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