Douliu!

Wow, it feels like so much happened since last Monday.  I don't even know where to begin.  Well goodbyes weren't as hard as I thought they would be at the MTC.  I made sure to exchange emails and take pictures with the missionaries and teachers that I was leaving behind.  It felt strange to think that the routine I had been living for the past nine weeks would change, but it was definitely a welcome thought.  So the day came.  I woke up around 3:20am on Tuesday morning and started making my way to the pick up spot at the MTC.  We got our travel plans and passport and whatnot and soon after made our way to the airport.  It was a pretty easy process, except for the fact that my backpack(personal item) was full of books and weighed like million pounds and in addition to that, I had a 25-30 pound carry on duffel bag.  I don't know why I always choose a duffel bag over something with wheels...  Well ANYways we went from SLC to LAX and LAX to Narita, Japan and then Japan to Taiwan.  We all got pretty lucky on our flight to Japan because we had the last rows of the plane to ourselves and there was one empty seat, so Sister Henderson and I could spread our stuff over three seats between the two of us.  But, Japan to Taiwan we were all sitting separately.  I sat next to a nice guy named Nike.  We talked for the better part of the 5 hours.  He was really patient with my stinky Chinese, but I was able to share a few things about the church and gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon. 

Finally we arrive in Taiwan.  President Blickenstaff, Sister Blickenstaff, two AP's and the new missionaries from the Philippines MTC were all there waiting for us.  We all took a very classy looking Karaoke bus to the mission home.  On the ride we all introduced ourselves and filled our paper work and basically immediately got started with things about being in the field.  I was sooo tired by the time we got to the mission home.  It was about midnight in Taiwan, and we all went to bed and woke up at 5:50am to go out for morning exercise.  We ran to a nearby college and used their track.  We all timed a mile so that we can try and improve on it throughout the mission. My mile was about 10 minutes. (hahaha, yea, need to run more.)  Then we had some prep time and had some study time, then the day of orientation began.  It was all very informative but, it was definitely hard to stay completely conscious through a lot of it, especially after meals.  Oh!  Meals, our first lunch was at the Marijuana.  Yup.  The Marijuana.  It is a delicious hot pot place right across the street from our church building.  :]  We went to a family style restaurant for dinner.  It was super yummy and I had my first experience in eating duck brain.  In all honesty, it didn't taste terrible, but the texture was so strange... and being a texture eater, it was quite difficult for me not to just spit it back out.  Hahaha!  At the end of dinner, President Blickenstaff shared the wonderful story of Dan Jones.  So, of course right after, we went to the very busy night market and had our Dan Jones experience.  I hopped on a stool and yelled my testimony of the Book of Mormon in Chinese.  Afterwards, I was whisked away by Bai Jiemei and she told me we would be street contacting for the next hour.  Needless to say, I was terrified.  But, she was a great example and really helped me out.  I discovered from this wonderful experience that it is amazingly awkward.  And I don't like it.  Hahaha.  But, by the end I got just a little bit more used to being ignored or rejected (just a little bit more comfortable)  and was able to place a few Book of Mormon's and got a few contact cards filled out.  Afterwards we headed back to the church and had a bit of an experience share.  I was so tired, I may or may not have fallen asleep a little bit during the closing prayer.  But!  The glorious schedule let us sleep at 9pm YAY!  So that was the end of day one in the Mission home (Thursday).  

Friday morning we had exercise again but this time we ran up and down the track (stone) bleachers.  I was about dead by the end, but after that we did Buddha claps, push ups and planks.  It was so hard, I'm actually still a bit sore from it right now.  After that we had personal study and then went to the chapel to meet our Trainers for the next twelve weeks.  But, before we officially found out who specifically was our trainer in the group, we had more orientation and watched a special video they put together of our Dan Jones experience.  My trainer is Sister Ting.  She is from Malaysia and is awesome! P.S.  Sister Fuller (we went to China together) was there as a trainer too!  After that we had our final lunch together and then were off to our new homes for the next 12 weeks.  Mine is Douliu in Yunlin.  

Douliu.  It's warm and not as humid as I was expecting.  Well, actually Taiwan, Taichung was also pretty warm and not crazy humid...  Although I hear the summer time is way worse.  But, I got to Douliu and discovered we had an appointment with a member.  Chen Jiemei took all the missionaries out to dinner.  And surprise!  Elder Dawson from the MTC is here too!  After dinner we went to correlation with the Ward Mission Leader.  I was exhausted so I may or may not have been falling asleep as everyone discussed.  But, after that , we went home and got to sleep.

Saturday, We had more appointments with members and then met up with a recent convert Wang Jiemei so she could lead us to her home which was about 50 minutes away by bike, to help her with her personal progress.  We made cute little CPR (Church, Pray and Read) plushies.  I love Wang Jiemei, she is so sweet and talented and is proud of being a member of the church.  After that we went to Liang jiating for a visit and to share a message.  On our way back, Sister Ting suggested some unscheduled tracting.  We stopped and went to the closest set of homes.  The first door was a rejection, but at the second one, she let us in.  Turns out she had taken the lessons as a child almost 10 years ago, but is now an active practicing Buddhist.  We shared some details of each others religions and she said she had no interest in converting, but she was willing to leave her information with us so we can invite her to church activities.  Something that I'm really not looking forward to doing is intersections.  Basically, you go around an intersection and quickly try to invite, share a message, etc. with people on the road before the light changes.  My Chinese is not nearly good enough for this to be in any way effective, so I'm a bit terrified to do it, not to mention, a lot of the people here speak Tai Yu (Taiwanese essentially) which is nothing like mandarin.  Oh, did I forget to mention that, on top of discovering that my Chinese stinks, I discovered that a lot of people in my first area don't even speak Mandarin, so I'll be trying to learn some Tai Yu as well as Mandarin.  Needless to say, I'm a little bit stressed about it.

Sunday:  Such a busy day where nothing went according to plan.  Church was nice, although it was way different from any church meeting I had ever before attended.  Almost every one is using their phone through all of the meetings and more than half don't wear Sunday best, but I hear that's how it is in a lot of the churches in Taiwan.  But, I was invited to bear my testimony in sacrament meeting.  Afterwards several people came up to me to ask where I was from because my Chinese was obviously not of that of a native.  Well there was some other stuff that happened like a lesson and what not, was suddenly got a new investigator, although we are a bit worried because she has more faith in Sister Ting than our Heavenly Father.  But, other than that, Sunday passed quite well.  Okay.  That's all!

Sister Hsu

P.S.  I'll send a picture of my bike once it's all ready.