Buzzers and Eternity

    1/26/17 

     Well, honestly, not a lot to talk about. Because we had temple day (and preparation day) on Wednesday last week, this email is only covering about four days--one of which was interviews with President Jergensen and the rest of which were spent finding. We didn't meet with a lot of investigators last week because.... (drum roll).... Guo Nian 過年. It starts this coming Friday. For those unfamiliar with Guo Nian, I'll give a quick background.

     The story starts with an ancient Chinese tradition about a huge monster that would come every year around the same time and eat a bunch of people. To ward off the monster, the people would light off firecrackers, hang red paper on the sides of their doors (the monster hates red [remember the passover?]), and just in general make lots of noise. Because you didn't know how long you would live through the week, everyone would get together to eat tons of food (don't know what meal will be your last) and say "Congratulations" on the street (you made it thus far, will you survive the rest of the week?). In short, it means we have about 20 members feeding us food in the next two weeks and transportation systems are slammed with people.

    You know those buzzers at restaurants that light up and tell you your food is ready? I forget how to say it in English, but now I know it in Chinese. 統一編號. "Connect into one serial number". Well, I think it means that buzzer thing...........

     This last week, I have tried to follow the advice of Elder Uchtdorf from last conference and "ponder the gravity of eternity". As I did so, I came across some awesome insights. One of them goes something like this: Imagine the food you absolutely love and haven't eaten in over a year and a half. Now imagine going up to the Crispy Creme counter, and the lady says if you pay $5 she will give you one a day for the rest of your life. Would you do it? Oh ya!! Now, instead of $5 she asks you to change someones flat tire in the parking lot and then she will give you a donut each day for the rest of your life. See where I'm going with this? Now instead of a high-school dropout donut lady, our Heavenly Father is standing behind the counter. He says that He will give you the happiness of eating a donut multiplied by infinity every day for an eternity. "All that he requires of you is to keep his commandments" (Mosiah 2:22) during this short time we have on the earth. Wow. But He throws in a special offer--if we keep His commandments, we will prosper in the land, we will have freedom from sin and guilt, and we will be happy every day. If only it was that easy to tell our investigators... Oh well! Have a great week!

Elder Barton goes home in about 18 days, and despite his best efforts he still falls asleep during daily planning every now and then and his companion is too shy to wake him up. His companion is Elder Olsen from Viewmont!!! Have I told you about him? Very interesting Elder. He is shy to the point of not being able to order food at a restaurant in Junior High and never talks above a loud whisper and guess what his interest is?? Learning languages. He has dabbled in 20 something languages and knows probably twice as many Chinese characters as I do--only three transfers into his mission. Crazy!!

Dan Jones/Sunrise/Cancer

1/23/17

     Elder Triplett and I decided we wanted to shake up the "ride in big circles around our area on the main streets and talk to anything that moves" finding method, so we took a lesson from Dan Jones. I don't know if you are familiar with him or not, but if you look at the first few pages of the "My Purpose" section of Preach My Gospel, you will know what we are talking about. After Preparation Day ended, we strapped a bucket to the back of my bike and headed for the nearest MRT station. Once we got there, we found a super crowded street corner, set down the bucket, grabbed a Book of Mormon, and went to work! Well, it turns out there isn't anyone in Tian Mu willing to listen to a pair of white punks in ties taking turns standing on a bucket and yelling about Christ in broken Chinese. Frankly, I can understand why. It did accomplish the purpose we had intended though, because the 10 minutes of shouting our testimonies gave us a unique fire for the rest of the night.

     This morning we woke up early to drive to the top of the mountains in our area and watch the sunrise. We got to the top, but it was covered in fog and clouds, so we couldn't see a thing. We were so disappointed, but then we felt a slight breeze pickup that blew the clouds off to the side and revealed the whole sweeping city lights of Taipei. It was gorgeous. It was one of those beautiful once-in-a-lifetime experiences that you just can't ever forget.

     The last awesome highlight was just yesterday morning. On Monday (Preparation Day was on Wednesday this week because we went to the temple), we were out finding when a mother came up to us and asked us if we could visit her daughter in the hospital. She told us that her daughter loved talking with people and making friends, but had gotten sick with cancer two years back and has been in and out of the hospital ever since. She asked us if we could go visit her because she new her daughter would just love talking to two Americans in English, so yesterday after studies we headed up to the hospital. After navigating the busy hospital to the 19th floor, we finally found her room. As we all know, hospital rooms are ironically not very 'hospitable', and government-sponsored-healthcare Taiwan is no different. She was hooked up to an IV and had lots of discolored splotches all over her skin, but she was so happy to see us. We talked about lots of things, and as she swallowed over 15 different medications she told us about how bad she wanted to go home and do scouting again. Honestly we didn't do anything more than just talk with her, but the feeling I had when I left was indescribable. 服務是快樂之本. Service really is the foundation of happiness. I love you all, and I hope you all have a great week!

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Mom-

Sorry, I'm really tired so I probably won't write much more than some cool spots if you end up coming to visit. English is harder than Chinese when you have a headache!! Honestly, I haven't thought much about the release date. Life is like jogging: if you look straight up you will eventually trip on something and if you look at your toes you will most certainly slam into something. The best thing to do is run with your eyes focused 15 yards or so ahead of you, and closer if it's dark or the path is rough. So, the date hasn't sunk in yet. That being said, I can mention some must-see places (from my point of view) from which you can pick and choose and ask questions and all that stuff: DanShui Wharf, ShiLin night market, Chang KaiShek Memorial Hall, Taipei 101, National Palace Museum, Beitou Hot Springs, YangMing Shan national park (hike to QiXing ZhuFeng or sunrise where we went this morning), PingXi, Nanya Rocks in KeeLung, Taroko Gorge in Hualien, QiXing beach in Hualien, hiking up the river in GuangFu or Mugumuyu. I have never been to Taidong, but there are some really cool natural landscapes there. For absolutely incredible food, cultural sites, and relics, I've heard the place to go is TaiNan. As for the West Coast, much of it probably doesn't interest me unless you find something really cool. A lot of it is big smoggy city (which you will get plenty of in Taipei). There are members and others we could go and visit in Beitou, ZhuBei, and Hualien. There is a bullet train down the west coast of Taiwan, but it is expensive. I've heard the drive down to Hualien and Taidong is incredible, although driving in Taiwan is a terrifying experience and would probably be best to be avoided if possible.

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my camera fell into a crevice at the elephant rock place, so Elder Triplett descended into the crevice of despair to go and get it! At first attempt, it was too far away to reach. He ended up going further down the crevice, underneath an overhang, and then finally reaching in to retrieve the camera! Wahoo!! So crazy!!!

unfortunate spelling

more unfortunate spelling

more papercutting I gave to a member because they took us to see the sunrise and gave us some really cool paintings

Streetlight and Contrast

1/8/17

    Well, two awesome stories from this last week. The first was yesterday when Elder Triplett and I were biking home from church. There is this one streetlight near our house that doesn't change for a long time, so missing it is a super bummer. As we were approaching the intersection, we noticed that there was only 7 or 8 seconds left on the walk sign. Not wanting to miss the light, I yelled to my companion, "Full speed ahead!" We made it through the intersection before it even turned yellow, so then I yelled, "That streetlight isn't eating us for breakfast!!" Then a few seconds later: "Because it's Fast Sunday!!" Boom!! Triple pun!!! One, because it was actually Fast Sunday; two, because the streetlight wasn't eating us for breakfast; three, because we had just biked faster than the speed of sound.

    The other story is a little more substantive. It was a long day of finding on Saturday night, and nothing super interesting had happened. Elder Triplett started contacting this man walking down the sidewalk, and didn't understand what he was saying. I caught up, and then the man asked me, "Do you believe the members of the Godhead are the same being (你們相信三位一體嗎？)?" Naturally, I replied, "No, we believe they are three separate individual beings (我們相信三位三體)." The most grotesque look I have ever seen came across his face as he started yelling, "Get behind me Satan! Stop talking! Careful, Christ will strike you down! In the name of the Chinese government I command you to get away from me!!" Somewhere in the middle of that I tried to stammer out something about the way Jesus taught us to treat others but I was mostly just shocked. Who would've thought that such a small difference in doctrine would lead to such a deep and aggressive hatred of someone you had never met before. 

    The best part of this story is what happened next: we met a quiet, shy, 16-year-old boy who had met missionaries a year or so and had been reading the Book of Mormon ever since. Due to family opposition, however, he hadn't been able to continue to meet with missionaries or go to church. What a stark contrast! One older and one younger, one loud and quiet, one searching intently for peace and happiness while the other fumes and sputters down his narrow train track of stubbornness. Setting aside whose religion is true and whose is false and regardless of whether they accept or reject or message--someone learned something from us while the other didn't. There are many lessons to be learned from such an interesting contrast, but I want to be humble enough to learn from everyone: even those I disagree with. I love you guys, and I hope you have a great week!

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The Hot Topic:

Monday-- went to a Family Home Evening with the ward. Was supposed to have a lot of investigators and potentials there but ended up not having any... super bummer. I've started this cool thing lately where every morning I wake up, do 30 pushups, and set 3 goals that I will complete no matter what throughout the day. Learned how to say 'don't torture me' in Taiwanese. 

Tuesday-- zone meeting. We watched a two-hour broadcast that we had watched last January because most of the new missionaries haven't seen it. A little boring, but I still got some cool stuff out of it. Did the baptismal interview in the morning, and it went great. Went finding in the nighttime and nothing special happened. 

Wednesday-- went to visit the 1st councilor in the bishopric. His wife went off on a couple things and it ended up being a lot longer than we had hoped. English class at nighttime went really well, especially considering the fact that we had forgotten to plan anything for it...... I broke some robots during the day too. I call them robots. It is the people that work at restaurants or otherwise, and are so in to their job that everything they say is emotionless and they are just zoned out. To break robots, I say something completely out of context so that they laugh, smile, or at least come out of the robot zone for a few seconds and then go back until they get off work. It is actually really fun.

Thursday-- went on exchanges with the zone leaders, both of which I have been companions with before. Elder Stevenson and Elder James. I went with Elder James, and it was mostly a bunch of finding. We did, however, find an investigator that we thought lived in their area, but ended up living in our area and set a baptismal date!!! Super cool!!! At night met with the Deng Family, a financially unstable family of a mom and her two girls. Their father passed away a few years ago (did I mention this last week?), and so the daughter skipped college to make more money for the family. We met her, and now we are trying to share with the whole family. Shared the plan of salvation with her, but honestly she didn't act like it was that important to her.

Friday-- finished exchanges and did weekly planning, did a bunch of finding in the night time. Stopped by the Liang Family and said Hi at the door because they have been sick this last week so we haven't been able to meet with them (that's the family struggling with tea). 

Saturday-- baptism in the morning, did a temple tour with Sister Zeng and her little daughter Ken Ying, went home and did finding until we met with Lu Xiao An. He is a Jehovah's Witness that got in a car accident a few years ago, so half of his body is paralyzed and he has to wear a band around his head because he could faint at any time. In a coma for several months. Doctors didn't think he was going to make it through. He loves to talk and talked our ear off, but also listened to the Restoration. Super cool guy. Set a baptismal date, although we will have to see how much of what we said actually sunk in and whether or not he actually has interest. In the night we met with Jimmy (the guy who did a working holiday in Australia). Went pretty well, and we made it pretty clear that we wanted him to pray and see if it was true (surprisingly one of the biggest struggles of missionary work in Taiwan).

Sunday--church, ward council, updated records, and then went finding after dinner. Finding Sunday night was pretty rough, and we didn't see much success.

New Companion, New Year

1/1/17 
    
 Super disappointing we didn't get to email you yesterday, because if we had we would have emailed you from 2017 while you were all still in 2016. But alas, here we are--both in the new year. At least I have a 14ish hour head start. Anyways, 2017 is here and I have officially already messed up on the headings on my journal entries! I do feel like the start of a new year is always filled with hope and new starts, even if it means you have to be woken up at midnight by the sound of millions of fireworks. Only a 20 minute drive from where we sleep is Taipei 101, the 5th tallest building in the world, where every year they launch fireworks off the side in a spectacular new years celebration.... No, we didn't. We slept.

     My new companion is Elder Triplett! He is from Layton, Utah and has been out on a mission for about 6 months. He is a little more softspoken and awkward than most, but works hard at missionary work and loves the people. The whole dynamic of our apartment of four Elders has changed, and it has been super funny. The other new Elder that came in to be Elder Barton's (who goes home next transfer) companion is none other than Elder Olsen from Farmington, Utah!! He went to Viewmont! I couldn't even believe it! I had no idea who he was. I mean, he was a year younger than me in High School and (even more than Elder Triplett) quiet, but I never got to know him! Well, either way, we ended up with one outgoing-about-to-go-home Elder, me, a quiet-awkward-loving-1/3-mission Elder, and even-more-quiet-just-out-of-training Elder.

     Reading in True to the Faith about the sacrament, I came across something interesting. I'm fairly sure we all know that the bread represents Christ's body and the water represents His blood, but what I didn't know that True to the Faith suggested doing was remember His physical suffering while partaking of the bread, and His spiritual suffering during the water. Maybe that is just common knowledge, but I think it was interesting to separate the sacrament and remember both His physical suffering and conquer of death as well as His spiritual suffering and conquer of sin. How grateful I am for both, and the sacrament really took on meaning this last week as I tried to prepare myself spiritually. Happy New Years! I love you guys!!

completely rearranging the apartment

a ladybug landed on me while I was biking!!!

check out this absolutely sick Porche I saw

a cool Asian furniture set that is worth more money than that porche I sent you a picture of (ok, maybe not that expensive... but super expensive

us eating a 'fancy' dinner at our makeshift dinner table

new companion and I

ah, the food labels of Taiwan........... (shelf life)

a photo Elder Stevenson sneaked of me during english meeting

 I got to help baptize someone this last week!!! Here name is Sister Xie, and she is the Sisters investigator. I did her baptismal interview earlier this week, and because she didn't know any of the Elders or even any Priesthood holding members from the ward, she asked me to help baptize her. She is super super prepared, and although the water was freezing it all went really well

look how sad these people are here at the internet cafe at 7 in the morning sleeping

 next to their League of Legends

Efforts to keep the mosquitoes out of our bedroom at night. It just so happens that there is no possible way to fit all four of our mattresses in our bedroom and shut the door, so we were getting bit by mosquitoes every night. So, with a few box-springs, mattresses, and a pinch of pixie-dust (boy-scout creativity) we put this together. We slept in it one night before we discovered it was much too hot and stuffy to leave the door closed. Solution? Screen doors stacked up against the door....... but the fort was just way to cool to take down. 

check out this parking job underneath a bridge. That, my friend, is a very brave soul who knows (to the inch!!!) how tall his car is. Either that, or he had to let some air out of his tires for this parking feat.

very cool hike in NeiHu​​​​​​​​​​

the hike was absolutely packed!! I may or may not have played the recorder I just bought all the way up the hike