第六十週年的慶典

here is what xizhi looks like

As I write this, the sisters are sitting next to me with their speaker they brought blaring EFY music off lds.org. Even after these two years of a mission, I still can't stand Motab or EFY music. Some things just never grow on you I guess?

This week we celebrated the 60th year anniversary of missionary work here in Taiwan this week. We had Elder Kitchen here too who was one of the original 4 who opened the work here in Taiwan. Super cool stuff. Things have come a long way since then.

Mostly everything was centered around that. It was super fun to go to this super huge celebration and see SOOOO many past friends of mine. It was especially neat to see people from my first area that still recognized me! Super cool stuff. I even saw Elder Coleman there from the Taizhong mission. Fun times.

We will be having a great month ahead of us. Lots of baptisms on the horizons and lots of fun Pdays. What could I ask for more than that?

Thanks for all the love and support!

Have a great week!!

重要東西的袋子

This week I don't have the letter writing spirit in me. So I'll just explain two pictures 就好了.

Last Monday we woke up early to a major rain storm. It semi bummed me out because we had some awesome plans all laid out to go play in the mountains. We had to change our plans last second. We decided we would just take an inside day. But that didn't sit well with me so I called our member Brother Luo up and he said that heck yeah we were still going out to play! That got me super stoked! So we called it back on. The rest of the day was a total blast! You can have fun on rainy days. Just pretend its not there and you're good to go! We saw a waterfall, ate a huge lunch, set up a sky lantern, then convinced Brother Luo to take us on the super sketchy hike even though it was super rainy outside hahah. I climbed the last ladder shoeless because it was so slippery. Reminded me a bit of being on Angel's landing in Zion during the winter with all the ice up there.

The other one was after a super long service project we had on saturday night. First off you need to understand that Elder Falck forgets random things of his all the time and I always make fun of him for it. So we were super late getting back to the house. We only had like 30 minutes to go out and proselyte for the night. We were super rushed trying to get all changed and put back together so we could go back out and make the most of that time. When we got to the elevator Elder Falck says "Oh shoot, I forgot my bag." Runs out the elevator and into the house when he finally realized it was on his shoulder haha. Comes back into the elevator and we start heading down when Elder Griffin busted up laughing and said "Elder Falck, you forgot something else too." He wasn't wearing a tie :-)

But at this point we had such little time and I wanted to go so we didn't go back to get him one. We just went out and did work. And we did work. We found an awesome new investigator even. Tieless. For you RM's, you'll understand how funny that is.

I love where I'm at right now. We go out and do work everyday and it's fun to just get lost in the work. I ain't about that trunky life. Elder Falck and I are having a blast together!

雷雨

This past week had a few highlights. Here's a good summary of my time in Xizhi for you:

Last P-day we had the idea to go bike up a canyon near our house. We figured the road wouldn't get too steep...Until we were walking those bikes up the 89 degree hills. Completely tucked away into the thick undergrowth of a tropical island. We saw some people in the chinese temples who thought we were pretty crazy. Sure enough that road took us to the top of the tall mountain. The view was priceless. We started to head down towards a different far off place, but accidentally took a wrong turn, which was the biggest blessing of the day as right when we hit the bottom of the hill in the middle of Taipei, the gnarliest lightning storm I've ever seen here let out all at once. Elder Falck and I rode home through the flash floods the roads became and were just a little wet when we walked in the door. On the way we stopped to get some Costco muffins. It was a nice treat to celebrate surviving that endeavor.

We made it out to central Taipei on exchanges with our zone leaders. We were right up next to the Taipei 101 tower. It was nuts to see signs like "Chili's" or "Krispy Kremes" or "Jamba Juice" or "Texas Roadhouse" and all that stuff. Funny too was most everyone we stopped and talked to there lived in Xizhi lol. So we pretty much went finding for me out there haha. I'm so happy to be where I'm at in Xizhi.

We saw a lot of really good success with investigators this week which was super awesome. Missions are pretty fun when the work goes smoothly. I'm loving every breath of it. I think thats how it should be for the last few months. Here's to the two remaining!

Yesterday was the most chaotic and crazy Sunday of my life.

We met with an investigator who we had had some very poorly taught lessons with and we were honestly really surprised that she would still meet with us again. But this lesson was wonderful. We taught 1 Nephi 8. Such a miracle.

However proceeding that miracle, we had some crazy preventable but hilarious surprises. Elder Falck rides his bike over a massive hole and pops his tire hard. We are out of a bike. We take Elder Griffin's bike without telling him. Misread some signs and ride up onto the freeway. End up having to climb over a wall with our bikes and through a large hedge and drop them down to the right spot. All for the people sitting in the temple nearby to see and enjoy lol. But the good one was a member we went to visit. She had accidentally offended one of our investigators and has felt super bad since. She had just been thinking about it again, apparently praying about it, then the thought came to her that we would be coming over soon. She cut us up a pineapple and prepared some cookies. Little did we know she would be so prepared for our surprise visit to tell her the exact comforting words to not worry about her mistake that she had been praying for just minutes before. 

Call it coincidence if you will. I think God works in mysterious ways.

I'm excited for another fun week! Hope you all are as well!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in the world. Especially my mother. She's so awesome. Skyping home was lots of fun. Last one as a missionary... Kind of nuts to think about.. 

I wish I could describe in words the looks on my parents faces when they met Elder Falck over skype. I think it took a few moments for my dad to realize that Elder Falck was speaking Swedish with him. Even more surprised since they thought he was from northern Utah hahaha!

Having a Swedish comp is the best thing. He's such a stud. And it is fun to have an interesting mix of cultures and language there in our apartment. Such a blast.

This week we saw lots of fun little miracles, from finding a super golden and hilarious investigator, to saving an investigator after having an honestly terrible lesson with her, to just feeling the spirit. Missions are great.

The coolest thing of the week though was last Pday where we went into the mountains to explore a bit. We had just finished hiking when we went to go see a waterfall. As we were pulling into the parking lot, I noticed the man collecting parking fees had a blue book in his hand, one I have seen many times before on my mission. I unroll the window and ask, "where did you get that book??" He had just found it in his house the day before. He felt like reading it. So when we saw him, he had just started reading it that day. Super nuts if you understood that we were literally in the middle of nowhere. No missionaries have been in the that area forever, if ever at all. Cool stuff.

This week is going to be a good one. Thanks for such awesome friends and family, you all are so awesome. Have a great week!!!

Some good ones of the hike, setting off lanterns into the sky, and then that crazy miracle find we had.

榮耀的夜晚

Last Monday we got out to email early as we were going to play in Yingge with an investigator's family. It was a great time! Going to those old style Chinese streets and eating the "traditional" stuff is a super good time! I was also able to see again that I can still somewhat throw a pot after all this time, so that made me pretty freaking happy! Ceramics here I come!

I've gotten a Chinese shaved ice again nearly everyday this week. Talk about crazy amounts of sugar, however, once I get to America I'm guessing there isn't even a slight chance that I'll find a shaved ice place with flavors like sweet pinto beans, brown sugar sauce, sweet and condensed milk, grass jelly, and taro flavored jelly balls. Trust me, there is nothing like it!

A good funny but friggin gross moment from the week was as we went to visit a member, his mother grabbed us a glass of drinking water out of courtesy. Luckily I had brought my own water bottle, so I didn't drink much of it at the start. However, as I was getting up to leave, I grabbed it and said "Now, let me drink all of this before I go," again out of courtesy. But after the first mini sip, I noticed there was a floating thing in it. So I take a good look in there. Huge chunks of floating COBWEBS!

Yeah I didn't drink it all.

Perhaps the craziest moment of the week was when we were out contacting one night. We ran into an American expat. He first talked to my companion making fun of him for being from Utah. Luckily my companion is not a Utah boy so we put him back in his place with that one LOL. Sat and talked with him for a bit. He told us all about his life story. It was interesting. The man was perhaps one of the most professional psychologists in the nation, he had all the credentials to go with it. Left the nation when he was framed for smoking weed and that crushed his record. Super interesting stuff. He then asked us some religious questions, which I was glad for so I didn't feel too much like I was wasting my time. We both bore some powerful testimony. It was super neat. Until in the end, looking directly at me, he said, "When I saw you, I felt something different, and I've seen many of you. Why don't you come by my shop this week and I'll let you look at my charts." I was a bit confused at that, added in there that I don't have any money and that if I really did come by it would be to share a message with him is all. His reply, "Well that won't work then."

Everyone is just out for their own interests I guess.

The best part of the week was last night though. We had the new member fireside. I saw Elder Dong again for the first time since Christmas. I was so happy. And better yet. I was surprised to see two friends of mine that Elder Dong and I found together that have since been baptized that I didn't know about till last night. So cool!!

Have a great week!