Hello family and friends! Well i cant believe that it is already August?! Where has the summer gone?!
Its been another good very very veryyyy hot week here in Taiwan. This week there wasn't as much rain aka not as much cloud coverage so the sun was hot! It really isn't bothering me as much as i thought i would. I sweat so much though and my hair is always a mess. Its funny though because the people here really don't sweat that much! Its so weird like sometimes we will be getting food and i will look around and everyone looks fine and my companion and i look like we just showered haha i love it.
In terms of food this week i cant think of anything to weird that i have eaten... but i did get McDonald's!!! haha yess!! It was amazing and the fries tasted exactly like they do in the USA. i don't think i have ever been excited to eat Mcdonaldss but it was just a nice little piece of home! The member here (and our investigators) are so nice and always give us cake (its not like cake in the US, its more spongy and no frosting) and lots of fruit. The people here are seriously some of the nicest people i have ever met. Its funny because its so safe here that we will go contacting (knocking on peoples doors) in dark alleys at night. I just stop sometimes and think wow if i was in NYC or some other city in the USA this would be so creepy but in Taiwan its totally okay! The only creepy thing i can think of is some of the male investigators will say that we are so pretty because we are from america. The members in our ward like totally try to protect us though and will like come and pull them away or make sure one of them is sitting in between us haha i love the ward i am.
In all honesty the hardest thing right now for me is the language. There really is nothing more frustrating then trying to communicate your feelings in a foreign language. I had a somewhat language changing experience with my companion this week. We were sitting in a 7/11 (yes like the gas station but here they just call them 7s) doing calls and contacting all of our investigators. It was my time to call and i was going to call this lady that we invited to read 3 Nephi 11 (about Jesus Christ coming to the Americas) and follow up with her and share my favorite part of the chapter. I did a little practice with my companion so that i could know what to say and she told me to do it in English because i was getting frustrated that i couldn't say it in Chinese. I started to bare my testimony and it was really powerful and the spirit was strong and then i just started to cry because i thought "why cant i just do this is English?? it would be so much easier. i could actually tell them how i felt." That's when it hit me that i was letting the language hold me back. I would share spiritual thoughts in our lessons but i realized that i was really just saying things that i knew i could say, it was sorta of like i was a robot? it wasn't really from the heart. My companion encouraged me to take what i had just born my testimony about and condense it into 5 sentences and then translate it into Chinese. I did it and realized i could say most of it if i just slowed down and really thought about it. I know that i am learning Chinese for a reason and that this is what i was called to do. I cant let it hold me back from sharing my feelings and baring testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel.
A mission is hard, there is no doubt about that, but i am becoming and changing into this person that i know my Heavenly Father wants me to. I feel like i have already learned so much and i have only been out for such a short amount of time. I cant wait to see what is ahead! I know that with Christ's atonement i can change and become better every day and that it has the power ti make me strong when i feel weak and carry me through the rough days. I love my Savior Jesus Christ with all my heart might mind and strength and at the end of the day hes the reason i keep going. My love for him that i want to share with everyone causes me to keep biking even when i am sore and tired.
I love this. I love Taiwan. I love the gospel.
-Sister Hardy
updates: i got new rain gear (bill/hat thing included), i think that i am starting to get used to the funny smells, and i am no longer scared of bugs hahaha
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