Chapter 36: The Rain Continues
嘿朋友s (hey friends)
This week was so. good. Well, being a missionary, every week is so good haha. We were pretty busy running around to appointments, attempting to stay dry in the rain (and not succeeding), and trying to talk to everyone! It's hard to believe I've been in Yilan for 3 weeks already, time flies in the mission field. I hit my 6 month mark on island last week. What. Next month I will halfway done with my mission. I feel like I just started!!
Here are some super cool things that happened this week:
Our good friend Zhuang JieMei wanted to move her baptism date up, so she is getting baptized next Saturday! It's been so awesome for me to be able to see her progress in the gospel. She is one of the more prepared people I've ever taught. Her son Dan Dan (蛋蛋) also loves learning about Jesus too. He's only 6, but he LOVES telling everybody about his Heavenly Father who loves him and who he can call anytime he wants to through prayer. He's even being a little missionary! Dan Dan was talking to one of his friends about his Heavenly Father, who then told his mom, who then called Zhuang JieMei to ask her where the nearest of our churches was to her home in Taoyuan. Like what? I also love getting to talk with Zhuang JieMei about her baptism and how this gospel has changed her life. She just lights up and gets so excited every time. It's people like this that makes missionary work worth it.
Another super cool thing that happened this week! We just got teaching done one of our investigators, Lin JieMei (not the one who put oil in our hair 2 weeks ago. We have like 5 investigators who's name is Lin. And also me too #林forlife). As we were walking out of the 7-11 we were in, I just had this huge prompting to give a mom and her 2 sons an English tract (a handout that has information about our free English class we teach every Wednesday). Then I had this internal battle for like 2 seconds that went something like this:
"Sister Larson, go give that family an English tract. They might be interested."
"No, it would be weird and awkward to just approach their table."
"Sister Larson, you are a missionary. This is literally your purpose. What's the worst that could happen? They could smile awkwardly and say 'thanks'?"
(Note that I cannot refer to myself with my first name anymore. Even thinking it just feels weird haha)
Anyways so after that small internal battle, I walked over and gave them an English tract. The mom was super nice, and we got talking to her and she was actually more interested in church than about English class! We ended up sharing a few things with her, got her contact information, and set up a time with her to video call this next week! It was a super cool experience.
The point of that story is that inviting people to do things is so easy, even though sometimes we think it's hard. Honestly, say if you invite your friend to go to a church activity with you, or give them a tour of our chapel, or even a Book of Mormon, what's the worst that could happen, they say no thank you? There are so many easy ways to share the gospel with everyone, and I think our biggest problem is that we are just too scared. I know this experience helped me overcome my fear of speaking with people, because you never know what is going to happen when you open your mouth. But if you don't, there will always be that "what if?" in the back of your mind. Just my little two cents on missionary work
Quick update on the rain: it still hasn't stopped. Of the 20 days I've been in Yilan, it has rained for all 20 of them #blessed. I literally have no idea how it hasn't flooded yet, like the rain never stops. Maybe it's because there's a billion rice fields that hold all the water haha. Sometimes I attempt to keep myself dry by wearing a floor-length raincoat, waterproof shoe covers (literally the most ugly thing I have worn in my life), and biking with an umbrella in one hand and steering with the other (something I used to make fun of people for doing because I thought it was ridiculous. But when you have a Taiwanese companion, you just do as the Taiwanese do haha). But all my waterproofing is to no avail. I still come home soaking wet every night. BUT Yilan is like literally the best place in the whole world. Even though it rains, it is not that cold, it is beautiful, and the people here are so good. I love it so so much.
This week was so. good. Well, being a missionary, every week is so good haha. We were pretty busy running around to appointments, attempting to stay dry in the rain (and not succeeding), and trying to talk to everyone! It's hard to believe I've been in Yilan for 3 weeks already, time flies in the mission field. I hit my 6 month mark on island last week. What. Next month I will halfway done with my mission. I feel like I just started!!
Here are some super cool things that happened this week:
Our good friend Zhuang JieMei wanted to move her baptism date up, so she is getting baptized next Saturday! It's been so awesome for me to be able to see her progress in the gospel. She is one of the more prepared people I've ever taught. Her son Dan Dan (蛋蛋) also loves learning about Jesus too. He's only 6, but he LOVES telling everybody about his Heavenly Father who loves him and who he can call anytime he wants to through prayer. He's even being a little missionary! Dan Dan was talking to one of his friends about his Heavenly Father, who then told his mom, who then called Zhuang JieMei to ask her where the nearest of our churches was to her home in Taoyuan. Like what? I also love getting to talk with Zhuang JieMei about her baptism and how this gospel has changed her life. She just lights up and gets so excited every time. It's people like this that makes missionary work worth it.
Another super cool thing that happened this week! We just got teaching done one of our investigators, Lin JieMei (not the one who put oil in our hair 2 weeks ago. We have like 5 investigators who's name is Lin. And also me too #林forlife). As we were walking out of the 7-11 we were in, I just had this huge prompting to give a mom and her 2 sons an English tract (a handout that has information about our free English class we teach every Wednesday). Then I had this internal battle for like 2 seconds that went something like this:
"Sister Larson, go give that family an English tract. They might be interested."
"No, it would be weird and awkward to just approach their table."
"Sister Larson, you are a missionary. This is literally your purpose. What's the worst that could happen? They could smile awkwardly and say 'thanks'?"
(Note that I cannot refer to myself with my first name anymore. Even thinking it just feels weird haha)
Anyways so after that small internal battle, I walked over and gave them an English tract. The mom was super nice, and we got talking to her and she was actually more interested in church than about English class! We ended up sharing a few things with her, got her contact information, and set up a time with her to video call this next week! It was a super cool experience.
The point of that story is that inviting people to do things is so easy, even though sometimes we think it's hard. Honestly, say if you invite your friend to go to a church activity with you, or give them a tour of our chapel, or even a Book of Mormon, what's the worst that could happen, they say no thank you? There are so many easy ways to share the gospel with everyone, and I think our biggest problem is that we are just too scared. I know this experience helped me overcome my fear of speaking with people, because you never know what is going to happen when you open your mouth. But if you don't, there will always be that "what if?" in the back of your mind. Just my little two cents on missionary work
Quick update on the rain: it still hasn't stopped. Of the 20 days I've been in Yilan, it has rained for all 20 of them #blessed. I literally have no idea how it hasn't flooded yet, like the rain never stops. Maybe it's because there's a billion rice fields that hold all the water haha. Sometimes I attempt to keep myself dry by wearing a floor-length raincoat, waterproof shoe covers (literally the most ugly thing I have worn in my life), and biking with an umbrella in one hand and steering with the other (something I used to make fun of people for doing because I thought it was ridiculous. But when you have a Taiwanese companion, you just do as the Taiwanese do haha). But all my waterproofing is to no avail. I still come home soaking wet every night. BUT Yilan is like literally the best place in the whole world. Even though it rains, it is not that cold, it is beautiful, and the people here are so good. I love it so so much.
Hope you all have such a wonderful week! Love you all!
Love,
Sister Larson
1. Dan dan and I at english class
2. Me with xiao baby
3-5. Last week for p-day Sister Tu and I went to this place called the National Center for Traditional Arts... or something like that. It was super cool! We watched these people do professional dancing or something. Also we ran into the XiZhi elders there. It was super random because they live like 45 minutes away from us and just happened to be in the same place as us, so we just had to take an awkward picture together. #missionarylife
6. Biking all day everyday
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