Sunday Sweetness

Happy Labor Day one and all!! Though I am sad to say that I didn’t really remember until I was talking to my brother and he wished me a happy one. I hope that you are all enjoying your day off.
I know that I keep on mentioning it, but seriously where has all the time gone? It seems unreal to me that in two days all of my friends from both high school and those from college will be going back to school. I had a friend ask me the other day if I am sad that I will be not be going back to school or am I just having too much fun that and that I don’t care.. well I guess that I am a kind of selfish person as I wish that I could have both. Yes I am having tons of fun here and am learning more than I had ever expected, but at the same time I miss my family and friends like crazy and want to see them. I think that there is also a little piece of me that is sad that I will not be going to class in a couple of days. I guess that I just need to get over my selfishness and appreciate where I am and what I am experiencing.
So now finally back to catching up from yesterday’s entry …I ended with we were just getting to the hotel on Saturday night. We walked around the lobby for a little while, while we were waiting for Grace’s parents to come and get us, it was rather a fancy place. When Brother and Sister Chou picked us I began to realize even more how exhausted I was, I was just ready to get home and fall into my bed. It was kind of funny though, as we were driving back towards the apartment Natalie and Grace were trying to tell Grace’s parents stories of what had happened during the day, it wasn’t very long though until we realized that they were not listening. We were almost home when Natalie mentioned that she didn’t have her contact stuff/toothbrush and stuff like that as it was still at the Chou’s house, when Grace mentioned it to Sister Chou she said that Natalie was going to be staying the night at their house again. So they dropped me off, it was a little scary having to walk upstairs in the dark by myself, but I made it upstairs quickly and just locked my door. I was really exhausted, so I took my shower and went straight to bed.
The Sister Missionaries have asked that Natalie come to the morning branch now that Amy is baptized and because we technically live in the boundaries of the morning branch. Anyway I got up Sunday morning and got ready for church, I didn’t really know how long it would take me to get to the ward building and don’t like to be late so I left at half past- when I left Natalie had not yet arrived, I called out for her several times to check and see if she was there but she was not and I did not want to be late so I headed out. I was quite proud of myself, I found my way there perfectly and I only flashed people probably a couple of times :D. So I did leave for church a little early, it was still a quarter till when I got to church, but that is ok I had brought one of my books with me and it gave me a chance to read it. It was really sweet though, when I walked in and headed towards the seats that we normally sit in the lady who lays out the hymnals had put the hymnals with pinion on our chairs, generally we have to go and get them ourselves. I thought that it was very sweet of her to think of us and to do that little service.
The Sister Missionaries came in and Sister Wood sat down beside me and then Sister Hill sat on the other side of the room (for some strange reason none of the missionaries ever sit beside each other—others did you guys sit with your companions or not?). Sister Wood was a great translator for me yesterday, I felt kind of bad for her as she translated all 3 meetings for me. Natalie did eventually come in late to Relief Society and so she grabbed a seat beside Sister Hill. Our lesson was Lesson 16: Revelations and the Living Prophet, it is sometimes hard to follow along with the lesson as generally the teacher just reads a big chunk of the lesson. The lady was very sweet and tried very hard. It is kind of interesting, here in our ward they end each meeting like 10 minutes early for time to move to your next classroom, except for Sacrament meeting, they end it early and then you are supposed to rush so as not to be late. Sunday School was interesting, I don’t know if I have mentioned before but the Sunday School class that I go to is the one for investigators so that we can have the missionaries to translate for us. Yesterday in our class there was 4 investigators, 3 missionaries, Natalie, the teacher, the Branch President, and I—the white people almost outnumber the Chinese people: CRAZY! (and kind of sad at the same time). Our lesson was about tithing, I learned some interesting things and realized that I need to be better at paying my fast offerings. At one point the Branch President made a comment about why we should pay our tithing and he said “Tithing is not a matter of money but of faith,” he explained the Lord really does not need our tithing but is something that he asks us to do and that is why it is of faith. I really liked that, I generally do not have any trouble paying my tithing but I think that it will help to remember that. I did grab a tithing envelope and will pay my first Taiwanese tithing!
When class was over the Branch President told us that we needed to hurry so that we could not be late for Sacrament meeting. I rushed upstairs and quickly found a seat. Eventually Sister Wood and Natalie came in and sat down, I felt kind of sad for Sister Wood as she had to sit behind us as it is easier to translate for us from behind. It kind of made me sad to look around during the sacrament meeting and notice all of the people that were talking during the meeting, I felt bad for the people that were talking, they took the time to prepare their talks and then half of the branch was talking. Funny Story: right as sacrament meeting was set to begin this lady walked in with her 3 young sons, Jimmy’s dad (2nd counselor in the Branch Presidency) rushed down and helped them find seats, I guess he just had time to say that she was investigating the church before the meeting began, none of the missionaries knew who she was- it was so funny to have Sister Wood sitting behind us and hearing her be frustrated over who that person was, she even told us at one point that if the lady got up to leave early she would stop translating for us and would be going after her, sadly we didn’t get to see any action of Sister Wood chasing down the lady (though I guess it was a good thing that she stayed for the whole meeting :D). Once the meeting ended Sister Wood went rushing towards the lady (it was kind of funny as I was watching her and when the lady looked up she knew that Sister Wood was coming after her), so the short version of who she is…I guess she has been to Utah and to Temple Square before but sometime in the past week she walked by one of the missionaries and was given a pamphlet, she thought that it sounded good and decided that they were going to come to church this week.
Another Funny Story (I will try and make this one not as long as the other one): All during the day they had been making an announcement about how you could buy a 72 hour kit for $300NT and we were like “wow” that is a good deal, so we asked Teacher Michelle about it and who we had to talk to about ordering one, she asked the Branch President about it and then told us that it was just the bag… later on Natalie and I were talking about it and we decided that they probably thought we were pretty funny people getting all excited about how good a deal it was when it was just a bag. It probably made it worse that we were like yeah we would like 3 please… when Natalie and I were talking about it I was like no need to worry, if something happens I’ve got us covered-I’ve got the bag!.. we decided not to get one, sadly we decided to miss on that awesome deal :D. It was really cute, for some reason when church was over Teacher Stephanie told us hers and Bob’s courtship story, I kind of missed part of it as Yuling called me over to talk, I hope that I can get her to tell me again sometime. Exciting News! I talked to the Branch President yesterday and am having my records sent here, so maybe next week I will get to stand up and listen to more complete gibberish about myself :D. Another piece of exciting news…on the 13th the Relief Society is having a cooking activity and they are teaching to make dumplings!! I am so excited, though Yuling told me that they don’t really have a recipe that they follow they just tell you to put a little bit of this and a little bit of that, she told me good luck! On the 13th is also the moon festival, I guess that normally it is on a school day and we don’t have school, sadly it is on a Saturday and so we don’t get a day of school off. Sister Wood was talking to us about it and she called the moon festival the BBQ day, she said that everyone just does huge BBQ’s and eat all day (sounds like my kind of holiday :D), anyway I guess that our Branch is having a big BBQ on that day and the other Branch is doing some kind of hiking thing Friday to Saturday so Natalie has decided to go and do that.
When I got home from church I went and took a nap (that was much needed) and then got up and started working a little on my journal and then Natalie and I ate dinner together, it was also kind of nice as we talked a little bit about ideas for this week. When we were done with dinner Natalie and I were talking about blogs and I asked her if she would be interested in making one, she was and so we proceeded to start her one (it took probably like 4x the amount of time it would have normally took me as it was in Chinese and I had to keep on translating each little piece- it was actually kind of entertaining). Once we were finally finished with her blog I went to my room to work on my journal and to try and call Ben and family in order to wish Sarah a Happy Birthday, but sadly they didn’t answer- I was able to finish my lesson plan and my journal. I didn’t get to bed very early, but I did get everything done!
So it is already a quarter to midnight and I have not yet written about today, I think that I will have to wait again till tomorrow to write about today. I have been getting very distracted tonight and so haven’t been getting very far, very fast. I guess that I am signing off for tonight, love you all! ~Betherd~