你好!
Well, this has been truly an amazing week, with the highlight being Dragon Boat Festival, which took up a majority of the time this week, so that will be the big part of this weeks letter.
As for a few things that happened this week though other than the Dragon Boat Festival, we had exchanges and a ton of referrals, which was super fun and cool. As for exchanges, I stayed in 香山 (Xiangshan) with Elder Huang, not my companion but the other Elder Huang. It really was a great exchange. The two hours of contacting we had were pry the most successful I have seen in a while. We were really able to find the prepared. Sadly, all the people we found success with actually live in Taipei but are here because of Dragon Boat Festival, so we get to refer all of those really awesome people to the missionaries in Taipei.
As for the referrals, a lot of them were from the Dragon Boat festival, but we also a got a few member referrals, which is really cool, one of which actually set a baptismal date with us on the first visit, which was pretty cool. So, we will be working with a lot of referrals over the next few weeks.
Also for a heads up, this week is transfer week. With the new mission president coming in a week and a half, and everything, this is a pretty crazy week for a lot of people, not to mention with 13 areas being closed this transfer, it will be interesting to see what is going to happen. With transfers being a week earlier then normal, we are still getting new missionaries from the MTC, but it just means that the missionaries in the MTC only get 8 weeks instead of 9 weeks in the MTC. As for visas, the missionary department seems to have figured out how to speed up the process, so there really isn't any more visa waiters, and the ones that are still waiting, just got their visas so should be coming in this transfer, one of which has been on her mission since August of last year and just finally got her visa. So, if you do the math, that means she only gets about 7 months of her 18 months in Taiwan. So, it truly is a blessing that the mission department has solve the problem and is now able to get missionaries here right after the MTC. Also, since this is President Day's last transfer meeting, he has gotten special permission for everyone in the mission to attend, which is pretty rare for everyone in the mission to be together at once in the mission just because of travel costs, so it really should be a cool transfer meeting.
On Sunday, we also had the opportunity to join in with the Sunbeams class for a few minutes, as the teacher asked for us to come in and teach the little kids what we do as missionaries and answer any of their crazy questions that they may have as a 4-7 year old about missionary work. The only question they had was how tall I was. To say the least, that was the talk for the rest of Sunday by all the 4-7 year olds at church, so it was pretty funny to listen. On more of the spiritual side of it, it was really cool just to explain what is needed to be a missionary and just to see their excitement as we invited them all to work their best to prepare to be missionaries too.
Ok, that was pretty much the week with the exception of Dragon Boat Festival. For us, it was a two day activity, Friday and Saturday, in 南寮 (Nanliao) which is on the northwest part of 新竹 (Xinzhu) on the coast. In reality, it was a day of learning and then a day of acting. On Friday, we were learning the best way to contact people that were coming, which prepared us for the most successful service and contacting I have seen in a long time. And when I say service, I mean service, but I will get into why it was service.
So to explain Friday, we were there all day trying to contact and just not finding any success, not to mention it was super hot. Funny little note, my companion got super sunburned in the face, so he is super red right now, but it is fading a way little by little. I put on Sunblock, so I didn't get sun burnt too bad, but still got a little sunburned. As the day was going on, some of the sisters decided to leave because they felt like the time spent was not giving the outcome they were looking for, but just after they left, us elders sat down for minute and discussed the new game plan. First, Photo contacting :) To say the least, it worked like a charm. We started going around and asking people if we could get photos with them, and after a few minutes, we weren't needing to ask for photos anymore because people just kept jumping in. And then after all the photos, people were so open to talking to us, and we were able to get a ton of phone numbers and possible investigators. Second, balloon contacting. We pumped up dozens of balloons and went around giving balloons to little kids and then talking to the parents. Parents are so much more willing to chat if you can make their child smile. So, we were able to contact a lot of families that way.
For Saturday, I was on balloon duty, so to say the least, I was in the shade all day, which was pretty nice, but my fingers have some nice calluses due to tying so many balloons, but it was so worth it. The reason I was put on balloon duty though was because (I never knew this could be a rare skill) but tying a balloon. Out of all the member and missionaries at the activity, there were only a handful that could tie a balloon without making it pop, so I was doing a lot of tying, which was why it was service. I was able to escape for a few minutes to go out contacting with the balloons, and it was amazing. There really is nothing better than asking a 3 or 4 year old if they would like a balloon and just see them light up as they take it. And then have about 30 seconds to a minute to talk to the parent before they went in to see the dragon boat races. So, to say the least, Saturday was just a day of successful balloon contacting and a ton of referrals. Also, for something cool, there was a really cool less active (In the photo wearing a hat on the left) that is the master of balloon animals and any anything else you can make with a balloon. He taught us some cool different things we could make so that we could have a variety of things to make for the kids as we contacted, which was super fun.
So, to say the least, this really was a pretty fun week with the highlight being Dragon Boat Festival and seeing a ton of success.
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
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