Planning Ahead

Are they standing on a bench?

This week was great! Got a lot done and had a good time. Sister Hancock is awesome, she's teaching me so much. This week we focused on our goals and making plans each day to hit them. And you know what, it worked! We did super well this week and found so many awesome people ready and willing to listen to the gospel. So, moral of the story: when you make goals, make sure to make some plans to hit them.

One day this week we were sitting in the church and this American couple walks in and starts talking to us. Turns out they both served their mission here 12 years ago and are back for a visit. It was so awesome to talk to them! So glad I was called here to Taiwan to live and preach the gospel for 18 months. It's a great place.

Taiwan: One thing about people in Taiwan is everyone is so "buhaoyise" (which is hard to translate, but pretty much means don't want to offend people/just wants to agree/please people) So most people will use excuses to reject us, which is probably because they don't want to be mean, but it's so frustrating! So tip of the week: Don't be "buhaoyise" just say it straight. Haha.

Have an awesome week!

-Sister Biancardi

Filling up the rice fields 

Carry No White Flag!

Ward Activity! - This Saturday we had an activity at a member's house. She lives an hour away...by car. So that was fun! (Our area is so big!) We drove out there and went on a little hike. Then they cooked dumplings over a fire and we had a potluck. So good.

Zone Conference! - Friday we went to GaoXiong to have an all day conference. It was awesome we learned lots of stuff. I really liked what one of the talks we read said about carrying no white flags. I think so often in society people are so whishy-washy in their beliefs or opinions. But as we learn in the scriptures, we can't "serve two masters". We can not stay on the fence forever. We must take our stance on one side or the other or something will push us off. As a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ I have taken a stance and I can't be whishy-washy anymore. I know Christ is my Savior and I have accepted the call to declare it to the world. What is your stance? Are you still on the fence? It might be comfortable now, but the winds will come. "Choose ye this day who ye will serve" and stand true to it. Stand strong and "Carry no white flag." Your white flag might be fear, pride, laziness... whatever it is, get rid of it! Burn it! And stay true to what you know.

Have an awesome week. Smile. Keep your head up. 

Love you!

-Sister Biancardi

Huge 5 inch long grasshopper!

A big pot of dumplings - old school style

Tree grapes!

The Gateway to Happiness

Another Crazy week! As predicted...

Monday - POWER CLEANING

Tuesday - normal...

Wednesday - "Train the Trainers" Meeting in JiaYi!!! I was so excited to get to go back there for a day; that's where I started my mission. The meeting was great too. Afterwards I met up with a member and she had lunch with us. Yay!

Thursday - Last time meeting with FuJieMei and JiaXiang as investigators... :O Also we had to go to SanMin (GaoXiong) to sleep over with the sisters there because.....

Friday - We took a 6:15 train up to TaiZhong where we had another meeting and met the trainees. It was super weird being back there doing those things as a trainer instead of trainee; brought back some memories. Met my new companion; Sister Hancock. Yay!

Saturday - FuJieMei and JiaXiang got baptized! Yay! It was a great meeting and she gave a great testimony at the end. Happy time.

Sunday - Stake Conference. For us that meant meet at our church at 8:15 in the morning and carpool (actually they had this big bus) up to our stake center an hour away for the 2 hour conference at 10:00 (Bishop wanted to make sure we had good seats) So it took lots of the day.

About 2 months ago FuJieMei decided she wanted to start learning about this church; her sister in law had been a member for 4 years and she's seen the change in her and she wanted that same change. From the time she started learning she was so willing to do the things we asked (read/pray/come to church/obey God's commandments) because she knew it would help her to follow Christ and to eventually have the most happiness. Her faith overpowered any fear or obstable that got in her way and she's grown so much. Her son started by following his mom's example but has also grown a testimony of his own and has also changed a lot. I love this family and I'm so happy they've chose to follow Christ, I know it will help their family and bless their life.

This is why I'm here. To share this joy and truth with everyone. Not just those who needs some comfort or those who want a religion, but everyone. I'm declaring truth and inviting others to follow Christ. I know this is the only path we can take to find true peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come. So try it out!

Have a good week!

-Sister Biancardi

Happy Year of the Goat!!

Hello!!

This week was insane!!

Cars - SO MANY! There was so much traffic, and our little town of QiShan isn't really built for that; glad I wasn't driving a car.

Flower Festival - beautiful!

Flowers - Part of why there was so much traffic was a flower festival thing in MeiNong, people pretty much came from all over to take selfies in fields of flowers. Haha, but there was actually more than that and it looked pretty fun.

People - Lots! From all over!

Real Pizza made by Real Italians!

Mmmmm good!

Food - The members invited us over for meals once or twice a day (which is a lot for us) And they fed us a ton!! That's what they do for Chinese new Year's; eat.

Happy New Year - Year of the Goat!

Pig Ear - That's right. I ate pig ear this week...add that to the list.

This week was also full of miracles. Mostly our little miracle FuJieMei. She is so awesome and has overcome so much and her and her son are prepared to be baptized this Saturday. She's a great example of Faith and Obedience.

This next week will also be crazy and full of miracles as I've been called to serve as a trainer. There are 18 new missionaries coming to TaiZhong after a long Visa wait, and I get to be with one of them! I'm so excited for this new opportunity to learn and become better.

Keep being awesome! Keep looking for opportunities to serve! And never stop smiling!

Love you all!

-Sister Biancardi

Hiked another mountain! Fun!

GuoNian is Almost Here!

Beautiful Taiwan

Next week is Chinese New Year! (GuoNian). Woo-hoo! Which means we get to go over to member's houses for meals and almost no one else will want to meet with us, haha. It'll be so fun! (It's Taiwan's equivalent to Christmas. But it's a whole week, haha.)

This week we rode out to our investigator FuJieMei's house almost everyday. She's preparing to be baptized and she's so awesome! She's a mom with 3 boys, and she's got so much faith! But that was pretty tiring; it's almost an hour bike ride there and back, but worth it.

We also went to GaoXiong for Zone Training meeting. We didn't ride our bikes there, we took a bus, haha. We talked a lot about the importance of church and why we invite people to church. Church is important! You should go!

Truck-full of pigs! Common. Sometimes ducks or chickens!

Today we're going to go hike a mountain. I'll tell you how it goes next week :D

Last week we also taught a lot of people about the Book of Mormon. It's super important. We explained to some investigators this week about the keystone example. Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon from an ancient record of scripture by the power of God. If this book is true that means Joseph Smith was telling the truth, he's God's prophet, this church is God's church, Thomas S Monson is a living prophet today, and everything else with it is true. If the Book of Mormon is not true, Joseph Smith pulled off the biggest lie ever and none of it is true. Just like a keystone in an arch, the Book of Mormon holds all the truths we teach in our church together. So. Go read the Book!!

Have an awesome week! Tell me how your reading goes next week :)

-Sister Biancardi

All the Things

"Hello" - Just because we're white, everywhere we go, people just say "hello" and random English things they learned in school. It's weird...haha

Bugs!! - Lately there's been so many little bugs, maybe cause it's spring, I don't know. But it's not like we have a windshield riding our bike or anything; they just hit us in the face and it's gross!! I got one in my eye the other day, it hurt. I need to get some glasses or something.

Scarecrows - I don't know why but recently there's been these weird scarecrow things in the fields of flowers on the way to MeiNong. They're all dressed up and stuff, but they look like voo-doo dolls. I can't decide if they're cute or creepy.

Squid Jerky - Yep... I ate squid jerky. That's a real thing. A lady we tracted into gave it to us. It was....weird.

I'm one year old!! - This week we had a party for my one year birthday as a missionary. We finally went and ate banana bing (something QiShan is famous for). It's like ice cream but not.... Like shaved ice, but better.... yeah.

Food for thought - This week I was having a pity-party moment for a second; we were getting rejected a lot and I was like missionary work is hard... But a quote popped into my head from an Apostle. He said something like "Why would you ever think it would be easy, when it was never EVER easy for Him." Christ, our perfect example and our Savoir, suffered much. He suffered the most. It was far from easy for Him. As missionaries representing Him and all of us striving each day to become like Him, we can't expect it to be an easy road. It wasn't meant to be and it never will be. But Christ suffered all things and He did it alone so that we don't have to. We never have to do anything alone; we always have His help. So use it!!

Love you all!!!

-Sister Biancardi

New Beginnings

You might think this is a little late (New Year's is over) but this month we have Chinese New Year coming up over here :D But also today is the start of a new transfer period. As missionaries we work in 6 week blocks of time; every 6 weeks we have the possibility of moving to a new area. Moving around helps us have new learning opportunities and chances to help all sorts of people. I think it also gives us a great opportunity every 6 weeks to evaluate ourselves and our work and to make new goals and plans. We don't have to wait for the new year to come around to do that, we don't even have to wait 6 weeks to do that. We have the opportunity to become who we want to be right now. I'm not moving this transfer and neither is my companion, but we're taking this opportunity to make some new goals and continue to learn from each other and grow together. Go make some goals!

This week:

- Went to the beach :D

- Rode our bikes a lot....

- Saw people boiling the hair off of a goat...haha (we went in the super rural part of our are this week...)

- Had a baptism in the river....kind of.... long story.... (they had some problems with the water so they had to pump up some ground water into the baptismal font.... so it was pretty much a river)

Taiwan is still Taiwan... You should come sometime! It's really a great place!! 

Have an awesome week!

-Sister Biancardi