Taiwan

Hey, how are y'all doing!  This week was really cool. Last Wednesday we got to go up to Taipei to the Temple! We woke up really early in the morning and biked over to the stake center, about 30 minutes away. It was pretty cool, I got to meet up with my MTC companion Elder Osbourne and another buddy Elder Lauti and rode up with them in the bus up to the Temple. It was cool to get to talk with them again. Unfortunately, it was raining the whole time so we didn't get to take any pictures. Oh well, next time I guess.   We've been meeting with a lot of the members of the ward to strengthen relationships with them, and there are a lot of wonderful members here. A few nights ago a member took us to a really fancy restaurant and ordered some pig knuckles for us! Considering all the weird foods I've eaten already, I wasn't nervous in the least to try them out. They were actually really good, but there was a lot of fat that you just had to swallow whole bec...

Hey Everyone,  Well, it's a beautiful day up in Taichung! My new area is pretty sweet and a lot smaller than my old one. I'm in an area called Donghai which on the border of Taichung so it's not too crowded but there are still a lot of people. It's actually a pretty big factory section so it's pretty smoggy and overcast most of the time. A bright side of the area is the amount of exercise I'm going to get. My whole area is on a constant hill. It just keeps going up and up, so there isn't a flat part in the whole area. I've heard that Elders get stretch marks because of how fast their muscle builds up from being here haha. Our chapel here is really unique too. It's actually a part of a buisness building. It's on the 17th floor of a pretty tall building. It's super wierd taking the elevator up to go to church. The ward is really great here and are helping the missionaries to find investigators, which is important because the ward is small. ...

Dear Everyone,     I had a big surprise recently...I'm going to be leaving Tainan!! They weren't expecting some more new missionaries to come in for a while, so I was originally supposed to be here for another transfer, but they made it and now Elder Anderson is going to train one of them. That means that it's time for me to leave! I'm pretty sad that I'm leaving. Tainan is such a cool place, especially because it's my very first area and it's where I'm use to living, so it has a special feel to it. It's also sad to leave all the cool members here and my new companion Elder Anderson. No he isn't related to me, but he's a really cool guy and we got along really well. It's too bad we're only going to be staying together for such a short time. That's cool that he gets to train again. That's pretty rare to train twice in the mission here. We're really primed up the area for his trainee when he arrives.      Lot...

Ni Hao Ma Everyone, Well, the first week with a new companion is always a little different. You feel so comfortable working with your last companion and you think it's impossible to work that well with someone else. But Elder Anderson and I got right into the swing of things. This week was what the mission calls power week. Which means that we only have an hour of studies in the morning and then get right out the door at 9 am. Then we only have a couple minutes for lunch and dinner and we are contacting, tracting, or doing whatever for the day. It was cool to have even more time to find people to teach.  We did have less time to study the language.  I really love studying Chinese and look forward to studying it everyday. During the week we had some lofty goals of new people that we wanted to find to teach, but nothing seemed to work for us. Actually Elder Anderson was really surprised by how different the people can be in this area compared to everywhere els...

Hi Everyone,   Well today we had transfers, and Elder Smith was called up to Nantou, which is a really really rural area further North. I was pretty sad that he is leaving because we had a lot of good times together, but I bet he was ready to go. He had been serving here for about 6 and a half months and probably wanted some new scenery. I'm especially going to miss singing with him every Monday morning. That was a lot of fun to sing with him and have him play the guitar. My new companion is Elder Anderson from Gilbert, Arizona. He's been in Taiwan for a long time and only has 2 or so transfers left. I'm sure we will have a great time together and get a lot accomplished.   Last Saturday we had a very special event...F...'s baptism!!! He was super stoked for it and was impatient for the day to finally come. His testimony has continued to grow stronger and stronger. Everytime I talk with him I see more and more how much he really knows this is true. The Sund...

Hey Everybody,   First of all I want to start out by wishing Alexa a very Happy Birthday!! You're already 16!! That's too old! It seems unreal that you're old enough to drive on your own! Make sure you don't wreck the car! Hey how is everyone doing back home? I'm sorry to hear about all the cold weather you've been having. It get's a little miserable after a while. But it's always nice to get a break from school! You only had one day of school last week!? That's crazy. That's a pretty good week though. Those weeks are the best.   So ya, the new missionaries should be able to come to Taiwan this coming week. It's about time! They've been waiting in the US for about 4 months or so and are probably so excited to finally make it here. I hope that means that the visa problem will be resolved permenately. It's really going to mess up the swing of things in the mission here later on.   Well this past week was Chinese New Year! W...

  Hello Everybody!     I hope everyone is doing well! I'm sorry to hear that the weather is so miserable back home. If it makes you feel any better, pretty soon I'll be miserable too with all the humidity that is coming my way! Yeah I'm not too excited about that.     This week started off a lot like last week. Every lesson that we had planned canceled on us until Friday. We just basically tracted and talked to people on the streets for most of the time. It's really hard to actually find anyone to teach now because GuoNian, Chinese New Year is coming up this week. Everyone is really busy and going to be out of town with family. Then the last three days we had a ton of lessons and hardly had any time to rest. I wish that they would space themselves out throughout the week, but I'm not complaining about having lessons.     We taught F... the Word of Wisdom and he was a little reluctant at first to give up drinking. He said that he ...