Sunday, March 27, 2016

忙碌

This week rained everyday for the 2 week in a row. And next week's horizons will also be gray. I'm starting to wonder if the sun exists anymore lol. Asian Springtime...

This week's will also be short. We really just focused in on the work again. And as such it went very quick. We only had a couple experiences that stick out.

One morning I woke up and I looked at the window and thought that it was covered in water from condensation. I went to wipe the window and none of it came off. It was fog that was so thick you couldn't see more than 100 yrds in front of you. We still went out and ran in it. It was nuts running along that track and literally having people like pop up out of the fog on you. The fog here is intense.

While we were waiting for our lunch appointment, we stopped and talked with a lady here from Argentina studying. I love foreigners here in Taiwan, they usually have something in common in that they come here to get away from the world. Because Taiwan is literally the safest place on the planet, and it's also one of the most crowded and work-aholic environments you can find, it's actually pretty easy to come here and get lost for a while. It sounds fun or nice maybe at the first sound of it, however as I was speaking to her, I was grateful that I have people that I like in this world and can get along with. I like that I have friends and family that I want to be with and not just run away from. This woman was very professional though and her work was definitely honorable. She also thanked us for the chat, she seemed to really enjoy what we shared with her. Open-minds. They are very nice for a change.

Last little small thing, I literally cannot call anyone without calling all the wrong people first. To the point that now when I call members of my district, they usually make me say who I am speaking to to confirm that I know who I am trying to talk to and who I actually am talking to lol. So this week while we were eating dinner I called some sisters in preparation for a meeting we were having with our stake president. She answers, I start speaking, she didn't know who President Cai was at first, knew nothing of the appointment we had, but kept going along with what I was saying. I thought it was weird at first but I keep just babbling away until after 5 minutes I think to look at who I called. I promptly apologized.

You get too many things running through your head and how do you keep everything together?

Missions..

Hope everyone has a great week!!!

Springtime fog 

Guess which desk is mine!!! The mission has taught me cleanliness!

Monday, March 14, 2016

Niel

So this will maybe be a little brief.

This week brought the single biggest miracle of my time here in 新竹. I finally saw my man 陳嘉翔 baptized. Niel is his English name. Since the first day that I got here to this area, I saw this kid thinking that he is special in his own way. At the time he didn't show much promise. But I knew I'd see this day come. Some people on your mission you just like an extra amount, not sure why, but you just become friends and you love spending time with them and being around them. This kid was my miracle of 新竹 for sure. It has been such a privilege to get to know him and be here to see him make this change in his life. His dad was also very very supportive which is a very rare thing here in Asia I believe. It was a fun experience.

Niel and his dad on the very right.

Niel is the kid, the older guy is Pedro who baptized him. And then on the very right is our man who I talked about in last week's letter with his funny testimony. Both hilarious!

Transfers also came this week. I have a new companion, also from Utah, Elder Davidson. Elder Gray went to my old area in Danshui and I actually felt some gnarly heart pangs of jealousy. I love that city so much. We are already off to a very strong start, good fire together, which is a good thing for me, for anyone really.

Being ZL is a fun thing because of how it really gets you so involved in the work that you can't really imagine any other lifestyle, mostly because you never have time to do anything. Being a missionary is exhausting, but it is a good time. Also, it gets really fun when you can speak the language pretty well. I love this culture. I love the people. I love China!!

So excited for the future I'll have with China. The mission has been a major blessing in that it has connected me with such a foreign and far-out, yet beautiful and amazing place. Every missionary could probably agree with that.

Love you all!!

Construction work here in Taiwan... This is a line of street shops that have this massive hole in front of all of them and they simply lay down a wooden board for those who want to enter.

The rain was obnoxious last night. Springtime...

Monday, March 7, 2016

春天

Spring time has officially arrived here in Taiwan. And my sinuses are celebrating!! My cough has been a little relentless lately... I'm definitely not sick again, just full of that gunk that makes life fun in the spring :-)

I was able to go on some exchanges with Elder Seely again this week.. It's been pretty cool being around him so much lately. I enjoy talking about some of those old people I knew in High School with him.. He is a great missionary. We had some cool moments together out on those streets.

The XinZhu Zone
For our weekly planning session this week we made a huge cookie for us to eat.. That was interesting I guess??

our cookie
I've learned a bit about a principle lately out here that is important to know if I really want to see some good success in the future, although I'm not positive it's my favorite thing as a missionary? I'm still deciding. It is what Warren Buffett said "No is just the beginning of the conversation." When I was finding with Elder Seely, we had 10 minutes left to contact people before we had to go home. I saw a woman walking down the street and decided she was the last one. I said hello and she said "No," to which I shot back "Wait one second!" She stopped. She was reluctant to talk at first, but got more and more relaxed and eventually she let us say a prayer for her. She ended telling us about her life and the troubles she's had lately. She didn't believe in God but wanted someone to tell her He exists. She ended up being super happy we talked to her. We will meet her again this next week! 

As people in general take only a couple seconds to cast their judgments on people (proven by studies in the past) it is easy to not stop for a moment and give people the time of day to say what they have to say. But if you can just get them past that first "No," sometimes they will end up thanking you for it. That was a neat experience for me. Get past that first no, then it may take a few unexpected turns? Life lesson learned.

The best past of the week was in a lesson and then again during sacrament meeting. We had a member in a lesson with us to share his testimony and we taught the Law of Chastity. We didn't want to go into too much depth with it so we saved it for last. Little did we know that our really good friend had a MAJOR testimony of that Law of Chastity...not only that, but little did I know how open some Chinese people are with other people sometimes as well.. Either way, he tells us his huge story during the lesson of why he knows breaking the Law of Chastity is bad in the fullest detail you could possibly ask for... I couldn't keep myself together. I lost it unfortunately.

I think that lesson served us all even better though during sacrament as our friend must have realized that not lots of people know this story of his. So he announces it again in the same detail over the pulpit in fast and testimony meeting. I was bewildered. Not at our friend this time, but at everyone else in the congregation. People were so moved by such an awesome story of repentance and many people told him they loved what he shared afterwards. 

It was something foreign to me being there at that moment. But I was so moved by the love and acceptance for the man amongst all our members yesterday. They look at people in the eyes of God, they see you for what you are becoming and what direction you are heading, not for who you were or what you did. I was truly blown away! I hope to be more like these amazing people here who can look at all people in such a way.

The weeks just keep flying by! Life is beautiful!!

Love you all! Have a great week!!

Elder Dong's little brother was at the temple when we were! I got do the confirmations for him too, super cool.

Justin our man going to the temple for his first time!