I fall in love with Taiwan more and more everyday

Hello!

Wow, it sounds like your week was pretty good! haha! That's good!!

I hope that Ben and Ale are able to move to Weber soon. I think that'll be good for them haha.

I've never heard of Pineview. It looks really pretty though! That's one of the things I really want to do when I get back. I really want to go on more hikes... Haha! Hiking here in Taiwan is a little different. Hiking to them is more like there's a set trail (usually made out of wood or stone) Then you follow this path. There's no hills. There's nothing too crazy. It's more like walking around in the forest. To them it's more like a peaceful relaxing thing.

Glad to hear the Blazer will work for a little longer. I miss that thing. I haven't driven a car in SO long.... I'm kind of worried that I'll be a Taiwanese driver when I get home.

This week for me was pretty average haha. Nothing really happened. We just taught a lot of people. Our days are just usually packed with lessons. We basically have no time to find pretty much. On the bright side I can participate more and more in lessons. Now the next part is getting rid of my thick American accent in my Chinese. A lot of people have a hard time understanding me. I just laugh sometimes because Chinese is so hard. Hahaha! But, when people do understand me it's pretty cool. I'm able to struggle through basic conversations now. Hahaha, it's really interesting to see how much Chinese I've picked up in the 6 months of my mission. It's also weird to think I've been on my mission for 6 months. It's really flown by so much... Tyson has less than a year left on his mission. He'll be home next July. That's so weird..... Anyway, this week I've been really bonding with the other Elder's in our 4 man. I love it! It's super fun. We laugh a lot and have lot's of jokes. I'm super close with Elder Layton from Alabama. Hahaha, he's super funny! He's always talking to me about Gao Xiong. I really want to move to Gao Xiong. It just sounds super cool. He was showing me pictures today of his apartment in Gao Xiong and it SUPER cool. Sam would love it.

Oh yeah, I also want to take you all to Taiwan. Start saving your money and getting passports. I fall in love with Taiwan more and more everyday. I would really love to take you all here. It's wonderful here!

Well that's all I really got. It's been a pretty good week! This will probably be my last week with Elder Tatton. He's going home soon! Surprisingly not trunky at all. He's a good guy!

I got to meet the new mission president and his wife.  They are super cool.  He doesn't speak Mandarin, so he has a translator for stuff. (The APs) He's also learning the language by going through Phase 1 and stuff. So... He's working on it. His Chinese is actually not that bad.

Well I love you all so very much! I hope you all have a good week!

Oh man, I'm becoming Taiwanese.

Sorry to hear about Granny Cutchin passing away.  I also hope that Kayleigh starts feeling better. That sounded pretty scary the other week! I was a little bit worried... She's doing better though... right?

This week was super weird.

I've had a horrible cough and cold this week. I'm getting better though.

We had this group from UT come visit us, they're a musical group called The Voice or something. I don't know, but we fed them some food in the chapel. It was probably one of the weirdest things I've seen in Taiwan. I definitely have adjusted to Taiwan culture.. Because when they walked in they were super loud. Oh yeah, and everyone was at least 9 ft tall. I felt so small. Then they were talking to me in English and I kept wanting to talk to them in English. It was really weird. I just felt so out of place all of the sudden. Then it hit me and I was like, "Oh man, I'm becoming Taiwanese."

Our week was just full of paranormal stuff. We had so many ghostly experiences this week... The first is we were riding around our area after eating at a super sketchy buffet infested with flies and mysterious meats. We were biking along when we stopped and were talking to his guy. He didn't really have a whole lot of interest and was kind of weirded out by us. Then halfway through this lady drives up on her scooter and cuts into the conversation and starts telling us that we need to pray with her real quick on the side of the road. So we're like, "oh okay...?" So we pray with her and then she starts making these weird noises and telling us that she has a demon and that she's possessed and wants an exorcism. So since she didn't live in our area we gave her to the Shalu Elders and set up a time during the week where she could meet with them and get this done with. So The day roles around and she goes to the church and I was there and watched the whole thing go down. She walks in and right as we're about to do it, she starts yelling, crying, screaming and all sorts of stuff. Then they gave her a blessing and she was fine. But, still it was super weird. I actually don't think she was possessed I just think she was crazy.

Then one night I woke up around 3 AM and heard something going on downstairs. So I sat up in my bed and looked around our room and everyone was in bed. So then I was like, "oh no...." So I just sat there listening and it sounded like someone was shuffling around downstairs. Then the noise just stopped and I just eventually fell asleep. When we woke up I told the other Elders and they all thought it was weird too. Nothing was missing/damaged or broken. But something was definitely in our house.

This week my companion also got into a car accident! We were biking around the corner of the insurance building next to our house and he went right into the back of a car because it was windy and his head was down. There wasn't a whole lot of damage to the car but there definitely was some scrapes. The police came and had to investigate the whole thing. Then they had to take us to the police station. So we had to get into a police car and drive down to the police station. It was really sketchy. When we got in the police station it looked like a New York City police station.. It was interesting I thought it was kind of cool. But something that wasn't cool was when they were asking us questions and trying to get the full story they would use Taiwanese to talk to each other. So my companion told them to stop. Then they told us, "What? We only are speaking Chinese.. We only speak Chinese." Then they laughed and made a joke in Taiwanese. So we had to call a member and help us not get rekt by the police.  I've had some super super close calls on my bike, too.  I got hit by a car 2 weeks ago. It was just like a slight tap. I didn't fall over or anything, but if I would've been a second later I would've broken some bones. When you get into a car accident you usually have to go down to the police station and get interrogated.  My companion might have to pay a small amount of money but the other people got a ticket because they were illegally parked.

We have recently as a district have been really getting into Ping Pong. Ping Pong is super big here. Everyone is super serious about it. I usually get destroyed but goodness it's so fun. It's just like the Karate Kid Movie with Will Smith's son when he's getting rekt by the old man in the beginning. Other than that, we were planning on just relaxing today. There's not really a whole lot to do in our area. My companion from the MTC, Elder Giles, always sends me emails about all of the awesome stuff he's doing in GaoXiong. I love that guy haha! I usually spend P-Day with the Shalu Elders. I've become pretty close with Elder Layton from Alabama.

All in all very crazy week! Hahaha! But I'm doing good. I can hold basic conversations in Chinese. Yay.....

Love,

Silas

This last week started off a little weird, but it was pretty good

Hello Dajia Hao!

This week was pretty good! It started off a little weird though! On Monday night after emailing you guys we went out to do some tracting. Everything was going fine for the most part... Then we went down this road and saw this guy sitting in a plastic lawn chair with his little girl and son. They were just playing around and having fun. So we went up to him on our bikes and started talking to him.. He immediately gave us the BuYong hand, then told us to go away pretty much. Then he got a little angry and grabbed his chair and put it down inside his house. So we started talking to his little girl who kept asking us questions and stuff. It was really fun to talk to her! She asked us who we were and stuff. Then we started to bike away. I glanced back as were biking away and he picked her up and just smacked her right across the face. I felt so bad... Then we went to the house across the street and met a 85 year old Taiwanese guy that, long story short, was holding his wife hostage and had been doing this for 50 years. His wife told us we needed to leave and that she wasn't allowed to talk to anyone. It was super uncomfortable...

Other than that our week was pretty good! I'm really bonding with Elder Tatton. He's super funny!

I also had the opportunity to go on splits with the Shalu Elders. It was super fun! I went with Elder Layton who's only been on Island a little longer than me! We had a ton of fun! We talked a lot about music and stuff! It was so fun!

I also had the opportunity to go do splits with the zone Leaders. I went with Elder Porter and it was super fun! He's super cool and we talked a lot about life and stuff. It was fun!

It's also been a really busy week though! We have 15ish investigators. So we have a lot of work to do and it's really busy around here. Which is in someways a good thing.

I don't really know what else to write about! It's just been going good. Nothing really new hahaha!

I love you! Sorry to hear Kayleigh is sick! That's no fun! I hope things work out for you guys. Lola sounds....interesting...How does she react around the birds? Do they interact?

I love you guys! -Silas

Typhoon Nepartak missed us, but Hunter Anderson didn't!!!

Hello!

Yeah the Typhoon was a joke! We were riding around the night before the typhoon. Everyone we talked to was like warning us. They were all freaking out and telling us to get inside right now. I'll admit it was a little scary talking to everyone and being told that I need to be inside or I was going to die. But we continued to work through the night. It was pretty scary because there were these gusts of wind and I was expecting to be slammed down or hit with something. But we got home safe and everything. Then we basically got house arrested and were told to stay in for the night and next day. So we planned all of our things for indoor activities like cleaning and area book stuff. So I was excited. Then we went to sleep and woke up!.......It was just super calm. No wind. No rain. Just another day in Taiwan. The Typhoon wasn't even going to hit our area. So we got permission to leave and continue on with the work.

Yeah so Hunter came and saw me on Sunday! It was super weird and a super surprise. I was waiting for our investigators to show up then I see this white guy get out of one of the cars in the parking lot and I'm like, "What the....Is that Hunter!?" He walked in and my brain exploded. I was so weirded out. It was like a mini coming home. It was cool to talk to Hunter. Oh yeah, and my friend Scott in the ward is his old recent convert! I had no idea. So he just randomly showed up because his recent convert is in my ward.... So he had no idea I was there. Then he walked in saw me and was like, "Oh man..." Hahaha! It was fun to talk to him and he met some of my investigators. He even participated in one of our lessons. His Chinese is really good! He told me that I'll be...I don't know the English... "PeiKe-ing" lessons for Chinese people back home all the time.

This week we contacted a lot of people from Vietnam. Since we're pretty close with the Vietnamese lady who cooks our fried rice almost everyday. We've been telling them to meet us there at the shop so we can have her translate from Chinese to Vietnamese. She's been teaching us small phrases and words in Vietnamese! I love it! I want to visit Vietnam sometime! But then we showed up one day and basically everyone of the Vietnamese people we've contacted are sitting in their eating and drinking beer, so they already knew where the store was and everything! Hahaha! But it was fun to talk to them. Their Chinese is slightly better than mine... So..... I don't know,  I really want to teach them though! Hahaha! I love them because they're super funny for some reason!

We set a couple of our investigators up for baptismal dates... We will definitely be baptizing a little girl here soon. She's super funny! She's about 10 years old and so we have to teach her the lessons. But it's a little different because we have to teach it to a little kid... So it's actually really hard! But super fun! We always end up laughing really hard during the lessons. Mostly because our Chinese just stops working. Sometimes I'll be speaking English and I'll be like, "Hey man, Ni Jueda Ni Keyi bangzhu wo a second ma? Thanks man." Or it'll be the opposite. My brain is weird now.... I'm not sure how I feel about it.  It's getting to be more convenient to talk to my companion in Chinese than English.

All in all good week! 

Silas' apartment

Here is a Google Maps street view of Silas' apartment.  It is circled in red.  It is two floors.  The street entrance has a metal garage type door that can be closed when the elders are away.  To the right you can get an idea of what it looks like when its open.

Finding investigators and fighting a camel spider

Hey! Hello! I hope 4th of July goes well! I'm also glad you got my letter.. I don't remember exactly what I wrote haha. Does my English suck now? Hahaha! Well that's good news because now my Chinese still sucks and now my English is worse!

Sorry to hear Kayleigh got braces! That's not fun. Those days are not fun at all. Ice cream and jello are really good for that. Yeah everytime you get them adjusted they feel terrible. I remember when I first got them on it was the worst though. That's the worst part of braces. Nothing like having tons of metal in your mouth. Not fun! But, I'd say it's worth it. People need to get braces in Taiwan and stop chewing Beetle Nut. Google pictures and have nightmares. Yeah I talk to those people eveyday.

Ben! I'm sorry I can't be there for 4th of July. I get firework shows on a daily basis. Last night they lit off the usually 5,000 unsafe fireworks. Man there's some crazy fireworks. They really go all out. They have fireworks that form certain shapes like hearts and stuff. They also love Mazu parades. Love them. Everynight it's a party in Taiwan. Hahaha! Mobile strip clubs are the worst! Yeah, 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays! So I'm kind of bummed out. I miss buying absurd amounts of fireworks and lighting them off! I'll never forget when we accidentally bought the aerial ones and it started going off and going up pretty high and Mom was like, "Is it on the roof! Is it on the roof!" *sigh Good times! hahaha!

This week was pretty good! So my companion is the District Leader! So we've been really really busy this week. We usually don't get done planning until bedtime. I love my new companion though! He's super nice and likes to work hard. He likes to joke around too! He's Elder Tatton! This week we've seen a lot of miracles and crazy stuff! I'm not sure what's going on here but all of our investigators have really (just forgot the Engrish)..... Improved! We've been especially blessed with finding all these families that have interest in us too! Everybody loves my companion and usually super willing to meet with us. So we've been just packed with new lessons and such!

One of the things we did this week was go up to Providence University. While we were waiting for one of our investigators we saw this girl and we started talking to her. She was from a small island in the Pacific and she got a scholarship to the university. Best part is her boyfriend is an RM! So she knew all of the vocabulary and stuff for missionaries. We set up a time and met with her. She's super catholic but she's agreed to continue to meet with us! So we'll see how that goes. The lessons are all in English too so I can actually say stuff.

This week while planning, we got a phone call. It was the Sisters in our area. Apparently a gigantic spider had gotten into their apartment and was crawling around and stuff. They were so scared they wanted us to come over and kill it. So we had to grab the Shalu Elders and go over and kill it. It was kind of awkward to be at their place late at night going through their stuff looking for a camel spider. Eventually we found it in the bathtub and had an all out war. We were smacking it and spraying it. The thing would just not die. It was quite the battle. All the while I'm in tears laughing so hard because all of the Elder's basically were bent over the bathtub yelling and smacking it and spraying it. Then they thought they killed it so they scooped it up out of the bathtub but it came to life again so the battle commenced again. We eventually had to detach the legs from the spider. 

Tropical Storm Nepartak is a typhoon that is expected to hit Taiwan on Thursday. Every single member of our branch has warned us multiple times about the approaching typhoon. Hahaha! I can't wait!! It'll be so fun! We don't go out during typhoons. So we'll probably end up doing calls and possibly sleeping.  It's going to be dope!

My bike chain broke yesterday so I had to get it fixed and then fight the lady for the right price. 

I had a grandma last night give me straight up lemon and then laughed at me like a crazy person because it was super sour.  The fruit in Taiwan is probably the best thing I've ever eaten in my life. Hahaha! It's so good! The Banana's are my favorite. The Banana's in america are absolute crap compared to Taiwan.  For real! It's absolute crap. Like my view on American fruit is so changed. I'm going to be so spoiled when I get back to America. Like American fruit doesn't taste ANYTHING like Taiwanese fruit. I literally ate like 15 banana's because they're so good. I used to hate banana's!

All in all it was a really good week! I'm doing pretty well. Pretty tired because we just have so much stuff to do. But pretty good! That's all I got! I love you guys!


Silas