I'm Here and I'm Sweating...

The Eagle has landed... in Taiwan.  After a phone fiasco at the airport, he has arrived safe and sound. 

At a Dragon Boat Festival... cool beans.

Yoyoyo family,

How's good old dry heat, good weather utah? Lets just say that Taiwan is like walking around in a sauna. You sweat and sweat...and sweat... and then some more. You wake up in the morning and you're sweating and when you're finished showering you're sweating. :) 

Good stuff.   It's just about to be the really hot time of the year. Yay!!! 

So I typically write this letters off what I write in my journal but I've fallen asleep so fast that I haven't written that much this week. :P I'll try and remember some highlights. First of all I was pretty stressed out because I put my phone card in my carry on which ended up being checked. I was so disappointed because I really thought I might not be able to call and talk to ya'll. There are so many nice people who let my borrow their phones in order to talk to you. Definitely say a prayer of gratitude for them. 

Talking to you all was soooooooo awesome. You all are just amazing people. Daniel, I can't wait to hear where you get your mission call. I really think you could get called here! But, as a side note, to those of you who are preparing for missions who think that this life here will be easier than your life at home.......... I fart in your general direction. Seriously though this work is hard! You study from 8-12 and then work from 1-9:30! We have been teaching quite a few people. This week there was 22 lessons. The pres wants a minimum of 20 so we're doing good there. 

The days when we teach a lot are a lot easier. But finding is just as important because we have nobody to teach if we don't find. We have about 20 investigators. I believe 4 or 5 have baptismal dates. My first lesson we challenged someone to baptism and he accepted. It is very possible he could get there. His name is Brian and has really good English. I laughed so hard during our lesson with him. When we brought up baptism in Chinese he refers to it as "being washed" in English. I don't know why but I just could not stop laughing. I feel like we're pretty close am excited to continue meeting with him. 

       So my first night here we went out and contacted. It was pretty overwhelming. Me and an Elder Gibson went out together (he's training at 4 months) and we had a good time. You honestly just go up to people and just ask them how there day is and see if they are willing to talk for a little while. I've really enjoyed contacting. It definitely is my favorite way of finding so far because you can see immediate reactions in people. 

Oh yeah I guess I should tell you about my trainer and where my area is. I'm about 30 minutes south of Taibei in a place called Ankang. Ankang means peace and health. :) Nice name eh? Our area is just one big long street with lots of hills and mountains. I get my bike today most likely so we won't have to just walk around anymore. I guess the joke about ankang is that we could all grow beards during the week and shave them before Sunday because nobody ever comes out and checks on us. haha 

My trainer's name is elder nelson. He's a really cool guy. I really like the way he does missionary work. He really focuses on building relationships with people at first so that they learn to trust us and just realize we're real people. We played catch with a dad and son. Otis, the dad, is ready to hear the gospel. The problem is is that when we meet with him his son does not want to sit there and listen to us. He's 10 and likes to do stuff. They can only meet on Saturdays because he's in school the rest of the week. Next time we're going to bring some games to play and teach while we're playing. :) See how that goes. 

My first night contacting with Elder Nelson was cool. I honestly don't remember any of it because I was so tired. I fell asleep on my desk right when we came back. Actually, I've fallen asleep every night right when we've come back. My trainer has a picture of me upside down on my bed with the pen still in my hand and my journal just sitting there. Classic. Hopefully the jet lag will get better. :P I'm looking at the journal entry from that night and can't even understand anything I wrote hahahaha. 

          So my main goal during this first transfer is to pass off phase 1. That entails all of the vocab and lesson material from the first three lessons, commandments, and laws/ordinances from PMG. I think I can do it. I already have a lot of the vocab down because of the MTC. Good stuff good stuff. 

          Being a missionary is pretty awesome. You get to meet and talk to so many people that just have no idea about the gospel or even who Jesus Christ is. Most people we meet are buddhist or at least say that they are. It's pretty cool explaining about Jesus Christ to people who haven't really heard about him. Something big I've realized is that a lot of missionary work is just planting the seed. Last week my companion had someone baptized who was a previous investigator. That's the way it goes a lot of the time. You find people who have had some previous exposure and you're the missionary that can help them see it. I hope I can be that way for some other people. 

           The Mandarin is going pretty good. I've already learned a lot. I'm always surprised by how much I can understand about what is being said it's just hard responding haha. I'll get their eventually. There are some incredible missionaries here and I can't wait to continue on in the work. 

As we say here in Taiwan Jiayou! 

           

 Love ya'll, keep smiling. Send me tons of letters and such. ;) I want to hear about your adventures and what ya'll are up to. 

Love,

Elder Meeks