1/18/16
OH! I chose a Chinese name this last week, tell me if you like it. 洪毅宇。Hong Yi Yu. The last one is pretty much impossible to describe how to say it because English doesn't even have that sound. The first one means 'big or expansive', the second means a sort of willpower kinda, and the second is half of the phrase meaning 'cosmos'. Big Will Cosmos. You can just call me Cosmo for short. It was a super long complicated process but it worked out. Dad, I thought it was funny how you wrote me about choosing a Chinese name just about the time I was in the process of choosing it. My chinese teacher in High School gave me a transliteration one, but I think this one is a little bit better. I'm sorry I don't have much time today, we are going to bike up a volcano. I love you all!!!
I'm sorry, I didn't allot my time very well today, and I want to send a lot of pictures, so this will be pretty short... Any cool movies coming out? Music? Someone has got to make a list for me for when I get back. Feel free to send a short note with things to respond too every week if you want, you don't have to send a full letter every week Mom ;) I love the letters though!!! They are so much fun to read! Our zone is getting awesome T-shirts today that I will have to show you, and transfers are this week! I will let you know next week if I have moved out of Beitou or not. Elder Dixon doesn't think I will, but you never know. Anyways, our mission invite is to invite people to baptism on the street. I am really struggling with that for many different reasons, but everyone just quotes the whole "it's inspired of God" thing as if they could just say anything and then put that at the end to make it true. Does that make sense? I know President Jergensen and the Assistants are inspired, and I know that they are just trying to do their best, and maybe I don't fully understand the mission invite, but the way that it sounds sounds not fully in line with Preach My Gospel and what I feel is right. Hope that clears up the situation a little bit, do you have any ideas to help me? I love you all!!!! --------------------------------------------------------------------
TAIWANESE PINYIN AND GOSPEL
Ok, starting out with a little explaining. So, you probably know this, but you can't use letters to spell Chinese characters. They use what they call 'pinyin' (or romanization) to write characters so we Americans can attempt to say what they say. Pretty smart, although it didn't work out too well at first. Not many Americans spoke Chinese and not many Chinese spoke... American?... at that time, so you ended up having to kind of make up how to read the romanization until someone tells you that you got it right. Fortunately, China got smart and changed the romanization so it is a lot easier for us to read normally. Unfortunately, Taiwan wants to be different than China and didn't hop on the bandwagon. Example, the letter 'p' in Taiwanese pinyin makes the 'b' sound. Taipei is actually said Tai-Bei. Peitou, Bei-Tou. Keelung somehow is read more like 'G-long' (with long read in a Long Island accent). Kind of confusing, but that is basically it. So we were walking on the street the other day and saw a sign with what we thought was this horrible romanized stuff, and we couldn't figure out what it said for the life of us. After quite a few minutes, we just smacked our heads and died laughing because the sign said 'Singing Club'. In English. Well, at least we thought it was funny.
random christmas lights
OH! I chose a Chinese name this last week, tell me if you like it. 洪毅宇。Hong Yi Yu. The last one is pretty much impossible to describe how to say it because English doesn't even have that sound. The first one means 'big or expansive', the second means a sort of willpower kinda, and the second is half of the phrase meaning 'cosmos'. Big Will Cosmos. You can just call me Cosmo for short. It was a super long complicated process but it worked out. Dad, I thought it was funny how you wrote me about choosing a Chinese name just about the time I was in the process of choosing it. My chinese teacher in High School gave me a transliteration one, but I think this one is a little bit better. I'm sorry I don't have much time today, we are going to bike up a volcano. I love you all!!!
I'm sorry, I didn't allot my time very well today, and I want to send a lot of pictures, so this will be pretty short... Any cool movies coming out? Music? Someone has got to make a list for me for when I get back. Feel free to send a short note with things to respond too every week if you want, you don't have to send a full letter every week Mom ;) I love the letters though!!! They are so much fun to read! Our zone is getting awesome T-shirts today that I will have to show you, and transfers are this week! I will let you know next week if I have moved out of Beitou or not. Elder Dixon doesn't think I will, but you never know. Anyways, our mission invite is to invite people to baptism on the street. I am really struggling with that for many different reasons, but everyone just quotes the whole "it's inspired of God" thing as if they could just say anything and then put that at the end to make it true. Does that make sense? I know President Jergensen and the Assistants are inspired, and I know that they are just trying to do their best, and maybe I don't fully understand the mission invite, but the way that it sounds sounds not fully in line with Preach My Gospel and what I feel is right. Hope that clears up the situation a little bit, do you have any ideas to help me? I love you all!!!! --------------------------------------------------------------------
TAIWANESE PINYIN AND GOSPEL
Ok, starting out with a little explaining. So, you probably know this, but you can't use letters to spell Chinese characters. They use what they call 'pinyin' (or romanization) to write characters so we Americans can attempt to say what they say. Pretty smart, although it didn't work out too well at first. Not many Americans spoke Chinese and not many Chinese spoke... American?... at that time, so you ended up having to kind of make up how to read the romanization until someone tells you that you got it right. Fortunately, China got smart and changed the romanization so it is a lot easier for us to read normally. Unfortunately, Taiwan wants to be different than China and didn't hop on the bandwagon. Example, the letter 'p' in Taiwanese pinyin makes the 'b' sound. Taipei is actually said Tai-Bei. Peitou, Bei-Tou. Keelung somehow is read more like 'G-long' (with long read in a Long Island accent). Kind of confusing, but that is basically it. So we were walking on the street the other day and saw a sign with what we thought was this horrible romanized stuff, and we couldn't figure out what it said for the life of us. After quite a few minutes, we just smacked our heads and died laughing because the sign said 'Singing Club'. In English. Well, at least we thought it was funny.
This last week, I have truly realized how simple the Gospel of Jesus Christ is. It is our purpose as a missionary--to "bring others unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end". Wait, that simple? That simple. I have given up on trying to tell people here in Taiwan formulas for greater faith and logic for a better life. My missionary work has gone back to the basics. Pray often. Read the scriptures. Attend Church. Want more faith? Do those three things better. More faith will bring the desire to change and repent. Our repentance leads to a willingness to make and keep covenants with God. Those covenants bring blessings that help us through our daily lives. Those blessings in turn will bring greater faith, and through this process we can become like our Heavenly Father. What an incredible blessing. I have really soaked in the simplicity of the Gospel this past week, and I hope you all will take a moment during the next week to think about it as well. I love you all!!!
Rubber Ducky campaigning. The voting finally ended. It turns out, people literally vote based on how many times they saw the person running for office. No wonder they will do anything to get your attention...
The other is floor six of our apartment. We were about to go down the elevator when the fire alarm went off. Elder Dixon was like, 'no big deal, it happened all the time in my last apartment!' And I'm like, 'That's a fire alarm!' And then we looked down the stairwell and it was pitch-black and there was smoke coming out of it that smelled like electricity. So we did the only thing two 19-year-olds would do and went down the elevator and out to play frisbee for our morning exercise. We saw a few firetrucks and things pass by, but they passed our apartment building so it was fine. Then we were walking back, and the firetrucks finally found the address of our apartment. It was pretty crazy. All good now, but we couldn't get in for an hour or so.
scary snake we almost stepped on while jogging
We saw the chicken head on the way walking home from a baptism in DanShui.
Only in Taiwan....
awesome lizard
awesome view
I ate the hot pot today and am so full I could throw up
Gotta love the Beitou statue things.
Some brilliant guys (almost certainly drunk) decided to light a huge mound of firecrackers with their burning cigarettes. This was the result of the carnage. We were sitting there in the rain, wondering how on earth they were going to get that huge mound lit while it was pouring rain and cars were driving through the intersection when something started sparking and the drunk guys barely scrambled a few feet away when the whole mound exploded at the same time. It was ear deafening and we got hit by debris like 30 yards away. Apparently it is a common thing to do, although they accidentally dumped them too close to each other.
Random Christmas lights??
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