Transfer 3: Week 4

I never got this letter. If it ends up being sent to me I will for sure post it. Hmm...

sigh of relief, ma transfer 3: Week 5

sister blackham is leaving in less than two weeks! i cannot believe how fast time is going. this move has sped by. weird. it hasn't been to hot. it seems like it rains about every other day and keeps things cooler, so september isn't looking so far away. in fact, i think i'm going to have a really hard time leaving pingdong in the hands of another. this is MY area.today has been interesting, to say the least. you can see from the time that i'm a lot later writing this email than usually. i was worried i wouldn't be able to email at all. that is the sigh of relief. here i am, in an internet cafe, surrounded by teenagers in the non-smoking section, tuning out video game sound effects, writing you all. and i am so happy to be doing so. last thursday during our nightly reporting elder swenson told us to cancel any preparation day plans we had for today because there would be an emergency obedience meeting in chaozhou, just south of us. sister blackham thought that it was a trip to the aquarium on the southern tip and that the assistants were trying to play a joke on us. we, of course, cancelled our plans to go to san di men, we'll go next week instead. when we asked for more details on the meeting, elder swenson said that he heard someone got sent home. we were convinced that this joke was going to far. it was, in fact, an emergency obedience meeting. we went over a lot of things and president hsu spoke very bluntly and boldly. after about an hour, the sisters and the elders were separated because the president needed to talk to the elders about more serious things. sister hsu divulged some. pornography has become a problem in the mission. i am devastated. one elder was sent home and excommunicated, another moved to another mission and one on probation. president hsu didn't speak in detail, and i don't know if he was using a theoretic story or in what he said really happened. but, an elder may have bought a dvd player and a blockbuster membership. it's really really bad. president had to remind us that we can't have laptops or video ipods. he reminded us to glance at our companion's computer screen during emails and told us to make sure we aren't using myspace and facebook in the field (a problem before i came). he also talked about missionary and member relations. it makes me really really sad. heartbroken. i don't know what to do to help the elders or the obedience situation here. the world is becoming such a sad place. i am terrified for my children's sake.other things from this week... more uplifting things...lately i'm really into clouds. that sounds so weird. the thing is, taiwan's clouds are different than america's. they are much much prettier. i love looking at them. as we ride around the city or to the outskirts, i like to stare at them and ponder on how i imagine the clouds will look at the second coming. sister blackham showed me a cool way to watch the clouds even when it's raining. i got to practice it just the other day. out of nowhere typhoon type rains started. we were at the church and had to run to the seven on the corner, so we grabbed some umbrellas and went. it started to rain harder and got windier during our little trip. we both bought small snacks for comfort and watched the rain as we ate. if you look at the asphalt where the drops are falling you can see the clouds move by the water pattern. way cool.so, lately i've been having weird dreams that wake me up in the night. some of the contents leave me impressed to write down what i learn. i've also been trying to journal thoughts that i have as i say my prayers. i had an interesting experience this week with both of this. reflecting on it now, it may not be that neat to anyone else, but i value it. one day while praying i thought, "i need to study chapter four of preach my gospel, recognizing the spirit." i had kind of forgotten about it. on sunday it rained a bit in the afternoon but not to bad. when we went to visit a less active after dinner, i took my rain clothes but no bag to protect my proselyting bag. while we were at the xu's it started raining really hard. like insanely. i put my bag on my shoulder and my rain clothes over it, which meant a large portion of my dress was exposed at the bottom. from their house we had to ride for about an hour to the wangs. the rain was miserable. i could barely see anything and it was cold and my dress was soaked and water was getting in my rain clothes. i was so excited to ride into the wang's neighborhood, more than ready for some rest and protection from the elements. then, they weren't home. so, my companion and i stood in the rain debating what to do. i was miserable and grumpy. i just wanted to be inside. i was kind of mean i think. not i think, but i know, at least mean enough to cause my companion to say, "i feel like you're kind of upset right now." (ha) in the end we decided to knock doors in the neighborhood. i knew that we would have no success until i got happier, so i said a prayer. an amazing thing happened. the moment we knocked the first door, my mood changed! the rest of the night was spectacular. the rain stopped and we met a great family. we laughed a lot and it was great. that night i had a dream about the scripture moroni 7:13. when i woke up i remembered that i needed to study chapter four. so on monday morning i studied it. i thought about how the spirit had influenced me on my mission and whether it had or not. sometimes i worry that he hadn't, then as i read scriptures on the influence he has and how it is manifested, i realized he had. during my study i came across moroni 7:13 and new i was reading what i needed to. i also read alma 19:6. i love how many times it says "light". it caused me to ponder that all from god is light. and the holy ghost can dispel all darkness (doubt, fear, anger, pessimism). i realized that the night prior i had very much experienced the influence of the holy ghost and i was grateful.i don't have a lot of time left and this is taking longer than usual becuase the o on the keyboard is messed up. so, i'll tell you about my favorites...jean! she came to english once then set up with us. she's so good! she's really progressing and came to church this week. yesterday we made cookies at the church with her and some members. i think she'll be really good. she has cousins in salt lake that are members. i'm trying to figure out how we can get they're help.circle is in the states. mom, if i send her address would you mind sending a little carepackage to seattle?the zhou's are still good and funny. i really like them.

that's it i think. i love you all. i hope everything continues to be happy in the states. i'm sure they will stay great in taiwan! love all around! <3

sister JADE

the rain's the rain: transfer 3:week 3

another wonderful week has passed in taiwan. it's hot. it's rainy (not right now :)). and it's wonderful. i love pingdong. i'm really happy that i'll get to stay here for so long. i think that i'm going to have a hard time leaving when the time comes. i'm not sure what to write about this week, so i think i'll just go chronologically and share the main points...

last p-day was really good. we went shopping! i got a couple of cute skirts to wear when i get home and some really adorable flip-flops. i've decided that when i get home i'll have good style, and i'll be better at wearing things more than just a few times before becoming sick of them. the mission teaches you funny things, like that it's semi acceptable to wear the same dress every ten days.
i forgot to tell you that i'm the english unit leader this move. every wednesday night we teach english classes and i'm over the classes taught in our building. last week in our pre-class meeting i did a demonstration about professionalism. i bought a little cake at carrefour and asked if anyone wanted any. elder swenson (who hates my guts and is my district leader?) was the first to throw up his hand, so i gave him a piece of cake i had scooped up with my hand and squished between my fingers. then i asked again if anyone wanted cake. everyone was kind of hesitant, but my trusty companion raised her hand. i sliced a nice piece for her, then we discussed the differences. which one would you want more of? which would you tell your friends about? which would you take more seriously? we brainstormed ways to make our english classes more professional. i think it went well. this week i'm going to teach about inviting the spirit into our classroom and into the lives of our students. i read a scripture in 1 corinthians 2 about man not understanding the things of god, but taking them for foolishness. i know that it's because of the natural man that we cannot understand spiritual things. but, by inviting the holy ghost and moving towards Christ/overcoming the natural man we are able to gain spiritual knowledge and witnesses of the truth. that's why commitments are so important. they invite others to invite the spirit to testify. we'll see how it goes.

the last two fridays we have gone to visit and help tian jiemei. she's a farmer that grows flowers. she's pregnant and has been very sick. the week before last we went to help her pull weeds, but it started raining really hard so we cleaned instead. she said that her other children are always sick and that she's worried about her baby. her house makes me really sad. it's in the middle of nowhere-ish and her part of it has no kitchen, just a bathroom, living room and bedroom with one bed (which she, her husband and their two children share). it's disgustingly dirty (we swept up a cockroach carcass that happened to be right next to the rice cooker on the floor). cleaning it takes hard work, but i like it. i love seeing how happy she is despite the things she doesn't have. it helps me realize that i probably, no definitely, have a lot more than i need and that i complain and ask for way too much. next time we go we will be working in the field again. it's so nice to feel like we're helping someone. i like service and intend to do more of it when i get home.

saturday was rainy from the beginning to end. we had a few lessons lined up that fell through, so we tried to find less actives most of the day. it was no fun. i was soaked top and bottom despite my rain clothes. i think i was probably kind of short with my companion. it was frustrating to be the one carrying the addresses and map and trying to juggle it all and keep it dry in the downpour. but all was well by the evening. we had a zhucan (potluck) with both of the branches. some less actives came and some investigators too. it was so good. the food was amazing and the branch members were great with our investigators. one said, on her way out, that she wants her son to join our church. she's already been baptized into another christian church, so i think she thinks she's okay and doesn't need it again. i'm excited to help her understand the blessing of priesthood power.

on monday we rode to jiuru, a little township about 45 minutes away. we had an investigator lesson that was almost horrible. i think she was going to try to bash with us but we got out before she was able to. i was kind of excited to experience the first bashing of my mission, but also relieved to not have to deal with it. after her lesson we visited a less active family that came to church on sunday. they're really cute and i think we can help them. we're visiting them again on monday. they have testimonies, they just need to do it. after those appointments we worked on finding less actives. we had some interesting experiences... one less-active is an old grandma that speaks little chinese. we had to ride outside of jiuru to an even more rural area to try to find her house. we searched for quite a while but couldn't find it. during the search, though, we passed scenes that seemed out of one's imagination including huge empty field of green (reminds me of sting), a gigantic buddhist temple in the middle of nowhere, and old tradition style housing (a horseshoe shaped building with a few different families and a common courtyard). we also passed a banana research facility and chicken farms. cool. after dinner the search continued and we had some success. we went to a house and could see the family and then some watching tv. we knocked on the door and asked for chen deng li li. a woman that i recognized told a boy to come tell us she wasn't there. he stepped outside and said "ta bu zai." my companion had the courage to say, "we see her." the poor kid didn't know what to do, he went in as we waited outside for her. at first chen jiemei was kind of hostile. she didn't want us to come back. but, after a prayer together, she offered us pudding and told us about her conversion. we tried to set an appointment for next week and she resisted. when we found out that she worked in pingdong we asked if we could visit her there. still no. then we offered to bring her lunch and she said, "how about tomorrow?" it was a drastic change from the beginning. we ate with her yesterday. it was so-so. she still won't set up or give us her cell phone number, but she said that she can feel that we love her. i think we'll be able to get her.

i've decided i love love love less active work. we have some that we're working with that are doing so well. we had more than 5 less actives at church on sunday. it made me so happy. next week i'll tell yoiu more about all of them.



i love you all!! <3

sister zeng yu xin
(relationship between a grandparent and grandchild, pure, heart)

some air would be good for you...