The title of this post is a quote from A Knight's Tale (for all those unfamiliar with Heath Ledger and his awesomeness). Because I say this all the time. And now, in Taiwan, I understand this. Here when someone doesn't show up for an appointment without calling, it is called "fang ge zi" (pronounced fong) or "place a pigeon". Not really sure about the pigeon stuff, but it's a thing. And it happens a lot. People promise they will come to church, we call them on Sunday they say they're coming, we wait, they don't show up. We wait with a member at the church for our investigator to come to their lesson, don't show up. It's normal. I think we get fanged at least 5 times each week. Getting used to it now.
Something I am not getting used to is not playing soccer. I started having my first dreams about playing. Now I dream a lot about playing soccer. On the one hand it's super fun because it's like I'm playing (and also I'm way better at soccer in my dreams than I am in real life. Unless I have the dream where I run sooooo slowly that I can never get the ball) on the other hand I wake up not feeling super rested and miss soccer. But I know I'm where I'm supposed to be so it's ok. And also I don't get to play any other sports here in XinZhu. In other places they get together and play frisbee but not here, at least I get to work out and I think I'm in better shape than I've been in a while! I weigh more but am skinnier, so either our scale is broken or I'm just more muscly than before (I'm hoping it's the latter, it would be cool if I was so strong. And everytime I weigh myself it's like 5-10 pounds different...I don't think I fluctuate that much. But everyone else in the apartment is sold that the scale is right).
This week was pretty rough, we had some problems with investigators, some of our people we were most hopeful for ended up not coming to church or having major problems. In the past 2 weeks we have had no investigators come to church, so that was kind of sad. BUT, along with these harder times came miracles. This week we had 8 less actives at church! And one of them hasn't been to church in more than 4 months but we visited her on Friday and she came and stayed for all 3 hours! It was great! And we had 3 member referrals this week! Members usually never really help us with the work, but this week they did and they're golden! We met with one (a little sister of a member) and she was already praying and reading the Book of Mormon everyday and we set a baptismal date! Another lady just moved from Taipei and can't wait to be baptized! We just need to teach her the commandments, and everything we teach she says ok and commits to! Every morning she wakes up, reads the Bible and the Book of Mormon, prays, and goes to work. She's awesome. She'll be baptized in 2 weeks!
This week I think I might as well try chou dou fu (stinky tofu. Also, who knew that tofu is actually bean curd. Nasty nast. No one drinks curdled milk - trust me, I had it in cereal once and it was so disgusting - but everyone loves it). My bike helmet smells like chou doufu. Which is why I say I might as well try it. I don't know why my helmet smells so revolting, but it does. Probably constant rain+sweat=mildewy/moldy/nasty. And it smells so bad. Woof.
Last week for P-Day we went to a chocolate factory! And if you're thinking, wow! That's super cool! Was there a chocolate river? The answer would be, no, it's not that kind of a chocolate factory. Mostly it was run down. Pinocchio's forest lodge: overgrown with wild weeds and stuff. Teletubbies House: Not open and spiderwebs. Strawberry Beer Castle: super nice - we couldn't have fun there. Chocolate Dream House: not a real factory, they just melted some chocolate and gave it to us, still fun and delicious though. It took us like 3 hours to get there, bike to train to bus to walking. Worth it.
Also on my mission I'm getting over my fears! I have sung at 2 baptisms since I got here (with another Sister missionary, so a little less scary). Which I would never have done before. Talk about scary and insecure. Granted, most Chinese people here (and especially in our ward) can't sing. So there is less to be embarrassed about. But still, big accomplishment. (Probably will never sing in public again after my mission so I've got to steal the limelight here as much as possible.)
My English is getting worse and worse. This week I said, "She's easy to cry." NOOOOOOOO! How can I have such bad English? Chinese grammar (or lack of) is killer.
Also I have a really important question and favor to ask. Do koalas have tails? I am convinced they do and my companion is convinced they don't, because in Chinese they are called No-tail bears. Don't let the bystander effect affect you. Answer the question.
Missionary work here recently has been ke lian. Or the translation is "wretched and/or pitiable". I think those words are kind of harsh. People say ke lian to just mean like, wow you lead a sad/sorry/hard life. Not as intense as the above synonyms. But this week I feel we really have been pitiable. On Saturday we went out and it was pooring rain. Got fanged. My stomach hurt SO much but we just kept biking and walking and contacting. Went to visit someone, they moved 3 years ago. Ate dinner. Were soaking wet in the rain. Held out through like 5 waves of diarrhea urges until we finally passed a McDonalds and my comp said, "You can't wait till we get to their house?" I said, "You mean over the huge bridge and up the massive hill? No." Then my raincoat had like 5 holes in it and I was soaking wet. And it is getting cold. And that was the first time I've really felt pitiable. Who says it's not "Missionary fun!"? On the bright side, when we look that sad, people talk to us/give us raincoats/umbrellas! People here are so nice when you aren't preaching the gospel! Haha just kidding. They're nice all the time.
I love you so much and pray for you and hope things are going well in your life. Favorite scripture of the week: Alma 7:11-13. We don't just have to pray for forgiveness, we can also pray for strength or comfort and He knows how to succor us.
Love and rice,
Sister Perkins
ps. confession, stole the salutation from another missionary, but I still like it.
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