It's a Christmas Miracle!

Hey Everyone! Lots happened this week! 

We went to Hualien for P day last week and I got to see Elder Yeh there and a bunch of other missionaries. We went to a Kaorou all you can eat and stuffed ourselves. After that we went to a park by the ocean and played some frisbee and sand volleyball! It's always funny playing with the sister missionaries because without them it gets pretty competitive, but when they join in its a really relaxed game. I am the district leader of some sisters here, but since we're so far away, I'll only see them about 5 times in a six week period so I don't feel like I can help them much. 

Right after P day ended at 6:30, I went on exchanges with Elder Raymond and we went around finding people. We ran into a guy from France who was really nice and talked to us, but right when we brought up the gospel he said he didn't want to talk about it and tried to shut us down. As we walked away I just remember thinking how lucky I am to be serving a mission here in Taiwan. The people are so much more accepting of change. I really respect missionaries in the European countries.

We had a combined district counsel with all the Hualien missionaries on Tuesday and we all shared our testimonies of specific attributes of Jesus Christ. The spirit was really strong. I've always wondered why the spirit is so strong when missionaries testify, and now I know it's because they live the gospel more than the average person, so they can really see a difference in their life when they have it and when they don't. They're also constantly striving to improve. 

Elder Zhang packed all of his anime action figures and drawings away and threw lots of old clothes out. He left to go home on Thursday. Kinda sad to see him go cause it was just us two here. He's moving on though and I'm really happy for him. We'll ship his bike to him later cause he wants to keep it for a souvenir.

Now on to the Christmas Miracle. From about the fourth day I was in Yuli I knew what kind of missionary I needed to help me to work here. I told president who I think should come to the area. We had a talk about it in my interview with him. He had an interview later with this Elder and told him that he couldn't come down here with me because he needs him somewhere else. President then told this other missionary he would be coming down here with me. This other missionary then started talking everyone else and they all knew he would be here. I was thinking of this a lot and I didn't know what to do because I felt like it should be someone else that should come down. I prayed, and then wrote a long email to my mission President explaining the circumstances. When I opened up the transfer call letter the little faith I had in this actually worked! ELDER CHEUNG is coming to Yuli!!! 

This is what I had been praying for and what I knew this place needed. Because president allowed this to happen, I know that he expects a lot from us and our work here. So Elder Cheung and I are gonna give it our all. I met him in the MTC and we became best friends. Ever since then we've been talking about being companions together and how it would be. It's just an amazing feeling to be with your best friend by yourself out here doing the work. I get the exact same feeling from him that I did from Elder Fernandes earlier in my mission. I love these two guys so much and I realize how lucky I am. 

The rest of this week was just getting Elder Cheung more used to the area, it's gonna be a great few transfers together. We need your prayers as we work here. Love you guys.

感恩節快樂

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

I know it's a bit late to be saying this, but I missed getting an email out last week, so I can update you all with what's happened. 

We had a big zone conference in Taidong on Thanksgiving Day and we got to eat duck! President had bought lots of ducks for us to eat which was really good and we went home with full stomachs. The zone conference went really well and I learned a lot. President Peterson has really been pushing us to build the church in Taiwan. He wants us to work with the members of the church more in order to give them desire to help the church grow here. We're hoping that putting this new focus on the members here will help the church be much stronger in the future. 

Elder Zhang and I visited a member in the branch the other night and had dinner with them. They were telling us a bit about the history of Yuli here. He was telling us how it's had a lot of struggles in the past. He was trying to not be negative, but him and the rest of the members have seen so many missionaries come into Yuli with the same attitude, that they want to change it and everything. He says they do the same things and it doesn't work. He looked at me and said we need an Alma here. Hearing all this made me realize this area has had a lot of missionaries come through with not much success. It's made me think about what else I can do differently so that it does. It's really humbling me and making me ponder on what needs to happen here. If you all could pray for me out here I would appreciate the support. I need all I can get.

We've been riding our bikes a lot lately, which is super fun. We just get on our bikes and ride like 24 miles in one day. It's a beautiful place that you can just enjoy while you ride.  We went and ate dinner with a family and they're so awesome. They love the missionaries and play with us all the time. One of their kids has 6 fingers and he's the sweetest kid you'll ever meet. 

We taught this guy we found this week named August. He is Taiwanese, but he's from Venezuela. He's one of our only friends to teach but he's really hard. He's into philosophy and thinks about everything so much that he kinda doesn't believe in anything anymore. He doesn't even believe that anything is good or bad. He also talks a lot. We had a lesson with him and it was us teaching him for 10 minutes and him talking for like 60. It really tests my patience and listening when you have to sit there and listen to them that long, but that's how he knows he can trust us and is willing to learn. He accepted a Book of Mormon and told us he will read it. If you have time, pray for him to find the truthfulness of the book of Mormon.

Nothing too crazy happened this week, they had elections for city officials so there were fireworks everywhere. We don't know anything about politics as missionaries so it didn't make any difference to us. It was fun to watch the firework show though.

The saddest thing that happened this week is that I broke my Tag. Nothing special I was just trying to put it on and then it snapped. I've worn it every day basically so it's really sad. I'll have to get a new one probably.

Love you all so much, it's a blast being a missionary every day and working to help people. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Have lots of pictures of a hike and with some members! Enjoy