Eating Food That Cost Less Than Rice

WEEK 30:

This week has been great. Today we were able to play ultimate Frisbee at Waihao Beach. I didn't take any pictures because I woke up at 5am and took a nice long nap on the beach. It was a nice rest anyways. Got to watch some surfers that definantely didn't know what they were doing.

My Chinese is finally starting to improve. Listening has been coming alot easier since studying non gospel related words. English class has been super helpful in finding investigators. Many of them are students and always come with some English questions that I sometimes can't even answer. Like explaining the difference between leisure and entertainment. 

Of course, it's the end of the month, and I'm just barely out of money. Living off ramen has been interesting. 7-11 has an interesting selection that keeps me alive day by day.

Sorry but not much happened this week. I hit my 7 month mark and celebrated Elder Kirkman birthday by eating at a 烤肉吃到飽。We have also been basketball finding with investigators and members and we have been having really good success. Many missionaries think that thìs is too fun, but we have gotten the contact info of 15 college students and have been able to share short and powerful messages. That's about it for my week

Random Pics:

Cool Car 

DInner with member

Rainy day (All girl high school)

Dinner with the bishop and kids

My sauce with all the fat from the meat

One Baptism down with ANOTHER soon

WEEK 29:

Today was temple day so our P-day has been moved to Wednesday. There have been a couple crazy experiences so I hope that I will have time to write about all of them. 

Last email I mentioned that an investigator had asked me to baptize them. The day of the baptism, I must have recited the baptismal prayer in my head a thousand times. There were tons of people at the baptism because there was a kid getting baptized at the same time. I said the prayer and it was a success. I didn't mess it up! The baptism was super uplifting and everyone was greeting the new members of the church. And I have ANOTHER baptism in 2 days. Someone from my old area. I can't wait.

Funny story: As a district a group of 4 missionaries including me went to eat lunch together at a pasta place. I wanted the extra spicy pasta. It comes out at it has 1 pepper on top. Quick background on this pepper. They are very hot. I asked very sarcastically why there was only one pepper. My companion told the chef without me knowing and they took my plate back in the kitchen. In a couple minutes one of the missionaries started coughing because he could smell the peppers. I started joking with him and coughing until I wasn't joking. There was no smell but taking a deep breath would sting your lungs and the back of your throat. The whole restaurant was coughing. They bring the plate out with about 20 peppers. All me friends know that I never step down from a challenge. First bite in I was sweating. I shouldnt have ordered the large portion. This was the most painful thing I've ever done. By half way I lost feeling in my upper body. When I was done I wanted to grab some soup to try and wash the spice out of my mouth. For some reason I could hardly move my legs and almost fell over. I had to wait about 30 minutes before I was able to walk normally again. The other missionaries were kind enough to take a videos of me. I can share the video with you if your Intrested. Just email me back. There were times I was barely able to put the spaghetti in my mouth because my arm was shaking so much. My eyes were twitching so much that they began to swell up. I was barely able to open my eyes.

Reflecting back in this, I'm not sure why they added so many peppers. They may have been mad that I sent the plate back or maby they wanted to prank a white person. I'm not sure. But I did make sure to take a picture with the chef. 

Most of these pictures are from last p day. We went on a super cool hike.

 I've also been having to eat cheap for and I found a place selling 20 dumplings for $1 haha. I'm sure my parents can guess what I'll be eating every day. 

Here are a few more random pictures.

Dinner with members.

Lady that wanted to take our pictures with some nice bikers.

My First Baptism!

WEEK 27:

So this week was really good.  Why? I had my first baptism from a guy in my last area. I was able to attend and chat with him and it was so much fun. There were so many members and some investigators that I've met. It feels like so long since I've been there. I have another investigator from my old area that is preparing for baptism in two weeks. Very spiritual moments. 

Before the baptism I was able to meet one of my member friends. We went to the only real burger place in Taiwan and she bought me this huge burger. I ate it all with an Oreo shake because I love food. 

Oh and I hit my six month mark this week! I was able to burn a tie. I used hairspray and a lighter to make a flamethrower. I burnt one that I only worn once or twice haha. I definatly like these peppy missionary traditions.

This transfer is ending soon and I'll be getting a new companion. I'm exited and nervous. I hope he is a cute one! 

Our apartment also has rats. We haven't seen them inside out house, but we have been seeing them on our mini balcony. Sometimes we put food out there and we are trying to make a master plan to catch it. 

HAPPY EASTER. I almost forgot because no one here celebrates Easter. I feel like the church members don't even know about Easter because only one member told me Happy Easter.

There was also a parade outside our house at the night market. We were able to watch for a couple minutes and it was really interesting. There was a party jeep and many traditional characters which I don't know of.

Few more random extra pics that Elder Andersen sent that I'm adding here because I love seeing pictures and the pictures make me happy!  :)  From:  Elder Andersen's momma.