Sister Hickman's Talent

I think a talent I discovered is getting free food. Sister Jensen can testify this is true. We got lots of fruits and stuff, and normally how it goes is I go "hey that looks good!" and they give us free stuff, but I haven't done that lately. We literally just sat done this week next to someone and they gave us free cheesecake haha. Not complaining.

Word of the Week: peanut butter= huashengjiang
Short version: We got to have my favorite thing this week- peanut butter burgers! Literally, just try it- it will change your life.
Long version: A beautiful mama was baptized- Lin Zi Ling! She literally is amazing! I know that her life will continue to be blessed through the Gospel. I love her so much! Fun fact- in lessons we would call her Lin Lao Shi, meaning Teacher Lin. She would act like the teacher in the lessons, even though we were the ones actually teaching haha. Love her!
Love you all! I hope you ate some turkey for us too haha :)

Ai nimen!
Sister Hickman
Mao Jie Mei

Mom, Dad, I'm...., 11/21

I'm a missionary! Also I'm pregnant! Also I actually already gave birth so I'm a mom!! (there is a joke on the mission if you are called to train a new missionary, you are called a mom and your new missionary is the baby)

Her name is Sister Clyde. She is literally a model. Takes after her mother ;) we look very much alike.
Word of the week: mom=mama. Also Thanksgiving-ganenjie

Short Version: It has been pretty funny being a struggling young mother.

Long Version: Well, our first day together pretty much describes me as a mother because we missed our train back to Hualian. It was so sad, and we didn't get to eat dinner because we got back late. So we ended up going to a 7 and got ramen noodles. So feeding my baby well from the start. We ended up laughing it off haha- pretty good start!

Anyways, pray for us

Love you all!!! Take care!
Sister Hickman

Senior Center Love 11/13

Fun fact: we missionaries play frisbee every tuesday, thursday and saturday. One time this week someone told the senior couple in our area that they see their children playing frisbee every morning. Cute :)

Word of the week: fei pan (flying disk) means frisbee!

Short Version: transfers are this week! So my companion and I have been super antsy and excited

Long Version: This week we had the amazing opportunity to go to a senior center and put on a little devotional. We had one of the senior missionaries preform his harmonica routine, showed a few videos, bore testimony and sung. My favorite part was going around after and talking to the beautiful grandmas and grandpas. One in particular was Lu Ama, who kept saying she was in pain, and hurting, and not pretty, and no one wanted her. I told her we were so grateful she was there, and that she is so beautiful, and that her Heavenly Father loves her. She then started crying, and kept asking for a tissue but I didn't know what tissue was in chinese so it was like 5 minutes later till she actually got her tissue haha. Anyways, the Senior Center called us the next day said everyone loved it and were so touched. They asked when we could come back :) I love service!!

remember Mosiah 2:17 -when you are in the service of your fellow being you are only in the service of your God!

Love you all! keep jia you! #yaodiyu
Sister Hickman

How SHUAI is your calling! 11/6

Word of the week- shuai(4) it's a very common word heard by missionaries. It means handsome ;). Versus huai(4) which means... a person that does bad things

Short Version: I finally got a way to upload photos! Congrats to you all! haha.
Long Version: We had... a funny week. We have these friends that own a sandwich place, and for Halloween they had some special... stuff. One was snail sandwiches. And since we bought snail sandwiches, we got thousand year old egg sandwich for free! What a deal! They were actually quite tasty haha. Any suggestions for what they should have as specials for Thanksgiving?
Along with that we met an albino girl, who should us a picture of when she went to a gathering of all the albinoes in taiwan. The albino children were so cute!

Taiwan is on fire!! Well, not really because it got really cold. But I still have the fire within me ;).

Love 愛，
毛姐妹

Pictures: The snail-diggity sandwich, The time we preached to a community center and then took a photo with them, the vietnamese restaurant we love to go to with the whole zone, and us with the albino.

Dan Jones-ing! 10/31

If you don't know what Dan Jones-ing is, it basically means getting on a soap box and preaching to an audience.

Word of the week- "kedou" sounds like cuddle and it means tadpole :)

Short version: Happy Halloween!!!!
Long version: So the story behind our Dan Jones this week was when my companion and I were driving by a community center and saw about 30+ people in there, so we decided to go in. There turned out to be someone we knew inside, who had attended English class before. So we asked if we could maybe "preach" in there, and they then proceeded to give us a microphone and said we had 5 minutes. i was like " how about one minute?" haha. We then get up, said we were from America and everyone started to applaud, and everyone in the room was invited to English class. That was probably the most productive 30 minutes of my entire life! People actually seemed interested too! So funny- we then took a group photo together and they said they would put it on Facebook.

keep jia you!!!!
#yaodiyu
love you all!
Sister Hickman

Note: The photos didn't send properly so I couldn't attach them

Don't be dumb, don't be weird 10/24

The great advice from our mission president- because some missionaries just do... not smart things.

This picture is a great representation of that. Here is what Sister Hughes said about this: "So, Sister Hickman put a candle in her hair. And we lit it. Was it smart? no. was it fun? yes. Did we have my open water bottle next to her in case her hair caught fire? yes."

But don't worry I still have my hair ;).

Word of the week: benben- silly

Short version: we never found the pigeon

Long version: I had really bad allergies yesterday, so it looked like I was either crying all day or was touched by something. We also had the primary program were a bunch of cute little kids sing song- so I just went "just, the kids were so, so cute" and pretended to sniffle and be touched.

Wo ai ni! Nimen shi zui hao de! Have a great week!
#yaodiyu
~Sister Hickman

ps- the other pic is one we found on the computer

So we get a Pigeon 10/16

My companion and I were seriously planning one night (opposed to other non-serious nights haha) and I asked how we were gonna accomplish our goals, and my companion turns to me and goes "so, we get a pigeon" and I just start laughing. Our new goal now is to find a pigeon.

Word of the week: pigeon= gezi
Short version: My companion likes to tell puns
Long version: "what holds up the sun?" -"sunbeams!"
Our favorite pun: "that's intense!" you know what else is intense? my dad he likes to go camping.

Miracle of the week:

The power of kindness!

Luo DX was baptized right before I came to Hualian, and he is an amazing example of faith- he quit smoking in 2 days, going from 30 to 2 in 1 day. However, his wife has very much so protested. She has been cold to missionaries when they tried to talk to her, and has sent not the best text messages to us about many anti-mormon doctrine. A lot of people said she was a fireball... and child of Satan. But one day she came to church, and it was the first time meeting her, and I fell in love with her. I think that was the first time I felt true Christ-like love. I had no reason to love her, I just looked at her and knew she was a child of God, and that she was loved.

We then proceeded to visit her tea shop, baked her banana bread, and just friends with her. We talked with her, laughed with her, and last week, she invited us over for dinner－made it her self, and can I just say taiwanese food is WOW. THAT was a miracle. I mean the fact she invited us over haha... the food was a miracle too though. I know one day her family will be eternal. :)

 Serve those that are your enemies- they will become your friends :)

Love you all! keep safe and keep pressing forward!
#yaodiyu
zaijian!
~Sister Hickman 毛姐妹

Women shi meishi Jiemei 10/9

"We are the nothing Sisters"

So apparently about 95% of our mission is either in training or leadership position. We are neither. We are the 5% that don't have anything really special to do but be missionaries, so we are meishi jiemei's!!! :D But hey that's the minority, so that makes us special, right? 

Word of the Week: waterfall is "pubu"

Short Version: General Conference!!! Everyone should go back and watch that talk by President Uchtdorf "fourth floor last door." What an inspiring talk!

Long Version: We had an amazing baptism for Vicky Hu this week. I will try to get photos ba. She has an amazing testimony of service and helping others, and what makes it even better is that she is a nurse! :) Soooo we are bffs.

Funny version: We were talking to a single 35 yr old male, and he wasn't very interested in Jesus, but by the end he asked my companion and I if we like "taiwanese boy." 

Love,

Sister Christin Mao Hickman 

We are working on companionship unity ;) ~ my companion holding Sister Hughes and me getting jealous.

A Surprise Visit 10/2

Well my mom and grandma visited yesterday! Haha Mom can you send me the pictures? :) love you!

Chengyu of the week (chinese idiom): ji tong ya jiang: means two people speak different languages (like ji-chicken and ya-duck) so they cannot communicate, like a chicken and a duck. Much like my grandma and I haha
Short version: A typhoon came. We all wanted a typhoon, but then our apartment flooded and took 2 years to clean out. Also the bathroom ceiling caved in. We do not want typhoons.
Long version:
This chengyu has a lot of meaning for me this week because of the visit- here is what I sent president:

Just want to let you know that my mom and my grandma surprised me by coming to Hualian from Taoyuan to visit. I have told them in the past they are not allowed to do that, but they did it anyways. They gave me lots of food haha. But it was the first time I ever got to communicate with my grandma. She has taken care of me when I was younger, but she didn't speak English, and I didn't speak Chinese. She was so happy and proud that I could finally understand and speak to her after 20 years. She is 90yrs old, so it means a lot that finally someone from my mom's family (besides my mom) is able to communicate with her. I feel so blessed to be able to come to Taiwan, and learn to love my family more. When I talked to my mom and grandma for the first time in Chinese, I felt the spirit. I felt there was no longer a bridge between us. There was no more wall. I could actually communicate with her in her own language. I know this Gospel blesses families! It gave me the opportunity to help my family relationships! I knew that God wants me on a mission- He wants me to help the Taiwanese, and to love them, and learn to love my family even more.


No more typhoons, hao bu hao?
Ai nimen!
~Sister Mao

Birthday week 9/26

Such a great week full of miracles! One day I will let you all know haha.

Word of the Week: Hua(1) means flower!

Short Version: I got to pet a cat. I literally felt all the stress melt away. It was amazing. But then I had allergies for the next 24hrs.

Long Version: Zhuang Zi Xin got baptized!!! So awesome. Her testimony was great- she knew that God puts people in our lives for reasons. And she knows that every trial we face helps us get stronger. Love her! 

One day I get stuff and send pictures.

Love,

Sister Hickman

Mao Jie Mei

Thank you all for the birthday emails! Love you all!

My talent

Hello world! 

Word of the week: Zhi(1)Yin(1) apparently this is the word for a best friend that just knows you. Love it because the yin is the same yin as music, and I love music.

Short Version: Tomorrow is my birthday, so we are going to a cat cafe to pet cat's and eat ice cream and party! ... oh and also have a lesson

Long Version: Yesterday's lesson at church was about developing talents. One of our investigators/friends turns to me and says "hey your talent is eating a lot." Yes- I will help people not waste food :)

Also kind of funny is that all of our investigators like to hit me. My mom used to hit me (in a playful way) so I guess this is the taiwanese sign of affection. Hm

Love you all! Jia YOU!!!!

Sister Hickman

Moon Cakes!

While out being a missionary one day, this cat followed us, so we knocked on the door with this pet cat next to us. Our third companion ;). Later that night I re-enacted the cat. 

Ge wei dixiong jiemei ZAO AN!

Phrase of the week: Zao an taiyang, shijie shuo ni hao = Good morning sunshine, the earth says hello. An Elder told us that. Males are funny.

Short Version: I think a typhoon is coming

Long Version: Yes typhoooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnn

Here in Hualian we live on the 10th floor... so yes I think that would be fun. 

Fun fact: this week I said I had zhuangzhuang de toufa, so I said I have strong hair instead of curly hair. Pretty much the same I think haha. 

Jia You everyone! #yaodiyu

~Sister Hickman, Mao Jie Mei

Also Mooncakes! That is for the mid-autumn festival, which is coming soon. It's like flaky dough with custard inside and so good! Sometimes has a egg yolk inside for extra fun. Or if you are feeling extra american you can put an oreo on the inside.

#Twins

Sometimes people think we are twins ;).

Here is the ama from last week.

I have a minute. I ate mt fuji and drank avocado milk. Yeah it was a great week! 

Love,

ai nimen!

Sister Hickman

I have a man's name

So you know how I told you my name is Mao Cheng Yang? 3 Taiwanese laughed when I told them this week and said I had a man's name. Mom! Why did you give me a man's name! ;)

Short version: I think we make people worry sometimes haha

Long Version: We met the sweetest Ama this week! She has the cutest buck teeth. I will send pics next week.

Love you all! 

~Sister Hickman

"Little rocks make big story" -chinese proverb

Word of the week: Mao Cheng Yang~ This is my chinese name!!! (yes I finally learned it), and I finally realized what it means. It is ChengGong de Cheng so success! and YangGuan de Yang which is sunshine~! BUT most importantly, the Cheng is also ChengYu de Cheng which means a chinese idioms and I love chinese idioms. Coincidence? I think not.

Short Version: Chinese yes very good fun.

Long version: I was feeling pretty discouraged this week so my companion told me that in TaiDong they had to bike a path with lots of little pebbles and it was super annoying. But if you looked at the big picture, it was a super pretty and intricate path that allowed the Chinese to ride on instead of dirt. I think of it like life- we have little pebbles or trials in our life that helps make us stronger, more intricate and more beautiful :). So that is how our chinese proverb came about- because little pebbles make a big story of LIFE.

Zai Jian for now! Love you all! Wo ai nimen!

#yaodiyu

~Sister Mao Cheng Yang

Pics: I found an albino asian

Went to the Taibei Zoo!!!

Wow, You Could Really Improve

New quote of the week from working on being more mature: if Jesus was watching right now, what would He say? "Wow, you could really improve!"

Word of the week: suiguotou (sway gwo toe)~ overslept! 

Short: So our mission trainers are companions, and we are companions, so we kind of just switched haha.

Long: Well... we are newbies. But we totally got this! Also my favorite moment this week was probably when an investigator looked to my companion and tells her in English: "you look like you've lost a lover." Oh and when the Elders acted out "at the grocery store" for English class, and I gave them a bag and he was like "oh looks like you bought some... some trash?!" yup it was a bag full of trash :). 

Love you all! Keep in touch!

#yaodiyu

Zai Jian for now!

~Sister Hickman (Sister Mao)

What happens when you and your companion are both newbies?

1.) You get 2 Sisters 1 bike :)

2.) You accidentally break rules..(.it was an accident though ;))

3.) fun (because you realize neither of you really know what you are doing haha)

So Sister Althoff is my new companion, and like what??? We've been here three months!

Word of the Week: ke(3)lian(2) (someone called us this... I didn't understand so had to ask someone.) It means pitiful.

Short version: we LOOK like asians... until you hear us speak :3

Long Version:Sum up of the week- so we had to send a bike to Yonghe for my other companion, and someone called, but I forgot about this so I was SO confused and did NOT understand their chinese. They asked if there were any taiwanese in the home, and I looked at my skin.... then said no none haha. It was funny and I finally figured out what they were saying! So cool!

Love you all! I will let you know how it goes!

Zai Jian!

~Sister (Mao) Hickman

The Tiny-Phoon

Short version: Well, I got distracted by my sister talking about the new pokemon game
Long Version: In the words of my funny companion, as it is her last day in Taiwan (tomorrow I get a new companion!): the typhoon was WEAK. A blow-dryer was stronger than that. Mainly people cancelled appointments and no one is one the streets because Taiwan freaks out about typhoons. But there was a ray of sunshine through it all- literally her name was Sunny and she is STUNNING. 

So yup! New investigator is Sunny! Met her on the day of the "typhoon" and she bought us lunch, and was praying to meet someone on her walk :).
Bye

The New Finding Method

Just to let you know my new way of finding people is called getting lost. We found lots of new friends that way haha. Including a cute foreign married couple (they were about to go get massages) that gave us their email and phone number in case we ever needed anything. How about a lesson? ;)

Well, I took the lead this week, and all I can say is I'm not sure if I was born a missionary, but I am gonna do my best this week! And I think that that is all that matters in the end :D. 

We had fun eating expensive pizza. 

Word of week: huoguo is hotpot!

Short: I've got a minute before I got to go

Long: I'm still working on planning and setting goals. That includes planning on what I will say in emails haha.

Love you all! Wo ai nimen!

~Sister Hickman

~Mao Jie Mei

Taking the Lead

So this week we decided to shift roles- my companion gave me basically full responsibility, and even the word responsibility makes me unhappy and stressed (oh word of the week: zeren- zeh ren means responsibility). So it's been a week full of decision-making for a certain indecisive half-asian sister missionary. And lots of breakdowns. Lots. 

Short version: My companion and I got matching dresses, so now people think that Sister missionaries have to wear uniforms. 

Long version: I somehow managed to break the word of wisdom 3 times in 1 week because I drank a banana latte, red tea, and black tea. Everyone this is what happens when you can't read chinese haha. 

Also a cute 28yr old sister asked us for dating advice. We told her to go South Taiwan. #revelation #askthemissionaries

We also told her to meet one of our new members, and had a lesson with them both (new responsibility of missionaries- match-making? keneng ba)

I'll let you know how decision making goes, and if I survive the week

Jia you everyone and zai jian for now!

#yaodiyu

~Mao Jie Mei

P.s. the rain never bothered me anyway

A Great Mile Stone

Hey everyone I just want to let you know I hit a great milestone in my life last night. I killed my first cockroach. And I only screamed once :D. I hope everyone is proud.

Word of the week: ingwen (pronounced eeng-when) mean English!

Short Version: I'm famous again! we got a new English commercial (every Wednesday at 7 we teach a free English class) and let me just say it is amazing!! Go look it up on the Taiwan Taibei blog or search on Youtube English Class Taiwan Missionaries look for a logo with a missionary on a bike and watch it! I got a pretty nice hair flip in the video. Let me know if you want an autograph. Go and share it on facebook too!! haha tag me in it ;)

(Here is the link to the viedo she's talking about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VeAbsR9p5c)

Long Version: wow that short version is very long, so be prepared for the long version!! 

So normally I just do funny things but on Wednesday I actually had a huge miracle. So serious time! :)

A lady named Jennifer showed up at English class, and I remember I had given her an English class invite on a P-day. She came, without a phone reminder or anything, and was interested. So far on my mission I have felt so down on my chinese. But I tried my hardest to explain about our church and she set up for next wednesday, last wednesday. Running out of time- but on wednesday we had two lessons so we split and I went with Sister Althoff, my MTC comp who has also been here for 6 weeks. Our chinese was not good during the lesson, but I learned that she loved her son, did not have an easy life, and Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ loved her. We shared that message with her, and told her she can pray, and she cried. I knew that it didn't matter what chinese level I was at- it was important that the Spirit could testify of love.

Love you all! Go be happy!!

~Mao Jie Mei

Happy dragon boat festival!! There is a pic of me and Taibei 101

Sunny with a 100% chance of rain

Taiwan reminds me of those water rides where it says "you will get wet, you may get SOAKED!" or something cheesy.

Also it's like 100 degree celsius and rainy. It's boiling here! ;)

Word of the week: sui bien means whatever. example: this word of the week is sui bien(actually all of them are), and I don't even know if it's spelled correctly. :D

Short: go be happy

Longer version: We decided we are gonna be the happiest missionaries on the mission! It's gonna be a great week! Too bad once we decided that a couple hours later I was in a bad mood. My companion says "what happened to us deciding we were gonna be happy?" Then I started crying haha. Can I just say it's actually really hard to just decide to be happy. But we're gonna do it! Who's with us!?

Had the best P-day last week! Went to Jilon, which is super rainy. One side of tunnel, no rain. Other side I felt like we were transported to the rainforrest with a thunderstorm. Poor lady was biking up a hill against strong rains and winds with lightning in the background. All us missionaries sighed "awww" when we saw her. Xin ku ta!

In Jilon we got to light a lantern and send it off. On our lantern, we of course put things like our names, church, "repent ye repent ye" and #familiesareforever with a temple.

Also got to see Sister Ochao from the MTC! She is beautiful!

I hope everyone is good. Just go out, serve people and be happy! You can cry a little too if needed.

#yaodiyu

#zaijian

#shenqibaobe

Love you all! thanks for the warm wishes!

~Mao Jie Mei

Best week EVER! oh and pokemon

Hwaaaaayy Nimen Hao!?

Wow this week was great! It was so good maybe I can just leave my mission now cause I don't think it can get better than this. But it can only get better right ;)?

Word of Week: shenqibaobe (probably most important word I've learned thus far. It means pokemon)

It is now my goal to learn all 600+ pokemon names. My companion asked what that has to do with my missionary purpose. Hey, they said work with your talents! Pikachu sounds like pikachu, and charmander is literally smallfiredragon.

Short version: So many miracles. Also update on keys I have not forgotten the keys lately. Only because my companion always makes sure I have them. Also because I was demoted and no longer hold the keys. 

Long version: Literally so much happened. We had two great baptisms this week! Chen DX and Lai DX are awesome people! I have learned so much from them!

My companion told me when I don't understand something it's probably taiwanese (taiyu). So that's why I'm having such a hard time everyone is speaking taiyu! Right....? Ok maybe not.

Oh I remembered something. My first week here I was doing laundry and put all my clothes in the dryer instead of the washer. That was pretty funny. 

Another fun thing is the Ye Jiating. The dad is like 90 years old, so he's kindof hard to understand. So translations go as follows:

The older baba says something mumbled in chinese. The dad translates back for us in clearer chinese. My companion translates to Enlgish for me. I say something in mumbled chinese. Companion translates to clarify my meaning. The dad yells in chinese what she said to the older baba. But when the older baba smiles... :D the lights descend from heaven and the angels sing.

What does the Fox say just came on. We must leave. 

Zai jian for now

#Iwantchinesemusic

wo ai nimen!

~Mao Jie Mei

Ps be a sassy cat

Also that is me with my shared last name/maybe relative Mao Ze Dong de Mao. People tell me not to say that. But I see the resemblance.

I'm Famous!

Nimen hao?? 

Wow another great week in Taiwan! Favorite moment was when we were finding and having lessons in a thunderstorm.Preach in all weathers ;)

Word of the week: chi fan (pronounced... kindof like it sounds... I'm sorry the more chinese I get the more english bad) it means to eat!

Short version: Rain rain go away come again another day. Or never.

Long Version: So a lot of the people I meet at the church from Taoyuan apparently recognize my name and say they know my mom, grandma or grandfather. Actually super cool! They get pretty excited! Hope my Chinese ability doesn't ruin my family's honor. Here's a picture of me with them! 

Here's a picture of a sassy cat.

Wo ai nimen! 

Buena suerte!

#yaodiyu

#huigai because next time I'll write more!

                    ~Mao jie mei 

I only have like 3 minutes

oh wait. I was just informed that we have an hour and a half of email. Nevermind I have like 33 minutes. ooo this will be fun then

 

I feel like my companion is probably so annoyed at me.

This is our morning routine: she's dressed waiting for me on the couch. I come over she asks "you ready to go?" "yup!" Got your wallet? *runs back into bedroom to get it. "got your lunch?" *runs into kitchen. "got your nametag?" *runs into study room "got your helmet?" *picks it up from table "shoes?" *changes shoes. At least most of the days I got the keys :D

 

Word of the week: "zhanglang" pronounced... eh I don't even know. It means cockroach though, which Taiwan has lots of! Including a huge scary one we saw in a market so we are never going to that market again.

Also sounds like how we say "Elder" a little so I'm always afraid I'll go "Hey cockroach!" instead of "Hey Elder!"

 

Short version: "Food's great" correction from last week. Realized the smell on the street was not sewage it was stinky tofu.

 

Long version: my new goal is to make a chinese person laugh. And also to understand chinese jokes/humor. I feel so sad when during church someone says something funny in chinese and everyone laughs but I don't get it. I just want to laugh with the chinese folks :,(. So any advice on how to do that is welcome haha.

 

Also my companion put a boiled egg in the microwave and it exploded ALL over. Like a mini bomb!

 

Went shopping last week and every time I saw a cat print on clothing I stopped and said I wanted it. My comp probably thinks I'm crazy. Also a cat rubbed her leg this week. i was jealous.

 

Ok now i really only have 3 minutes left.

 

The Jehovahs Witness missionaries found us again. They're following us I think. And we accidentally gave them our address.

 

Anyways, language is coming... ish. I have faith, and if there is faith there's a way!

 

Love you all! Wo ai nimen!

 

Zai jian for now!

#yaodiyu

 

~Mao Jie Mei

 

 

The picture is of us in front of a miao (buddhist temple). Or as I call it a "meow."

I think I'm in a foreign film of New York city in Chinese without Subtitles

Well here I am in central CENTRAL Taibei! My first area! Near Taibei 101 if you want a reference

Chinese word of the week: lihai (pronounced lee hi and means impressive!)

Short version: Food's great

Long version: here are ten things that have happened/things I've realized since being in Taiwan

1. I should've SYL'd more (aka spoke more chinese) sorry Lao Shi's I was so stubborn lol.

2. Totally almost crashed into a Taxi and fell off my bike. Like really surprised I'm not injured. #miraclesandangels. #yaodiyu (family don't read this one... I should've put that at the beginning)

3. Saw a cat on a leash

4. I think my biggest rejections so far was by the stray cats that won't let me pet them

5. The one time I was like "let's go talk to these people" they were the Jehovah's witness missionaries. It was just... awkward.

6. Biking in a skirt actually isn't that bad. Lots of freedom. I recommend it to everyone.

7. Mixed up kanbudao and kanbudong. So accidentally said I was blind.

8. I'm tired

9. Yea

10. still tired.

Also only have a minute left

well wo ai nimen! Nimen shi zui hao de!

Ask me if you have any questions

Zai jian for now

~Mao Jie Mei

Attachments area

I'm Going Home!!!

My wonderful friend Sister Amanda Lee drew this representation of me as a new missionary in Taiwan trying to speak Chinese with my cute asian trainer.

I'm Going Home!!! *to Taiwan

Today's the day! The last time I get to email everyone before I'm off to Taiwan with my sub-par mandarin skills! Hen ban! How wonderful!

Short version: I think I'm getting anxious. Mostly excited. But scared.

Long version: I was having a stressful Monday (I know Mondays are always stressful) but then I started looking outward and serving those around me and I felt much better. So point is if you feel bad go serve someone! Talk to someone, or do something!

Celebration for last MTC email: This is the story of my second day at the MTC. I was feeling really stressed with the language, and my teacher was asking a question and I had to ask people around me what he said. It was "what is the thing that makes you most happy?" I was tearing up because I was so frustrated, but then he calls on me. I awkwardly smile, then someone else goes "she likes cats!" I just nod. He asks why I like cats. Embarrassed and frustrated, I try to speak a little chinese, but end up saying everything in English going something like "I don't know they're cute and fluffy and I found my cat on the street and I loved her but then she died." And then I cried in class. He quickly asked another Elder why he liked the unicycle. Looking back, it was so funny haha.

My dream I had this week: A swimming pool filled with cats, and I crowd surf across the cats. And I'm not allergic. And I don't hurt the cats. 

Well, next time I'll be in Taiwan! Jia you!!! #yaodiyu

Wo ai nimen! Zai Jian!,

Mao Jie Mei

This is the beautiful lady we taught who is from Taiwan! She was amazing to talk to! She said she posted our pic on her Facebook haha.

Awkwrd ever awkrard (Week 7!)

Above: our last day with our sweet teacher Ou Yang Jie Mei. I miss her!

So I've gotten to the point where my Mandarin has dragged my English down so much that I can't speak in English nor Mandarin. Makes things a little awkward.

Week word Mandarin: ganga (gone gah) - awkward. Also wugui is turtle (like master wugui in Kung fu panda!) so if you put that together you get awkward turtle in Chinese. You're welcome.

Short version: We only have two weeks left before I'm in Taiwan. I think I should probably practice Chinese now, or else I'm gonna be really confused when I get there. Hm...

Long version: We got a new Chinese teacher this week. He's pretty good (even though Ou Yang Jie Mei's still me favorite ;)). He asked me- in Chinese- if I studied Chinese before. I turned to my companion and go "what did he just ask me?" I think that sufficiently answered the question. 

I am so sad- this week one of our Elders, Elder Lainhart, is going home for surgery on his shoulder. He was sick for the whole first month, had a cavity filling fall out, and now tore cartilage in his shoulder. He was my pokemon discussion buddy :'(. But I'm glad he has a good attitude about it. He will be back in two months! His optimism and enjoyment of life has inspired me to be happier, and not complain about things in my life! And to always go forward in hope in life!

So in memory of him we took a picture of us all doing his awesome pose. 

Disfruta la vida! wait what uh... I mean

Xiexie nimen!

Zai Jian!

Wo ai nimen!

~Mao Jie Mei

Sister Hickman

The pose of AWESOMENESS

So 

Women meiyou hen duo de shijian (We don't have much time)

Here's the photo from last week. I look at it and I get really happy. You better get happy looking at it too. It will cure.

We don't have much time now- we're Sister Training Leaders so we interviewed all 13 Sisters in our zone. Then we go around and say night night prayers with them all, and today we get 7 new Sisters so... LIFE IS BUSY THERE'S NO TIME!

Mandarin word of the day: Kaixin (pronounced "k-eye sheen") means fun!!!

Also fun this week was how much tones affect mandarin! 1 is high flat tone, 2 is low rising slow, 3 is low up-down-up like "v" and 4 is high falling fast. If you say a tone wrong, the word could have a completely different meaning.

Examples:

Shu1fu3 is comfortable

Shu4fu4 is captive/hostage

We may or may not have messed up with the above example. I'll let you decide.

Short version: all is well. It's fun. Mission is a blast.

Long version: um I'm actually not sure. Our district keeps drawing hand pictures on the chalk board. We call them the "lai" or come hand, because Chinese people beckon people toward them by waving hand downward with palm down. I'll include a picture of the 50 hands they drew on the board. 

Oh I know! We got to skype and talk to an actual person from Taiwan this week! She showed us her dog, then talked to us... a lot. And we got like 10.6% of what she said. Good news is that she understood us!!! I'll send a pic of our skype too.

Here's something spiritual for once: Elder Ballard spoke for Easter, so that was really great to hear him speak about his testimony of Jesus Christ!

We showed an Easter video to an "investigator" (who is actually just our teacher), and she started crying after- it was really touching. Here are the links: 

~English: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-02-2000-follow-him-an-easter-message-about-jesus-christ?category=topics/easter&lang=eng

~If you want you can try in mandarin (haha I got like 67% of it mainly because I already listened in English):https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2016-02-2000-follow-him-an-easter-message-about-jesus-christ?category=topics/easter&lang=zho 

Nimen shi zui hao de! (you guys are the best!)

Zai jian! Bye-bye!

~Mao Jie Mei

Sister Hickman

"Women dou fan cuo" (we all make mistakes)

That's my favorite sentence to say in mandarin. 

Hope this works. It's our st patrick's day photo, and there's a leprechaun.

Preview attachment IMG_0063.JPGIMG_0063.JPG4.7 MB

Word of the word: Meiguo- may gwoe (means America, or "beautiful land)

Short version: My companion is staring me down because she's down and once again I'm writing this letter last minute.

Long version: It has been a pretty good week. I had an army of tsum tsums on my desk.  Here's a good scripture that helped me this week: 

Alma 36:27- 27 "And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me

 from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my

 trust in him, and he will still deliver me."

Funny story: So we were pretending to teach little children (Elders that were little boys basically) and my companion asked them what they like to do with their dad, then she turns to me and asks how God shows His love for me, and I say "I like to play frisbee with him" and everyone starts laughing then I realize I said I liked to play frisbee with God. Uh... I thought she asked what I liked to do with my dad. But that's ok I'm sure God would play frisbee with me too....

Wo ai ni men! Xie xie for the support!

Zai Jian (good-bye) for now!

~Mao Jie Mei

My army: