Thornley

HEY EVERYONE!!!

So I am now in TAIWAN! My area is YiLan which is sort of on the EAST COAST my companion is a Bendiren (native!) And I have found that all the taiwanese are confused and totally not speaking Mandarin... or the MTC just taught me very wrong. HAHA :)

Okay so the plane ride- not too shabby! I actually liked it a lot and had a fun time on it I was seated in between two other missionaries so we were all pretty boring and dispite my efforts to stay awake the entire 14 hours so that jet lag wouldnt hit me I konked out for 6 hours... whoops. But flying over Taiwan was AMAZING! IT is the the cutest island ever! The airport experieces were fun too and my companion and I started up two conversations and got address from both of them- sadly I am not in the area of either of them but I am pretty sure sister Nicholas is :) So I hope those turn out well for her!! We got there really late and had some problems with some of the missionaries visas so it was even later than expected but we all made it safely and yep I love it!

The mission president and wife are AMAZING not like what I was expecting but I love them to death! I woke up in the morning and walked out of my little room and BAM the temple was right there! So pretty! I am so excited to be able to go in someday! The first day was pretty much a blur and I dont remember much but we contacted that night- I saw miracles. So we were all paired with a random trainer and then we set some goals I dream big and decided in 2 hours we were going to have 32 lessons. Which... I was then told to lower so I changed to 15 :) hehe :) Go big or gome home right? Anyway within the first 3 minutes of being outside contacting we had a lesson. He wasnt interested further but it was still awesome. Also he was a little bugged that we are given chinese names when we arent chinese. But then when I spelled my name to him I got joy out of his wrong pronunciation and told him american names are odd so thats why- to make it easier for them :) Which sounds rude now but I promise it wasnt and I said it in love. Anyway... yep That night I placed a book of mormon taught 4 lessons and found a former investigator and invited him to baptism on Oct 9 and to start meeting with the missionaries so he can prepare- to which he said yes!!! This work is true. I know it.

So the second day- CRAZY! We got assigned to our new companion and trainer- I about died when they told me I was with chu jiemei. And rightly so, it was a hard first day. But she showed love to me in sincerely trying to speak english to me when discussing our investigators. It was very sweet. YiLan is a miracle. my trainer trained after 12 weeks in the field (which is the goal to be able to train immediately after being trained) and I am her second trainie so shes a double mom :) Another really cool thing is that she opened the area here for sisters with her first child. So thats really amazing and I can learn so much from her. I am so grateful for this challenge as my chinese has already skyrocketed it is still way hard but I recieve daily comfort and inspiration from the Book of Mormon. If you arent reading it everyday- start. You need it. I dont know how I lived without it. Life is so much better with it. Anyway, YiLan is amazing. We have 7 investiagators with baptismal dates and a ton more that we are working with. There was a baptism here saturday so my second day I saw two people get baptised. So cool. Its a little weird. The people here dont have a ton of money so dresses are... not common. So the service looked a bit different from home but the spririt was the same. The beauty of this gospel is that it is the same EVERYWHERE.

Our invstifators are so cool and I love them all to death! I am still struggling to understand them. Funny story- so we were meeting with one and there was another younger girl there and she introduced her as her friend then the next thing I understood was girlfriend... so I am sitting through the entire lesson trying to decide if she is really her girlfried and how awkward this is goin to be when we will eventually teach the law of chastity... then next thing I know is that she is describbing her process of having her son... yep super confused... anyway turns out the girl was a friend that her son had made at the park by telling her "You are beautiful will you be my girlfriend?!" So uh, yep :) Not a girls girlfriend.

Oh I forgot! I already kind of offended a member ;/ she had us over for dinner the first night here and I knew I had to eat all my rice in the bowel cause Chen laoshi taught us that was poliet. Well nothing else on the table looked edible so I started away at my rice and suddenly my companion is dishing up all the other non edible stuff into my bowel!!! And all I was thinkin was no no no please no. Once its in your bowel you have to eat it casue thats poliet... so I tried... and I really hope none of their family saw me gag hard and have to quickly cover my mouth to stop it from coming back out. I tried a few more bites and finally decided it would be better for me to insult them by saying I took too much food and was full than throwing up on their table. So I slowly stopped eating.. well then they noticed and the mom kept signalling me to get more food to which I politely kept saying no thanks I am full... didnt cut it. Then she stood up and went and made me some chicken nuggets like from Mcdonalds which taste nothing like mcdonalds but she had done them just for me so I forced myself to eat 4 of the 10 really at this time I was full and trying really hard to keep it down. Anyway my life savor came and she brought out fruit- now that I can eat! So I think I made it better by eating that when she told me too. Also I had my first hot pot experience last night- so gross. Luckily though I communicated to my companion before we arrived that if I didnt like It I was going ot give it to her so i wouldnt offend anyone- which i thought was working marvelously and I was eating bread and lettuce acting like it was the best thing I had ever tasted actually no- it was. I am so grateful for bread it is my life saver. Well anyway- didnt work they caught me and I know this cause at the end of the meal and lesson they came up and handed me the loaf of bread... so yep the members love me.

It is awesome here truly. I love it and am grateful to be here. I contact with everyone and my companion comes and saves me everytime when they actually start to answer back :0 Shes great.

Oh! Cool story I placed a book of mormon all by myself at the train station my second day!!! HAHA I dont know if they will really read but it was two college girls that said they were interested and took it and we got their numbers... so now I just need to figure out how to ask my companion if we have tried calling them again sense. But I pray for them and have full faith they will accept the gospel. I love it here :) As scary as it is and embarassing when I node my head and smile to have them laugh aafter cause they can tell I didnt understand I love it. It is beautiful and this is where God wants me. so i will serve with all my might.

Chen laoshi- I also want you to know I am doing as you asked. And have talked at every chance to contact. As hard as it is when my companion isnt contacting I am. And I want to thank you for challenging me to do so becuase otherwise I dont think I would- I would follow in suit of my companion and not talk to eveyone. So thank you.

You are all amazing and so special I love you all! So gratefuyl for my family and know that all the Taiwanese think you are beautful and that mom you are crazy for having so many :) Love ya all!!!

-Yao iemei

Funniest Photo Bomb Ever (look really close to the elder in the background walking away)