Week 32: Mission Blog or Food Blog? hmmmmmm

Dàjiā hǎo! Hi everyone! 

This week was the busiest/most fun/best/craziest week of my whole mission! We had soo many lessons and invitations through our church peeps. IT'S THE BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD! 

I will start off with telling you about this past week by sharing what I did on my last p-day with my comp the elders and a friend named Lu JieMei, which involved the one and only Modern Toilets restaurant. (Warning: photos might make your stomach turn) This restaurant is more than I can ever describe to you in words so I will just let the pictures speak for it and say that it was actually really good and only slightly morbid. And yes, it's all things toilet from the dishware to the seats to the decor...oh and of course the look (only) of the food. 

This place does not mess around.

Free with every meal!

Continuing on...the next day we had a lesson with Zhao Jin Fan and she is doing well! Sister Rhynard and I felt a lil bit weird though because we sortttt of ended up being match makers and the person who came with us from our church to help us teach really hit it off with Jin Fan. hahahah OOPS. The lesson went well though and she came to church yesterday! After the lesson we took a lil pit stop because my bike could not pull it together.  The chain, my tire, some screws and my brakes all had problems. Reason #239847 why Taiwan is the best is that all of the fixing up only cost $180 NTD...which converts to $4 US... cha bu duo!! :o

That night we had a lesson and dinner with the amazing Wu Cai Hua.  HOW CUTE IS SHE

Next, this past week the pollution was the worst I have seen it yet. (luckily it rained and it got better) I decided I needed a picture in my trusty face mask. project #becometaiwanese is going well!

Bian DX, from our church, showed up at our apartment with this FEAST for us and the elders! The best part -- it was VEGAN! 

Continuing on with food...by Thursday Sister Rhynard and I realized "ah end of the month and we have no money left for food!" even though we felt we had tried to be frugal. But then a miracle happened. At EVERY single appointment we had that day people gave us food to take home with us (no, we didn't ask or mention our predictament). AND that night when we got home, Cai JM (from our church) was waiting at our apartment with a ginormous box of food for us...like A WHOLE WEEK'S+ WORTH OF FOOD!  I almost cried. I don’t understand how these people are so good and how they know every single time we are in need of something!  

Here's what we were given.

Friday we got to make 饅頭 with one of our Sisters, 林姐妹!! (notice although I'm still talking about food I've tried to disguise it in chinese characters).  Papa, these remind me a lot of the "toughies" you make except they aren't tough at all hahaha SO MUCH FUN!  We made well over 50 饅頭 and then packaged them up to go take to people in our church! It was tons of fun getting to learn how to bake from a master steamed dumpling maker! It really surprises me how different the cooking and baking styles are in Taiwan from the U.S.  Probably the number one difference is that Taiwanese don't add butter or oil to their foods (excluding night market foods!) I told a friend here that in America people cook their vegetables with oil and she was so disgusted. She said "why would you ruin them?” 

The sassiest person you'll ever meet in her kitchen: 林姐妹 (laura you would be surprised)

 饅頭 extravaganza!  the process: we added taro and sweet potato to our 饅頭

awww wook how cute my child is :'))))

太平山!!!!!

Saturday was I N C R E D I B L E. We got to go to a church activity about an hour out of Taibei to a mountain called 太平山! It was unbelievable. But I do have to tell you about the ride up there. We were in a bus and I am really not used to riding in cars now so when I do I get really, really carsick. Well turns out that the road up this mountain could also be known as the road of switchbacks that never ever, everrrrr ends. A straight hour and a half of switchbacks. I have never been so sick in ma whole LIFE! It was like I was spinning and then someone kept spinning me and I couldn't ask them to stop. Finally, I couldn't handle it anymore and asked my friend Ji JM how close we were. I had to kind of turn back to look at her to ask and basically that was the worst decision ever and made the car-sickness 20 times worse! My entire body went into shock and started shaking so badly I had no control over it. I blacked out and when I started regaining consciousness there was someone in our group doing Chinese medicine on me and putting all these ointments on me and using this weird brush thing on my neck and feeding me these weird seeds and hitting my back with a paddle thing....(wish I had a picture of the ordeal, especially the paddle hitting my back moment haha)

1st thing: Chinese Medicine is magic

2nd thing: I have no idea where all the 東西 came from but I have decided that it's like the equivalent of a first aid kit but more effective.

3rd thing: IT WORKED!

4th thing: the people here are angels. They were so worried about me the rest of the day and everyone kept asking how I was doing :') I LOVE THEM

As for 太平山!! It was sooo beautiful. The weather was rainy and foggy and we could not see the view at all because we were basically in a cloud but it made for the freshest air I have breathed in 6 months! It really felt like we entered another world up there. I realized that I have gotten really used to living in a big city because it was shocking to not see a ton of people or hear noises or see big buildings! It was so tranquil. We had a nice lunch and enjoyed the neature. 

Hiking Taiwanese style!! (walking up stairs and man-made paths) p.s. we do not know these people I just liked them :]

The next part of the trip was a hot spring! But this was NOT anything at all like the hot springs you are thinking of. It's more like a mini volcano with boiling hot water.

In the boiling water people were cooking food! WUT We got to boil corn and eggs to perfection in only about 2 minutes. It was the best corn and boiled egg I have had in my life...mmm sulphur (no really it gave it an incredible flavor)  

taiwan i love you

寧靜 lunch with ma people

This week was the best week of my mission. We made so many memories that I will cherish forever! I am so grateful for this experience and the opportunity to meet some of the most incredible people. Something I have learned on my mission is how important it is to talk to other people and how important relationships are in general. As a missionary, I talk to everyone every day and maybe that isn't the most normal thing to do, but people make our lives so rich! I have been learning that a lot of the time Heavenly Father answers my prayers through other people. I'm so grateful for every single person I have in my life. I believe that every person has a special purpose and reason for being in our lives and we see that at the times that we need them or they need us.  

I am so thankful for every single one of you. I love you. 

 大家: 我愛你們!!!

Have a great week xoxo

莫

Week 31: Can I take a raincheck...? :D

Hi everyone!

So when bloggers do blogs, you know how they take those really long breaks of not writing a post? Well, I am not a blogger and I don't plan on taking a really long break but I think I will take this week off from writing a weekly because Sister Rhynard and I have been insanely busy and having so much fun. Here's some photos though that tell a few things about this past week.

I love you all! see ya next week :)

莫姐妹

PICS

We went to an investigator's house for a lesson and she had a calligraphy MASTER there at the same time. He picked a full name for me "mo fei ya" (pronounced mo fayyy aahhh) as well as wrote a summary of the lesson we taught! 

Mo Fei Ya and Mo JieMei (my name)

Me with my friend Kay n my sick style.

Random pic Kay took of the elders...and me.

The cutest person ever - Jenny from Malaysia! 

She made us authentic Malaysian desserts :D

A coconut ball with coconut sugar filling and rice around the outside rolled in coconut flakes. 

(dad even you would have loved this)

Week 30: 快 Kuài (quick)

  

HI FAM AND FRIENDS! I have been so happy.  I am so grateful for all the miracles Heavenly Father has shown us these past couple of weeks!  I only have 10 minutes to write so I'll explain more next week.  Here's a few photos.

I got to see my bud Sister Austad.

beans for dessert

With Sister Rynhard!

I really can't tell you how much I love Taiwan, the Taiwanese, my companion, this work and this gospel. I'm sooo grateful for every email, for your support and for your love! It all means so much and I wish I could hug all of you and tell you how much I love you! Next year ;) 

have fun in meiguo<3

xoXoOx

莫姐妹

Week 29: 喜悦 Xǐyuè... JOY

Hi!  嗨 Hāi

This week I gave birth to a beautiful lil SISTER RHYNARD! 



She arrived in Taiwan last Thursday and has been having fun running around like a chicken with her head (and limbs) cut off with me hehe (but really your first week in Taiwan is all such a blur & I am so proud of her for being a crazy chicken with me<3) She is from Seattle and has such a cute personality. I will be training her for the next 12 weeks (aka we learn together because her Chinese is LEHI (awesome)) so we will be buds until a couple of days after Christmas! Just a couple of teenagers in the heart of Taibei Shi teaching about Jesus Christ in Mandarin Chinese. #SICK. 

This past weekend of General Conference was so good and I was reminded of a lot of things. Top things were 1) how insanely lucky and blessed I am to have a family and to know I can be with them forever and ever (shout out to the fam) and 2) the truth that we cannot fall so far that we are out of reach of God's love. Here's what I mean:

Remember Wu XJ I told you about last week? She is so amazing that I just can't find the words. She came to the afternoon session of Conference on Sunday and she sat with a few of our church peeps, Ou JieMei and Wu Jiemei, while Sister Rhynard and I went to another room where we could watch Conference in English. When it ended we returned to Wu XJ and we saw her chatting and laughing with Ou JieMei and Wu Jiemei, and she was glowing with happiness. She is a pretty shy person but when we saw her there she was more HAPPY than I've ever seen her. When we asked her what she thought of the talks, she excitedly showed us a paper full of notes. She said, "I never knew I could have a relationship with God and Jesus and I never knew they loved me like that." *que tears of happiness* She also said, "And I had no idea that we could repent like that. I always thought repentance was just confessing and it always terrified me. It has been a really long time that I have been needing to repent and now I know that repentance is a freeing and happy thing." 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wu XJ will probably never understand how hard I was trying not to cry tears of joy because you could just see that she needed that feeling and she has been trying to find it for a really long time.  I wish you could have seen how happy she was! The happiness that comes from Christ's gospel is unlike anything else and if you have felt the joy that comes from moving past mistakes, don't ever let it be forgotten. So many people wish they could have that feeling! You really cannot feel the happiness you were meant to feel until you get past your own mistakes. And because Jesus Christ has felt everything you have felt, you cannot do anything to change how much He loves you! 

I love you all.  I know that through Jesus Christ we each can change whatever we need to change that prevents us from feeling joy. We can each feel and have the joy that God intended for each of us! 

all my love and hugsssss

xoxo

mo jm

on top of the world

the missionaries made 300 pancakes for conference. 

my personal contribution that I ate myself -  Luòtuó

WEEK 28: hěn dà dé táifēng OR Big Typhoon OR 台风

Hi I am alive!! :)

Last Tuesday we experienced one of the biggest táifēngs (yes I speak fluent chinglish) Taibei City has seen in a really long time and it was chāo jí dà. Sister Althoff and I received a text late the night before instructing us how to prepare for the typhoon; to buy enough water and food for the next day, lockdown, etc.  #survivorwomen

Well we bought what we needed to but the last 2 typhoons that were supposed to hit Taibei never did so we were like "meh it is probably not coming...they don't make it this far north to Taibei." but WOW were we wrong! We woke up to the loudest whipping wind I have ever heard and the rain was unrelenting. It was insane. And it went on ALL DAY LONG, with both the rain and the wind never letting up.  We woke up to the sound of the typhoon and went to sleep to the sound of the typhoon, both times of day equally just as loud and powerful. The typhoon cleared sometime in the middle of the night. Early, the next morning at 6 a.m. on our morning run, we were amazed to see our neighbors and others already outside, everyone working together to clean up! This shows just how much respect the Taiwanese have for their shared home here.  No one wastes a single second or waits for the natural disaster teams to come around and do it. By that evening the city had only a few piles of branches laying around that were all cleaned up the next day. SUCH EFFICIENCY! 

The typhoon hit the east coast near Taibei a lot harder. Many people were effected by it and the damage more serious there. Please send some prayers for those people!

This week another big thing happened. Sister Althoff and I visited with Zhao XJ whom I've talked about before. She was so excited to tell us that she got into BYU for next semester!! ALSO Zhao XJ has been wanting to be baptized and has set a baptism goal for November 12th. I wish that I could bring all of these people home for everyone to know them as I do because my descriptions do not do justice of how wonderful they are. Zhao XJ is just so cute and sweet and nice - a little lamb, but also she's got a mischievous side...she never fails to make us laugh.  Picture to come next week hào bù hào <3

This week we met another extremely cute person (Taiwan only has cute people ok) named Wu XJ. We met with her just this past Saturday and she already has a desire to be baptized next month.  She wants to come to church with us this Sunday for all 3 hours. like wut?? Where did you come from Wu XJ?!  We'll get a pic with her this week too!

The last thing I want to share is something that was said in a talk I recently read given by Elder Rasband.  His message was about helping others and here's what he says~

"If you come upon a person who is drowning, would you ask if they need help or would it be better to just jump in and save them...? The offer, while well-meaning and often given, 'let me know if I can help' is really no help at all."

I LOVE THIS!  The Taiwanese have this down.  Maybe the extreme weather here has been a gift in that way to them, in that it gives them the opportunity to not say "let me know if I can help" but rather to just help; a "we are all in this together" mentality.  Of course, sometimes people really do not need or want help with certain things and honestly express that, but beyond that I think there is always something we can do for someone else to add, at the very least, some joy to their life in some small way.  And that, we don't need to ask in order to do. Right now, I am working on how to not wait for those obvious opportunities to help someone (luckily as a missionary we are involved in a lot of "obvious" service related needs) but ALSO to have enough awareness to know what I can do or how I can add joy for another person in the moment.

I love you all and hope you know I am praying for you and thinking of you every day! I am so lucky and thankful for all of the people in my life!! 加, 油 !

xoXoOx

莫姐妹

Morning run to this beautiful place -  Chang Kai Shek (Zhong zheng ji nian tang)

Week 27: Starry Night(??) and a 奇蹟!

Hello 大家好

This week was soo good.  We saw a huge miracle - 奇迹 Qíjī -  which I am pretty STOKED to tell you about.

Family and friends, this week Yo Ren Hao got baptized!!!! Remember how I told you in a past blog post that my 3rd week on my mish, while in ZhongHe with Sister Bradley, we met Yo Ren Hao at a stoplight?  We had only 34 seconds (yes 34 seconds per the light change indicator) to talk to him and that caused him to decide to pull off to the side of the road.  We talked with him, learning a little about him, telling him a little about us. We invited Yo Ren Hao to come to church with us and prayed for him. He was so awesome and patient with my awful Mandarin. Yo Ren Hao is an ESPECIALLY incredible Taiwanren (which is sayin’ a lot).  

This past Saturday I went to his baptism with Sister Bradley and wow I really thought I was going to explode with joy. I was so happy and could not stop smiling seeing how genuinely happy he was. God is so good! After his baptism, I asked Yo Ren Hao what he thought about the first time we met him. He said that he actually had been wanting to talk to Sister Bradley and I about that.  He told us that the night we met him he was coming home from work and had just been in a huge argument with his boss. He said he hated his job and felt stuck in life.  He thought it was incredible the timing of our meeting him - right after that experience with his boss -- us two waiguoren having the conversation we did with him and how it inspired him right then to make changes in his life for the better. I love Yo Ren Hao so much! He is one of the most humble and patient individuals I have met. I have learned so much from him and this whole experience.  My heart is so full of happiness and gratitude for the goodness of God. 

I hope dàjiā (everyone) can look for and see the amazing miracles Heavenly Father is performing every day. I feel like sometimes it is hard to be aware of them, but miracles do happen every single day.   

I love you all and am sending my love across the big blue <3

xoxo

莫姐妹

PHOTOS:

1. Taiwan has some of the most stunning scenery as I've tried to show in some of my photos I've shared these past 4 months.  We visited this hillside where a massive Vincent Van Gough's "Starry Night" made out of plastic bottles was constructed.  I, however couldn't see the "Starry Night" in the trash bottles, no matter how hard I tried.  It was like when someone is trying to show you a constellation made of just a few stars among billions of stars and you just can't put it together.  Nonetheless, It was an absolutely beautiful area.  The hills and scenery reminded me of the old movie "The Sound of Music" and for a few moments I felt like Maria being taken away by it all...hehe

Starry Night.  Traditional Taiwanese-style hotel in the back

2.  The elders went vegetarian... :O !! so proud :')

3. I got to see Sister Bradleyyyy! HAPPY

4.  My tongbanmen <3

5.  Sister Austad! MTC hug photo remake

6. a lil flower wall

Week 26: A Day in the Life!

DA jiā háo zǎo ān!

This week was amazing and full of wet. WATER! It rained SO much!  Another super typhoon hit the side of the island making the rain up north in Taibei intense, more than the normal, usual rain here. Before the downpour I got this photo that shows the 101 building and the sunset before the typhoon. 

FUN FACT--> about talking with others in all the wind and the rain from the typhoon...you have to yell and you're constantly spitting rain out of your mouth so it basically turns into this fun experience of yelling and spitting or the person we are talking to being yelled at and spit on!

So my plans of taking pictures of what I’m up to here “in a day” were a little bit affected because it was just reallll inconvenient to get my camera out when I could barely open my eyes in all the rain! So this "day in my life" is missing a lot of what I do in any given day, but here's what one generally looks like for me and Sister Althoff:   

6:00 am: Wake up and Yùn dōng (exercise)! *not pictured for your convenience and partly because I forgot to take a photo.

8:00 am: Breakfast and personal studies! aka where the magic happens *my desk #bloggerlife 

9:00am: Comp gospel study with my buddy SISTA ALTHOFF  and....

10:00 am: Zhòng wén yán dōu shī jiān (Mandarin study!) 

12:00 pm: QingKe! The Liang family invited us over for lunch <3 They make the greatest food- veg food for Sister Althoff and I! (yes, she is vegetarian too!)

12:30 pm: Find out that Liang DiXiong (Brother Liang) has an obsession with elephants and collects them from all over the world.

12:31 pm: Take a picture with the elephants.

1:30 pm: Head home for our weekly planning sesh (happens every Friday afternoon) but we stop for a photoshoot in the street.

5:00 pm: Dinner! Not pictured.

6:00 pm: At the church we meet with an amazing investigator named Aiko (Lin Xiaojie) and see this beautiful sunset O_o   Taught Aiko for the first time about prayer, church, etc.!

6:50 pm: My shoe dies.

7:00 pm: Go finding/meeting people with Bonnie! She is our best friend.

9:00 pm: Go home, plan, get ready for bed, dance sesh, night time yoga, go to bed.

Extras from earlier in the week:

1. ZHONGQIUJIE KUAILE/ Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! A holiday where people do tiny barbecues and eat a lot of moon cakes- a dessert food with an egg in the middle. mmm hearty

2. Posted bathroom instructions haha 

I’ll do “a day in the life” again some other time! THIS IS MY LIFE here in Taiwan! And I love it so much. It’s a mix of fun and weird and exciting and sometimes it feels like I am in a dream. I would not trade this experience for the world. I love this work!

I love all of you! Thanks for reading my random emails <3 

Have a great week Dàjià! 

<3333 xox

mó jiē měi

 模 接每