The train stations in Taiwan have started this poster campaign to stop people from doing dumb stuff. They all feature an adorable cartoon Death convincing people to do dumb things at the train station. This is my favorite one:
Underneath the English tagline, the Chinese says 'Lower your head for a moment, regret it for a lifetime'. Savage.
The big news of this week, and the reason you didn't get an email from me last week, was we had transfers! Sister Bast moved down way South to Pingdong. Pingdong was explained to us by a member as being 'the Florida of Taiwan', or in other words, very hot. With winter coming, I'd say that's pretty perfect timing!
My new companion is Sister DeJarnatt from Pleasantview, Utah. She is absolutely amazing. Some of my favorite things about her: She loves musical theater. She's an amazing listener. She has an impressive talent for spotting wild Geckos. She is really good at teaching, especially at asking just the right questions. She, like me, places high priority on sleep, so we've been able to get to bed on time most days this week (not an easy feat on the mission, especially when you like talking with each other). Also, we learned from one of the people we're teaching that, since our star signs are Scorpio and Libra, we are especially suited to being companions and will work really well together. So yeah, it's a companionship that was written in the stars. Here is an artist's representation of Sister DeJarnatt, as drawn by our 8 year old English student, Cherry:
Here's an actual picture of Sister DeJarnatt and I celebrating Thanksgiving with hand turkeys. I feel like I've had so much to be grateful for this week. Here's a short list:
1. We have a grandpa we're teaching who doesn't really speak Chinese, only Taiwanese, and we couldn't find anyone who could speak Taiwanese to come with us, but then someone said they could at the last second, and we had an awesome lesson.
2. The weather is still in the 70s and 80s most days.
3. Our ward had a potluck yesterday, and there were quesadillas, and someone was playing Christmas music on the piano.
4. Honestly, just our ward.
5. Sister DeJarnatt is amazing!
6. My family
Sister DeJarnatt and I got up at 5:30 am for our bi-weekly street sweeping with a bunch of Amahs and Agongs. When we wrapped up, they took us all to a field of sweet potatoes. The corner that wasn't planted with sweet potatoes was covered in weeds a couple feet high. The old people dove in with incredible energy and we cleared about 100+ square feet of weeds in about 20 minutes. I want to be an Amah when I grow up.
This Saturday was Taiwan's election day, which was quite a party. This year's elections were all local- mayors and stuff, so there was a ton of campaigning that went on. One of the favorite campaign methods was to drive around in a parade of jeeps. One jeep would have a drummer banging on an enormous drum, and another jeep would have the candidate standing on the back waving and smiling and yelling into a microphone about how everyone should vote for them. It was all very exciting. We also saw a couple of rallys and what might have been a rave.
As results started coming in election night, of course some people were overjoyed and others were very disappointed. We were walking back in for the night, and saw our appartment security guard standing solemnly and staring at the TV announcing the election results. With wet eyes, he told us that his party had been ousted, and the other party was now in control. While we had no idea what either party was, it was really sad to see our guard so sad. We I wrote a card, and Sister DeJarnatt drew a smiley face on an orange, and we ran it downstairs to him right before turning in for the night. It felt good to find a simple little way to serve someone who was having a rough day.
A recent convert in Jiayi, the town right above us, contacted us to let us know that she wanted us to start teaching her boyfriend who lives in our area. We were a little worried at first that we'd end up in a lesson with a guy who had no interest in religion whatsoever, and just wanted to make his girlfriend happy, but it turned out amazing! The boyfriend, Xie Dixiong, is super friendly and thoughtful. His girlfriend had told him about eternal families, and he really wants to know how he can have his own eternal family. We met with them on Saturday, and they came to church on Sunday. Turns out, he's coworkers with our Elders' Quorum President! The Elder's Quorum President, Wang Dixiong, was super excited to see him, and immediately put his arm around him and showed him around and answered all his questions. The rest of the ward was really excited too because they all love Wang Dixiong, and Wang Dixiong was singing his praises all day. Xie Dixiong felt really welcomed, and loved the things he learned at church. It was so fun to see everyone super excited to welcome someone new at church!
Have an amazing week everyone! I love you all!
Sister Hull
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