Miracles and Mafia

Letter from 12/16

 miracle time!

We were eating lunch in a FamilyMart and a BeiBei (a grandpa) self-contacted us. He's a Christian and he reads the Bible a lot. He reads 2 chapters every morning, marks things in his bible and then writes down what he learned and stuff in a journal! We talked to him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy and he wants us to find him again this week. He spends most of his time in that store every day, so he's not hard to find. He also speaks English and about 4 other languages. 

   On Saturday two women in a car on the side of the rode flagged me down. It was a mom and daughter who said they want to become Christian and come to church! In other words, they want to be baptized. lol. So we got their info and passed them along to the Sister missionaries since we can't teach women without another male there. A member in our ward cooked lunch for lots of people at her house yesterday after church and the two women came! Not only did they come, they seemed to really enjoy it! They were taking pictures with us and of everything and smiling the whole time and they were just fitting in well with everyone. If they were men, they'd be OURS to teach! Why aren't they men?! lol. we did all we could by being in the right place at the right time on the street though. I would honestly be shocked at this point if they DON'T join the church. 

   Yesterday we were also invited over to a different member's home for dinner. It was really cool. The mom has cancer and just went through 2 chemo treatments, but she had more energy than anyone else there! We shared the Christmas story and same some Christmas hymns and had some fun. They fed us peanut butter noodles and the dad was trying to say "peanut butter noodles" but couldn't. Lots of people want to learn how to say certain words in English and the way they end up saying it is sometimes...very interesting...we tried for a minute to help him pronounce it, but he gave up and settled on "p***s (sounds almost like 'peanuts') noodles"...yup....that was very fun...LOLOLOL!!! This family's son is an RM and is in charge of our weekly correlation meeting each Sunday, so we just did it in their house. Elder F was volunteered by a sister to play the Ukulele for a Christmas activity and the family thought it was cool so they brought out a clarinet...Elder F then told them I used to play clarinet, so now I might be playing a song for New Year in February. Oh, and they want me to cook some vegetables for Saturday's activity too...Well, my patriarchal blessing said my talents will be of use and enlarged on my mission...here we go!

  

We had a lesson with a man who just married a member (the tour bus driver). He's basically ready to be baptized and has a strong desire to. He has a social smoking problem that he says is very small. We'll check up on him soon and see how he's doing with it and give him a baptism date! I'll probably get to see them go to the temple to be sealed in a year too! Same with the family of the 13-year investigator!

Interesting fact about Taiwan for this week: The garbage trucks are painted bright yellow and have sunflowers on the side. They also play music. There is no set garbage day, so you basically pile up trash and when you hear the music you run outside to throw your trash out. It's like the ice cream truck...but the exact opposite...  

Still no problems with healing from surgery, so I probably will stop giving you updates every week :) I'm healing super well and feel completely back to normal. I'll just have a scar for a year or so, but I don't think it'll be a permanent scar.

The weather has been really nice this week. No rain and sunny skies. warm with a cool breeze in every direction. literally. No matter what direction we're traveling, the wind is ALWAYS against us. No joke. :)

 

I can't think of anything else for this week. ;)

 Love you all! 

-Elder Wolf

Letter from 12/23

Hi family! 

I'm going to start with my quote of the week: 

6:30 am, 12-22-12

Wolf: "I'm pretty upset and disappointed right now, I'm not gonna lie."

F.: "why?"

Wolf: "I'm not dead...as in I'm still alive...as in the world didn't end yesterday...yeah, I'm upset."

F.: *lol*

So yeah, good to know you're all probably still alive. If anything happened on 12/21, it wasn't it Taiwan! YAY!

I totally forgot to ask last week, but when did Christmas break start for everyone and when does it end? It's also now been over a year since Hunter and I got our wisdom teeth out! crazy eh? That doesn't seem like that long ago!

I've decided my bike is going to become very personalized and sexy. If anybody wants to send me stickers/vinyl (preferably water-resistant stuff) I'll be decorating my bike with them. You can tell anyone you want, but they can't be big stickers because bike frames aren't that wide. 3" inches tall is about the limit, length isn't a huge deal.

Thursday was our mission-wide Christmas activity! I got to see my MTC district (the ones in Taichung at least)! We went to a Buddhist temple and looked around and took pictures and sang and stuff (i'll send some pictures in a zip file) then we went to this area where you walk around and buy stuff (not a lot of stuff I want right now. I bought a head massager thing, a soda and a small keychain. spent like 3 USD total. after that we went to an all-you-can-eat steakhouse with 13 different types of cuisine. It was sub-par honestly, but the mongolian-style bbq area wasn't bad! After that, we went to our chapel and had a Christmas Devotional. This pretty much took up the whole day, but we had 2 hours of proselyting at the end of the day.

We had a lesson with a long-term investigator this week. He's 17 and has a testimony and a desire to be baptized, but his parents are against it. He hasn't even been allowed to come to the church for lessons. But this time he came to the church! why? He has a new girlfriend and was able to get away with going to the church because he was hanging out with her. She is now our investigator too! If he can get permission to be baptized, then 2 weeks later, he can baptize his girlfriend! how cool is that! He now has a girlfriend that we can use to "motivate" him. lol. The power of women is amazing! seriously.

Another person we visit frequently but doesn't count as an investigator is a man named G. His english is perfect and he's giant and strong and kinda scary. He used to be in the mafia as a mob boss. literally, no joke. we think he's killed people. I seriously am not exaggerating. He loves us and likes to talk with us. We visit him at his store in a park about once or twice per week. Anyway, his brother works at the store and we gave him a little pamphlet to read about prophets, prayer, baptism, the restoration, etc. The next time we visited them, his brother was reading the pamphlet when we walked in! We still don't know if he has interest but it's cool! So yeah, anyway, back to G. We go to the park a lot to find people and we've seen him walking around with some shady people and we've heard him yelling at his brother a lot. He all of a sudden has a lot of money to remodel his store too. We tried to go caroling the other day with 4 other missionaries and he started almost yelling at us saying "I'm Buddhist, if you come to my temple I might come to your church" etc. So we think he's joined the mafia again. We're gonna try once more with him this week and it's a make-or-break lesson. Anyway, moral of the story: I'm teaching a freaking mafia mob boss in Taiwan. wish me luck.

That's all I have this week.

love you!

-Elder wolf

 

A Missionary Christmas

The whole mission together for Christmas

First Baptism

A MISSIONARY CHRISTMAS
(author unknown)

I skipped the sales after Thanksgiving. The thrill just wasn't there.
No pictures taken with Santa Claus, my decorating has no flair.
His presents are shoes, shirts, and ties, two suits and socks...no fun. I've bought him all white clothes because...
This year I'm giving Christ my son.

I've spent more time in the temple, my testimony stirred.
I've reread November's Ensign, Felt strength come from His words.
Our family prays more frequently. My tears are quick to run.
Abraham seems closer because,
This year I'm giving Christ my son.

I wonder how those Lamanite mothers, gave their sons to war?
Or how the pioneers chose Zion, their sacrifice was so much more.
My loss will be his presence, I'll miss his smile a ton for two years we will pray for him,
I'm giving Christ my son.

I stare at his face when he's not looking. I memorize his eyes, their shine.
He's always hungered for the part of him, that makes his soul divine.
The stories and lessons he always heard, His choice and mine are one. I'll put my faith in God's hand, This year, I'm giving Him my son.

Past gifts have lost their glitter; I think I finally understand Christ's birth should be celebrated by giving Him a hand.
It's because I know Christ lives and reigns that all his packing's done. My gift has taken years to make, This year...
I'm giving Christ my son.

I know there's One who understands, the sacrifice I'm making.
Who knows the gift I willingly give, The toll it will be taking.
For He has done it all before Greater love - there could be none. For years ago God gave to me, His only begotten son.

The hands I washed, the hands I held, The hands I taught to pray; Now knock on doors to find the ones Who will listen to what he'll say. Because I know Christ needs him, Until all the gathering's done, My gift has taken years to make. This year...
I'm giving Christ my son. —

With Santa

Missionary Christmas Tree

Handsome Devil

Hi again Family!!!

Well, another week down! I still can't decide if time is going by fast or slow! Nevertheless, time is passing. On Friday (Thursday for you) I was 1/6 through my mission. It's going by!

It turns out Y D X (the potential golden investigator) isn't too interested in Gospel stuff; just hanging out with the handsome devil that is I. ;) So we've dropped him. But we will be inviting him to a Christmas activity we will be having this month and we'll start trying with him again in a few weeks. Our only other investigator is a tour guide and works a TON. He makes 1/4 of his income on Sundays and he provides for 2 families so it is very hard for him to come to church. He's been taught all the lessons and knows its true and comes to church whenever he can. We are hoping to baptize him on Christmas! We need to review some things with him, but he's pretty solid otherwise.

Looking happy and healthy, thank goodness!

I'm doing great recovering from my surgery. I'm pretty much 100% back to normal. using my abs a lot (as in working out) still in a bit sore, but I don't really use them that heavily ever. Other than that, all is normal. My scars are disappearing quickly and don't hurt to touch, so showering is normal again, too! I got my stitches out on Tuesday and the doctor said I could ride my bike again, so I immediately did so! I haven't had any problem at all. I can also eat a normal diet again with no side effects, but I'm still not eating quite as much fat when I can avoid it just to be safe. Nothing bad so far! ;) I feel totally normal and healed. Elder Ferrell and I were talking about how Satan is mad when we do well as missionaries and he'll do all he can to stop the work. I then said that "He can take my gall bladder, but he can never take my heart! So suck my gall bladder Satan!" We got a good laugh from that...yeah... :D

I weighed myself on Tuesday too. Since I left home, I've lost 24 pounds. And don't worry, my clothes still fit just fine! :) Elder F is telling me I look skinnier/more fit as well. That's good! He notices a difference after just 6 weeks! 

Elliott, the squirrel

I got your Christmas packages on Friday! Thanks so much! I'm looking forward to opening all the gifts that customs didn't unwrap for me! :) Yeah, they went through them, but whatever ;) The snowflakes are super awesome! Tell everyone thank you for me! Who's idea was that? The presents are all under the tree we put up last week! I also sent a small package to you guys last week as well as some cards to people. If you haven't got them yet (pretty sure you haven't) look forward to it! I spent SO much money on all of you! It added up to just under 1 USD each! you better enjoy that stuff! lol. :D So we've decorated our apartment with some Christmas stuff and we're listening to Christmas music a lot, so it feels a bit more like Christmas now :) 

I went on another exchange this week. This time it was with the District Leader, Elder B in the Bei Tun area. It was fun. We went tracting and this short guy invited us into his house and talked our ears off for an hour, but he's willing to meet again! We also taught the Law of Chastity to a man in his mid 30's and he was chuckling the whole time...go figure...Elder B wanted to go to McDonald's, so we did. He ordered a McChicken and a McDouble. He then separated the patties in the McDouble and put the McChicken sandwich inside the McDouble. This is called a McGhetto (for missionaries) but the real name is a McB****'n. People did that at BK once in a while. 

On Tuesday we had "specialized training" for half the new missionaries. We all just got together and discussed how our training is going. I got to see Elder V again! He's doing really well and was happy to see me too. I also saw Elder W and Elder K and Elder S (different MTC district). It was cool to hear all their stories and stuff.

Food update this week: At Stacie's she fed us something strange. It looked like a pig ear but it was attached to thick bones, so no idea what it actually was. It was really soft and melted when you ate it but it was just a weird texture and was just...weird in general.

As far as animals go, I've seen freaking scary mosquitoes, TONS of cute dogs (I wrote about them in the letter I sent to her last week), the monkeys on the mountain, and this big, weird exotic bird that lives at the mission home and doesn't make any noise. It looks like a Kiwi with a shorter beak and fatter and gray feathers.   

We were eating dinner in a FamilyMart (a convenience store) and a white guy started talking to us. Remember the DaKeng Mountain with the monkeys? He was telling us a bit about it. Apparently there's 10 trails on the mountain and trail number 4 has over 150 monkies and you can see them a TON and can even pay 60 quai to watch them be fed. We'll be doing that soon and I'll bring my camera. Elder B also told me he went with some other elders once and one of them bought a bunch of bananas and got the monkeys to chase him down the trail and he threw bananas to them...pretty awesome. I might try it. lol. 

a picture he bought

(In response to being told his girlfriend watched some episodes of "The District", which airs on KBYU and follows real missionaries in the field - she was a little nervous after watching them...). "The District" is super important. Those are the episodes I had to watch before the MTC too. The District 2 is better and more realistic. You'll watch them in the MTC a lot too. We watch them out here for companionship study sometimes too. Oh, and you'll get used to the boldness. We seriously do that stuff. If you're not bold, straightforward and simple, people find ways to get around your questions. If you think the baptism question is bold, wait until you commit people to live the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity principals. But really, don't be afraid. It's really not scary at all. It's a lot different to watch than to actually do it. I'm not scared of any aspect of being a missionary anymore. You get over it all really fast. Talking to someone who is obviously high and hung over on a scooter is nothing now. Seriously. don't worry about it. It's easy. :)

It's good to be back to normal. I am so happy I get to see/hear all of you soon! I'm even happier that I don't have to smell you! LOLOLOLOL! JK. This is always the highlight of my week ;)

I'm about to leave and do grocery shopping. I hope you all have a good night and sleep well! 

I love you all and I'm praying for you and thinking of you!

Here's to another fast week!

Wo ai Nimen! ByeBye!

-Wu Zhang Lao

-Elder Wolf

-Handsome Devil