Early Christmas and Elder Dixon

12/20/16

Hello everyone! I am super pumped about Christmas, even if it kinda just feels like St. Patrick's Day here. I mean, there isn't anything wrong with a holiday where you where green, pinch each other, and steal each others gold.... but I would rather enjoy a nice relaxing holiday where you can just enjoy being with family and remember the Savior. This Christmas definitely is not that. I got roped into a Christmas choir by my last companion Elder Boyce. We have performed around ten times already and have about five more to go. Not only that, for some inexplicable reason I have become the accompanist for three or four other things during our Christmas mission conference tomorrow (I think Ian had something to do with that). None of which I have had time to practice for. In addition, I am finally done with training. Now, I have to lead the area while my new companion gets to know it, which, as other missionaries can attest, is a big job. By the way, my new companion is Elder Dixon from Kaysville! He is totally awesome! Well, on top of all that, I am halfway around the world from my family and I have to work on Christmas day because we are celebrating it as a mission three days early.

In all seriousness, it has been an amazing lead up to Christmas, and I couldn't be more excited. In church yesterday, a teacher asked if we thought right now we were prepared to meet Christ. I thought to myself, "actually, sure!" Not only would that be totally exciting, but what better time to meet Christ than when I am dedicating literally everything I have and everything I am to bring lost sheep to His fold? Even though this Christmas will be my first away from home, I have felt them closer than ever in the beautiful package they sent me. Even though I have to play the piano for a lot of things I don't want to, I get to express my testimony and do the thing I love several times a week. Even though I am busier than ever, I am in the service of my fellow brothers and sisters and therefore in the service of my God. Is this not the true meaning of Christmas? I have nothing a traditional Christmas would dictate, and yet I feel that this Christmas will be the best one yet. May we all read those extremely cheesy but touching stories about the true meaning of Christmas, reach out in love to those around us, and especially remember the birth and life of our Savior Jesus Christ this special season. Merry Christmas!

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Family: 

Thanks! We will do it at that time then! I'm so excited!!! I hope you've all had at least somewhat a relaxing Christmas season. Don't worry about me, I'm doing awesome! Yes there is the disappointments and yes there is the hard times, but I just love it all too much to give up or get depressed. It is sad all those Sisters are going home. Maybe I'm sexist and all that, but I think Sisters have a lot harder time with missions. Getting rejected over and over again, day in and day out, can be pretty taxing on emotionally centered individuals, which just so happen to be Sisters. Not that it is a bad thing, I think Sisters just have to be more careful about coming out before they realize what they are getting themselves into. I get rejected allllll the time, but I just laugh and say, "I'm just becoming more like my Savior." I love that quote. It is something an Elder in my district told me while we were on exchanges. It really is true. When we experience setbacks, disappointments, and pain, we just have an opportunity to see a bigger picture of what the Savior went through for each one of us. Pretty cool perspective. Dad, you might be proud to know that the Beitou missionaries (consisting of the Elders and Sisters in the Beitou ward) will be performing "The Twelve Days of Jie Kou" tomorrow. Jie Kou = excuses. It is pretty hilarious if I do say so myself. I will have to perform it for you over Skype. I have been absolutely loving the Twelve Days of Christmas package you sent me!!! (although it was way too expensive, next time don't even send it). Sending things from Taiwan turned out to be super cheap, so I might actually send birthday stuff if I can find the time. Not much has happened this week because of all the choir performances, but we did perform in Beitou, so I will totally try to get a copy of the recording they made and send it to you. It is absolutely hilarious. We performed, and then they did a ward nativity and talent show. Hil-ar-i-ous. Oh, and McDonalds finally started playing Christmas music and decorated! That is what I am talking about. Elder Dixon, my new companion, has been on the island for about a year now. He is super funny. He is pretty wacko and very 開心 (happy and bubbly). Wow. Chinese is super hard but just the funniest and best thing in the world. The word for faucet is shui long tou, or 'water-dragon-head'. Awesome. Well, that is pretty much it. I love you!!!!

I got a turn. If you heard a noise from the depths of Hades last night, you 

know where it came from

yes that is my companion playing the (Er Hu?) or turn. The tree you sent is on the left and the wreath is hanging in the on the wall. 

all the stuff that was given to us by members this last Sunday for Christmas, and Elder Dixon is doing dishes in the background (I cooked).

classic dinner in taiwan: rou yuan (meat sticky rice balls in gravyish?), zhua bing (Taiwanese pancake or green onion pie), hong dou bing (red bean cake, although I hate beans so this is butter and chocolate flavored), and I forget what the fourth one was. So yummy!

me and Elder Dixon in the background, opening my package!! My guitar that was found in the trash is leaning against the wall on the side.

"Understanding Wild Asses" 

We went to the zoo to celebrate my last day with my trainer. For some reason they have an obsession with the digestive process. Made for a few laughs though... 

"Zoo Poo Poo" and "PoOwer"

New to Beitou

12/13/15

Yep, our shower stopped putting out heat a few days ago and started putting out ice cubes. Seriously. Like, it's a perfect 70 degrees outside, we live in a city famous for it's natural hot springs, and the water coming out of the tap is THAT cold??

Cultural Experiences:

-most popular hymn in Taiwan: "Truth Reflects Upon Our Senses".

-you have to ziptie boards to your car tires so the armies of wild dogs don't come and pee on your car. Once one dog uses your car tire as a restroom, and you're done for

-McDonalds, KFC, and a host of other restaurants do home delivery on little motorscooters

-Taiwanese hate putting their purses, backpacks, or shoulder bags on the floor in restaurants, so most of the time a little stool or another chair is provided

Shorter email today because we are going to the Taipei zoo (which only costs US $2 to get in to!). Yesterday was a pretty big day for us. It was stake conference, and a Elder Funk of the Seventy was there because they split the Taipei East Stake into two stakes, creating the 15th stake in Taiwan! Beitou, where I am serving, is now part of the Taipei North Stake! Two whole floors of the huge chapel by the mission office were completely filled and it was so cool to see. There weren't the overwhelming numbers of members you would see at General Conference in Salt Lake City, but it truly was a testament to the fact that the church in Taiwan really is growing. What a sight to see: rows upon rows of Taiwanese that have been blessed by the knowledge of the Gospel!

Transfers are this Thursday, but I will probably stay in Beitou. I will let you all know next week. I love you all and I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas season!

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Family: 

Transfers and new companion will be news for next week, and unfortunately we were unsuccessful in getting the Christmas present early, so it looks like the Grinch really did steal Christmas... well, at least until Christmas... Oh wait! Until 3 days before Christmas when we are pretending to celebrate it.... Haha we certainly aren't rockstar missionaries, although I do think we are getting stuff done and just being unlucky. The mission goal is for every missionary companionship to get a baptism every month, although it isn't always that. Beitou really struggles, at least in the Elder's area. The Sisters have had quite a few baptisms lately. Keep working on the skype thing, I need to know how I can reach you guys before next Monday so I can get my end up and running. No worries about the computer time and letters, I just figured emailing typed letters would be more convenient and cheaper. Oh, so nobody in Taiwan cares about rats. I have seen a ton of them. Last night, we were having a lesson on the street, and as we were talking with this lady, I watched like three rats running around the sidewalk and road behind her and my companion. They were just casually scurrying around for like 20 minutes. What's worse is when I see them in the food market............. Don't worry! I eat safe! I love you guys!!!

-Elder Hawkes

Overpriced treat

DanShui Sunset 

exchanges with Elder Peterson from my MTC group (I didn't take this while riding....)

'praying' mantis grasshopper butterfly

Sarah, if you get into anime, there is a job in Asia waiting for you. Actually, this kinda seems more like something I would do, but I don't have the art skills. Luckily I don't know the price tag, a member bought this lunch for us.

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Elevator Concerts

11/30/15

I'm not 100% sure why this happened, but it did. Elder Boyce, my companion, likes to sing. His dad actually helped start Vocal Point. For some inexplicable reason, the 'Star-Spangled Banner' gets stuck in his head more often than you would expect. So we were casually leaving our apartment to start the day's work and he starts singing the national anthem. Naturally, I start singing the bass part from my 9th grade choir because... You know I'm not really sure. Anyway, he's singing the melody and I'm pounding out the harmony in the elevator. Our elevator is very sneaky. I close my eyes right for the 'and the rocket's red glare' part where you just gotta let your soul scream to the world those high shrilly notes, and a few notes in I realize that we aren't moving. As I open my eyes, I see this Taiwanese lady looking at me like a rock. No smile. Nothing. She walks in after I move out of the way a little bit, pushes the door close button, and just sits there in silence all the way down. Guaranteed most awkward thing of my whole life. Elder Boyce and I were just dying of laughter afterwards.

Unfortunately I don't have very much time do to a Christmas choir rehearsal thing my companion got us into, but I wouldn't be a missionary if I didn't share about Elder Stevenson coming and speaking to our mission. He came last Tuesday because his son is in the other Taiwan mission and his nephew is in ours. It was so amazing. One of my favorite things he said was this equation: obedience brings blessings, and blessings bring happiness. It was so simple and the way he explained it was amazing. Every single rule we keep as missionaries or every commandment we keep as individuals brings a blessing. In bed by 10:30? Blessing. Socks are a plain, dark color? Blessing. Study only the missionary library? Blessing. The way he said it really stressed the fact that any rule or commandment we keep--no matter how small or seemingly insignificant--brings blessings, and through blessings we are happy. That simple! On the subject of Thanksgiving, I truly am grateful for the chance to have living prophets and apostles in these latter days. The testimony he bore at the meeting absolutely filled the entire chapel with overwhelming power. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving filled with lots of pie! I love you all!
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Elder Hawkes

P.S.  The picture is of me and my companion on Thanksgiving. Tell Sister McMillen that we weren't able to get burgers because a member bought us dinner, but we did have that chocolate cake and that her money went towards those little 'glutinous rice balls' on my plate that are super super tasty. They have peanut butter in them and they are super gooey.

Passing Off Phase One

11/22/15

Happy Thanksgiving!! I am so excited not to celebrate it this week! That was only halfway sarcastic because I'm not the biggest fan of eating turkey, but it is a bummer that I'm missing out on all that amazing pie! I guess you could say I am more thankful for pumpkin pie now that this year I'm not going to have it, so it will be a day of thanksgiving after all! Anyways, I don't know if I have mentioned this or not, but the Taiwanese love to compare Americans to famous actors. I have no idea why. We were eating lunch with some members, and I made the mistake of telling them about how I was called "Bella" from Twilight at scout camp for the whole week. They pulled up a picture of Bella, and the table went silent. "Wow, he really does look like Bella."

Elder Boyce and I invented this technique called "bing qi ling". Whenever a less active or investigator commits to come to church, we "bing qi ling" them. We have a little card that they have to promise to buy us ice cream, or bing qi ling, if they don't come to church. We figure it's a win-win scenario for us right? So we bing qi ling-ed a less active, and he didn't come to church. Next time we met, they were going to buy us ice cream and guess what? The ice cream machine was broken! Lose-lose scenario!! God is merciful though, and the less active came to church yesterday and he still is going to buy us ice cream.

This last week, I went on exchanges with a native named Elder Dong. We had ground mountain goat meat and spinach over rice with seaweed soup. Eating with a native and a non-native are very different experiences. Elder Dong is totally awesome though. He is also in training, so we have become pretty good friends. Him and his companion get along extremely well and they get work done. I talked with him a lot, and that night he asked me what the biggest miracle I had seen in Taiwan was. I told him a few that I couldn't decide between, but when I asked him the same question he gave me an interesting answer. He said the biggest miracle he had seen on his mission was his companion. They are very good friends, and plan on continuing their friendship even after the mission. I realized my conception of a 'miracle' was a little too grand. I found that this last conference was a lot about marveling at the plain and precious truths of the Gospel. My companion is amazing and we are doing great things. I have like 50 Book of Mormons on a shelf in our apartment. Through prayer, I can speak with God: the most important being in the whole universe. Wow. This next week I'm going to try to keep rediscovering those tender mercies. All my love to you all!
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I am so stinking excited for Elder Stevenson to come speak to us tomorrow!!!!!! His son is in the other mission, and his nephew is in this mission. It's going to be so good!!! Next week's emails are probably going to be all about it. Put some pumpkin pie in the freezer for when I get back k? Also, I don't know if I told you or not, but I got roped into playing the piano for a Christmas concert for the whole mission, and I am doing the piano guys version of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Is that how you spell it? Goodness I don't know. English. Chinese is so hard. It's funny, it feels like instead of my Chinese getting better, my English is just getting worse. We do what's called three phases to learn the language. Phase One is a ton of vocabulary, teaching phrases, and other stuff straight out of Preach My Gospel. Phase Two is 2,500 flashcards of the most commonly used words in Chinese. Phase Three is all the characters in the standard works. I'm passing off Phase One in the next week!!! It has been a ton of work, but I'm getting it done! Well, I hope everything is going well back home, enjoy your Thanksgiving! Eat an extra slice of pie for me! I love you guys!

-Elder Hawkes

The first picture is of a sign that it took me a minute to realize how funny it was. First glance is pretty funny too though. Hey! You can take diesel fuel on the Metro! It's flammable! The second picture is what happens when we go looking for less actives. Ya, that is where the address led us. We did find a bowling ball there and fancy paper that I was tempted to send to you Mom for your Christmas present.

Christmas in a Box

Here comes Christmas, Jordan, and all packed in a tiny shoebox.

Taiwan Healthcare, McDonald's, and Glittery Sidewalks

11/15/15:  Xue Hua Bing. Literally one of the best treats in Taiwan. And it isn't even mango season. That place I ate this at is world famous. They make the ice from mango, and it is soft and fluffy, almost like the stuff you can scrape off an ice rink with your skates. Then they put mangoes, kiwi, strawberries, and mango syrup on it and you just pass out with delight. There is nothing like it in this world. It is super expensive too, about US $6.

These rock paths are 'supposed' to be good for your feet. Healthy. Imagine walking 50 yards on rocks sticking up out of the ground, think about how your feet would feel, and then tell me it's 'healthy'. Uggg. Taiwanese health. They yell at you for being out in the rain because you will get sick. Literally. Yell. Another funny thing about Taiwan, if you are sick at all, you go to the hospital. So don't be surprised if in future emails I say I went to the hospital. Everyone here wears surgical masks for either allergies or colds or any other form of the plague. Sneeze without a surgical mask and you will be shot. The common question asked when you wear a surgical mask is "have you gone to the hospital yet?" No I haven't! I have a cold! They quite literally go to the hospital for colds, and doctors are not considered reputable unless they prescribe mediation. I'm not kidding. If they don't even prescribe at least acetaminophen, people WILL NOT go visit them. The Taiwanese are crazy about health. Craaaaaaaaazy (said in a Olaf voice). 

 Asian Ronald McDonald. They had a party at the McDonalds right outside our house yesterday.

 this is what happens every time there is a red light. Granted, we are waiting because of construction, but all the motorscooters thread through the line of cars to get to the front, and then when the clock next to the red light hits 1, everyone hits the accelerator like in mario cart and goes ham.

sidewalks sparkle! They use some sort of material to make the sidewalks here that glimmers

Mango Land and Focusing on Christ

11/15/15

Family and Friends, 

So you know, it actually doesn't rain that much here. I'm totally serious. I expected it to rain every day and to be completely sick of being wet, which I am, but it never rains. Maybe it just isn't rainy season, but it has only rained about 3 times since I've gotten here, one of which was a typhoon. I am always wet with sweat. It's disgusting. It has never been so hard to put on clothes after you shower. Anyways, it is getting colder here (about 70s and absolutely perfect) and all the Taiwanese pull out their jackets and winter coats. Apparently it doesn't get too much colder here, so I am in for the best winter of my life. Without mangoes. Mango season ended right as I got here. Are you kidding me? I'm in the land of mangoes without any mangoes.

Interesting thing about Taiwanese movers, they lift with the back. Literally. They will carry this huge stack of boxes with their arms stretched behind them and the boxes leaning on their back. You would think that that form of lifting was less effective, but the Taiwanese have been seen lifting whole refrigerators by themselves by using the "Asian moving method". I don't know whether it legitimately is more effective or not, but there is an interesting analogy found in this. 

How often do we lift things with our hands out in front of us? I personally do. It is so easy to focus on how hard the language is or how all of our baptismal investigators won't answer our phone calls this week. When I do, it is so hard to see the end goal and my true purpose as a missionary: inviting others to come unto Christ. When we lift with our burdens behind us, we find we are able to carry more and are able to see more clearly where we are walking and where we want to go. You still have the weight, you still have to struggle, but at least you know where the staircase ends (am I right? we have all felt that feeling!). Here is where you get the classic scripture found in Matthew 11:28-30: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

I hope this next week I can apply that lesson I learned from the movers of Taiwan and lift with my back, setting the language and the struggles behind me so I can focus on what I really am doing for the next two years. Love and prayers to all those affected by what happened in France this past week and to all of you as well! You are the best!