Hi Everyone!
This week has been slower, which has been a nice change of pace from the last 5 weeks. We had more time to reflect, refocus, and try some new things. It has also been very, very hot. May and June are supposed to be the rainy season, but instead summer just set in early. This week broke the record for high temperature in May in Taibei when it hit 38 degrees Celsius (that's over 100 in Fahrenheit). We've been working hard to stay hydrated, spending way to much at drink shops, and looking for ways to stay out of the sun as much as possible. Thankfully, everyone else is also trying to stay out of the sun, so we can still go where the people are.
Our mission collaborated with the Taibei mission to develop a new website for our nation-wide English classes. Missionaries all over Taiwan teach free English. It's a great chance to provide service. We also have a 20-30 minute spiritual share after each lesson, which is a good way to share the gospel in a relaxed, non-threatening setting with a large number of people. Since we started sharing our new website and getting members to do the same, we've seen a large jump in numbers in our English class. Several of our new little students are either too shy to speak, or are so small they don't even really speak Chinese yet let alone English, so a lot of the time we end up teaching the parents. We have a fun, noisy, high energy class, and it's great!
This week was the last week of the transfer, and we were almost positive that at least one of the four missionaries serving in our ward would be leaving. Sister Hancock and I were pretty sure we were staying, so that left one of the elders. To celebrate the last dinner in Tainan for at least one of us, we went and got ginormous burgers. Taiwan's not big on a lot of American food, but they love hamburgers. I think there's a high end burger place on just about every street in this city. The burgers here were so tall you either had to eat them with gloves or squish them a lot and put them in this envelope thing to catch all the juice, sauce, and vegetables dripping out the bottom. They were delicious. Mine said it had blue cheese on it in the menu, but there was nothing of the sort on the burger. Still good though
Transfer calls came that night, and Elder Smith is moving to my very first area, Daya! I find it interesting that every transfer since I've left, someone from my district has been moved up to Daya. Considering that there are only four missionaries serving there, I think that's pretty impressive. We're sad to see him go, but I'm excited that he's headed up to a place I love so much.
On Sunday, our investigator, Claire, showed up with her two kids, Ray and Fiona, whom we are also teaching. Fiona made us beautiful paper snowflakes. We love teaching this family. They are super cute, and love to learn about the gospel. Fiona brings her own scriptures with sticky notes and pens so she can mark anything she likes that we talk about in the lesson. I love them so much! At church, Fiona had us each fill out a page in her Frozen themed address book. It was a very in-depth questionnaire, that asked not only for your name and contact information, but also your star sign, blood type, favorite food, favorite movie, which celebrities we liked, and if we 'liked' anyone at the moment. There was also a place to record your first impression of the owner of the book, and a bit that was supposed to tell your future.
Life has been good this week! We had a cool moment in a contact at a park the other day with a young mom. We were talking about God, and she asked how we can know for ourselves if He is real. We talked about prayer, and then Sister Hancock pulled out a scripture in Alma 30:44 that says all things denote there is a God. She handed the Book of Mormon over to the woman to read. I was really touched as I watched this woman take the scriptures and read the word of God, probably for the first time in her life. I'm so grateful that I get to serve in a place were we have an opportunity to be a person's first introduction to their loving Heavenly Father.
Have an amazing week!
Sister Hull
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