Transfer 6

Transfer 6

So, before I get to the exciting point that I know you are all waiting for...move calls...let me recap a little of what happened this week!

Tuesday was at the temple, my favorite thing. We had an awesome day there doing tours and sharing the gospel right next to the house of the Lord. We even taught a tour in English, and Wu Jiemei, my native companion, did awesome. Her English is pretty good, but she is too shy to ever use it around anyone but me on occasion.

Wednesday we had an awesome district meeting with several object lessons and candy provided by the Zone Lords. They are an amusing couple. One of them is from Australia, there are quite a few of Australian's in the Taipei mission. Then I finally passed off phase 1! The mission provides a few study programs for the missionaries here, calling them Phases 1-3. Phase 1 is the lessons, useful lesson vocabulary, memorable phrases, and some grammar principles, and other things. To pass off phase 1 you must teach your district leader and zone leaders every lesson and have them test you on all the qualifications before you can move on to phase 2. I hate phase one, and it dragged me down for far too long. I'm excited to move on to some more freedom in my language study time. Phase 2 consists of a larger vocabulary not just limited to Gospel terms and useful sentence patterns on flash cards. Phase 3 is the character learning part.

Saturday was another baptism for the elders! It was another good one, and afterwards we had a ward family home evening where all of the missionaries, that being Sister Wu and I, and two elders (VanDrew and Woodruff) performed a wonderful song with our glorious musical talents. We were accompanied by our favorite two new members on ukuleles. It was actually pretty good actually. I think everyone was impressed.

Sunday we had church, and a surprise birthday for my companion. Her birthday is today, and since most missionaries (me excluded) only get one mission birthday we wanted it special. It was very hard to organize what with me being chained to her side all the time but we worked out a surprise. She thought we were headed to the church for a ward activity yesterday night, and she was all prepped to give her 'assigned' lesson. She spent an hour preparing in personal study haha. We got to the church and she wondered where everyone was, we opened the chapel door and almost died when everyone screamed "SHENGRI KUILE" or happy birthday. The curtains of the stage pulled back to dramatically reveal our dinner lovingly prepped by the same to new members (they really are our favorite) and we partied. Sister Wu was glowing. It was a good night.

Now, for the drum roll. Move calls were Friday night and we waited with anticipation, wondering who was going to leave. The calls came and the news was surprising. No one moved! Our entire district is still the very same. I have to say, this time around I am not too disappointed about this. Most of the time I get this antsy feeling around the end of the transfer and am ready for a change of scenery and faces. But I'm excited that Banqiao is my first place to linger more than one area, and I am excited to do so with Wu Jiemei. We get along in a most excellent way and she helps my Chinese so much. I will probably go senior next transfer so I need all the Chinese help I can get!

We should have some baptisms this next transfer so I am excited to start.

To everyone who so faithfully reads my emails, thank you all for your support. I really appreciate your prayers and your letters. I love you all!

Sister Melissa Thiessen