Sea Cucumber Schedule Change

1/30/16

So there's this jellyfish, and he is walking next to a sea cucumber (well there not really walking because there in the ocean.... it's a joke), and he turns to the sea cucumber and says, "With friends like these on the dinner table in front of Elder Hawkes, who needs anemones?" Haha. Ya. But I actually did eat a nice big dinner of squid stuffed with fish eggs, pig feet, pig-foot tendon, fish wrapped in sea cucumber, jellyfish salad, deep-fried shrimp (I wasn't brave enough to suck out the head), and boiled chicken. Out of all those, hands-down worst food was the boiled chicken. Who would have thought. The jellyfish was amazing. Let's just say there was quite a few of "hey this is the first time I've eaten this food!".

    Last week we watched a worldwide missionary broadcast and whoa did they announce some big changes! Daily planning is changed from the nighttime to the morning, companion study and language study can be anytime during the day that works for your schedule, and they key indicators have been reduced to just four!! When I first got to Taiwan, there were 34. Most missions have 11. Over time, President Jergensen reduced it to 8, and now it is down to 4!! How crazy! I am absolutely loving the morning planning too, because now when we come home it is just nice and relaxing instead of stressful. At the mission conference, I got to see all the missionaries including the other four Viewmont graduates (missing Elder Bryan Anderson in the picture included)! I also took a picture with my mission dad (my trainer Elder Boyce) and mission son (my trainee Elder Dickson). Anyways, not much news in the way of investigators, because they are all off celebrating GuoNian (Chinese New Year). Oh well, more next week on them.

    Interesting discovery lately. I used to think that reading the Book of Mormon wasn't for the stories. Scripture isn't like a normal novel where you just enjoy the scenery right? I thought you just kinda read it for its teachings and for personal revelation and that the stories weren't necessarily important in and of themselves. Over the past few months, however, I've sort of realized that you learn the teachings and receive personal revelation because you read and understand the stories. It has really changed the whole way I look at the Book of Mormon. Instead of just reading what the prophets say, I've been reading why they say what they say, to who they say what they say, and how what they say is like the things I encounter on a day-to-day basis. The Book of Mormon has become an even greater source of light than before, and reading it is incredibly interesting! Well, I hope you all have a wonderful Chinese New Year week!

    Here is an example in Omni of all places: Chapter 1:27-30. Reading the way I used to before, I don't learn much. The previous two verses are the testimony of Amaleki written on some of the last portion of the plates, but 27 through 30 are a little out of context. It seems that Amaleki is a little bit of a perfectionist, so he wants to fill the remaining few lines of the plates he is writing on with a quick news report on a group of people that left Zarahemla. Well, he includes it and leaves me confused for another eight chapters until we get to Mosiah 7. It turns out, that group of people that left are the people of Limhi that Ammon finds in the land of Lehi-Nephi! Their story is recorded in the record of Zeniff in chapters 9 through 22. So, a portion of scripture in Omni suddenly shows how Amaleki is in tune with the Spirit enough to know he should include a short blip about a group of people that would become really important later on. How cool is that?

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH. WHOAH. 

us up on a members roof at nighttime. The kids names are 'Peace' and 'Receive Mercy'.

 Check out this tiny orange! So stinking sour!!!

"technical kouipment,"  "oluring trans portation"  "keeps looks hinges joints mooing freely."    "Do not pierce or bum, even after use." 

 the crazy dinner

our investigator board

Went to Gu Gong (National Palace Museum). Incredible. Funny too. Funny and incredible! Try to guess which pictures are funny and which pictures are incredible.

"Emporer Qianlong accused jade artisans of Suzhou and Yangzhou of showing off skills to appeal to the market and cater for the masses, yet without consideration for the actual use of the piece, e.g. he questioned how an incense burner entirely carved with multi-level openwork was supposed to hold ashes?" 

Guess who I saw at the museum??? Rosy!!!! She is a member from when I served in XinFeng almost a year ago. We would go and visit her and her grandma, because her grandma is semi-active and is from Indonesia! They are super cool and it was super exciting to run into Rosy!!

 two of me tall. Yes. About 15 feet tall. HUGE!!

check out how old these are (4300-2500 B.C.E) 

how small these cups are

Then there was this electronic peacock thing. Weird.

Took a two hour break from GuGong to go eat buffet dinner with the bishop and his wife!! I ate so much stinking food!!

Buzzers and Eternity

    1/26/17 

     Well, honestly, not a lot to talk about. Because we had temple day (and preparation day) on Wednesday last week, this email is only covering about four days--one of which was interviews with President Jergensen and the rest of which were spent finding. We didn't meet with a lot of investigators last week because.... (drum roll).... Guo Nian 過年. It starts this coming Friday. For those unfamiliar with Guo Nian, I'll give a quick background.

     The story starts with an ancient Chinese tradition about a huge monster that would come every year around the same time and eat a bunch of people. To ward off the monster, the people would light off firecrackers, hang red paper on the sides of their doors (the monster hates red [remember the passover?]), and just in general make lots of noise. Because you didn't know how long you would live through the week, everyone would get together to eat tons of food (don't know what meal will be your last) and say "Congratulations" on the street (you made it thus far, will you survive the rest of the week?). In short, it means we have about 20 members feeding us food in the next two weeks and transportation systems are slammed with people.

    You know those buzzers at restaurants that light up and tell you your food is ready? I forget how to say it in English, but now I know it in Chinese. 統一編號. "Connect into one serial number". Well, I think it means that buzzer thing...........

     This last week, I have tried to follow the advice of Elder Uchtdorf from last conference and "ponder the gravity of eternity". As I did so, I came across some awesome insights. One of them goes something like this: Imagine the food you absolutely love and haven't eaten in over a year and a half. Now imagine going up to the Crispy Creme counter, and the lady says if you pay $5 she will give you one a day for the rest of your life. Would you do it? Oh ya!! Now, instead of $5 she asks you to change someones flat tire in the parking lot and then she will give you a donut each day for the rest of your life. See where I'm going with this? Now instead of a high-school dropout donut lady, our Heavenly Father is standing behind the counter. He says that He will give you the happiness of eating a donut multiplied by infinity every day for an eternity. "All that he requires of you is to keep his commandments" (Mosiah 2:22) during this short time we have on the earth. Wow. But He throws in a special offer--if we keep His commandments, we will prosper in the land, we will have freedom from sin and guilt, and we will be happy every day. If only it was that easy to tell our investigators... Oh well! Have a great week!

Elder Barton goes home in about 18 days, and despite his best efforts he still falls asleep during daily planning every now and then and his companion is too shy to wake him up. His companion is Elder Olsen from Viewmont!!! Have I told you about him? Very interesting Elder. He is shy to the point of not being able to order food at a restaurant in Junior High and never talks above a loud whisper and guess what his interest is?? Learning languages. He has dabbled in 20 something languages and knows probably twice as many Chinese characters as I do--only three transfers into his mission. Crazy!!

Dan Jones/Sunrise/Cancer

1/23/17

     Elder Triplett and I decided we wanted to shake up the "ride in big circles around our area on the main streets and talk to anything that moves" finding method, so we took a lesson from Dan Jones. I don't know if you are familiar with him or not, but if you look at the first few pages of the "My Purpose" section of Preach My Gospel, you will know what we are talking about. After Preparation Day ended, we strapped a bucket to the back of my bike and headed for the nearest MRT station. Once we got there, we found a super crowded street corner, set down the bucket, grabbed a Book of Mormon, and went to work! Well, it turns out there isn't anyone in Tian Mu willing to listen to a pair of white punks in ties taking turns standing on a bucket and yelling about Christ in broken Chinese. Frankly, I can understand why. It did accomplish the purpose we had intended though, because the 10 minutes of shouting our testimonies gave us a unique fire for the rest of the night.

     This morning we woke up early to drive to the top of the mountains in our area and watch the sunrise. We got to the top, but it was covered in fog and clouds, so we couldn't see a thing. We were so disappointed, but then we felt a slight breeze pickup that blew the clouds off to the side and revealed the whole sweeping city lights of Taipei. It was gorgeous. It was one of those beautiful once-in-a-lifetime experiences that you just can't ever forget.

     The last awesome highlight was just yesterday morning. On Monday (Preparation Day was on Wednesday this week because we went to the temple), we were out finding when a mother came up to us and asked us if we could visit her daughter in the hospital. She told us that her daughter loved talking with people and making friends, but had gotten sick with cancer two years back and has been in and out of the hospital ever since. She asked us if we could go visit her because she new her daughter would just love talking to two Americans in English, so yesterday after studies we headed up to the hospital. After navigating the busy hospital to the 19th floor, we finally found her room. As we all know, hospital rooms are ironically not very 'hospitable', and government-sponsored-healthcare Taiwan is no different. She was hooked up to an IV and had lots of discolored splotches all over her skin, but she was so happy to see us. We talked about lots of things, and as she swallowed over 15 different medications she told us about how bad she wanted to go home and do scouting again. Honestly we didn't do anything more than just talk with her, but the feeling I had when I left was indescribable. 服務是快樂之本. Service really is the foundation of happiness. I love you all, and I hope you all have a great week!

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Mom-

Sorry, I'm really tired so I probably won't write much more than some cool spots if you end up coming to visit. English is harder than Chinese when you have a headache!! Honestly, I haven't thought much about the release date. Life is like jogging: if you look straight up you will eventually trip on something and if you look at your toes you will most certainly slam into something. The best thing to do is run with your eyes focused 15 yards or so ahead of you, and closer if it's dark or the path is rough. So, the date hasn't sunk in yet. That being said, I can mention some must-see places (from my point of view) from which you can pick and choose and ask questions and all that stuff: DanShui Wharf, ShiLin night market, Chang KaiShek Memorial Hall, Taipei 101, National Palace Museum, Beitou Hot Springs, YangMing Shan national park (hike to QiXing ZhuFeng or sunrise where we went this morning), PingXi, Nanya Rocks in KeeLung, Taroko Gorge in Hualien, QiXing beach in Hualien, hiking up the river in GuangFu or Mugumuyu. I have never been to Taidong, but there are some really cool natural landscapes there. For absolutely incredible food, cultural sites, and relics, I've heard the place to go is TaiNan. As for the West Coast, much of it probably doesn't interest me unless you find something really cool. A lot of it is big smoggy city (which you will get plenty of in Taipei). There are members and others we could go and visit in Beitou, ZhuBei, and Hualien. There is a bullet train down the west coast of Taiwan, but it is expensive. I've heard the drive down to Hualien and Taidong is incredible, although driving in Taiwan is a terrifying experience and would probably be best to be avoided if possible.

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my camera fell into a crevice at the elephant rock place, so Elder Triplett descended into the crevice of despair to go and get it! At first attempt, it was too far away to reach. He ended up going further down the crevice, underneath an overhang, and then finally reaching in to retrieve the camera! Wahoo!! So crazy!!!

unfortunate spelling

more unfortunate spelling

more papercutting I gave to a member because they took us to see the sunrise and gave us some really cool paintings