Pie

In addition to bringing the Gospel to the good people of Taiwan, this week we brought the goodness of Lemon Meriunge pie.

Everyone who ate thought it was too sweet.

Oh well

Elder Pack

Missionary Work: Hard Work, All DAY

Yeah, missionary work is hard work, and all day.

I know I usually write about fun things, but thats because I write email on my preparation day, the day we have a few hours to have fun.

But really other than that, every day is a lot of talking to people on the streets, trying to find people who are interested in the restored church of Jesus Christ. Then a lot of teaching people lessons about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Which are exhausting in a different way. (sitting down, you'd think it'd be easier, but it's not.)

Even though it's hard work, it's definately worth every moment of it.

Elder Pack

PS: 飛盤城市﹐好啊﹗

Wooo.

"Can't you post on your own blog? A shout-out would be nice." -- heh, Hello Ryan, did you get my letter? I sent it to your house address....I think. Fabrice, give me your address! grr

Just so you know, my sister sends me my blog comments every week, so I was trying to read what you sent me this week, but, for some reason we're emailing at a phillipian owned email place, and I cant see the characters, the computers don't show them! Right now I'm in Nanzi. There are a lot of Philipians here, because they come here for work sometimes. This last week we had a baptism and a Philipian lady joined the church. Every baptism is so special. This last time us 4 missionaries in the area sang a musical number. It was quite good in my opinion.

Teaching the gospel here is pretty amazing. It's actually quite simple, once you get someone's attention and they're willing to ask God to help them know the truth. The hard part is getting someone to sit down with us, most see us and dismiss us as trying to...well, I donno, something. Most older people wont allow us to talk with them either, they're very traditional.

It's amazing to see the change this gospel brings.

I wanted to send some pictures...but this computer doesnt work right now.

Elder Pack

They have bowling in Taiwan also

Yep. That's what I did last preparation day. FYI, that picture is taken right before a strike.

Other than that the work is still good and going well.

2 more

1: The view from the shower as I take my morning, mid-afternoon, and nightly showers (it's so hot and humid...).

2: Where I go if I happen to slip and fall out the window. (heheh)

I don't understand the need for a window that large in the bathroom...

The view from the 20th floor

This is the view out of our closet room in zuoying. Far off you can see Lotus Lake. There are some huge statues around there.

We're Matchmakers

My companinon and I are secretly trying to get this one investigator to remarry his wife. I think it's going quite well. They were holding hands as they treated us to dinner. Holding hands in Taiwan apparently means "This is my Wife". We're thinking a Marriage followed by a baptism. :D Nothing else that odd this week, except eating pig foot, which is quite the experience.

My address.

For anyone wishing to communicate with me, this is my address.

Elder Pack
#260, 24F-A6 Zhong Shan Rd Section 2
Kaohsiung Taiwan 80660

So, funny story time: My companion and I contacted this guy on the road, he was just sitting there. We started talking and he started using Taiwanese and Chinese and even some English, talking about bikes or something, we didn't understand. We soon realized he was drunk. After a while we tried to get him to walk home and get some rest. Then after some more talking, my companion for some reason askes the guy for a hug, just to test to see if he really was drunk, I guess. The man stares at him for 5 seconds and then gives him a tight hug. It was quite funny, but then he came over and gave me one too! After that we rode off and he started walking home. So I guess we helped him go home and sober up.

The other day I had what is called Grease Bucket. You choose a bunch of things and then they throw it in hot oil for a while, then they put it in a bag for you. i didn't like it too much, especially since my companion choose "blood rice" to put in. (He told me it was "chocolate rice".)

There's a 7/11 on almost every street corner it seems.

"Bing Sha" -- Sooo Gooood. The one I like has shaved milk ice, a cut up mango, and a scoop of mango ice cream.

Elder Pack.

I'm in TAIWAN!!

Wow, my MTC experience was like a holiday compared to actual missionary work. Every morning we run either around a track at a local middle school or run through a huge park near our house, which is very large and beautiful. Then we have studies and then go out to go proseliting. Every day is packed with things we plan to do.

Flight was pretty normal. Everyone with us was trying to talk to Chinese-looking fellow travelers the whole trip. Funny thing is the most promising guy was an Indian who came up to us. Trip to San Francisco we had a lot of space. it was about half booked I'd guess. But the trip to Hong Kong and then to Gaoxiong were all filled. The trip to hong kong was kinda lame, didn't sleep, couldn't study, and it was cramped. When we landed I thought the houses looked like lego blocks, because it seems like if someone feels like it, they just build another story on their house right on top of their house. different colors also. The mission office is in a huge and tall building, it has a great view of the city. We did orientation stuff and applied for some card we need to live here. the next day we met our companion and traveled to our area. Mine is Elder Shober. Our area is on the northeren edge of the Gaoxiong mission. It's called Jiayi. I bought me a bike, and then we went to the church and spraypainted it to make it look uglier, and to cover the brand name, because apparently people would like to steal my bike.

I've already met a bunch of our investigators and less active members. It's amazing to see the changes the gospel is able to make in people's lives. We visited an investigator to share about the word of wisdom, but apparently during the visit 4 days eariler with the old companionship it was briefly mentioned. He told us that he had smoked 2 packs a day for 20 years or so and hasn't had a smoke in the last 4 days, which is pretty amazing, but I bet after a while here I'll see that happen a bunch more times.

I'm understanding more and more each day. Telephone calls are still very hard, especially since all the static and cut outs.

1st Sacrament meeting: First off, Elders aren't allowed to contact Females in our mission, and the reason is because "there are too many female members". I didn't really believe that till I went to sacrament meeting. There are very few men, and a bunch of ladies. (Probably 4 to 1 ratio) Kareoke has ruined Taiwan people's ability to sing. >.>

Right now we have a few progressing invertigators, including that quit smoking guy and this other guy who will get baptised but wants to tell his parents first, just to be safe.

I was quite suprised at the amount of Mo-peds. Everyone has them. And people fit whole families on them too. I always see a mom driving with a kid on the back and another kid standing in front of the mom. Sometimes I see pets and stuff on them also. Some times I see people hauling what seems like it's their entire lively hood on their little mopeds.

Also, there are basically no driving rules, heh.

We usually contact people at stop lights. It was suprising that most people actually talk to us at stop lights, we ask them where they're going and there name and they actually tell us!

It's really hot here. I think my favorite time of the day is at night when we sleep. Our Bedroom has a AC and it's so nice. I take a shower and dry myself off, but since it's so hot and humid, I feel like I'm still wet. It's hard to even put on clothes I'm so sticky.

Today is Prep Day. Wendsday my time. We use email at about...now. I'll try to send some pictures maybe. Tonight we teach english for 90 minutes. We teach straight english for 60 minutes then transition into a gospel lesson, pretty smooth. It should be fun.

Food's pretty normal I'd say. American Chinese food is totally different. A lot of the time I cook dumplings, or we go out to get a box lunch. Lunch is usually about 40 quai. or about $1.40. Pretty cheap, but sometimes it costs more, depending on where we go.

Well, we have an hour here to write email.

I'll try to send a picture if i can, any questions real quick?

It's hot, humid, smoggy, but really fun and interesting.

Elder Pack (Cao)

My full name.

My teachers gave me a Chinese first name if anyone's interested.
My full name is:

曹德智

Cao DeZhi. "De" meaning morals, and "Zhi" meaning wisdom.

Well. I'm leaving right now to Taiwan.

Pictures

I leave next week!!

I leave to Taiwan next Monday! Actually, my flight has a layover in Hong Kong for a while, which doesn't make sense, since the airplane has to go over Taiwan to get to Hong Kong....

Anyway, I'm really excited. Flight leaves Monday Evening and arrives Wendsday Morning, which is a lot of flying.

Learning hundreds of characters is pretty hard too, but it's going easily enough for me. I guess my posts will actually worth reading after I get to Taiwan and have amazing stories to tell.

Cao Zhanglao

Wooo.

My teacher was telling us a funny story where he accidentally shared 3rd Nephi 1:7 instead of 1st Nephi 3:7 with an investigator. If you want to know why that's funny, you'll have to read it.

Nothing else happened this weak except for teaching the second lesson.

Ahh...

I gave a talk in Church this last Suday, which was pretty scary, but not as scary as it use to be in English, for some reason. After going through my prepared talk in about 2 minutes, I had to keep going for a while, which was pretty cool, because I realized that I could just keep talking pretty fluently, actually more fluently than reading.

Also met an Elder Pack the other day, he didn't seem too impressed that we shared the same last name...

ZaiJian

Hello World

The most interesting thing this week was learning that I'm related to Mitt Romney through some guy born in 1597. (My dad told me, this means that we're probably 12th cousins, once or twice removed...) This week we've started teaching the gospel completely in Mandarin, which actually isn't as hard as it would seem, but that's probably just me. We get new Madarin missionaries here on Wed, which is really exciting for some reason. It's nice to know that other people will look up to us and marvel at our Mandarin skills.

That's all.

Cao Zhanglao.

It's been a month....wow

Well, I've been here a month. The longest month of my life, but time seems to be moving faster now.

We taught a real investigator last Saturday, which was amazing. He was from China and was the guardian of a little girl he picked up in Guam. (odd story, I couldn't understand all of it, it was in Chinese and he had an accent....) I could see that as we shared our message he could feel the truth of it. He had a interesting story. He grew up as a Catholic and actually went to some LDS activities on Saturday nights during collage for some reason. After moving to the US and then to Utah he was impressed by how nice and caring the people were and started reading the Book of Mormon. Then he somehow ended up volunteering to be taught here at the MTC. He said he'd come next week, so maybe he'll end up with us again.

Today I just got a hair cut. (Wo hen shuai....look it up, :-) ) The barber asked me how I wanted it cut. I had no idea. They'd probably cut it the same way even if I told them....

Until next week, Cao Zhonglao.

Week 4---The week of not much news.

This week was pretty uneventful. Aside from an interesting experience at the Health Clinic.

I really wish I had everyone's email addresses....I forgot to bring them....

Later.

3rd week in the Missionary Training Center

As to why my nametag says "Elder Pack" instead of "Javid Pack" : this is because I'm on a mission representing Jesus Christ, so we forgo our first name and take on the title "Elder"

As to why it says "Elder Pack" instead of "cao zhonglao"(My Chinese name, written in Mandarin) is because I'll get a new one once I get there.

On Food: I've come to realize that putting Ranch dressing, along with BBQ sauce and Ketchup along with shreadded leatuce and tomatoes on a burger makes it REALLY good. Especially the Ranch dressing, I have no idea why I tried it, but it's great. A few days ago I realized that the burritto I was eating tasted exactly like a burritto from Chipotle. Haven't had a meal that tasted like Thai food yet.... Anyway, enough about food.

2 Weeks in : Brain Overflow

Well, I've been here at the MTC for almost 2 weeks, and the amount of information I have to retain is amazing. My new email address is: Javid@myldsmail.net -- if anyone wants to email me. I don't remember any email addresses of all my friends, so you'll have to email me first if you want to communicate with me.

P-days are on Monday for me. The food is great, I've gained a lot of weight just from eating all the food here. (not TOO much....) That's all for this week, 10 weeks here to go till I'm speaking Mandarin fluently in Taiwan.

Entering the Missionary Training Center (MTC)

Javid entered the MTC on Wednesday, April 2nd.  The first thing he received was his missionary badge, which is written in Mandarin Chinese.  He is really excited to start learning the language.  Javid took Japanese in high school and college, so he will have to switch gears to learn enough Mandarin before this summer.  He said goodbye to his family, and gave his sister permission to post to his blog about his experiences while he is in the MTC.  He will be in the MTC until June, so if you just happen to have any extra homemade chocolate chip cookies one of these days, send them his way.  =)