Tabula Rasa

Friday morning at about 7:30 I had a thought.

I thought, "You know, I really love this area. I don't think I want to leave. I would be pretty happy to stay here for the rest of this transfer. Maybe even a transfer after that."

At about 12:30 I got a phone call. "Sister Cardon," the office missionary lady said. "We have some news! You have received your visa. You'll be leaving at 8:30 on Tuesday morning!"

Thus is the hypocrisy of life.

Yes, it's true! I am finally leaving to go to Taiwan, in the middle of a transfer and at much inconvenience to pretty much everyone. Don't get me wrong, I am so excited to go. If this had been the situation six weeks ago I would have been ecstatic. Overjoyed. Ebullient. But now that I have been working seriously hard these past 8 weeks and so much work is finally coming to fruition (Ray's baptism. Lessons with Taylor. New investigators. Lists of names to find. Ward missionaries stepping it up. Lots of member trust.) it is really hard to leave! And there is so much going on in the next few weeks! Christmas parties and baptisms and pie nights and lessons and dinners and all sorts of awesome missionary things! Besides all that, the situation in the mission now is that there are no trios of sisters, which means that there's nobody extra to put in the spot I was in for the next four weeks of the transfer, which means that Sister Payne essentially companionless; she'll be living with the other sisters who serve in our stake and getting splits with members to come teach in our area. So that means so much coordination and stress for her, it will be hard to get the work done, people might not step up to help her, it will be difficult to be in a trio covering all 10 wards. She really has so many possibilities of what could happen and what might go well or wrong that it is a little overwhelming.

As for myself, however, my immediate future is a blank slate. I pretty much have no idea what is going to happen once I go to Taiwan. The only things I know for sure are that it will be Asian, there will be biking, and there will be food. I AM SO STOKED.

Seriously, I'm going to Asia tomorrow. I'll be flying through Seattle to Tokyo, then from there to Taipei. Total about 22 hours of travel. So excited! 

I'm not even sure what else I should talk about. This news has pretty much consumed the last three days.

We started the Stop Smoking program with Ray on Friday, and he is doing really great so far. We're settling his doubts about tithing and the Word of Wisdom and everything so hopefully he is still on track for baptism. Hooray! We had a couple of really good lessons with new investigators: one is 19 yo whose brother and sister joined the church last year, and one is a 10 yo from a less active family. I think they will both be baptized as soon as possible, I'm really happy for them. We also had an interesting lesson with a guy named Mel who was Very Baptist. We essentially sat there for an hour and listened to him tell us that our church follows a false prophet, the Book of Mormon came from man and not God, and that the King James Bible is the only true book. "But I really respect you girls and all you do." Um, thanks? Best part was when Sister Fletcher said, "Mel, I know that you have an open heart and are willing to listen--" before he interrupted her. "You don't know that! You are judging me, and I don't ever want to hear you say that again! Only God can judge us!" "...do you have an open heart?" "Yes I do." We decided to leave soon after that. In closing he prayed that we would read the Bible and not the Book of Mormon.

We've been doing these fun lessons with the YSA ward missionaries; we are teaching them the missionary lessons to help give them a good foundation so they can go and do their ward missionary work. Most of them are returned missionaries, so sometimes it's a little awkward to be teaching them things they've taught hundreds of more times than I have, but whatever. It was really good practice for me; I am glad I have gotten all this practice teaching in English, all I will need to do when I get to Taiwan is put the language in and I'll be like a pro missionary! Or something like that. 

We sometimes go over to this family's house to read scriptures with them. On Saturday we told them I was leaving and said goodbye, and took a picture with them. As we were posing for the picture the grandmother Joy leaned over to me, kissed my hair, and said, "This will be one of the last pictures before I die." How are you supposed to react to that?

So that's been our week. We've had some really good times and the work is going so well. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve out here. When I first knew I would be getting reassigned to America I was hoping for somewhere exciting wherfe I had never been or something, but I think Utah was exactly the place I needed to be. I met people that I needed to meet and had the opportunity to learn how to be a missionary. One of the biggest things I've learned since I've been here, I think, is how important it is to stay strong in the gospel. So many people I meet were born in the church and have decided that they don't need to go anymore or that the people that have hurt them are more important than the truth of the Atonement. It's not true! God loves you and wants you to receive all the blessings he has to give. As it says somewhere in the Book of Mormon that I can't quite remember, All He requires of you is to keep His commandments. Just do that and life will be great! So that's one of the biggest things I have learned serving out here.

Next week I will be emailing from Taiwan! Remember that because of the time difference, you now have to email me on Sunday morning in order for me to get it that week. Oh, and don't send Christmas presents. 1) it probably won't get there before Christmas 2) it is way too expensive to send things from America and 3) I would much rather you invite a nonmember/less active to a Christmas event than send things to a missionary who already has the sun in the morning and the moon at night.

Love you all!

Pics: Goodbye to the Trailer Park! And shopping at Downeast. And my last good Mexican food for another 14 months. Gotta love Costa Vida.