Elder Thomas Jensen: 報佳音

Although it is not yet Christmastime back home, there is no Christmastime here in Taiwan so really anytime could be Christmastime for us.

This past week can be summed up into two days, Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday:

Woke up at 6:30am for a good couple mile run as usual. Normally we don't bring the keys, therefore we don't lock the door when we go out in the morning. Elder Dong actually locked it without noticing until we got back. Not much you can do when all you own is behind a closed door. So we went out for breakfast with money borrowed from our apartment manager.

That I didn't mind much :-) Taiwanese breakfast food is delicious and I unfortunately don't eat it enough.

Best tasting omelette of my life

American style French toast :-)

When we finally got back into the apartment at 10:30, we didn't have a lot of time for studies and lunch because we originally had lessons set for 1pm and 2pm. All until 1pm and 2pm when they called and texted and cancelled. We went and hit the streets instead.

We saw what is probably the only Harley gang in Taiwan out for a wedding though! That was exciting!

I gotta find me one of these back home

That whole afternoon I was seeing stars as I was walking around trying to stop people to talk to them. True exhaustion. I survived.

I was happy though to have two more appointments set for the night at the chapel. We were to get two new investigators that were super solid. And we had mulitple families from the ward come up to help us as well. The first was set for 6:30pm. We called her at 6:31pm and she sounded very confused about the address we told her. We took off on our bikes riding in circles looking for her for a good 20 minutes before we finally called her and asked her to hand the phone to one of the people standing next to her. She was at the same address we told her to go to, but about 1 hour subway ride away from us down in the heart of Taipei. So that fell through of course. Taiwanese addresses...........

She doesn't even live in our area either as it turns out.

Then the 7:30pm didn't show.

We had a mini party with all the members out in front of the chapel instead. Could've been worse..

Then Sunday:

Slow morning. I like to take me 20-30 minute showers on Sundays with that extra half hour we don't have to exercise. Finally got rolling and got up to church.

Walked upstairs. Looked to my left. There were two ghosts standing there waiting for me. It was the most terrifyingly exciting thing of my mission life. Thanks guys for the surprise. :-)

The surprise of the week! Thanks Shawn!!!

In the afternoon we went to visit a sister with cancer. We sat in her hospital room and sang hymns to calm down her pain. It quickly became a very sacred place. Holy hour. Tender moment.

At night, we got cancelled on. So we put on the little Christmas light necklaces I received and went around to members' home singing carols to them to say thanks for all they do for us and to express our love for them. It was good fun. It lifted my spirits pretty good.