Merry Christmas from Taiwan!!!

We got to Skype with Silas on Christmas Eve. It was already Christmas Day there in Taiwan, or as it is known to most Taiwanese -- just another Sunday. He was Skyping at church, before church meetings started. He is still the same Silas we know and love. As always, he said a lot of funny things. We got to see what a Chinese computer keyboard looks like. It looks similar to ours, but it has Chinese characters on it. He told us some funny mission stories and, at our insistence, he spoke a little Chinese for us, and we had a big Q&A session about life in Taiwan. He eats a ton of seafood and rice. We got to meet his companion Elder Meanea. He seems like a good guy. We miss Silas, but we know he is where he is supposed to be right now.  Being able to Skype with him was a highlight of our Christmas!!

This afternoon, we got his usual P-day email. It was Monday in Taiwan. Here is his email:

Hello! ........Again.

Yeah Skyping was really fun yesterday! It was really hard to work after but... Worth it! Yeah that night we literally just rode around and explored our area. We went to the baseball stadium and it was really cool actually. Apparently previous elders have done "baseball game contacting." ....I might want to try that.

Sounds like Christmas was a good time! I can't wait to be home for that again. That'll be really fun.

Last night, we had to explain to our Bishop what Panda Express was. He was weirded out. Hahaha, we were laughing so hard. We were eating some Christmas Chinese dinner with him and they always ask us if we eat this stuff in America. And we always say not really. Then I explained to him what Panda Express entails. We told him it was super fake Chinese food. I think he was Googling pictures. He wasn't sure what the freak we were talking about. He thought it was super weird. I don't know, he was just weirded out that we called it "Chow Mein". It's actually pronounced "Chao Mi-en" I'm going to be so cringed out when I go back to America and try to order something in Chinese.....

I've come to terms with the Chinese language. I just take it one day at a time....I'm not sure if I'm going to learn how to write well, but I'm definitely going to be really good at reading. That's why I've been pushing so hard for reading. Because actually, Taiwanese people are forgetting how to write. So I said, "不用!" (no need to). Yeah, I'm going to learn how to read.

This is my friend Anthony eating ice cream in our pews at the church. He's like 68.  He loves learning English and he claims us as his grandsons. He says hilarious stuff. He likes to buy missionaries ice cream. He's not baptized, but he claims he's been baptized before, because he's been to a ton of baptisms, and he stood right next to the font and the water splashed him.  So, he counts it. Hahahaha!

This week was actually really good! Thanks for the Christmas packages!

Hello!

This week was actually really good! I've assured my dominance as the Fearless Leader Elder Burge. Everybody fears me. Yeah, I had my 1st District Training Meeting (DTM) and everybody said it was alright. I thought it was alright too. Just a regular DTM. I'm glad you got my letter informing you that I'm now the District Leader. Yeah, it's not that bad. DTM's aren't very fun...

This week we met A LOT of cool people. We met Douglas who has really good English and a good interest in the gospel. But, he doesn't live in our area so we had to give him away.... Then we met Johnny at a park. He's 18 and doesn't really have a life or direction. He's super awkward and talks really quiet and really fast. So I'll ask him, "Are you going to college?" He'll say "-No." Really fast. It's really hard to understand him but he seems accepting of most of what we teach him. He believes that God doesn't exist because science can't really prove it. So... He came to church for all 3 hours though and we're meeting with him in a couple of days.

We had a lot of stuff happen this week. We're preparing for the Zone Conference. So we have to do a musical number as a Zone. So we were all singing this hymn trying to get it figured out. Then all of the sudden my old companion ( now zone leader) says, "Hey Elder Burge plays guitar." Then all of the sisters were like, "WOW, YEAH, GET ELDER BURGE TO PLAY GUITAR YEAH!" I was like oh freak, I don't know how to play this freaking hymn. So they ran and got a guitar and brought it to me... Surprisingly I couldn't figure it out. So they told me to take it home and practice the hymn. I didn't have a case so I had to bike 20 minutes. Fortunately, I had brother Elder Randolph the secretary of our mission and former Army guy, help me create a bagging system for the guitar. Needless to say, a few bags and pins and tape and I got the guitar home in one piece. It was super ghetto. Then an Elder called and said he could swap me out and play violin instead. So I said OK. So now I have a guitar and I don't have to make a dang fool of myself in front of all of the Taizhong Zones. Score.

I also received both packages from Grandpa and Grandma Burge and yours as well. Thank you!! The candy is much needed. I love American candy hahah! Thank you for the pajamas it was SUPER cold this week. So all items of clothing were used. We also got these really cool flying monkey slingshot things from the Grandparents. We love them. We think it's really funny. They also gave us ping-pong paddles and stuff. Which is SUPER useful because we have a ping-pong table in our basement of our apartment ready to use. We just didn't have any paddles. So this week is going to be fun!

My new companion is pretty cool. He was really into Theater and stuff before the mission. He was even in Civil Air Patrol so we did a little bit of some military talk. We get along just fine! His Chinese is already super good. Kind of makes me feel a little bad. When I was being broken I didn't know anything! Hahaha! He reminds me a lot of Elder Tatton. My Breaker.

Yeah, right now we're trying to build the area up. We've been seeing a lot of success and stuff! Hopefully things will continue to get better!.

I'm glad that there will be a massive sleepover for Christmas! We will try and Skype you at 5 pm on Christmas Eve.

My new companion is Elder Meanea!!!

Hello!

For starters this week was also pretty bad. Elder Wilkinson moved to BeiChu as our new Zone Leader. Now I'm senior companion AND district leader. My new companion is Elder Meanea from Cedar City, UT. He just got done out of training...

I'm still in Beitun and it's just burning down right now. We don't have any investigators or anything. It's just super bad. So, my numbers are probably going to be crap but whatever. I actually think it's kind of funny. Not much happened this week as me and Elder Wilkinson worked. Just lots of contacting busy business men and former prostitutes. Nothing much.

On Saturday we got to go to this place in NanTun. It was a lady's house because she wanted us to practice/perform a Christmas activity for the Young Women in our stake. So we went over to her apartment with all of these other elders and sisters. Her apartment is super fancy... Her husband works for freaking Google so it was SUPER fancy. We took the elevator to the 28th floor of their apartment building and it was this really beautiful area overlooking Taizhong City. You could see so much. It looked like New York City from up there. Then the sun was setting and it was super pretty, so I reached for my camera.... didn't have my camera... of course. We practiced and it was insanely pretty. Then we ate Costco pizza in her SUPER fancy apartment.

The next day we performed and President Teh gave a really good talk. It was really fun. We had an Elder who's been invited to go to Julliard for piano play for us. He was super good. I think it's rumored that someone recorded it and is sending it to our parents. I don't know when he's emailing that though. I assume really soon. Maybe he won't do it. I don't know. I thought it was really good.

Other than that.... That's basically my week. Not much to say... Just a lot of the same stuff. I got a package today, but I'm not sure who it's from. It hasn't been shipped to my apartment yet.

Glad to hear Kayleigh is trying to date lonely SLCC RM's.

Good luck Ale on driving!!

I love you all so very much. We will definitely be Skyping next week. I don't know when or how.

Probably one of the worst weeks of my mission

Hey!

Thanks for mailing the package! Also thank you Grandpa and Grandma Burge for mailing one too!

Christmas sounds crazy in the states as usual. I'm glad everything is also equatable to how many shotguns they could get. That's so funny.  I miss the Christmas shopping tradition. It's so fun.. Good times.... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Unfortunately, this week was probably one of the worst weeks of my mission. This week our numbers were pretty much straight zeros. We didn't teach any lessons this week. It started off with my bike tire exploding on Tuesday night and then we had 3 lessons set up and they all stood us up and then it was raining too so we had to look for a bike store in downtown Taizhong. Unsuccessfully, we had to leave my bike at the mission office and I had to take a spare home. The spare bike is much nicer than my regular bike hilariously enough. My bike is a piece of crap... The next day we got my bike tire fixed and I was riding around when my bike tire started to make some weird noises. So we took it to a bike shop and had to replace the axle in my bike. So I spent quite a bit of money on my bike this week.

We also had a weird random family come into the church bawling and crying about their dying Mom in the nearby hospital. So we sat down with them and talked to them. It was weird because they basically told us that they wanted us to heal their dying Mom... We told them that we couldn't heal their Mom and they just bawled even more and stormed out.. It was super depressing.

To make the week better we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders again.. I actually had a decent time on exchanges. We were in the Zone Leaders' area of downtown Taizhong. I forgot how nice people are outside of Beitun. It was actually enjoyable to contact people. But when we got back to our area we received a rude reminder that no one in Beitun likes missionaries.

Transfers are coming up and next week I could possibly have a new companion. But, were guessing we might stay together another transfer. It's very possible. The President has made small hints that me and Elder Wilkinson will be together. He's a good missionary. It's hard to stay motivated in our area and about missionary work overall. We got wrecked super bad this week and we're both really discouraged. Yesterday I got to call a former investigator and he basically went off in English about how Joseph Smith is a liar and I'm part of a heretical church...just adding onto the already bad week...

I'm glad that everyone back home is doing well! I'm very grateful for the emails and packages! They keep me going.

Love you! I can't wait to talk to you on Skype sometime. Not sure when.

Fog, rain, and root beer

Hey hello!

Yeah my birthday was pretty fun! We went to Pizza Rock. Scott Ji is a good guy.

We did a lot of contacting this week. We found an aboriginal kid about 19 years old to teach. We met with him and shared the first lesson during the contact. He seemed pretty interested, but he's recently fallen off the radar. It's been raining a ton this week, and it's really cold rain, too. So, it's been hard to contact people. You basically can't contact people in the rain here. They don't want anything to do with you when it rains, and they just tell you to go home. So, it's been a little bit tough to work hard.

For Thanksgiving, we went to the Ohms family's home. They invited us over for Thanksgiving. So I was lucky enough to have a normal American Thanksgiving. I had root beer for the first time in 10 months! It wasn't on Thanksgiving. It was just a different night. On the normal night of Thanksgiving we went to KFC hahaha. It was magical and regrettable.

Lately, we've been struggling to find people to teach, and investigators have dropped us a lot. It's been hard to stay positive and most people are not willing to meet with us after the 1st lesson.

It's getting cold, so there is a lot of fog because of the humidity. Our apartment, like all the apartments here have no heat. Fortunately, I have a nice black sweater I wear over my white shirt. Not only do I look good, but I'm also very warm. I have to wear a jacket to bed sometimes, because it's so cold. We have tricks like wearing socks on our hands. I wear my hoodie to bed most nights. Blankets are kind of expensive for us, and I don't need an extra one. I have a blanket and a sheet. I'm good hahaha...don't worry. Guo Nian, Chinese New Year is coming up, so the cold is only going to get worse...probably right around the time I become senior companion for the first time.

We don't really have plans for p-day, we're just going to get some hot pot with an investigator and then that's it... Should be fun..

I'm doing really well! I'm happy and working hard! I love you all so very much! It sounds like Thanksgiving was really fun.

Pizza and bowling for my birthday

生日快樂!! Thank you!

Foremost, I would like to thank Grandma and Grandpa Burge for the card and letter they sent me! I'm very thankful.

Yeah, I'm 20 now. Woo. So my birthday was yesterday. So for my birthday, I woke up and ate some rotten eggs for breakfast. Then I went to church. Then I came home and ate some ramen. Then I went tracting for the rest of the night. You could say it was beyond magical. Hahaha. Yeah it was alright though. Just another day. Today I'm celebrating with Scott. He's driving from my old area to meet me at a pizza place called Pizza Rock. Then afterwards we're going bowling. Should be pretty fun!

That mouse story is so sad. You should've just eaten him! What are you doing?! That's such a waste of food.

We found a ton of investigators this week actually! Our area is really growing. We're finding all these really cool people. We're pretty sure Brother Lin went to jail. We haven't been able to get a hold of him lately and his phone is turned off. So we can only assume. We're teaching a lot of young college guys and stuff so it's going really well. Many of them are really promising. So we're doing really good!

This week we've been having a lot of fun making calls in Starbucks. We like to get hot chocolate and make calls. The hot chocolate at Starbucks is pretty good. The reason why we make calls there is because 1. It's quiet. 2. Hot chocolate is good. 3.Christmas music

This week I also had the cool opportunity to meet a Taiwanese Special Forces guy.  He's super cool. I heard from the other elders that he was part of a group of aboriginals that have their own special forces group kind of like the Navy SEALS. What he used to do, is swim for a small island near China and then sneak into military bases and kill Chinese soldiers. He would bring back the heads of the soldiers because that's an aboriginal tradition. But then he started killing so many that he could only swim back with just the ears. He's super ripped.

For Thanksgiving the American family might be inviting us for a meal which is super nice. They're very nice to us!

I love you all so very much! Thank you for the birthday wishes! I got some birthday pictures from the QingShui Branch!

We have some really cool investigators now

Hello!

This week was super good! I love my companion. We we've been working hard and found some new investigators this week. It was weird.  All we had to do was go through our former investigators. There was a ton of nice people we met. Some were very interesting... like one of our investigators is Ex-Chinese-Mafia.... So that's pretty interesting.  Now he's in the military. He's really nice though and we taught him a little.

We went to Costco on Monday last week. It was pretty American.  That same day we got a call from our zone leader's saying that a miracle just happened. So I asked, "What?" They told me that a man had walked into the church and said he met with BeiTun missionaries before and had lessons but lost communication with them. Now he want's to be baptized with his girlfriend. Like this week. So they were freaking out and telling us that this was the biggest miracle of our mission and stuff like that. Then they handed me the phone and I tried to set up a time to meet with him. While I was in the mists of setting up a time, the zone leaders took the phone away and started telling me that this a big miracle, so I never got to set up a time with him. Then they said that he had to go. He said the he was going to call us...... so the zone leaders gave him our number..................He never called us..............We freaking hate the zone leaders sometimes.

Oh goodness... Taiwan blew up when Donald Trump became president... Crap when down big time here. Everyone was like self-contacting us and talking to us about it. I got accused of running away from America....Which didn't make sense because the flight here is like 16 hours... It was so funny. Everyone here is obsessed with American politics and news. So of course, everyone here was freaking out and telling us that America is going to be destroyed. We couldn't even contact people...

We're meeting with a lot of military people now. I'm not sure why, lots of army guys and stuff. I don't know, we have some really cool investigators now. I prefer that over the streets so...

Yeah, my Chinese is still super bad. It's been so long since I've taught lessons, so I have to relearn my vocabulary for the lessons. I definitely want to study Chinese in college, except I read traditional and not simplified characters which is what they use on the mainland and in college, so I'm kind of discouraged.

Other than that, that was my week. It was just kind of the same thing...We're going to get some American pizza today from a guy that moved from Chicago to Taiwan. So Chicago pizza in Taiwan!

As for the birthday package... I don't know... Surprise me! Haha!

I love you all so very much! I'm sorry this email was not that good! I love you!

Elder Wilkinson is awesome and Canadian

大家好!

This week was pretty good. This week was my first official full week working with Elder Wilkinson. He's awesome and Canadian. Yeah, he was born in Canada. He's super funny and we get along pretty well. We also work really hard. We love talking about funny stuff and we're constantly laughing. It's funny because I can actually hear the Canadian in his English. "Owh yeah, that's what I'm talking aboat." But yeah, things are going really well here. We are learning to love our area and we've been exploring it a little more. We found a good fried rice place and it was awesome.

As for teaching investigators this week. Our investigator Lin 林 who had a baptismal goal, is going to jail this Christmas. Yeah, he told us that he can't get baptized because he'll be in jail. He's a very weird guy. Oh well, he said he was willing to continue to search for an answer and pray while he does his time in Taiwanese jail. He'll be in for 2-3 years he said. So that's fun... Then a couple days ago we came across an nice 50 year old man from mainland China. He's visiting Taiwan for a little. He had a really bad mainland Chinese accent and it was super hard for me to understand him sometimes. He was willing to come get a tour of the church and we taught him a little. Then we invited him to go to church and he never showed up and we don't have his phone number or address... So I guess he's gone?

This week we also scrubbed our apartment clean. We got obsessed with cleaning this week. It was super weird. We cleaned so much. The apartment looks fantastic now though.

This week we also helped the Ohm's family move into their new apartment. (They're the American/Taiwanese family.) It was really fun, but you could totally tell that they were very stressed so it was a little awkward for us. Then they made us Mexican food and it was SO good. They usually make Mexican food for us. It was really fun to hear about how they live their lives in Taiwan. Their new house was very nice. I would not mind living in a house like that if I had/or ever wanted to live in Taiwan. They have an elevator in their house and each floor is a different child's room. It's pretty cool.

Other than that, that was pretty much our week. We have a lot of potential investigators set up. I'm starting to feel bad about my Chinese.... again. I still feel like I don't know anything, because I forget stuff and I'm really bad at speaking... I can listen pretty well most of the time but I can't speak very well. Elder Wilkinson is really good at speaking it. Yeah, Chinese is freaking hard. I still do the language study program but now it's not gospel focused. It's just everyday whatever words. So it's hard to apply it.

I'm doing well though! I love you all so very much!

My new companion is Elder Wilkinson

Hello! Happy Halloween!!

Sounds like you guys had an interesting week!

I liked the pictures you sent me! Mom's, Ale's and Ben's costumes look cool! People wear those normally here regardless of seasons/holidays.

This week was super weird for me! Elder Hatch is moving across town to DongFeng and I'm staying in BeiTun. My new companion is Elder Wilkinson. He just got done training a new missionary at the south end of the mission.

This week was pretty busy. We went and helped the new missionaries out for a night and it was super fun! I love it. It was super fun taking a new missionary out and hitting the streets. It was funny to watch my "at the time" trainee try to contact people... I'll admit his Chinese was SUPER bad. That's alright I was probably worse. It was like a deer in headlights though. It was weird being able to understand what was going on and basically contacting by myself. It felt like not too long ago that I didn't know what was going on. Eh, sometimes I don't know what's going on still. Nonetheless, it wassuper fun and I enjoyed it. I think he had fun too.

Then one of the companionships that live down the street from me called us and told us that we would have to be in a trio because one of them is training. So for the rest of the week we had..... ELDER HUANG from GaoXiong be in our trio. He's going to Eugene Oregon soon. It was super fun! We used only Chinese for the rest of the week. It was weird to make jokes and stuff. He speaks a little English but not too much. We had fun telling him about America and teaching him American slang. I mean, he is going to Oregon so we figured we'd get him in the loop now. On the flip side he taught us some Chinese and Taiwanese so we can understand the older folk here when they call us names. We ate a lot of Taiwanese food for Elder Huang. He's really nervous. He wanted to eat rice all week so we did that. There's some noodle shops here that are super sketchy. So... Sometimes I'd be eating noodles and they'd taste like poo--or my favorite chlorine. He also showed us all of his Chinese EFY music. We were laughing pretty hard. It was fun for the 4 days I was with him and I'll miss him a lot.

Last night, the Ohms family gave us an American dinner. They're an American/Chinese family living in Taiwan. They're a super cool family and the dad is American and served in Vancouver, Canada. He speaks fluent Chinese and his wife is Taiwanese. They have 5? kids and they're all super talented and awesome. It was fun to listen to his mission stories and stuff. He has some good ones.

That's pretty much it. We have some potential investigators lined up. We might be teaching an RC's brother. Tonight we a teaching the Bishop's son's friend a first lesson at McDonalds. Hope it's a great first McDiscussion.

I know that church is true. I didn't really believe it before my mission but now I know. There's a lot of simple truths in the Gospel that really solidify my testimony of the Gospel. No other church really believes in us being together forever as eternal families. I've seen the change of heart that comes from the Atonement of Jesus Christ in many people. My investigators and recent converts and myself. The Gospel is true! .......Yeah! In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I love you all so very much!!