We watched a "Good American Hollywood Film" with Jesse - aka the Restoration movie

Hello!

Yeah, sorry Grandma Burge. The Taiwanese government doesn't like jerky to be sent here for some reason. There's a lot of weird stuff you can't send. There's even suspicious stuff that goes on like, I've heard stories of people trying to send missionaries I-pods and stuff and the package just happens to get lost and mysteriously disappear. Oh well! Oreos, American cereal, pictures, and candy would work.

Glad to hear tennis is still super competitive. So what's Kayleigh's schedule for school?

Tell me how Ben's interviews go! That's pretty exciting. Sounds like Ben will be rolling in the big dough soon, as expected. I hope he gets a job working with fighter jets and stuff. That's pretty cool. Just tell him that fueling jets for evil companies isn't the funnest.

Glad to hear Sam and Krista are still redneck. Hahaha! They always send me their own weekly email of all of their redneck activities in the great land of Logan. Sounds like they're truly in love. I want to watch them mud wrestle ;)

This week was just a very regular week. Meaning lots of lessons that don't really go anywhere and lots of people driving past me on scooters really fast and yelling crude things. We gave Jesse Wang a baptismal date and we were working towards it, he still has some things to work out, so it's hard for him to go to church. We watched a, as Jesse would say, "Good American Hollywood Film," aka the Restoration movie. He loved it and was clapping during parts of the movie and making hilarious comments. I love Jesse. But, he didn't' show up to church, so we had to drop his baptismal date. Oh well, I know he'll eventually get baptized. 有信心，有辦法.

I've been working on reading Chinese characters lately. So my only source for learning is the good 'ole 摩門經 (Book of Mormon.) I just tried to read as much as possible in characters. It's really fun and it's super hard. Chinese is super weird because reading and writing are like two separate things. There are some missionaries who know how to read, but don't know how to write. Then there's some who know how to write but don't really know how to read. So some missionaries are really bad at reading and really good at writing and others the opposite. Either way, my English has deteriorated to that of an old immigrant Chinese man living in California. I don't know my Chinese still pretty much sucks really bad! 我的中國也不太好!

P.S. Google Translate sucks for Chinese.

I love you all so very much! Thank you for the emails. I'm sending a package relatively (hopefully) soon.

Big Baptism Celebration and Bai Bai Day

Hello! 大家好!!

First off 恭喜! 恭喜! Congratulations Mom on the glasses! It's a fun club. I saw the picture and they looked really good on you!

Sounds like the craziest time of the year has begun. That's one thing I do not miss about home! Good luck on testing those kids Mom!

Haha Sounds like Kayleigh has some cool classes lined up. I could totally see Kayleigh living in Provo having a salon of some sorts.

Sorry to hear about the lawnmower. That's too bad. Hahaha, so when you say disintegrate what do you mean? Like I'm imagining it melting...Ale didn't know how to ride a bike? What the stuff? Anyway, here's my encouragement "Add-Oil!" 加油! I'm also pretty sorry to hear about how terrible Ben's job is. That's pretty 糟糕. But, that'd be pretty cool if he were to be able to work as a programmer at a dog food plant. Or even cooler at the air force base. I think both would be super cool. Although, I have to admit I laughed super hard when I read "Dog Food Plant." Still, that's probably a pretty good job. Are they still planning on getting a pug? .......Please say no.

Alrighty, as for my week it was pretty amazing! There was a lot that happened this week. But, before I begin I need to tell you (actually probably not.) my English is disintegrating faster than Dad's lawnmower. Like, I'm not really sure why but I feel super awkward writing in English. So forgive the awkwardness of my hands and don't mock me (get that reference?)

Alright, first off this week was Ghost week. So it was basically the Halloween for Taiwan. At least that's what we gathered from talking to people on the streets. They basically told us it was Bai 拜 Bai 拜day... But that's like everyday in Taiwan...Anyway, so what they do is they set up tables outside throw a ton of food on the table and light incense. It's really strange and I don't get it. But, you know what? They probably don't know why they do it either. But, we were on our way to English class and literally everyone had these tables out. Then out of nowhere massive amounts of rain came down and ruined the holiday. So sad.

Then on Thursday I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. It was pretty alright. We were up in Daya. It was a pretty nice area. It's on the outskirts of 台中市 Taizhong. It had these really pretty views of the city. It was pretty fun.

Then we had a little surprise. One of our investigators Huang Yin He was super unsure of getting baptized.  Then we sent him a passage of scripture about Alma baptizing at the Waters of Mormon and he was all aboard. It was awesome, so on Saturday he was baptized......by our Branch President. 

Then we also had another one of our investigators who's a 10 year old girl get baptized by her older brother. 

So this week we had two baptisms. It was pretty awesome!  Our branch  and the Shalu Ward had a big celebration at the church.  A total of six people got baptized.  It was really cool and there was a lot of good food.

 So yeah, it was kind of crazy week but it was a lot of fun. I love Taiwan so much. This week I ate dinner with my RC 林Lin Jun Fang and his family. His wife makes super good pork. It was literally the best pork I've ever eaten in Taiwan. Hahaha! Anyway! It was a good week. I love you all so very much! I hope school goes well for you and that Ben can find a better job!

P.S. Mango is the cutest freaking animal in the world. I loved those pictures of him!

This week was super awesome!!!!

Hello, hello!

This week was super awesome! haha. I love Elder Storey he's super cool. Super down to earth.

I don't know where to begin....This week was really busy.

We had a really fun ward BBQ. It was super fun. We had a ton of investigators show up and Jesse Wang showed up! I love Jesse. He still kind of struggles with believing that all religions are true. So... that's something we're working on, but he's super funny. I talked with him for about an hour and 30 minutes about Hollywood Films. He loves Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg movies. The one thing I got frustrated about was no one was talking to him. Like none of the ward members really made any sort of effort to talk to him. So for part of the BBQ he was just sitting in the corner eating mystery meat. I don't know, I just felt really bad. But I think he had a good time for the most part. I decided half way through the BBQ that I was going to have to be his friend for the day. Jesse Wang BBQ Quotes:

"You are such a handsome man! Oh yes! A handsome man. You look like- ! Oh please forgive me! You look like a young Woody Allen!"

"I'm so sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Please! May I ask! I'm so sorry! What is your favorite Hollywood Film?"

After that we made a trip to the Metro City Harbor Hospital to visit one of our investigators who had a kidney stone taken out. It was super fun. He had this really cool room on the 15th floor that overlooked the ocean. Plus he was teaching us hilarious Taiwanese phrases like, "You're hungry? Go eat ****." It sounds absolutely ridiculous.

We've had a lot of rain this week... I always forget how bad the rain is here. It's gotten to the point where I just have completely given up on rain gear. Yes...I don't wear rain gear anymore. I just get soaked, because, regardless of what you wear you're going to get soaked. So, I just give up. In fact, a lot of missionaries just say whatever. It's like what Forrest Gump says about Vietnam's rain, "--It rained so much, sometimes it would rain sideways and sometimes it even rained upward." The same applies to Taiwan. Everyone hear thinks the acid rain will make you go bald, but I don't see a lot of bald people walking around..

During the massive amounts of rain we had the opportunity to be first responders to a scooter accident. We came around a corner and saw this guy just laying in the street and his scooter a couple feet from him. A couple of people were there already but no one was really doing anything. A guy walked over and kicked the guy on the ground, but he wasn't moving. So me and my companion just kind of walked over and then he started to move. His face was pretty much wrecked. But we told him to stay down. He didn't listen... So what did he do? He got on his bike and drove off....... Hahahaha! Me and Elder Storey were laughing pretty hard. He was swerving all over the place. I don't know, I have a completely different mentality to Taiwan and wrecks. That story makes us sound like bad people, but Taiwanese people are just crazy when it comes to automobiles.

On Saturday we were able to baptize, Liu Cheng Kai. He's 16 years old and he was pretty much golden. He has a lot of faith already. He's super cool! The baptism went smoothly and he was confirmed the next day. Now we're just trying to get him to go on a mission when he turns 18. He'll be an awesome missionary.

So, David Archuleta came and had a concert here in QingShui.... We LIVE in QingShui. The mission never invited us to go. So we didn't go. But, the WHOLE office went on stage and sung with David and got to talk to him for like 4 hours. What a bummer. So lame.

Other than that, I'm really liking my area. It's a good place. I definitely would like to come back to Taiwan after my mission. There's a lot of things I think I'll miss when I go back... Like the massive amounts of DongGuoCha. Or the massive amounts of fried rice I can buy from Vietnamese ladies. I'm finally on Phase 2 of the mission language study program and I am really loving it way more than Phase 1.

Sounds like home is really busy and stressful. Sorry to hear about that. August is always the worst. Lots of stress from school and stuff. I think things will eventually settle down and get better.

I love you all so very much! You're all awesome.

Love Silas.

My new companion is Elder Storey!!!

Hello! This week really flew by.

So this week was my last week with Elder Tatton. He'll be heading home on Tuesday. I really liked Elder Tatton as a companion. He was formerly a zone leader and was really fired up about missionary work and stuff. Sometimes it was hard to keep up with him. I don't know though, I learned a lot from him. He's a pretty good guy. Oh yeah, and I'll miss his voice. He sings like Josh Groban.

Nothing really interesting happened this week. It was kind of a busy week though. We have a member in our ward who owns a suit shop. So he makes all these suits and designs them and stuff. He's super fun to talk to and I love making the 40 minute trip to Dajia. Anyway, Elder Tatton's mother decided that he needed to buy a custom suit, so we hit up Ji DiXiong and let him know that we needed a suit. We went and got it tailored. A couple days later we went and picked it up. It looked really good! So we bagged it up and started to head back.... Well.....Somewhere along the way we lost his suit. The whole thing. So we didn't realize this until we got back to home. So Elder Tatton right before we went to bed stares at me and says, "Dude......Where's my suit?" He was super upset about it.... So the next morning we biked around and didn't find it. So we had to go to the police station. The police were very helpful. But, we weren't able to find the suit. Even with the help of our branch president calling all the buses and stuff we couldn't find it. I felt so bad for Elder Tatton... It was a nice suit.

My new companion is Elder Storey from Cache Valley, Utah. He seems really cool. Unlike my prior companions, who have been out a long time, Elder Storey hasn't been out for too much longer than me, so I'm sure that will help me progress in my ability to speak and teach.

We're staying really busy. We have a couple of baptisms scheduled for the next couple of weeks. They're really awesome people and we're super excited for them.

Love,
Bo Zhang Lao

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