We got hit by some typhoons

Wow, I saw some pictures from my companion of East High. It got super wrecked from the rain. Hahaha. Well we had our fair share of rain too here. We got hit by some Typhoons. So naturally missionary work was pretty much a no go for like 2 days.

BUT, I'll start from the beginning of the week. To start off on P-Day we went back to KenDing. It was really fun. I've officially been to KenDing 6 times. Which is a lot. KenDing is pretty far away too. It's like a 2 hour drive one way. Brother Zhang took us to a cool place that had all of these rock shapes. It was really fun and really pretty. I love being over there. It's one of my favorite places in Taiwan.

On Tuesday I got to go on exchanges with Elder Bosco. He's from Provo, UT. He's a good guy. The only awkward thing is that our names are almost the exact the same in Chinese so yes, we are both Bo Zhang Lao. But, he also just served in QingShui. We spent most the exchange talking about Qingshui members and how awesome they are. I really miss Qingshui and I really want to go back. I will go back to QingShui eventually.

Everything was a normal week and we're working with Crystal still. She's going to KenDing for vacation so we won't see her for quite a while. On top of that, last time we met with her she mentioned that she might have some ancestral worshiping problems. Me and my comp just really worry that she's too whatever and easy going about stuff. She was willing to follow the 10 Commandments and the Law Of Chastity. So that was good. I think she'll get baptized though. It'll just be in September.

We also had interviews this week. interviews were great. President told me that I'll be moving areas in 2 weeks. So that'll be interesting. I think my next area will be my last area. I only have 3 more transfers after this one. Time goes by quick.... President still has not said anything about me going home early. So I'll probably have to remind him or something...

Then we get to the fun part of the week where we got slammed by heavy rains. I basically have just been soaked to the bone with rain since Friday. Pretty much, we were just getting slammed with rain waiting for a Zone Leaders/ Mission President to tell us we could go home. On Sunday church got cancelled and then we went around with our Ward Mission Leader and visited some families. We saw a really cool miracle where we felt prompted to go visit a part member family. When we got over there she said that her husband (the non-member of the family.) wasn't there. So we we went in and shared a spiritual thought. Then as we were leaving they told us about a less active family that lived nearby. So we literally walked over and found Lin DiXiong clipping away at some vines. We stopped and talked with him and then offered to help.  He rejected us 12 times before we just jumped in and helped him. We spent 30ish minutes helping him clip these vines off of this net. It was one of the funnest things I've ever done on my mission. I have no idea why. As we worked we talked to him about his reason for not coming to church and we learned more about his extremely Buddhist wife. We shared a spiritual thought and he was grateful for our service. As we were biking to our next family I felt very happy to be serving the people in Taiwan. Doing that little bit of service gave me more motivation and energy as a missionary.

Later that night we were told to go in. So we went home and just took some videos of the typhoon. It was really fun and really crazy. Fortunately nothing was broken and no one was hurt according to my knowledge. But, our apartment started to flood like a sinking ship. The rain was literally coming in through the tiny tiny cracks around the window and flooding our apartment so we rushed to get some towels and soak it up.

It was a fantastic week and I'm doing really well! Today we're going to an Airplane Museum.
I love you all so very much!

Listening to Christmas music and singing the ABC song with drunk guys

哈囉!!

Hahaha! I'm glad you got the video of me and Elder Fuller at Harbor! Yeah I was very grateful that they paid for all of it and were super nice! As for Elder Graves I'm pretty sure he's going to BYU for school.

Sorry to hear about the whole bank account thing. That sounds really annoying.

Yeah Sam sent me some photos of Zach and Jessica's wedding photos. It's pretty weird to see my friend getting married. He'll be a married man when I get home... I don't know how I feel about that... but nonetheless I am very happy for him! It's super cool to see him in his wedding photos. Are you guys going to the wedding?

This week was pretty good. It started off with me and my comp wanting to do more member work, so we decided to write up some cards for some members and then deliver them to their houses. But, the thing about Taiwan is finding addresess is sometimes not the easiest thing, especially for two American guys. We spent a good hour and half looking for our bishop's house. It was super rough, but fortunately with the help of Brother Zhang we found it. Then we couldn't find the other 2 addresses, so we're still working on that. It's like we can find every house number except the one we're looking for. It's a little annoying, but sometimes kind of fun.

My companion also recently found a Christmas CD in a member's house and took it home, so all week we've been listening to Christmas music. I'm not going to lie.... It's making me a little trunky. Hahaha, but I haven't said anything to him, mostly because that type of music helps him relax.

It's been really hot in Taiwan as usual. But now I've adjusted to the warm toasty weather. I just come home every night soaked.

This week we also went to the hospital to visit a member's son. From the Father told me and from what I could understand, he said that something was wrong with the veins and blood in his arms. It looks like he has a really bad case of Chicken Pox. I felt bad for the kid, but we played Uno with him and he really enjoyed it. Then I gave him a priesthood blessing and we were on our way.

This week I've been tired. I'm constantly falling asleep everywhere.

We also we met with a super cool referral. Her name is Crystal and she works at a small flower shop. She's really cool and she wants to be baptized. She's been taught most of the lessons. The only thing we're working on his getting her to church. We set a baptismal goal but then she couldn't make it to church so we have to adjust it, but she's probably our top investigator now.

Last night, to top of a pretty good week, we sung the ABC's with two drunk guys.

I love you all so very much!

Sister Graves emailed a video of Silas and Elder Fuller and a group photo

We just received this email from Sister Graves:

Hi Amy!  My name is Pam Graves. My family was just in Taiwan picking up our son from his mission. We had lunch at the famous Harbor Buffet with 8 missionaries.  I hope this is a great surprise for you!  Much love, Pam

Thank you Sister Graves for sending us the photo.

I love to write in Chinese. I think it's a little bit relaxing.

Hello! Hello!

Wow, that's pretty weird that Justin Russell is home. Time goes by quick.

Wow, sounds like a crazy week though hahaha!

Yeah this week was not that interesting to be honest. We're still just trying to find some more people to teach. On Monday we went to Harbor. It's a super fancy all you can eat place. It's really good but really expensive fortunately ours was paid for by a returned missionary's family. So that was really nice. Elder Fuller was there and we had a great time eating plates and plates of food and just laughing at everything. We even got a "sweet" photo together.

After that the rest of the week went by relatively fast. We spent most of our time contacting. But, I've found I really like contacting with Elder Hansen. Elder Hansen just likes to mess with people sometimes and I think it's so funny. So here's a story. We were contacting at the MRT station and we came across this guy. He was telling us how he came to Daliao looking for a girl and how she will hide from him and send him FB messages but she will never reveal herself. So he decided that he would travel from Taibei to Daliao looking for this girl one last time. He said that last time he came down here she freaked him out really bad because he was at a night market and she saw him but he didn't see her. He said that she stalks him and stuff. But the more he was talking the more I was like.... I think you're the weird one here.... Then Elder Hansen must have telepathically gotten the same impression so Elder Hansen started waving to all of the girls that would pass by and he started asking him like, "Hey! HEY! Do you know her? Who is that? HEY who is that?" Hahaha.. Then Elder Hansen starts pointing at the ceiling of the MRT station and says,  "OH FREAK. WOW." And then he freaked out and jumped a little and was like, "W-w-w-what?!" I had to hold back so much laughter. He was by far one of the most paranoid people I have ever met...

Other than paranoid people we've been trying to work with the ward more and trying to make an effort to visit the members. So we made small little cards and then we write them messages and deliver it to them. It's been really fun and now I love to write in Chinese. I think it's a little bit relaxing.

Daliao has also had a lot of storms lately. The pattern usually follows as this, The morning is scorching hot and not a cloud in the sky then as it approaches 5 PM huge monster storm clouds roll in a rain and lighting. So I have lots of pretty pictures this week...

Today for P-Day we're going to KenDing......again! Hahaha

I love you all so very much!

This week we've just been getting "Chinged"

Hello!

This week was really good. So now, I'm with Elder Hansen from SLC UT. He lives 5 minutes away from the Temple. He's really awesome and we had a really fast/great week. Pretty much from the start of our companionship we've been getting along really well. I do have to say, it's a little weird being able to speak fluent/fast English again. Sometimes I catch myself speaking kind of slow and boring to make sure he gets it and then he just looks at me weird. But other than that, we've been doing really good and working really hard. This week we were able to find some new investigators and we saw some cool miracles and stuff. I don't know why, but this week we've just been getting "Chinged." (which means when people feed you food or give you stuff) ..But people have given us food literally every single day. Which is crazy...

This week we met with Tom and his Son. Tom's wife passed away last year and he's always known the missionaries since he was a little kid, so he loves missionaries and loves to give us stuff, but hasn't really had time to meet with us. Then out of nowhere after knowing Tom since I've been here in Daliao he randomly invited us to a dinner and asked us to come teach his son and co-worker's daughter at a Vietnamese restaurant. So of course we get there and eat a delicious meal of Taiwanese and Vietnamese food and then we taught them the Plan of Salvation. It was really awesome to talk about how we can all live with each other for forever and stuff. I think that really hit Tom and his son pretty hard. They both loved the lesson and wanted to know more. The only problem is time. Tom is a teacher and is very busy so it's a little bit hard to find time....

I've been having a lot of fun developing ward relationships and stuff. I really like to talk to the ward members and just get to know them better. Me and my companion are going to make it a point to try to deliver notes to everybody in the ward and visit them for a minute, but that requires me to write in Chinese. So this week I've been learning how to write Chinese finally. The weird thing is....I really like it and enjoy it a lot. I think it's kind of weirdly relaxing. So this week I learned how to write 200 characters. They don't look that good and sometimes have small mistakes, but I think it's really fun. I'm definitely going to keep learning Chinese after my mission without a doubt. I just love the language more and more everyday. It's so fun.

For the record, it's been really hot here, too. I've been getting sunburned like crazy. The ward is kind of freaking out over it because I'm pretty much sunburned everyday. Hahaha, and then one day I was eating dinner with some Elders and my companion and there was a mirror next to our table I looked in the mirror and what did I see...... a Mexican. Hahahaha

For P-Day we are going to a super expensive buffet called Harbor. It's really fancy and expensive. We're just going to go eat food all day with a ton of elders and a missionary that's going home.. His parents are here with him.

I love you all so very much and I'm grateful for your love and support!


Sorry don't have a ton of pictures this week!

I am waiting on my new companion - Elder Hansen from Salt Lake City

Hello!

This week was really hot and rainy. That seems to be the weather lately. So me and Elder Hongvilai had a really fun time trying to avoid the rain and not get to sunburned at the same time. There's also been lots of lightning. Elder Hongvilai doesn't like thunder or lightning or rain... so we have to hide a lot when that happens. Which is okay, because usually people don't really want to talk to us in the rain. We've been having a really hard time finding people, mostly because people are disappearing for summer break. It's finally summer for the kids in Taiwan but the thing is that many of them still have school and cram school and stuff. I feel bad for them... no time to relax.

As for the work around here... Most of our investigators are disappearing and not really progressing. Many of them just have strange problems that we're not really sure how to solve. So we're going to keep trying.We also saw a lot of success early this week. We were able to contact some people really quick on Monday and it was really cool, but unfortunately they all didn't show up to their scheduled appointments, so that sucks.

Our most progressing investigator is Jeremy. He's ready to get baptized. He's had all of the lessons, but for some reason he just cannot give up playing basketball on Sundays. He loves basketball, hence why he's called Jeremy as in Jeremy Lin. So, if he can quit playing basketball on Sunday and come to church he can get baptized. He believes all of it and even calls himself a Mormon, but he just can't seem to get over this problem.

For P-day we went to a waterfall, but I'll have to send the pictures later. It was really cool and pretty. I felt like I was in Jurassic Park. 

I love you all so very much! I'm sorry I don't have a lot to write! Elder Hongvilai got transferred, and I am waiting on my new companion to arrive - Elder Hansen.  He is from Salt Lake City.

I hope you have a great week!