March 15, 2010‏

Dear Family and friends,

Nimen hao from the beautiful island! I love Taiwan! It is great to finally be here.

The first day here we went out to The grand Hotel, which is absolutely spectacular! Really, it was amazing! Right next to the Grand hotel is the sight where Taiwan was dedicated for missionary work. We went there and had a little ceremony. Since I am the only missionary that went to Taipei, it was pretty cool - pretty much just me and the mission president and his wife. It was a neat experience.

Now I am Serving in Danshui! My trainers name is Sister Ackerson (Sun Jiemei), and she is amazing! She is from Oregon. She is so good at talking to everyone and telling people about the church. Pretty much, she is the best! I have so much to learn! I am really impressed how self sacrificing she is! She is always serving me and everyone around her and it is so neat! I truly feel blessed to have her as a companion. She has a little brother on a mission right now, so that is a lot of fun. She graduated from BYU in Middle eastern studies and lived in Jordan for six months. So cool! So now she speaks Arabic, English, and Chinese. Pretty impressive.

My first area is Danshui, and it is fantastic. I kind of feel like God dropped a beautiful rain forest right on top of a huge city. There is a beautiful river running right through our area and the hills/mountains that boarder the edge of the island are so green! Even walking down the sidewalk on the way to church has a very "George of the Jungle" feel. I love it. Our apartment is in a high rise so we have an beautiful view of the whole area right from our window. You can see everything! Wow, I feel so blessed.

In my area, the sisters actually cover five wards. Most areas cover only one ward, but ours is special. We Cover Danshui, Shipai, Tianmu, and I forgot the other two, but yeah. This week we attended two of the wards. They had me get up and speak in Sacrament meeting for a minute or two, which scared me so bad! I think it went ok - at least Sister Ackerson says I did a great job, but I don't understand what people say to me yet, so it is an adventure. But really, the the members are amazing. Everyone wants to give us referrals! It is the most amazing thing ever! Really, everyone we meet, whether they are members or not, want to give us referrals. I am just so amazed! It is nice because we get to teach a lot of lessons.

Speaking of lessons, we taught two the day after I arrived. When I say "We taught" what I really mean in Sun Jiemei taught and when she told me to testify or pray I did so. The language is still a small (ok, a really huge) barrier, but I have faith that if I work diligently God will help me understand! Keep me in your prayers!

On Saturday we did Temple Tours. Twice each transfer the sisters in our zone go down into Taipei city and give tours of the Chapel that is next to the temple. We pretty much use the pictures in the chapel to teach lessons. It is really neat. I can pretty much smile and nod, which I feel is a successful contribution at this point in the Mission. Still, when my companions asks me to testify. I testify. It was really neat to be able to work so close to the temple and meet a ton of members from all over Taiwan!

Because our area is so huge, we actually do not get to ride bikes! After all my work in the MTC to get in shape to ride, and now I ride the trains everywhere! Go figure. :) The trains are super nice. I like to ride trains. The other day I decided I wanted to try some contacting on a train, and I ended up trying to talk Chinese to a family who only spoke Taiwanese and I had no idea why I couldn't understand a word they were saying. I just smiled and talked a little bit about the family and gave them a pamphlet. I am sure they were super nice! They seemed excited to try to talk to me. Afterwards my companion told me they were not even speaking Chinese and I felt a lot better. Usually I can understand at least one or two words that people say, but that time I just had no idea~ It was rather funny.

To this email I attached a picture of Me and my companions on the roof of the mission Home. I am going to try and send another email with more pictures, But I want to make sure this one gets off!

Wo Ai Nimen!
Ke jiemei