Rainy Monday

So its a really good thing that I love the Rain here so much! And dont worry I am keeping my hair covered so it wont fall out from the acid! Yep thats right if you don't keep your hair covered I am told it will eventually fall out and you will be left having what they call a bright head as the light would be reflected off of the baldness. So that is that! It really is so cool when it rains here there are three types I have seen first is Tsunami rain which is so crazy huge and hard it could knock you off your bike! The second is small small rain drops that come down by the GaGILLIONS! So even though its so small you still get completely wet in less than a minute! And third is whats happening right now, a heavy rain that is not as hard as tsunami but bigger raindrops than the second I described. But I really do love it so much! I think its beautiful and after you get past the point of no return of wetness its fun! Also It is a nice conversation starter- my past contacts have often started with, "HEY!!! Do you like the Rain!!!??!?! (Its funny because all taiwanese people HATE the rain) So I know their answer ahead but it still cracks me up to see their faces twist in confusion as to why on earth I would ask such a question, this is a great lead into "Well I am from America and we dont have rain like this I think its BEAUTIFUL!!!" This usually makes them smile because I love Taiwan so much! Its also really easy to then tell them why I am here and bring up the Gospel! 

  This week was really great! We went to a less actives house and made some american food with the Elders and their family! IT WAS AWESOME! WE had BLT's and Omelets! Yum! She is really great and so generous. This week we really tried to get a good all around missionary experience so I mean we really tried to get good amounts of each key indicators Kyle can tell you what that means. 

  I also went off roading for my first time EVER!! We had kind of not planned our lessons well and had one lesson on one side of Loudong and another right after on the other... Well so we were hurrying as fast as our little legs would let us and then we tried to connect two roads together... which got us a little lost so :) My companion wanted to turn back but I saw a nice little dirt road and started peddling on! I've been told over and over if your not having fun your not doing it right so I was determined! And it proved productive!  We quickly found the road we wanted and I had an adventure! The lesson we went to was with a Cho Jia Ting (A family) which would pass as our most difficult investigator. And his Chinese is so gao ji (high?? no good translation) and so I am totally lost most of the time. So last week I prayed so hard to feel the spirit and be able to teach SOMETHING so before I left I bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Jesus Christ which at the time I felt good! Until we came back this week. It was my first time of really being scolded in chinese. He told me bluntly I had offended him in my testimony and felt I was accusing him of not knowing the things I had said were to be true. Well, needless to say I depended a lot on the Savior to help me know how to look at him so he could understand my compassion and that that was not what I had intended to do at all. It was really hard to hear that from what I had felt the Spirit was prompting me to do. But I know I can not get shy about bearing my testimony I know that this is the Lords work and he wants me to be bold. My purpose is to share what I know and I do that through bearing my testimony. 

  I had another fun experience for service this week of gardening at the church with Dong jie mei. Well I ask you all to try gardening in a dress. Its not easy. But it was exciting! Also this week I was really grateful for my English abilities. We teach an English class every week here for a finding effort which scares me to death because I have no idea how to teach English I just know how to speak it! Well one of my students came up to me with a homework assignment he had from College. He asked me to read over it and give him suggestions. Well it was a science paper and I didn't understand most of it so he tried to explain it to me and I did the necessary corrections according to his broken English to me... Well come to find out that was a research paper he was submitting to a graduate college to apply there. So yep my prayers were very great towards his professor that night. So scary! Haha He is also an investigator for the church but I don't get to meet with him because well he is a he. His name is Eric and he really is so great I know this gospel can really help his life and his goals! This gospel really does have the capability to change our lives because it should be the focus of our life! I invite you at home to get to know the missionaries. Pray for them by name and ask them to tell you about two of their investigators and their situation and then pray for them by name too. Its not just an invite from me but from an apostle of the Lord. Until you know them by their name and face you can't know their heart. Believe me the missionaries and their investigators NEED your prayers. Well this is all for this week I love you all a lot and hope you are all doing well... also I am looking for Christmas Gifts for you all but I don't know if I will send them home in a package or just bring them home with me to give to you next year at Christmas!!!

-Sister Thornley Yao Jie Mei