Asian Time flies

What a week! Time flies here. So this week I tried two new foods that people really like here in Taiwan. The first was super good! It was a hamburger with peanut butter on it! Oh man it was one of the best burgers I have ever eaten! And then the other thing I ate was stinky tofu. That was not good. So imagine the worst smelling thing you can think of and then put it into a food. So gross. I don't get how they like it...

Anyways, onto holy things. So this week we had a super awesome miracle!! We have an investigator that we had taught the first lesson to but for some reason we forgot to get his number when we taught him.. so we had no way of contacting him. The only way we could contact him was if he came to English class on Wednesday. So me and my companion prayed a ton that he would show up to English. Let me tell ya, prayers really work! He came and we were able to talk with him, get his number, and set up a time to teach with him! It was super awesome. He has tons of potential too so hopefully he gets baptized.

So this week we were supposed to have two baptisms... but we might have none. One of them is like super dedicated to being baptized but we don't know if he will be able to come home from the military to be baptized on Saturday and then confirmed on Sunday. So pray that he can come home! The other... well we have no idea. We knew he was gonna be super busy this week but we cannot get in touch with him. We taught him two weeks ago and things were going super well. When we had to leave, the member we brought with us stayed and talked with him some more. Since then, we haven't talked to him. We think he blocked our number... We don't think we said anything that offended him or anything like that and we are really nervous that the member said something bad.. hopefully after this week we can get in touch...

Yesterday at church we had the primary program!! Oh man it was the cutest thing ever. A bunch of little Asian kids 'singing' (more like yelling). It was just the best. Our ward is so dang awesome and they are super big into helping us out with missionary work. They are always willing to come to lessons with us. I love it! And they give us tons of food so that is always a plus!

So last thing, we were in Mcdonalds waiting for our investigator and I am walking to the bathroom and I see this white guy sitting at a table. My first thought was, "Holy cow! A white guy!" He looked up and smiled and waved haha. It was super awkward but just hilarious because we are both white people. 

Anyways, I love you all a ton. And I love my mission and Taiwan. Everything about it is just the best! Hope you all are doing well!!

Love Elder Anderson

Stinky Tofu

Here is a link of Miles trying Stinky Tofu for the first time. The member asks if it was delicious and Marissa translated Miles' response to be "I cannot say that it is delicious" :)

Marissa said the member talking is a super, great member and very kind to the missionaries

I am just impressed he is using chopsticks !

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO WATCH THE VIDEO
Miles trying Stinky Tofu for the first time

First Baptism

Here is Miles' first convert baptism. Neither he or is companion had their suit coats so they had to try and find some at the church. You can see how well that worked out ;) No, that was NOT the suit jacket we bought him :)

Week 2 in Taiwan

Good morning everyone!! Waa I just love Taiwan. It's so awesome! This week was super good! One of our investigators just had his baptismal interview yesterday and he is going to get baptized on Halloween!! I'm so excited! We had another investigator with the same goal, but we have to change his because he is super busy with work and he will be out of town in Taipei. So that was a bummer. This week was super super awesome. On Tuesday, one of the assistants called us and told us to check our referral system so we did.... we now have 38 referrals!!!!! Suuuper cool! There was a clog in the system but he fixed it so now we have tons of referrals we need to call!! Plus another companionship referred us to this guy that wants to be baptized! We haven't met with him yet but we will soon.

This week's miracle came from one of our lessons with a less active member. We really wanted to get a peike (active member to come with us) but everyone that we called either didn't answer or they didn't have time. But like 20 minutes before we left for the lessons, one of the members called us back and came with us! It was such a blessing. He helped us out a ton and the LA came to church yesterday!! Oh man, speaking of church I had to bear my testimony in front of the whole ward yesterday. Yeah, that was a little scary! And then in Priesthood the teacher asked me a question to start the class and I had no idea what he was saying and it was the worst. That is basically how things are going for me lately. I have no idea what anyone is saying! 

When we do our english class proselyting, I tell them we have a free english class and then they will say something that I don't understand and then I tell them that we have a free english class and make them feel uncomfortable so they take the flyer. That's about all I can do. This week during english me and my companion got to teach the xiao peng you's (the little kids). Oh man, they were so crazy. Literally bouncing off the walls. If that is what nursery is like, I never want to teach that. 

I love the members here in Tanzi. They are just the best and they are always willing to help us out. And they cook super good food so that's a plus. Like every single person here knows Marissa and they think we look alike. They also think I look Asian and always ask if any of my parents are Asian. No, I'm not....But yeah they are super cool. One of our investigators came to church and we were sitting in the chapel and a member had greeted him and brought him to us. Super cool!

Anyways, Taiwan is the best place. I'm so glad I get to serve the Lord here.

I love you all a ton!

Love Elder Anderson

Taiwan week 1 is in the books!

Waaa Taiwan is so awesome! It is so much different from America. It's crazy. It definitely takes some getting used to. But I love it!

So on Tuesday we left around 5am to the airport. We flew to Seattle, then to Tokyo, and then to Taipei. It was probably the worst flight I have been on. We had like zero leg room so it was impossible to get comfortable and we had some really hard landings... oh and the food was gross, but that's a given. Anyways, we then took a bus to the mission home in Taichung. We did tons of orientation things on the bus, Thursday and Friday. Thursday night we did our Dan Jones! That means we went in the middle of a really busy night market with President and Sister Blickenstaff, the assistants, all the missionaries in the Taichung area, and us new missionaries. While at the night market we stood on a little box and just yelled out our testimonies while holding a Book of Mormon! Then we each went with a more experienced missionary and tried to place the Books of Mormon (or Book of Mormons... The Best Two Years really confused me). I placed one and the guy said we could meet with him the next day! Super cool! I didn't get to meet with him, but hopefully the elders in that area were able to do that.

Then on Friday we met our trainers and went to our first area! My trainer's name is Elder Fleming. He is from Lehi and he is awesome! He is super cool and he works really hard. We are serving in Tanzi. So I think that is the most northern area in our mission. I'm not sure though. But I love it here. That night we did some contacting. We didn't really have any success but we did meet a family that really wants to learn english so we gave them the information about our english class and hopefully they come!! 

Then Saturday and Sunday we watched conference! Our church is like a 30 minutes bike ride away from our apartment so that's a little rough but not too bad. Conference was awesome. I loved watching it again. I got to meet lots of the ward members and they are all so nice. They are awesome!

On Saturday night we actually had a baptism!!!! I never met the person until that night but it was still super cool that I was able to be at a baptism in my first few days. It made me super happy to see him get baptized. 

In these past few days I have really grown a love for the Taiwanese people. They are so kind and willing to talk. On Saturday before the baptism, me and Elder Fleming went to get some dinner and as we left this family was super impressed that we knew chinese. They said their little daughter always gets excited when she sees wai guo ren (foreigners). It really hit me that people really do watch us. We get tons of looks from people as we are riding our bikes. That is why it is super important for us to always be looking and acting like missionaries. People notice what we do. But that isn't only for missionaries. It is for members of this church. We need to make sure we are always acting like children of God and acting like members of His restored church. People watch what us Mormons do. Always make sure that they see you doing good works. Make all your actions in accordance with God's will.

I love you all so much. Thanks for all the love you have given me!!

Love Elder Anderson

PS I'll try to send some pictures next week. I don't have the stuff I need to do so.

Pics from Taiwan

The District with President and Sister Blickenstaff

President Blickenstaff posted "This elder's older sister and brother-in-law are Taichung Taiwan returned missionaries too!" I thanked him and also mentioned that his older Sister Kelsi, along with Marissa and Bryant, also served in the same mission

Taiwan here I come!

Ahhh yeah we are leaving for Taiwan tomorrow morning!!! I cannot wait! We were a little nervous because earlier this week we got an email saying we had been reassigned to the California San Fernando mission because we did not get our visas. But we checked on it today and they said we have our visas and we are leaving tomorrow!! Yay!!! We fly from Salt Lake to Seattle, Seattle to Tokyo, and Tokyo to Taipei. Soooo excited!!

Wow this week was just awesome. We knew it was going to be a good one because of Monday night. Every Monday we Skype with members in Taiwan and teach them a lesson. So we called our person and our camera wasn't working. We said, "Hello?" And then in the most Asian, english accent you can possibly imagine we heard (and our volume was so high), "Oh no!!! I cannot see you through the Skype (they pronounce 'Skype' 'Skypey')!!! The camera!! It no work!!!!" Oh my it was possibly the funniest thing I have hear in my whole life!!! So great!!

Conference this weekend was just awesome. Besides the fact we had to sit in very uncomfortable chairs the whole time, it was great! I really loved they talk about What Lack I Yet? It really hit me hard because I decided I needed to ask the Lord that. Especially with being a missionary and heading out to the field. It will help me so much. So I would invite you all to ask the same question in your prayers tonight. If you ask with sincerely, you will receive an answer and it will be exactly what you need!

Then to cap the whole week off, we had Vocal Point come and sing to us for our Sunday night devotional. Wow they are just amazing. I loved it so much!! They are so good and when they sing Nearer My God to Thee, wow. I felt the spirit so much when they all bore their testimonies. They kept saying that we as missionaries have power. I just felt the spirit hit me so hard. Then on Tuesday, Elder Costa (the one that spoke this weekend) told us that we are his heroes and I just felt the spirit again there. Missionary work is just the greatest. I love it.

I cannot wait to get to Taiwan and try to talk with them and share this glorious gospel. 

I love you all so much and thank you for all of your help throughout my life.

Love Elder Anderson

The District with their teachers

Bryant, Miles ,and Marissa

Last week (sorry we are behind in the posts)

Wow it feels like forever ago since I came to the MTC, but at the same time these two months have really gone by fast! All the Taipei missionaries got their visas and left this morning so that gives us hope that we will get ours too! This week was pretty interesting, I guess. I guess our emotions are kind of all over the place. Everyone thinks our district is depressed? So that gets kind of annoying after a while. Like for reals, our teacher wants me to do District Inventory to figure things out. Things are good with my companion. It's amazing how just laughing really helps. We have had so many jokes in these past few days and I interviewed him since he is senior companion and that has helped out a ton. We have grown so much closer and I love it. 

We did skype last Monday with a member in Taiwan. It went... well? We were teaching a lesson but he just kept laughing (but he was trying not to) because our accents were cute. So it is kind of hard to teach a lesson when someone is just laughing the whole time. Oh well haha. He said once we get to Taichung he will help us learn chinese.

So my major spiritual experience came this week when we were talking about repentance and the Atonement. We watched this video which is just amazing. It's called Because of Him. Every time I watch it I feel the spirit so strong. I definitely recommend watching it. It's totally worth it. It really helped me know that Christ really did atone for our sins and that He loves each of us. 

Well I love you all so much! Be strong and be true!

Love Elder Anderson