"I've Gotta Feeling"

Oh my goodness! So good to hear from you all! Yikes I just love it. Full week in Tainan! And it sounds like Thanksgiving was absolutely awesome and SNOWY. Wow pretty weird to think you are all surrounded by snow becuase I was just sweating a little bit on my bike.

So let me explain the title of my email before you start thinking "mmm Babylon, mmok Sister D, good one." So every Sunday we go visit one of the ward members who lives in a government run hospital for mentally and physically handicapped. She is a super neat lady. Her name is Yu jiemei. Really sad story- she is completely mentally compotent but physically- she is in a wheelchair and has a very severe speech impediment. She was hit by a bus 5 years ago and when the bus driver saw that she was still alive after being hit he backed over her in a horrible attempt to save on insurance costs. Terrible. The story, oh it is just terrible. But she joined the church before the accident and continues to come nearly every Sunday. But being in the hospital all day everyday we go visit her to cheer her up. We share a little thought with her, pray with her and sing with her. She is very animated and full of life. Anyways, yesterday we were there and the hospital was having a little event for all the patients. A few stores brought little knick knacks to sell and there was music playing. So the music is where my title comes in... you guessed it... they played "I've Gotta a Feelin" by Black Eyed Peas. Don't worry I didn't listen but it was on in the background (MOLLY- Lady Gaga and everyones fav Justin Bieber- yep all the way in Taiwan and I just busted up thinking of you. i love you molls) and I decided on the ride home from the hospital that being a missionary - for me at least- is like listening to "I've Gotta a Feelin" everyday. You can't help but be all excited when you listen to that song (ok Meliss especially at dance jam) and so being a missionary is like listening to that song 24/7. It's that good. umm hey this life is good!

So the area I am in- Tainan, specifically East Tainan. Is the second most densely district in our mission. Loads of people. Most everyone lives in apartments or like condo type things. People usually have a store or some business on the first floor and then they live above it. We - the sisters -Sister Howard(who is whoa the greatest) and I cover two wards.

Ok so I need to tell you about my Thanksgiving Dinner. Oh my. So two weeks before I got here we they had a three week baptism (which means this investigator was baptized in three weeks after she was "found") of Zhong Yun. She is from mainland so her Chinese is a smidge hard to understand but she is the most animated excited person in Taiwan. She is probably one of the poorer members since she just came from mainland. But oh she is so great. Wednesday we get to the church and there she is waiting with a gift of Chicken's feet. TO EAT. oh and we had already gotten the invite to come have dinner at her house on Thursday, mind you. So these chicken's feet-they were like an appetizer to Thursday, or something. Holy both Sister Howard and I gulped and decided we were going to pray real hard that night that our Thanksgiving meal didn't consist of other odd body parts. I was really hoping my tastebuds would disappear or my gag reflex would suddenly not exist. So Thursday comes and we show up at her house and to my great surprise we had hot pot. Where we all stick what we want in a pot of broth and cook it. Crab, clams, beef, tofu. It was surprisingly good. (sorry as I write this I realize the climax was the chicken's feet, oh well). So thanksgiving dinner was hot pot and the dessert was doublemint gum- my own personal pack. Then she let us color on her walls. Haha, nothing but white walls here so sometimes they get a bit creative and create their own personalized wall paper. Definitely an unforgettable Thanksgiving.

So first two baptisms on Saturday. Pretty amazing to see two people begin down the most impotant path of their eternity. It was different than I expected though. Baptisms that I have been to before the mission were such a family event and a really big deal ya know. But here, I think the ward has gotten used to having baptisms (they had a baptism here every week for the past 7 weeks) so not too many people came. And neither of the girls families came or even friends. Sister Howard and I were talking about this afterwards becuase it was a little hard for me to see, well surprising I guess. we came up with an idea that may help create friendships between progressing investigators and new members. Every Monday night we are going to invite our progressing investigators and new investogators/RCLA to a "family night." Each time we will have someone share their conversion story, we will share a spiritual thought and then play a game of some sort. We hope that this will help progessing investigators make friends with members. We will keep it short and sweet but hopefully we can create an environment where friendships can grow. I am sort of excited to see how it works.

Oh speaking of that- I need two recipes...muddy buddies and/or no-bake cookies. No ovens here but I think I could find all the stuff to make both of those.

OH ANDD I NEED Jesse Pugel's address. I have been thinking about her and I am dying to write her!

And one more request- a full family picture printed out? please. People love seeing pictures of our families and the one I have is old and in black and white which they don't like. Someone always makes a comment about it, its kind of funny.

So we have a really neat investigator right now. She is deaf and her name is You Mei. Her aunt is a member- she can read English and can sign in Japanese sign language AND can read chinese speaking lips (that sounds weird, whoops). But man she is so amazing. She could get baptized any day but her mom hasn't given her the ok. Each lesson with her consists of us writing things in english and reading the scriptures. Then at church her aunt sits on one side of her and we sit on the other side becuase her aunt will write things in chinese and then we write things in English. I don't know if this is making sense but she is amazing. I love it. I love this work. Jeepers sometimes I look back on a day and can't believe I made it all day without slowing down BUT I know it is becuase it is not me and my own strength. The lord really helps me every second of every day. I love it! And as I have said before- the people of Tainan are so ready for the gospel, everyday I talk to someone who the gospel just clicks with. You can see it in their face. We really are just reminding them of things they knew before.

I love you all!

Love boo!