March 20, 2016 - 9 Months Out

Dear Family and Friends,

A year ago this week I opened my mission call to Taiwan, and this next week marks 9 months on a mission! If I was a pregnant woman I would be huge. Crazy how time flies!

Monday: For p-day I spent most of the time listening to my wonderful friend, Elder Crockett, play the piano and watching the church's addiction recovery videos... If you have never seen those before they are intense! It was almost like watching a movie! Don't worry Mom and Dad, I don't have an addiction to drugs. It was just for fun. When it was time for everyone to go, Elder Crockett and Taylor, who both know I hate hugs, hugged me so hard I wanted to explode. Luckily someone got a picture....oh joy.

Tuesday: We went to give Sister Wong a missionary planner because she wants to plan her days as detailed as ours..hehe. 

Wednesday: We went to visit a member named Wilson who is one of the most interesting men I have ever met. He is a big man who used to be in the air force. He likes oil painting and sing and playing music. He wants to open a nail salon out of his house and much much more. I like him, I think he is cool.

Thursday: We had a lesson with Brother Yu, he took us out to eat hot pot. Hot pot is just a type of food here where there is a boiling pot in the middle of the table and you just throw food into it and eat it. I think it is super unsanitary but I haven't gotten sick yet and it tastes good so... just love it!

Friday: Met with a less active member named Wen Yuan and he is a harmonica master. He played a few songs for us and it blew my mind.

Saturday: We taught brother Hong the plan of salvation again and he still is great about coming to church every week. We went to the Wu family's house for dinner and Wu mama always make us delicious food so that was great. To finish off the night we went to a night market and did some English proselyting. 

Sunday: We met with Brother Xu and he played his electric guitar for us and came to FHE with Brother Guo, our other investigator. This week was a little difficult, we had to drop quite a few people and that is always so hard. You never want to let go of anyone because you know the happiness they could have as a member of the church, but you also can't control other people and their agency. Overall it was a good week filled with good things to do. 

Thank you to my Grandma Sherry who sent me a mini Easter basket in a package! I don't get packages so that was fun!

Here are some pictures from last week's zone conference.

I got a new camera this week so I'd thought I'd take a few

March 14, 2016 - Beach Cake and Sickness

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday: For P-day last week we went to the beach. We got there and did normal beach things... Wrote in the sand, picked up crabs, walked on the board walk, and climbed a giant tower. On our trip down the board walk Elder Taylor and Elder Wills found a cake that someone had dropped and left there. It was untouched. I beheld the unspeakable as they reached down and began to eat this cake. I thought for sure they would get sick and die but in the end I was the one who got sick... I will get to that on Friday's section. Overall the beach portion of p-day went well. When we got back to our bikes we discovered Elder Wills' tire popped. We were a very long way from home so we started walking hoping to run into a bike shop. Eventually I had to call Mama Lin, a nice member who was planning on cutting our hair that day, and tell her that we wouldn't make it on time. She then sent her husband, who happens to drive a moving truck for work, and they came and rescued us. They cut our hair, fixed our bike and sent us off with pineapple. God really is mindful of us isn't he?

Sometimes the greatest things in life are just a couple of good friends and a giant bamboo stick.

Tuesday: We started packing up our apartment and everything that entailed. It was not fun dealing with years and years of built up missionary stuff. Organizing records, throwing away missionaries once treasured gifts, it was definitely hard on Elder Erwin.

Wednesday: The office Elders came with their big van to help us move the stuff. We got it all done within a few hours. Then we went to practice a song for the baptism that happened this Saturday. 

Thursday: Nothing happens on Thursdays.... It rained a lot...

Friday: We went to Jia Yi for Zone conference! However, on the way there, I got very sick and was forced to use the squatty potty that they put on the trains here. That was no fun. We finally made it to JiaYi all ok....except my pride that was a little hurt. We were walking and all of the sudden I heard a familiar voice yell "MORMONS!" I turned around to see Elder Spach! It was good to see an old friend from the MTC. We enjoyed a nice spiritual day. We played a beautiful musical number, and through it all, I was super sick. I thought for sure that I wasn't going to be able to stand through the performance. It went okay, but definitely not my best. I returned home battered and soaking wet from a day of sickness and rain. But even through it all I was surprisingly still uplifted. 

Saturday: We met with Brother Hong. I envy him in the fact that he just has a believing heart. He really doesn't doubt the things we share with them. He just says he has a feeling that he knows he really has joined Jesus Christ's true church. We then had a wonderful baptismal service for two young sisters. Their parents were super supportive... they themselves weren't very interested but they are the ones who want them to get baptized. They were completely supportive in letting them do whatever they needed to do. I am pretty sure we will get them one day...hehe! They won't even see it coming. 

Sunday: We got up extra early to attend a meeting. We had a normal Sunday... unfortunately no one could come to church so that was really sad. But we had a nice dinner in our new apartment with the first ward Elders, we had breakfast for dinner. We then had a surprise birthday party at family home evening for Sister Liu a missionary here in Yong Kang. It was a good week, hard when a lot of the time was spent doing busy work, being sick and going to meetings but overall a good week. 

I don't know if you can see it but I am proudly wearing Taiwan's flag! I love Taiwan and all the people here! I also love you all!

Sincerely,

Elder Erwin

March 8, 2016 - Music to My Ears

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday:  We had the chance to get together with a bunch of friends and investigators and missionaries and go to a Taiwanese Zoo... It was fairly terrifying and would be illegal in every sense of the word if it were in America. There were all sorts of crazy animals like singing monkeys and venomous snakes that the zookeepper pulled out of the cage so we could have a closer look. When I say he pulled it out of the cage, I mean he pulled it out by its back end and swung it around as it thrashed in an almost successful attempt to escape. There was also a bird that could say "NiHao" (hello in Mandarin) and it strangely sounded just like the Grandmas in the park.  Our friend (YouRen) came along with us. He is an investigator Elder Coleman and I found and taught but found out he lived in the other Elder's area. My dad always talked about finding your best friend on your mission and I think he is one of them for sure. I know that he will get baptized as soon as his school on Sundays ends. I still see him all the time because he comes to every activity... he is just an unbaptized member. He is the man!  

Tuesday:  We had a lesson in the park with Brother Shao, there is a picture of the park attached. This is not the grandma park, this is another park... Brother Shao's park.

Wednesday:  Had English class....yup.

Thursday:  Finding... finding... finding. It is strange, I don't remember Thursday very much...There was a lot of bike riding and a lot of people saying no...

Friday:  We went to visit a less active family. They treated us to some mint tea...Don't worry, there isn't any tea in it, just water and mint. We shared with them how the words of Christ are the same as the Liahona of old. They can carry us beyond the vale of sorrow into a better world just like the Liahona did for Lehi and his family. 

Saturday:  We got to go East Tainan to practice with the amazing Elder Crockett. Practice for what you might ask? Zone conference next week!! I will play the violin, Elder Crockett on the piano and some other missionaries, including my companion, will be singing. I love getting ready for some kind of performance, it always makes me feel like my old self again. 

Sunday:  We got to go back to my old area in West Tainan for an activity and I got to meet up with some old friends! Felicia and Diego. Felicia is still a rock star and Diego still teases me to death. There is a picture of the four of us attached.

Lastly I am moving! Moving where? Literally down the street into a better apartment because the office Elders came and saw our apartment and realized it has some problems. For example, the gas for the stove is kept right under the stove. Giant thing of gas right under an open flame, they  don't really go together. This Wednesday we will move into a better apartment. It overall was a great week.

I love you all!!!

Sincerely,

Elder Erwin

 Elder Ewin at the Zoo

March 1, 2016 - What Fell in the Park this Week?

Dear Family and Friends,

Monday:  We had the chance to get some serious cleaning done and then went out to buy some stuff... I bought new dress pants for 12 U.S. dollars!! Talk about a deal! I almost feel like a stole them...hehe.

Tuesday:  We met with our investigator, Brother Shao, and talked all about 1 Nephi! I have never had an investigator who wants to tell us about what they read in the Book of Mormon. Later in the day I went on exchanges with Elder Taylor. I admire him so much. He has a talent for uplifting and finding the best in others and also for work. I hope I can help others the way he does every day. We got a chance to go to the Wong family's house and had a spiritual share that had to do with the lantern festival that just happened here. Unfortunately they don't celebrate it very much in Tainan you have to go up north to see any lanterns. 

Wednesday:  We had English class... yup....

Thursday:  We went back to the park with the grandmas. The grandmas at the park probably think we are really pitiful or something. But every time we go there they give us fruit or candy and then start their exercise. Maybe this week I will be brave enough to get a picture with them and try their silly exercise dance. It's a nice time, we usually talk with them about being missionaries and about their exercise andTaiwanese (they are helping me learn the Taiwanese language along with Mandarin).

While we were at the park with the grandmas, another weird thing fell right in front of us... I think I should start a blog and the title would be "What Fell in the Park This Week?"  I have no idea what this thing is.

Friday:  We met with another investigator named Brother Lei. He is cool, I am not exactly sure if he understands everything we are saying but I think he is on the path. 

Saturday:  We had a pretty open day of finding so we invited our friend Hinckley to come with us again. So we were a "tripanionship" for the day. 

Sunday:  We visited the Luo family and shared a message about how family is like string.... Easy to tear one strand but many together is impossible. We then had family home evening at the church and we played the game ninja with a bunch of Asians. Needless to say, not every Asian is a Ninja. hehe

I love you all! 

Sincerely Elder Erwin

February 22, 2016 - Grandmas, Taiwanese and Hearts

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was great!

Monday: I met my new companion, Elder Mark Wills, he is from Minnesota and has been in Taiwan for one year. He likes music and running (but not in Taiwan because of the pollution and the humidity). He is a good singer. He was in chamber choir in high school so we have a lot in common. He is very nice and I think we will get along well.

Tuesday: We got to meet with Brother Shao again in the park. He is amazing! He has already finished 1 Nephi. I find that super impressive because with most investigators we have to assign them homework and then follow up, but he just does it.

Wednesday:  I borrowed our friend Hinckley's bike until Elder Wills bike arrived from Gaoxiong. Unfortunately someone ran into the back of the bike and the tire came off! I was on splits with our district leader, Elder Taylor and he was riding it. We pulled it over to the side of the road and fixed it all by ourselves! Mom and Dad should be so proud! Later in the evening, we taught English class, it went well.

Thursday: We have been making our follow-up phone calls at a park and there are these grandmas who come everyday at 3:00 to chat and exercise. They have become our Taiwanese teachers. My Taiwanese is already so much better after spending a little bit of time with them. Taiwanese is a dialect they speak here. It has the same characters and grammar as Mandarin but the pronunciation for the words is different and a lot of the older people here speak it. 

This is me holding a seed pod that fell out of a tree in that park with the grandmas...It looks like a heart...love you all   

Friday: We decided to go do some contacting at the end of the day and got ridiculously lost! We ended up two cities away and barely made it home in time! I still felt super lost even after getting home... If you have ever been really lost before you know what I am talking about. 

Saturday: We had a little miracle with an less active member. We planned to stop by this less active member's house, we didn't call or set up with him but we were just going to try. We were just out and about and got a call from this less active member saying that he was at the church and he wanted to meet with us.  We didn't even have to go to him he came to us! He ended up wanting to talk about his life and went to church on Sunday.

Sunday: We enjoyed some quality time with Investigators and members at family home evening. 

Overall it has been a week of fun and miracles and just little blessings. 

I love you all!

Elder Erwin 

February 15, 2016 - 恭喜發財 - Happy New Year! From Elder Erwin

Dear Family and Friends,

I am going to try and write better emails so I so here is my new format.

Monday: For preparation day we spent most of our time helping our sweet friend Barbie clean up her bookcases which had fallen during the earthquake and we moved a ridiculous amount of furniture for her.

Tuesday: We went to a member's house for a Chinese New Year lunch and I, Elder Erwin, got super sick! And they didn't have running water because of the Earthquake! So you could say we rode our bikes back to the church fast...really fast!

Wednesday: Because of Chinese New Year, no one was outside, they are all just eating a bunch of food inside, so we literally talked to anyone and everyone we could find... I think we probably talked to ten people. 

Thursday: It felt like a beautiful summer day but it was a bit windy, so like my momma always says, "It is the warm before the storm". It was sunny and then poured rain for the rest of the day. All of our lessons stood us up. 不好

Friday: I don't remember what happened and I didn't bring my journal with me....must not have had anything too important. 

Saturday: I met a cool kid and had a lesson with him in the park, he is our new investigator and really seems like a good guy. We had another lesson set up for 8:00 that night and I thought for sure he wouldn't stand us up, so I put tracting as the back up plan (Elder Erwin hates tracting....I prefer contacting on the roads...) Needless to say when he did end up cancelling  on us, I was less than excited with my decision to go tracting as a back up. However, we went and tracted for 5 minutes and someone let us in and fed us food and gave us drinks and they are coming as a family to church next week. I guess I should humble myself and try new things more often. 

Sunday: Elder Coleman got the call that he was moving so he spoke in church to say goodbye. Later in the evening we had FHE where we played some games and then I went on a 30 minute exchange with Elder Storey who is in training here in Yong Kang. I was Senior companion for a whole 30 minutes and honestly junior companion is way more fun...:) 

Elder Coleman is already on the train on his way to Taichung and I am just waiting here at the stake center until later today when Elder Wills my new companion arrives. I have no idea who he is...I will just have to wait and see.

Here are the answers to your questions.

What do the Chinese characters say in the subject line of your email?

It says Gongxi facai, it is just a saying that they use at Chinese New Year, it is like congrats on a new year.

How do you write Chinese characters on a computer?

There is a writing system called pinyin that allows you to use English letters Chinese. 

Are you learning to read and write with Chinese characters?

Yes, this last move call I have been working on being able to write and understand some things so I can get around better. Writing in Chinese on our dumb phone has taken a lot of practice :)

I love you all! We took some pictures this week but none of them were on my camera. So I just have this picture of me when I went out to clean up our balcony. I am such a poser sometimes:) Love you!

February 8, 2016 - Just a Little Shaken

Dear family and friends

This week a 6.4 earthquake came over the city of Gaoxiong and Tainan. The epicenter of the quake was just over 20 miles from my apartment building. It happened at approximately 3:40 a.m. All missionaries are safe and accounted for. It is has been a little crazy this week because of all the things that have been happening. The earthquake caused a lot of buildings and things to go down. The biggest building that came down is a ten minute bike ride from our house. Ambulances have been sounding all week and it has really given Tainan an uneasy feeling about it. A picture of the building that came down is attached.

The best way I can describe the earthquake from my perspective is it felt like the consistency of the concrete building we live in turned to Jell-o and everything inside was moving. The higher you are in a building the worse the shaking and we live on the top floor of our 8 story building;) The earthquake lasted about 2 minutes. We left our apartment after the shaking stopped just to be safe. We didn't want to be in our apartment just in case it started up again because trying to leave from the 8th floor in a building that was trembling like that...you wouldn't make it down the first set of stairs. There wasn't much real damage to our apartment; just a bunch of the tiles and our personal things came down. We luckily didn't lose power but a lot of houses lost water and power. 

I feel so blessed that all our members and missionaries are safe. We did have a member however, with an extensive book collection that was badly affected by the situation so we have spent the past three days there trying to remove the bookshelves so she can get in and out of her house and get to her motorcycles. 

Nothing else we did compares with the earthquake but it has been a week full of blessings and adventures. We went with Hinckley, our friend, to do missionary work. Three working together is always better than two...right?

We also spent some time playing traditional Chinese drums and enjoyed a Chinese New Year dinner at a member's house and had a good time.

I love you all,

Sincerely, Elder Erwin

February 1, 2016 - It Truly is a Small World

Hello Family and Friends,

This is Julie, Elder Erwin's mom. He didn't have much time on the computer this week. He only had time to answer a few questions but first I have a story to share that shows how small the world within The Church of Jesus Christ really is. 

Thursday, at 4:45 am I was awakened by a text. When I looked at my phone, I was thrilled to see it was a picture of Elder Erwin. It was sent by a member named Sis. Wang, and this is what it said, "Hello from Taiwan. My name is Sister Wang, and my family just moved here from Utah for 5 months. It was fun to meet your son! He is such a great missionary!" The text included the picture attached below (Sis. Wang and her children are in the picture with Elder Erwin and His companion, Elder Coleman). I responded to Sis. Wang and thanked her for making my day. She texted back and said, "Did you know we are from your stake? We are in the 8th Ward and I spoke in stake conference last May at the same meeting that your son played the violin." Both Sis. Wang and I marveled at how small the world is and how wonderful it is for her to have a tie to someone from home while they do family history for her daughter (who is half Taiwanese) for the next 5 months. And how nice it is for us at home to know that she is in the same ward as our missionary son. It really is a small world. What are the chances of her settling in the same ward as an Elder from her home stake, an Elder who played the violin at the same meeting she spoke in just last spring? Sis. Wang and I consider it a tender mercy. 

Sister Theresa Wang has an interesting story to tell beyond being in Taiwan for the next 5 months. She is a single mom and when she realized that with the change in mission age that all 3 of her children, her daughter and twin boys, would be on missions at the same time, she decided to serve a mission too. So all four members of her family served at the same time and all 4 of them entered the MTC within a couple weeks of each other.

Last week, Elder Erwin mentioned that Bro Hong, who he had taught in his last area was being moved back to him in his new area in YongKang because they realized that he lived in the boundaries of YongKang. Elder Erwin was thrilled to be reunited with Bro. Hong. Here is a little of Brother Hong's story as relayed by Elder Erwin's last mission companion, Elder Millett, who was able to continue teaching him when Elder Erwin was transferred.

" 洪弟兄 (Brother Hong) has had a pretty rough life. Both his parents died a few years ago, and both within a year of each other. He is only 18 years old. He lives by himself and works at a metal shop. When I met him for the first time, he was super excited to learn the Gospel. Elder Erwin and Elder Varvel had found him while contacting on the street.  He was super willing to keep every commitment and to kept coming back for more. He was so prepared in fact, that at one point we were wondering if he was actually understanding what we were teaching him! But, after hearing him bear his testimony to us, we realized that we were very wrong. The Gospel, especially the doctrine of the Plan of Salvation as it relates to his life's circumstances, touched his heart and soul powerfully. He felt the truthfulness of the message and was willing to make whatever sacrifices were necessary in order to receive it."

Here are a couple of answers to the questions I asked Elder Erwin this week.

* How is your Mandarin  coming along? Are you comfortable with is yet? 

I feel like I have jumped leaps and bounds...If I were home right now I think I could have a full on, smooth conversation with CaiPing

(Caiping is our dear friend and sister from mainland China)

* Tell us the details of how you found Minnie's family. (Minnie is a 10 year old girl and her family is taking the discussions)

They came to English class last year and no one really bothered to try and meet with them. We found their record and they were happy to let us come over. 

* Tell us about meeting sister Wang from South Jordan?

It was so strange! Their family is so crazy and cool! They came here to do family history for 5 months. They love missionary work and keep asking when we can go on splits. They spend a lot of time at the church in the family history library and they are in our ward!

Hopefully we will get a real letter from Elder Erwin next week. He is loving his mission and the people of Taiwan. He couldn't be happier!

Best Wishes,

Julie Erwin

January 25, 2016 - Investigator Miracle

Dear Family and Friends,

This week we got the chance to go to a worldwide mission conference. It was a nice change and an uplifting little mini conference.

My suit finally came! I have been waiting for it for over a month now! It is very nice. I also forget to take a picture of it...sorry mom...

Among the miracles we saw this week was one that was very special to me. We got a call on Friday saying an investigator who was being taught in another area actually lived in our area. Which means he has to baptized here. The miracle part of it is that investigator is Brother Hong from my last area! Elder Varvel and I found him together and taught him a good portion of lessons and then we both ended up moving a few weeks later. However, my investigator happened to just come back to me. We are excited! He should be baptized this week. The elders from Tainan will come and join us in Yong Kang for his baptism. 

We also found a family this week, so we are very excited. They have one daughter named Minnie and she is 10 years old. The Lord has been very good to us this week. The trials we face are almost always accompanied by blessings, you just have to look. 

Lastly, we are freezing to death! We have already adjusted to Taiwan's lovely weather and then we found out in Taipei and Taichung and other places it has snowed. The first snow in 30 years! I miss the tropical weather that we were so accustomed to. 

The work is going on ever faster. I love you all!

Sincerely Elder Erwin