Zone Exchanges!!

This week was a really interesting week. Kinda rough with the work, but we're doing well over in Bali. 

Since our P day was switched to Tuesday this week, Elder Hooker and I headed to Nangang to meet up with some Elders. There were 8 of us. 4 trainees, and 4 trainers. We ate this thing called Hot pot. It was a Chidebao(all you can eat) so I ate a ton. Basically you go and put stuff on a plate that you want. Maybe some veggies, noodles, and whatever else is there. They give you meat of your choice, and then you throw it all in a boiling pot and eat out of it. It was super good! It was also just really fun to be with my friends from the MTC. The Waitress gave us all a sour look when we came in. They know that Americans eat a lot more food than the typical Taiwanese, especially poor American Missionaries. Let's just say that we for sure made the money worth it, and they were glad when we finally decided to leave haha.

This week Elder Hooker and I had to wake up. The work wasn't going well at all. Even though we thought we were working the way we should nothing was happening. We only taught one lesson last week, didn't find any new investigators, and no one showed up to church. It was a big wakeup call for us, so we decided to make new goals and plans. Do things differently, and really try to give our all when it comes to obedience. There is absolutely no way you can do the work without the Lord on your side helping you. On Saturday night we were trying to find someone to come to church with us but no one could. I walked past a bunch of college students and started talking with them. When I walked up, one of the friends threw his other friend under the bus and said:" He has interest." Needless to say, he didn't have interest. I did my best to have them come to church with us, but they just kept changing the topic saying I was a:"Shuai ge(Handsome man" It was pretty annoying but we left on good relations. As we were walking home that night we found this guy smoking and we talked to him. He seemed nice and wouldn't give us his number, but said he would come to church. We didn't see him at church the next day, but we saw him last night and he didn't want to talk to us. A really cool contact from that night turned out to be a guy that wanted nothing to do with us. It's frustrating sometimes, but I'm learning not to let other people's actions make me react. I can always be in control of myself if I don't let someone get a reaction out of me. It helps make things a lot happier, cause outside negative things don't have an effect on you.

We also were able to go on Zone Leader Exchanges which were really fun. We already knew the Zone Leaders pretty well because they are in our district. I was with Elder Cooper, and we went to his area in Danshui which is across the river from Bali and is a really big city. We went to teach a lesson to a referral. We went in this place called:" a night in paris" to have the lesson. To sit down you have to buy something so I bought a waffel with ice cream on it. It was super good. The guy we met with was super awkward though. We shared about Jesus Christ with him cause he said he was interested, but whenever we asked him a question he wouldn't answer. He was really" Hai hao," which means that he didn't really care about anything we had to say. We asked him if we could meet with him again and he said no, he'd rather stick with his own religion. After asking what it was he told us:" Yi Guang Dao." It's super weird. They believe that God had 5 sons. It's basically to believe in tons of religions without believing in one person. The 5 sons of God are: Jesus Christ, Confucius, another Chinese guy, Buddha, and Mohommad. It doesn't make any sense because they believe in Jesus, but Jesus says:" I am the only Begotten of the Father." Weird stuff haha. We found for the rest of the day and it went well. The tradition they have is every night they go up on the top of their " DaLou's(apartment)" roof and just watch the city lights and talk with soda and music. It's a really nice way to end the day.

us on the roof looking at the city of Danshui.

Yesterday we also were biking past the beach and we saw a ton of people out there as a volunteer effort cleaning up the trash. It was really cool, and you don't get many opportunities to serve in Taiwan, so we helped them out. They ended up interviewing us and taking pictures with us that they posted on facebook. I tried to speak in Chinese, so if they posted that video you can see me stumble over my Chinese. I think you can put the Chinese or English in. I don't know. But here it is: (#seayouagainTW)(全國揪團津灘）

Us at the service activity

Last night we went out finding for a few hours and talked to a lot of people. We taught the first lesson to some people, but they wouldn't set up again so we didn't get any new investigators. We did get some really cool people that were interested though, they just live outside of our area. We referred them over so hopefully that goes well. Not much else happened this week. I'll keep you guys updated and I love you all!!

-Love Elder Thayne

Transfers!

This last week transfers took place which was super crazy. I didn't really care because I knew I wasn't moving, and neither was my trainer. Everyone else was freaking out though. It's like Christmas when transfers come, people find out if they will get a new companion, and where they will move to. In other missions when transfers happen, the leaders will call the missionaries and tell them where they are going and who their next companion will be. Our mission is a bit different. The Mission Recorder will send out an Ibon code to each companionship, and the companionship puts the code into a machine at the nearest 7/11(They're everywhere in Taiwan). They then get a paper printout which tells them all the information they need and that they'll be leaving the next morning. It makes the mission a lot more organized and transfers go much more smoothly. So Elder Hooker and I were just chilling doing our studies when we get a text from the Recorder with an Ibon code. We were super confused, cause we weren't supposed to get moved. We rushed to the nearest 7/11 and he printed the code out and started going crazy. It said he was going to be moved to Hualian and become a District and Zone leader there. Which is usually impossible. Right then the Zone Leaders called me and asked me how I felt about the transfers. I told them I hadn't read it yet. They told me to read it out loud to them. It said that Bali would be closed as an area, and I would finish my training with Elder Swank. I knew it had to be fake, and then they told me it was haha. It really fooled Elder Hooker though. It looked Legit and everything. But yeah, I'm still here in Bali for the next 6 weeks with Elder Hooker.

This week was our first week having a member accompany our lessons! We have been working really hard to get members involved in the work here. They are so important in every mission, and if you don't have the support of the ward, you won't be as successful in your area. Member missionary work is the way to go because this last week was raining a ton. Taiwanese people won't be outside when it's raining, so there isn't anyone to talk to. Bali is already a small area, so street contacting in the rain usually doesn't end up too good. So we have been trying really hard to work with them. We brought our investigator Ke Jiemei to a member named Coco's house. She did really well and was able to share a few stories with her and help her understand how the spirit works. Ke Jiemei is progressing very well as an investigator. She accepted all of the Ten Commandments, and is trying to read the Book of Mormon every day. She told us that she reads it to her son Louis before he goes to bed. When she gets tired, he makes sure she reads it haha. We are hoping to meet with Louis soon, his Mom just wants to make sure he wants to.

Sadly we had to drop one of our investigators this week. His name is Zheng Dixiong, and he's the one who accepted baptism when I committed him to it the first day I was here. We knew going into this lesson with him that it was kind of our last hope. He hasn't been keeping commitments, and never wanted to come to church. His wife is a Christian, and he is a Buddhist so it's tearing their family apart. Our bishop came with us to teach him, cause he knew him before from work. We invited him to church and talked about how it has blessed us, but he said he wouldn't come. We then asked him about his Book of Mormon reading and he said that the Book of Mormon's teachings were not in harmony with his faith. By the end of the lesson we asked him if he could say a closing prayer which he had always done before. He paused for awhile and then refused. We left on good terms with him, but we knew we had to drop him. Bishop told him that even if he didn't join our church, he should still join his wife's church to be able to have the family united. I had learned about being bold more while teaching this week which has always been a struggle for me because I'm not as bold as I could be with my language skills the way they are.  So before we left I said something like this:" God gave us the Book of Mormon, The Bible, and Prayer so that we can know the truth for ourselves. If we aren't reading and praying with a desire to figure out what's true, God will not answer us. This is why you don't know if you want this. Because you have no desire to know for yourself." I was a little surprised about what I said, but I could feel the spirit stronger because I did. I know that if we follow the Spirit's direction, even if it seems strange, we will be blessed.

One last funny thing happened this week. One of our investigators is named Eddy. It's his English name, and his English is some of the best I've seen out here. He's been to Idaho as an Exchange Student, and was put with a member family. The members did great, and gave his referral to us when he came home. He loves them and is always keeping in touch with them. He's a really nice kid, but his parents won't let him get baptized till he's 18 cause they don't know if that's what he actually wants. He's 15 though which is old enough to make a decision, parents are just very protective of their kids over here. After English class one day we asked him if we could talk about the Book of Mormon a little bit with him, he agreed and then we asked him how much he knew about Joseph Smith. He said umm, and was thinking for awhile and then said:" After he saw God and Jesus Christ he was in his room or something at night and an Angel came to him. The light was brighter than the sunlight or something and he told him about some Golden Plates or something. Then he tried to fall asleep but the Angel came back like 3 more times, and when he was done it was already morning. So he had to go outside to work and then he told his Father about it and he said that he needed to do what God wanted him to do. So he found the Golden Plates under the ground on a hill but he couldn't take them out. He had to come back every year for four years before he could take them out. And then when he was translating he fought with his wife and couldn't do it anymore. He asked God why he couldn't do it and God said that he needs to have peace with his wife or he can't translate." Anyways... he just went on and on. He knew way more than most members I know haha. He's a super cool kid, so hopefully we can talk to his parents about letting him come to church.

That's about everything that happened this week! Love you all.

-Elder Thayne

General Conference

I know all of you have already seen General Conference, but we just watched all of the sessions in the last two days. So many talks stood out to me that I could share, but they were all great. One thing that was really interesting as I was listening to the talks is that I was getting answers to my own questions as well as answers to my investigators questions. I wish they could have all been there because it was so good. One of the talks that really stood out to me was the Brazilian who talked about knowing when people are called of God, and we are supposed to support and listen to them. He talked about Priesthood leaders and Bishops, but something he didn't mention was with Missionaries. I really reflected and what really applies to me is about my companion. Elder Hooker and I are very different people. We grew up differently, and our outlook on life is different. The thing that brings us together though is our love of the gospel, and how we want to share it. People can be completely different, but when they have a united purpose just as Elder Hooker and I, we are able to be successful and work well together.

This week we had on our schedule our first interviews with President Jergensen. While we were making our lunch in our apartment one day we heard the phone ringing. It was from him. Whenever a mission president calls you personally when they are always so busy it's never a good thing haha. He just asked:" Where are you guys?" I found out that the schedule was wrong and we had to drop our plans to make it there. While we were there we had an interview with him. He doesn't know much about me yet, so mine only lasted about 5 minutes. We were praying about our investigator Ke Jiemei's situation and went to President for some wise counsel. When I brought it up with him, he just gave me a really simple answer. He told me to share 1 Nephi 3.7 with her and talk about faith. The lord will provide a way for her to get baptized. It was so simple, but so profound. Later on that week we met with her. We had planned to not share that yet, cause we still didn't know what to do about that situation. I got a spiritual prompting while we were talking with her though so I shared it. She's trying to find a way to move out of her husband's house. The Lord will help her, it's going to take a lot of faith though.

The guy in the email I talked about last week turned out to be a fake. I think he came and made it sound like he was really interested in our message, took a picture with us and then posted it somewhere. Every time we call him he asks who we are and then just hangs up. It's sad to see people like that because we know our message will bring them peace and happiness, but they just won't accept it. We are trying to find new investigators over here though so we'll keep working hard!

DOGS. Dogs are really starting to be a problem over here. In Bali its a big mountain surrounded by a river and some ocean. The parts closer to the shore have a little more city and more people. As you go up the mountain it gets a lot more rural and there are a few houses strung out. I've run into dogs a few times and almost got bit. I guess it's an inevitable thing over here. I swear Satan controls dogs when they see missionaries. They are always so angry hahah. One time, Elder Hooker and I were biking down this hill in the dark( In Taiwan it gets dark at 6:00 and we are out till 9:30. We do most of our proselyting in the dark) I got behind him and as he was riding past this junkyard he rang his bell and a bunch of dogs came out. I was behind him so I stopped. They started running at me though so I barely got out haha. It sure does make your heart race! 

Overall everything is going really well over here. I could feel the spirit a lot this week! Make sure to watch some conference if you haven't yet. It gives you so much counsel on what to do. 

Here's some Photos of me, Elder Hooker, and Elder Swank in District Meeting

Exchanges

So this week was really interesting. It started out with Elder Hooker and I going to the Bali beach by the Taibei Port. We saw some old people along the beach, and they talked to us and were finding clams in the beach. We saw how they did it so we just walked up and down collecting clams so that was cool!

Something I found out about Bali is that it is pretty small. It is seperated from the main part by a river with only one bridge going across. Before the bridge, Bali was pretty isolated so there was a lot of intermarrying. Many of the people on this Island are kind of inbred cause they're all from the same place. Especially Bali. They have a lot of mental institutions here so that's fun. They have some mountains here, but people pay lots of money to bury their ancestors there. About 30,000 people live in Bali. There are about 200,000 people buried here though. It's kinda ironic. The most expensive spots on the land are given to dead people haha.

We went on exchanges this week with some Elders in our district. I was assigned with a Native Taiwanese and went to his area. The language barrier was huge! He's supposed to be learning English as his second language, but he doesn't have any interest in it. When I'm studying chinese during language study he just sleeps haha. My Chinese is better than his English so we just did most things silently. While I was with him, we visited some member families and shared some stuff with them. We went to this one family's house and I tried to share "The Restoration." They had three little girls that were crawling all over me though so it was hard to focus. They kept saying:" Chuanjiaoshi"(Missionary) and then said some other stuff. I just pretended like I couldn't understand so I could keep teaching haha.

People always use me to do things that they don't want to do cause I'm new and I need "Lianxi" (practice). It's kinda funny cause we were at church the other day and the teacher asked if I could pray. There were about twenty people in the class and I had said it last time. He said he didn't care, and I needed "practice." Anytime we are at an appointment with food, Elder Hooker is just eating and doesn't really care to talk to the person haha. I try to make conversation, but I don't know much Chinese. Afterwards he just says: "Hey, I was just being a good trainer and giving you practice!" Whatever haha.

I also ate some squid! It wasn't my favorite thing for sure, but it wasn't too bad!

While we were sitting down in this 7/11 one night a guy walked up to us and said in English:"What does Jesus mean to you." It kinda caught us off guard cause his English was really good, but he was obviously Taiwanese. He was a Christian who had been baptized a few months ago. He just wanted to learn from different sects. He wanted to know what we believed. As we were talking with him and sharing the first lesson with him, he was intrigued. We talked with for awhile and he just kept mentioning:" The things you guys are telling me is what I believe in. I believe in a God who loves his Children." He also kept asking us why all the other Christian churches didn't like Mormons very much even though we belive in Jesus Christ. It was hard to explain that one haha. He was awesome though. After we talked to him, we found out he lived in another area! We have to pass him on as a referral. Not many people live in Bali sadly. We gave 4 refferals this week, but hopefully next week we can find more people!

We've run into a few problems this week with our investigator Ke Jiemei. She is trying to keep the word of wisdom, but when we brought up the law of chastity there is a problem. She is divorced and she has two kids. In order for the kids to get to go to the same school, they have to live in the same house. The only way they can live in the same house is if their parents live in the same house. They are in seperate bedrooms, but she has to leave in order to get baptized. She was going to move in with her parents, but Taibei city is going to bulldoze their house to create a new street, and they can't do anything about it. She would be homeless if she tried to move out cause she doesn't have a job. There is just a lot of trouble with this. Please pray for her and give her faith to move forward even if their isn't a clear solution to this circumstance.

Love you all

-Elder Thayne