Too.Much.Rain.

This week was a pretty normal week for missionary work!! The thing that made it a big harder to do was all the rain that came down. Throughout the week it would be really sunny, and then the moment we stepped outside it would start raining down in sheets. Before my mission rain actually never bothered me. We actually prayed for it so the crops on the farm could grow and we wouldn't be in a drought. It's completely different on a mission in Taiwan though. We have to be outside proselyting, and we can't go back home unless it's severe typhoon weather! We sometimes have rain Coats, but I only wear them in the winter. If you wear them in the summer you'll just get super hot and humid and then get soaked from your own sweat! So I just opted to not wear any water gear. Elder Fernandes and I were just on our bikes getting drenched by the rain while we saw all of the Taiwanese under their umbrellas saying:“辛苦了(so hard on you).” Elder Fernandes told me after that he kinda likes people see what we do can be hard sometimes... They appreciate our dedication . I have to agree with him.

We made tons of progress with Sam this week which we're really happy about! He came to church the last two Sundays, we taught him about half of the commandments and he is willing to follow them. It is a little bit hard for him to give up tea though. They pretty much drink tea at every meal. They drink it a lot more than water here. We had a lesson with him one day and then after went to go eat lunch with him. He said he didn't have enough money for a lunch, so we gave him some extra money. After we sat down and the food was brought out to us, we saw that he had ordered milk tea! He did it right in front of us haha. We knew he probably forgot, so we told him and then he went and exchanged it for a different drink. He came back and it was black tea... We were like Come on Sam!! He had already exchanged his drink once though so Elder Fernandes had to take it to the counter to get something he could drink. It was really funny! If everything goes well he will be baptized next week! We're super excited and we're working really hard with him so we hope it can turn out.

This week was mostly just Normal missionary work. We did a lot more trying to help Sam this week, and some of our other investigators and we feel like it's really gonna pay off! They are progressing a lot and we both feel like there are a few miracles in the making. Stuff will come out of all the hard work we've been doing soon, and I'm so excited to see it.

Elder Fernandes and I have been talking a lot about our investigators. Something we realized is that none of the people we are working with are "Golden Investigators." A "Golden Investigator,"  is someone you find and work with that accept everything you teach. They usually don't have any problems and they progress really fast and then get baptized and they're awesome people you don't have to worry about. And when we say that all of our investigators aren't Golden, it means that they all have little problems that they have to work though. After working with them for so long, I can see why it has to be this way. They have all these problems, but they are relying on God to help them. They also really like us as missionaries and also as their friends. Things are really good over here! Hope everyone is doing great back at home!

-Love Elder Thayne

Here's my address

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Da-an, Taipei 106

Taiwan

Just when you get used to him...

Well as you can probably guess from the title, this week was a bit crazy. If you remember last week, Elder Zhuang left and so Elder Day became Elder Fernandes and I's companion? So we had three people. It was a little bit hard to get used to for sure. He is also really really good at talking to missionaries, so we were constantly talking and the days seemed to just fly by. It actually became pretty fun. Since Elder Day leaves in two weeks, we were watching him do all of the "My Plan" work on the computer. Needless to say he was really excited to watch the dating part. The sad end to this whole story is that on Tuesday night Elder Day called President Jergensen and asked him about interview times. And then out of nowhere president told Elder Day he would be moving. Two weeks before the end of his mission they would be moving him back to his previous area in WanHua. It was super weird cause that never happens. So basically he hung up the phone and we got all of his stuff packed up and ready to go. There was a lot of throwing stuff away and it left the house pretty bad, but we got him out the next morning by six. We had to take a train to Taibei for a zone conference. 

The zone conference we went to that morning is actually the last one that will be put on by President Jergensen which is sad. It was really nice though because we were there by his house, and for lunch Sister Jergensen made waffles and bananas and caramel syrup. It was soooo good. I haven't had anything that good homecooked in a long time. We practiced teaching and he shared his testimony with us for the last time. Overall a really good experience. There are 40 missionaries going home this transfer which is super crazy. Because of that, and President going home, he doesn't have enough time to do a last interview with the missionaries staying. Kinda sad, but I do love him and was glad to see him one last time. Right after that meeting, we let Elder Day go, and it was just Elder Fernandes and I heading back on the train.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. We were on the streets talking to people, and then teaching the people that wanted to be taught. Just a normal missionary's life. 

Not much else to say until next week, but I love you all and hope you have a great father's day!! (I didn't know it was father's day until I got an email the day after...) 

-Love Elder Grayson Thayne

My mailing address:

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Da-an, Taipei 106

Taiwan

Here are some random pictures.

It's like he never existed

This was a really good week, it went by pretty fast. Had some good stuff happen for the area.

I haven't given an update on our investigators for awhile so I can share a little about each of them.

Phil: an awesome dad we met while the sisters were giving a chapel tour! He had his daughter with him and when we saw her, Elder Fernandes and I totally knew we had seen her before somewhere. They were really awesome, and Phil said he wanted to have his daughter grow up learning about Jesus! We had no idea where we had seen her until they had left. We realized that we'd seen her like 3 weeks before in a 7-11 with Phil`s mom. We had thought she was so cute, only two years old and eating her own ice cream cone is hard to forget!!

Karl: a really cool 25 year old. Graduated from College and owns his own business. He bought a restaraunt from this guy who had it as a burger place. It's theme is really cool and Karl is a nice guy. Business was slow for him, but then after we started meeting with him and taught him about prayer it started to pick up. He told us that Heavenly Father was helping him. He stopped responding for awhile so we checked on him the other night. He was really stressed, and told us that the previous owner who still owns part of the business wants to change the restaurant to a Hot Pot place. Hot Pot is everywhere, so Karl doesn't want to change it. It's making him pretty stressed, so if you could pray for him that would be great.

Sam and his Girlfriend: This is an interesting one... We met Sam biking a while ago and have started meeting with him. He's kind of an awkward 15 year old haha, just acts super weird sometimes. We were really trying to get him to come to church, but he would ride to his girlfriend's house every Sunday at 6 in the morning and stay there the entire day. He really likes his girlfriend, so he goes to her house every single day after school which is a 30 minute bike ride(dedication). Anyways we couldn't get him to come to church without her, but we met her and now we are meeting with both of them! She even reminds him to read the Book of Mormon!!

Jordan: Jordan's situation is really hard. He was Elder Day's investigator until Elder Day combined with us so he become both of ours. He is 16 and is super awesome. He even went to take the Sacrament to an injured member in the ward on Sunday. He's just a super Golden kid. He was about to get baptized next week, but his parents aren't going to let him. The Mom had a bad encounter with Christians a long time ago, not from our church. So now she doesn't have a good outlook on Christians, and won't let him get baptized. Last time we met with him it was hard cause he told us they didn't want him going to church anymore. If he isn't going to church then the ward can't support him easily. The legal "Adult" age here in Taiwan is 20 years old. So he will have to wait four years to get baptized. It's just gonna be hard for the missionaries to keep him around that long if he can't come to church. We're praying for a miracle though, and I am getting my friend from another area that had the same problem to video call us this week.

Okay I can talk about a few more people next week, I don't want to make this email too long and boring!

Elder Zhuang finally got his Visa approved!!! He left for the MTC in the Philippines last Thursday morning at 3:00. He was a really awesome missionary and super funny. We were all sad to see him go, but he's happy to be moving on. We are kind of in a far away area, so most of the mission won't even know he existed haha, Elder Day will be gone after this transfer too, so basically just a few missionaries know he was here. We woke up early and saw him off. It was actually his Mom who picked him up to drive him to the airport haha!! I guess that's what happens when your mission doesn't have cars

Since Elder Zhuang left, Elder Day has been with us. He's gonna be here in a Tricompanionship until he leaves to go home. It's been pretty weird, but fun. I'll let you in on more details soon! If you have any questions, just email back! 

-Love Elder Thayne

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Da-an, Taipei 106

Taiwan

Mango ice, and the reason that Taiwan is one of the most safe countries in the world.

Binlang isn't against the WoW??

This week was pretty awesome with a bunch of funny experiences! 

Our Zone which is in Xinzhu made a goal to get 104 setups with new people. And over 7 days we were able to get it! Pretty awesome, the Lord will help us achieve our goals.

Last Monday Elder Fernandes and I were doing some planning, and decided to call someone and he set up! A brand new investigator! We were super excited and wanted to get everything perfect! We had the church all lighted up on the inside, and had the gate and the door wide open for him to come in. As we were planning our lesson though, a member that doesn't come to church much just walked right in with her friend. We were scared because she had been in the Sacrament meeting the day before. She is a little crazy for sure. I was praying during the Sacrament and she came up and was calling people on her phone, and trying to get my attention and show me a video in Sacrament meeting. It took them about 30 minutes for her to leave and it was really awkward. So, we see her Monday night right before our investigator comes in, and she hands us Binlang (beetlenut) and some alcoholic drink. She was really excited to see us and was probably waiting for the church gate to be left open so she could get in. I told her we weren't allowed to have that stuff, but she just kept saying Binlang is okay, she was trying to convince missionaries . And then the investigator showed up while all of this was happening. We had to put all of the stuff away and get ourselves into a classroom to teach him. We had to lock the door cause she was trying to get in. It was funny haha. The lesson was great though!! 

A few days later we were biking, and then we saw her on the other side of the street, she got on her bike and started pedaling towards us pretty fast. We went a little faster and were able to lose her🤣. 

We had a few of our investigators drop us this week because they don't have any interest, so we focused on trying to find some new people. We weren't able to teach many people this week, but we are going to try extra hard to help these people. 

Saturday night we went to buy food for the next Sunday so we could have something to eat. I already had most of my food, but Elder Fernandes still had to get some stuff. It was really funny cause all of the stuff he usually gets wasn't there. A bunch of things happened that made it way complicated, but we finally had the food!! HALLELUJAH!! Little did we know that the next day was fast Sunday so it was all for nothing hahah. I had a cool experience with fasting though. Throughout that whole day I was able to feel the spirit so much better. And that's cause we were closer to God doing the things he wants us to do.

We had a lot of other things happen, but I don't have enough time to write them. I'll put some more details next week!! Love you guys! 

They also have YuGiOh cards attached to drinks for sale here. Super 方便。

I found this quote in a 7/11. It's in English but I still don't understand it. If you do, please write back and explain!🤣

-Love Elder Thayne

{Personal note to Mom}

In some news, remember when I bought all of those golf pants before my mission, and Mr Mac said they couldn't make them any skinnier because of the material? Well I found this little shop on the street that is run by a few grandma's, and they hooked us up really good. I got 4 pairs of those pants skinnier for like $15. Such a steal. 

Cool story. There is a family in our ward that is really cool and they love the missionaries. I was talking to the mom last night and she asked where I was from. When I told her Lehi, she asked if I used to have an Asian stake president. I told her yeah, president Lew? And then she said her and a few members of her family had visited Salt Lake City last summer. Around 6/30 and they went around with the Lew Family because their youngest son went to this mission. When I showed them a picture of our house, she said:" woah! We've been there!! The Lew's told us that their neighbors raised horses and stuff!" So yeah she saw our house hahaha. A super small world! And then they flew back to Taiwan July 5th, and you know why that day is special to me...