Taiwan

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 ...

It's been another great week in Zuoying!!! We had a lot of fun stuff happen! We've been working a lot with several investigators that seem to be really progressing. Brother Z... and his wife and doing super well. They've already read together all the way to the end of 1st Nephi in the Book of Mormon! He really enjoys reading it a lot. Our ward mission leader likes to come to help with their lessons because when we meet at 8:30 in the morning he can come too because his work is later. He loves teaching them so he basically does most of the talking haha. It is easy to see that Brother Z... loves what he is learning here. He's doing very well.   Our newer friend Brother Z... is doing well too. We've met him for about two weeks now and he's awesome! He's in his late 50s and he is a very humble man. He was sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit when he was in his 20s, then he just wasted away his life drinking and smoking. Then his body just couldn...

Dear Everyone,  This last week was a great week! We are finding lots of people to meet with and who are willing to learn. This is such a great area. I wish I would've come here earlier and been able to stay here longer! And on pday, there is so much to do so we are never bored!    We've been working hard with one of our friends named B... He has a strong desire to be baptized and to do the right thing, but he still struggles with the Word of Wisdom. He is trying hard to stop smoking and drinking. He is a construction worker too so the environment that he works in, and lives in, make it very difficult for him to stop. He's doing well though. He only smoked two cigarettes last week so he's getting better and better.    Our other friend Brother Z... is doing well too. In the last few days he's already read 16 chapters in the Book of Mormon . He really enjoys it and his wife is very supportive in helping him to read and answering his questions. We just ...

Hey Everyone!!    Yes I'm still alive, we survived the typhoon!! We didn't know how powerful of a typhoon it actually was because we were inside for all of it. Before when there were typhoons or anything bad, we just went outside to proselyte like normal....those times were all jam packed with lots of fun stories, but this time, our mission president said that we all had to stay inside until the storm was gone. It kind of had the feeling of a snow day back home when you don't have to go to school. The difference was that staying inside wasn't fun at all haha. Eventually at around 1:30pm or so we got permission to leave the house and we just went around in the rain talking with people that were inside stores. Since then it has rained every day, all day, including today.    We had Zone Leaders Training Meeting this week which was fun. It was nice not to have to give the training for a change. I could just sit back and learn some new things from the other missi...

Hey Everyone!  After one weeks of serving here I've decided that ZuoYing is a great place! There are so many people, places to eat, and things to do. I love at night when everyone is out on the streets shopping and walking around because we just get to stroll around and talk with everyone. There are so many people to talk to and it makes things so much fun. There are plenty of places to eat too. The thing is though, Elder Neuhaus and I have been trying to eat healthier so we just eat inside all the time. We just stay inside for breakfast and lunch and eat protein shakes, chicken breast, peanut butter, salad, pb & j sandwiches and fruit. We also got a membership at a really nice gym here (that's why I took a bunch of money out of my account) and we get up at about 5:30am to work out every morning. I'm feeling a lot better than I have after starting to be healthy again. I'm super glad my companion likes to do this just as much as I do.   Elder Neuhaus is awes...

Dear Everyone,   Well, the time has finally come...the very last transfer of my mission. The last leg of the race. And I won't be spending it in Ping Dong. I got a call and I've been moved to the center of Gaoxiong City in a place called ZuoYing. It's kind of weird moving to a new area when I only have 6 weeks left because before I even have a chance to learn the area, I'll be coming home haha. But there are tons of people in this area and I'm excited to serve here. My new companion says that they don't really have anyone to teach, but with such a great area, so many people, and God's help, I think that we can change that.    My new (and maybe final) companion is Elder Neuhaus from Nashville, Tennessee. He's a cool guy and I'm excited to work with him. He just got finished with training so it will be fun to work with a newer missionary again. He also likes to exercise a lot so we are going to have a good time finding a gym and helping me get...

Hey Everyone!     I hope you all had a great week! HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to my Dad and Grandpa too!!! We've had an awesome week down in PingDong! It was a super rainy and humid week, but it was all still good. Towards the end of the week it didn't rain too bad.   On Monday two old friends of Elder Steele and I came to visit us. My old temporary companion J... and our friend who was baptized in the Donghai ward when I was up there named O... Unfortunately, on the day they came up it rained really hard so we couldn't do much. We ate a big lunch and then went shopping for groceries. We sat in the store's massage chairs for a very long time... and then played some ping pong at the church. (I have yet to find someone from Taiwan that is better at ping pong than me! That stereotype is still a lie!)    This week Elder Steele and I have been working extra hard to find more people to teach. We spend pretty much all day riding our bikes on the str...

Dear Everyone,   Thank you for your prayers that I would be able to withstand the extreme heat of Taiwan. God has heard your prayers because it has been pouring down rain for the past three days and is expected to last all week! Now that it's raining though I wish I could go back to the heat haha.   This past week was pretty fun! On pday I went with my good friend Elder Lauti and some old members from my first area in Tainan to go eat at an all you can eat grill. I love eating at those! It was also fun to hang out with some old friends. Then on Tuesday we had a great Zone Training Meeting ZTM. Our zone has been working really hard and doing a great job so we decided to have a fun ZTM for a change. We made a scavenger hunt for them all to do. Each team had about 6 stations to go to and at each place there was a riddle that they had to solve which led them to the next clue. And at some of the stations we had a teaching skill that they had to practice; like, ta...

Dear Everyone,  It was another scorching hot week and we were outside biking for most of it. Elder Steele and I are getting some good tans! All the members are telling us to wear jackets outside so we don't get tan haha. What they don't understand is that if we wore them...we would die.    I got to go on companion exchanges with Elder Varvel this week. We were together in the MTC and he's a great guy. We had a fun time catching up on how each other's mission has been going so far. He's a really great Elder so we had a really fun time.    I also had the opportunity to do another baptismal interview with a guy named C... He is a 27 year old Chinese teacher from Hengchun and is one of Elder Grisenti's investigators. Since it takes about 3 hours to get down do Hengchun, we just decided to use skype to do the interview. C... is a really cool guy and very prepared. He had lots of really good experiences with seeing answers to his prayers and he has a very...

Hey Everyone!!   Well this week was a little slower than most but that's ok.  You know you're doing a good job talking with everyone if you recognize many of the people that you see on the street or in the park or in convenient stores as people that you've met and talked with before. It's really great to be able to talk and meet so many different people here in Taiwan. I've learned a great deal about the people here in Taiwan and their thoughts and feelings about God, life, and their families. Many people aren't sure of who God is, why we are here on Earth, or even how they can have a happy successful family. It makes me very appreciative of the knowledge that we have through the gospel of Jesus Christ! It opens our eyes to a larger picture and gives us hope and new direction! It's really comforting.   On Thursday we also went up to Taizhong for our Mission Leadership Council. It was the last one that we will have with President and Sister Blickens...

Hello Everyone!!    We just got back from a fun trip to an island called Xiao Liu Qiu just off the coast of Dong Gang. It was a fun trip and I took some good pictures, but the downside is that I don't have much time to email now. So hopefully the pictures will make up for my lack of an email.   This last week was a little slow on the teaching front. We're hoping that this coming week will be good though. S... was in the hospital again so we weren't able to visit with him. Please pray for him!    This week I did my first baptismal interview! Can you believe it, I've been out for this long and still hadn't done an interview before haha. The Elders in Dalio (Elder Clayson and Giles) have been teaching a young couple, L... and D..., who are going to be baptized in two weeks. I was a little nervous before and was praying really hard that I would be able to distinguish clearly whether or not they were ready to be baptized. I had an interview with the...

Dear Everyone,  Well it's transfers again and I was really wondering what would happen to me this time. And the verdict is..that I will be staying in Ping Dong! I really wanted to train for my last two transfers like I had always wanted, but it's okay. I enjoy serving as a Zone Leader down in Ping Dong. I really love being able to call all the missionaries in my zone and talk to them about how they are. We started a thing in our zone where whenever anyone sets a baptismal goal with an investigator that they should call us and talk to us about it and then we have a giant white board where we right all of their names so we can pray for them. All the missionaries are super excited when they can call in and talk about their awesome investigators. I really love all the missionaries in the zone. Unfortunately, many of them are moving out today. Elder Ludwig from Fengshan and Elder Flemming from KenDing are both leaving to serve as Zone Leaders somewhere else. So at least I will ...

Hey Everyone!!    Happy Mother's Day!! Well, I just got done Skyping with my family. Thanks for everyone who came, it was a lot of fun to see all the family. Especially Uncle Bob who came all the way from Wyoming just to Skype with me. (Well, I guess he came to visit Grandma for Mother's Day too haha) It's too bad that the time always seems to go too fast. But when we talk the next time, we won't have a time limit!    Since I just Skyped and said a bunch of stuff, I don't really know what I should email. I'm enjoying my time in Ping Dong. It's starting to get super hot, but we're doing alright.   This week was super fun though! I went on exchanges with my son Elder Grisenti!! He is in my zone, but he's all the way in Hengchun and Kending so we never see them. But on Tuesday they came up for our Zone Meeting and afterwards we did exchanges with them and then they went back on Wednesday. We had a great time and saw some miracles. All th...

Hello Everyone!!    We had another great week! I'm sorry that I'm so bad with writing emails. But after writing so many, I just run out of fun ways to start them or fun things to say haha. So I'll just tell you how the week went.   On Monday I went to the Lotus Ponds with my companion Elder Steele. I've gone twice before when I was in Gaoxiong, but Elder Steele had never been before so I took him there. It was cool going again though. There were a lot more lilies in the pond this time than there were when we went during the summer. So that was cool.   On Tuesday we went to a District meeting and then went on exchanges with the Elders Porter and Pothier from Chaozhou (a city south of Ping Dong city). Elder Pothier is brand new on the island, he got here 3 weeks ago so it was a lot of fun serving with him for a little bit. He is super tall, about a head taller than me, and really big.  Therefore, sometimes people are a little afrai...