I MOVED AGAIN!

Dec. 20, 2015

I had a "one and done" in Songshan!

I'm now out on the west coast of taiwan in a little city called, Zhudong. It literally means bamboo east. There's also "new bamboo" and "bamboo north" that's about 45 min west of us. That's where the closest missionaries are. Yep just us and the elders out here in Zhudong. It's super small and reminds me a lot of where I started my mission in Taidong, except there's no beach and it's not a tourist spot. But there's a lot of open space, mountains, and the air is so much cleaner than it was in downtown taipei!

My new companion is Sister Tan! She was my sister training leader when I came to Taiwan, so I've already gone on exchanges with her before! Crazy!! I love her so much. She's had a big impact on my mission already! She is from Singapore, where one of their national languages is Mandarin. So basically I have a native companion. It's great. She's dying in 2 transfers, one before me! She's really hoping that I'm her last companion, but she also really wants me to train my last two transfers. So we'll have to see what happens!!

My last companion, Sister Bowman, REALLY didn't think she was staying in Songshan. She'd been telling everyone for the last week, "this is probably the last time I'll see you! bye!" She's a funny one! Now she is companions with Sister Good!! They are now the Songshan STL's! My STL's now are a native, Sister Luo, and SISTER KIRKHAM. It's been so weird.. haha lots of adjusments!!!

Being in an area for just a transfer is so weird. Just last week I had started to love finding in Songshan. We had a REALLY nice steak dinner with a member, who happens to be the #3 contractor in all of Taiwan, then had 3 hours of finding that night. It was literally $60USD per person. We were both SO FULL. But I ignored the "pain" and just kept finding and walking and talking. Then all of the sudden Sister Bowman said, "Do you want to head back to our bikes now?" and I said, "Yeah I think we should go somewhere else to find now, too" Then she said, "No we have to go home now. Shijian dao le!" I couldn't believe it! I was almost as surprised then as I was just a few hours later when Elder Ploeg said I was moving. Just when you start to get comfortable with a companion or an area, or both, the Lord calls us somewhere else to learn and have new experiences. I'm trying really hard to find out what the Lord wants me to learn from this very new area.

so yeah. a lot has happened the last 4-5 days! Tomorrow is the mission christmas party, wednesday is an english class leader meeting(yeah i got my favorite assignment as english unit leader this transfer. SCORE.), thursday is the ward christmas party, and then friday is christmas! SKYPE! :D So i guess the next 4-5 days will be eventful too!

(i gave up on the ratchet shift key at this internet cafe. sorry.)

Well that's about it. LOVE Y'ALLLLLLL!

-Annie