Week 33

你好!

Well, this week has been quite a bit different from the other weeks, in that we both got sick. In this week's announcements from the office, Sister Day reminded us that we all need to make sure to wash our hands and eat healthy because there have been a lot of colds going around in the mission. I am pretty sure Elder Ure and I were washing our hands and eating healthy, but for some reason we still got the cold that has been going through out the mission. So to begin the week off, Elder Ure was sick and then passed it to me. I was sick during the middle of the week and then passed it back to him. And to finish the week off, Elder Ure was sick and got an extra bonus of having a huge migraine which ended up sending us to the hospital because it was so bad. With that being said, both of us are feeling pretty good and have pretty much recovered. But, as an overview of the week, it was a lot slower than many of the other weeks that we have had, so this email is going to be a little different than the other weeks emails.

Moving on to the blessings of the week, it actually had to do with lessons. With being sick most of the week, we still were able to have a ton of lessons. We were able to have eight lessons with members present and seven less active/recent convert visits, which was amazing. We both looked back at the week when we were reporting and don't really understand how we got those lessons, but to us it was truly a miracle to see that we were still able to have a good amount of success even with being out of it for a good portion of the week.

As for giving everyone an idea of what 苗栗市 (Miaoli City) is like, we thought that comparing it to a city in the United States would pry be easiest. So, the city that we came up with was Elko, Nevada. To be completely honest, I don't know where that is, but Elder Ure says that it is very similar to there. Comparing it to places I know though, 苗栗 (Miaoli) is a lot bigger than Soda Springs, but not even anywhere close to 苏州 (Suzhou). In reality, you kind of just have to have been to 苗栗 (Miaoli) to be able to understand what it is like here. There are a couple of busy places, but other than that, we have a lot of rice patties, which during the summer looks really cool.

So, having described 苗栗 (Miaoli) a little, this could actually be my last week here. From what the Assistants have told us, everyone in the mission needs to pack there bags today because there are going to be a lot of changes made this week at transfer meeting. So, this week after English Class, we will know if Elder Ure or I am moving, but because I have been here for 6 months now, it is pretty likely that I will be moving. Also, one other big thing that we found out today was that this transfer, all of the missionaries that were suppose to come in last transfer and this transfer were still unable to get their visas, so we should not be getting any new missionaries this transfer.

As for shopping here in Taiwan as missionaries, it is all dependent on who your companion is. Elder Ure and I only eat inside for breakfast generally. We will buy 饅頭 (Steamed bread), eggs and Taiwanese sausages from the Carrefore. As for all of our other meals, we will generally eat outside at a cheap place. That is probably one of big blessings of serving in Taiwan, is that eating here is pretty cheap. You can buy a pretty good size meal for about 4 USD, but being missionaries, we buy most of our meals for about 2 USD, which are still pretty good.

As for the aspect of gaining weight, it has been interesting talking to the members about it. All of the members in 苗栗 (Miaoli) have said that we both look like we have gained weight. However, when we go measure ourselves on the scales, it seems to tell a different story. Since Elder Ure has been here in 苗栗 (Miaoli), he has lost about 7-8 pounds. For me, I have lost about 10 pounds. With that being said though, while I was at the MTC, I did eat a lot of food so it was easy to lose weight when I came here because I went from being able to eat a lot to just eating small portions of food. It has been a little sad to think about how much my stomach has shrunk while I have been on my mission.

As for things that happened this week, there were really only two thing that stuck out other than being sick. First was zone meeting. Zone meeting this month was a little different than our last one because we currently have one zone leader and one sister training leader. So, they actually assigned some of the companionships to teach part of the training to make it a little easier on the zone leaders. Probably the biggest thing that was covered during zone meeting was looking at how we can help our investigators build their bridge so that they will be ready for baptism. If we don't help our investigators build their bridge to be strong, their journey to the other side may have some major problems (aka falling off the bridge). As for the second part of the week, we got to finally go on exchanges with our district leader, which was fun. Elder Ure went with Elder Leo and I got to go with Elder Marks. For exchanges, I actually got to go to 頭份 (Toufen) and meet with some really assume investigators that the elders are currently meeting with. So, from the exchange, it really looks like their area is doing pretty well. As for the exchange itself, it was pretty fun. I met Elder Marks in the MTC, but he left soon after I arrived, so he is one transfer ahead of me. It really was pretty fun to get to know him and to be on exchanges with someone who is pretty much the same generation as me on the mission, which meant that we both got to 聽不懂 (Not understand) some of the people we were contacting on the street. It really was pretty fun.

Well, my time is about up. Hope all of you have a great week and thanks for all the letters and prayers!

我愛你們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

P.S. Sorry about no photos this week, but I will make sure to send some home next week :) And I am sure that next week's email will be more exciting because we both have set the goal that this week neither of us will be sick, and we always try our best to meet our goals :)