Sister Winters - September 17, 2012 Happy birthday, Sarah!!

Dear family,

 

Hey howdy hey from Taidong! We got transfer announcements earlier this week, and... I'm staying. :) I'm hoping that my purpose in staying in Taidong for so long is to help Becky and Elain. Elain recently's been... well, alright, I guess. Becky's SO CLOSE! Keep praying! But anyway, most of the elders are leaving. We're all such a close family here in Taidong that it's always really sad when people move. But there are good parts too I guess because when new people move in this place really gets set on fire (spiritually). I always love that.

 

But anyway, this week was a good one! So so so many people at church yesterday. It was awesome. And so so so many progressing investigators. People are just coming out of the woodwork - I know that the Lord is preparing people here to hear His Gospel. It's so cool to be a part of it.

 

To tell you the truth, I had no idea that the typhoon was so serious until I read all of your emails. No, the only bad thing that happened here was that I forgot my poncho yesterday night and got so soaked that our member helping my lesson was worried that I'd catch a cold. :) I'm totally fine, though. And, weird truth: I kind of really like it when the weather's super-crazy or hard. It makes me feel like I'm... I don't know, a Christian soldier or something. :) Weird, but true. Speaking of catching colds, though, it was cold when we were riding here to Cyberdome this morning! I couldn't believe it. I wanted to put on a sweater and everything. Maybe I'm just turning Taiwanese and I'm starting to get cold really easily.

 

Apparently I am turning Taiwanese with my food tendencies. Last week we were treated to this seafood restaurant with like 75 courses - the food just kept coming out! Anyway, there was one dish with snails (still in the shells this time), and I just grabbed them out of their shells and started eating them, no big deal. But the thing that impressed the other missionaries the most was when the shrimp came out. They brought out this plate of like 7-inch long shrimp. Kind of terrifying. One elder just sat staring at them and the other picked it up and kept examining it like he was trying to figure out how it was all put together. I just grabbed it, ripped of its head and legs, and then started eating it. I didn't think it was a big deal at the time, but everyone afterwards was really impressed. And by the sound of things a little scared as well. Reading this paragraph it does seem like ripping off heads and legs is a little barbaric. But you know, I feel like as long as I stick to only doing it with dead things that I'm about to eat, I'll be okay.

 

I have an update with my favorite foods here, though. I've already talked about the random drink shops with squishy stuff you can put in your drinks. Well, they also have these fruit shops where they'll make juice for you. It's soooo good. My favorite before was banana milk, where it's, well, bananas and milk blended together. Mmmmmmmm.... But this week I went big and got mango and banana, add yogurt. That, my friends, is what heaven is going to be like. I was so happy as I sipped my mango banana yogurt drink that I couldn't wipe the smile off my face for a long long time. Yum. There's also this breakfast food called zhuabing that's fantastic as well. It's an egg in this tortilla kind of thing with cheese. Then you dip it in this thick soy sauce. Heaven. I've also recently been developing an affinity for kimchi, which is this korean pickled cabbage stuff. I know, sounds weird, but it's actually really good. I think my favorite was when we went to this member's house and we made our own lettuce wraps with kimchi, a little meat, a little spicy sauce, and rice on the inside. I want to make that for my kids, it was so darn good.

 

Okay, miracle for this week: the Qiu girls. We were biking somewhere and we wanted to get there fast if possible but contacting was okay too. Anyway, I saw these two girls and yelled out, "Hello!" They kept biking and didn't look at me, which is my personal way of knowing whether or not I should go and talk to them - they didn't pass the test. But then one of the girls looked - not at me, but looked around, as if trying to figure out who had talked to her. First I thought, "No big deal, they didn't look at me," but then I began to wonder if maybe the Spirit was prompting her to look around for me. So I knew we had to go back. Unfortunately, with traffic it was hard for both me and Sister Marler to turn around. I was looking desparately at the corner where those girls had turned around, trying to figure out whether or not we should go after them. Then all of the sudden, they came back! I was already on the other side of the street, so I yelled for Sister Marler to "TALK TO THEM! IT'S THEM!" ...So she did. And she did great. She just rode up her bike next to them and started chatting. Then I rode up too and invited them for a chapel tour. They looked kind of uncertain, but then their other sister joined them. I invited them all once more, and the sister said, "Alright, let's go." It was incredible. I felt like we had a little parade, all five of us riding to the chapel together. Then the tour went so well. The Spirit was very strong, and the girls committed to be baptized. Then they came to the elders' baptismal service that night, and church the next day. SO PREPARED. When I meet people like that, I think, "How did they not meet the missionaries before?" Then I feel so grateful that Heavenly Father let me be the one missionary that they didmeet. I love my life.

 

Okay, I've got to go, but I just need to tell you all that the Gospel really is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He is in charge. Have a wonderful day, everyone. I will, too - every person that we're meeting with tonight all has the same last name of Yang. Just imagining a missionary in the states meeting with a bunch of people all with the last name "Winters" makes me smile. Have a good one!

 

Love,

 

Sister Winters

Sister Winters - September 10, 2012

Dear wonderful, fantastic family,

 

Thank you for your emails (and pictures!) this week! I really can't describe how happy they make me. I'm just sitting here with a big smile on my face because of how awesome you all are. Just in case anyone is interested, "Forever Young," hamster-dance style, was just playing on somebody's computer as I was typing. He has interesting taste in music, I'll give him that.

 

This week was good! Still pretty crazy, but we saw results for our crazy hard work! There were a lot of people at church and we have people that are progressing. I am sure that it's coming from 1) your prayers, and 2) our trying to follow our mission president's advice on how to prioritize. He told us that we should spend about 80% of our time on six or fewer investigators that are really progressing and then 20% on the others. He's also been encouraging us to visit at least five member families each week, which before wasn't a priority at all. So that was a little weird at first, but this week we actually tried to do it, and we saw success because of it! Plus we had some great experiences because of them as well.

 

One of them was with the Lai family. Sister Lai has been a member for a while and two out of her three kids are members, but the youngest (who is eight) hasn't been baptized because her dad, who used to meet with the missionaries, keeps saying that eventually he'll join the church so he can baptize her.

 

...But he still hasn't.

 

So that's where we come in. Sister Lai came up to us and told us that her husband's birthday was coming up, and she asked if we could come with a cake and just randomly show up on the doorstep - and then do some sort of performance. I'll admit that I thought it sounded weird, but I knew that Lai Jiemei really was set on it, so I agreed. But of course with the whole missionary work thing, we forgot about the whole "performance" aspect until the day of the birthday party. So we and the elders got together to practice the afternoon before that evening's performance. Lai Jiemei told me especially that she wanted me to play violin, so I had to make sure I played that. That's great, but that left our district leader on the piano. Okay, that sounds bad - our district leader used to be a piano teacher and he's awesome at the piano, but just wait. Sister Lai suggested we maybe play/sing a few Primary song versions of Happy Birthday, and then the real thing. But the Chinese Children's Songbook only has like one birthday song... and Sister Lai's daughter had already prepared that one. And whereas our District Leader's note-reading skills are excellent, his whole playing-by-ear area needs a little bit of work. So I got into "music teacher mode" as I explained the chord progression to him, played the melody repeatedly with him, and then constantly corrected him as he played (*singing the note* "E-flat and not E-naturallllll"). You get the picture. Well, I think everyone was kind of shocked - it was like they were seeing a whole other side of me, because, well... they were. It was kind of hilarious to me, because I totally know that that side of me exists, but they had had no idea. Anyway, eventually they seemed to get a kick out of it too and had a great time calling out, "F7 chord! F7!" or "Move that D to an E flat!" and stuff like that the rest of the night.

 

But anyway, the rest of that night is what I wanted to talk about. We got to the Lai family's house, cake in hand, and they all seemed really happy to see us. It was crazy - the family and relatives were all there, the dog (whose name is "Fuyin," or "Gospel") was barking like mad, the garbage truck was going by (have I ever mentioned that the garbage trucks here are musical, like ice cream trucks? Everyone hears the little ditty and knows that the garbage truck is coming, so they go outside and bring out their garbage. SO disappointed it isn't ice cream), etc. Really loud. But Brother Lai seemed very gratified we were all there. Apparently the Taiwanese have this tradition before they blow out the candle of their cake that they announce what all of their wishes and dreams for this next year are to everyone. So we sang "Happy Birthday" - complete with violin accompaniment - and then Sister Lai asked me to keep playing as Brother Lai told us all what his wishes are. It was a little awkward for me at first because I had no idea why I was playing a solo while this man was talking, but it ended up being great. Brother Lai said that this year he wanted to quit smoking and get baptized and then baptize his daughter. Everyone was so so so happy. His oldest daughter, Jessica, even started crying because she was so happy. It was a great moment, and we were so happy we could be there for it. Now the elders are starting to teach him, and life is great!

 

One quick story from another member's house. Last night we went to go have dinner and FHE at a member family's house. They were pretty late in getting dinner to us, though, which meant a lot of time playing with their kids and a little bit of time eating and FHEing. Oh, well. Anyway, they have a daughter who's six and is absolutely adorable. She's very smart but sometimes she talks pretty fast in her little high-pitched voice and I have a little trouble understanding her. Last night she said something about "sha zhu" over and over again. I looked confusedly over at our district leader for a translation, and he said (very confidently, I might add): "She kills pigs with rocks."

 

...Wait, WHAT?!

 

Her parents heard Elder Peterson's translation and knew enough English to say, "She's talking about her piggy bank." Apparently when you put coins in your piggy bank, the Chinese phrasology for that is that you kills a pig with rocks. Who knew? Sister Marler and I got a good laugh out of that as we pictured this little innocent six-year-old girl secretly being a terrible pig-killer.

 

Things with Sister Marler are still going great. Something that's become a new bonding tradition for us is to share the dreams we had while we're exercising. Fortunately, I've had some really weird (and some really terrifying) dreams, including but not limited to: a dream where this scary guy kidnapped me and wanted to marry me, a dream about baby Voldemort, a dream about having my own baby without knowing quite how that happened, and a dream about my dad's long-lost evil sister Victorna who throws lego guys into people's drinks while they're drinking them so that their drink spills all over them. Weird, I know. At least we've had stuff to talk about, right?

 

Okay, spiritual time. We're working really, really hard to have Elain and Becky baptized on 9/29. They've been meeting with us for so long, and I think the time has come where they can really work hard to prepare for that date. Please pray for them! And that date! I know that if we have faith, we can do it. This week I've been extra-grateful for this chance to serve. I really do love serving a mission, and I really do love these people that I work with every day. I love the Lord, and I'm grateful for His patience with me. This work is God's work - we really wouldn't have any way to do it without His help. We see His hand in what we do every day. And I'm so happy that you all see His hand in what you're doing as well. I'm so proud of all of the good things you're all doing. Keep working hard and being good! I'll try and do the same, and I'll keep praying for you every day.

 

I love you all! Until next week.

 

Love,

Sister Winters

 

Sister Winters - September 3, 2012 "That, my friend, was a miracle"

Dear FOB (family/friends of Becca),

Rebecca's birthday is October 1st.  I know that she would love getting a card or note from you!  Considering that it takes nearly 2 weeks for a letter to arrive from the US to the mission home, another 5-7 days until they mail it out, and she can only open mail on preparation day, that date is rapidly approaching!  If you have a moment and $1.05 to spare, please consider dropping her a letter and wishing her well on her 22nd birthday.

Thank you so much!

The Editor

Sister Rebecca Winters

106-42

Taiwan Taipei Mission

4 Fl, #24, Lane 183 Chin-hua St.

Taipei  Taiwan, ROC

Dear family,

 

Um, apparently Happy Labor Day! No, they do not have that holiday here in Taiwan. They do celebrate three different Valentine's Days each year here though, so maybe that makes up for it...

 

It's been a monster of a week - one of those "refiner's fires" ones. :) It started out a little rough, but we really saw some miracles and came out on top by the end. So lately with the change in our mission president we've had a lot of changes in the mission - not only the rules, but in the way that we do missionary work, such as working with members and even with finding. It's been a little hard at the beginning to adjust to having the things you've done for the past nine months of your life being changed suddenly... and have somebody who isn't quite as familiar with the work to be your companion to boot. So these past few weeks have included a lot of struggling, and a lot of prayer. I think the "struggling" took its toll this week - I got sick. But not quite sick enough that I felt okay about staying inside, so I've been just "sick" and not "very sick" all week long. It's okay, though, because 1. there were some miracles associated with that, and 2. it's P-day today and I have told Sister Marler (the district's "P-day planner") that I need a nap today on the schedule and she's willing to accomodate my needs. :) So even though I'm not quite well today, sleep should help and I should be in tip-top shape soon. :)

 

Okay, onto the miracles, because there were a lot. First, the sick miracle. There were a couple of days where my voice was gone. Completely gone. Like, I would croak at someone and then they'd say, "I don't understand you," and walk away. A little tough on me, but also more tough on Sister Marler. Poor thing - she wasn't used to having to have to be in charge of everything, but with my voice being gone, she suddenly was in charge of about 80% of the talking in lessons, calling our investigators, etc. I think it might have been a little stressful at the beginning for her, but we were able to clearly identify from my voice being gone specifically what she needed to work on. And so when my voice came back more, we could work on it together. And now our lessons have more unity, and are getting closer to that 50/50 balance. It's great!

 

As you can probably guess, the days where my voice was gone weren't the most "successful" as far as statistics go in missionary work. We were low on lessons and on finding. And we had to go to Hualian on exchanges later that week, so there was another day gone. So you can imagine when we came back to Taidong on Saturday and had only had one investigator that week that we needed a miracle - and we needed the faith to do it. So Sister Marler and I the night before planned out where we would find. Well, I say that, but I actually askedSister Marler where she thought we should go. She said a specific place. I asked her if we should contact on the way there or just ride straight to the place and contact there (we only had about a half an hour and the place was five minutes away). She said that she'd feel more comfortable contacting there, so we wrote it down. The next day when we got back, we prayed and said that we knew that there were prepared people at the place we had planned to go, but we just needed to find them. So we went. When we got there, we were surprised to see this normally crowded area with only a few people in it. We looked around to see whom we could talk to, and we saw a mom and her daughter. So we walked after them, but then I saw a girl walking in the distance and told Sister Marler that she could decide whom she wanted to talk to. She changed her direction and walked towards the girl. She made the right choice - the girl was prepared to hear the Gospel. It turns out that the day that we invited her to be baptized on (October 6) is her birthday. We said if she had a party or something like that we could change it to Friday, but she said, "No, I think that I want to be baptized on that day." So cool. As we walked back to our bikes, I turned to Sister Marler and said, "That, my friend, was a miracle."

 

 There was also a miracle at church as well. We'd been praying all week long that we could reach our goal in having people come to church. We did. A few people that we had planned on hadn't come, but then there were a couple people who surprised us and came. One of them was Meg, Eva's little sister who used to live in China but came back and then was going to move away but surprisingly didn't (long story). I was so surprised and happy to see her! She's really prepapred. Another was a girl named Ling Zhun, who had come last week but we didn't get a chance to meet with her or even get her phone number because she disappeared before Sister Marler could talk to her. Anyway, she came yesterday and I had a chance to meet her. She is SO PREPARED for the Gospel! She's felt the Spirit before, and she likes church - not only because of friends there, but because of the testimonies that were born. Plus her dad thinks our church is awesome, so no opposition there. It was so great, and I was so happy.

 

There really are so many prepared people that we're teaching right now. We dropped quite a few investigators this week, but we put a star next to all of the people we thought could get baptized, and there were so many! Please pray that we will start seeing the fruits of our labors in baptism. It's so possible. We just need faith and miracles - they're already happening, so I know they can happen again!

 

Last spiritual thought for today - I know that God knows us and answers our questions. I tell my investigators that all the time, but it was neat to have it happen to me this week. I'd been thinking about a couple of things this week that I wanted resolved, so I asked in prayer for help. And then I studied, and then I got answers! Just a little miracle that can happen every day. :) I know that Heavenly Father loves me enough to answer my prayers, and I also know He loves you enough, too. Try Him.

 

Alright, that is it for this week. Thanks for your patience with me and these super-long emails. Sorry that there aren't too many funny things in this week's edition, but hey, I'm a missionary - it's in the job description to have some super-spiritual editions every now and then, right?

 

I love you all. Thank you for your prayers, and have a great week!

 

Love,

Sister Winters

Sister Winters - August 27, 2012

Dear family,

 

I love hearing from all of you! You are all so worth waking up super-early for (and for those of you who have served a mission, you know that that's saying something). I'm so glad you're all doing well. I'm doing pretty well too, as you'll see from this week's report.

 

So, in most important news, Susan got baptized this week! And confirmed! I wasn't sure that last part was going to happen - it was 3 minutes before church was starting and she still wasn't there, her phone was turned off... bad news. So I paced around desperately not knowing what to do for a little bit and then went up to Susan's primary teacher and said, "Will you go get her with me?" She looked at my face for a second and then said, "Okay." So we ran out to her car and were starting to drive away when we saw Susan racing into the parking lot. She apparently had only woken up a half an hour before that and needed to bike over to the church in that time as well. Whew. Let's just say it was a little bit stressful. The baptism also had a few stressful moments as well (water needing to be filled again, needing to be baptized three times, etc.), but as one elder said, "It all came together in the end." I just hope that things all start coming together in the beginning soon! :) It will make my job a lot easier.

 

BUT, one cool thing about that whole experience that I wanted to share - yesterday I was sitting next Susan in church. Before she went up to be confirmed, I explained to her once again what would happen. Anyway, she was a little nervous when she went up in front of everyone, but dutifully sat down and was confirmed and received the Holy Ghost. There was a very sweet spirit there as that happened. And then she went back and sat down next to me. I asked how she felt. "So nervous!" she said. I said, "Yeah, but when they put their hands on your head and gave you that blessing, what did you feel?" Then she smiled at me and said, "I felt really really good." So great! Moments like that are ones that missionaries live for.

 

For the weather report this week, we actually had a real typhoon a few days ago. It actually hit Taidong, which practically never happens. I feel a little guilty because I was kind of excited to see what one actually looks like, but there was actually a lot of disaster involved. Huge trees getting completely uprooted, etc. Well, actually not too much etc.; huge trees being uprooted was mostly it. It was a little startling riding around the next day and seeing that. Thankfully it happened during the night so we still got to be out and about the next day - I was grateful for that.

 

Funny/awkward contacting story for the week: as some people have already found out through my brother's email about La Duzi, the Taiwanese have no TMI ("too much information") borders. They just don't exist here. While I hope that I can really embrace the culture of the people whom I serve, I hope that my sharing-too-much-personal-information level never quite gets to the point of the Taiwanese. An example of this is Mr. Luo. We were trying to visit a girl named Jane Luo. I had heard that her dad was quite strict, so I was a little nervous to see what kind of person he'd be. But I was determined to find her, so we found her house and knocked on the door. Nobody answered, so I knocked again. And then I heard something inside, so I said (already knowing the answer to my question): "Is there anybody there?" Finally, a man opened the door about six inches wide and then poked his head out.

 

"Yes, what do you want?"

"Hello, we're missionaries."
"Oh! Oh! *awkward laugh* Well, you see, um.. I'm not wearing anything. I'm not wearing any clothes."

"Oh."

 

Even though I only said, "Oh," what I meant was, "Why on Earth did you come to the door without wearing anything?!" Or, "What would make you think that it would be acceptable to come to the door without wearing anything?" Or, "Is this a normal thing for you?" Thankfully that crack in the doorway never got wider than six inches. And thankfully I just happened to learn the word "tuoli" (naked) in my mission vocabulary program this week (don't ask me why that word's in there, because I don't know), which enabled me to have my clever email title. 

 

Okay, spiritual part: this week I've been studying hope. It's been interesting because I've always thought that I'm a pretty hopeful person in general so I haven't ever studied hope too much, but it's part of my mission-long study of charity ("hopeth all things") so I decided to give it a try this transfer. It's so great! I love hope. Preach My Gospel describes it as being made manifest in "confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance." Those are all things that I hope to have more of, so I'm happy to be studying hope. I've found as I've had hope more in doing this work, we've seen more miracles, and we've been made better - made into more than we were originally. I know that that's only through the Savior, whom we have a hope in, along with His Atonement. I'm hoping for great things this week, and I know that as I continue to hope in Jesus Christ that I really will be able to do all things in Him, who strengtheneth me.

 

Have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Sister Rebecca Winters

Sister Winters - August 20, 2012

Dear family,

 

I love hearing from all of you! You are all so worth waking up super-early for (and for those of you who have served a mission, you know that that's saying something). I'm so glad you're all doing well. I'm doing pretty well too, as you'll see from this week's report.

 

So, in most important news, Susan got baptized this week! And confirmed! I wasn't sure that last part was going to happen - it was 3 minutes before church was starting and she still wasn't there, her phone was turned off... bad news. So I paced around desperately not knowing what to do for a little bit and then went up to Susan's primary teacher and said, "Will you go get her with me?" She looked at my face for a second and then said, "Okay." So we ran out to her car and were starting to drive away when we saw Susan racing into the parking lot. She apparently had only woken up a half an hour before that and needed to bike over to the church in that time as well. Whew. Let's just say it was a little bit stressful. The baptism also had a few stressful moments as well (water needing to be filled again, needing to be baptized three times, etc.), but as one elder said, "It all came together in the end." I just hope that things all start coming together in the beginning soon! :) It will make my job a lot easier.

 

BUT, one cool thing about that whole experience that I wanted to share - yesterday I was sitting next Susan in church. Before she went up to be confirmed, I explained to her once again what would happen. Anyway, she was a little nervous when she went up in front of everyone, but dutifully sat down and was confirmed and received the Holy Ghost. There was a very sweet spirit there as that happened. And then she went back and sat down next to me. I asked how she felt. "So nervous!" she said. I said, "Yeah, but when they put their hands on your head and gave you that blessing, what did you feel?" Then she smiled at me and said, "I felt really really good." So great! Moments like that are ones that missionaries live for.

 

For the weather report this week, we actually had a real typhoon a few days ago. It actually hit Taidong, which practically never happens. I feel a little guilty because I was kind of excited to see what one actually looks like, but there was actually a lot of disaster involved. Huge trees getting completely uprooted, etc. Well, actually not too much etc.; huge trees being uprooted was mostly it. It was a little startling riding around the next day and seeing that. Thankfully it happened during the night so we still got to be out and about the next day - I was grateful for that.

 

Funny/awkward contacting story for the week: as some people have already found out through my brother's email about La Duzi, the Taiwanese have no TMI ("too much information") borders. They just don't exist here. While I hope that I can really embrace the culture of the people whom I serve, I hope that my sharing-too-much-personal-information level never quite gets to the point of the Taiwanese. An example of this is Mr. Luo. We were trying to visit a girl named Jane Luo. I had heard that her dad was quite strict, so I was a little nervous to see what kind of person he'd be. But I was determined to find her, so we found her house and knocked on the door. Nobody answered, so I knocked again. And then I heard something inside, so I said (already knowing the answer to my question): "Is there anybody there?" Finally, a man opened the door about six inches wide and then poked his head out.

 

"Yes, what do you want?"

"Hello, we're missionaries."
"Oh! Oh! *awkward laugh* Well, you see, um.. I'm not wearing anything. I'm not wearing any clothes."

"Oh."

 

Even though I only said, "Oh," what I meant was, "Why on Earth did you come to the door without wearing anything?!" Or, "What would make you think that it would be acceptable to come to the door without wearing anything?" Or, "Is this a normal thing for you?" Thankfully that crack in the doorway never got wider than six inches. And thankfully I just happened to learn the word "tuoli" (naked) in my mission vocabulary program this week (don't ask me why that word's in there, because I don't know), which enabled me to have my clever email title. 

 

Okay, spiritual part: this week I've been studying hope. It's been interesting because I've always thought that I'm a pretty hopeful person in general so I haven't ever studied hope too much, but it's part of my mission-long study of charity ("hopeth all things") so I decided to give it a try this transfer. It's so great! I love hope. Preach My Gospel describes it as being made manifest in "confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance." Those are all things that I hope to have more of, so I'm happy to be studying hope. I've found as I've had hope more in doing this work, we've seen more miracles, and we've been made better - made into more than we were originally. I know that that's only through the Savior, whom we have a hope in, along with His Atonement. I'm hoping for great things this week, and I know that as I continue to hope in Jesus Christ that I really will be able to do all things in Him, who strengtheneth me.

 

Have a wonderful week!

 

Love,

Sister Rebecca Winters

Sister Winters - August 20, 2012 Greetings from the Cyberdome!

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!

Sister Winters - August 12, 2012 Surprise!

Dear family,

 

Hello and welcome to transfer #6 on island! Some of you have already heard the news (that darn facebook) - I'm still in Taidong! And I'm training a new missionary! Wow. If that wasn't a surprise for you, you can bet your bottom dollar that it was a surprise for me. There was only one new sister coming in this week so didn't even call that since there are so many more "older" sisters in Taiwan who would be totally capable of doing that.

 

So let's talk a little bit about what happened. We already hadn't had much proselyting time at the beginning of the week week since we were in Yuli for a few different meetings. Then on Tuesday we got a call saying that I was training and that we needed to be up in Taipei on Thursday afternoon for a meeting. Oh, and then Sister Burton needed to just pack all of her stuff and pack enough to stay in Taipei for a while since she wouldn't be coming back to Taidong. Poor Sister Burton! After we got the call I walked over to where she was standing and gave her a hug and we both cried. She loved this transfer so much - I did, too! We'll always look back on it and think of it as "the glory days," I think. Anyway, because of problems with buying train tickets, we had to go the night before to Hualian (almost missing the train by 10 seconds in the process), and then heading up to Taipei the next day.

 

Being in Taipei was weird. But good! We stayed in President and Sister Day's apartment (on the second floor) for a night - seriously, even the house just smelled like Utah. It was so Western in every way that sometimes I had to remind myself that I was in Taiwan. The bed was probably the best part - it was so comfortable! Not to say that my bed is bad or anything, but this bed was amazing. It made me a little worried that I'm going to sleep for three days straight when I get home, it'll feel so good. Anyway, the training meetings were great - they got me pumped up to be the best missionary I can be, and really helped me feel Heavenly Father's trust in me and His love for me. I actually got a very sweet confirmation the night I was called to be a trainer as I was praying that this was really what Heavenly Father wanted me to do because He trusts me and knows that I can do it. Very humbling, and also very comforting.

 

Even though the training was great, though, the best part of that whole weekend by far was going to the temple. I went to the temple! It felt so amazingly wonderful. I think that the feeling that I had just walking inside is the strongest difference of feeling between the outside world and the temple that I've ever felt - it was solidly different; I knew more than ever that the temple is a place set apart from the world's influence. It was tangible, and it was wonderful. There may or may not have been times inside where I just cried out of gratitude that I could be inside the temple again and serving the Lord there. I love the temple! And love that President Day specially arranged for me to go. He said that he's already filed a request to the Area Seventy for us to be able to go regularly - we're just waiting for their reply. :)

 

Okay, back to training. My trainee's name is Sister Marler, from San Diego. She went to BYU as well (majored in journalism) and is a huge Trader Joe's fan, so I think we're going to get along just fine. :) Her Chinese is great! Definitely knows much more vocabulary than I did fresh out of the MTC. She's also a trooper, because: 1) She has to be my companion and had to participate with me in one of the most zaogao ("messy cake") weeks I've had on the mission, 2) I'm - we won't say "forcing," but "encouraging" - encouraging her to lead in some of the lessons already (she shared the Joseph Smith story at dinner last night with some of the members), and 3) She had to sit in the no air conditioning part of the train for three hours because we didn't have seats. Poor girl. I asked her if she was doing alright one time and she said, "Well, I'm pretty sure it can only get better from here." Ouch. Pray for us! We need your prayers, more than ever.

 

BUT, to leave things on a happy note, we are seeing miracles. Every day. Even with proselyting for less than half of our week in total, we were able to hit the mission standard (or off by one) or exceed it in all of the areas. Heavenly Father's already shown that He's going to keep blessing us. It's been really special to see how people react to how long Sister Marler's been here. There is a noticeable change in most people - they really cannot believe that she's only been here for less than a week. And then they have to acknowledge that it's due to some superhuman power - it's due to God's power. I know that as we continue to work hard, we're going to be able to show the world (or at least Taidong) that our God is a God of miracles, and that He is the same yesterday, today, and forever - we're going to be able to help Him show His power. How great is that?

 

Well, da jia, that is it for this week. Sorry I didn't write about anything other than training this week - that's pretty much the biggest thing that's happened. I'll try for a little more variety next week, though. :) I love you all! Keep me in your prayers - you'll be in mine.

 

Love,

Sister Winters