Birthday Week!

L R



Left to Right-
1 & 2- Missionary thanksgiving
3 Halloween Box from Mom
4 Our investigator
5 Asian Thanksgiving
6 My Birthday Lunch
7 Party Girls - Halloween
8 Another Loooong Day
9 Taiwan Fruit Stand
10 Skit planning
11 Decorations for Halloween




This week went by really fast, but also very well. Sister Holm and I were blessing with a lot of success this week. We had a lot of very good lessons and found some promising new investigators. This week we also had a zone conference, it was good to see other missionaries that I know and love and be able to take a rest for a moment and just enjoy the training. Thanksgiving was also this week though it passed much without fanfare until Saturday when the three wards that we are in charge of had their thanksgiving parties. Three of them on the same day, which meant that we got to attend three different feasts. Its a strange thing to be in Taiwan celebrating a holiday that is completely to do with American history but the food was still good all the same...if not a little Asian. Ok, well a lot Asian. Asian and western food have many very large and very obvious differences. Ha. The best part was the pumpkin pie, a REAL pumpkin pie. Pie is not something that is found in Taiwan, and so we were blessed to have members go to Costco and buy real American pie and rolls.

We had 3 parties to attend, needless to say we ate a lot. We (all the missionaries) also ended up doing a small skit about the origin of thanksgiving. The Pilgrim and Indian story. out of the 8 or us we had 3 pilgrims (me included), 3 Indians, an evil king, and a narrator because we didn't speak at all on the stage. Sister Holm and I made props and costumes out of paper and card bord and I had a lot of fun making pilgrim hats and Indian feathers and the mayflower to us to sail across the stage. It was pretty amusing, I'm going to be honest. I'm going to try to attach a picture but due to technical difficulties and a full memory card we only got half of the skit. We will have to get the rest from a member to recorded it too.

We have been watching one of our LAs (Less actives), a Gao jiemei come back to church this transfer. Actually she probably counts as an NA (absolutely not active). She was baptized 30 years ago and then after a short period of time fell away because she got married to a non member and he didn't exactly support her Christianity. We found her again at the end of last transfer when she ran into one of our elders on the road one day. Then she started meeting with us and retaking the lessons. She didn't remember anything after 20 something years. She has come to church every Sunday since then, even though she's been sick a couple of times and busted up her arm another time. She did an un-Taiwanese thing and came to church in a sling and on pain drugs. She is a solid one. She was afraid to begin with that she didn't know anyone, but it has been amazing to see the ward leap into action. The relief society has been all over the situation, we had a few peikes and suddenly she is in with all the leaders of the ward. They enveloped her in a big blanket of warm welcome-ness. Yesterday at church she brought her 20 year old son, not a member. She has a lot of bravery, and her testimony is coming back in full force. I have little doubt her family will come along slowly and she will get the temple marriage she longs for someday. It has been a miracle to watch in her life as she has started to change herself once more, with the determination of the righteous.

Its my birthday today! I'm a whole 23! A year older and so much the wiser...Well at least older. I left the planning up to my companion and the elders in my district today and they chose to leave me out of the loop in a surprise-itory spirit so we'll see how it plays out.

I love you all! Be sure to infect everyone you can with a cheerful holiday spirit. The holidays are now officially on!
Sister Melissa Thiessen

Thankful, Turkeys and Baptisms

Another week trundling by, and it brings us to the beginning of the holiday season already. Thanksgiving is only days away. My zone had a lovely thanksgiving meal last p-day in preparation. We and some of the more considerate elders spent most of the morning and day in the kitchen preparing our feast. It was actually pretty legit. We (sister Holm and I) went with the zone leaders to Costco (the home of American foods in Taiwan) two weeks ago to buy food in preparation. It was an amusing bustle of energy as we all bounced around the kitchen in the muddled blunder of children trying to figure out how mom does it. Most directing was done by either Sister Holm or I and the Zone leaders. One of the zone leaders, Elder Harr (the tallest Elder in the mission, he is 6'8") grew up the oldest in a family of 10, so he had some skills, and he was the main organizer. We blundered our way through making roast chicken (turkey was too expensive for our poor missionary wallets) with carrots and onions, home made gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, Costco rolls, corn, Sister Holm and I managed to make some pretty good stuffing from scratch, candied carrots, and to top it all off at the end we had real pumpkin pie! It was a great turn out. The Elders were even all gentlemen and let S. Holm and I get food first.

The week itself passed just as swiftly as it ever does. We had exchanges and a special training meeting this week which helped it to speed by. I got to have a really good experience on Saturday. The day started off not so good. It was dumping both Saturday and Friday. I don't know if you have ever ridden a bike in the pouring rain in a skirt in Taiwan traffic before, but it is not my favorite thing to do in the world. It is really quite miserable actually. We had a full day of lessons all set up and ready to go, and new investigators waiting to be met with. Then every single lesson we had that day, even the regular investigators, either canceled or stood us up. It was kind of miserable, and I was sort of having a really bummer day, but there were a couple of instances that brought the sunshine out in my personal gloom. My companion wanted to go eat pasta, our special happy food here in Taiwan, and I didn't really have the money for it. Expenses are tight this month, and I was very hesitant but she really wanted to go. So we went, and when we were getting ready to leave after some excellent pumpkin pasta (it was so good) she had already paid for me. Then there was a baptism that night but since it was in the neighboring city of Zhubei we couldn't go unless we found an investigator to go with us. Sister Holm was a trooper and called every single investigator and potential in our phone while I was doing paper work. It looked like no one was going to go until that night we suddenly got a call from one of our most luke-warm investigators saying that she could go. So we went.

Now this baptism was important because it was the baptism of someone I personally contacted and started teaching when I was serving in Zhubei. Sister Choi and I were in a park one night contacting and it was a really bad situation because there was a concert going on in the amphitheater in the park and it was really noisy and loud. We rounded a corner around a wall and I saw two girls getting on scooters, and I immediately got the feeling that I should go talk to them, so I did, and pretty much right off the start we got into prayer and they agreed to come to church the next day and start meeting with us. They were sisters, the little sister got too busy to keep meeting, but the older sister Peng Lanxuan got baptized on Saturday night. It was a really really good baptism and she was totally prepared. She was glowing with happiness and I was so very happy to go. She was happy to see me, I wasn't sure if I'd made much of an impression on her but in her testimony after baptism (which was beautiful) she used an example that I had used with her the very first night that I met her. I'd told her that we are all seeking happiness in this life, but the happiness the world could give us was like eating an ice cream cone. You eat it and its delicious, creamy and good, but then its all gone and so is your happiness. I told her that this gospel would give her a happiness that the world couldn't take away. She said that I was right and that she'd indeed found it, and looking at her face you knew that it was true. She was so happy. After the baptism I was reflecting on the experience. Maybe its a more regular thing for a missionary to see the people they personally contact get baptized but I've never had it happen before, due to my transfer by transfer moving trend. But even though I moved this time too, I was so grateful to be able to attend. To think that she made this change in her life that will have eternal consequences because I followed a simple prompting is an awesome and overwhelming thing. She is only 20 years old. She has her whole life ahead of her. Because she talked to me that night she will start a life in the gospel, maybe serve a mission (that would not be out of the question in taiwan really) have a chance to marry a worthy priesthood holder in the temple, raise children in the church, and have them grow up through young mens/womens and maybe serve missions of their own and get married for time and all eternity. This has changed her whole future and brought it to a completely different and eternal track course from that which it would have taken.

I'm grateful that I got the chance to watch that. It was very inspiring. In light of thanksgiving let me just say that there are a lot of things that I have to be thankful for. The more I see in Taiwan with the broken families, the stress and the constant social and economical pressures I realize exactly how very much I am blessed to be from where I am from, in the family that I belong so happily too and privileged with so many things and experiences. I am truly humbled and grateful that my heavenly father has watched over me so closely and given me the opportunity to better appreciate what I have. Take a look around you this week my friends and see everything that you have, from the carpet on your floor to the car that you drive and the people that love you. And be thankful for it dang it. Cause I can tell you from experience, life just ain't the same or as sweet without that carpet.

Have a good week my friends. Next week is my birthday! I will be 23. I'm so old! >.<
Sister Melissa Thiessen

Holland, Hits, and the Missionary Experience,

 Hello everyone,
how was your week? Good? I hope so. Things in xinzhu are thriving, if
not very interesting this week. We had a longish week, Sister Holm had a
migraine for much of it, so it was pretty easy going as far as
missionary weeks go. We spent a lot of time resting her head. But she
was a trooper, she rode her bike around back and forth in the dumping
rain to get to and from some more important lessons. Or we stayed at the
church and she hibernated on the pews in the chapel while I did what I
could. She still has a headache from it, but its functional now. towards
the end of the week I also started to get sick, that pre-sick
blah-gross feeling was like a little personal raincloud. It hung over me
with rude stubbornness and made it hard to get work done.


Saturday was probably one of the more interesting days I've had on
my mission. The morning was fairly normal, with lessons and meetings.
Then we went to buy some food for Sunday at the local RT mart (the
Taiwanese Walmart, only not as good) and we ran into one of our ward's
young men's leaders. He was standing by the toiletries section, looking a
little terrified. He was staring at something so adamantly that he
didn't notice us at first. When he did his face passed from horrified to
see someone he knew to relieved when he realized who we were. Women.
You see he had a problem. Hi mother had sent him to buy her some
feminine products, with very specific qualifications. But he had no idea
how to find them and he was too embarrassed to even near the center of
the isle mountain (literally, it was huge) of pads with tons of people
milling around in their ant-ish way. So we took pity on him and helped
him out. Then once they were located he was horrified at the thought of
checking out with them, a single man. So we helped him buy them while he
waited in obscurity outside the store. When I gave them to him he hid
them under his coat and then looked around suspiciously as if we were
being watched before he hurried away with his secret. He was so grateful
he brought us cake on Sunday haha.


But the more interesting story is what happened Saturday night.
After RT mart we rushed back to the chapel in the nick of time to meet
with one of our favorite investigators, Yasmine. She was going to have a
lesson with us and then take us to dinner. The lesson was very good, it
went well. So we all piled in her little Taiwanese commuter car and she
took us to this very nice curry restaurant. But there wasn't any space
outside the restaurant as parking in non-existent in Taiwan. So she let
us out outside the restaurant and went to go find parking. We waited
outside for 10 minutes or so for her. There was a table on a balcony
outside with a bunch of white people eating a drinking, this Taiwanese
man was standing next to the railing talking to them when he noticed us
standing there, and starts talking to us in pretty good English. He was a
little drunk, and lightly started hitting on us, so we moved inside and
they found us a table. There were a lot of white people in there. More
than I have seen in a very long time. I was an odd out-of-place feeling.
Then I realized it wasn't just because there were so many white people,
it was because the restaurant was more or less a bar. Yasmine still
wasn't to be found so we stood about and waited for her. We made friends
with some nice exchange students from Holland, and then 30 minutes
later tried to call Yasmine and found out our phone was locked and we
didn't have the code to unlock it. Great. So we could only wait. A drunk
man gave us a special invitation to stay at the bar after hours because
they had it specially reserved for the patrons that knew about this
party. We got hit on some more. The party got pretty rowdy. An hour
later Yasmine still wasn't there. What could have happened? We used the
bar phone to call her and she said she'd be there in a minute, she
sounded a little frazzled on the phone but wouldn't say what was up. So
we could only wait. We got offered Beer, and other alcohol. A lot. My
companion called a few drinkers to repentance. We got hit on some more.
We found out it was a wedding party we had stumbled in on. And it hit me
that I was very happy to be part of a religion where our celebrations
don't merely exist on drinking yourself stupid for our amusement. It was
a weird feeling to be back into this part of worldly culture,
especially so westernized as it was. It was something that I hadn't seen
in a very long time, and I had a detached kind of fascination as I
watched these people smoke and drink and flirt, and I knew what very
well would come later. It was sad to watch. An hour and a half went by,
she still wasn't there. We talked to a lot of the party goers. They were
mostly drunk, our Holland friends joined the revelries, and we were
offered more alcohol. We had one guy accuse us of wanting to go home
with him. 2 hours later She still wasn't there. We ordered food and ate
per her request. And we waited. We couldn't leave, we had no way to get
anywhere. She finally arrived and explained in a very anxious and
embarrassed manner that she'd accidentally hit another parked car and
they'd called the police on her and wouldn't let her run back here and
tell us or anything of the manner. She was very distraught and sorry
that she had wasted our time. She is such a sweet and very innocent
woman, I felt sorry for her, she'd planned a good dinner with friends
and it had gone so very wrong. We left the party, and said good night to
all of our new friends and went home pondering the weirdness that had
just happened. It was a very strange experience for a missionary. It
really did feel like I was segregated from the world in that situation,
like there was a very clear line and division. And they knew it too.
People there even commented on it.


Anyway, This Wednesday is a big day. It is my year mark on island. I
will have been in Taiwan for a whole year. That is a little bit of a
crazy thought. I only have 3 and a half months remaining. My dear friend
Sister Amber Westover, who decided with me that we would serve missions
(she got called to Boise ID) only has one transfer left and as I read
her email today it was a big impact of how short the time is. That is
almost me. Then its back to real life and all the complications. Not
that I think that will be a bad thing, but hard for me to envision right
now. Its like a time warp is swirling around me and I've taken the
safety glasses off.


Well that's that for this week. I love you all. Remember where your
priorities lie people, and have a good week!
Love Melissa Thiessen

melissa.thiessen@myldsmail.net

Taiwan, Taipei Mission
Sister Melissa Thiessen
F4, No.24, Lane 183, Chin Hua St.
106-42 Taipei, TAIWAN

Week...66?

Week...66?

I think that's the number of weeks that I've been out...don't quote me on that I guess...I have 16 weeks left at this point though and time is getting a little ridiculous. It seems like the weeks are rushing by me because of everything we are doing here. We have so many meetings in this area. With three wards it seems like we have a coordination meeting every day, and if not that its a district meeting or an English class or another special training meeting. I guess that's ok, they break up the time a little bit.

Mission life is going well. We are still plugging along here. We have had a lot of investigators die off this week, which lessens our numbers and allows us more time for finding new people I guess. We haven't had too much time to find recently. But we have had some really good lessons with our investigators this last week. We had a couple where we found out some issues that were important in their progression. And we got 5 people to church! Which is a very good thing if they can continue to come. Getting people to church makes me want to pull my hair out sometimes. People are far to busy in their lives for God. If God was too busy for all of us, or even a few of us, I think the globe would stop spinning.

This week we had our temple day. First off let me say I love the temple. It makes everything look brighter. We had a good day up in Taipei. And I also love Taipei. Its got an energy all of its own, like a life-beat that you feel growing as your train moves closer to the central focus of the top of the island. But I am glad that I don't serve there, I like serving in the less intensely populated slightly less pressured 'south west' of our mission. It is still the city, there is no escaping that on this island, but it is less than the mega-metropolis of Taipei. On Thursday and Friday we had companion exchanges with the Zhubei sisters, Sister Choi and Sister Wang. They have it hard as a companionship but I think that their relationship is improving. Sister Holm and I have our share of issues, as all companionships do, but we are pretty lucky as far as that goes, it makes me grateful for her being my companion.

Taiwan is still hot. The weather here feels like summer still. Hot and sometimes very muggy. But they tell me that they can tell the winter is coming on because the wind is getting pretty ferocious. Here in Xinzhu the winter wind is pretty fearsome I hear. I am starting to get a taste for that. Its a little hazardous as a sister wearing a skirt...It must be minded on a bike, on the street, and especially while talking to people. We will get over it somehow.

Well I guess that is all the exciting news I have for this week. My birthday is fast approaching and I can't believe that I will be 23 already. Where has my life gone? It seems like its been here in Taiwan for years. I have trouble sometimes remembering my pre-mission life in great detail. Its a little pathetic, but now I understand all the silly missionary talk that I always heard before. I guess it something that you have to experience before you really get it. I love you all. Remember that missionaries love letters! And we also pray for all of you.

Sister Melissa Thiessen

Halloween

Halloween!

We had a long week this week because of the moving of our P-day. But that'k ok because we get the temple! Yay. So this blog will have to be really short. Sorry friends.

We got to have a legit Halloween this year. one of our wards has a member that used to Live in the Us and she knows what is what. She is a great lady. She is also the primary president, so she threw the best Halloween party that Taiwan has ever seen. There were tons of children in attendance. there were even games like trunk or treat, pin the nose on the pumpkin, bobbing for apples and doughnuts on a string. There was also a ton of delicious American food and desserts. Mmm. My waistline feels it. It was a great turn out. We spent most of Saturday helping her set up. I was reveling in the Hallo-weeny feeling. That's ok, next Halloween I will celebrate in double for all of it that I missed here.

Besides that little party not too much happened, which is good because I gotta go! Our taxi is here to take us to the train station! I love you all tons and tons! you are in my prayers!
Sister Thiessen