Two weeks ago was Chinese New Year! It's usually the time that missionaries are looking forward to and dreading most. There's pro's and cons of 過年。 On the positive side you get to save tons of money because members will feed you almost every meal, and you'll feel super full for a whole week(last year I gained 5 pounds in a week)! You get to spend more time with the members and get to know them and just have a good time with them! And there are lots of fireworks and firecrackers so it's festive! Some of the cons are that most people that live in your area will leave to go to where they came from, because that's where their parents live, which makes it kinda hard to find people cause most of the people you talk to actually live on the other side of the Island! It's still a pretty great time to be here in Taiwan.
Last year I was in Taipei and there were lots of members and lots of meals we went to. This year was a bit different because of the area I'm in, we had just a few meals with some members and just tried to see them and do things with them when they have the time. We went on a bike ride with one of our members over the mountain next to the ocean to visit someone and then biked back, one of the hardest bike rides of my life but it was worth it. We also had to do spring cleaning for the apartment. Doing all that cleaning I started to think of the cleaning I did at home and wondered why I didn't like doing it so much, I felt like it wasn't that bad? And then I remembered our house is much bigger than the apartment I live in now and there's much more to clean and then I understood why I never liked cleaning inside haha.
The coolest thing about the New Year was that lots of people were in Yuli because it's where their grandparents live! It seemed so busy and I felt like I'd never seen that many young people in my life. It was so busy that in places that usually have no people there would be like 3,000 people that buy a lunch at this one restaurant per day. Crazy! After it all ended it was kinda sad to see everyone go back to where they live, you just see Yuli become the place it was like before just a few people on the streets with not much happening. It'll be good to get back doing more missionary work though. I also didn't gain any weight this New Year, I'm really trying though.
Our old 阿嬤 we're working with is so close to baptism! She's keeping all of the commandments and is so excited for the blessings to come. She is sick right now, so we're waiting for her to get better and then she'll be ready to be baptized.
It was amazing getting to be with members that really know you and trust you, we had a few times this past week where they would ask us for help with their families. We have a middle aged couple with four children under the age of 9 and they were asking us advice on the best way to teach their kids to love the gospel and to understand it's importance! They were asking two twenty year olds for advice about families, it's honestly crazy how much they trust us.
I know that if you invest time in people and really do everything you can with them, they'll be able to see your love for them and they'll open up to you. You'll be able to have many opportunities to serve and be a blessing to them. God wants to send them the best help he has, so be that person and I promise you'll be able to make a difference and help more people than you think.
Love you all so much
-Elder Thayne
Oh and my helmet broke.
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