Wow Those Girls are Really Xingku

I am going to start off this week's email with some very important announcements:

1. In exactly a year from this week, I will be taking a very long trip back to America. So see you all then! 

2. I finally made it out of training! I am so happy. There's a missionary training program called "12 weeks" that you do for the first 3 months of your mission. I was in it for 20 weeks. I was so done. And now I am actually done! Well, I was done a week ago. But I forgot to mention it last week. And now I'm a real missionary!

3. If you ever wondered if it was possible to crush up fish eggs and dry them like fruit leather, the answer is yes. But it doesn't mean you should try to do it. And you don't have to give it to your friends.

4. I've officially been through an earthquake! Well, that had already happened. But I was like 5 years old last time and I don't really remember it. But on February 14th, 2015, at about 4 in the morning, I was woken up by my bed being firmly shaken. After I determined that it was not my companion playing a trick on me, in my sleep-addled state I decided that the wind outside was very strong and for a moment was concerned that the building was going to fall over. Then I realized it was an earthquake. Then I went back to sleep.

5. We are getting new missionaries, finally! 12 of the 19 missionaries in the group after me are coming next week. Please pray that the rest of them can come and we can finally get things in order in the mission!

That is all of the important announcements for today. Chinese New Year is upon us and we are preparing ourselves to be thoroughly fed for the next week straight. We are struggling a little bit to set up lessons and get people to actually want to be baptized. "Could we meet with you and share an important message about families with you?" "Maybe after New Year's." "...okay :( " But never fear! We are still working hard and doing our best to help people come unto Christ. That's all we can do!

There's a Chinese word "xingku" that means like, when you work really hard. Difficult? Man, there's just not a way to explain it. But basically, we had a really xingku day on Friday where we rode for more than an hour out to a town call Yongan, which is right next to the ocean, to find a less active member only to discover that she lives in Kaohsiung. "Why didn't you call her before you came out here?" her brother asked. Ah. Good question. Probably should have thought of that. But it was a really nice bike ride! And there had to be a reason we were out there. Maybe someone in Yongan saw us biking and thought, Those girls are so xingku, I should start going to church. Or something like that. Well, at least we totally looked like we were in a missionary movie.

Hope everyone had a nice Valentine's Day and are spreading love and peace everywhere. You are all great!

Sister Cardon 

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.