All Good Things Come To An End

Dear known readers and Jade blog stalkers, 

This is the end of our journey together. It has been a pleasure the past 18 months. Jade returns honorably from her mission in Kaohsiung tomorrow, Monday June 15th. Please be jealous because my flight to Vegas is in a few hours and I get to see her step off the plane!  I am sure there will be a hiatus for a week or two but she will most likely resume her blog which you can get to here. 

Thanks for being important in her life and for supporting her throughout her mission. She has such wonderful friends and family. 

All My Love,

Mandi Scandal.

crazy is right! wasei! transfer 11: week 3 the last

 had so many things to say, now i can't remember what. plus it seems
silly to say too much, i can just tell you with my own mouth, in
chin-glish, with dramatic hand motions as we pull away from the
airport on MONDAY. i cannot believe how quickly time has flown by. i
still feel like i just stepped onto taiwan. at the same time, though,
i feel older, wiser, calmer and a bit more scatterbrained. i know that
i've changed and i love that. it's so cool how when you speak by the
spirit you can open your mouth and words flow out. i have learned a
lot by listening to myself. oh no! that sounds prideful. i don't mean
that i'm wise and learn by my own thoughts. i mean that i learn from
the spirit that is present as missionaries speak. on friday i attended
my last zone conference (it was special and weird. the last zone
conference president hsu will attend and the last zone conference of
the kaohsiung mission because on july 1 this becomes taichung.). i
learned a lot and realized a lot as i shared my final testimony. i
heard myself say, "i'm a new person. sometimes i don't recognize
myself, and i love that." i know that i've changed a ton, but i'm
grateful to know that i'm still the jade i was before this life and
the jade i will be after. i'm still an ozawa, a daughter of keith and
janelle. i'm flattered, mom, by the list of things you said i am in
your email this week. i hope i can still be all of that when i get
home. i'm sure i can. hooray!

lately i feel like saying hooray all the time! life is really great right now.

sister zhong is spectacular. i love her very very very much. i've been
blessed to have companions that have come some of my greatest friends.
(i'm also blessed to have amazing friends on the american continent. i
really feel unworthy of all of the love i've received as a
missionary.) lately we've seen many little miracles and many little
experience that leave us giggling (e.g. last night tracting, every
person that opened a door seemed to be an old man, most were wearing
nothing but boxers). one of the greatest miracles is the sun family.
i've spent a lot of my time in taiwan tracting, only once have i found
an investigator through it. only a handful of times have i been
invited in. the investigator/investigators is/are a wonderful family
that we tracted into the the first friday of this move. a mom and two
kids (jeffrey-10, janice-8). they live with the dad's dad. they are
beautiful! the kids are smart and polite. they listened intently the
first time we shared with them. last week when we went back, the kids
were on their way out to go spend the night at their grandma's. we met
with the mom. she broke down within the first five minutes and opened
up to us. she seems really tough, and we learned why. two years ago
her husband drowned. he was on the phone with her when he fell. now
she's a single mom. all of her family lives in indonesia, so she's
pretty lonely. she has tried to find comfort in buddhist teachings,
but doesn't seem to feel any peace. i know that all that we've shared
with her (and will continue to share) will bless their family. i love
how much people trust missionaries. they tell us a lot. i am so happy
about this family. on sunday they will come to church. i know that the
support network there will help sun taitai (the mom). she's really
great. i love her. and her kids.

time is almost up. i have so much more that i could say, but it will wait.
i love you all. i miss you. i'm excited to see you again. you are all
wonderful, marvelous, spectacular.

love,
sister jade o.

No title. Written May 24

i am certain that all within reading distance are eager to know my
fate for the next three weeks. there is a chinese idiom that says that
says "fallen leaves return to the root of the tree" it means that when
you become old you have a desire to return to your home, to where you
came from. well, i'm back in gaoxiong second ward! the place of my
birth. yesterday was filled with tears, but i'm more and more excited
to be here. i think that leaving jiayi was good/will be good for
several reasons. i think it was getting to the point where i was too
close with a lot of the members. i used to make them laugh by telling
them that i was a "professional" missionary. mostly i was trying to
remind myself of that. also, i was ready for change. i think i was
starting to take things for granted. not much in the city was fresh to
me. parting with jiayi, i think kind of prepped me for parting with
formosa. shebude! my new companion is taiwanese (perfect! a last kick
to my chinese). her name is sister zhong peishan. she is awesome.
seriously, she's so good. i love her already. i'm sure that we'll see
lots and lots of miracles. a lot has changed here since i left (a year
ago) but a lot is the same. i'm so excited to see some of my recent
converts and less-active members. i'm not sure whether or not you'll
remember names, but... jiazheng is still active but is in the
neighboring ward not. monica moved to germany : (. qiu jiemei is an
active primary teacher and hong jiemei is in the relief society
presidency. here there are currently 3 baptismal dates and some other
great investigators. and, there is still the teaching english at the
police station service activity! yes, i am happy to be here. i'm not
sure if this is my home or jiayi. maybe just taiwan as a whole is.

so, last move was full of miracles. i wish things had been more
balanced. i wish we had done more. but, in the end i think it was a
good move. the jiayi sisters are now preparing 4 investigators for
baptism!! FOUR. horray. and they're solid, not wishy-washy. i shall
tell you about them.
chen huirong finally set a date july 4th. yes. we will all celebrate
her baptism with hot dogs and fireworks. she is spectacular and is
already a better member than i've ever been. i am so blessed to have
been able to watch her change in the gospel. she is so much more
confident and at peace than she used to be. she even makes jokes based
on the bible. last night we ate dinner at karen's house. huirong got
kind of lost. she was actually across the street from the house but
somehow couldn't find it. when we got there she jokingly said, "i
can't believe i got lost. maybe it means i shouldn't come. i'm judah
coming to your last supper." what? who says that? what chinese person
jokes like that? and what investigator knows the scriptures that well?
she's so rad.
chen yulan set a date on


computer trouble sorry/