Do you believe in love at first sight? ...or should I walk by again?

Hi Everyone!

(Translation: Good morning. Success relies on action, health relies on exercise)

Wow it has been an amazing week! With amazing miracles! And funny bits. And mainly, life is just good. On Friday, we went down to a little town about a 20 minute bike ride away to do service at their public library. Only to discover when we got there that the library was randomly closed. There was a lady on a scooter in front of the government office next to the library, so we decided to chat with her before deciding what to do next. The lady told us she was waiting for a man who conveniently pulled up on his scooter as we were talking. He turned out to be an employee at the building we were standing in front of, and he invited us inside to give us a tour. Once we got in, he apparently didn't really know what to do or why he invited us, because the inside of the building was just a giant office space with a bunch of desks. We all stood there awkwardly for a bit while he tried to motion over some other people to take over as tour guides, but they were too scared (a lot of people in Taiwan are legitimately terrified to talk to us because they're afraid we'll try to speak English with them). When that didn't work, he asked if we wanted to take pictures in front of the building. We agreed and went and took some pictures. Then we went back in, stood awkwardly for a few more minutes, met his coworker whose English name was Emperor, and left. And thus ended my first experience in international relations. 

The highlight of the week was that we got to go on exchanges!! And my STLs right now are Sister Taylor and Sister Hubner, my two previous companions!!! So needless to say, it was a party. I got to spend 24 hours once again tearing up Taiwan with Sister Hubner, and it was a dream. We were comps toward the beginning of our missions, so it was fun to see how far we've come since then. Sister Hubner and Sister Taylor are two of the most amazing missionaries I've met, and as a companionship they are doing incredible things. 

We had a cool miracle while on exchanges. Sister Hubner and I had finished teaching a random English class at an environmental protection building, and were headed out to hit up the big park for a half hour before dinner. On our way, we saw the other sisters bike past us, and thought nothing of it. We got to the park, and started talking with the first person we saw, a dad sitting on a teeter-totter playing a game on his phone. He looked up, and immediately asked, 'how many missionaries are there in this town? I just talked to two more of you!' he then very accurately listed off our address, and the times for our English class and church services. Accidentally going somewhere missionaries have just been is often the worst nightmare of missionaries who share an area with another companionship, but we decided to play it cool and kept talking to this dad. 

Dad: 'Don't you plan where you're going so you don't have any overlap?'

Us: 'No, because God sent us here specifically to talk to you!'

Dad: (thinks a bit) 'huh. Well, We actually live right next to your church, but we've never been inside because it's always closed'

Us: 'yeah, we are mainly open for our English class an Sunday meetings. But if you would like we could give you a tour'

Dad: 'No you can't, it's always closed!'

Us: 'We have keys!'

At this point, a woman sitting on a bench nearby who had been listening in started laughing and came over to join the conversation. Turns out she was his wife. They had only seemed mildly interested when they met Sister Bast and Taylor, but second time's a charm, because we were able to share some doctrine and set a time to give them a tour before English class this week! It was really cool to see how Heavenly Father knew the needs of this family, and turned an awkward situation into a powerful teaching moment. Turns out the four of us sisters together in the same area is a dangerous combination. 

We had a really cool lesson from our bishop about faith and revelation on Sunday. He blindfolded a member, spun him around, then asked another member to give him directions to find a hymnbook placed in another part of the room. Bishop pointed out that the member could give directions in lots of different ways, such as telling him where it was in the room (on the chair under the window), or using cardinal directions (go due west), but these would mean nothing to the blindfolded member who had no idea where he was in relation to anything else. The only directions the blindfolded member could understand were step by step directions using left, right, straight, and back. Likewise, often when we have a question or desire, Heavenly Father could tell us the exact answer, but it would mean nothing to us because we don't have the same understanding that He does. The only way He can get us where we need to go is with step by step directions, slowly, with lots of little course corrections. It takes a lot of faith on our part because we still can't see the end result, but if we trust Him, He will never lead us astray.

To start off that lesson, Bishop asked a few people if they could ask God any question, what they would ask. One unmarried sister said she'd ask where her husband is (there are a lot of unmarried people in our ward in their 30s and 40s). A man in the ward said 'I can answer her question, He's right here!' and pointed to the unmarried man sitting next to him. He continued to point to other unmarried men in the class saying, 'or here, or here, or here!'. What followed was several awkward seconds where everyone avoided making eye contact with each other and Sister Bast and I laughed uncontrollably. Do I miss Singles wards? No, I do not!

Have an amazing week! I love you all!

Sofi

中秋節快樂!!!

Hi Everyone! Happy Mid Autumn Festival!

(Translation: Happy Mid Autumn Festival)

Today we are celebrating Taiwan and China's second biggest holiday, right after Chinese New Year. I'll get into a description of the festivities, but first I want to update you on the rest of our week. 

First off, I'm sure you're all wildly curious about the results of last week's mission wide cleaning competition. Last Monday, we poured our heart and soul, a large quantity of sweat, and a couple of tears into scrubbing our apartment. Sister Bast is a saint and spent a couple of hours cleaning the two remaining refrigerators. We bought toothbrushes and more or less scrubbed the entire apartment with them, one surface at a time. By the end I was so tired I puked, but new life has been breathed into our apartment, and it is now a place that I am proud to call home. And our hard work was worth it! Along with herculean efforts from the other missionaries nearby, our zone won the contest! In a little bit we're taking a train up to Jiayi to meet with the rest of the zone and feast on Costco pizza. 

Other than the excitement of cleaning, our week was pretty chill. We had a lot of cool tender mercies showing us that Heavenly Father is still directing the work. A couple of weeks ago we met a cool college kid named Lawrence. We've been chatting about the gospel on Line a bit, and the other day he asked about gay marriage. We told him our Chinese was not good enough to write out an answer, and asked if it would be ok if we video chatted the next day to talk about it. He agreed. When we called him, we focused really heavily on eternal families and God's plan for us. Somehow, we ended up teaching about gay marriage, the law of Chastity, not worshipping idols, and the importance of reading scriptures and coming to church. In case you're wondering, this is not what we normally share in a first met. Usually, we start by talking about who Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are, and what makes our church different, so when we get to things like commandments, they have context for where these are coming from and why we have them. Still, I guess this was what Lawrence needed to hear, because instead of running away quickly (which some people even do when we say 'God loves you'), he asked when he could come visit our church. It was really cool to feel the Holy Ghost there, teaching and testifying despite our broken Chinese.

Ok, on to the Mid Autumn Festival! ..Shoot I only have eight minutes left to write.. I'll make this fast. On Saturday, we got together with our ward to make pineapple cakes, a special delicacy in Taiwan. Pineapple cakes are filled with a mixture of pineapple boiled with sugar into a thick paste. We rolled the paste into balls and wrapped them in a layer of shortbread before pressing them into rectangular molds and baking them. Straight from the oven, they're amazing! Sweet and warm and fragrant and pineapple-y. Also very labor intensive. I'm not sure if I'd do it on my own, but it was fun to make with the ward, giggling and joking and trying not to get flour everywhere.

That evening, we reconvened to the church for a barbecue, the traditional Mid Autumn Festival activity. We were separated into groups around different barbecues, and before we got our food we had to do an activity sheet including get to know you questions, a scripture questionnaire, and minute to win it games. We ended up being at the barbecue for 3 hours playing, cooking food, and then finally eating. We got to know several more ward members, and learned a lot more about Taiwanese culture. A few people we're teaching also came, which was extra fun.

Taiwanese barbecue is why the Mid Autumn Festival may be my new favorite holiday. The barbecue is done over real coals in a tiny firepit. This picture below shows the barbecue a little better. Because the barbecue is tiny and the flame is small, Taiwanese barbecues can go on for hours. Everyone sits in a circle around the barbecue laughing and joking and slowly eating small slices of meat, roasted corn, peppers, and sausages as they're ready. After several hours, everyone is full to bursting. It's a really chill, informal way to spend lots of time together while you wait for the food to cook. Everyone has plenty to eat, and you can watch the fireworks going off nearby while you chat.

Sister Bast and I have been talking a lot about Grace, Mercy, Sin, and Weakness this week. We were kind of confused, because we were taught that we don't repent for weakness, only sin, but also that repentance is any change that brings us closer to Christ, and overcoming weakness definitely does that. After a lot of discussion, pondering, scriptures, and a really good liahona article (https://www.lds.org/ensign/2015/04/it-isnt-a-sin-to-be-weak?lang=eng), the conclusion we came to is that the difference between sin and weakness is all in our desires. With sin, our desires are bad, so we do bad things. With weakness, our desires are good, but because of mortal limitations our actions don't measure up. Thus, weakness pulls us toward Christ because we still desire to be good and realize that it is only with His help that we can realize our potential. This helped me a lot with my own self esteem as a missionary. I feel like this transfer I've really come face to face with a lot of the different weaknesses that I've dealt with before in different stages of my mission. Being able to recognize that my desires are still good has given me the patience I need to keep working diligently and seeking Christ's grace without becoming discouraged. I'm still working on it of course, but it's been really good!

Ok I officially have 30 seconds left, so I have to sign off. Have an amazing week everyone! Love you bunches!

Sofi

Mysteries

Hi Everyone!

So about two weeks ago, President Card texted into our mission Line chat saying he had two important announcements to give when we met for Zone Conference in a week or so. He also told us all to 'save the date' for our p-day today, and he'd tell us what was happening at Zone conference. Of course, rumors started erupting, speculating temple trips, a surprise visit from the prophet, or even a mission-wide vacation to Japan. To allow you to experience some of the suspense that we did, I will leave off saying what our mystery p-day activity is until the end of the email. But, as a result this activity, I will be cutting my email pretty short today.

First off, miracles are real, and we found real, live Kraft Mac and Cheese at Taiwan's equivalent of Walmart this week! The package of five boxes cost NT275, so we've been rationing, hoping to spread the cheesy goodness out over the course of a few weeks.

The highlight of the week was zone conference! We were combined with Tainan zone, so I got to see all my friends from last transfer, plus all my friends in my current zone in Jiayi! In total, counting Sister Bast, my current companion, four of my companions were at the conference. I felt surrounded by all my favorite people, and it was amazing!

At the conference, we talked a lot about how to flood the earth with the gospel through technology. We really have the capacity now to reach more people than ever before through our smartphones. We talked a lot about new ways to touch even more people's lives and help them receive the truth of the gospel. The STLs also gave a super great training about how we need to be teaching the gospel at every opportunity. They compared the gospel to chocolate cake. If we were trying to get people to eat chocolate cake, we wouldn't just tell them it was good, we'd give them a bite right there! Then we don't have to tell them anything because they can taste it themselves. The gospel can speak for itself, we just have to give people a chance to experience it.

Other quick highlights:

We met a Philippina woman whose employer is also Christian. She told us that the other day her employer wasn't really feeling like going to church. She told our friend that she was feeling a little lazy, and would maybe just stay in bed. Our friend told her boss, 'If you're gonna get lazy about going to church, God's gonna get lazy about giving you blessings!' Her boss went to church.

We met two adorable Corgis and a super fluffy white dog named Mr. Bean

Our ward is absolutely amazing and has helped us out so much this week. We have a lot of investigators with some complex challenges, but we keep having members who know exactly how to help them and encourage them to keep pushing forward. Members are the best!

Ok, I'm out of time, but I know you're all dying to know what our big p-day surprise is. It is... Mission Wide Fall Cleaning!!! Yup, we're all spending all day cleaning out our apartments. The zone that gets the most done gets a free lunch in a week or two. We sprayed for cockroaches this morning, and in about 8 minutes we're headed back to sweep up their carcasses and get to work. Wish us luck!

The other announcement was more exciting. Starting next transfer, President invited the mission to read the entire Book of Mormon before the end of the year. I'm really looking forward to spend the last two transfers of my mission going through the Book of Mormon one more time. Any study ideas?

Ok, now I'm really out of time. I love you all! Have a great week!

lots of love,

Sofi

Walk with Me

Hi Everyone!

So first off, I'm terrible at taking pictures, so the only pictures we took this week were at this cool rainbow tunnel at a park in our area. Please enjoy these pictures, and see them as a symbolic representation of our own individual journey through life. 

This week, we had a baptism! And it was great! It was for the 16-year-old member in our ward who grew up in the church, but her records got lost. We got to go through the lessons with her again, and on Tuesday she was baptized. Her family chose a Tuesday because her dad was going to China for work on Wednesday, and they wanted him to be able to baptize her. The first time she was baptized, her dad was out of town for work, so a member of the Young Men's presidency baptized her. It was really cool for the family, that the second time she was baptized, her father was able to perform the ordinance.

At the baptism, we were chatting with a sister in our ward, and asked if we could visit her later in the week. She said sure, and we set up a time and started making plans. Then we asked where she lived. Turns out she lives in Madou, one of the farthest of the little towns in our area. So on Friday we stocked up on water and trail mix and headed out for a 20 km bike ride down to Madou. It took an hour and a half, but it was really cool to see more of our area, especially since most of it was rice fields. It was really pretty! Our visit with our member went great, and we learned that there was a train nearby we could take, so on the way back we only biked 8 km to the train station, then took the train back up to Xinying. Still, we were pretty exhausted when we got back. I'm glad we have time scheduled to exercise every morning! 

We went and visited a really cool Vietnamese recent convert this week. She works as a caretaker for one of the oldest members in the ward, and met the missionaries through him. She has the sweetest testimony. She said before she met the church, she was really unhappy. Her husband is working in Russia, and her two children are back in Vietnam with her mom. She hasn't been back for a couple of years. She felt like her life was going nowhere. After meeting the church, she said, "I feel completely different. I am happy now. My circumstances haven't changed, but my heart has."  

Also, while we were at church, a random family wandered in off the street and asked for a church tour. They were curious why we are Christian, but we don't have a cross on our church. We set up another time to meet with them and share more before next English class! All of our members were super excited and shocked that someone would just walk in. So were we. 

You know those moments where you look back and suddenly notice a pattern that makes a significant chunk of your life make sense? I had one of those this week. When I was really little, I had nightmares almost every night.  I drove my parents crazy by crying every night at bedtime because I was afraid to go to bed. My parents taught me to pray every night and ask Heavenly Father to help me not have nightmares. Over time, the prayers worked, and the nightmares stopped. But I kept praying for it. Even now, 15 years later, I pray every night that I won't have nightmares. And there have been days even on my mission that I forgot to do so, and had a nightmare that night. 

The other night, I was saying my nightly prayers, and I realized I hadn't ever really thanked Heavenly Father for all the help he has given me with not having nightmares. As I prayed in thanks, I looked back, and realized that the age when I started praying for this was the age when I was first learning to pray on my own every night. I always had a really hard time remembering, but protection from nightmares was a big enough incentive that I learned to build the habit. Looking back, I could see how Heavenly Father had guided and helped me through my fear of bad dreams to build a habit that would keep me close to Him the rest of my life. The Children of Israel were reminded of the Lord when they went out to gather manna every day for their food, and I am reminded of the Lord every night when I ask Him to protect me from bad dreams. 

That's about all I've got for this week! We met a guy whose English name is Book. Hopefully we can start teaching him this week.

Have an amazing week! Love you all!

Sofi

Un-woo-able

Hi Everyone! 

(Translation: Good Morning. May the Lord give you peace)

Ok wow it's been two weeks! And so much has happened that I want to tell you about this week, that I really don't have time to talk about last week. But here's the highlight reel:

1. We got caught in a rainstorm so big we had to stay inside for two. days. for rain.

2. We made delicious no bake cookies while stuck in said rainstorm.

3. I officially recovered of my illness

4. I got the call that I'm moving to the town of Xinying! No one else in my district left.

Last Sunday was a whirlwind of packing and goodbyes. I was rather heartbroken about leaving. In Sacrament meeting I had a runny nose and was kind of sniffly, and I guess the people behind me thought I was crying, because this 8-year-old kid named spongebob tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a paper crane he'd made. On the wings he'd written, 'Sister Hull, don't cry, we love you!' I hadn't been crying up to that point, but I had a hard time holding it together after that. Here's a picture of my district plus Susan, my favorite human:

And then by Monday afternoon, I was all packed up and headed to Xinying! My new companion is Sister Bast, and we are whitewashing, which means both of us are new to the area. Before, Xinying had elders, so we moved into their apartment. I've heard horror stories about Elders' apartments, but this one wasn't too bad. It is, however, definitely an Elder's apartment. We have one plate, three fridges, no weights smaller than 20 pounds, and a massive thing of protein powder. We're all ready to get ripped!

Whitewashing is always an adventure, and we've seen the Lord's hand in our lives every day this week. Every time we're not sure what to do next, someone would text us, or call us with new information that would help us know where to go.

Our first night we were walking back from dinner, and we stopped to talk to a man smoking outside his house. After a bit of small talk, he invited us in to meet his two teenage kids! (This never happens) We got to know them a bit and shared a message about Jesus Christ. We've already found two new people to teach this week from knocking doors! (That also never happens).

We got a text from a member saying she was in the hospital going through chemo, and asking if we could come visit. We planned a happy, uplifting message, but never got a chance to share it. As soon as we walked in the room, she started talking about a recent convert she wanted to go visit with us as soon as she was done with this round of chemo, and telling us about a service opportunity the next day, and bearing her testimony to us, and basically we left feeling like we'd just been ministered to and uplifted instead of the other way around. I hope someday I can be that cool.

Sister Bast got a text from a random person on Line who said he'd met with the missionaries before. She put him in a group with herself and me, and we started talking to him. Pretty soon though, he started asking if either of us was married. When we explained that we aren't allowed to start a relationship while we're on a mission, he replied with a crying face and a text  that translated to 'I've always wanted to have a large scale, exotic romance, who would have thought it was forbidden?' We actually get stuff like that a lot, but I think this is the most straightforward offer I've heard yet! Too bad we're un-woo-able. 

We're having a baptism tomorrow! That was fast. A sixteen year old daughter of a very active family in our ward discovered a couple of months ago that her records are lost, so she has to get rebaptized. Which means we have to go through the whole nine yards again of teaching all the lessons and doing an interview. She is extremely not thrilled, but we're still excited for her!

McDonald's in Taiwan is absolutely amazing in comparison with McDonald's in America. It was having a Big Mac buy one get one free event on Friday, and a member invited us to get dinner with her there. We got there a bit before the member, and the line was out the door:

A bit after the member got there, she got really excited when she saw a friend she said she hadn't seen in a couple of years. The friend got in line with us so the four of us could benefit from the buy one get one free event together. She got kind of nervous when she found out we were 'Mormons', and started asking about polygamy. She asked a bunch of other questions about church, and seemed to be getting less apprehensive and more interested. She also asked a lot of questions about the 'tall, handsome elders' she'd seen riding around town before we arrived. We had plenty of time to answer her questions too, because we stood in that line for an hour and a half. We finally got our food, ate, and invited her to church, before dashing home barely at 9 pm. The next day, our member friend texted saying her friend was probably more interested in the elders than in church, but we said we'd pray for a miracle.

Sunday morning partway through church, we looked over and were amazed to see a woman who looked exactly like our member's friend sitting a pew over from us. Our amazement turned to confusion when we saw her pull out a well-worn Book of Mormon and start reading it. Understanding dawned as she then stood up, went to the pulpit, and gave a very eloquent testimony. After Sacrament meeting, she came over to officially welcome us to the ward. She was dying of laughter over our expressions when she stood to bear her testimony. I guess if missionaries are whitewashing in your ward, may as well have fun with it.

Saturday morning we woke up at 5:20 am to go sweep streets with a group of very active Amahs and Agongs. One of the Agongs was 90 years old! The neighborhood leader who organizes the sweeping has the philosophy that if you get enough people, no one has to work very hard, so it was a very relaxed environment as about 40 of us ambled along, sweeping and chatting. I hate getting up early, but hanging out with a bunch of sassy old people makes it worth it!

I'm officially out of time, but I want to quickly share my testimony that I know the Lord is aware of every aspect of our lives. He loves us, and if we are willing to follow Him, He will guide us. He never promises us an easy life, but if we stay faithful, He does promise that everything will be made up in the end. I hope you all have a great week! Look for miracles!

Lots of love,

Sofi