Thanksgiving!!!

Hello Everyone!

I just want to start with what I'm Thankful for. I'm grateful for my Family. Friends, Jesus Christ,Missionaries, Members, all of God's children, and Jeeves(I miss my dog). I'm just Thankful for all these things, because this week was the first Thanksgiving I've ever had that hasn't been with my family. It's not the same, and it really makes you grateful for them even if they're far away. We had an awesome Thanksgiving though.

This week is the week before transfers, so everyone is going crazy. Our Ward has 8 Missionaries right now which is unheard of. We have the normal six, and then Elder Lee and Elder Wang. Elder Lee was being trained by this other Elder who has really good Chinese. In the middle of the transfer, his trainer was called to be the new "Recorder," the recorder's main job is translating, and helping with office work. Because he had to leave, Elder Lee had to move in with the zone leaders. They also got Elder Wang, so everything is a bit crowded over here.

We also were able to go on exchanges this week which was really fun. I went over to Danshui again and Elder Hooker stayed in Bali. It was Thanksgiving day so we decided to go to a "KaoRou." A KaoRou is a place where you can eat unlimited meat and you cook it yourself right in front. I have some pictures and a video. As Elder Wetzel and I were heading to the place, we turned left on a really busy street and Elder Wetzel was in front of me as this car tried to run a red light. It was a good thing that I wasn't too close behind him, cause he almost got hit bad. The guy in the car got way mad and slammed on his breaks and got out of the car. He was yelling some crazy Chinese and put up some hand signs. Elder Wetzel just said back:" Buhaoyisi, wo shi Waiguoren," (I'm sorry, I'm a foreigner). He is also 21 years old from the Naval Academy, so he was ready for the fight if it needed to happen. The guy just got back in his car and left. We were at the KaoRou and ate lots of meat. It's supposed to be unlimited, but with 8 missionaries going full Pyro on their meat, the people got annoyed. They stopped bringing meat to us and just said that they were out. We knew it wasn't true, but we had to go anyways haha. 

Elder Wetzel and I had to bike down to a lesson really quick and met with this lady named Wendy. She is a scientist, so she believes in evolution and asks us all these super weird questions. I heard that she once asked the Elders if after a body is resurrected, does it have cells? Just crazy questions all the time, and keep in mind that this is all in Chinese. Elder Wetzel is 6 weeks younger on Island than me, so our Chinese wasn't very good. We were sharing about Adam and Eve, and she asked a few questions. She knew our Chinese wasn't super good though, so she held off on most. Then she asked a really weird question. She asked if we thought Adam and Eve were black. All I said back was that we are all Heavenly Father's Children, and brothers and sisters. Since we are brothers and sisters, I don't care if our first parents were black or not. It doesn't matter. After that she just accepted what we said and didn't ask any more random questions hahah.

Overall this week was really good! Had some good food, and made some good experiences. I hope you all had a great thanksgiving! 

-Love Elder Thayne

Whoops!(No dinner for us)

Yesterday was an interesting day. We did the normal things for church and then went home to get ready to proselyte. Right now it is cool enough in Taiwan to wear Suit coats, so we wear suit coats to all of our meetings. Elder Hooker and I have started to wear our suit coats the whole Sunday. I decided to not bring my stuff with me and go out finding. We moved our dinner to a little later in the evening so we could find when there was the most people. When we got done with that and headed back home to eat dinner, I realized I left the keys in the bag in our house. WE WERE LOCKED OUT!!! My wallet was also in my bag, so I didn't have money for a bus ride. Our spare keys were given to the zone leaders who live across the river which is about an hour and a half away on a bike. We had to start riding so we left. I called a member that we always rely on to see if he could drive up and get the keys from the zone leader's and then bring them back to us. He said:" Yeah no problem! I'd do anything for you guys!" We were way happy, just talking about how awesome he is and then I got a call from the zone leaders telling me they have to ride down to meet us halfway. The member had misunderstood my Chinese. He thought that I just couldn't get a hold of them so he called them and told them to bring me the keys. We were riding in our suits in the rain and the zone leaders called again saying that the last Elder who was in their apartment took the keys and they didn't know where they were. That Elder had been Whitewashed out of the area so everything happened so fast and they lost the keys. It turned into a big situation where the office elders were involved, but they finally found the keys and we were able to get home! It just used up all of our dinner time and finding time haha. 

This week has been kind of crazy. We have had lots of weird twists and turns trying to get our smartphones, but we finally have them! The way that our mission works is that we are just using a messaging app to better communicate with our investigators. We are also updating area book records online. Since we aren't using facebook our mission isn't online proselyting yet, our mission is basically the same as before, we just have better contact with other missionaries and members.

Things are starting to pick up here though, we've been getting lots of new phone numbers so hopefully that'll turn into setups. 

Our mission motto is:" Captained by Christ." It's a great thing we can just repeat in our minds whenever we are choosing to do something. I would implore all of you to use this in your life:" Am I being captained by Christ?" It's something that's always helped me make the right decisions. The scripture associated with it is: 3 Nephi 5.13:" Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life."

 This is my call because I am a missionary. The thing that most members don't understand is that we are all missionaries. There are so many things we can do to declare the word of Christ to all people; Family, friends, everyone. I know this work is the most important thing any of us could be doing whether we are specifically set-apart or are all called of God. If we have the truth, we also have the responsibility to share it. 

Sorry not many pictures this time. Love you all!!

Elder Grayson Thayne

Finding

The title of this email is finding cause that's basically all we've been doing lately. We are trying to get our investigator pool up, so every day we go finding for about 4 hours. I think it may be starting to pay off though, cause we're getting more people's phone numbers. Some of the hardest things to do is just to go up to someone and start talking with them even though they don't have interest. It can be really awkward sometimes because they know who we are and they try to avoid us haha. Yesterday as we went out finding we had a pretty cool experience. We had just finished a contact and sat down on the side of the street to fill out some information when a lady just walked up and started staring at us. I started talking to her, and she was really friendly. She knew who we were, and she just wanted to thank us for leaving our country to preach about Jesus Christ. What was cool is that she is getting baptized into a Christian church in a week. We asked if we could meet with her and tell her more about Jesus and she said YES!! It surprised both of us so much that when we heard it we both said:"Really??" out loud. We are going to meet with her next week a day before she gets baptized. I hope the spirit will be really strong so that she will know our message is true.

 I went on exchanges with the District Leader this week so that was interesting. We taught a lesson to one of their investigators who always has A LOT of questions. When we read a few verses of scripture with her, we tried to ask her what it meant to her and she just came up with more questions. At one point in the lesson she started talking about Priesthood, and she said if we confer the priesthood onto one person, and they do the same thing, does the power get smaller and smaller? If I had 100% of the power and I gave it to another person would they only have 50% and then the next person have 25%? This was super confusing when she asked this, and imagine all of this in CHINESE. Needless to say, I had no idea what was going on. 

Something super fun but kind of dangerous in Taiwan is biking. Their is lots of traffic here; cars, buses, and scooters. People don't usually obey the traffic laws, so you just have to be careful not to get hit. Bikes are on the lowest part of the Traffic Food Chain. People don't respect you at all. We are usually out at night too, buzzing past cars and scooters and it gets pretty crazy. It's super fun though, and other than that, Taiwan is one of the safest countries there is.

If you haven't already heard the news, Taiwan is getting smartphones. They are making sure that it is just a tool to further the work though. We are going to have lots of controls put on the phones. The main reason is to digitize all of the area book, and planning records and get in better contact with our investigators. They keep stressing that the work will stay the same, we are just getting another tool. We won't be getting Facebook or Messenger. It will be interesting though.

Don't have much to write this week cause I forgot most of it. I've been keeping a pretty good Journal, but my zone leaders have my journal, and they forgot to give it back to me so I'll have to try to catch up on 6 days!!

 

 

 

Zone Exchanges!!

This week was a really interesting week. Kinda rough with the work, but we're doing well over in Bali. 

Since our P day was switched to Tuesday this week, Elder Hooker and I headed to Nangang to meet up with some Elders. There were 8 of us. 4 trainees, and 4 trainers. We ate this thing called Hot pot. It was a Chidebao(all you can eat) so I ate a ton. Basically you go and put stuff on a plate that you want. Maybe some veggies, noodles, and whatever else is there. They give you meat of your choice, and then you throw it all in a boiling pot and eat out of it. It was super good! It was also just really fun to be with my friends from the MTC. The Waitress gave us all a sour look when we came in. They know that Americans eat a lot more food than the typical Taiwanese, especially poor American Missionaries. Let's just say that we for sure made the money worth it, and they were glad when we finally decided to leave haha.

This week Elder Hooker and I had to wake up. The work wasn't going well at all. Even though we thought we were working the way we should nothing was happening. We only taught one lesson last week, didn't find any new investigators, and no one showed up to church. It was a big wakeup call for us, so we decided to make new goals and plans. Do things differently, and really try to give our all when it comes to obedience. There is absolutely no way you can do the work without the Lord on your side helping you. On Saturday night we were trying to find someone to come to church with us but no one could. I walked past a bunch of college students and started talking with them. When I walked up, one of the friends threw his other friend under the bus and said:" He has interest." Needless to say, he didn't have interest. I did my best to have them come to church with us, but they just kept changing the topic saying I was a:"Shuai ge(Handsome man" It was pretty annoying but we left on good relations. As we were walking home that night we found this guy smoking and we talked to him. He seemed nice and wouldn't give us his number, but said he would come to church. We didn't see him at church the next day, but we saw him last night and he didn't want to talk to us. A really cool contact from that night turned out to be a guy that wanted nothing to do with us. It's frustrating sometimes, but I'm learning not to let other people's actions make me react. I can always be in control of myself if I don't let someone get a reaction out of me. It helps make things a lot happier, cause outside negative things don't have an effect on you.

We also were able to go on Zone Leader Exchanges which were really fun. We already knew the Zone Leaders pretty well because they are in our district. I was with Elder Cooper, and we went to his area in Danshui which is across the river from Bali and is a really big city. We went to teach a lesson to a referral. We went in this place called:" a night in paris" to have the lesson. To sit down you have to buy something so I bought a waffel with ice cream on it. It was super good. The guy we met with was super awkward though. We shared about Jesus Christ with him cause he said he was interested, but whenever we asked him a question he wouldn't answer. He was really" Hai hao," which means that he didn't really care about anything we had to say. We asked him if we could meet with him again and he said no, he'd rather stick with his own religion. After asking what it was he told us:" Yi Guang Dao." It's super weird. They believe that God had 5 sons. It's basically to believe in tons of religions without believing in one person. The 5 sons of God are: Jesus Christ, Confucius, another Chinese guy, Buddha, and Mohommad. It doesn't make any sense because they believe in Jesus, but Jesus says:" I am the only Begotten of the Father." Weird stuff haha. We found for the rest of the day and it went well. The tradition they have is every night they go up on the top of their " DaLou's(apartment)" roof and just watch the city lights and talk with soda and music. It's a really nice way to end the day.

us on the roof looking at the city of Danshui.

Yesterday we also were biking past the beach and we saw a ton of people out there as a volunteer effort cleaning up the trash. It was really cool, and you don't get many opportunities to serve in Taiwan, so we helped them out. They ended up interviewing us and taking pictures with us that they posted on facebook. I tried to speak in Chinese, so if they posted that video you can see me stumble over my Chinese. I think you can put the Chinese or English in. I don't know. But here it is: (#seayouagainTW)(全國揪團津灘）

Us at the service activity

Last night we went out finding for a few hours and talked to a lot of people. We taught the first lesson to some people, but they wouldn't set up again so we didn't get any new investigators. We did get some really cool people that were interested though, they just live outside of our area. We referred them over so hopefully that goes well. Not much else happened this week. I'll keep you guys updated and I love you all!!

-Love Elder Thayne

Transfers!

This last week transfers took place which was super crazy. I didn't really care because I knew I wasn't moving, and neither was my trainer. Everyone else was freaking out though. It's like Christmas when transfers come, people find out if they will get a new companion, and where they will move to. In other missions when transfers happen, the leaders will call the missionaries and tell them where they are going and who their next companion will be. Our mission is a bit different. The Mission Recorder will send out an Ibon code to each companionship, and the companionship puts the code into a machine at the nearest 7/11(They're everywhere in Taiwan). They then get a paper printout which tells them all the information they need and that they'll be leaving the next morning. It makes the mission a lot more organized and transfers go much more smoothly. So Elder Hooker and I were just chilling doing our studies when we get a text from the Recorder with an Ibon code. We were super confused, cause we weren't supposed to get moved. We rushed to the nearest 7/11 and he printed the code out and started going crazy. It said he was going to be moved to Hualian and become a District and Zone leader there. Which is usually impossible. Right then the Zone Leaders called me and asked me how I felt about the transfers. I told them I hadn't read it yet. They told me to read it out loud to them. It said that Bali would be closed as an area, and I would finish my training with Elder Swank. I knew it had to be fake, and then they told me it was haha. It really fooled Elder Hooker though. It looked Legit and everything. But yeah, I'm still here in Bali for the next 6 weeks with Elder Hooker.

This week was our first week having a member accompany our lessons! We have been working really hard to get members involved in the work here. They are so important in every mission, and if you don't have the support of the ward, you won't be as successful in your area. Member missionary work is the way to go because this last week was raining a ton. Taiwanese people won't be outside when it's raining, so there isn't anyone to talk to. Bali is already a small area, so street contacting in the rain usually doesn't end up too good. So we have been trying really hard to work with them. We brought our investigator Ke Jiemei to a member named Coco's house. She did really well and was able to share a few stories with her and help her understand how the spirit works. Ke Jiemei is progressing very well as an investigator. She accepted all of the Ten Commandments, and is trying to read the Book of Mormon every day. She told us that she reads it to her son Louis before he goes to bed. When she gets tired, he makes sure she reads it haha. We are hoping to meet with Louis soon, his Mom just wants to make sure he wants to.

Sadly we had to drop one of our investigators this week. His name is Zheng Dixiong, and he's the one who accepted baptism when I committed him to it the first day I was here. We knew going into this lesson with him that it was kind of our last hope. He hasn't been keeping commitments, and never wanted to come to church. His wife is a Christian, and he is a Buddhist so it's tearing their family apart. Our bishop came with us to teach him, cause he knew him before from work. We invited him to church and talked about how it has blessed us, but he said he wouldn't come. We then asked him about his Book of Mormon reading and he said that the Book of Mormon's teachings were not in harmony with his faith. By the end of the lesson we asked him if he could say a closing prayer which he had always done before. He paused for awhile and then refused. We left on good terms with him, but we knew we had to drop him. Bishop told him that even if he didn't join our church, he should still join his wife's church to be able to have the family united. I had learned about being bold more while teaching this week which has always been a struggle for me because I'm not as bold as I could be with my language skills the way they are.  So before we left I said something like this:" God gave us the Book of Mormon, The Bible, and Prayer so that we can know the truth for ourselves. If we aren't reading and praying with a desire to figure out what's true, God will not answer us. This is why you don't know if you want this. Because you have no desire to know for yourself." I was a little surprised about what I said, but I could feel the spirit stronger because I did. I know that if we follow the Spirit's direction, even if it seems strange, we will be blessed.

One last funny thing happened this week. One of our investigators is named Eddy. It's his English name, and his English is some of the best I've seen out here. He's been to Idaho as an Exchange Student, and was put with a member family. The members did great, and gave his referral to us when he came home. He loves them and is always keeping in touch with them. He's a really nice kid, but his parents won't let him get baptized till he's 18 cause they don't know if that's what he actually wants. He's 15 though which is old enough to make a decision, parents are just very protective of their kids over here. After English class one day we asked him if we could talk about the Book of Mormon a little bit with him, he agreed and then we asked him how much he knew about Joseph Smith. He said umm, and was thinking for awhile and then said:" After he saw God and Jesus Christ he was in his room or something at night and an Angel came to him. The light was brighter than the sunlight or something and he told him about some Golden Plates or something. Then he tried to fall asleep but the Angel came back like 3 more times, and when he was done it was already morning. So he had to go outside to work and then he told his Father about it and he said that he needed to do what God wanted him to do. So he found the Golden Plates under the ground on a hill but he couldn't take them out. He had to come back every year for four years before he could take them out. And then when he was translating he fought with his wife and couldn't do it anymore. He asked God why he couldn't do it and God said that he needs to have peace with his wife or he can't translate." Anyways... he just went on and on. He knew way more than most members I know haha. He's a super cool kid, so hopefully we can talk to his parents about letting him come to church.

That's about everything that happened this week! Love you all.

-Elder Thayne

General Conference

I know all of you have already seen General Conference, but we just watched all of the sessions in the last two days. So many talks stood out to me that I could share, but they were all great. One thing that was really interesting as I was listening to the talks is that I was getting answers to my own questions as well as answers to my investigators questions. I wish they could have all been there because it was so good. One of the talks that really stood out to me was the Brazilian who talked about knowing when people are called of God, and we are supposed to support and listen to them. He talked about Priesthood leaders and Bishops, but something he didn't mention was with Missionaries. I really reflected and what really applies to me is about my companion. Elder Hooker and I are very different people. We grew up differently, and our outlook on life is different. The thing that brings us together though is our love of the gospel, and how we want to share it. People can be completely different, but when they have a united purpose just as Elder Hooker and I, we are able to be successful and work well together.

This week we had on our schedule our first interviews with President Jergensen. While we were making our lunch in our apartment one day we heard the phone ringing. It was from him. Whenever a mission president calls you personally when they are always so busy it's never a good thing haha. He just asked:" Where are you guys?" I found out that the schedule was wrong and we had to drop our plans to make it there. While we were there we had an interview with him. He doesn't know much about me yet, so mine only lasted about 5 minutes. We were praying about our investigator Ke Jiemei's situation and went to President for some wise counsel. When I brought it up with him, he just gave me a really simple answer. He told me to share 1 Nephi 3.7 with her and talk about faith. The lord will provide a way for her to get baptized. It was so simple, but so profound. Later on that week we met with her. We had planned to not share that yet, cause we still didn't know what to do about that situation. I got a spiritual prompting while we were talking with her though so I shared it. She's trying to find a way to move out of her husband's house. The Lord will help her, it's going to take a lot of faith though.

The guy in the email I talked about last week turned out to be a fake. I think he came and made it sound like he was really interested in our message, took a picture with us and then posted it somewhere. Every time we call him he asks who we are and then just hangs up. It's sad to see people like that because we know our message will bring them peace and happiness, but they just won't accept it. We are trying to find new investigators over here though so we'll keep working hard!

DOGS. Dogs are really starting to be a problem over here. In Bali its a big mountain surrounded by a river and some ocean. The parts closer to the shore have a little more city and more people. As you go up the mountain it gets a lot more rural and there are a few houses strung out. I've run into dogs a few times and almost got bit. I guess it's an inevitable thing over here. I swear Satan controls dogs when they see missionaries. They are always so angry hahah. One time, Elder Hooker and I were biking down this hill in the dark( In Taiwan it gets dark at 6:00 and we are out till 9:30. We do most of our proselyting in the dark) I got behind him and as he was riding past this junkyard he rang his bell and a bunch of dogs came out. I was behind him so I stopped. They started running at me though so I barely got out haha. It sure does make your heart race! 

Overall everything is going really well over here. I could feel the spirit a lot this week! Make sure to watch some conference if you haven't yet. It gives you so much counsel on what to do. 

Here's some Photos of me, Elder Hooker, and Elder Swank in District Meeting

Exchanges

So this week was really interesting. It started out with Elder Hooker and I going to the Bali beach by the Taibei Port. We saw some old people along the beach, and they talked to us and were finding clams in the beach. We saw how they did it so we just walked up and down collecting clams so that was cool!

Something I found out about Bali is that it is pretty small. It is seperated from the main part by a river with only one bridge going across. Before the bridge, Bali was pretty isolated so there was a lot of intermarrying. Many of the people on this Island are kind of inbred cause they're all from the same place. Especially Bali. They have a lot of mental institutions here so that's fun. They have some mountains here, but people pay lots of money to bury their ancestors there. About 30,000 people live in Bali. There are about 200,000 people buried here though. It's kinda ironic. The most expensive spots on the land are given to dead people haha.

We went on exchanges this week with some Elders in our district. I was assigned with a Native Taiwanese and went to his area. The language barrier was huge! He's supposed to be learning English as his second language, but he doesn't have any interest in it. When I'm studying chinese during language study he just sleeps haha. My Chinese is better than his English so we just did most things silently. While I was with him, we visited some member families and shared some stuff with them. We went to this one family's house and I tried to share "The Restoration." They had three little girls that were crawling all over me though so it was hard to focus. They kept saying:" Chuanjiaoshi"(Missionary) and then said some other stuff. I just pretended like I couldn't understand so I could keep teaching haha.

People always use me to do things that they don't want to do cause I'm new and I need "Lianxi" (practice). It's kinda funny cause we were at church the other day and the teacher asked if I could pray. There were about twenty people in the class and I had said it last time. He said he didn't care, and I needed "practice." Anytime we are at an appointment with food, Elder Hooker is just eating and doesn't really care to talk to the person haha. I try to make conversation, but I don't know much Chinese. Afterwards he just says: "Hey, I was just being a good trainer and giving you practice!" Whatever haha.

I also ate some squid! It wasn't my favorite thing for sure, but it wasn't too bad!

While we were sitting down in this 7/11 one night a guy walked up to us and said in English:"What does Jesus mean to you." It kinda caught us off guard cause his English was really good, but he was obviously Taiwanese. He was a Christian who had been baptized a few months ago. He just wanted to learn from different sects. He wanted to know what we believed. As we were talking with him and sharing the first lesson with him, he was intrigued. We talked with for awhile and he just kept mentioning:" The things you guys are telling me is what I believe in. I believe in a God who loves his Children." He also kept asking us why all the other Christian churches didn't like Mormons very much even though we belive in Jesus Christ. It was hard to explain that one haha. He was awesome though. After we talked to him, we found out he lived in another area! We have to pass him on as a referral. Not many people live in Bali sadly. We gave 4 refferals this week, but hopefully next week we can find more people!

We've run into a few problems this week with our investigator Ke Jiemei. She is trying to keep the word of wisdom, but when we brought up the law of chastity there is a problem. She is divorced and she has two kids. In order for the kids to get to go to the same school, they have to live in the same house. The only way they can live in the same house is if their parents live in the same house. They are in seperate bedrooms, but she has to leave in order to get baptized. She was going to move in with her parents, but Taibei city is going to bulldoze their house to create a new street, and they can't do anything about it. She would be homeless if she tried to move out cause she doesn't have a job. There is just a lot of trouble with this. Please pray for her and give her faith to move forward even if their isn't a clear solution to this circumstance.

Love you all

-Elder Thayne

Bali

Hey everyone!

I'm sorry I didn't send an email last week. I'll make sure to send more when I have time.

Well I'm here in Bali. I can tell you a little more about it cause I'm going to be here for awhile. It is in the north of Taiwan, and there is a river right by it. It's actually one of the most rural places in New Tabei City. It still has a lot more city in it though. The biggest city I really knew before my mission was Salt Lake City, and Bali is bigger. Taller buildings and everything. A lot of old people live here, there are a few elementary schools and such, but it's mostly older people. The older people are by far the hardest to talk to. They will usually smile at you if they are in a: "Protected space." Basically a place where you can't talk to them haha. If you do try to talk to them they say:" Bu Yong." That just means. No usefullness. 

The air quality here in Taiwan is pretty bad. It's an Island a sixth of the size of Utah, but it has 26 million people. So many people it's honestly crazy. Everywhere you go there are people. Lot's of opportunities to talk to people! I just wish I could speak Chinese and talk to them. They are all pretty understanding though, they know it's a very hard language. They just never understand what you're saying. 

Something funny that happened, was my hair was growing pretty long. I needed a hair cut. We went to this kinda sketchy place to get my hair cut. I didn't want to go, but Elder Hooker said it was cheap. I was pretty sure they were going to mess up my hair but I did it anyway.They did pretty good on his hair but when it came to mine, they messed up big time. I tried to make it easy on the lady and I said:" Don't even cut any of the top, just cut the sides." I'll let you judge the pictures for yourself. It was so bad that I went and bought clippers myself. I tried to fix it myself, and it looks better but I don't know how to cut hair haha. Oh well, guess I'll just let it grow back.

Hmm I could talk about so many things. We have this investigator right now. Her name is Ke Jiemie. She's honestly so amazing. She came up to the Elders here and asked them if she could get a spanish bible for her friend who is in Jail. They said that they didn't have that, but they had a book that was similar to the Bible, cause it testifies of Jesus Christ. She became more and more interested in our message, and the focus shifted from trying to help her friend who was in prison to her. We've been teaching her a lot now. We came to a lesson with her planning to teach about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but when we got there she said:" I've already given up Coffee, and Tea. I don't drink either. I'm trying to give up on smoking right now, but what else do I have to do?" We were blown away for sure. We still don't even know how she knew about the Word of Wisdom, but we shared that with her. She is willing, she's just going to have to give up some things, but she's amazing. She came to church once, and brought her kids.

Things are going very well out here though. I'm trying to work as hard as I can. I'll keep working on getting more people to teach, but the Lord always provides a way. That's my calling: "Preach the Gospel," I love what I'm doing. It's easy to be out here because I know God approves, and I always have the opportunity to choose the right. I love you all! Enjoy the pictures!

The poster picture is about a motorola cell phone calendar. Notice the date on it.

They have a drink here that is the equivalent to gatorade. It's called:" Shupao."

The snails here a huge! That is actual sizing by my hand.

Lots of people at the Bali Wharf.

A girl that was really cute. Her name is Elsa, and she just threw up the asian peace sign when I got out my camera haha.

Barely made it!

I'm here in Taiwan finally!! It took a lot of miracles to get here but I'm here. 

Wednesday was my last real day in the MTC. We got all packed and then said goodbye to everybody and all of our teachers. We stayed up late that night talking to everyone in the zone and saying our goodbye's. We got up at 4:00 the next morning because half of the missionaries that were going to Taiwan were leaving at 5:00 in the morning. The other half of the missionaries (which included me) would stay and then leave later at 8:00. My companion Elder Beus was in the earlier group so I didn't have a companion most of the day. We got up and cleaned the room and then left to the airport. When we got there we found that our plane to San Francisco was delayed so we had to wait. Our plane to Taiwan was already cutting it close, so we didn't know if we would make it. We arrived in San Francisco, but before we had even landed; the plane to Taiwan was already boarding. We ran off the plane, took our stuff and ran in the airport like a bunch of crazy missionaries. They were just about to leave without us as we ran in. It was a miracle for sure. We then had a 13 hour flight till we got to Taibei, it was super fun.

When we got there it was around 5:00 A.M. over here. The mission president came and picked us up and we left to get to the mission home. The second I stepped outside with my suit coat I could feel the humidity and the heat. I started sweating super quick and it was pretty gross haha. We dropped all of our bags and stuff off and then went out to get some street food. The AP's got us the food, and while they were standing in line, they gave us English Class Fliers. They told us to go hand them out to people and start contacting. The scariest part of doing that is I didn't really know how to communicate. I found this guy and he was on his phone playing a game and didn't want anything to do with us. I had to find like three people before they would even just take the flier. The food was super good though, and we made it back to the mission home to go to sleep. The Elders in my room were heading to bed when these two temple workers walked in our room. The temple is right next to the mission home and chapel, so people will come to the mission home and stay a few days for the temple. These two old guys couldn't speak Chinese, they only spoke Taiwanese so I didn't understand a word of what they were saying. One of them jabbed me in the chest wondering where my missionary tag was. I was already out of my shirt and everything getting to bed so that was weird. I could understand they wanted us to be quiet so we went to bed. At about 3:00 in the morning I heard this drum going. I had no idea what it was and then I saw this old guy banging on the wall for like twenty minutes. Needless to say, I got no sleep that night.

The Saturday was a good day. The AP's went and bought us these things for breakfast called FanTwan's. They were really good, a picture is down below. We then went to the Grand Hotel to a place that Taiwan was dedicated for missionary work. When we got back to the Mission home we received our Trainers! My trainer is an awesome Elder. His name is Elder Hooker. He's from Bountiful Utah, and has been on his mission for about 13 months. He is really good at Chinese, and I rely on him with almost every conversation I have. We got our trainers and then all split up to go to our areas. It was sad cause we had to say goodbye to everyone, but I'll see them again. 

Elder Hooker and I left on the MRT which is the subway here. Then we took a bus till we got to our area. It's called Bali. It's like the northernmost part of New Taipei city. It has mountains in it, surrounded by tall buildings and lots of city. There are so many people that live here and it's really a beautiful place. You can see the ocean and it's great. When I got to the apartment I found out that I don't have a bike yet. The company told us they would get us bikes in the next few weeks so I'm using an exchange bike. A bike that an Elder left here when he went home. Luckily it's still pretty good. We dropped my stuff off, and then went out proselyting. It is probably the most food I'll ever eat here honestly. We went and ate dinner out, and then I wanted a Mango smoothie cause mango season is over now. We met this lady that we wanted to become an investigator. She treated us to CuaBing. It's like shaved ice, but huge. It also has beans and different things. It's not very sweet. I finished the whole thing and felt super full. We wanted to share a scripture with her, but she wanted to go somewhere else. She took us to a restaurant right after and we ate a ton of food there. I basically rolled out of there after. We met this investigator named Zheng Dixiong. He was a super nice guy, he had a little son that was going crazy, but we still taught him. As we were teaching him we started talking about baptism. We didn't plan this before, but I invited him to be baptized my first night! He accepted baptism, but he wouldn't confirm a day because of a few things. We will hopefully meet with him again next week and try to help him. 

I just realized how long this email is, I have so much to say, but that's probably good enough. I love you all and I'll send more pictures next week!!

-Love Elder Thayne

Flying Out to Taiwan (JUST KIDDING)

It's been a good week this week! Parts of it went by slow, and others fast. It was going really fast because our original plan was to fly out tomorrow morning. Last weekend though, we got a notice that our visas haven't come in. They finally told us that they are close, and that we will be getting them sometime this week. We are probably going to be leaving around Thursday this week. A lot of the people that were going to be flying out there were pretty mad. It didn't really make that much of a difference to me though cause I know there has got to be some reason why we are staying a few extra days. It's just getting us more and more excited to get out there!

We taught our last Skype TRC to a member in Australia who is Chinese. It was going pretty well, but I noticed my companion wasn't saying much for some reason. We went the whole lesson, and then after He told me that he wasn't able to hear her, he just heard static the whole time haha. I guess he just bore testimony of stuff I was saying so it worked out. The lady liked us a lot and said that if she came to Taiwan while we were there, she would take us out to eat food. She is actually the one who's daughter fellow-shipped  my teacher when she was less active so they're good friends.

Speaking of my teacher, I love her a lot. She is very opposite from me, but she is amazing. She really cares about her students even if she doesn't show that much. She shared with us her conversion story and it is really powerful. I can tell that she wants to send us out to go and care about people. She wants us to not go out and baptize, but to go out and convert people unto Jesus Christ. That's the only way to lasting conversion, anything else and they wouldn't be able to stay in the church.

We had in-field orientation this week which basically just got us into the right mindset to go out into the field, and it got us all pretty excited. The sad thing is some guys in our zone are leaving. They left this morning. People from Day 1. Things are getting real now. We all know that now is the time to work the hardest we can. It's kind of sad cause I don't know if I'll be able to see most of these Elders again. In my zone, there are 15 missions so it's pretty spread out. Everyone is happy to go though, and start serving real people. The Elders and I that our here still are the oldest ones in the MTC now. 

Well here we are, my 9th week. The MTC has been a great experience. I've gotten to know lots of amazing missionaries, and be able to look to them as an example. I've been taught by two great teachers. Very different from me, but also who loved me. They taught us some Chinese, but the biggest thing they taught us is to have desire. As I'm leaving this week the thing I've really learned from the MTC is to work my hardest and give everything I have to this work. I'm never going to get another chance like this again. So might as well give 100% of myself. 

I love you all so much. 

-Elder Grayson Thayne