Mid-autumn Festival, smells like meat, 40 days, if, Taipei temple

Road trip to Taipei

September 28, 2015
Dakeng, Taiwan

Hello!

Mid-Autumn Festival

Zhongqiujie kuaile! (literally middle fall happy) Happy Mid-Autumn festival! 

Everyone has been celebrating this weekend. Their celebrations have to do with the lunar calendar and that there are a bunch of myths about it and to celebrate, everybody BBQs. Why they BBQ nobody was able to give me a straight answer, but I guess that's their way of celebrating! 

Smells like meat

But the grills are very different from American grills. They're small boxes basically that they put coals in and then a rack on top, so it's done sitting down, and the stuff cooks very slowly, so everyone sits around and talks while waiting for the food. It's really fun to see, because here a lot of peoples' stores also serve as their house. So biking down the street, you can see every single family BBQing outside their house or shop.  All of Taiwan smells like meat! Mmm... 

Last night our Relief Society President invited us over to BBQ with them and it was really fun! Poor Sister Howard is still pretty new, so the Chinese is still a work in progress. Wu JieMei said in Chinese what all the food was, but obviously Sister Howard didn't know what she was saying. So after grabbing a skewer on the table and sticking it into her mouth, one of the elders translated for her: "that's chicken butt." But she's a champ so she just smiled and kept chewing! I even tried some chicken stomach and it was pretty good! 

We have interviews on Wednesday and exchanges again on Friday so I have that to look forward to this week! 

40 days

This week during personal study, I read about the time after Jesus was baptized, which He spent in the wilderness fasting for 40 days. Though this is a short section in the New Testament and one that is well known, I think there's a lot we can learn when analyzing these verses. 

Right before, after Jesus was baptized, He hears Heavenly Father's voice declaring that He is "His Begotten Son." Growing up, hearing that Jesus was perfect, I interpreted this to mean that He always knew who He was and that He fully understood His role as our Savior, but this actually isn't true. He grew up as any of us do, gaining knowledge gradually. James E. Talmage says, "Christ's realization that He was the chosen and foreordained Messiah came to Him gradually." 

So after fasting for 40 days, Satan tempts Jesus saying "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." Satan is very tricky! Just in this one-sentence temptation are lots of mini sub-temptations. It would obviously be tempting to eat and assuage physical hunger. It was also a temptation to be selfish and think of Himself for once; it would also be tempting to test His own power. 

If

But the biggest temptation in Satan's statement lies in the word "IF". Satan was forcing Jesus to doubt His divinity and to try and prove Himself. "To have yielded would have been to manifest positive doubt of the Father's acknowledgement" because Heavenly Father had just declared Christ as His Beloved Son. 

This is only temptation #1 and I will continue next week with the next temptation! But just hoped I would be able to help us all think a little more deeply about Christ's nature and how truly perfect He was.

Have a wonderful week! 

Love, Sister Hancock

At the temple in Taipei together

new missionaries, second time, sacrifice, broken heart, offer ourselves, stinky tofu

Monday, September 21, 2015
Dakeng, Taiwan

Hi!

It was a quick week! 

New missionaries

We had exchanges on Monday and it was fun serving with Sister Oakeson. She is still in training so I got to go through "12 weeks" in the morning for study time and train her which was really fun because I hadn't looked at "12 weeks" for a long time. I'm always so impressed by new missionaries. They have so much faith and don't get discouraged by anything. They don't really understand a ton of Chinese still and especially not the subtleties. So a lot of times they don't realize that someone is rejecting us and they're really happy. So I just go with it and don't really tell them. But her Chinese was really good so I didn't feel like she was still in training at all.

Exchanges with Sister Oakeson!

Second time

On Wednesday, we went to the temple! It was my second time going to the Taipei temple and it was a great experience :) It's a relief to see how everything is the same as it was when I went to the temple in Oakland, California. It's a relief because we can let our guards down for a bit and don't have to worry about what to do or the Chinese, and because we can see the Church truly is the same no matter where you are in the world! 

Taipei Temple:  House of the Lord

Sacrifice

In preparation for the temple, I loved studying about sacrifice. The temple is full of altars to represent our sacrifice and willingness to follow and serve God to the best of our abilities. So I wanted to focus on understanding this part better. We read about animal sacrifice in the scriptures, an ancient symbol of God sacrificing His Son, a sign of the Atonement which Jesus Christ would come to Earth to perform. After Christ performs the Atonement, we learn in the Book of Mormon that we no longer need to perform animal sacrifices, that we instead can offer up a "broken heart and a contrite spirit." This symbolizes the Savior's sacrifice of Himself. 

Made brownies to celebrate our Emily's baptism!
She's officially not a recent convert anymore, she turned 1!

Broken Heart

I've enjoyed studying Jesus the Christ on my mission because it's the most "gaoji" book we're allowed to read as missionaries. There are 4 books that we're allowed to study along with the scriptures and church magazines and most are pretty simple because what we teach everyday as missionaries is simple doctrine, so we focus on the basics. 

But I love reading Jesus the Christ because it forces you to read closely, analyze, think deeply and it keeps my English skills sharp. In Jesus the Christ, the author argues that Jesus literally died of a broken heart. Growing up, I had learned in Sunday School or somewhere about how cruel the crucifixion process was and that it was designed to keep you alive for a few days, as a form of torture so that you wouldn't die from mortal wounds, but from internal causes as a result of you trying to keep your body hanging up by exerting pressure on your feet, etc. Basically I had never looked into it that deeply but only understood that when people were crucified, they died because of internal causes. 

James E. Talmage goes into depth and provides evidence that Jesus Christ literally died of a broken heart for us: 

"The strong, loud utterance, immediately following which He bowed His head and 'gave up the ghost,' when considered in connection with other recorded details, points to a physical rupture of the heart as the direct cause of death."

Psalm 69:20-21 reads

Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.  They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.

Offer ourselves

I love studying Christ's Atonement because the more and more I learn, the more I realize how completely perfect His sacrifice was for us. Our job, then, is to offer ourselves, our own broken hearts as a personal sacrifice. Elder Maxwell suggests 

"Real, personal sacrifice never was placing an animal on the altar. Instead, it is a willingness to put the animal in us upon the altar and letting it be consumed!" 

I'm grateful for the experience of a serving a mission to learn about Heavenly Father and Christ's sacrifice for me and what more I can do to honor those sacrifices. 

Have a wonderful week!

Sister Hancock

So proud of my companion for trying....

stinky tofu :)

The cooking lessons continue:  for Sunday lunch
Sister Howard learned how to make pasta with avocado sauce

Banana bread we made for Family Home Evening

Facebook missionaries, Chinese flashcards, fun with Sister Howard, not rich toward God

14 September 2015

Dakeng, Taiwan

Hi! 

Facebook missionaries

It was a good week. We found out we're Facebook missionaries for this transfer which we're really excited about. 

Chinese flashcards

Trying to type in Chinese is a bit rough because I haven't studied characters yet, but we're figuring it out alright and it's really fun. Our mission has helped provide us with some materials to learn Chinese, mostly flashcards, and they're organized into 3 phases. 

Phase 1 I finished while I was in training and it's strictly church words so that you know how to teach people basic lessons. Right now I'm working on finishing up Phase 2 which is broken into a green, red, and blue box, so I'm about to start the last box and then I can move onto Phase 3! 

In phase 3, you learn how to read and write characters, still mostly words that you will find in scriptures so you can read with investigators at church and in lessons, but it also includes some other useful words too. I was a little worried when I arrived in Taiwan and heard about this system for learning Chinese because I lost about 3 months while serving in the states and waiting for my visa, so I wasn't sure how much I'd be able to get through. But it's turning out just fine and I'm excited I'll still be able to learn some characters before going home!

Sister Howard and me in Taichung

Fun with Sister Howard

Sister Howard and I are having a lot of fun together. Turns out we're actually pretty similar! At least the most similar so far out of all my companions. 

Companion study is really fun because we always talk a ton about gospel principles and we could go for hours discussing what we learned during personal study! 

Lately I've been giving her cooking lessons because she's never really cooked at all her entire life, so we made banana pancakes together for Sunday breakfast yesterday :) 

She went to BYU Hawaii before her mission so we can bond over the beach. Her mom is from New Zealand, and my 2nd trainer in America (Sister Worthen) was from New Zealand, so it reminds me of fond memories from the Moscow days. 

Sister Worthen and me in Moscow, Idaho

It's fun being companions with Sister Howard because she's super open to trying new things. Her trainer had tons of allergies, so she couldn't really eat any Taiwanese food. So I get to introduce her to crazy stuff everyday and she's always up for it. I love it! 

We also have some fun companion traditions, like every week during weekly planning, we write down each others strengths on post its and give it to each other so it's fun to see them accumulate over the weeks. 

And for every 10 people who reject us (including us testifying and asking for their number or to set up with us and them saying no) we get to buy a yummy waffle treat. For every 5 people who say yes and are willing to meet with us again, we get to buy bing.

Not rich toward God
Continuing from last week's talk, I enjoyed learning about another part of the Savior's journey to Jerusalem. It is when He gives the parable of the rich fool:

“Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.”

"Ultimately the man was condemned not for the wise practice of storing temporal provisions but for failing to prepare spiritually for the future. Being “not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21), the man was eventually deprived not only of the treasure he had temporarily accumulated on earth but also of “a treasure in the heavens that faileth not” (Luke 12:33). His choices in life left him impoverished in eternity."

In direct contrast to this man, Jesus was on His way to His death, yet He was doing so willingfully because He was willing to give everything that He had, including His own life and will to Heavenly Father. He declared, “I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!” (Luke 12:50). He had already been baptized by water. Here, He was referring to the Atonement He was about to perform, in which His entire body would be covered in sweat and blood, descending below all things, suffering for us out of love. 

I'm grateful for the Savior's Atonement. Through His life, we have a perfect example to learn from and we can know what sort of lives we should aim to live. 

So happy
I'm grateful for all of your support and I'm so happy to be a missionary in Taiwan! 

Love you!

Sister Hancock

Sister Howard, BBQ family, baby tradition, the point of missionaries, losing myself in this work more and more

With our recent convert, Wang Jiemei

September 7, 2015
Dakeng, Taiwan

Sister Howard
It was a good first week with my new companion! It's going to be a fun transfer. After I was companions with LiuJM [JieMei - "Sister"], I was convinced I never wanted another American companion again.  But obviously I knew I would have many more because the majority of our mission is American. But I must admit, after having a Taiwan companion and a Korean companion back-to-back, being able to speak in English is a relief. Luckily my Chinese was sufficient for basic conversation with them, but it's been amazing how fast Sister Howard and I have been able to get to know each other even in a short week, because conversation comes so effortlessly and we can truly say the things we're trying to express to each other. 

Me and my companion, Sister Howard

BBQ family

The highlight of our week was we found another family! We had been tracting and had finished tracting around a few streets so we were walking to our bikes to move to go somewhere else. But then we saw a bunch of people outside BBQing in their garage (it was raining) so we started talking to them. Turns out they were all co-workers. They invited us to sit down with them and immediately started feeding us tons of meat and seafood. They were all really welcoming and said we could come back another night, so we did. 

They invited us in and this time it was just the family and they have 3 super cute daughters. We taught them how to pray and they were really open to everything we taught them. They invited us to another BBQ and said we could come over whenever we wanted, so I'm excited to keep working with them! 

Taiwan baby tradition

Another funny moment was on Saturday. Our RC [recent convert], WangJM invited us to some activity with her, but it was something I had never heard of before. So I asked her what it was and she basically just told me it was a kid thing and to meet her at a bus stop and we'd go together. While we were waiting for the bus she explained to us that it was a Taiwan tradition that when the baby turns 1, they are given baskets with tons of different items inside and they are to choose 3 items, which then represent what will happen in their life, what their strengths might be or what sort of career they might have. Super Taiwanese.

I thought we might be going to someone's house, maybe one of her friends who might have also had a 1 year old daughter. But when we showed up to the building, it was a legit organization, and there were tons of parents who had all signed up and registered and paid in advance. There is a program prepared with singing and dancing all aimed towards the babies to get them prepared to pick their items. Then they dress all the babies in these tiger outfits complete with hats, bibs, and slippers. It was hilarious! We even got a special shout out over the microphone as they welcomed the "American friends." It was probably the first time I had felt so far away from America. #onlyintaiwan

Discipleship

I loved studying a talk this week from the June 2015 Liahona [church magazine]: "The Savior's Teachings on Discipleship". This talk discusses the Savior's last 4 months before His death, and his journey back to Jerusalem--the entire time of which He knew He was marching towards His death. 

While on the way to Jerusalem, He stopped at the home of Mary & Martha. Oftentimes we are critical of Martha because instead of spending time listening to the Savior, she was fussing over the house and what food to feed him. I love this quote that describes what we are really meant to learn from their story: "The Lord did not go into the kitchen and tell Martha to stop cooking and come listen. Apparently he was content to let her serve him however she cared to, until she judged another person's service... Martha' self-importance occasioned the Lord's rebuke, not her busyness with the meal". 

So many ways

As a missionary, there are so many ways to go about doing this work. There are 5 lessons that are set in place. But besides that, we are completely free to choose how to teach those 5 lessons, how fast we want to teach them, how in depth we want to be, how bold, etc. 

The point of missionaries

The point of missionaries is not simply to teach non-members our doctrine. If that was our purpose, we could give them a copy of Preach My Gospel, or have them read the 5 lessons online. We have missionaries so that we can develop a relationship with our investigators and get to know them so we can teach them according to their needs and them support them as they make changes in their lives. 

Heavenly Father needs every type of missionary

Heavenly Father needs every type of missionary: the more shy ones, the energetic ones, the funny ones, etc. because each one of our investigators is different and certain types of missionaries will be effective for them. 

I like this quote because it's a good reminder to us that we must never judge someone else's service. We are to do our best and trust that everyone else is trying their best too, and that's enough. Though our service might look different than someone else's, the Lord is proud of us and appreciates our efforts, no matter what they might look like. 

It's also so important that our service is genuine, that our intentions for serving are truly because we want to help those around us and not to make ourselves look good. 

Losing myself in this work more and more

I'm constantly working at these things and losing myself in this work more and more every day. I love the people of Taiwan and it is such a privilege to serve with them! 

Love,

Sister Sinclaire Hancock

P.S. We found the forbidden fruit! 

the forbidden fruit

the rain continues

funny translations

32, new companion, luau, 6 months ago, the Chinese comes, I love, line upon line

Saying goodbye today to Sister Eo at the train station--she's on her way to the south

Saturday
August 29, 2015
Dakeng, Taiwan

32
Move call!  Our mission got 32 new missionaries this week! 

That's the biggest group they've ever had, and it means it's also the youngest our mission has ever been. 

Me and Sister Eo's last night together

New companion

So our move call got moved to today, and I have a new companion! I'm still in DaKeng, my second area, starting my 3rd move call here. 

Playing chubby bunny our last night together

Our cute 9-year old investigator

My new companion's name is Sister Howard, and she's from Virginia. It's fun having a companion from America again because it's so fun using English to speak to each other and it's easy to get to know each other really fast. 

I'm excited for companion #8. Also I haven't had a companion from Utah yet, which is pretty rare, so my streak is still going! 

She just finished training, so she's only been on island for 12 weeks which means I'll be breaking again. It's going to be a fun transfer. 

I can feel the miracles coming!

Luau

It was a really fun week! 

On Wednesday, we had our English party. We had a luau theme, so we played limbo, taught them the haka [dance], and made a huge conga line. We ran all around the church and it was hilarious to see their reaction to all the dancing. 

We made dessert nachos which were delicious! 

We sliced up tons of apples, then drizzled chocolate sauce and sweetened condensed milk on top, then crushed oreos and candy bars over them. The students loved them! 

Dan Jones activity

Last night, we were invited to help out with the Dan Jones activity which I was so excited about! 

Dan Jones was one of the earliest and most famous missionaries for our church, known for how bold he was and preaching in front of huge groups of people. 

So to get the new missionaries excited, and to throw them right into the work, we take them to the busiest spot in Taizhong and have them stand on a stool holding a Book of Mormon, and yell out their testimonies, in Chinese of course, to all of Taiwan. 

It's super fun because all of the older missionaries cheer and clap for them and everyone passing by is really curious and stops to listen. 

It's hilarious to see how nervous some of them are too. It was especially poignant for me last night, because I was able to see 2 elders who were in my district in the MTC, which is what I consider the family of my mission.

RC [recent convert] Vickie

6 months ago to the day 

And while talking to them, I discovered that exactly 6 months ago to the day, it was us who was on the stools yelling our testimonies. 

But there we were, as the "old" and "experienced" missionaries, guiding the new missionaries around and helping them hand out Book of Mormons. 


It was a humbling moment to me to be on the other side of things, to be cheering on the new babies and helping welcome them to Taiwan. I didn't feel like I belonged, because I still feel like I'm a young missionary! 

But it was awesome to see how far we've all come. It's hard to notice how much we've progressed because it's gradual, and it comes slowly day by day.

But it hit me when I saw that the new missionary I was leading around couldn't understand anything they were saying, and every time a Taiwanese person asked her a question, she had to look at me to translate for her. 

Reunited at Dan Jones experience!

The Chinese comes

It hit me even harder when I realized I could carry a comfortable conversation with them, while they were trying hard not to laugh at her bearing her testimony because they could only make out 2 or 3 words of it. 

It's true like everyone says, the Chinese comes. 

It's awesome seeing how fast everyone grows and I'm so excited our mission has so many new missionaries! They have so much fire and even though the Taiwanese all laughed at them, I was very impressed at how good their Chinese was!

Line upon line
It reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures:

"For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have." -2 Nephi 28:30

I miss Vickie! :( She's gone again
 this week on family vacation to Malaysia

I love...

I love being a missionary and I'm so grateful I'm able to serve in Taiwan. I love being challenged everyday by Chinese and feel that it's such a miracle I'm able to communicate with God's children in this part of the world at all. 

Like all things in life, I've found that we do develop our Chinese "line upon line", and if we're willing to be humble and keep working hard every day of our missions, even when the language becomes easier, that we'll be blessed to keep improving our skills. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! 

Sister Hancock

Miracle week, Huang jiating, Huang sisters, Family Mart family from China, Project Purification

Miracle tracting road

24 August 2015

Hello! It's hard to believe that August is practically over. 

Miracle week

The highlight of this week was meeting families. My and Sister Eo's goal for this transfer was to find a family who was prepared and willing to receive the Gospel. Families are really hard to find though! But we had a miracle week this week :)

Our recent converts, David and Vickie

Huang Jiating 

Normally on Tuesday, we have an exercise activity at the church and it's super fun. But the person who was going to attend with us cancelled at the last minute, so it turned out we had an entire night to tract. We had basically tracted the entire area and were about to bike to a new spot when we decided to try one last apartment complex. 

Usually apartments are trickier because you can't actually knock on doors.  Instead you have to just talk into a speaker so usually people hang up really quickly. We were going down the list and I pressed on #14.  I remember saying that we were the missionaries in the neighborhood and wanted to share a happy message with them and that it would only take 5 minutes.

I was really surprised when the lady on the other end said okay and buzzed us in. It's actually the first time this has happened to me since serving in Taiwan.  Usually if they hear your voice on the other end, they say they're busy or not interested--especially because they can't see us, so it's easy to say no. 

Beitun sisters we live with

We walked in and it turns out it was a Grandma with her 2 grandsons. Right after going in, the phone rang, so the Grandma was on the phone practically the entire time.

But it turned out that the grandsons were really interested! It was really fun teaching them because they are 2 brothers, and they're only 14 and 11. They're really smart and super curious.

And the next time we went back, their parents were home and so we could meet the entire family. 

The Dad especially is super open to us and invited us to keep coming back and sharing Book of Mormon stories with his kids.

Huang sisters

Last week's duanchuan (short-term missionary)

On Saturday night, we originally wanted to visit a member who hasn't come to church in years, but she wasn't home. 

So we looked next door and saw 2 sisters watching TV. We asked if we could come inside and share with them and they said yes. Turns out they're really sweet! 

The little sister is 9 years old and absolutely loved playing with us. We drew together and made animals out of her playdoh and shared a prayer with them. 

It was really awesome getting to know them and they said we could come back so we're going back tonight! They were really open to the things we taught them and when it came time for us to bike home, the little sister was clinging onto our legs and wouldn't let us leave!

Family Mart family from China

The last family we met was one that we met in a Family Mart (a convenience store similar to 7/11). We were actually walking out the door because we had contacted everyone else and none of them were interested, when Sister Eo turned around and pointed them out to me. We walked over and gave a sticker to the little girl and asked if we could sit down with them. 

Turns out they had just arrived from the airport from China, but they were the most golden family I've ever met! 

Without us even saying anything yet, the Dad told us that he prays every night with his kids and that no one taught it to him. Because there aren't churches for him to go to in China, he learned to pray by himself. 

He asked us to teach them how to pray and said he really wants to go to church now that they're in Taiwan. It will be a little tricky because they might be moving to America soon, but hopefully we can teach them before they leave!

I'm really excited to keep working with these families and see where it goes! I believe that God helped us find these families and that we are blessed for our obedience and faith in trying our best to follow His will. At the beginning of the month, we fasted about our goal to be able to find a family and it's awesome seeing Heavenly Father help us! 

Project Purification

In order to become more consecrated, I've started trying "Project Purification" which is where you write down little tiny things that you will or will not do and pray about them each morning and night so that Heavenly Father can help you reach your goals. 

I've felt that through these little changes I'm able to become more focused on my purpose as a missionary and become more consecrated and think about others instead of myself and I believe that when we try our best to be successful at this work that Heavenly Father will help us.

So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.  Luke 14:33

All my love!

Sister Hancock

P.S. This week P-day will be Friday instead of Monday!

Progress, bike referral, good feeling about Tina, RCs, feasting

Feast on the word of God

Monday
17 August 2015
DaKeng, Taiwan

It was an interesting week! 

Proud of the progress
We had a duan chuan [short-term missionary] with us which always makes things fun. I really love being in a trio and it was awesome being able to have a native Chinese speaker with us 24/7. I took full advantage of the opportunity and made her correct every little thing about my Chinese! And man are the Taiwanese blunt.  She told me I sound weird and that my grammar is bad but she can understand what I'm saying. 

I still have a long ways to go but I'm proud of the progress I've made. As long as they can understand what I'm saying for now, I'll count that as a success! But I do hope that by the end of my mission I'll sound more authentic. 

Duan chuan
It's fun being with a duan chuan (short-term missionary) because it helps me think about missionary work, since it's all new to them and everything that we do surprises them. It's always amusing to see how dead-tired they are. I forget that the things we do as routine are actually pretty tiring! Biking long distances in the sun, our morning work outs, studying for hours in a row, etc. We're so used to it that we don't even think twice about it, but it's hilarious seeing them fall asleep throughout the day and crash every night when we get home. 

But she's a trooper! I was impressed with how confident she was and with her desire to serve. She'll be submitting her mission papers about a year from now when she's old enough. She's going to be an awesome missionary! 

Bike crash referral

My companion, Sister Eo, is also super awesome! As we were biking out of the church Thursday, there's this really weird 5-way intersection where 3 different lanes have a green light at the same time, so it's pretty dangerous. 

I'm actually surprised nothing has happened earlier, but she got hit by a car.  Of course there she is in the middle of the street, our flyers flying everywhere, and traffic is stopped now. She was totally fine--just a few bruises.

Salads with Tina!

I was impressed with how well she handled it. She asked for the driver's number. (I thought so in case there was damage done to her bicycle she could call him to have him pay for it).

But she gave it to the elders as a referral! Even after getting hit by a car, the first thing she's thinking about is missionary work and that the elders can give this guy a call later to talk him into coming to church :p

Good feeling about Tina

It was a great week food-wise. On Tuesday we met with Tina, someone I met when I first got to this area. At that time there was literally nothing going on--not a single person to meet with.  So I desperately called tons of people from our Area Book, anyone whose number I could find. 

Salad!

I still distinctly remember this moment: I was sitting in a 7/11 and called someone named Tina and asked if we could meet her. She said clearly to me that we could be friends but that she had no interest and that if we wanted to meet, it couldn't be at the church.

Most missionaries would probably at that point say no thanks and keep calling other people but for some reason I felt to go with it.

"Mexican"

We've met a couple times since then and have gradually been working with her and things have improved a lot!

She's a total foodie so we get along great. She took us to a super cute cafe and we got salads which is one of the things I miss most about America because they don't really eat raw vegetables here. 

We mentioned that we had an activity Friday and invited her. She texted us the next day asking for all the details and voluntarily came herself to the church. She's really sweet and enjoyed it! We're going to keep working with her and I have a good feeling about her! 

RCs

On Thursday, a big group of us went to Mexican food together! It was our RC (recent convert) Vickie's idea and we had a great time!

The Mexican food was nothing like what I was used to, but it was still a treat to be able to have some international cuisine for a change! 

On Friday, we had an activity where we taught people to make oreo balls with cream cheese inside and chocolate chip cookies. 

Chocolatey hands and face

Chocolate chip cookie activity

Hot pot!

On Saturday, a member took us to eat hot pot at our RC (recent convert), Wang Jiating's restaurant. We visit them at their restaurant every week.  The food looks really good but I've never been able to eat there before. But we tried it for the first time this week and it was delicious! 

Then for FHE on Sunday, we taught everyone how to make American brownies from scratch with Andes mint frosting. They loved it! 

Feasting

So tons of delicious food! It was a week of feasting :) Which got me thinking about these 3 scriptures:

2 Nephi 9:51 "Feast upon that which perisheth not, neither can be corrupted, and let your soul delight in fatness"

2 Nephi 32:3 "Feast upon the words of Christ; for behold the words of Christ will tell you all things what ye should do"

Jacob 3:2 "Feast upon [God's] love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever" 

Food has always been a hobby of mine and my family. We love cooking together, trying new recipes, making up our own, eating at restaurants, traveling and trying authentic food in foreign countries, and mostly just eating together. 

In one way, food has been something I've sacrificed by being on my mission. Before, I loved making tons of healthy vegetarian recipes. But now being in Taiwan, I'm not vegetarian anymore, and the food is... different. I'm not able to cook as much anymore and I don't have access to the same ingredients, so in one way it could be viewed as a sacrifice. 

Feasting at the restaurant of newly baptized Brother Wang

People often ask us if we miss American food and if their food makes us feel sick, etc.  But I think it's actually the opposite!

As much as I miss international food, I've loved FEASTING on the Taiwanese food and learning to love their food.

But most importantly, I've loved feasting on the things that matter most--

things that last and bring true happiness, like God's love and the scriptures, and this wonderful Gospel. 

All my love!

Sister Hancock