The Storm is Raging

Made in Taiwan - cute!

Great week! Last P-day we went shopping and discovered that even in Taiwan, I can't shop to save my life. But neither can Sister Burr. So it was good fun, but we were so tired afterwards! Haha. 

Street shopping

Our mission President came this week for interviews, that was exciting and I actually saw an Elder from my MTC district in passing; guess he's in my zone! I also had my first Language assessment pass-off this week. That was...fun. But it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be.

So this one day we were teaching a lesson and the lady had her 2 kids with her (a 3 year old and 1 year old). It started out okay, but as it went on we had crayons everywhere, toys out, diaper changing breaks... We finally walked with her and she rocked her baby and we taught her outside. But this lady was just so sweet and wanting to learn; we tried everything we could to teach and have it be a good experience. It was for sure the most exciting lesson we had this week.

Typical Taiwan house

Oh so you're probably wondering about the title. No, we haven't had a typhoon yet. That's our district motto. Haha, we call ourselves "the Storm." I don't know where it started but I like it. We have a super awesome district!

Our lunch - a typical meal

Some more things about Taiwan (I just forgot; I think it's normal already).

1) There are dogs everywhere; some stray some with owners.

2) Everyone is super nice, except on the road.

3) We take off our shoes when we go into houses and most people have these little sandals we put on, kind of cute.

4) We have to put our food waste in the a bag in the freezer so we don't get fruit flies.

5) They like to set off fireworks; any day, any time of the day.

riding a bike - our daily mode of transportation

So yep... Life's good. We're happy. I read this scripture and thought it should apply to everyone. But I'll let you know that it definitely applies to me and Sister Burr :D - 2 Nephi 5:27.

Have a great week!! Make someone smile!!

-Sister Biancardi

Summer is Quickly Approaching

Companionship LOVE! And we're both wearing purple!

Taiwan! It's amazing. This week was great; so many lessons, so many miracles, so much fun!

On Wednesday we had English class and me and Sister Burr taught the little kid class. So that was fun; head shoulders knees and toes, alphabet, coloring... Also, lots of people have English names here, but some people have really weird English names. Like Deace, Mary (boy), and sisters named Sunny and Rainy. But I guess my name (Bian) is kinda weird and uncommon so... I always get the response of "hen tebei = very special" in a range from pleasant surprise to weirded out.

We had the first rain! It was pretty exciting. It hasn't rained at all except one day on our way back from someone's house (like a 25 minute ride :D). But I'm sure the rain will come back for longer. Summer's the rainy season. And it's already so hot and it's only April...we'll see how July goes...

So because I'm a new missionary, I just have to embarrass myself all the time, right? It's like a rule or something... So one day we went to meet someone for breakfast and then realized I didn't have my missionary tag! I was so sad and embarrassed. We couldn't go back, but we found one of Sister Burr's that she left in someone's car. So we were both Sister Burr for a day, haha. Then the next day at lunch I splattered soy sauce up my shirt (still learning with chopsticks; but getting the hang of it) and wore that all day. Then just yesterday I totally tripped over a door ledge and almost face planted in front of some members (but I'm fine; hurt my pride more than anything). So! Hopefully all my newbie flaws are out. But probably not. I'll let you know how next week goes.

So one more funny thing about Taiwan is that the garbage trucks play music so that people know it's coming and run out to throw their garbage in it. But it sounds just like an ice cream truck. My first couple times I heard it I was confused.

The gecko wanted a sleepover last night, so we let him!

We've counted so many miracles out here! God loves and helps everyone, and we get to see it happen. I've learned that as we make plans, and back-up plans, and rely on the Lord, we see miracles and get so much done. So don't forget to plan; there's power in planning, and power in praying. I haven't counted yet how many times a day we pray, but it's A LOT. And God helps us, and He can help you too.

Have an amazing week! Lots of love from Taiwan!

-Sister Biancardi

TAIWAN!!

Just arrived!

Ok. Big week. Weird to think a week ago I was back at the MTC. But I was! And we said our goodbyes which was kind of sad. But I'll see them all again at reunions and stuff so it's ok! My companion, Sister Larson, went to England. So it was weird/sad to be without her for the first time in 9 weeks. But I'll write her and see her in a year and a half at BYU. There was 12 of us all traveling to Taiwan together; it was a blast. The longest day of my life; I think I didn't sleep for like 30 hours (besides like 30 minutes of plane sleep; doesn't really count). But it was so worth it!

The bus from airport to mission home

When we got to Taipei it was about midnight; didn't get to bed until 2-ish, 2:30. Then up again at 6:30. Woo-hoo! But it was all so exciting, that it was okay we were sleep-deprived. We had an amazing Taiwanize breakfast, had some training meetings, went out to lunch, more training, dinner (and I missed my chance to eat fish eye, I kind of regret that) then we went out on the streets. We did what is called the Dan Jones challenge. Dan Jones was a missionary who stood on a milk carton and preached/testified. So...we stood on a milk carton and preached and testified :D It was great because there were other missionaries there cheering us on. It felt like an initiation. Haha. 

Welcome banquet with Mission President and his wife

Anyway, the next day we got our trainer and moved to our area. They called us up one by one, gave us a red envelope, and did a drum role as we opened it up. The trainers and the newbies didn't know who was with who until they opened it, it was kind of fun. So! Dndndndndn My companion is Sister Burr and I'm in Jia Yi!! 

The loving and patient Sister Burr

Sister Burr is amazing and the best example of love and patience with me. Jia Yi is also amazing. It's south of Taizhong, still a pretty good sized city though. So pretty much, I love it!

Ok so sometimes I'm like "Oh I'm not really across the world this is just another part of America" and then sometimes I see things and am like "Oh yeah." Here are some differences.

1) There are mopeds EVERYWHERE. It's pretty surprising at first, but now I'm kind of used to it. But I do mean everywhere; people walk on the street because they park their mopeds on the sidewalk.

2) Their napkins are pretty much tissues. I really don't know why, but they don't have napkins like we do.

3) They have AMAZING fruit. Guava, wax apples, mango, the best pineapple I've ever eaten ever, and so much more!

4) Their money is like 30 kuai = 1 US$ so, things are like 300 "dollars" and I'm like "what? Oh..." But things are actually pretty cheap here, it's nice.

5) They (well not everyone, but some) just can't even handle a white person speaking Chinese; they think it's so cool.

6) The traffic lights are sideways (or ours are sideways; one of the two). This just gives you a little taste of Taiwan. I wish I could just write forever and remember everything I want to write. But I love it here so much! And the people really are so amazing. You see little amah's (grandma's) riding their bikes or walking their dogs; they're so cute!

Well, know that God is real; I've seen so many miracles in my life (for one, I'm speaking Chinese!) and He has blessed me in so many ways. He has blessed you, and can bless you more if you let him. Tell Him about you life, about your goals, ask Him for help and for strength in your trials. He will be there for you and send angels to comfort and bless you.

Selfie from our balconey

Take care! Lots of love from Taiwan!

-Sister Biancardi

Conference!!

Hello! Less than 24 hours til I'll be on my way to my big adventure! I'm so so excited! This has been a crazy couple days. We had an Training thing all day on Friday which was pretty cool. Then Saturday and Sunday we watched General Conference. Who knew 10 hours of Church would be so amazing. I loved it. And if you didn't get the chance to watch it, all the talks should be coming up on lds.org soon. Go watch it! If you don't have time or don't know where to start, maybe start with Thomas S. Monson. He is our prophet of God after all. I also really enjoyed Bednar's and Holland's. But they were all so good! I'll be re-reading and studying those for the next 6 months. Something I got overall out of that conference was love. Love is always the answer.

Also, just guess who was at devotional yesterday. Guess. No, not the prophet again, or an apostle. Vocal Point! How cool is that! We about died; it was the perfect way to end our MTC stay. First David Archuleta, then Vocal Point. I just miss a Capella so much, I probably freaked out more than was necessary. But it was amazing and so cool to hear their arrangements of their favorite hymns.

So yeah! I'll be on a plane tomorrow morning. After I pack today. That's important. But next week I'll let you know how Taiwan is! Take care!

-Sister Biancardi

Guess Who Came to Devotional!

This was a pretty exciting week actually. Here we go. 

So, we thought we would get our travel plans on Friday and we just couldn't wait; counting down the days. Then on Thursday we got them in our mailbox!! We were so stoked we freaked out and got everybody together (there's two districts leaving together to Taichung- they're our "sister" district; 13 missionaries. Except my companion is going to Leeds England). We read the entire thing out loud. Then we took a bunch of pictures and just freaked out probably longer than we should have. It was so hard to focus after that but we did our best. So! I'll officially be leaving the MTC next Tuesday! We report to the travel office at 6:00am but our flight's not until 11:25am; we'll get to Taiwan late Wednesday night (it will be Wednesday in Taiwan). I am so so excited!!

This week the Germans took over our dungeon. So our floor of classrooms in our building is all Mandarins. (All the classrooms aren't full, but we kind of took over the whole floor when we split up for things and stuff). Also our building is one of the old buildings with the awful tiny classroom style desks and old brick walls....and we have the basement which looks like a dungeon. (We saw the classrooms for the English speakers and they're so nice; full rolltop-table desks and comfy spiny chairs and whiteboards...but that's beside the point). So on Wednesday new German speaking missionaries moved into the empty classrooms. It was weird to have non-Mandarins down there. But it's fine. We really don't care, but we like to say they invaded. Yep...that's my story.

Also on Thursday an Elder from the other district (our sister district) convinced us to play volleyball one district against the other for gym time. And it was actually so fun. We normally just rode our bikes by ourselves... So it was a great change and now we love playing volleyball with the other missionaries even though we're pretty bad...haha. But it's just fun.

The weather has been super weird this week; it can't make up it's mind. Earlier in the week it snowed for like the first time since January. Then it hailed, then it was sunny, rainy, cloudy...it just can't decide. Then today we woke up and it had snowed again. It's April! I don't know what's wrong with Utah, haha. But we saw little mini-snowmen on a table outside our building; it was so cute. But someone destroyed them before I could take a picture. Sorry.

Conference is this week and I'm so so excited! General Conference is when we get to hear the prophets and apostles of God speak to us. It's amazing and everyone should watch it! Go to lds.org anytime this weekend and it will probably be playing. I'm so excited to see it here in the MTC with all these missionaries and to see it right before I go off into the world to share this message with the people of Taiwan. Yay!

So.... Did you make a guess of who was at devotional? It wasn't Thomas S. Monson. It wasn't even an apostle. And it wasn't the President of the United States. But it was amazing. David Archuleta came and sang. (And if you already heard about it, your guess didn't count. And just pretend to be excited for me because this is a big deal) Apparently he got home from his mission just last week and came to speak/sing at the MTC his first Sunday back. It was cool to hear him speak fresh out of the field; he loves the gospel and loves missionary work and still had a slight Spanish accent and got emotional. And he really just has the most amazing voice, I actually didn't listen to a lot of his stuff before, but his voice is pretty amazing. We also had Richard Elliot come. He's the organist for the Mormon Tabernacle choir and he's amazing! We couldn't help ourselves but give him a standing ovation after his rendition of "Go Tell it on the Mountain". It was pretty much the best devotional ever.

So everyone. God loves you. I don't know if you knew that. But He does. So much. More than anyone can imagine. If you ever forget that, pick up the Bible or the Book of Mormon, or go look outside or at your family. If you still need more comfort (I always do), listen to General Conference this week. I promise it will give you what you are seeking and you will come away from it uplifted, comforted, and wanting to be a better person. Have an amazing week! Next time you hear from me I'll be across the lake; wish me luck and I appreciate all your prayers and letters. Thank you!

-Sister Biancardi