This has been another whirlwind week! We thought the festivities were over after Pioneer Day, but it turns out Preston Idaho has a massive rodeo weekend. The weekend includes a parade every night, so Saturday night our entire zone got to march in the parade. It was huge! Unlike Trenton or Newton, where the entire parade took 20 minutes and more of the town was marching than watching, This parade took over an hour. We lined up a half hour early, and were kind of at the end of the line. Thirty minutes after the parade was supposed to start, we were still standing there, and we got kind of antsy. We were told that the parade always started on time, so we were confused as to why it was so late today. Finally, someone told us that the parade had started, we were just at the end, so thirty minutes in we still hadn't moved a step. Finally, we got moving. The senior missionaries were all up in a wagon throwing candy, and the mission president showed up in a horse-drawn carriage. Most of the Elders figured out a way to get on the wagon too, but the rest of us walked the whole time. It was more fun that way because we got to wave and give high fives. When I went to give one kid a high five, I saw his hand glistening as it came down. I braced myself for the squelchy impact, and spent the rest of the parade waving even more vigorously in hopes of drying the stickyness out. It didn't work. 

Parades are fun in Utah and Idaho, because everyone's Mormon and loves the missionaries. All along the street large groups of people started whooping and hollering 'yay missionaries!' as we walked past. It was weird to think that in a little bit I'll be in Taiwan where a large proportion of the people haven't even heard of Jesus, let alone the LDS church.

Sister Anderson and I are slowly getting a feel for the area more. Around here, everyone gives country directions: turn right at the white truck, continue on past the dip in the road, and it's the reddish barn-shaped house on the left. It's probably just as well, as half the road signs have fallen over, and one confused road has two road signs that say completely different things. I have tiny little maps drawn all over my notes. I've noticed that I've started to give directions this way too. It's so much easier to say 'the house across from Sister Benson's' than to try to count down how many roads from Main Street it is. The Utah grid system makes addresses very easy to find, and very hard to remember. I've also noticed that I'm picking up a bit of the accent. I've started dropping the Gs on words ending in 'ing, and dropping the Ts in words like 'mountain' and 'Newton' and 'Trenton'. It's getting to be very serious.

I love being a missionary in this area so, so much! Every day we get to walk around meeting kind people and sharing the best news in the world. I get to spend hours studying the gospel on my own, with a companion, and in Chinese. Every day, people ask us hard questions about life and God and religion, so I have a ton to study! I'm learning so much! When your every moment is taken up in meaningful work, it's quickly apparent where your weaknesses are. I'm learning more about myself every day, and hopefully I'm improving. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to devote my life to God, and to focus entirely on being the best missionary I can be, so that I can be ready for whatever He needs me to do.

Have an amazing week!

Hull Jiemei

Pics:

1. Today a nonmember our Sister Training Leaders are working with invited a bunch of us to breakfast and then out to a hike. It was gorgeous! In the picture are Sister Enkhbold, Sister Anderson, me, and Sister Bellu. Sister Enkhbold is my Sister Training Leader.

2. The hike followed a creek up a canyon, and ended at the spring where the creek came out of the mountain. The water was cold and clean enough to drink. It was delicious! Fresh and clear.

3. We had dinner at one of our 9 bishops' house this week. He has a lovely family, and these are two of his cute girls, Quincy and Ella.