Here is the majority of Chris' email from November 4th (November 5th for him - they are 15 hours ahead of us):
My new p-day is on Monday. I'm doing super well. This
missionary stuff is a totally different animal than the MTC junk. lol. I've
probably lost 10 pounds already! ;) We bike around 20 miles per day, and a lot
is uphill. The first two days we went running to a track for exercise time and
I just about barfed. The next day was better though. The next morning we ran to
the top of our apartment (27 stories) and I just about barfed again :) but the
view was spectacular. Next time I'll take my camera. Today my new companion and
I (more details later) biked to this trail to go up a mountain. but its not a
trail. It's stairs. lots and lots of stairs. My legs want to kill me. it took 2
hours but the view was amazing and it's surrounded by rainforest. I saw a giant
spider with about a 2 or 3-inch long body and a leg span of around 5 or
6...creepy (I have a picture but you can't tell how big it is.)
Okay, so the first night we took a crazy bus from taibei to
the mission home where we dropped off our luggage (totally arrived
safely) except for our 3-day packs. There were 8 of us going to taizhong and we
stayed in the zone leaders apartment for the first 2 nights.
Day 1: The first breakfast was exotic fruits like yellow
watermelon, dragonfruit, etc and some fried crunchy thing you dip in hot soy
milk...and dumplings...it was pretty awesome. Lunch was a "hot pot"
restaurant. You pick out all the food you want from a wall and put it on your
plate and then take it to the table and cook it yourself in boiling
water/broth. It was really good! I ate duck's blood and Pigs blood in rice. It
wasn't fried though. I also ate this gelatinous meat-filled dough thing
and some stuff I still don't know about...all was pretty good.
Dinner was at a restaurant where we got a lot of food.
Family-style. I ate duck brains and lots of other weird things I can't
describe. I ate a lot of my goal foods in the first day. I was STUFFED the
whole day. On the way to dinner we contacted people. Walked up to them on the
street and started talking to them about the church and theirs lives and
families and such. That was scary to say the least, but I gave out flyers about
church! After dinner, we had our Dan Jones moment. We all sang a song together
in the middle of the night market and gathered a crowd then took turns standing
on a stool and shouting/preaching about God, Christ, the Book of Mormon, etc in
Chinese. Yeah, kinda nerve-wracking. After we got off the stool, an experienced
missionary (not our new companions) took us around the night market and we
talked to people. We ran into a member who was with his non-member friend and
we talked to them for a good 20 minutes. He's gonna meet with missionaries in
his area now. :D I gave out another copy of the BoM too. Then we went to the
mission home and talked about it then went to bed.
Day 2: Today we ran then went to the church and ate
breakfast and did some personal study and then!!!! we found out what area we're
serving in and met our trainers (new companions) mine is Elder F. and
we're serving in DaKeng. He's pretty much awesome. He's in the Army and he's
from Valencia California. He's pretty funny and pushes me like crazy with
missionary stuff, but it's good. I've only thrown up spiritually like 25 times
so far. Not bad, eh? lol. DaKeng is a 20-minute bike ride from the mission
home/office and church to our apartment. It's in the middle of the city. I love
it. So we first dropped some stuff off at our apartment; our apartment is the
mission storage. The first floor is a garage full of useless junk and then we
go up some stairs to our living area. Pretty awesome. ;) I'll send pictures.
After that we went out contacting on our bikes. I talked to a lot of people. We
ate dinner at a restaurant owned by an eternal investigator named Stacie. She
says she is my Taiwanese mom (don't worry American mom, I love you more! lol).
She has two little girls. Her husband isn't interested in the church, but he's
a riot. He blows goodbye kisses to us. haha!
Day 3: first full day! lots of contacting in intersections.
By the way, just like dad said, traffic laws are only suggestions. People will
run red lights to get away from missionaries. haha! It's okay though. There are
no sidewalks that aren't packed with scooters and merchandise so we ride and
walk in the streets. People are very good about dodging you though. It's an
adventure every day. We had a lesson with a kid who loves the piano and played
4 songs for us. The only thing keeping him from being baptized is permission
from his parents :( After that we went tracting (knocking on doors) the first
door was a former investigator who wants to meet with missionaries again. heck
yeah. afterward we rode to the church for another lesson. The investigator
didn't show up, but as we were leaving a family called. They were outside the
church and wanted to talk about the gospel. Oh yeah. It was a great first
lesson. I shared the First Vision and they were so receptive. We taught most of
the word of wisdom too. They were great! Golden investigators! I know they are
going to be baptized. but they're not in our area...so other missionaries will
continue with them.
Sunday: Church at 9am. The bishop asked me to share my
testimony in sacrament meeting. so i did. The members are very friendly! I just
wish I knew what they were saying! haha. A lot of people speak some english
though and help me a lot. After church we studied at the apartment for a while
and ate dinner then went out contacting again! We went to the church for a
lesson later and were ditched again. but 2 miracles at the same time happened.
first, a member from a different ward brought a student of hers to learn about
the church. We gave him a BoM and discussed a lot of stuff. He's half Taiwanese
and Half Austrian...Shen me Dong xi! He was really cool though. He's going to
start meeting with the missionaries now!!! but he's not in our area...another
one...so different missionaries. :( :) While we were talking to him, another
guy walked up to us and wants to start going to church! He came for sacrament
meeting but it was nearly 8pm. So he's going to meet with missionaries!!!! but
not in our area....again....sigh. After that we met with another eternal
investigator named Gary. P.S. they all have English names too they like to use.
I taught him the first lesson. He speaks near perfect english. After that, we
went to a park and I sat down with a guy and tried to talk gospel but didn't
understand a word. Elder F was doing the same thing with someone else, so
he couldn't help. uh oh. Turns out he's a former investigator and he loves the
BoM; specifically Mosiah. We 'talked' for about 20 minutes then we
went home
P-day: Climbed thousands of stairs, bought 20 bananas for 40
quai (about $1.20 USD) and then we ate breakfast and came here.
I love Taiwan. It's pretty much the DongXi (the stuff) The
people are awesome and everything is SOOOO cheap! 1 NT = 29.29 USD I ate a huge
breakfast for less than 2USD today. oh yeah!
There are no shower curtains in taiwan, so the splashing
water goes on the floor into a drain...really weird. Some toilets require you to
squat...haven't used one yet. It hasn't rained yet! that's crazy! holy
cow!
The surroundings are beautiful. Oh, there's a Taoist temple right next to our apartment and they do super loud fireworks all the time!!! ZheGe MaFan! (This is bothersome/troublesome) Oh well.
That's all I've got! I'll send some pictures now! Wo Ai
NiMen!!! JiaYou! I'm praying for all of you!!!
Hunter, Mom, Dad, Brandon, and Jeremy, I love you all!
Talk to you all next week!
-Elder Wolf
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