Hello everyone!
Now the moment of truth, when you will discover my fate for the next six weeks. Did I stay in the big city? Who is my companion? These questions were answered on Friday night, when we got the much-anticipated move call. Every transfer (or move-same thing) lasts six weeks. The mission president, his wife, and their two assistants (a companionship of elders) spend most of the sixth week each move doing the move board, in which they figure out who needs to go where with whom. On Friday night after 9:00pm, the assistants start making phone calls to notify people of their assignments (President will call if you are assuming a leadership position, which for me would mean becoming senior companion or training). We got our call around 9:45, at which time we learned that Sister Frasier would be staying in Zuoying, while I move to Yongkang with Sister Angulo. Yongkang is north of Kaohsiung, in Tainan province, and Sister Angulo is now on her second move there, but she's been in Taiwan about nine months. I packed up my things on Saturday and sent them by a moving company (which cost the equivalent of about 15USD). This morning I got up bright and early to gather up my remaining stuff, clean my bathroom, and take the train up to meet Sister Angulo. This area is definitely not as big city as Zuoying (most areas are not), but it's not as rural as Chaozhou. As I write this, I've only been here for about three hours, but I'm getting a very good vibe. I like Sister Angulo a lot (although I'm sad not to be with Sister Frasier for her last four weeks until going home...). Something that really amazes me about the missionary program is that missionaries get shuffled around among companions and places so often, frequently spending six solid weeks with someone they never had a relationship with before, and it works. I know there are problems, and every companionship has to learn how to work together, but it really astounds me how few problems there are relative to what I would predict. I guess there is a lot that can come from a common desire to do the same work, and also from a willingness to seek God's help to smooth over things that 20-something young men and women probably wouldn't know how to work out themselves.
My last week in Zuoying was a miracle week. It honestly felt like the windows of heaven opened up and dumped on us. We set a baptismal date with one of our investigators, we found several less-active members (one of whom came to church for the first time in years!), we were blessed with some amazing new investigators, not to mention lesson after lesson with a huge powerful Spirit. I'm still not sure if every lesson should feel that way (i.e. would perfect missionaries feel that every time they taught?), or if it is saved for special circumstances and needs, but we sure got a lot of it this week. I think one of the reasons that missionaries are so young is so that, if we are willing to be realistic, we'll know we cannot possibly give ourselves the credit for the blessings and miracles that happen. There's a scripture in the Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 15:17 that prophesies: ". . . it shall come by way of the Gentiles, that the Lord may show his power unto the Gentiles. . ." I think it's very interesting that the Lord uses the Gentiles as an instrument to do His work so that they themselves can see his power. The instrument learns in the process that it is not responsible for the work. That's what missionary work feels like to me.
