And a Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone! 

This week I had an experience that I've never had before as a missionary: Sister Wu and I crashed a wedding! The bride and groom live in Beitun, a nearby town, and we'd met the groom for about 5 minutes a few weeks ago when he and his family came to check out our chapel and see if they could hold the wedding there. Then, the night before we got a text from the Beitun missionaries saying they couldn't go, and their bishop wanted to know if we could attend instead. After some discussion, Sister Wu and I made the decision that no, we would not be able to attend a wedding of two people we'd never met. We called to tell the bishop our decision, but the picture he painted was incredibly tempting. He said that the bride and groom were recent converts, so there would be very few members and a ton of nonmembers who'd never heard of the gospel before, and had nowhere to run from us because they were expected to attend the wedding. After more discussion and messaging the bride to make sure she was cool with two missionaries she'd never met crashing her wedding to share the gospel, Sister Wu and I decided to attend. 

We arrived at the church all fired up to fulfill our missionary purpose and share the gospel with everyone there. When we got there however, we discovered that there was assigned seating. After some deliberation, the ushers put us at a table with a big group of church members from Japan. Who all had lovely English. So instead of sharing the gospel we just straight up attended the wedding and chatted with the Japanese members for an hour and a half.

 

​

In the end though, it turned out that our special missionary services were needed, because we were the only ones at the church with keys, so we got to stay until everyone left so we could lock up. Thankfully it was a pretty lowkey reception, so we made it home by 10 pm. The bride stopped to take a picture with us on the way out the door: 

​

Since we attended the entire wedding, we got to learn a lot about the Bride and Groom's story, which is adorable. They'd been dating for a while when they both met the missionaries. They took the lessons and got baptized together. Now, a year later, they were able to be sealed in the Taibei temple for time and all eternity. One of the sisters who taught them came back for the wedding. It was so cool to see the fruits of the work we're doing. Missionary work isn't just about baptisms. It's about helping people enjoy the wonderful blessings of eternity that Heavenly Father offers us. 

And now it's the new year! Last night Sister Wu and I went to bed at 10:30 as usual, but we woke up again at 11:50 to celebrate the new year. We went up to the roof of our apartment building to look at the city lights, and were surprised with about 20 different firework shows going off at 12 am. Our apartment building's the tallest thing in our area, so we had a wonderful view.  

​

This morning when we woke up we went back to the roof to watch the first sunrise of the year. The sun had technically already risen, but there was a large, low hanging bank of clouds in the way, so we were able to watch it as it actually became visible. It was a gorgeous way to start the new year!

​

I hope you all have a wonderful week this week! Happy New Year!

Lots of Love,

Sister Hull

Merry Christmas!

Hi Everyone!

It's Christmas! Wow. It feels like it came way to fast. I'm not quite ready for December to be over yet. It's been a wonderful month, and a great chance to focus even more on the center of our message: Jesus Christ. 

Yesterday I achieved an important goal: I finished Jesus the Christ. Jesus the Christ is an amazing book that uses the Bible, Book of Mormon, and modern revelation to go through the life of Christ, from the preexistence, through his earthly ministry, and into prophecies about his Second Coming. It's also 800 pages. I started it in my first month or two in Taiwan, and have made slow, steady progress ever since. It's been an incredible experience to read in such depth about our Savior, especially this month as we've been preparing for Christmas.

 As I've read, and then gone out to attempt to serve as He served, I've gained so much love for Christ. As I've been training Sister Wu, I've been slapped in the face with my imperfections again and again. I've had to learn to really pray, and to rely on the Lord. Christ has become my example, my guide, and my teacher. Studying his life has given me an even greater appreciation for how truly amazing he is, and how central to our lives, whether or not we recognize it.

Toward the end of Jesus the Christ, the author, Talmage, quotes D&C 76:22-24: And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!
23 For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father—
24 That by him, and through him, and of him, the worlds are and were created, and the inhabitants thereof are begotten sons and daughters unto God.

I love this exuberant and certain testimony of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for this chance to celebrate His birth and life this Christmas. I hope you all have an amazing Christmas! Love you!

Love,

Sister Hull

Pic: We went to a Carrefour's (Sort of like Fred Meyer's) in Fengjia this week to sing carols. We were told everything had been set up and they were expecting us, but when we got there they had no idea who we were or what we were doing. Finally they just kinda stuck us in the basement and let us sing. We had fun though! This Carrefour employee lady took pictures of us the whole time, so when we finished we asked if she could send them to us. I don't know why they're so blurry.

This is not the Lego movie

Hi Everyone!

I saw this sticker at a 7-11 the other day, and it made me laugh:

Taiwan puts really funny English sayings on random things. My favorite so far: there was an adorable dress in a children's clothes shop with two words- Cheese Penguin.

​Life has been pretty good this week! We've been busy with Light the World and getting ready for Christmas. Monday we set up with the Du family. They planned the activity, and we just showed up. The activity turned out to be a fulfillment of my fondest dreams: we made green onion pancakes and gave them to their neighbors. So now I officially have a real, true taiwanese recipe. Green Onion pancakes are just about my favorite food in the world, so it's even more exciting. Ask me if you want the recipe.

​

On Wednesday, we went and picked up trash with our investigator, Zou Jiemei, and her adorable daughter 

​Finally, on Saturday we went with the ward to carol at a nursing home near our church. It was really fun to spend time serving with several members in our ward. Most of the people in the nursing home only spoke Taiwanese, so I wasn't able to do much more than shake hands and smile, but it was still a really special experience. 

​

Today is transfers (that happened way too fast!), and after 4 months of serving together, we said goodbye to Elder Councill. Our new Zone Leader is our previous District Leader, Elder Johnson. In our district, we're the only companionship that hasn't changed. It'll be fun to meet more missionaries and learn together this upcoming transfer!

Love you all!

Sister Hull

Taiwan might actually be in the arctic

Hi everyone!

Ok so this week it got actually cold for the first time. The last few weeks it's been chilly in the evenings, but this week it was truly, legitimately cold. Actually, it was only in the 50s, but Taiwan is extremely humid, and it was raining, so it felt like it was getting close to absolute zero. Thankfully, our wonderful Relief Society President has given us two massive boxes of Swiss Miss, so we're all set for the winter. Life is good.

The most exciting news of the week: Our mission got smart phones! Those of you who know me know that I'm not the biggest fan of technology, so this is the first smart phone I've had, ever. Needless to say, it's an adjustment. It's also an amazing blessing. We've only had the phones for about 3 days, but we're already learning so many more ways to connect with investigators and ward members. I love how our church is constantly looking for new ways to improve and progress Heavenly Father's work. We don't just stick with what we've done before; we're always trying to make things better. 

Ok buckle down, because the rest of this email is going to be Light the World pictures. It's been a jam-packed week!

Monday invited us to meet our neighbors. We introduced one of our members who lives near us, Tina, to our absolutely favorite neighbors, the Lin family. The Lin family is absolutely amazing. They live on a corner near our apartment and always wave at us when we leave in the morning. Sometimes they even give us food. They told us they know we probably miss our families, so they want to take care of us so we're not too homesick.

​

Wednesday we went to the community center again and taught all the old people the Chicken Dance and played Bingo with them. They all really love to dance! After the part of the activity that we led, we joined them in more dancing. Please enjoy the video at the bottom of the Elders

​

Sunday was jam-packed. The theme was sharing scriptures, so we invited a family in our ward to share their favorite scripture on Social media: 

​

We also shared a lot of scriptures with our semi-investigator, Maybe Later. Maybe Later is a former investigator from around June. He's not ready to start taking the lessons again, but he's been reading the scriptures and praying almost every day since June, so he likes to meet every now and then to discuss what he's been reading and ask questions. Our friend Jenalyn helped answer his questions. This made for a very interesting lesson, as Jenalyn doesn't speak Chinese, Sister Wu doesn't speak English, Maybe Later only kind of speaks English, and I only kind of speak Chinese. The Spirit was definitely there in the meeting though, because we miraculously managed to all understand each other. The gift of tongues is real!

​

I could keep going, but I think that's enough for this week. Hope you all have a wonderful week this week! Go Light the World!

Love,

Sister Hull