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!