The Promised Land

Hi Everyone!

Holy cow this week has been literally insane. From the moment I put my bags down in our apartment in Tainan, I don't think I've stopped to rest once. It's been awesome! 

Ever since I got on island, I've been hearing rumors about Tainan. Everyone I know wants to move south. The people are nicer, the food is yummier, the stuff is cheaper, the grass is greener. I always just figured it was also significantly hotter, so I was fine staying up North, thank you very much. UNTIL, I moved here, and got to experience what everyone is talking about. And everything they said was true. Here it's kinder, yummier, cheaper, and definitely hotter. We have seen so many blessings in the last week.

This week we found six new investigators, three of which were referrals from members. We have four investigators with baptismal dates, and all of them are amazing! One of our investigators has read all the way to ALMA in the Book of Mormon. Which is far. Our ward is really active, and they love helping out with missionary work! life is good. 

Two of our new investigators are the 90 and 93 year old mother and father of one of our members. They are the most adorable 90 year olds I've ever seen. We bonded over the fact that my Chinese last name is the same as theirs. We have a running joke that we probably have a common ancestor. Our ward has some really strong elderly members who have been helping fellowship them. Lessons are amusing, because Sister Hancock and I are the only people in the room under the age of about 70, and half of the conversation is in Taiyu. One of our fellowshippers is called Guo Baba, and he's amazing. He's ancient, tall and skinny, and brimming with energy. His English name is Labron James. he's also very musically talented. In the picture are Sister Hancock, He mama, me, Guo Baba, and He Mama's daughter.

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This week we went to a park to rake some leaves, and were met with this sight:

As we watched in extreme perplexity, there was some excitement, everyone picked up their tripods, and shuffled quickly around to the other side of a clump of trees

At that point, we stopped trying to guess and asked one of the people why there were so many people in camo clothing with massive telephoto lenses in the middle of the park. We were told that they were all, in fact, birdwatchers, and that there was a very rare bird sitting in the tree above us. After squinting upward for a while, we managed to spot a small brown bird perched in the branches over our heads. Another camouflaged birdwatcher excitedly told us that the bird in question was a red kingfisher, which is not native to Taiwan. They live in Japan, and every year they migrate to the Philippines and back again. This little guy was on his way back up, and stopped to rest for a few days in our park. Apparently this birdwatching party had already been going for three days when we got there. I tried to take a picture of the bird with my phone. It's in between the arrows:

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​The birdwatchers were a happy, friendly group, so we chatted with them for a bit and even got to use a telescope to get a closer look at the bird. Up close, it was rather pretty. 

This week I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting about hope. I really enjoyed the opportunity to study how the gospel of Jesus Christ- Faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end- bring us hope. Each step in the path to conversion strengthens our faith in Christ, ourselves, and the future, and helps build our hope a little higher. I am so grateful for the hope that the gospel brings. I know that without hope, moving to Tainan would have been stressful and heartbreaking. Because I have hope though, I can move forward without fear, confident that there are more blessings and miracles in store in the future. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Love you bunches!

Sister Hull

The Hardest Thing About Missionary Work

Is the fact that you care. You care so much. You open your heart and welcome in the people you teach, the missionaries you serve with, and the members in your ward. There's no holding back. The essence of the gospel is love, and as Christ's representatives, it is your job as a missionary to make sure everyone feels that love. You put your whole self into the task of loving others. You meet incredible people with a crazy different stories. They inspire you, motivate you to become better so you can be worthy of teaching them. You pray for them, work for them, serve them and serve with them. You create lasting connections and life changing memories.

And then, one Saturday evening you get a phone call, and in less than 48 hours you have left all those people you've loved so much and started a completely new life in a completely different place. Your heart, which has been full to bursting with so many wonderful people shatters a little at the sudden loss. It hurts a lot. 

Sorry if that was kind of dramatic. If you haven't guessed, I'm moving, and not incredibly happy about it. It's not the going to another place bit that bothers me so much as the fact that I have to leave Zhanghua. I feel like it's been while I've been in Zhanghua that I've really learned the joy that comes from missionary work. I've been incredibly blessed by the short time I've spent here. 

As for where I'm going, I'm moving to Tainan in the South of Taiwan! My new companion is Sister Hancock, and I'm going to be a Sister Training Leader. This means we will be assigned to about 5-8 other companionships of sisters, and we will be in charge of checking in with them, helping them, and encouraging them in their work. We'll also go on a 24 hour exchange with each companionship so we have a chance to learn from each other and improve in our work. I am really excited for this opportunity to get to know more of the sisters in our mission!

Other than that, this week has been pretty chill. Sister Lin and I found a famous 肉圓 (rou yuan) restaraunt that she ate at with her mom when she was little. We sat in the same spot that she sat in years ago.

Zhanghua is famous for its 肉圓, but we found out later that only outsiders go to the restaraunt we did. It's only famous because it was in a movie directed by a famous Taiwanese director. People from Zhanghua go to another shop a few blocks over. We don't care though, because it was yummy and had fun memories!

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Since it was the last week of the transfer, our district took a chair pic, stacking chairs to represent how many transfers we've served on our missions. Elder Degn and I came to Taiwan the same time, but I fudged a little and added my transfer in Utah so I'd end up the same height as him. He's 6'5". 

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We've had a great district, and it's been a really fun transfer! I'm going to miss all the missionaries I've served with. I'm looking forward to see what adventures and miracles the next transfer brings!

I love you all!

Sister Hull

Mazu is Coming to Town

Hi Everyone! 

So a big event this week was the arrival of Mazu, one of the most worshipped gods in Taizhong and Zhanghua. Apparently every year, they have a pilgrimage where they walk the statue of Mazu in a palanquin from her normal temple in Taizhong down through Zhanghua to Yuanlin and back up. Hundreds of people gather to follow Mazu each night. When Mazu stops, they race to run under her palanquin. Apparently Mazu was a woman who lived a long time ago and saved a lot of sailors during a storm, so they made her into a god. Since Taiwan is an island, she's pretty popular here. Sister Lin and I felt a little weird about proselyting to people who were in the midst of their own religious ceremony, so we didn't go to see, but we did see lots and lots of people walking down through the middle of Zhanghua. It was fun to have the feeling of the festival in the air. Mazu comes back up next Friday, and it's supposed to be even crazier then. 

The other day it was raining, so we had our umbrellas, and then we passed this green wall, so we had to stop and take a picture.

We had a cool experience this week when we were out contacting. Lately our district has been trying out destination contacting- where we pick a destination (our next appointment, an LA we've been wanting to visit, etc.) and follow the Spirit as we go there, stopping by sevens and parks, talking to people on the street, or anything else we feel prompted to do. The other day we were on our way to try to visit some LAs we don't have phone numbers for, and I felt prompted to stop and buy some ice cream at a stand on the side of the road. The prompting was subtle, so I wasn't entirely sure whether it was coming from the Spirit or my stomach, but the man running the stand looked friendly, so we decided to stop. We bought ice cream and started chatting with him. It turned out he had absolutely no interest, so we finished our ice cream and left. 

A few minutes later we were biking by the hospital and decided to stop. We tried talking to a few people without much luck, then saw a guy sitting on a scooter across the street smoking. We approached him, and had a really good contact. When we left though, he didn't want to give us his number, so we left him with ours and rode away, hoping to somehow see him again. Coming back from interviews a few days later, we ran into him on the street in a completely different part of Zhanghua. We stopped and said hi for a few seconds before he had to go. Again, we left with the hope that we would see him again. 

Yesterday morning, he texted and asked what our plans were for the day. We set up with him for that evening, and had a really good lesson! At one point, I asked if he decided he wanted to find God, what he would do to search for Him. He replied that he'd probably just wait for God to come find him. Recalling the events of the past few days, I was able to look him in the eye and say with a surety that only comes from the Spirit that God has come to find him, that He sent us here specifically to find him and invite him to come back to God. It was amazing to see all the little ways Heavenly Father had arranged our paths so that His son could learn of Him. And He was even kind enough to let us get an ice cream out of it in the process! :)

Last night we had a family home evening with our neighbors and some American members in our ward. We had a lot of fun talking about our memories from our own baptisms and sharing our testimonies with each other. The American members participated in the Mazu pilgrimage because they were invited by a friend, so it was also fun to hear their stories.

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​ Lately I've been doing a lot of thinking about faith. When I came on my mission, I decided that I didn't need to see any big miracles, I was just content to plug along, steadily doing the Lord's work. At the time, I thought that personally I didn't need any miracles to build my faith, and I was more than willing to just work hard and do what the Lord needed me to do. I thought I was being a strong, dedicated missionary in saying that. I didn't realize that miracles come as a result of faith, and in saying I didn't need to see miracles, I was putting a cap on the amount of faith I could exercise. Over the course of my mission, I've learned more and more that we should desire, seek for, pray for, and work for miracles, because they are a natural part of the Lord's work if we have the faith to find them. I've learned that the turning of a human heart is perhaps the greatest miracle that can occur. The Creator of the Universe has control over all the natural elements, so to change the physical state of things is simple for Him. The one thing He relinquishes control over is our will. He gives us agency. Thus, when we choose to change, and to reach towards Him, the change that He makes in us is the greatest of all. It took me a while to start to understand this, and then I spent a while in a state of confusion because I wasn't sure how I fit into the equation. If everything is just a miracle, then how could I plan or prepare for the miracles that would come? It all seemed out of my control. I think what I've learned since then is that yes, every small decision a person makes from talking to the missionaries to being baptized to being sealed as a family is a miracle, so what I do and the part I play is absolutely crucial. I have to work to be constantly building and exercising faith so I can be a part in making the miracle happen. I have to be working to make inspired plans and follow the Spirit so I can be in the right place at the right time. I have to have unity with my companion so that we can both be in a state to follow the guidance of the Spirit together and work together for the good of our investigators. I think as I'm finally coming to understand this, missionary work makes a lot more sense. I'm a little sheepish that it took me this long, and I'm sure I still have much more to learn, but I'm grateful for Heavenly Father's patience with me in helping me learn this a little bit at a time.  

That's all for this week! Hope you all have an amazing week! Love you all!

Sister Hull

Spiritual Firehose

Hi Everyone!

Wow ok I don't have nearly enough time, and this week has been jam-packed, so I'll just try to hit the absolute highlights. 

First off- General Conference! We watch conference a week late here because we have to wait for it to be translated into Chinese. Not that we missionaries watch it in Chinese, that would be a disaster, but we want to show solidarity with our members. By shutting ourselves away in a different room and watching it on our own in English. It's probably a good thing that we watched it a week late though. There were so many crazy new changes and incredible teachings, that I think if it had been combined with Easter Sunday the excitement would have been too much. The feeling of the Spirit as we stood and raised our hands to sustain President Russell M. Nelson as the new Prophet of God and President of our church was incredible. I am so grateful that our loving Heavenly Father has not closed the heavens, but still speaks to us today, both through personal revelation, and through an authorized and ordained prophet. Conference was amazing, and Sister Lin and I are both super fired up and ready to go spread the gospel with increased enthusiasm and zeal. 

Before conference, we had an activity with our ward where we all made pizza. Sister Lin and I arrived early to prep the dough. 

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It was a fun activity, because pizza is really simple to make, but it was a complete novelty for all of the members. They loved rolling out the dough, carefully shaping the crust, then piling on toppings for their own personal pizzas. They came out really good! 

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Finally, I need to tell you about an absolute miracle we've seen unfold over the last week. I told you in my last email about Li Dixiong, our friend from ShanDong who we love so much, but who can't get baptized because he's not in Taiwan for long enough. This week we were feeling kind of discouraged, because we weren't really sure what direction to take with him since we couldn't invite him to be baptized. On Friday as we were planning, we decided to pray about it. We told Heavenly Father about the challenges we faced, and about how much we wanted to help him, and we asked Him to arrange a miracle so that Li Dixiong would be able to be baptized. Later that same day, we were talking to a ward member, who casually mentioned that she's in a massive group chat with a ton of members in China. They live all around China and help support and lift each other in a country where it's difficult to be a Christian. We excitedly asked if there was anyone in the chat from ShanDong. She said she'd ask, and over the last few days has been sending us a bunch of information about where to go to church in ShanDong. We were amazed to see how quickly Heavenly Father answered our prayer. 

Li Dixiong came to watch conference with us, and really liked it! When we told him there was a church near where he lived, he got super interested and has been texting us ever since asking for more information.

Heavenly Father wasn't done with the miracles yet though. This morning, we got a random text from President Teh, asking how Li Dixiong was doing, and when he'd be going back to China. We told him, and he told us that we are allowed to invite him to be baptized!!! That's right, if he decides to accept, he can get baptized while he's still in Taiwan. And, now we have contact with Chinese members, so he'll still have a good support system when he leaves. I haven't stopped smiling since I heard the news. Our God is truly a God of miracles, and he cares about each of us individually. If we have the faith to ask, He can help us overcome any challenge and accomplish any task. Every day, I am just so grateful to have this chance to serve in this beautiful country and get to know my Heavenly Father a little better every day.

Have an amazing week! Love you lots!

Sister Hull