Sister Sinclaire Hancock: Exhausted but love what we do, Vietnamese feast and cookies, didn't know I had it in me, consecrated, ridiculously hot

Sister Wawro and me with Elder and Sister Wong (member of the First Quorum of the Seventy)

9 November 2015
Tainan

Hello!

Exhausted but love what we do

Great week. Had a fun p-day on Monday and went sightseeing a bit with another companionship and had a great day. Really, p-days aren't restful at all. They're usually just as busy as regular days. We look forward to them thinking they'll help us recover from the week, but then realize you start the next week just as tired, if not more tired. We're all exhausted, but we love what we do!

Vietnamese feast and cookies

Tuesday was my companion's birthday so we booked up lots of eating appointments! We made banana pancakes for breakfast, then went over to Kathy's house for lunch. She's our investigator from Vietnam so she made us Vietnamese food.

Delicious Vietnamese food cooked by Kathy

Food coma

Then we went to our RC's [recent convert's] house for a "snack" which turned out to be really filling too and she tried a chocolate chip oatmeal cookie recipe that she found online for the first time. She lived in Canada for a couple of years so her cooking is the closest thing we have to American food (she's the one who makes us guacamole).

Yummiest chocolate chip oatmeal cookies I've ever had

Turns out her cookies were probably the yummiest chocolate chip oatmeal cookies I've ever had! Way better than any I could make. So naturally we ate the entire batch and when she found out we loved them so much, she made them for us 3 more times this week.

Zao gao!

Didn't know I had it in me

We started biking from her house to the chapel for our next lesson, when my skirt got stuck in my chain. This happens a lot so I just kept biking because it usually will come out eventually. But this time it didn't. More and more kept getting stuck and deeper and deeper in my chain, until my companion was cracking up at me from behind.

Getting my skirt out of the bike chain

So finally we pull over and I start tugging on it as hard as I can, but it won't come out. This Grandpa looks at me and starts laughing and telling me not to bike, but of course I just brush him off and start biking again. But this time it pulled practically my whole skirt off, so he just walked by laughing at me.

Luckily Sister Wawro had a pocket knife in her bike box, so she literally cut my skirt off and then we biked home really fast and the elders helped get it out of my chain.

I just think it's a miracle that I've worn a skirt every day for the past year and to add to that, that I've biked every day in a skirt for such a long period of time.

I didn't know I had it in me!

Then to top it off, we went to Korean BBQ for dinner and basically rolled into our apartment that night we were so full. It was an eventful birthday!

Happy birthday Sister Wawro

Consecrated

The spiritual highlight was mission tour! Elder and Sister Wong from the [First Quorum of the] 70 came and visited our mission and we received a few trainings from them and President & Sister Blickenstaff.

What stuck out to me was repentance, faith, and the Atonement. Those were talked about a lot and are areas we can all improve on.

Sacrifice was something that touched me too.... I also know how much President loves the Lord and how willing he is to be consecrated. I felt the same thing when talking to the Wongs. They give up so much to serve for the church and it is not easy for them, but they do so anyway.

Lots more happened this week, but I'll write some more about it next week :)

Much love,

Sister Hancock

P.S. Ridiculously hot

Also still ridiculously hot for November.....

Current Temp: 88°F 31°C