I'm a bike Mechanic

Hey everyone!! I have to apologize for emailing late. My P day was switched because we are going to the temple for P day, so I wasn't able to email until now. Forgot to tell everyone. But I will be on the usual time next week! 

Last P day was super fun! Elder Welch was still in Taiwan, so I got to hang out with him and his parents with some Taiwanese people. We went to the Grand Hotel, and then to Jilong to walk down this cool old street. We also hiked a bit and took pictures. It was awesome to be with my old companion again the day before he actually goes home back to America. His parents brought me a football and some BYU chocolate truffles which I was super grateful for! I've had some fun with it. The Taiwanese don't know how to throw a football, so it's pretty funny. 

This was an overall good week for the work as well. We spent a lot of time helping organize a ward activity that they were having. Every month they use the last Saturday to celebrate the ward Members' birthdays who had birthdays in that month. We called through all of the members of the ward inviting the less active members and really trying to get people to come! A lot of people ended up showing up and we had food and cake and then played board games with them. While we were there, a ward member asked us to go to the subway station and pick up a French guy who speaks a little English. His name was Alex and he was pretty cool, not super interested in the gospel though. He loved the costco cake which I thought was funny. He's from France and they are really good baked things and he loved a store bought costco cake. Haha the activity turned out well though, lots of people showed up and we had lots of fun.

A member in the Luzhou ward got his mission call as well. It's weird watching that while you're a missionary. Cause you know some of the stuff they're going to experience. It's all different. He's going to London England speaking English so he's pretty excited. We also were able to help a ward member move. No one had offered to help, so we did and we got a bunch of his stuff moved. He was pretty grateful, so he bought us some good Beef Noodles last night.

My bike was acting up a lot this week and wouldn't move very well. I found out that it's because I had bent the wheel, so it's constantly being dragged by the brakes. I decided to switch my tire with the old Exchange bike we have. To replace for a new tire is really expensive, so I just wanted to take the old tire. I needed a tool to undo my bike though. I went to this bike shop to ask this guy if I could buy a tool to fix my bike. He kept misunderstanding me though and tried to sell me new breaks. I told him I needed the tool, cause I could do it myself. He just told me that no one in New Taibei City sells that tool and I could just pay him. I decided to go to a more advanced bike shop and got the tool there. I spent the next hour fixing my bike up outside of our apartment building. It was pretty funny because all of these Taiwanese walked by just seeing an American with black greasy hands working on two bikes. They thought it was funny that I could do that and asked if I learned that in school. I told them that I had never done it before, and just did it there. The tire I put on is a 5 year old tire that is also bent, but it's a lot better than my other one, so I'm grateful. 

My bike isn't the only one that for wrecked this week though. Elder Hyde's Bike is totalled.We have a few injured people in our district right now. The District Leader Elder Donalson's knee is inflamed, so he is constantly in pain. His companion Elder Endicott rolled his ankle. My companion Elder Hyde just got hit by a car yesterday so his bike is broken. Basically everyone but me for the Elders. The sisters are really safe on the road so they're alright. 

So yeah it was a really fun week this week, and we were able to work hard and see some people progress! Don't want to take too long, so I'll email you all again in 5 days!! 

The pictures are of us with Elder Welch and his parents on P day.

 

Elder Welch where are you?

Haha Elder Welch is officially off his mission now. I was able to spend my last P day with him on Monday and we went hiking. We hiked with two of his other former companions and we all had a good time. He was really happy and it was fun. He was an amazing 3rd companion and I learned so much from him and he's a stud. I dropped him off on Wednesday morning giving him a goodbye hug and then letting him go. I hope he doesn't get married too fast haha. 

This week was a pretty big change. A lot happened! Right when Elder Welch said that he was going home, a bunch of members wanted to eat with us. We ended up having a dinner with someone for the next three nights! I swear that it is the Members' goal to get me fat. They are always giving me so much food. Even though they know I'm full and can't take anymore they make me eat more! Haha I never thought I wouldn't have a choice how much food I shovel into my body. They just make me eat! I heard when Chinese New Year comes it gets crazy and people get sick... needless to say, I'm not super excited for that haha.

Since Elder Welch was leaving, the luzhou elders had to be with me until I got my new companion. While I was with them a member called me and asked for a priesthood blessing. I hadn't ever been the one to say the blessing before so it was a new experience. I was able to do it in English, and Elder Endicott said that through the whole blessing he was thinking of stuff I needed to say, but I ended up saying it all. The spirit was truly guiding me which was a cool experience! After that we headed to the MRT station and picked up my new companion Elder Hyde. He is a pretty nice guy, and super obedient which is always good. His Dad actually served a mission in Taizhong so when he was 8 years old, they moved to Hong Kong. He lived there for ten years because of his dad's work， so that's pretty cool! I think we'll do well in this area and receive blessings for our service. 

On Friday this week was pretty cold. I think it was in the 40 degrees with wind chill and everything. It wasn't actually that cold, but with the moisture in the air that's what it actually felt like. For some reason I decided to just wear my short sleeved shirt and go out. Everyone on the street was just saying:"他不怕冷!!" Which means that He doesn't fear the cold!! People were so worried about it to the point where they brought a sweater for me. I kept telling them I just left my coat at home, but they didn't understand and were genuinely concerned haha. They are super nice people and always willing to do something to help someone.

I am still adjusting to changes, and missionary work is never easy work. Most people don't like to talk to you and things can be hard sometimes. Yesterday morning I received a call from my RC An Zhi. He told me that he had overtime work and that he was super tired and hadn't had the opportunity to sleep yet. He said for some reason he felt like he needed to call me and tell me that I will become a good missionary. He bore his testimony to me and said that I'm doing the right thing and my parents are proud of me. He also said that I am a good kid and I'm providing for my family in a spiritual way. Right after he said all of this he  hung up and went to sleep. It was just really cool to me that he called me to strengthen me. I'm super lucky to have got to know them.

I love all of you and your emails make my week! Thanks for all the love and support. Choose the Right!!

What happened to me??

Hey everyone!! The first week of the year was pretty great! Last P day I was able to go to a mountain and hike with a bunch of missionaries. We just do a bunch of hiking in Taiwan haha. It was nice because I was able to see a bunch of missionaries and one of my best mission buddy's Elder Cheung. We spent the day together and had some fun. 

 
This week was pretty cool. It is Elder Welch's last full week as a missionary. We wanted to be able to hit the key indicators so we worked really hard. The key indicators are 4 new investigators, 4 investigators at church, and 4 people who have a baptismal date. We tried to find new people and we were able to do a lot because we had the goal. We found a guy at McDonald's who saw us and saw that we were really happy so he talked to us. We ended up having a lesson with him a few days later. Yesterday was probably the craziest day of the week. We set up lessons with three investigators back to back, and had a lesson with a less active member at his house. It was super busy, but we were able to have good lessons with everyone and then go to Luzhou for an activity. We ended up eating dinner later that night cause we didn't have time. 

We found a place in a big park to do some exercise with the district. It is like 4 miles away from our house, so we have to wake up extra early and then bike there. The Sister's don't usually come, but we have the Elders and a few members come with us. It got a little competitive during a soccer game and one of the members who is a girl tripped over me and got a big bruise on her leg. At church today she was telling everyone what I did haha. They just aren't used to competitive Americans haha.

 

On Monday I had the longest hair I've ever had before. As I started to cut it though, I did something crazy. I BUZZED ALL OF MY HAIR!!! I felt like I needed to learn to be more humble because I would always get a lot of looks from people. The thing is, I buzzed my hair and now I'm pretty much bald. I thought it was really funny though. As I was at church today, people couldn't believe it was me and they kept just laughing hahaha. I guess it helps improve the relations with the members and the missionaries haha. People would always tell me I looked like someone from One Direction or Justin Beiber, but now so many people think I look like Eminem the rapper. Haha it's pretty hilarious. I just didn't want to care about my appearance too much, so I did this instead!

 

We saw a really cool miracle this week too! The Sister's ran into an old man on the street and he recognized them as missionaries. They talked to him and showed him where the church was and he lives super close. The Sister's passed him off to us as someone who might want to learn the gospel. When we met with him though, he kept saying:"I've already been baptized," we have heard the same thing over and over again, so we were dreading teaching him for a bit. When we started teaching him though, we realized he was already a member of the church! He had been baptized into the church over 15 years ago in Germany. He really loved it, but they taught him in German cause no one knew Chinese. He moved back to Taiwan, but didn't know where the church was so he didn't come back. As we taught him about the Restoration, he was super happy. He told us that this is the first time he's been able to hear it in his native language. We asked him to start praying and reading the scriptures every day again and he was super willing. He said of course. We invited him to church, and he was there starting to get to know the ward. It was a miracle. He told us that he always knew he would come back someday. And the Lord brought him back. 

Anyways this is just some of the things that happened this week. I hope we can all read the scriptures and pray every day to strengthen our relationship with Heavenly Father. He truly cares about us, and will always help us return to the thing that is best for us.

Enjoy your week! Love you all!

-Elder Thayne

 

新年快樂!!!

HEY everyone! It's the new year!! So many Holidays! We are going to watch the fireworks at Taipei 101 from our apartment.

This week has been pretty great! We were able to street contact a lot and just try to figure things out. Elder Welch and I were also able to teach a few lessons. One day was pretty interesting. We met with a former investigator and had a lesson with him on faith. It went pretty well, and then we asked him if he would he williNg to be baptized in the coming months. HE SAID YES! Here comes the kicker though...we asked him if he could continue to read the Book of Mormon and pray. He sat there and thought about it for awhile, and then flat out said no. We were super confused. We've never had anyone agree to be baptized and then not be willing to pray or read. He said it didn't work for him before, so it wouldn't work now. We're going to try to keep working with him though. 

Another day we were just walking around and then decided to walk into an Okay Mart. We saw a guy sitting down, and then he started talking to us in English. He was a pretty nice Chinese guy and he told us about all of his experiences. He's been to almost everywhere in the world and he loves to learn. He also looked like he was 50 years old. We tried to guess, but turns out he is 70. It was the craziest thing. Anyways after awhile of talking, he let us start to talk. We asked him if he cared to find God. He said YES. He'd been searching everywhere to find what was true and right. He went everywhere and learned from almost every religion. We were really excited, but when I brought out the book of Mormon he kind of backed away. We wanted to give it to him so he could learn for himself, but he wouldn't accept it. I asked him why, and then he told me:"you wouldn't believe everything I go through to find the truth. I would do anything!" But he wouldn't accept the book, or try to learn from us. He was a very knowledgeable guy and he'd been all over the world which made him too prideful to listen. Every time I would bring something up, he wouldn't listen and say that I'm too young to know what I'm talking about. We left the lesson there and said goodbye to him. It was a frustrating experience to me, but I learned a lot. Never be too prideful to hear someone, and really be sincere in your desires, and people will take you seriously.

Well Elder Welch only has a week and a half left on his mission. We are having a lot of fun together, and I'm learning so much. We are going to try to work super hard this next week and half as a going away present. It's been a very fast transfer, and I'm grateful to have him.


2017 has been an amazing year full of awesome experiences. I was able to spend the first half of it at home with my family. I was able to graduate high school, go on a last family trip and then head on my mission. It's probably been one of the busiest years of my life, but for sure one of the best. I've learned and grown so much, and I'm looking forward to bringing that into the New Year! It's crazy to think that I will be spending the whole year of 2018 on this Island. It's for sure an adventure though! You're all awesome and I'll make sure to put some pictures of the hike we just went on!

-Elder Thayne