Dajia Hao,

This week it hit me that I only have FOUR MONTHS left in Taiwan! I felt like someone punched me, as I thought about that. I had been riding through strip of the MRT (metro), looking out the window at the rows and rows of apartment buildings, advertisements strapped to their sides, shops at their feet, colored roofs and bird-cage windows, and the sweetness of this lovely, simple life overwhelmed me. It feels so wrong to ever have to leave it.

I know I will need to decide to love life in Utah as much as I have had to decide to love here. But just know I am genuinely enjoying life--especially lately. And that sometimes things we need to choose to love at the beginning can turn into the things we feel absolutely sick about parting with.

I don't think I ever had to choose to love Taiwan. From the day I set foot on island, I have been enamored by the culture, food and people--rice with every meal, people's openness about pointing out your weight or acne changes, Buddhist shrines, women's insistence that cold drinks are bad for your uterus, cluttered houses, on and on and on...

But I have had to grow and decide to love missionary work. There has always been a desire to do it, a sense of its importance, but there are times when thinking about others so much or talking to strangers has been difficult, and not the joy it is now. And don't get me wrong--I still have to CHOOSE to let it be a joy, every day. But it really has come to be just that--joyful--to me.

I think contacting strangers on the street is so fun and interesting. I used to worry about what I was supposed to say that could get them to show interest, or to lesson the sting of rejection, but now I think about things really differently. If they don't have interest, just smile and let them show you care about them anyway, and talk to someone else! It's not a big deal!

You never, ever know what you are going to encounter. Last Friday, Du Jiemei and I were eating Hong Dou Bing for dinner (a sort of cake with mushy stuff of various flavors inside--read bean, cream, taro, cabbage, peanut, black sesame, on and on...) We were going to buy them from this guy who only had one arm and was selling them on the street, but he refused to take our money. We questioned him why, and he pulled a bible from off of his cart. In America that would probably be some sort of threat against us, but in Taiwan that was his way of saying, "I'm Christian, too! I approve of missionaries!" So we gave him a Book of Mormon in payment. Then he told us that he wanted to go home and see his daughter and that if we didn't help him eat the rest of the Hong Dou Bing he had in his cart, he would throw it all away. So he filled up more paper bags full of them and gave them to us for free! This is a picture of Du Jie mei and I enjoying them together! (By the way, Hong Dou Bing is one of my absolute favorite things to eat here!)

Another thing I love about missionary work is just teaching! As my chinese has progressed, I've realized that lessons are just really great conversations with people about stuff that matters. I absolutely love teaching, if I am in a good mood, have the spirit with me, and am willing to really dive into the conversation.

And other times, teaching is just hilarious. A few weeks ago, Du Jiemei and I were having a lesson with one of our recent converts (who is a little slow),  who admitted that lately she hasn't been coming to church very much because she is really constipated.  She worries people will laugh at her if she has to go to the bathroom and takes too long. We told her compassionately that there are three stalls in the chapel restroom, and we of course would not judge her for this issue. Then Du Jiemei went on to confess that when she was in high school, sometimes she would spend up to an hour and a half in the restroom because she woudl start reading Harry Potter and didn't want to stop. Our recent convert felt very comforted that Du Jiemei could understand her experience.

Probably the most joyful thing about missionary work is just knowing people. I have come to love people more than I ever thought possible. That girl has changed my life. I don't know how it is that I--a spoiled Mormon girl from Ogden Utah--was able to become best friends with a Chinese-speaking, painfully shy, Muslim convert to Mormonism who grew up on a Mango farm in Southern Taiwan with parents who have never written her once on her mission--but somehow we are best friends. We stayed up really late that night, just talking and talking.  She told me she thinks I am her "Qiansheng de Pengyou" (Her friend from the premortal life). And I responded that of course I am--not because I necessarily believe that is literally true, but because sometimes we need to say dramatic things like that because what else can express the meaning of the friendship we have together? One of the hardest things about leaving Taiwan will certainly be leaving her.

When I give my heart to God, things just go well.

I love you all so much! Keep up all the hard work!

Diana