Hello from the beautiful land of Yongkang! Well, according to our apartment security guard there's no pretty places to see here, but I like it. It's not super-rural, but it's definitely not the big city either. Here are things that I've learned since I got here:
1. How to tim tam slam. Tim tams are a type of cookie, and slamming them involves using them as a sort of straw substitute to drink milk. Then the cookie gets nice and saturated, so of course you eat that as well. I've heard of tim tam slamming since I got to Taiwan, and now Sister Angulo (an-GOO-low) has finally shown me how it's done. I'm pretty sure it's just a missionary tradition, but I really have no idea where it came from.
2. Danbaofan is really good. "Dan" means egg, "bao" means wrap, and "fan" means rice. It's basically fried rice wrapped in an egg, with ketchup on top, and it's delicious. I can tell Sister Angulo will do wonders for my familiarity with local food.
3. I can write notes in Chinese! Granted, I need to use a dictionary a lot, but I can do it. Every time we stop by someone's house and she's not there, we leave a little card. My companion said we should just take turns writing them, so we do. Every card I write is a little tender mercy, considering that six months ago I didn't know a thing about writing characters.
Other miscellaneous blessings I've gotten since moving to Yongkang:
1. Seeing Sister Du's baptism. Sister Du met with the sisters for about two months before being baptized, and I was only here for the last week of that. I'm sorry that the sister who just moved out didn't get to see an investigator that she taught baptized, but I'm always grateful for that opportunity myself. She has the happy gospel glow, which is apparently a big change for her :) This is how my econometrician-to-be mind looks at it: It's a natural experiment. She's living her life, and there are certain factors which can cause or alleviate stress. Over a period of time, we observe that she has become noticeably more happy and confident. Fortunately for our natural experiment, most of the factors have stayed relatively constant except one: learning the gospel and getting baptized. Not bad evidence that there is a causal relationship between the gospel and happiness (though my sample size is abysmal...I still have a year to collect data). I guess I have that personal conviction anyway, mostly from my own personal experience and faith in the teachings that come through prophets, but it's good to see it play out in the lives of others as well.
2. We've had some really good street contacts this week--just being in exactly the right place to meet someone who is totally willing to set up with us. With just the two of us wandering around a fairly large geographical area, it's a testimony to me that God helps us find those people who want what we're sharing.
3. Playing play-doh pictionary! Missionaries are encouraged to spend some time doing service every week. In Kaohsiung, we all teach English every week, but it's good to have an additional service. We have the sweetest service activity here, which is going to a home for disabled adults and doing activities with them. Last week we brought play doh, divided them into teams, and then had them draw words out of a bag. They had to shape whatever they drew (although we let people draw until they found one they felt good about). It was so fun! They are so sweet and amazingly loving, with each other and us. I'm really looking forward to going back every week.
