HEYYYY EVERYONE!
Sorry I wasn't able to email last monday, because today is TEMPLE DAY!
I am so happy to live closer to Taipei again, it's so great. It's so weird, I swear I am the only missionary (other than Sister Bernhardt, my previous companion) who has never served in Taipei. I've served everywhere BUT Taipei (west and south coast), which is really weird since half the mission is like up in Taipei. The mission seems like it's split up in three areas -West Coast, South Coast, and Taipei. I think I will finish my mission where I started, in Taoyuan, since my comp will leave and I will only have six more weeks after that. Crazy, crazy stuff, time is flying far too fast. It's great thought, Heavenly Father knows exactly where I need to be.
My comp, Sister Huang, is doing great, her English is so good. It's so funny, the other missionaries have been teaching her the weirdest things in English, like threats. For example, she will say to the sister training leaders, " I will be very mean to you, I will kill you, I will be very angry (which they don't take seriously because it's cute)," and Elder Olsen in our ward taught her the word strangle. Sigh.
For example, she asked me, "What is the difference between sassy and sexy?" (Me inwardly slapping my hand on my forehead in exasperation at the sisters teaching her these things). She was wondering how to know which is which, since the pronunciation sounds the same. There's no word in Chinese for sassy, so it's been hard to kind of explain it. So many times she has been called cute as well as sassy. She lived in Russia for a year, and it somehow changed her accent, so I am not kidding, everyone she meets asks where she is from. Some even asked if she's from Hong Kong. She acts Taiwanese, but her accent says otherwise, it's pretty funny. It's gonna get worse when she acquires a British accent in England.
Exciting news! I got the call last Monday from my companion, Sister Bernhardt, in Yuli that our investigator Sister Pong got baptized! She is such a cute mom, I'm so excited!
So this is what happened this week:
Emergency Room
It was 11 and I was in the middle of my prayers, and my comp was like, "Sister Bei, I don't feel good." She was having sharp pains in her side to the point where she wasn't able to move, crying and breathing heavily. I gave her advil (they don't have it in Taiwan), then we called the mission nurse, and she suggested we go to the emergency room because it could be appendicitis. So the other sisters we room with called an ambulance and I got stuff ready, the ambulance came and got me and her. It was a dream come true! I got to ride in an ambulance (with someone not seriously injured), it was fun! :) Then we get to the emergency room, and she's like, "I don't have the pain anymore." Turns out, the pain went away while on the ambulance because the advil kicked in after taking it for 30 min. The ER's in taiwan are the worst at night, it's pretty much one open room with beds and just curtains to pull around, no privacy other than the curtains around the bed. The lights were on and doctors were just right there, it would be hard to sleep. Not to mention the loved ones with the patients in the er only have a chair to sit on, it' s not very comfortable and harder to sleep. It was funny, brought back memories of going to the ER with my companion sister Scharman in Yuli.
The doctors took a blood test. My comp, Huang JM, like me doesn't like needles or getting blood drawn. I told her to count to 10 in Russian for me to help her not think about it. The nurse didn't do a good job, so it took longer, so I had to tell my comp to count to 10 in Russian over and over again. She misses Russia, and really wants to ice skate cause she did it there. she doesn't understand why Americans don't really like Russians.
After a few tests, she was declared fine and we went home. Thankfully, with God's grace, we were there for only two hours. We took the taxi home, and at 1:20 am, I found myself at home saying prayers again. My comp is fine. It was God's blessing, my comp said she was praying that she would be okay so we could go to the temple, since I haven't gone since last July.
A Huge Spider
We were about to teach our investigator, Guan Cheng, Feng (meaning Successful Phoenix, which is why I gave her the English name Phoenix) at the church, when we got a call from her. She said she couldn't come to the lesson because of a spider at the door entrance. So my comp, the member helping with the lesson (called a peike) Hong Jie Mei, and I went to her house. Long story short Guan JM threw the keys over her balcony, we opened up the door and went in (she lives on the second floor). We couldn't see the spider anywhere. In my mind I thought it was a small spider. We were looking for it, and finally my companion hit some curtains and a huge spider came running out! I am seriously not kidding, it was probably as big as my hand. My companion grabbed a broom and just hit it a few times. Our investigator then came with us to the church for the lesson.
Yesterday, not even before getting off my bike at the park, some 40ish year old guy rides up to me and says in English, "Do you have a boyfriend?" I said no, he was like, "Can I buy you coffee?" I said no thank you, but invited him to English class. He didn't say a word and just drove away on his motorscooter. Don't know if he's doing that to a lot of people. The funny thing was that it didn't faze me, guess I'm so used to it on my mission. We then joked how women always talk to elders as we see the 40-year-old women talk to two sets of elders nearby. We even made a deal with our Tao1 elders that whoever gives the other the most investigators has to buy the other companionship steak dinner (it's only about 5 bucks, really great price), because guys on the street always talk to us, and women on the street always talk to elders. I even overheard a funny story from Sister Cullen the other night about one of the elders in our district. He was talking to three amahs (grandmas) and trying to get them interested in the gospel. Afterwards he said that he has never flirted so much in his life, it was so funny! He was jokingly calling them his girlfriends and just being a charming young man. The other day I showed my companion a flashcard for the word charming. The example given was that the Taiwanese find white people charming. My companion laughed and took a picture.
We finally moved apartments yesterday. We now live closer to our area, it doesn't take us 25 min to bike to our area anymore, now its just 5-7 min, so much nicer. I will miss living with Sisters Cullen and Armstrong, they are so funny. But like Preach My Gospel says, be will to make any sacrifices for your investigators, and we really need to be closer to our area.
Miracle! The moving company called two days ago and said they might come at 8 or 9 am. I wanted more time to get stuff ready to move so I prayed that they could come at 9, but if it's God's will, I'm fine with 8. Sure enough, right after exercises, they came at 8. Everything turned out fine, and it was a blessing they came earlier honestly. They got our stuff, we met at our new apartment, and put stuff in. By the time they left, it was about 10. We needed to leave our apartment by 10:30 to start proselyting or studies. If they had come at nine instead, we wouldn't have been able to get out the door on time. God really helped us when we moved out and helped us be obedient.
Spiritual Share
We are preparing for a really spiritual sacrament meeting on Mother's day! I have been inspired to do it based off of Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's October 2015 General Conference Talk called "Behold, Thy Mother." The goal of this is to have a spiritual sacrament meeting where members can invite family members and friends to learn about Christ.
We watched the video with the bishop. The Spirit definitely filled the room. It was a really different talk, because it's more of a sacred topic. Elder Holland's eyes were teary throughout the entire talk. The bishop's wife said afterwards that Elder Holland knows more about motherhood than most mothers do. She (as well as all of us) almost cried a few times. Even Elder Jensen who is one the Tao1 Elders (We are the Taoyuan 1st ward missionaries, or Tao1) said that he thought of his mom in the talk. I did too and was reminded of my mom's selfless sacrifice for me and our family. She is the most selfless person I know, and I am so grateful for her and her example.
Gotta go to the temple love you all!
Sister Brinkerhoff
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