Taiwan

Hey Everyone! Things are still going super good down here in the land of Nanzi. It's been raining hard, every day, for the past two weeks straight, but it's still lots of fun! Especially because of my new compaion...Elder Grisenti! He is awesome. He's from St. George, Utah, and really likes sports, and missionary work, which is the best combination haha. He is just out of the MTC, which means that I'm training!!! I'm super excited to be able to train, even though I really don't feel like I'm able to train anyone. I feel like we are going to be learning from each other. I woke up at 4:40am and rode the train up to Taizhong to the meeting and to pick up my new companion. And then we didn't get home until about 6:30pm. We've been having a great time together and I'm looking forward to spending the next two move calls together. My last companion, Elder Zheng (the temporary missionary) was awesome as well. Last week we spent a lot of time in the ...

Hello! Hey I won't have tons of time to email, but I just wanted to sent a quick email to let you all know that I'm still alive. If I went a week without sending you an email you might be a little worried haha. In a minute I'm going to be going to the hospital with my companion for a check up. We had quite an eventful day! We were doing studies and he all of the sudden started complaining about being dizzy and not able to breathe. He said he was gasping for breath but couldn't get anything! All of the sudden he just basically passed out. I freaked out and didn't know what to do. I called an ambulance and carried him downstairs to take him to the hospital. They quickly got him and took him there. He is all good now though so don't worry.  It might have come on because of us always riding around in the sun and running in the mornings. He is as fine as ever now so don't worry too much about him. We are just going to go to the hospital to do a check up and see i...

Well these past few days have been pretty hectic because we randomly got a call that Elder Dalmer is going to be moving! It's super fast and we've only been together for about 4 weeks or so. He is going to be moving down to a place called Kending which is the furthest south of Taiwan that he could possibly go haha. That should be fun for him! I'm a little sad that we were only together for such a short time. He is a great missionary and I know that he'll have an awesome time wherever he is going! Things are going to be a little hectic for me these next few weeks. My trainer and good friend Elder Smith is going to be going home!! Nooooo! He was a great companion and a great trainer!! (Yes Elder Smith that's you!) So I've gotta say farewell to my mission Pops! And because he and his whole generation of missionaries are leaving a little early (for college) the new missionaries haven't come from the MTC yet so I will be without a companion for a while. So I'...

Dear Everyone, Although we just had a HUGE typhoon come through Taiwan, luckily I'm still alive to tell the tale! People had been warning us of the typhoon for about a week leading up to it so we were expecting it to be pretty big. Then at the last minute the typhoon headed towards the mountains on the side of Taiwan so it wasn't as big as they thought...but it was still pretty big. Elder Dalmer and I tried to go out, but that ended pretty quickly haha. We could hardly open the door to go outside because the wind was blowing so fast. When we got outside, the first thing we saw were tons of trees torn up and lying on the road and lots of scooters that had been blown over onto the road. We could hardly see a thing because the wind would shoot the rain right into our eyes so we just blindly staggered forward trying to get to a place to eat. That didn't happen because the place we wanted to go...was a little broken. The stove counters of the place had been torn out of the...

Wow Eric! That's too bad that you're home already! Why don't you extend for a little bit and help us out here in Taiwan haha. It was lots of fun to read about your trip in Japan and all of the fun. I'm glad that you got to experience some of the fun heat that we love so much. Was it hot for you Eric? Or was it just about the usual haha. I was happy to hear that Eric got home just in time to help you finish up cleaning out the other garage. Wow lucky you Eric! Thank goodness it'll be long finished by the time I come home!   Things are going well for me down in Gaoxiong. This week was honestly a little rough. We thought that it was originally going to be an awesome week, because we had set up so many new people to meet with. But unfortunately most of them didn't show up like they said:-( That is always a little upsetting because we know what they are missing out on, but we just have to hope that somewhere later on down the road that they will listen to o...

Hey Everyone, Wow, I can't believe that Eric is done with the mission! Time has certainly flown and it's really weird to get your emails about your fun excursions in Japan with him. I guess I don't really have to worry about telling you to take pictures cuz I know that Dad has probably already taken plenty haha. I'm also glad to hear that you are experiencing some of the pleasures that being in Taiwan and Japan have to offer, such as the humidity. That's pretty much how it is every day, but the difference is I think the body just gets used to it because luckily I'm not having nearly as rough as a time as you guys are having! Make sure you buy me something sweet over there. I don't actually really know what to ask for. But you know that I just like surprises so whatever you get (as long as it's good) will be good enough. I've been having a lot of fun in my new area with my new companion. We get a long really well. Elder Dalmer is a pretty chill g...