that are practically impossible for me to do at times (since my language capabilities are about 99% church-related). I really needed to pray and remind myself that even though it SEEMS like it would be way easier/more productive if I had gone to an English-speaking country instead of Taiwan, this is where I'm supposed to be. And I've gotten confirmations of that over and over again - Heavenly Father's so good to me. :)

 

Well, that's about it for this week! I'm loving life, loving being a missionary, and I'm excited to be loving this new area that I'll be going to today. I'll be sure to tell you all about it next week (we'll see if I email around the same time - sorry in advance if I don't!)! I love you all - you're in my prayers.

 

Love,

Sister Winters

 

PS - My new companion is a sister from Hurricaine, Utah - her name is Sister Rosander. She's a vocal performance major at SUU, and we've been on exchanges together - she's super-great, and I'm really excited to work with her.

PPS - In case you didn't see the new church news (I'm almost positive you did), we found out who are new mission president is! His name is President Day, and he and his wife are from the SOUTH (Tennessee and Mississippi, respectively)! YES!

Sister Winters - February 20, 2012 "Where did you buy your shoes?"

Dear family,

 

Hello hello hello from Hualian! It's been an amazing meek of wiracles - I mean an amazing week of miracles. The best one yet, actually! So awesome. This week is the last week of my first transfer (I have 11), so I'm hoping to "go out with a bang" (even though I have a lot more time before I actually "go out" :)). First things first, I got a whole slew of letters this past week - you'd better believe I was one of the happiest people on the planet! Letters from the family, Grandma, Grandpa, Keith (sorry Anna, he won!), a random elder from the MTC who wants me to contact his friend in Taiwan, an MTC friend, Dallin's sister Tiffany (thanks, Tiff!), Sister Bortchard, and the entire Peachtree Corners Ward. Thank you thank you thank you for the letters! I woke up early this morning (and I mean EARLY) so that I could read them - I felt like a little kid on Christmas. :) And for those of you who have emailed me and are feeling left out, I love the emails that I get on Mondays. Thank you for thinking of me and for praying for me! Today I have a little more time (hopefully) to write/start writing you back. The only problem is that I've currently misplaced my handy dandy little 3x5 card with all of your addresses on it. I'll update you all next week if I can't find it still after spring cleaning today.

 

Aunt Bev, thank you for your response to my last email! I was a little worried it was kind of lousy, but I'm glad that my small description of missionary work made sense. There were some really funny contacting moments this week (as usual) that I wanted to share. First, I was riding my bike on the street and started talking to someone at a stop light. They weren't interested and left, but I noticed out of the corner of my eye that there was this husband and wife on a scooter that had pulled over from the main road and were inching toward me. I turned around and faced them with a big smile on my face, thinking that they were people whom the Lord had prepared and put in my path to preach the Gospel to. Well, the lady said something I didn't understand, so I asked her to repeat it. She gestured toward my feet and spoke again, but still nothing was making sense. Finally, the third time I got it - "where did you buy your shoes?" I was so confused, and looked at her again with a face that said I-have-no-idea-why-youre-asking-me-this-right-now. Then she said, "Your feet are so big! But you were able to find shoes that were big enough! WHERE DID YOU BUY YOUR SHOES?" Then she pointed to her feet, which, bless her heart, were as big as mine. I tried to explain that I had gotten them in America, that I was new here. She was extremely disappointed, to say the least, and then they pulled away. So much for prepared people. :) Also, it seems like I'm making my mark here in Hualian. I came out of the church building onto the street to start talking to people. I knocked on the window of the first car I saw. Well, this lady rolled down her window and said, "I've already talked to the missionaries, you don't have to talk to me! I have Wei Jiemei's number!" I said, "What?" Then the lady pulled out a tract (a pamphlet that we give out to like everyone we see) from her glove compartment and said, "Wei Jiemei gave me this, so you don't need to talk to me." I said, "I'M Wei Jiemei!" And then she looked at me again closely and said, "What? Oh, you are! Well, you already gave me this. So you don't need to talk to me again. I'll call you if I have time." Then she pulled away. So that lady didn't seem too excited about the gospel, but hey, if I'm already getting "repeats" after 5 weeks here, then the odds are that I'll find the people that I need to find while I'm here! Last one: There was this family that we saw while we were contacting. The dad walked really fast ahead of his wife and daughter, so biked ahead to go up and talk to him. My companion went for the daughter and wife. The dad told me that he was busy, but that I should go talk to his family, which I took as an awesome sign. My companion was still talking to them when I got to her, which was an even better sign. Well I got there and the daughter has a big smile on her face and says, "I believe in Jesus too!" Then she hands me a pamphlet with a bunch of flames on the cover. The title was in Chinese, but I was pretty sure what it meant, and I looked up to my companion, who confirmed my thoughts. "She's a Jehovah's Witness." Well, the situation was just so funny that it was hard for me not to laugh. We were both trying to kindly tell the other that our religion could bring them closer to God, bring them more happiness, etc. We even traded pamphlets at the end before we left that we encouraged the other person to read, but I don't think any of us were convinced that the other person was right. It was so weird to be on the other end of having missionaries talk to you, too - we clearly weren't interested but she pressed on anyway (something we have to do every day). Kudos to her!

 

In case you all haven't noticed, I've been kind of spastic in my emails. It's often just "word vomit" - I share whatever I think would be funny or interesting without any real pattern or anything. It'll still probably be like that a lot from now on, but I want to include three concrete parts in every email so you can at least know what to expect (sort of): contacting/proselyting stories, a spiritual thought, and miracle(s) of the week. I've already done my contacting stories, I'll save the spiritual thought for the end, so here's my miracle of the week! Actually, I see miracles every day, so I kind of have to narrow it down. I'll share a couple of them today. We had zone conference this past week, which was great. We talked about loving and finding people, and how to be better at that. I realized that I needed to rely on the Spirit a lot more when I contact, but I honestly didn't know how to do that very well (and I still don't). My companion invited me to try and set goals to actually TEACH people on the street when I talk to them - normally I'll chat, teach a gospel truth, and then get there phone number and hope that I'll see them again. My companion, however, encouraged me to actually teach them a lesson (where we actually say an opening and closing prayer, teach a principle, extend a commitment) on the street. AND rely on the Spirit to do it. No big deal. Well, I prayed. A lot. I always pray a lot, but I prayed specifically for this. And guess what happened? A miracle. I was talking to this lady on the street and I saw this girl on her bike out of the corner of my eye. I kept talking to the lady but there was a feeling that was like, "she's not interested. Talk to the girl." So I quickly ended the conversation, got on my bike, and raced to catch up to the girl. Well, I talked to her, started fumbling about prayer, and then actually ended up teaching her right then and there on the street! It was a miracle. The Lord gives specific answers to specific prayers! Another example of this principle: well on Saturday we were having a "chapel tour hour," where we invited members to bring their friends and we'd give them a tour of the chapel so they could feel the Spirit, maybe teach them a lesson, and have them set up with us. Well, Saturday came, and nobody showed up. So we prayed. We prayed that we'd find someone who happened to have nothing to do on a Saturday who could come to the chapel so we could give a tour. And guess what? After about 20 minutes of trying, Sister Wu found a girl who really had nothing to do and was perfectly willing to come on a tour of the chapel. And she loved it. And she's meeting with us later this week. Hooray for miracles!

 

As far as how my investigators are doing - they're doing pretty darn great. We think that we'll have about five or six baptisms on March 31 (happy birthday, Dad and Rachel!), which we're SUPER excited about (and that's when Lu Jiemei's kids will be baptized, Mom. Along with her nieces and probably her sister as well - she's such a good missionary!). It's most likely that I'll stay here in Hualian next transfer because I'm new and I've only been here for one, but there's still the possibility that I could leave. I really really really hope that I can stay! And not just for the baptisms, although that'd be great. :) There was one baptism that we had scheduled for this week that won't happen - bummer. She didn't come to church on Sunday, and she needs to go three times before she can be baptized (she's only been twice). BUT, this leads me to my spiritual thought for the week. In 2 Nephi 2:2 it says that the Lord will consecrate our afflictions for our gain. Let's just say that I've thought about that promise a few times already thus far on the mission. :) Well, yesterday we were pretty disappointed that Lin Jiemei didn't come to church and that she can't be baptized on Saturday, so we went over to her house to talk to her about it. Turns out she wasn't there. Bummer again! But guess what? Her husband was, and we were able to talk to him about his feelings about us, the Church, how his wife's changed since she met with us, etc. It was awesome! He's really noticed some obvious changes in her, and although he personally wasn't very interested at the get-go, he's interested now, and he told us that he really wants to come to church sometime soon. The Lord DOES consecrate our afflictions for our gain! It's true!

 

So just so you all know, I know that this message that I share with people every day is true. I love it, and there are so many times every day where I'm just so happy because of it! I haven't been out here for very long, but I've seen the Gospel change lives - I know that it's the path that God wants us to follow. I love you all, and I'm praying for you! Thanks for your continued love and support.

 

Love,

Sister Winters

Sister Winters - February 12, 2012 The ins and outs of missionary work

Hello hello hello from Taiwan! Happy Valentine's week, everyone. I'm sending as much love as I can from the opposite side of the world through this email! This week's been great - we had our first baptismal service this week! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! It was so awesome; I couldn't stop smiling. I played violin with my companion (she sang) and performed "Come Thou Fount" - I think everyone loved it, especially Lu Jiemei (the person who got baptized), which was great.

 

Okay! I've only got about fifteen minutes to write this, so I've got to be fast. So the audience of this email list is a mix of people of different faiths and different religious beliefs - I love that, and I have to apologize to some members of that audience. Most of the emails have been focused more on a Mormon audience, so this week's email is going to explain a lot of the terms that I use weekly and talk a little bit about what it is I acutally do as a missionary. Mormons - the stuff I'll talk about is unique to Taiwan in a lot of respects, so hopefully you'll be interested too. :)

 

- I serve with a district, or six missionaries who cover a couple different areas. In this case it's Hualian and Jian, two different townships of the same city (hualian). I actually see the elders (the guy missionaries) pretty much every day, since we teach our lessons at the chapel most of the time.

- Lessons - what is it that we actually teach? The gospel of Jesus Christ - faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Our purpose is to help people come unto Christ by helping them receive the gospel, which includes all of these elements. This is why I'm always talking about baptism - we can have faith on our own, and we can repent on our own, but we cannot be baptized on our own. We need baptism by someone holding the proper priesthood authority of God in order to make it back to God's presence after this life, which is our goal. So, this is why my companion and I commit people to be baptized on a certain date the FIRST time we meet with them. It's a little scary, but I know that baptism really is so important! However, a lot of people lose interest and fall away, even if they commit to be baptized. So missionary work is all about committing everyone and helping as much as you can to help the investigators keep their commitments (pray, read the scriptures, go to church, keep the commandmens) to help them reach their baptism goals.

- Investigators - who are they? "Investigators" is the word for people who are interested in the Church, so the people that we teach. We have a lot of investigators, which is great. But like I mentioned earlier, they all progress at different levels. I pray for my investigators every day so that I can know how to best help them come unto Christ.

- Contacting. So when I'm not teaching, what is it that I'm doing, exactly? Contacting! I'm talking to everyone I can about the Gospel, and hoping that I can teach some people and commit them to be baptized, right on the street if necessary. All missions and all missionaries do contacting differently - in Taiwan, the most effective way is normally when you're on the street going some place. We'll pull over to the side of the road if we se someone walking and tlak to them, or we'll knock on car windows at stoplights, ask them to pull over, and then talk to them. We always teach them something, and then always invite them to do something (whether it's pray every day or even just giving us their phone number). There are always funny experiences with contacting; this past week's best one was probably when we were on the train to Taitung (we had a companion exchange, where we went to a different place to see how different people do missionary work). I was trying to teach the girl across the aisle about the gospel, but whenever I would try and say something to her, her boyfriend who was sitting next to her would choose that exact moment to be extremely affectionate with her. It was, as the Chinese would say, very "ganga" (awkward).

 

Spiritual thought - I forgot my scripture reference, but I want to say that it's Alma 8:5 where an angel tells Alma (a prophet) that he has "great cause to rejoice." The people here often say "xinku ni," which basically means "it stinks to be you." But you know what? I'm so incredibly happy every day - even when bad things happen! And I know that that honestly wouldn't be possible if I didn't know with all of my heart that this message is true. God lives. Jesus is His Son, and is Our Savior. I know that this is true, and I love telling people about it!

 

Alright, that's it for now. I love you all,

Sister Winters

Sister Winters - February 5, 2012 Sleeeeeeeep in Heeeeaaaavenly Peeeeeeee-eeeace!

Dear family and friends,

 

Good morning to me and good evening to you! It's been a wonderful week for me; I hope it's been the same for all of you. :) Thank you for all of the fantastic emails that you sent me! They were great. And THANK YOU FOR THE PACKAGE AND LETTERS!!!!!!!!! They came last Friday, and I felt like I was the happiest person in the world at that moment. :) Please tell Sister Claunch that the chocolate covered potato chips were the BEST - I had completely forgotten that those existed, and how delicious they were. I also got the letters sent from the first week as well as Sarah's letter and pictures. I think they send the mail down here once every two weeks, so it's kind of hit and miss. But anyway, I can't open any letters until P-day, so you'd better believe that I got up at 5 Am this morning and read them. :) Thank you! Please keep sending them occasionally if you want - they're wonderful.

 

To all of my music friends at BYU, have fun at UMEA this week (or I hope you had fun if you already went)! And if you go to the St. George temple while you're there and see a Sister Warnock or a Sister Chase, tell them Sister Winters says hi. :) I think I'm feeling a little guilty about how little time I'm devoting to violin here - I had a dream that I made it into the concerto competition but my companion scheduled a teaching appointment at the same time as the performance so I couldn't go. Plus I was feeling super-underprepared with my practicing, hahaha.

 

So, today has had some more fun contacting moments. I stepped it up from the garbage truck and contacted a cement truck this time! I actually had to climb up so I could talk to him through the window - it was pretty much the most fun thing ever. :) I also saw this band in the back of a truck playing music, and I was so excited that I shouted, "Jiayou!" or "Yeah, keep going!" Well, my companion turned around and asked me if I was talking to the band when I said that. I replied in the affirmative - turns out that the people playing music were playing for a FUNERAL PROCESSION. I couldn't stop laughing! So Mom, to answer your question about music here - it's good, I like Chinese music, but sometimes I can't tell what mood it's trying to convey. :) Actually, they often play American music. Right now they're playing dirty rap music and I'm trying really hard just to concentrate on this email - woof.

 

Okay, so I have another service experience to share. If I ever get in a terrible car accident on the mission and have to be hospitalized, I want to go to the hospital where we do service. The reason being it seems like they have a party every single week! We went a couple of weeks ago and it was a New Year's celebration - this past week it was a birthday party. Well we sang a couple of hymns which was fun and then talked to them - it was great. They really like karaoke there - it was playing the whole two hours we were there. There was this one guy that I LOVED that would always go up and sing. The first one he did was "Silent Night," which was a little interesting. I think my favorite part about it was that he would slide into the notes of "Peee-eeeaaaacccceee" and he was really LOUD. Then he'd finish, get a half-hearted round of applause, say "Thank you!" and then sing another one. :) The movie background for the karaoke was really weird, too - they had a bunch of boats and stuff for Silent Night and then when I looked up later there were a couple of kangaroos fighting and stuff. Of course, the song might have been about fighting kangaroos, but I personally doubt it. There was also this one guy whose name was Joe who kept saying "you're beautiful - I love you." My companion laughed and said: "I think it's funny that that's all the English that he knows," but I corrected her and said that he actually knew a lot more; he was just choosing to say those words because he meant it... Not likely. :)

 

My looks continue to be a shock to all of Taiwan, though. A car actually stopped on the road as he was passing by to get a better look. I tried to convince myself that it was because of my stunning good looks - it almost worked until I caught sight of my sopping wet reflection in the window of another car. :) Oh, and I've decided my eyes are too big for this country - I got bug number two stuck in there last week, and I've only been here for three weeks! A church member told me it was because my eyes were a different color and the bugs think that my green eyes are actually trees - I've definitely never heard that one before! I'm actually surprised I haven't swallowed any bugs yet, considering how most of my time on my bike is divided between singing and talking to people... I guess it just goes to show you that there always room for improvement!

 

I don't know if I've told you all this yet, but we give free English class every Wednesday - I teach the advanced class, which is super-fun because it means I can speak English at my normal breathless speed and call it "good practice." :) This past week we played some word games, including the spelling game (shout-out to Jerusalem people who played that!), Hig Pig (a little too complex for them), and "secret" (I think that's what it's called? Again, another Jerusalem bus ride game :)). I always have a lot of interesting people who come, but I think this past week was an all-time record. We have this lady who usually comes named "Su," who asks a TON of questions and is really long-winded. :) Well this week she read the English comics and came back with a whole load o' questions about some of the words, including "Oogah Boogah!" Apparently someone was doing magic and said that phrase - she asked if she said "Oogah Boogah!" in the States if people would naturally know what she was talking about - it was hard not to laugh. Anyway, we also had a newcomer - the Elders' investigator - whose name is Chen. Well, I think he takes down big-time criminals for his job. Like, corrupt government officials and stuff. He has like 5 different names (including an Arabic one in case he's ever sent to the Middle East), probably for different identities that he has for his job. Actually his name isn't even Chen - I don't want to put his real one in this email in case some underground thug sees it and uses it to come find me. Or, even worse, if Chen finds out and then comes after me. Actually, he's really, really nice - I talked about the Spirit and feeling God's love for the spiritual thought afterwards and he had a lot of great insights.

 

Okay, I'm saving the best news for last in this one. There have been so many MIRACLES this week! There's this investigator we've had who's been coming to church a few times. She's had a baptism date, but we commit them to be baptized on the first visit normally, so that doesn't really mean anything sometimes. Well, she REALLY wants to be baptized on her date (the 25th) and get ready for that! I was SO SO SO happy. Even greater miracle - there's this family we've been teaching whose baptismal dates are for this Saturday. The only thing is that they're a little reluctant to get baptized, since they feel like they haven't gotten a "definite" answer (they have, just haven't learned to recognize it), they're nervous, etc. So we were planning last week for this week, and I asked my companion if we should plan on them getting baptized. She said no because of their attitude about baptism. Well, we were meeting with the mom's niece last week and the whole family (the Lu family) came too. We committed the niece to be baptized, and then asked the Lu family about their baptism date. Well, Sister Lu asked about her baptism interview and wants to have it this week!!!!!! So if everything goes well with the interview tonight, I'll be having my first baptism this Saturday. :) I'm so happy, and I really can't wait! I'll be playing violin for the service. :) The family won't be baptized together - the kids want to be baptized March 31 with their cousin - but I think that the mom will be setting an awesome example for the rest of her family.

 

Okay, that's it for this week. I'm really happy - I feel so blessed to be here. I was riding my bike to a less-active member's house last week and we were riding past rice fields and mountains and I could see the stars and the moon for the first time since being here and I just thought, "Wow, God must love me a LOT to send me here!" It's so true. Remember that I'm praying for you all, and have a great week.

 

Love,

Sister Winters

 

Aunt Bev - I loved your letter! Thank you for your spiritual thought. I'll try and apply that even more in my missionary service. Thank you!

Sister Winters - January 29, 2012 Shrimp guts, and pig feet, and octopus…oh my!

Hello from the other side of the world! Thank you for all of your emails this week - there were 20 when I checked my inbox!!! I feel your love and support daily. I think I'm starting to get the hang of mission life - I'm juuussssstttt to the point where I'm not very saddle sore when I get on my bike. :) Speaking of my bike, it's a good thing that I wear long skirts here that cover my legs, because I don't think that the people of Taiwan could handle my crazy-colored legs from all of the bruises that bike has given me! :) This week has had its ups and downs - it's Guonian, or New Year's, which is like a more-than-a-week-long holiday. Crazy! So for those of you whom I sent letters to last week, you won't get them for another two weeks, since my companion informed me that the mail wasn't in service at all last week. :( I'm sorry for the wait! Thank you for your patience. Guonian was good because I ate a TON (more about that later) with the church members, but then bad because I ate a TON with the church members, and we didn't teach as much as we would have liked to.

 

It's been pretty cold and rainy lately - and I think it's my fault. I was beginning to feel like it was a waste of space for me to bring my few winter clothes with me to Taiwan, but when it was cold, I was able to wear all of them! A little tender mercy for you. :) But now it's good and warm again - probably the equivalent of a nice May day in Utah. Last Friday was awesome - it was clear, warm, and beautiful. I ran to the beach, looked out at the ocean, looked to my right and saw a beautiful river, and then turned around and saw the spectacular green tropical mountains. There's a spiritual that I like to sing -  "I am Bound for the Promised Land" - except I sing "I am IN the promised land!" It really is true. Angela, you referred to my mission as an "adventure," and it totally is! When I was little, some of you know that I was always talking about going on adventures - well, this is it! I'm loving life here.

 

Just a couple of contacting highlights from this week - I talked to someone in a garbage truck at a stop light about Jesus Christ and had to reach up super-high to give him a pamphlet, I played the violin in the streets and next to a McDonald's to help talk about the Gospel and to help advertise for English class - we didn't get too much success, but I did have a lot of people take pictures with me while I was doing it... so at least I know that they liked my violin playing and my blonde hair/big green eyes even if they didn't like my message. :) I also ccontacted a person who was a church member already (I totally didn't recognize her), and called a man "Miss so-and-so" instead of "Mr. so-and-so"... whoops! To justify myself, though, he was wearing a pink jacket, he had a girly voice, and he was wearing tight khaki pants. One nice thing about the situation is that I could blame it on my Chinese. :)

 

I also have a whole lot to say about the food here. As mentioned previously, I had a lot of food this week. And whereas I normally eat out here (it's cheaper than making your own food) so I can choose what I eat, this time I was given what I needed to eat. And eat it. A lot of it, the vast majority, was really really good. A couple of things weren't. I would say that the worst were the feet that I had to eat - pigs feet and chicken feet. Woof. BUT, the chicken feet kind of looked like tarantulas at first, so I was actually pretty grateful when I ate them. Oh! Another thing - we had shrimp at a lot of the meals. I really like shrimp, but they had the ENTIRE shrimp cooked, and we took it apart when we ate them. No big deal, until I pulled of the shrimp head and shrimp brains and guts started oozing out - GROSS. I was temporarily at a loss for what to do for a second and then I pulled out a napkin, wiped off my shrimp gut fingers, and continued eating. Then I looked over at the girl sitting next to me (she's probably about Rachel's age), who was also beginning to eat a shrimp. She pulled off the head, sucked off all of the blood and guts and stuff from the shrimp's body, and then stuck part of the head in her mouth and started to slurp (very loudly) the stuff out of there, so when I looked at her there was a little shrimp head with eyes and everything sticking out of her mouth! I didn't know whether to laugh hysterically or to throw up (I ended up not doing either, which was probably good). They also had baby octopuses at one of the meals, but I didn't have the nerve to eat them - I kind of avoided them in the soup and just had broth and vegetables instead. :) The table manners of the Taiwanese are VERY different from Americans - think of everything that's rude at the table in America, and then do that in Taiwan, and you're a natural! One thing that was really neat about this whole experience though is how giving these people are. There was one family who doesn't even come to church and who doesn't have very much money, but they invited us over to dinner and fed us a VERY expensive meal! People here are so generous and so loving - it's not hard to love them back. :) It was also good to get to know the members here better  - on Sunday when I sat at the front to give a talk, I realized that I recognized a ton more members than I did the week before. Tender mercies every day!

 

All of the missionaries here say that you get "rice cheeks" by the end of the mission. Since my cheeks are already very chubby, this has worried me a little bit - but not enough to make me not enjoy the food here. :) My companion has noticed the same thing - when I told her that I was worried that I was getting rice cheeks already, she said, "Yeah, you are, but don't blame it on the rice." :) I'm not too worried, though, since it seemed like every one that we ate meals with last week was at the farthest boundaries of the mission, so I biked a TON. Plus it's a cultural experience to eat the food here! And it really is great. I think my favorites thus far are these breakfast sandwiches (bacon, egg, green onion, with some weird cinnamon sauce), papaya milk (all of the milk here is awesome, but really expensive), and this sweet peanut soup. Mmm. Life is good here in Hualian!

 

Okay, spiritual thought, then I'm out. I'm still on my "spiritual songs" streak. My favorite this week has been "Jacob's Ladder," a spiritual we've done in Peachtree Corners Ward before. Here are a few of my favorite verses (they say the same thing each line, so I'll just say it twice):

 

"Sinner, do you love my Savior? Sinner, do you love my Savior?

"If you love him, why not serve him? If you love him, why not serve Him?

"Rise! Shout! Give God glory! Rise! Shout! Give God glory!"

 

I'm so grateful that every day I'm able to show my love for the Savior and serve Him by rising, shouting, and giving Him glory every day. It's brought my life so much happiness already. I have a picture of the family that's always in my bag so I can show it to people that I teach or eat with - they all love it, and I do too. I'm so grateful for the wonderful influence you are on me and for everything you've taught me. I love you and I pray for you! Give God glory and serve Him this week.

 

Love,

Sister Winters

 

PS : Ben Snow - I haven't heard from you in forever. I hope that you're not dead. Or married.

Sister Winters - January 22, 2012 Xin Nian Kuaile!

Hey everyone, and happy new year from Hualian! Last night was "new year's eve," so I got to watch fireworks from our 13th floor apartment window after planning - it was awesome. We also ate a lot of food yesterday and will continue to do so the whole week (that's my kind of holiday!). Apparently my zone leader gained 15 pounds last year during this holiday! I hope it's not the same fo me. Anyway, food - so far I've had a lot of things, including really bitter bamboo stalks, raw fish with wasabi, squid, goose, and this thing I decided I wouldn't ask what it was until afterwards... Turns out it was 1000 dried fish eggs. Yum. Really, though, the food is good here; don't worry about me!

 

The weather right now is coldish and rainy. It's actually been pretty warm here before (again, think Florida), but I guess it is January. It's really funny - people are terrified of cold here. I'll go running outside in 70 degree weather in shorts and a t-shirt, and people will always tell me that I need to bundle up or that I'll be too cold. My companion is the same way - she has these big coats she'll wear if it's under 75 degrees. :)

 

I'm just going to be talking about a lot of different random things, just so you know. I'm glad you all liked the talking to the deaf guy story! This week I proselyted to an empty car (I hate those mirrored windows) and also had a small bug fly into my eye as we ran over to the beach (about 10 minutes away) for our exercise. I was also in a small earthquake - my legs were shaking back and forth during study time and I had no clue what was going on, and then my companion said I was in an earthquake. Go figure.

 

I'm singing a lot of hymns lately - they help me love life even more. :) My favorites kind of change every day - lately I've been singing a lot of spirituals. I don't know why, but it gives me a lot of pleasure to sing like a black person around a bunch of Asian people. :)

 

My hair and eyes are a pretty big deal here. While that's fun for me since they're not really that big of a deal to most people in the states, they also get annoying a little bit. People often feel the need to talk about it - "She has HUGE eyes!" "What color is your hair?" "Why is your hair like that?" And then I'll respond with something like, "I don't know, why is your hair like that?" Or people will just tell my companion - "She's tall, skinny, and beautiful!" Which I can understand. It's funny - people here talk about you in front of your face all the time. Maybe it's just me since they think I probably can't understand, but they'll say things like, "Your Chinese is good!" and then my companion will speak and they'll say, "...But your Chinese is a lot better." Or they'll compliment me to my companion, which I'm sure makes her feel a little weird - it makes me feel weird just hearing them say it. BUT, I love the Chinese people so so so much, and I'm really enjoying the difference in culture here.

 

One funny thing about them - they often have English names as well. Apparently they have to be given to them by an English speaker, but I'm not sure that that's true, since I've heard of people changing theirs. So far some of the best ones I've heard are: Elsa, George, Red, Polo, Pedro, Lucky, Chair, Janet, Oreo, Juice (one of our investigators - in her closing prayer, she prayed that my Chinese would improve - she also said it was already really good! So cute), and, my personal favorite, Quinn. :) It's so funny to hear a VERY Chinese person who doesn't speak much English refer to himself as Pedro. But it sticks!

 

The elders here have started calling me "Sister Dong." "Dong," or "dong tian," means "winter." They all think that it's really funny. I think that it sounds like they don't have enough amusement as missionaries.

 

I've had this weird thing here where I feel sorry for people, or, even weirder, animals, really easily. Seriously, it's so weird. I don't know if it's just an added measure of love for the mission or anything, but the slightest pathetic-looking thing will make me sad. Like when I saw these cows by the river and they were tied up and the poor things were trying to get untangled from the rope. Or a new all-time high is when I saw this three-legged dog limping down the street. It made me feel so sorry for him! Which is weird, because I'm terrified of dogs here. Before the mission, not too much of a problem. However. there are dogs EVERYWHERE here and I think a lot of them are strays. The worst they've ever done is barked at me, but I've heard too many "dog + missionary" stories not to be frightened. Everytime I have to ride through a bunch of them, I say a little prayer that I'll be like Daniel in the Lion's Den and be protected. :) Sounds childish, I know, but it works everytime!

 

A lot of you asked about violin. I actually haven't been able to use it to contact yet - we've had too much success with just contacting people on the street on the way to the places where I'm going to play! :) But I have used it a couple of times thus far. I played it at dinner last night, played it at a lesson, and, my favorite, played it at this hospital/nursing home for service last week. They had a New Year's party, and it was so much fun! The nurses gave all of the patients tambourines or little jars of beans to use to keep time. One of the patients started beating the beans against his little bald head since he liked the music so much - again, this new sentimental side coming out in me. My favorite part, though, was when they had these elementary school kids come in and perform. While my companion quickly became a fan of the girl in the middle in the front row who danced every step with exactness (much better than I ever could), my heart was won by this super-tall girl in the back row... You can probably guess why. :) I was so reminded of myself as I watched this girl dance in the row entirely comprised of boys and herself, as she danced not quite as well, but clearly loved being there. She would sing along with the songs too, which was hilarious - the nurse would hold up the microphone to her mouth but she was basically screaming - no sense of pitch at all. :) Violin should be tonight, though! We're going to a busy intersection, and everyone who stops or slows down will be chased down by my companion. :)

 

Spiritual thought and then I'm done. The beginning of last week was pretty tough - it's way better now but it was still pretty hard at that time. One thing that I was struggling with is why I can't talk to or hear from my family more than once a week during email time or more than 80 minutes for this next year and a half. I mean, I'm talking to everyone on the street why families are important, but I can't talk to my own! But then I knew that I should suck it up, work harder, and then I'd figure it out eventually. :) And I did! I was praying for my food the other day, and then a scripture came to my mind. It was one that I never really understood very well - Matthew 12:46-50. It's where Jesus is with his disciples, and His family is standing in the background, waiting to talk to Him. His disciples point this out to the Savior, who says, "Ye are my brethren!" I never understood that - why did the Savior not pay attention to His family? Weren't they important? The answer is yes, of course they were. However, they weren't the focus of His ministry - they weren't what was most important at the time. I think that as Jesus Christ's representative, the same is true for me right now. Of course I love all of you and miss you all, but you all aren't my focus at this point. And if that's what the Savior did, then I should try and do it, too. :)

 

Hopefully that makes sense. I love all of you and I'm so glad you're doing well! Please continue to keep me in your prayers - I'll do the same for you.

 

Love,

Becca