Rob Erwin Mission - Taichung, Taiwan: November 9, 2015 - Momen Jiao, MoGui and Patrick Star Exercises

I have a funny story for this week. We biked out to our secondary area, it is about an hour and fifteen minutes away. Missionaries never go out there but we had nothing set up and we were sick of contacting the same old areas. You could tell missionaries hadn't been there in a long time because everyone kept pointing and staring at us like we were aliens. We proceeded to go into this store and we heard the lady behind the counter say "Momen jiao" which is the same as "Mormons!" Then the guy at the check out at the counter screamed (MoGui) which means "Devils" Haha! People are the same everywhere. We smiled and laughed when he did this and they realized we spoke Chinese and they proceeded to talk in Taiwanese!! I hate the fact that they are all fluent in Chinese and Taiwanese and I will never understand Taiwanese it makes Mandarin seem like a piece of cake. Oh well.

We had another crazy experience. A random lady showed up at the Church and said she knew a former sister missionary, Sister Allen. We told her that Sister Allen was gone and wouldn't be coming back. Then she asked even though she was gone can she still get baptized. She might be little nuts but she might be genuine, so we will see. She is really committed to learning what the commandments are.

We biked up to the top of the mountain in ZhangHua to visit a grandpa in our ward and it was really painful to bike up a mountain, but coming down was a blast! And it is always nice to get away from the smoke and get into the tropical island that Taiwan really is.

I finished my language portion of my training ahead of schedule this week. It sure is nice to have all those tests finished.

Finally the highlight of this week was Mission tour in JiaYi we got to hear Elder Wong, of the seventy, speak and was a really uplifting spiritual experience. I saw my MTC companion and some friends so it was much appreciated.

Answers to the weekly questions.

• Do you eat breakfast at home or do you go out? We saw what looked like milk in one of your pictures.

We eat oatmeal with chocolate milk in it... sounds gross but it isn't bad and that is all we can really afford to eat in the mornings.

• How is your language coming?

I feel like I am horrible at Chinese. However the Taiwanese people are super honest and they told me that they understand me and I don't struggle as badly as a lot of missionaries in this mission do when they first get here. So I take a little bit of comfort in that. This mission is super stressful at times because everyone seems so impressive and almost everyone is going places and doing things in their lives so... That is a little stressful. There is a lot of pressure to be successful in this mission.

• There was a bunch of exercise equipment in the pictures of your apartment, do you guys exercise?

Sometimes.... we often plan on it but then end up laying on the ground of our living room for 30 minutes doing the "Patrick Star" exercise

• Are you getting used to the humidity?

Love it!

• When are transfers?

Every six weeks this is the beginning of week 5. Rob will get a new companion this next transfer because Elder Brady goes home.

• Anymore chances to play the violin?

Not yet :( I have been missing that a lot lately :(

• Can you send more pictures? That is always going to be a question from all of us at home.

I will try today, we are going to sun moon lake with Kelly and I will try and get some pictures.

• Is there anything you need from us?

I think I am good for right now :)

In the attached pictures you will see Elder Brady's newest suit. He has gotten 2 of them since we've been companions. The first one is purple/maroon, I don't have a picture of it. But I thought you'd like to see his newest one.