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