Visiting Teaching

Once again the end of the month approaches, and once again I'm scrambling to get in touch with all of my ladies, plus get my partner there. Luckily, I have a wonderful partner who is almost always available to go whenever I get the appointment set up.

Today we visited two of our three ladies. The second lady we visited is an eighty year old blind Chinese woman. Each time we visit she feeds us. My partner is also from China and so the conversation is mostly in Chinese while I'm feeding my face. Well, at least that is what it felt like this morning. Today when we visited Sister H., she had made dumplings and taro pancakes. She started loading up my plate and when she went to do the same to my partners' plate, a whole lot of Chinese started up as my partner managed not to get her plate mounded up like mine. That definitely is an advantage. No matter how much I protested, it didn't change the fact that I was being fed enough for two people, but my partner got out of it. I do have to say that the dumplings and taro pancakes were really good and now I don't have to make any lunch for myself. (My partner was having a lunch date with her youngest son and so she wanted to leave some room for her lunch). Sister H. also made sure we both had a mug full of boiling water. And that's what she drank also. I guess after joining the church, she switched from tea or coffee to just hot water. Luckily, I've had a glass or two of just hot water, so I was able to drink this without any problem. (This is something that would happen on my mission when the people wanted to give you a hot drink but all they had was tea...usually we ended up just drinking hot water).

Every time we go visit Sister H., I really feel like I'm back on my mission. It's the language barrier (though she does speak and understand English), the cultural differences, and the poverty. I feel truly blessed to have a visiting teaching partner that speaks Chinese so that we can find out how Sister H. is truly doing. I also really love that our ward is full of so much diversity. I've been able to learn so many things from others in the ward and from their experiences.