聖誕節快樂

Merry Christmas everyone!!! I hope that everything is going well back in the States! I heard you don't really have a white Christmas, but you'll get snow later! We just have cold rain over here in Taiwan!!

This week has been really great! We were able to have a bunch of activities for the missionaries and some for the ward too. 

 Yesterday we were able to have a big Christmas Concert that the missionaries were able to put on for the people in Taibei. Tons of missionaries came to sing and I was able to see tons of people I knew from the ward. I also saw a lot of missionary friends. I was able to just laugh and be with some of my best friends from the MTC!!! It was great and the spirit was really strong as they were singing! My zone was also able to eat dinner at President's house before the concert.  We had some good food by Sister Jergenson and then Cream Puffs in Chocolate Fondou!! Super good. 

This week was a little bit harder with the work. People would set up, and then stand us up and not come. Or they would cancel on us. We had a lot of potential investigators, but it didn't really work well. We worked well with members this week though. We visited with a bunch of them and helped them plan a Christmas activity. We were even in the ward Christmas video! They filmed us opening up our packages and it was pretty funny. I love the members here in 三重 though. Lots of good people.

Last Monday we went on a super fun hike. We went with the Sister's investigator named Tin and with one of the members named Ray. Ray isn't even in my ward, but he likes to hang out with us all the time. When I was in Bali I met him and he really liked me cause he said I looked really handsome in my suspenders . He loved it, so he begged the missionaries in his own ward to buy him some. He sometimes wears them, but he thinks they just make him look more fat haha. Anyways, he came with us on the hike last week. It was a really beautiful hike , but it was a little bit more dangerous than we thought. We had to start climbing up ropes to get to the top. Ray was pretty scared cause he had never done anything like that, but we cheered him on and he did it. Once we got to the top of the mountain it was really beautiful. It was pretty cloudy but really nice. It started raining on the top so we had get down. There were two ways down. The easier way and the harder way. Elder Welch and I chose the harder way of course and we had to go down a hundred foot slope using a rope. It was a bit scary because it was slippery when it was wet, but we made it down. We had to cheer Ray on all the way down and he finally made it past this one part. He said:"I'm a wonder boy, just like the new movie," he said it in Chinese though so it was funny. There was one last slope that wasn't nearly as bad as the one before that Elder Welch and I went down. Ray was coming down and then his foot slipped! He let go of the rope, and started sliding down the side of the rock. He barely hit this part of the trail that saved him before there was another slope. He was really lucky. He got kind of freaked out about it, but we all laugh about it now. He told us he wants to go on that Hike again! He loved the thrill haha.

I don't want to make this too long, but I love all of you, and I hope your Christmas is meaningful. Try to share your joy with everyone you can and you will experience more joy because of it. 

-love Elder Thayne

 

 

Baptism!!!

This week in 三重 was great! We were able to have the opportunity to baptize a Vietnamese family. A husband and his wife. They are a young family who live here in Taiwan. Lily knows some English, but not very much Chinese. Her husband An Zhi speaks good Chinese but no English haha. By the time I got to 三重 they had already commited to baptism. They are so cool and so funny. I was able to baptize Lily, and Elder Welch baptized An Zhi. Elder Welch is left handed though, so he did the whole baptism with his left hand! Hahaha he had to baptize him again. I felt the spirit so strongly. When we got out of the font, we asked lily how she feels, and she said that she feels like:“ a little child returning home.” She was crying afterwards because she felt so good. An Zhi bore his testimony after, and it was so powerful. He talked about how he wants to keep growing in the gospel, and keep studying the scriptures. He understands that baptism is just the beginning. They are growing a lot already. A lady in the ward took some pictures of the baptism but she hasn't given them to me. Hopefully I'll have them by next week! 

Sanchong is a really great place! There are lots of people to talk to all the time. The members in the ward are also super awesome. There is a recent convert named Rui Cong who is really cool. He's always helping our the missionaries and loves to be with us. We met with a lot of members this week inviting them to serve one another and get into the spirit of Christmas. 

One member family we visited was having a really hard time and the wife was thinking about having a divorce. They invited us over for dinner, but as we were walking up the stairs we heard lots of yelling coming from inside. We left and then came back later when the wife called us. She was pretty mad at her husband, and wouldn't let him come out of the bedroom to see us. It was a good visit though and I think we helped them. They told us later that they went on a walk together and talked over some things, so hopefully that helped. From that whole experience, I learned that the wife rules the house haha. 

It was a great week overall though, hopefully we can teach a lot more people soon. I'll make sure to send pictures next week!

-Elder Thayne

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Transfer to 三重

大家好!

This week was probably one of the best weeks on my mission! It was transfer week so all of the missionaries were going crazy wondering where they would go off to. This transfer actually mattered to us because we would be out of training and get new companions! I thought that I was going to be staying in Bali and Elder Hooker would leave because he's been in Bali for 3 transfers. When we opened up the transfer sheet though, it said I was leaving... It was a super crazy twist. I had to pack all of my stuff. I thought that I would he staying, so I had a bunch of food bought. He was super happy to inherit all of the food I couldn't take. 

My new area is called Sanchong. It's very different from Bali. Bali was a small town, and Sanchong is just a densely populated city. It has 10 times as many people as Bali. I have just been going around meeting a bunch of the members in the ward. Every time I go up to them and introduce myself they laugh because my Chinese name means:"Elder Money." They love it and laugh all the time. My new Companion is named Elder Welch. He's so awesome and his Chinese is really good too. We get along really well and the work is going well. He is actually on his last transfer on his mission. When someone is close to going home, they say they are close to dying. The missionary who is with them when they die is the one who "kills" them. It's pretty weird, but it's how they say it.

Lots of great miracles this week! Two investigators that they had before I got here just passed their baptismal interview. They are so great, and there is so much stuff going on. I'll send more information next week!