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
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