MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Merry Christmas all!!

 

It's true, "wherever we find love it feels like Christmas."

 

Over here in lovely rainy Taiwan it has been a wonderful Christmas. When I came out of our room this morning, our roommate said, "If rain is the snow of Taiwan, then we have a white Christmas indeed!" Good thing today is our P-day so I got to spend most of the day inside! To be precise, I have opened Christmas presents with my companion, given candy to other people, and spent 2 hours in the most delicious hotpot place on earth: Shabu Shabu. For a whopping $12 US dollars, you can get all you can eat meat, noodles, vegetables, eggs, ice cream (soft serve and regular including chocolate and mango flavors), chicken nuggets, fried dumplings, xiao long bao, smoothies, cake, chocolate fountain, sushi, and much much more. I felt like I was in heaven. And a miracle that happened (well, not quite sure if it is a miracle or my own personal curse and burden) is that I was able to eat continually for the 2+ hours we were in there...if the question is, "Is your biggest Christmas present your large stomach?" Then the answer would be yes. My stomach may in fact be bigger than the Christmas box my lovely family sent me for Christmas:)

 

Yesterday we went to a special meeting in Taipei for the day. We had Zone Conference with all the mission (minus the missionaries serving in Taipei) and got some spectacular training. President Day and his wife (kind of like the bosses of our mission) did this play/performance for us of disobedient missionaries and it was SO funny. And also very informative about things I can improve on! We got a ton of training on how to love more and how to listen better. Then we got to eat hand made mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, corn, raspberry relish, pineapple, cookies, and much more. (Also ate more than my own weight of mashed potatoes.) Then we had a missionary talent show in which people did funny performances, performances that made them cry, performances that made others cry, and a video/slideshow of pictures of us (now and as babies) and little notes from our parents, so cute! And, one of the best things of all: we got to watch the Christmas program that the best singers from our mission (who live in Taipei) put on. It had amazing music and they are so talented! There were 2 violinists, a cellist, piano players and the choir. It was so amazing! I can't even describe it. But the whole time they were singing Christmas hymns, I could feel God's love for me and for everyone that was made manifest by His sending His Son to the world to die for us. Christ was the perfect Christmas gift. And this Christmas I am trying to give Christ my best self, trying to be a little kinder, gentler, more obedient, and more like how Christ would like me to be.

 

At the training yesterday we were invited to (or rather, told to) describe something that I can't remember in 1 word. Describe our life? Or how our relationship with God has blessed us? What He has given us? Anyway, super hard. I think I said peace or love or something lame, then my companion (so wise) said miracles. Wow. I know miracles happen everyday. We just have to notice the little things God does in our life to bless us. And we need to notice the little things we can do better in our days to become better people. Little things like saying hi to someone, giving someone a smile when they need it, being a little more patient with someone else, with ourselves. Because when all the little things come together, they become big things.

 

But one miracle Sister Anderson and I have is that we have 3 families we are teaching! It is so amazing and so great and so unexpected! We always look for families, but usually only one, maybe two family members are interested and the rest aren't. So that has been miraculous. Other miraculous things, my companion can give me super awesome pep talks that help me make it through the rain and when I'm hungry and when we bike up humongous hills (which reminds me: I forgot to to the story of the Mountains of Doom that happened the other week. I was on exchanges (temporarily companions with another more experienced missionary to learn) and we were in a mountainous area. So we bike to the top of this huge hill and I was like, "Phew, made it." I looked out as we reached the peak of the hill and could see a super steep hill we would go down. Immediately in front of that was an even taller hill, then a mountain behind it. We biked up and down all of them. We got to the number 500 and I thought that we must be close. But we were looking for Lane 1050 -_______- biked even more. Finally got to the Lane and I was pretty exhausted. Only to learn that the lane was actually a small steep path up a really tiny mountain full of switchbacks and loopdiloops like in the animated how the Grinch Stole Christmas. I tried so hard to bike up and was so confused that my companion was able to get up without walking. I kept pedalling. She looked back and said, "Your bike tire is so flat!" -________________- No wonder it was so hard. But we finally made it. And the person we came to see wasn't there -___-. But it was ok because there were other people we got to meet up there. And it was so cool when we went back down because it was dark and I felt like I was in a video game.).

 

All in all, I know the Lord performs miracles and I love Christmas, and my companion, and Taiwan, and food, and soccer, and that my life has purpose, and God and Christ and the Book of Mormon that testifies of them.

 

I love you all and wish you the merriest Christmas you have ever had!

 

Love,

Sister Perkins

 

ps. little plug in for a song in the Christmas program that I had never heard before, y'all should go listen to it on youtube: Breath of Heaven. So beautiful and so much meaning.