Week 35 - Getting use to the BIG city

你好!

Well, I have now been in Taipei for over a week, and all I can say is that it is not 苗栗 (Miaoli). Not that that is a bad thing, but I guess I am still getting use to the change. With that, I am still working on getting use to being 大同伴 (Senior Companion). To be completely honest, that is probably one thing I miss from being with Elder Ure. Since I was 小同伴 (Junior Companion) with Elder Ure, whenever it came to having to pick what to eat, I would always pull that card on him so that he would have to pick. In ways, I think it has kind of back fired on me now.

Anyways, as for Taipei as a whole, I am really liking it. Everything is just super close and convenient. We have a store just down the road, we have places to eat just by where we live, and of course a great ward. The other big thing about being in the city, is that there are so many people. It really makes a big difference when you are looking to contact people because there are just so many. At some point, I will send you a picture of how many people are here, just so you can get an idea of how many people are actually here. It really is pretty crazy. So, for settling in, I am doing pretty well. I haven't fully been able to unpack yet because our apartment is super small, but I don't think that is too big of a thing. I have out pretty much all the stuff I need right now, it will just be getting out those few odd things every now and then when something comes up (for example medicine). The only real thing I haven't fully settled into is the price change in things. Food and everything was way cheaper in 苗栗 (Miaoli), so I have been needing to watch money a little more, but it isn't too bad. With that being said though, we still are able to eat out and stuff, but we are more careful with how much we are spending. So, for example, if we are really hungry, we will go to this 包子 (Steamed bun) place and get 5 big 包子 for about 60 kuai, which is a pretty good deal, and it is super cheap and filling. So, we will generally do that every few days to save money.

As for our apartment here in Taipei, it is pretty small. It is basically one room. The only other doors in the apartment are to the bathroom and the washer/drier on the balcony. So, if that gives you any type of idea, there really isn't a tone of space in our apartment. The only thing about our apartment is that we live on the 12th floor. I do not understand how with us being so high up, that the mosquitoes are still able to find their way to our apartment.

As for the missionary work here, it is pretty good. It really is interesting getting to be a breaker, because in ways, it still feels like I am pretty young so I am also being broken in. I feel like it is a lot of the older missionaries that break people coming out of training harder because they are so use to doing things a given way, but I guess I am still open to lots of different things when it comes to missionary work. So, I don't think that I am really breaking him that much, just working hard together to get the work done. With that being said though, we have been working to teach more with the pamphlets and scriptures just because that was how I was taught how to teach by my breaker, and I really liked it. So, from how Elder Ure broke me, I am continuing to use that as I am "breaking" Elder Robinson. Since we are working to teach more with the pamphlets, we are still working on understanding how to best use them in the lessons to help our investigators progress. Contacting is also a lot different. Elder Robinson's style and my style are pretty different, so we are getting use to that as well.

As for missionary work here, President Day actually gave the ward a challenge to get 15 陪課 (Lessons with a member present) each week, and if they reach it, the ward will get a set of Sisters once again in the ward. So, on Sunday during PEC, the ward informed of this and then announced it in Sacrament meeting too. It looks like we have a lot of work that has to be done so that we can keep the work moving forward and also keep the ward on our side by meeting that goal. They all seemed way more excited about having a set of Sisters then having us Elders, but they assured us that that was not true. 

We work with one ward, and we are currently the only missionaries in the ward... but president day has made it a bit of a challenge for us to say the least.

As for the upcoming 過年 (Chinese New Year), we have been having to do a lot of preparation. Since this is both our first time for 過年 (Chinese New Year), we are having to trust what everyone has told us, and that is that Taipei pretty much turns into a ghost town. Everyone goes home and everything just shuts down. The ward has prepared families to feed us each day of that week, which is great, but both Elder Robinson and I are still trying to figure out how missionary work is going to work if there is literally no one in the city for us to talk or meet with. Should be an interesting and fun week when it finally comes.

We mainly use bikes for transportation here in Taipei. In our area, we have two subway stops, but it is generally more convenient and time effective if we just use our bikes. So, for all of the things we do, we will just use our bikes. As for the traffic though, I would compare it with driving in Shanghai, which means it is a little crazy. At some point, I will try to take a picture so that you can see just how crazy it gets. It always gives you a good reason to make sure your bike does not have any brake problems and that all of your lights work right so that you don't get into any accidents.

As for a cool miracle that Elder Robinson and I had this week, actually had to do with a set up we had from English class and the fact that we totally forgot to get contact information from him. When it came time to call and double check the lesson, we realized that we didn't have anyway of calling him. So, we were going purely off of faith that he would remember. And that is when the miracle came. We were running a minute behind and were quickly running to go up to the Chapel on the fourth floor. Just as we were getting into the elevator, we felt that we should wait a minute before going up. Seconds later, we see Leon (丁弟兄) walk out of the other elevator because he thought we forgot to come, so he was on his way back to the subway. It really was a miracle to the both of us that as you listen to the spirit, things will work out. If we hadn't listened, he would have been going down the elevator just as we were going up. So, count your blessings.

As for just an overview of the week, just because of the sake of time. We had temple day this week, which was super fun. After going to the temple, we had to quickly hurry back to 新埔 (Xinpu) for our English class, which is huge in comparison to 苗栗 (Miaoli). We probably had around 30 people in total, which was super fun. So many made teaching a little harder, but it was fun. The other big thing that happened this week was that we had a ward fireside about family history, which was super good. Member taught about their conversion and how doing family history is helping those who have already passed away have a similar experience, but also how it has helped them feel closer to family because they have done this work. Over all though, this week really was pretty good. We just have been having a great time being companions and helping people better understand the gospel. It really is a blast.

Well, my time is about up again for this week. Hope all of you are doing great and can't wait to hear again from you next week.

我愛你們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

Elder Robinson and Elder Okeson at Taipei Temple

Week 34 - New Area

你好!

Well, this week has been quite the change for me. On Friday, we had transfers, and I was one of the people moving. To put it simply, it was quite the change for me. I went from one of the most rural parts of our mission to, as my companion has told me, one of the most densely populated areas in the Taipei area. So, there has been a lot of changes that have happened. So, as for where I am now at, I am in 新埔 (Xin Pu), which is part of 板橋 (Ban qiao) in New Taipei City.

As for my new companion, it is Elder Robinson (羅長老). He is one generation younger than me, so we actually know each other pretty well in the MTC because he was in the same zone as me. So, if you look back to the big group photos of the zone back in the MTC, you should be able to pick him out of a couple of photos. The other thing about being his companion too, is that I am actually his breaker because he just finished being trained. He was one of the lucky visa waiters that served in the states in Portland Oregon for about half a transfer before coming to Taiwan. So, for a little bit about him, he is from Bountiful, Utah and just graduated from high school, so he is one of the 18 year old missionaries in the mission. He has one sister who is still in high school. He is a pretty big fan of snow skiing.

As for a little bit about my new area, it is awesome. I am still trying to get use to a couple of things, but it will probably take some time. Probably the biggest one, actually has to do with contacting on the street. In Preach My Gospel, it talks about contacting everyone on the street. Well, in 苗栗, that was a pretty realistic thing because there were not as many people, but here, it's like... where do I even start contacting because there are so many people. We will go to a less active places because those people are a lot easier and more willing to stop and chat with us. So, it really has been a change. One of the best parts about the area is the ward. Coming from 苗栗 (Miaoli), where the ward relationship was good, this new ward just kind of blows them out of the water. They are super supportive of everything in missionary work. We have been working with a couple of investigators recently, and the ward has just been such a blessing with helping them feel welcomed and finding friends. So, I am sure over the next couple of weeks, you will be hearing a lot about the ward and my new area because it is just so awesome! :)

As for this past week and a half, things have been really good. Elder Ure and I had our last week together in 苗栗 (Miaoli) just working on getting every last minute thing done. We had a ton of less active visits, which was amazing and a good number of member visits too. It really was a good week in 苗栗 (Miaoli). Over all, I felt like my time in 苗栗 (Miaoli) was amazing. I learned so much and will sure miss a good number from things from there.

Also, since it was the last week of the transfer, we had our English party which was playing one big game of Clue. Pretty much, it is like a live version of the board game Clue, but people must go around ask everyone else in the room what their evidence was, so that they could find out who the murderer was, the room that Mr. Black (imaginary person who was murdered) was killed in and what was used to kill him. The only rule though was that for the entire game, they must speak English. In some part, this did create a challenge for them, but overall, it really seemed like they had a good time.

As for a few miracle that happened this week, it actually had to do with contacting and English class. For the English class, in 苗栗 (Miaoli) we never saw success through English boarding, but yesterday we actually had someone come up to us and ask us about the English class that we provide each week. It was a super cool to see how here, people are actually really interested to talk with us, because in 苗栗 (Miaoli), it was not even close to that. Everyone would avoid us. The other really cool miracle was actually three different contacts. One was finding someone who had meet with the missionaries about two years ago and said he would come to church this week. And the other two were just random, quick contacts that were interested to meet with us just because we were sharing a message about happiness. So for me, I felt like it was such a blessing. A lot of time, I always thought that it was hard to do missionary work, but when God gives you a miracle, it just makes it feel so much more worth it and so much easier.

Lastly, for a blessing before my time is up, I finally got my bike this morning. For the past five days, we have been walking everywhere to meet with people. Because of walking, things have always been a little tight for time. Just the other night we were pushing it to get home on time because our lesson was about an hour and a half walk from our home, so having a bike on a mission has its benefits and blessing. So, I really am grateful that my bike finally made it to Taipei safely.

Well, my time is about up. Thanks for all the prayers and letters! :)

我愛你們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

At Transfer Meeting with Elder Ure

MiaoLi

New Comp - Elder Robinson

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 :)

Week 32 - 新年快樂!

你好!

Well, this has been another fun week.  We have seen a ton of miracles and a ton of successes. Probably the biggest one had to do with the 張家庭 (Zhang Family). The mom is a member, but her three children are not yet because their father has abstained from them being baptized. Sadly, he still abstains from them being baptized, but there has been progress. Just the other week, 張姐妹's husband shared with his wife that he had had a dream about the church. Before sharing the outcome of it, for people in Taiwan, sharing a dream is something that no one does, so it is truly a miracle that he shared this experience with his wife and she shared it with us. As for the dream, he shared that he had see the church and the positive affects that church has and will have on his children and family. He continued to say that the felt the strong prompting in his dream that he should continue to allow his family to attend and be a part of the church. Up to now, the husband has been so so about the church, but now his is all in supporting the family with attending church.  Now all we are waiting for is the time when he is willing to let his children be baptized and experience the blessings from baptism.

One of the other big miracles from this week was that we got to do a lot of service. As for the first service this week, we got to help 陳姐妹 (Sister Chen) make 包子 (Steamed buns) and 饅頭 (Steamed bread), which are slightly different, for her job. As for the difference, one is just a bread and the other has meat and other things in it. The best part about this service was that the last time we meet with her, she mentioned how recently she has been having trouble keeping up with the orders and has been needing to stay up late working to get all the orders done in time for the next day. So, we offered to help and had the opportunity to help her make the breads, which consisted of kneading the dough. It really was quite the work. All I can say is that having a machine to do it for you is pretty nice, but doing it all by hand is pretty fun too.

This week for service, we also got to help 黃家庭 (Huang Family) 拔草 (pull weeds) up at there house in the mountains of 公館 (Gong Guan), which is a neighboring county to 苗栗 (Miaoli), but still is part of our area. At first they were saying that we would need to bike to their house, but after they laughed about it for about 10 minutes because we said that we would and that it wouldn't be a problem, they told us they would drive us. All I can say is that biking wouldn't really be possible.  It was about a 30 minute drive up a dirt road on the side of a steep mountain. We were both happy they decided they would drive us to the top of the mountain to do the service for them. It was also super cool when we got to there house because you could see all of 苗栗市 (The City of Miaoli). As for the service section, it was pretty good. We were able to help them 拔草 (pull weeds) and also build a stronger relationship with them. As we were chatting with them, it also came up where our siblings had served, which was a blessing. I mentioned how Trent served in England, and that seemed to catch 黃弟兄 (Brother Huang) attention, and he mentioned how his son is going to school in England and how he would really like it if I could see about having Trent talk with the missionaries in England to have the missionaries visit his son and help him become active again. It was really a pretty cool experience to see how through service, we can really find people that could use the support of the missionaries.

This week, along with past weeks, we also had service and the mentally disabled center and English class. English class doesn't fully count as a service, but that is how we describe it when we are contacting people about coming to our English class. For the service at the disabled center, we actually took Jenga and played that with them. They all seemed to know how to play and were playing pretty intense. It really was fun to watch and play it with them. As for English class, this week we taught weather, which is one of my favorite topics because it just feels so much easier to teach. We also prepared a word search for them, which they all seemed to love.  Pry my favorite part about it all was watching the little kids do it as a race. I'm not sure how much of the English they learned from it, but I know they had a good time doing it which is pry the more important part of it.

One thing that was different this week was that we actually had an opportunity to go find in 頭份 (Toufen) to help the sisters there. Recently, the Sisters in our district have been having trouble finding investigators that will stick or even start meeting with them, so our entire district went to their area to help them find some new investigators. Probably the biggest thing I saw was how blessed we are to be in 苗栗 (Miaoli), even though our area is incredibly big, our area has a good number of people. A large portion of the Sister's area in 頭份 (Toufen) are businesses, so they aren't able to find many people that live in their area. With that being said, it was a pretty cool experience finding in 頭份 (Toufen) for the Sisters because we knew that everyone that we found would help them, which made finding for us a little different. When you are in your own area, you are looking for ways to help your area grow, but when you are in some one else's area, you are looking for ways to help them, so I guess it counts as another way of serving those around you.

Also, for this week, the weather was amazing. I know my parents and siblings think I am crazy from the other week saying it was cold, but this week was truly amazing. And with the amazing weather, came some amazing success. The biggest part being that people were back out on the streets again, which helped us with contacting. Elder Ure and I both love talking to people on the street, so with more people on the street, it means we have more opportunities to talk to people on the street. It really was quite the week for finding both in 苗栗 (Miaoli) and 頭份 (Toufen).

Well, my time is about up.  Thanks for all the letters and prayers.

我愛你們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

P.S. Sorry Mom, Elder Ure and I did not stay up til mid-night on New Years eve. Here in Taiwan, they have a thing called 款年 (I think the characters are right, kuan nian), which is if you stay up til mid-night on New Years eve, your mom will live til 120 years old. But with that being said, I am sure Morgan, Tanner, Trent, and Nicole all did :)

Week 31

你好!

Well, with this week being Christmas, it was pretty busy.  We were invited to a lot of activities in which we were asked to share a little about Christmas. Pry the biggest one though was during service this week, which I would also put as one of the highlights of the week.

For service this week at the youth center, we were actually able to go on Christmas Day which was super fun.  We made snow flakes with them and then did a white elephant and gift exchange.  The coolest part about it all was that I have never felt so much enthusiasm about Christmas as they were expressing.  It was really fun.  As for the funniest part of it all, was actually how they did the white elephant part.  Everyone brought a gift and then a number was put on the present and a number was put in a balloon.  So, when it came to doing the white elephant, you had to pop a balloon to see what present you got.  As you can see in the photo, the balloons were pretty loud, but they all seemed to love it.  And yes, it is an umbrella they are using to pop the balloons.  A nail is attacked to the end of the balloon, the umbrella is used as a safety precaution.

 As for the rest of Christmas, we actually spent most of the day travelling to visit less actives.  Many of the less actives that we visited called us the day before saying they wanted to meet with us because they knew that Christmas is an American holiday, so they wanted to help us celebrate Christmas, which in turn actually helped us meet and build better relations with the less actives in the ward.  Not to mention, we got a lot of food.  For some of the food we got, it ranged from being the finest souvenir (food) of 苗栗 (Miaoli) to the finest food of 台灣 (Taiwan).  As for the definition of finest, Elder Ure and I are still debating about it but that is what it said on the packaging so we are just quoting what it says.  We were given salt cakes with taro, hairy meat, red bean in it which is the finest souvenir of 苗栗 (Miaoli) and Lemon Jerky which is the finest food of 台灣 (Taiwan).  All I can say is the jerky was super lemony, it was really pretty funny because we didn't actually read what it was until after we had taken the first bite.  Got to love the food! :)

Elder Ure

Elder Okeson with a really weird Cheese Cracker thing that wasn't very good. We got it for Christmas from the people we do service for.

This week, going along with all the Christmas stuff, we got to go to 台北 (Taipei) for a Christmas Zone Conference.  We got to get training from President Day and Sister Day, the Assistants, Temple Sisters, Zone leaders and Sister Training leaders.  It was really a full day for us, but along with the training, we got a big gift from the mission, which was a copy of the New Testament in a three column set up, where there is characters, pinyin, and English.  The mission is really hoping that with this, we will be able to preach the gospel better and use the Bible more as we teach.  It really was a huge blessing to get that as a present for Christmas.

This week, we also had our ward Christmas party, which was probably one of the miracles of the week.  There were over 15 non-members at the activity, not including our current investigators, which was amazing.  And along with non-members, we had half a dozen who were less actives that attended as well.  It was truly a blessing to see how the ward really took the opportunity to invite friends and less actives to church.  There was a white elephant gift exchange as well.  Elder Ure and I both participated in this as well, but we gave our tickets to some investigators so that they could have an opportunity to participate because they didn't realize that the gift exchange was part of the Christmas party. Anyways, it really was a huge success and we were able to meet lots of people that hopefully this next week may become investigators, but we will see.  Just have to keep praying for more miracles.

We also got to give the 張家庭 (Zhang family) Christmas, which was an amazing experience.  They are a part member family, where the Mom is a member, but the kids are not because the father does not think they should be baptized until they leave for college.  So, as for the miracle that came from giving them a Christmas experience, we have been told that the father's heart has been softened a little and they he will be willing to give them permission to be baptized in the coming month, which we are both super excited about.

As for the last Christmas thing I will be talking about this week, since it was Christmas, we got to Skype home, which was really fun.  It was a little weird to think that my family was only a 2-3 hour train ride away, but it was still super fun to talk with them and hear about how they are liking 台灣 (Taiwan).  I know I am loving it here, they just seemed to think I was a little crazy because I have been saying it is cold here.  For a little disclaimer, this last week has been really good weather.  I am sure if you are to look back at previous week's weather, you will be able to see that it was actually cold.

Even though this week, it wasn't cold, the biggest thing this week was rain.  Everyday that we had contacting, it actually rained pretty hard, which was kind of interesting.  If we had lessons planned, it would be good weather, but the minute we stepped outside to go finding, it would start raining.  The worst was pry when I went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders Friday night because I didn't bring all of my rain gear, I only brought my rain coat.  All I can say is that the combination of the rain and the cars driving by, my legs and shoes were thoroughly soaked.  It was quite the experience because the last time I had anything close to it was about 4 months ago when I first got on island.  As for the exchange itself though, it was pretty good.  I got to be Elder Anderson's last exchange as he will be finishing his mission this week.  So, he really was working hard because he knew his time was coming to a close as a missionary, which made the exchange even more fun because we were literally talking to everyone in the rain.

As for the last thing for this week, because of time, we got to go to FHE again this week.  It has been a few weeks since we last went, but we were invited this week because a less active was going to be coming and they wanted us to start meeting with him during the week, which we were pretty excited about in the aspect of getting a less active referral.  I guess that is one thing I never really thought much about before my mission, but referrals are so nice and helpful for the missionaries.  It helps us fulfill our missionary purpose and help people see the amazing blessings that can come from the gospel!

Well, as I mentioned, my time is about up.  Hope you all have a great week and thanks for all the emails and prayers!

我愛你們!

Love you,

柯長老 Elder Okeson

Week 30

你好!

Well, this has been another good week.  It was not the same as previous weeks in so many ways, but it has still been a good week.  We have had a lot of stuff happen, going from ward relations to relationships outside of our companionship relationship.  It really has been an interesting week because of that.  So, I will try to include as much of it as I can in this email.

So to begin the week off, just want to say the weather has really changed.  I know I said this last week, but the cold is actually pretty cold.  We have also had to do more missionary work in the rain too, which is quite a bit different.  Probably the hardest part about it though is that we are having to change from our usual method of finding, which is contacting, to tracting because everyone is staying inside.  It really has been a bit of a change for us because we both like contacting on the street more.  With that being said though, we are both really enjoying the missionary work in 苗栗 (Miaoli).

As usual, for the past few weeks, Wednesday was another crazy day.  This week though, we actually had more lessons that we had on the Wednesday before that.  With that being said though, it was still incredibly fun.  We love the days when all we have is lessons because that keeps us out of the rain and wind.  The only hard thing about this Wednesday though, was that for English class, we only had five people attend.  I was really happy that people attended, but for the game that we had prepared, we were planning for about ten people, so we had to change the game quite a bit so that we could play it with only five people.  It was still really fun though, we were doing a bit of review for all of the stuff that we had taught over the last three weeks and also on some grammar.  It was really nice to see that they remembered a large amount of it too.  Also, as usual for Wednesday, we did the service at the handicap youth center.  Along with playing the incredibly intense version of tic tac toe, we also taught them the Jingle Bells song.  Some of them picked it up faster than others, but in they end, they all loved singing in English with us.  It really is one of the best parts of the week getting to go play games and simply just have fun with them!

One this that actually made this week a little special from the other weeks was actually preparing for Christmas by helping members out.  That was also probably one of the miracles from this week was that we were able to do a lot of service for the members as they were doing little things to prepare for Christmas, which for them isn't as big, but does give us plenty of opportunities to serve.  One of the biggest ones that we worked with members to get done was preparing a Christmas for a part member family (張家庭) and a recent convert (曹來水弟兄) in the ward that doesn't really have much.  We have not given the things that we have prepared yet to them, but we both see Christmas Eve being quite the night for us as we help the members drop the items off at their homes.

As for something that I felt was really cool this week, was actually during church.  It sounds really simple, but just the aspect of understanding almost everything that was talked about in church, was really cool.  I have had days at church were I could understand half and half, but this Sunday, I really felt like I was able to understand a large amount of what was being taught and talked about.  With that being said, it also helped that at church, the biggest thing they were discussing was the Restoration, so I had a pretty good understanding of what was being said and the vocab they were using.  They also had us teach part of the lesson too, so we got to share the Joseph Smith story with everyone in the class and share the first vision.  As a side note, it is always amazing to see how the environment changes as you share the first vision, there is just something different in the atmosphere as you share it.

As for something funny this week, Elder Ure and I had a blast from the past.  So for when there were elections going on in Taiwan, the biggest ways the candidates would share their message with everyone was with using a big sign on the back of a car and a loud speaker shout there message out for everyone to hear and see.  Well, there was one message that we truly loved, but before we were never actually able to get a photo of it because we were always biking somewhere when we saw it.  The it I am referring to is an 阿公 (OIder Man) and 阿媽 (and his wife).  We saw them twice during elections with their loud speaker and sign saying vote for this candidates, but since the election, we had never seen him again, until just the other evening, when they drove by the restaurant we were eating at.  As soon as we saw them, we quickly finished eating and raced out to our bikes to see if we could catch them.  So, as you can see in a couple of photos, we tried getting a photo with out bothering them,

but it really wasn't working out, so we just asked if we could get a photo with them.  They were both really nice, but I think the 阿媽 (his wife) couldn't actually speak 國語 (Chinese), I think she could only speak 台語 (A local dialect, Taiwanese).  Now, as you can imagine, running for office here in Taiwan is really pretty different than running for office in America.  He would drive down the street with his speak all the way up and waving to everyone on the streets.  He also always had his wife strapped to him every time we saw him.  Not sure if you can see her in the photo, but it was really quite the photo for Elder Ure and I to get.  It really made both of our nights being able to see them.  Got to miss the elections in 苗栗 (Miaoli). :)

Well, that is about it for this week.  Sorry about the letter being shorter this week, but next week I will try to do a little better.  Thanks for all the letters and prayers.

我愛你們還有聖誕節快樂!

Love you and have a Merry Christmas!

柯長老

Elder Okeson

P.S. The translation for the Chinese word I sent last week was zombies.  Thought it was an interesting thing to learn during language study, but not sure how much I will use it though. :P

Week 29

Service at the Disabled Youth Center.  Tic Tac Toe to an extreme.

Our Christmas tree from Care4

 你好!

To begin off, I hope that back home was not nearly as cold as it got here this past week.  If you look at the weather online (not sure what it will say), I am sure you will see with the wind and everything, I was time to wear layers of clothing.  We both were wearing 4 layers of clothing for the past couple of days, which seemed to make contacting a little challenging.  I have been so use to being able to grab tracks in seconds, but now with the cold, it takes more that a few seconds.  Contacting in the cold is definitely a lot different than contacting in the heat.

With that being said, we can definitely tell that Christmas is coming.  And we have done a couple of things to prepare.  To begin off, the ward is looking at doing a white elephant Christmas part.  Elder Ure and I are both still thinking of what would be the best thing to do for it, so if you have any genius ideas, we would love to hear them.  As for the more spiritual aspect of Christmas, we have been challenge to help people get baptized by meeting a certain goal.  For us, it looks like we will be having a baptism the day after Christmas, which is really exciting.  We started teaching Allen (張世興) back when I was with Elder Meeks, and now he looks like he is finally ready.  He is a super cool college student and has a huge desire to learn and grow.

As for describing this week, there is only one real word that can describe it, Crazy.  This week, we had two days where it literally was one lesson to the next.  It was super fun, but also a little stressful because of it all.  Making sure that you are on time for everything can sometimes be a little hard when people want to talk a lot. But with that being said, I would change it at all.  The two days for us that are usually the crazy days for us are Wednesday and Sunday.  This week, just with those two days, we had 9 lessons, 7 of which were with a member present.  As for this next week, just on those two days alone, it looks like we will be getting around 11 on those two days.  It really is going to be fun.

Also, with making Wednesday crazy, we have English class and service.  English class does count as a lesson though because we teach at the end of the lesson.  But they were both really fun.  For the service this week we played "Don't Eat Pete," which they all loved.  We went out and bought M&Ms for them, which they really liked.  We found out that anything that includes snacks or food, they love the most.  So, we will be trying to play more games like that in the future.  They also wanted to play tic tac toe with us again, but the thing is that every week it changes just slightly, and this week was really crazy.  I have attached a photo of the tic tac toe we now play with them.  Just to let you know, this was not the game that we taught to them, they just felt like this was a better version of the game.  Also, I am not sure how turns work either, so you will see that one side is completely 'O's and the other is completely 'X's.  Elder Ure and I think that is more of a speed game now.  You can make your own conclusion when you see it too.  Let us know if you have any ideas for how to play.  We could really use some help to understand how to play the game with them.  It really is quite the challenge. :)

As for English Class, we played pry one of the hardest games I have done so far, but surprisingly, they did better than Elder Ure and I did at first.  The game was finding body parts or organs that began with all the letters in the alphabet.  Elder Ure and I got about 20 by ourselves.  Luckily, last Monday Mom helped me find the other six. The class though was able to get 22 with out any help, which we were pretty impressed about.  We had to help them find the last four after that.  The weirdest one that we used though was Zenith for Z.  Elder Ure found in the dictionary while I was teaching English.  He told us that it is pretty much a fancy name for joint, but it counts.

Also, for Sunday, which made this week a little crazy, was attending the Christmas devotional at the Chapel.  We were told that it started at 7 pm, but in reality, that was when it ended, so a member quickly downloaded it so that we could watch it together.  The funny part about it all was that they downloaded it in English, so Elder Ure got to practice his translating for a while til they figured out another option.  It was really the experience, especially since the first talk had a large portion being quoted from the Bible.  Elder Ure pretty much translated the general meaning of story.  Doing word for word on that was going to be impossible.

As for something cool that happened this week, it had to do with calling formers.  This past week, we worked on finishing up calling all of our formers that have cell phone numbers.  And we came across one that we actually had seen a month before, but decided that we should call her later, so we put her near the bottom of the call pile.  Just this last week we called her and invited her to come to church.  She was super willing.  At church on Sunday, she told us how this last week, she had been having a really hard time with work and everything, and then the missionaries called.  All Elder Ure and I were thinking was, timing.  If we had not held off on calling here, things may not have worked out so well.  So because of the timing and everything, it looks like this next few weeks we will be having the opportunity to meet with her and share more about the gospel, which is really exciting.

As for the last bit of my email, it has mixed feelings about it all, but over all it was funny experience.  To begin off, in my first couple of letters home when I got to 苗栗 (Miaoli), I mentioned multiple times that we really were out in the boonies, we have a huge area, and we don't really have much contact with people in the outside world meaning other people in the mission.  So, on the calendar, we saw that English Leader Training was on Thursday.  English Leader Training is basically a meeting for the leaders in a area to go to Taipei and learn what they need to do as the English Leader.  To let you know, Elder Ure is the English Leader, so I was just going to study during the meeting. So, Thursday morning, we arrive in Taipei around 9 am for the 10 am meeting.  At about 10 am, when we realized that we were pry the only ones in the building, we decided to go the the Mission office and ask them what was happening because no one was picking up their phones when we tried calling them.  All I can say was that we really surprised Elder and Sister Peterson.  They know we are pretty far out, so seeing us in the morning was really surprising.  They told us that Wednesday night everyone got notified that the English Leader Training meeting was cancelled.  The only thing was every did, but for some reason, we never got that notification.  So, we pretty much went to Taipei for the travel experience.  It was pretty fun to say the least though, we got to chat on the train for a bit which was nice.  With that being said though, we both had packages, so we actually got to pick them up and take them home.  It really was a nice bonus.  Thanks for the package from home. :)

Well, my time is about up for this week.  It was great to hear from everyone.

我愛你們還有聖誕節快樂,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

P.S.  As for language study this week, it is always fun to learn new crazy stuff.  While studying the vocab provided by the mission, came across this word: 殭屍 (Jiang1 shi1).  You can use google translate to find out what that one is.  And if you can't, let me know and I will tell you next week :)

Chen Chen says don't forget to go to church, read the scriptures, and say your prayers. 
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