Church and Fenglin

6/5/16

 Transfers happen pretty fast in our mission. I found out Wednesday morning that I was moving, and the next evening I was teaching a lesson clear across the island. Yep, I moved to 花蓮(Hualien)! Hualien is known for being one of the most beautiful places on the island (I definitely believe it) and for having some of the best areas. Not only that, but I have one of the best missionaries as my companion: Elder Jensen. Funny enough, he is my trainer's trainer (or my grandpa in missionary terms) and he is on his last transfer. He really is known throughout the whole mission as being on of the most loving and successful missionaries. I believe it. He asks everyone what their favorite part of the day was at night and picks up trash as we walk down the streets finding. Not only that, but I get to be in a 4-man apartment with the Zone Leaders Elder Humphries (my previous companion!) and Elder Miner. Basically I am just extremely excited for this next transfer.

     Probably the best part of the week was attending the first meeting of a branch in 豐林(Fenglin)! It was so cool. We had about 14 people meet in the bishops house out in the middle of nowhere, and had a sacrament meeting and then shared our testimonies. Apparently starting this branch has been a big goal of Elder Jensen's, and it was a big step towards working to split the HuaLien stake. Though it was small, the Spirit was there. It made me think of how when Joseph Smith held the first sacrament meeting. No one in that small room could have imagined the many chapels dotting the entire world in our day. It was just a great reminder to me of how the Lord works through small and simple means to bring to pass His eternal and great purposes. Hope you all have a great week! Love you!

there is a branch in Yuli to our south with a few missionaries, and then a zone in Taidong, but yep that is pretty much it. I am definitely east coast

I have so many stinking more pictures, but I think I sent enough to get a taste of what it is like. It is so much more beautiful in person. The slopes are so dramatic and always covered in mist and fog. It is so incredible. Oh! Fun weather phenomenon for Dad, in Hualien it rains every night. The clouds build off of the ocean and then are blown inland. Then they run into the huge mountains right along the coast and continue to build and build until they just dump all their water and move over the mountains. You can literally watch the clouds build up throughout the day and get darker until it starts pouring. It doesn't matter too much though, because by the end of the day we are already soaked in sweat. It is so hot here. Our pants have these white lines all over them from guess what? Salt from sweat. crazy.

the underwater camera works!!!!

just so many things to take pictures of in Hualien!

 moquito bites (I have gotten more since then), my new zone, a place called guangrong

Devil Mosquitoes and Baptism

6/12/16

 Baptism! We had our investigator named 蔡亞芝 (Cai Ya Zhi) be baptized and confirmed this last weekend! She is so awesome. She has such a sweet heart and is so humble. She changed a lot before her baptism. Before the missionaries met with her, she said she believed in Satan's church and was having gender problems. She said everything was just kind of dark and she felt confused. Now, she feels like she knows God and Jesus a lot better and she just feels happy. It is so amazing as a missionary to be able to witness the change that someone goes through when they really take the Gospel and apply it in their lives.

     Other Investigators: Kay is a sort of 'hip' girl that has been super willing to meet with us missionaries. She accepted the Word of Wisdom like a piece of cake, and is totally willing to read and pray every day. Wang Jia Ting is this funny family that goes to several different churches, so they won't come to our church but love to meet with us. We are still working on that one.

     Devil Mosquitoes: There is a special type of mosquito here in Hualien called a 小黑蚊 (xiao hei wen or "little-black-mosquito"). I think 'little-devil-mosquito' is a more apt description though. I hate them. My whole arms and legs are itching right now. The bites don't go away. My arms are literally covered in red dots that have a sort of constant, burning itch until you scratch it (accidentally or not) and it becomes extremely painful. All insects here are crazy, but the mosquitoes are the worst.

     Studies: my studies this last week have been focused a lot on prayer. Both the Bible Dictionary and True to the Faith have awesome insights about prayer. Focusing on our relationship with Heavenly Father is key. The Bible Dictionary says that 'most so-called problems with prayer' come from forgetting the fact that we are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and that prayer is a communication with Him. A few other tips I found for prayer include specifically offering a kneeling prayer several times a day, making a special effort to vocalize prayer when possible, and leaving some time at the end of your prayer to hear any impressions or answers to questions from Heavenly Father. I love prayer, and I hope you all know you are in my prayers. I love you all!

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Sorry, you aren't sending the usual picture captions to everyone right? The big email and the big email only are meant for everyone else. The little captions and other stuff are all just meant for you guys. I will try to be better about sending more information and 'letting my hair down' (mom you do realize I'm almost a 20 yr old boy right? ;) I don't have much hair and the hair I do have won't go into a bun even if I tried) in another email.

You can see the ocean from our apartment, and on the other side you can see incredibly tall mountains. The mountains on the coast of Hualian are extremely dramatic. Look up some pictures of Turtle Island, the coastline, and Taroko Gorge to see a little bit of what I get to see every day down here. Absolutely beautiful. The train ride down was epic--dipping into deep mountain tunnels and then emerging along the rocky coastline covered in fog or into sharp valleys of the most lush greens. Incredible. There is also a baseball diamond behind our house.

It definitely is the 'Promised Land'

My companion Elder Jensen and the chapel, other cool stuff

Awesome wood carver shop we stopped by

beautiful sunset the night before I took the 4 hour train down to Hualien

the green rice paddies that have grown as I have grown in XinFeng. Lot of pictures today!!

Saying a very hard goodbye: Emma and Joe

 the Tepanyaki crew (the girl is Hana, the one that became an awesome investigator and might go to jail next month)

Brother Zhuo (the less active we brought back and he baptized Joe).

Know/Do/Poison

5/22/16

Let us put some organization in this letter.

     Taiwan Stuff -- Sorry I have been bad in this category. The mosquitoes here are vicious beyond comprehension. That is not the reason I have been bad in this category, but it is the reason why my whole arm itches. We made some phone calls outside yesterday (bad idea) and got eaten alive. Not only that, it was raining! The mosquitoes could care less about the rain. Also, I realized that a snake I ran into a few months ago in Beitou is one of Taiwan's most poisonous snakes. We also got warned by a 5th grader to watch out for snakes hanging from trees. Oh! And doorbells here aren't the normal 'ding-dong' of America, but rather this tweeting bird thing that I can't explain.

     Investigator update  --  Eric 何信全 is pretty cool, but he is afraid he won't be able to get baptized because his parents won't let him. I mean, he is in his late 20s, but Taiwanese parents are pretty protective. Hana 陳怡君 has to go to court again at the end of July, but she is still working with us to get over her addictions so she could use a prayer or two. Nick 廖帥哥 is scheduled to be baptized on June 18th, but didn't come to church last Sunday. Bummer! Those three are our best investigators right now, but we have a lot of other awesome people we are meeting with as well!

     

    Spiritual Thought  --  I've been studying this last week about the whole knowing and doing process. Especially in the church, there are a lot of times where we need to just do without knowing (1 Nephi 3:7 kinda thing). That being said, there is a really good argument for knowing before doing (1 John 7:17 kinda thing). So, we have this interesting tension between knowing and doing. President Jergensen described it as a little bit like a slinky being held vertically. 12 o'clock is knowing, and 6 o'clock is doing, so you just have to continue up the slinky going through a process of understanding and action. I would just like to add a quick analogy that really helped me understand this process a little better. The way I see it, knowing and doing is like two friends walking along two parallel paths in a wooded forest. Because of the density of the trees, only every once in a while do the two come into correspondence. The important thing is to keep walking. Sometimes our name is Knowing, and other times our name is Doing, but I believe that when we can't see our other friend, we shouldn't panic. We just have to have a little faith and keep walking with the knowledge that if we do, we will eventually both know AND do the things the Lord asks of us. Sorry that was a little long, but I hope we all can understand that a little faith goes a long way. I love you all!

Pictures from the roof of our apartment. I seriously took like 5 or 6 photos that all looked ridiculous because it was super windy and super bright and so my tie was flying everywhere and my eyes were all squinty, and so this was the last photo after I just got sick of it.

Yes. I got cereal. So happy. So mad we couldn't find Honey Bunches of Oats (they sold out like a week before I got there) but the sacrifice of waking up at 5 to go to a special store for cereal was worth it.

Super cool beach! The whole zone went and played frisbee and football, and then as we were about to leave a huge storm came in and it was so pretty. We got soaked. There was this fishing guy fighting the waves, and I wish I could've gotten a better picture. There was something so poetic but I couldn't capture it. Sorry dad.

I couldn't resist the first picture. The chinese makes it even better: 
"Jojo makes everything look more beautiful." 

Check out the size of that butterfly. You see ones that big all the time!!! 

Skywalker and Bleached Hair

5/29/16

Be very, very, very, jealous of this beautiful mango and what is called a zhong zi. It is a triangular rice thing with meat, beans, and nuts that has been cooked in this weird leaf. Not sure how to describe it, but lets just say THIS meal was amazing

Culture Stuff: we were given what is supposed to be the best mangoes in Taiwan. I wholeheartedly believe them. We were carrying them around the church bragging and all the members were freaking out and telling us that we had the fruit from heaven. I think I could retire to an island infested with mangoes forever, just please leave out the 8-inch centipedes, poisonous snakes, foot-long spiders, mold, mutant cockroaches, bright red wasps the size of USBs, and rats. All of which I have come into close contact with.

 

    

    So Shuai: shuai kind of means handsome? More like a wow-that-is-so-epically-awesome kind of meaning, although you can apply it to people. Anyways, check out the attached picture of a "shuai" lawnmower. It reminds me of the first star wars where Luke races those little speeder things in the desert. Know that part? He even has the hat to match. It is literally a motor-scooter with a lawn-mowing thing attached to the front. It had our district in stiches as they hacked at the forest of grass behind the church during district meeting.

     Miracle of the Week: There is this Filipino member that lives in our ward, and has us come visit every so often. She married a Taiwanese, but after having three kids he left her, and so now she is on her own raising three kids. Get this: she can speak Tagalog and English, but hardly any Chinese while her kids almost exclusively speak Chinese. I don't even know how they live together. Parents, imagine not being able to talk to your kids. Kids, imagine not being able to talk with your parents. Very sad situation, especially because one of the sons is pretty wayward. She always begs us: "Elders, please help my son." It tugs at your heartstrings, especially when every time we set up to visit them she cancels because her son leaves the house. 

     Anyways, we ran into this kid last night that looked like a punk (ok, maybe it is a stereotype of people with bleached hair, but usually you are right). We started talking with him, and then he showed us a picture of his mom--it was Edelyn! The magnitude of what was happening just rushed into my mind all at once. We had a great conversation and then he gave us his phone number! So stinking cool. Well, best wishes to all the people heading into summer vacation and condolences to their parents! I love you all!

Weird River Things

they put these weird things in the rivers that I'm pretty sure prevent flooding, but they make for a really fun life-sized plinko board

Dad: I suspect they're designed to slow the river down (limit it's erosive potential in flood stage), but I don't know for sure...Confirmed. They're called "grade control structures." Purpose is to reduce bank and bed scour (erosion).

Boom. (drop the mike). They have so many flood prevention structures on the rivers here.

Temples and Exchanges

5/15/16

 This last week we went on exchanges with the zone leaders in our area. It was super fun having them up in XinFeng, and we worked so hard when they were here. We did almost a weeks worth of key indicators in a single day. We learned a ton from them, and it will be exciting to try to repeat the success we had with them in the upcoming week. It was weird talking with one of the zone leaders, Elder Scovel, because he went to Davis High and knew a ton of people from Viewmont. The craziest thing we did though was eat a $700 (US $25) cua bing. Cua bing is shaved ice with sliced fruit, beans, tapioca, and syrup on top. This wasn't any old cua bing though. This thing is meant to feed 30, and us 4 elders ate the whole thing in one hour. My stomach hurt so bad and my mouth was pretty much numb, but it was super fun.

     We got to go with Emma to the temple! When our recent convert goes to the temple for the first time we get to go with them, so on Saturday Emma, my previous companion Julian, Elder James, and I went in to Taipei. When we got there, we realized that I had forgot my temple recommend and that because there was a marriage that day the time scheduled for baptisms for the dead was moved up an hour. Emma had said prayers the night before that it would go smoothly though, so of course it did. The temple president made a phone call and I got a temporary recommend, and somehow they were able to find someone who could help baptize Emma so that they could extend the time they were doing baptisms a little longer. Emma has incredible faith, and the whole time I was just thinking about how heavily she relies on prayer. Her answer to everything is to just do a prayer. I thought about how I could more heavily rely on prayer and follow the principle in Alma 34 to cry unto the Lord over everything and when we are not crying unto the Lord to let our hearts be continually drawn out in prayer.

 me being silly after playing soccer with the whole zone 
(I deleted 5 or 6 more of me being weird)

 

 more crazy big cua bing pictures. We got so many funny looks from everyone else in the restaurant and some even came up and took pictures with us