Today was Beth's first day at church. She seemed to enjoy it, although she didn't appreciate singing the hymns in Chinese. I agree, it's not that easy at first, but it'll come with time. In Relief Society we talked about serving and fellowshiping the less active members. I'm not exactly sure what was said, but toward the end of the lesson there was a pretty intense debate, not discussion, but debate. Unfortunately Sister Woods had to leave and we didn't get the translation, but there were some strong feelings in that classroom. Luke, Kaylene, Sister Woods, Elder Pendelton, and I got in trouble in Sunday school today because we were talking about cockroaches when the teacher was ready to start the lesson. That lesson was on service and I learned that it's better not to ask people if they need anything because they'll always say no. Instead, you need to just go out and do it.
In sacrament meeting the elders usually sit behind us (meaning the white people) so that they can translate. The missionaries aren't always that quick to sit down and it's kind of a hastle to save them the seat behind us. Today I just sat in the row behind Luke, Kaylene, and Beth to save a spot for the missionaries. I had invited June, a girl from Taiwan who goes to BYU whom I met last Sunday, to sit with us in Sacrament because no one else in her family is a member and so she sits alone. She found me when I was still sitting in the row behind and so I
just staid there and the missionaries sat next to me. Because it's fast Sunday, we had fast and testimony meeting. The crazy lady of course got up to speak, but today she had a surgical mask on because she had surgery on her tooth and now she has to wear a face mask? It's always hard for the elders to translate her testimony because she changes between Chinese and Taiwanese and she rambles (it's hard to translate if you don't know where people are going with their story). Today Elder Pendelton was just listening to her speak, unable to translate, and then he leans over and half murmmers to himself, "we're on the on the edge of false doctrine right here" but I don't know what she was saying because he had stopped translating. He was on one today because during another testimony he was talking and it sounded good and then he stopped for a while. They he tells us "what I'm telling you is nothing like what she's saying, but it's what she means to say. Sometimes they just have a hard time getting their thoughts across." Nice, right? I wondered how much they ab-libed in their translation and now I know that they don't do it a lot or else I'd know about it.
After sacrament I talked to June a little bit. She doesn't have too many friends le
ft in the area, since she's been away at school for so long and so she told me that she gets bored a lot and she was almost desperate to hang out with us. I have her phone number and email and I hope it works out that she and I can go down to Kenting this week and go snorkeling. And it's no wonder that she's pushing that we should hang out soon because she told me that after the 10th (next Sunday) she's not really available because she's going to travel around Taiwan and China visiting her friends. So yeah, it's got to be this week. I really hope it works out. I was planning on Thursday because I don't have tutoring and so I won't have to be back by 4:30pm, but I haven't told her that yet because I needed to double check that. I'll call her tomorrow and we'll see how it goes.
Sister Ni is getting transferred tomorrow so after church I said good-bye to her and we took a couple pictures together. Wow, it's a good thing that I had them over for dinner last night so that I could spend some time with her before she left.
After church I went home and wrote some emails, wrote some letters, and read my scriptures and Liahona. Around 3pm Luke and Kaylene came over to make dinner. We had batter-fried shrimp in a pineapple sauce over rice. We had to shell the shrimp ourselves, which wasn't very much fun. Although, Luke noticed that I wasn't doing such a great job at it and so he took over for me. But I still got guts on me because I was making the batter next to Kaylene and she was taking off the head of one of the shrimp and its brains most definitely splattered all ove
r the both of us. I'm pretty sure that dinner didn't turn out at all like what it was supposed to taste like, but that's the benefit of trying a new recipe, is that you don't know what it's supposed to taste like so you're not disappointed if it doesn't taste right. So, even though it probably didn't taste like it would have under more normal circumstances with more normal ingredients, it was still pretty good.
When we were through with dinner we had to get dressed in our Tzu Chi volunteer suits because we went over to watch a musical performance. Luke and Kaylene were in it. They did a calligraphy and flower arranging demonstration up on stage while music played, and then Luke also sang his Chinese song that they have him sing at everything. They also had a few piano solos, a chamber orchestra, and they had the kids come up to the front and perform the songs they had learned yesterday. It was a pretty nice presentation, it was just a little lengthy.
We didn't get back until nearly 9:30pm and poor Beth has to do all her lesson planning right now. At least she doesn't also have evaluations, those are killer. I'm helping where I can, but s
he's getting way distracted by some things she's finding on the internet and I have to finish my blog, so it's not like I can stay in there and do it for her or something.
And, just in case you're wondering, the pictures are from the music program that we watched tonight at Tzu Chi.
In sacrament meeting the elders usually sit behind us (meaning the white people) so that they can translate. The missionaries aren't always that quick to sit down and it's kind of a hastle to save them the seat behind us. Today I just sat in the row behind Luke, Kaylene, and Beth to save a spot for the missionaries. I had invited June, a girl from Taiwan who goes to BYU whom I met last Sunday, to sit with us in Sacrament because no one else in her family is a member and so she sits alone. She found me when I was still sitting in the row behind and so I
just staid there and the missionaries sat next to me. Because it's fast Sunday, we had fast and testimony meeting. The crazy lady of course got up to speak, but today she had a surgical mask on because she had surgery on her tooth and now she has to wear a face mask? It's always hard for the elders to translate her testimony because she changes between Chinese and Taiwanese and she rambles (it's hard to translate if you don't know where people are going with their story). Today Elder Pendelton was just listening to her speak, unable to translate, and then he leans over and half murmmers to himself, "we're on the on the edge of false doctrine right here" but I don't know what she was saying because he had stopped translating. He was on one today because during another testimony he was talking and it sounded good and then he stopped for a while. They he tells us "what I'm telling you is nothing like what she's saying, but it's what she means to say. Sometimes they just have a hard time getting their thoughts across." Nice, right? I wondered how much they ab-libed in their translation and now I know that they don't do it a lot or else I'd know about it.After sacrament I talked to June a little bit. She doesn't have too many friends le
ft in the area, since she's been away at school for so long and so she told me that she gets bored a lot and she was almost desperate to hang out with us. I have her phone number and email and I hope it works out that she and I can go down to Kenting this week and go snorkeling. And it's no wonder that she's pushing that we should hang out soon because she told me that after the 10th (next Sunday) she's not really available because she's going to travel around Taiwan and China visiting her friends. So yeah, it's got to be this week. I really hope it works out. I was planning on Thursday because I don't have tutoring and so I won't have to be back by 4:30pm, but I haven't told her that yet because I needed to double check that. I'll call her tomorrow and we'll see how it goes.Sister Ni is getting transferred tomorrow so after church I said good-bye to her and we took a couple pictures together. Wow, it's a good thing that I had them over for dinner last night so that I could spend some time with her before she left.
After church I went home and wrote some emails, wrote some letters, and read my scriptures and Liahona. Around 3pm Luke and Kaylene came over to make dinner. We had batter-fried shrimp in a pineapple sauce over rice. We had to shell the shrimp ourselves, which wasn't very much fun. Although, Luke noticed that I wasn't doing such a great job at it and so he took over for me. But I still got guts on me because I was making the batter next to Kaylene and she was taking off the head of one of the shrimp and its brains most definitely splattered all ove
r the both of us. I'm pretty sure that dinner didn't turn out at all like what it was supposed to taste like, but that's the benefit of trying a new recipe, is that you don't know what it's supposed to taste like so you're not disappointed if it doesn't taste right. So, even though it probably didn't taste like it would have under more normal circumstances with more normal ingredients, it was still pretty good.When we were through with dinner we had to get dressed in our Tzu Chi volunteer suits because we went over to watch a musical performance. Luke and Kaylene were in it. They did a calligraphy and flower arranging demonstration up on stage while music played, and then Luke also sang his Chinese song that they have him sing at everything. They also had a few piano solos, a chamber orchestra, and they had the kids come up to the front and perform the songs they had learned yesterday. It was a pretty nice presentation, it was just a little lengthy.
We didn't get back until nearly 9:30pm and poor Beth has to do all her lesson planning right now. At least she doesn't also have evaluations, those are killer. I'm helping where I can, but s
he's getting way distracted by some things she's finding on the internet and I have to finish my blog, so it's not like I can stay in there and do it for her or something.And, just in case you're wondering, the pictures are from the music program that we watched tonight at Tzu Chi.
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