Dreaming in Chinese, getting out of the city, and teaching US geography

First things first....my alarm went off this morning and when I woke up, I realized I had been dreaming in Chinese! That was really exciting! 

This weekend in Taiwan is dragon boat festival, which pretty much means people gave us a bunch of food. There's a whole history behind it, but it's too long to explain here, so you can just google it :D

Last preparation day (Nicole's day off) after we emailed, Wu Mama (a wonderful lady who is so kind to the missionaries) rented a car and driver and took us up to the northeast of Taiwan! It was SO beautiful! Mountains, wide open sky, the ocean, greenery.....ah! It was a nice break from being in the middle of the city. We went to JiuFen (a famous outdoor market right on the coast), a pretty waterfall, YehLiu (a national park thing with super cool rocks) and TianMu Wharf. It was so beautiful and peaceful! Most of the pics this week are from our Monday expedition.

 We are really working with Z JM (she is the one whose house we helped clean a few weeks ago). She has a baptismal date of the 15th and we really think she will make it! She came to church and did a temple square tour with us this week. She LOVES the commandments! Which is awesome!! She is doing super well with the word of wisdom and is just progressing really well. She is super sweet and says the most sincere prayers. 

This week in English class, the students wanted us to teach them about America, which made me realize how much I don't remember about the US and geography. Our map was kind of a mess. I think I was better at the states when I was 5 and liked doing that USA puzzle. We asked them if they had any questions, and one of them asked, "Why is NY called the big apple?" We were like, "eh..good question. No clue"

This week I read this in “Jesus the Christ” (a book written by the Apostle, James E Talmage) about the instance where Jesus said, "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God that which is God's" Elder Talmage says this: "Every human soul is stamped with the image and superscription of God...and as unto Caesar should be rendered the coins upon which his effigy appeared, so unto God should be given the souls that bear His image. Render unto the world the stamped pieces that are made legally current by the insignia of worldly powers, and unto God and His service yourselves- the divine mintage of His eternal realm." I love that so much! It made me think of the scripture in Corinthians that says that we are Christ's and Christ is God's, and the scripture in Alma about having His image in our countenances. We are spiritual beings- His image is already in our countenance because we are created in His image. We just have to be pure and not get in the way of that. 

Sis Murri