The Gift of Tongues

Happy New Year Everyone! 

This has been a crazy week and I don't even know where to start, so I'm going to share some stories that all fall under the category of the gift of tongues. The gift of tongues is a promised blessing that every missionary speaking a foreign language clings to desperately. And it is a very real thing. 

1. We met a French guy outside a Starbucks a few days before Guo Nian, and he said if we didn't have any plans we were welcome to come visit his family. We gladly took him up on the offer, and spent a very enjoyable evening chatting with him and his adorable wife, who is Taiwanese. He was super interested in what makes our religion different from others, so I ended up sharing my testimony of prophets and the Book of Mormon. One thing I love the most about our religion is that we believe that God still speaks to His children today. I'm so grateful for a living prophet with the exact same authority as in the times of Abraham, Moses, or Elijah. 

2. The other day I was talking to the husband of one of our investigators, and my pronunciation was so bad that he thought I was speaking in Taiwanese and got very impressed. I'll take what I can get.

3. Chinese New Year is a week long, and everything shuts down. Except 7-11s. I think the country would collapse if we didn't have 24 hour access to 7s. Since it's harder for us to find food though, our members fed us lunch and dinner every day all week long. It was super awesome to experience authentic New Year food and traditions. Aside from burning incense at temples, as far as we can tell the main New Year tradition is to sit around and eat lots and lots and lots of food. Chinese New Year also has very specific foods that have specific symbolism all based on making puns out of the name of the food. Chinese people really like puns. They also really like fish, because fish sounds like the word for luck or abundance. Because of this, Sister Hubner and I learned a new side of the gift of tongues- namely the gift of eating weird stuff and smiling while doing it. This week I've eaten whole fried fish, fish eggs, clam feet, jellyfish, some weird dried fish stomach thing, squid, octopus, and shrimp. I've also fished chicken toes out of my soup. Many of you know that I have a fish phobia, so the fact that I managed any of this is a literal miracle. I prayed a lot. The members are all incredible though, so it's been a ton of fun to get to know them better!

4. One day we had lunch at the house of the former bishop of our ward. He and his wife are incredible. They joined the church together as young parents, and are now super strong in the gospel. They've also served a service mission in China, which is incredible. When they were telling us about the missionary that taught them the gospel, they pulled out the Christmas card and letter they'd gotten from his family. They're an incredible family who just adopted three 14-year olds from Bulgaria, so I started reading the card with great interest. After a few sentences though, I looked up and asked if they knew what it said, since it was all in English. They said they didn't, and they were hoping I could help them translate it. With the help of my phone for some tricky words, I translated the letter for them on the spot. It was a remarkably spiritual experience to help this amazing couple connect with the missionary who had changed their lives. Hearing their story made me feel even more excited about the work that we're doing out here to bring the people of Taiwan the joy of the gospel. I love being a missionary!

Happy Chinese New Year, have an amazing week!

love you!

Sister Hull

Pics:

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1. Probably my favorite food we ate all week. mushrooms? you may ask. That's what I thought too. Turns out it's a mini baozi with sweet sesame inside! Delicious and adorable!

2. On our way to a member's house, some random person saw us and took a picture and posted it on facebook. An investigator saw it and sent it to us. Yeah, we're famous. ​​

3. This is the former bishop and his wife who we ate lunch with a day or two ago. They're amazing!

4. We've been giving New Year's cards to our members and investigators. Now that we have Line, we get to add fun filters and stuff. We've been taking great advantage of that fact.