Ni haooooo everyone!
This week was great! I feel like so much happens all the time i dont even know where to start! (ps a little cockroach just crawled across the desk and i screamed a little, sister tapia killed it. i am so grateful for her...so ya thats great welcome to taiwan hahaha)
Ill start off with a few funny things that happened this week! For starters EVERYONE double takes me and is always saying my skin is so white (which is a major complement here), A little girl ran up to be and yelled something along the lines of "Elsa" I was a little confused at first and then i was like oh my gosh.. elsa from Frozen! haha on a creepier note this man kept staring at me one day as we were getting on our bikes and then he biked past and said "you are so beautiful" in his broken english... ahhh a little sketchy but not to worry taiwan is reallly safe and i rarely feel unsafe. also something pretty funny, everyone comes up to us and asks us if we can come teach their class english haha we have to explain to them that we are not english teachers, but that we do offer a free english class every week! its one of the many ways we introduce people to the gospel. We stand on corners twice a week with signs yelling "Mian Fei YinWen Ban!!" (free english class) Its quite a sight im sure- but very effective!
Update on my biking: i am not as sore and am starting to really get the hang of weaving and getting used to almost being hit every two minutes! i actually am really loving it, its just so freeing, especially right as the sun is going down. its so beautiful and a really dreamy time of the night. It really makes me grateful for this beautiful world we have.
Sooooo i ate intestine soup this week... yup. It wasnt that bad honestly but it was intestine soup and just the thought of that made me slightly nauseous lol. It was with some of our investigators/bffs and they knew that i would think it was weird so they wanted to see my reaction haha and the rest of the meal was pretty strange also. so after we went to a 7/11 (which are basically on every corner, and we go there allll the time) and i got some real food to fill me up. one of those snacks were ritz cheese crackers. we got to the church building (where we were going to make calls) and i opened it up and starting eating and let me tell you, fake cheese never tasted so good. so next time your eating ritz cheese crackers just think of how #blessed you are that you're not eating intestine soup ;) other than that the food here is soooo goooood. and increidble cheap, like im talking $2 for a meal. I love the fried rice here and the potstickers- delicious. also these eggs bread roll up things called Zhua Bing! so yummy. One of my fav things though is all the different drinks that they have here! You can go up to these little resturants and they cups filled with different kinds of fruit and just choose which one you want and then they add ice a little sugar and blend it all up and they are to dieee for. i also love Dong Guo Cha, i really dont know how to explain it but i will include some pics! its sweet (sorta of like syrup tasting?) and cold and when you add some lemon it is the bomb.com. and then theres the classic papya milk which is a classic choice for me at a 7/11. and MANGO BING basically shaved ice with mango and delicious goodness. well wow that was a lot of food talk, sorry if you are hungry now.
Okay enough funny/food talk. While all of that is great the real reason i am here is to preach the gospel! I have loved every moment of being able to talk with people and share this wonderful message that we have. it really is such a happy message. its so sweet to hear someone utter their first prayer to their heavenly father. or tell that about their savior Jesus Christ who they have never even heard about before. Or when we finally figure out the need of an investigator, or when our investigator tells us that she read the Book of Mormon and wants to share her favorite verse that she read. There honestly is nothing sweeter. We have these two investigators Kelly and Sharron! they are best friends and honestly so awesome to be around (except when they give me intestine soup hahaha). Unfortunately there parents wont allow them to be baptized. WE meet with Sharron's family this last week and we were so nervous going in- but it actually wasn't that bad and i ended up giving away my first Book of Mormon to them! I dont know how they feel about everything but i have faith that Sharron and Kelly will be baptized one day, even if that means they have to wait two years until they are twenty and dont need their parents permission. Faith is something that can be sorta difficult to understand but ive decided that it really goes hand in hand with trust, trust in the lord. I have to have faith that i can baptize everyone aka i have to trust that the lord will help me baptize everyone. We can not loose faith. To strengthen it we have to be doing the little things everyday! Praying and reading from the Book of Mormon daily are key. We promised a recent convert this week that if she read from the Book of Mormon every single day she would never fall away or lose her testimony- and i firmly believe that is true. Lastly this week ive really learned that love conquers all and as my dad told me "love is the great motivator" It motivates me when i am tired and hott, it motivates me to learn this impossible language, it is everything. Because i love the people here i can overcome any thing. My favorite scripture as of now is Moroni 8:16: Behold, I speak with boldness, having authority from God; and I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear.
Perfect love casteth out all fear!
I love you all so much! Never give up! Keep pushing on through those hard trials with faith, the Book of Mormon and prayer. I know you can do it with those three simple things!
-Sister Hardy Hong Jie Mei
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