Another Week

This week was full of so many miracles. I can't even believe it!! To start things off, last Monday we got a referral from church hq for a girl named Tiffany. She just got back from being a foreign exchange student. Where was she, you might ask... well let me tell you. She was in good ol' Farmington Utah and was attending Viewmont High School. Her host family referred her to us and she is soooo golden! We called her last Monday and SHE asked us when we could meet and then she asked if we could meet tomorrow. I just about dropped the phone out of excitement! We met with her and her whole family. She especially wants the gospel, we are still working with the family.. but the thing is, she is taking a test next week and if she passes this test then she will move to Seattle for school on the 20th. It's kinda sad that we might not be able to baptize her... We joked about praying that she will fail the test, but that's just being selfish. It's not about us, it's about her enduring conversion and it's about what God wants for her. So if we baptize her or the Seattle missionaries baptize her, it doesn't matter.

We also met two other people that dropped in baptismal goals! One of them we met on the road and as he scootered (new verb) away he told me that he has been confused lately. By the look of him you might think, "I can tell..." He has got hair as long as Sampson in the Old Testament haha. But when we met with him and shared the restoration he told us that he believes it's all true. Then he came to church on Sunday and Elder Williams asked him how it was and all he said was it's all true. Yeah, it is. 

The other person is a girl named Franny. She is so funny and super cool! She has really short hair that makes her look like a guy... so we have a guy investigator that looks like a girl and a girl investigator that looks like a guy. Pretty fun! She loves basketball and she plays for her college team and they just won the championship for Taiwan! Pretty cool! We shared the Restoration with her and she said she believes it's true and she set up a date! During her lesson I really made a strong effort to pray in my heart throughout the whole lesson. Normally you should do this every lesson, but I seem to forget... but as I did that, I felt the spirit every time I prayed. Just remember, simple and fervent prayers bring miracles.

Time has really gone by fast and I can't believe this is the last week of the transfer! Crazy. 

things are going well and we are just living the dream here in 楠梓。

Love you all! Keep the bugs off your teeth (a quote from the one and only Lee Whittle)

Love

Elder Anderson

Pioneers

Well this week was pretty sweet! We had interviews with President Teh and he is so awesome. He is super nice and I can just tell that he is going to be an amazing president for us.

This week we were able to find 6 new investigators and that was amazing! 3 of them are from a family that comes to English class. They seem really interested in the gospel and willing to learn about Jesus Christ. Two of the news were a super cool miracle. We were right by the church and there were these two 15 year olds heading out for a bike ride and Elder Williams yelled, "Hey can I give you this tract!?" In chinese of course, they came back and we chatted and they wanted to see the church. So we gave them a tour and a short lesson and they really liked it! They think Christians are super cool now! They even came to church yesterday and that was awesome!! Another one of the new investigators is a guy named Shark. He is really funny and he only wants to be called Shark. But he really wants to learn about God and Jesus Christ! Also yesterday a member from another area brought their nephew to church with him. He is about 18 years old and wants to learn about our church! We are meeting with him tonight!! awesome!!

Gryphon is doing pretty good. We taught him the Word of Wisdom last night and he is pretty reluctant with tea but he said he will try not to drink any this week. His dad still hasn't given him permission to be baptized and Gryphon also has some school on Sunday's so we might have to change his date.... sad! But that's ok.

Last thing. Since being on a mission I feel like I have contracted ADD. Whoops. But my mind can just wander from Nephi all they way to Mars. Crazy. But this week I made a really sincere effort to thing about Christ throughout the day and wow, it was super hard to stay focused, but the outcome was amazing. So many people seemed very willing to meet and give us their numbers. We got 20 people's numbers in one day which was such a huge miracle. I know that if we really think about Christ then we can change and have a better day!

I love you all!!!!

Elder Anderson

Hello

Yep, there are chinese characters to say Hello in English. Also, this is how you say 'haha' 哈哈。Love it.

Well this week was a pretty good week for me and Elder Williams! Even though 15 people did not come to their lesson (even though they confirmed they would come) we were able to meet with two new investigators named Eric and Daniel. We contacted Eric about a week ago and he set up and brought his friend Daniel! They are about 18 years old and super funny! Eric has super good English too! But we met with them and taught them about the Restoration. After we shared the first vision the spirit was super strong and we asked Eric what his thinks about Joseph Smith's experience. The first thing he said was, "Amazing!" Oh man so great! Eric is super prepared and he even accepted a baptismal goal for the 13th of August! Daniel said his family would not agree to him getting baptized because they are Daoist, but we are sure that if we keep meeting with him and praying that things will be ok. And we want to meet with his family and try to share with them too :)

Yesterday, our investigator Gryphon came to church! He loved it and the young men in the ward really seem to like him! It was rather an interesting experience though. The first speaker in sacrament meeting got up and talked about how he didn't know what he wanted to share but he told us about his dream that he had. uh-oh. He talked about how he saw God and it was just really weird and I could tell Gryphon was kinda weirded out... then once the guy finished his story, he shared like one scripture and then sat down.. ok. Then in young men's the topic for the week was "Why are temple ordinances so important?" Luckily the young men did a SUPER good job at explaining things very simply and very well. I was really impressed! They are a good bunch of kids.

Oh yeah, this week we met President Teh! He is super cool and I can just tell that he is going to bring the heat to this mission. He talked a lot about obedience and why we have the rule book. The missionary handbook is so great. But he talked about the why behind it all. Pretty cool stuff!! This week we have interviews so that will be pretty cool! The first thing he said to me this week was, "I knew of your sisters before I knew of you!" Great. 

Last thing, we had to switch english classes with the sisters because it was just more convenient for everyone. So, Elder Williams and I are now the teachers of the 小朋友班 (the little kids class). YIKES. Wednesday was a nightmare and there are about 20 of them and it was just nuts. I'm not really looking forward to this week... haha hopefully it will be alright!! Pray for us!

Well that's about it for this week. We didn't take any pictures this week (sorry mom). Things are super hot outside and we sweat a ton. You get some weird looks when you pull up to someone at a light and you are sweating and trying to catch your breath, do some small talk, and then pull out a tract and testify. It's the best, I love it!

Well, I hope you are all doing well. Love you all!

Love

Elder Anderson 

Rain, Typhoon, rain, buddha

Well this was a very very awesome week for me and Elder Williams. Let's start off with the new words I learned from Elder Williams:

Muesli = granola

fringes = bangs

runners = tennis shoes

tomato (pronounced the wrong way) sauce = ketchup 

We also ate a bunch of chip sandwiches. What is that, you might ask. Well it is exactly what it sounds like. You get some bread, mayo, tomato sauce, and potato chips and make a sandwich. It's a Kiwi special and it's super super good! Try it!!

Anyways, so last Monday we went to another huge buddha place here in Taiwan. It was super hot and super humid and it was a huge giant golden buddha. Pretty cool. Also while we were there I realized how grateful I am for my testimony in this church. Not many religions make sense, but ours does. because it is true. 

On Tuesday we had to go and take care of some stuff at the church (I can't remember what it was) but it cut into our plan a little bit and we originally planned to bike up to an area called 大社 and contact. It was a ways away and we had a lesson pretty soon after so I asked Elder Williams if we should still bike up there to contact or if we should contact around here. We thought about it for a sec and then Elder Williams said, "Let's go." So we went. Wow. My testimony of planning and sticking with your plan grew a ton. On the way to the area we stopped and talked to a kid named Gryphon. He is about 17 years old and as soon as we left him, we both said that he is golden! We were able to meet with him on Saturday and he is sooo cool! We taught him about the Restoration and he loved it. He even accepted a baptismal goal for the 13th of August! So awesome! I called him last night to follow up on if he had been reading the Book of Mormon and he read!! I was so excited!!I asked him if he had any questions and he was like, "No. I think I get it." Oh man. He is awesome!!!!

Later that day we met with a family that is so awesome. We are meeting with the daughter, son, and wife. They are so prepared to hear the gospel. Elder Williams and his old companion tracted into them a while ago and haven't been able to meet with them since. We taught them the Plan of Salvation and they loved it so much. They asked questions, marked scriptures in their Book of Mormon, and took notes! Ahh!! Then we invited them to be baptized and they weren't too sure. They said they will have to ask the husband and their parents to see what they think. But they said if there family doesn't oppose, then they will definitely get baptized!! So awesome!!

On Wednesday we had our English Class party. Since it was the 4th of July we talked about that a little bit and I was really surprised how much they actually knew about America. Probably more than some Americans. Sad. But we played tons of games and had a huge competition between 4 teams and it was so much fun! They all loved it!

On Thursday we met with a new investigator named Beau. He was a referral from another missionary and oh man he is so prepared as well. He really wants to learn about Jesus Christ. He said he has been studying the Bible because he really wants to know if God and Jesus are really there. We taught the restoration with him as well and he loved it too!!! He accepted a goal for August 6th!! BUT we found out that he doesn't live in our area.... so sad!!! He just works here in Nanzi but he lives in down town Gaoxiong!! So I called those missionaries and told them about him and they actually didn't seem too excited. Kinda surprised.... OH well. We have to figure out what to do with him because he told us it is more convenient to meet with us because he is in Nanzi a lot. so we aren't sure what to do....

Yes, there was a typhoon this week. Nothing too special. We were inside all morning and part of the early afternoon because we weren't allowed to leave. I didn't see much damage, just tons of leaves and branches broken, signs broken, and I saw a bucket zoom down the road at like 60mph and smash into a wall. Pretty great! We just did calls all morning and then they said we could go outside! Nothing too special.

Elder Williams and I are very excited for this week! We have been working very hard and we decided to set a goal to get a new investigator every day this week. So far, we have 13 lessons set up for this week and at least one new person every day but on Sunday (which we will have). This area is super golden and I am just amazed at the Lord's help here. I love Nanzi so much!! and I really love Elder Williams! He is so much fun! He reminds me a lot of my friends.His laugh is just like Thomas Slack's because he just dies of laughter all the time and his laugh just makes everyone else laugh. It's so great!

Things are well and hopes are high.

Happy 4th last week.

Love you all!!

Love

Elder Anderson

Happy 4th

Well happy 4th of July to all you Americans out there! I hope you celebrate with tons of baseball, bbq's and with watching the Nathan's Hot Dog Easting Contest. Super fun. I recommend watching it.

Anyways, this week was super super awesome!! Sadly we didn't have very many lessons but we basically contacted all day every day. First, Gaoxiong is super hot! Second, there are a billion people here compared to Xihu. Third, THERE'S TOO MUCH GOLD HERE!!! I can't even believe all of the cool and prepared people we found this week.

This week I grew a really strong testimony of talking with everyone and asking everyone for referrals. We worked super hard to talk with everyone this week and we asked a ton of people for referrals but no one was giving them out. Then we talked to this guy that was taking a smoking break. He was super cool and he said we could meet with him, then we asked him if he knew anyone else that would be interested in Jesus Christ. He said that his brother is a Christian and he might have interest. So he gave us his number! So awesome!! Also a member here met a family outside the church and they wanted to come to church. So he gave them a tour of the church and they said they want to come next week! And then this morning, we got a referral from the Taibei mission from someone that took a tour of the temple square. Sooooo awesome!!

K we are really pressed for time today but I am so grateful to be here in Nanzi with Elder Williams. He is so much fun and I love him so much!!

Things I have learned from him

fries=chips

jacket=jumpers

pants=trousers

cough drops=cough lollies

We have seen many miracles already and I am really excited for this transfer

It's so sad to see President and Sister Blickenstaff leave our mission, but I am really excited for Presdient and Sister Teh. I'm excited for the fire that they will bring!

Love you all soooo much!

Love

Elder Anderson

Move call

Well sorry to email so late. Movecall is today and I got kicked out of Xihu and I moved down to the city of Gaoxiong and my area is called Nanzi. Gaoxiong is in the south part of the island and it is super hot. Super hot. It's the second biggest city in Taiwan and I am super excited to be here! My new companion is Elder Williams! He is super awesome! He was born in Australia, moved to Provo, then to New Zealand, and then Samoa! He is awesome and we have already been talking about how great New Zealand is haha. I'm really excited to serve with him!! 

This last week was really good! It was so sad to move from Xihu. I love that ward so much and I really had a blast there. Elder Osborne was so much fun! This last week we were able to meet with our investigator 楊志恆. He is so awesome! We taught him some of the commandments. When teaching the Word of Wisdom to people in Taiwan, it is a little difficult because everyone here drinks tea. Everyone. But we asked him if he has any problems with this and he said no. He like never drinks tea. Crazy. That's almost unheard of! He is super cool even though he is super quiet and hard to understand. He is still on track to get baptized on the 16th and I'm excited for that!

Yesterday was a super good day at church! We were able to get 4 investigators show up and it was a great Sacrament Meeting! The ward was so happy and excited to see so many investigators! Also our RC Hubert gave a talk and it was super awesome. This last week we watched the Restoration with him and he talked about that in his talk and he is just super solid. I was kind of nervous about his testimony, but after listening to his talk, he is solid. I'm so glad to have been able to watch him get baptized and grow after baptism!

I'm trying to think of what else happened this week.. but I can't really remember. Sorry 

But as I was riding the train down to Gaoxiong this morning, I was looking out the window and I just couldn't help but think how much I love Taiwan. It's so beautiful and amazing. From the city to the rice fields, it's all the best. I'm so grateful that the Lord has given me the opportunity to serve Him here in the beautiful country of Taiwan. 

I hope you all have another great week! Love you all!

Love

Elder Anderson