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...
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