11/27/16
We had one of the best Preparation Days I have had so far on my mission last week. We decided to bike all the way to DanShui, and kind of do a repeat of a Preparation Day I had done when I was in training about a year ago. First, we biked to the SheZi bridge in Beitou, where we decided to take a small detour and go off on a BMX track that was out in the middle of nowhere. It was an absolute hoot, and after a few loops around the track, Elder Heaton and I couldn't resist doing a little bit of action photography. Though neither of us is anywhere close to professional at either biking or photography, we got some good results. Then we biked along the river on a small, quiet path (pretty much the farthest you can get from trains, cars, and apartment buildings in Taipei City) that wound through the mangrove trees all the way up to GuanDu. At GuanDu, we stopped to sightsee at a huge Buddhist temple that was in renovation when I had been there last year but was recently finished. After a nice break, we biked the rest of the way to DanShui wharf to make a total of about an hour-long bike ride. At DanShui we ate 'A-gei' (gluttonous rice noodles inside a ball of tofu and soaked in a weird sauce that I can't even begin to describe), foot-tall ice cream cones, Turkish ice cream (the ice cream scooper guy plays tricks on you), and then ate deep-fried squid while we had our feet bitten by fish. Yep. I can repeat that last bit: we ate deep-fried squid while we had our feet bitten by fish. I would highly recommend it, although it might be harder to find a squid joint or a 'fish bite toes' parlor in Utah. The first ten minutes took all of my willpower and soul to keep my feet in the water where the little tiny fish could nibble at the dead skin or whatever else is on your ankles or between your toes. It tickled SO bad! Sooooo much fun though!
We had one of the best Preparation Days I have had so far on my mission last week. We decided to bike all the way to DanShui, and kind of do a repeat of a Preparation Day I had done when I was in training about a year ago. First, we biked to the SheZi bridge in Beitou, where we decided to take a small detour and go off on a BMX track that was out in the middle of nowhere. It was an absolute hoot, and after a few loops around the track, Elder Heaton and I couldn't resist doing a little bit of action photography. Though neither of us is anywhere close to professional at either biking or photography, we got some good results. Then we biked along the river on a small, quiet path (pretty much the farthest you can get from trains, cars, and apartment buildings in Taipei City) that wound through the mangrove trees all the way up to GuanDu. At GuanDu, we stopped to sightsee at a huge Buddhist temple that was in renovation when I had been there last year but was recently finished. After a nice break, we biked the rest of the way to DanShui wharf to make a total of about an hour-long bike ride. At DanShui we ate 'A-gei' (gluttonous rice noodles inside a ball of tofu and soaked in a weird sauce that I can't even begin to describe), foot-tall ice cream cones, Turkish ice cream (the ice cream scooper guy plays tricks on you), and then ate deep-fried squid while we had our feet bitten by fish. Yep. I can repeat that last bit: we ate deep-fried squid while we had our feet bitten by fish. I would highly recommend it, although it might be harder to find a squid joint or a 'fish bite toes' parlor in Utah. The first ten minutes took all of my willpower and soul to keep my feet in the water where the little tiny fish could nibble at the dead skin or whatever else is on your ankles or between your toes. It tickled SO bad! Sooooo much fun though!
On the way home from DanShui, we saw an amazing miracle. We passed by a group of 14ish-year-olds on their bikes, and I heard a little bell ring in my mind. The little bell was an ancient, faraway memory that had been long forgotten, but seeing that group of 14ish-year-olds brought something up from the Mariana Trench of my memory: a 13-year-old boy I had taught last year in Beitou. It couldn't be though. A whole year? Plus we were about a 45 minute bike-ride from Beitou... I told my companion I felt like I recognized one of the boys, and eventually we decided to turn around and catch up to the group. We did, and when the boys looked back at the weird white-people yelling after them, I saw him. Zeng Yong Han. Instantly a whole flood of memories came back, and I was just in shock. By the look of his face, he was pretty shocked as well! Apparently he is still meeting with the missionaries in Beitou, and so I will be able to keep in touch! For 5 to 10 minutes after, I just could not stop smiling.
We saw a lot of other awesome miracles this week in TianMu too. The last one I want to share was with one of our investigating families--the Liang Family 梁家庭. Ms. Liang had been praying to know whether or not she should be baptized, and we had been praying in almost ever prayer that she would be able to recognize the answer that came. Then, during a lesson, she told us that one night she had had a dream where a person came up to her and just told her to read the Book of Mormon: "Just read the Book of Mormon, and it will make you happy." So she has. The peike (member that came to the lesson) then asked what she found when she read the Book of Mormon, and she said it just kept talking about baptism! We helped her understand that this was the answer to her prayers, and they came to church this last Sunday. They are an incredible family, so now we just have to help the husband to understand the answers to his prayers as well and then they will be ready to get baptized!! Super awesome!! I am so grateful for all the miracles we saw this last week and for the opportunity to be in Taiwan sharing the Gospel! Happy Thanksgiving!
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Little bit shorter today because of time. Last week was full of a ton of finding. We only have two really good investigators right now: Liang Family and the Zeng Family. The other TianMu Elders are in the same boat, so we came up with a solution: "Holy Shark Week". I honestly don't know where the name came from, but basically we are shortening our studies to just a half hour of personal study and a half hour of companion study, as well as not coming home until 10. Basically, we are adding 2 and a half hours of proselyting to every day this week so we can get more investigators. We are super excited, and it is going to be exhausting! Yeah!!
check out the length of the whiskers on this dragon. I don't know how well you can see them, but they are a good 5 feet or more long
found a little crab on the bikepath
fish bite toes and deep-fried squid
- Monday - pretty much all in the other email
- Tuesday - finding and visiting one-legged Li, a guy Elder Heaton's brother taught when he was on his mission here in Taiwan! How crazy is that? Both Elder Heaton and his brother got born in TianMu too!!
- Wednesday - finding and English class. Was drinking oat soup when I pulled something out that Elder Dong (Taiwanese Elder) identified as pig intestine. The translation the phone gave us was 'pig bowel'. Needless to say, my appetite went and hid in a cave even deeper than Gollum's cave. By the way, there is a Japanese International school in our area and a American International school. So we saw President Jergensen and his wife after they watched their sons' basketball game when we were eating pancakes for dinner at a very American restaurant. Also, Dad, if you have any Japanese phrases you could teach me I could totally use them here.
- Thursday - finding all day, and a Thanksgiving dinner up on the mountain at the incredibly fancy home of an English Ward member.
- Friday - finding
- Saturday - finding, fanged twice
- Sunday - attended two church meetings, then finding
p.s. the spacebar is working again
check out the length of the whiskers on this dragon. I don't know how well you can see them, but they are a good 5 feet or more long
found a little crab on the bikepath
fish bite toes and deep-fried squid
Thanksgiving dinner
fun picture of pencils (me messing with the blurry background and my new camera! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!)
a super weird restaurant thing that creeped us out
puttingsnowflakesonmembersdoor
afunnybush.
the 'pig bowel' soup I was talking about
a puzzle thing in our chapel that had me in stitches ("rich heavenly daddy game series")
Buddhist temple by our house (we exercise by running up those stairs and playing ping pong with old people at the top, they smoke us every single time)
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