Sara's email came a bit late this week, because of some trainings that were going on during their regular Preparation day. She sounds really happy though and seemed to enjoy her trip to Taipei. She had some great experiences!
She uses a lot of mission lingo in this email. Here are some definitions you may find helpful (Baby = new mission companion ready to be trained) (Babysitting - new missionary's first experience contacting in the mission field).
*here is a question I have been wondering: what does the word "train" (as in riding a train) have to do with "training" (as in teach someone how to do something)? English is a really confusing language!
"Here I am on round two... ha ha I was so tired after the first baby (trainee) that I was a little worried about training again. It is okay though because when I went to Taipei to go to the trainer's training meeting I just had a really neat experience. Even though I was sooo tired from taking the train at 6 in the morning for 6 hours, as I walked back into Taipei after the first time in 3 months, I realized that when I had walked that same path before - I was not the same missionary I am at the moment. I learned and grew and saw so many miracles during the last two transfers. Soooo cool! I may not feel successful sometimes, but then I have moments like that when I just realize how much different I am and my life is because of my mission. I can honestly say that my mission has changed my life and I still have time to keep growing and changing.
My new companions name is Sister Z........ My baby, Sister O....., went to open another area (she is so awesome!) and she is with a native companion, so her Chinese is going to improve so fast! My new baby has studied Chinese on and off for 5 years. She speaks soooo well! I loved her the moment I saw her. She actually served in Colorado for almost a transfer before coming here so she was already partway trained. Unfortunately.. Taiwan is not much like the state side missions so she is having a bit of an adjustment time. She is awesome though and I feel strongly that we will see many miracles during the next two transfers...
One cool experience we had was "babysitting" the first night the sisters came in. I love "babysitting"! It is so special to me because it is the new missionaries' first contact with missionary work so I know the lord will give them crazy miracles. I felt really impressed that we should not go for a ton of street lessons, but we should find a prepared person for the sisters in that area who wanted to get baptized... and guess what! that is exactly what happened! Soooo crazy and so awesome. Our Faith in the Lord really brings so many miracles. It was the trainee that wanted to talk to her too. I am so glad the Lord lets us be a part of this work. I think my view of finding is changing more and more. I realize how much we really need to just rely on the spirit and how important following the spirit to set our goals is.
Pray for my new companion! She is really shy and having a hard time adjusting to this new environment. Cool thing is I actually have met her before! When I was teaching English in China she was in Nanjing studying Chinese. We would stay at my friend Emily Masterson's house sometimes so we could go to church and she was one of Emily's roommates. Sooo crazy. We also have a lot of random connections just from the small church Asian community as well. Sooo fun!
Well here we go for another week of miracles. I can't wait to tell you about what we see this coming week :)
I love you all and you are in my prayers. Thank you for your support and your words of wisdom. Mother, I especially loved your thought. I will go and read about that story of the woman who touched the hem of Christ's cloak. I was pretty happy this week because as we went out to do "babysitting", one of the AP's just made a comment about how I had so much faith. If there is one thing I have, it is Faith. I know how much the Lord loves me and these people. Though things may not always go quite as I want or expected, at least I have the Faith to go - and I think I really have been moving mountains every day!"
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