Good old Taiwan!

This week was again...of course....SO MUCH FUN! If you can see from some of the pics...we had one of our RC's [Shannon here: Recent Converts] G. go to the southern most tip of Taiwan (a big tourist spot) and but us some fun little things haha. He is so awesome! I love the amazing friendships we make out here!

So I think the biggest thing this week is how sick Elder B. is! That poor guy! He got these sores all over him and they itch and burn a little...it even spread into his mouth....ahhh...it is literally all over! It doesn't seem to be communicable but that doesn't keep me from trying to stay a safe distance. He is still such a hard worker and it is so good to see an Elder with such faith! Of course our work this week has been affected by it a little which was tough. But maybe this is just that little drop before the HUGE pick up. It is really funny walking around with Elder B. while he wears his mask. Lots of Taiwanese will wear masks all the time because of the bad air! Pretty much NO missionaries will wear them, but because of his sickness and the sores he wants to be able to talk to people and not have them be grossed out so he wears the Taiwan masks! So lots of people actually like it because it looks like we are trying hard to be the same as them.

I want to let my best friend Gary write about himself for a second. This is him, "Hello, this is Gary. I am from Taiwan"

That is all he wanted to say, he is scared about his english. It is actually pretty good though.

SO this week ne? :) One thing that is insane is the CRAZY RAIN!!! It will just out of nowhere start POURING absolutely pouring! IT was super crazy! Then it will just stop and then 5 min later start again! So needless to say we have taught a few lessons soaking wet this week haha.

I am sorry if my thoughts seem a little scattered this week. I have not gotten a ton of sleep and it has been hard trying to help Elder B. He is such a trooper.

So as a little funny story...I have apparently found my master here in Taiwan. There is this old man named Mr W. We were in a lesson and he told me this..."I pick you, will you be my apprentice?" Of course it was all in chinese...but immediately my mind jumped to how I am going to become a ninja/ kungfu master!...but no...he is just wants to teach me all his crazy thoughts so that I can start a "religion revolution”. oh gosh. He is so funny, and I gotta say, I was a little sad when I realized that I was not going to be learning to be ninja...haha

Okay ready to hear a miracle? YEAH! So we have this amazing RC named J. It is hard to get him to church though because his mom doesn't want to take him. BUT recently we have been praying for him and trying to teach the family and then out of nowhere...BOOM! The Grandpa tells us that he wants to go to church and get baptized because he believes it will bring his family happiness! Well of course we said...well I believe so too haha. So it was amazing! The Lord is so good to us!

I am sorry this letter is a little shorter, but I had to help Elder B. get to Taibei this morning so I am short on time! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!
I WANT YOU ALL TO KNOW THIS IS ALL TRUE!!!!!!!

Ge ZhangLao

葛長老

Hello my Friends!

So I have started to start almost all of my sentances as "hello my friend!" haha. Some people here will understand and they LOVE IT! I have had a recent convert that I love start saying to to me all the time. It is so funny! I love hearing people here speak english to me! Although I am sure it is the same way when I speak chinese to them haha. And the jokes in chinese are HILARIOUS...but only in chinese. For example. When I walk up to a group of younger people they will ALWAYS say..."oh ni hen shuai" which means you are so handsome (this is not me being prideful this is me showing you how nice people are here haha) and then I will respond and say "no wo jiu shi xishuai de shuai." Which means no, I am a cricket. Then they all crack up and say "ohhhhh nide zhongwen jiangde hen hao!" Which is your chinese is so good! So here it is...ready?

"hey"

"wow you are handsome"

"no im a cricket!"

"oh man you are so funny and your english is so good!"

hahah...yeah...sometimes translating doesn't work haha. 

So this week I have started to focus a lot on reading characters. I figured that the WRITING of the language will always be the most accurate and if I can read perfectly then I will be able to speak even better. So....WATCH OUT CHARACTERS! HERE I COME!!!

Oh my Gosh so here is going to be the BIG update because last week was short! (This week will be fast and maybe short but PACKED with info okay?) It is because I got to skype my AMAZING family so time was shortened today!...it was so worth it! They all look so amazing! PLUS ITS MOTHERS DAY! HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!!!!!!!!

So this week Elder Baxter and I got stuck in an elevator for quite so time....why you might ask? Well I was thinking....how strong am I? So I slipped my fingers into the door and pulled it open...yes while it was moving! Dangerous...not really....dumb?...YES! haha I was so embarrassed having to call the RC we just visited and telling him what happened then asking him to help haha. Oh gosh... [Shannon here: I am guessing RC is “recent convert”…? And, um, as for the elevator thing – not sure what to do with that.]

OH (these might all start with OH since for me it is like I am remembering haha) so we have this RC and we FINALLY met his mom! She was really great EXCEPT....suppppperrrr creepy. She kept asking to see my abs and trying to flirt BIG TIME. Then as we left she grabbed my hand and tried rubbing it and saying "please come back anytime"....well obviously that was the GET OUT OF THERE cue haha so we took off! But then Elder Baxter made the mistake of turning around...yeah...SHE JUMPED HIM! She wrapped her arms around him and gave him a HUGE hug and just squuezed haha he was stuck in there like a stick. I could not stop laughing the WHOLE ride back :)

This week was actually fairly boring and rough. We got dropped (what else is new) and we did a LOT of finding. Everything seemed to be going on this down hill and I was so confused because I felt like we were doing everything so right. But we continued to have faith and work hard....well let me tell you....IT WAS ALL WORTH IT! The lord blesses you the most when you are at your lowest and you continue to have faith! As I was contacting I ran into 3 amazingly prepared people! Do you know how far I had to move to find all three of those? About 10 feet! They were all so close to each other and I contacted them one right after the other! the Lord picked our companionship up so much and helped us to keep moving forward in faith! It was an amazing blessing and we are so exited to move forward in the work!

I also didn't move this move call which means I will probably be here for another 12 weeks are more! I am excited to really establish the church here! I feel very blessed to be able to spend so much time in xiao gang with so many amazing people and amazing leaders!

For those of you that are wondering...I am getting more and more used to the food and the chinese is coming easier and easier. I heard that this usually happens around this time and then all the sudden it gets really hard again, so I am nervous but ready to hit the ground running! Oh and mom...I am loving vegetables more and more. So you don't have to be worried ;)

Todays Pday has nothing big planned but I will try to get some pics today and make it great so that NEXT week we can have an even better longer email! Sorry these last two weeks have not been AS good!

So I think I will leave a short testimony in Chinese. This should provide some good entertainment to wrap this all up!

我是耶穌基督的代表. 我愛他. 我真的知道這個事工都是真實的. 由於我們的救主我們都能夠在此與神永遠的住再一起. 我愛你們.你一直可以信賴天父. 加油.

發光吧!

[Shannon here: This is what Google Translate came up with: “I am the representative of Jesus Christ, I love him and I really know that this ministry is true because of our Savior, we are able to live with God forever together love you have been trustworthy all days. The Father is refueling. Light-emitting!]

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Ge ZhangLao

葛長老

This IS real! :)

 

I want to start off with something today that might seem kind of small but made a huge diffrence for me and has really touched me. So recently I have been really struggling with thinking about if the Spirit is REALLY with me. Am I teaching and finding by the spirit? Do I even have the spirit with me? How can I tell....It is a hard question to answer somtimes. But this week we went out and in this specific store I heard songs (in english), songs that I might have listened to before or atleast been okay with listening to, and saw somethings that I really didn't want to see (nothing really bad, just small things I would rather not see) and as it happened I litterally had this slight sick feeling start to develop inside me! And I knew right away that my spirit was litterally uncomfortable in that kind of enironment! It was a little weird because it hasn't really happened before, but I think it counts as an answer to prayers! God saying "yes, you do have the spirit with you!" I hope that doesn't sound too wierd haha, it is getting harder and harder to phrase what I want to say in english so I hope things don't come out tooooo weird! :)

So I am gonna be honest...I TOTALLY forgot my book that has all the fun and more spiritual experiences that I record! AND genghao....my camera card is ALSO back at the apartment...:( Sorry everyone! I will get on that next week! I hope I will have full time next week! There is a chance I won't be staying in xiaogang (小港) so I might have a lot less time from the transfers. But we will see! I hope that I stay! I love it here! Everything is so great and so much fun! Plus I have really come to love the people here! But I am sure I will love the people no matter where I go! That has been one of my biggest goals this move call, to develop more charity and love for everyone! It really makes a HUGE difference in peoples lives when they can feel that you love them! It can be the changing factor for them! My Mom was always such a great example of loving people! I am sure you have all felt it :) Another example is my amazing companion! Elder Baxter is so humble and loves everyone! He would never say a mean thing about anyone!

So I am gonna be super honest....I am having a hard time thinking of things to write...I am just tired out of my mind hahaha :) I LOVE THIS WORK!!!!!!! Oh and sorry if this is a little shorter as well, I am trying to set up the mother's day skype with my mom! So I am trying to move in between emails!

Oh wow...I am out of time...I AM REALLY REALLY SORRY! Forgive me! Well atleast now you can all get a break from my overly long emails and be excited for next week with pictures AND a good email :)

I LOVE YOU ALL! And I really am sorry! SHINE BRIGHT!!!!!!!

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Ge Zhang Lao

葛 長老