moves calls came... guesses anyone?well, heavenly father is giving me something to learn, in more ways than one. i'm still in pingdong! the hottest area of the mission with sisters! i don't know how i'm going to deal, but i look forward to the fact that maybe the heat will help me lose some white rice weight. the last few days were probably the most emotional of my mission so far. i was stressed/sad/excited/anxious. my new companion is sister blackham. she's dying this move, so i'm going to be here until september (yes, through the entire summer!). i'm excited to kill someone. initially i was scared to death of this move. sister blackham is known for being really lihai and xinku (i'm trying to think of how to translate those, i'm definitely losing my english. um, awesome and intense/hardworking.) i don't know if i am able to live up to her way of chuanjiao-ing (spreading church? another one i can't translate well). but, she's here now and i'm excited. i talked to her last companion on the phone briefly this morning and sister guerra said that sister blackham thinks i'm funny. i mean, who wouldn't? i'm jade l. ozawa. but, it's comforting to know that she doesn't have the pre-existing notion that i'm the nutjob we all know i am. so far things are really good. i'm myself and she seems okay with that. i think it will be a good move.
seeing sister juang go (she's going to jiayi to serve with sister angulo, it's the furthest north. i'm jealous.) was really hard. we got really close. she knows pretty much everything about me. she even knows about the time that i punched mom when i was two (details are not to be revealed over such a forum) and about me licking the soles of shoes. i know that we'll be friends post-mission. we have a lot of exciting plans and that makes me happy. the move calls this transfer and last combined are really weird. let me see if i can explain... i started in kaohsiung with sister ipson, serving in the same building as sister blackham and sister angulo. i came to pingdong, replacing sister guerra who went to serve with sister blackham. my mtc companion, sister mcintosh, took my place in kaohsiung. now sister juang is with sister angulo, sister blackham is in pingdong and sister guerra and sister ipson are together covering both wards in the kaohsiung building. does that make sense? it's all kind of round and weird. my new district should be good. elder lancaster heads to the states tomorrow, weird. elder mickelsen is gone, sad. elder chen will be with elder anderson of heber city. we were in the mtc together. we talked about music once and he tried to one up me by saying he listens to the format. we got along great from that point forward, i'm excited to serve with him. elder swenson is going senior and district leader this move and will be serving with elder ye from taichung. elder ye was converted by elder swenson's older brother, so that's really cool! i'm excited.
enough about moves... this week had some exciting stories.the first is kind of sad and disheartening. aki hasn't been to church in two weeks!!! i don't know what is going on. i'm stressed about her. she was so good, i don't get what is happening. we had an appointment with her this week and she stood us up. don't get teary-eyed yet. it was a blessing in disguise...
while we waited at the church for her we watched special witnesses of christ (that detail is pointless, but the moral is that it's great and you should all watch it.). we saw two people walking through the corridor and assumed they were waiting for he elders, until they kept walking past. then they peeked their heads in the room (what fools we were for not going outside to talk to them). they asked if we were a mormon church and said, "we want to learn more about your church." what? how amazing is that. so, we gave them a tour of the chapel and answered some of their questions. they committed to come to church and to meet with us on sunday afternoon. to be honest, they didn't come to either, probably because it was pouring pouring pouring rain (and still is) and they live like 30 minutes away. i feel good about them though, and hopefully in the next 3 months i can help them.
that afternoon we went to see gao xiaojie/wang mama. she's crazy. i don't even know what to say about that lesson, beside the fact that we are meeting with her this friday and she wants to take us to the place where her brother committed suicide. weird. weird. weird.
this is the exciting stuff i wanted to get to... it has been raining and raining. on saturday the storm was right over our apartment. like lightning would strike and IMMEDIATELY after there would be thunder. i've never jumped at the sound of thunder before that day. it was so loud that car alarms would go off after it crashed. crazy! the lightning was bright and frequent. luckily, we were making calls and doing things in our apartment. a lot of people get struck by lightning here, and i am not ready to go yet. later in the night the storm continued and the sky started turning strange colors. it was ten at night, but outside looked a bit past dusk (is that called twilight?). the sky was a purple color and when lightning flashed it would turn lavendar. it was so beautiful. it reminded me of the northern lights in iceland.
the next morning the rain continued and i felt my first earthquake! there was one a few weeks ago, the week i dreamed that chloe walked off a ledge. actually, this is kind of freaky. that dream was more of a nightmare and was bad enough that it woke me up. i looked at the clock and it was like 2:15. the earthquake was said to have hit around 10 after 2. so, my dream was during the earthquake. this earthquake was in the morning as i sat writing questions for "don't eat pete", a game we planned to play with the wang family. i was sitting at my desk and my chair started rocking. i wasn't doing it, so i looked around and things were moving subtly. it was like the building was swaying. cool! it was a neat feeling. i shouldn't be celebrating it, next thing i know it will be a REAL earthquake and that would be no good.
last week i said that i'd write about bin lang. it's gross. get ready. bin lang grows in trees, it is plucked then wrapped in a banana leaf. it looks like a little round ball, about the size of the top section of a man's thumb. it's an opiate and is chewed. when people chew it, the bin lang reacts with the leaf and creates a red foam which is then spat out onto the ground. all over the road you can see bin lang stains. sometime you can smell it. it's a musky, woody smell. undesirable. it stains the chewer's mouth. their teeth and lips turn a rusty red color. often times it bleeds through the lips into wrinkles. it's one of the biggest word of wisdom problems here in taiwan (just below tea and tobacco). a lot of the men that gawk and sister missionaries (i'll write about that next week) are bin lang chewers. once a guy was trying to get me to talk to him as he chewed. he got frustrated and spit as i rode off. i barely dodged the red mess that shot from his mouth. gross.
i'm excited to be in pingdong longer. there is a lot i want to do, a lot of people i know i need to help. we have a lot of inactive recent converts and even more less active old converts. they need to be reminded of their testimonies. we have a lot of so-so investigators. i hope sister blackham and i can whip them into gear. i think we'll be able to get a lot done here. i look forward to it. i know that if we work in righteousness, seeking the lord's will, we will be successfull, even if the success isn't immediate. it's his work! i'm so grateful to be doing his work.
thank you thank you thank you family. i love you and miss you!
love,
sister jade
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