Jokes & Changes

9/18/16

Today I would just like to start out with a joke I made this week. It is in Chinese so excuse my attempts to make a dumb joke in Chinese into a hopefully less dumb joke in English. In language study I ran into a really cool idiom: 前人種樹，後人乘涼. You can plug it into Google or to save time I will give you the translation it had: 'predecessor grows a tree, the follower enjoys the shade'. Pretty good idiom. Anyways, here is my joke in Chinese: 千人種樹，後人乘涼。但如果前人沒有種樹，後人中暑 ('first person grows a tree, follower enjoys the shade. First person doesn't grow a tree, the follower gets heat stroke'). The funny part is that 'heat stroke' and 'plant a tree' are both romanized 'zhong shu', just with different tones. I told it to a Taiwanese and asked if he understood. The reply? "I understand, but it isn't funny at all." I may not be the next Jimmy Fallon, but hey, if you smiled at how dumb that was I'll consider it a success.

     Found an awesome investigator named Lian Xu who set a baptismal date on the street, we will hopefully meet with him next week. Other than that, it was really hard to meet with any of our other investigators because of the Mid-Autumn Festival, where everyone gets together with family, barbecues, and eat moon cakes and pomello together. Lets just say we have been given around 25 pomellos in the last week.

     During a personal study this last week, I took some time to read through some of my entries from almost exactly a year ago. Sometimes I feel like not that much has changed about me since the beginning of my mission. I've had a ton of incredible experiences and learned so much about the gospel, but I don't feel anyone talking to me would notice a change. Looking back at both pictures and journal entries, however, has told me that I'm not. While I still have more room to grow than most, I have become so much more mature in my perspective, loving in my countenance, and deeper in my understanding. I'm not here to brag, but rather to bear testimony that it works. Christ's Atonement changes us to become truly our best selves. It might be slower than we would like, but what hope there is in the promise that if we are faithful we can look back a year from now and see just how much closer we have become to Christ. I love all you guys, and hope you have a great week!

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Happy Birthday Mary!!!!!!!!! When you wake up it is your birthday right??? It is actually your birthday right now in Taiwan, so you can just already start celebrating!!! You are the best littlest sister ever!!! Keep it up with soccer and viola! I am super excited to do some duets when I get home and play soccer with you at the CJH field. I hope Junior High isn't too horrible and that you are having a lot of fun! I love you so much Mary! Hope you have such a great birthday!

-Jojo

This was our lunch for a day. Healthy I know.

 typhoon flooding! Crazy high, next week will have comparison photos!

 The last four are the awkward moment where I was trying to figure out what was wrong with my camera and realized it still takes pictures just without the screen working (I will get it fixed this week)

Other Elders caught a frog and put it under a cup on my desk at night.

Real wild monkeys!!!!

Real wild bats!!! 

And we went back to that cave with water pouring from the ceiling! 

Land on Me Little Moth!

LETTER 65 (9/4/16)

Such a fun week! We had a lot of fun and cool things happen this last week. Something happened the week before that I don't think I mentioned either so I will mention it now. The night of training calls, Elder Stevenson and I were out finding when we ran into two girls sitting outside their apartment in lawn chairs and five drunk guys just on the other side of the doorway. We started talking to them, and noticed the little baby sitting in one the girls' arms. They were like 17 and 19 year old girls probably in High School, so we asked, "Whose baby is that?" You can imagine our surprise when the 17 year old girl answers, "Mine!" Then one of the drunk guy comes out and stands just close enough to me that I can't smell anything but his very alcoholic breath and starts talking to us. Then another guy comes who doesn't say anything but points at us and then gives us a thumbs up and repeats this 5 or 6 times, to which the two girls laugh and the very drunk guy tells us that he can't speak. To put the frosting on the cake, the drunk man grabs both my cheeks and wiggles my face from side to side while he yells, "AWOOOGA, AWOOOGA, AWOOOGA!" Elder Stevenson and I didn't stay very long after that.

     Anyway, my trainee Elder Dickson is the bomb and we are working hard to find some new solid investigators. We had some amazing miracles last week where one college student followed us on his motorscooter and told us he was looking for a church and another man who had met a member of our church from America that had come down to Hualien doing family history work. Crazy cool. We also got told in heavily-accented English by a man from India that we were wasting two years of our life because God can't create food.

     One of my favorite parts of the week though was just two nights ago and yesterday morning. A moth flew into our bedroom, and me being me chased it all around the room trying to get it back outside and save it. After a minute or two of unsuccessful grabs and probably unnecessary yelling, in desperation I yelled out, "Land on me, little moth!" Almost immediately, the little moth landed on the front and middle of my shirt. I just about yelled again it was so immediate. I took it outside with a beaming face, and then came in so happy that I had garnered the title "Moth Whisperer".

     The next day, however, I was studying a talk on meekness when I realized what parallels my little experience had with being meek. Many a time in our lives I feel like we are this moth--maybe we are searching for a lightbulb that distracts us from our real purpose, maybe we resist (either knowingly or unknowingly) the arms of a loving Savior, or maybe we are just lost in a room and we don't know how to get out. This moth discovered, as I think we all eventually need to discover, that the solution comes when we listen to the voice that says, "Land on me, little moth." The more fully we trust in that assuring voice, and the quicker we respond to that call, the faster we are delivered from those perils that loom before us. That, in essence, is what meekness is isn't it? Responding quickly and with trust to that loving call from our Heavenly Father to return to Him. I hope, as ever, to become more meek and humble like our Brother, Jesus Christ, and to more quickly change my will to better conform God's. I love you all, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

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So, training is really fun and I am totally enjoying it, but as Dad probably knows there are some difficult parts as well. Lately I've been trying to do what you said, Mom, and sort of identify what is causing me to be stressed. About half the days I am totally fine, and the other half I am extremely stressed out. I've found that it is generally towards the end of the week when I start getting really stressed--about the time that we do reporting. In our mission we just have these 'standards of excellence' that have been set apart as what will help us as missionaries baptize converts. President has promised us that if we stay in the green (i.e. hitting all the key indicators) that we will baptize. He also emphasizes that these are not quotas, but rather what every missionary is capable of achieving on a week to week basis. It all is pretty good and everything, but it is a huge source of stress to me. I try so hard to hit these key indicators, but I struggle so much. One week I will focus on lessons with members present and new investigators and then I will hit it, but there won't be any investigators at church or there won't be lots of baptismal date investigators. When I try to focus on both I just don't hit either. Sometimes I feel like I should just go back to the basics and just invite others to come unto Christ, but when I do I don't hit the standards of excellence. Those most frustrating part is that I don't know what to do to hit them all every single week. So I just fail over and over again and then get stressed every weekend when I have to hurry and do everything I can to get the rest of the key indicators. Lately it has just felt like the gospel in all its beauty and simplicity is completely separated from this missionary work that I am doing which is complicated and causes me unending stress. I'm not sure what I can do to bring the two together so that my missionary work is just a simple facet of the gospel that I can work hard at and be successful in. I want to hit these standards so bad and accomplish the vision President Jergensen has for us missionaries, but I just keep forgetting to do so many important things. I really am doing well other than that though, and I really do love these people and getting to work with them. My trainee is a spiritual giant and my language gets better every day. It's just this one little thing, so any suggestions would be so awesome.

a really funny cup we found

weird restaurant

my trainee's first shaved ice thing.  

...my precious

I know, me and the rock stacking thing.

It took me like 5 minutes to get this half and half photo

more fun with the under water camera

my socks as the day went on last week

Land on Me Little Moth!

LETTER 65 (9/4/16)

Such a fun week! We had a lot of fun and cool things happen this last week. Something happened the week before that I don't think I mentioned either so I will mention it now. The night of training calls, Elder Stevenson and I were out finding when we ran into two girls sitting outside their apartment in lawn chairs and five drunk guys just on the other side of the doorway. We started talking to them, and noticed the little baby sitting in one the girls' arms. They were like 17 and 19 year old girls probably in High School, so we asked, "Whose baby is that?" You can imagine our surprise when the 17 year old girl answers, "Mine!" Then one of the drunk guy comes out and stands just close enough to me that I can't smell anything but his very alcoholic breath and starts talking to us. Then another guy comes who doesn't say anything but points at us and then gives us a thumbs up and repeats this 5 or 6 times, to which the two girls laugh and the very drunk guy tells us that he can't speak. To put the frosting on the cake, the drunk man grabs both my cheeks and wiggles my face from side to side while he yells, "AWOOOGA, AWOOOGA, AWOOOGA!" Elder Stevenson and I didn't stay very long after that.

     Anyway, my trainee Elder Dickson is the bomb and we are working hard to find some new solid investigators. We had some amazing miracles last week where one college student followed us on his motorscooter and told us he was looking for a church and another man who had met a member of our church from America that had come down to Hualien doing family history work. Crazy cool. We also got told in heavily-accented English by a man from India that we were wasting two years of our life because God can't create food.

     One of my favorite parts of the week though was just two nights ago and yesterday morning. A moth flew into our bedroom, and me being me chased it all around the room trying to get it back outside and save it. After a minute or two of unsuccessful grabs and probably unnecessary yelling, in desperation I yelled out, "Land on me, little moth!" Almost immediately, the little moth landed on the front and middle of my shirt. I just about yelled again it was so immediate. I took it outside with a beaming face, and then came in so happy that I had garnered the title "Moth Whisperer".

     The next day, however, I was studying a talk on meekness when I realized what parallels my little experience had with being meek. Many a time in our lives I feel like we are this moth--maybe we are searching for a lightbulb that distracts us from our real purpose, maybe we resist (either knowingly or unknowingly) the arms of a loving Savior, or maybe we are just lost in a room and we don't know how to get out. This moth discovered, as I think we all eventually need to discover, that the solution comes when we listen to the voice that says, "Land on me, little moth." The more fully we trust in that assuring voice, and the quicker we respond to that call, the faster we are delivered from those perils that loom before us. That, in essence, is what meekness is isn't it? Responding quickly and with trust to that loving call from our Heavenly Father to return to Him. I hope, as ever, to become more meek and humble like our Brother, Jesus Christ, and to more quickly change my will to better conform God's. I love you all, and I hope you have a wonderful week!

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So, training is really fun and I am totally enjoying it, but as Dad probably knows there are some difficult parts as well. Lately I've been trying to do what you said, Mom, and sort of identify what is causing me to be stressed. About half the days I am totally fine, and the other half I am extremely stressed out. I've found that it is generally towards the end of the week when I start getting really stressed--about the time that we do reporting. In our mission we just have these 'standards of excellence' that have been set apart as what will help us as missionaries baptize converts. President has promised us that if we stay in the green (i.e. hitting all the key indicators) that we will baptize. He also emphasizes that these are not quotas, but rather what every missionary is capable of achieving on a week to week basis. It all is pretty good and everything, but it is a huge source of stress to me. I try so hard to hit these key indicators, but I struggle so much. One week I will focus on lessons with members present and new investigators and then I will hit it, but there won't be any investigators at church or there won't be lots of baptismal date investigators. When I try to focus on both I just don't hit either. Sometimes I feel like I should just go back to the basics and just invite others to come unto Christ, but when I do I don't hit the standards of excellence. Those most frustrating part is that I don't know what to do to hit them all every single week. So I just fail over and over again and then get stressed every weekend when I have to hurry and do everything I can to get the rest of the key indicators. Lately it has just felt like the gospel in all its beauty and simplicity is completely separated from this missionary work that I am doing which is complicated and causes me unending stress. I'm not sure what I can do to bring the two together so that my missionary work is just a simple facet of the gospel that I can work hard at and be successful in. I want to hit these standards so bad and accomplish the vision President Jergensen has for us missionaries, but I just keep forgetting to do so many important things. I really am doing well other than that though, and I really do love these people and getting to work with them. My trainee is a spiritual giant and my language gets better every day. It's just this one little thing, so any suggestions would be so awesome.

I'm sending Mary's and Sarah's package today, hopefully it gets there in time. The post office was closed last week otherwise I would've been sure it would get there. My camera started working again so no problem there. A new bag might be sweet, but the one I'm using now works really well and I would just have to get rid of the bigger one maybe. I'm not really sure. The best option is probably something that can be eaten so as not to be stored in a bag, but other things I'm doing pretty good on. Sorry that wasn't very helpful... I just really miss chocolate shakes and Cafe Rio, but I don't think that comes in packages.

a really funny cup we found

weird restaurant

my trainee's first shaved ice thing.  

...my precious

I know, me and the rock stacking thing.

It took me like 5 minutes to get this half and half photo

more fun with the under water camera

my socks as the day went on last week

Relief & Excitement

Letter 64 (8/28/16)

Ok, so last week I shared the happiest and saddest news of my mission right? This week I'm going to share the greatest relief and the greatest excitement. The greatest relief: I am not, in fact, lactose intolerant. Most likely. Instead, I might have giardia. You know like the stuff that you get from drinking dirty water? Yep. Still not 100% sure, but I am on antibiotics for the next week. Last week I was told to drink a quart of milk and see if I exploded, and after I didn't explode the next assumption is that I have giardia. We will see.

     Crazy big changes in the mission lately! By far the biggest is that from now on Elders will only teach men and Sisters will only teach women. The hope is that we will focus more on finding families instead, and that we can more easily avoid situations where inappropriate relationships develop between missionaries and investigators.Sounds simple, but that is crazy!! It means we have to take all of our investigators who are women, and if they aren't really close to baptism we have to give them to the Sisters. With that change, we will probably be handing over 張寶心 Zhang Bao Xin, 鍾姐妹 Sister Zhong, and 王雅慧 Wang Ya Hui to the Sisters. I think the change will be really good over the long run, but it means we have to work a lot harder now in our areas because there aren't any Sisters in our ward. Also, us and the Zone Leaders have combined areas because we are in the same ward. Strange things are happening!

     The best change this last week and the greatest excitement this last week was that I am training!! The call came in last Tuesday night, and then I went to Taipei to meet him on Thursday! I am so excited! His name is Elder Dickson, and he is from Missouri. He is a little soft-spoken, but his Chinese is super awesome and he has a lot of great ideas for how we can make the work more effective. I am a little nervous about being a trainer, but certainly not more than I am grateful for this trust to help a new missionary get used to the missionary life and become a baptizing missionary! I've heard from everyone that being a trainer really changes your mission and teaches you so much, and I am so excited to learn everything I can from him during the next two transfers. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!

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I probably don't need a new camera sent because if I really do need one I can just buy one here. It works fine though, it is just something wrong with the cable. This last week was exciting because the laundry machine broke after I had already put it all in with bleach and detergent, so I just manually filled it up with water and hand scrubbed all my laundry!! Super fun!! We also plan on taking my trainee to eat pigs blood this week and maybe some stinky tofu, so wish him luck. The giardiia isn't actually too bad, it is mostly just funny. I am just burping all the time lately, which led me to talk to the mission nurse. We still aren't 100% sure what is even causing me to burp though, so we are exploring possibilities. The other Elders make fun of me every time I burp now though and say I have giardiaiaiiiaa. Sort of a running joke. So umm, quick question. Every time I have to wake up before 6 in the morning I get super bad headaches for the whole day and my stomach goes off on a wild rampage like a tornado in a cowpatch. Is there anything I can do to keep the cows on the ground? It would just be nice to wake up a half hour early every once in a while to get extra stuff done without killing myself for the rest of the day. Any tips would be great! I love you all so much! I hope you have such an awesome week!

Me at 七星潭 QiXingTan! It is an absolutely beautiful beach you should look up on Google Pictures. Also, bad news. My camera ran out of battery and for some reason the cable isn't working. So I can't charge my camera or get photos off it. What I have been doing is stealing other cameras and putting my SD card inside, but hopefully I will get my camera fixed by next week.

Small plant growing out of an old stump