Mon 7/19/10 No Miles Yet?

Dear family,

Well, it has been an eventful week that I was NOT expecting.

Wednesday night, in the middle of English class. The air conditioning broke, there were about ten students in my tiny, hot classroom. The door was open and so was the door of the class across the hall- the wild children's class, so it was noisy. I was having a hard time focusing everyone and was a bit unprepared myself. Sister Dewyea came in - "President Bishop is on the phone," with wide eyes. It could only mean one thing.

I was going trainer.

So I didn't move and Sister Dewyea got "kicked out" early, even before the end of the movecall. It was stressful getting her packed and moved with our full schedule and I didn't sleep well knowing I was going to be trainer. I had no idea how much Chinese my companion would speak.

We got Sister Dewyea out and my new companion's name is Sister Cooper*. I am training the FIRST black missionary in Taiwan. No one really knew what was going to happen. Taiwanese people are kind of racist. When I got my assignment and my companion was in the bathroom, I went in to talk to President Bishop.

"President. Taiwanese people are racist. How am I going to deal with that?"
"Well, I don't know. We will just see how it goes."

Literally, no one knew what was going to happen. And everyone keeps being really curious but feeling awkward about asking me.
It's actually been just fine. We get even MORE staring than before but just fine. It's a good way to talk to people. Sister Cooper is probably the first black person most people have seen in the country in Taiwan. It's not been a problem yet.

This week has been good so far. We baptised Huang You, which made me so happy! The first time I met her was right after I moved to Yuanlin, then she disappeared for awhile. And now she is baptised! I wish I had more time to talk about her but I don't. I love her.

The other exciting thing is that at church I had to translate for the first time. It was an adventure haha. I had to translate for my Mission President and his wife who were speaking in our ward conference. I translated English to Chinese for Sister Bishop's talk (She would say a line in English then I would repeat it in Chinese into the microphone they use to confirm people). I also translated Chinese to English and sat behind the Bishops on the stand and tryed to make sense of the talks. It was a little rough at first but by the end I got the hang of it. There were some parts that I translated kind of like this. "They are talking about people that don't have clothes. Even when it rains. Or food. And something about the population. I'm sorry I have no idea what he is talking about or how it relates to the gospel." By the end my tongue was loosened and I thought my translation was pretty good. Anyway, it was a crazy Sunday, considering my special part in the program, my new trainee that doesn't know ANYONE or understand Chinese much and having an amazing ten investigators at church.

It is going to be great. We have seen and will continue to see miracles like crazy.


I love you all and will pray for Shelly and Miles and Daddy and Benjamin. And Mother and Amy and Tina of course.

FML,

Sister Johnson

* Tell Jane I am training her old coworker at the Registration office. Crazy, huh?