Elder Thomas Jensen: 一輩子的朋友

I took a quick look back through my journal to update myself on the occurrences of this past week. I didn't read many too interesting things to share with you. Unfortunately.

The good news is last P-day after emails was a blast! We had an LA drive us up the mountain behind our city. It overlooks all of the northern half of Taiwan on a clear day I guess? At least all of Taipei. When we first got into the car, it appeared that it was going to be a fairly gray day. Luckily though, missionaries hold power to repulse the clouds and rain apparentally because as we drove up the mountain, the sky literally opened up a huge hole of sunshine like directly over the spot we drove too. It was actually kind of hilarious. Missionary humor anyways....

Good views. Nothing quite like Zion or the Grand Canyon. But breathtaking in its own way. There were some fun sulfur springs up there that we went ahead to take a few smells of. Not totally sure that was worth it bahaha. Except the fact that, tell me how gross this is, because I have developed a good taste for the Stinky Tofu here, so the smell of sulfur wasn't quite as unbearable as I ever remember it being. lol.

This week I had a lot of reflection on the blessings of my mission. As I'm a pretty practical person, remember that there of course have been numberless small missionary miracles and cool things, however, the biggest things are very simple. Myself is the first biggest miracle. I have been stretched and grown in unimaginable ways. I have tempered my attitude and emotions to be much more loving and steady. I have further discovered things about my true character. I have literally become a new person.

The second miracle has been the friends I've managed to meet here. To have a true, good friend is a very rare thing. Very hard to come by. I have been so influenced by the people around me it's weird to think about. I feel like I've met some of my siblings from the other side of the veil that I used to play around with a lot. Meeting back up with them has been the best thing of my life. Taiwan and the people here have a piece of my heart forever.

To those RM's who have expressed similar thoughts to me before, I now understand.

I love my life. I love my mission.