Dear family and friends,
I'm really tired. I've gotten a little sick. It's gotten really
cold (at least cold for Taiwan). And I'm pretty sure there was a flurry
of snow last night or the night before (also not normal for Taiwan. It
was way cold. And I don't wear (or own for that matter) the right type
of clothes for cold weather. So I have a medical mask on for now. I
guess that's one way to prepare to be a doctor!
So last Monday after emailing, we went to monkey mountain. That was
pretty sweet. I didn't think monkeys were so vicious though... When we
saw the first monkey, I told Elder Bardsley to get a picture of me with
it. I'm just approaching it and all and smiling at the camera. Then in
the corner of my eye, I see it coming towards me with a vicious look. It
went full of baboon on me and threatened to attack. I freaked out so
bad. Elder Bardsley said it would've been the perfect picture, but he
got scared too and ran away.
That night we met with a really cool guy in our ward and did Timtam
slams. I'll have to show you all how to do it someday. It was way good.
Our district then went to the train station and caroled. We met some
really cool people there. But Christmas just isn't celebrated as much
here...
Tuesday was great! We opened our packages and stuff early in the
morning. We then had a feeling to go visit a former investigator whose
son is a less active. We also have no idea where the son has moved to.
There was something wrong with him the whole time. Then in the end he
expressed fear for his son because he won't go to church and he's
struggling with his family. So we said we really want to help, so the
dad gave us his son's new address! We've been trying to get a hold of
him ever since. But this is huge progress with both father and son. It's
helping the father build faith in his prayers. We split that night as
Elder Stone went to do a new member lesson with Zhu Zhang Qi, and I went
with a member to an investigator families house. Both lessons went
really well. Zhu Zhang Qi went to the temple on Saturday to do baptisms!
He loved it so much.
Wednesday was really great! I loved Skyping you! It was so cool.
I'm glad I got to see you for the second half too. The house looks
exactly the same. Sorry I had to really quickly leave. Elder Stone's mom
was finally calling right then. So it was for the better good. We had a
pretty good English class that night too. We got the class doing role
plays to practice their conversation skills. It was really good. I was
told that I look like the new Spiderman? So I look like him and the guy
from ratatouille. Weird.
Thursday we biked out to Tianwei and met with a really cool
investigator. He's in a special military right now that requires him to
live at a junior high school. And for this kind of military, they would
usually get Saturday and Sunday off. But this certain school is Tuesday
and Wednesday off. Kinda lame. So we're going to try to keep working on
that obstacle. But he was really interested and liked meeting with us.
He even ate with us (and surprise paid for us) after the meeting. I ate
more dumplings than I should have. So not a good idea. We also found a
few less active member's homes that we couldn't find before! The address
system out here is so different!
Friday we got to help a lady in our ward start to move. We pretty
much just cleaned out and wiped down the new place where she was living.
It was pretty fun. I even found a secret doorway to the outside through
the bookcase. My first thought was "Narnia!" We'll be helping her move
all her stuff in this week. I love service! We then had our weekly
planning and then met with an older less active member. He's lost his
memory of ever being baptized, but remembers what the Book of Mormon is
and where the church is. So it's a little interesting trying to get him
to church and to read. He loves yelling at us in broken English. I have a
lot of fun. Then we went to visit another less active and read the
Book of Mormon with him. He's not too good at reading, so we started
with him a few weeks ago and you can already see the improvement.
On Saturday we found a nice guy while tracting. He took everything
we said very well. We would say something and his response would be
"makes sense" or "of course". Then when he didn't understand, he'd ask
us, we'd explain, and he'd be all ok again! Really good. That night we
had a great lesson with a former investigator. He's pretty into his
Christian church, but that night his wife sat in and had no idea about
anything involving Christ. So we started teaching her as well.
Everything we taught the wife helped the husband as well. It went really
well.
Sunday was when me being sick really picked up and I was way out of
it at church. Zhu Zhang Qi gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. It was way
good. He's really loving the ward. He referred his younger brother to
us as well. So hopefully we'll get to meet with him too! He's in the
military right now though. So it's a little difficult.
And today we had lunch with our ward clerk. He's going to print up a
new ward list for me. And then I get to start marking it up! I've
gotten a lot more organized since getting to yuanlin. I mark up the ward
list with colors according to active, less active, and inactive; the
mission president when they were baptized; and if their parents were
members when they were baptized. Very useful.
Well I love you all! I hope you all have a happy New Year! Set
those new year's resolutions, and keep them! One of my goals: gain 10+
pounds, in a good way. And another: finish all the standard works.
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