Fumigated!

Fumigated! We are being fumigated! That means our apartment is being fumigated today because of all the mosquitoes with diseases.. We wrapped up all our stuff- mattresses, fridge, fans, silverware, shampoos, emptied the desks- and wrapped everything in plastic. Cuz apparently the stuff gets sticky if it touches the air? I dont know. We are staying at the Tainan 1st Sisters' tonight and then we will unpack in all Tuesday night and Wednesday haha. Fun times. 

I told other missionaries we were being fumigated and they said:

• it happens.. well no not really. but it happened. 
• oo fun
• furnished?? wow I'd love to be refurnished

??

We had a great baptism this week! She is so awesome! I will tell you the miracle story next week and we have another baptism this next week! Pictures coming soon! 

 My companion is a thoroughbred work horse! 

We dropped a lot more investigators, but they just didnt have real intent. We felt peace about it. 

sorry thats all I have time for!

Im Rude to Investigators

It was finally a little cooler this week. Thank you heavenly father...

I am getting a new companion today. Everyone loves her so I think it will be good, ya? She was just my trainee's companion so ya! Small world. And Sister Shen is going to be my trainee's new companion.

This week:

1. So I wathced conference with a dog on my lap Sunday (yes, at church). I'm just starved for physical contact and she was all I had. 
2. I told an investigator that I wouldnt change her date when she wanted to move it back. I'm not sure what came over me, but I told she was going to quit coffee. Then we encourged a presithood blessing,. which she was kinda wishy washy about. Finally I was like, "Okay so you've talked for 30 minutes, will you or will you not accept the help of God? Your choice" So rude! Cant believe myself, but guess what, she stopped drinking coffee immediatly and is now getting baptized in two weeks! And she loves me for helping her! ha.. go figure. 
3. I got out of bed at 6:30 to say my prayers. I woke up at 7:30, still on my knees. I had slept for an hour on my knees. . .
4. I added it up, and we spent 15 hours this week in meetings. shoot me. 

What I said to President
This week we had a great planning session, and after the last two weeks of success, we decided we could reach higher, teach more than 15 peikes and find more than 3 news and etc etc. All worthy goals I think. But then, as we got to the end of planning, we had a nagging lack of peace, and we had to stop. And we had to ask... "Okay. So we've got some great goals. With some great investigators that will go nearly double mission standards... but are we helping people come unto Christ??". Am I helping people come unto Christ? I wasnt sure I was all the time. Sometimes yes, sometimes I needed to improve. The thing is, we have such a great area that we should be able to hit the standards pretty easily... but there is one number that we don't count that matters: people converted to Christ. To baptism. So we had to correct ourselves, and help people actually come unto Christ. not just come to some lessons.

An investigator come and told us she had to change her date because she wasnt giving up coffee. I told her no, that we werent changing it. She was startled. And then we said that she had been active for 6 months, she knew everything and was really, she just needed to quit coffee and be baptized. And she said she couldn't because of headaches adn she couldnt handle the smell of her coworkers coffee. So we had a lesson a priesthood blessings and she was still hesitant. Then I said, "okay so these are the methods we have. Will you or will you not accept the additional help of heaven?" and she said yes! (so direct... who am I). and got a blessing. Then guess what, she called us after Monday and told us she didnt drink coffee! She forgot about it! And then Tuesday! Wednesday... finally by Thursday she asked her coworkers why they had all stopped drinking coffee for her. They replied that they hadnt.. infact they had been drinking every day. She realized she hadnt even smelled it and didnt even notice. So.. she's getting baptized next Saturday! Yay! 

Okay got to go! Love you all!

The Shortest Letter Ever

I am good. 

I forgot we had a typhoon until you all asked. Got used to it I guess! We went walking in the rain Monday night until it was time to go out. It was fine my Tuesday morning. 

Things are great here! We are so busy! Running around like craaaaaazy to get to all our lessons! We missed a couple dinners and had to eat during nightly planning. We have a baptism interview tonight and hopefully a few more soon. I'll send pictures soon. Its the best area yet! Tainan is the old capital of Taiwan and the oldest city here! Theres so much history and it is so cool. 

Funny moment for the fans: My companion has perfect English but if you talk to her first thing in the morning or late at night after fasting-- she has no idea what you are saying. Yesterday she just starred at me for a minute and then was like, "Ummmm I think you forgot that I dont speak French. Just English. Can you speak English?" To which I replied, "That was English. I dont speak French, what the?" 

haha. 

Okay got to go! Keep our investigators in your prayers! Love you all! 

Sister Wawro

It's Zoro, with a W. 

Sleepless in Taiwan

Hello to the city of Tainan! My favorite city yet. 

So, there is a Typhoon today. Just misting and rain right now, but we'll see how the day goes. 

Also, Lately I've been so frank with investigators. I dont know if its a sign of the times, or a sign of an old missionary, or if I've been particularly cheeky the last ten days but... ya. meh. Dont regret it so ya. 

New Companion:

So my new companion is my new hero and the most interesting man in the world.. I mean woman. But really. First of all, she has cancer. But she's on a mission. So thats cool. She is also like my best friend and super sweet. Every time we are laughing really hard she goes, "no no no. We cant have too good of a relationship. President said if we had a good relationship, then we have to move." Oh no. She's my 14th companion. Is this why I always move? Im not sure...

Also, her family has THE COOLEST conversion story of all time. So cool that it was in the Ensign! Thats right. Basically, her parents started living in seperate houses (weren't divorced yet but ya) and her dad wanted to fix their relationship, so he entered a random church to pray. There he met our missionaries! And took the discussions, and set a baptism date. Well, to get baptized you have to have espousal permission, so he called his wife to tell her he wanted to get baptized. She told him it was okay, because she had a baptism date for the following week! ! ! Long story short, they got back together and were sealed a year later. The gospel changed their whole family. 

That's right, I'm living with a super-star. 

New Area:

Is the best. Downtown city #itsabouttimepeople. It only takes 25 minutes in heavy traffic to bike to one side to the other. Also, the traffic is like a horror film, but it's kinda fun. It is the second smallest area in the mission and its golden. We dropped in another baptismall date, and I did not allow an investigator to drop her date (she can drop coffee, she just cant be so soft on herself. She can do it). There's a huge college here! So everyone thinks Im here to study Chinese. Which is ironic, because most of the foreign students cant even speak Chinese. We even have a "Dream Mall". Its likea mall and disneyland but together into one massive building. And all the homes are HUGE- so tracking isnt too successful, but it does give us something to look at. 

A member took us out to eat for the Mid-Autumn Festival (basically like a second Chinese NewYears.. but with moon cakes and BBQ). So, I originally didnt know where were going but it turns out we were at THE RESTERAUNT of Tainan- the restaurant in the tallest building of the tallest hotel here. whoooooah swanky. We walk in and the restaurant has a reservation, because they only let like 30 people eat at a time. It looked like star wars- that part where they go to the conference and have those floating booth things and all the leaders of difference places vote and Queen Amadalla says, "So this is how freedom dies, with thunderous applause" (ya, I cant remember English, but I remember Star Wars #raisedright). anyways, we ate at a place that looked like Star Wars and the food was the best food I have ever eaten in Taiwan. It was like eating at the African Lodge Buffet at Disney World, but it was all Chinese and Japanese Style. When we walked in I turned to Elder Tatton and was like, "So... do you feel as out of place as I do?" He said, "Yup. I'm wearing a tie and ... still." Like two democrats in Dallas. 

Food was good though. 

I'll keep you posted on the investigators after their upcoming baptisms. Then I can talk more about them! :) 

Love you all!

Emergency Transferred

So guess what. 

I got emergency transferred. [Not my emergency, some one else's]. 

So I get to go to paradise :). 

Or so I hear. I think PingDong is pretty sweet but the I'm replacing my MTC companion in TaiNan. TaiNan is famous for having the best food in Tainan, Its a big city, andthis area and district is ON FIRE! I think we're having three baptisms in the next month. Yay. Party! And my companion is Taiwanese, cuter, and I hear everyone loves her. And, small world, Elder Teasdale is my district leader. Which means he\s my district leader for like half my time in Taiwan haha. Good thing we're friends. 

But ya I was sad to leave PingDong. Heavenly Father gave me so many littel miracles my last 48 hours there. For example! My favorite family of investigators started having family scripture study and studying as a couple! We had a less-active rescue that Sunday.. she is now a ward missionary! And a recent convert came down all the way from Taibei! Our eternal investigator asked me what questions there were in the baptismal interview, the bishop was actually sad to have me go, and we hit the mission standards with flying colors. I got to see and say goodbey to everyone that I love, and last but not least we had a ward activity saturday for the MidAutunm Festival and the members wer SO GOOD to our investigators! And there were so many new people we were gunna start teaching! It was like a little piece of heaven, a little pat on the back. 

And then at the end of the night, as we are walking into the apartment uilding, I feel a little tug on my skirt. And the, I look down to see a little someone hugging my legs. Our little neighbor girl who is a former! then her mom comes over, and her sister, and then her dad, and her brother! And they are all super excited to see me! And so my companion gets a chance to meet them and set up with them and it turns out.. that their relatives all live in TaiNan so they will be visiting! And they asked what ward so they could come to church! It was such a tender mercy. 

And then my companion stayed up half the night packing with me. I've moved again and again and no one does that... bless her. 

In other funny news:

1. My companion mixed up discuss and disgust a lot when talking. Its confusing. but funny. 

2. Elder Ludwig was contacting this person at the stoplight. And he said, "Hello I'm- *reaches for the name tag*- oh.. ummm." *realizes the nametag is not there and says*- "I'm sorry, I forgot who I am today."    The person freaked out and ran a redlight haha. 

Thats all for now folks! Sorry I cant remember beofre two days ago because I'm working on like no sleep! But, I love you!

The Perfect Missionary

Hey FamBam,

and fans,

This week has flown by. I cant even remember what happened other than a lot of meetings and then stake conference that president came to, and average missionary work. And ya. 

Sometimes I look at all the stories of these epic missionaries and Iｔｈｉｎｋ... like.. I gotta step it up. but step it up to what? Im not sure. Because I am doing my best. Im just not as awesome as I always imagined missionaries to be. Im pretty much just doing ordinary missionary things. I talk to people. I bear my testimony. I try by best to keep the mission schedule and rules. I could do better at all of those things, but I really strive to do it all. and I dont feel this rapid rush of spiritual guidance a lot. sometimes, but mostly, no. Mostly, investigators drop us, or stand us up, or drop their baptism dates, and normal stuff just goes wrong. I'm not baptizing throngs of people, heck, I'm just trying to stay afloat with the ones I have. I hit some mission standards every week, but I often to fail to hit them all.  

as Im typing this out I realize how ridiculous I sound. 

Because the idea of the perfect missionary I have in my head isnt even a real person. Its not a person with weaknesses, and who has to lean on Christ daily. Its a person who can do it all himself, with the spirit at his side. 

I want to be a good example to my cousins and kids about what it means to really be an awesome concentrated missionary, but at the end of the day, I think I'm a pretty average missionary, just trying to do the day's work.

But I guess the miracle in it is that we are still the voice-piece for the spirit,even though we all have cracks. That's now the light gets it :) 

Here is part of the letter I sent president this week

Miracle of the week. We were teaching a family, a family we love, and who.. just wasnt progressing towards baptism. Or maybe they were, but at a glacial pace. He finished reading the Book of Mormon last week, and believes its the word of God, but we always lose them with authority. Sister Liao and I just didnt know what to do. And we just prayed so so hard before our lesson with them, and asked people to pray with us. And we started teaching lesson three again, but somehow the lesson got to the temple. Brother Jian said, "sometimes when I read the Book of Mormon I feel my ancestors around me, reading with me." At that moment I just felt a spiritual rush and.. I just really felt like they were there. And that there were so many on the other side of the veil who were praying for them too, because they needed the Jians. We talked about the temple, and they didnt take a date, but they started to attend all three hours with the whole family. After the lesson my companion said, hey when he said that about his ancestors did... you feel that? Them all around us?" And I did. I think it was one of the most spiritual lessons I've ever had. 

Love you all, 

bye bye!

I'm in Polynesia

So our milk was fine in the fridge at Seven Eleven. No one bought it at least haha. 

This week I had a lizard in my helmet. It was kinda like that scene from Parent Trap where the mean lady freaks out and then the lizard crawls in her mouth. Except it didnt crawl into my mouth. thank goodness. 

So, my companion has  a British accent when she speaks English. I cannot figure out why for the life of me. 

Also, the third day we are together, she points to the menu and says, "Chicken!" and I nod... like.. ya I know... And then she says (in Chinese and Enlgish) "This one is Chicken... *points to her leg* and This one is Chicken... um um.. " and then she starts beating her chest. Like a monkey. I try not to laugh, and I'm like, "I'm sorry what? I didnt quite catch that." So she does the gesture bigger, and seeing the exasperate look on my face, she does it again bigger. People are watching at this point. Seeing the puzzled look of my face, she jumps in the air. At this point I cant take it anymore and I bust out laughing. She says, "Do you understand now?"

I replied in Chinese, "Ya- I read the sign, it said Chicken breast. I cant read a menu, but watching you try to act it out was way to fun to stop you." She hit me haha. Her other companion didnt read menus I so she thought she had to explain haha. 

But my chinese isnt really that great because this week in a lesson in stead of saying, "When my companion was talking, Iｒｅａｌｉｚｅｄ　Ｉhad a similar feeling", I said, "When my companion was talking I realized I had a trashy feeling." My companion said oh.. no.. and then I realized what I said, corrected it and then we all laughed for awhile. Dumb Americans. 

Speaking of which, we went to the mountain and basically found out that it is mini polynesia. No joke. And it is now my favorite place in the world. We have a lot of new investigators and some even came to church yesterday. They are really special people. When I'm there and teaching them I this feeling that I really do know them. And the weird thing is that one of the husbands looks like a polynesian/chinese version of my dad.. its weird. I know... Iｃａｎｔ　ｆｉｇｕｒｅ　ｉｔ　ｏｕｔ　ｅｉｔｈｅｒ．　

But more on that latter as it develops. Because my companion and I　love going there. 

This week we had an investigator drop out of her baptism in two weeks. She is a really special person. We are gunna meet with her one last time this saturday. I really love this investigaotr, so if you could pray for her... thank you. 

Okay that's all! Sorry I　had so much to talk about but no time. 

We Store out Stuff at Seven Eleven. We Own this Place

So I am still in PingDong. for now. What the?? No one trains and then stays in an area. Except me. Always the exception, never the rule. 

Kinda like always the bridesmaid, never the bride, but .. not. 

Ok, so. I said goodbye to my little trainee and sent her to the first apartment I ever lived in. What the?? Crazy. Im all nervous for her. Then a member and I literally sat there like all day waiting for my companion... because she was supposed to get off an incoming train... but she didnt. and then next one? She didnt. And again, nope. After nearly an hour I start calling the zone leaders and other sisters until I get to her last companion, who said, "oh she should be at the Feng Shan station."

Feng Shan?? We live in Ping Dong!

Oh no. 

So then I start begging sisters in GaoXiong to ride to FengShan. Before they get there my companion calls from another phone! She is at GaoXiong Main station! She got off at the wrong place. We arrange for her to get a ticket down here. So thats another hour of waiting. The Elders headed south show up and say that they lost her on the train! How do you loose somone on a sitting train? *face palm* So we all wait. She then calls me from another number to say she is on her way. 

Then about 40 minutes later we get a call, from another number! It is her. She is in PingDong!　but we are standing by the only exit from the train... she she had to walk past us! She agrees to back tract. 

Then another phone call from another phone number! It occurs to me that she is making friends along the way and using all of their phones! She then pops up around the corner and immediately gives us both hugs. 

I like her. 

She may be the most expressive and direct person I have ever met haha. 

Anyways, we go grocery shopping as fast as we can, and then we have to go home to put the frozen stuff in the fridge.. but then we'd have less time to email... so we start looking around to see if the food could be left in the bike box until 9pm. 

The conversation (translated) went like this:

Me: So everything but the soymilk can be refrozen and be fine. How long does it take for soymilk to go bad?

Her: Uhhhhhh.. it will go bad by 9pm.

Me:Then we gotta go back

Her: Oh. ya it definitely will go bad by 9pm. 

Okay then. Home it is. 

Her: Or...

Me: What?

We could go to seven eleven. 

Huh?

Ya, and ask them to put it in their fridge. 

What the... Can you do that????

Her: Well... no. But I do unprecedented things all the time. Lets try!

So then we marched into seven and she smooth talked the cashiers into letting us store our milk in the seven eleven fridges until 9pm tonight!!!!!

Hopefully no one tries to buy it... 

Who is this chick? Hehe , its gunna be great. 

Okay that's all for now folks. I wont be on air next Monday, but tune in the following Monday for the next broadcast for a premier special. Until then, 

To My Fans

Helllllllllo fan base! Glad to see you are all still with me and reading my emails. I'm on the last stretch of this mission and your dedication is commendable. I applaud you; congratulations on making it this far. To those who have stopped emailing me, I forgive you, you know not what you do. 

Huzzah!

Just another week in the flood plains of Taiwan. God's gotta keep it interesting. He's trying to tell all of Taiwan that they should be baptized, but they aren’t getting it... so we're following behind the rain and telling them what all the rain means, but they havent started to believe us just yet. S'all good. 

Our investigators are doing great! They are progressing. Some, a little faster than others, but they are all coming towards Christ and that is what matters! We have a nice big pool of people we are working with and so we are happy clams. Especially the ones with dates!!!ｙａｙｙ！！　I have resigned to the fact that I wont live to see anyone baptized in person here before I go, but I would rather meet the investigators and start teaching than be at the end anyways. So God gave me my wish. 

I'll be moving in two weeks I think. Just a guess. A strong guess. So I'm trying to make sure things are in order. 

Today Elder Teasdale moved on an emergency transfer because he is training! We were all so so sad. And him and I have both been here forever in Ping Dong, so I it was sad to see my buddy go. Now I am actually the oldest missionary here and have to answer all the questions about the ward? Heavens to Betsy, someone start praying quick. 

This week in five things:

1. We say four miracles in the first hour of p=day last week. We ran into two investigators, one inactive RC, one member, and another girl deciding to go on a mission all on our bike ride on the way to the church. :)
2. Also, we wrote an arrange my ear for zone conference that night. The performance went well. 
3. We played a match game at zone conference, and it wasnt even hard because we are all so used to memorizing. Literally, the missionaries were'nt even trying and they were like, "oh ya I saw that card ten minutes ago, third from the left on the sixth row" haha. Easy as pie. I think the woman who made it was a little discouraged because we never got one wrong haha.
4. Confident in our new composing skills, I wrote a four part harmony to a primary song that we performed sunday. That was fun. I felt bad that the chords were all super complicated but we thought it sounded okay in the end. 
5. The senior couple came and inspected our apartment, said our apartment was terrible but we had made it miraculously more clean than before. Then the next day we came home and they had dropped us off a bunch of new stuff! mattress covers, toaster oven, real plates, a hose for the washer, etc! We told them it was like Santa came. They said, "hohoho."

My companion is almost done with training. Sometimes she says our language practice feels like this:

I got a good laugh. Well that's all folks! Love ya,

Until next week, 

or for those who dont write me, 

until next Dec 27, 

(hehehhe)

Sister Ashley Wawro

P.S. Below is attatched a hilarious email from my companion's friend. It is so funny I attatched it below:

EXTRA  CREDIT:

Hi mum the mission is so great! I love everyday! the people are the nicest! you can tell they like americans! they call us yankees, like one man i said i´m from the united states. he said los matamos aqui, jajaja what ever that means. almost everyday we have lunch with a member! they are so sweet and feed us well! mostly we eat a lot of chicken! Hey did you know we can eat chicken medium rare? i thought we´d get salmanela but sister mage said that´s only in salmon. she´s really sweet the otherday we got to chop down a tree in her yard! it was awesome i got to climb a tree with a machete!!! that´s when we found Fred! oh ya, Fred is our new pet, he´s a brazilian banana spider, sister mage said he´s only poisious if he bites, so we cant make him angry, he´s cool, we´re going to teach Fred how to swim later! we want to teach him how to swim incase it floods again, hey did you know if you pipes break your apartment will flood? it wasn´t too bad, on the other hand our floor is really clean now!

Teaching the gospel is takes so much energy so everyday we try to stay fit so we and feel the spirit more! somedays my companions is too dedicated to fitness, like when the gangsters shout hey Mormones! like they want to hear the gospel, he says we should start running, I don´t know why he likes running at night, it seems like the best time to share a message about the light of christ! 

Speaking of messages did you get the letter from the hospital? it was a nice visit, the doctor did however say that i shouldn´t give myself stitches, oh don´t worry mom i only had 4, did you know we´re not supposed to use thread from the sewing kit for open wounds? oh The mission is great mum! later we have to go to the pharmacy, probably cause elder matis has another paracite, no big deal it´s probably from the cow stomach we ate the other day! Elder Fru said we shouldn´t have eaten it after leaving it out all night but what ever my stomach is like the iron rod! 

Love you mom we´re going to try and ride the elephant at the zoo!  

Elder Schoonover

Ps, when was my last tetna shot?

The Trojan Horse and Typhoons Got Nothin' On Us

Typhoon came.   Is that how you spell it in English?　Such a hard word.

We no longer have a roof on our balcony. The typhoon took it away!  We were awakened at about 5am to hear the ripping of it and see chunks of it fly away a piece at a time.  We didn’t sleep well and it was scary..  but it was exciting too.  We stayed inside.  When we were going to go out, the elders called and were said, “Yes we are outside.  You don’t want to be outside.  Stay inside.  We are headed back home."  I guess stuff was flying through the air.  Then it became a rule to stay inside.  An adventure to be sure! 

A member gave us a beautiful plant to put on our balcony.  Little did we know the plant was actually a Trojan Horse!  That thing brought so many ants into our apartment!  So we dumped that.  Ha!  Problem solved.  Now we have a beautiful aloe plant instead of a mint one. 

A snippet from my letter to president:

Hello President!  If happiness is who you are with, I am floating on a cloud.  A rainy stormy cloud but it’s more fun that way. The typhoon ripped the roof right off our balcony but we are okay.  Something to write home about.  I heard about the papaya trees being ripped out-- a disappointment to us all. 辛苦你們。 I'm doing well, Sister Howard is a dream, and in Ping Dong we finally have another baptism date!

In fact, that is my miracle this week!  FINALLY someone accepted an invitation!  We wanted to cry!  And then one wonderful family told us this week that they really believed they should be baptized, but felt they needed to come to church before they could commit to that!  Well ya,  we agreed and the family came with three sons!  We are happy little clams down here.  I feel like we're going to get all the dates set up and then.. then I will move.  It always happens like that but it's okay.  I'll still be so excited for them.  Actually I was disappointed in our numbers this week (typhoons cancelled about 7 lessons) but then I started thinking about it and I was like, wait, when I first got to PingDong and we were working so hard I would have loved even having 6 peikes!  So then we counted our blessings this week, and everyone set up for next week. 

Blah blah I said more things to President..

Moving on! 

Oh ya and I am singing in Zone Conference this week. By myself.  Scary!  It was going be a duet but I couldnt get anyone to sing with me... -__-

Also, the Elders gave us thier blender this week because they “weren’t using it".  Actually,  We are pretty sure they used it everyday but they felt bad for my stomach hurting so they were trying to help.. sweet.  I'm loving it though. 

Well.  That’s all!

Love ya. 

Zion's Camp

other than giving one of our favorite investigators to the elders and biking for almost 5 hours saturday, I dont have much new to announce. Oh ya and there theres tha tyear mark thing, but no one wants to talk about that. 

Did you know your calves can sweat? I didnt know? 

Its so hot here that when you pray at the end of the day you slide on the floor.

My old companion just emailed me:

"My dear, I'm engaged.

Hahahha. I am just kidding."

trickster. But she is the only one not engaged so... she got me. 

Anyways, letter this week:

Zion's Camp:

I'm camping. And in camping you pack all your gear. 

Me, I've been camping for over a year. 

In camping you learn real real quick, 

which gear is heavy, and which gives you a fit. 

You keep what you need, dump out the rest, 

but not to re-pack to soon is the ultimate test. 

You'll say lots of prayers, hear lots of talks,

and there's no fate worse than getting wet socks. 

In camping, sometimes it kinda sucks. 

You'll hike for hours just to get stuck in some ruts.

It's physically hard, you'll sweat a lot,

and sleep on a bed that feels like a cot. 

You'll get bitten, get tired, eat food with foul taste,

but be expected to smile and keep up a good paste. 

While camping you find out real quick, that happiness

depends on the people you're with. 

You'll get closer to people, make some new friends.

They're your best souvenirs when this journey ends. 

While camping, you learn some impressive new skills, 

conqueror some fears, take parasite pills. 

You clean up after yourself, bring your own kit, 

You leave every place better than you found it. 

Camping builds character. Brings you to new heights. 

You'll climb to new peaks and see beautiful sights. 

At some point in camping, you realize you need a shower.

You'll accept that you need one more by the hour. 

Which is fine, because camping can't be your whole life.

You go home to apply the lessons you learned on your hike. 

You'll come home exhausted, excited, and ready to kick it,

but deep down you know how much you will miss it. 

Not so much for the hiking, or sweating, or tears,

But because of all God helped you put into those years. 

Cuz you knew from the start, when you got the call, 

that camping really isn't about you at all. 

But its changed you, grown you, given you a new start,

and when you pack up from camping

it's like packing your heart. 

Weddings are Missionary Tools

I can’t remember what happened this week. It’s all a blur and Idont have much time! BUT!

We attended a wedding this week. And they were the best missionaries EVER!!  No really… they:

• Took bridals with the Book of Mormon and Bible
• Took photos at the chapel and temple
• Handed out Family Proclamations as people walked into the reception
• Had a show, were they sang hymns
• And each gave a talk on eternal families
• They invited the bishop to do the same
• Complete with and opening and closing prayer
• Invited all of us to contact their friends over dinner…

• Areyouflabbergast?   I am and I’m only remember half of what they did.  Wow! Do I have some room for improvement. 

We’ve started calling them the "power couple."

Here's a snippet from my letter to President:

 Okay so here is the gist quickly, things are good. My companion- good.  The bishop finally agreed to meet with us and we have a REAL WARD PLAN. Not having a plan has been a stuggle here, but now we have a plan to meet the stake goal and we are excited. 

I got a blessing this week and it said that The Lord was proud of me. That I was doing the right things here, even though I doubted myself, and that I was doing the work He wanted me to do here. I was so relieved because sometimes we've felt so pulled between lack of baptisms and the ward, and all this. I didnt know how much I needed to hear it until I heard it. 

SCRIPTURES:  Finished D&C just barely.  I'm going to be a consecrated member for life, not just a consecrated missionary.  Not sacrificing, consecrating. This is Zion’s camp and I intend to start the building when I'm home. 

MIRACLES: Getting a ward plan. 

That is all! We're just laboring in the hot part of the vineyard down here!  Feel free to throw water or a towel our way! 

Okay family that is all! Sorry about the letter today!

Iｌｏｖｅ　ｙｏｕ！　 

Ice Ice Dragon

No Typhoons. So disappointing. 

In other news, I’ve been battling a dragon all week. Every night… I am awakened by ice- ice being poured on me! From the AC above my bed!  And the AC makes this terrible growling sound and screaming sound! An ice blowing machine that only strikes in your sleep! It wakes me up every half hour. So, basically its a Chinese torture device. I turn it off to turn the noise off, but then it’s so hot in ten minutes I wake back up to turn it back on until the ice starts in 30 minutes when its cold again.

I am so sleep deprived its ridiculous. But operations is working on it, so it’ll be fine. 

In other news this week:

• I saw my MTC teacher! She was just touring around Taiwan!  What a tender blessing because I saw her by accident  (Accident? Oh please, no way). 
• We got a mint plant. It took us two days to kill the mint plant... 
• We had interviews this week! It was great. 
• Also, it was feed the missionaries week because every time we came to church someone was waiting with food, even investigators.
• We are making some headway with our eternal investigator! WHOOOO!
• The elders thoughtfully moved our bikes quite a distance out of the rain, so they were waiting in the church lobby area when we walked out of a lesson. #tendermercies
• We finally got to take the trash out. Sounds simple, but we have too many appointments at night :(
• Starting next week I'm one of the oldest sisters in the mission. Freaks me out.
• There is this Elder who is like a child, literally- he always has toys and war heads and frozen pens and pranks- and I never really disliked him, but I just kinda ignored him. This week I realized he was actually making my life more fun.  For example, we were all sweeping, and he was belting our songs and he turns and says, “Sister Wawro, you don't look like you're having FUN." hahaha.  So now, I have to repent and thank God for the childish Elder that makes us all laugh.  We're friends now. 

Also this week, we had so many miracles! We got a whole family more committed to learning the gospel and met a woman who had a son who has to have major brain surgery, so the elders gave her a blessing and she LOVES US and church and hates her religion… so is willing to meet with us! Which is a miracle because they own a temple with a fortune teller and everything... but she thinks that its "of the devil and wants not part of it" so she will bring her sons to church to learn of God instead.  Well , alrighty then!  We are here for her!

If you are going to pray for me, please pray for baptisms!  We have investigators but we need to help them get baptized!  Thank you all! love you so much!

Typhoon Excitement in the Ai

My first Typhoon is coming!!!

I am so excited!

I’ve never seen one before and I miss big Texas thunder!

Don’t worry we live on the 13th floor. It’s not like it will flood (she said not knowing she had just sealed her her fate with her words). 

So here is this week in a nutshell:

• My bike box topped over in the street and I didn’t notice so my companion had to pick up all the stuff in between cars and stop lights before I saw. 
• We had fireworks! Except we didn’t, because that is not allowed.  So, a member bought fireworks for Fourth of July… and we sat on the church steps and watched.. while singing God Bless America!  Quietly… and to ourselves.
• It’s completely legal to blow up fireworks in the middle of a street downtown here, by the way. #GodBlessTaiwan? #confusing
• My companion and I started journaling our dreams. Turns out I’m a missionary living the Hunger Games in like every single one... #maytheoddsbeeverinmyfavor #dreaminterrpretorwanted
• We are currently redecorating our study for ten American dollars. It’s a creative excessive. I’ll let you know how it goes. 
• Took my companion to a stationary store on P-day. Big Mistake. Spent two hours ogling over some 10 cent cute notebooks..
• We got five referrals from the ward! And so did the elders!  Yay!
• The members we wanted to teach a lesson with us, snuck pizza into a library.. Delicious pizza with mayonaise and shrimp on top. 
• I ate Italian food Saturday… Italian Taiwanese. It’s a thing I guess. 

Weirdness of the Week:

So this guy wanted to take a picture of us grocery shopping Monday (happens all the time actually) so we just smiled and let him, whatever, day in the life- BUT THEN he finds us Wednesday out and about and gives us copies of the photos he took! Printed out and everything to say thank you!  We were thinking what on earth??… and then he gives us two cross necklaces that he won’t let us refuse. Then he says “  believe in God, maybe we could talk sometime."  We gave him the Elders phone number and then pretended not to understand his other questions. He’s either golden or crazy, and if he's golden he'll find his way to God through the Elders, lol. 

Miracles of the Week:

As we were contacting about, on our daily p-day errands, we ran into a girl who worked behind one of the counters.  We talk to her every week, but she was like, "Hey I am sorry to hear about the supreme court thing. My husband and I were talking about it, and we saw what your church said, and my husband was talking about how he really liked your family standards. Then he asked if you ever met with people, because we are busy on Sundays, but we'd still like to know more. I said yes.  She said, " I can ask because I know you and we are friends!”

Ya our jaws dropped. So then we, through our slobber, insisted that that would be convenient for us. We had invited her to things before, but its just proof it takes a few invitations!

Anyways my time is up! Love you all!

Boiling

So we invited 5 families to baptism this week. They all so said no. On the bright side, we now know their concerns in depth. . . We're working on it. 

:) 

I heard about the supreme court, yes (I purposely didn't capitalize thier name. That's right, I'll show them (jkjkjk)). All I have to say is that I think its a good time to buy land is Missouri.  But then again we’d be asked to consecrate is later anyways.. (If you didn't get that joke, ask the missionaries, they can help you). 

In other news, the work of God continues to roll forth like a great stone cute without hands. However, all that rolling is causing a lot of friction and heat because WOWZERS IT IS HOTT. OMGosh it is hot. I can’t leave an apple on the counter without it rotting by tomorrow. Hot hot hot hot hot. 

I suppose its kinda like a sauna. What are the health benefits of that again?　Quick, someone remind me. 

So this week:

• We volunteered to teach English twice at a elementary school. So fun. 
• We found a bat at the school! It was sleepy
• My companion said the phrase, "I had jaundice, but I'm fine now." Sometimes you think you know a person and then...
• We built an obstacle laser course in English class. We had way more fun than they did.
• We found a great new somebody to teach the gospel! Yay!

That's about all for this week. Keep the faith! And don’t politically bash the Supreme Court on Facebook people. Stay about the mud. 

Snail Tastes Like Squid.. Sorta. But Like Snail

Our elevator doesn't work this week... we live on the 13th floor haha... but my calves are killer.

I ate a snail and a chickens heart this week. So that's something. 

STORY OF THE WEEK. Here we were teaching a lesson, and the investigator gives us these things that look like juice boxes but are actually tea. I just put mine to the side and keep talking. A few minutes go by and I hear a sluuuuuuuurrrp sluuuurrrrrpp. I look over and my companion is sipping the remains of the empty carton! I totally forgot that the writing was in Chinese and that I should tell her! So week one and I have my trainee breaking the Word of Wisdom. Sorry President. 

The next day the APs called us and asked Sister Howard if she had eaten any weird foods yet. She was like, "nah just the tea." Elder Peele busted out laughing and was like, "soooo Sister Wawro?". Ya.

INVESTIGATORS. But this week was great! We were on FIRE! Like Katnis. We had ten new investigators! We added three families! Hopefully they all get baptized and sealed! Everyone had a super cool story! 

1. This woman was contacted by the Elders and she was super sad because she hadnt been to church in years and was really feeling it, so they prayed with her and then sent us over to read scriptures with her- so of course we gave her and her teenage daughters Book of Mormons! They're great. 
2. We went to a former's address because there was no phone number. She answers the door and just hugs us!!!! And welcomes us in to teach her and her two sons. She was super sad no missionaries had come for awhile!
3. We last night were contacting at the park with no luck, when a man stops us and tells us we can get free soda (its an outdoor concert) and we start talking to him. He was also a former investigator who joined a different church! We talked forever but he finally agreed to bring his whole family to church to read the Book or Mormon with us this Thursday! PRAY FOR THEM!
4. And lastly we stopped by another investigators shop to follow-up on her Book of Mormon reading (which was our second back plan btw) and her friend in the shop was like, "Oh I went to your church once and met missionaries". Long story short she is meeting with missionaries again. 

Prayer is real! We specifically prayed to teach families and wow did they come! We are so excited!

TRAINING. Also, I feel so old! I do things in Taiwan that I dont even notice, and I think it's normal. My traniee asks me all these questions and I'm like..oh ya.. this is is a learned behavior huh... oh ya... we did have that in the states.. ya no.. we dont have that there. like:

1. Doors that have seals on the perimeters
2. Trash trucks you don't have to personally take your trash out too
3. AC that we keep on all day, so its cool when we come home
4. Walmart, or anything like it. 
5. Enforced traffic laws
6. Toilet paper instead of napkins
7. Eggs cartons that reclose shut
8. Stairs for human feet (not Mayan feet)
9. Ever being barefoot
10. Milk, real  milk
11. Cheese
12. Butter for her Mac n' Cheese (its not bad with soy milk)
13. Any recollection of which artist sings what song
14. USDA certified beef. 
15. Certified meat at all (I forgot we did that actually)

It's fun to see my companions face when she tries new foods. We fed her some shaved ice! She didnt like it and I couldnt figure out why! Its dessert! And then I remembered that inside was a bunch of green beans and flour chewy Japenese ball things... and it was butterscotch and ya. She'll get used to it though. 

But my comp is great! I'm just encouraging her to do hard things and she does them herself. I'm like, "Ya I think you could call phones and talk in Chinese! Go for it! You got it!" And then she just does it! Its that easy! And after she does it I'm like.. wow ya that was brave. No way I wouldnt done that on week one haha. Shhhhhhhhhhh

So mostly one the outside I'm like this:

But on the inside is this little voice saying:

ANYWAYS I　LOVE YOU ALL! HAVE A GREAT WEEK! Thank you so much for all your prayers! We feel them and love! Remember Heavenly Father loves you and that love never changes! 

Hello 大家！

Hello 大家！

My New Companion!

I have a new companion (#13) and her name is Sister Howard! She is from Virginia, she went to BYU Hawaii and danced at the Polynesian Center, speaks French and her mom is from New Zealand! Unfortunatly for her she has to speak Chinese instead of French, but we are working on that. I think her Chinese was pretty good in the MTC, but of course the world out here is way different... Its humbling to see how far we've all come. I cant believe we can all speak this language sometimes! I still think my Chinese is really bad, but then I realized this week I  was answering all her questions! #miracles. So I guess we do improve. 

        She is progressing really fast! She is really dedicated. Its humbling to see your companion do things like you because that's the only way she knows how to do it. I study Chinese every night and every morning during personal time, and then she started doing it. Yay! But then I would like take a break to get water, and when she did it I was like, "No we cant do that!", and then I realized I had taken a break I didnt really need like an hour before. Ya. Its humbling. She's gunna help me a lot. lol. 

This Week

1. We had a musical concert with the ward! It was so fun and we got to meet some great new investigators!
2. We are all Facebook missionaries in 屏東 now! All of our district. We're gunna rock it. 
3. We had to stand on the four hour train ride from the mission office to home Friday. My poor companion. 
4. And she already got one of her skirts ripped up because I wasn't thoughtful enough to tell her how to ride. Oops. 
5. My last little taiwanese compaion is moving on to greenie breaking! I am so proud of her!

Picking on My District

A moment from this week. I was picking on my district, because Elder Teasdale let it slip that his dad baptized his mom... and then he came back and married her. So then I kept making jokes about that (real mature Sister Wawro) so I was having a lot of fun. Then, his companion had a similar story, so I　got to pick on him too. THEN I found out my new companion's parents met on her dads mission, and then her went back and married her mom. Well its turns out they dont even remember meeting on his mission, they really starting dating when he went back to New Zealand to finish his mission, but of course I still had to make jokes! So finally someone asked me how many parents met, and I was like HA! It wasnt one a mission! My dads mission president offered him a job in Texas and soo...

And then I realized I was just like them. Missions bring people together, darn it. So then I got an earful. haha 

Picture Update

Rain Rain Go Away

My mission companion just emailed me and said, "So is it raining down there?"

I said, "My bike is rusting."

So this week it has rained.

and rained. 

and rained. 

I thought Texas could rain, but Taiwan can rain more. We are like the pioneers, every day we are cold and wet, and our skirts are muddy and dripping. I could tell some people didnt want to let us in because our legs and feet were so dirty lol. We had rain coats and everything, but when you ride a bike, it just doesnt matter. As I told Carina, "our muddy skirts are kinda weeding out those with true intent. Only those with truely open hearts would still let us in". We scream NOOO everytime we see a semi coming ebcause we know the splash is coming. Elder Teasdale said the rain is here to try out faith. I personally think its here because its monsoon season, but I like the optimism from the peanut gallery. 

On the other hand, our skin is really moisturized. 

So it turns out we have the best elders in the whole mission though. First of all, I was having a hard day, and we walked into church, and there was a motivating talk all printed out for me waiting on the table. It said at the top, "Sister Wawro, we are not counseling you. We repeat. We are not counseling you. President Eyering is." haha. Then my companion had a flat tire on Sunday, and we know they had a pump, so we called them. 40 minutes later we were wondering what in the wolrd happened, because they are like ten minutes away. So we went downstairs to check, only to find that they were inspecting all our bikes, including the spare, and were now working on bike #3. 

This week was also the week of service. Or should I say attempted service. We went to two members houses for service projects in the rain. One told us it would take 20 minutes to get to her house. Over an hour later, when we got to a feild that she wanted us to pull weeds at, we had to turn around because we had to head back for a lesson lol. Another member asked us to come at 7am to pick weeds in her garden. So we start down this little street, which slowly turns into a mountain path, which turns into a path that I would be scared to go up on a four-wheeler, much less a bike haha. It is a MIRACLE we did not crash, we were boucing so much. Then we get to the told... and its a locked gate. And no one is there haha. So next week we will try again. Then, an LA called and told us she wanted us to walk her dogs. We werent sure if we could really do that, but it turns out we got permission to. So we walked her dogs twice a day for two days. Who knew as a missionary. 

This week, unfortualty, we had to give all but one of our investigators to a nieghboring area :( :'(. I'm not sad. They'll be fine. They'll get baptized anyways :'',(  !!! 

It's fine.. :(

Love you all :)

ａ　ｄａｙ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｌｉｆｅ

Ｉ　ＨＡＴＥ　ｔｈｅｓｅ　ｂｕｇｓ。　Ｉcan love many things, but not these bugs

"All I do is SWEAT SWEAT SWEAT no matter what"

Its humbling. What is it like to look decent? I dont even remember. 

On the bright side, I can be certain the people listening to our message have true desire, because no one else would meet with us sweatballs. 

I ate somewhere this week with roaches, beattles, and lizards on the wall... just hoping it wasnt in the soup. Who knows really. I bit into one meatball and turns out it was intestines... with stuff still in them. Gag me. #refinersfire

Guess what! The referrals are just coming out of the walls from members and from investigators! I don't know why or how, but suddenly we have piles of potential investigators. The future looks brihgt. 

Last night we went to find a former family and they werent there. There grandpa wwas, and he yelled at us, but the others werent. Anyways, we decided to knock on one last door before leaving the street- a random one a few houses down- and a man let us it! Aha, not so random, now was it? So, we taught him and his wife and one little boy. He had so many questions about God. Everytime I asked him for a committment he started to laugh... and then he would realize I was serious and saying , "Damn," in English lol. He said, okay, here's the deal- I will go to this mormon.org website tonight. And then I will starting reading that Book of Mormon. . . and you can try to come back and answer my questions about life before and after death.... if you have those answers. 

If I have those answers. Please. We live for these answers. 

On Talks. This week I was reading a talk. My companion looked over and was like, oh you have a lot of notes! It was Beware of Pride and I had marked all the places I need to improve. Truth hurts. 

I was also listening to something by Elder Bednar this week- and he was talking about how every dispensation of the world has looked forward to this era of the church. It wasnt better when Jospen Smith was a prophet. It wasnt better when Christ walked. This is the best time to be a member in the history of this church. How cool is that???? 

Lastly, I found Batman on a teaching record this week. Not sure what that was all about. 

Anyways, time is short today, got to go! Love you all! 

I Do Not Eat Spleen, Thank You

Matthew got married. Congratulations. Moving on. 

(hehe). 

So today is a big day! Beeeeeecause Jasmine is getting married! So Sister Xie and I are going all the way to GangShan to see her baptisms! WHHOOOOO They told us last night that we would performing at the baptistism (Sister Xie and I) so we have to whip something up this afternoon. No problem. But yayyy president gave me permission to go! I am so stocked. 

Someone tried to feed me a heart in a soup this week.. Ya no, there was no way. The second she turned around I plopped that heart and that spleen back in the pot. Who eats boiling soup when its 100 degrees outside anyways?

IM A FACEBOOK MISSIONARY! Okay so I thought I would hate it. Seriously, I mean so distracting right？ Like some kind of missionary torture. But! Turns out I actually love it. President is inspired. It is so so so useful for following up with people and teaching them lessons while they are abroad! And I can chat with family and my baptized investigators!? President sure trusts his missionaries. :)All of my PR knowledge is starting to slowly come back to me... lets go social media! 

This morning I made my companion sing all the American songs in the English hymnbook and explained to her why the American Revolution was divinely inspired and why it was the greatest nation on the earth. She agreed with me :)　And then was rather upset that Taiwan was not the promised land... But God's always had a covennant people, what can I say ;)。

 Three things about PingDong:

1. Its so so hott. Omgsh its hard to breathe it is so hot. And its barely May.
2. Apparently this town in known for fireworks- there is a Disney quality show about every other night.. for no reason really. 
3. We finally have a toilet handle and running water!!! Yay now at least one of two toilets work. 

Funny Note* This week I could not figure out how to explain Olmpics to my companion. No explanation of sports of competition were working. So, I starting drawing five big circles in the air with my finger. That didnt work. So, I started belting, "BUMMMＢＵＭＭBUMBUMBUMBUMBUM!"The Olympic song! In which case my companion burst out laughting, along with all the little bystanders... what can I say, I get the laughs in Chinese. 

Thats about all except, oh wait. JASMINE GETTING BAPTIZED　TODAY!　Dont worry, pictures are coming to facebook tomorrow. 

Love you all! 

Sister Wawro

hey give you rolls and tea at the hosptials here.. dont know why. But Sister Geddes was loving it.

Also, the view from my apartment. There are mountians you can that day!Ｍｏｓｔ　ｄａｙｓ　ｙｏｕ　ｃａｎｔ。　Ｓｍｏｇ。