More Christmas Pictures ;)

 

Cats need pants too

 MERRY CHRISTMAS

yes it's late, yes we're still listening to Christmas music.

We went up to Taipei to do our Christmas concert, stayed the night there (in my old closed down apartment, spooky), then the next day we had zone conference in Taipei! There we had a wicked talent show and ate CiNnaMoN RoLls😊

Next few days I went on exchanges to Xinzhu and it's SO FUN. We went and caroled to some families and ran into a little family I met last transfer! They're cuties😊and it gave us the family feel we so needed at Christmastime.

After that we caroled with our ward and had a way fun Christmas with our district (secret Santa and white elephant WOOT) finished the day off with shopping in Miaoli, hence the cat debating whether or not to buy the discount skinny jeans. 

I had a moment biking to a drink shop where I was like "actually this Christmas was a pretty good one, I don't feel too far away" then I ran into a nice lady and asked her if she was visiting family, she said yes and gave me the most sympathetic look and pat on the back and said something sweet but I dont remember because it was all registering😅I'm SO far from home.

It was probably the most bittersweet feeling because I miss my family and friends so much, but serving Christ on Christmas has given me a whole different appreciation for this time of the year. Running into Christlike people make it worth it too😊

Let it be known that I LOVE CHRISTMAS! 

Want to end with a quote from my comp:

"people are not normal, ok? People are just weird all the time"

more wisdom than years.

love you all, 蘇曉葵姐妹

Josh Groban, anyone?

 If I had a dollar for every time someone called me out for having dark circles under my eyes in Chinese I would have 2 dollars.

I have EARNED those dark circles, we are working hard!😆 And we have been seeing a mean amount of miracles this week especially. Our sweet friend from english group is  so awesome and she took us to Hot Pot (它是我生活的原因,就是火鍋而已) super yummy food and it's just been a lot of fun. Our friends are doing well, 婉欣 is meeting more people and we're pretty darn happy.

Went on exchanges this week, and it was a blast! Learned a lot from our leaders and we had some classic dinner waffles.

Just finished a practice round for our Christmas concert in Taipei! Its gonna be BIG. All the Taipei missionaries come up and sing, we invite everyone, and it's just a happy time, CHRISTMAS. The music is playing, and you already know we are single handedly keeping Josh Groban relevant by playing his songs at home all the time.

ALRIGHT

Fun fact, I fell down the escalator this morning.  I'm all good, except for my PRIDE, but it's kind of like an analogy for 2020 hear me out:

I watched an awesome video (check out President Nelson's facebook) and it said that even though we've pretty much got every right to just survive this rough year, just wait it out, we have the chance to make the most of this last month. Pick yourself up off that yucky escalator floor, pretend nobody saw you trip on your own feet, and run back up those dangerous moving stairs😂

But seriously imagine how awesome next year will be if we know that we made the best of like, the roughest year?

That's all, pictures below, love you lots❤

蘇曉葵姐妹

Do it for the English typos

 Hello and ITS ALMOST CHRISTMAS WOO

sorry I'm a little dramatic

This week:

婉欣 chose to get baptized on Sunday! She has influenced all of us, to give you an idea:

*we have ONE other girl her age in our ward and they are now good friends

*the youth teacher now has DOUBLE the young women to teach haha

*she influenced her aunt to get more involved and develop relationships with people in the area

*This ward honestly needed a reason to get together, to be a little more unified, and this was it

*This has been a difficult area for me (still rewarding for sure) but seeing the good person she is and having a little sister in the ward has gotten me through some of the rough times

Baptism is not the end goal. It is the vital tool to making it back to our Heavenly Father. I don't think I fully understood this until my mission, but baptism is us saying we will do our best to be our best. When we do (serve others, try to be more like Christ) we will be happier.

OK

*This week we rode bikes a TON, got lost a TON and made fun of english shirts in Taiwan at every stop haha (pictured below).

*Hit the beach!

*We've also been handing out invitations to Christmas parties and next week head to Taipei to celebrate! So stoked!

Love you all and stay safe!

蘇曉葵姐妹

Miracle Week!

 This episode on Miracle Week:

We're just biking along, it was a long day, and we ran into a man who didn't have time to talk so he just said "I work at [this specific] music shop, you can come find me" and he motorcycled on away. MYSTERY MUSIC MAN. Also he has super long rocker hair! Well turns out we have tons of these same music shops all around our area so it took a bit of time but we found his shop! First time we went he wasn't there but second time we walked in, he looked at us and pulled up two chairs. SO COOL. We'll meet again with him this week, excited to talk to him more!

Keeping you in the loop for 婉欣, she is doing so well and we love her lots😊 this week she made lots of new friends and I feel like proud mama haha. We went with her to a way cool place to picnic this last Saturday and it had crazy cool slides! No we couldn't slide down them but it was just way fun to be there with our friends and people from our community.

I dont know where to put this but I saw a big ole rat go down a sewer grate and I'm still coping with that image. I dont know. Sorry.

I got a new companion, 張姐妹, she's awesome! Shes also from Taiwan but she was originally assigned to Bulgaria! Haha needless to say our language study time is a BLAST.

Attached are some pictures from the sky, SO pretty and just wanted to let you know that it's easier to appreciate the moon and stars when you haven't seen em in a little while (in my last area the pollution blocked the stars). This got me thinking about how Heavenly Father sometimes lets us experience "times without the stars" so we're just amazed later on when you can see the whole Milky Way.

Heavenly Father really has done so much for us, this week let's appreciate the stars.

Love you lots! 

蘇姐妹

我的中文在哪裡

 WHAT THE

This week went by faster than the people who run away from me when they hear my Chinese😆

wa where do I start? This week was crazy but so good! Remember our friend 婉欣? She set a baptismal date for December 5th! She's been so good to meet with and she's honestly just the best😊

Other things that happened this week:

My comp got hit by a car! She's okay! Just a few scrapes, but her bike got wrecked. We had to call a taxi though and fit her bike in this kind of little car which was an adventure. Then, we got it fixed and had to walk it a few miles back home because apparently its 不行 to throw a bike in a taxi without a massive fee EEP

In other news we went on exchanges our STLs, and then with our mission president! He visited every single set of missionaries (rode his own bike!) this transfer and it was way cool. Learned a TON and he helped teach our friend and blessed the home of a sweet family.

Our prophet President Nelson invited us this week in an amazing video (let me know if you wanna check it out) to combat our trials with a heart full of gratitude. He shared about his own life and HOLY COW. This is what the world needs right now. I've been changing my mindset (focusing on what I'm grateful for when I feel sad) because of this and it honestly has made a world of difference. 

I honestly think that this could be the secret to happiness,  acknowledging that life isn't perfect, but being just so grateful for it.

Love you lots!

蘇姐妹

also ps tons of people we meet have animals so enjoyyy

I just flicked a cockroach off my leg

 ehh yucky

On with the week: 

wa MIRACLE WEEK! Remember that sweet girl we're teaching? She is the BEST! She is such an awesome person and she is making serious progress, came to church this week WOO

Next we've been meeting with a woman and her daughter and it's been super cool to see where she's coming from. A few people come to us and holy cow, they are so ready. They are the ones to start talking to us about certain things, for instance the importance of family or how much Heavenly Father really loves us. Just recently a woman talked with us about how in our lives we need to address what we've done wrong in the past and strive every day to improve! This is EXACTLY what we're teaching out here!

I know that God has prepared His children here and all over the world to hear this message. This message isn't just a belief, it's a change in our lifestyle that guides us to know how we can make ourselves better and find comfort when we need it.

I'm super grateful for this chance I have (also ps I have 7.5 months left, what the), its NOT easy but I'm learning that the hard things are worth it... sometimes haha

ALSO we went for the coolest hike on pday, got chased by DOGS, and ate wicked street 蛋餅 (egg pancakes) wah this life

stay safe BBs!

蘇姐妹

 

有吃更多的抓餅

 ALRIGHTY on to the week~

 

This Saturday we had a rocking Halloween party that was a great chance to meet with some people in the community! Super cute families showed up and they were so fun to talk to. WOOWOO

Our district council this week was in Miaoli which is a WICKED pretty place and super countryside, pretty sure there were a few tears of joy when I saw all the green haha OH ALSO I forgot to mention its MAD windy down here! When we're riding our bikes we pretty much are inching on the side of the road and it's actually a pretty funny sight😆 The dust is blowing in our eyes and it is a little bit of a safety hazard but it's an adventure and shows other people just how important this message is that we're willing to zigzag our through a dust storm in DRESSES to deliver it.

This week we had exchanges and they were way fun! Learned a lot and it was nice to find our way around Xinzhu😊As for the people, we're continuing to teach our friends and they're doing great -to be honest, they're just awesome people- but it's just way nice to be able to learn with them😊

To end, here's a quote that I loved from Elder Uchdorf in GC that everyone needs to hear especially in this Covid time:

"We will endure this, yes. But we will do more than simply grit our teeth, hold on, and wait for things to return to the old normal. We will move forward, and we will be better as a result."

SO TRUE

Love you lots, stay safe❤

蘇姐妹

My comp pat-patted three stray dogs

 Fun Taiwan fact, there are a mean amount of stray dogs here, especially in the more rural areas. My companion will not let them pass without giving them a good patty-pat and letting them know that they are "very good boys"-so sweet, but also, not cleansauce😆

 

 

  Besides the stray animals, it's been nice getting to know the people in this area too haha! We ran into a lot of people who are really humble and a lot who want to learn english so bad so you already know our Wednsday English group is BOPPING😆 it's been so fun to make relationships with and learn a lot from them too. OH also this week we're prepping for a Halloween party (SPOOPY season already??) so we went to a huge park and made mad huge soap bubbles to promote it! Hoping it'll bring the community a little closer and help us meet more people😊

 

  This week a girl had a COOL BEANS baptism. Our baptismal font in 頭份 is a little different from the ones we've seen before. Because this wards church is on the second floor of a building, we used a plastic assembled front that we need to lie a tarp in and fill it up with hot and cold hoses. So cool and so special! This Sunday we also got the chance to hear from Elder Dale Renlund, and his take on how to move on from here. He also shared with all the missions in Asia!

 

  To finish up, I want to share about the Holy Spirit. I'm grateful to have had His influence in my life, but it wasn't until I had to rely on Him that I found how vital He really is. The last few weeks I've felt a confidence in lessons and on the street that is so new and so good! Don't get me wrong, this doesn't make contacting easy, but we're starting to see a change in the people we meet. The Holy Spirit gives me confidence. He gives me the courage needed to face each day and through God's guidance, we can have confidence that our future is a good one.

 

Love you!蘇姐妹

ps we hit the beach this pday! *No I did not swim even though I wanted to...