Nimen Hao

Hi Family!

This week was good and crazy. We had my first baptism in Taiwan on Saturday. Her name is Lai Weiting. She's 21 and pregnant. I can't remember if I've already said anything about her...? She is really funny. She has the mentality of an 8 year old, so she's been really fun to teach. She talks about how "shuai" (handsome) the Elders are, especially the "pang pang" (chubby chubby) ones. Haha. Her baptism went well. She really loves the gospel and was so excited to be baptized. We're worried that since she's pregnant she'll have a hard time continuing to come to church and stuff. But the bishop and RS presidency sat her down on sunday and welcomed her into the ward and worked out rides to church and stuff. They don't want to lose her. She've very innocent and VERY pretty, so the ward is worried about her being taken advantage of (as she is pregnant, that may have already been the case). She's really sweet.
We're teaching ALOT of Young Women still. One of them is getting baptized this Saturday if her dad will let her. She's 17. Her name is Ilka. She is really shy and sweet and really smart. Really, we did very little teaching. She pretty much read the Book of Mormon on her own, so by the time we taught her something, she'd already read something in the BOM about it and knew the answer. She's amazing. She said that from reading the BoM she knew it was true. She really wants to get baptized and her Mom let her but she's afraid to ask her dad because she's afraid he'll say no.
We are also teaching an older woman and her 13 year old son. They live with the father, and her mother and siblings still. It's like they all got married and still live at home. They are a really good happy family. She's REALLY hard for me to understand. She speaks "Taiyu" and/or "Hakka" which are native dialects often and I'm totally lost. Her accent is impossible for me to understand. But she's really wonderful and they are always giving us fruit and making food without "mianfen" (flour) for me. We asked her how she felt about baptism and she said if she weren't married she'd accept it without a problem. But she's worried about family opposition. We found out her husband runs a porn DVD shop. Eeek. Law of Chastity ought to be an interesting lesson...

I LOVE the wards here. The Members are so good! The bishop Wu Zhujiao is so hardworking and fun. He collects stamps, so the other day I gave him some stamps from some letters I'd gotten and he practically started hyperventillating he was so excited. The Shao family went through the temple and were sealed on Saturday, and Wu Cai Jia received her Endowments as well. We weren't able to attend, but it's so exciting when members are so strong and make big commitments. I love it.

Haha, so the other day my companion got in a bike accident. She wasn't going very fast, so everyone was okay, but she was in a head-on collision with a scooter! She and the scooter man both ended up on the pavement. Scooter man's seat fell off his scooter and Sister Kunzler's front wheel was shaped like an 8. Her bike is totalled so she's using the bishop's wife's until she leaves next week.

Speaking of which, transfers are coming up! I'm petrified. Getting a new companion is a scary thing. They could be CRAZY! Or they could think I'M crazy! Either way, it'll be good. I am halfway scared of and halfway hoping for a native companion. It would be so hard but so good for practicing Chinese.

The language skills have been coming on and off. The other day I was having a bad with Chinese. I had 3+ people outright tell me my Chinese was bad. That's unusual for Chinese people...they usually say you're great even if you can only say Ni Hao. That was a kick to the pride. Then our guanli (apt building security guard) made fun of me and said I look like Donald Duck because I wear my bag around my waste and behind me. So every time he sees me he swings his hips and walks like Donald Duck. Grrrr...

Today was fun. We went to a garden on a mountain with a member. It was really pretty but a LONG drive. Ni Jiemei "qing-ed" us or treated us to lunch at a restaurant at the garden. I ordered a seafood hot pot which I thought would be a friendly little bowl of fish soup similar to something you'd get at McGraths or something. Everyone ELSE'S meal looked normal. But when I got my soup, it was in a HUGE bowl and as I stirred through it I found little bird eggs, entire shrimp, mini octopuses, 4 inch oysters and so much more that I had didn't recognize. I kept having to spit out shrimp antennae. Aside from the strangeness, it was good!

Hmmm...what else is happening here? We had interviews with the mission president...he told me to not stress out. Haha. Hmmm...I don't know. But things are good. I'm learning alot (despite even myself doubting that...) and it's been really good. It's been a test to the patience, but life is great.

Love you all!!! Miss you!

Coley