Pics!!!

View from apartment

Breakfast...compliments comp!

Sister Tung

Hello lovelies!! So good to finally here from you... even if it was about the amazing trip :) It sounds like you all had a blast. And what... I didn't know Austin was along for the ride. Way fun! Oh and just to clarify I take pictures of your emails and then read them later so I don't take up email time to read them. Eek I just love you alll! And this work of course. I think good old HF might be sick of hearing me say thanks for letting be a missionary. I love this life so stinking much, the whole thing. Hearing how much fun you had on the trip, the legislature starting, its all so fun. Right?!

So! Wowsah am I on a whole new rollar coaster or what??!! Oh my having a native companion and having Sister Tung pure craziness. She seriously, of all the native sisters in our mission knows the least amount of english and has the most energy. It feels a little like I am serving with a 13 year-old boy. In that she is bouncing off the walls, not a huge fan of the rules and doesn't speak english. The only english she knows is quotes from Sandlot, Prison Break, Shrek, Harry Potter, church movies like Together Forever and she says "sucker" all the time but has no idea what it means and I'm not going to tell her (because its funnier to hear her use it in the most random situations). It's pretty much hilarious. So with that said now I hope you can believe the next part because it is SO true... she is a master teacher. She knows the scriptures better than anyone I have ever met. She is so good at creating personal metaphors with whoever she is teaching. Every lesson is tailored perfectly to the needs of the investigator. It's like she becomes a whole new person when she gets teaching. It's pretty rad to watch. Getting to serve with her- phew- I will never forget her example of pure love of the gospel.

Her conversion story: When she waw 13 her family was contacted by missionaries in a grocery store. The whole family went to English class but no one wanted to listen to the gospel message...except her. She wanted to get baptized but her parents wouldn't give her permission. So she had to wait until she was 18 to get baptized. From the age of 13 to 18 she rode her bike an hour to church and an hour back, often times having to sneak out of her house and tell her parents she was going to a friends house. Her parents don't approve of her serving a mission. When she calls home her mom won't talk to her but her dad will. Neither writes her- onnly her younger sister (she has 3 siblings). She is the only member and her family owns a breakfast place (so not much income but boy can she cook). She saved up money since age 13 to serve a mission. Is your heart bursting yet because this is my companion?! When I think/read about the noble and great ones...that's Sister Tung. In her odd 13 year-old boy personality. I love her.

Man yesterday was a cool day. I taught the first lesson in English to a miracle self-contact named Jessica Le. She is actually Vietnamese from Singapore who speaks perfect English- no Chinese. She is here on business and decided to wanted to go to church to have some alone time with God. She was amazing. After teaching her the first lesson - with my comp testifying in chinese and me translating- her prayer was amazing. One of the purest desires to know whether or not the Book of Mormon was true and whether the church was true. It was amazing. Unfortunately she goes back to Singapore Tuesday but I have her info and will refer her to missionaries in Singapore. I pray the missionaries will find her and help her. It was so neat.

Other than that life is good. Sister Tung cooks Taiwanese breakfaast every morning- potstickers, fried rice (learned how to make it- no worries), egg drop soup, noodles etc. (sorry claudia if you are drooling right now). Alright loves... this life is sooo good! Love you loads.

sister d.

One down...weird...

Well since my last email stufffff has changed..... I have a new companion! She is a native- from Taipei- on her last move call- so I will kill her here in Tainan (yep luckily I'm staying here because this place is still stinking golden- I will be here at least until April, perfect. love it.) Sister Tung. She is crazy- in a good way, doesn't speak much English. Welll actually like none so here I go. I'm pretty excited. This is going on hour 3 with her and so far we have cleaned the apartment like crazy and now we are off to buy food. Word on the street is she makes her companions Taiwanese breakfast every morning. I'm kind of exciteddddd! And hopefully my chinese will get a little kick in the bum and improve with a native. BUT it is so weird to be on my own, no mom (trainer) anymore. I mean of course I will continue to learn but the title "trainee" well that's no longer me. Sister Howard - I will miss her. I think heavenly father knew we had a little too much fun together, ha. Weird first transfer done, clearly all this change is still sinking in. hmmm. That will be one thing I will learn to like on the mish I suppose. Ok enough of this boring cheeseeee.

So last Saturday we had another baptism of a investigator -Tina- I have definitely never told you about becuase guess what... she met with us for two weeks and last time I wrote we had only met with her for one. Oh and she read the entire Book of Mormon in 3 days. Yes, kid you not. And pretty much ate up every lesson and begged to get baptized on Jan 1, 2011- they have a thing for cool dates here. And oh perfect she had been to church a few times before we met with her becuase oh wait her brother is a member who served a mission in Hong Kong. Holy it was amazing!!! She was beyond prepared! So at the baptism her brother shared his testimony and said that the entire time he was on his mission he prayed everyday that his sister would join the church. He referred her to the Taichung missionaries but at that time she had no interest. Then, just two and a half weeks ago a missionary in another area street contacted her and in their referral they said she wasn't really interested. But we still called her and set up a time to meet - she fanged (didn't show up) her first lesson but we re-scheduled. And then from the first time we met til this last saturday was two weeks. Yep baptized in two weeks, ridiculous. She LOVES everything about the church and asks outstanding, legit questions. Oh man! I tell you what Tainan is the land of milk and honey.

OH!!! Before I forget.... I got the Christmas package last Tuesday! Bah! I loved it! Seriously it was so great to get love from so many of my favorite people in Eagle!! Seriously, I absolutely loved it. The pj's- well I felt a little scandalous opening the VS pj's but they are oh so comfy and cute. And the food and treats was so good (yep pretty much gone :) )

So its a bit colder here in Tainan right now, this humid cold, its pretty cold and windy. But they say it doesn't last for very long. We'll see.

Ok so, we get to talk on Guonian (chinese new year) ya ya but this is something so annoying as a missionary here. So Guonian isn't for another month BUT a big thing is to clean your house before Guonian and SO when we are trying to set-up appointments with people we are starting to get a "guonian" excuse. Which basically means they have NO time to meet with us for the next month because they are cleaning. Are you kidding?! It's pretty dang annoying and it only gets worse as we get closer to Guonian.

Besides that I don't have much and we have to go buy fooood. This life is so good! And seriously this whole missionary work is SO dang awesome well that's one big secret that people kept from me. So here is a good little sentence of goodness "the only difference between a trial and an adventure is your attitude."

mmm i love you all soooo much! I hope Christmas break has been lovely- maybe you kissed someone on new years or something and mere mere i really hope you love being 19 (good news is I was in bed at 9:45, ohhh the scandal)

shout outs:

Ash dean/sestra dean: I LOVE that talk. Seriously, love it. thanks for thinking of me!

claudia and crew: the kids are ADORABLE thanks for sending the pics. love you!

mr.hangman: nice pic. 2 racoons and a cat+ your car tires=.....

A White Christmas

Christmas(ish) was amazing! Oh where to begin. So Christmas Eve Sister Howard and I decided to take caroling to the next level...at a night market that was hoppin. Holy there were oodles and oodles of peeps out at the night market. WE took along one of our favorite recent converts- Zhou Zhi Yi. She really is the most American Taiwanese person I have met and I love because guess what...she has a sense of sarcasm :) She is so great. Anywho she went with us and we went for about an hour. We basically would stand at one of the entrances and sing Christmas songs. Just the two of us and then Zhi Yi would pull people over to listen, or start talking to them about the church or take video/pics of us. Once we finished a song (mind you Sister howard can sing. like seriously she is good. so basically I just kind of sing along and do lots of smiling and sway my hips back and forth) we would start talking to the few people gathered around. Add 'em (set up to meet with them and give them a baptismal goal). and then move on to the next corner. It was SO fun. Bah! Seriously. I'm figuring out that being a missionary basically means you can do rad slash maybe ridiculous stuff and it works becuase people will talk to you. (plus with alll the asians around bunches of them just wanted to take pictures with us so there we were doing more add-ing). Very memorable christmas eve!

And and speaking of memories/memorable- so often I find myself thinking. Gosh! If only I could just take this little memory or moment bottle it up and save it forever. I just love it all and am a smidge worried I'm going to forget things...someday. poop.

So Christmas Day. We woke up at 5:40 in the AM to go to breakfast with a lady in our ward who treateded us to an "american" Christmas buffet at one of the hotels in Tainan. ha. Her husband turned out to be an American from Ohio who (huge cinncinati reds fan...shout out) is a none member. They were both great to us. Then we headed back to the apartment nice and early- had personal study and duhduhduh acted out the nativity for comp study. with pictures. I will send them sometime. two person nativity was pretty hilarious. I hope christmas day was lovely down there. tell the boys I missed them! The rest of the day was missionary mode.

The climax: White Christmas!! You Mei=Yummy got baptized. It was the most amazing experience of my mission thus far. I will try to describe why but I am sure I won't do it justice. So one more time, yummy is deaf. She can read english and chinese so all of our lessons have been a combination of both. We would write in english and her aunt, who is the member that reffered her, would write in Chinese. But becuase we were writing we taught her doctrine. The basic doctrines with lots of scriptures. She couldn't answer questions more then a yes or no nod or smile. She couldn't really ask questions becuase she signs in Japanese (she grew up in Japan). So we really didn't know if she was reading and praying everyday. We just prayed hard that she was understanding everything and that we were clearly explaining it all. She picked her own baptismal date - Christmas. The little meeting before her baptism was really neat. Her aunt (who is the institue teacher and really solid) spoke and tried to speak to Yummy with clear lip-reading ish (sorry I don't know if this is making sense). And then sister howard sang silent night and used american sign language to sign it. Yep its a miracle that she knew how to do that. Then yummy was baptized by her cousin. The coolest part was afterwards though. She had written down her testimony and her aunt read it. In her testimony she talked about principles of God and Jesus Christ and her relationship with them that we NEVER taught her. She talked about how she knew God lived and he helped her and knew her. She talked about how reading and praying everyday was so important. I promise we taught her the most basic of doctrine becuase we could only write so much in a 20/30 minute lesson. Both Sister Howard and I looked at each other as her aunt was reading her testimony and blinked back tears becuase oh my goodness the spirit taught her. The spirit taught her the the whole time. We didn't do anything. Like nothing. I feel so humbled to have been a small, tiney tiny part of whatever she learned. We really were blessed to just watch the miracle of Yummy getting baptized. And more than ever I know how important the spirit is in missionary work. We as missionaries really are nothing without the spirit. I will never forget this Christmas.

So that's about it. Oh at the beginning of the week we had sister exchanges. I went to Xi Tainan (East Tainan) with one of the native sisters, Sister Chen. She was great, like seriously awesome. It was kind of cool becuase she spoke Chinese the whole time and I had no problem understanding her. And I promise it wasn't me- the gift of interpretation is real. I can understand and follow way more than I should be able to. Another blessing. Man I love this life!

And the Mission Christmas Activity was cool. We had to wake up way early to catch a train up to Zhanghua where we checked out the big buddha and ate at the Taichung Steak House. All 150+ of us. Then we had a Christmas Devo and all the trainees were introduced to the mission. yep me, a trainee. It was great. But weird to not be a missionary for an entire day- didn't really love that.

Well I love this life! And I love you all and hope you are safe and loving every minute of the beach, ocean and sailing.

MEREEEEEE MEREEEE Happy Birthday!!! 19!! Oooo I just love you!!! like I said- check your provo mail box sometime next week. I hope it was a good one. I love you!!

Talk to you in 2011. weird. loves sister demordaunt.

Oh and Dean Family!! Thank You for the delicious granola! It is a treat to eat every morning!! Thank you!!

Merry Christmas

Christmas in Taiwan! Ooooo! I can't wait to talk to you ALL! It seems like we just talked and I was sitting in LA, weird. So here is the deal you said call at 10 AM my time but if its good I am going to call at 9:30 AM, maybe a smidge earlier. Same day... Christmas but just a smidge earlier because we have to get our the door by 10:30. I seriously am so excited, eek! I won't even know where to begin so have questions or something. I love you -seriously best family ever, go relax on the beach - put it on my tab. "You always good friend me" to quote a little note that I just bought at the local stationary heaven/mecca/store. Mom you would love it. seriously.

So seriously I don't even know where this week went. More miracles.

There is nothing I would rather be doing than sharing the gospel with the people of Taiwan...for Christmas! This Christmas will be a white one for Sister Howard and I. Our deaf investigator You Mei (we fondly call her yummy- it started on accident and now it is just stuck) will be getting baptized and we have a potential week A drop-in. Guan Ting is a 13 year-old who has been coming to church every Sunday for the last 8 months with her mother. They both know the church is true and have passed baptismal interviews. However, her mom has/had a really odd requirement for the both of them ... she wanted their faith to be tried before getting baptized. She wanted to see if the church and their faith could pull them through a trial. LAME! Like are you kidding me! But she wouldn't let her daughter get baptized until that happened. BUT this week it changed. During church Sister Howard asked Guan Ting if she could get baptized yet (we kind of asked her every couple of weeks) and her answer was YES! Her mom finally gave her the go-ahead. We don't know what changed but it did. Now it is up to Guan Ting. We talked to her last night and she said she was nervous so we told her to pray about it and we have been praying real hard ever since. We'll see, I can tell you what happens on Christmas. wooo!

Oh hey this week we had two Christmas activities. One was a stake Christmas activity at the government run hospital where yu jiemei lives. The one for the handicapped. Our entire zone came and we all sang a few Christmas song (close your eyes and cover your ears... sister howard forced me to sing with her and a gal from one of our wards- yikes. let's just say I pretended like the microphone was off. and then I thought hmm good thing I took choir at Eagle Middle School in the 7th grade. haha. we sang How Great Thou Art) We had a great turn out. 200+ people from the community/wards/ loads of our investigators and recent converts came too. It was so fun! It really felt Christmas-ee. We all wore lovely little Santa hats. real cute.

As the week started out we were worried that our number of progressing investogators was a little low but as the week progressed with had several awesome first lessons with people that were are so prepared for the gospel. They are now wonderful progressing investogators. Our little babies. One in particular, Tina, her brother is a member in Kaoshung but she was a street contact referral. We met with her for the first time on Saturday and then she went to Kaoshung on Sunday and got to go to church with her brother. She told us that he explained everything about sacrament meeting. Last night she called and asked when she could get baptized! I swear people are prepared for this. Daily I see how involved Heavenly Father is in this work, I just want to daily become a better tool in his hands.

Ok but at the same time... and I am sorry to admit ....yesterday I was kind of being stubborn in listening to the spirit. There were a few times when we were biking somewhere and I got a "turn around and talk to that person" feeling/nudge but I was stubborn and thought "but we are going to be late" or "but I will being going against traffic and there are like a billion scooters." basically I was being dumb, real dumb. Then last night we were heading to a good area to tract and I got one more big nudge to contact down a street which we weren't plannning on tracting. So I was thought"ok ok ok I'm going." I yelled ahead to Sister Howard and we headed down the street. The first person , the VERY FIRST person we tracted into - behind door number 2- was GOLDEN. Oh man! She invited us right in and said she was over her current Buddhist/baibai (which is the very mixed up religion here. where they mixed buddhism and daoism and decided to baibai or pray to their ancestors and thats basically all they do. thats what the mixed religion consists of.) beliefs. And just a few sundays ago had checked out a christian church but didn't really like how they sang really loud and prayed outloud together. By the end of the 10 mintue quick little lesson she basically asked how she could get baptized and when we could meet with her next. Oh and when our Christmas activity is becuase she wants to come. It was seriously so awesome and a good kick in the pants for me.

Shout outs:

Mere (check your provo mail box when you get home) asked about the weather... probably like 83 degrees. We have a cold day every once in awhile and I throw on a sweater or bust some tights. So yep, it feels like summer never ended (I am pulling a jake- hey buddy btw the pictures work, wow korea throw back that letter should be framed or something. check your eagle mail box in a week. mail is slow right now I just got your Dec 2 letter, BEES?) and listening to Christmas music in the middle of the year.

Ash! man I love you and I love that we are both doing the best work in the world at the very same time. Keep it up in the CR. And can you EVEN believe Adri is HOME! What the! Please don't let time go by so quick.

And Tawns!!! Happy Birthday on the 24th. I love you! Also please send me pictures of Heath! Hello I haven't seen a picture of that child since he was a newborn. word on the street is he is pretty stinking cute, of course.

Mom/dad- no package yet but I am pretty sure they are keeping most of the Christmas packages at the mission home until Thursday becuase we are all going up there for the mission christmas activity so no worries. And speaking of the Mission christmas activity ... I'm kind of excited. should be fun to see old MTC peeps. p.s. it feels like the MTC never happened- weird. serouisly a distant memory. I LOVE TAIWAN. Oh and yesterday in church I forgot that not everyone in the world has black hair and small eyes. freaky.

Well peeps Merry Christmas! How great is this life?! Bah! Bah! Bah! I love it! Talk soon (for reals-ees)!

You're Kidding...right?!

Sailing! You stinkers! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!! traitors. me and tuffers- we really are getting the shaft this year. (well actually I can- I knew you couldn't make it 18 months without some awesome trip and I am sure this won't be the last one- I mean freak I haven't even been gone a full 6 months... ha. I love you all!! ) But really send me pictures, get tan for me, and love wearing a swimsuit for me. enjoy sailing!!

So yes the food. I like it. I mean I like some stuff more than others. The potstickers- so delish. The noodles and stuff delish. The bakery goodies- delish. Well really it's all good. There are some issues with texturey stuff- like gooey round things with processed meat in the middle- not a fan. And pig with layers (like skin+fat+meat) I wouldn't choose to eat it normally since I really don't think eating a 2inch chunk of pure fat is good for anyone but hey. BUT ok the fruit here is heavenly. Like really. I can't even tell you. I love it so much. And don't you fret they have all the bueno/kinder bars to last a lifetime. I'm good, real good, maybe fat and happy is a better way to put it. Ha (ok psych no weight gain yet- I sweat it out or run it out. or something). Enough about lame stuff how about missionary work- did I mention I've never been happier. Eek! Whoa! I mean I have been happy before but not consistently for weeks/months on end (oh this is weird- this week marks my one month on island- times flies). I just love it. One of the greatest things is when I am contacting or teaching and I look at whoever I am talking to and think in my head "i love you. you are my sister. like my sister." It really is a miraculous feeling. I'm not describing it properly. But it is something I hope will only happen more frequently.

This week's baptism was Guo Ru Jun. She is a mother of two adorable kids. She is wonderful absolutely wonderful. The lesson she decided to accept opur baptismal goal for her went something like this... We were asking her what she felt like when she prayed. We asked her how she thinks the spirit feels. And then out of no where she said "ok! When can I get baptized?!" Like in a louder than normal Taiwanese way. now she is baptized and really recognized the spirit. I loved seeing her at her baptism and watching her with her kids and just thinking about how this gospel and her decision will change their lives forever.

Also last week- remember Liao yi chun. Well she doesn't have much personality to her (i say that in the nicest kindest way possible) she just is very meh about everything. WEll she used to be meh BUT since getting baptized like just a week ago she has changed. She is so excited and happy all the time. I swear she is a completely different person. She told us that her mom and friends have all notcied. Haha and! when we saw her on Thursday she said "I hugged my friend at school today!" Like she was so excited that she did that! Its amazing to see how the gospel can change people- right before your eyes.

This week...no baptism scheduled. We are praying/looking/dilligently working on a miracle week A drop-in (one of our progressing investigators with a later baptism goal switches to this week). Li Dai Lin- her sister hasn't met with us yet, bummer. BUT she still wants to get baptized so badly so pray that her mom will get over her fandui (protest) and let her get baptized. She could be our week-a drop-in with a miracle. which remember they happen, eeeek! ilovethislife.

So a few odd things: Sister Howard and I decided to go caroling for a really you banfa (have way- you know mission motto- have faith, have way. yep and now I understand why chinese people speaking english is so absurd. i fear my letters will/are getting progressively worse in grammar, etc. whoops) way of tracting. It was pretty hilarious. So everyone we talked to was really uncomfotable. like really. they would ask questions like.. "wait you want to sing to just me?" or "you want me to sing with you?" or "no no, please no" my favorite was singing into the little doorbell/speaker things and having people say "bu yong" (which means no use) a billion times and then finally hanging up. There was one lady that was cool with it. We sang silent night and we all felt the spirit but that was the only success. We only did it for a half hour or so but we were pretty much busting up when all was said and done. PRetty hilarious to see the variety of reactions.

Also, don't worry everyone in Taiwan officially knows what garments/garmets/g- babies look like. bikes+skirts+"white biking shorts" super great. I try to keep it under control but its windy here, really! ha.

OHHH! Eagle Primary I love you! I got your package and loved it. The ornaments are hanging on all the doorknobs in our apartment. And getting to listen to the christmas songs knowing someone little kidos that I love were singing them, such a treat! I love you all! Keep singing Called To Serve because that song becomes a reality in no time. and its the best time ever. so sing it with gusto!!

And on that package note the address: I have no idea. Whatever address the eagle primary used got to me. and same with Grandma Demordaunt and coach j.drzayich. they've all made it.

Shout out to Molly i love you Huish! Happy Birthday LADY!!! 22 and still so hot and official adult-ish in DC... check your mailbox...soon?!

This life is SO good! I love you all oh SO much! Eeks!!

The God I Believe (definitely) worked on a Campaign Trai

So the title of this email is .... The God I Believe (definitely) worked on a Campaign Trail....

because there are miracles. Like real ones in the mission field. It's so beautiful you should all come join me, in a bit. This life is so good! Don't get tired of hearing me say that, mk.

So here are a few miracles and I hope I explain properly because I'm not sure if I can.

On Saturday we had another baptism which makes for 6 weeks (next week is Guo ru jun- she will make for 7 weeks- WHAT!) in a row that this area has seen a sister baptism. It really is an amazing area, the people here are so prepared. Liao yi chun got baptized on Saturday and she was much more calm and put together than I thought she would be. After being baptized she was beaming. Yi chun was investigating the church with her friend, Li Dai Lin. They both wanted to get baptized together but Dai Lin's mother has some major fandui(she is strongly opposed to the idea). We are trying to work with Li Dai Lin on this since she is 19 and doesn't turn 20(the age when they can get baptized without parental concent) for another 10 months or so. This past week we had plans to go over to Dai Lin's house in an attempt to meet her mother. On Thursday we had a half hour of time which was intially scheduled for a 1st lesson that fang-ed(means they were a total no-show) us. So our back-up plan was to go visit Dai Lin's mom. As we were heading over there, with a note for Li Dai Lin we pulled up to a stoplight and began contacting. Sister Howard, as fate would have it, started contacting Li Dai Lin's older sister. It was a miracle becuase as she talked to her she was able to talk about Dai Lin wanting to get baptized and her mother, etc. I mean really!!! Of all the TON and TONS of people in our area and who do we pull up next to but one of our most desirable baptism candidates. It was TOO good! Her sister even set up with us. Stay tuned becuase maybe we will have a family affair. It really was a miracle. Dai Lin wants to get baptized so very badly.

Ok crazy story this one is...we were contacting on Thursday at the local university. I contacted into a mom - prego with a 2-year old son. I talked to her for a while on the side of the road. Bascially about how she is a daughter of God and she can be with her family forever and how the gospel can bring untold (nope can't say that in Chinese, don't worry) happiness. She set up to meet with us on Friday morning and all in all a super solid add. So Friday morning roles around and (we think) she fang-ed us. Not the case but thats what we thought. (oh and her name is Wu something something) So that night we called her and she answered and explained that she was about two doors down from the church and just got this scary dark feeling that she shouldn't go to the church so she turned her car around and went home but kept thinking about us/the church. When we heard this, oh man... Satan. Just kick him in the face real quick because for real. She is ready. We are meeting with her tomorrow morning and I really think she is going to come. I am so excited to see what happens with her.

Hmmm our deaf investogator, you mei, who we lovingly call yummy, is getting baptized on christmas. Wonderful Christmas gift don't you think. She is amazingly solid. She picked her own baptismal date and everything. Pretty amazing investigator.

Well I think that's about it. Every once in awhile it hits me that umm I'm living in Taiwan speaking Chinese and being a representative for the only true church. Seriously, how awesome is my calling! Man I love it! Glad you got the DVD from the president, haha that seems like eons ago. Weird!

p.s. Ash Dean It is pretty crazy to think of you all bundled and tracting and baptizing in pools. I love you lady! Check your mail there is a little letter on its way to you!

"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!