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

I got to baptize Lin Jun Fang and I got a new companion -- Elder Tatton

Hey hello!

Sounds like you guys are having a busy time. Hahaha! Sam sent me an email all about his honeymoon. He's pretty much convinced me to live in Colorado! I mean weed is legalized there and everything. Nothing like getting "High on a Mountain Top". Just kidding! I didn't even know Mom was taking college classes....Why?

As for the music, in order for it to be "Xing (Okay-ed) It has to be uplifting, no romantic tones, 100 years old, no overtones or undertones. Uh..what else... I don't know. Traditional Chinese music would be awesome! I DO NOT want Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Not a huge fan. That's all my trainer would listen to.

Nice to hear Mom's working out with the Latina's. Good luck. They're really good at Mom-ing people out and being loud. But in all seriousness sounds like a lot of fun. Don't forget your stretchy pants (Nacho Libre).

Sorry to hear about Grandpa's health. That sounds just terrible. I hope he's doing better.

This week was pretty good. It definitely was one of the funnest weeks of my mission! I don't know why or how but something just kind of clicked with the language. I can safety say I can have pretty basic conversations with people in Chinese and not sound too stupid. I also had the privilege of being in a trio this week. I was in a trio with Elder Watson from Shalu and my trainer. It was awesome! Seriously. I had so much fun. Elder Watson made me laugh so hard. It was fun managing both areas at once but super killer. I was ridiculously tired and literally almost ran into a wall because I was dying of heatstroke. It was super fun! We also got to baptize this week. I baptized Lin Jun Fang. I already told you his story... right? I don't know why but I was the one picked to baptize him. I thought it was going to be my companion, Elder Mitton. I'm not sure who decided that.... So yes, I baptized him. Hopefully, next year he can get sealed to his family in the temple. That would be awesome!

I also got my new companion today! Elder Tatton from Holliday, UT. He's super awesome and I love him to death already. He's super nice. I've been having a lot of fun today showing him around. Unfortunately, I think I'm killing him (i.e., his mission is almost over and I may be his last companion) this transfer. He's also the District Leader. I can't wait to serve with him, it'll be really fun! Other than that, this week has been really good and really fun.

Elder Mitton was made a Zone Leader of the Taichung East Zone and transferred to the Wufeng Ward. Before he left, we went around so he could say good bye.

That's all I really got to be honest. I'm sorry, I'm not too good at writing emails back to you guys.

Oh yeah, Jesse is doing pretty good. We struggled through the first lesson because he talks so much! Hahaha! I love it. I was crying laughing at one point.

Here are some pictures from the combined Taichung Zones Conference we had on June 16th, our last with President and Sister Blickenstaff.

I love you!
-Silas

John Wayne, famous ties, old buildings, heat, crazy people, and changes

Hey hello!

Happy Fathers day!

Glad to hear the wedding went well! Sam told me all about it and sent me some pictures. It looked like a beautiful wedding. I wish I could've been there and to be honest I was bummed out this week because I couldn't be there. The Timpanogos temple looked really cool! I'm so happy for both of them! They're perfect for each other. Man, Mo Bettah's sounds so good. Sounds like the perfect wedding haha!

This week was alright. It was really hot this week. We just do the same stuff day in and day out. Lots of biking, lots of sweating. I don't know what to really write about. This week we should be having a baptism. He's 45ish and his ex-wife is a member. They have two kids. The reason why she is his ex-wife is because she divorced him, because he didn't want to get baptized and she wanted to get married in the temple. So he progressed really quickly and gained a testimony. So we should be baptizing him. Someone in the ward will probably baptize him. So that should be fun! Other than that, this is my last week with Elder Mitton. So I should be getting a new companion on Monday. This week we are in a trio, because one of the other elders in our apartment died today (i.e., his mission ended). Our ward mission leader is awesome. His name is John Wayne. He speaks English and Chinese. He is super fun to talk to. Sis. Blickenstaff is really trying to get me to finish my phase 1 language training stuff. So lots of pressure on that.

We get a new mission president soon! I can't wait to see the changes he'll make in the mission. Apparently, they're going to be changing up some rules as soon as they get here.

Lately there's been a lot of run ins with crazy people. I don't know what's in the water here but there are a lot of crazy people! I was doing some calls at a 7-11 and I looked up out of the window and some girl was just staring at me with this huge smile. So naturally as a missionary I smile back and wave and she just stands there. She was like literally 4 inches away from the glass right next to me just staring. I kept looking over at her and she just kept this creepy grin on her face. I started laughing cause it was so weird. Then she just disappeared. Then another crazy guy walked in and he had a weird pink shirt on and these tight jeans. He then sat down next to me and was trying to talk to me about the NBA finals. It was weird... There's just tons of crazy people here. It's probably the weather here that makes them go crazy. It's always a nice 140 degrees.

Anyway! Good week for the most part. It's been really hot. We're required to take breaks every now and then because it's dangerous to be outside for long periods of times. Some people don't believe in wasting time though. So we're stuck outside contacting for 4 hours straight.

Love you! I miss you all so very much!

 

I didn't even know it was possible to rain this much

Oh boy. Sounds like a terrible week. Hahahah! I love the new nickname for the van though (The Blue Whale). That's a pretty cool feature, blowing like a whale every few minutes. That's super scary that President Gibbons got into a car accident. So his he okay? That sounds like a pretty sketchy car accident. I hope Grandpa Burge is okay too! That's really scary that he was having chest pains. So...is he okay too? I also think it's crazy that Sam and Krista are feeding 70 people! Hahaha! Sounds like that will be fun to plan and get all the food for.

Well my week was pretty alright. We didn't really do anything different. Just a lot of teaching and a lot of feeling stupid for me. It rained a lot here. It still is and will rain for another week. It's so bad. The most rain I have ever seen. I didn't even know it was possible to rain this much. We've picked up some new investigators this week. This week we met Jesse while tracting. He was Military Police. He speaks pretty alright English. So we teach him in English, because even for my trainer Chinese is hard.. So we teach as much as we can in Chinese and then when we can't say something we say it in English. He's really really really really polite. He's very Taiwanese. So we always have to be drinking something. We always have to be comfortable. Everything so, when we're teaching him he's constantly running around the room adjusting fans, filling up our drinks asking us if we're hungry. It's pretty funny actually. He has a lot of interesting questions and he always says in a Chinese accent, "Excuse me! Excuse me! I'm so sorry! Please! Excuse me! May I ask? Excuse me! I don't mean to O-Fend. Are you you tairen (Jewish)". He'll always start it off the questions he asks us like that. We taught him how to pray and he doesn't really get it. When I showed him an example, he literally repeated what I was saying while I was praying. Then he randomly did a prayer in the lesson. Hahahah! He's really nice though and has an interest to learn more. He's one of my favorite investigators.

Like I said nothing really new this week. Just a lot of the same things. Sorry to hear things back home are a little crazy! It's also a shame that I won't be there for Sam and Krista's wedding.. I really wish I could be there. But it sounds like there's a lot of drama going on.. Doesn't sound to fun... "Excuse me! Please! Excuse me! But! I must say! I'm kind of glad I'm not home right now for that! Sorry! I just had to say, "Excuse me!"


Love you guys!

I'm not progressing with the language fast enough

Hello!

This week was alright... I just kind of felt stupid the entire week. I don't really feel like I'm progressing in the language fast enough. I feel stupid all the time. I can't say basic sentences without screwing up the grammar. It's pretty horrible. Everyone looks at me like I'm stupid. Some Taiwanese people will flat out even tell me straight up, "You can just speak English." That makes me feel bad... Other than that, nothing really happened this week except that I was riding the bus back from somewhere and the bus was just packed like people were almost pushed out of the door packed. So the bus driver refused to go because there was just way to many people on the bus. So he over the intercom told all these kids to get off and walk. Well many of the kids didn't like that and so they all start swearing at him and stuff as they're getting off. Then one of the kids yelled out a bad word. The bus driver didn't like that... So the bus driver leaned out the door and started going, "Guo Lai, Guo Lai." (Come back.) It was pretty hilarious. Nothing happened and we just drove away going 150 mph all angry.

Sounds like Kayleigh's trip is very actioned packed. That's pretty ZaoGao that they didn't let her check into the hotel because they weren't 21. Getting lost in the temple is pretty awesome too. But, nonetheless it sounds like her trip is very cool and very fun. Whale watching sounds interesting. Super cool that they're nice and close with some of our country's finest - Marines. Let's hope they don't come back with Marine boyfriends....

So you had the missionaries over for dinner. That's pretty cool.

Anyways. The week was good. Glad everything back home is going well! I love you all so very much!