I've gotten a little more adjusted to Taiwan

Hey everybody!

So I've gotten a little more adjusted to Taiwan. Still kind of struggling with the language and just overall the culture here in Taiwan.

So after I emailed on Monday (Sunday for you) we went to Dajia. It's in our area but it's pretty far away so we have to take a bus. When we got there we went to a Taoist temple (Jenn Lann Temple). It was super weird. I don't get that religion and I don't think really anyone does. It was weird to walk in and see them walking around in the temple with incense and bowing down to weird sculptures. Me and my trainer were trying to figure out what was going on the entire time. We were unsuccessful and determined nobody actually knew what was going on.

The week was pretty good - lots of street contacting and getting rejected. I've gotten a little better and I can understand a couple more words here and there. I've memorized so much vocab here it's ridiculous and still have much more to memorize.

Emotionally I've been doing a bit better though. I've been enjoying Taiwan a little more. I haven't been able to try out McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Dominoes, Subway, or KFC here. For some reason, my trainer thinks that if we eat there it won't help me adjust to the culture and just sets me back in my language abilities. We like to go to this rice place call FoBo's (or something.) It's really good. It's just fried rice but it's SO GOOD. I don't know what it is about the rice here but it's really good. Our area is pretty dead so it's hard to keep busy. We went to a dinner appointment earlier this week and that was really fun. We went to this old lady's house. She was really nice and had good English. She made us spaghetti. It was Taiwanese-ified so it had a weird taste. But it was alright. Her son isn't a member so we tried to talk to him about the gospel. He said he'll get baptized when he's 50. He's pretty funny. He went off and was talking about how he worships this god called Magdan or something Taoist. I was laughing pretty hard because he would notice that I wasn't understanding and then he would go, "I DON'T KNOW. YOU DON'T KNOW." He was really funny despite rejecting our message and trying to weird us out.

The young men's leader here named Scott is really helpful. When he goes with us to activities he helps translates and stuff. He understands because he felt the way in America. I really like Scott. He's a good guy. I've gotten used to the smell. I can't really smell the Zhongguo (China).

We live pretty close to the church and share the apartment with the Shalu elders, Shurtz and Trotter. I like them a lot.

We have these pass off dates for language and they are basically the source of my stress. They make us set goals for certain dates so we can pass off certain sections for language. It's really stressful and kills me. I hate having goals and stuff like that. I feel awkward a lot of the time because I just sit there in the lessons for the most part. I'll make a comment every now and then but I feel bad because I can't contribute or teach. Other than that the week has been pretty alright. It rained a lot. A TON. I think it may be raining right now. When it rains here... it RAINS. I still haven't bought rain gear. Mostly because my trainer doesn't know where to get any. Fun times.

Alright! That's all I got. I forgot my camera so I'll send some pictures of the Taoist temple and stuff next week. I love you all so very much. Taoist people are weird they have a lot of celebrations here and they do weird stuff. They constantly are doing something. All week they've been lighting off fireworks and parading through the streets. They lit off fireworks at 3:00 in the morning. That was a fun night.....