My first chang out was at a member's mothers house. This lady isn't a member, and she lives in a swamp. Like seriously, a yoda's swamp in the middle of no where kind of swamp, with dogs as big as people. It was so cool. They have bat problems and thier house is one room with a loft above it for sleeping. The food that we got to share with this dear sister was so interesting, most of the meat I ate I had no idea what it was, but...yeah, from what I could discern we had pig feet, meet and pear soup, fish (including the eyes), and fish intestines. yes. I ate fish intestines. I didn't know what they were at first, and the elders were laughing at me, having already slurped thiers down (if you try to chew it you throw up) and they watched me struggle with my bowl until my dear companion mercifully rescued me and put some of my soup into her bowl. blegh. It was the nastiest thing ever. But this lady was so poor, it would have been really rude not to accept it. My companion says i'll get better at eating strange things as time goes on. But this week i've tried cow tongue, squid balls, beef balls, yeurk (rice soup stuff that smells like dog poop), douh fu fa (tofu flower! it was actually really good, especially since i put ice cream in it and some lady looked at me funny). Yesterday we had a WARD BBQ! yayyyy. It was pretty fun, more questionable meat was ingested, and I met more people in the ward. I think they all think of me like a little kid. Kinda cute but really stupid, because i don't understand much of what they are saying still. I feel bad that I can't help my companion more in lessons, and that I can't be my normal social self because no one understands my horrible tones or my crazy hand gestures. Regardless, I've made pretty good friends with the lau family (crazy and funny, lau hing daai's mom is exactly as synical and hilarious as the grandma on mulan. it was so funny). And also the leung family, Sister leung gave us some extra blankets because it's been really cold latley (coldest winter in a long time here!) and her daughter shayla is a great fellowshiper for stella, our investigator.
Other things I have experienced this week: riding in the front of a double decker bus (awesome and scary, everyone drives on the wrong side of the road) and more Street vendor food! yayyyy! deep fried germs!! We blessed it like 6 times.
I have to share an experience that happened when we were finding: I wasn't feeling the spirit super strong and I said a prayer that I could be happy and pay attention to people, to know who i should try to talk to, and no sooner did I do that then we met an english speaking girl from teh Netherlands! soooooo cool! We shared a message with her and with two other girls that I found, and we were able to give them book of mormons and say a prayer, and give a lesson on the street, which almost never happens. When you give someone something in China, I learned that you always give it with two hands, and when they accept it with two hands that means they are really grateful. These girls were really excited about the book of mormon, and they came from Christan backgrounds, so we are looking forward to meeting with them again soon.
We also met another english speaking lady from Nepal, she's kind of crazy. But she came to church on sunday and she has LOTS of questions and we are excited to help her come to know christ more. She has a lot of desire to know, even though i think she was muslim before, and a lot of the things she believes are really weird, like, she sings her prayers and believes in reincarnation. But it's interesting to me that even growing up that way, there are so many pieces of the truth in what she says, sometimes i forget that. It's important to build upon what people already know, just like Aaron does in alma 22.
Oh yeah, for new years this week we had deep clean on monday, where we stayed in the apartment all day and cleaned (sooooo much cleaning) and then on tuesday we went to the BIG BUDDAH! The whole mission got to go and I was able to see my MTC family. I missed them so much but they're all doing well.
I pray every night that I can sik teng (understand) more and that I can follow the spirit and try to be exactly obedient. It's really hard some times to give up the things that you want for other people, but I find that it brings joy. This week I'm trying to get over my fears and inadequacies in the language and talk to everyone I see. I'm also trying to be a good companion and take correction humbly when it is given to me.
I miss you all and I hope you're having a good week!
Joigeen! San Ling Faai lok!
(bye! happy new year!)
Gou Ji Muih
(sister Cook)
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