Week 43 - Shutting down water??

你好!

As for this week, it has been full of surprises, to say the least. For the week as a whole though, it really has been great. We were able to see a lot of success and also able to help out a lot of people understand more about the church.

To begin off, we were pretty sure that the ward missionaries were trying to pull an early Aprils fool on us by telling us that the city would be turning off the water supply starting the first of April. The only thing was that at church, they also were announcing that the ward needs to prepare by saving water. After church, that was when we actually found out what was happening. Because the winter and spring so far has had only a little bit of rain, the clean water supply is pretty low, so the cities will be turning off the water supply for a few days each week starting in April. So, we need to be making sure that we have a clean water supply for the next little while or need to pray that we get a lot of rain before the end of the month, which both have their challenges. If we get a lot of rain, that means it is harder to contact people, but if we don't get rain than we will need to make sure that we have plenty of water to survive a few days, so those days should be pretty fun when it come to taking showers.

This week, I was also able to go on exchanges with Elder Carbine (柯長老) in 新莊 (Xinzhuang), which was super fun. It was the first time I have got to do missionary work in another area since I moved here, which was super fun. It is a little bit different than 新埔 (Xinpu), but it was fun. The biggest surprise from the exchange though was that Greg, a member who is half the time in Suzhou, half the time in Taiwan, called asking if we had time for lunch, and it was the one day that I was on exchanges in their area, which was cool. So, we were able to have lunch with him and his wife which was super fun.

After the exchanges, it was pretty much time for English class, which was full of surprises and miracles. Last transfer, which was three weeks ago, we were averaging about 28 people at English class. Two weeks ago we had 41 people, but this last week we had 67 people, which was crazy. Let just say that we were running out of space to put people, but it really was pretty fun. We really did love though how full the classes were. We had 29 people in the beginners class, 22 in the intermediate, and 16 in the advanced class. We are hoping that this week we will be able to get similar numbers, but also be able to split our classes so that we will be able to better accommodate the number of people attending.

As for some really cool people that we meet this week was a 陳美玲 (Chen mei ling) who actually is already a christian, but is super interested in the Book of Mormon. Her knowledge of the Bible is pretty impressive, so we gave her the challenge of doing the same with the Book of Mormon because she understood the principle that God loves everyone, so he would reveal things to people around the world, including the ancient american people. We are also meeting with a 林家庭 (Lin family), and they are super cool. We are hoping that over this next couple of weeks because of work, that we will be able to keep meeting with them and also help them set a baptismal date so that they can all be baptized together.

Training is also going pretty well. It is interesting having to take the lead with most of the stuff because of a language barrier, but we are working hard so that Elder Brinton will be taking the main lead with all of the lessons by the end of this transfer, which should be fun. As for some of the other people we are working with, they do speak pretty good English, so we will usually do a good amount in English, with the exception of some of the more church words to make sure they know them in Chinese as well. So, those lessons usually do go pretty well because we are both able to work together pretty well to teach those lessons.

Sorry about the shorter letter this week, but it really was a pretty awesome week. We were able to see a lot of miracles/surprises, and also able to teach a lot of people, which just made the week so much better. Thanks for all the emails and prayers!

我愛妳們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

Week 42

你好!

Well, this has been another good week for us. The only difference from this week and the past weeks though was the amount of rain we had, which made missionary work fun and interesting.

As for the beginning of the week, we went to Chiang Kai-sheik Memorial Hall with a few other elders and saw the guard change there. After that, we went and got dunkin donuts, which was pretty good too. As for the p-day activities, that was pretty much all we had time for, but it was super fun. The best part of it was getting to see my Trainer and MTC companion again, which was super fun. As for something interesting, my MTC companion, Elder Nixon actually broke both of his wrists the other week. He was playing basketball and decided to dunk the ball. As for what happened, it sounded a lot like how Trent got injured back in high school, where he hung on for too long.

Elders Okeson, Meeks and Brinton

As for the week as a whole, it was pretty rainy, which made things pretty interesting. For part of the time, we made calls, and for the other part, we actually did some finding. All I can say about finding in the rain is that it is a lot more challenging. The only thing that is easy about finding in the rain is that people find it funny to see white guys out side in the pouring rain, so at least we have that advantage. One of the other activities that we did in the rain was English boarding before English class, and it was raining. So after English boarding when we went to English class, there was a big surprise. My red tie that I was wearing actually bleed some of its color onto my white shirt, so that was pretty interesting. We will see if I can get it to come out, but I don't know of any good ways to get it out, so we are experimenting on that.

As for missionary work this week, there were a couple of things that happened. The biggest that has to do with actually investigators was finding exactly where they all lived, and we have found out that a large majority of them live just outside of our area, so we have been working with both the other elders in the ward and the elders that are responsible for the area right next to ours so that they can continue working with them and helping them grow. So with that, our investigator pool has been getting pretty small, so we have been working on finding a lot of the less actives in the ward, which is quite the challenge in some ways. With that being said though, it has been fun being able to meet more and more of the less actives in the ward. So, for missionary work, we are doing a lot with finding less actives and then we will also be spending a good amount of time trying to find some new investigators.

Serving with Elder Brinton (譚長老) really has been pretty fun. We have been having a lot of cool experiences and learning experiences. I know for myself, I really have learned a lot. Probably the biggest thing is the language because I really have been seeing a difference in how much I can speak, which has been cool. As for how to pronounce Elder Brinton's name, that was a challenge for me for about a week, and even now I feel like it is hard, so the first week we were together, I would also use his Chinese name because it was easier :). But, for those who would like to be able to say his English name, the best way to pronounce it is brrr (the feeling cold sound) - in - ton. I don't know if that helps, but that is the best way I can describe how to say his name.

As for a couple of other things that happened this week, there was a baptism in the ward, I got to go on exchanges with Elder Kennedy (柯長老), we went apartment hunting with the other Elders, and of course Pi day :).

For the baptism, it was the Bishop's second counselor's daughter, who we actually got to teach the restoration to about a week ago in preparation for her baptism. Her parents wanted us to share the restoration and we both thought it was the perfect time to let my companion teach the full restoration in Chinese which was a pretty cool experience.

The exchanges was pretty good too. I hope this doesn't come over weird, but it was nice not to have to be training for exchanges. We got to be out of the apartment by 11 am instead of 12 and we just we able to do so much. Just a couple of small things like that, but with that being said, I am still loving the opportunity to train. There are so many things that I am learning from my trainee and just everything in general with missionary work.

So, I am sure that you are wondering what I mean by apartment hunting, we are looking for a new apartment possibly. We are working to get the other elders closer to their area because it is about a 30 minute bike ride for them to get into their area, and that is with bikes. So, we are working with the ward to see about a suitable place for either just them or for the four of us. So far though, it looks like it may be just an apartment for the other elders because of location, it is looking a lot better for us to stay where we are and put the other elders on the opposite side of 新埔 (Xinpu).

And lastly, this week was Pi day. With it being Pi-day, we did really have anything big planned, but Keith, a guy from the states, actually ended up inviting us over for dinner and took us to a Japanese sushi bar, which was super fun. As for the rest of Pi day, it was just the usual missionary work, but it was crazy to think that a year a go on Pi day I got my mission call. It is just amazing to see how fast time has flown by on my mission along with all the amazing experiences!

Well, my time is pretty much up. Thanks for all the emails and prayers!

我愛妳們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

Week 41

你好!

Well, this has been quite the week for us. To describe this week, the one word would pry be successful. We were able to teach a ton of lessons and work with the other Elders to just a full week of success and miracles.

As for the week as a whole, there were two big things. The first one was 約民的一天. There really isn't a great translation for that, but it is pretty much where all the members go out with missionaries to do missionary work, which was super cool. There were tons of people that we meet and were actually able to set up another lesson with because of the member testifying and sharing their conversion experience. As for the second big thing of the week, 謝弟兄 (Brother Xie) got baptized. We have been working with him for the past 2 and a half months and also with his wife who was less active. It really has been a cool experience to work through the lessons with him and be able to see the testimony that he has gained over the last couple of months.

As for the rest of the week, it was pretty good. This week, I was finally able to go out finding with Elder Brinton, which was super fun. Right now, I am doing most of the contacting, but I am hoping that here in the next week or two, he will be able to talk more doing the contacts. As for one of the coolest things this week as we were contacting, it felt like every single person we talked to was Christian, which is super rare most of the time. We also ran into a super cool family that has a bit of Christian background and also lived in Australia and Japan before, so their English is pretty good too. So this week, we are hoping to be able to meet with them and share a little more about our church and its teachings.

As for a miracle that we saw this week, we were finally able to meet with the bishop's wife's brother who is a less active. As for even a bigger miracle was that he brought his girlfriend who is not a member. When we told the Bishop that, he was so surprised because before his brother in law never had time to meet and never really shared much about religion with his girlfriend, so they were all super excited. So, we will be working to find another time to meet with them again in the upcoming week and see how our invite to pray went this week.

As for the language, this week has been pretty cool. This was the first time that this has ever happened, but our 陪課 (Member at the lesson) took notes of all of our major grammar mistakes and told us afterwards what they were. So, I can say that this week, I have changed a couple of habits when I say things in Chinese. As for just the language in general though, I really feel like it has gotten better. As I have been training, I have been needing to understand more and more and speak more and more, and it just seems to flow out with out even knowing it. It really has been a huge blessing.

For 新埔 (Xinpu), it has been pretty good. We have really liked having another set of elders, it just been a little hard for them as they do not have bikes yet. With that being said though, they have been doing some great work here in 新埔 (Xinpu). As for the funniest part this week, the other Elders actually lost there cell phone and didn't come to a 請客 (Dinner invites) that we had set up, so we had to go and find them. They had dropped their cell phone in a taxi and so we ended up finding their cell phone for them and then about an hour later they call expecting some random taxi driver to pick up and were super surprised to hear another set of missionaries pick up the phone. So, lessons we all learned from this, don't lose your phone because it creates a lot of problems. With that being said, everything worked out, it was just kind of a funny situation to try and figure out.

So far on my mission, I think my favorite missionary activity is contacting in parks. Actually having lessons with people is also super fun, but I feel like when you are contacting people on the street, you are able to learn so much more and actually get to meet a lot of new cool people. With that being said, there is also plenty of rejection, but in general, the Taiwanese are pretty excepting and willing to talk.

For teaching people right now, we have been working on passing a lot of our investigators off to the other elders, so here in the near future we will get to do a lot of contacting because we will need to pick up our investigator pool again. 

Well, my time is about up. Hope everyone has a great week and thanks for all the emails and prayers!

我愛妳們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

Week 40 - Lots of Changes

你好!

Well, this has been quite the interesting week, starting with Monday finding our Elder Robinson was leaving and then on Friday with an even bigger twist that there are going to be another set of missionaries in 新埔 (Xinpu).  So to say the least, it has been a busy week.

As to begin the week off, we finish off 過年 (Chinese New Year) really well.  As a total count, we have 13 請客 (Dinner invites) over the space of six days.  To say the least, Elder Robinson and I were beyond full for most of the week.  And as soon as we let people know that Elder Robinson would be moving, the 請客 (Dinner invites) kept coming, and we found that over the space of a week and a half, we only spent 90 kuai or just under 3 US dollars.  It was really pretty sweet.

So as I mentioned, on Monday, we found out that Elder Robinson would be moving because I was going to be training one of the new missionaries coming in this transfer, which pretty much meant the rest of our week would be planned out for us.  Tuesday and Wednesday we visited as many investigators and members as possible so that Elder Robinson could say good bye, and then the rest of the week was me in Taipei for meetings with the new trainees.  As for the meeting themselves, they were pretty good.  My favorite out of all of them was at the beginning when it was just the trainers and President Day.  He shared a little about how he was trained and how he prays that we will be better trainers than the trainer he had.  He also shared a good number of scriptures with us in hope that we will truly be able to see the importance of the calling we have to train the new missionaries that have just arrived with the 12 week program again even though they have completed in their mission field in the States.  And ya, all of the missionaries that are coming on have already completed training and one was even training a new missionary in the states but then got his visa, so they have been out for a while.

After all the meetings on Thursday, we had babysitting, which is an opportunity for the trainers to take one of the trainees at random out anywhere in Taipei to go finding for two hours. I don't know if this was planned or what, but I got the tallest of all the trainees who is actually taller than me.  His name is Elder Deipeveen.  Don't ask me how to say it because I don't think I could pronounce it right anyways, but his Chinese name is a lot easier which made introducing him on the street a lot easier.  As for finding with a new missionary, it was quite the experience.  Thinking about when I just got to Taiwan and my babysitting experience, I remember just being lost in what was actually happening.  All I can say is that it looks like I have come a long ways.

As for the biggest day of the week, it was transfer meeting where things got a little crazy. It was then when we found out who my trainee would be, that my old area 苗栗 (Miaoli) was split into two areas, and that my current area is being split into two areas!  So, for the transfer meeting, there were a lot of changes being made.

Now to introduce my new companion, Elder Brinton is from California.  He has done one year at BYU and looking to get into the accounting at BYU.  I think I know why he is my trainee now, but that is just a random thought that almost everyone in my generation mentioned when they found out he also was studying a math based major.  As for serving in the USA, he had the opportunity to serve in Pueblo Colorado for a few months.  So, we are both really excited to be serving together and also with the extra set of elders in the area too!

So about that part of the change, we got a new set of missionaries and it really did surprise our ward mission leader and also the entire ward on Sunday.  Just because of how things worked out, we actually didn't tell anyone that we got another set of elders because we just ran out of time.  As for the funny part of it all, they all super excited about getting elders, but their comment to us then turned to where are the sister missionaries.  Looks like they still want us to be doing more with 陪課 (Lessons with a member present) so that they can still get those sister missionaries that President Day promised.  As for splitting the area, it pretty much came down to Elder Pincock and I deciding and then telling the office.  Elder Pincock is the senior companion in the other companionship so we went on splits for the day and just sent my trainee off with Elder Pincock's companion.  As to give you an idea of the age of the missionaries.  I am the oldest mission wise, then Elder Pincock, then Elder Green (Elder Pincock's companion), and then Elder Brinton.  So we are all pretty new, but there is only a one transfer gap between each of us if that makes sense.  So I knew Elder Pincock in the MTC, he knew Elder Green in the MTC, and Elder Green knew Elder Brinton in the MTC.  So, it is pretty fun and I am sure that this next week will be too!

Well, I don't really know how time flies by so fast for emails, but it does.  I will try to send a longer email next week, but thanks for all the emails and prayers!

我愛妳們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

P.S.  So, I didn't have time to get any photos, but I got a photo of my new companion with his old companion in the States, so that will have to do for this week =P Sorry.  He is the one on the left.