All in A Missionary's Day: Baptizing Four Then Hearing President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

You know what? Yesterday Dieter F. Uchtdorf came to our mission...and spoke to us...and between the meeting with us missionaries and the member meeting, it hit me that I am going home. I guess it hit with perfect timing because I had promised my companion we would not even focus on that I was going home until after all the baptisms...and, they all happened. The baptism by water and the baptism by fire...and only hours later listening to a prophet of the Lord speak to us about how going home was both a happy and a sad thing...and to not waste;our time, it hit me that my time was one more week. Don't get me wrong, it's not like that I think that my mission is over...I will put my heart into this week as much as I can...but now with this Preparation day, and me interviewing with President Sunday...I have the exit interview letter to write...stuff to pack...and about10 people who have reminded me a couple times that if I don't write for their mission bye bye books they will be sad...I've got my lunches and dinners...nights and mornings all cut out for me! But yeah, it hit me yesterday and it was kind of a weird feeling. The last two weeks I said I'd let myself feel that way, but it didn't dawn on me that I really WOULD until it happened. Crazy crazy. I'll have a lot of decisions encountering me when I get home, with the news of the economy, etc etc....but all and all, if I have learned one thing on my mission, it is that Heavenly Father loves me and I will be okay. So onto the stuff you guys all actually want to hear instead of my whole mind thought process...That stuff is boring.

Mock Sacrament Meeting

你好! What's up in the wonderful world of America? We have had a great week here in Taiwan. 太棒了。

Missionary Email: Chinese New Year in Danshui, Taiwan

Hello, Hello. Today we created our new email accounts. It took me personally a ridiculously long time because it was having issues and didn't recognize who I was, but I finally got it. Woohoo.

Writing Mission President More Regularly and Whitney's Baptism

Time is flying! I'm going to write really fast this week because I finally have a jump drive, but I'm in Shipai in between New Years eating appointments, so this place is doubly expensive, so I couldn't buy 2 hours like I would normally if I wanted to send pictures. The good news though, is, like most missions (as I've heard) our mission is switching to the new email system. It was a little annoying as I got the pre-email to register in my account, despite having all the correct information, it said none of us are in the system, and when we tried to sign up, it took us to a Chinese page, and kept showing an error. We are with Shipai Elders right now (Elder Weinberger and Shumway) and none of us really understand the message, so we'll check into it again next week. President is requiring an email (previously president's letters were not TOO enforced, and most people did them every 2 or 3 weeks...but now it will be enforced) because the new system will make it convenient for us to email him, and help him know how everyone is doing (numbers wise especially) with a new graph system or something. I think it will be nice to get the new email system, it takes me like 4 minutes a picture when I send them.

Yan Yuhang's Baptism: The Seventh Try Is the Charm

Ugh. Sometimes I miss typing in a program that doesn't have a 5 minute automatic save like my nice little word documents back at home. I just typed Gen a long email, but now I'll write the family one, and if there is time switch back to the email to Gen. It seems like I lose an email at least once a transfer. There are worse things in life though. Since I'm on a mission, I realize that typing an email is lucky, since it means i don't have to write a paper letter home every week. I've been quite awful about writing paper letters ever since transfer 3 or 4. I still write people back, but I don't just write to people I think of, sporadically like before.

Okay, so this week was quite an interesting week...

Laojie Fire

Hello and welcome again to my life story from 淡水 Danshui. As for move calls, in this area it's almost like they didn't happen. Our entire district is staying the exact same, and even in the zone, one of our zone leaders is now training and opening up a new area, but same ward he was in before, so those two will live with our zone leaders...one new, one same. Also, in our 北投Beitou ward, Elder Kyle 欧杨 Olsen is moving down to 台东 Taidong..we both go home at the same time, so when Sister Ackerson 孙 and I said bye yesterday, we were like, see you when we are headed out together! haha. So yeah, not a big change feeling. With the exception of Elder Olsen, everyone else is still around. So that's exciting.

Status of Work in Danshui, Taiwan Taipei Mission

Pretty much all I have to say this week is that this area is going great.  Usually there are dramatic moments in every transfer, but there has been no drama this transfer and it is wonderful.

I've really gotten to see the Lord's hand in this work this transfer since we aren't teaching a million lessons, but our investigators that our progressing are doing really great! The Lord really has prepared people and it's amazing to be a part of his work. He will help us find, teach, and as they have been emphasizing so much lately, baptize.

Subway Tracking

Hi again. This week has gone pretty good. As a couple of you noticed, I passed through another birthday, becoming 22 years old. And in case you are wondering why that sentence is a little strange, I've started to directly translate Chinese at times, as I'm getting lazier. Whatever language I think in, that is what comes out, so the strange English is mostly direct translation problems...although it might partly be due to the fact that I haven't been writing a million and a half papers a week for a little over a year now, so I'm actually slightly worried about my English.

New Cellphone Referral System

Sunday, January 10, 2010 8:00 PM

Hello again from Danshui (or technically I live in Zhuwei, but whatever).This week was quite the interesting week! This area is way different from my other areas, as that we do a LOT of traveling, so instead of finding ourselves booked at the church all day when we are busy, we find ourselves traveling the MRT from Shipai, to Danshui, to Beitou, etc. It's a new type of busy, and I'm getting way better at contacting.