New Transfer!

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's of things happened this past week. We met with V... and she's gained a lot more confidence in God and has a much stronger drive to be baptized. She had some struggles this week and has had some family concerns but we helped her to resolve them and she agreed to talk with her family and to be baptized on the 28th of the month. She talked with her family last night though and they didn't exactly agree. She was pretty discouraged and feels like there's no way to be baptized now. That's seriously how much of an influence parents have on their kids here. If their parents think a certain way, their kids will completely submit to their will and are scared to go against it. There's still hope though!

 

  Q... X... and the Ama (Grandmother) are coming along well. They were able to make it to church yesterday and they really enjoyed it. I got to give my farewell talk in the meeting and I hope that what I said helped them and the other investigators who were there. Last time we met with them, I invited the Ama to be baptized as well. Except her hearing isn't the best and she misunderstood me. I said "do you want to shouxi" which is be baptized, and she heard "do you want to xiuxi" which means to rest or sleep. (the pinyin makes it seem like they are pretty different, but the are pronounced very similarly when speaking quickly haha) When I asked her she said "yes I do, I'm really tired!" It was pretty funny. Luckily she was just as enthusiastic to be baptized as well. 

 

  D... is also doing great! She said she still really wanted to come to Church and is set on her baptismal goal in April. She is actually in the Yongkang boundaries so we introduced her to the Yongkang missionaries and things are still going smoothly. 

 

  We also met with a really cool guy for the first time. His name is W... His wife is actually a member in China and he met with missionaries once or twice a long time ago in America. He lost contact with them, but we talked to him on the street and he was great. He was super willing to learn and meet again. We didn't give him a Book of Mormon after the lesson, but after he had left, he came back to the church and asked us if we could give him one haha. So cool! 

 

  I'm sad to be leaving such a great area with such great people, but I know that Elder Anderson is capable and he'll be able to help everyone really well. I still don't know where I'm headed yet, and I won't know until tomorrow night. Hopefully it'll be somewhere close so I can attend everyone's baptisms coming up. I'm really thankful for the chance I had to serve in Tainan and I'm excited to see where I will be going next!

 

  Oh also, in honor of my service in the ward, a bunch of the members got together and gave me my own Chinese name! It's 文仲傑. (wen zhong jie) Wen means culture/language, zhong means the second eldest brother, and jie means hero. Pretty sweet name!

 

Last week for pday we went to a park and to a famous memorial site for an old general that helped develop Taiwan. It was pretty cool. That's neat how everyone in the Japan mission really likes your Book of Mormon rooms dad. I haven't shared them with everyone, but I really like using them myself. They really do help. That's one thing I struggle with is knowing the Book of Mormon and scriptures to share with people right on the spot. I'm hoping that this will really help. Well, I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing well back home and that it's starting to warm up! That's so nice! I love you all very much!

 

Have a great week!

Love,

Andrew