Yoda Funktown

3/19/17

Last week was crazy busy! I went on two exchanges, we had Elder Funk of the Seventy and his wife come to visit our mission and had a half-mission conference, and then interviews with the President! In between all of that we just had lesson after lesson. So much fun!! Here are some of the thoughts and insights from the week of exchanges and conferences and interviews:

• D&C 44:2, difference between being faithful and exercising faith to have the Spirit with us during meetings.
• Receiving correction from others is hard, but if you are humble enough then you can learn much.
• Roll up your sleeves: get ready to work hard and thrust in your sickle with all your might to bring people closer to baptism!!
• Measure everything you do as a missionary against the doctrine of Christ (faith, repentance, etc.).
• Making sure you are doing good things is important, but also decide what you are NOT going to do (i.e. waste time, fall asleep during studies).
• A missionary only really needs to things to be successful--faith and skill.
• Say little prayers throughout the day to remember Heavenly Father.
• Spending lots of time preparing lessons and then ready to depart from your plan at the slightest nudge from the Spirit.
• It doesn't matter if you are following the crowd or going against the crowd. Just follow Christ.
• Turn your phone off during lessons or interactions with others.
• Fill your daily plan with activities, but more importantly as many names as you can.
• Doctrines and principles don't change, practices and procedures changes.

Another fun thing we did this week is doorbell-ditch our new bishop. He is really stressed about his new calling, and has lots of doubts whether or not he can carry out his added responsibilities. What we decided to do is take this huge cardboard Yoda thing, write on the back of it 願傳教士的支持與你同在 (May the 'support of the missionaries' be with you), and then leave it on his doorstep. Really hard when everyone in Taiwan lives in an apartment building with a security guard at the bottom! We may or may not have snuck in, gotten lucky he lived on the bottom floor, left the poster on what we hope is his doorstep (still not sure), and snuck out. Well, that must be why the CIA recruits return missionaries so much. We are just that 厲害. Hope you all have a wonderful week!

worker and customer??

Baptism and Jolly Rancher

3/12/17

 We had a baptism this last week! 王俊賢 Wang Jun Xian is so cool! he told us yesterday that his girlfriend in mainland China agreed to get married in the Salt Lake Temple. Granted, she isn't baptized yet and even after that they have to wait a year, but it is so cool that he has already set his sights on the temple and to have an eternal family. The back of his phone case has a picture of Christ, his phone background is the Salt Lake Temple, he didn't answer his phone on Sunday because he turns off his phone for the Sabbath, and he always talks about the difference in his life since meeting us missionaries. So awesome!

     Last week I was able to go on two companionship exchanges with different Elders in the zone. I love being able to go on so many exchanges in a transfer, because I get to learn from every Elder I go with. Each missionary receives their own insights and revelation, teaches in their own unique way, and comes from a completely different background. There is a lot to learn from the people you surround yourself with, and I know of no better place to find good people to surround yourself with than in the church.

     Kind of had a funny story during sacrament meeting yesterday. As I have shared before, lately I have been bringing little snacks or things to help me stay awake during sacrament meeting and so yesterday I brought this jolly rancher I had found in our apartment. Unfortunately, the humidity in Taiwan is so high that pretty much any hard candy will go gooey after just a day or so. I forgot about that until I took it out of my pocket and tried to unwrap it. Well, there I was, sucking on a jolly rancher and quite awake learning a lot from sacrament meeting, but with a big problem--my hands were sticky!! We all know how many hands missionaries shake right after sacrament meeting, so I was in a predicament. Sucking on my fingers didn't help, so I was done for. I remember thinking to myself, "Sorry, Heavenly Father. I probably should have brought something else. What can I do to clean my hands?" A few minutes later, completely out of the blue, Wang Jun Xian pulled out some wet-wipes to clean off his hands. I asked for one, and boom! Clean!

     I think this funny little experience taught me two awesome lessons. The first is prayer. Recently I have been trying to keep a prayer in my heart (i.e. praying while biking, asking for help during lessons, giving thanks for tender mercies), and it is truly incredible how many of those prayers get answered. We don't have to reach out in a Rameumptom prayer to access God's help and love--a simple heartfelt prayer works just fine.

     The second is forgiveness. Ironic that the 'jolly-rancher incident' was during sacrament meeting (where we take the sacrament and are forgiven). Like eating a sticky jolly rancher, we often make mistakes in life. While we do our best to cover them (licking my hands), there truly is no other way to be forgiven than to repent and ask God in prayer for His mercy, and for His empowering love. When we do, when we make that change and turn back to face towards Him, He is there every step of the way. He offers us the way. How grateful I am for that opportunity to repent daily of my many sins and weaknesses, big and small, and become one with His will. I love you guys and hope you have a great week!

Next to me in the gray suit is Wang Jun Xian (this is at his baptism). Two in front of me wearing the black suit on the first row is a guy named Bobby, who is absolutely hilarious. He speaks English pretty well, and pulls these random English idioms out all the time. I taught him supercalifragilisticexpialadocious this last week and he has been using it all the time now. He is so stinking funny, and gives us these cards all the time (I will send you a picture of his cards when I get my camera charged). Sorry, I have a little bit of extra time but I'm not sure what to say about last week. This next week has the Mission Conference with Elder Funk of the 70 and interviews with President Jergensen, so it should be pretty exciting!! I have a huge tasklist a mile long with a ton of different goals I have and stuff I'm working on.... I should take a picture of a bunch of little stuff like that to show you guys.... Hey, Elder Facer had a really good suggestion last week. I know we probably don't have to sign up for classes at BYU yet, but the suggestion was to sign up for a ton of classes with your brother or sister because then if one of you has to miss the class or something like that you can just bother each other for help and apparently it is really useful and super fun! I would love to take a bunch of classes with Sarah!!

Letter to Mission President

3/5/17

Weekly letter to the Mission President:

We had a pretty crazy week at church, and had three different individuals just walk in before church. One older man was a little crazy and just got up and left in the middle of the sacrament prayer, but another one was invited by his co-worker to just come and check out our church sometime so he did in the morning, not realizing our church wasn't until the afternoon. While studying on the front steps of the church garnered a few weird glances from members walking by, I don't think we would have met those other three people. This last week I was on exchanges with Elder Garlick and Elder Jorgensen. Elder Garlick is doing awesome work, and I admire his love for others and diligence in finding. The only thing Elder Facer and I are working on with their companionship is helping Elder Chiu have more opportunities to take the lead of the area. Elder Jorgensen and Joly are doing good too, they just feel like they could use a few more solid investigators. I talked with Elder Jorgensen for a while about it and helped him realize that if they are obedient, working hard, and trying new things, the rest might just be patience. They have a lot of energy, so I think they will do great. One big take-home I had from Mission Leadership Council was about the key indicators. I sort of realized that they weren't measuring our efforts and success so much as the progress of our investigators, and that makes a big difference. Now when I see red I don't think "I'm a bad missionary", but "Oh no! My investigators aren't progressing! What can I do to help them??" There are a few companionships in our zone that I think would really benefit from that insight, so I will share it with them this next week. Thanks for an awesome MLC President, we're excited for the Mission Tour next week!

Friend asking about the biggest lesson learned on my mission that I want to apply throughout my life:

I feel like at the beginning of my mission I worried a lot about all the little things. I wanted to do all the little things right like a good missionary and didn't know how to be like those awesome missionaries. It was a big list of little things to do better. I often wondered why my mission president was so awesome and smart and knew all the answers to the thousands of questions we ask him about missionary work. Then, it sort of hit me. When we understand our purpose as missionaries, we don't need to be taught the little things. They come automatically. There is a scripture and I forget where, but if we keep our covenants we don't have to be commanded in every thing. When we understand our covenants and purpose as missionaries or even as children of God, the rest makes sense. We are guided by that knowledge. I don't know, that was a big lesson I learned on my mission, and I feel like my mission has taught me so much about this higher law that shoots down roots that become the everyday thoughts and actions in our lives. That's what I want to apply throughout my life. I want to constantly learn and be taught about this higher law of heaven.

Prayer and Bob

3/5/17

 Great week here in "Dirt City" (土城) last week! We have a baptism this Saturday! His name is Wang Jun Xian 王俊賢 (King Handsome Virtuous)! He was originally going to get baptized last Saturday, but then we figured out he had been drinking tea so we switched it to this week. Pictures to come if I can find my camera's battery charger.........

     Really great week with an investigator named Bob Xie 謝長恩. He is 15, and we met him at English class after he had come for a few weeks. We started sharing the gospel with him, and he is pretty interested. His other interests include watching horror films and drawing bleeding people (he loves the movie Chucky and wants to be a blood makeup artist for a living). This week we were able to set up and meet with him at his house (very rare thing in Taiwan), and we got to meet his Mom as well! His Mom expressed to us that their relationship lately has been really bad, because he is really lazy and so she is always yelling at him to get his stuff done. I am so excited to be meeting with them, because that is just what the gospel is for! The gospel heals and strengthens families, and I know as she sees the change in her son after we keep sharing with him, she will want that change for herself and the rest of her family as well. So exciting!

   The lessons yesterday in church were mostly focused on prayer, and I learned a lot of really cool things as I finally made it through a Sunday without falling asleep! One cool principle I learned as I read through the Gospel Principles manual was that our thoughts, words, and actions are all affected by our prayers. I don't know why, but I thought that that was really interesting. Communication with our Father in Heaven really can affect every aspect of our lives--so good prayers will help you be a better person in everything you do, and bad prayers won't. How awesome is that?! Love you guys! Have a great week!

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HAPPPYY BIRTHDAAYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was going to send out your package last week, but it just so happened to be the Taiwanese version of Memorial Day (二月二十八日) so the post office was closed!! I was so disappointed!! It's on it's way now though, so hopefully you will get it soon and then you can have another birthday celebration!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! LOVE YOU DAD!!!

Bitter cold. Warming up this next week. We get extremely detailed weather reports every night from one of Elder Facer's recent converts in another area. Taiwan is doing great. About all the news channels can muster is Donald Trump, so that's pretty much what's happening in Taiwan. Their biggest news isn't theirs....

I'll just share with you family a few other things I wrote to other people, you can read them if you want. I figure if you guys are desperate for stuff about my mission I might as well give you everything I write on Preparation Days....

In response to the hardest part of my mission and what to do to prepare:

Hardest part of my mission... Well I can share two that have been really hard. The first is that the decisions others make affect your everyday life as a missionary. In high school, it seems like you have a ton of homework and other things to be busy about, but at least it is all more or less up to you whether you do it. On a mission, every single little thing you do has to be consistent with the expectations of your companion, your mission leaders, and your mission president--something I found extremely hard at the beginning of my mission. In other words, a companion says, "I want to go knocking instead of street contacting." The very last thing you want to do is knocking, but you have to go do it because your companion wants to. Other people make decisions, and you have to adjust even if you don't agree. The second was the culture of Taiwan, but unless you go to Taiwan you shouldn't experience this issue. The problem is that they have been without the gospel for over 4 or 5,000 years, so preaching the gospel with them you first have to overcome 5,000 years of culture. It's a good thing we have the Spirit or it would be impossible. I think the best things you can do to prepare are to read Preach My Gospel (chapters 1, 3, 4, 5, and 6, the rest you can always learn later) and really ponder the Doctrine of Christ (faith in Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end)

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!