Sunday, September 9, 2012

Nimen Hao from the Little Island in the Sea!!

Sister Mack 
August 26th, 2012


Dajia Hao!

     Well it has been another amazing week of missionary work. I am thoroughly exhausted at the end of each day, but I find I'm very happy here doing the work of the Lord. I continue to be reminded of how much I need to improve on, but this week I also realized that one of the problems I've been having is that I am focusing far too much on myself!!! YIKES how long does it take me to learn these things?? All is well though, because I read a talk by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf from the April 2012 priesthood session of Conference that talked about the importance of learning basic gospel principles, even if that means learning them over and over, which is clearly the way I have to do things! :) This week I've been praying a lot for the strength to really forget about myself and go to work. I want to go to bed every night knowing that I gave that day my best effort and did all I could to help other people and to fulfill my calling as a missionary.

     It has also come to my attention that I have barely told you anything about Taiwan....allow me to correct that gross error!! Where do I even start . . . .  I've told you a bit about the madness on the road. Basically everyone here rides a motorcycle. When we stop at lights, we kind of waddle up to people on our bikes and try to share the gospel, give them a pamphlet/our church address, or get them to pull over so we can tell them more or set up an appointment. It's so crazy.  I'm still not very good at it, but it's pretty fun. A lot of people will just totally ignore us, or they will laugh and then look the other way. Or scoot forward. Or run the red light so they don't have to talk to us. That is when you know that they are probably not quite ready to hear the gospel.
There are dozens of fruit shops all along the streets and even more little outdoor food shops. These people, thankfully, truly appreciate good food, and eating lots of it any time and all the time. I have been very blessed so far in that I have only seen 4 cockroaches. Two were in our apartment but were teeny tiny, and I wouldn't have known what they were except my companion told me (apparently our place used to be CRAWLING with them. We may need to invest in some more raid/traps. They are the reason we need to put our food garbage in the freezer). And then two were outside. wretched little things.

It's so weird to think that I live on an island....does that mean I am an islander? We had some typhoons up here this week. People get really crazy about them. Sometimes they cause a lot of damage, but since we're pretty far inland, I don't think it could be too bad. My companion said she's never seen anything crazy weather-wise, and she has been on-island for a year. So this week a lot of people cancelled appointments because they were like "The typhoon is coming!!" But no one actually seemed to know when it was coming, everyone said it was supposed to come on a different day. And then when it did come, it was just a little rainier than usual. I guess I understand why people wouldn't want to go outside, but why can't they just let us come teach at their homes? We have to bike around in the rain if people won't meet with us.  We just look like dorks cause we wear our plastic rain ponchos (complete with hood and a plastic bill like on a baseball cap) that go down over our knees...they're really funny. I'll attach a picture. Actually it did start to get pretty windy on Friday night.  At one point we couldn't really control our bikes, so we went home early and called a ton of referrals/former investigators. Anyway . . . .  the typhoon didn't really affect us. There was some pretty big damage further south and our mission president said we will probably be going down later this week to help with clean up.

One funny little image/story for you to chuckle over before I tell a cool story. So there's a woman that lives in our apartment building (maybe she is the owner? or the owner's wife? it's hard to say) and pretty much she is sitting in the lobby in the morning when we leave and she is in the same position when we get home at night, holding her brown mini poodle in her lap. One morning we were stretching in the courtyard before we went out for a run, and she was coming down to sit in her little spot. Her dog peed in the middle of the courtyard and she pulled out a tissue paper and wiped her dog and then poured some water on the pee spot before heading to her plastic chair in the lobby....!!!! What the?! I started laughing so hard. I love the crazy little things people do that are so unexpected and delightful.
   
This week was full of miracles.  One of the experiences that impacted me the most was actually really sad. We went to go visit a less active member of the church. We buzzed for her downstairs, and my companion said who we were. The woman answered in a very soft voice and actually sounded a little angry, but said she would be right down. My companion and I just kind of looked at each other and decided we would just give her a copy of a conference talk, tell her we loved her and missed her at church, and then just let her be.

We waited for a few minutes.  Then a woman walked by but stared at us as she did.  My companion said the sister’s name questioningly, and the woman waved for us to follow her. We started walking down the street, and she explained that her husband was home. He's actually the reason she doesn't come to church anymore. He belongs to another Christian church and, for whatever reason, is extremely anti-Mormon. The more she explained her situation, and the more I saw how excited she was to be meeting with us, the more heartsick I felt. We walked for a few minutes, then sat down at a table outside a little restaurant. We talked about prayer and the Book of Mormon.

The woman told us how much she missed coming to church, but that she still prayed and tried to read and really believed that God could hear her prayers. In her eyes I could see she was hungry for the gospel, but because it is so disruptive in her marriage, she doesn't have an opportunity to access it fully. We shared a great scripture with her from Mosiah 24:14 "And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions." She was very touched by the scripture, and I asked her if she believed it was true. She said she did. I bore my testimony of it and we were kind of in the middle of discussing it when a man approached us. He was clearly very angry but he didn't shout or anything. It was the sister’s husband! He had noticed she was gone, probably saw our bikes and recognized them (all missionaries spray paint their bikes so they don't get stolen, and we attach plastic bins to the back with bungee cords to hold all our stuff) and then he tracked us down! He was wearing a face mask (everyone wears them even when they're only slightly sick) so it was hard to understand him, but he just kept saying "We don't believe in this Book of Mormon, we don't read that book." The sister was really upset and kept telling him to leave. It was so uncomfortable and so upsetting. 

Finally, my companion said it was alright, the sister should go. She looked at us sadly but managed a smile, then walked away. I couldn't believe it. This sister is completely controlled by her husband. I am so impressed by her faith. Even though she doesn't really have the opportunity to study the gospel as completely as other members of the Church, she is steadfast in what she believes. It kills me to think that she is being denied the full blessings of the gospel because her husband won't let her exercise her faith! I know God is with her though, I know He is. He will visit her in her afflictions if she will continue to look for Him and rely on His power. I said a prayer in my heart after we left that her husband's heart might be softened.

I have been studing Alma this week and am slowly plugging away at it. What an amazing book. Alma is an incredible missionary. Today I read in Alma 8 when he is rejected by the people of Ammonihah and he is so defeated and weighed down with sorrow.  But when an angel tells him to go back, Alma returns SPEEDILY. I am so impressed with the faith of this missionary. He doesn't ask the angel questions, he just goes for it, knowing it is the will of the Lord and trusting He will provide a way! I am praying to have faith like that this week, and I hope I will see some big changes and improvements, and that I will be able to help more people.
  
I love you all tremendously. Be strong and of a good courage, build your faith. God is truly with us!
love love love
Sister Coco Mack
Ke JieMei

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