冬天來了

Hi Everyone! 

So apparently according to some Chinese calendar, winter officially started on the 7th, which gave the creators of the good morning pictures a whole new theme to riff on:

(Good morning. Today is winter.)

We have definitely felt the coming of winter this week, though not in the weather. The weather has been lovely and warm, but the winter pollution has been awful. Apparently every winter the smog settles in for a good few months. There were a couple of days this week where it looked like the morning fog just never lifted. Sister Bast and I invested in some facemasks. 

For English class this week, we planned an activity that required us to bring a cardboard box from our apartment to the church. The box was already partially dismantled, and was too big to shove in our basket or bike box, so I used my reflective light gear to strap it on my body. We rode all the way to the church that way, getting quite a few stares. I couldn't resist shouting 'To infinity and beyond!' a few times on the way. 

Recently, we've been trying to work with the ward more, so we sent around a sign up asking for people to choose one hour in the month of November that they can come do missionary work with us. Once they've signed up, we'll try to schedule a lesson with someone we're teaching at that time, and if we can't, we'll find some other thing to do with them. On Friday, we had one of our first appointments, so we set up a lesson with a friend we're teaching who lives near the church. When we got to his house, we found out he'd forgotten and gone to another nearby town. After talking with the member who came with us, we decided to go back to the church. On the way there, we ran into another one of our friends, Ivan, who just happened to be out riding his scooter. We introduced him to our member, and she invited him to come back to the church with us. He did, and we had an impromptu lesson with him. Our member shared an experience that turned out to be very similar to something Ivan's friend has been going through. She was able to give him some advice to help his friend, while Sister Bast and I just sat there reeling from the whiplash of going to teach one lesson and ending up in another. 

Last night we taught our ward how to make pizza. No one in Taiwan bakes, so pizza is a great activity because it's new to them, easy, and everyone can participate. They had fun making wacky flavor combinations, the craziest being banana and cheese. In the photo is one of our ward missionaries, Yaping, holding the bishop's youngest daughter, whose name is Little Plum. 

After getting sick a few months ago, my stomach is still not as strong as it used to be, so I have to be a lot more conscious about what I eat (which is probably a good thing- it's really easy to eat unhealthily in Taiwan). The other day though, I wasn't as careful about my breakfast as I should have been, and as we were getting ready to go out an hour or two later, I started getting stomach cramps. I laid down for a bit until the cramps mainly subsided, but the sunny Saturday morning was too enticing, so we went out as soon as I didn't feel like I was going to throw up. I still wasn't feeling great, but I figured at the very least I could follow Sister Bast around and nod affirmatively as she talked to people. We only had a half hour, so I was just focusing on making it through. As we started talking to people, I realized something very interesting. As long as I was talking to someone and sharing the gospel, my stomachache would go away. As soon as we said goodbye, it would come back, but as long as I was focused on missionary work, I was fully functional. We had several very tender contacts. We met one old man who was looking for a new job because his current boss was mean, and we said a prayer with him. We introduced a high school kid to the idea of a Heavenly Father for the first time. It was cool to see how, when I was willing to sacrifice a bit of my comfort, Heavenly Father sustained me while I did his work. And don't worry, I went home and rested during language study after :)

Have an absolutely amazing week!!

Lots of Love,

Sister Hull

THIS IS HALLOOWEEN

Hi Everyone!

Ok, first off, the subject line is not a typo. This month, all the 7-11s had fall themed candy displays with a big 'Hallooween' emblazoned across the top, which Sister Bast and I found very funny.

(Good morning ~ peace happiness)

The highlight of this week was Halloween! Since it was on a Wednesday, we prepared a special English lesson, and showed up in costumes. I was Mary Poppins, and Sister Bast was Totoro, from the Studio Ghibli film, 'My Neighbor Totoro'. Turns out no one in Taiwan knows who Mary Poppins is. They're pretty up to date on American culture in general, so I was actually kind of surprised by that. They were all confused why we would be watching a movie that was filmed so long ago. My only pictures from this week are from Halloween, so please enjoy me and Sister Bast being cute. Here is Sister Bast as Totoro, demonstrating all the different ways Asia has come up with to make a heart with our hands: 

I learned a new favorite word this week: 悟 (pronounced as a short, sharp 'oo'). When you put it into Google Translate, it translates as 'enlightenment', which I guess is kind of right. It's the moment where something that you understand intellectually suddenly clicks, and you understand it personally, with your heart. I feel like this happens a lot in the gospel. It's pretty easy to learn the basic principles and doctrines of the gospel, and understand them intellectually. The gospel's not that complicated. Learning to 悟 the gospel, on the other hand, is a process that takes a lifetime. Slowly, baby step by baby step, Heavenly Father provides the experiences we need to truly internalize and understand, or 悟 the eternal truths necessary for salvation. It's the process of 悟ing that helps us change and become more like Christ, and prepare to live with God again. I love Chinese!

We also had a really interesting contacting moment the other day. Our plan for a part of the evening was to hit up several 7-11s on the same road and talk to the people sitting down inside. The first 7 we went to was insanely awkward. The first two people didn't want to talk to us. When we approached the third guy's table and asked if we could sit with him, he took it to mean that we just wanted to sit at THAT SPECIFIC TABLE, and moved to another table to give us space. We tried to contact a fourth lady while sitting awkwardly at our newly vacated table, and she wasn't interested either. We made a hasty retreat to our bikes. After a quick prayer, Sister Bast joked that there must be some really prepared people at the next 7, so Heavenly Father must have wanted us to get through that first one quickly and get all our awkwardness out so we could get on with things. When we got to the next 7 though, Sister Bast's words turned out to be true. We walked in and sat down next to the first guy we could find, a dad waiting for his kid to get out of cram school. We had a really touching conversation with him about parenthood and God, and he said he'd probably have interest in learning more! Then we met another girl who is up in Xinying all alone, and really needed someone to talk to. We chatted with her for a while and were able to share a bit about the Gospel and her loving Heavenly Father. She also said she might be interested in continuing to meet with us, even though she's really busy. Heavenly Father definitely guided us to where He wanted us to be that night.

That's all I've got for this week! Have a great week!

Love you all!

Sofi

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!