Monkey Mountain!!

Hi Everyone, 

  We finally had the chance to go to Monkey Mountain!! It's a place that I've wanted to go to since I first came down to Gaoxiong. It's a mountain that you can go hiking on and it's really pretty. The main thing about it though is that there are tons of monkeys all over the place! They just roam all around and through the trees. A lot of them are super cute, but lots of them are really ferocious too! Elder Grisenti almost got bit a couple times and they would hiss at us if we scared them too bad. I was squatting down trying to take a picture of one and suddenly my friend Diego pulled me back just in time to avoid getting bit in the face by another monkey that was right next to my head on a branch! I tried super hard to get a picture of me sitting next to a monkey to send home, but they were just too fast, and too scary to get a good one haha. It was super fun though. I sent home a file with a bunch of pics of it so hopefully you can download them. I have some bad news to tell you...  Apparently I didn't inherit the good picture taking gene from you Dad. I took a lot of pictures for Elder Grisenti and after looking at them, from then on he just let someone else do it for the rest of the time. Sorry Dad.

  Other than that, on Saturday for Halloween we had a ward party! It was pretty crazy! We were meeting with our friend W… in one of the rooms, and after the lesson we came out and there were people everywhere! There was a ton of games and goodies; there was even a big maze in the cultural hall and a haunted house in the basement. There were lots of little kids and they all enjoyed it. I enjoyed it too, especially when my companion and I went into the maze.  It was pretty fun. We tried to have a little gospel sharing time at the end and watched a short video, but after all of the kids had eaten pounds of candy, there was no way for them to sit still with all that energy! We watched one of my favorite videos, “Because He Lives”, so I hope that maybe someone there was able to feel the power of that message! I love in the video where they emphasize that because Jesus Christ died for us, every single one of us has a second chance. We can conquer anything...even death. It's just such a happy message!

  Our friend W… is doing really well. He's really quiet and doesn't say much, but he just absorbs everything we say. Even little things that I didn't even remember telling him about. I get kind of worried since he never talks so I don't know if he understands or not, but if I ask him a question about something, he'll remember it all! He has a goal to be baptized two weeks on November 14. Please pray for him!

  Today the post office called me and said that the package I sent home for you all a month or so ago got sent back here to Taiwan for some reason. I told them to just try sending it back to the US again. So hopefully they will be able to get it home to you all this time! Sorry for the wait. Good thing I sent it early. Maybe it'll get home in time for Christmas!

   That's exciting that you got a new calling Mom! It seems like you just barely got called to be a teacher! Were you called right when I went out on my mission? I hope you can figure out how to be a camp director! It's be no problem for you though!

Well I love you all lots! Thanks so much for all the emails you send every week! i really appreciate it! My favorite part on the pday is opening the email and being able to read the letters from you all! I love you all lots! Have a safe week!
Love,

Elder Stevens


Eating one of my favorites...hot pot!  The best is when they have free ice cream and soda!  Elder Grisenti finally likes to eat hot pot!



Monkey Mountain



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Final Email Home!

Image
Dear Family and Friends,   Well here it is, the final week of my mission. My last week in such a beautiful country that I have called home for the past 2 years of my life. I don't really know how to express all of my feelings and thoughts in this email, I don't think that is possible to do so. All I can say is that I love my mission. I love Taiwan. I love the message that I teach here. I wouldn't have traded this time away for anything! The opportunities of learning and growth that I've had during this time are impossible to get in any other way. And I can't imagine what it would've been like had I not come and experienced all of this. My testimony and love for Jesus Christ has grown alongside of all of the many people that I was able to teach here. I have loved seeing my own growth, and even more so, the growth of the people that I love here in Taiwan. It will be sad to leave them all, but I know it will be like the sons of Mosiah and Alma, as we all remain ...
Read more

My New Call Is To...

Image
Dear Family, Well I found out where I'm going to be serving for the next 6 weeks. Anyone want to make some last minute guesses? Everyone brace themselves, I'm going to...............Salt Lake City, Utah! I was so right! I was almost 100% sure that I'd go there and I was right. Everyone says that Salt Lake is so cool so maybe there's something to it. I'm going to be leaving on Tuesday by train and I'll be taking a 40 minute ride. The only downside is that since I won't be waiting for a layover, I'm not sure if I'll be able to call or not....I'll work it out and see. If I am able to call, it'll prob be around 6 or so my time, maybe later. I'm in the Utah, Salt Lake City Mission, do you know anyone that I should see in that mission? Oh, I'll be in Salt Lake during general conference so maybe I'll be able to attend a session there. That would make it a little better lol. Well, I'll keep you updated on everything that's happ...
Read more

The Half-Way Mark. 半路上标志

Image
Hey how is everyone doing? i can hardly believe that an entire month has gone by and i am already more than half way done here! Time just flies by so quickly here and before I know it I will be in taiwan. We had a lot of new missionaries come into our zone last wednesday so my group isn't the youngest anymore. That means that we're actually supposed to be the experienced ones here lol. Idk if we are or not but we're coming along. It reminds me of when I first came to the mtc, I didn't know any chinese so even if other people were saying simple phrases like I'm happy or I want to sleep, I would have no idea what they were saying. Now when I just say easy stuff like that, the other elders are like, woah, you know so much chinese!  I wish, but i've certainly have come a long way. I'm actually really glad that I'm learning chinese as opposed to some other languages, cuz some elders were saying that for their language, when you read, you have to read like up ...
Read more