Ah, where to begin. I am in an area call Chao Zhou (at least, that's how I think pinyin spells it...how sad that I don't even know). It is in the southern part of Taiwan. We spend the vast majority of our time in the city, but this move we're supposed to make our way out to the mountains to poke around there. I'm really excited about that. My companion is Sister Lin. She's basically the nicest, most genuine and loving person ever. Her family actually lives within our mission boundaries (very strange, I know). She joined the church when she was 15, and was studying art in Taipei before going on her mission. She's learning English, but I think her English isn't too far ahead of my Chinese. She knows a lot more vocab, but because she doesn't get to listen to it as much, I think it is more difficult to develop her listening comprehension. She really is wonderful and patient, and speaks very clearly. This is her fourth move here in the area, her seventh as a missionary. She's been incredibly patient with me. Culture shock may be getting to me a little bit (suddenly not interacting with anyone besides Taiwanese people for days at a time was a bit of a switch). I think I've been sporadically crabby the last few days, especially when I'm supposed to make phone calls. Of course, we both have to make phone calls, because there are a lot of them to make. One of my goals for this coming week is to overcome the irrational nervousness I have about calling people. I don't understand everything, but I can actually do things like set up appointments, find members to come along, etc.
I think the Lord has definitely blessed me with the gift of tongues. I don't want to be prideful, but if I get a blessing I don't want to pretend that I don't have it. It's been easier than I expected to understand people and to make myself understood. There is still a lot that I do not understand, but it's really not too bad. The mission has a super-awesome language study program with different things to pass off. It will take a while to work through, but it helps give structure to my language study time, which I have an hour of every day.
The members in the branch here are amazing. I seriously love them, even though I forget their names all the time. In a normal week we might have 10 lessons with a member present. It's great to teach a lesson with a member there, because they will really talk to the investigator and get to know them. This is even true of some of the youth. Yesterday, Sister Lin and I taught Yaci("ya tsih"). The ward mission leader's teenage daughter came along, and was totally willing to fellowship, share her testimony, talk about how the Gospel has blessed her family, etc. Yaci is really great. She set a baptismal goal yesterday, and I am hoping and praying that she keeps it. Her family life isn't that great. They run a beetle nut store (some kind of nut wrapped in a leaf that has opium on it--ergo, against the Word of Wisdom to eat). Her mom is also our investigator.
Four of our investigators currently have baptismal dates, and one or two more who could imminently set one. We try to meet with progressing investigators once/week, and call them every day that we don't see them. Teaching with someone besides Sister Nelson takes some getting used to, but Sister Lin is really great. She gives me many opportunities to talk and extend commitments.
Tracting and contacting aren't quite as excruciating as I thought they would be. The other day we tracted into He mama (I guess that's like saying Mama He in English, but it's actually normal). He mama was inside her house with the window open, so we started talking to her. At first she just told us she wasn't interested. This is where Sister Lin is especially awesome. She'll always keep bearing her testimony a bit beyond the point when you think someone is really done with you, and sometimes it turns out really well (I've never seen it backfire into angry outbursts). Anyway, so we talked to He mama, and I shared the Joseph Smith story. She said she felt very moved. She was sort of sick that day, but we'll go back sometime. I don't know what will happen, but I just really love experiences like that, where you get to share your testimony and teach a little bit, and you know that the person feels the Spirit.
Anyway, time is out. I love you all very much!
