Re: One year older and wiser too

Happy Birthday! 

On Sun, Oct 21, 2018 at 9:12 PM Sarah Sophia Hull <sarah.hull@myldsmail.net> wrote:

Hi Everyone!

(Good morning. Beauty in your mood. Cheerfulness in your life. Be a happy you.)

The happiest news of the week, Friday was my birthday! I am now 21 years old. It was fun to reflect on the last year I've spent in Taiwan. I was still in Training on my last birthday, and the changes that have happened from then to now are large. It was really cool to realize that I actually wanted to spend my 21st birthday sharing the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ with people. I love being a missionary! 

Also, I love Line, the social media app here in Taiwan. It conveniently informs all your friends of your birthday and provides a nifty feature where you can add a photo or a quick birthday message in about 30 seconds. I bask in compliments and love celebrating with people, but I also feel weird about telling other people to celebrate me, so it was very nice for Line to do the job for me so I could just focus on basking :) Actually though, I was really touched by all the people who reached out, even a couple of people we'd just met on the street a few days before. Sister Wu called that evening and sang a happy birthday song that included 4 different languages. I'm so grateful I get to love and be loved by so many people here! 

The rest of our week was pretty normal. We had the better part of a day free on Tuesday, so we went on an adventure to Madou, one of the farthest towns in our area. It's a 20 minute train ride and an 8 km bike ride away. Upon our return, we had a few extra minutes, so we stopped outside the train station to pray about where to go. When we stopped praying, we looked up and saw Karl standing a few feet away. We said hello, and then spent the next 20 minutes talking about our relationship with God. It was a really cool conversation! Turns out he lives a few minutes out of the border of our area, so the elders will be teaching him, but it was still really cool to be able to be the first step in helping him come to meet Heavenly Father.

Saturday was a really hard day. We had lunch with an investigator, and it was a really frustrating meeting. She would contradict or disregard anything we shared, but also kept pressuring us about when she could get baptized. Sometimes it's frustrating when you're doing your best to share with someone, and they listen, nod along, and then say something that shows they didn't actually register a single thing you said. We made it out of that, and had no time to recover, because we had three more lessons lined up back to back. The next two were with men, so as sister missionaries, if we wanted to meet in the church we needed another woman to accompany us. The two sisters who agreed to come for those two lessons both ended up cancelling last minute, so we had one lesson at the park next door, and the other one awkwardly standing in the parking lot of the church. By the end of our third lesson, I was completely emotionally, mentally, and physically drained. I didn't feel like I had anything left to possibly give in our fourth lesson. Thankfully, we had a half hour break, so we decided to grab some dessert before sitting down to skype our friend, Lawrence. Taiwan has a specific food category called QQs, which are squishy, chewy, sweet little desserts. Mochi falls into this category if anyone's tried that. With the help of QQs, shaved ice, and some fervent prayer, I was renewed spiritually and mentally, and our fourth lesson went great.

One thing I've learned a lot about this week is how God is able to sustain us. As missionaries, the majority of our schedules depend entirely on other people. As a result, things rarely go according to plan. Just because this is the Lord's work doesn't mean he's going to make everything go smoothly. There are so many bumps in the road, and sometimes it's exhausting to be always trying to keep up as you move through plan B to plan C, D, and on down the alphabet. Because I am a dramatic person with a narrow perspective, sometimes I get caught up in a particularly chaotic moment and imagine that this is how life will be for the rest of the foreseeable future. But what I am always surprised to find, no matter how many times I've already experienced it, is that God truly does have His plan, and while it doesn't usually match with our preferred timeline, He does His work in the time that we need it. There are always frustrating or disappointing days on a mission, but I have yet to have a day where I go to bed sad or discouraged. By the end, I am always amazed and awed once again by the angels He sends to lift us and help us accomplish the things we are called to do.

Have an amazing week! Love you!

One year older and wiser too

Hi Everyone!

(Good morning. Beauty in your mood. Cheerfulness in your life. Be a happy you.)

The happiest news of the week, Friday was my birthday! I am now 21 years old. It was fun to reflect on the last year I've spent in Taiwan. I was still in Training on my last birthday, and the changes that have happened from then to now are large. It was really cool to realize that I actually wanted to spend my 21st birthday sharing the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ with people. I love being a missionary! 

Also, I love Line, the social media app here in Taiwan. It conveniently informs all your friends of your birthday and provides a nifty feature where you can add a photo or a quick birthday message in about 30 seconds. I bask in compliments and love celebrating with people, but I also feel weird about telling other people to celebrate me, so it was very nice for Line to do the job for me so I could just focus on basking :) Actually though, I was really touched by all the people who reached out, even a couple of people we'd just met on the street a few days before. Sister Wu called that evening and sang a happy birthday song that included 4 different languages. I'm so grateful I get to love and be loved by so many people here! 

The rest of our week was pretty normal. We had the better part of a day free on Tuesday, so we went on an adventure to Madou, one of the farthest towns in our area. It's a 20 minute train ride and an 8 km bike ride away. Upon our return, we had a few extra minutes, so we stopped outside the train station to pray about where to go. When we stopped praying, we looked up and saw Karl standing a few feet away. We said hello, and then spent the next 20 minutes talking about our relationship with God. It was a really cool conversation! Turns out he lives a few minutes out of the border of our area, so the elders will be teaching him, but it was still really cool to be able to be the first step in helping him come to meet Heavenly Father.

Saturday was a really hard day. We had lunch with an investigator, and it was a really frustrating meeting. She would contradict or disregard anything we shared, but also kept pressuring us about when she could get baptized. Sometimes it's frustrating when you're doing your best to share with someone, and they listen, nod along, and then say something that shows they didn't actually register a single thing you said. We made it out of that, and had no time to recover, because we had three more lessons lined up back to back. The next two were with men, so as sister missionaries, if we wanted to meet in the church we needed another woman to accompany us. The two sisters who agreed to come for those two lessons both ended up cancelling last minute, so we had one lesson at the park next door, and the other one awkwardly standing in the parking lot of the church. By the end of our third lesson, I was completely emotionally, mentally, and physically drained. I didn't feel like I had anything left to possibly give in our fourth lesson. Thankfully, we had a half hour break, so we decided to grab some dessert before sitting down to skype our friend, Lawrence. Taiwan has a specific food category called QQs, which are squishy, chewy, sweet little desserts. Mochi falls into this category if anyone's tried that. With the help of QQs, shaved ice, and some fervent prayer, I was renewed spiritually and mentally, and our fourth lesson went great.

One thing I've learned a lot about this week is how God is able to sustain us. As missionaries, the majority of our schedules depend entirely on other people. As a result, things rarely go according to plan. Just because this is the Lord's work doesn't mean he's going to make everything go smoothly. There are so many bumps in the road, and sometimes it's exhausting to be always trying to keep up as you move through plan B to plan C, D, and on down the alphabet. Because I am a dramatic person with a narrow perspective, sometimes I get caught up in a particularly chaotic moment and imagine that this is how life will be for the rest of the foreseeable future. But what I am always surprised to find, no matter how many times I've already experienced it, is that God truly does have His plan, and while it doesn't usually match with our preferred timeline, He does His work in the time that we need it. There are always frustrating or disappointing days on a mission, but I have yet to have a day where I go to bed sad or discouraged. By the end, I am always amazed and awed once again by the angels He sends to lift us and help us accomplish the things we are called to do.

Have an amazing week! Love you!

GENERAL CONFERENCE!!

Hi Everyone!

(This is not a good morning picture. This is a member in our ward who was being sarcastic and I thought it was funny. The caption says "I'm so glad we have you!")

This week, we explored further into the outreaches of our area. Actually, our area is quite large, so we weren't anywhere near the edges, but we were farther away than we've been, so it felt like an adventure. We visited a tiny village named 'Small Foot Leg'. Had we gone farther down the road, we would have encountered an even tinier village called 'Big Foot Leg'. I'm not making this up. We didn't have a ton of time when we got there, but we did have time to eat some very yummy noodles, have the owner of the noodle shop offer his youngest son's hand in marriage to both Sister Bast and I, and meet a delightful family with perfect English. On the way to and from Small Foot Leg, we got to bike along a delightful road lined with beautiful trees. 

On Friday and Saturday, we got to go down to Tainan and exchange with the STLs again! This time, I got to go with Sister Taylor! We had an amazing time tearing up Tainan just like we used to two transfers ago. One of the sweetest moments, I got to teach one of my old investigators, Claire again, and it was amazing. One of the best things about a mission is the opportunity to love so many people with all your heart. Claire is one of those people.

Missionary work this week was a roller coaster. On the one hand, one of our people who was preparing for baptism decided she didn't want to meet with us anymore because she didn't want to stop drinking tea. She changed her mind a few days later, but then she got in a car accident and got a little banged up, so we still weren't able to meet with her. Sometimes it's frustrating to be able to see just how much Jesus Christ's restored gospel can help someone, and then have their own decisions, misinformation, and even freak accidents get in the way of connecting them to these blessings.

On the other hand, we met with a really sweet mom this week! She's a police officer, so she sees a lot of kids who are in bad spots because of poor family situations or other circumstances. She has an intense desire to help her kids have the best possible future. We shared the Proclamation to the World on the Family (read it here) with her a few weeks ago, and she really identified with its teachings. We were able to meet with her for a few minutes at a park yesterday, and she is super excited for us to teach her and her family more! 

I was feeling kind of emotionally exhausted with the various ups and downs of missionary work and life in general, but watching General Conference this weekend fixed that. I especially loved Sister Joy D. Jones' talk. She taught how if we do everything we do out of love for God, it will help us find joy even in challenging or menial tasks. I especially loved this quote she shared:

  

 “If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow. Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough. Give the world the best you’ve got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God … anyway.”

Also this week, we started reading the Book of Mormon as a mission. Our goal is to finish by the end of the year. Following President Nelson's invitation, I've been marking every verse that references Christ, and writing at the top of the page what that specific page teaches me about Him. I'd done something similar a few years ago, but I've still been astounded by just how present Christ is on every page of the Book of Mormon. I have yet to find a page that doesn't reference Him. He truly is the center of our message, and the center of God's plan for us. He is present in every one of our lives, and if we let Him, He will send us miracles.

Sister Bast and I realized the other day that we can flip up our ponytails and instantly become members of an angsty Korean boy band

Love you! Have an amazing week!

Sofi

Those rocks have been on fire for over 300 years.

Hi Everyone!

I don't have a good morning picture today, because I have something more important!

IT'S GENERAL CONFERENCE TIME!!! Or I guess, it's already over for most of the world, but if you live in Taiwan, we still get another week of the hype! We've already heard a lot of the big changes, but we're looking forward to hearing all of the spiritual messages. For those of you have already watched general conference, how was it? For those who have not yet seen it, to quote the picture, Are you ready? Aaaah I can't wait. A video for the conference can be found here. 

This week has been really amazing! On Monday, a member drove us up into the mountains to hike around for a bit. Turns out there are some famous hot springs 20 minutes from where we live. The hot springs are mud, not straight water, and apparently there are only two other places in the world that have springs like this. We did not go in the springs, but we did enjoy the beautiful scenery. 

I am so, so grateful for the members we get to serve with here in Taiwan. They are so loving and caring, and they are so kind to us. They are by far the best part of moving to a new area, and the worst part of moving out of an old one. The member who took us hiking is actually the mom of a member I was friends with in my last area, so it was fun to be able to connect with her more. 

The coolest thing we saw in the mountains was this spring. There's a well of natural gas next to the spring that has been slowly leaking out and burning for the last 300 years. Our member friend said it hasn't gone out once in that time. It was such a striking image, water and fire existing naturally in the same space. Heavenly Father's creations are breathtaking. 

 One thing I've gained a testimony of is just how much we need members! This week we had a lesson with a man who has a lot of questions. He doesn't necessarily care about the answers to the questions, he just wants to see how we will answer them. He asks them really rapid fire, and it's hard to stay afloat sometimes. He also has no filter, so whatever comes into his head comes right out his mouth. We had a really amazing member come to the lesson who was able to help answer his multitude of questions and keep the lesson focused and full of the Spirit. Without her, there would have been no way. 

Transfer calls came, and Sister Bast and I are together for another six weeks! This week, we completely lost the ability to speak English, and would either mix up words or forget them all together. At the same time though, we've developed an impressive ability to understand each other's thoughts telepathically, so even though we can't speak, we still understand what the other person is saying. We've decided to call this the Gift of the Lack of Tongues.

Another gift I've been developing lately is the Gift of Falling Asleep in Any Position. Sister Bast took this picture of me the other day during 'Language Study': 

Spurious gifts aside, we've seen lots of indicators that Heavenly Father is still guiding the work here in Xinying. We see it in the many tiny tender mercies we have every day. The other day we miraculously got out of English class on time, so we had an extra 15 minutes before we had to be home, and no plans. As we were biking out of the church, I got a random feeling to turn down the alley next to the church. We did, and we hadn't gone more than 200 feet before we ran into the mom of one of our new investigators out watering her garden. We stopped, talked with her, and told her more about our church. She came to church this Sunday with her son! It was little, just the thought to turn right, but to me it was a sweet testimony that Heavenly Father is aware of us, and of this mom who now also gets the chance to learn of Him. 

Have an amazing week! 

Lots of Love

Sofi