First things first: TAIWAN IS THE COLDEST PLACE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD AND I AM FREEZING! Not even kidding the hardest part about this week has been that I am frozen. I'm like a little ice cube running around. And our apartment is on the 23rd floor-- aka freezing point. We finally caved and bought a heater on Thursday and that makes things a little better... but I still wear a lot of clothes to bed at night and I walk around our apartment with a blanket. Now I really need to buy gloves... But I'm alive and my body functions and so the missionary work has pressed on. This week has been full of miracles!
***Please note: In the computer cafe I am sitting in there is a large fat man sitting across from me... and he is snoring SO LOUDLY. It's distracting.... But he is also a child of God so I need to quit judging him...***
This week was full of miracles and a few good stories.
First we didn't get desks to study with until two days ago-- so we had to go home and put them all together.. However we also don't have a screwdriver--- so we used a fork that we found in the apartment. Yes-- my companion and I don't need tools to be successful. A fork will do. Hooray for being innovative!
Also we were trying a new way of contacting people. We bike to an intersection and stop at the red light and talk to the people on scooters around us.. then instead of going forward with them, when the light turns green we move onto the intersecting street and stop at that stoplight and contact the people there.. then we repeat and see who we can find who is interested in the gospel. We picked a bad interestion though with an impatient taxi driver. NOT EVEN KIDDING THE VERY SECOND THE LIGHT TURNED GREEN HE WANTED TO GO. As in he started honking his horn (which is the most annoying thing in the world)... AND THEN HE RAN INTO MY BIKE. Not hard-- just enough to express his incredible amount of impatience and the fact that he's probably the most immature child of God in the world. Okay I'm getting grumpy just thinking about him... so I'll move on. That way of contacting is entertaining-- and also super scary because talking to people on scooters is hard. If they don't want to listen they just pull forward-- or they put their hand up... and everyone sees them reject you. At the same time though it's necessary-- I've heard of a lot of people meeting missionaries the first time on their scooters at a stop light.
That man was a turd though.
So-- remember when I went to Bade and didn't know where I was going because it was the first time there were sisters there in a really long time? Well yes-- we got lost a lot. And of course we can expect a similar outcome here too. Sister Bang and I got wicked lost the other day. I had no idea where we were and I kept seeing signs for Bade. I could've made a run for it and headed to my old area and visited people there. But obviously I didn't. We did bike around aimlessly for over an hour though. I'm usually not too bad with finding my way around here-- but this was hard. We biked all over. Finally we stopped at a 7 (7-11) and I asked directions. (: (: We were super far out of our way-- but it was a simple fix. Hooray. We're alive still.
Anyway Thanksgiving was good too. The Z family invited us all over for dinner. Well back up. My companion and I treated ourselves to steak for lunch. We also bought a heater so we wouldn't freeze to death. Then we had our three hour weekly planning session. So it was business as usual. Then we biked to Z family home. They fed us super yummy thanksgiving dinner. Also-- something that I love about Taiwanese people is that if they are going for an American style dinner they always make pasta for a side dish. Dinner consisted of rolls, chicken, potatoes, broccoli (delicious), pumpkin soup... and two pasta dishes. A random, yet delicious addition. Then we had pumpkin cake for dessert. SO SO SO SO SO SO YUMMY! I They are a good family and I appreciate their willingness to take care of us.
Also-- Christmastime I can skype home. It'll probably be Christmas morning for me so Christmas Eve evening for ya'll... It's not worked out yet though because I don't know where we'll skype. I'm hoping we can go to a members home to skype-- but they have to offer-- we can ask to impose on them. Otherwise we can't do it. And the internet cafe I don't think has the option of a web cam. So start praying for that to work out. I have no further details.
This past Friday we intended to bike way out to the beach and contact in that area because we had a whole day of free time, but then that morning we were told that the Bishops family would be setting up the Christmas tree at the church and wanted the missionaries there and then wanted to feed us after. So my companion and I decided to search for places to knock on doors. Not knowing where there would be doors to knock we just headed down this large road with our eye out. We biked for a while and realized we weren't getting anywhere and there was nothing around. So eventually we just decided to turn right onto another really long road. After biking for another few minutes we found 6 doors. Yes. We biked so far away just to find only 6 doors. And so we do what we intended. 6 doors isn't really anything-- unless someone is willing to let you in. We knocked on the first door and were rejected immediately. Then the next two weren't home. Then we saw the last door had a young child running around so we headed over to talk to whoever was taking care of her. It was her mom. The family is traditional buddhist-- but has some Christian friends and doesn't discriminate just because of religious beliefs. We started to share a little bit with the mom about families. Since it was freezing outside she invited us in to sit. We just introduced more about what we were sharing and how the gospel has blessed our lives and talked to her about prayer. We asked if we could say a pray with her and she was willing. My companion then prayed and blessed their family. When she was finished-- LJM was in tears. The spirit was really strong. She was really touched that we could come find her when it is so cold outside and that we want to bless her family. It was a crazy miracle and such a blessing. She became one of 5 new investigators that we found this week. IT'S BEEN A GREAT WEEK.
Opening a new area takes a lot of thought and you have to run a lot of errands. We've been really busy. I think the best thing that we did this week is that during our study time in the morning we practice teaching eachother and teaching together. My companion and I are doing really well at teaching in unity and it's been a huge blessing because we teach and find a lot.
Most important thing to remember is that THE CHURCH IS TRUE. I'm so happy out here and I love Taiwan.
Keep reading your scriptures.
Go to the temple often.
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