Well, I've had quite the week! Last night I made a list of things I wanted to tell you guys about so here it is in all its glory!
1. It is HOT outside. Idk why...rain season is coming up very soon. (YAY SEATTLE) But there has been A LOT of Liu Han (Sweat--literally means flowing salt--I am learning that the Chinese are very literal.) The other day I had the most uncomfortable lesson with a member. She is an old lady named Chen Ai Yi and holllyyyyyyyyy crud her apartment was BOILING. I've legit never sweated more in my life. she never turns on the AC. And then (oh, yes it gets better) she asked us to cut her toenails. So...my companion and I were sitting there, taking turns reading the story about the tree of life in the Book of Mormon in broken Chinese, cutting this lady's toenails, dripping in sweat. Oh, this work is hilarious haha. We are never going to forget that experience.
2. On Monday/PDay we went to the National Museum at this palace in Shi Lin. Awesome view of the Taiwan mountains. There were some other cool things I took photos of. They had super old scrolls and ancient Chinese character cave writings--cooooool!
3. This week we found ourselves with a few awkward pockets of time in between lessons so we decided to go crazy and pass out a ton of Free English Class pamphlets. (Idk if I told you guys about this part--The missionaries teach English! It is a good way to serve and meet potential new investigators. I teach the beginner class--super hard considering I don't know Chinese but somehow it works and I end up learning a ton of Chinese from my students haha. It's so fun) Anyways--I LOVE passing out these flyers because it's hilarious. I basically jump in front of people and say in the most enthusiastic voice I can muster up--"HEY! FREE English class! Its awesome! I am a foreigner and I can teach you!" They think its hilarious for some reason. The best is doing this to high school aged boys cuz they get so nervous for some reason lollll. But we passed out A TON so, hopefully, we'll have a good turn out. You never know though cuz these kids study soooooo much. They have school all day, every day basically.
4. We ate at a member's house and they are so sweet. They made us (the elders and us sisters) American food!--Chicken casserole, green beans, oranges, brownies, potatoes. So sweet of them.
5. We had an awesome combined Zone meeting this Friday. We went hiking in the Northeastern part of Taiwan. I took some pics. One of the best hikes of my life! SOOOOO GORGEOUS. And it was awesome to see a few of my MTC homies.
6. My companion and I had a cool miracle last week. We were trying to find this lady's house (a less active that the bishop referred to us) and we got completely lost. Navigating in Taiwan is hard when you can't read Chinese street signs. We got off the bus completely lost and my trainer broke down saying "I cant do this" We decided yes--we can't do this--but we are doing God's work and He can do this so we turned our trust to Him to navigate us. He did :) A nice angel of a man from the bus ride earlier was riding his scooter down the hill right after we finished saying a prayer for help. He got off his scooter and said "I can help you, I will circle the block and look for this street and house." Then he jumped on his scooter and rode around. Angel. He came back and showed us the way to her house. We were worried cuz we didn't know her room number or anything but when we got to her street she was outside. "I had a feeling to come out here and I don't really know why." she said. Miracles happen in Ji Long. We had an incredible lesson with her and are meeting with her again tonight.
7. I saw a lot of Buddhist temples this week as I've been traveling. They are crazy intense. HUGE golden Buddhas and Monks lighting incense everywhere. There are a lot of crazy superstitions around here. A lot of our new investigators have crazy stories about ghosts and devil spirits. Bai bai (Ancestor worship) is a very traditional thing here too. I always see altars in all of these houses. The other day my companion and I got lost knocking doors and found a house with tons of these mini shrines and inside them were jars of dead animals. We saw this old lady once at a group of shrines banging her head against the concrete because she claimed to be possessed by a spirit. It was terrifying. Our investigators who come from these types of backgrounds always tell us how grateful they are for the Gospel and the peace it brings.
7. I saw a lot of Buddhist temples this week as I've been traveling. They are crazy intense. HUGE golden Buddhas and Monks lighting incense everywhere. There are a lot of crazy superstitions around here. A lot of our new investigators have crazy stories about ghosts and devil spirits. Bai bai (Ancestor worship) is a very traditional thing here too. I always see altars in all of these houses. The other day my companion and I got lost knocking doors and found a house with tons of these mini shrines and inside them were jars of dead animals. We saw this old lady once at a group of shrines banging her head against the concrete because she claimed to be possessed by a spirit. It was terrifying. Our investigators who come from these types of backgrounds always tell us how grateful they are for the Gospel and the peace it brings.
8. Last night we ate at the Dong family's house. (members). SO sweet and awesome! I had my first real Taiwanese traditional family meal experience. You sit at a table with a ton of bowls of veggies and Chinese medicine veggies and fish (literally--two dead cooked fish) and they give you a bowl of rice and soup and you dig in. You have to eat all the rice at a certain pace otherwise you can offend them pretty easily. I'm pretty sure I ate octopus last night. and probably duck's blood...idk I was too afraid to ask. But it was pretty yummy! (not the blood) they kept putting all this food on my bowl for me and I was like "Ahhhhhhh Chi bao le, Chi bao le!!!" (I am full!) People give us so much food here haha. It's a sign of love though so I am grateful.
9. We have 3 people with a baptismal date! It's going to take a lot of patience though because they all have family opposition (common problem here in Taiwan because families are very traditional). So that will require patience. We also have 5 amazing investigators who are very close to baptism (also have family probs) so we will need to be patient. I LOVE the investigators we have. They have sooo much faith and you can see the Gospel literally changing their lives. One lady in particular started following the word of wisdom and she has seen miracles. Her husband has been less abusive and more willing to let her receive baptism. And he's letting her meet with us. Before she would have to sneak out and meet us in kind of hidden away places like Starbucks or other American restaurants that no one goes to. But we literally see miracles everyday and it's incredible.
9. We have 3 people with a baptismal date! It's going to take a lot of patience though because they all have family opposition (common problem here in Taiwan because families are very traditional). So that will require patience. We also have 5 amazing investigators who are very close to baptism (also have family probs) so we will need to be patient. I LOVE the investigators we have. They have sooo much faith and you can see the Gospel literally changing their lives. One lady in particular started following the word of wisdom and she has seen miracles. Her husband has been less abusive and more willing to let her receive baptism. And he's letting her meet with us. Before she would have to sneak out and meet us in kind of hidden away places like Starbucks or other American restaurants that no one goes to. But we literally see miracles everyday and it's incredible.
Well this work has still been very challenging for me and my companion. We are both very new missionaries. Idk if I told you guys this but my trainer is training on her 3rd transfer which is very rare for a foreign missionary. But she is incredible. It's easy to get stressed out but we've been learning a lot from each other and love each other very much. I have learned a lot about charity this week. I have never felt so inadequate in my life, not knowing the language, not understanding a lot, not being able to teach the way I want to--but it's teaching me patience and humility. As hard as everything is--I know that there is a reason I'm here and I am thankful for every hard experience because every trial has a purpose and I am learning so much.
Hey I got a ton of letters this week and I was STOKED! Thank you Mom, Mallory, Sam, the Walthers, the Palmers, Nina, Abby Elggren, I love you all! Those letters made me soooooo unbelievably happy. They were tender mercies from the Lord because I got them in the times when I was at my lowest point. THANK YOUUUU!!
K gotta go. Love you all so much
Sister Tracy
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