Ni Hao!
It's been another great week in Xinzhu. Last Pday after a 45 min
train ride, we went to the beach! It was the first time in a few years I went.
It was fun! We are on the west coast of Taiwan!
My comp, Sis. Shek is great! She is from Hong Kong but speaks
amazing English. She went to BYU Hawaii last year. We both have been here in
Taiwan for 3 months. We are still learning but with the Lord's help can make
it. Our Zone leaders who we share the area with have been a big help (one is
Elder Scovel from my first area in Bade) and said that they know that God
really trusts us with the area and that we can do it, especially since we are
both breaking each other.
BIG NEWS! The Dominican Republic family in my last area is
getting baptized on July 2nd! I reeallly hope I can get permission from
President Jergensen to attend. It's about an hour train ride and a taxi ride
away to Ba De one way, but it will be soooo worth it. It's kinda hard to attend
baptisms unless its right after transfers (and it's close by), the person
getting baptized explicitly stated that you needed to be there, or if you’re
performing the baptism.
Also, at the English unit leader meeting last week, president
started getting emotional after telling the story of seeing that the 2 Spanish
speakers were assigned to ba de. He had a busy few weeks with the 60th
anniversary celebration of the first missionaries in Taiwan and transfers so he
got caught behind in emails and felt terrible after reading Sister Bain’s and
my email about needing Spanish speaking missionaries for the super prepared Dom.
Rep. family. He felt super guilty and bad that he was too late, but then went
over to the board and saw they were in ba de and got emotional because he knew
God was helping him and that he was looking over this family. It was a cool
reminder. He even told this story at a RC fireside in Taipei a few days before.
I was grateful to be a part of it.
I am now the English unit leader in our area. It's been kind of
a rough ride, but hopefully I can get through it. Our district consists of Zone
leaders, STL's in our apartment, and the District leader and his companion, so
a lot of leadership position. It's funny, It was a Ba De party yesterday - 4
out of the 6 people from my first district in Ba De are now in Xinzhu. Sister
Bain (with district leader) goes to church at 9 am, Elder Tan (he's in an
area by Xinzhu) goes to church at around 11, and Elder Scovel (zone leader) and
I go to the same ward at 1. It's been fun to be together again in Xinzhu.
A few weeks ago my trainer read an email from a friend of hers
serving in an area by Russia, talking about having to help an elderly member go
to the hospital after having a stroke (the country has really bad medical care),
and then after her painful treatment by doctors and nurses, they had to walk
her up 9 flights of stairs to her apartment since there was no elevator. After
hearing that, it made me grateful to be here in Taiwan. I am also grateful for
being here at a time the church is established. Hearing Brother Kitchen's
experience being one of the first four missionaries in Taiwan made me even more
grateful. He told us that while on his mission, one of the missionaries was
riding his bike one day on their way to play basketball with university
students, and his tire hit a rut, he fell and hit his head. He was unconscious,
and died 3 days later from the head injury. Because Taiwan didn't
have embalming material at that time, his body had to be shipped to Hong Kong
for embalming then sent to the US since the Mission President (President
Heaton- probably a distant relative) is in Hong Kong. Brother Kitchen
then said that the body had to be frozen before being shipped to Hong Kong, and
that it was a traumatic experience having to carry the missionary’s frozen body
to be shipped to Hong Kong. He also talked about the struggle of learning the
language, of not having much church material in Chinese (not even the Book of Mormon),
but in the end after 3 years of his mission baptized 40 people, and there were
about 300 total baptized.
I met a lot of foreign people here! I've met people from Korea,
Dominican Republic, Caribbean (St. Vincent), Russia, Australia, and so on. I've
met a girl from Sao Paolo, Brazil who is here as an exchange student who speaks
English. She has a Mormon friend here too. She seemed interested. She goes home
to Brazil next month so hopefully the missionaries in Taoyuan can help her and
then she can join in Brazil. Miracle with her too, but I will write the story
next week super sorry out of time.
There's a new video on the mission website (taiwantaipeimission.com)
that shows some people from my MTC district (Elder Johnson, Sister Goo and
Elder Rushton). It's a good video for to see the missionaries in Taiwan.
It's about free English class that we teach in Taiwan. When you go on the
website, click on the English class announcement on the webpage (picture of a
free English class flyer), then the video should come up.
My MTC district just finished with training and are now
breaking. It seems like yesterday we were at the MTC. Our MTC district is doing
super great! Even my trainer at the trainer-trainee follow-up meeting two
months ago stated that we were an amazing generation. Elder Budd is helping
baptize a family from the Dominican Republic that I helped teach in my last
area, Sister Miller saw a whole family get baptized on the beach, Sister Goo
was part of the 60th anniversary celebration of when the first missionaries
came to Taiwan, and so on.
Thanks for your love and prayers! This has been a great week,
and I am realizing more and more how much of a blessing the gospel is to my
life. I am super grateful for the Lord for providing it for me as well as for
my family and friends. Remember to always follow the Lord and He will bless
you!
Love you all!
-Sister Brinkerhoff
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