Taiwan Taipei Mission: First week in Xizhi!

I made it through my first week in Xizhi!! I haven't been hit by any cars yet, so that's a plus!! Honestly biking here is not my favorite thing, but one day I will be fearless crossing the death square intersections. Riding a bike isn't too bad, except when there are hills then it's a bit hard.

This week was really productive!! We taught Cai Jiating the law of tithing (which was the lesson Sister Austad and her last companion were a bit scared of) and our peike was possibly what made it the best lesson! Sister Austad said they weren't really progressing before and that it was like pulling teeth asking them to come to church, but the Spirit we felt that night was amazing and even though committing to tithing would be hard for their family they said they would!! We also invited them to church and they quickly said yes (their little boy, who is three, lele (kuaile de le) gave a quick thumbs up and he always reminds them to pray because "YESU JIDU" wants to talk to them) and they came to all three hours!! They didn't have a baptismal date before, but we felt impressed to give them one and they accepted! Their baptismal goal is for the 18th of February!

We also did temple tours this week and it is true when they say miracles happen at temple tours!! We were heading to the temple when we get a call from the temple sisters. They said a group of YSA from Taichung were coming to visit and their tour was supposed to start right when we got there. We ended up getting referrals from almost all of them! On our way showing them out, we came across three young males and we asked them if they wanted a tour! It turns out one of them was a member serving in the army, but on his day off he decided to bring them to the church (which is right next to the temple) and we happened to come across them. We gave them a tour and we got their information and a referral from the member. After that, we were planning on going street contacting and were grabbing Chinese tracks on our way out. I went back really fast and grabbed one English track because I had this thought that I should grab one. On our way to the street there were these two girls walking through the garden area outside our church and we started talking to them. They were both from Korea and they were here studying at the university right next door and just thought it was pretty around our church. They are both Christians and we asked them if they wanted to learn more about our church and have a tour, we ended up teaching the first lesson (which usually we don't teach the first lesson in temple tours) and we gave them Book of Mormons (in Korean). We also gave them the English track and asked if they had any questions and they just said "No...but I do want to learn more about this." So we got their information and we are sending it to Korea so Korean missionaries can teach them!! How amazing is that??? The ways the Lord works always blow my mind.

Nonspiritual stuff:

I have eaten so. much. food. SO MUCH FOOD. But I literally love it all. Juabing (green onion fry bread) is life, like I can't even tell you how much I love it. I also tried the beef noodles and the mango shaved ice...I literally about died. I was in heaven. I am such a fattie but I love it. We also had dinner at the Bishop's house last night and it reminded me of mom's food. So I am good!

I also have tripped on so many things, there are so many small bumps here in Taiwan and when I am walking I never lift my feet up enough so I am constantly tripping. It's lovely, I have yet to fully fall so....I am still winning.

Also, there's no toilet paper in public restroom! So everyone has to bring tissues instead. This was the same when I was visiting Hong Kong before. It's something I have yet to get used to.

I also visited this really cool temple, they have statues here that people will bring their smaller statues to. Buddhists believe that their smaller statues get power from the bigger statues. So we have a big Pusa (Budda) overlooking the sea and there is other statues like the war God and wow it's just so interesting!!!