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
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