Things That I Love About Taiwan Already!!!

Love my fellow sister missionaries!!! We are on our way to Temple Training. All the sisters in our mission get to help take people on tours of the Temple grounds. So fun!!!

Zhubei ward missionaries getting Christmas cards ready for the ward, with an invitation to share the "The Gift" with their friends and families:)

Starting the 12 days of Christmas!

Wow. 

I'm in Taiwan. That still is the coolest sentence I've ever said. 

My mom asked me this week what are some of my favorite things about Taiwan so far:

-I absolutely love riding a bike. I still have to figure out how to work the skirt-bike thing

  sometimes... but it's great! And it's awesome to get some exercise every day in that way.

  My legs are getting real strong :)

-The food is actually super good! 

-We live right by a train station and I love hearing the cars coming and going.

-We have 2 other sisters in our apartment and it's so fun to all be together!!

-I used to really hate riding our bikes at night, but there's actually something kind of

  endearing about that now. We live in a place that has a pretty bright city life and so there's 

  lots of neon signs and cool stores.

-Relief Society. Oh my goodness. There is nothing more fun than a room full of fast-talking,

 fired up, gospel-oriented, Chinese women. Seriously.

-The language barriers. There are so many instances where you just have to sit and laugh.

  Wu JM and our other roommate Lin JM are both learning English and so we have really

  funny conversations. My favorite translations have been; "I don't want to stand behind you.

  You're too high." (I actually have a lot more too, but I lost my little book that I wrote them all

  down in :( SHANGXIN) The word for dumpling and the word for sleep are super similar...

  so I sometimes say that I really like to dumpling. But in Chinese it actually works no matter

  what. Plus I actually like dumplings. So all is well! haha :)

At the Bishop's house with family and friends:) This is what they did when I told them I wanted to take a picture:)

I really love the food here :) We eat lots of noodles, vegetables, fruit, and pork. The strangest thing I've eaten was rice with pigs blood. Then they harden it into some kind of bar. It's actually pretty tasty! I also had duck for the first time this week. That also was pretty good!

Reeses mix !  Maddie loves Reeses:)

Here is what is going on with some of our investigators:

Cho Dixiong--So Cho Dixiong was a miracle from last week. We had some time for finding and Wu JM asked me what goals I wanted to set for our finding. I told her that I wanted to find 2 new investigators. She seemed surprise but just asked me to pray. So I prayed that we would be able to find 2 new investigators and off we went. No one would listen. No one was interested. No one answered the door. Our finding time was coming to a close and there was one man on a scooter who I felt like I should talk to. Wu JM had already parked her bike and run over to him :) haha. We ended up having a lesson with him and he prayed with us right there on the side of the road amidst a bunch of people. He said it was a special feeling. But I"ve learned that the word special can have good and bad connotations here in Taiwan :) haha But he was willing to meet with us again! Then he came to FHE last night and brought 2 of his friends! Then he just texted us today and said that his friend is interested in learning more about the gospel and wanted to come to the lessons! Woo hoo! We're pretty pumped.

Pong Jiemei--
So we met Pong Jiemei right after we met Cho DX. We were talking to Cho and ran back to our bikes to grab a Book of Mormon for him. As we walked back there, we saw this woman standing there with her two kids. She said she wanted to talk to us and would wait. When we went back to her, she said that she had met missionaries before, but hadn't met with them seriously. She said she wanted to change her life and promised herself that if she saw missionaries again she wouldn't let them pass by. WOW! She is very special.

Well I don't have much time but I want you all to know how much I love you. This time of year has always been one of my favorites, and it's such a big blessing to be serving the Lord right now. If you have not already seen the "He is the Gift" video please go to that link right now.

chirstmas.mormon.org

If you have not shared this link with anyone, please please PLEASE share it. It doesn't matter if everyone else on facebook has already shared it, add your testimony to theirs and share it again. You never know who you will reach. I testify that God lives. He gave us His Son. He knew none of us would be perfect, but that's why he prepared this glorious plan. We are so blessed to know about it! We've got to share these blessings with everyone.

Thank you for all of the love and support and prayers. I love you so much!

Gu Jiemei