This week has been interesting to say the least. I'm liking Danshui, the ward is full of very interesting people, so is the city itself.
Next Saturday there are two members of the ward getting married in the Taipei Temple and we are allowed to go because we are participating in the reception after. We are dancing...on Friday night we gathered with our district leader and his companion (an Elder who came in the transfer after me in the MTC, so I know him :) ) and the members of the ward to practice this dance...it was...awkward. But it is a service to the ward so we will bravely grin and bear this trial.
Sister Li was very sick this week, she was in bed all of the first day and the second day we were able to work but she still has a gut wrenching cough. I am doing all I can NOT to get it.
We have a Spanish speaking investigator! Its a very difficult situation. She seems to really really love the gospel, she seems to really, really want baptism, but we don't know what her motives are because we cannot really communicate. She speaks very little Mandarin, and very little English, mainly just Spanish. She has 4 children under the age of 10 and the oldest boy sometimes tries to translate but it's a difficult situation. I don't know how much of what we teach her gets through. She came to church on Sunday, but she pretty much refused to talk to anyone. She sat and read her Spanish gospel principles as if it were her only line to reality. She refused our help. I'm really not sure how to read this lady. We are praying about how to help her.
Last night we had a very interesting experience. My companion and I both had our very first run in with Jehovah's Witness members. Sister Li set up a lesson with one of them and she had no idea who they were, I warned her but as we arrived to the lesson (at a Mos Burger, a restaurant kind of like a McDonalds. What an interesting place to teach.) She realized that she'd forgotten her bible...great. This young woman had brought an older woman with her, and as soon as we sat down I knew where this lesson would go. They did not want to open with a prayer, they did not want to get to know us, they whipped out their bibles and their knowledge and the battle began. What a precarious situation! I knew where they were going but poor Sister Li had no idea. She didn't understand their questions and didn't have a way to answer since she had no scriptures and I couldn't understand the conversation though I had a general idea of what they wanted and how to deal with it. They loaned Sister Li a bible (they all carry around multiples?) and she later told me it was very very different. I did my best in broken Chinese and English to converse with them but it was painful, and the situation grew almost contentious. It lasted far too long, Sister Li tried to end it with the Book of Mormon but they refused even to touch it. They were Very adamant about wanting absolutely nothing to do with it. Almost seeming afraid of it. When we asked them for their testimony on the scriptures or on their church they could not give us one, they would repeat "let me show you a scripture." Sister Li and I decided that they had nothing but scriptural knowledge, they miss the essential testimony, the personal knowledge that makes our gospel unique.
After the lesson we were talking outside the restaurant and donning our rain gear. Our bikes were crammed into a row of scooters with bare inches between. I set my bag on the seat of a scooter nearby to handle my things and then we rode home up a huge hill then another. 20 minutes later we rolled into the parking garage of our complex and I opened the box on my bike and found to my horror that my bag was not in its place. I realized with more horror that I must have left it on that scooter and that this bag contained all of my most very important items, i.e. wallet with identification, visa card, money, credit cards, scriptures...yeah. We said a hasty pleading prayer and booked it back in a panic. We got back to Mos Burger 10 minutes later (it takes about half the time when you get to go down the big hill.) and miracle of miracles my bag was still sitting on that scooters seat. Untouched by the throng of people passing by who only had to hook out a hand and carry it away unstopped by anyone. I was massively grateful, so grateful that riding up that hill again wasn't so bad.
So that is my miracle for the week.
I hope you are all well!
Missing you from Taiwan!