Week 51 - Temple Day!

你好!

Well, this has been an eventful week to say the least. We had exchanges, temple day, interviews, and just so many different types of successes. So, to say the least it was extremely eventful, but I will start with the beginning of the week so that I don't miss anything.

To begin the week off, I got to go on exchanges with our district leader and his companion. Elder Willis, who is now our former district leader, came to 新埔 (Xinpu) with Elder Brinton and I went with Elder Tan to 板橋 (Banqiao, more so the city part by the train station). Elder Tan is from Texas, and he came on with Elder Brinton, so they are the same age in the mission. Pry my favorite part of the exchange was just getting to chat with him as we did finding and also get to see what a six man apartment looks like. To be honest, our apartment, even though it is pretty small, it is super nice and convenient. Their apartment is a little crazy, especially since there is only one shower and the water changes from scolding hot to freezing cold. I was told afterwards that that is how they time their showers, by how many cycles you go through. Back to everything else though, it was really a super fun exchange and fun to just see how a new missionary does work. So to say the least, I really hope I get to break next transfer again. (Break means to be their second companion, so it is pretty much breaking them from their habits that they picked up from their trainer)

As for something we do every day, we get a little bit of time to do Facebook, which in many ways has been such a great tool. It makes daily contact with our investigators a lot easier and also makes it easy to get in contact with potentials that we meet on the street. This may sound like stalking a little, but on Facebook you can actually use a phone number to find people, so for many of the people we meet on the street, we will actually use the phone number they gave us to find them and add them on Facebook. Sometimes they actually add us, but it really is a cool way to just start that communication with them and then hopefully set up a time.

Moving forward to Wednesday our day was pretty much going to the temple and having English class, and both parts of this were amazing. We had about 60 people attend this week, which was awesome and then a good number of new students that said they would also be willing to meet and learn about why we are here in Taiwan and how the Church can help them have more happiness. So, English this week was a big hit. Going back to the more spiritual aspect of things, the temple was so nice. It was just a good time to just think and find a few answers that I have been looking for to help the area grow. So, to say the least, the temple is awesome.

Again jumping forward, Friday was the next big day of the week. We had interviews with President and Sister Day. It was really weird, but I will get to why in just a second. Every time we have interviews with President Day, he always finds out how everything is going and then sets goals with us, including language, scriptural, obedience, and spiritual goals, which has been super cool. So, after talking through with him how I did on my goals from the last interview and then the new goals I have set, he took all of my goals and handed them to me and said to keep setting them personally. He told me that the next mission president may do things little differently, and that was when it hit me. That is the weird part is that he finally was bringing it up with everyone that he will be leaving. President Day really has been a great example and it will be super sad to see he go, but exciting to see what the new mission president has to bring to the mission. Also jumping back a little into the letter, with Elder Willis, our former district leader. It was just after interviews, that he was called to be the new Assistant to the Mission President. He really is a great missionary and it is really cool to have actually got to know him before he goes into the office because it feels like a good number of the people in the office are people that you don't really get to connect to.

As for an update on Esther, she is doing really well. Just with how things are working out, we are needing to push her baptismal date back a little, but she is really making good progress. The hard part right now is that she is struggling a little with the Word of Wisdom, so we are going to be continuing to work with her on that for these coming weeks.

As for something really cool, we found a family of four! We have been really struggling for just finding the prepared, and it felt like they fell right into place for us. They had ran into the missionaries before, but we were able to set up with them and share a small message with them and a little bit of expectations, meaning what they can expect from the message that we would be sharing with them, and they seemed super willing to learn and accept the commitments we would be extending to them, so we are super excited.

So, to say the least, this was a pretty eventful. Lots of things that I will definitely remember and think about for the rest of my mission. So, my time is pretty much up, but just want to say thinks for all the prayers and letters and hope you all have a great week! :) 

我愛妳們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

P.S.  In anticipation of one of us being transferred this week since training is coming to a close, here is a bunch of photos with some of the ward members :)

P.S.S.  As for the "Hump" day, there really aren't any of the traditions of burning a shirt or anything, but you hear of plenty of missionaries that go to a really nice place to eat for their "Hump" day. So, we will see what will happen here in a little over a week. Again, time flies!