family!
it was so good to talk to you! it made me miss you all so much more. i hope that the sound of my voice had the same effect on you. and i hope that hearing the way i talk and the things i talk about, proves that i'm a bit different but still the same.
update: my lip has gone down considerably but is still a bit swollen. in middle of the swelling is a whitish bump (i've said before, i'm glad my future husband (i assume) is not in taiwan and is not seeing me in such states) which we think is proof that it was a bite. still, i'm avoiding the foods i love a lot in hopes of keeping if from ballooning up again. i've been diligently taking the medicine prescribed. oh my word. you should have seen/heard me the first day i took it. i was loopy! first of all, i could barely stay awake. my companion and i were trying to plan and discuss things and i was asking questions based on passing thoughts and writing things that didn't make sense. stuff like, "has gao jiemei read the gospel of jesus christ pamphlet?" of course not, i've been here for all of her lessons. i know the answer to the question. my comp asked how many progressing investigators i wanted as our goal. i looked down and i had written threes from the top to the bottom of our goal area in our planner. we stopped at a seven eleven to make copies and i was making comments like, "i wish i could send liquids to my family. there is just so much juice here." weird. so, when our plans fell through, sister juang had me sleep some. she woke me up to tell me a man was coming to fix the dryer and that our night appt had cancelled. nothing really registered. she said that i kept repeating, "so, we're not going to aki's. a man is coming." then she looked at my eyes, and freaked a bit. my pupils have never been so dilated! my body is adjusting now, so "eating medicine" (the way it is translated in chinese) isn't as fun as it used to be. it still gets me kind of spacy though.
this email place is so rad right now, it played my favorite nelly fertado song and is not playing the best of jt! my feet can't stay still.
i'm having a hard time coming up with the high points of this week. i'll do my best...
friday was sister juang's birthday! we celebrated well. we ate at our favorite restaurant, the german cafe, and got cake at the 85 cafe. at the 85 i got almond milk and almost died of delight! it was like marzipan in liquid form. i think i could live off of it. when it gets cold i'll drink it warm! on saturday night we had dinner with the elders at the church and elder lancaster and swenson got a cake (i think they felt guilty for forgetting her birthday the day prior). elder chen make cookies and brownies and we brought wintermelon tea. it was a lot of fun! our district is very unified. the celebration continued, more or less, into yesterday. we used the church kitchen to bake cookies for our investigators and baked a cake using mix sis. juang's mom sent. we couldn't find powdered sugar so i made frosting with butter, brown sugar and milk. we put it on the cake while it was still hot, so it melted in a bit. it was really yummy and we were able to share it with the elders and one of their investigators. (they have a few kind of creepy investigators- one doesn't understand personal space and pleads from private english lessons from the sisters. yesterday's told me my teeth are beautiful and then asked me if i have a boyfriend in america. he's like 50. i don't know why but i got really flustered by the question and blushed in the way you are all familiar with.)
on friday we visited a less active, wu jiemei. she's a calligrapher. she showed us her work and explained about how important stroke order and brush technique is. it's all tied in to the qi of the body. she showed us the proper way to us the brush, you do not move your hands or arms, you stand and move your body only. she had some large sheets with a very difficult form of calligraphy written. she had us stand in a certain way and follow the strokes with the palms of our hands, our arms extended from the shoulder. it was crazy! i felt my qi. at the end my fingers were a strange tingly and my insides were a strange warm! so cool! i want to study it more when i get home. she explained the significance of technique in watercolor and bamboo painting. the pictures that used to look so simple to me are now so much more. next p-day we're going back and she's going to teach us more.
we're not going this p-day because we're going to san di men! you do not understand how exciting that is! i'll explain more next week. san di men is an are of taiwan, in the mountains, were a lot of aborigines live. our whole district is going and a tribe is going to teach us to make jewelry with feet and bones! i'm so excited! it's going to be amazing! i'll tell you ALL about it next week.
let me tell you about my favorite investigator here. her name is aki and she's getting baptized at the end of the month. she'll be the third baptism i've been involved with. (first was jia zheng. she was baptized my first friday. some people may not count her, but she has needed a lot of care as a new member so i think she counts. second is monica. she's getting baptized this month in kaohsiung.) aki is half japanese, so we're practically family. she has a lot of faith and completely changes her ways for the gospel. she has already purchased a new wardrobe to accommodate modesty. when we were teaching the plan of salvation we asked her if she believed it and then why. she said, "yes, of course i believe it. if joseph smith, our prophet, taught it then it is from god and is true." she is always bearing testimony of the restoration! she's a teacher. when she started obeying the word of wisdom, she told her students about it and the reason. she stopped providing green and red tea in class, replaced by fruit tea. now some of her students are obeying it too! she's wonderful! i love her.
next week i'll be one quarter of the way done with my mission. it seems like so much has passed really quickly but also that there is a lot ahead. i'm excited for what comes next. upon pondering how quickly it has gone, i realized how quickly life goes. we have such a short time to learn and grow and prepare to meet god! and it flies by! i think it's so easy to put off what i know i should do, thinking that i have forever to do it. my thoughts are often, "i can do that tomorrow." but one day tomorrows will run out. i have lists in my head of things to read, things to say, things to do. if i put it all off there is no way i will accomplish what i hope to. i'm going to try to get better at doing now what i could put off until tomorrow. elder beck, my last district leader, said, "be the missionary today that you want to be your last transfer." i think that goes with life too. we can be today what we want to be when we're aged and expecting the spirit world at any moment.
last p-day i got a big notebook. it's cool. i'm sure i could have found something more beautiful or better made in the us or if i had more time to look around here, but for now it will do. i've been putting all of the quotes that i have accumulated since i entered the mtc into the new book. it's so great! it makes me want to read and read and read. (when i return home, on top of all of cs lewis's works, i will read the great british men- henry david thoreau, henry wordsworth longfellow, ralph waldo emerson and the father's of our nation- ben franklin, thomas jefferson. i'm sure that all of them are members by now. those men are amazing. they think of such a higher plane than most. i am envious.) i've come across some really great great words. i'll leave you with one of my favorites from longfellow. "let us then labor for an inward stillness--an inward stillness and an inward healing. that perfect silence where the lips and heart are still, and we no longer entertain our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions, but god alone speaks in us, and we wait in singleness of heart, that we may know his will, and in the silence of our spirits, that we may do his will and do that only." so good!
i love you all and miss you! mom and dad- be safe. remember to email me. girls- don't forget to write while mom and dad are gone!
love from across the pacific,
sister jade
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