I'm not the best at gaining weight

Two weeks ago was Chinese New Year! It's usually the time that missionaries are looking forward to and dreading most. There's pro's and cons of 過年。 On the positive side you get to save tons of money because members will feed you almost every meal, and you'll feel super full for a whole week(last year I gained 5 pounds in a week)! You get to spend more time with the members and get to know them and just have a good time with them! And there are lots of fireworks and firecrackers so it's festive! Some of the cons are that most people that live in your area will leave to go to where they came from, because that's where their parents live, which makes it kinda hard to find people cause most of the people you talk to actually live on the other side of the Island! It's still a pretty great time to be here in Taiwan.

Last year I was in Taipei and there were lots of members and lots of meals we went to. This year was a bit different because of the area I'm in, we had just a few meals with some members and just tried to see them and do things with them when they have the time. We went on a bike ride with one of our members over the mountain next to the ocean to visit someone and then biked back, one of the hardest bike rides of my life but it was worth it. We also had to do spring cleaning for the apartment. Doing all that cleaning I started to think of the cleaning I did at home and wondered why I didn't like doing it so much, I felt like it wasn't that bad? And then I remembered our house is much bigger than the apartment I live in now and there's much more to clean and then I understood why I never liked cleaning inside haha. 

The coolest thing about the New Year was that lots of people were in Yuli because it's where their grandparents live! It seemed so busy and I felt like I'd never seen that many young people in my life. It was so busy that in places that usually have no people there would be like 3,000 people that buy a lunch at this one restaurant per day. Crazy! After it all ended it was kinda sad to see everyone go back to where they live, you just see Yuli become the place it was like before just a few people on the streets with not much happening. It'll be good to get back doing more missionary work though. I also didn't gain any weight this New Year, I'm really trying though.

Our old 阿嬤 we're working with is so close to baptism! She's keeping all of the commandments and is so excited for the blessings to come. She is sick right now, so we're waiting for her to get better and then she'll be ready to be baptized. 

It was amazing getting to be with members that really know you and trust you, we had a few times this past week where they would ask us for help with their families. We have a middle aged couple with four children under the age of 9 and they were asking us advice on the best way to teach their kids to love the gospel and to understand it's importance! They were asking two twenty year olds for advice about families, it's honestly crazy how much they trust us. 

I know that if you invest time in people and really do everything you can with them, they'll be able to see your love for them and they'll open up to you. You'll be able to have many opportunities to serve and be a blessing to them. God wants to send them the best help he has, so be that person and I promise you'll be able to make a difference and help more people than you think.

Love you all so much

-Elder Thayne

Oh and my helmet broke.

My email got deleted last week so here we go again

Sorry for not emailing these past few weeks! I wrote a really long spirit filled email last week and then the whole thing got deleted cause my phone restarted... So needless to say I didn't have the heart to write it all over again. I'm back now though!

Another transfer came and went. -Elder Cheung and I are still together. We expected that just cause of how special it was that we were put together in the first place. We had good interviews with president talking about the districts of missionaries here. Since I am the district leader we need to take a train to Hualien at least once a week which wastes lots of time and money. We just have to travel outside our area a lot. The missionaries in Hualien actually have a city with lots of people and we only see them once a week so our missionary work is completely different. There are two areas around us in the same valley that are small areas. We talked to president and he thought it's a good idea to combine them and now we have the most rural district in the mission here! Maybe even all of Taiwan! We're pretty excited to see how we can help our three small areas.

Elder Cheung and I have been wanting to have more spiritual experiences lately and we've seen some pretty cool things happen. 

We were trying to teach one of our friends and he asked us if we could walk on this bike trail and talk to him as we walked. We were walking with him trying to teach him and it just wasn't going anywhere. He is one of the hardest people I've ever taught because he doubts everything in the universe. Even the most simple things he gets confused because he looks at everything from a logical and scientifical perspective. We give him small invites to do and he listens to us without really listening and trying what we tell him. We asked him if we could just share the plan of salvation with him for five minutes without him talking and he agreed. As we were sharing you could tell he doubted a lot of the parts and wanted to ask questions. After we were done I could tell he wanted to say something. He told us he had something for us to consider. I kinda got the impression it was a question or some information that would make us doubt our faith in God, but at that exact moment he completely forgot what he was about to say. He just stood there trying to think for a few minutes but couldn't come up with it. I know that was God stopping him from trying to destroy our faith.

Lately we've had members and people we are teaching in the hospital for bad health issues. The first was the friend who has been in bad health that he's been asleep for the whole time I've been in this area. This last time we went he had finally woken up. When we came in and I brought a Book of Mormon for him he started to cry. He wasn't able to speak but you could tell he was so grateful and this experience had humbled him so much. Hopefully when he recovers completely he'll be ready to change his life around.

A really special experience happened with a member who got rushed to the hospital on Friday. We were called by his wife to come in and give him a blessing. We came in and he was in the ICU and just looked pretty bad. He gave us a paper with a message he wanted us to text his parents telling them what the situation was because his wife is Taiwanese and her English isn't the best. After that he told us how the protein in his legs were the worst they've ever been, and there were lots of problems in his body. He was afraid for his wife, since they've had so many health and financial problems in the past, it's been hard for them. He's afraid that she won't be able to take this and she'll break. He asked us to bless his wife in the blessing however we could. So as we layed our hands on his head we gave him a priesthood blessing. I forgot most of what I said in that blessing, I also didn't really know what I was saying as it was coming out. I was of course afraid that I would say something that wasn't according to God's will. But as we finished we stepped back and he was on the hospital bed crying. He told me:" yesterday I was praying because I was without hope, and what you said in that blessing is exactly what Heavenly Father said to me yesterday. There is no way you could have known that. I never mentioned anything about yesterday to you. This just confirms to me that we have two true servants of Jesus Christ." 

I was so humbled that God was able to work through us to help this man. I know God cares about all of us and will send people to help us in our times of need. I love you all and enjoy the pictures!

-Elder Grayson Thayne

If any of you ever wanna send me something

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Da-an, Taipei 106

Taiwan

My legs bend really weird. My shoes are falling apart. -Elder Cheung spilling curry on his white shirt, can't say that hasn't happened before. Us three destroyed in frisbee so we had to be separate from the rest.

"I would bike 100 miles, and I would bike 100 more🎶"

Wowwww. I'm so sorry I haven't emailed in so long. Just haven't really felt the need to lately, probably due to not much changing here in Yuli. It's been a great few weeks with Elder Cheung here. We're getting the area going and visiting members more often and building relationships with them. We have also been out of our area a lot! We go for meetings, for exchanges and everything which take us away a lot of the time. I talked to the mission president and he will be changing the areas up a bit next transfer so we don't have to travel as far for meetings and things. 

Speaking of travelling! We have been biking a ton lately! My bike is pretty wrecked now and I don't know how it'll last the next six months. We believe in miracles though right? It'll come through. Anyways, we figured we have been staying in the main part of Yuli too much lately and we need to get out and visit some members who live a bit farther away. We went to a part of our area called Ruisui. It's a smaller town pretty far north of Yuli. About 16 or 17 miles. That doesn't seem like much, but with heavy bikes and a white shirt with slacks it's a bit far. We also have to come all the way back so the whole trip turns into 34 miles or more. We were actually out of our area a lot this past week, but we did the calculations and we have biked over 100 miles! For some reason biking isn't that tiring for us cause we still don't get sore! It's way fun though to just bike that long and talk to your companion. I've had that in a few of my areas which is lucky.

We have been helping this really old 80 year old lady learn the gospel and she's doing so well. She's keeping the commandments we've taught her and she loves coming to church and seeing everyone there. Hopefully soon she will be ready to recieve God's gift to her of baptism. She's so funny and nice.

Lately we've had our ups and downs in the work here, but none of those ups and downs stops the work because it's the Lord's work. We're just lucky to be a part of it.  I've got lots of pictures so enjoy them. 

-Love Elder Grayson Thayne

You can try to understand the pics.

It's a Christmas Miracle!

Hey Everyone! Lots happened this week! 

We went to Hualien for P day last week and I got to see Elder Yeh there and a bunch of other missionaries. We went to a Kaorou all you can eat and stuffed ourselves. After that we went to a park by the ocean and played some frisbee and sand volleyball! It's always funny playing with the sister missionaries because without them it gets pretty competitive, but when they join in its a really relaxed game. I am the district leader of some sisters here, but since we're so far away, I'll only see them about 5 times in a six week period so I don't feel like I can help them much. 

Right after P day ended at 6:30, I went on exchanges with Elder Raymond and we went around finding people. We ran into a guy from France who was really nice and talked to us, but right when we brought up the gospel he said he didn't want to talk about it and tried to shut us down. As we walked away I just remember thinking how lucky I am to be serving a mission here in Taiwan. The people are so much more accepting of change. I really respect missionaries in the European countries.

We had a combined district counsel with all the Hualien missionaries on Tuesday and we all shared our testimonies of specific attributes of Jesus Christ. The spirit was really strong. I've always wondered why the spirit is so strong when missionaries testify, and now I know it's because they live the gospel more than the average person, so they can really see a difference in their life when they have it and when they don't. They're also constantly striving to improve. 

Elder Zhang packed all of his anime action figures and drawings away and threw lots of old clothes out. He left to go home on Thursday. Kinda sad to see him go cause it was just us two here. He's moving on though and I'm really happy for him. We'll ship his bike to him later cause he wants to keep it for a souvenir.

Now on to the Christmas Miracle. From about the fourth day I was in Yuli I knew what kind of missionary I needed to help me to work here. I told president who I think should come to the area. We had a talk about it in my interview with him. He had an interview later with this Elder and told him that he couldn't come down here with me because he needs him somewhere else. President then told this other missionary he would be coming down here with me. This other missionary then started talking everyone else and they all knew he would be here. I was thinking of this a lot and I didn't know what to do because I felt like it should be someone else that should come down. I prayed, and then wrote a long email to my mission President explaining the circumstances. When I opened up the transfer call letter the little faith I had in this actually worked! ELDER CHEUNG is coming to Yuli!!! 

This is what I had been praying for and what I knew this place needed. Because president allowed this to happen, I know that he expects a lot from us and our work here. So Elder Cheung and I are gonna give it our all. I met him in the MTC and we became best friends. Ever since then we've been talking about being companions together and how it would be. It's just an amazing feeling to be with your best friend by yourself out here doing the work. I get the exact same feeling from him that I did from Elder Fernandes earlier in my mission. I love these two guys so much and I realize how lucky I am. 

The rest of this week was just getting Elder Cheung more used to the area, it's gonna be a great few transfers together. We need your prayers as we work here. Love you guys.

感恩節快樂

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

I know it's a bit late to be saying this, but I missed getting an email out last week, so I can update you all with what's happened. 

We had a big zone conference in Taidong on Thanksgiving Day and we got to eat duck! President had bought lots of ducks for us to eat which was really good and we went home with full stomachs. The zone conference went really well and I learned a lot. President Peterson has really been pushing us to build the church in Taiwan. He wants us to work with the members of the church more in order to give them desire to help the church grow here. We're hoping that putting this new focus on the members here will help the church be much stronger in the future. 

Elder Zhang and I visited a member in the branch the other night and had dinner with them. They were telling us a bit about the history of Yuli here. He was telling us how it's had a lot of struggles in the past. He was trying to not be negative, but him and the rest of the members have seen so many missionaries come into Yuli with the same attitude, that they want to change it and everything. He says they do the same things and it doesn't work. He looked at me and said we need an Alma here. Hearing all this made me realize this area has had a lot of missionaries come through with not much success. It's made me think about what else I can do differently so that it does. It's really humbling me and making me ponder on what needs to happen here. If you all could pray for me out here I would appreciate the support. I need all I can get.

We've been riding our bikes a lot lately, which is super fun. We just get on our bikes and ride like 24 miles in one day. It's a beautiful place that you can just enjoy while you ride.  We went and ate dinner with a family and they're so awesome. They love the missionaries and play with us all the time. One of their kids has 6 fingers and he's the sweetest kid you'll ever meet. 

We taught this guy we found this week named August. He is Taiwanese, but he's from Venezuela. He's one of our only friends to teach but he's really hard. He's into philosophy and thinks about everything so much that he kinda doesn't believe in anything anymore. He doesn't even believe that anything is good or bad. He also talks a lot. We had a lesson with him and it was us teaching him for 10 minutes and him talking for like 60. It really tests my patience and listening when you have to sit there and listen to them that long, but that's how he knows he can trust us and is willing to learn. He accepted a Book of Mormon and told us he will read it. If you have time, pray for him to find the truthfulness of the book of Mormon.

Nothing too crazy happened this week, they had elections for city officials so there were fireworks everywhere. We don't know anything about politics as missionaries so it didn't make any difference to us. It was fun to watch the firework show though.

The saddest thing that happened this week is that I broke my Tag. Nothing special I was just trying to put it on and then it snapped. I've worn it every day basically so it's really sad. I'll have to get a new one probably.

Love you all so much, it's a blast being a missionary every day and working to help people. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Have lots of pictures of a hike and with some members! Enjoy

Where are the Yuli missionaries?

This past week was different. We were only in our area for three days!! It was hard to progress the work when you aren't here that much. We stayed in Hualien with the other missionaries from Saturday night to Tuesday night. During that time we got lots done. We had interviews with president, stake conference, and a fun P day. We went bowling as a bunch of the Elders and only two of us got above 100 points! I barely made it over 100 cause I did terrible at first, but I made a good comeback in the end! Elder Chang and I went to a Kaorao. Barbecue place and we ate so much. We kept ordering more and more and the waitresses were really surprised and asked if we wanted to stop, but we just kept esting. I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of it, but I was ready to eat more when I came out. The next few days weren't the most fun in the bathroom, but it was worth it in the moment. 

While we were in Hualien we visited one of our friends that I've never met. He was hospitalized the day before I came because of some problems drinking alcohol. He'd been sensitive to drinking before and had a few close calls so he stopped. Some of his friends got him into it again while he was with them though and now he's in the hospital because of it. He's been there for three weeks now and mostly unconscious. We gave him a priesthood blessing and visited him twice. His wife is so sad, and she's convinced if he gets better and God saves him that he will be a completely different person after this. This might just be a trial of their faith. Keep them both in your prayers.

On Friday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders in Taidong which is more south than where I'm at.  It was good and I learned a lot. We got back Saturday night. It's good to be back in your own area. We are trying to work really hard and change it. Thank you all for the encouragement and emails. Enjoy the pictures.

-Elder Thayne

 

 

Who's feeling a picnic?

Beautiful week here in the Jade Village! It was filled with long bike rides, picnics outside, talking to crazy people on the streets and more of all that. 

I'm getting to know this area a bit better now and I'm getting used a little bit more used to how missionary work is done here. Since we have a lot of time, we teach an English class every Wednesday through Friday from 7:00-8:00. A bunch of kids come with their mom's to learn. We keep teaching the kids English in hopes that we can become friends with the families and they will let us come to their house to teach them! It's a process, but we think it will be worth it. The kids are really cute too. I'll put a picture in.

We woke up one morning and Elder Chang asked me where I wanted to study. I just told him somewhere outside that was pretty! We had set up an old Grandma to go visit that day in a place called Dongli so we biked half an hour to get there and teach her. She was really funny and wanted to talk for awhile. She's Christian and loves her church! We shared the Book of Mormon with her and she was excited that she had another book to read, I hope she understands it! This summer there were no typhoons, so there was a surplus of a fruit called Youzi. There are so many that people don't know what to do with. She insisted on giving us each about 7 Youzi that were half rotten and we biked all the way home with them haha. There's no way to convince old people out of giving you stuff, they're just too nice!! On the way back we stopped by a park and ate our lunch outside. Some of my favorite times have been to be on a long bike ride and just think to yourself. If there are people on the street, you should be talking to them, but here there aren't many people on the street so you can really ponder on things. It's really peaceful out here.

One day I woke up and Elder Chang asked if I wanted to go and Kan Shu that day. Read a book of course! I didn't ask what book but I said yeah. Elder Chang's Chinese is really weird, it doesn't sound like a normal Taiwanese, and he uses weird grammar that no one else does, so when he said Kan Shu it meant to go cut a tree! It's the same words, just different tones. So that afternoon we stopped by our branch member's home and cut down most of a tree for them using a saw. We finally get service opportunities here outside of English class! It's the best. 

What else happened this week... We came up to Hualien this week cause we had Stake Conference and interviews with President. This was the first time that I had questions and stuff I needed to bring up with him. I'm already thinking about next transfer because Elder Chang will be going home in 5 weeks and this area is gonna need another good missionary to replace him. So I talked to president about that and hopefully he thinks of someone good. 

They updated our Preach My Gospel book and as I was studying I noticed that in the studying section it talks about things you can do for an effective study. One of the new things they included was Pondering. As I've had more time to do that and just think things through, it's a really effective way to feel the spirit and recieve direction on what to do next. I hope that everyone gets enough time to ponder every single day. If you do that, you will understand more clearly what you should do and how to make decisions. Enjoy the pictures! 

-Love Elder Thayne