Hmmm... A week of stress I suppose...

This week was... interesting.  I had my first official mental breakdown this week.  I thought I was feeling alright.  I mean I was definitely stressed, but it didn't feel like it was too bad.  I mean the night before my breakdown I had a small episode during language study when i suddenly hated the language, didn't want to learn it anymore and just wanted to sleep and never wake up.  But after I expressed it to my companion, I thought I felt better and that was that.  But then, while working on 12 weeks with my companion the next morning I just started crying, and for a long time.  Hahaha.  It was like all of a sudden I realized that I was suppressing just about everything I was feeling about the work of a missionary and it was just all released in one go.  Honestly, the work isn't all that bad.  Everything is just a little bit hard and a little bit uncomfortable.  But, I suppose having everything a do all day long be just a little hard and uncomfortable added up to being really stressful and really hard on me.  After reading our little "How to Manage Stress"  booklet, I realized the signs were there, I just hadn't noticed.  My sleep had been getting worse, my body hurt, and my stomach was always in a state of "not quite happy."  I'm currently still trying to find good ways of relieving all my but it's been a thing of trial and error.  So, Right now, I suppose I'm happy, but always trying to keep my emotions in check so that I don't randomly just want to shut-down and not do anything.  The work must go on!

Other than that, things have been good.  :]  We had a Zone Training Meeting on Tuesday in Jiayi.  It was pretty cool and quite informative.  Our District is focusing on trying to be turned into a stake.  So, in Zone meeting they said they officially want us to focus and helping less-active members come back to church.  Which is good, because that is what we have been doing, but it definitely felt like our efforts weren't contributing to turning the District into a Stake because they need active priesthood holders.  That had put me into a slump.  I didn't want to be in Douliu and feel like I had not contributed anything to the work.  So I prayed.  I prayed for the Lord to help me be able to strengthen our District and have it be turned into a strong Stake.  The day after and to this day I now have random males come up and ask what we are doing, and say they was to know more about the church, or they ask for our gospel tracts.  Granted, if any of them become investigators they would be having lessons with the Elders, but I don't care.  This has been an answer to my prayer.  

Something cool:  I finished reading Our Heritage: A brief history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  It was super good.  I encourage all to read it.  No worries.  It's short and a pretty quick read.  :]

Okay, well, I think that's all.  

Sister Hsu

P.S. Yes, I know I've gained weight... I'm working on it.  It's just so hard!  The food is so good!  But no worries, it's my goal that when I go home, I will be no more than 10lbs heavier than when I started.  Hahaha.

P.P.S.  Carrefour: I was so excited to go inside and take a look, that it was a little bit sad.  Basically,  I large supermarket type place gives me the same amount of excitement as going to a theme park for the first time.  Oh and the other photo was for Chen JM (Jiemei) birthday.  Love her.  :]