Whelmed Transfer 3: Week 2

i can't believe it has been so long since i last emailed. i feel like so much has happened, but that i've forgotten all of it. last move i wrote in my journal every day. this move we have been so hardcore, i'm always worn out at the end of the day, and spend most meals working on the language. i need to got better at writing; i'm having amazing experiences every day that i need to remember. what has happened this week?...

sister blackham and i get along great. i can tell it's going to be a good move and that it's going to go by fast. i like that she hears my ideas and concerns and they are being put into action. i feel like we're helping pingdong (finally) and i'm so grateful for that. we're doing a lot of less-active work. some missionaries think it's a waste of time and would rather focus on contacting during down time when they have no investigator lessons. i completely disagree. i know that inactive members are as precious to the lord as those who have not heard the gospel. they need to come back and most need help to do so. i feel like if we organize our time well and work our hardest to help everyone around us, especially they branches/wards that we're serving, we will be showing heavenly father our will to do this work well and will be blessed with new investigators, either from street contacts or member referrals. (of march and april's baptisms in the branch, more than half were member referrals. members- give missionaries referrals, prayerfully talk to your friends about the gospel. remember how david o. mckay said, "every member a missionary."?) sister blackham and i work hard. we pedal fast (we get everywhere in about half the time we did last move, i love it. sister ipson rode fast and i missed it.) she's known in the mission for being an amazing contacter. i'm usually kind of shy and timid because i'm selfconsious about my chinese (worries that our perpetuated by our beloved district leader that thinks i'm illiterate or something). she's teaching me a lot about talking with everyone and bearing simple testimony with every contact. i'm working hard to improve so that i can do it on my own when she dies and goes back to the u.s. (in 4.5 weeks!).

s. blackham thinks i might go senior companion next move. i'm praying that i don't and seriously contemplate sabotaging pingdong so that there's no chance i'll be in charge of myself. this week, for the first time since i got on island, i felt completely overwhelmed. because i'm the one that has been in pingdong and knows it, i'm the one that carries the ward lists, the potential investigator lists, the keys, the cellphone, the map. more than once this week, i've gotten us lost. it's a lot. monday night i wanted to cry, but i remember what qian laoshi said... "if you feel stressed and overwhelmed by the work, you're not relying on the lord enough." i know that that is true. i think this move so far i have, at times, asked myself what i need to do, rather than what the lord needs me to do. i think recognizing this will help me loads and loads and loads the rest of the move, and the rest of life. (i am so grateful to be a missionary. i'm learning how to be a good disciple of christ and a good person in general the rest of my life!)

new foods of the week... it has been an exciting week food wise because i'm eating more fruit. it's not only healthy, but also delicious. this week i tried lychee for the first time (somebody call kyle bunker and tell him that it is, in fact, amazing!). i also had my first fresh passion fruit. so tart! we ate dragon fruit and i've fallen in love with japanese/korean (i'm not sure which it is) pears. i like that they taste like they are full of water and therefore low in calories but tasty. the mangoes are only getting sweeter! a less-active's mom gave us taiwanese bananas. she grew them herself, they are little and i hear they are spectacular. as soon as the bunch she gave me are ripe, i will let you know. the wang jiating's dad gave us an unidentified drink that stunk. it was difficult to choke down and i worried that he was inviting us to break the word of wisdom. after finishing more than enough my companion and i concluded that it was fruit vinegar. i'm glad to have tried it but never want to again. i think a shot glass full would have been enough, but we probably drank about 2/3 of a cup. as we rode home my stomach felt acid-y, i'm not sure how to describe it. i'm so grateful for the cadbury cream eggs still in my fridge, sister blackham and i ate one a piece to get rid of the yuck inside our mouths. this week i also had my first taiwanese hot-dog! nothing compared to the magic of icelandic weiners (who am i that just said that? i'm not erasing it, because i'm real. but really, who am i?) but yummy nonetheless. they have a lot of weird condiments to choose from that i'm going to have to try including sweet chili sauce and soy sauce, i know they don't sound that exciting or weird, but when you consider them on a hotdog they become so.

this week i've had some interesting bug bites. i know that when i got home i'm not going to be phased by mosquito bites or other crawling things. i got another spider bite in the same place as the last one (my lower right leg, right near the knee). i'm not sure how, just that it was huge and red and hot and now is brown and bruisy. i was bit by something other than a mosquito on my foot, between the ball and the arch. it is such a pain, it's swollen and uncomfortable to step on. last monday was super rainy and we went tracting. one house had a mosquito infestation of sorts. when we got home i thought i had somehow avoided them because my ankles were clear. later, i found out that they were pervert mosquitoes! the bites were not on my lower legs, but on my hips and bum. they have flown up my skirt! gross! the last bite to share is on my hand, between my first and second finger. i don't know how they end up the places that they do. weird.

i'm having trouble coming up with other news...
on sunday the district leader called us and told us we have to go grocery shopping on monday to make sure we had enough food because all of taiwan was on a typhoon watch. it would have been my first typhoon! but it went to the phillipines (all the way from mexico) instead. i'm sure there will be one soon. the season is starting. sister blackham said that sometimes the wind is so bad that it lifts cars. the rest of the week is going to be rainy, and hot.
gao jiemei/wang mama officially died! she finally admitted that she doesn't need religion because she believes in herself and that the only reason she meets with us is because she's too buhaoyisi to say no. it's kind of a relief. i think one day she'll be ready.
earlier this week i was kind of sick. i started to lose my voice a bit. chinese is even funnier sounding when it's breathy and hoarse. kind of cool.
i think that's all. i'm boring. i'm sorry. but, i love you all! oh! this is kind of cool. kind of. i come home a year from today! i figured it out. i'm not ready to leave here yet. but, now you can all look forward to lauren's next birthday, because i'll be home a couple of days after!

that's all i guess. love love love love from formosa.
sister jade