Visa Problems, Chinese Movie, and Up Close At the Next Devotional

  Hey everyone! I can't believe that I've been here for 7 weeks now! I'm excited to get out into the field but I don't think that I'm ready. I may not be able to leave yet though. Taiwan changed their visa process and the travel agents here still tried to send in the old applications but they were rejected. The group in front of us was supposed to leave last Friday but they're going to have to stay for another two weeks or so, and then I think they're going to a mission in the US for their first transfer while they sort out the visa problem. I have no idea what is going to happen to us but what everyone keeps saying is that we'll probably do the same. I don't know what to believe cuz no one seems to know for sure what's going on here, not even the travel agents here haha. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Suprises are always fun!  I'm really excited to get to Taiwan so I don't want to go somewhere in the US before going to Taiwan. I guess I don't really have a choice in the matter and I'll still be able to help people no matter which mission I go to, so it isn't that big of a deal. If I do get sent to the US, I hope I go to a Mandarin area so I can keep working on my Chinese.  If I did go to an English place first that would be cool because I'd get 6 sets of name tags and have served in two different missions. That would be kinda cool but I'm still hoping that I can just go to Taiwan. A lot of people I've talked to that went to Taichung on their mission said that they loved it so much and it's so beautiful there.  So I'm super pumped. 

  We watched a movie in Mandarin last night and I was happy to discover that I understood a lot of what was going on. They had subtitles the whole time and without those I would've been lost, but when I followed along with the subtitles I was able to recognize a lot of what was being said. The only problem is that they just speak so fast. I'll still be trying to figure out what was said before and then I'd miss what they went on to say. It was still pretty cool though.

  Well my first skyping lesson with someone in Taiwan went pretty well. There was a lot of lag so it was difficult to communicate well but we were still able to teach a good 30 minute or so lesson. He was from a city in the Taichung area so we may even see him while we're there. Maybe he was just speaking slowly for us but i was able to pick out a lot of what he said. I need to really improve my vocabulary cuz i feel like i miss vital points in what he said, but I could pick out the general idea. I was expecting him to have a really heavy accent but it wasn't bad at all. We have another lesson tonight and I completely forgot about it so we need to get a lesson plan asap. 

  I'm glad to hear that school is going well for Alexa and Ian so far. I hope you have a lot of friends in your classes with you, and hopefully you like all of your teachers. It's a good thing Alexa likes her chemistry teacher. Hopefully you can maintain that attitude throughout the year. Good work at the cross country meets. I'm glad that both of you are enjoying it. 

  I decided that I probably won't get any of the vaccinations. They haven't mentioned anything to me at all about needing them so I probably won't even worry about it.

  Oh some exciting news...at our last devotional the speaker hinted that if ever an Apostle came to speak to us that we needed to be really respectful and stuff like that. I'm pretty sure that on Tuesday an Apostle is going to come speak at the devotional! Finally! What makes this even better though, is my companion is giving the opening prayer so both of us will be sitting up in the stand with whoever is speaking! So if an Apostle does come tomorrow, I'll be pretty pumped. I think that'll be worth the wait lol. 

  Well I think that's all for now. Thanks for all the emails. I hope everyone has a great week. Love you lots.

Love, Andrew

 

Taipai, Taiwan Temple

 Tie Contest (Mine Is A Pretty Sweet Tie)