Guo Nian

I think I'm getting one of the more unique perspectives on (guo nian) Chinese new year. I'm sure I'll never be able to recreate the experience of being a missionary in Taiwan at this time. To be honest, I'm not sure why the celebrations last an entire five days (starting 26 January). As far as I can tell, a large part of the celebrating is eating a lot of food. At least, that will be my main form of celebration as invitations to lunch and dinner pour in like never before. It's also usual to do a thorough house cleaning right before guo nian, which we also get to (read: are required to) participate in by announcement (read: decree) from the bu (bu=mission office; it makes sense if you speak Chinese). I'm actually really glad that we're asked to do a good cleaning, because it justifies us in using more of our limited personal time to get our apartment more in order. We do maintenance cleaning, but of course everything needs a little more from time to time. Cleaning and letting our souls delight in fatness aside, the most noticeable change from my perspective is all of our investigators and most less-active church members that we try to set up with suddenly not being able to set up with us because of the holidays. This may seem like a setback, but on the other side of a setback there's always something that you didn't expect which often does more good than the setback did harm. I'm not sure exactly what miracles will emerge this time, but I trust they'll come. It's already a blessing to feel the love of those who welcome us into their homes to celebrate with them.

This week we got to sit down with an entire family in their home, which is probably one of my favorite things to do as a missionary. This family consists of a father, mother, and three little children. We've met with them sporadically before, always at the church. Having an opportunity to go into their home and share the message of the restored gospel was really special. I know from my own life that the blessings of the gospel are made all the sweeter when shared in the family. I'm so grateful to have the support of my parents, and my brothers and their families while I'm so far from home. It's great to know that we can be together forever through the ordinances of the temple, especially because I think that living gospel principles makes our relationships with each other such that we would like to be together eternally. My companion, Sister Angulo, had a little sister who died in an accident when she was seven and Sister Angulo was ten. She'll happily tell anyone how that experience turned her to really find out whether or not she would see Taylor again, and that she did in fact find her answer through prayer and the scriptures. Instead of relying on the passage of time to put it behind her, she has the knowledge that someday she'll be with her family forever to heal her grief and make her truly happy. Seeing the peace that she finds through that has made me all the more anxious to find people who are looking for the same thing and share it with them.

A New Experience

Perhaps you have already begun to suspect that something out of the ordinary is going on over here, since I did not write until a couple days after I said I would. How true it is. This is probably the least expected move call I have yet received: same area, same companion. Yes, Sister Angulo and I are together in Yongkang for another six weeks and excited about it (the last bit is especially good news). I'll spare you all the reasons why, in retrospect, this is not as surprising as it might have been. The MTC aside, I have not been with a companion for more than six weeks yet; many missionaries never do have a companion for more than one transfer. There are a lot of fun things about switching up companions, getting to know a new place or a new person, learning new ways of doing things, etc. This week I'm finding out that there are also many good things about getting to stay in the same place with the same person. We're both familiar with the place and the people, so we don't spend time on introductions, plus we can share the planning burden more evenly from the beginning. That we have a good relationship is obviously helpful. I'm really glad that I can be with Sister Angulo for so long, because I suppose that we'll be friends for a long, long time after the mission; it's a real blessing to have so much time to get to know her, learn together, and have spiritual experiences together. Actually, so far I see myself being friends with all my companions after the mission; that's what I would like, anyway.

Maybe it's because of the chilly weather (I'd say it's about like an Iowa October these days), but it seems like even more people than usual are commenting on how "xing ku" we are. "Xing ku" is difficult for me to translate. As best I can understand and can explain, it means hard-working, but can also sort of imply that you are working at a very difficult or unpleasant task (e.g. "Wow, you bike around outside in the cold all day? That's pretty xing ku."). Anyway, people regularly tell us that we're xing ku, and we always tell them that we're not really. For example, there was some sort of cable or TV person at our apartment complex a couple weeks ago, and he asked us if we had a TV. We said no, because we can't watch TV anyway. He seemed impressed and apalled at the same time. Whoa, so xing ku. How in the world do you pass the time? What, you do missionary work all day every day? Very very xing ku. I think I've realized that I'm really glad we only have part of one day every week (Wednesday from 10:30am-6:00pm) to do things like write letters, go play, etc. I'm sure if more time were available, it would get used, but that's not what I came here for. When I had my unopened mission call letter in my hand, I couldn't have cared less if I went to a midwestern state close to home or the coldest part of Siberia, I was really just excited to be getting my call to know where the Lord wanted me to go. So really, the recreational/tourist opportunities, even the cultural learning had nothing to do with my original arrangments to come on a mission. They are nice little extras, but really, I'm glad that pretty much all I do is bike around all day having lessons, finding people, and talking to everyone I can about the gospel, because that's what I came for. Not xing ku in the unpleasant way. Very xing fu (joyful).

Photos from Zuoying

A view of Kaohsiung, which includes a lot of Emily's area in Zuoying.

Emily's zone in Zuoying.

Sister Du's baptism.

With Sister Frasier at the train station as Emily is leaving Zuoying for Yongkang.

More Spoken Chinese and Photos

Sister Frasier appears in three of these photos, including one in which she and Emily are messing around with some toy planes. (This is a weapons disclaimer.)

Exchange Extravaganza

This move is really getting down to the wire. On Friday night we'll get our move calls, and I have no idea what they'll be. Basically anything could happen next move as far as I can tell, which makes the guessing game all the more fun :)

Last week we went on exchanges with the sisters from Gangshan, which is part of the province of Kaohsiung (I am in the Tainan province). Sister Orgill came up to Yongkang and I went down with Sister Guerra from Thursday night to Friday night. This was my first time going on proper exchanges out of my area (we went on exchanges when I was in Chaozhou, but then another sister came to my area instead of vice versa). I was really excited to be with Sister Guerra for the day, because I knew her a little before, and she's really great. It was just as fun as I had anticipated it would be. We did all the same things as you normally would--finding less-active members, planning, studying, teaching, contacting--but it's sort of a refresher to switch things up for the day. Sister Guerra is an irrepressibly positive person, as far as I can tell, and I learned a lot from her example about optimism and energy in the work. The whole thing was rejuvenating.

Sister Angulo and I had an interesting unplanned service opportunity (yes, that is a Preach My Gospel phrase...) this week. We were out putting fliers for English class in mailboxes when we passed a little Christian church on a sidestreet. There was a woman inside cleaning, and Sister Angulo suggested we could go back and help her. At first I wondered if that would be weird for LDS missionaries to come clean someone else's church, but I'm glad we went back anyway. The woman was grateful for the help. It was a beautiful little chapel, apparently an aborigine church. Most of the aborigines that I've met in Taiwan are Christian (I'm not sure why...I'll have to ask someone sometime). I liked seeing how much she wanted the chapel to be clean and ready for people to come use it for worship the next day, and I liked being able to help out, at least a little.

Referrals Galore, Grease, and Agency . . .

Another exciting week! I question my ability to convey why missionary life is so great within the confines of an email, but here are a few highlights from this past few days:

-Last Wednesday, I had my last opportunity to participate in the musical missionary group. That took me back to my last area, Zuoying, where we performed outside of the Hanshin mall. Attendance snowballed throughout the performance, and by the end there were quite a few people. The mission office has made it known that over the course of all these performances, we've received over 500 referrals (which means that many people indicated on the referral cards we handed out that they would be willing to have missionaries contact them)! I almost feel sorry for the poor office elders who will process it all...but not quite, because that's so amazing, and they get to truly feel the amazing-ness, right?

-Sister Frasier went home. One of my companions has already "died" on me. I can't believe it. I got to see her at that last performance, which was a great blessing. Each of my companions has made such a difference for good in my life, and it pains the heart a little to not know when I'll see them again. But of course it's worth the mini-heart pain to have gotten to be with them in the first place.

-I verified that my dear brother David has not completely lost his sense of aesthetics. He probably never knew that I was in danger of thinking so. Let me explain. I got a most excellent Christmas package from my thoughtful parents (well, I know Dad put in moral support, but Mom was probably the mastermind and grunt work behind it all). It included pictures of family, one of which was my brother with his wife. Little did I know that they were dressed up as characters from "Grease" for a church activity, complete with appropriate hairstyle. I was really hoping that was the case, but the lack of explanatory note left me a little concerned... Fortunately, on the 26th I got to call home (one of my two annual phone calls home) and was quickly reassured that it was all part of a costume. *whew*

-This week we're on an English fast (or a Chinese feast, depending on how you look at it). Normally, my companion and I speak English at home and Chinese outside the apartment, but this week it's 100% Chinese (except for English class, of course). It's a pretty cool experience, actually, and a lot less exhausting than doing it back in the MTC.

Aside from those goings on, I've been thinking about agency a lot recently. I was thinking about what it means to have freedom of choice, and I think it's more connected with knowledge and understanding than anything else. I suppose really wealthy people have more options of stuff they can buy, places they can go, activities they can engage in, etc., but the scriptures seem to talk about agency in connection with a more eternally fundamental decision: "free to choose liberty and eternal life, through the great Mediator of all men, or to choose captivity and death, according to the captivity and power of the devil" (2 Nephi 2:27). I don't think there's any external circumstance that can affect our ability to make that choice; they only thing that we need is to know the choice exists: "God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free. He hath give unto you that ye might know good from evil, and he hath given unto you that ye might choose life or death" (Helaman 14:30-31). Something that occurs to me frequently is how circumstances are strangely uncorrelated with things like happiness, at least as far as I can tell, which supports the idea that we really do have the option to choose our core attitude, feelings, and beliefs no matter our circumstance. I fear this may be robbing me of all my excuses when I find myself complaining about anything...

Apology from the Blog Mama

I'm so sorry for failing to get information from Emily's Tuesday email up on our blog sooner! It slipped my mind.