Deer in Headlights 🦌🚘

Throwback to when I first started my mission, and a member told me I didn't actually look like a deer in headlights! I was like "hey sweet." But I think my brain just wanted to save it all for Taiwan. And we haven't even started missionary work yet. 

Starting on Wednesday we were technically still in quarantine, but we were able to leave the hotel during the day, so we got to do lots of stuff and visit some really cool places! Wednesday, we had a bunch of trainings during the day and then we were able to go to the night market that night and see all the yummy duck heads they were selling! It was lots of fun though and food here is super cheap, the first thing I got was a bowl of noodles which cost 30 快, which is about one dollar. There were also some giant pigs and things there, so that was fun. 

Thursday was fun, this was the day where I probably had the most culture shock and it was an adventure. We did an activity that evening called an English Challenge. Basically, you would have a poster and go around asking if people wanted to participate and be asked a question in English. If yes, we would ask them a question and then invite them to come to the English group! Sister Kirton and I went with two native sisters, and the place we went was like a big/light up/anime/people dancing in the square/exactly how you would imagine China to be/so many Asians! It was really cool, just felt pretty surreal and I didn't understand like 99.5 percent of anything that was said. So, this was really where the deer in headlights come in. It is weird to be surrounded by so many people and just being very aware of how alien I am here. It was cool though! 

Friday we were able to go to the Memorial Hall for a famous guy! I can't remember his name, but it was really cool! Saturday, we had a challenge where we went to different MRT stations and had to take pictures of different things, take selfies with 5 different people, say hello a certain number of times, and so on. It was really fun! I'm really bad at talking to people in English let alone Chinese haha. Everything they say goes totally over my head and I feel really bad about it, but we'll get there! 

Sunday, we got out of quarantine whoooo! We went to church and spent the day at the mission office and stayed the night in the patron housing! It was cool! We were also able to go to the Taiwan Taipei dedicatory sight and say our own dedicatory prayers and pray and ponder there. It was really good! 

Today we had transfers! I am going to Danshui with my new culture trainer, Jin JieMei! She is super sweet and I'm excited for this transfer. She is a native to Taiwan (the only foreign sisters who are here are the ones who came in just last month) and probably most of my companions here will be natives, so in other words, my Chinese seriously needs to figure out life haha. I'm excited for this new adventure though! 

Spiritual thought for the week: Something that I have often struggled with throughout my mission and throughout my life is living in the past. While I was in Duluth all I would talk about was the MTC, while I was in Eau Claire all I would talk about was Duluth and coming here all I want to talk about is Eau Claire and the MMM in general. While looking back and smiling and learning from the past is not a bad thing, we must take care not to let it hinder us from our work in the present. This is something that I have thought a lot about and studied a lot about. I have thought, "Okay I know this is a problem, but what can I DO to fix it?" And of course, it is super beneficial to brainstorm ways to fix the problem, but it is also important to recognize that there is not one magic action I can implement that will help me focus. God is not a cosmic vending machine. But one thing that we can do now is continue building on the little things: Prayer, taking time to hear the Lord every day through the scriptures, picture people in white and recognize that every person you meet has infinite value and potential, and being diligent and intentional and letting your purpose drive all things you do. If it doesn't seem like anything is changing, that's okay. It will as you continue putting in effort. But overthinking about the problem rather than having patience and letting the Savior Jesus Christ take it and help us grow (little by little I might add) is only going to lead to lost opportunities. It is a long process, but we can make the conscious decision now to follow Jesus Christ and do things His way. It will come in His way and timing. 

Sorry for that throw up of tangents! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic and lovely week!