I must say that I have quite the unusual start to missionary work. Where do I begin. After the flight (to LA and then Osaka and then Taipei) we were met by Pres. Nielson, his wife, the assistants and the bendiren missionaries from other parts of Taiwan. I was the only sister from Provo MTC, but there were 4 Taiwanese sisters that I roomed with and spent the next couple of days with. We trained at the mission home and spent some time with the pres. and his wife.
One of the mornings we went to the Grand Hotel in Taipei to a place where Elder Mark E. Peterson dedicated the church in 1959. It was in a more secluded place with lots of trees... and well, we all know the mosquitoes feichang ai wode xie... and because they love my blood so much they bit through my nylons. Lets say that while we were supposed to be saying our own "dedicatory prayer" that the only thing I could prayer for was for the mosquitoes to stop biting me. I took some fun pictures of my bites :)
Well, we met our trainers and my trainer is a fellow ABC from Georgia, CA who also went to BYU. Sister Teh has been here for over a year and she is great! Its going to be fun working with her. And her most recent companion was Sister Lai, and the 3 of us have been living together for the past few days in an area called Bade. Tim, Sis Lai worked at Teriyaki Stix at BYU, so she knows us from my freshman year, haha.
Sister Teh and I
So the reason why I say that my first few days have been unusual is because there was a typhoon that came through that wrought all havoc. We couldn't leave the apartment and we were stranded inside and I thought we were going to go crazy. We couldn't even go to church and 2 Elders had to help us with the sacrament on our ironing board. But, I guess it was HEavenly Father's way of telling me that I need to be more excited and have more desire to get out and get tired. And well, I am excited to be able to walk around!
The first night out, before the typhoon however we bought a bike for me and rode to an appointment at the chapel, which was about a 20 min ride. Wow, I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life. It was pouring rain, and it was night time, and tons of cars and scooters all around us... But I toughened up and made it, soaking wet, to the appointment.
So this morning we banjia-ed and moved from Bade to Xizhi and we are in the process of moving into our new apartment, which is very nice :). I've had my first taste of real Taiwanese food and I know I am going to enjoy it very much.
So even though I've been eaten by mosquitoes and have been forced to stay inside for days (only to eat ramen noodles and toast... gross) I know that this is what I need to be doing right now and that this area, Xizhi- (did I mention that we are whitewashing the area? 2 missionaries that both don't know the area and don't know the members, lucky us) has elect people and that we need to find them! I know this gospel is true and that it truly can bring happiness into our lives.
