a boring letter‏ Sept. 13, 2010

Dear Family,

Well things are settling in nicely here in Taichung. The worst part of living here is my bed. My "mattress" may just be disguised a box spring; I wake up and my back is sore like I slept on the floor all night. I am going to call the office and see if I can do anything about it - the other sisters have nicer mattresses than Sister Brownell and I. I call in numbers to Elder Porter the office elder so hopefully I will be in his good graces enough he will try to get me a mattress that won't kill me. It sounds so whiney but really I've tried to get used to it and not complain, but I think two weeks was enough of a trial run.

It has started into typhoon season, which means that it has been rainy. The morning is as clear as can be, not a cloud in the sky, and then by late afternoon huge black clouds roll in, often accompanied by thunder and lightning, and it POURS rain. It rains an unreasonable amount. I can't even tell you how hard it rains during the downpours because I have never experienced rain like it outside of Taiwan. It does have the benefit that it isn't as hot when it rains. We have been blessed to be kept out of the rain by lessons a couple times.

This week was also sisters exchanges. Sister Peterson exchanged with me. It was mostly uneventful. It was funny because my companion exchanged with one of the sisters that we live with, so I still saw her at night and during the morning during exchanges. As I often am after concluding sisters exchanges, I am glad that I have been assigned the companion I have :) Sister Peterson was a good teacher though, it's been a couple movecalls since I've taught with someone that has been on island so long (ie can understand Chinese). I learned a way to teach the 3rd lesson (the Gospel) by lighting a tea bag on fire. (Remind me and I'll do a family home evening).

Sister Brownell is a vegetarian. She eats really healthy and we have a favorite vegetarian biandang we like to eat at (biandang is kind of like...panda express or a chinese buffet. Lots of vegetables and dishes and you take what you want and pay for it by weight.*) Sister Pickering was a vegetarian too but we had more trouble finding her food (she didn't like biandang if I remember correctly). Sister Brownell is from Linden Utah, is 22 and used to teach English in China. She went to BYU and studied Marriage, family and human development. She wants to be a family counselor when she gets home. She is taller than me so is pretty tall.

I guess I am maybe hitting a fatigue-nearing-the-end stage of my mission. I don't know what to write about anymore in my emails home. Ask me questions and I will try to write about more interesting things next week than the weather, the state of my bed and what we have been eating.

Love you all.

FML
Sister Johnson


* Well, supposedly you pay for it by weight. Mostly the person just looks at you and decides if they will charge you more or less that day. So annoying.)