WEEKLY UPDATE-- I suppose it is time.

  6:19:59 PM HST

Time to write an email about my week. First thing's first. I feel like they should change the way they do the Earthquake drills in elementary schools. The reason I bring this up being, this past tuesday morning we had an earthquake. It was not that violent but it was big enough to shake up my companion real well. While our apartment was shaking and things were falling she came running out of our room and shouted, "What do we do?! Do we get under the desks?!" All i could say was, "Welcome to Taiwan!"🤗 Sister Watson is a sweetheart. I love her a lot.

Fun things about being in YuLi, we teach english class twice a week in two different towns. Tuesday Nights in RuiSui, Wednesday nights in YuLi and hopefully Saturday afternoons in ChiShang (we are looking to open up a third class). 

We had exchanges this week. Took an hour train ride to HuaLian city and spent the day as Sister Austad's companion. During an exchange we met; a extremely hyperactive dog named honey who could not, for the life of her, stand still for 2 seconds, grace, a Taiwanese lady who grew up in Vietnam and then moved to America for school and now is back in Taiwan because God told her to come here. She is a very devout Buddhist and Jehova's Witness. We walked into a McDonalds to find that the first and second floor (except for one table) was reserved for a group of high schooler's on their "Graduation trip". I don't know why you would go to McDonald's to celebrate graduation...anyway, at this McDonald's we met  El Jose Maria this dude from Spain who spoke un poco de inglés so we tried talking to him using the best high school spanish that we could remember. We asked him "¿qué estás haciendo aquí?" (What are you doing here?) El Jose Maria said, "El Jose is free man. Alone boy, alone girl, NO PROBLEM! Go and see beautiful, No problem." 😂Gracias, El Jose!

The GREATEST thing about this week was that we were able to take a 5 hour train ride to Taipei to attend MISSION CONFERENCE! WOOT! Every missionary in our mission was in attendance. Why the special Mission Confernce? Well, Elder Quentin L. Cook,Elder Ulisses Soares,  Randy D. Funk, and a few others really amazing leaders of our church came to share a message. It was the most powerful meeting I have ever attended. I wrote a lot about what was said in my journal so when I get home (In 9 weeks....😱😱) I can tell you all about it. 

Well, don't want to bore you all with my words. Shout out to my friends who have officialy finished their time in the MTC and are now heading into the FIELD!! 🤘I LOVE YOU! 

-Sister GOo

Sister Watson

New companion in Yuli.

WEEKLY UPDATE--It's about time.

 4:41:00 PM HST

I know, it's been a while, but I've got time so let me tell you about all the new, crazy, and exciting things that have happened. My last companion Sister Cheng got her VISA! She leaves for the MTC in June. 😀 I GOT TRANSFERRED. Yes, after being in my last area (BaDe) for a good 7 1/2 months, President finally decided it was time for me to leave. We had to take a 5 hour train ride from Taipei down to Hualian and then another train from Hualian down to YuLi. It's a long way. I got moved down south, to a little place called YuLi in the HuaLian area. Surrounded by moutains and by the ocean side. We get to bike along the coast, pick coconuts off the ground, talk to people on pig farms and be chased through rice fields by all the stray dogs running around here. This place is the spitting image of Hawaii.  He's a funny guy. He is preparing me very well for when I go home in 11 weeks.  YuLi is a very intimate place. Everybody is on a first name basis with everybody. You can bike around the entire thing in 60 minutes(that's if you bike really slow). Moving from TaoYuan to YuLi is like jumping off a horse and onto a sloth. The pace of life is just so slow here. Im still trying to adjust to it. Everything is so chill. YuLi is very chill. Everything closes at 8:00. Like Kauai. So street finding at night can be a struggle sometimes BUT it IS a very special place. Why put emphasis on the special? Because YuLi unlike any other place in Taiwan....YuLi is home to 3 of Taiwan's largest Psychiatric Hospitals. Just like how the U.S. sends their homeless to Hawaii, Taiwan dumps all their crazies down in YuLi...We are fortunate enough to come across people that don't seem to be all there. We've met people named; apple, fish, box, pig... It makes things very interesting here.

Another special thing about this place is that our chapel is on the second floor of the  richest man in YuLi's house and our apartment is right about the chapel. On the third floor of the rich man's (whose name is Mr. Hong) house. The members in YuLi are not enough to make a ward so right now it is just a branch. The YuLi branch on a good sunday have a turnout of about 35 people in sacrament meeting (missionaries included). The members here are pretty interesting. We've actually got two Haole's in our ward. Their wives are Taiwanese and they have been living here for a while.  There is a couple called the Gunn's whose house is in the middle of a rice plantation and they have 13 really big dogs (max, grace, lucy, nina, nan, happy, QQ.....thats all i've met so far). Our members, although few in number, are so willing to help us missionaries and help this branch grow and become a ward. AND, the members here COOK REALLY GOOD FOOD!

With a new area, comes a new companion. I've got a new companion. Her name is Sister Anne Marie Watson from Salt Lake City Utah. She has been on her mission for 9 months. She is a crazy good artist, pianist, and loves to talk. She's pretty great. 

YuLi is a pretty small area but the entire area that we cover is pretty big. I am so excited to be here and I am sooo HAPPY to be serving in such a beautiful place in Taiwan. I know that these last two transfers are going to be a blast. We are going to KILL it here in YuLi! 

Mom, I hope me writting this email today makes you happy. It was good to see the fam today! I hope you all are excited for Summer Break! I know I AM! 😆😆 

Love you guys!

Sister Goo.