February 3, 2013: Miracles

Hello Family,

Greetings from Elder James here. We'll this week was a good one full of growing and new experiences and lots of little miracles. Last Wednesday night I had a pretty scary near collision. I was riding down a busy road after my companion who was about 50 yards ahead of me, when all of a sudden some lady on a scooter ride right across the road right in front of me. In order to miss colliding with her I had to slam on my breaks which flipped me over my bike handles and smashing me face first into the concrete road. The woman whom I nearly collided with parked her scooter, took a look at me from the other side of the road, and then walked into the store without checking to make sure I was okay. My pamphlets were all across the road, my suit pants were ripped open, I was a little scratched on the face and leg but I was miraculously okay. So thank you for your prayers in my behalf I was definitely protected. Riding a bike in the country is VERY different from riding it in the crazy traffic of Taiwan's cities.

I'm still in the process of learning the new area, the members, the investigators, and the less actives of this area and it's a little overwhelming. The ward here is a big ward with over 100 members attending each Sunday. The ward list is massive with nearly 900+ members on the list. It's a big big change from a small little branch in the south of Taiwan. We street contact everyday which is very exhausting. My companion is a good guy, fairly new to the mission and still learning, but he seems very nice is a hard worker and willing to work with me if I have some input in how we can change the work here to be more affective. We have some very exiting potentials. I'm trying hard to stay up with all the responsibilities of being a senior. It's a little more challenging to find people when neither of your are Taiwanese natives I'm trying to work on my ability to read characters so that I can read the street signs better. Everyone compliments my Chinese here, telling me how "standard" my accent is (blessings of a Taiwanese companion). 

An eternal investigator's baptism yesterday.

Some of the "miracle" stories

My companion and I were riding back from a secondary area. Saw a kid on the side of the road smoking a cigarette with his friend. My companion yelled out at him "you shouldn't smoke, it's bad for you!" and I yelled out "You're too young!" after riding about another 4 minutes I found out the same kid was on his bike beside me. He pedaled to the side of me and started asking me questions. I pulled over to the side of the road and he told me how he wanted to quit smoking and how interested he was in Christianity. He felt that the religions in Taiwan weren't "clean" like ours. So I got his information invited him to Church. Sure enough he came loved church showed great interest, and we have an appointment to meet with him next week. Investigators name- Zi Heng

We were trying to find a former investigator in a small neighborhood when we saw a guy on his scooter riding down the road. We motioned for him to come over. We talked to him and introduced ourselves. He's a firefighter age 25 very very cool guy. I asked him upfront if he would be interested in here about our message and he said he indeed would. He told us his schedule and we have in our plans a time to meet with him on Tuesday.

Called a referrel from some of the other elder's. The referrel call us back and agreed to meet with us. Had a member help us teach the lesson. The guy's name is Wai Wai and he is a college student. The lesson went well and he agreed to meet with us again.

Anyways so lots and lots of very exiting things happening I've been working very hard and trying my best. Each companion and area is like a new life and a fresh start it's tiring, challenging, stretching, and growing. I feel like i've lived multiple lifetimes within the past year. Anyhow fam, thank you for your continued love and support I've needed it.

Hope you're all doing well,

Love Elder Nathan James

Week of 10/29/12

A big hello to my fans back in the US, (sorry the computer i'm using is having some problems so i'm probably going to have to keep this short)

Hope you all had a wonderful halloween and are excited to vote for Mitt Romney on Tuesday. Happy November 1st! The weather here is very cool and pleasant which is really really nice compared to the hot humid weather I've experienced ever since I have gotten to Taiwan. However, there are tons of mosquitoes out and somehow they make it into our bedroom. I've gotten woken up several times this past week scratching bug bites in the middle of the night.

Yep it's me your favorite person in all of Taiwan,

Well.......today is transfers or at least for some people. Last friday found out that neither me nor my companion are immediately moving. Instead, we're getting another companion and will be in a threesome companionship for a little while which will be interesting. Our new companion is a Taiwanese Elder named Elder Pao. Due to some unusual circumstances in the mission some pmeans that my companion will most likely becoming a Zone leader in some other part of Taiwan in a few weeks and I'll be left in my current area with the Taiwanese Elder as my Junior companion. The situation isn't ideal and not really what I wanted this transfer to bring but that's okay! I'll just try to make the best of it.

This week spent a lot of time getting wined and dined by the branch members because the assumed that my companion would be moving this transfer

Last monday we went with Klara and Joe to play on some sand dunes. I had no idea Taiwan even had sand dunes. It was a really really fun Preparation day, probably the most fun preparation day i've had in Taiwan.that evening went with Huang Jiemei and her kids to a really tasty Fish/Karaoke restaurant where we ate lot of really really good fish and sang karaoke with them. The Taiwanese love Karaoke and you often hearing people singing their hearts out to an old karaoke machine as you walk/ride down the street.

This week was halloween so we had a special halloween themed English Class which was fun. We also went to do service with with one of our eternal investigators at a school for underprivilledge children it was fun but kind of sad at the same time becaue you see a lot of kids whose life are being ruined mostly due to terrible parenting.this investigator teaches english for free at the school so we accompanied him and taught the kids.

Thursday/Friday- Was on exchanges with one of the Zone Leaders in Pingdong. It was pretty uneventful exchange we went to visit one of the pingdong new converts in his old farm house about an hour bike ride away.

My current investigators-

Zhang Dixiong (Mello)- As awesome as always loves the branch has many friends and lots of support here in this branch. He's continuing to read and pray which is crucial for testimony building in your investigators. He still has some opposition from his dad but he has never directly asked his dad if he can get baptized or not. Hopefully it will work out for the best this coming transfer.

Cai Jiemei (Ellen)- We finished teaching her the first lesson, she has come to many ward activities and from what I can tell she's really enjoyed all of them. We finished teaching her the first lesson. The lesson went really well and I think she felt the spirit in the lesson. I'm exited to keep working with her.

Liu Baba- Things aren't looking so hot each time we go to his house he confesses more and more to us. Each time it's more and more serious and to a point where if I was senior companion I would just drop him. He doesn't seem to really have any desire to change at this point.

Chinese wise- My chinese is still far from perfect but at this point I can understand the majority of what's being spoken and I can communicate fairly well with people without them making a visibly strained effort to understand what I'm saying.

Well, that's about all for this week.

Family I sure love each and everyone of you and am sure grateful for your examples and wonderful personalities which have helped me be a better for well-rounded person. I'm sure grateful for our wonderful loving and supportive parents who have raised an exemplary family through there dedication to the gospel and our family.

Take care, I keep you all in my prayers (as well as mitt romney)

Love your favorite Brother/Son/Brother in Law

Elder Nathan James

Week of July 16, 2012

Hello wonderful family!!!!

So this week was a pretty exiting week a lot of different things happened. 

So this was my week....

Starting from last Tuesday

Tuesday....So all that hard work from contacting and tracting last week payed off! Took a bus to Zhanghua and had a zone meeting with our zone and president bishop (about 15 missionaries in our zone). Later that evening we road to the very end of our area and had a sit down first lesson with the Xu Family (pronounce like the word "shoe"). They are super well prepared and both in their early twenties. They got married about a year ago and now have a small baby. Super exiting this is the first full family that i've ever been able to teach and BOTH of them are interested which is exiting! They excepted baptismal dates and early next month (if all goes as planned) They'll be able to get baptized. If they go to the temple to get sealed within a year i'll get to go with them! Later that evening we went and taught a Chen dixiong (Brother Chen) in his apartment. Got a good first in with him and he seemed like he'd want to meet with us. (update:unfortunately as of yesterday he told us that he doesn't have enough interest, so that's probably not going anywhere).

Wednesday- Went on exchanges with the Assistants to the Mission President. Went with Elder Turk an elder from Texas. Overall it was pretty fun and we chatted about Corpus Christi and Padre Island because that's where he's from. Had a lesson with an eternal investigator which went ok. That night had english class. One of my students is a middle age lady whose come to english for a long time and doesn't have a lot of interest. However, she like me...like REALLY likes me, it almost makes me a little worried. But, however she's been dropping hints that she wants to start learning about the gospel so hopefully this week something will happen.

Thursday- Labored hard under the Taiwanese sun all day long. Lots of answered prayers got a few unexpected sit downs that went well for the most part. Unfortunately the people we got sit downs with live in different places, but hopefully those seeds will grow. Had a second lesson with our new investigator brother Liu a 20 year old college student. He's a cool guy and will hopefully keepmeeting with us.

Saturday- This day was CRAZY! So, morning was normal. A ward member had passed away so that afternoon they held her funeral. It was sad she was in her mid 40's and left a husband and two small children. I didn't know her personally. Taiwanese funerals are very different, the ones in the Church are more standard but daoist funerals are VERY different. The funeral was good and the members who gave talks all talked about the plan of salvation. It was neat because most of the people there were not members, hopefully some will develop interest in the church. Anyways, after the funeral we were in the middle of watching a church movie with our eternal investigator Yang dixiong. All of a sudden, a white, female face appears in the window of the classroom door. It was one of my friends Bethany Riffel and her husband Tyler from the derby, Kansas STAKE!!! How crazy is that???????? Yes, in the middle of rural Taiwan a white person I know pops up at Church!? Anyways, her husband had served his mission in Taiwan Taichung and they had been studying abroad in China for the past 2 months and had been touring Taiwan. It was insane, right now i'm in this missionary universe or dimension however you want to think about it and suddenly someone form my pre-missionary life appears. It was super crazy and almost felt like a dream. Yeah so crazy, so we chatted for a little while and took some pictures and then they left. 

Later that evening me and my companion had to go pic up our short term companion from the bus station. So, in Taiwan they have this short term missionary program which allows Taiwanese high school boys to basically go on a mini "mission" for a month or so. So we now have a 15 year old Taiwanese companion who will be shadowing us for a couple weeks.

Sunday- Uneventful went to church and later that evening went out and did some contacting and tracting and lessons with some less actives.  

 

So family that was my crazy crazy week. So fun to get your updates from your lives and your pictures!

 

Anyways,

 

Love you all!

Elder James

Week of June 19, 2012

So, obviously I'm emailing you on a Wednesday instead of Monday why? Well, we were suppose to go to the Temple in Taibei on Wednesday but because of a Typhoon coming to taiwan they ended up canceling it so our P-Day this week was on a Wednesday. But, next week it will be back on Schedule.

       So, last week starting with Tuesday Elder Field and Elder Zheng had to go to Taizhong for some training meetings so me and Elder Jensen (Sun Zhanglao) went on splits for the day. So it was a good day and it's interesting because every missionary has  his own unique style of doing missionary work. Splits are really convenient because we all live in the same apartment. I like living in a four man, It's pretty darn fun because after a long day we can just come home and play some board games and chat.

     Wednesday- Pretty normal day went, it was slightly rainy so went to the church and Zheng zhanglao did my Chinese test. Every once in a while we have to do some Chinese tests. It went fine and later that evening we taught English, because it was raining not a lot of people came. So basically it was me one on one with a student.

     Thursday- Lots and lots of rain, Taiwan is in Monsoon season so it's raining a lot. I've started covering my socks with plastic bags because it stops my shoes and socks from getting so wet. Seriously, nothing is more uncomfortable than walking around in soaking wet shoes all day. We stopped for dinner at this really nice families restaurant. They were super nice and basically waited on us hand and foot. They had mentioned that missionaries used to come and eat at there restaurant frequently but handn't for a long time.

This is what I look like basically all day every day. Usually I'm sweatier.

    Friday- Taught Chen dixiong about fasting and prepped him for his baptism

Satuday- BAPTISM!!!!! Super exiting, Chen dixiong came to the church and we had a few members there. Chen dixiong was a little bit nervous but he did great! We just practiced a little, put on our clothes and had the baptism. I got to perform the baptism which was exiting! I had to memorized the baptismal words in Chinese so I was a little worried I would forget some of them. But, it went well with no mistakes!! I'll email you a picture. He's a really great guy who will contribute a lot to the Xihu ward. He learns extremely quickly and is already being integrated into the ward by the members. It was really neat to have been there from the time he started learning all the way to his baptism. I'm glad I got to be a part of it.

    Sunday- Church, study, and then after that we did some proselyting. Sunday night we had our activity we had planned for a long time which included watching the movie "The Testaments" after that we had a testimony meeting, and a musical number in which I played the violin. One of our current investigators took a movie of it and put it on youtube and I gave him miriam's address so she should have it in her email. But, the activity went smoothly, unfortunately not a lot of potential investigators came.

This is the view from the balcony of our apartment!! That is the street I ride my little bicycle down each and every day armed with the Spirit and several different tracks to hand out to people.

    Tuesday- Rainy day in Xihu, Bing canceled his meeting with us because the Typhoon (Tai-Fong in Chinese) was coming in. So it was a long and rainy day. We ate TONS of food. I swear everyone gave us food that day I ate a lot of weird stuff too. So a list of everything I ate Vietnamese Pho Soup, these rice balls wrapped in bamboo leaves and steamed, pineapple soup, Chou doufu (smells super yucky but tastes okay) soup, canned sour plums. Some of it made my digestive track feel a little weird but I'm still here so that's good.

So family that was my busy busy busy week and I have a lot of emails to read so that's what happened here in this part of the world! I'll send you a picture soon.

Love, Elder James

Week of June 10, 2012

So....apparently there was an earthquake in Taiwan....?

Hmm...well from what I know it happened in the middle of the night on Saturday Night here. I had no clue anything happened until sunday evening Elder Field mentioned to me that some members at church mentioned that a rather large earthquake had hit last night. From the looks of everything no one else knew anything had happened either so all is well.

          Anyways, this week was just a great great week...

Starting off at the top of the week, last wednesday went on Zone Leader transfers with one of the really cool zone leaders so we caught a Bus to Zhanghua which takes about 35 minutes. Zhanghua's quite a bit larger than Xihu. The zone leader I was with is a really cool, relaxed, fun elder so it was definitely a different experience from my first zone leader transfer. But, boy was it toasty hot hot hot. I spent a good deal of the day sweating profusely. We went had some long contacts with people, taught a few of there less actives. One of the less actives wife is from Guangdong, China  and not a member so I asked her if she knew grandma and grandpa's town and she did. She didn't really want to talk to us at first, but after I mentioned that she warmed right up. I guess, having connections to China does help in some situations hehe. That night when we got home we sat in the cool air conditioned room chatted and ate ice cream (like real american ice cream) and chocolate muffins.

         Thursday was also a good day, we made arrangements to go play with these two Taiwanese members who are both in their early 20's. One studies at BYU and the other one went on his mission to New York so there english was really good. The tennis courts were at a really inconvenient spoke and so we woke up early had to bike/run up a huge mountain. The Tennis courts are at the very top of the mountain so I was dripping in sweat. I seriously sweat non-stop all the time here and my white sures are starting to become off-white shirts. But, it was super fun to play tennis I haven't played in a long time. Coming down the mountain was kind of a scary experience. The zone leaders bike I was using virtually has no breaks. So we were riding down and there are a lot of scooters and cars and I couldn't break very well. Then a guy on a scooter pulls out right in front of me and I have to swerve, I got clipped by his mirror and almost got smashed between him and a Taxi. I had to put might foot on the taxi to avoid smashing into it. Luckily I stayed on my bike, I've got some pretty good guardian angels some where close by. Later that day I came back to Xihu.

       Friday another good day it was hot and toasty. We went over to Chun's food stand and had a lesson in which the bishop came and helped us. The lesson went well and Chun and the bishop chatted for a long time. That day we had lots of sit down lessons and other things. The day went pretty well and I felt good.

       Saturday-Chun passed his baptismal interview!!!! So it's official, he'll be getting baptized this coming saturday! It's been neat to have been one of the one's who started teaching him and have had some part in teaching him the gospel. He's exited for his baptismal date and we are as well. The rest of the day went really well, lots of lessons, contacting, went and visited less active members we haven't seen for a while. That night we were suprised to get a lesson with someone we contacted. He's a 23 year old D-J nicknamed Xi Gua Di (watermelon brother) he was really nice and brought us dong gua cha (wintermelon tea). The lesson went really smoothly and well and me and Elder Field switched off really well.

      Sunday- Good day, church was good, Chun was welcome into the ward and a lot of members were really supportive of his baptism which made him feel good. The day was good, the night was a little rainy but we got to visit some members and then we stopped by a former investigators house (Wu, I wrote about him previously) had a lesson which was good. We set up to meet with him next saturday. Hopefully he'll start progressing again.

Well, family this week was really great. I'm starting to really love taiwan. I feel absolutely awesome, I feel my love for life just growing and I feel like i'm re-discovering my passions for the things I love to do. As a kid I remember just loving all kinds of different things and somewhere in the midst of life and everything I kind of lost some of that. So, it's wonderful to feel that coming back.  It definitely feels like one of the first fruits that I'm seeing from my mission. I'm really starting to love the scriptures and lately I've been reading in the New testament about Paul. It's really awesome because I love history and culture for one and that makes his missions make more sense knowing the context.Oh and can you believe i'm been on my mission for 5 MONTHS?? crazy i'm also 1/4 of the way done with my mission.

All was well this week and I hope you're all doing well in your busy lives

Love you all and hope to hear from you soon

Love, Elder James

Week 2 in Taiwan (4/16/12)

Well, things here in Taiwan are good. A lot of little things happen everyday so I'll try to give you the highlights. Just to put things in reference this is how things usually go on a day to day basis. Wake up 6:30 exercise where we either use the tiny weights in our apartment or go to the nearby track to run. Have breakfast, get ready for the day and then study until 11:30. I know kind of a surprise, the church is doing this new 12 week program that for the first 12 weeks of you being in the mission you do 2 hours of companion study. You do an half an hour of language study which in all honesty never feels like enough. After that we go out on a daily schedule which includes visiting less actives, new converts, investigators and tracting. Taiwan is a little bit on the polluted side and everybody rides scooters so the air is constantly filled with a light haze of exhaust. When you tract at all the stoplights you try to talk to people on scooters. Let me just say this is HARD, yeah really really hard and feels super awkward. For one EVERYBODY knows exactly who you are and as such tries to avoid any form of eye contact ever when you try to shake there hands. Speaking mandarin makes an already kind of nerve racking situation even more nerve racking. Why? because not only is the situation already slightly awkward but your stammering and struggling to speak their language and then when they say something you can't understand it's hard to know what to say or how to respond. Teaching and speaking Mandarin is hard, it kind of feels like running a 100m dash with one leg and your arms cut off. In the MTC you only really learn gospel words so an interaction goes something like this. "Ni hao ma" how are you? "Nin gui xing" what's your name "Wo shi Wang Zhanglao"I'm Elder James "Women you yige hen kuai le de xunxi guanyu Yesu Jidu""Zhege xunxi zhende nenggou bangzhu nide shenghuo he gei nide jiating hen duo de zhufu" We have a message about Jesus Christ, this message can help your life and give your family a lot of blessings. At that point you hand them a pamphlet and the light turns green and they speed off on their little scooter as fast as possible. Anyways, so i'm still working at that. After tracting all day (we ride bikes everywhere) and doing all kinds of other things you come home soaked in sweat and in a thin layer of dirt, and exhaust. Anyways this week had quite a few eventful and cool things that happened along with QUITE a few embarrassing moments. So, this past week we were riding through the Taiwanese countryside on a bright, warm, and humid Taiwanese day, soaked in sweat and riding past all these rice fields and we come to this little town. My companion told me that we were stopping for lunch at his favorite noodle place. So we stop go inside and I ordered a bowl of noodles and they bring out this delicious steaming bowl of super soft delicious noodles with vegetables and so beef. It was just cool, sitting there in a little Taiwanese restaurant in the middle of no where eating a bowl of noodles. So... embarrassing things this week we went to the night market one night to try to tract and I was parking my bike and my companion was talking to these people who owned some kind of food stand and I overheard them say what I thought was "fojiao" (which means buddhist), so me wanting to make some good conversation went over there and asked them what buddhist believe. They just kind of stared and went back to work and my companion explain that they said they sold soy milk. So um....yeah that was pretty embarrassing. Also me and my companion were riding down the street and he slowed down and I clipped the back of his bike and ate the concrete (don't worry i'm fine no scratches or anything) and my pamphlets and tract flew out of my pocket and all over the place. Oh yes and the best one, So we're having dinner with a recent convert Brother Joe and his family, he is a super nice 19 year old who joined the church a year ago and wants to go on a mission but his parents are not members and don't really want him to go. So he wanted us to come over and talk to his mom about why we chose to go on missions. So, we go over and it's been a long day and i'm already kind of sweaty. So, we go into their small and dark kitchen which is REALLY toasty and humid and sit down. So we're talking and we have these hot steaming rice bowls in front of us and the steaming is wafting in my face and i'm sweating PROFUSELY, like sweat is dripping off my chin and my nose. His mom just looked visibly uncomfortable as I made small chat and wiped my dripping face off with my tie. Asian people do not sweat, I don't know how, but they never ever sweat. Anyways so that was that. Taiwanese food is delicious, seriously that have the best food ever and everything is fresh (well not everything) and just really good. Some missionaries have digestive problems with it just since I grew up eating rice my whole life i'm pretty use to everything. Taiwanese people are nice but they are unhappy and need the gospel, no one smiles or looks pleasant. So I try to always smile and wave and I think it brightens their day as they usually smile back. A lot of people chew something called Bing Long or Betel nut which is this slight addictive nut from southeast asia. It's basically like there chewing tobacco and is blood red and they spit it everywhere. Taiwanese mentality is different, It's interesting when you ask them what the most important thing in their life is they almost unanimously say making money it's a little sad. They very much have a here and now mentality which makes it difficult for them to find an appeal in the gospel. Oh, this past wednesday we taught English class at the Church. I taught the advanced class which is basically like nothing more than a conversation time. It basically consisted of me talking about the United States. One brother told me maybe 30 times how he likes canadians more than americans. So, I just nodded my head and said "hey that's fine" and smiled it was kind of awkward though. They were surprised when I told them in the US it's rude to tell people they're fat or that they're old. On Sunday I had to get up and introduce myself and bare my testimony. It went fine and I got to meet a lot of very nice members after. Anyways, so that pretty much sums up the week! The mission is challenging and probably the most challenging thing about it is feeling like i'm ineffective because of my language skills. But, that's okay as long as I'm doing my best to communicate and working hard i'm sure the lord will work through me somehow.

Anyways sure love you all!!!

Have a Great week!!!

Elder James (Wang Zhanglao)

1st Week in Taiwan! (4/8/12)

Well, I should just warn you up front this is going to be a long email. This has been probably the longest/craziest/awesome completely out of control week of my entire life and I can honestly think of something that quite compares. Right now I'm sitting at a small smoky hole in the wall internet cafe here in Zhanghua Xihu (my first area).So, starting all the way back last Tuesday in the MTC (which seems like it happened ages ago), we left rather uneventfully. It was pretty strange to be in the real world again with real people. Anyways flights to Taiwan were uneventful I got airsick after we landed in Tokyo the combination of no sleep, a long flight, time change and everything was just a little on rough side. Anyways so bottom line we got to Taibei safe and sound where we got our luggage and walk out and were greeted by our mission president, the AP's, and a big banner welcoming us to Taiwan. It was about 11pm by the time we left and we were greeted by a large multicolored light bus that took us to Taizhong city. On the bus we had orientation, we were taken to the AP's apartment where we got to sleep about 2:30 A.M. We got woken up at 6:30 and taken on a rather long run in which I pretty much dying and in the straggling behind in the back of the pack. I finally got to shower after 2 days and than we went to the mission home where president and sister Bishop had prepared a really nice Taiwanese breakfast for us. We basically spent the day doing some necessary preparations like getting us our bikes paid for and having orientation about our mission. We ate lunch at a hotpot place which is a restaurant where they have stoves built into the table and you pick a type of broth (mushroom,spicy, japanese) and you can choose whatever you want to put into your pot of boiling broth which cooks it and you than eat it with rice or dumplings. That evening we went to a regular Chinese restaurant with lots of various dishes in the middle, similar to how it was in Beijing. Was feeling pretty jet lagged by that time and all I really wanted to do was just go to sleep. The day was not over yet...immediately after dinner we went to have our "Dan Jones Night" which basically is this. You're taken to the Night Market in the middle of Taizhong where you get to stand on a stool by yourself and bear your testimony and wave a book of mormon at the Taiwanese people. Right after that some different more experienced missionary grabs you and you frantically run through the night market talking to people getting there information and telling them about the gospel. Honestly the night is a blurr of lights, yelling at people in Chinese, and the smell of Chou Doufu (smelly toufu which basically smelled like the sewer). However, there were a couple people who were genuinely interested and hopefully something results out of that. Anyways, next day once again woke up at 6:30 A.M given a time mile which I once again basically died. We went to the Church where we waited in a room for a few minutes until we were taken into the chapel where we got some more orientation and then were introduced to our trainers and told our assigned areas. My trainer is Elder Field from Bountiful Utah, he's a super nice guy who was described by the mission president as "diligent and considerate" which I found out to be true. He also kind of reminds me of Sid the Sloth just a little. So our MTC group had one last lunch together at TGI friday's (crazy huh), said our goodbye's, and were whisked off to our areas by our trainers. My area is Zhanghua Xihu which is about an hour away from main Taizhong. We took a train and a bus through the Taiwanese countryside and finally got to our area about 3pm. It is a really nice area and honestly seems like perfect training ground. It's definitely not quite as busy as Taizhong city which I was grateful for. Our apartment is a 4 man, wood floor apartment and is pretty big and spacious. Two of the missionaries are natives which will be really nice. That afternoon we went and visited some investigators where I basically stared blankly and tried to catch some words here and there. That night we had ward correlation meeting where I was introduced a few of the members. People consistently ask me where i'm from or comment on how I have black hair and when I say I'm from the US they then usually ask me if I have Chinese ancestors or what I am because my face "mei guo lian bu yiyang" is not american. They are always surprised and slightly um...disappointed maybe? that I don't speak Chinese well. Anyways, next day we went out and visited a newer member who is slightly not totally mentally sound he doesn't shower so convinced him to go shower and come to General Conference. He asked me if I was Taiwanese and after I explained to him that I wasn't and that my grandparents were from Hong Kong he pestered me with questions. We were leaving and his father invited us into his office where he gave us peanuts and cups of BOILING hot water. I was a little nervous to drink the water so I kind of quietly pushed it to the side and listened as he spoke rapid and slurred Chinese. My poor companion didn't understand either so basically I was completely and totally lost. The day was pretty "normal" and we spent the day street contacting which is kind of nerve racking and I feel like i'm going to scare people off with my bad Chinese rather than do any good. My companion is good at doing it so that's good. I'm not the kind of person who likes to bother other people so it really pushes me a bit out of my comfort zone to approach people especially not being able to communicate with them, but after my Chinese gets a little better i'm sure i'll get used to it. We again ran into the same member we had just visited, he was riding his bike and he proceeded to follow us around the rest of the day and talk to me in Chinese and asked the same questions again and again and again. That evening we went to the Church where we watched general conference and then we went home and collapsed in to a mild coma. I seriously have never slept more like a rock in my whole life, I'm pretty sure I could sleep on a cement floor and sleep as well. Sunday we went to Church watched general conference met some more of the members. After that we went home studied and then went tracting for the rest of the day. The most common response is "bu yong", "meiyou shijian", "meiyou kong" all of which basically mean not interested. For the most part Taiwanese people are extremely kind even when rejecting you which is really nice. We ran into a really nice 14 year old boy though who we talked to for like 15 minutes and hopefully we'll have a lesson with him tonight. Today is P-day, and so we woke up and went running around a nearby track. There are a lot of older Taiwanese people who do all kinds of funny exercises in the morning. So I ran around a track in the warm and humid Taiwanese morning listening to the sound of Chinese music (think about Hilary's buddha box) and watching people do Tai Chi. After which we went home had breakfast studied and came here.

Everything has happened so fast that there has scarcely been time to analyze what is going on, you just go go and go. I can't honestly describe Taiwan you just have to experience it, it does remind me a lot of China though. The humidity isn't that bad it just feel basically like Kansas in the spring-summer. I've settled on a couple goals I want to accomplish on my mission. 1-I want to find someone who I get to teach all the way through and baptize, 2- I would really love to have a family get baptized. Their are some many awesome Taiwanese people and I would really love for them to have the gospel in their lives. I hope that I as a person can find those people who I was called to Taiwan to find. Anyways family, the gospel is true and it sure has been the bedrock of our lives and has brought such great blessings to each and everyone of us. It has essentially shaped the people who we are and made us better, successful, and more prosperous and I know that other people can have that blessing too.

Anyways,

Take care have a wonderful week

Love Elder James