Mission Conference and Stuff

8/22/16

   So, one of the happiest things on my mission and one of the saddest things on my mission. Happy: I finally buckled down and bought Honey Bunches of Oat cereal to eat in the morning every day. Sad: I might be lactose intolerant. I am still hoping for correlation without causation. Still not 100% sure that I am lactose intolerant, so it might be until next week till I know for sure. Other pretty big news is that I might be training next transfer. Our mission has 26 new elders coming in, so virtually anyone that hasn't trained yet and isn't a zone leader (me) will be training. Even so, the transfer starts in two days and I haven't gotten a call.

     Yesterday, Elder David F Evans of the Seventy came and talked to our mission. Our zone woke up at 5:30, hopped on a train, started the meeting at 9:30, literally ran to the train station at 3 because he went over on time, and then got back to Hualien around 5:30. Pretty crazy day. Basically 12 hours of sitting and no time to eat food or anything. At least I learned how to solve a Rubix cube on the train ride up, and the meeting itself was awesome. He talked a lot about different rules and how we could become more obedient, and then talked a lot about finding. He talked about how we as missionaries need to be talking 'with' people when we are finding and not so much 'to' people. He also mentioned how we should always be asking everyone for referrals. The best part about yesterday was when we got home last night, we were able to go straight out and start applying the principles he talked about and saw a lot of miracles. We met this one recently married couple who we talked with about how the gospel can bless their marriage, and it went really well! I have never talked about anything like that in a contact before, and it really changed the whole dynamic of finding.

     The other thing I have been thinking about this last week is time. In our missionary handbook it says: "Time is one of the most precious resources Heavenly Father has given you. The period when you are able to serve the Lord with all your time and all your efforts is extremely short. Use it fully and wisely. Such an opportunity is a privilege." We were telling stories on the train ride back, and I realized something. I don't remember all those nights I stayed up late doing lots of homework. I don't remember all those chats I had in the lunchroom or all the driving I did. Not that those things aren't important, because they are, but probably because they were part of that 'auto-pilot' mode of life. Certainly life requires a lot of this auto-pilot mode to get things done, but we can't get so caught up in it that we forget the purpose of why we are doing the things we do or forget to take the wheel once in a while and enjoy life. I remember those moments well--stopping homework for 5 minutes near midnight and listening to Coldplay, training for hours on end for that big soccer game, jogging up Duel Creek canyon to escape the routine and catch the fog-line. I've realized that by taking moments to enjoy missionary work and always remembering my purpose out in the field, not only do I see miracles but I remember them. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!

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BTW I have heard some awesome songs on the radio from 21 Pilots, is Mary just listening to them like crazy? I claim those songs when I get back. I also heard that Justin Beiber made a turn around, went Christian, repented, and wrote an album that everyone loves. It that even close to true? I just keep hearing this one song that is ok I guess. That is about all the pop culture that has come through the mission net lately. Thank you so much for that package!!!!! I have pretty much already eaten all the candy, and I absolutely loved reading through those pages of my baptismal book. The best part ever was the painting you sent me Sarah!!!! It is incredible!!!!! My companion and the zone leaders are incredibly jealous of me and all asked if they could commission something. My companion even said if you painted him something he would give you 500 kuai (and not to tell you how much that is in US dollars)!!!! Even though the last one was a joke, it really is incredible and I am so grateful for it! I hope all of you are doing good and getting excited for the new school year!!! I can't even believe that I come home at the end of this next school year, though it also feels like I have been out here for forever. I miss you all so much!!! Have a fantastic week!

Me loving what could be my last box of cereal

where the three kingdoms will be located

a pretty funny sticker sign

We found Lemuel's house!

 the most puzzling glue cap I have ever seen in my life (which way do you turn the cap so as to be able to use it??)

incredible buddhist temple up Taroko Gorge

my companion playing a prank on the zone leaders (they started it)

canyon in Taroko

dance party in a tunnel to Justin Beiber with guys we ran into from Utah who served in our mission

those same guys' $1000 quadcopter with a video camera that got some epic footage

cool staircase inside a tall buddhist pagoda thing

some Buddhist stuff 

a crazy big wasp

Ok so it didn't work as well as we had planned.

awesome little footbridge. In Taroko Gorge there are tons of footbridges that go over the deep canyons. So beautiful, even if we wasted a lot of time with traffic waiting