God's moving his work forward

Train station from Taipei super crowded and there was a fire so no one could move!

Sorry it's been a few weeks since I've written you all last! But I'm back and ready to tell you all what's been going on!

Elder Fernandes got transferred to Taoyuan to become the zone leader over there. I'm really happy for him and he's with a cool companion. I miss him a lot though. Last P day we headed up to Taoyuan to see a few missionaries. The cool thing is that I was with my companion I have right now(Elder Merrill) and with my old companions Elder Hyde, Halverson, and Fernandes. So I had every one of my companions that are still on the mission with me there. It was cool to see them all again and hang out a bit. I really love all of them. Elder Hyde is going home soon which is a bit sad but he's moving on to good things. All my other companions will be here for awhile.

Elder Merrill is a really cool guy. He's from California and loves lots of sports. He's good with Soccer, skateboarding, and skin boarding mostly. He's half Korean and he used to live in Korea so he understands it all and still speaks pretty well. He just got out of training and came down to Miaoli with me. Really good missionary who likes working with the members and is really good at connecting with the people out here.

Things are going well out here. We aren't running into the cave man anymore which is a bit sad haha. Because school is starting soon, most of our friends are leaving and moving to different areas. It's a bittersweet thing though because during the school year we have a college open in our area and it's a good place to find people interested in learning about God. Basically from the time I got to Miaoli all till now it's been summer so there haven't been any students. We're excited about that. 

We had a miracle happen right before Elder Fernandes left the area. A man walked up to us saying that he had learned from the missionaries in Miaoli before and he couldn't keep the Word of Wisdom so he couldn't get baptized. After that he moved to China and found a girl and got married to her. Now they are both learning from us cause he came back. It's a bit hard to teach her because she has had no concept of God her entire life so it's really different. She has faith though and loves her husband. We are working really hard with them and hope to help both of them a lot before they go back to China next month. If you all could pray for them I would really appreciate it. The Lord is now blessing us with all the hard work that's been put in and I can't wait to see this hard work pay off. I love you all!

I'll send some pictures and talk about them a bit. Give you guys some more information next week!

Mailing address: 

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Da-an, Taipei 106

Taiwan

Found a bat at the church and rescued him cause he was prey to all the cats around the church.

Elder Merrill and I. Just riding around Taiwan :)

Dad, I understand now.

I remember way before I came on my mission I was talking to my Dad and complaining about always being at church and doing stuff for the church on Sunday. It was the worst on fast Sunday when I had to be out serving other people either by giving them the Sacrament cause they were sick, or having meetings and doing home teaching. There would be some Sundays where I would be gone for like 5 hours straight and when I finally came home I would see my family eating and just hanging out at the house. I always thought I had to spend way too much time at the church. My Dad talked to me one day and told me that Sundays on his mission were the days he would spend almost all day at the church and only take a break to eat his  sack lunch that he brought. When he told me that I didn't understand how he could stay there that long... Until now.

Yesterday we were at church for so long. We got there before 9:00AM, Had church for three hours until 12:00 and then talked to some members and waited until 1:00 to be in ward council. Our Ward mission leader can't come so we had to represent the missionaries there. The meeting went really long for two hours, and then we had an hour that we studied at the church before an activity we put on. We made Mashed potatoes and pasta which most of the members had never had before which was way fun! By the end of the night we finally got out of the church at 9:00! We were literally at the church for twelve straight hours! So yes I finally understand Dad.

This week we worked really hard to work with some new people we've been finding. Some of it's been good, and some hasn't been going too well. Some of the guys we taught we gave the Book of Mormon to and their parents told them they aren't allowed to read it. It's always sad that people can't make their own decisions and learn about different things because it's not their family's tradition. 

We met with one of our friends named Derek and had a good breakfast with him at his parent's breakfast shop! He's actually a police officer, so he knows about the "Caveman" (we gave him that name cause he hits the missionaries with sticks and rocks and barely has any teeth from all the Binglang he chews.) They are still trying to find him if they can and figure out why he does that to missionaries. It's been going on for at least the past two years. But yeah Derek is really an awesome 25 year old guy who's wife is about to have a baby. That's super young in Taiwan because most people get married in their early 30's here and then wait even longer to have children. He's willing to meet with us because he actually used to meet with missionaries two years ago and they helped him a lot. We found him on the street.

A miracle happened this week as we met with a friend we haven't seen in awhile. He used to be taught while Elder Day was here. He is a really good kid only 16 years old and wanted to get baptized. One of the best kids I've ever met here. When his parents said he had to focus on school stuff and not Religion he kind of fell off a little. We would meet with him sometimes, but we didn't know what to do because his parents didn't want him to be a Christian just cause it's different. He actually barely ever talks to his parents. They're both so busy at work and he's so busy doing school work that they all get home and are too tired to talk to each other. And yes the Taiwanese still have school in the summer which makes no sense whatsoever (every parent wants their kid to have better grades, or better English, or just be better off for University). But anyways... The miracle is that we met with him and committed him to come to church! He came and that is the first time we've had someone get to church in five weeks. So a huge miracle.

About a month back we found a Kenyan runner who is living in Taiwan. He was really cool, we kinda lost contact with him though. We saw him on the street and were able to start talking to him again. He's basically the Usain Bolt of Kenya. He ran a marathon in 2 hours and 15 minutes I think. So he is really good at long distance. Ever since he came to Taiwan he has been first in every single race he's participated in. He also has a really strong belief in God and that he wouldn't be where he is today without him. It's really refreshing to meet someone like that cause it's not usual for us. I can talk about him more next week, but we are super excited to meet with him. 

I don't know what I'll do to find new investigators when Elder Fernandes leaves! Almost every Taiwanese guy we meet really likes playing basketball. They always agree to play basketball with us because they know Elder Fernandes is way good. Some nights we just don't know what to do so we are walking around or riding our bikes and see people playing. They ask us to play and we play with them for a bit. Even though we have our leather shoes and white shirts with ties, we still do pretty good! Elder Fernandes loves it so much because he just watches me play as he's on my team and knows I'm not good at basketball. There were even a few times in the game that I would make a super weird pass or do something way different and he would bust up laughing. He'd try to do a three point shot and then airball it cause he's laughing so hard haha. We have lots of fun being goofy together.

That was basically our week! We also went on a hike last week for P day so here's some of the pictures even though I look like I'm on something... I promise I'm just tired haha.

Mailing address:

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Da-an, Taipei 106

Taiwan

-Love Elder Grayson Thayne