The Lord works in Mysterious ways.

Me sneakily putting an English tract on a sign.

It's been a very full week here in Nankan! We went on exchanges with the zone leaders in Taoyuan, did a pass off lesson with the sister missionares and Tina, went to Taipei for P day, and also celebrated Elder Fredenberg's birthday!

He's finally 19 haha! He's only a few transfers younger than me on the mission but he's also over a year younger, pretty weird stuff. To celebrate we had the district go to this Tepanyaki place for lunch. It's not as expensive as the Tepanyaki in America though. It's also not paid to have a show, they just cook the food. It's like $6 per person and there is unlimited ice cream and soda so that's a plus! As we were biking back closer to our area we stopped cause there was a lady in a wheel chair with tons of trash and things all around her. We could tell she needed help and so Elder Shope asked her if we could help her! For one of the first times in my mission she accepted our help! She was really happy that there were four missionaries to help her move into her now house. When we got close she told us not to open the doors for the second and third floor. Come to find out there are around 18 cats living in her house. She asked us to take a few and we refused, she was thankful for our help though. The sisters are excited to work with her now and invited her to church! 

The primary kids had an activity last Friday night to go to  big park and pass out candy to people with an invite to English class! They were all dressed up in different costumes so it was cute to go with them and pass the candy out. It made me realize how afraid people really are of missionaries haha. We were just trying to pass it out with the kids but almost everyone was refusing candy!! When the kids came, it just melted the adults' hearts and they would take the candy every time. They're just too cute haha. Yesterday was also the primary program and everyone loves to hear all the kids sing. Some were good singers, others not so good, but it was appreciated by everyone nonetheless.

My friend Jonas back in Miaoli got baptized this week! Because of a recent change in the rules, I wasn't able to see him baptized, but he's really happy and I know he'll be a big strength to the ward. It was struggling a lot while I was there. They have a lot of new members now that can strengthen it. We basically doubled the young men's! They have lots of friends now!

Probably one of the biggest miracles that happened this week is also connected to Miaoli. While I was there with Elder Merrill we talked for awhile and he convinced me that we should buy skateboards together. We got some cool skateboards and we started riding around for exercise every day ( don't worry I used graduation money for this). Then I moved to Taoyuan and haven't had much of an opportunity to ride it. We were having a hard time finding anyone this week, and we've seen that most of the people we're working with aren't progressing very well and can't keep being taught if they don't want to. We couldn't really find anyone this week until on Thursday we were walking around and found this guy skating with his girlfriend behind a mall. We'd never been there before so we didn't know anyone skated over there. I showed them the few things I could do and we talked for awhile. I asked them if I could skate with them next time they were there and then share a bit about the gospel with them after. They were willing and we left with their contact info. We set up with them to go and skateboard at night for a bit. 

That night I changed into my normal clothes and took my skateboard not really knowing what was gonna happen. The whole time riding over there I was thinking to myself if this was worth doing or not. If I was wasting the Lord's time or if this was what I was supposed to do. Well we got there and there were 7 people skating around. They were all really cool and we skated around. They showed me a few things and we started talking to two of them away from the big group. We talked for awhile and then asked them if we could share with those two. They said yes and we just sat down on our skateboards. Before we could start sharing with them though they yelled to the other 5 people and said:" come listen to their story!" They all came and sat around in a circle all on their skateboards and listened to us share. They asked good questions and we taught them the restoration of the gospel. Most of them were paying attention and sincerely wanted to understand why we came to Taiwan and how Jesus has helped us personally. We only had two Books of Mormon and gave them to them. They said they wanted some more so next Saturday when we go back we will bring 5 more and teach the Plan of Salvation! 

This experience was really interesting to me because I found that God will provide a way for every one of his children to here this message about a God that loves them. It may not be the most conventional way of sharing the Gospel, but it's what they needed to do before they would hear the message. I know God loves and he cares about all of us. 

Sorry I don't have many pictures, love you all.

-Elder Grayson Thayne

Suffer the Children to come unto me

This week was an interesting one for sure! I learned a lot and I worked a lot, that's the combination for a good week. Last P day I got to see Elder Cheung! It was way fun being with him and Elder Fernandes. Us three haven't been together since training. And I haven't seen Elder Cheung in 10 months so that was a miracle. 

The zone leaders had a baptism this Saturday and since they're in my district I was able to do a baptismal interviews for the guy. I've done a few of those while I've been here already and I love doing it every time. You get to talk to the person and see how their faith had grown in learning about Jesus Christ. They always share their experiences with me and I can always feel the spirit. There's never any question that they should get baptized or not. Everyone needs this blessing God wants to give. We saw him baptized on Saturday and were able to bring some of our friends we were teaching to see. 

We had zone conference this week and 3 zones got together at our chapel to hear from president! I saw Elder Beus there again so I sat with him and Elder Fernandes. It was really fun seeing lots of good missionaries, and former companions. Lately the mission in general has been pretty bad about keeping apartments clean. They gave a training on how to make a bed and keep apartments clean haha. Thanks Mom for teaching me how to do that stuff! We also talked a lot about urgency as missionaries and how to become better and more effective. 

Something that was really interesting was this week I realized I love kids! In Taiwan wards all the kinds are really comfortable with the adults and also the missionaries so everyone plays with them. My ward at home in Lehi is all grown up so I never got to be around the kids that much. Yesterday during church we got invited to come to the primary and show the kids what missionary work is like. We did a role play of a street contact and made the kids laugh a lot. When I sat down one of our friends little girl came and was just touching and wanting to play haha. When I first met her she was really scared of me and wouldn't talk, but now she loves me I have a good relationship with the little kids. They're just so close to God because they're so good. I realized I love being around them so much cause it's so refreshing. It was awesome to go to primary haha. 

I realized what Jesus meant when he said that we need to humble ourselves and become like little children to inherit the kingdom of God. Sorry I don't have many pictures this week! Nothing too out of the ordinary. Love you guys!!!

-Elder Thayne

你是摩爾門教嗎

My district minus Elder Endicott (he is taking the pictures)

Hey Everyone! 

I hope you all enjoyed General Conference last week! We watched it yesterday in Taiwan and I received lots of answers to questions I've been having. I loved how Bold President Nelson is with the whole church and everyone in the world. He doesn't care how hard things are to change. If there is a change that needs to happen, he will do it cause it's what God wants. I remember when I saw the statement about how the church shouldn't go by nicknames because we are Jesus Christ's church. I thought that is would be really hard cause everyone refers to us as "Mormons". Even people in Taiwan refer to us that way. I liked the way President Nelson said that we aren't Mormons because we don't worship Mormon. We worship Jesus Christ, so it would only make sense that we are his church. Basically right after I watched conference, that night we ran into a Buddhist family who didn't know much about us. They asked us if we were Mormons and we told them our real church's name. It's going to be an every day thing I have to help people understand for the rest of my mission, but I know it's what God wants for his church.

This week was pretty fun! Last P day Elder Fredenberg invited all the missionaries that came to Taiwan at the same time as him to Taoyuan to hang with us. We had lots of missionaries and it was fun hanging out with them. We went to a 烤肉(all-you-can-eat barbecue). It's funny cause most Taiwanese that go there don't eat like Americans. So when the waitress see's twelve American missionaries who use their money for this one meal in the day come in, the get kinda scared haha. We ate so much. We for sure got more than enough food. Right after we were all sick and could barely move and then someone suggested we go play Frisbee. I wasn't wanting to throw all that up so I skipped out lol. It was fun though.

Our Ward had an activity this week which was also really fun! We all got up early in the morning to go have a picnic in Longtan and play games. We didn't know if we should wear normal clothes or missionary clothes so we called one of the sister missionary's who was going and asked. She told us to wear missionary clothes. Later on when we got there, we saw the sisters dressed in t shirts and Yoga pants and knew they tricked us... They said they had just been told not to wear missionary clothes. At the picnic we played games in our white shirts and ties, not something very foreign to me on my mission cause we play basketball in these clothes all the time. We still schooled everyone and it was really fun!! The place was beautiful and the weather was really nice! On the bus ride back, they were playing the smurfs movie which was weird cause it was all English with Chinese subtitles and it was so hard not to watch. I never thought I'd be tempted to watch the smurfs! I'll put pictures in the bottom. We also took some pictures of our district for English class, Elder Endicott isn't in them though cause he was taking the picture.

Last Sunday we had a mom walk into our church for Sacrament meeting. She had two cute little kids. She told me her sister lives in Utah so she's been to church before. We visited her family this week and I just had a really good time spending time with the kids. It's kinda sad because we found out their family doesn't live in our area. So we're gonna be passing them off to the sisters. We're still really excited though because they're a great family and they'll probably get baptized someday! They said that we can still come over for dinner sometimes. 

That's about it! We had some other stuff happen so if you wanna know just send me an email!

-Elder Grayson Thayne

I actually live in Nankan

Hey everyone! 

I can fill you in on some more details about my new area this week so you know what's going on. The place I live is called Nankan District. It's north of the main part or Taoyuan city. It's an interesting area in the way that most of the young people we meet on the street are actually working as flight attendants cause the Taiwan international airport is pretty close. All the missionaries areas in Taoyuan are really close so the borders for the area are pretty messy. All the other missionaries live in our area, and we live in someones else's area so it gets pretty confusing. We have a nice river bike trail that we use to get to the church most of the time, it's like a 15 minute bike ride so not bad at all, we are the farthest away from the church. I can send a picture of the trail! 

Since all the missionaries are close, we get together most mornings to exercise. Either playing frisbee or some basketball. It's really fun cause we usually have like 12 missionaries there so we get good exercise in. Since we live kind of far away we have to wake up 45 minutes earlier than usual so it kinda kills our sleep. We love it though. 

I'm sorry if this email isn't really detailed. I accidentally left my journal in Miaoli when I left and they haven't gotten it back to me yet so I don't have many details. 2 of my friends that I taught in Miaoli are going to get baptized over the next couple of weeks so I'll go back down there and get it! 

While all of my friends are preparing to get baptized in Miaoli, the ones I have here are just starting. Sometimes it can be kind of hard to move because you leave all the people you know and you kinda have to start over when it comes to the people you're teaching. There weren't many people they were teaching when I got here, but we've been working really hard to get more. We are slowly building up. Very slowly, but it's working.

There was a huge miracle on this last Wednesday. We were teaching out English class on family history which was am interesting subject. As we did our spiritual share at the end I started talking to one of the students. It turns out he still believes in God and everything. He's actually just a less active member of our church. As I was talking to him I found out that he hadn't been into the chapel area for about ten years. I asked him if we could go in and I could talk to him a bit. I found out that he had a lot problems with some of the people he ran into. The missionaries and the members. We talked a lot about Jesus Christ though and that's the important thing. He kept talking about all of his problems for about twenty minutes, and being as busy minded as missionaries are I just wanted to get to the point and leave. I had the feeling to be patient and just listen. After he stopped talking I invited him to come to Sacrament meeting the next week. I felt the spirit very strongly and he said he would try to come. I don't know if he did or not but the important thing is that he accepted the invite. 

This area is really amazing. I'm excited to get it moving forward. Love you guys. 

-Elder Grayson Thayne

Also I found this pig in the park haha. Super skinny and unhealthy like the people here, but still good to see a lot. It's been a long time.

The Peach Garden

Hello everyone! 

Sorry I didn't write last week, just no time sadly. But I'm back this week to tell you all the news about what happened last week during transfers!!

I've been transferred! I honestly thought I would be staying in Miaoli for a fourth transfer with Elder Merrill cause we were having some good success, but little did I know that I would be moving. When I got the transfer call I was a bit disappointed because we were working with so many good people. The thing is when transfers happen, lots of people you are teaching just disappear. So they aren't teaching many of the people I was. I was really really excited though because I was moving into a district that had the Taoyuan Zone Leaders and that meant Elder Fernandes!!! Yep, I'm in the same district as him. 6 weeks apart was just too long I guess cause we're back together again. The district is really close and the missionaries all use the same stake center so we see each other all the time. 

Taoyuan means:" Peach Garden" in Chinese. I am staying the district leader just like last transfer. This district is a lot different than my last one with only us and two sisters. Now in Taoyuan my district has 2 sisters and 4 more Elders so a total of 8 people in the district. We have the zone leaders and the Sister Training leaders in my district. With this many people I have a lot more opportunities to go on exchanges and try to help the district out. We have lots of goals and we're all really excited to work hard here!

So much to talk about... My new Companion! His name is Elder Fredenberg! He's a super nice guy from Michigan who has been on his mission like 4 transfers less than me, but his Chinese is way better. He's honestly a great guy and super smart. He's into building robots and research stuff. He actually got a scholarship to go to MIT after his mission. For those who don't know that is, it's one of the best schools in the country. He also has the thickest eyebrows I've ever seen on anyone. Even beats out Mitch and Talmage on that one. Another thing that's cool is he was raised on a farm of about 40 acres and has pigs, cows, chickens, goats, and sheep. Pretty fun to talk about that with him cause we both know about that stuff. He's awesome.

me and  Elder Fredenberg on the roof

Last week we helped Daniel get baptized. He's very excited and a bunch of people came. The thing is I had to come back to Miaoli to baptize him. About 2 days after I transferred to Taoyuan I got back on the train and headed to Miaoli. Everyone was really happy to see each other again and it was cool to see the couple we baptized the last week! They're doing great too. They were even asked by the sisters in Miaoli to help out teaching a lesson! Everyone is really good, I wish I could have stayed for a bit longer but our train was leaving and I had to go. 

This week I've met a lot of new people and am just trying to get adjusted to a new area. This is my 4th so I know what it's like to move, but it's always weird for the first week. When I came in they weren't teaching many people and so we are having to start from scratch almost and just work really hard to help these people. 

Can't wait to talk to you all next week! Love you and thank on for all your prayers!

-Elder Grayson Thayne

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.