Miracles, Elevators and Yoga:)

This is Huang JM. She's a returned missionary from the Temple Square mission and we have some mutual friends! She's been an angel for us here in Xinan. We love her :)

So after a long night of finding we finally ran into this guy! Who actually also did not want to talk to us... but then I noticed that his flag had my name on it! So I asked if I could take a picture with it. Which he then insisted on posing for. We were able to give him a Because He Lives campaign card! And I got this fun picture :) haha Go team Gu!

This is the Chinese symbol for the name "Giles". In Chinese it's "Gu"

Dear Family and Friends,

It's been another week of fun surprises! We are now in a threesome!... this is only until Thursday when the new missionaries come and we actually have a transfer meeting.... but what that means is that Sister Fenlaw and I get to be Sister Training Leaders!... which actually doesn't mean anything because they finished all their important responsibilities before Sister Branch left... we did get to attend the official Zone Leadership meeting... which just consisted of us (Sister Fenlaw and I) being banished to the corner to eat mooncakes... which Sister Fenlaw can't eat. But anyways, Sister Aldous is our new companion! Which is fun because we were also roommates back in Zhubei and we were in the same Singles Ward at BYU. Eternal friends. Yes.

Our threesome. Ready for anything:)

Taking care of Sister Aldous

One of the sweet little miracles of this week was one evening when we we had planned to kind of man man qi and slowly ride to our appointment at the church while we street contacted. I saw this guy who had cool pants and so I immediately pulled over to talk to him. He started talking and I was having a hard time understanding him at first... I felt really bad about my Chinese... but then I noticed his hearing aid. This young man was deaf, but he spoke Mandarin Chinese and even a little bit of English! He was also Christian. We had an awesome lesson with him right there on the street. As he was about to say the closing prayer, he apologized and said "I'm sorry. I can say the prayer, but it's not going to be very easy to understand because of my disability." We assured him that every prayer was perfect and beautfiul. As we closed our eyes and bowed our heads, I started to cry. This young man was such an amazing example to me of humility. He was just a pure soul. 

I know the church is true. I'm excited to be a part of this hastening of the work. I know God loves His children. I know that nothing is impossible with God. I know that we have to seek God's will and be shaped for it. 

All is well. Thank you!

Gu Jiemei

So on about our 3rd week here we discovered that there is a morning market by our house! We very quickly became friends with the man at the fruit stand and he has given us great deals ever since! :) This picture is of the perfect mango we bought from him. This is also one of the most sad things about this fall time of year... mangos are going out of season :(

So typically elevators here in Taiwan are cramped, full of people and silent. So this week when Sister Fenlaw and I were at the church, we had to join a large group of people going up the elevator, but just as we were about to get in, the other doors opened. So we got into the other elevator and people kept trying to shove into the first one... it was super funny and to commemorate our one time in an empty elevator, here is a picture of me doing Warrior 2. (Yoga is one of my new talents I'm developing :) haha)

We are always grateful for this colorful building that reminds us that we are close to our apartment. Still getting lost in the big city:)