Wow, what a week. My first area is Stansbury, UT, right next to Tooele and pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Have you gotten to speak any Chinese, you ask? Well, let me tell you about our conversation with the owner of a house which a few weeks ago my companion saw an Asian lady gardening outside. We knocked on the door and a white man opened up with a "Oh, it's the missionaries" disgruntled kind of look on his face. He asked what we wanted and after a brief introduction:
Me: Well, you see I'm actually going to Taiwan on my mission so I'm trying to learn Chinese and I thought... your wife... might be.. Chinese.
Him: ...no. She's from Korea.
We then left as awkwardly as possible. So the answer is no, I don't think there is anyone who speaks Chinese here for maybe 40 miles. But if there is one person, then by golly I will find them! Actually cool thing, we got permission to go up to Temple Square and tag along with a Chinese tour there so I can find some people to practice with! So not all is lost.
It has been a crazy week, much different than anything I was expecting. I'm out in the middle of nowhere, and it is great. We cover six wards in the Stansbury Park Stake and there is so much work to do. We get fed every night and meet all sorts of neat members, nonmembers, and less-actives alike. And guess what? We are over a trailer park. Yes. I get to walk around a sketchy trailer park and tell people about Jesus. IT'S SO COOL. Interesting characters I've met so far include Ray, who smoked during our whole lesson and has interesting ideas about what we do with tithing money, Shirley, the 60-year-old black Muslim lady who didn't want to go to Women's Conference ("BOOOring!"), and Bob, singing and guitar playing fellow who we have convinced to do a musical number with me in church the week after conference (if I'm still here). It is so cool! I also chatted with a Bishop who served in Taiwan 40 years ago, met a family with 9 kids all hanging out in the living room on Sunday evening, and walked dogs for service at like 8:30 in the evening when it was way dark outside. I am not a dog person. That was hard. Another day we sat in a McDonalds for like 20 minutes because we didn't realize that our appointment was actually for the next day.
The following conversation occurred on my first day in the field with a 10-year-old girl:
Girl: blah blah something about an older sister who's not here.
Me: Oh, did your sister go to college or something?
Girl: No, she's gone. Forever!
Me: (very kindly and sympathetically, I might add) Oh I'm sorry, did she pass away?
Girl: ... NO! Why would you say that?! She's not DEAD! Why would you ask me that? Oh my goodness, that is so sad! I'm going to cry! *proceeds to burst into tears*
So I also made a little girl cry on my first day. So many adventures just in one week! It is so great.
My companion is Sister Payne from Calgary (don't worry, I tease her about her Canadian accent at every opportunity) and she is just great. She's been out six months and is so much fun, we are having a great time together.
I also got to go to Women's Conference in the Conference Center! We had five tickets to it and then one lady dropped out of coming so we went with some members, and it was so neat. We went out to dinner afterwards and a group of older couples at the next table paid for our dinner! It was so sweet. It's pretty great to be a missionary in Salt Lake, I have to say. But it was a little weird to be driving around Salt Lake City at night, it felt like I should be going back down to Provo for school, not back to the mission. But it was so cool to see the conference live. I really loved President Uchtdorf's talk. He spoke about how God is essentially raining down blessings on us. It is our doubts and fears and sins that keep up an umbrella so we don't receive those blessings. All we need to do is have faith and repent so that we can put down the umbrella and receive the wonderful rain of the blessings that God wants to give us. It was very inspiring, and very fitting since it was like pouring rain in Salt Lake that evening.
In conclusion, life is good. I'm having such an interesting time here in Stansbury and I'm loving this mission. I'll be happy to go to Taiwan, but in the meantime I'm appreciating the blessing this experience is.
Love,
Sister Cardon
P.S. My mission office address is
1535 S Edison St
Salt Lake City, UT 84115
so you can so write me for the next few weeks.
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