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
Monday, November 14, 2011
Holland, Hits, and the Missionary Experience,
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