Passing Off Phase One

11/22/15

Happy Thanksgiving!! I am so excited not to celebrate it this week! That was only halfway sarcastic because I'm not the biggest fan of eating turkey, but it is a bummer that I'm missing out on all that amazing pie! I guess you could say I am more thankful for pumpkin pie now that this year I'm not going to have it, so it will be a day of thanksgiving after all! Anyways, I don't know if I have mentioned this or not, but the Taiwanese love to compare Americans to famous actors. I have no idea why. We were eating lunch with some members, and I made the mistake of telling them about how I was called "Bella" from Twilight at scout camp for the whole week. They pulled up a picture of Bella, and the table went silent. "Wow, he really does look like Bella."

Elder Boyce and I invented this technique called "bing qi ling". Whenever a less active or investigator commits to come to church, we "bing qi ling" them. We have a little card that they have to promise to buy us ice cream, or bing qi ling, if they don't come to church. We figure it's a win-win scenario for us right? So we bing qi ling-ed a less active, and he didn't come to church. Next time we met, they were going to buy us ice cream and guess what? The ice cream machine was broken! Lose-lose scenario!! God is merciful though, and the less active came to church yesterday and he still is going to buy us ice cream.

This last week, I went on exchanges with a native named Elder Dong. We had ground mountain goat meat and spinach over rice with seaweed soup. Eating with a native and a non-native are very different experiences. Elder Dong is totally awesome though. He is also in training, so we have become pretty good friends. Him and his companion get along extremely well and they get work done. I talked with him a lot, and that night he asked me what the biggest miracle I had seen in Taiwan was. I told him a few that I couldn't decide between, but when I asked him the same question he gave me an interesting answer. He said the biggest miracle he had seen on his mission was his companion. They are very good friends, and plan on continuing their friendship even after the mission. I realized my conception of a 'miracle' was a little too grand. I found that this last conference was a lot about marveling at the plain and precious truths of the Gospel. My companion is amazing and we are doing great things. I have like 50 Book of Mormons on a shelf in our apartment. Through prayer, I can speak with God: the most important being in the whole universe. Wow. This next week I'm going to try to keep rediscovering those tender mercies. All my love to you all!
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I am so stinking excited for Elder Stevenson to come speak to us tomorrow!!!!!! His son is in the other mission, and his nephew is in this mission. It's going to be so good!!! Next week's emails are probably going to be all about it. Put some pumpkin pie in the freezer for when I get back k? Also, I don't know if I told you or not, but I got roped into playing the piano for a Christmas concert for the whole mission, and I am doing the piano guys version of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Is that how you spell it? Goodness I don't know. English. Chinese is so hard. It's funny, it feels like instead of my Chinese getting better, my English is just getting worse. We do what's called three phases to learn the language. Phase One is a ton of vocabulary, teaching phrases, and other stuff straight out of Preach My Gospel. Phase Two is 2,500 flashcards of the most commonly used words in Chinese. Phase Three is all the characters in the standard works. I'm passing off Phase One in the next week!!! It has been a ton of work, but I'm getting it done! Well, I hope everything is going well back home, enjoy your Thanksgiving! Eat an extra slice of pie for me! I love you guys!

-Elder Hawkes

The first picture is of a sign that it took me a minute to realize how funny it was. First glance is pretty funny too though. Hey! You can take diesel fuel on the Metro! It's flammable! The second picture is what happens when we go looking for less actives. Ya, that is where the address led us. We did find a bowling ball there and fancy paper that I was tempted to send to you Mom for your Christmas present.