The Mid Autumn Festival is this week

您好家庭!

I'm not sure where this week went. It's almost the end of this transfer and with that I speculate that I will likely move. Due to the fact that I have been in the land of 清水 for almost 7 months. I hope that I move down south! But, I don't know if I'll move for sure because it's basically unpredictable. Fingers crossed that I'll move. But, unfortunately I'll have to leave behind one of my favorite companions. Elder Storey. He's a good guy and its been a super fun transfer. But this is all speculation.

This week was full of weird stuff. The women in QingShui have been very flirty with me for some reason. Maybe I'm just understanding more or something but, it's super awkward and makes me a little uncomfortable. Love is in the air as well as the deafening sound of fireworks and the smell of mysterious meats being cooked in the streets. This week is 中秋節 (Mid Autumn Festival.) Which means that people get like 4 days off of work and it's the Taiwanese equivalent of the 4th of July. But everyone celebrates a week early so there's been massive amounts of fireworks. The fireworks here are super sketchy because anyone can just buy whatever. So there's constant fireworks at night. So contacting people is super hard. I've compared it to trying to preach the gospel in Afghanistan, because of all the fireworks going off. They give each other moon cakes for Mid-Autumn Festival to show that they wish each other a long and happy life. They are many types and they usually have filling in the center.  The cakes are round to symbolize the reunion of family. Apparently the ancient Chinese observed that the movement of the moon was related to the seasons and farming. So, to express their thanks to the moon and celebrate harvest, they have offered a sacrifice to the moon (moon cakes) on autumn days when the moon was bigger and brighter in the sky.  The festival dates back over 3,000 years!!!

I have tons of weird stories to tell you guys but I just don't really have time ever or the memory to bring some up... Recently one that comes to my mind, is what me and Elder Storey call the 7-E-Lesbians. While making calls one night we were in front of a window that looks out on to the street. Well we see these two girls holding hands which is kind of normal in Taiwan. Then they came right up to the window and kissed each other. Horrified, and in the middle of talking with Mr. Jesse Wang I looked away. Then I heard one of the most terrible things, the good old ding dong thing that goes off when someone enters the store. Regrettably I looked over and they walked in and were talking in one of the isles. Then in the reflection of the glass I see them both go into the bathroom. Together.... It was horrifying. A line started to form and then they finally ccame out of the bathroom and left... Super nasty. We see them all the time... We hate making calls at that Seven Eleven.

Other than that, our investigators are doing well. Lots of weird problems like money and court. One of our investigators got into a car accident and has to pay $200,000 US dollars total for the accident. He just rear-ended a car which led to that car rear-ending 3 other cars. But, he showed us pictures and it's just super ridiculous. Nothing really new. This week will be super hard. No one is going to talk to us because it's a festival. Oh yeah, apparently there's a typhoon coming this week.

I love you all so very much! Did I mention that?

Kayleigh's new room looks good.....Why did she switch rooms again? Nonetheless, glad to hear it's not full of ferret poop.

Well I hope things for the most are going well! Today for P-day we're going to go eat all you can eat pizza. I was also thinking about sending a package home. Probably when I get to my new area *cough* Speculation *Cough*

Something Gross...

Hello! Family!

Looks like you guys at a lot of fun this week. So you guys were out trying Chinese restaurants? That's pretty cool! Oh man, I can't wait to come back and speak Chinese to the waiters/waitresses. Then again, at this point I'm thinking that's the only way I'll be able to communicate with anyone. My English is so trash. Anytime we run into white people here it's hilarious. 1. Because all white people that come here won't talk to us and have kind of a, "Alright we know, don't worry, we know the scam you want us to join your cult." 2. We usually respond with broken English. It's super funny. We always laugh at each other. Honestly, Chinese is just starting to sound like English to me. When me and the other Elders use Chinese it just sounds like we're all talking in English. I text in Chinese now... Yeah... So their keyboards are half Chinese half English. So I can switch the keyboard to Chinese. 簡單. That picture was Preach My Gospel. I'm learning how to read right now.

The pictures looked really good. It doesn't look too far off from what I eat everyday. Mine just looks more 3rd world and sometimes tastes 3rd world. Don't judge me too much, but while driving home with a member he was talking a lot about sweet potatoes. Then he pulled over and went over to an oil drum and bought some sweet potatoes. Yes, the potatoes were cooked in an old oil drum. I have pictures... It was very 還好.

When you guys sent the pictures, the branch president and his wife were super excited! They love seeing pictures of you guys. She came up to me at church and was showing me that you guys replied and stuff. I think she really liked it. She was asking me questions about Mango and stuff. They all thought it was super weird that Mango was eating a fortune cookie.

This week was super busy! We found a lot of people to teach this week. The good news is my RC 林 Lin Jun Fang got re-married to his wife. So now they're preparing to be married in the temple! Which is awesome! His wife cooks really good food, so we ate a little at his house.

We ate at a lot of people's houses this week. Which is good. Nothings really new, just teaching people and talking to people. Some days I feel like my Chinese is pretty okay. Then other days I feel, to quote my good friend Elder Fuller, "autistic."

The other day we found this HUGE spider next on our balcony. It was nasty. We killed it... Yeah..

But, I'm doing pretty good. Transfers are in two weeks. I'll probably be moving south. Hopefully out of Taizhong.

I love you all so very much! 

President Hsu and his wife sent us pictures!!!

We received the following email this morning:

Hello Americans I have your sons over for dinner! Yum! Noodles!

Thank you for taking care of our Elders and all of your good work with the branch!!! Our missionaries learn so much from your great examples, wisdom, and testimonies.

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