It's a Christmas Miracle!

Hey Everyone! Lots happened this week! 

We went to Hualien for P day last week and I got to see Elder Yeh there and a bunch of other missionaries. We went to a Kaorou all you can eat and stuffed ourselves. After that we went to a park by the ocean and played some frisbee and sand volleyball! It's always funny playing with the sister missionaries because without them it gets pretty competitive, but when they join in its a really relaxed game. I am the district leader of some sisters here, but since we're so far away, I'll only see them about 5 times in a six week period so I don't feel like I can help them much. 

Right after P day ended at 6:30, I went on exchanges with Elder Raymond and we went around finding people. We ran into a guy from France who was really nice and talked to us, but right when we brought up the gospel he said he didn't want to talk about it and tried to shut us down. As we walked away I just remember thinking how lucky I am to be serving a mission here in Taiwan. The people are so much more accepting of change. I really respect missionaries in the European countries.

We had a combined district counsel with all the Hualien missionaries on Tuesday and we all shared our testimonies of specific attributes of Jesus Christ. The spirit was really strong. I've always wondered why the spirit is so strong when missionaries testify, and now I know it's because they live the gospel more than the average person, so they can really see a difference in their life when they have it and when they don't. They're also constantly striving to improve. 

Elder Zhang packed all of his anime action figures and drawings away and threw lots of old clothes out. He left to go home on Thursday. Kinda sad to see him go cause it was just us two here. He's moving on though and I'm really happy for him. We'll ship his bike to him later cause he wants to keep it for a souvenir.

Now on to the Christmas Miracle. From about the fourth day I was in Yuli I knew what kind of missionary I needed to help me to work here. I told president who I think should come to the area. We had a talk about it in my interview with him. He had an interview later with this Elder and told him that he couldn't come down here with me because he needs him somewhere else. President then told this other missionary he would be coming down here with me. This other missionary then started talking everyone else and they all knew he would be here. I was thinking of this a lot and I didn't know what to do because I felt like it should be someone else that should come down. I prayed, and then wrote a long email to my mission President explaining the circumstances. When I opened up the transfer call letter the little faith I had in this actually worked! ELDER CHEUNG is coming to Yuli!!! 

This is what I had been praying for and what I knew this place needed. Because president allowed this to happen, I know that he expects a lot from us and our work here. So Elder Cheung and I are gonna give it our all. I met him in the MTC and we became best friends. Ever since then we've been talking about being companions together and how it would be. It's just an amazing feeling to be with your best friend by yourself out here doing the work. I get the exact same feeling from him that I did from Elder Fernandes earlier in my mission. I love these two guys so much and I realize how lucky I am. 

The rest of this week was just getting Elder Cheung more used to the area, it's gonna be a great few transfers together. We need your prayers as we work here. Love you guys.

感恩節快樂

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! 

I know it's a bit late to be saying this, but I missed getting an email out last week, so I can update you all with what's happened. 

We had a big zone conference in Taidong on Thanksgiving Day and we got to eat duck! President had bought lots of ducks for us to eat which was really good and we went home with full stomachs. The zone conference went really well and I learned a lot. President Peterson has really been pushing us to build the church in Taiwan. He wants us to work with the members of the church more in order to give them desire to help the church grow here. We're hoping that putting this new focus on the members here will help the church be much stronger in the future. 

Elder Zhang and I visited a member in the branch the other night and had dinner with them. They were telling us a bit about the history of Yuli here. He was telling us how it's had a lot of struggles in the past. He was trying to not be negative, but him and the rest of the members have seen so many missionaries come into Yuli with the same attitude, that they want to change it and everything. He says they do the same things and it doesn't work. He looked at me and said we need an Alma here. Hearing all this made me realize this area has had a lot of missionaries come through with not much success. It's made me think about what else I can do differently so that it does. It's really humbling me and making me ponder on what needs to happen here. If you all could pray for me out here I would appreciate the support. I need all I can get.

We've been riding our bikes a lot lately, which is super fun. We just get on our bikes and ride like 24 miles in one day. It's a beautiful place that you can just enjoy while you ride.  We went and ate dinner with a family and they're so awesome. They love the missionaries and play with us all the time. One of their kids has 6 fingers and he's the sweetest kid you'll ever meet. 

We taught this guy we found this week named August. He is Taiwanese, but he's from Venezuela. He's one of our only friends to teach but he's really hard. He's into philosophy and thinks about everything so much that he kinda doesn't believe in anything anymore. He doesn't even believe that anything is good or bad. He also talks a lot. We had a lesson with him and it was us teaching him for 10 minutes and him talking for like 60. It really tests my patience and listening when you have to sit there and listen to them that long, but that's how he knows he can trust us and is willing to learn. He accepted a Book of Mormon and told us he will read it. If you have time, pray for him to find the truthfulness of the book of Mormon.

Nothing too crazy happened this week, they had elections for city officials so there were fireworks everywhere. We don't know anything about politics as missionaries so it didn't make any difference to us. It was fun to watch the firework show though.

The saddest thing that happened this week is that I broke my Tag. Nothing special I was just trying to put it on and then it snapped. I've worn it every day basically so it's really sad. I'll have to get a new one probably.

Love you all so much, it's a blast being a missionary every day and working to help people. Thanks for all your prayers and support!

Have lots of pictures of a hike and with some members! Enjoy

Where are the Yuli missionaries?

This past week was different. We were only in our area for three days!! It was hard to progress the work when you aren't here that much. We stayed in Hualien with the other missionaries from Saturday night to Tuesday night. During that time we got lots done. We had interviews with president, stake conference, and a fun P day. We went bowling as a bunch of the Elders and only two of us got above 100 points! I barely made it over 100 cause I did terrible at first, but I made a good comeback in the end! Elder Chang and I went to a Kaorao. Barbecue place and we ate so much. We kept ordering more and more and the waitresses were really surprised and asked if we wanted to stop, but we just kept esting. I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of it, but I was ready to eat more when I came out. The next few days weren't the most fun in the bathroom, but it was worth it in the moment. 

While we were in Hualien we visited one of our friends that I've never met. He was hospitalized the day before I came because of some problems drinking alcohol. He'd been sensitive to drinking before and had a few close calls so he stopped. Some of his friends got him into it again while he was with them though and now he's in the hospital because of it. He's been there for three weeks now and mostly unconscious. We gave him a priesthood blessing and visited him twice. His wife is so sad, and she's convinced if he gets better and God saves him that he will be a completely different person after this. This might just be a trial of their faith. Keep them both in your prayers.

On Friday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders in Taidong which is more south than where I'm at.  It was good and I learned a lot. We got back Saturday night. It's good to be back in your own area. We are trying to work really hard and change it. Thank you all for the encouragement and emails. Enjoy the pictures.

-Elder Thayne

 

 

Who's feeling a picnic?

Beautiful week here in the Jade Village! It was filled with long bike rides, picnics outside, talking to crazy people on the streets and more of all that. 

I'm getting to know this area a bit better now and I'm getting used a little bit more used to how missionary work is done here. Since we have a lot of time, we teach an English class every Wednesday through Friday from 7:00-8:00. A bunch of kids come with their mom's to learn. We keep teaching the kids English in hopes that we can become friends with the families and they will let us come to their house to teach them! It's a process, but we think it will be worth it. The kids are really cute too. I'll put a picture in.

We woke up one morning and Elder Chang asked me where I wanted to study. I just told him somewhere outside that was pretty! We had set up an old Grandma to go visit that day in a place called Dongli so we biked half an hour to get there and teach her. She was really funny and wanted to talk for awhile. She's Christian and loves her church! We shared the Book of Mormon with her and she was excited that she had another book to read, I hope she understands it! This summer there were no typhoons, so there was a surplus of a fruit called Youzi. There are so many that people don't know what to do with. She insisted on giving us each about 7 Youzi that were half rotten and we biked all the way home with them haha. There's no way to convince old people out of giving you stuff, they're just too nice!! On the way back we stopped by a park and ate our lunch outside. Some of my favorite times have been to be on a long bike ride and just think to yourself. If there are people on the street, you should be talking to them, but here there aren't many people on the street so you can really ponder on things. It's really peaceful out here.

One day I woke up and Elder Chang asked if I wanted to go and Kan Shu that day. Read a book of course! I didn't ask what book but I said yeah. Elder Chang's Chinese is really weird, it doesn't sound like a normal Taiwanese, and he uses weird grammar that no one else does, so when he said Kan Shu it meant to go cut a tree! It's the same words, just different tones. So that afternoon we stopped by our branch member's home and cut down most of a tree for them using a saw. We finally get service opportunities here outside of English class! It's the best. 

What else happened this week... We came up to Hualien this week cause we had Stake Conference and interviews with President. This was the first time that I had questions and stuff I needed to bring up with him. I'm already thinking about next transfer because Elder Chang will be going home in 5 weeks and this area is gonna need another good missionary to replace him. So I talked to president about that and hopefully he thinks of someone good. 

They updated our Preach My Gospel book and as I was studying I noticed that in the studying section it talks about things you can do for an effective study. One of the new things they included was Pondering. As I've had more time to do that and just think things through, it's a really effective way to feel the spirit and recieve direction on what to do next. I hope that everyone gets enough time to ponder every single day. If you do that, you will understand more clearly what you should do and how to make decisions. Enjoy the pictures! 

-Love Elder Thayne

 

 

 

 

Ohhh so I'm that kinda missionary?

This week has been insane everyone! 

I was doing well at the beginning of the week. Had a fun P day, went and bought a bunch of groceries with my newly purchased Costco membership! It is worth it in Taiwan cause you can actually save a lot of money as a missionary by buying stuff from there. Everything was nice and good as transfers were coming up. As a district we kind of guessed who was going to be leaving and we knew lots of people were. The ones that had been there for three or four transfers were for sure leaving. Elder Fredenberg was a bit nervous that he would be leaving cause this was only his second transfer in Taoyuan and he's only gone two transfers in every area up to now. On Monday as we were in Taipei with Elder Fredenberg's friend I got a call from another Elder in my district saying he was training! Another Elder in my district also got a training call... I was waiting for mine that day but it never came! I was glad cause that meant Elder Fredenberg wouldn't be leaving and we would probably stay together.

 

 

The day of transfers came and we got all of our information on what would be happening. As I was scrolling down to my name I didn't think anything would change for me, I actually felt pretty safe this transfer, oh I was in for a treat. I open up my file and....IM MOVING AGAIN. And not to just any normal place, but I'm moving to Yuli. It was such a crazy call change that I wasn't even surprised. I only have six transfers left of my mission so I was thinking it was gonna go a certain way, but this is something I didn't expect at all. I've only been here in Taoyuan for 6 weeks. I loved the ward I was in, we were just starting to get the area moving pretty well and then I get cast out of the Peach Garden 🤤. When I saw this I was actually kind of mad. I had just gotten there six weeks earlier and tried my best to help the area and now it's like my work goes unfinished. Kind of a waste of six weeks. I had bought lots of new Good good from Costco cause I was 100% sure I was staying, and we had a really great district with lots of missionaries I loved. I was also close to other missionaries so I could see them on P day. It took a lot of humility to accept that I was being moved and to start packing from a place I had just moved to. Elder Fredenberg got kind of serious with me and told me to stop thinking negatively about this. I've tried to take that advice and do the best I can. 

 

 

Yuli is a place in the Hualien zone on the east side if Taiwan. It's pretty far away from other missionaries. The closest missionaries to Yuli are an hour ride away on the fastest train. Two hours if you take the normal one. It's pretty far in the middle of nowhere. It has people in it still but not very many. It's kind of a harder area to do missionary work because there aren't many young people in Yuli and most everyone has talked to the missionaries before. Missionaries can take two days and knock on every door in the town. The cool thing is that the area is really big so you can go to other small towns and teach those people. Also can find different villages just looking for who will listen. 

Getting there was probably the biggest nightmare this week. I packed all of my stuff and took a taxi to the train station. I first took a train to Taipei and then from there took the subway to the area of the mission home so I could pick up my train ticket. The problem was that the first train I was on was running slow. When I was finally getting out of the subway I didn't have much time. I asked the people at the subway if I could leave my luggage in there and come back five minutes later with my ticket. They said no haha so I had to drag my luggage out of the subway and all the way to the mission home, I was running and a missionary there handed me the ticket as I was leaving. All the new 19 missionaries were coming in about to get picked up by their trainers and the AP's yelled and told me good luck in Yuli! President was right there and grabbed one of my suitcases and ran with me to the subway. I said goodbye and took it to the train station. I was running the whole time and I barely was able to get on the train before the doors closed. I went through the eleven cars to the very back and sat there. It was pretty insane but I made it!

This week has just been a lot of change and adjusting so I can give more details next week. It was a big surprise and I didn't know it was gonna turn out like this, but I trust the Lord and know that this is where he needs me. I'll work my hardest here and I know God will support those he calls. I'd love to get more emails from you guys, especially where I'm at now I can answer!! More time haha. Love you!

-Elder Grayson Thayne 

 

 

 

 

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