My second birthday on this island (I'm old now)

It's a kind of surreal feeling just thinking about how you were straight out of high school as an 18 year old going on your mission, and now turning 20. I feel really old haha, it was a really good birthday though. When I turned 19 last year I had only been in Taiwan for a week and so it was just me and my companion celebrating it. This year though I actually have friends and people that care about me so it was really awesome! We celebrated with Ice cream cake and games for a family home evening. Some friends from Taibei came down to have dinner with us, it was actually my old friend that I used to teach and also Rui Cong and they even brought Yuan Mei as a surprise haha. It was good to see them all because it's been forever. Just experiencing my birthday out here with all these people made me realize how nice and loving the Taiwanese people are. They love go give gifts and want to make everything perfect and make you happy on your birthday. I really love them for that.

We had a zone conference in Taoyuan this week and I got to sit next to Elder Fernandes again! We were just talking and having fun together. It's weird not being his companion anymore, but we're still best friends. The Taoyuan Stake is known for its ward members. The provided the food and it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO good. Probably some of the best I've had here in Taiwan. I saw President Peterson just standing there getting food, so I walked up to talk to him. We don't have many opportunities to talk to him cause he's always so busy. We got talking about Transfers because they're next week. He told me I would be moving! He said:" you've already been in Miaoli for four transfers now so you're gonna leave..." I corrected him and told him I'd only been in Miaoli for three transfers. Then he said" well maybe you'll stay for another one then!" He always makes me have more questions than answers haha but he's great.

For sure the Highlight of this week was their baptism. He hasn't smoked for like 11 days now. The day we had for their baptism was the same day as the ward temple day. So only a few people came. It was okay though because the wife can be pretty shy in front of lots of people. We stood up and introduced them to those that were there and then we heard some talks before the actual baptism. The water heater is kind of broken, so the water was cold but it felt nice. I helped the husband get baptized first! He's a taller guy so I wanted to make sure he went all the way under, so in the process I got my clothes wet too but it was a smooth baptism and he came out great. Same with his wife. I forgot to bring another white shirt to change into so I was a little wet the rest of the day but it was so worth it haha. They were so happy as they shared their testimonies about what they had come to learn which was true. The wife talked about how she and her husband would read the Book of Mormon together like we invited them, but she never did it herself cause she didn't understand what it was saying. One day when he was gone though, she got the feeling she should just read a little by herself and she did! She said she looked up so many things and started reading a lot more wanting to know. And so when they read together again they could understand! They shared a few other really cool things. We were able to get our Ward Mission Leader Owen to come which was a huge blessing. He has to work every day at inconvenient times, so this is the first time he's been to a baptism in this ward since before his mission over 3 years ago. Lots of miracles happened this week and I wish I could tell you all of them. 

-Love Elder Grayson Thayne

The pictures will tell you the rest.

Lots of birthday pictures! They even drew a Pikachu for me. 

We found two huge dead rats one night this week. They were about a foot long.

Some good food, and some not so good ( I forgot how fast things mold in Taiwan so there goes my cream cheese.:(

Lots of baptism pictures. Seriously the best. The whole zone was really excited that they were baptized.

No one can complain of the lack of pictures this time. Love you guys.

Shendeernü

It's been a pretty great week! Really really busy trying to help that couple with the Chinese wife and it was good. We met with them last Monday night and then Wednesday when he told us he had smoked again. That means that we would push back his baptism. They have to not be smoking for at least 7 days before they can be baptized. He actually did it and his wife didn't know until right before they met with us that night. He told us how much of a struggle it's been for him. He has been smoking every single day for the past ten years. He used to smoke 20 cigarettes per day when he was in China, but then when he was exercising he felt a big pain in his chest. He knew he had to cut back on it, so he got down to 3 per day, and now completely going cold turkey on it has given him some withdrawals. But we taught them and have been helping them and he hasn't smoked for 4 days now! Which is more than the past ten years combined. He's really happy and his wife is also so happy. 

The funny thing about teaching them this whole time is that right when we started we were trying to focus on the wife. She had no concept of God and she didn't seem to be feeling anything. As she read and started praying though she's gotten feelings that it's all true. She has shared her testimony with us and I can see how much happier she is and how much she's learned. We weren't too focused on her husband cause he seemed all good, turns out she's been helping him along just as he's been helping her! They had their baptismal interview over video call with President Peterson and they passed!! They were nervous in the beginning but they made it. As we were helping them fill out their baptismal record I asked them who they wanted to baptize them? They sat and thought about it for awhile and told me they didn't know. They were thinking about people in the ward, but couldn't really decide who. Then they asked if we could baptize them ( it's an honor when you have someone who wants you to baptize them, but since it's their choice, missionaries don't want to influence their decision). Needless to say we were both super happy! This will be Elder Merrill's first baptism in Taiwan! I'll be baptizing the husband and he will baptize the wife. What's really cool is that when I was at the same point on my mission that Elder Merrill is right now, I baptized a married couple. And now he is too! So they will be baptized next Saturday! Stay tuned for pictures.

We are working with one of our friends who is our other friend's friend haha. His name is Dan. A 16 year old super smart kid. The story behind him is that we've been teaching his friend for about 3 months now. He's a super good kid and he likes church a lot. He wanted to get baptized, but his parents won't let him. We did a fast with him about two weeks ago and by the end of the fast his friend hit us up. His friend Dan is basically Golden. Since those two weeks he's fully embraced the gospel and been to see the temple in Taipei. He is going to get baptized at the end of this month. When he came to church yesterday he had a name plate on his shirt which said "Shendeernü" which is PinYin for 神的兒女 which means Children of God in English. It's some kind of club for student members of the church in Taiwan and he was way excited about it haha. A bunch of members saw him and as they talked to him they would ask him questions like:" what ward are you from?" He would just tell them he hasn't been baptized yet. It was super funny to see their faces when he said that. He's gonna be a big help to this ward for sure. 

So last Friday was my year mark on the Island of Taiwan. I've actually been out of America for a year now which is weird to think about. I burned a white shirt on our roof for the celebration. It was really interesting to think about how many experiences I've had as a missionary since then and what I've come to learn and know. I know that this is the best thing I could be doing right now serving, I don't know what's going to be in the future for me in a year when I'm back home, so I'm just thinking about how I can serve the best I can. I made new goals and thought of things I can do to really be the best missionary I can and use every day to serve. I know that if we have righteous desires to help people, then God will grant them and we can do so much for others. I'm so excited for this next year of experiences and learning so much and even more than I did last year. 

Rice fields and burning my shirt.

Love you

-Elder Thayne

Adjusting to missionary life

So this week went by way fast. We were super busy with lots of stuff!

I don't know if I told you all but I'm the District leader here in Miaoli. That basically means I just help the missionaries around here and teach them stuff during district counsel each week. What's a little weird about my district though is that there are only two sisters and us two Elders here right now, which means I don't go and help them much cause we are only supposed to have limited contact with them #lockyourheart. They've been trying to reduce almost all contact between Elders and Sisters in the mission. So the sisters in my district report to the sister training leaders instead of me so I don't know what really goes on with them. And then the sister training leaders tell me if they need any help with certain things and I can train them in District counsel. 

The two Sisters in my district have been super stressed out lately. And because of that, the STL's told me to teach about stress management in Adjusting to Missionary life, as well as finding people to teach. Two things they've been struggling on. The zone leaders came to visit and by the end of the meeting the two sisters broke down crying cause of the stress they feel. I really don't know how to help them because I can't really talk to them outside of district counsel. If anyone has any advice about being happy and dealing with stress I'd love to hear it to help them more.

Onto the good news though. Our mission has had a goal to talk to 10 people about the gospel per day outside of finding activities. That doesn't sound too hard when you think that's all that missionaries do, but when we have so many other things we have to do it's hard to hit that goal. We've been trying though and the days we have more time we succeed. Mostly our biggest challenge is finding people. The people we have found we are working with though. 

We had four people that came to church this past week! One that can't get baptized cause his parents won't let him. Another that is his friend and who is going to get baptized the end of this month, and a couple that plan on getting baptized this weekend!! We need your prayers to help them get ready. If they aren't we may wait another week or two but we will try our hardest. 

We also taught our friend Dan who is up at the college. We are super excited for school to start so we can find new people. It was cool though cause we were playing basketball with him and then all of his friends came around. One of his friends who's a girl is actually Christian! I had a book of Mormon on me with the Restoration Pamphlet inside so I gave it to her. She was so excited because she didn't know God had given us more scripture as his children. She took it and said she would show her whole family! Pretty awesome.

Another time we were at the college we taught a friend from Niger and his French friends were all around talking to us. Then I see a bunch of Asians walking past whispering and I knew they were talking about us. I started speaking Chinese thinking they were Taiwanese and they replied in broken English that they were actually Japanese! It was way weird cause that was the first time I couldn't communicate well with Asians. We were all laughing though cause we were from different countries all speaking second languages  when I heard them speak Japanese it sounded like we were in some Anime or something haha. 

But yes another week in the mission! I'll make sure to let you know the successes we see this next week. Love you all.

-Elder Grayson Thayne

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

Sticks and Stones

So sorry for the off and on emailing. I also haven't gotten started on my journal goal( 謝謝葉長老)These past few weeks have been a little hard to keep on top of, but I'm writing now so I can give everyone an update.

These past few weeks have been a little difficult for missionary work. Since we have a new mission president, he's doing a lot of things in a new way and so we have to adjust in the way we do the work. It's been a little bit rough on the teaching side of things too. Basically all of the people we have been teaching have made excuses to not meet with us or do the things we've invited them to. Some people that were our really good friends just started ignoring our messages and not talking to us anymore which is pretty sad. We just care so much about these people and want the best for them, they just can't see it. 

Our English class was pretty awesome this week! Elder Fernandes and I were trying to figure out something to teach them that could be fun. So we came up with space travel! We taught them some words and phrases and then brought them into the chapel and did like a space expedition role play. We didn't really have materials, but somehow everything worked out and everyone had tons of fun! It was like the space center back home where tons of things and problems happen, and you have to think of ways to fix it all. They loved it and we were happy it all turned out super well. 

We've also been trying to find new people to teach. We went out on the streets every single day this week looking for people that would be interested in hearing our message. Every single day we came back to the apartment without anyone new to teach. We put a lot of effort in and on Saturday we finally saw a big miracle. 

Ever since I came to Miaoli I have heard of a guy that kind of bullies the missionaries here, especially the sisters. The sisters have been telling us the past few weeks that someone around their apartment throws rocks at them and hits them with a stick! They got pretty scared and whenever they're contacting people on the street they are looking behind them to see if he is around. So this really started to scare the sisters. After they told us about the problem they'd been running into, I remembered on day when I first came to Miaoli that I thought i had been hit by a rock. Turns out I wasn't lying! Elder Fernandes didn't believe me when it happened haha. We talked about it and vowed that if he ever happened to find us again we'd get the police.

What happened is that this last week, we were on our bikes riding around when out of nowhere I hear Elder Fernandes yell and I look behind me just in time to see this older guy(probably fifties) slam his motor scooter into my bike and hit Elder Fernandes with a stick in the back! He turned around really quick and started speeding away. We already knew we were going to chase him down cause we didn't want this happening to future missionaries, so we did that! We biked as fast as we could, and in the process Elder Fernandes' water bottle flew off his bike. He looked back at me and i just yelled:" leave it!" We knew what was more important so we left it to chase the villain down. We chased him for around a quarter mile to the city library. We were out of breath and the Chinese wasn't really coming to us but we confronted him. We got the police involved and he got off with a warning. But now the Miaoli missionaries will never be bothered by this guy again!!! 

On Friday we found this 18 year old kid on the street and he was really nice and said he would come to play basketball the next morning. He ended up coming and bringing his little brother and friend to play with us! We sat down with them after and taught them about God and how to communicate with him through prayer. Later that day we met with another guy we had set up from the street and then at night met with someone else that the Elders before us had taught once or twice. By the end of the day we had 5 more people we were teaching than before!!! We were super happy. 

This whole week has a little bitter sweet ending though. The three guys we met with and asked to start praying went back home and told their parents they wanted to pray. The sad thing is that their parents are all Buddhist and told them they aren't allowed to pray. They told us like two hours after we met with them that they can't do it so that's hard. The other guy we met with is moving to Xinzhu in two days and is gonna be really busy. And the last guy we met with is also too busy to meet with us until the end of August. So lots of stuff happened haha. Honestly it was a hard week for us but it was still good.

The cool thing about being with Elder Fernandes though is that we never get discouraged. Sometimes we get sad about what people choose to do, but we know that God has a plan. If we live according to God's plan for us we will be happier and recieve his blessings. I know its true cause I've seen it in my personal life as well as people I teach.

-Love Elder Grayson Thayne

My mailing address:

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Da-an, Taipei 106

Taiwan

Orphaned puppies, hiking a waterfall, and Hurricane Maria!!

So yeah I'll get the big news out of the way first. A typhoon hit Taiwan last Tuesday. Everyone was projecting it to be so big that us missionaries actually thought it would be dangerous. We were hearing everyone on the streets and at church all saying the typhoon was coming three weeks before it actually hit. The craziest part is that it was actually named a hurricane. Called hurricane Maria, and we had to stay inside from dinner time to the end of the night. The thing was it barely even rained where I was in Miaoli so nothing actually happened 🤣 it was super funny. 

About a week or so ago we went to a park to follow up with some friends on the phone, and then we heard a little whimpering sound. I looked over and I found three little puppies which were all so cute. The thing is all the dogs here in Taiwan are usually way mean and have rabies, so no one ever wants to get close to them. But these puppies were so small and nice. We took a few pictures and wanted to give them a bath, but right before the typhoon came, some people picked them up and now they're gone! It was cute while it lasted!

Lots of the people we've been teaching have been dropping us lately which is pretty sad. We really want to help them and know that it will, they just won't put God first. We're still their friends though. So something we're really trying to do is find a lot more so we can actually teach more people! That's what president Peterson has been wanting us to focus on, and it's what we need for the area. 

We had the opportunity to have our first interviews with President Peterson the other day which was way cool. It was a bit complicated getting to the place though because it was 10 miles away. Elder Fernandes and I decided to bike there which was way fun. It took about an hour though because of how our bikes are and everything. I found out it's really hard to bike long distance in slacks and a white shirt and tie🤣 not the most convenient thing for sure, but we made it. I was able to talk with President and get to know him better and I know he'll be great for this mission! He also told me I need to start writing in my journal again, so I'm gonna do that. My letters are going to start getting better everyone 🤣 . And then we found a way faster way that was only 6 miles back! And the biggest miracle is that both ways were downhill, so I don't know how that works out.

Oh yeah and last P day was really fun going to a waterfall and hiking that! I'll attach some pictures for that! The reason I emailed today is because we went to the temple today so it changed this week. Thanks to everyone who emailed me! Helps me get through the mundane sometimes!! Enjoy

Mailing address: 

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Da-an, Taipei 106

Taiwan

-Love Elder Grayson Thayne