January 12, 2014

Hi Mom and Dad!

Well before I forget, that was me at the baptisms! Haha, that's so fun! President Day sends out a weekly email to all the missionaries, and he actually included a link to the article about it, so that's awesome! Another fun fact, Chen Hui Zhang (the member's house that I skyped at) knows the person who wrote the article I think, the older man in all the pictures. Small world. 

(There was an article in the Deseret News this past week and I was pretty sure it was describing the place where Amie was able to attend baptisms the first full day she was in Taiwan, so I asked her about it. Sure enough, she was there with the other new missionaries that arrived in Taiwan just the day before!  It recounts the story of one of the first missionaries in Taiwan, and how the first baptism was held in Wu-lai Canyon, on the river there.  And it quotes Pres. Day, Amie's mission president, about the baptisms that were held there on Oct. 10 this past Fall.  Here is the link . . . it is a very interesting article, and so exciting to know that Amie was able to be a part of that special day!  I've attached some pictures Amie sent home of that day.)   http://www.deseretnews.com/865593777/ 

Wu-lai Canyon

Amie in Wu-lai Canyon attending the baptisms
in that special place, on Oct. 10, 2013,
also her first day in Taiwan.

This week's been good! I love this area! Haha, I mean, I loved Dan Shui a lot, but this area is awesome. It's definitely more rural...we go out running in the morning and hear roosters doing the 'cock-a-doodle-doo thing', so it's definitely different, but I love it. It's slower paced, and there are less people, so when we go contacting we literally talk to about everyone, but I love it. I like the slower pace of things, and the more rural area. And all my stuff came, so I'm all unpacked now and everything! It's so much nicer, I don't like feeling like I'm living out of a suitcase, I actually feel at home now. I'm going to send some pictures today of all my stuff unpacked, haha, I thought you'd like that.

A picture of the countryside where Amie serves now.

We've been so busy this week too! Every single night we get home and just feel dead with exhaustion, but it's a good feeling, haha. Last Tuesday was really cool specifically. We had set up a 'pei ke' (member at a lesson) but the investigator ended up falling through. However, our member (she's probably about 21, leaving for a mission to Chicago in March) wanted to stay with us, and it was so awesome! We talked to about 4 people on the street, had 3 lessons, and got 2 new investigators just from them. It was a miracle. And it was super fun too.

Kind of a funny story as well, haha, we went to go visit an investigator who is probably about 80, and she was so fun. She said about 4 opening prayers for us, and we were talking about singing to bring the Spirit, and she started singing us traditional Taiwanese songs. Haha, I love Taiwan! 

Another miracle...we have this investigator and she lives about an uphill hour away bike ride, which was actually really fun. It was like on the outskirts of Zhunan, and Zhunan in itself isn't really big, so by the time we got there it was just like a few houses and then just fields and grass everywhere, it was so cool. But anyways, the first thing she said when we sat down in the lesson was "The Holy Ghost is real, I feel it." It was so awesome! Haha, both Sister Peay and I just looked at each other and were like "We believe you!" She's so great. She's only been our investigator for about 3 weeks, but she's already in Words of Mormon. That's where I just got to in the Book of Mormon! It was such a miracle. 

And another miracle (this week's been awesome), we had an investigator come to church, and we just met her last week. We haven't really taught her much of anything, except prayer, but she already said she would come to church every single week. And I and she were talking after Sacrament meeting and I asked her about the Book of Mormon, and she was like "I don't know why, but I love it. Since I've started reading it, it's just felt like an 'up day,' so that was awesome too! She's like, the definition of a prepared person. We're really excited for her. 

Also last night, we were trying to find a less active member that we've never met. And after about an hour and half, literally, we found it, and it was so worth it! We went in, and she was making dinner so we only stayed for about 15 minutes, but it was so good. She's just been having a hard time lately, and in the lesson she started crying and just, really hard, and we asked if we could do anything for her, and she was like "No, I just need to rely on myself for this" and we kind of just kept talking a little, but then I brought it back up, and was like "You just said you need to rely on yourself, but I really want to encourage you to lean on Christ," and she just burst into tears again and it was so cool. Not that she was crying, but we both felt like that's what she needed to hear. She gave us both hugs and told us to come back to visit, and it was so cool. Definitely worth the exhausting bike ride to find her. 

A kind of funny story, I fell over my bike. I wasn't even riding it, but I was trying to walk backwards with it, like I was on it but not riding it, and something happened and it just took me down, and I literally like, fell over the bike, haha. Apparently it looked ridiculous, and I have a pretty nice bruise on my hip from hitting the ground, but that was fun! Speaking of my bike, I'm going to paint it today. So many people have told me that it looks too pretty, so we're going to go get some spray-paint today and get that taken care of, so I'll sent pictures next week.  (They paint their bikes to make them less attractive to being stolen.) 

I also got all my Phase 2 stuff!! I'm on Lesson 5 of Phase 1, but I'm pretty sure I can get that done in a week, and then I can start Phase 2, which is pretty much just vocab words, like over 2,000 of them I think. I took a picture of my desk that I'm attaching, and underneath with the box and flashcards are all the cards. I'm really excited. Chinese is really hard, but it's super fun, haha.

My district is really awesome too. It's Elder Kunz, Elder Sullivan, Elder Reylea, and Elder Liu, and then Sister Peay and me, and it's so fun. The Elders gave us our mail one morning during exercise and we ended up just playing frisbee with them, and it was super fun. This transfer is going to be a good one. Oh! And we're on the 12th floor, the view is amazing, and the window by my desk looks out over the sunrise, so it's great, and I only find about a couple cockroaches a day. Sometimes I try to kill them, and sometimes I just leave them, haha, I won't bother them if they don't bother me. 

And my companion is amazing. I feel like we're really getting to know each other better and work well together, and we have fun with the work, so it's good. Luckily we both like running, and eating new crazy food, so it's great, haha. 

Well I love you! As for a package, I can't really think of any more requests, just any fun things you think I'd like :) Haha, thank you!

Love you and miss you!

-Qiao Jei Mei 

Qiao Jie Mei enjoying her new area!

Hey Dad,

So in your email last week when you said you hoped I got a chance to serve in MiaoLi or Tai Dong, I didn't realize how close Zhu Nan is to Miao Li! We're actually in the Miao Li zone, so that's super fun. We meet a lot of people from there too. I do love this part of Taiwan. It's interesting, I've never really been in a rural part of Taiwan for this long. In High School I went on trips to more rural parts, but that was just about a week and then I went home to Shanghai, and then Dan Shui was a huge city near Taipei, but Zhu Nan is not like that at all. Much slower, different and less people, and just a different way of doing things, but I love it. We see people we know more often, and run into the same people a lot, and it's super fun. I like it here. 

If I do run into him, I'll ask him. How do you know him?

(Lloyd served in an area very close to where Amie is now serving, and he asked her about a member he knew 'way back when'.)

My companion is definitely a good one. She helps me a lot, and I feel like I'm learning a lot. I'm learning to love contacting, haha, it's actually pretty fun! It's kind of fun to have a new companion, just to see how other missionaries do things, and learn from them and everything, I like it.

Thanks for all the support :) There are a lot of missionaries here from Taiwan who don't have a ton of support from family back home, and it always makes me really grateful that I have you and Mom. I still read my patriarchal blessing and setting apart blessing a lot, and they're really cool. I love them. 

Love you!

-Qiao Jie Mei