Amy Xinzhu, Taiwan November 1, 2010

Da jia hao!!!!

     This week has been amazing as pretty much all weeks are. The biggest and most awesome thing is that Chen mei he got baptized on Saturday!!! She is 18 years old and so amazing. Her older sister is a member of the church but the rest of her family isn't. On Friday we had a bit of a scare because of her dad. Here in Taiwan if you are under the age of 20 you need to get permission from your parents to get baptized. I think I told you this a few weeks ago. Anyways, so her dad said that she couldn't get baptized. So the next day Chen mei he, her sister, Sister Zhang and I all fasted and prayed that Mei he's dad heart would be softened and that she could get baptized. Well on friday we called her and asked what her dad and he said that his biggest worry was that she would regret her discision of joining the church. Because her dad lives in a different part of Taiwan and he wouldn't be able to get the consent form to us fast enough we found out from President Grimley that we needed to talk to her dad ourselves and hear him consent to her getting baptized. Sister Zhang called him and had a long heated discussion. Afterward all of us weren't certain if she could get baptized. Long story short an hour or so later Chen mei he called us and said that he consented and that he would send the form to her. President Grimely also said that if he promised to sign the form and get it to her as fast as possible she could get baptized tomorrow. We were all so excited!!! To say the least! The baptism was wonderful. Many ward members came and supported her. It was really interesting to hear a baptismal service in Chinese. It made me think of Alaina's baptism last week and how much I wished I could have been there. A ward member baptized her and the Spirit was so strong. It was amazing!! I wish I could fully describe the joy that I felt as I saw her get baptized. We have been working with her for a  while and after all the stress with her dad it was so great to see her finally get baptized. All of the missionaries sang a musical number after she was baptized. When she was confirmed the next day it was great. She has such a huge smile on her face. I know that she will be a wonderful example to her family and to the members of the ward.

       On Thursday and Friday we did exchanges with the Zhubei Sisters. I went to Zhubei with Sister Lin. She is a native. We taught a lesson at the McDonalds to a new investigator. I never thought I would give a lesson on a McDonalds but it was fine. We have also taught lessons numerous times in convenient stores like Seven-11. Its kind of weird but I have gotten over the awkwardness of having people walk in the doors every few minutes and looking at us funny. Sister Lin gave a really great lesson about prophets and prayer. She used a great object lesson that I hadn't seen before. Her English isn't very good so the whole exchange it was sometimes hard to talk to her but we did ok. It really helped my Chinese. I also had the opportunity to eat chou dou fu or stinky toufu. It is the worst smelling stuff I have every smelled. Right up there with pig intestines. I saw it in China but never got up the nerve to eat it. But before I got to Taiwan I decided to try it and to not be afraid to try weird things. It actually wasn't too bad. I wouldn't order it again but it wasn't bad. I realized I think in every e-mail I have talked about food and the weird foods I have eaten. haha but that is just part of the experience I guess. I think I'm running out of crazy foods to try so maybe next time I won't talk about food. haha  On Sunday I along with the other missionaries in the ward gave a short talk on missionary work. It was a little shaky but it went good. We also sang the  EFY medly in Chinese. In combined Relief Society and Priesthood with talked about peike or member visits with the missionaries. The ward is having a hard time with missioanry work and with peike so we are trying to not only help them understand the importance of it but also get them excited about missionary work. The missionaries along with the ward mission leader did a short skit of what to and not to do during a peike. The members really enjoyed it.

        Things with Sister Zhang are going good. I have learned a lot. We have had our struggles though. Its been interesting to have a native companion. I have learned a lot about Taiwanese culture. There have been times when I have felt like she hasn't really listened to what I have to say. But I have learned that I need to be open with what I am thinking and just tell her when I have problems or questions which has been really helpful. I am so grateful for her example. I know that she was assigned to be my companion for a reason. I am so grateful to be here in Xinzhu with her and to share the Gospel with the people here. They have such amazing faith. I know that this Gospel is true. It has brougth me so many blessing in my life and my families. I am so grateful for the missionaries who taught my parents the Gospel and how that has eternal blessed our lives. I know that missionary work is so important and I am excited to be a part of it. I love you all!!! Have a great week!!!

 

 

All my love,

Sister Papritz

Yang Jiemei

 

 

Word of the week: Gamma!! (gaaama)  It means basically "what are you doing?!?! or what the heck! haha  The word of the day was brought to you by Sister Zhang and Sister Papritz. :)

Austin - Madison Wisconsin - October 25, 2010

Whatupfrizzle at the housegrizzle and throughout the worldizzle?

 

Hello, this is Elder Papritz. I'm still doing well. In two weeks I'll be hittin' 6 months, I was thinking about that and it made me sad. This week Elder Cook and I have been going nuts preparing for a baptism, contacting people, getting returning appointments and in general just rocking the streets of Milwaukee. On Saturday Joshua Ceja got baptized, he is only 9 years old but he is in a part member, less-active family. And we definitely saw some miracles from it. His Mom spoke at the baptism on the Holy Ghost -- she had never given a talk before in her life and hadn't even gone to church in a year. She was soooo nervous, in fact, she just got up there and started crying. I thought it was because of the spirit but then was like, "oooh I'm soo nervous..." haha so that was unlucky, but then she went to church the next day! It was sick, Josh came with his tithing even though no one told him to, he is suuuch a smart kid. He will single handedly turn around his family.

 

This week we have a dinner appointment every day (and in some cases a lunch appointment too) It's going to be nuts, I'm kind of terrified, last time this happened I was not feeling good and even had to throwup a couple times haha. Oh man, they just stuuuff us full of food. Every around here is so excited for Halloween, it's nothing like I've ever seen it anywhere else. People had Halloween decorations up in September. In fact, at a dinner appointment last night I found a fake hand in the house and, of course, as missionaries we are obligated to greet people and shake their hands. So I tucked the fake hand in my coat and then would greet them so politely, "Buenas tardes, como ha estado?" and then I go to give them a handshake and then I let go of the hand and when they look down and see my hand detached from my body they'd freeak out. It was SO funny. And the family was a huge family and they are all very well humoured so they thought it was just hilarious. Then we had baked potatoes and  pork ribs and I thought of my family :'(.

 

Last week Elder Robbins from the seventy spoke to our mission. It was awesome. He is an incrediblysmart man. I was definitely taking careful notes, he is on the missionary counsel for the church including was the personal tutor for the missionaries in The District 2 (for those that don't know, the church filmed a district in Los Angeles for 5 or 6 months as an instructonal video for all missionaries) so he has seen a lot of missionaries and been to a lot of missions. Elder Cook and I are very happy right now, our district is just soaring and our zone is bustling with excitement for the work. Our numbers were way up the last couple of weeks and we even lead the mission in a couple which hasn't happened in a LONG time for this area.

 

Things are more exciting than ever. Our mission is also going to get two new Spanish missionaries next transfer so we're going to talk to the Assistents and see if we can take them out street contacting for their first day. It'll be tight (but no dead sheep yet, I'll save that for my first boy).

 

Love you all, thank you so much for the letters and stuff. It's real tight. I have so many people that love me and care for me. I can't express the kind of joy that gives me. I see a lot of people here in the city of Milwuakee with broken lives, torn relationships and no love. If nothing else, my mission has given me an appreciation for the life I have. It's tight.

 

Sincerely yours,

Elder Papritz

 

Amy Xinzhu, Taiwan October 25, 2010

My dear family!

          How are ya'll doing? This week has been crazy weather wise! I'm sure mom you were tracking the typhoon coming to Taiwan every day. It ended up not coming. I dont' really know what happened to it since we cannot watch the news. We did get a lot of rain though. It was crazy riding my bike in the rain. My skirt by the end had a 4-5 inch ring around the bottom where it was soaked. I loved it though. I have a really bright yellow raincoat with green and blue patches on the shoulders. Very stylish. haha It keeps the rain out so I am grateful. It also was really windy. Crazy windy. This week Chen mei he had her baptism interview!! She will be baptized this next Saturday. The only problem is that she is 18 and here you need parents premission to get baptized until you are 20 years old. When she wrote a letter to ask her dad and then he talked to her he said that she could get baptized but that he would not sign the consent form. UGH!! Her older sister is a member and the rest of her family is Zhanglao Jiao or Presbyterian. We are praying that her father's heart wil be softened and that he will let her get baptized. Our other investigators are doing great. We are still meeting with the Chen family with the two really cute girls. The 10 year old is praying everyday!! We taught them the second lesson this week and it went really well. They are set to get baptized on the 13th of November. This week we also had two ward activities. Crazy! One was a Halloween party which was fun. The Relief Socitey president invited us. They had decorations everywhere in the church. They even did Trunk or treating in the parking lot. The other activity was called POP. It was a calligraphy class. It was a lot of fun. It was great to get to know the ward members and gain their trust. A lot of them don't have great feelings toward the missionaries because the wards here used to be part of the Taichung mission and I guess the missionaries baptized a lot of people but a lot of them are now inactive. So the people are nervous to give referrals to the missionaries. They think we will just baptize people and then they will be inactive I guess. Its frustrating but we are trying really hard to serve them and help them see how important missionary work is.

          Things with Sister Zhang are going great. She is awesome. We have a lot of fun together. This week she had me try 1,000 year old egg. Basically its an egg that they had some kind of ingrediants to and then I think they firmment it. It comes our green and goopy in the middle. It was so gross!!!!! I won't describe what it tasted like but it was gross. I did want to try it so you can't fully blame Sister Zhang. On the other hand we ate at a really good resturant with Curry noodles. YUMMY!!! It had chicken, potatoes, carrots, and onions. I love it!! We are eating there again today. Yum!!

          There is one experience I wanted to share. In the last General Conference President Monson talked about gratitude and how we need to be grateful for everything that we have. It also helps us through trials. Last monday as we went up to the Mao family for FHE I once again was faced with the big bridge and hill. As I rode my bike I prayed not only for Heavenly Father to help me get up the hill but a majority of my prayer was thanking him for the many blessing He has given me. It made the trial of going up the hill so much easier. I know that if we have gratitude for the things that Heavenly Father has given us that He will bless us more. So I invite you all to in your prayers tonight to just give a prayer of gratitude. I know that as you do so you will feel more love toward our Heavely Father and will recieve more blessings. I love you all. Thank you so much for all of your love and support as I have been on my mission. I have truly felt your prayers sustain me as I am sharing the Gospel with the people here in Xinzhu. This Gospel is amazing! I have already seen it bless so many people's lives. I love you all!!!

All my love,

Sister Amy Papritz

Amy Xinzhu, Taiwan October 18, 2010

Da jia hao!!!

   How are you all doing? This week has been long but awesome. I have NEVER riddin a bike so much in my whole life!!!! After I wrote my e-mail last Monday that evening we went to visit the Mao family for FHE. My companion failed to mention that they lived at the top of a HUGE hill! As I was biking up I thought my legs would bust and my lungs would explode. At one point Sister Zhang was so far ahead of me I could bearly see her except for her blinking light on the back of her bike. On our bikes we have a small flashlight on the front, a big red light on the back and a light on my helmet that blinks. So don't worry mom we are safe. The road too for the most part have lights so its fine. So anyways, I was dying going up this hill. I had to stop a few times and drink water and say a prayer. The whole way up I was praying so hard that Heavenly Father would give me the strength to make it up and he did. We finally made it up to the top and to their house. I'm sure I was a sight. It was the first time I had really met them and my hair was all messy and I had rings of sweat on my back and front of my shirt. It was DISGUSTING!!!!  They are an amazing family. So much faith. The daughter Madasy is amazing as so sweet. Mao Jiemei have a great lesson on the temple. The Spirit was so strong during the lesson and I could understand a lot of what she was saying. After that we played a few rounds of UNO. It was so much fun to play a game that I know. It was so great to get to know this great family and also two Elders in our district Elder Gania and Elder Roper. The ride home was all down hill which was such a blessing. My legs were killing me. Needless to say I slept really really well that night.

          So to answer a few of your questions. My area is awesome!!! Xinzhu is a pretty good sized city. A want to say about 200 million people live here. Our aparment complex is in the middle of a private neighborhood. It is a huge neighborhood with a lot of people including a few foreigners. Every morning we go running in the neighborhood and say hello to everyone. People are very friendly here. Our apartment is really nice. We have AC, a small kitchen and bathroom. We also have a washer and dryer! Its really nice. The water here is fine. We have a purifying system built into our sink so we just push a button and we can get pure water. The weather right now is sunny, hot and humid. It is also REALLY REALLY windy. Worst than Rexburg. It has been really fun riding our bikes in the wind. Sometimes I can only move a few feet when it is really bad and my bike shakes. At least I know I am getting a really good resistance excercise out of it. :) It hasn't rained here yet so I don't have a raincoat but we found out today that there might be a taiphoon so we have to stock up on food. If it does come than we will stay inside and study. Dont' worry we will be fine.

       Things with my companion are going great! She is a lot of fun. Her English is really good so we switch back and forth between Chinese and English which is really nice for me. She is very nice and really helps me with my Chinese. Its funny because sometimes when she talks on the phone I will be on the other room of our apartment and all of the sudden i will hear this loud yelling "BU KEYI! BU KEYI!!! ( you can't you can't) or other things. Its really funny. She is just talking to some of the other Elders in our district who like to make fun of her a lot. She is really funny and we have a lot of fun together while we work. The wards here are awesome! Sister Zhang and I cover 3 wards. Each ward has about 30 or so members in it. A lot of them have only been members for a year or more. They are amazing. They have so much faith and have strong testimonies of the Gospel. In two of the wards they had me stand up and introduce myself and bear my testimony. It was a little scary but fine. When I told the ward I had been in Taiwan for 10 days. I had many people come up to me and tell me my Chinese was great for only being in the country for 10 days. That was really encouraging. I can understand the gist of what people are saying but not everything. I love the wards we are in and I am excitied to get to know them more and serve with them.

         One quick story, so we are meeting with a family who has two little girls one is 10 and the other is 6. They are absolutely adorable and remind me so much of the girls. This was the first time we had met with them so we taught them about the Restoration. As we talked you could feel the Spirit so strongly. The oldest daughter asked some amazing questions like when we were talking about prophets and about how anciently there were many prophets she asked, "So who is our prophet now?" It is so amazing the faith of children. We also invited them to baptism and they accepted!! They will be baptized on November 20. When we were explaining about what baptism is and why we need it the little 6 year old kept saying over and over "i want to get baptized! I want to get baptized!" We had to explain to her many times that she is not old enough and right now doesn't need baptism. She wouldn't have it though. It was adorable!! Seeing them and all of the other kids in the ward makes me miss Alaina and Abby so much.

 

Well that was our week in a nutshell. So much happened that I think I got it all. We have 3 people with baptism dates. All of them are amazing. I love the people here in Xinzhu. There are so many people we have met who are ready to accept the baptism. Missionary work is amazing!!! I know this Gospel is true. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve. I love you all!!

 

 

All my love,

Yang Jiemei

Sister Amy Papritz

 

P.S As far as a letter or card i did get one from President Grimley. It was in a green envelope. I don't know if thats the one you are talking about. Thank you for sending that. It was exactly what I needed to read.

 

Austin - Madison Wisconsin - October 18, 2010

Bienvenidos clase!

 

Oh, some sick stuff is going down in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. We got Elder Robbins of the Quorum of the Seventy comin' down this Thursday and he's going to meet with all the missionaries. Elder Cook and I have a baptismal, our first one, this Saturday. We're pulling in better success lately then ever before and looking good doing it. It really started with a siick zone wide fast and pray roll last Thursday. It was so cool, we all had a list of investigators from other companionships and we all fasted and prayed, by name, for each person. I can't explain the gravity of that experience. Things have been going so smooth since then. Like literally, the next day there wasn't a word of Spanish, just about, that I didn't understand and we talked to more people that day than usually, it was a miracle. My spoken Spanish is getting miiighty close to fluency (whatever the definition of fluency is). I think another solid month and I'll be there.

 

So we visited our goat killing investigator and they had done another animal slaughtering. This time it was pig. So he invited us to come over the next day and they had a big pot full of different pig parts boiling. One of his friends make a rediculously good salsa and we just slapped a peice of pig tongue or something like that on a corn tortilla and smear some salsa and drink it down with a nice Coke. I'll tell you think, pig ankle is really rubbering and somehow mantained the smell of the big (musky and dirty), don't eat that part haha.

 

My health has been better than ever. Haven't been having stomaches and I've been able to do morning workouts now so that's helping me a lot. I juggle a soccer ball in the morning, just watch I'll come back and be a pro for sure.

 

Probably the coolest story from the week was when we went to a city on the outskirts of our area. We were very unfamiliar with it so we called a member that lived there and told him to set us all the appointments up for that day (we called him two days before). The day before he gave us our schedule including his sister who, he said, wasn't too excited to meet with us. We went the whole day without much success. Some people weren't home, one lady was home alone so we had to wait forever for a male to come to accompany us in. After an entire hard day of work we had one more appointment, with his sister. We walked in and I could tell she was kind of nervous to have us in but she was a really cool lady. She had just gotten back from bringing her son home from Cross Country practice. We started just talking about her son, we didn't even mention anything church related. I think that kind of surprised her and really let her loosen up. She then out of nowhere mentioned that her son had been suffering an ankle injury and that she wished we would give him a blessing. The kid himself wasn't too sure he wanted one but Elder Cook and I both testified of it from our experiences. He took a good thought about it and decided to do it. After the blessing we just sat down and sort of looked at each other, the Mom was crying and the son and her (who had kind of been poking at each other the whole night) embraced. I then bore my testimony again and told her that I knew that she was glad that we had come. She just began to cry more, she admitted that she originally didn't want us but was very glad we came and helped her son. She allowed us to come back again. It was very cool. It reminded me of my Mom, seeing the love that she had for her son. Pretty tight, huh?

 

One more quick one: I talk to this guy on the bus named Tarrence P. White, he was pretty cool. He knew who we were (missionaries) and I got his phone number, set up an appointment and handed him off to the English Elders. Well, they showed up and Tarrence (who lives with his Mom) made them take off their shoes at the door. He then examined their feet during the lesson, critiquing their arches and toe size. He offered to massage them (which Elder Privett awkwardly obliged to). I got a phone call afterwords telling me about what happened telling me, "What kind of a guy did you find for us???" They set up another appointment but then at church they talked to the branch president and apparently he had been taught by missionaries before and had actually gone to church one time where he was in a primary class (not sure what he was doing there) but he had the kids take off their shoes and that was all. Haha, so we're not allowed to visit him any more. But if any investigators get dropped from weird things like we called it getting TPDubbed in honor of Tarrence P. White. But we love him like our brother and we hope he doesn't weird people out by his foot feddish any more.

 

With Love,

Elder Papritz

 

ps. Elder Adam Harris, I had a vision with you in it. I was talking to you on the phone (you called me from Germany, it was very expensive by the way) But you were telling me how you needed inspiration or something and I went off on how you needed to pray more. More fervantly. More faithfully. Every day. EVERY MOMENT. And then I bore my testimony of prayer and how it's given us success here in Wisconsin. Seemed like a conversation we would have haha. Soooo, pray more, all day and you'll see good stuff. So that was the vision (or might have just been a dream, not sure. ;)

Amy Xinzhu, Taiwan October 11, 2010

Da jia hao!!!

 Well I finallly made it to Taiwan!!! It was so great to hear from all of you on the phone. I wish I could have talked longer but with blasted calling cards and limited time it wasn't possible. Our flight left LA at 5:50 in a huge EVA airways plane. Our seats were preatty good sized. I sat next to two missionaries so I didn't have the opportunity ot share the Gospel with anyone. The flight was so long 14 hours in all. It was hard because we couldn't watch TV. With everyone around us watching movies like Toy Story 3 it was hard to not sneek a peek at the screen. We landed in Taiwan at 10:30 and after getting our passports stamped, getting our luggage, and going through customs I finally met my mission president President Grimley and his wife. I already love them. They are so nice. We also met the assistants to the president and some of the new local missionaries who arrived today. The weather here is hot and humid but not too bad. We rode a huge bus to the temple housing where we would stay for the next two days. While on the way President Grimley explained about the area and a little of his mission here in Taiwan years ago. That night I crashed. All of us were so tired. The next day he explained we would have orintation, a tour of the temple grounds, and in the evening we would do the imfamous Dan Jonesing. For those of you who don't know who he is I will explain. Dan Jones was one of the greatest missionaries in this dispensation. He served a mission in Wales and brought many people the Gospel. He would often stand on a soap box and just teach to the masses. So with that spirit of missionary work we did the same.

             The next morning at 6:30 all of the new missionaries with the mission president and the assistants went running to the Chang hai Shek (Jiang Zhong Zheng) memorial and the park that it is in. It was beautiful!!! At the MTC I saw pictures everyday of it but I never dreamed I would see it my first full day in Taiwan! It was beautiful!! We also at a traditional Taiwan breakfast of sandwiches that are a lot like Egg McMuffins. It is a layered sandwich with ham, egg, hamburger meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayo. Their mayo here is sweeter than American mayo. It was really good! Orintation was long but great.I was able to call home for 5 mintues to tell you that I got here safely and that I love it here but guess what... you didn't answer!! haha oh well. We talked about the area and what the main way of contacting is which is on our bikes! We also did a scavenger hunt around the city. While we found the things that were on the list we were suppose to contact people and give away pamphlets and a Book of Mormon. Sister Bready and I didnt' do very good at the contacting part. That night after eating a great dinner we met with some of the area missionaires and split into groups to Dan Jones. YIKES!!! actually it wasn't too bad. We stood in a busy intersection of a market place and just started talking. I was with Sister Steinquist who is really nice. When Dan Jonesing didn't work we just stopped people on the street and talked to them. We also knocked on door. It was at first very nerve racking but I slowly got used to it. We did that from 6 to about 8:30. Sorry I didn't get any pictures. I will get plenty of pictures here in my area.

      On Friday I found out who my companion was and where my first area would be. We went early in the morning to the Grand Hotel. The Grand Hotel is the location where Mark E Peterson dedicated Taiwan to the Preaching of the Gospel. There President Grimley expained the history of the church here in Asia which is a miracle! In just a short amount of time the church has grown so much here in Asia. We then read the dedicatory prayer for Taiwan. It is amazing to see the blessing that are promised in that blessing and how they have come to pass. President then gave us the opportunity to dedicate ourselves to the work. Each of us found a quiet spot and read our scriptures and prayed. It was a great experience. I really felt the Spirit so strongly. We then took a picture in front of the hotel. I will send you that picture hopefully in next week's e-mail. At 11 I met my companion and found out what area I would be "born" in or start my mission in. My companion is AWESOME!!!!! Her name is Sister Chang and she is a Bendiren or native. She is a convert to the church and the only member in her family. She has been out on her mission for about a year. When I first met her I was really hoping that I would get a native as my trainer. I am so excited to work with her. My first area is called Xinzhu. We then left that afternoon for Xinzhu.

       Let me tell you about Xinzhu. Its a big city!! Not as bit as Taipei but bigger than any city I have lived in. There are 3 wards here with we are over all three. There are 3 sets of Elders also serving in this city. We ride our bikes everywhere. At first it was crazy riding my bike everywhere right next to cars and big buses but I have started to get used to it. The new bike that I got is really nice. It is a mountain bike with a white frame. On the frame is printed the name of the church in Chinese and a great quote that is very popular around here. It is by I think David O McKay and it says "No amount of work can compensate for failure in the home." The members have bummer stickers of this quote on their cars, bikes, and motorscooters. We also pass it out to people. Unfortunately I have to paint over my bike so that it doesn't get stolen.

       This weekend we had the opportunity to hear conference. For me it was the second time. I also got to meet the people in the three wards we are over. This one sister Sister Lin is so nice. She invited us over to her house my first night here in Xinzhu for dinner. She has a contagious laugh and a big heart. I love her already. She has only been a member for 2 years and is married to the ward mission leader. Many of the people I met are converts only of a year or two. All of them have such great faith. I can't wait to get to know them better and to serve them.

        I already had my run it with nasty food that kind ward members have made me. Oh man it was gross!! It was a noodle soup with pig intestines and oysters in it. One of the ward members made it for me and my companion for us to eat during the hour break between sessions. I tried to muscle it down but I only at about a quarter of it. It tasted no joke like rubber or the way that breaks smell like when they are over heated. I gagged a few times but I kept smiling and trying to eat it. My companion finally took pity on me and told me it was ok if I didnt' finish it. Sister Lin and the other sister both said I was very brave for trying it.

      Well thats my first week in a nutshell. I love it here in Xinzhu. There are a lot of people here in this city and I am very excited to teach them the Gospel. We have already had a few lessons. My Chinese is not that great but I am excited to have a Taiwanese companion to help me. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission here in Taiwan. I love you all so much. Next week hopefully i will be able to send you pictures!!!!!! Wo ai nimen. This Gospel is true and I am so grateful to have it in my life.

 

All my love,

Yang Jiemei

Sister Papritz

Austin - Madison Wisconsin - October 11, 2010

Hey Family and Fuuriends,

 

This week was way cool because we had Zone Conference. I got to see a lot of Elders I hadn't seen in 12 weeks (because zone conference is held every other transfer now, thus sayeth the prophet) and we got to see a glimpse of our new Assistent President. He is a cool guy and is really nice. The other AP is planning on using his last two transfers in the field so he will step down after this next transfer so we'll have yet another AP next transfer. Elder Cook and I were pretty surprised coming out of Zone Conference, we had some questions we wanted answered and we got some pretty sweet answers.

 

This week Elder Cook came down with somethin' nasty. He was waaay sick for like 2 days. I don't even know how he did it but he slept for 36 hours out of those 48 hours and even coming out of that he can't talk because he has been coughing so much. So....I had a lot of time by myself this week. I listened to MoTab while I cleaned the apartment. It was almost funny for Elder Cook, every time he would emerge to get a drink and go to the bathroom some other part of the apartment would be clean. And one of the times I rearranged all the furniture and tacked up a mural of church posters, it looks way sick. My Mom would be so proud, I worked for like 8 hours straight just cleaning up and stuff. I also got very precious time to write letters to people I haven't written to. It's something that has really been on my mind and then when the Prophet brought it home to me with his talk about gratitude, I knew I was being ungrateful for just taking in all this mail and not sending anything back.

 

So before Elder Cook got sick we got to visit this totally awesome investigator who is straight up from the slums of Mexico named Carlos. The last time we visited him we ate cow stomach which pretty much looks like fleshy honeycomb but tastes like fatty fatness, but the broth isn't too bad. And this time we walked in to their garage (which we know he is getting himself in to trouble if he's in his garage) and he had slaughtered THREE GOATS that day. He even brought out a light, because it was late, and showed us the blood stains on the walls of the garage that were still there. He then took us over to the grill, which they had all setup in the garage with a table of sodas and beers haha, he opened the grill and was pointing out the different types of meats and then he pointed at this one round, sack-like and asked, "ya know what that is?" And we were like, "What?" And he was like, "The balls." hahaha He then chopped them in half (the whole scrotum was in the grill) slapped them on a tortilla with a bit of onion and gave them to us to eat haha. Elder Cook and I definitely didn't pass up the oportunity to say we ate goat testicles. The most part of it looks and tastes like chicken but the epididymis definitely had a consistancy more like clam haha... But apparently living goats are only a hundred bucks! So I'm thinking I'm going to save up some money so that when I get to train a new missionary, I'll bring my boy in to the garage of good ol' Carlos right when he 'happens' to be slicing the throat of a goat hanging from the roof. Then I'll make him eat the balls. It will be a spectacular first day for the mission. I got it all planned out. But I'm kind of seriously, it doesn't say anything about killing goats in the white handbook, I've already looked. haha

 

On a more sentimental note, we got a call from a family two weeks ago, the wife is active but the husband is an old-time offended branch mission leader. We've been meeting with them to try to reactivate him, Elder Cook and his last companion successfully reactivated her despite his lack of support. But her brother had fallen off a balcon from being drunk and he needed a blessing. We went to the hospital with our branch mission leader and on the way up we were talking to him and I just told him, "You should give it because you know Spanish better." But also, he does a really good job with his calling but he can't have has a lack of a spark for church work. I was hoping to kind of excite him. But he told us, "If I was on a mission, I'd take advantage of every opportunity like this, like why not? It's not every day you get a chance like this." So we let that sit, I was still hoping he'd kind of do it but we got up to his room and we walked in and he had a neck brace on and when I tried to shake his hand he looked over at me and told me, "Im sorry...but I'm paralyzed." It kind of took me back, I didn't realize it was that bad. He had been in the hospital for a week and wasn't able to move except for a tiny bit in his left foot. We joked around with him, I told him about a paralyzed guy that spoke at my high school that learned to paint with his mouth and sold his art for lots of money. He really warmed up to us. I felt impressed to give the blessing. The spirit was very strong. Sister Barba, the reactivated member was in the room and was in tears of gratitude. It was a very special experience. We've gone back to visit him and plan on doing so every week to make sure he's getting better. He's having withdraws from not being able to drink including hallucinations but he's doing alright.

 

And finally, my last story for this week. We were riding on our bikes, coming home from a dinner appointment, we were 5 blocks away from home. I usually ride on the inside of the bike lane and make Elder Cook ride on the outside where the cars are parked because I'm always scared that someone is going to open a door and I'll just get rocked. haha he's very brave. But we were riding home and it was late and we've been told by our mission president to start wearing our suit coats full time and the streets were pretty busy. Well, we were coming up to an intersection and I looked over and noticed a car with it's blinker ready to make a turn, then I noticed no more cars flying by me, which meant there was a gap. The car started to inch forward and I thought, "surely it sees us." And then she gunned it right when we entered the intersection I just looked up and shook my head and thought, "I can't believe that she is really ---" BAM! The car struck my side, I tried to push my weight forward so that I wouldn't get run over. I toppled off my bike, it was all kind of a blur, but I remember landing on the concrete and a bunch of stuff fell out of my backpack because there is a hole in it. I immediately looked at my hands, thinking they were scraped up. They were fine, I gathered my stuff and started to stand up...waiting for the sharp pain coming from my legs, back, neck --something! But nothing came. I checked my suit coat elbow where I landed to see if it was scraped up. Nothing. Two people on the side walk yelled out to me, Are you all right??! I told I thought I was fine. The lady in the car, who was hispanic, yelled back at me, "You okay?" I told her I was fine, and then she drove off, no doubt scared and probably an illegal. A person in another car strolled up and told me through the window that they had her license plate but I told them I wasn't going to use it and that I was fine. I started talking to the people on the sidewalk for a bit and tried to bring in the gospel haha, I told them to stop some missionaries if they ever seen any in the future. But I was pretty frazzled after that. We rode back to the apartment and kneeled in prayer of gratitude and then went back out to work. That night I decided to call my mission president because I figured they would want to know. They were no doubt concerned but were so grateful I was okay. They didn't really know what to do. But then at Zone Conference two days later they told me I have to fill out some paper work and I still have to visit a doctor even though I feel fine. It was new to them because they are obviously new mission presidents. But it's nuts. That night I hit the sack hard, I fell asleep fast but then woke up at 11:45 and couldn't go back to sleep until 5:45, probably from all the adreneline I still had. I listened to music and wrote some letters while I waited to go back to sleep. I'm definitely a lot more skiddish on the roads, it's weird. I'm definitely a lot more careful. I'm just glad it wasn't an SUV that hit me. But I just don't understand, it's really miracle. I remember hitting the concrete and it just being Downy soft. We went back to the site and saw that I had been flung about 20 feet. Pretty miraculous. I truly appreciate the prayers. I know they help, I felt angels that day.

 

I'm doing great though. I definitely feel Gods love for me and for those I teach.

 

Much Love,

Elder Papritz

 

ps. Happy birthday Tom.

Family: send the stuff I desire ha