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

Too.Much.Rain.

This week was a pretty normal week for missionary work!! The thing that made it a big harder to do was all the rain that came down. Throughout the week it would be really sunny, and then the moment we stepped outside it would start raining down in sheets. Before my mission rain actually never bothered me. We actually prayed for it so the crops on the farm could grow and we wouldn't be in a drought. It's completely different on a mission in Taiwan though. We have to be outside proselyting, and we can't go back home unless it's severe typhoon weather! We sometimes have rain Coats, but I only wear them in the winter. If you wear them in the summer you'll just get super hot and humid and then get soaked from your own sweat! So I just opted to not wear any water gear. Elder Fernandes and I were just on our bikes getting drenched by the rain while we saw all of the Taiwanese under their umbrellas saying:“辛苦了(so hard on you).” Elder Fernandes told me after that he kinda likes people see what we do can be hard sometimes... They appreciate our dedication . I have to agree with him.

We made tons of progress with Sam this week which we're really happy about! He came to church the last two Sundays, we taught him about half of the commandments and he is willing to follow them. It is a little bit hard for him to give up tea though. They pretty much drink tea at every meal. They drink it a lot more than water here. We had a lesson with him one day and then after went to go eat lunch with him. He said he didn't have enough money for a lunch, so we gave him some extra money. After we sat down and the food was brought out to us, we saw that he had ordered milk tea! He did it right in front of us haha. We knew he probably forgot, so we told him and then he went and exchanged it for a different drink. He came back and it was black tea... We were like Come on Sam!! He had already exchanged his drink once though so Elder Fernandes had to take it to the counter to get something he could drink. It was really funny! If everything goes well he will be baptized next week! We're super excited and we're working really hard with him so we hope it can turn out.

This week was mostly just Normal missionary work. We did a lot more trying to help Sam this week, and some of our other investigators and we feel like it's really gonna pay off! They are progressing a lot and we both feel like there are a few miracles in the making. Stuff will come out of all the hard work we've been doing soon, and I'm so excited to see it.

Elder Fernandes and I have been talking a lot about our investigators. Something we realized is that none of the people we are working with are "Golden Investigators." A "Golden Investigator,"  is someone you find and work with that accept everything you teach. They usually don't have any problems and they progress really fast and then get baptized and they're awesome people you don't have to worry about. And when we say that all of our investigators aren't Golden, it means that they all have little problems that they have to work though. After working with them for so long, I can see why it has to be this way. They have all these problems, but they are relying on God to help them. They also really like us as missionaries and also as their friends. Things are really good over here! Hope everyone is doing great back at home!

-Love Elder Thayne

Here's my address

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Da-an, Taipei 106

Taiwan

Just when you get used to him...

Well as you can probably guess from the title, this week was a bit crazy. If you remember last week, Elder Zhuang left and so Elder Day became Elder Fernandes and I's companion? So we had three people. It was a little bit hard to get used to for sure. He is also really really good at talking to missionaries, so we were constantly talking and the days seemed to just fly by. It actually became pretty fun. Since Elder Day leaves in two weeks, we were watching him do all of the "My Plan" work on the computer. Needless to say he was really excited to watch the dating part. The sad end to this whole story is that on Tuesday night Elder Day called President Jergensen and asked him about interview times. And then out of nowhere president told Elder Day he would be moving. Two weeks before the end of his mission they would be moving him back to his previous area in WanHua. It was super weird cause that never happens. So basically he hung up the phone and we got all of his stuff packed up and ready to go. There was a lot of throwing stuff away and it left the house pretty bad, but we got him out the next morning by six. We had to take a train to Taibei for a zone conference. 

The zone conference we went to that morning is actually the last one that will be put on by President Jergensen which is sad. It was really nice though because we were there by his house, and for lunch Sister Jergensen made waffles and bananas and caramel syrup. It was soooo good. I haven't had anything that good homecooked in a long time. We practiced teaching and he shared his testimony with us for the last time. Overall a really good experience. There are 40 missionaries going home this transfer which is super crazy. Because of that, and President going home, he doesn't have enough time to do a last interview with the missionaries staying. Kinda sad, but I do love him and was glad to see him one last time. Right after that meeting, we let Elder Day go, and it was just Elder Fernandes and I heading back on the train.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. We were on the streets talking to people, and then teaching the people that wanted to be taught. Just a normal missionary's life. 

Not much else to say until next week, but I love you all and hope you have a great father's day!! (I didn't know it was father's day until I got an email the day after...) 

-Love Elder Grayson Thayne

My mailing address:

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Da-an, Taipei 106

Taiwan

Here are some random pictures.

It's like he never existed

This was a really good week, it went by pretty fast. Had some good stuff happen for the area.

I haven't given an update on our investigators for awhile so I can share a little about each of them.

Phil: an awesome dad we met while the sisters were giving a chapel tour! He had his daughter with him and when we saw her, Elder Fernandes and I totally knew we had seen her before somewhere. They were really awesome, and Phil said he wanted to have his daughter grow up learning about Jesus! We had no idea where we had seen her until they had left. We realized that we'd seen her like 3 weeks before in a 7-11 with Phil`s mom. We had thought she was so cute, only two years old and eating her own ice cream cone is hard to forget!!

Karl: a really cool 25 year old. Graduated from College and owns his own business. He bought a restaraunt from this guy who had it as a burger place. It's theme is really cool and Karl is a nice guy. Business was slow for him, but then after we started meeting with him and taught him about prayer it started to pick up. He told us that Heavenly Father was helping him. He stopped responding for awhile so we checked on him the other night. He was really stressed, and told us that the previous owner who still owns part of the business wants to change the restaurant to a Hot Pot place. Hot Pot is everywhere, so Karl doesn't want to change it. It's making him pretty stressed, so if you could pray for him that would be great.

Sam and his Girlfriend: This is an interesting one... We met Sam biking a while ago and have started meeting with him. He's kind of an awkward 15 year old haha, just acts super weird sometimes. We were really trying to get him to come to church, but he would ride to his girlfriend's house every Sunday at 6 in the morning and stay there the entire day. He really likes his girlfriend, so he goes to her house every single day after school which is a 30 minute bike ride(dedication). Anyways we couldn't get him to come to church without her, but we met her and now we are meeting with both of them! She even reminds him to read the Book of Mormon!!

Jordan: Jordan's situation is really hard. He was Elder Day's investigator until Elder Day combined with us so he become both of ours. He is 16 and is super awesome. He even went to take the Sacrament to an injured member in the ward on Sunday. He's just a super Golden kid. He was about to get baptized next week, but his parents aren't going to let him. The Mom had a bad encounter with Christians a long time ago, not from our church. So now she doesn't have a good outlook on Christians, and won't let him get baptized. Last time we met with him it was hard cause he told us they didn't want him going to church anymore. If he isn't going to church then the ward can't support him easily. The legal "Adult" age here in Taiwan is 20 years old. So he will have to wait four years to get baptized. It's just gonna be hard for the missionaries to keep him around that long if he can't come to church. We're praying for a miracle though, and I am getting my friend from another area that had the same problem to video call us this week.

Okay I can talk about a few more people next week, I don't want to make this email too long and boring!

Elder Zhuang finally got his Visa approved!!! He left for the MTC in the Philippines last Thursday morning at 3:00. He was a really awesome missionary and super funny. We were all sad to see him go, but he's happy to be moving on. We are kind of in a far away area, so most of the mission won't even know he existed haha, Elder Day will be gone after this transfer too, so basically just a few missionaries know he was here. We woke up early and saw him off. It was actually his Mom who picked him up to drive him to the airport haha!! I guess that's what happens when your mission doesn't have cars

Since Elder Zhuang left, Elder Day has been with us. He's gonna be here in a Tricompanionship until he leaves to go home. It's been pretty weird, but fun. I'll let you in on more details soon! If you have any questions, just email back! 

-Love Elder Thayne

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Jin Hua Street

Da-an, Taipei 106

Taiwan

Mango ice, and the reason that Taiwan is one of the most safe countries in the world.

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...