This week was Ba Ba day! 8/8 (Father's Day). My companion asked if
we have father's day in America after she explained to me what it was
-__- yes, we have father's day hahaha. But it was fun. So dad, I love
you and I appreciate you and I'm praying for you!
Something happened this week that only I thought was funny, but
since I have the sense of humor of a 4 year old boy (literally) I
decided to share it. We were visiting a member and having a really great
lesson with her and her 4 year old son with a fever of 103F was running
around and jumping up and down and yelling in Chinese, "POOP! MY FOOT!
POOP POOP MY FOOT MY LEG POOP!" I was cracking up but the mom and my
companion were stony cold, so I tried to stifle my laughter.
And it is BLAZING! Oh my. When it get's down to 35 degrees Celsius I
think it's cool. This past week it's been over 100F and it's so humid
you never stop sweating and our Mission President said a couple
missionaries had heat stroke this week...eek. But I prefer heat to cold
so that's ok. I just never stop sweating, even when I take the coldest
shower our apartment can handle.
This week I also saw a reincarnation of The Karate Kid (no, not
Jaden Smith). We were at a meeting and this super annoying mosquito kept
flying around until one of the missionaries here, Elder Chen, picked up
a rubber band and shot the bug as soon as it landed on the table! It
was one of the coolest things I have ever seen!
Don't worry, I'm eating more than enough haha. Luckily we work out
every morning and then ride our bikes a lot, otherwise I would be chunky
already. I'm really hoping I don't gain too much weight here (unless
it's muscle, that would be ok). And we get ice cream and/or amazing
fruit slushie things or ice with fresh mango and some kind of sweet
milk, so delicious. We were eating these cookie things the other day and
the slogan was, "Digging into boring pie, getting out of boring time."
Not sure if calling your snack a boring pie is good marketing but, I'm
just an English major, what do I know?
This week I decided that BO smell is greater than mildew smell.
Stuff mildews here SO fast and it smells HORRIBLE. If my choice was
between a recently washed mildewed shirt and a stinky shirt that I wore
yesterday, I think I would choose the latter. (my comp can't tell the
difference between latter, later, and letter. I guess they all sound the
same?)
This week I also noticed my tan lines. I now, for the first time in
my life, have a watch tan line. I also have a tan line from my shoes
(which are all flats), and my everpresent knee tan from soccer and rugby
is gone! NOOOOO!!! I'll work on it when I get home. But when we went to
an investigators house for the second time she goes, "ARE YOU OK?? You
turned black!" I didn't know if I should feel complimented or not...
Another miracle, the bruises on my butt went away sooner than
expected! When I asked the other sisters about when the bruises would go
away, they said 3 months. It's been 3 or 4 weeks and the bruises are
gone! Now my butt hurts only like once a day instead of every time I get
on a bike! As they say in Stick It, "I put tough skin on tough skin."
We went street contacting in this place we felt inspired to go even
though the person we were going to visit ended up not being there. As
we walked we would try and listen to the promptings of the spirit tell
us where to go and said a lot of prayers to help. We both felt like we
should go this one way even though there was no one there to contact.
And we passed a lot of empty apartments, but felt like we should stop at
The first one was someone who had come to our English class the night
before with her children, but said she didn't want to learn about the
gospel, just attend English class. The next door we stopped at, a yeye
(old grandpa) invited us in, we asked if there was anyone else in the
house and he just kept telling us to come in, but we waited at the door
for 2 or 3 minutes and then his wife came out of their bedroom and we
started talking to them. Neither of them were really interested and
right as we were about to go, their two granddaughters (who are living
with them) came in. Both of them stopped at the door, so confused,
because why would 2 random people (especially a white person) be in the
living room? So they were hesitant at first, but we had a good lesson
with them about God and prayer, and we are visiting them again tonight
and they said they will attend English class too! They are new
investigators and though one seems more interested in meeting with
waiguoren, one seems very golden! I know through prayer and listening to
the spirit, we were brought to that door, and that we waited for a few
minutes outside the door so that we could meet these sisters.
In my studies I found some amazing quotes that have changed my
missionary work. "I promise you, as you pray to know with whom to speak,
names and faces will come into your mind. Words to speak will be given
in the very moment you need them. Opportunities will open to you. Faith
will overcome doubt, and the Lord will bless you with your very own
miracles." -Elder Neil L. Anderson. I didn't realize we were entitled to
this kind of revelation through prayer and faith and listening for an
answer to our prayers. So I did it and it happened! That revelation
came! I saw a face and we saw her that afternoon and even though she
lives not in our area, I know we were supposed to meet her, and we gave
her a Book of Mormon and had a 30 minute lesson with her on the street.
I also took another Sister around XinZhu during exchanges! Heavenly
Father really helped us to not get lost more than the 1 or 2 times that
we did. There were a few times when I wasn't sure where we were/where
we needed to go, but I prayed and Heavenly Father helped us get there
quickly and safely. Only got honked at/yelled at once!
I know this is the Lord's work. I love being in Taiwan. And I know
this is where I'm supposed to be. I'm praying for everyone who reads
this blog post and I love you all and I thank you for supporting me as I
devote my time and energy to God's work.
Love,
Sister Perkins
No comments:
Post a Comment