約瑟斯密 (Yuēsè Sīmì/Joseph Smith) is taking our English class

Hello!

Krista sent me photos of Sam's haircut.  It looks really good.... Those are free right? Kayleigh is so talented. State cosmetology competition? That's pretty cool. What does that entail?

I'll be hosting some new missionaries on Thursday for their first night on island. So I'll be taking around a new missionary for a little bit. That should be fun. I remember my first night on island.... It was pretty terrible. It's also very possible that I could be training in a couple weeks. Or Elder Hatch is training...So we're not really sure what's going to happen. 3 things:

1. He's training. 

2. I'm training. 

3.We're together another transfer.

Sorry to hear about Grandpa Burge. What the heck is going on?

As for this week we didn't really find any new investigators. Lots of close potentials, but they all fell through. So we see this 12 year old kid all the time. He has tattoos and he smokes and chews beetle nut. We found him watching porn with his little 7 year old brother in a 7/11 once. It was awkward, but we never had talked to him. Then one day we saw him outside a school and we talked to him. His English was alright and he was pretty cool. He set up a time for us to meet with him and stuff but it didn't work out.

I got your package this week. American candy is very different than candy here. Like a Snickers vs. a Snickers from Taiwan. Super different. The package was tasty. American cereal. That was good. The music is great though. It's better than MoTab.  Me and my companion were listening to Sons of Provo all week. We were laughing pretty hard.

Yeah, I also got a flat tire this week.

Some day's are better when we work. Some days we can't understand anything anyone is saying. Some days we feel fluent. Some days people want to talk to us. Some days people tell us to go eat poop.

There's this old guy at our English class. We call him 約瑟斯密 (Yuēsè Sīmì/ Joseph Smith). Basically, he just walks around our English class telling everybody in broken English that he's your grand dad. He also tells everyone that he's 約瑟斯密. So he'll be like, "HEY. I.......Am..... Yuēsè Sīmì!!" Then he'll laugh really hard. It's so funny. If you mention anything to him about Joseph Smith he just laughs. He's not a member. He thinks its hilarious.

On Sunday we had to teach our Gospel Principles class very last minute. Fortunately we had good class participation and didn't have to talk too much.

Oh yeah, while contacting through a park we found our investigator Lin sleeping on a bench. It was awkward. So we snagged some pictures of him and then felt too bad to wake him up, so we left him alone. That was pretty funny. He's a snorer.

I love you all so very much and I'm grateful for your package that you sent me. We love it all and we were so pumped! I'm happy healthy and well! Love you!

In hot water with the mission prez...fun at the cultural celebration

Hello!

First I would like to apologize for last week. We went to an amusement park and got home at like 7:00 PM so we had to rush through our emails and we forgot to write our mission president... So he called us this week and we had to explain what happened. It was pretty bad. We also had to do our weekly planning meeting with him.  That was pretty stressful, because he's our mission president and a General Authority.  The amusement park was pretty good though, it was totally ripping off Disneyland though. They had a ride called 太空山, which means Space Mountain. All excited, we got on the ride and it was a total let down. It was like a 6th grader was given the project to construct Space Mountain. It was dark inside the ride but you could still kind of see where you were going and there was like cardboard covering the outside light and stuff. It was fun to experience. Most of the rides were rip off's of Disneyland rides. They were fun but it was like a super ghetto theme park. I mean, it is 原住民 running the thing so of course it's a little ghetto.

Wow, things sound pretty crazy in the house right now. So how thick is the lawn? I haven't seen a nice patch of grass in a long time. We don't really have grass in Taiwan. It's all dirt and weird bugs. I totally forgot that Halloween was this month. Taiwan doesn't celebrate that, so I totally forgot about that.

What the heck is Mutual (a LDS singles app)? Before the mission, my companion used to get on anime sites and bully kids on there. He has some hilarious stories. Speaking of which, he has appreciated the emails. He was so happy to be getting emails! I've told him some stories about you guys. He thinks you guys are so awesome.

This week was pretty much the same. We just went about contacting for most of it. Then on Saturday, we had a cultural celebration. That was pretty fun. It was in this really nice area of TaiZhong, it had all these cool skyscrapers and we stopped by the Taichung Theater for a little tour. It was really cool because it had a garden on the roof so we walked around up there.  

Then we did a small parade to the theater where we watched the celebration. It was weird because there was some members from QingShui that were helping in the play, but they didn't see me or get a chance to talk to me. Then us missionaries got a small part in the play. We had to rush out on stage and help some earthquake victims. It was....eh... kind of dumb. But, the rest of the play was really good.

Then afterwards we stopped at an IKEA and ate some SUPER cheap ice cream. It was pretty much free. It was 10NT. So that was pretty fun... 

Other than that, that's basically my week. Right now we're teaching Lin. He's about 51 and he lives alone and stuff. He's pretty fun to talk to and he likes to joke around with us. He's doing pretty good, he's set up for tonight. So we'll be teaching him the Plan of Salvation.

We got Qing-ed (fed) some Sushi today by our Bishop. We're trying to convert this hermit guy that plays Skyrim all day in his parent's apartment.  He's 35.... I got to go. Love you!

Hard week, but unexpected trip to Sun Moon Lake was fun

Hello!

I don't have much time today!! I'm so sorry.

Today we went to an amusement park very last minute. We got a call from some other missionaries at 7:00 AM saying that a spot opened up for us to go with them to the famous Sun Moon Lake. It was really pretty and a lot of fun. It also had a whole thing about the aboriginal people that live in Taiwan. It was really fun, we had a group of Taiwanese/Japanese/Finnish people with us. It was fun to talk to all of them. I talked to a Japanese guy from Tokyo using Mandarin. It was weird to hear the accent difference.

This week was kind of hard. I was very discouraged this entire week and was kind of sad. It was hard for me to be happy about doing the work. We had zone conference but, it really didn't help. I'm okay now though. I'm back to normal so don't worry.

Glad to hear the package is sent and that our family is not dead/missing. I really love you guys and I'm sorry this email was crap.. It's freakin' 7:00 over here -- 7:00 PM.

I'll write more next week! I'm alive and well.

Love you!

Typhoon FAIL

Hello!

Mom's door looks really good!!

Sounds like you're both enjoying being empty nesters. That's got to be nice to just not have to worry about kids anymore and do whatever.

Happy to hear Kayleigh is doing well in tennis. So what is everyone up to?

Yeah this week we had a typhoon. So I had heard from a few people that there was going to be a Typhoon but usually people WAY over exaggerate these Typhoons and treat it like everything is going to get smashed. So me and my companion basically said "不用，谢谢!" So the next morning we woke up did some studies and were hearing all these weird noises outside. But it didn't really click for us. So then we're like, "alright let's go out and work." We get all the way downstairs and it's just raining really hard. So we're like whatever. Then we get on our bikes and start riding down our street. We didn't even have to peddle. We were flying down the street super fast. Then we turned down a street and got rekt. It was a straight up wind tunnel. We couldn't peddle our bikes our anything. It was honestly kind of scary. I was laughing so hard the entire time. We had all these Taiwanese people telling us to go home and stop trying, which made me laugh even more. It was really fun. Then we went home and spent the day cleaning and laying around. It was pretty nice. It was like 2 P-Day's in a row. At night the typhoon had passed so we went out and worked. No one was out and it was very unproductive. We just ran around looking at all the broken stuff. There was buildings that had their giant signs slammed into them and smashed cars from branches. It was pretty bad. But yeah, that's basically it for the typhoon. I enjoyed it.

Basically all we did this week was contact. Most of our investigators have dropped us and disappeared. So we hit the streets everyday for like 7-8 hours looking for people and getting rejected. All admit it's very discouraging sometimes. Most people won't even talk to us. So you'll ride up to someone and it'll go like this:

Me: "Hey hello."
Them: "......Hey."
Me: "Where are you going?"
Them:"......Home."
Me: "Awesome, do you live arou-"
Them:".....不用，谢谢."

That's pretty much how 90% of my contacts go. It's really hard. We've been struggling to find people but we've had some good times. We both get along pretty well and like to laugh a lot. Elder Hatch is pretty cool.

We also had stake conference this week. It was alright.  We don't get to see General Conference until the week after.  They have to dub it into Chinese first.

That's all I've really got for this week.

It's weird to think I've been out on my mission for 8 months. Tyson in Jakarata Indonesia only has 8 months left on his mission then he'll be home.. That's so crazy.

As for the package... American cereal would be good, candy in general would be good. I can probably buy the speakers here. Anything electronic is really cheap here. So don't worry about it. I'll get it figured out.

I love you all so very much!

We're basically white washing the area here

大家好!

Hello! This week was super freaking crazy. Where do I begin.....

Well for starters this area is super cool. I really like it here. It's downtown 台中. I really like it. I think it's really pretty here because there's all these skyscrapers and stuff. Our apartment has a pretty nice view of the skyline. It's also really pretty here at night because all the buildings are lit up and it's just really pretty.  We don't really have AC. So.... It's like 35 C/95 F in our apartment. I don't sleep with any blankets or anything. That sucks. There are just the two of us in the apartment, so it's really quiet at night. We mostly just do our own thing and language study the entire time. Haha.

This week has been super tiring. We're basically white washing (starting out from scratch) the area here... Most of the time here we run around contacting on the streets. Most of our investigators are 還好 (below average.) So it's kind of hard to set up times. So we hit the streets and talk to people all day. I personally really suck at it. I can't ever get any numbers or anything. I just end up getting hit on by Taiwanese women of all ages. I don't know, they basically think me and my companion are idiots. Our language skills are pretty much on the same level.  We don't understand like anything ever.  They have to say it 4,000 times. They get frustrated. We laugh about it though.  Our language skills are improving though.

The ward has made me feel pretty welcome here for the most part. We've been meeting with Jones a recent convert (RC). He used to be a pilot in the Taiwanese Air Force and now he just flies planes for fun. He's super fun to talk to. He also takes us to KFC 1-2 times a week. So we just eat KFC and then it's all military talk with him...haha! I love him so much. He's super nice. He want's me to join the US Air Force for some reason. He also love's Top Gun.

Our English teaching program is super wack here. Not the actual English program but the students here. It's a lot different here. The range of people you get here in the city is crazy.  You have people of all ages and all backgrounds here, so we even have prostitutes and stuff taking classes. They'll offer you very inappropriate things. It was super awkward. One came up and asked me for something inappropriate. She said it would only take 5 minutes. It took all the energy and willpower invested in me to say no, of course...haha.

Last night we went to a family's house for dinner. They're a white family that lives in our ward. They're super cool and all of their kids speak Chinese and English. So they all gave me a ton of crap when I had to give a 5 minute talk in church. Just kidding.  They all were very nice and pity complimented me. They made us chicken taco's which was the bomb because there's NO Mexican food in TaiZhong. It was super good. Then he brought out Tim-Tam's. He showed us what a Tim-Tam Slam was. You basically bite the Tim-Tam and then suck warm milk using the Tim-Tam as a straw and then eat it super fast so that it melts in your mouth. It's pretty much the best thing I've eaten. I want you all to try it.

There's a Costco in TaiZhong.  Apparently, it's like 40 minutes away. They even have Pizza there! They import stuff from America too, so there's good stuff. Lots of missionaries like to go, because it makes them feel like they're home.

I really do love you all so very much!

  

Transferred to PeiTun Ward with Elder Hatch

Hello!

What the heck is going on in the house? That's super weird about the glue board disappearing... So my question is are things cooling down in UT or is it just hot still?

Sounds like Kayleigh might be going to UVU. Right on. UVU is a cool place. I wasn't much of a fan...

Yeah, so Scott heard wrong. That is understandable, because we were all talking about how it'd be cool if I got transferred to GaoXiong. But no. I'm in TaiZhong. Literally the chapel is 5 feet away from the mission home. Therefore, I'm literally in downtown TaiZhong. I've only been here for an hour so I don't really know the area. My companion is Elder Hatch from Bentonville, Arkansas. He's just a generation above me (got to Taiwan six weeks before me), so our Chinese is relatively close. With the pattern that President Teh has shown, I wouldn't be surprised if I was training/senior companion next transfer... There are people in my generation that have gone senior companion/district leader.

So yeah, the move wasn't that big. I'm about an hour and half away from my old area. So I got kicked out of my area SUPER quick. I got a call one night that my companion would be training. So they kicked me out like the next day. So I didn't even get to say goodbye to anybody in the branch. I tried calling some people but they didn't answer since this week was Mid-Autumn Festival. So I spent the remainder of the transfer working in Daya with the zone leaders. I literally did nothing. I just basically followed them around. I'll miss QingShui. Apparently everyone there is super upset because we didn’t get the chance to say goodbye. My old branch president almost cried when he found out I had already left. I don't know, I feel bad about the whole thing, but it wasn't my choice. I will try to see if I can send him a message.

I don't know, my new area doesn't seem too bad. It's super hot and there's tons of stuff to do. I'm in the PeiTun Ward. Our apartment is on the 7th floor. The roof is the next floor up. Apparently it's got a good view from the roof and there's a antenna tower you can climb to get really good pictures of downtown TaiZhong. It's pretty nice though. I have my own bathroom. The view is pretty good. I have a nice view of some skyscrapers and downtown TaiZhong. So I'll be trying to adjust to the city life for a little while. My companion’s only been in the area for 3 weeks, so we're bound to get lost in the concrete jungle. I'm doing really well though. I don’t have a whole lot to talk about this week…just lots of moving heavy stuff and cleaning. 

I'm in Asian New York City. There's these massive skyscrapers on every street. So it boxes in the heat. The good news is they have a drink shop right across from the apartment that sells DongGuaCha, which is basically water at this point for me. It's like 20 cents US. It's super dope. There's tons of food around here. TONS.  It's pretty cool. I'm genuinely excited to serve here. We're getting Qing'd today. Qing'd means fed food by a member. 

I love you guys a lot! I don't have a whole lot of time. Things are really busy here!

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*