Week 56 - Dragon Boat Festival

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

Week 55 - Sweat . . . .

你好!

Well, time has been flying. Just this morning, Elder Huang and I looked at the calendar and realized that transfer are next week. That really shows how fast this transfer has gone by. Also, before you start counting, this transfer only has 5 weeks because of the change in mission presidents, so that is also part of the reason why this transfer has gone by so fast, but next transfer will have 7 weeks, so next transfer could feel a little longer than normal.

As to just jump into some of the highlights from the week, I actually got to teach English class this week in 竹南 (Zhunan) because we had to go there Wednesday night so that my companion could do a baptismal interview. So, it was fun to get to teach English again. I was teaching the beginners class with Elder Dethloff, which was really good. I have really forgotten how much fun it is to be able to teach the beginners class, because they all are still just working on those basic words.

In an email from Nicole the other week, she described how there were weeks on her mission that all she really remembers is the heat. To say the least, this week really felt like that. There was a lot of sweating and contacting. But with that being said, there were also some cool miracles that happened, being that we found some really awesome people. As for one of them, his name is Marco, which was a really interesting contact. Unlike many of our contacts, who don't really believe in God, Marco was the complete opposite. He is an Italian Catholic Priest here learning Chinese so that he can teach the Taiwanese people as well. So, it was really cool to be able to talk to him for a little bit and also share and help him better understand our faith. Only trick now is finding a Italian Book of Mormon to give him. We have Chinese (Simplified and traditional), English, Tagalog, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, and one other one that I can even figure out, but no Italian, so we will need to see about adding another language of Book of Mormons to the apartment.

As for contacting the rest of the week, we were able to meet some really cool people and find a whole bunch of people that we will be working to meet with this next week, as to avoid the heat during the middle of the day, but we will see this next week how that all works out. Probably something really cool while we are finding is just how now matter where we feel we should go, if we go, we will find. There have been so many times this week we have gone down the most random alleys and nongs (nongs are an even smaller alley, basically speaking they are alleys of alleys) to find nothing, but when we are coming back we always find something. Also, it has been interesting that as we become more humble in finding, that is when we really find more people. When I say humble, I am referring to being out in the sun for 3+ hours finding and just having trouble finding the prepared, that is when we are actually able to find the prepared.

Oh, as for something from last week that was super cool that has to do with working with less actives, our Less active return missionary is starting to come to church again and said he would be willing to accept a call as well, which we are both really excited about. He told us about two weeks before we called to meet, he had started praying for a way to come back to church, and then we were finally able to set up with him. And when I say finally, I mean finally. Before I got to 香山 (Xiangshan) they were never able to set up because they were always calling when he was in classes, but the week before I arrived, they were able to call at the right time and set up a time to meet. So, these last three weeks we have been meeting with him have just been super cool and such a good experience. I feel like it really has been a blessing to meet him and also learn from him. He really sounds like he was a super awesome missionary. We have asked for some advice on a couple of things, and to say the least, the advise has been amazing.

Also, just to give you an idea of our area, since we are the only set of missionaries for the ward, our area is the entire ward boundaries, which goes from the middle of the area all the way south to the boundaries of Miaoli county, so our area is pretty big, but in comparison with Miaoli's area when I was there, is still is pretty small.

Well, my time is pretty much up for the week. Thanks for all the letters and emails. Hope you all have a great week!

我愛妳們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

P.S. Just another reason to show how small the world is, there was a western that attended church this week, and I could have been positive I recognized him. When I finally got a second to talk to him, it all connected. Brother Lewis from Shanghai when we first move to China was visiting the 新竹 (Xinzhu) area, so it was cool being able to chat with him for a minute.

Week 54 - The heat is here

你好!

Well, to describe this week, it just kind of flew by. The first half of the week was a lot of meetings and then the second were trying to get as many lessons in with people as possible, so this week was kind of split into two parts.

So, to start of with the first half of the week, it was P-day, zone meeting and then zone conference, in that order. Both zone meeting and zone conference were really good. They were all about using the spirit in all that we do. The biggest thing that stuck out to me during zone meeting and conference was probably the testimony meeting for those who would be going home before the next zone meeting or conference. As for the testimony that stuck out to me the most was one of the Elders who talked about the privilege that it is to wear the missionary name tag, because if you think about it, it may be the only time you actually get to wear it. That really got me thinking because since it could be the only time I get to be an official representative for the church (or a least for a good number of years, senior missions), need to make sure I am giving it my all so that I can make sure there are no regrets. That was the other part of his testimony, which was doing everything you can on your mission so that you have no regrets. I don't know how well the summery of his testimony is, but when he said it, it was pretty spiritual. Also, the other part that was different from all the other trainings that we had, President and Sister Day did their farewell testimonies, which was super weird. It is crazy to think that they are going home this month and that at the end of the month, we will have a new mission president. That was also one of the trainings that President Day gave during the Zone Conference, adjusting to a new mission president and also having each of us write down apartment and chapel directions so that the new mission president will be able to find us if necessary.

So, that was pretty much our first part of the week. As for the second part of the week, it was working to make up on lessons and finding time, so that was exactly what we had set up or at least planned.

Just to give you an idea of how things were set up for Thursday to Saturday (3 days), we had 15 set up with investigators, less actives and recent converts. As for the number of the lessons that actually happened, there were nine. That may not look like a huge difference, but when you think about it, that in theory is pretty much 6 hours that turn into finding, and for some reason it was all of our afternoon appointments that stood us up, so we were out side for two of the three afternoons. Thursday afternoon we had WPS (Weekly Planning Session), so we were out of the heat for that. So, to kind of describe the second part of the week, it was trying to meet with as many people as possible and then also do finding. As for the finding it was pretty good. We were able to find a few really nice people that look like they really have some potential, so we will be working this next week to meet with them.

As for a cool story, it actually was partly from two weeks ago, but forgot to share it last week. We have been working with an investigator, and found a really funny connection, which just shows how small the world really is. He is an English major at a college here in 新竹 (Xinzhu), and for the summers, he does an exchange program to the states. We were talking, and he said he was going to Idaho State in Pocatello. As we kept talking, he opened up even more and said that he actually didn't stay at Idaho State University, but in a small town in Idaho. He said he was in Oakley Idaho. That was the really interesting part. He actually knew my roommate (Brett Allred). He remembers seeing him at church on Sundays and some of the other ward activities. So, to say the least, the world is super small.

Also, for something interesting that we have been working on with a less active is the 12 step addiction recovery plan. The addiction he has though, was something that Mom would always tell us, but I guess I never believed. He is addicted to his computer, so we are working to help him overcome his addiction. He has been playing video games on his computer since he was in high school, but it really has gotten bad these last 5 months as he got fired and so all his time is spent playing games on the computer. To give you an idea, he is 33, so he has been playing video games for a pretty long time. So, something I guess I can share, don't get too attached to your technology, it really can be a big problem.

As for the area here, I am getting pretty use to it. Elder Huang has made me learn ALL of the street names and stuff, so I am pretty familiar with all of streets and stuff here, which is pretty nice. The only hard part about the area though is that everyone is college students, and our chapel is not even in our zone, it is about a 25 minute bike ride away, so getting people to come to church is a big problem here. So, that is pry one of the challenges that we are trying to work on here.

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

我愛妳們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

Week 53 - The heat is coming

你好!

Well, this has been another really good week. As for things to write about though, it may be a little shorter, so I am apologizing in advance. The main reason it is a little bit shorter is because the majority of the week was finding. We still had a good number of lessons, especially with less actives, but looking back at the week, I just remember the heat and the rain as we were finding. Seems to have left a pretty big impact on my wrist (got a bit of sun) and some of my white shirts now as I am trying to work out some of the stains from the rain.

So, to begin off this week's letter, wanted to share a little about our district. It is super special, and one of a kind to say the least. In our district we have 3 Taiwanese missionaries, 1 kiwi (from New Zealand), and 2 Americans. Now for what makes us one of a kind is that the two Americans are not from Utah. 

The Zhunan District

Left to Right: Elder Huang (He was the AP when I came to Taiwan), Me, Elder Huang (Yes, there are two Elder Huangs in the District),  Elder Deethloff, Sister Kueng, Sister Xiao

Pretty much everyone in the mission is from Utah, so this is a pretty rare thing in the mission. Also for district meeting, we have it in 竹南 (Zhunan), which means for district meeting we have a 25 minute train ride and about a 30 minute walk from the train station to the chapel, which is usually pretty good. The only thing was that coming back, it decided to pore. Luckily, both of us brought umbrellas with us, but we still got pretty wet.

For lessons this week, we have been working a lot with less actives, which has been really good. Along with less actives, we have also been working with some recent converts that have been having a little bit of a relapse, but it is getting better. This is one thing I really feel that I am learning from Elder Huang (黃長老) is just how important the less actives. There are about 350 less actives in the ward, and over the last transfer in a half, he has got in contact with all of them and we are now working with a good number of them, which is super cool. Not to mention, it means that we get a break from the rain/sun which is super nice. Gives us a chance to dry off or cool down, depending on the day.

As for something Elder Huang (黃長老) and I have been working on is finding by the spirit, which really has brought up some interesting experience. The coolest one from the week, was actually finding a less active that was baptized in 嘉義 (Jiayi) six years ago, and then 5 years ago moved to 香山 (Xiangshan), and his record was never sent so we had no idea that he lived in our area. In my last interview, one of the questions I asked President Day was about finding with the spirit. He said sometimes we will get a prompting to go down an alley to find nothing, but the reason the spirit will do that is to help us find the one, to slow us down a little so that will can run into them. To say the least about that evening when we were finding, it really felt like we were just going down the most random roads and in circles, but in the end, we were able to find the "one," which was such a cool experience. And with that, it means that we will have another less active we get to work with, which is super cool!

As for the new area as a whole, it is pretty good. I am getting use to being back in the countryside again, but I am missing parts of the city, in the aspect of being able to do contact on foot. We do bike contacting here because there really aren't that many people on the road/side walk here, so we have to bike to try and keep the down time to a minimum. (When I say down time, I mean the time where we aren't able to talk to anyone because the next person is another 5 minute walk away) So, things here are going pretty good.

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

P.S.  Just to show how small this world really is, Sunday at church, I was talking with a member and we got on the topic of who his 福音長老 (Gospel missionary/Missionary who baptized him), and he said it was Sam Curtis, which was a very familiar name. At first, I didn't realize who it was, but when he said they lived in Suzhou, I made the connection. So, to say the least the world is pretty small, or it could just be Taiwan is really small too :P

Harold and Elder Okeson

Week 52 - New Area

你好!

Well, this was quit the exciting week, but also a little sad. It has been fun being able to serve in 
新埔 (Xinpu) with Elder Brinton, but that has been brought to a close as I have moved again. I will get more into where I am at now in a little bit, but to share a few fun things from the week.

So to begin the week, since I let it leak that I Elder Brinton or I could be moving, the YSA (Young Single Adults) said they wanted to 情 (Feed us) before one of us left, and to say the least, it was amazing. They had fresh Mangos! I don't know why before my mission I didn't really like them, but all I can say is that they are truly amazing. Along with that, we were also able to say some good byes and get some photos too.

Moving forward to Tuesday, it was pretty interesting with Elder Willis having moved, our beloved District leader. The interesting part was that he told me that I would be in charge of running district meeting. Lets just say, that took some work to prepare for. As for the rest of Tuesday, it was spent finding in the rain. We have been told by the members that for the next two weeks that it will be raining all day everyday. And looking back at the week, it is doing pretty well keeping that promise.

Now for one of the bigger things from the week, English class!

So every 6 weeks (the last week of the transfer), we hold a English party. Just from the history of things, it usually is pretty bad, but we were able to break that trend this time. We did a good amount of planning and had four amazing activities. We had all of the students break into four stations, and then every 15 minutes rotate. The four stations were Human Battle Ship, The Cup Song (where you are like clapping the cups on the table, everyone in America does it apparently), Bingo, and Musical Chairs. The purpose of the English party is suppose to give the teachers and students a fun environment to practice English along with us getting to know our students a little better. After all of the rotations, we came together into the chapel for a big share, which also went pretty well and then also got a big group photo. After we finished English class, I got the call from the Zone Leaders. At the end of each transfer, the zone leaders will call to let you know if you will be moving or not, and they said I was moving.

Thursday, in my opinion was a very quite day, but that was because I lost my voice. I have thought through what could cause it, and have come to having to be one of three reasons. I will explain each, but please don't laugh too hard. The first reason was due to biking home Tuesday night. With biking, there are always those little accidents that occur where you are just biking too fast, and you see it coming but it is just too late to stop it... I ate a fly. Ya, that a little awkward while biking because I was trying to cough and bike at the same time. It was just super weird, and left my throat hurting a little. So, that was the first reason. The second was because of how warm it was starting to get. Elder Brinton had the smart idea of sleeping in front of the AC, so Tuesday night I thought I would try it out. I think I woke up with a little bit of a cold from it in the morning, but was fine by lunch time. [Note: I am sure at this point, I am sure Mom is rolling her eyes :)] As for the third reason, which is more of a reasonable one, I was doing a lot of talking at English class, so part of it was that I think I was trying to talk too loud for too long at English Class. So, to describe how the day went, it was pretty much Elder Brinton talking all day, which was a good learning opportunity for him. We also were able to meet with a few investigators so that I could say good byes, or at least try my best to.

Now for the point where everything changed, Transfer meeting. Side note, my big suit case wheels on the bottom broke, so that made all of the transfer stuff pretty interesting trying to carry my big suit case around because wheels broke. Anyways, I am back down in my original zone, or in other words the zone with 苗栗 (Miaoli). I am now serving about a 30 minute train ride north of 苗栗 (Miaoli) in 香山 (Xiangshan) with Elder Huang (黃長老),

who is from 台南 (Tainan). So, I am pretty sure you can guess from the name, I get the opportunity to serve with a local which I have been hoping for since the start of my mission, and which is a pretty rare opportunity too. There are only nine Taiwanese Elders in the mission, so it is a pretty cool opportunity. As for the ward, it is pretty small. There are about 60 actives from what I understand and about 400 members on the ward list, so there is plenty of work to be done, but it really feels like the ward is super supportive, so I am super excited to be serving here.

As for kind of a bigger experience from the week, I feel like I am in training again, in the aspect of understanding what is going on. On Saturday night, we went to go visit a part member family and the minute we step through the door, I started 听不懂 (not able to understand what we being said) everything. Explaining one of the benefits of having a local companion is that they can really help your language get better, on the other had they also know the local dialects, like Taiwanese. Because some of the older people never learned Chinese as a kid or have since forgotten it, they have to use Taiwanese to communicate, which is a language that I completely 
听不懂 (not able to understand what we being said). So, to say the least, it was a very interested experience of my companion having to translate Taiwanese to Chinese and then I had to translate it to English so that I could understand. So it really was a pretty funny lesson.

Well, that was pretty much the week in short terms. Thanks for all the emails and prayers! Have a great week!

我愛妳們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

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!