Elder Hot

2/26/17

    I've forgotten if I have mentioned this before or not, but because it has come up again several times this past week I'll mention it again. For whatever reason, Taiwanese people can't pronounce my last name. The ones with an English background can usually get it after a few tries, but most just struggle. Elder Hax? Hot? (Yep, yep, that one!) Harks? Hawkeese? Ohhhh, Hawkes! I honestly feel bad for them, my name is one of the easier ones among missionaries: Elder Reintjes, Elder Jorgenson, Sister Hickenlooper....

    Investigators:

-  王俊賢 Brother Wang: getting baptized next Saturday!! He is super awesome. Before he met missionaries he always felt so much stress, didn't sleep well, and had bad friends. Since then we have invited him to exercise more, fix his sleep schedule, keep the word of wisdom and the other commandments. He tells us how he feels the gospel has really shaped his life up and set him on a good path. Reads the Book of Mormon daily. Does online business from home selling kitchen knives (the expensive kind). Teaches knife sharpening on the side.

-  樊書豪＆樊書偉（飯糰）Fan Twins: two brothers, 19 years old, super cool. Shu Hao is a little more shy and when he speaks it isn't anything more that a whisper. Has some sort of mental incapability, but super cool personality and comes to church more than his brother. Shu Wei loves magic and is going to an International Magic Convention next Sunday instead of church(...). Actually really good at it. We have to reschedule their date, but they are getting close to baptism!

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     This last week, I went through my old journal to look for some experiences that I could write down in my lesson plan binder to share with investigators in lessons. I honestly was pretty amazed at all the cool experiences I found that I had completely forgotten. It made me extremely grateful for my pre-mission journal writing. As I looked back, I came across an experience that has become a big part of my testimony. One night in High School, I had prayed to ask Heavenly Father if He was really there, and if He loved me. The response was a feeling that I cannot describe, but neither can I forget. He was there, He loved me. He is there, and He loves me. Reading back, however, lead me to understand that that incredible experience was in response to something I had forgotten about: repentance. That experience had come in response to an attempt to repent, or draw closer to Him.

     A few weeks ago I heard of a quote from Elder Bednar that runs something like this: "Revelation is related to proximity, the closer you are to someone the easier it is to receive revelation for them." I think that is true for our Heavenly Father too. The closer we are to Him, the more likely we are to receive revelation. In other words, waiting for a response from our Father in Heaven until we act may not always be the best solution. When we first take the step closer to God, He is just waiting there to receive us. I love you guys! Have a happy, awesome week!

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 I am now a zone leader. TuCheng is in the West of Taipei, and has quite a few people. We live right by a MRT station, so it is really convienent to get around places. It is super cool because the minute we walk out our door we can just start finding! Goals getting down to the end of my mission.... well..... it's a good question. I'm not sure I have any specific goals yet, but I have established a vision that I am constantly working towards. I have set three 'visions' I hope to say at the end of my mission: I have been born again through the Atonement of Christ, I have the image of Christ in my countenance, and I live and love life in the moment. In line with those three visions I usually set weekly goals and plans, but lately I haven't done the best at setting new goals every week. The mission has tried to change the focus of our studies to be focused on investigators and now our studies are all throughout the day and at different locations, so I am still adjusting and finding time to stay organized with all my goals and tasks and stuff. I have another MLC this week, which is where all the zone leaders and sister training leaders and the mission president and his wife and the assistants all have a meeting and discuss the needs of the mission. It is a pretty cool meeting, and I'm super excited. This will be my second. Also, sorry I am so bad at responding to the letters and emails you guys send me every week. I read them religiously and absolutely love them, but time is just short on the computer and so I just try to throw out a few funny stories, pictures, and spiritual thoughts from the week and then that is pretty much it. If you would like me to respond specifically more often, I love having just the questions in an email like this that I can just look at the questions and type the answers at the same time. It's probably the best way to get a response from me. Otherwise, I absolutely love reading your letters, so just keep sending them and know that I read them!

Baptism, Conversion, and Church

2/19/17

 Such a lot of cool stuff this last week! The coolest was a baptism!! His name is 李俊毅 (literally translated: 'luggage handsome willpower'). He had already passed his baptismal interview when I moved into the area, but I got to teach him a few times and he is super cool! His girlfriend is a member in SongShan, and referred him to the missionaries a long time ago. He met with missionaries for a while but didn't have that much interest, so ended up coming to church for almost a year with his girlfriend without meeting with missionaries. Eventually the members in SongShan realized, "Hey wait, this guy isn't baptized yet!" and referred him to TuCheng where he met with missionaries, had a ton of interest, and got baptized! Super cool!!

    There was another awesome miracle I had on exchanges with Elder Bell from our zone. We found this awesome lady on the street and her 6-year-old daughter from mainland China that have been in Taiwan for a few years. She set up to come to church, and then she actually came! A member welcomed her and sat with her during sacrament meeting, then took her daughter to Primary, then came with her to the rest of  church, then introduced her to the Relief Society President, then went with her and several other Sisters in the ward to a Sister Linda K. Burton fireside in Taipei. It was so awesome! There was one point when the member asked, "Don't you missionaries have to sit by her?" and we just looked at each other and replied, "No! You just keep doing exactly what you're doing!" That is what missionaries like to see! Think about what you would like to get out of going to church, then ask yourself: "Am I providing that same opportunity for others that come to church?"

    Elder Facer and I stayed up pretty late last night talking about a pretty interesting topic. Throughout our missions we have sort of noticed that behaviors can't outdo our conversion. In other words, trying to focus on an endless list of extra little things to do to make you a better person just leaves a sort of empty an, to some extent, fake impression on others. I'm sure we all have felt that before: "Wow, that was a really nice thing they did for me, but I kind of wonder whether they actually meant it..." Not to say in any way that they aren't a great person, I would just suggest their behaviors outdo their conversion. First, feel that change of heart that comes from experiencing the atonement and other principles of the gospel. Then, change your behaviors to match your conversion. We have a lot to learn from others and the things they do, but I think it's important to change your heart first. Love you guys! Have a great week!

guy playing an er hu on top of the mountain. So cool!!

went on a big hike. The flowers were all blossoming and the forest was just alive. 

So beautiful! Toooooooo many pictures...

this is their first time eating string cheese. Oh the look on their faces is priceless. They just look like little monkeys so lost as to what this weird cheese thing you peel is. They were enamored for so long as they ate it!! I'm sure we look the same way to them when we pull a chunk of duck blood out of our hot pot....

 Elder Cooper and I on exchanges got sugar canes. You just bite off a huge chunk and chew on it for a minute or so, absorbing the sugar juice and then spitting out the bark onto the road. So weird. Really tasty.

"SWEETNESS BEAN BIBATION" Funny poster. 

Don't know what they were trying to get at....

Transfers and TuCheng

2/12/17

   Transfers have come and gone, and I've walked into my cemetery! I moved over to TuCheng in the Taipei West Zone, where I will probably be for the remaining three transfers of my mission. The best part: I'm with my MTC companion Elder Facer! When I got the paper telling me where I was moving, I was so shocked to see his name at the top! While I'm super sad to leave all my amazing investigators and all the incredible members in TianMu, I am so excited to be here in TuCheng! The members I've met so far here are really awesome, and so are the investigators.

    This week's email will be a little short because this last week was mostly just crazy busy with transfers and everything, but I did have some interesting thoughts when I moved this last week. On Wednesday night right after English class, I left the chapel for what is mostly likely the last time. We had just said goodbye to some English class friends as well as some members that had come to say goodbye. It was sad! Over the short 12 weeks I had spent there, I had really gotten to know all the people there, and I loved them. The thought of probably not seeing them ever again and new missionaries coming in and replacing me like I had never left didn't sit well. But as I was biking away, I was comforted by the hope of eternal life--those relationships we form in this life can continue into the next. Someday, in heaven, I can just sit back and talk with those people about how the rest of their lives went, what kind of people they became, and remember the fun experiences we had together. How cool is that! I'm so grateful for the gospel and for the differences it makes in the relationships I have with everyone I come into contact with. Have a great week! Love you guys!

 These are two of my favorite parts of the new apartment. The massage chair and this crazy instrument. I've taken to writing in my journal while I massage my feet. Good. I have all the settings figured out already. I am already making schemes to tune the instrument thing and get it sent back to the States, but I have no idea how. Some missionary before left it in our apartment, so it is totally up for grabs. Mostly just sits there and collects dust. BTW, if you want to visit people if you come to pick me up, I have a recent convert in TaiZhong as well as a family that would be willing to let us stay with them for a night or something like that. TianMu and Beitou have lots of fun members to go visit too.

Do you like this fat carp? 

can you see the lanterns? They light off lanterns from the railroad tracks in Pingxi, and they absolutely litter the mountains. It has got to be absolutely horrible for the environment.

Also look for pictures of ShiFen waterfall on google. I couldn't take pictures because again my battery was out. It's ok though because I got other people to take pictures. The train ride back was absolutely packed. Similar to the Japanese with the white gloves shoving people onto trains. Stood like that for half an hour

these are the trails up to XiaoZiShan 孝子山. My battery died on top!!!! So horrible! Such a cool trail though. You should google pictures of it

PingXi Old Street. Really cool. This is a lady that works at a sausage place and took a picture with some random people from hong kong and then wrote in Chinese "these people came from hong kong just to eat my sausages!!!" Too funny. There are two sausage grilling stands in the little village, parked right across from each other. It has grown into a huge competition, and as we stood in one of the two long lines leading to each of the sausage stands, they would yell insults at each other across the narrow street: "Our sausages are the best in Taiwan! They are way better than their sausages!!" "Liar!! They are lying!! Our sausages are the best!!!" "Come and eat our sausages and then you can see whose taste better!!!" I think that last bit was beneficial for both sausage stands, but it was super interesting to see the absolute hatred that had developed over the years of being right across the road from each other. It was clear that day after day, week after week, year after year, these two sausage stands would yell insults at each other across the heads of tourists upon tourists. How it started I don't think anyone knows, but can you imagine that being your job?? Every day you go to work, and you work hard all day long and all the while you yell insults at the workers across the street. What a life!

Reese Witherspoon and Prayer

2/5/17

   What a fun week! This week was the end of the Chinese New Year, so we didn't meet with any investigators the first part of the week and then were able to meet with a lot of investigators at the end. The end of the week was great for finding because everyone was pretty much done with celebrating but still hadn't gone back to work yet, so we went ham and found some super cool people to start meeting with!

    So, the story begins like this: during a week-long scout camp many, many moons ago, a counselor for the kayaking class decided I looked like Bella from the Twilight series. For the rest of the week, I got called Bella. I told this to some members in my first area, and they thought it was so funny. When they pulled up a picture for comparison, however, they all stopped laughing. "Wow, he really does look like Bella..." Last week, I made the mistake of telling the members here both of the stories, and now everyone thinks I look like Bella. Maybe Asians just think white people all look the same, but there are actually quite a few other actors people here in Taiwan have said I look like. The best so far is probably that someone said that I look like the one and only (you guessed it) Reese Witherspoon. Well, at least it's not as bad as my companion getting called Mr. Bean by everyone we talk to....

    This last week I was reading about prayer in True to the Faith, and came across the section "When you make a request through prayer, do all you can to assist in its being granted." Missionaries say millions of prayers, so sometimes I struggle to make every single one a meaningful and unique yearning of the heart. While reading this section, an interesting thought came across my mind--when you ask for any blessing, commit to some form of action. That seems simple enough, and it goes something like this: "Please bless this food" becomes "As I strive to better strengthen and protect my body by eating healthier foods and exercising better, please bless this food to give me energy to go about my work." Not long after that prayer, I had a prompting to drink more water. My prayers have been a lot better trying to apply this principle, and I don't find myself just robotically ordering blessings on Amazon.com.

    Also interesting how I can now apply this to my investigators: "Sixde 黃子晏, will you ask Heavenly Father if this is true?" becomes "Sixde 黃子晏, as you diligently seek and ponder the scriptures and the things we share, will you ask Heavenly Father if this is true?" I think applying this principle will really help some of our investigators right now, and I'm excited to see them continue to progress towards baptism!! Love you guys!

 another paper thing I did for the Liang Family

 rag after I used it to clean the walls in our apartment. Our mission had a deep cleaning day on the start of GuoNian because proselyting outside wasn't really effective.

night view of the grand hotel and Taipei 101

went biking at the dirt track park again, my companion fell over right at the beginning, but I think in the end he thought it was fun

check out the sand being blown in the wind. The picture doesn't show it the best....

went to a freezing beach on the tip of danshui, I loved it but my companion didn't

really old forts in danshui

 sunset pictures on a bikeride home from Danshui, beautiful!!

sara house or I think they just put the space in the wrong place and it is actually "sarah ouse". I'm pretty sure it's some French place, but I don't know what ouse is...

 yes I saw a mclaren

yes there are leaves changing color and falling to the ground (what??????)

we have this awesome fountain by our house