I'm a bike Mechanic

Hey everyone!! I have to apologize for emailing late. My P day was switched because we are going to the temple for P day, so I wasn't able to email until now. Forgot to tell everyone. But I will be on the usual time next week! 

Last P day was super fun! Elder Welch was still in Taiwan, so I got to hang out with him and his parents with some Taiwanese people. We went to the Grand Hotel, and then to Jilong to walk down this cool old street. We also hiked a bit and took pictures. It was awesome to be with my old companion again the day before he actually goes home back to America. His parents brought me a football and some BYU chocolate truffles which I was super grateful for! I've had some fun with it. The Taiwanese don't know how to throw a football, so it's pretty funny. 

This was an overall good week for the work as well. We spent a lot of time helping organize a ward activity that they were having. Every month they use the last Saturday to celebrate the ward Members' birthdays who had birthdays in that month. We called through all of the members of the ward inviting the less active members and really trying to get people to come! A lot of people ended up showing up and we had food and cake and then played board games with them. While we were there, a ward member asked us to go to the subway station and pick up a French guy who speaks a little English. His name was Alex and he was pretty cool, not super interested in the gospel though. He loved the costco cake which I thought was funny. He's from France and they are really good baked things and he loved a store bought costco cake. Haha the activity turned out well though, lots of people showed up and we had lots of fun.

A member in the Luzhou ward got his mission call as well. It's weird watching that while you're a missionary. Cause you know some of the stuff they're going to experience. It's all different. He's going to London England speaking English so he's pretty excited. We also were able to help a ward member move. No one had offered to help, so we did and we got a bunch of his stuff moved. He was pretty grateful, so he bought us some good Beef Noodles last night.

My bike was acting up a lot this week and wouldn't move very well. I found out that it's because I had bent the wheel, so it's constantly being dragged by the brakes. I decided to switch my tire with the old Exchange bike we have. To replace for a new tire is really expensive, so I just wanted to take the old tire. I needed a tool to undo my bike though. I went to this bike shop to ask this guy if I could buy a tool to fix my bike. He kept misunderstanding me though and tried to sell me new breaks. I told him I needed the tool, cause I could do it myself. He just told me that no one in New Taibei City sells that tool and I could just pay him. I decided to go to a more advanced bike shop and got the tool there. I spent the next hour fixing my bike up outside of our apartment building. It was pretty funny because all of these Taiwanese walked by just seeing an American with black greasy hands working on two bikes. They thought it was funny that I could do that and asked if I learned that in school. I told them that I had never done it before, and just did it there. The tire I put on is a 5 year old tire that is also bent, but it's a lot better than my other one, so I'm grateful. 

My bike isn't the only one that for wrecked this week though. Elder Hyde's Bike is totalled.We have a few injured people in our district right now. The District Leader Elder Donalson's knee is inflamed, so he is constantly in pain. His companion Elder Endicott rolled his ankle. My companion Elder Hyde just got hit by a car yesterday so his bike is broken. Basically everyone but me for the Elders. The sisters are really safe on the road so they're alright. 

So yeah it was a really fun week this week, and we were able to work hard and see some people progress! Don't want to take too long, so I'll email you all again in 5 days!! 

The pictures are of us with Elder Welch and his parents on P day.

 

Elder Welch where are you?

Haha Elder Welch is officially off his mission now. I was able to spend my last P day with him on Monday and we went hiking. We hiked with two of his other former companions and we all had a good time. He was really happy and it was fun. He was an amazing 3rd companion and I learned so much from him and he's a stud. I dropped him off on Wednesday morning giving him a goodbye hug and then letting him go. I hope he doesn't get married too fast haha. 

This week was a pretty big change. A lot happened! Right when Elder Welch said that he was going home, a bunch of members wanted to eat with us. We ended up having a dinner with someone for the next three nights! I swear that it is the Members' goal to get me fat. They are always giving me so much food. Even though they know I'm full and can't take anymore they make me eat more! Haha I never thought I wouldn't have a choice how much food I shovel into my body. They just make me eat! I heard when Chinese New Year comes it gets crazy and people get sick... needless to say, I'm not super excited for that haha.

Since Elder Welch was leaving, the luzhou elders had to be with me until I got my new companion. While I was with them a member called me and asked for a priesthood blessing. I hadn't ever been the one to say the blessing before so it was a new experience. I was able to do it in English, and Elder Endicott said that through the whole blessing he was thinking of stuff I needed to say, but I ended up saying it all. The spirit was truly guiding me which was a cool experience! After that we headed to the MRT station and picked up my new companion Elder Hyde. He is a pretty nice guy, and super obedient which is always good. His Dad actually served a mission in Taizhong so when he was 8 years old, they moved to Hong Kong. He lived there for ten years because of his dad's work， so that's pretty cool! I think we'll do well in this area and receive blessings for our service. 

On Friday this week was pretty cold. I think it was in the 40 degrees with wind chill and everything. It wasn't actually that cold, but with the moisture in the air that's what it actually felt like. For some reason I decided to just wear my short sleeved shirt and go out. Everyone on the street was just saying:"他不怕冷!!" Which means that He doesn't fear the cold!! People were so worried about it to the point where they brought a sweater for me. I kept telling them I just left my coat at home, but they didn't understand and were genuinely concerned haha. They are super nice people and always willing to do something to help someone.

I am still adjusting to changes, and missionary work is never easy work. Most people don't like to talk to you and things can be hard sometimes. Yesterday morning I received a call from my RC An Zhi. He told me that he had overtime work and that he was super tired and hadn't had the opportunity to sleep yet. He said for some reason he felt like he needed to call me and tell me that I will become a good missionary. He bore his testimony to me and said that I'm doing the right thing and my parents are proud of me. He also said that I am a good kid and I'm providing for my family in a spiritual way. Right after he said all of this he  hung up and went to sleep. It was just really cool to me that he called me to strengthen me. I'm super lucky to have got to know them.

I love all of you and your emails make my week! Thanks for all the love and support. Choose the Right!!

What happened to me??

Hey everyone!! The first week of the year was pretty great! Last P day I was able to go to a mountain and hike with a bunch of missionaries. We just do a bunch of hiking in Taiwan haha. It was nice because I was able to see a bunch of missionaries and one of my best mission buddy's Elder Cheung. We spent the day together and had some fun. 

 
This week was pretty cool. It is Elder Welch's last full week as a missionary. We wanted to be able to hit the key indicators so we worked really hard. The key indicators are 4 new investigators, 4 investigators at church, and 4 people who have a baptismal date. We tried to find new people and we were able to do a lot because we had the goal. We found a guy at McDonald's who saw us and saw that we were really happy so he talked to us. We ended up having a lesson with him a few days later. Yesterday was probably the craziest day of the week. We set up lessons with three investigators back to back, and had a lesson with a less active member at his house. It was super busy, but we were able to have good lessons with everyone and then go to Luzhou for an activity. We ended up eating dinner later that night cause we didn't have time. 

We found a place in a big park to do some exercise with the district. It is like 4 miles away from our house, so we have to wake up extra early and then bike there. The Sister's don't usually come, but we have the Elders and a few members come with us. It got a little competitive during a soccer game and one of the members who is a girl tripped over me and got a big bruise on her leg. At church today she was telling everyone what I did haha. They just aren't used to competitive Americans haha.

 

On Monday I had the longest hair I've ever had before. As I started to cut it though, I did something crazy. I BUZZED ALL OF MY HAIR!!! I felt like I needed to learn to be more humble because I would always get a lot of looks from people. The thing is, I buzzed my hair and now I'm pretty much bald. I thought it was really funny though. As I was at church today, people couldn't believe it was me and they kept just laughing hahaha. I guess it helps improve the relations with the members and the missionaries haha. People would always tell me I looked like someone from One Direction or Justin Beiber, but now so many people think I look like Eminem the rapper. Haha it's pretty hilarious. I just didn't want to care about my appearance too much, so I did this instead!

 

We saw a really cool miracle this week too! The Sister's ran into an old man on the street and he recognized them as missionaries. They talked to him and showed him where the church was and he lives super close. The Sister's passed him off to us as someone who might want to learn the gospel. When we met with him though, he kept saying:"I've already been baptized," we have heard the same thing over and over again, so we were dreading teaching him for a bit. When we started teaching him though, we realized he was already a member of the church! He had been baptized into the church over 15 years ago in Germany. He really loved it, but they taught him in German cause no one knew Chinese. He moved back to Taiwan, but didn't know where the church was so he didn't come back. As we taught him about the Restoration, he was super happy. He told us that this is the first time he's been able to hear it in his native language. We asked him to start praying and reading the scriptures every day again and he was super willing. He said of course. We invited him to church, and he was there starting to get to know the ward. It was a miracle. He told us that he always knew he would come back someday. And the Lord brought him back. 

Anyways this is just some of the things that happened this week. I hope we can all read the scriptures and pray every day to strengthen our relationship with Heavenly Father. He truly cares about us, and will always help us return to the thing that is best for us.

Enjoy your week! Love you all!

-Elder Thayne

 

新年快樂!!!

HEY everyone! It's the new year!! So many Holidays! We are going to watch the fireworks at Taipei 101 from our apartment.

This week has been pretty great! We were able to street contact a lot and just try to figure things out. Elder Welch and I were also able to teach a few lessons. One day was pretty interesting. We met with a former investigator and had a lesson with him on faith. It went pretty well, and then we asked him if he would he williNg to be baptized in the coming months. HE SAID YES! Here comes the kicker though...we asked him if he could continue to read the Book of Mormon and pray. He sat there and thought about it for awhile, and then flat out said no. We were super confused. We've never had anyone agree to be baptized and then not be willing to pray or read. He said it didn't work for him before, so it wouldn't work now. We're going to try to keep working with him though. 

Another day we were just walking around and then decided to walk into an Okay Mart. We saw a guy sitting down, and then he started talking to us in English. He was a pretty nice Chinese guy and he told us about all of his experiences. He's been to almost everywhere in the world and he loves to learn. He also looked like he was 50 years old. We tried to guess, but turns out he is 70. It was the craziest thing. Anyways after awhile of talking, he let us start to talk. We asked him if he cared to find God. He said YES. He'd been searching everywhere to find what was true and right. He went everywhere and learned from almost every religion. We were really excited, but when I brought out the book of Mormon he kind of backed away. We wanted to give it to him so he could learn for himself, but he wouldn't accept it. I asked him why, and then he told me:"you wouldn't believe everything I go through to find the truth. I would do anything!" But he wouldn't accept the book, or try to learn from us. He was a very knowledgeable guy and he'd been all over the world which made him too prideful to listen. Every time I would bring something up, he wouldn't listen and say that I'm too young to know what I'm talking about. We left the lesson there and said goodbye to him. It was a frustrating experience to me, but I learned a lot. Never be too prideful to hear someone, and really be sincere in your desires, and people will take you seriously.

Well Elder Welch only has a week and a half left on his mission. We are having a lot of fun together, and I'm learning so much. We are going to try to work super hard this next week and half as a going away present. It's been a very fast transfer, and I'm grateful to have him.


2017 has been an amazing year full of awesome experiences. I was able to spend the first half of it at home with my family. I was able to graduate high school, go on a last family trip and then head on my mission. It's probably been one of the busiest years of my life, but for sure one of the best. I've learned and grown so much, and I'm looking forward to bringing that into the New Year! It's crazy to think that I will be spending the whole year of 2018 on this Island. It's for sure an adventure though! You're all awesome and I'll make sure to put some pictures of the hike we just went on!

-Elder Thayne

聖誕節快樂

Merry Christmas everyone!!! I hope that everything is going well back in the States! I heard you don't really have a white Christmas, but you'll get snow later! We just have cold rain over here in Taiwan!!

This week has been really great! We were able to have a bunch of activities for the missionaries and some for the ward too. 

 Yesterday we were able to have a big Christmas Concert that the missionaries were able to put on for the people in Taibei. Tons of missionaries came to sing and I was able to see tons of people I knew from the ward. I also saw a lot of missionary friends. I was able to just laugh and be with some of my best friends from the MTC!!! It was great and the spirit was really strong as they were singing! My zone was also able to eat dinner at President's house before the concert.  We had some good food by Sister Jergenson and then Cream Puffs in Chocolate Fondou!! Super good. 

This week was a little bit harder with the work. People would set up, and then stand us up and not come. Or they would cancel on us. We had a lot of potential investigators, but it didn't really work well. We worked well with members this week though. We visited with a bunch of them and helped them plan a Christmas activity. We were even in the ward Christmas video! They filmed us opening up our packages and it was pretty funny. I love the members here in 三重 though. Lots of good people.

Last Monday we went on a super fun hike. We went with the Sister's investigator named Tin and with one of the members named Ray. Ray isn't even in my ward, but he likes to hang out with us all the time. When I was in Bali I met him and he really liked me cause he said I looked really handsome in my suspenders . He loved it, so he begged the missionaries in his own ward to buy him some. He sometimes wears them, but he thinks they just make him look more fat haha. Anyways, he came with us on the hike last week. It was a really beautiful hike , but it was a little bit more dangerous than we thought. We had to start climbing up ropes to get to the top. Ray was pretty scared cause he had never done anything like that, but we cheered him on and he did it. Once we got to the top of the mountain it was really beautiful. It was pretty cloudy but really nice. It started raining on the top so we had get down. There were two ways down. The easier way and the harder way. Elder Welch and I chose the harder way of course and we had to go down a hundred foot slope using a rope. It was a bit scary because it was slippery when it was wet, but we made it down. We had to cheer Ray on all the way down and he finally made it past this one part. He said:"I'm a wonder boy, just like the new movie," he said it in Chinese though so it was funny. There was one last slope that wasn't nearly as bad as the one before that Elder Welch and I went down. Ray was coming down and then his foot slipped! He let go of the rope, and started sliding down the side of the rock. He barely hit this part of the trail that saved him before there was another slope. He was really lucky. He got kind of freaked out about it, but we all laugh about it now. He told us he wants to go on that Hike again! He loved the thrill haha.

I don't want to make this too long, but I love all of you, and I hope your Christmas is meaningful. Try to share your joy with everyone you can and you will experience more joy because of it. 

-love Elder Thayne

 

 

Baptism!!!

This week in 三重 was great! We were able to have the opportunity to baptize a Vietnamese family. A husband and his wife. They are a young family who live here in Taiwan. Lily knows some English, but not very much Chinese. Her husband An Zhi speaks good Chinese but no English haha. By the time I got to 三重 they had already commited to baptism. They are so cool and so funny. I was able to baptize Lily, and Elder Welch baptized An Zhi. Elder Welch is left handed though, so he did the whole baptism with his left hand! Hahaha he had to baptize him again. I felt the spirit so strongly. When we got out of the font, we asked lily how she feels, and she said that she feels like:“ a little child returning home.” She was crying afterwards because she felt so good. An Zhi bore his testimony after, and it was so powerful. He talked about how he wants to keep growing in the gospel, and keep studying the scriptures. He understands that baptism is just the beginning. They are growing a lot already. A lady in the ward took some pictures of the baptism but she hasn't given them to me. Hopefully I'll have them by next week! 

Sanchong is a really great place! There are lots of people to talk to all the time. The members in the ward are also super awesome. There is a recent convert named Rui Cong who is really cool. He's always helping our the missionaries and loves to be with us. We met with a lot of members this week inviting them to serve one another and get into the spirit of Christmas. 

One member family we visited was having a really hard time and the wife was thinking about having a divorce. They invited us over for dinner, but as we were walking up the stairs we heard lots of yelling coming from inside. We left and then came back later when the wife called us. She was pretty mad at her husband, and wouldn't let him come out of the bedroom to see us. It was a good visit though and I think we helped them. They told us later that they went on a walk together and talked over some things, so hopefully that helped. From that whole experience, I learned that the wife rules the house haha. 

It was a great week overall though, hopefully we can teach a lot more people soon. I'll make sure to send pictures next week!

-Elder Thayne

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Transfer to 三重

大家好!

This week was probably one of the best weeks on my mission! It was transfer week so all of the missionaries were going crazy wondering where they would go off to. This transfer actually mattered to us because we would be out of training and get new companions! I thought that I was going to be staying in Bali and Elder Hooker would leave because he's been in Bali for 3 transfers. When we opened up the transfer sheet though, it said I was leaving... It was a super crazy twist. I had to pack all of my stuff. I thought that I would he staying, so I had a bunch of food bought. He was super happy to inherit all of the food I couldn't take. 

My new area is called Sanchong. It's very different from Bali. Bali was a small town, and Sanchong is just a densely populated city. It has 10 times as many people as Bali. I have just been going around meeting a bunch of the members in the ward. Every time I go up to them and introduce myself they laugh because my Chinese name means:"Elder Money." They love it and laugh all the time. My new Companion is named Elder Welch. He's so awesome and his Chinese is really good too. We get along really well and the work is going well. He is actually on his last transfer on his mission. When someone is close to going home, they say they are close to dying. The missionary who is with them when they die is the one who "kills" them. It's pretty weird, but it's how they say it.

Lots of great miracles this week! Two investigators that they had before I got here just passed their baptismal interview. They are so great, and there is so much stuff going on. I'll send more information next week!

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