We've been getting a lot of fruit

Hello!

Sounds like not much is going on back home, but that's probably a good thing hahaha... You guys probably need a break. Yeah, go eat mango ice. It's so good. Although it probably won't be the same since Taiwan has the best mangos. We eat mango's all the time now. The ward members are really good to us and feed us lots of mangos.

Okay, well... for starters, I don't really have a whole lot to write about this week. Most of our investigators are disappearing and not really answering their phones and stuff, which, to be honest, is pretty usual. Hahahaha.

I also had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Meng from LA, California. His parents are from China, but they moved to California and then he grew up speaking Chinese and English - American Born Chinese (ABC). He's really cool. On top of that, he's also Elder Fuller's trainee, so we had a fun time talking about Elder Fuller and Chinese. He's really fun and we saw some cool stuff happen. Well for one thing, it was really refreshing to have a companion to actually be there contacting with me. And then on top of that, his Chinese is fluent, so it was nice to hear a China accent and learn some tips and stuff from him. On top of that, we saw a cool little exchange miracle. We went knocking doors, which in Taiwan doesn't really work, but we went anyway for fun and we got let in on the last house we went to. The guy didn't have a ton of interest but he was willing to listen to a quick 1st lesson. He didn't set up another appointment and gave us some lame excuses, but we're going to try going back. I think he has SOME interest. If he didn't have interest he probably wouldn't have let us in.

Other than that, nothing really happened. It was just really hot and everything was kind of quiet. We've been having some trouble finding investigators for some reason...........But, we're trying our best.

On Monday, Brother Zhang took us to FoGuangShan. It was really fun and it was nice to talk to him. I've already been, so I didn't take any pictures.... but Elder Hongvilai took a lot of pictures.

We've been getting a lot of fruit from a man named Tom. Tom is not an investigator or a member. He's just a really nice guy. He's Christian and somehow figured out where our apartment is, so he comes to our apartment and gives a fruit most nights. So we've been eating tons of fruit every night. All he asks for is that we pray for his son to do well on his test, so before we eat the fruit we pray for Tom's son and his family.

That's basically the week. Today Brother Zhang is taking us to a waterfall in Pingdong. That should be pretty fun!

I'm grateful for everybody that supports me on my mission! I love you all so very much!

Taiwan is just pretty much under water at this point

Hello!

This week was pretty good week. But, it rained for most of the week. Taiwan is just pretty much underwater at this point. There's been so much rain that it's been hard to find people and hard to be out working. Me and Elder Hongvilai are just always playing the biggest game of hide and go seek with the rain. So we have to hide under the cover of shops and next to houses or find the nearest seven before the rain get us. It's pretty fun to be honest. Me and Elder Hongvilai just started laughing every time the rain comes back and then by the seconds turns into monsoon rain. Taiwanese people freak out when it rains and they start putting on their heaviest rain gear and stuff. As for me and Elder Hongivlai, we don't really wear rain gear (Sorry Scott, I know you're reading this.) we just don't really see the use. We just get drenched either way because Taiwan is so humid. So, most missionaries in our mission don't wear rain gear, just because either way you get drenched.

We also met with most of our investigators this week. They're all doing pretty good. We were able to get back in contact with Kyle the sniper who said he was going to come to church, but he never made it to church. So, that kind of sucked. But, he sounded good and told me that he was on vacation for over a week, so we should be able to meet with him again this week. Then our other investigators are still trying to figure out the whole parent situation... So that's kind of rough. But, we could totally get a really fast baptism if our investigator can talk to her parents. I hope it goes well. She's just really scared to talk to her parents about it obviously...

This week we also got the call that an elder was in the hospital. Apparently, his pancreas had a problem and then they also found out that he also had a lot of other problems as well. So we visited him, and I've decided that if I'm ever hospitalized in Taiwan I'll probably just want to go home. He told me some awful stories about how they weren't giving him enough pain killers and how none of the medicine was working, because they keep giving him a does for a small Asian man. So he was in a lot of pain and has some awful stories. I felt pretty bad for him, but he's doing really good now.

Oh! On P-day we went to Kending again. It was a lot cooler this time, because it was very stormy so the waves were pretty big. It was fun to stand on the shore and watch the huge waves come in. It was pretty fun.

As for today's P-day we're going to FoGuangShan. Which is the giant Buddha. I've kind of been everywhere in Gaoxiong, so I'm just going where everyone else wants to go. Going to FoGuangShan is kind of awkward. It's a Buddhist monastery, so it's kind of awkward to walk in as a Mormon missionary. But, they are all super nice and respectful. So....

Glad to hear things are slowly settling down back at home. Sounds like things are pretty crazy as usual.

I love you all so very much!!

I rode a mechanical bull and 5 people came to church

Oh man, I laughed really hard as I read your Southern California trip story. Although the part about Muffin was pretty sad. He was a cute little guy.  It appears the Southern California Bird Curse is still a thing. So weird. I was laughing so hard at the story about the that weird guy "shaking the heck out of his salad forever." I'm still laughing about it.

Well, I'm not sure my week can top yours.. so here it is. Our week started off pretty good. We went to a sport's center in Gaoxiong for P-Day and I rode a mechanical bull. It was really hard but after hours of practice and humiliation I got pretty good. Although I eventually had to stop, because The Burge Family Jewels were really sore. I was sore the whole week. I was walking like a pirate for the rest of the week. But, we had a lot of fun there.

Then the week started off kind of bad. We met with our investigators and 2 of them dropped their baptismal goals. That kind of sucks. So right now we don't have any baptismal goals, but we could get them baptized really fast. The problem right now is their parents. The parent's disapprove of their baptisms and them going to church, so that kind of sucks. But, they both really love church and stuff, and they both have pretty good testimonies. So hopefully their parents will come around and let them get baptized. We met a lot of cool people this week and got some really good referrals. Right now we're teaching a guy that lived in Indiana for a 10 years of his life and traveled all around the US. His English is obviously pretty good, so we talked to him about the US for like...an hour. I don't know how much gospel interest he has, but he wasn't against us sharing the gospel. He's met with missionaries before in Florida, so he pretty much knows what we talk about and what we do. So hopefully his interest and desire will increase.

But, the week ended very good. This week we had 5 investigators come to church. I don't know what's been going on lately, but we've just been having people show up out of the woodwork. It's been really awesome. We had a girl randomly show up and she was from Taizhong. She lives in Daliao and she was really cool and had a lot of interest. The only problem is that she works in Taizhong... SO she basically doesn't really have time to meet because she's not in Daliao ever..

Me and Elder Hongvilai got a lot of fruit this week too. So like every night we come home after being in hell like heat and just eat watermelon and mango and stuff. It's pretty fun, but we're getting kind of sick of all the fruit. The mango's on the other hand I could eat those all day. Mangoes in Taiwan are so freaking good. But yeah, it's been really hot his week and it's been hard/dangerous to be outside. We have to take a lot of breaks and sit in the 7/11 and then go back out. I officially am so tanned I look like I'm Mexican....

I'm doing pretty good and I love you all so very much!! I appreciate your support and your love!

Zhongzis and a Historic River...

Hello!!

Okay... How's California? That's really cool! I Googled mapped the area and it looks really pretty. So what are some things you are going to do in California? Make sure you take lots of pictures!

Well, it's good to hear that you're all on vacation and are now relaxing.  That's good. It sounds like you all needed a vacation. Hahaha.

P-day was really fun on Monday! We went to the Love River in Gaoxiong and watched the dragon boat races. It was really cool. So what I was told is that they have dragon boat festivals to bring out the spirit of the dragon. So the spirit of the dragon is excellence, boldness, perseverance, divinity, power, valiance, heroism and nobility. The actual boat races were really cool. On the first boat race of the day there were 4 boats racing and one of the boats near the starting line flipped over and all of the people fell out.....So of course as the Lord's servants watching this, we all laughed in their faces as they swam back to shore. It was really cool and I got a few pictures I can show you.

This week was a really crazy week and a lot happened. Well first off, Taiwan is just getting slammed with rain. It's literally rained all week and not just wimpy rain. Like hardcore rain. It's been pretty bad. There's areas up in Taibei that are just flooded. I saw some pictures from a member. He said it's pretty bad, but we still worked in the pouring rain. It was really funny because we would bike along and then when we see a storm cloud coming or rain starts to drizzle we would hide for cover under shops or gas stations and stuff and then wait as it just pours.  A a minute or two later we were able to go. It was like the biggest game of hide-and-go-seek but with giant storm clouds.

This week I ate at Chapels' office. He cooks really good food and it was really fun. He made these things called Zhongzi's I think I've mentioned in previous emails back to you. He also made some DongGuaCha and some other small foods. Everything was fine and I was eating Zhongzi's.. The thing about these Zhongzi's is that they fill you up super quick and overall they just wreck your insides. So after one Zhongzi I was pretty much done. I was full. But Chapel told me to eat 2 more. Pretty much after the second one i felt freaking awful. I started to feel sick and I felt that "I'm going to throw up feeling." I felt pretty terrible and was just cringing.. All I wanted to do was leave and throw up. So I endured the entire appointment and ate WAY to much. We left his office and then I told Elder Hongvilai, "Alright, I'm going to go puke in that small historic river." So I went over to a river and puked my guts out. It was awful. I felt terrible for like 2 days after that.

On Sunday we had a cool experience. It was raining really hard and I was pretty certain that none of our investigators were going to make it church. Mostly because it's culture that if its raining you don't go outside pretty much. The Taiwanese people believe that the rain is just dangerous and will get you sick. We got to church and most the ward wasn't there so we were like... Yep... No investigators. Then randomly a member brought one of our investigators to church (he drove him). That was really nice. And then out of nowhere, Kyle the Sniper shows up. So halfway through sacrament meeting he shows up. I literally told him, "You came to church in the rain?" And he looked at me and said, "Yeah, why not?" That was really cool. Then it was fast Sunday so everyone is doing their testimonies. He randomly leaned over to me and asked, "So anyone can get up?" I said, "Yeah, it's just people bearing their testimonies." Then he said, "Can I?" I was like...."Sure." So he got up and bore his testimony. His testimony was really good and he talked about how in life there's hard things to deal with but there's always a light and God is that light. So that was really cool.

Other than that, that's basically all that happened. We got a ton of referrals this week and their all apparently, "super golden" So maybe they are maybe they are not. I don't know.

I love you all so very much! Enjoy California!