November 1, 2015 - Elder Erwin's Biking Fiasco and a Little Nutiness Too

This week was not too eventful... back home there are parties and events for Halloween but Taiwan doesn't really celebrate any western holidays. On Halloween we helped a family move out of an apartment without an elevator so we were really tired after carrying all the furniture down five flights of stairs. After that we spent the day out contacting on the streets, we didn't find anyone, but we had a good time.

On our way to help them move, my bike tire popped and I lost control and came down off my bike! Elder Brady didn't see or hear my biking fiasco so he just kept riding! Haha! We were separated for quite some time before he came riding back and saw me standing on the side of the road waiting for him. We walked all the way back to the Church. We went and stole a sister's bike, the one who got transferred to Taipei, and I have been rockin' the sisters bike ever since. All the missionaries keep telling how "cute" I look on it. I don't really care, I am just grateful for a bike to ride until I fix my bike.

We also taught a crazy man this week. He seemed really nice and super willing to keep our commitments. We called him when he didn't show up for the lesson we set up and he said "I just remembered I have already been baptized in your church..." Then we asked, "Who baptized you?"  "Who is the bishop?"  "Where was it?" He didn't know, but he swears he has! You got to love when they go a little nutty. He is pretty old but I didn't think he was crazy. He still wants to meet and come to church but he may or may not have already been baptized.

We are doing alright. We are struggling to find investigators right now, but hopefully we will start to see some miracles.

Here are the answers to my mom's weekly questions.

• Is there any sign of anyone celebrating Halloween in Taiwan? I know it's mainly a North and South America thing and no one does it like the USA but we were wondering if there was any sign of it there.

The church celebrates it so our member all went to yuanlin to another church building for a party. But besides that nothing, we went out and contacted and helped someone move instead. The holidays here are kind of boring in comparison. People just burn money and make the air all smokey and then they eat a mountain of food. It's good though.

• Do you do much work on member re-activation? If so, what sort of experiences have you had?

There was a time in Taiwan called the youbanfa era (there is a way) our mission statement is youxinxin youbanfa (If you have faith there is a way) but there was a group of missionaries in the past that just baptized without the faith part. Our ward has about 200 less actives and a lot of them don't want anything to do with the church. It is very sad. We are working with some less actives right now and I will let you know how it goes.

• Where do you do laundry? It looked like you might have a washer in your apartment but I didn't see a dryer. Do you hang your clothes to dry?

We have both a washer and dryer :) We are lucky.

• When's the last time you washed your sheets. I've heard that missionaries don't think of doing that.

We wash our sheets every week:)

• How are your clothes holding up? Do you need any replacements? How about your shoes? I know they take a beating and we only sent you with one pair.

My shoes are super qiang (strong) so they will be fine probably for my whole mission.

• What do most people in your area do for work? Or is it a mix of occupations.

It is a mix of everything, one of our recent converts owns a ice cream place that we eat at every Thursday:)

• Does the church put out the Liahona in Mandarin?
Yes