cripple, english, hair mole, moonwalk, orange‏

Hey all!

 

It's been another lovely week in the neighborhood (yes that was a failed attempt at a Mr. Rogers reference). Well, lovely is relative. But it was exciting and different!

 

You may wonder if there is a connection between all of the weird things in the subject line, and there is. They all have to do with things I've witnessed this week while serving my mission in the beautiful city of XinZhu.

 

We were visiting a Less Active Member (someone who has stopped coming to church regularly) at their house - a husband and wife - and were sharing a short message from the Book of Mormon and just seeing how they were doing. I said that I loved the wife's new vest (because I am obsessed with vests and think they are beautiful and want to collect them and Taiwan has a plethora of lovely vests) and then the husband who is crippled/severely burned from a work accident hobbled out of the room, came back and tried to give me his favorite vest. What?? Too nice and SO cute! I said no, but thank you. Then he hobbled out again, and this time came back holding - with much difficulty - a huge brand new microwave. After trying for 5 minutes to give us that we told him we couldn't possibly take it on our bicycles. Then as we were leaving he hobbles one last time over to his freezer and pulls out this bag of crackers that he wanted us to take and eat because he can't eat it with how his face is burned and his wife doesn't like them, so we took them graciously and left. I love them so much!

 

Hair mole - probably really easy to see a connection to old people around the world and particularly in Taiwan. BUT this is different than what you imagined. I have a mole on my neck, and this past week there has been like 4 or 5 times my head hair wrapped around it/got tied in a knot around it and almost got pulled off. Gross. And also painful.

 

People here are always giving us stuff. This week we were given (sing this to the tune of 12 days of christmas):

1 pink scarf, 2 massive coats, 3 oranges, 4 canned drinks, etc etc. We were sitting and talking to this student and were about to pray with her when a homeless lady came up. We don't have much money and had nothing to give her and it was super awkward for a couple minutes when all of a sudden, my genius of a companion whipped out this orange that someone had given us and gave it to the lady. She said thank you with a huge smile on her face and left. It was so cute and made me thankful for the things that people give us, and thankful for the chance to give back to the people here (Hello Thanksgiving).

 

I don't have much time so the moonwalk and the English class comment will have to wait until next week.

 

But some miracles this week:

A member took us out to eat sushi for Thanksgiving (I hate fish so you know I loved it). But the miracle was, when I ate the shrimp, it tasted just like fried chicken, and the salmon was good too! And the fish soup stuff was ok! I ate it all and know that God helped me. A few months ago I would have vomited instead of eaten that stuff (is that the worst English ever? I think so.).

 

And one of our investigators who has already quit drinking and really wanted to stop smoking but can't finally committed to stop! She really wants to be baptized and she knows this church is true and read the Book of Mormon in 2 weeks and she couldn't stop smoking even though she tried so hard. But this week we went over with the Elders and they gave her a priesthood blessing. It was so sweet and she was almost crying and she felt God's love and knows that through His help she can quit. She promised (for the first time ever!) to not buy any more cigarettes and to not smoke! I love her so much and I know that she will be happier for having quit smoking and drinking and will be better able to care for her daughter.

 

I know this gospel blesses lives. I have seen it in my own life. I have seen it in the lives of countless XinZhu ren (people). I know that we can come to know God through prayer. I know that the invitation from the Book of Mormon really is to people all around the world no matter where they live. That one can know if the book is true by reading, pondering, and praying. It's an awesome book.

 

I love you all so much!

Love,

Sister Perkins

The Most Special Crash Ever

Hey all!

 

So this past week started off with my companion, Sister Anderson, on her bike going full speed (and trust me, we can go pretty speedy) running into a stationary parked truck on the side of the road...bahahah. I heard a crash, turned around, and at first was so worried she got hit or something, was relieved when I found out she was ok, and laughed so hard when I realized she crashed into a stationary object. She jumped up, talked to the Chinese owner of the truck in Chinglish and gave him a pamphlet, and said to me, "How did that happen? I was singing Jesus, Savior, Pilot Me..." Bahahhaha. What a hoot. Luckily she was ok, a little bruise, a little blood (gross, you know I hate blood and scabs), and the handlebar of her bike went straight through her skirt and ripped a huge hole.

 

A particularly happy moment this week, just a small moment, a small miracle. Sister Anderson and I got to sit in the sun outside our church for a couple minutes eating ice cream and it was so happy and I was so grateful for the sun (it has been cloudy recently).

 

Also, another investigator committed to a baptismal date this week! She can communicate with spirits...? But she said one time it was really bad when she was young and her mom took her to the hospital, left because she thought she died, and then the investigator said that Jesus saved her, and she's been trying to read and understand the Bible ever since. Super crazy, but super cool!

 

Oh and we had a ton of service this week! We have a member who is moving into a new apartment that hasn't been lived in since August,  so we helpedclean it out and it was so dirty and disgusting and I had black snot/boogers for like a week. Loved it. And we are going back again this week to help paint it! 

 

For English class this week we had a Thanksgiving Party! The missionaries all performed a bunch of stuff, so we sang songs and beat boxed, showcased some art (my comp and I are painting a picture of a tiger, super cool and we are going to go buy matching tiger pants today...I don't know when I started loving tigers so much, but they're really cool), ate chicken and mashed potatoes and weird rice balls and not sweet brownies (beecause hey, we're in Taiwan, why would they be sweet?). It was really great.

 

We also biked a million miles up this HUGE GINORMOUS MONSTER of a hill. We biked up a hill for 10 km or 6 miles. It was straight up this hill. (I realize that was like the lamest I could've made that story but just thinking about that hill makes me tired.) But we got free lunch at the top of the hill, a lunch that brought my face leprosy back -_____-

 

This week at church we had 2 investigators come and a bunch of Less Actives and it was so awesome. And right now in December we are planning for 4 pretty positive baptisms and hopefully more as we do more finding and find those prepared and people who need help. We are looking for a lot more service opportunities (serving is so fun!) and this week we served for 5 hours, so that was great.

 

Miracle! Our elders called us and told us that this boy they met on the street who became their new investigator already has a book of Mormon and said that a Sister Perkins and Anderson gave it to him. So cool! Even though when we met him, he wasn't willing to meet or anything, he remembered us giving him a Book of Mormon and he is now their investigator!

 

I love this work, this place, bike riding, face rashes (ok, not so much), singing songs, meeting new people, and having crazy experiences.

 

I know that prayers work and that God listens and loves us.

 

Love,

Sister Perkins (aka, Pan Jie Mei)

Sesame Street

So I never understood why it was called Sesame Street. Always thought it was pretty weird. No one knows what sesame is and no one likes it and it's weird. BUT last Pday we went to this place called Neiwan, went hiking, climbed this rope bridge across this little river, bought more Mocchi than one can possibly eat, and I found out I am obsessed with sesame. IT IS SO DELICIOUS! It is like peanut butter but more flavorful and delicious and less thick and gucky (don't know if that's a real word, but it perfectly describes what peanut butter's texture is). It is SO good. Sister Anderson and I had these delicious Sesame balls - like this chewy delicious soft outside that had hot sesame seed (sauce?) and juice in the middle. The weird part, they were in foot soup. Literally smelled and tasted like feet. I think it was taro. But it was weird and not yummy. So we left the foot soup and ate the delicious sesame stuff.

 

Inspirational quote of the week: "God is really helpful." He helped me remember previous stuff I memorized so I could pass off some language tests, helped us have courage this week, helped us hand out 20 copies of the Book of Mormon, helped us know where to go to help people, helped us know what to say to allow people to feel the spirit and have a chance to change and get to know God better. "God is a nice guy." - my motto for life.

 

This week we got invited to dinner a few times by members! One was at a Less Active's house, a less active mom and her less active return missionary son. And I ate more than I ever have in my ENTIRE life. No joke. I had beef, potatoes, tomatoes, soup, broccoli, beans, shrimp, rice, almost tried the fish but didn't. Then they were like, surprise! We have pudding! So I ate that. Then they were like, did you try this thing? You didn't like it? So I tried it. It was one of the most disgusting things I've ever eaten. The texture was nasty, it was unchewable, so I was chewing and it wasn't getting smaller...it was a huge piece of grossness. Then I just tried to swallow it to get it out, gagged, tried swallowing again, almost my whole dinner came out, swallowed the third time and it went down with a little bit of gagging. They all BUSTED up laughing and were like, you're not used to it, eh? -________- Then they said it is like cow vein or some weird part of a cow (I think it is NOT meant to be eaten, but their daughter likes it...weird.). So I am pretty sure I can't do anything else. Then they bring out this super expensive ice cream and give it to us. Oh, I thought i was going to explode. We were biking to our next appointment and my companion was laughing the WHOLE way. She thought it was so funny that I couldn't bend forward. My stomach was bulging. And I was gonna vomit. ANd I biked slower than I ever have...weird.

 

But at that next appointment, miracle! Our investigator came with us to a members house and we were talking. Our investigator invited her to attend institute and our investigator said, "After I get baptized, can we move the day we meet to Monday so I can attend Tuesday's scripture study class?" Our member started laughing and said, yes, they can do that. I was in shock. It was amazing! Then she came to church that week even though she said she couldn't!

 

Another miracle. A less active, Wendy, and her investigator daughter, Lillian, showed up at church! Originally, this past time we met with them, Lillian said she would start coming to church in January...So we were pretty bummed about that. But then we had a lesson and gave her an article about the Atonement by Bruce R. McConkie. Then we were SUPER surprised when we go to church, and who is there but Wendy and Lillian! So amazing! She said she loved the article and can't wait till we can talk about it this week! Then a recent convert just came on over and started talking to her and sat by her in church! What miracles! God loves us and watches over us and answers our prayers through other people.

 

In short, we have miracles every week and every day and I love serving God and the people of Taiwan and my roommates and my companion. God's a great guy.

 

I love you all!

Love,

Sister Perkins