Week 15

你好！

To begin off, I think Mom and Dad will get a kick out of pry one of the major things that happened this week.  When we lived in Michigan, and I was a newspaper delivery boy, I was always needing to fix the bike I used.  It pry happened at least once or twice a month during the summers.  I'm positive Mom and Dad know what I am referring to now; but last night, I had my first flat tire, which was not very fun.  I got it on our way home from 烤肉 (BBQ) with a former investigator.  Lets just say it took us a while to get home, but we did not break any rules, we were still home on time.  On the bright side, I got it fixed today, and it was really fast and cheap.  It cost me 150 块 (5 USD).  He finished fixing my popped wheel in just under 4 minutes and also fixed my wheel, which had been bent a little just from people knocking our bikes over.  That only took him an additional 5 minutes. The fastest I got with fixing a popped wheel in Michigan was about 15 to 20 minutes.  He was way fast, and also really cheap.  It was pretty sweet.

As for success this week, it was pretty hard.  As of about Thursday evening, we lost all of our investigators.  All of them through out the week had called us saying that they no longer interested in learning about the church, including 李世淼 (Li Shi Miao), who called us just last week saying that he wanted to be baptized.  It was really weird.  So as of Thursday, we have had plenty of finding time.  But with that being said, we have been busy with a lot of other things.

For emailing, we currently are emailing at a 網吧 (internet cafe).  However, President Day is really trying to change that.  He is not a huge fan of 網吧, so he has been working on getting us all iPads.  He says that it should be around Christmas when the church approves Taiwan for using iPads, but with that being said, that is just the time frame that he thinks it will happen in.  So, in December, we will find out if it actually works out that way.

Just as in China, Taiwan also has moon festival.  The big thing that everyone does here for moon festival is 烤肉, BBQ.  So far, we have only been invited to one BBQ, which was with a former investigator.  Ethan, our former investigator, invited us over which was really fun.  He speaks perfect English.  He is also the same age as me.  His birthday was yesterday and he leaves for college on Tuesday, so he wanted to thank us before he left for Taipei.  For the BBQ, they cooked a variety of things, which was all really good.  My personal favorite was the bacon.  They bought bacon for the BBQ, which was really yummy.  Afterwards, we also had cake with him and his cousin.  They both are really cool kids, but just because of family situations, they are unable to come to church.  However, they still love meeting with us when ever they can.

As I mentioned, this week, we were really busy.  We had zone conference, splits with the zone leaders, a baptismal interview in 頭份 (Tou fen), and a baptismal service in 頭份 (Tou fen).  All of it was really fun, but because we were always gone during the evenings, it made it hard to really meet with anyone.  For the past week, the only time that we were really available to meet with people was between 1 pm and 4 pm, which is when everyone is working.  With that being said, we were unable to meet with Li Ru Lan, Sister Benson's friend, but we have set a solid date for meeting with her this week.

With the baptismal service and interview, it was really fun.  I really got to practice my Chinese with some of the younger children.  I was talking to one 5 year old, and he pretty much destroyed my Chinese.  He kept explaining stuff to me and fixing my Chinese for me.  Looks like I still have a way to go before I can get to the level of talking like a 5 year old.  Should be fun.  With that being said though, my Chinese is coming along.  So far, I have been able to work through a good portion of the phase 1 Chinese book, which is all gospel terms.  I should hopefully finish that up by the end of Training and then start studying phase 2, which will teach me more conversational Chinese, making it possible for me to actually talk with the 5 year old.  I seriously can not wait for that day.

As for the splits with zone leaders, it was really fun, and different.  The biggest difference that I noticed with the splits was just how the zone leaders did contacting on the street.  The main difference was how Elder Sampson, one of the zone leaders, would always ask for a referral after talking to someone on the street.  We have not quite perfected doing that in our companionship, but we are working on it.

Also, one of the things that was suppose to happen this week was transfers, which is not happening.  President Day has told us to pray for the missionaries coming in because none of them have been able to get their visas, so their stay in the MTC will most likely be extended.  And also with that, it looks like everyone is staying in their current companionship because they can't really do transfers because they don't know when the new missionaries, 32 from the Provo MTC, are actually going to come in.

Well, my time is pretty much up.  We are going to play ping pong as a district in 頭份 (Tou fen), since it could be our last activity together.  Thanks for all the letters and prayers.

Love,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

Old stick shift bug going to a kao rou.  It was a tight fit in the car.

Kao rou on Sunday night with Ethan's family.  (He has perfect English, just saying.  He start college this week in Taipei)  And also, it was his birthday (19 years old).  He is a former investigator that loves the missionaries.  

District photos:Left to right photo 

Sister Eley, Elder Shelton, Elder Meeks, Elder Dickson, Sister Wray & Me