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
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