6/26/16
The storms here have been getting gnarly. As we enter the middle of the rainy season and the beginning of the typhoon season in Taiwan, the storms just get more wild. The other day, we were biking through pouring rain, and about 20 yards later the road was dry. Completely dry. Because we are in between the coast and the mountains, the rain clouds just don't move ... they just come straight down. Also, lightning storms have been wild. I'm talking about strokes every 5-6 seconds. Hidden by thick sheets of rain, all you see is the whole sky light up and then a resounding boom of thunder. It might be a few weeks, but I can't wait for the first typhoon to hit.
So close with the English, but no cigar
The storms here have been getting gnarly. As we enter the middle of the rainy season and the beginning of the typhoon season in Taiwan, the storms just get more wild. The other day, we were biking through pouring rain, and about 20 yards later the road was dry. Completely dry. Because we are in between the coast and the mountains, the rain clouds just don't move ... they just come straight down. Also, lightning storms have been wild. I'm talking about strokes every 5-6 seconds. Hidden by thick sheets of rain, all you see is the whole sky light up and then a resounding boom of thunder. It might be a few weeks, but I can't wait for the first typhoon to hit.
The cicadas are going full bore as well here. The days are filled with the sound of cicadas, periodically swinging from a buzz to a roar and back again. Earthquakes are common occurrences and geckos are all over the place. Nature is incredible in Hualien.
Yesterday we found out that our recent convert named 蔡亞之 Cai Ya Zhi had an abortion and didn't tell us about it before her baptism and also sometimes feels like she is Satan. Apparently her grandmother was a witch, so she got caught up in some really weird stuff. We are trying to help her through it, though she could probably use a few prayers her way. We also found out that 張安夫 Zhang An Fu (a 70 year-old former investigator from two years ago that we started meeting with again) used to do illegal drugs, got baptized into another church about a year ago and is still involved in their church, and has lots of Jehovah's Witness pamphlets in his house. Interesting week for investigators.
We had Zone Conference this week, and we learned a lot about pride, fighting back negative thoughts, and trials. I've been studying a little more in depth about those three topics, and I found some interesting insights about trials. There are three sources of trials: those caused by our pride and disobedience, those in consequence of living an earthly life, and those incurred by the mistakes and harmful words and actions of others. The way we overcome these three trials is through repentance/obedience, trust in God, and forgiveness. I found it interesting that the faster and better we do these three things, the quicker we reach peace of mind and happiness. We most likely still have the trial, but the quicker we do those three things, the faster we can just sit back and enjoy our challenges because we know it is helping us become who God wants us to be. I hope we can all--and me especially--be a little quicker to repent, a little faster to trust in God, and a little more ready to forgive others. I love you all and I hope you have great weeks!
his place is called Shui Yuan Di,
really fun cliff-jumping that we got to watch the whole way up....
So close with the English, but no cigar
Yes, we may have found roller blades in this old persons yard and they let us take them and fix them up. Yes there is a Christmas tree with lights in our area still set up in almost July
hua lian is so beautiful
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