Taiwanese Food, Chapel Tours & Karaoke

Dear Family & Friends,

What a week. I have officially been in Taiwan one month. ONE MONTH! I can't believe it.

Taiwanese vendor

So Sister Wu and I were riding one day when we heard this music being played and saw this man with his kart. Wu Jm said that it was very Taiwanese, so naturally I had to try it! Everything in Taiwan is fried... so it was pretty delicious :) haha

Here's a picture of the outside of our church. ISN'T IT GORGEOUS?! I'm so so thankful that it's in our area. Sister Wu and I have had the marvelous revelation come to us this week to start chapel tours! We're really excited about it because our chapel is kind of a community landmark and so lot's of people are curious about it. We're getting all the details straightened out, but we're very excited :) 

Here's my lovely companion. and my lovely bike! I've decided to name my bike Renzhen. This is the pinyin for earnest. It's something I have to repeat to myself when we ride up really big hills. "I'm really renzhen. I'm really renzhen!" so it seemed appropriate to name my bike this :) haha

Our first District Tsunami! 

A weird walnut-tasting/mustache looking food

So we did our very first District Tsunami this week! This means that all of us go to one companionship's area and we just find for a few hours. We try and get them as many new investigators as possible. When we were in the area Wu JM and I saw a stand and she said that it was her mom's favorite food. So we stopped and got these weird walnut-tasting/mustache-looking things. haha Also, here's a picture of our whole district. I'm standing in front of our District Leader... he thought this would be funny to just see the top of his head. haha

Taiwanese Karaoke

So apparently, Karaoke is a very popular hobby here in Taiwan. Wu JM and I went to visit a member's home the other day when we heard this loud music and singing... we were a bit confused, but then we went in and saw that our member was having a party with some of her college friends :) haha so we ate our lunch in the other room and as we were eating I heard a very familiar tune... you'll never guess what they were singing. MY HEART WILL GO ON. CELINE DIONE. haha :) It was simply the best. Wu JM and I got up to get our stuff and I kind of started singing a little bit under my breath. Our member's husband (who is a non-member) then invited me to sing karaoke with them. I decided it would be a good idea! So I introduced myself to them and then told them I would be singing Acapella. I sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (and ended up forgetting the words to the 3rd verse. How embarassing!), and the Spirit really was there. Then they insisted that Wu JM and I sing together! Wu JM was super nervous, but we sang I am a Child of God. It was the best we have ever sang! WOO HOO! :) It was a sweet way to share God's love with these people.

Cool miracle of the week: (it's got a lot of parts)

-So we had a really awesome miracle this week. Our ward is pretty unique in that we have a lot of Filipino members. We had planned to visit one of our members named Myr and she said she was going to bring one of her friends! We were really excited and so we packed a Tagalog Book of -Mormon with our stuff. 

-Last week we were finding around one of our member's homes and the garbage truck was making it's rounds (the garbage trucks here play music like ice cream trucks and then everyone comes outside and throws the garbage in the back. It's a very unique thing that I'll miss about Taiwan :) ) so everyone was outside. I make a habit to smile at everyone I see here in Taiwan because I can't say much... but maybe I can make them feel some happiness haha :) So I smiled at this one woman and she gave me the biggest smile in return. We were in a hurry and so we couldn't stop, but I made a mental note to come back. Later that week we went back to that house and no one answered. But I knew we still had to talk to that woman.

-So we were trying to find and not having much success, I asked Wu JM if we could go and try that house again. So we went back and knocked. Nothing. We tried again. Nothing. Then we rang the doorbell and a little dog ran out. Then that same woman opened the door! We started telling her who we were and she got this real upset, confused look on her face (Oh no, I thought). Then she told us "I'm sorry... I can't... No zhongwen." I became very excited! "Wait, you speak English?" She then proceeded to tell us that she was from the Philipines! Her English wasn't super great, but we were able to share a little bit about who we were and what we believed. She told us she was catholic and asked us what the name of our church was. We told her The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and she said "Oh! My brother is a member of your church." We told her that we had something we wanted to give her. Wu JM ran back to her bike and grabbed the Tagalog Book of Mormon. She didn't want to accept it at first then she looked at the cover, "Oh! That's Tagalog!". She was actually at work, but we got her number gave her the Book of Mormon then left. 

MIRACLE! Wu JM and I were talking about it afterwards and thinking how cool it was that we were able to find her and giver her a TAGALOG Book of Mormon! We decided that her brother is probably a returned missionary and has been praying for her to find this gospel :) 

I am so blessed to have wonderful examples of missionary work all around me. I love you all so much. Thank you for everything. I can feel your prayers pushing me forward and helping me so much. 

Love,

Gu Jiemei