Xiongdi jiemei, zao an! (that's where you respond, "zao!" That is how people start their talks in church. Yes, it is like the "aloha" thing in Hawaii. I love it.)
As I write this I am sitting in a computer cafe place about a two-minute bike ride from our apartment. It smells like smoke and is full of the noise of other people's computer games. For some reason they include passion-fruit juice in the price of the time on the computer. My juice is almost gone and I wish I didn't have so many mosquito bites. Weather-wise it is a lovely morning for about July 13th in Sammamish. It is December 1st. I can't read any of the signs posted in the building but they are playing American music. All in all, a regular p-day morning. (Is that enough detail for you, mom? :D)
Yes, another week in Taiwan has passed! It was pretty great. We had some good lessons and I didn't fall asleep in church quite as much as last week (which achievement a member felt the need to comment on yesterday. She said I looked a lot better than I did last week. A compliment? I think so.) We had some looong bike rides, which is actually pretty nice, gives you some time to relax. Our area covers the districts of Gangshan, Ciaotou, and Luzhu, and maybe a little bit more than that if you want to look it up on Google maps. So it's a really big area. And here's an interesting thing: in this mission sisters only teach female investigators and elders only teach males, unless they are part of a family for both ways. So our district has two sets of elders and us sisters all covering the same ward, we just split it up so we teach the girls and they teach the boys (I guess since there are two sets of elders they split up the area). So we see the other missionaries a lot more often than I did in Salt Lake. Also it means if the members want to invite the missionaries over they feel like they have to invie all six of us! But it's really nice of them. On Thursday a wonderful family gave us Thanksgiving dinner including a real turkey and a whole bunch of salad. Also, I discovered it is possible to eat ice cream with chopsticks. Frustrating, but possible.
Other things about food: My new favorite drink is dongguo cha, which is wintermelon tea. When it's plain it is essentially a liquid version of a buttered popcorn Jelly Belly. Add lemon and it is one of the most delicious things ever. Another thing I tried is rou song, which some missionaries call "fuzzy meat." It is powdered pork. I have no idea how they do that, but it is pretty good on rice. (Yes, I eat rice all the time.) For lunch we usually go out to a biandang place, which is like a buffet where you choose what you want to put in your box and they give you rice and it is tasty. I've decided not to think about how long the food has been sitting out under the lights. I made a goal that every time I get a biandang I have to try something that I am not particularly comfortable with eating. I haven't died from eaing seaweed tied into a bow, so that's something! Weirdest thing I've eaten at someone's house was fruit pizza. No, not the fruit pizza you decorate to look like an American flag on July 4th. Like, you get some circular dough and put tomato sauce, then decorate it with kiwis and apples and mozzarella cheese, then heat it up in a wok because ovens aren't really a thing here. Also, did I mention that guavas taste like Christmas?
Things about traveling: if I think about it too hard it is really scary to ride my bike in the crazy traffic. I decide not to think about it too hard. We went on exchanges with the sister training leaders on Saturday which means that we switch companions for a day, so I went up to Tainan and stayed overnight there. Tainan is MUCH bigger than Gangshan and I think I almost died inside while I was avoiding cars and scooters. Whenever we are at a stoplight we try to talk to someone and give them a handout thing with the addresses of all the churches in the area and a little message about the Gospel. Sometimes you have to be really quick to give it to people before the light turns green. In Tainan I had a conversation with a lady where she asked me if the church was nearby (umm I don't know I don't actually live here) and then I pulled out a tract to give her the light turned green so I was going to let her go but then she was like "Hey can I have that?" and I was like Oh yes of course! I wish everyone would ask if they could take our handouts. Most people take the light turning green as a chance to end the conversation. (We'll get you next time, never fear! Actually that happened, On Saturday evening we contacted a guy that Sister Grigg had talked to that morning. "Have you ever talked to missionaries before?" "Yes, this morning.")
Other random things: Apparently elections happened this week so everywhere we see these signs with a number on them and sometimes a picture of the candidate, like Number 3 is a nice looking lady with short hair and Number 5 is a dramatic picture of a guy in a suit. Well all week they have had these little trucks (and sometimes whole caravans of trucks and scooters) driving around and playing music to campaign. It's kind of fun! The other day on one of our long rides to Luzhu we were riding right along a Number 7 caravan and they kept waving at us. It was kind of fun. But I think Number 4 had better music. I would probably vote for them. I actually have no idea who won. But there were fireworks on Saturday, so I guess that means something? Actually that could mean nothing, people here just like fireworks.
My companion gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting yesterday, and from what I could understand (which actually was quite a good portion, despite my lack of vocabulary and my tendency to fall asleep after someone speaks Chinese for longer than 5 minutes) she talked about attitude and how it determines how well you succeeed. She told a story about when her mom was little she didn't want to eat peas and would sit at the table for hours because her grandpa wouldn't let her leave until she ate the peas (I had to get a translation from my companion later because I had no idea if her mom didn't want to eat beans or squash or maybe even watermelon, all I knew was she didn't want to eat something. See, I'm learning!). The point was, if she had gotten over her attitude and just ate the peas really quick then she could have gone and done other fun things instead of fall asleep at the table. Life is like that. Sometimes we get in the way of ourselves accomplishing all that we could. I have lots of times where I don't feel like talking to someone at a stoplight because it might be awkward or they might say something I don't understand or it's hot and I'm gross and I have no idea where I am BUT if I just get through that then I have invited one more person to learn about Jesus Christ. And if I learn to get through those moments then I will learn more Chinese and feel less awkward and get used to the heat (ha.) and most importantly, plant another seed of the gospel. So keep going! Don't give up! Eat those peas! (Do you feel inspired?)
Love you all, and love Taiwan.
The Sister Cardon in Asia
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