Happy Mid Autumn Festival!

It was exactly this time a year ago that I first came on island, and got to witness Taiwan celebrating "ZhongQiu Jie" (Mid-autumn festival). The families huddled around their barbecues, laughing, talking, biting at shrimp and mushrooms from skewers, were all the same. But now I can understand what they're all talking about. Also, now I enjoy eating the moon cakes and green lumpy fruits called youzi, that people give to their family and friends during this holiday. Last year I thought moon cakes were tasteless. Now I love them--especially taro flavored ones!

Hope you enjoy these pictures! They can give you a feel of what people's houses are generally like--very cluttered and colorful. Taiwan packs a lot of people and a lot of stuff into small places. The first picture is just of a pretty-painted house I saw this week while walking around contacting. The second picture is of me, (yes, I did totally forget to wear my nametag that day), and the Liao family in their house. They are a less active family that can't come to church because the daughter is handicapped and can't move her legs. It is fitting that Liao Jiemei, the Mom,  isn't looking at the camera. She is an adult, but painfully shy. Usually she just giggles and smiles at her feet when we talk to her--but if we get her to start talking about her childhood in Indonesia, she will start talking to her feet about the yellow rice she would cook and how slow the pace of life was, and go on and on. Our lessons with them usually include just a short spiritual thought and then some sort of game we make up to get Liao Jiemei to talk about Indonesia.

When I think about the phrase, "The first shall be last and the last shall be first", I think about people like the Liao family. They are so simple, down to earth, and forgotten by the world in many ways. And then there's me, smiling confidently at the camera as if there isn't a doubt in me at all that later people will want to look at my picture and think I am cool. What makes me feel like I am so important?

One of the things I have learned on a mission is that there is no such thing as a bad missionary. Sometimes people's success is judged by their numbers, by their ability to be bold and energetic in the work, etc. But here's what I see in real life: The bold, energetic, no-fear missionaries do have a lot of success. It's true. But sometimes it seems the people who have the easiest time being bold are those who are most convinced of their self-importance and just seem to automatically assume that people should want to listen to them. There is certainly a beauty in this way; we Americans grow up assuming we have talents and are encouraged to share them, expand on them, and enjoy them. But then  I compare that type of missionary to people like Sun Jiemei, that extremely humble, shy companion who I trained. She is in some ways really limited in the work she is able to get done because she has such a hard time getting over her fears of talking to people. And yet there is a lovely, delicate kind of sincerity to everything she does. When she talks to people--she knows with all the fluttery feelings in her stomach and her shaking legs that she is talking to another human being! It terrifies her. And I think there is something beautiful and true about how nervous she gets to talk to people, that us more-arrogant Americans could really learn from.

I don't think there is a right or a wrong way, necessarily. I think there is a beauty in both.
On my mission I have really learned that everyone has a place. Every companion I have had does things so differently! People don't come in categories of good or bad. Their worth and their contributions to the world can not be answered with yes's or no's, or even on scales of one to ten. Each person's influence on the world is a different color, a different shape, a different melody. I think we are all infinitely valuable because each of us has such a unique awarness of the world that no one else can imitate, steal, or make unreal. Sometimes these awarnesses are different in huge ways, like growing up in Taiwan or America. And sometimes the differences are so small, like the taste of garlic on our tongues.  To kill, neglect, or deem stupid any human being is to press mute on a song you have never heard and will never hear again.

Have a good week!

Sister Brown