Monday, June 4, 2018

Binlang isn't against the WoW??



This week was pretty awesome with a bunch of funny experiences! 

Our Zone which is in Xinzhu made a goal to get 104 setups with new people. And over 7 days we were able to get it! Pretty awesome, the Lord will help us achieve our goals.

Last Monday Elder Fernandes and I were doing some planning, and decided to call someone and he set up! A brand new investigator! We were super excited and wanted to get everything perfect! We had the church all lighted up on the inside, and had the gate and the door wide open for him to come in. As we were planning our lesson though, a member that doesn't come to church much just walked right in with her friend. We were scared because she had been in the Sacrament meeting the day before. She is a little crazy for sure. I was praying during the Sacrament and she came up and was calling people on her phone, and trying to get my attention and show me a video in Sacrament meeting. It took them about 30 minutes for her to leave and it was really awkward. So, we see her Monday night right before our investigator comes in, and she hands us Binlang (beetlenut) and some alcoholic drink. She was really excited to see us and was probably waiting for the church gate to be left open so she could get in. I told her we weren't allowed to have that stuff, but she just kept saying Binlang is okay, she was trying to convince missionaries 😣🤔. And then the investigator showed up while all of this was happening. We had to put all of the stuff away and get ourselves into a classroom to teach him. We had to lock the door cause she was trying to get in. It was funny haha. The lesson was great though!! 

A few days later we were biking, and then we saw her on the other side of the street, she got on her bike and started pedaling towards us pretty fast. We went a little faster and were able to lose her😅🤣. 

We had a few of our investigators drop us this week because they don't have any interest, so we focused on trying to find some new people. We weren't able to teach many people this week, but we are going to try extra hard to help these people. 

Saturday night we went to buy food for the next Sunday so we could have something to eat. I already had most of my food, but Elder Fernandes still had to get some stuff. It was really funny cause all of the stuff he usually gets wasn't there. A bunch of things happened that made it way complicated, but we finally had the food!! HALLELUJAH!! Little did we know that the next day was fast Sunday so it was all for nothing hahah. I had a cool experience with fasting though. Throughout that whole day I was able to feel the spirit so much better. And that's cause we were closer to God doing the things he wants us to do.



We had a lot of other things happen, but I don't have enough time to write them. I'll put some more details next week!! Love you guys! 

They also have YuGiOh cards attached to drinks for sale here. Super 方便。



I found this quote in a 7/11. It's in English but I still don't understand it. If you do, please write back and explain!🤣



-Love Elder Thayne

{Personal note to Mom}

In some news, remember when I bought all of those golf pants before my mission, and Mr Mac said they couldn't make them any skinnier because of the material? Well I found this little shop on the street that is run by a few grandma's, and they hooked us up really good. I got 4 pairs of those pants skinnier for like $15. Such a steal. 

Cool story. There is a family in our ward that is really cool and they love the missionaries. I was talking to the mom last night and she asked where I was from. When I told her Lehi, she asked if I used to have an Asian stake president. I told her yeah, president Lew? And then she said her and a few members of her family had visited Salt Lake City last summer. Around 6/30 and they went around with the Lew Family because their youngest son went to this mission. When I showed them a picture of our house, she said:" woah! We've been there!! The Lew's told us that their neighbors raised horses and stuff!" So yeah she saw our house hahaha. A super small world! And then they flew back to Taiwan July 5th, and you know why that day is special to me...

Monday, May 28, 2018

White ghost/insides exploding

I've been getting pretty good at doing wheely's on my bike, so this week I was able to upgrade and start doing it on a wheelchair! It's pretty fun, the Taiwanese ward members think Elder Fernandes and I are dangerous though. Probably cause they saw what happened when we tried to be cool.










This week was a little rough for Elder Fernandes and I. We had an investigator we have been working with for awhile and were excited for him to be baptized this Saturday. He was doing everything he needed to, and was so close to accepting baptism, but he came up to us and told us he doesn't want to get baptized. There's good and bad news with this story. The bad news is that he is moving to Germany this week and we won't be able to keep teaching him. He is also moving there for five years, so we won't see him for awhile. BUT... The good news is that he said he is willing to meet with the missionaries in Germany while he's there. So hopefully they'll be able to help him progress while he's there. He knows it's true, maybe he's just not ready yet.



Cool story of the week:

Our English class in Miaoli is pretty small and has quite a few problems. We have been trying to get a lot of new students to come, but it wasn't happening for the longest time. I made an ad for the English class and put it on a Miaoli group. The group had the post pending for around three days, so I didn't think anything would come out of it. But then I woke up me morning and had tons of Facebook notifications. Tons of people had seen it and then liked and commented on it. It was getting tons of attention so by 11:00 that morning my post had over 750 likes with lots of shares and comments. I guess it was getting a lot of attention, so someone reported the post because it wasn't the right format or something. They took off the post, but lots of people signed up for the class!! It's the most success from English stuff we've ever had here. And the sisters are meeting with all of those referrals!

A funny thing that happened because of that post is a girl added my Facebook. It was just a Taiwanese girl, so I thought she was interested in the English class. When I added her back though, she sent a message to me and said she had seen me at a restaurant a few days before. She was acting a bit weird but I didn't think much of it. I asked if she wanted to meet with the sisters and she said okay, so I'm setting them up together. The weird thing was, Elder Fernandes and I went into a Family Mart one day, and as we were sitting down a girl walks in and she looked familiar. I thought it might have been her, so I waved and then she smiled and got really freaked out and left as quick as she could. It was really funny, and then she posted this on her Facebook right after. I didn't know what it meant, so I asked Elder Zhuang and this is the translation:("I saw a white guy and my insides are burning") that's actually the meaning, but the words are a lot more weird... something about bad words, white ghosts, and her body exploding.But... She is willing to meet with the sisters so that'll be good.



Elder Fernandes and I are basically just starting out with new people and trying to help them, so we could use all the prayers you can give. Love you all!

-Elder Grayson Thayne

Monday, May 14, 2018

母親節快樂

Happy Mother's day!!!

I hope everyone was able to do something for their Mother! I really appreciate mine!

I was able to talk to my family last night and it made me realize how much I really do miss them. This is the first mother's day I've had where I haven't been able to tell my Mom I love her in person, but I was still able to feel the love coming from them as we talked. Elder Fernandes and I always forget to buy food on Saturday so when Sunday comes around we don't have food! Good thing we can fast haha. But it makes me really appreciate at home that I have a Mom who makes sure we always have something to eat. The food is there. So I really appreciate her and my family as a whole.

The cookie party for English class was a success! And that's saying a lot because taiwanese don't like to eat sweet foods. It was funny because a few of the Beginner class students came in to our class to see what was going on, and then they just stayed and enjoyed all of our cookies! Everyone thought it was fun, and the cookies turned out really good! 

We went and played Billiards (pool) with our main investigator this week. He's super awesome. He is doing everything we tell him to, but he keeps telling us he isn't getting the answer he's looking for that God Exists. We are trying to help him the most we can, but what it really comes down to is his personal commitment and desire to find the truth. He is attending this club that is another religion and so he's pretty confused about which one to go full in on. I have faith that he knows what we are teaching him is true though, and he'll see the blessings in his life soon. Pool was fun, but by the time we left and got back home, all of our clothes stank from all the tobacco smoke we were around. The other Elders were pretty confused when they smelled us at the end of the day🤔😅

We had a really big miracle one night which was awesome!! We ate dinner inside that night and before we left the house, we prayed that we would find the prepared people we needed to that day, and then we left. That whole night we ran into so many people that we knew. We saw an investigator of the other Elder's. We saw two former investigators at the college campus. We also found a French exchange student that we have been trying to set up for awhile, and then to finish off the night we saw our investigator that we played pool with. It was way too many people that we knew to be a coincidence. I knoe that God directed us that day to the people that needed to hear that we still love them and so does God. He never forgets his children and now I know that for sure because I've seen it first hand. God loves us all and wants us to be happy. If we will come unto him, he can show us the way. 

Have a great Mother's day everyone! I love you all.

-Elder Thayne



Monday, May 7, 2018

Bake me to Church



So this week was super busy! Almost every day we were out of the apartment before 10:00 doing random things. 

Elder Fernandes led a good district meeting this week by having us discuss the most important thing for our missionary work. We had different cards that said things like:" God and Jesus Christ," or " daily repentance." We were all choosing as a district the most important thing, and we chose to be "led by the spirit." If we are led by the spirit, then we will know what God wants us to do, we will be obedient, and we won't have to worry about not being productive missionaries. We all took the invite to go and do something different in our companionship to have the spirit lead us more. Right after we left District meeting, we went on exchanges with the Xinzhu zone leaders. I went with Elder Anderson and it was way fun. It was really busy though. We were biking everywhere super fast and had 4 lessons. Elder Anderson's bike was pretty messed up because he's a really old missionary. Whenever he stopped pedaling, the chain almost flew off. On the way back home that night, we were going down a hill, and his chain wrapped around his Derailer. It destroyed it and it broke it off. We had to just set the bikes on the side of the road and take a taxi home. The miracle from that night is that the Taxi driver was actually Christian! We talked about the Bible with him for a little and then gave him the Book of Mormon before we got off. He was super grateful for it, and before the night was over they set up to meet with him!

We have been really trying to make our English class good here in Miaoli. We are kind of starting new. So we have a few ideas. One of the things we want to do is make chocolate chip cookies here for English class. That may not sound like a big deal, but in Taiwan it's super hard to find all of the ingredients to make them. We are making them on Wednesday with our English class in hopes of getting new students to start coming more. So we are taking them to church through giving them baked American chocolate chip cookies haha!! We'll see if they taste the same!

This week was a bit of a struggle to find new investigators. We found 4 new ones, but by the end of the week 3 of them dropped us telling us they don't have interest. So that's been a struggle, but we are staying positive and know that we will get a lot of success soon.

Probably one of the highlights of this week for me was my interview with the mission president. He told us he was so happy to have both of us together and that he thinks we'll do great. I only have one more interview with President Jergenson before he goes home at the end of June. So I asked him a piece of advice he could give me. He told me that we need to listen to what the prophet's say, and then immediately obey and live by that standard. Or just do what God wants us to immediately. He said that there will be new changes and when the new mission president comes, some things will be different. He said to just listen, and not focus on the way things were before, but how we need to change right when we hear new direction. It was good advice, and he said we can all be happier because of it.

Thank you for everyone who emails me! I really appreciate it and hope you all are doing well!

-Elder Thayne

Bottom picture is from Taizhong mission. The others are here in Miaoli.





Sunday, April 29, 2018

Transferred to Taizhong?

This week has been one of the craziest weeks of my mission! 

Last P day, we went to a waterfall on Pingxi and saw it! It's the biggest waterfall on Taiwan. We also painted Chinese characters on a lantern you light up and let float in the sky so that was really fun!  Overall a really fun P day! 

This week Elder Halverson and I were working hard to help people set a baptismal date and it paid off! I'll talk a little more about it later. 

On Tuesday afternoon we were in the church planning a few things when I received a phone call from the AP's. Whenever you get a call from the Assistant's, you know something big is going to happen. I picked up, and they told me to put Elder Halverson on the phone. He was listening, and they asked him how fast he could get to the nearest hospital. We knew they must be joking, so we told him about 20 minutes and then we heard from the AP  that Elder Halverson is going to be training! It's right in the middle of the transfer. The transfer still has 3 weeks, but Elder Halverson got the training call. A missionary came, he got his visa early and so he came to the island and so they called out there have her send to be his trainer and of course I was wondering what was going to happen to me, and then they told me:" You will be going to Miaoli with Elder Fernandes!" I was honestly so excited but super confused. They told me I would be leaving on Thursday morning and I need to get everything ready and buy a train ticket and just be ready to leave by then. 

It was a crazy announcement, so we finished that day like normal. The next day we picked up the new Trainee. He is a really cool guy, and I know they'll get along pretty well. The rest of the time, I basically just packed and got the area ready for them. I felt a little bad because Elder Halverson doesn't really know what he's doing in that area. I also taught my last English class that night. The students were a little sad cause it was so unexpected, but they were also very loving. We all said a kneeling prayer together for the last day, and I said goodbye to all of them. It's funny cause the Sanchong ward saw me give a talk, and then the next Sunday I wasn't there. I basically just disappeared!! They'll do well. 

The next morning getting to Miaoli was a nightmare! I left and took my suitcases on the subway for awhile. When you carry that much stuff, it's really heavy and hard. I didn't have a companion the whole way over there, so I was by myself on the MRT. When I got out of the first station, one of my suitcases split open and most of the stuff spilled out. The zipper broke. I stuffed everything back in. Tons of people were walking past. I was had to hurry and be super careful with the suitcase so it wouldn't spill out again. I was barely able to get it to the train station and I got on the train. It was a struggle, but after about an hour and a half, the train was coming to Miaoli station. I grabbed one suitcase and then stepped off the train. I put it on the deck and then I went back on the train to grab my broken suitcase... As I was about to get off the station with my second suitcase, the doors closed and I was stuck in the train. What I didn't know at the time, is that the train was delayed, so it was trying to make time up by closing the doors faster. Too bad for me the next stop was 15 minutes away and it's out of the mission! Miaoli is right on the border with the Taizhong mission. So yeah I traveled across the border into Taizhong. I was able to get back to Miaoli, but it was a rough ride haha. 

The story doesn't end there sadly haha. They have to ship my bike from the mission home, so it took three days to get to my new area. We only had 2 bikes between 4 missionaries. I borrowed one of the bikes and as I was riding it, I downshifted and it broke the derailer off!!! I felt Christlike that day so next thing I knew I bought Elder day a new Derailer which costed around $20. Which is a lot for missionaries!!

This is going to be a long email, so I will send more details about my new area and my companion! But I am SOOOO excited to be with Elder Fernandes! We became best friends while in the MTC, and we always joked around about becoming companions and now that we are we're super happy. We'll work our hardest! Love you all. Talk to you next week!!

Some pictures with members at the waterfall, English class. And me on the train in Taizhong











Monday, April 9, 2018

6th Transfer!!

Transfers happened again... And I'm still in Sanchong. It is a long time to be in one area, but it's all good because I got a new companion named Elder Halverson!! I actually knew him back in the MTC. He's only 6 weeks older on the mission so it's pretty fun! We both don't know how to read yet so we are having a fun time. He is from Kansas, and he has a really good singing voice. He's only a month older than me, but looks a lot more mature haha. He tells me I remind him of his little brother so that's cool! We're getting along well. When transfers happened I totally thought o would head out cause I've been here for awhile, but instead Elder Hyde left. He became a zone leader in Songshan which is the East Taipei zone. The funny thing is, there are only two missionaries in this mission with the same last name of 海(pronounced Hi). And they have both become my companion! So when people ask his name I just say he's the same person, just got glasses and became a little bit taller. 



So yeah this week has been pretty crazy getting everyone switched around to their new areas! Our district changed a lot too. One of the sisters left, and then both of the Luzhou Elders left too. We weren't expecting that at all because they have been whitewashed 3 times in the past 7 months which kind of kills an area. Elder Donalson whitewashed in when I came in, and then he got whitewashed out. His companion became the AP. For those of you that don't know what Whitewashed is, it basically means that both of the missionaries in an area get switched out with two brand new missionaries so it can be hard. If it gets whitewashed a lot, the missionaries basically have to start over from scratch in a lot of ways. Like getting investigators, or knowing who the ward members are. So yeah I've been in Sanchong for the longest out of everyone in the district.

General conference was pretty amazing!! It was a great time to just sit there and watch the prophet and the apostles speak right to us. I was sitting right behind president Jergensen which was fun. He turned back and said the main financial guy that should up to give the report is actually his cousin. I hope everyone got a chance to see that and really get help and direction from the prophet of God. 

Yesterday we taught a lesson to a less active kid's mother. We showed her the talk by Elder Uchtdorf on Jesus Christ and testified of him and what he has done for her. She just told us she believes it is good stuff and that's why she is letting her son go to church. I could really feel the spirit testifying in that lesson but it wasn't getting through to her. It frustrated me because I couldn't get her to see the importance of Jesus Christ. We did everything we could by inviting her but she wouldn't accept. 

Sometimes it can be really frustrating when people don't understand what we know can help them, but all we can do is invite them.Which reminds me of a quote in Preach my Gospel by Elder Holland: "Much of the time we are just too casual about all of this. This is eternal life. This is the salvation of the children of God. Eternity hangs in the balance. … It is the most important path this investigator will ever walk. But if he or she doesn’t know that, at least you do! … So take control of this situation. Teach with power and authority."  

I know as we understand that this gospel can help other people live a happier life, we will be more inclined to share it... So just do it!! 

Here are some pictures. By the way, we are having Temple Wednesday next week so my P day will be changed to Wednesday. So that will be Tuesday evening for everyone back home!! 

We also went to the zoo today!

-Love Elder Thayne









Monday, April 2, 2018

Wang shi hao




The best part of this week was Wang Shi Hao. He's a 19 year old kid who has been meeting with the missionaries for four years now. He's super shy and doesnt say much. He also has spiritual experiences in the form of dreams, but he doesn't really telk the missionaries about those. He mostly just tells his friend in the ward Rui Cong. I knew he has a testimony, but it's really hard to get him to talk. He has been waiting until he turns 20 to get baptized, but this last week he went and asked his father and he finally got approved. So this whole week has just been us thinking about him and trying to help him get ready to be baptized on Saturday. When he went in for the interview i honestly didnt know if he was going to make it through or not. Well... He DID!! The zone leader who interviewed him said he has a strong testimony so he passed. We are still going to have to work with him really hard to help him with church and scripture reading, but he got baptized on saturday!! Saturday was a big baptism day in our mission. Just in Taipei we got like 8 or 9 baptisms which is crazy for the mission!!

I was also able to go on exchanges with Elder Jorgenson which was awesome. He was trained by Elder Welch so we had a really good time talking about him. He was a really amazing companion for both of us and we really look up to him. We just went street finding and talked to so many people. We got a setup though so it was all worth it. 

This week's English class went really well! We played the game where one person stands in the middle of a circle of people and they have to say what they have never done before, and the people that have done that thing have to stand up and find another chair. The grandma's didn't really get it though because they stood up and said:" I have never eaten food before," and then everyone else got up and ran around. I don't think they understood it needs to be true haha, they had fun though! 

This week we have been getting ready for General Conference because we will see it a week later than everyone in America. We have told our investigators to think of questions they would like answered and then bring them to conference. I also heard about the Apostle that was called from Hong Kong. He actually served his mission in Taiwan too!! His chinese name is not "Gong by the way haha. It's Jiang. So my family will all say his name right when I get home haha. 

Last p day we went on a hike so I can send some pictures. Love you all!



Monday, March 26, 2018

Miracle week!!!


The last P day we had, we went to my old area in Danshui and went uo to the beach with some people. I told them that they need to buy a discraft frisbee because there is a difference. We all played on the beach and went around to some of the farms around there just to look at the scenery. Always have fun P days. 

The title says it all. This week was absolutely crazy with all of the miracles we saw. I'll share a few things that happened. 

The whole time during Elder Hyde and I's companionship, we have been working hard with little success. We haven't seen a baptism together, so we have been working really hard anf doing our best at making plans to see things happen. And I believe that through all of those efforts, we were able to see so many miracles.

So. The Elders in Sanchong have been working with a kid for four years now. He is a little bit different mentally, so he was waiting to turn 20 years old before he could get baptized. 20 years old is the Adult age in Taiwan. He has always been afraid that his parents wouldn't let him get baptized because they are Buddhist. Missionaries have been telling him for three years now to just ask his parents if they would let him, but he was always way too scared. It's only because of the member's help that he has stayed this long. Last week he finally asked his Father if he would sign the paper to let him get baptized...and he signed it!!! We were all super happy for him and we are going to help him get prepared for baptism soon. Finally after 4 years he get permission.

I got word this week of an investigator from my old area in Bali is also getting baptized next month. He had the same problem as the kid before, but his parents wouldn't let him. He's been waiting to get baptized for years. He comes to church as often as he can, and he was pretty much a member. So many missionaries have been with him, and I'm so glad that something good is coming out of the area I served. 

We have been also helping one of our members really get working to share the gospel with his friends. They all don't live in Sanchong so he didn't really know how to share with them. We met with him a few times, and then skyped his cousin who is a Taiwanese Aboriginal. She was really funny and had a fresh different attitude from the other people around here. She was really excited to meet with the missionaries in Taoyuan after we talked about the Book of Mormon with her. So yeah! Fun helping members with their own missionary work. 

One day as we were going around doing normal missionary stuff, I wanted to go to the park to do our studies, so we went over and just sat there by the tree doing our studying. People would come and walk by and talk to us cause it was a Saturday and the weather was nice. While we were sitting there we met two cousins with their parents exercising their dogs, they came up and started talking to us. They were super nice and it was just a really casual conversation with them. We set up one of the kids because he said he wanted to learn about Christianity! As we were leaving the park, we saw him already reading the Book of Mormon!! His cousin's Mom was smiling at us really wide so we stopped and talked to her to find out that she is actually a member of the church!! She hasn't been to church for seven years now, so we hope we can get working with her!

So yeah those are some of the miracles we've had this week!! Really blessed!

Monday, March 19, 2018

Zone conference!

Sorry if this email isn't as detailed as you would like. I wrote it, and then somehow it got deleted before it was sent so this is draft #2.

This week was full of great stuff!! Last

week on Monday we went to my old area in North zone around Bali and had some good fried rice with some of the Elders in the district. After that we went all the way to the south zone to play soccer with a bunch of other Elders. It was super fun and we were pretty tired when we finally got back to our home in central zone getting ready to go back to work!!

This last week was the week of birthdays. The two sisters in our district actually have the same birthday which was last Sunday. They both turned 20 years old!! And then we had another Elder in our district, and some members also had their birthdays last week!!

Elder Hyde and I have really been trying to improve our teaching and lessons. We have been making sure to have the spirit teach them through us. In one of the lessons we taught last week, we were teaching someone the Restoration and he just wasn't really believing what we were teaching. We taught the Great Apostasy and then the spirit just told us to stop teaching because he wasn't open to the message we were about to share. So we stopped and told him we wanted him to start praying to receive a desire to learn what we were teaching before we talk about the First Vision.

We taught another person who owns a shop that sells beer. He's a father and he's a really cool guy who has been meeting with missionaries for over 4 years now. We talked to him about his family and how the best way to raise his family is to build it on the foundation of Jesus Christ. He said he will ask his wife and see if they can meet with us, so we were happy that he was willing to ask. 

We have had to drop a few of our investigators this week which was pretty sad. I was working with Brother Chen for so long and really hard trying to help him. He got a text from a member that told him about the commandments which kind of scared him off. We haven't taught him or talked to him for 2 weeks now, and we are waiting on the spirit to tell us when we need to get in contact with him again. The ward mission leader came up to me and told me that Brother Chen never had a testimony. It kind of frustrated me because I've put the most effort into him and helping him build his testimony and I know be has one, he just has to realize God has a plan for him. So this week we have been trying to get new investigators. 

Because I'm the teacher for the intermediate English class level, we have a set topic that we need to talk about. This week was:"going to the hair salon". I'd never gone to a hair salon before so I didn't really know how to teach them. I brought my razor and shaved without a mirror having them tell me what to do in English! They thought it was really funny and I didn't get cut! Yes!


Zone conference was by far the highlight of this week! They told us that the Asia area covers all of Asia except for Japan, Korea,. and the Philippines. The area that we are in holds more than half of the world's population, so it's a big responsibility haha. They said the goal for our area is to have every companionship baptize one convert each month. It's a really big goal, but it is possible, so we are really going to try to do it. President asked us if we are really willing to do what it takes to reach this goal. It made me reflect on what I'm doing as a missionary and gave me more motivation to work harder!

That is pretty much all that happened this week. The pictures are just us with investigators and stuff. Love you all!!

-Elder Thayne






Sunday, March 11, 2018

So this is Persecution?

Sorry for not writing the big letter to everyone last week! I was pretty busy with P day stuff so I didn't have enough time to write one. Last P day was really fun though! We went and played lazer tag with a bunch of people in the central zone! I was able to see Sister Fissiahi from the MTC!!(I know I spelled her name wrong, but she'd give me credit for trying haha.) I also got the inside scoop on one of her companions from the MTC. She had to return home for a knee surgery pretty early on her mission, and now she's engaged to someone! Pretty crazy, but just goes to show that there's always a happy ending! 

Elder Hyde and I were able to work really hard this week, and we saw a lot of fruit come out of it. We had some people to come to church and found some new people who want to learn. I've been the English Unit Leader in our district ever since I came to Sanchong, and now Elder Hyde is the district leader so we are busy all of the time. We are trying to get English class better because it's one of the only ways we can serve in Taiwan, plus it's a really good way to get people interested in the gospel. 

There is an Elder here who got on the Island the same time as I did and he is a master computer programmer! He made a new English class website for the mission and it's super good and professional. They are really trying to do good things with the English class, and Elder Hyde and I plus some other people in the mission are going to be Beta testing the website with finding new students. Pretty exciting stuff. Just since the website has been made we've had 18,000 visitors on the website And 400 people signed up for the class. Out of those four hundred, we have about 140 that said they want to learn about Jesus Christ. So yeah really exciting opportunities! If this goes really well, they may use this with other missions across the world. Here is the website! It's in Chinese, but you can still check it out! Taiwaneng.com

We went to the mission office a lot this week. We had to go there on exchanges with the Zone Leaders one day and that was really fun. The Zone leaders are awesome! That night we went to a park and set up a Lemonade stand to give to people and shared about how the Book of Mormon can answer questions of the soul. It was a fun activity, and they were able to get a few potentials out of it. I still can't tell the difference with Asians so I started to try to talk to someone in Chinese and I found out they are from Japan. It was really weird cause they couldn't understand English or Chinese!! So we just stood there awkwardly and then gave them a handshake and let them go. 

We also went to the mission office to have interviews with President! It was really good for me to meet with him and get his counsel on how to improve the area. We got some famous street food on the way there and ran into some other missionaries. One of the Elders told me that someone had painted "Mormons go home" on a street lamp by the temple. I thought it was hilarious because it's the first bit of "Persecution" I've seen here it made me laugh.



I also went up to Luzhou on exchanges and went with Elder Donalson. It was fun and I got to see more of their area. He got a flat tire and got it patched by someone on the street and then it got flat again so he got it fixed a second time! 

Don't want to bore you all with the details but it was a busy week and we were able to get a lot done! 




I'm not the best at gaining weight

Two weeks ago was Chinese New Year! It's usually the time that missionaries are looking forward to and dreading most. There's pro...