some nerdy stuff‏

Nihao!

So, this email I totally meant to send last week but it never sent! Here you go!

One of the pictures is from a few weeks ago, Sister Sun and I drinking papaya milk bought from a tiny drink shop next to a Miao. A Miao is a Buddhist temple like the one in the background, where people come and burn incense and say prayers to their ancestors. They also lay out fruit for their ancestors. Miaos are all over the place! Sometimes they are small, sometimes they are huge, but they are always beautiful and ornate, like this one.

The picture with the pillow is where I sleep. I am pretty much the luckiest person in the world, to get to wake up to that every day.

Today, in place of spilling my emotional vomit all over the place, I want to write a bit more about what I have learned from Taiwanese culture, particularly in terms of religion. I think you will find it very interesting, because things are so different from how they are in the states.

One of the most common things we here on a daily basis, when we start talking to people about religion, is "Dou yiyang!" (they are all the same!) If people's response to Mormonism in the states is that it isn't for them because it isn't real, (I.E. Joseph Smith was a fraud, the Book of Mormon is fiction, etc.), in Taiwan people's response is that it isn't for them because it is no different from anything else. People love harmony here, not distinctions and dichotomies like they do in Western parts of the world. They especially don't care as much about distinctions between truth and fiction, what is real and what is not. I have heard many times a saying about whatever we believe to be real IS reality to us. So the most common way we are rejected is by people just not understanding that we have something really good and new to give them; they see all religions as the same, because they teach people to do good and give people peace.

Another thing that is different is the basic concept of God. Most people we ask will say that they believe in God. One question I could probably follow up with, often is, "How many?" In America, the idea tends to be that there is one truth, one reality, one correct dialogue for the way things are (whether that is science or God or something else). But here, people often say things like, "Jesus is America's God; I have a different God from you." And they really mean it. They are intellectually content with totally different dialogues for reality co-existing.

Also, God is not necessarily viewed as the personal, loving, intimate God that I believe in. I have learned a lot of interesting things from the atheists we (surprisingly seldomly) run into. They are usually not like atheists in the states, who reason the existence of God to be improbably in some temporal, scientific way. The Wushenlunzhes (atheists) here explain it more that they are atheist because they don't NEED a God. They say things like, "Wo de shijian hai mei dao" (My time hasn't come yet)--meaning they don't feel a special need to connect with God at this time. Gods are typically viewed as beings possessing power in certain areas that you call upon when you have a need. Sometimes when we teach people prayer for the first time they do it in a way people may think is idol-istic. They will pray for certain blessings as if begging a cold, indifferent king to have mercy on them. Trying to explain God as a constant, accepting, loving friend-father is one of the most important things to establish, when we start meeting with people.

Religion is also extremely tied to tradition and family, here. One of the biggest problems people have as they start investigating the church is that they feel family pressure to go to Miaos with their family, and will feel they are betraying their families if they don't go. Most people we meet, particularly younger people, don't feel like ancestor worship has much meaning to them, which is often a trigger for investigating Christianity. But it is an obstacle nonetheless, because they feel such loyalty to their families. In America, there is a dialogue that always supports the individual, especially the individual's search for a sort of "authenticity". If a person changes religions from their family, there is a sort of dialogue that says the family needs to accept the individual. If the family is unaccepting, they are viewed as the bad guys. In Taiwan, it is more often the individual who changes who is viewed as the bad guy.

Religion is part of a tradition you are born into here, not something that necessarily drives you each day. For instance, many people we talk to each day will say, "Oh, but I am Buddhist, not Christian" or "I have a Christian friend, you can go talk to them!" In America, there already exists the assumption that missionaries will be trying to give you a sort of identity change. Here, many people are so tied to tradition they don't see it as something malleable. This isn't necessarily out of love for the identity their traditions give them; but just because traditions, identies, religious beliefs--these are things you do not change.

One of the interesting things, though, is that when a person really starts investigating the church and coming to know the God of Mormonism for themselves, the spiritual process is very similar to what is for the people in the states. All these differences I just mentioned are obstacles that prevent people from knowing God, much like certain philosophies popular in the United States prevent people from knowing God. People here just have different obstacles, but like all obstacles, they are overcomable with a humble heart that seeks access to God and a willingness to change. It is really beautiful to sit across the table with someone recently baptized, who grew up with completely different ideas about reality and God than I did, but who has had God answer their prayers in similar ways. And across the language and culture difference, you can look her in the eyes and you know you share a special understanding of something.

True religion, I really think, has less to do with your dialogue for it and more to do with that sincere love for goodness in your heart. But dialogues are also necessary to help us get there. I don't believe the Mormon dialogue for God to be seamless--especially the unique, personal dialogues we all individually live by that are skewed with our own fears and hurts--but it is a dialogue that helps us develop a relationship with God leading to the freedom of heart and love that he wants to give us.

Wow, I wish I had all day to talk about this stuff! I'm not as smart as I used to be, but I try to write about this stuff in my journal when I have time, because it is so interesting. One importnat thing to keep in mind to, is that all of this totally depends on the person. I made a lot of generalizations. Also, these tend to be the beliefs of the older generation that linger in the younger generation, but thoughts here are becoming more and more Western. So the way the younger people tend to think seems often to be along these lines I described, but also more similar to Western thoughts than I probably made allowance for.

Love you all!

Sister Brown