No matter how beautifully you shave your legs today, you still have to do it again tomorrow.

Dear family and friends,

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope this was a great week for everyone! You all got to spend time away from work and with family, hopefully. That is good. I loved getting to talk to you all on the phone the other day! It was so good to hear all of your voices, and even some of your new voices, (*coughpuberty-aged brothercoughcough*). Sorry if I bored you when I was babbling on so long about Taiwan culture. I don't think I realized how much I wanted to talk about it until I started going!

 

So this week had a lot of ups and downs. It is interesting how different this transfer is from my last transfer!

 

First, my companion is totally different. Sister Duggar is so awesome. I don't know what it is about her, but she just makes me feel so safe and comfortable. We are really goofy together, sometimes. For the past couple of English classes we have had, we end up doing really funny things for everyone else's entertainment. We taught them the Hokey Pokey one week, and danced it in front of the whole class. Last week we taught them the adverb game where you pick a scenario and have to act it out using a particular adverb. The students could not stop laughing while I "romantically" bought Zhuabing from Sister Duggar, who was "romantically" selling this street food.

 

We also connect a lot in how we like to do missionary work. We have only half the routine and organization to our lessons than what I had when I was in training, but twice as much heart. I don't know if it is my recent progression with Chinese or Sister Duggar's influence, but I feel like I am finally coming to be able to express what I want to in lessons--to really communicate to investigators what Christ means to me, and what I hope I can offer them from teaching them his gospel. And Sister Duggar is a person who really feels, really loves. Street contacting is great with her because she loves people so immediately--she genuinely wants to know who they are, what is important to them, and how she can help them. She doesn't talk to them and ask these questions just because she is supposed to. We feed off of each other's love and sincerity. I have had such powerful teaching moments with her when we are both so full of fire and love for the people we are talking to, and it is so wonderful. This is the missionary I wanted to be!

 

The thing that keeps me going really is Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. My relationship with them. It's far from perfect, far from a smooth channel of communication, but I really do believe they are there when I am humble myself and seek them. The promises of the scriptures have proven true to me. I have been given so much strength and love and the power to do hard things when I have desired to have it. The trick, to me, is to have this desire. When things get hard, usually it is because I am at a state emotionally of wanting to give up--of not wanting to face my situation or the challenges it brings. But as soon as I do decide to face it, to embrace it, I find I am able to do things, love things, and be patient with things I never thought I could do, love, or be patient with. I have been given wisdom and insight for how to solve problems when I seek the wisdom and insight to solve them--rather than wanting to run from them.

 

To use a little example: the first day I started riding a bike in Taiwan, I had no idea how to do it. The basket on the front end took me all out of balance, my shoes kept wanting to come off the pedals, the traffic was terrifying, and it was so hard to even get on my bike modestly, because I was wearing a skirt! I kept asking Sister Kang if she had advice, what tricks she used to do it, but she just said, 'You'll figure it out. You get used to it." And really, that's what happened. I had to accept that there wasn't going to be some point where all of a sudden I knew how to ride a bike in a skirt in Taiwan. I just had to do it. And gradually the two wheels and the handlebars and the seat that used to make me sore became more or less an extension of my body--I came to understand how they moved and worked. As I kept going--not because I knew how but out of necessity--I found other challenges to riding a bike. Like on days when it is really windy, and I have to use one hand to keep my skirt from blowing up. Or when it is raining, and the rain keeps getting in my face, making it hard to see. Or when I find myself biking between two large busses that are in a hurry to get moving. Or when I have my violin strapped to my back and it makes me feel so unsteady. Sometimes I feel like laughing at the bizarre mixture of these circumstances that I still somehow find myself able to push through. Sister Kang's "You'll figure it out" seems to have a lot of wisdom to it.

 

That's kind of how it's been for me on a mission, with trying to learn how to teach in Chinese, work with companions, etc. Sometimes it hits me that I seriously have no idea what I'm doing, or if what I am attempting to do is even possible. But there is so much sweetness and wisdom and love I have gained from trying. And I feel like God has helped me step by step to learn the things that are necessary for me to get through each day, or to give me the love I need to have for my companion and the people I am with. I don't know a whole lot but I really believe he is there! And that he can change our hearts and guide us when we turn to him.

 

A little bummed right now because I really wanted to send you guys pictures with the SDcard/USB thing I got for Christmas, but it doesn't appear to be working. And the error message it gives me are all in Chinese characters--and I pretty much don't know any computer vocabulary. Haha. Oh well, hopefully I can figure it out another time.

 

Love you all! Thanks for all your support! Let me know if there is anything I can do for any of you.

 

Diana