We left the MTC Tuesday morning, took a 14-hour plane flight, got to the mission home in Taiwan and crashed. After 2 days of orientation I met my trainer! Her name is Sister Reeve, she has been on island 7 months. About 5 seconds after we met she said "Has anyone ever told you that you look liike Aowyn from Lord of the Rings?" I immediately knew I had hit the jackpot. I found me a nerd!!!!!!!!!!!!! She has been such a blessing and is so fantastic.
We are in a small city/big town about an hour North of the big city, Taichung, in an area called Yuanlin. It's definitely not as busy or bustling as Taichung but there's still enough motorcycles to make biking interesting. We are whitewashing, which means we are both new to the area, we didn't know anyone or anything about it beforehand. But we met the bishop and the members pretty quickly and they are AWESOME. They LOVE missionaries, they are always inviting us to eat and volunteering to come to our lessons. The Bishop really wants us to focus on part members families in the ward so they can get 120 active members and split the ward in half next year. So we have a goal!!! We also have a lot of investigators and recent converts we need to meet with so there is a LOT to do! Sis Reeves says she's never seen members this golden her entire mission, nor has she ever had so many appointments set up in one week! As she said, "They've given me so many toys to play with that I don't know what to do with them!" It's nuts but it is the best problem EVER!
The tricky thing for me is that we're in an area where fellowshipping members is really important and I have no idea what they're saying. My sweet companion does basically all the talking and I contribute when I can. I know it'll come with time but gah I just want to talk to these amazing people! I did bear my testimony at their request on Sunday which was crazy.We also bike everywhere and talk to everybody on the road, or at least I try to manage a sentence or two in passable mandarin and then let my companion take over cuz I don't know what they're saying. But it's a fun time! This place is awesome.
Our first lesson, the only one we've taught so far was with a woman named Enci who believes the church is true and wants to get baptized but she has to work on Sundays and is scared to ask her boss for time off. We shared Ether 12:6 with her and told her the Lord will help her, he will not leave her alone. That's one of the most important things I've learned on my mission. The Lord does not forget you. Why would he do that? You are His child. The Lord wants to help us and will guide us through all our trials. By the end she decided she would ask her boss. It was so cool and I really hope she'll be able to come! I didn't understand 98% of the lesson but you could feel the Spirit so strongly.
Thank you so much for all your love and prayers! They definitely strengthen me.
Much love,
Deng Jie Mei
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