Helllo family & friends! Despite a wicked typhoon that hit us on Saturday i am totally okay and alive! Thank you so much for all of the prayers that came my way.
It was pretty sketchy and the wind was so strong it sounded like thunder at some points! But that wasnt going to stop us!! We walked! haha yes we were out in a Typhoon. It wasn't like thattt bad though- or else we would have been instructed to stay in doors. We walked to the church and it was quite the experience. I honestly loved the whole thing, I was just laughing the whole time thinking "What is life?!?" I think that a lot of the time here. There are so many moments where i am just like "Wow. I am in Taiwan. In a Typhoon. Outside." I never would have thought this is what i would be doing a year ago- and i love it! Such an adventure. We wore our massive poncho rain jacket things (I sent a pic last week) and i threw on the rain pants (which by the way saved my life and i was totally dry when we got the the church). There was NO ONE IN SIGHT. Which is crazy because normally its just a mad house of people every where but everything was shut down and there was no one around. It was sad to see so many trees broken down and peoples stuff everywhere. At some points me and sister Tapia held hands so that we wouldn't blow away haha I guess i can now say that i lived through a typhoon so that's cool.
Okay enough typhoon talk. This week was full of service and i loved it! We were seriously serving people left and right. It is such a great way for us to come in contact with people and get to know them. We helped one of our members friends with a work assignment she was doing (it was about hotels and hospitality stuff). We meet with her 3 times and on the last time we got done pretty early so she was just chatting with us. We ended with a closing prayer and out of no where she asked what baptism was! We were shocked. Sister Tapia talked about how we make promises with god when we get baptized and listed them off. Not really understanding, the girl said "Wait what promises?" I then hopped in the conversation and asked if we could schedule a time to meet with her so that we could talk more about it! We meet tomorrow and i cant wait. Who knows what will happen but the moral of the story is that service is key! When we serve doors are opened for us to share the gospel. Also ive decided that service is the best medicine. It cures me being homesick, or feeling down about how hard the language is. When we serve others we really do forget about ourselves and feel sooo much happier. If we never would have served this girl than she may not have ever heard about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I got a Chinese name this week!!! Like more than just my last name Hong2. The members gave it to me :) Its Hong2 Cui4 Xi1 (i dont know how to type characters but that the pinyin with the tones) Its means bright light/a beam of light and then the other character means graceful. I love the ward i am in and love everyone in it. They are so sweet to us missionaries. This lady gave us this super good coconut candy a few weeks ago and after trying it i asked her where she bought them cause i loved them and then this last week she brought me a whole bag! haha i couldn't be happier. i love sanmin !
I am continually grateful for my savior Jesus Christ, because honestly without him i wouldnt be out here. There is nothing harder i have ever done but i have also never recived so much joy from sharing about our Savior. I LOVE the Book of Mormon with all of my heart. Through it we can come to know of Christ. During my studies this week i cam across a scripture in Alma 33 that i love. Its verse 14, it reads:
Now behold, my brethren, I would ask if ye have read the scriptures? If ye have, how can ye disbelieve on the Son of God?
If we read from the Book of Mormon we will know of a surety that Jesus is our savior and we will not be able to deny it. I am so grateful that we have the Book of Mormon and that i have the opportunity to share this happy message with the people here in Taiwan!
I love you all so much! <3
-Sister Hardy
Pics: Fried chicken that is delicious. Just a pic of all the people that ride scooters, its crazy! This gorgeous rainbow that we saw as we were biking from the church. We got our haircut this morning at this really nice salon for free from this member!
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