One Christmas past, and a New Year comes.
This week trundled by really slowly it seemed. Not due to time itself acting up, as it sometimes does, but because we had nothing scheduled all week really, but for tracting. Tracting itself isn't so bad generally, unless you have no lessons or other activities to break it up and it is a 3-4 hour long experience that you repeat over and over...A slow week indeed.
We did find one new investigator, a woman who had been a previous investigator (years ago) and sometimes comes to English class. She has two little boys and teaches an art class out of her home. We went to her house to meet her and sat at her table...which came up to my knee...the chairs were set to match and they looked like something out of snow white and the seven dwarfs! They were minuscule! Fortunately they were sturdy wood so when I folded my ginormous bulk onto one of them it didn't crumple to the floor. When we started teaching her and we got to the subject of families we discovered a fairly serious concern in Huang Xiao Jie's (this woman's) life. She didn't know if she loved her family enough to want to spend an eternity with them. She whispered to Sister Li while shooting glances at her children studying across the room that she didn't think she wanted to see them after she died, they took so much from her and she couldn't even think about giving that much for an eternity. It would cause her too much concern and stress. And her marriage is very poor, she and her husband do not get along well. She said after she dies she thinks she just wants to disappear into nothingness, like smoke into the air.
This saddened me. The family is such an important unit in this life, given to us to provide us with happiness and a loving atmosphere in which to learn and grow. To think that someone is so unhappy with their situation, its not even a case of extremes. They lead an average life style, there is no abuse, no drugs, no alcohol, no apparent reason for discord except for the general attitude of the mother and father. How sad is that, that two people allow themselves to live in such disdain without trying to improve or change it. They just accept the fact that they are unhappy, and it stifles any love that could be felt even towards the children. We talked with her for a while and set up another time. I really hope we can reach this woman, the gospel could improve her life and her families life so much. She is just not happy, and I really hope we can help her realize that she can be happy. That she can have a good relationship with her husband and children.
Beyond that, Christmas eve we had President Interviews. I rather enjoyed it, we got to see many missionaries that we never see, including one of the elders I went to the MTC with, Elder Herrin. It was fun to catch up a little with him. That night we were pidgeoned (stood up) by an investigator so we went Christmas Caroling with the ward. It was fun indeed.
One of the regulars from our English class, Joyce, surprised us by coming. Joyce is a cancer patient and I really like her. She is a kind spirited woman. She brought me a Christmas present even (I am the teacher for her English class) and we talked for several minutes. Her English if very good so we can actually have a conversation. She had to leave before we started (mormon standard time, we started almost an hour late) but we invited her to come to the Christmas program in church on Sunday. And she did! She called Sister Li and I on Christmas and told us she wanted to be baptized. Sunday we talked to her about it and asked her why. She said her cancer made her realize something. She was blessed in the fact that they found the cancer early, early enough that it hadn't spread yet, like this type of cancer does very quickly. She'd just finished Chemo. She said people expected her to be depressed, to dwell on the cancer and let it bring her down. She tried to stay busy and not think about it but she couldn't work all the time because her health still wasn't good enough. She said she felt like God was trying to tell her something, like he was trying to tell her that she is still here because she has some bigger purpose. She has an addiction to coffee, but she is willing to give it up. She wants this. I really like Joyce.
Sadly, she lives outside our area boundaries, so we aren't sure if we can continue teaching her, or if we have to turn her over too the other sisters. In either case, I hope she continues along this path. She is a good woman.
Christmas day dawned cold and dumping rain. We had absolutely nothing scheduled (except Sister Li's call home) so it was a day full of tracting. I called the mission president and obtained permission to extend our dinner time by half an hour, surprisingly he agreed that because it was Christmas we should have a good dinner. We went to a steak house, and it was delicious. They had a big buffet, very nicely prepared. All the waiters hurried around in Christmas hats and there was a Santa that kept showering people with candy. It was a dandy time.
Today I had my Christmas celebration. Around my little tree with Christmas music blaring I opened the presents provided me by my loving parents and both grandparents. It made my week a little brighter. After we email today we are going back to the apartment for a Christmas brunch, a treat of french toast and strawberries!
Speaking of strawberries, funny story of the week. The fruit stand down the street which we frequent sells the very best guavas in this special salty sweet glaze...but that's besides the point. We were there briefly one night on our way back to the apartment and as we were leaving the man working there stopped Sister Li to have a brief conversation with her. There were many glances in my direction as I mounted my faithful steed. After we left Sister Li told me he'd asked if he could be my "friend" and sister Li had informed him that we were not allowed to have those friends right now because we were missionaries for the Lord. He'd wanted to know if we were going to be nuns, and she'd told him no, after our missions we would go back to normal lives and be able to date and get married, but right now we were serving the Lord. He'd wanted to know about after and Sister Li had told him much to his disappointment that I was going back to America...and that I was only 22...haha. We rode away and left him with a frown on his face.
Well my time is at an end, but I tank you all for getting to the bottom of this looong update and I love you all!
Sister Melissa Thiessen
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
The week of Christmas has arrived, and what do I see...Sun? Eh. Life in Paradise.
Its still interesting to see the take that this culture has on Christmas. Its influence is definitely here, but as I said before only superficially. I am curious to see how the actual day goes. As it stands we still have no plans for Christmas. Maybe I will drag Sister Li out to some nice restaurant (a change from quick food grabbed at vendars on the side of the street or at open corner shops that are found every 30 feet.) in our dinner hour between procelyting. I will probably hold my own solitary christmas celibration on the monday morning following. I'm lucky my P-day lies so close to christmas. I am composing christmas cards, but they will be sooo late. Forgive me my lack of time, I'm on the Lord's Errand!
This week was largely taken up by my continued illness. I was sick from Wednesdays aforementioned food poisoning up until Friday morning. Wednesday night when we got back from Taipei I had serious chest pains and couldn't teach the english class that we teach every wednesday. Sister Li had to shuffle around all the teachers and I called Elder Calvert, the elderly mission nurse from England. Luckily the next day we had previously planned events that were or could be taken care of from my apartment where I was within easy reach of the bathroom and my bed. Sister Li was very patient with my sickness, and with the diet of toast that I've made her suffer through. I'm still a little off on my foods but it is improving.
When I started to feel better we did a lot of tracting, we met the most interesting man. He is probably in his early 70s, he came down the stairwell from the 3rd floor apartment he occupies to talk to us in person instead of through a the call box. He started speaking to me in English when he saw me, fair english too. He thought Sister Li was Taiwanese so it was funny for a few minutes as he spoke to me in English then to her in Chinese, until she let it slip that she was actually from America too. He was a bit relieved I think. He made us come up to his apartment and talk with him for a bit. We technically are not allowed to be alone with a male without another male in the room but we left his door open and stayed within sight. The entire living space of his apartment was stacked with books, boxes of books and paper, learning materials, and cassette tapes. He didn't even have a bed because it too was covered. He said he sleeps on the wooden couch bench in the corner sitting upright (most Taiwanese homes in my so-far-experience don't have a lot of couches. Most people have wooden benches and chairs that have thin cushions on them. Some of the more well off people do have couches, but like the lack of carpets, they do not have cloth couches. Mostly vinyl, as cloth doesn't do well in the humidity.)
There was one small preserved foot-by-foot wide area on his tiny two person table that was his work space. He lives alone except for on the weekends. His wife, her mother, and her sister all died of cancer. he has one daughter, but she has schizophrenia severe enough to confine to to the hospital all but the weekends when she gets to come home to live with him. He has nothing to do but study to pass the time. As a result he speaks Chinese, English, Spanish, Japanese, and Russian. We gave him a Book of Mormon to read and he wants us to visit him again when his daughter is there too.
We also met another woman (passed to us by the elders) who is every interested in the gosple. Her name is Li Si Ying. She came to church on Sunday and afterwords we had a lesson on the plan of salvation with her. She had many good questions. We set a baptismal date! Hopefully she will continue to progress. Our other Baptismal candidate is at somewhat of a stand still (her name is Luo Yu Ting) because her grandfather opposes and overrules her grandmother's ok. We are praying for a miracle.
Well, tomorrow we have another day of Temple tours. Yay! I love temple tours, they seem to be fun days. I love using the paintings and the visual media available in the building to tell people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Art can hold such power when used correctly. Maybe someday I'll be able to speak the language well enough to relate that power. As for now, I smile and bear testimony. I do that real well.
Well, I wish upon all of you a very merry Christmas! I love you all, and miss you dearly.
Sister Melissa Thiessen
Its still interesting to see the take that this culture has on Christmas. Its influence is definitely here, but as I said before only superficially. I am curious to see how the actual day goes. As it stands we still have no plans for Christmas. Maybe I will drag Sister Li out to some nice restaurant (a change from quick food grabbed at vendars on the side of the street or at open corner shops that are found every 30 feet.) in our dinner hour between procelyting. I will probably hold my own solitary christmas celibration on the monday morning following. I'm lucky my P-day lies so close to christmas. I am composing christmas cards, but they will be sooo late. Forgive me my lack of time, I'm on the Lord's Errand!
This week was largely taken up by my continued illness. I was sick from Wednesdays aforementioned food poisoning up until Friday morning. Wednesday night when we got back from Taipei I had serious chest pains and couldn't teach the english class that we teach every wednesday. Sister Li had to shuffle around all the teachers and I called Elder Calvert, the elderly mission nurse from England. Luckily the next day we had previously planned events that were or could be taken care of from my apartment where I was within easy reach of the bathroom and my bed. Sister Li was very patient with my sickness, and with the diet of toast that I've made her suffer through. I'm still a little off on my foods but it is improving.
When I started to feel better we did a lot of tracting, we met the most interesting man. He is probably in his early 70s, he came down the stairwell from the 3rd floor apartment he occupies to talk to us in person instead of through a the call box. He started speaking to me in English when he saw me, fair english too. He thought Sister Li was Taiwanese so it was funny for a few minutes as he spoke to me in English then to her in Chinese, until she let it slip that she was actually from America too. He was a bit relieved I think. He made us come up to his apartment and talk with him for a bit. We technically are not allowed to be alone with a male without another male in the room but we left his door open and stayed within sight. The entire living space of his apartment was stacked with books, boxes of books and paper, learning materials, and cassette tapes. He didn't even have a bed because it too was covered. He said he sleeps on the wooden couch bench in the corner sitting upright (most Taiwanese homes in my so-far-experience don't have a lot of couches. Most people have wooden benches and chairs that have thin cushions on them. Some of the more well off people do have couches, but like the lack of carpets, they do not have cloth couches. Mostly vinyl, as cloth doesn't do well in the humidity.)
There was one small preserved foot-by-foot wide area on his tiny two person table that was his work space. He lives alone except for on the weekends. His wife, her mother, and her sister all died of cancer. he has one daughter, but she has schizophrenia severe enough to confine to to the hospital all but the weekends when she gets to come home to live with him. He has nothing to do but study to pass the time. As a result he speaks Chinese, English, Spanish, Japanese, and Russian. We gave him a Book of Mormon to read and he wants us to visit him again when his daughter is there too.
We also met another woman (passed to us by the elders) who is every interested in the gosple. Her name is Li Si Ying. She came to church on Sunday and afterwords we had a lesson on the plan of salvation with her. She had many good questions. We set a baptismal date! Hopefully she will continue to progress. Our other Baptismal candidate is at somewhat of a stand still (her name is Luo Yu Ting) because her grandfather opposes and overrules her grandmother's ok. We are praying for a miracle.
Well, tomorrow we have another day of Temple tours. Yay! I love temple tours, they seem to be fun days. I love using the paintings and the visual media available in the building to tell people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Art can hold such power when used correctly. Maybe someday I'll be able to speak the language well enough to relate that power. As for now, I smile and bear testimony. I do that real well.
Well, I wish upon all of you a very merry Christmas! I love you all, and miss you dearly.
Sister Melissa Thiessen
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Greetings From The East!
Greetings from the far east everyone.
This week has been not so eventful as far as these weeks go. But it has gone by swiftly. Monday we pushed back p-day because today (Wednesday) is our temple day. All the missionaries congregate together (except those in the far south, and when I say all missionaries I mean the ones in the Taipei mission because Taichung is just not that special ;) ) and we attend the temple. So today is our p-day this week. We hope to wander the streets of Taipei after our temple experience and find many joyous things.
This week we did a lot of tracting, a lot of contacting, a lot of finding. Since our three boys last week got baptized our investigator pool has somewhat shrunk. So there was a lot of door knocking, talking to people at stop lights, and phone calls. Fortunately the stop lights here had a timer which counts down the time left until green (for the most part) so you know how much time you have to spit our your message with a huge smile. Mostly we just give out the tracting pamphlets that we have, but sometimes we get a number. Knocking doors can go a little bit better (its my personal preference) and we have covered a fair amount of area this week. On Monday we taught a lesson in a stairwell and got a new investigator. I don't know how interested she is but we have another meeting scheduled which is harder for her to avoid because it is at her house. We get a lot of avoidance maneuvers, people not answering their phones and standing us up as we wait for them at the church. We call that a pigeon pie for some reason relating to some Chinese saying that I'm not really clear on...
We also taught a girl the same day who I have a lot of hope for. She really needs the gospel. She is 21, and a student. When she was born her parents divorced so she never knew her mother. She lived with her father until she was 9, then he died in an accident, and she was an only child so she was alone in the world. Her uncle was charitable enough to take her in and now she lives with one of her cousins families but feels very much an imposition and not part of the family. She seemed very willing to talk to someone, and very friendly. When we introduced the Book Of Mormon to her and Joseph Smiths first vision she immediately became absorbed into the introduction and the testimony of the witnesses. She read in silence with us watching her for a good 3 or 4 minutes. I have hopes for this one.
Yesterday I made the mistake of eating a salad from the 7-11 down stairs next to our apartment building (7-11s are on every street corner here, they make a lot of money let me tell ya. Much more popular than in the US.) About 2 hours later I started to get sick, and by the end of the day I was dieing. We had to go home an hour early and I collapsed on my bed while Sister Li made phone calls. Today I still am feeling it. But I did manage to teach my Zone leaders for the first time. Every transfer we have to teach them once from the language learning system (called phase one, 2 and 3) to pass the lessons and the phases off. I passed off half of the first lesson. I am slowly learning and improving. Very slowly.
Well I have less time to talk to you all today because I have to get back to the temple. But I hope you are all doing well. I hope Christmas isn't sneaking up on you! Enjoy it for me.
Sister Thiessen
This week has been not so eventful as far as these weeks go. But it has gone by swiftly. Monday we pushed back p-day because today (Wednesday) is our temple day. All the missionaries congregate together (except those in the far south, and when I say all missionaries I mean the ones in the Taipei mission because Taichung is just not that special ;) ) and we attend the temple. So today is our p-day this week. We hope to wander the streets of Taipei after our temple experience and find many joyous things.
This week we did a lot of tracting, a lot of contacting, a lot of finding. Since our three boys last week got baptized our investigator pool has somewhat shrunk. So there was a lot of door knocking, talking to people at stop lights, and phone calls. Fortunately the stop lights here had a timer which counts down the time left until green (for the most part) so you know how much time you have to spit our your message with a huge smile. Mostly we just give out the tracting pamphlets that we have, but sometimes we get a number. Knocking doors can go a little bit better (its my personal preference) and we have covered a fair amount of area this week. On Monday we taught a lesson in a stairwell and got a new investigator. I don't know how interested she is but we have another meeting scheduled which is harder for her to avoid because it is at her house. We get a lot of avoidance maneuvers, people not answering their phones and standing us up as we wait for them at the church. We call that a pigeon pie for some reason relating to some Chinese saying that I'm not really clear on...
We also taught a girl the same day who I have a lot of hope for. She really needs the gospel. She is 21, and a student. When she was born her parents divorced so she never knew her mother. She lived with her father until she was 9, then he died in an accident, and she was an only child so she was alone in the world. Her uncle was charitable enough to take her in and now she lives with one of her cousins families but feels very much an imposition and not part of the family. She seemed very willing to talk to someone, and very friendly. When we introduced the Book Of Mormon to her and Joseph Smiths first vision she immediately became absorbed into the introduction and the testimony of the witnesses. She read in silence with us watching her for a good 3 or 4 minutes. I have hopes for this one.
Yesterday I made the mistake of eating a salad from the 7-11 down stairs next to our apartment building (7-11s are on every street corner here, they make a lot of money let me tell ya. Much more popular than in the US.) About 2 hours later I started to get sick, and by the end of the day I was dieing. We had to go home an hour early and I collapsed on my bed while Sister Li made phone calls. Today I still am feeling it. But I did manage to teach my Zone leaders for the first time. Every transfer we have to teach them once from the language learning system (called phase one, 2 and 3) to pass the lessons and the phases off. I passed off half of the first lesson. I am slowly learning and improving. Very slowly.
Well I have less time to talk to you all today because I have to get back to the temple. But I hope you are all doing well. I hope Christmas isn't sneaking up on you! Enjoy it for me.
Sister Thiessen
Monday, December 6, 2010
The "harolding" of December
The "harolding" of December.
My first Christmas away from home, and I"m dealing :) Much thanks to my mother and her wonderful fully stocked Christmas kit, complete with tree and decorations.
Its funny with Christmas here. I can ride my bike down a street packed side to side with shops and look in the windows and see Christmas items for sale. Some places have trees set up in the lobbies (like our apartment complex and many others) and giant blow up Santa's that wave, but its kind of empty. Its not in their culture, its something they have adapted from the westernization that is taking the world by storm. But they don't have the spirit that accompanies the season. Its just missing. In America, even with the mass marketing of Christmas, the very air is different, cheerful. People are kinder, they care, they are happier (for the most part), they are with family, and there is a glow in faces and smiles. Its because even with the mass material focus we still more or less remember why we have Christmas. Here people lack that, lack anything of an understanding for the most part, and so the holiday's presence almost seems like a mockery. I just want to tell them all. I wish they could really experience what IS Christmas.
Last night we had a dinner party with all the singles in the ward here. It was like a Christmas/thanksgiving party that they have been throwing for 5 years in a row now. It was pretty nice, there was a lot of food, including American dishes like a turkey (legit, with a wonderful herb rosemary seasoning) and mashed potatoes with bacon, then there were dishes with a Asian twist, like a casserole with sweet potatoes and curry. It was all delicious. Home made cinnamon roles and about 5 different cakes and Costco (yay!) ice cream for dessert. It was fun, but isolating. The more Chinese I learn (which is not a lot, it seems to be going slower now :( ) the more I become aware that the less I understand and the less I can communicate. The first couple of weeks here I was completely in a foreign atmosphere so it was easy to be ignorant and clueless. But I have adjusted enough and have enough understanding now that I am just frustrated because people try to speak to me, or I try to speak to them and there is no communication, no understanding. So I sit in the corner and watch a room full of people mingle and laugh, ostracized by that stupid language barrier. But there is nothing I can do, but do my best to slowly and painfully wade my way into this language... and hope that I can deal with the frustration.
This week we had temple tour training, and then temple tours. Next to the temple in Taipei there is a beautiful stake center, and the last mission presidents wife had the inspiration to set up the halls as something of a museum. They are lined with paintings of Christ, and of our churches history, and of gospel stories and topics. With the wonderful view of the temple to aid us, sisters give tours of the building and use the paintings and the temple to acquaint people with the gospel. Missionaries can bring in investigators, members can bring in friends, and the sisters tackle people off the street and drag them inside for a free tour. There are sisters assigned to the 'Temple Square' but also a couple of times a week other sisters in areas close enough take turns to give tours for a day, allowing the square sisters to go procilite. We had a workshop type training Wednesday, and then Thursday we spent all day in Taipei giving tours. Its really fun, I love the temple and I love dealing with such powerful visual media. I really wish my Chinese was up to par to really explain the paintings to these people. Someday I hope that I can be a temple square sister. The two that are there right now are amazing! A sister Hintzy and a sister Hsu. I have a special place in my heart for Sister Hintzy because the first day I was here in Taiwan she was the first missionary I did the work with.
And interesting story I would like to share. On Saturday we had an appointment with a woman we came in contact with (well Sister Li came in contact with, I was on exchanges) through a recent convert, that was very very excited to meet with us. We arrived at her house and she was pleasant enough, but after entering the doorway and the entry hall I almost ran into a GIANT Buddhist shrine, it had three different levels and literally took up most of her living room.
We sat and she gave us oranges and water, then she excused herself to go pray and change the incense, it took about 10 minutes, and I became pretty sure it was for our benefit. Shortly there after, before we really even got to talk to her, a man came over as if just to stop by briefly. Then he saw us and decided to sit down and engage us in conversation. Well engage sister Li in conversation, the atmosphere was thick with intense smoke and I was utterly confused. The lady kept praying and doing things around the alter, then looking to see if we were watching, then asking us to write out our names and buddhist prayers for her. Sister Li solidly told her we could not. She kept trying to get us to participate in 'activities', I had no idea what they would be but the longer we were there the more I felt the spirit ebb away. Especially when that man pulled out a picture of Christ healing the blind and told us (I later learned through sister Li) that Christ was actually doing this buddhist ritual and got very passionate then started quoting the Bible. Sister Li told him she didn't know the bible in Chinese because she was actually American and he whipped out a blown up picture of the American dollar bill and smacked it on the table before us and demanded if we knew the mysteries of God then, then told us that they were right there. In the dollar bill (translation later provided by sister Li). Then the lady we'd come to see came over very close to me and tried for the 6th or 7th time to get us to participate in this ritual. Sister Li refused but the woman was insistent and apparently wanted to show us because suddenly she was on top of me, stroking her finger down my nose and then covering my eyes and whispering in my ear. It took all my control not to break that woman over the coffee table in front of me. My skin crawled and I felt unclean. The spirit was gone. Then another woman entered the room and she more or less told the other two to back off. She'd come in contact with missionaries before (she named two sisters by name) and she told the other two that they must respect our religion and that we could not do the things they were trying their hardest to persuade us to do because we were missionaries. She had us pray for her, she had some kind of illness, then Sister Li was able to excuse us. As we were leaving the woman we came to see followed us to the door proclaiming on me blessings and prophesying (sister Li told me later that she'd told me to become a vegetarian and to spread my message with everyone I came in contact with among other things).
It was an interesting experience, but I don't think we are ever going back there.
We baptized three little boys on Saturday night, and another miracle occurred the next day. Their father came to sacrament meeting and all three boys got up and tried trembling and almost speechless to bear their testimonies for the first time in front of a congregation. Then we were informed later that day that a friend of the Bishop's daughter that we have been teaching had good news. She has been attending church secretly for months, she lives with her grandparents and her mother sometimes though not all the time (I'm not sure on the details...sometimes people don't translate these things for me), and all strongly oppose of any kind of religion change. In her mothers words "As long as I am alive, you will never be christian." We have all been praying and last week she accepted a baptismal date with trepidation for the first of the year. She was afraid to even bring up the fact that she had been attending a christian church much less that she wanted to be baptized. But slowly this week she had been approaching the subject "Oh, my friend taught me about prayer today" and the like. Then Friday night her Grandmother told her suddenly "You know, if you would like to go to church, you should go."
See. The Lord does care. :)
Well, I think this is long enough now. So I'll be off. Until next week my friends, I love you all.
My first Christmas away from home, and I"m dealing :) Much thanks to my mother and her wonderful fully stocked Christmas kit, complete with tree and decorations.
Its funny with Christmas here. I can ride my bike down a street packed side to side with shops and look in the windows and see Christmas items for sale. Some places have trees set up in the lobbies (like our apartment complex and many others) and giant blow up Santa's that wave, but its kind of empty. Its not in their culture, its something they have adapted from the westernization that is taking the world by storm. But they don't have the spirit that accompanies the season. Its just missing. In America, even with the mass marketing of Christmas, the very air is different, cheerful. People are kinder, they care, they are happier (for the most part), they are with family, and there is a glow in faces and smiles. Its because even with the mass material focus we still more or less remember why we have Christmas. Here people lack that, lack anything of an understanding for the most part, and so the holiday's presence almost seems like a mockery. I just want to tell them all. I wish they could really experience what IS Christmas.
Last night we had a dinner party with all the singles in the ward here. It was like a Christmas/thanksgiving party that they have been throwing for 5 years in a row now. It was pretty nice, there was a lot of food, including American dishes like a turkey (legit, with a wonderful herb rosemary seasoning) and mashed potatoes with bacon, then there were dishes with a Asian twist, like a casserole with sweet potatoes and curry. It was all delicious. Home made cinnamon roles and about 5 different cakes and Costco (yay!) ice cream for dessert. It was fun, but isolating. The more Chinese I learn (which is not a lot, it seems to be going slower now :( ) the more I become aware that the less I understand and the less I can communicate. The first couple of weeks here I was completely in a foreign atmosphere so it was easy to be ignorant and clueless. But I have adjusted enough and have enough understanding now that I am just frustrated because people try to speak to me, or I try to speak to them and there is no communication, no understanding. So I sit in the corner and watch a room full of people mingle and laugh, ostracized by that stupid language barrier. But there is nothing I can do, but do my best to slowly and painfully wade my way into this language... and hope that I can deal with the frustration.
This week we had temple tour training, and then temple tours. Next to the temple in Taipei there is a beautiful stake center, and the last mission presidents wife had the inspiration to set up the halls as something of a museum. They are lined with paintings of Christ, and of our churches history, and of gospel stories and topics. With the wonderful view of the temple to aid us, sisters give tours of the building and use the paintings and the temple to acquaint people with the gospel. Missionaries can bring in investigators, members can bring in friends, and the sisters tackle people off the street and drag them inside for a free tour. There are sisters assigned to the 'Temple Square' but also a couple of times a week other sisters in areas close enough take turns to give tours for a day, allowing the square sisters to go procilite. We had a workshop type training Wednesday, and then Thursday we spent all day in Taipei giving tours. Its really fun, I love the temple and I love dealing with such powerful visual media. I really wish my Chinese was up to par to really explain the paintings to these people. Someday I hope that I can be a temple square sister. The two that are there right now are amazing! A sister Hintzy and a sister Hsu. I have a special place in my heart for Sister Hintzy because the first day I was here in Taiwan she was the first missionary I did the work with.
And interesting story I would like to share. On Saturday we had an appointment with a woman we came in contact with (well Sister Li came in contact with, I was on exchanges) through a recent convert, that was very very excited to meet with us. We arrived at her house and she was pleasant enough, but after entering the doorway and the entry hall I almost ran into a GIANT Buddhist shrine, it had three different levels and literally took up most of her living room.
We sat and she gave us oranges and water, then she excused herself to go pray and change the incense, it took about 10 minutes, and I became pretty sure it was for our benefit. Shortly there after, before we really even got to talk to her, a man came over as if just to stop by briefly. Then he saw us and decided to sit down and engage us in conversation. Well engage sister Li in conversation, the atmosphere was thick with intense smoke and I was utterly confused. The lady kept praying and doing things around the alter, then looking to see if we were watching, then asking us to write out our names and buddhist prayers for her. Sister Li solidly told her we could not. She kept trying to get us to participate in 'activities', I had no idea what they would be but the longer we were there the more I felt the spirit ebb away. Especially when that man pulled out a picture of Christ healing the blind and told us (I later learned through sister Li) that Christ was actually doing this buddhist ritual and got very passionate then started quoting the Bible. Sister Li told him she didn't know the bible in Chinese because she was actually American and he whipped out a blown up picture of the American dollar bill and smacked it on the table before us and demanded if we knew the mysteries of God then, then told us that they were right there. In the dollar bill (translation later provided by sister Li). Then the lady we'd come to see came over very close to me and tried for the 6th or 7th time to get us to participate in this ritual. Sister Li refused but the woman was insistent and apparently wanted to show us because suddenly she was on top of me, stroking her finger down my nose and then covering my eyes and whispering in my ear. It took all my control not to break that woman over the coffee table in front of me. My skin crawled and I felt unclean. The spirit was gone. Then another woman entered the room and she more or less told the other two to back off. She'd come in contact with missionaries before (she named two sisters by name) and she told the other two that they must respect our religion and that we could not do the things they were trying their hardest to persuade us to do because we were missionaries. She had us pray for her, she had some kind of illness, then Sister Li was able to excuse us. As we were leaving the woman we came to see followed us to the door proclaiming on me blessings and prophesying (sister Li told me later that she'd told me to become a vegetarian and to spread my message with everyone I came in contact with among other things).
It was an interesting experience, but I don't think we are ever going back there.
We baptized three little boys on Saturday night, and another miracle occurred the next day. Their father came to sacrament meeting and all three boys got up and tried trembling and almost speechless to bear their testimonies for the first time in front of a congregation. Then we were informed later that day that a friend of the Bishop's daughter that we have been teaching had good news. She has been attending church secretly for months, she lives with her grandparents and her mother sometimes though not all the time (I'm not sure on the details...sometimes people don't translate these things for me), and all strongly oppose of any kind of religion change. In her mothers words "As long as I am alive, you will never be christian." We have all been praying and last week she accepted a baptismal date with trepidation for the first of the year. She was afraid to even bring up the fact that she had been attending a christian church much less that she wanted to be baptized. But slowly this week she had been approaching the subject "Oh, my friend taught me about prayer today" and the like. Then Friday night her Grandmother told her suddenly "You know, if you would like to go to church, you should go."
See. The Lord does care. :)
Well, I think this is long enough now. So I'll be off. Until next week my friends, I love you all.
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