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.