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

Angels not even remotely in disguise

Hi Everyone!

Ok so, not much happened this week because I spent all of it languishing in bed with a diagnosis of acute colitis (inflammation of the colon). I could dump a lot of really disgusting medical information on you right now, but in consideration of your gag reflexes, instead I'll write about all the amazing people who helped me through this week. 

1. My Comp, Sister Taylor.

I've decided recently that when a missionary gets sick, the person who has it the worst is their companion, who is completely fine but then also confined to house arrest until the invalid recovers. Sister Taylor has been an absolute saint this week, patient and kind even after hours and hours of language study and watching every available video on the LDS media library. She was especially kind on the two days where I literally could not leave my bed without puking, but she made sure I had medicine and water and whatever other random things I needed but couldn't get myself.

2. Sister Card, the mission President's wife. 

Who texted and called me every day and kept up a good stream of communication between me, the mission medical advisor, and my parents. She also googled all of my random medical questions about which medicines I could take together, and the fiber content of various fruits.

3. Susan.

Holy cow, Susan is amazing! I wish I could send a picture of her, but she hates pictures. She won't come to church if she thinks you're going to try to take her picture there. Susan got baptized the week before I moved to Tainan. She is also a nurse practitioner. The minute I told her I wasn't feeling good, she offered to take me to the hospital. She then accompanied me through visits to one clinic and two hospitals, following the doctors around and bossing them to make sure they did things right. Which is a good thing, because at one point they mistook my intestines for my ovaries on the CT scan and told me I may never have kids again. It was hard to get to worried through all of this  though because of Susan's under the breath comments and eye rolls. She has been my lifeline.

4. The Stokers.

Their daughter, whom I only know as Sister Stoker, was Sister Taylor's trainer. They came back to visit Taiwan, and took us out to lunch at the end of the week. It was the first human contact not counting Elders that Sister Taylor and I had had in about 4 days, and it was very welcome. They were even kind enough to take a picture at the end of lunch and send it to our parents, a thing I know every missionary mom (and dad) really appreciates.

5. Our Ward Mission Leader, Mingyou

Mingyou is leaving tomorrow to go live in Australia for two years! He has been an awesome Ward Mission Leader, bringing drinks and good advice to our correlation meetings. He's helped us plan several activities and a couple of baptisms, and just generally made sure we're taken care of and in good health. We're going to miss him and his obsession with the Little Mermaid very much in the coming months. We went out with the Young Single Adults in the ward to celebrate him one last time on Saturday night at an American restaurant called Smokey Joe's. Does anyone know if that's an American based chain? We couldn't remember for sure. 

Bonus picture: we made a card for Mingyou, and after signing the envelope we decided it looked a little plain, so we decorated it, each person adding to what the last person drew. We were pretty proud of the result.

That's all I've got for this week! Being sick on a mission is no fun, but I've been well taken care of, and I'm on the mend. Hopefully next week I'll have lots of new stories and miracles to share!

Love you all!

Sister Hull