Emails 12/28/15

Thanks for all the Christmas pictures! I love seeing them! :) 

Also, I got the package from you on Saturday as we got back from Skyping. It was super awesome, thank you soooo much!!! :D I now get Dad's reference to playing with nerf guns all day as missionaries. ;) I was confused about that during Skype. :) 

I hope that Grandma gets better soon. :/ I'm praying for her. :) 

--

Elder Fleming

Not many pictures this week, sorry... :/ These are of those balloons you sent me for Halloween. We blew up the red, white and blue ones for Christmas. :) USA! USA! USA! ;) 

These are pictures (I don't know if you can tell how foggy it looks) of the fog on the 23rd (I think it was the 23rd, and also I think it's mostly pollution and not fog) :o

Christmas Skype

He looks so good!

Elder Fleming called via Skype Christmas night. It was awesome to see, hear, and talk with him. He is looking good and was speaking English with Mandarin mixed in. At times, he would translate the words, but other times, he didn't even seem to know he was doing it. He is loving being in Taiwan. His said his favorite thing was to see the people's faces light up and change when they have opened up to understand and accept Jesus Christ and the gospel in their lives. He said he can even see it in the pictures when they are baptized.

Christmas Letter

Elder Fleming sent a box home with some random stuff he doesn't need anymore and Christmas gifts. Inside was also a letter. The following is an excerpt from his letter:

I hope you are doing well and that you have a wonderful holiday season and a little break from the grind. :) I hope that we can all use this time to remember Jesus, the greatest gift of all. I am so glad that I can be serving Him this holiday season. 

I heard a quote from the Christmas devotional (we got to watch it last night, which was really cool!) :) It says, "ti's good to be a child sometimes, especially around Christmas time whose founder is a child Himself." It's something like that. I hope that this holiday season, and especially at Christmas, that we can all relax and have fun and remember our Savior, Jesus Christ.

I hope that you are all doing well, and I love you all so much. :) I love and miss you and you are always in my prayers!! :)

Love, 
Elder Fleming :) 

Emails 12/21/15

It's hard to believe that it's snowing in places! I'm wearing a short-sleeve t shirt and I think that it's pretty warm here! I miss the snow, but I won't be missing it next year! :) The snow's nuts! :o That's cool that it will snow for Christmas. I always liked that. :) Yeah, I sent you a package. I know I didn't have to, but I wanted to. Some of the things in it are some books and scriptures I wasn't using and wanted to save for when I got back. :) The other thing is your Christmas presents, which I'm excited for you to get, and I hope you like it. :)  I'm super excited to talk to you, too! :D 

Have fun with Grandma at the family history library! :D I hope Grandma Carter is ok. 

We are going proselyting for Christmas Eve and we have to do weekly planning on Christmas, and afterwards, we will proselyte. :) 

Woohoo! I'm excited for Chinese New Year! :D It's going to be so cool and I'm kind of bummed that I'm only getting one Chinese New Year on my mission. :/ We were thinking about going somewhere nice like a chi dao bao on Christmas or something like that, since we have weekly planning and if we do weekly planning quickly and efficiently enough. :) 

That's super cool for Nicole! I'm glad the meet went fast. ;) My eyes were naturally drawn to the snow in that first picture. I can't believe that there's snow on the ground in some places! :o I'm excited to Skype you! :D We were thinking of the 26th (so the 25th for you) at about 9am probably if that's alright with you. :) We will be at the church we decided. :) 

I like that you send me pictures and emails of things that are going on. :) It's nice to hear and to see what's going on in your lives. I feel like I get to look into a window of sorts every week for a little while and see what you've been up to. I like it. I also know that this is the most important thing I can be doing right now, so it doesn't make me "trunky" :) I don't know if you've heard that term before, but it doesn't distract me from the work or make me homesick; in fact I would probably be homesick if you didn't send that stuff. :) I'm super excited to Skype you all on Christmas! :D I love you all, too!! :D

-- 

Elder Fleming

Sweaters that a member gave to us because it was cold lately. :) 

Our new sweaters!! :D They're soo warm and awesome! :D 

Sweaters continued and me with an RC at a Christmas sign in TaiZhong. :) 

Friends from back in Yuan Lin that I saw in TaiZhong as well!! :D 

Alright, these metal bar thingys have a long story behind them. On Saturday, I was on exchanges with the zone leaders and as we came back, we ran into this white guy. He was from Canada and he had these two cane-like pole things. Elder Pennington started talking with him and he ended up being really nice (although a little odd) and talked about how this was the year "where it would all come together" and stuff like that and that he was sharing how Jesus used these cane things to heal Himself after He was crucified. It is a long story and I can tell more about it during Skype if you want. :) He was talking about how we could use them to massage ourselves, we could use them to rub out the pain in our bodies, we could use them to stand up, etc. :) It was really interesting and a funny story. Then he offered to give the four of us them for free! So we got these free cane things to masage ourselves with. :) It was pretty cool! :) He was talking about how you could use them to make the infinity sign, hearts, and a J for Jesus. :) He was a nice guy and really funny. :) 

Santa came to our ward Christmas party on Sunday night! :D He even smelled like Santa, not beef and cheese! ;) 

The party was amazing! We made gingerbread houses, sang and showed Christmas Mormon Messages and ate dinner! :D It was super cool; they had the ward, and then about 60 or 70 non-members that they had invited--all were families! :D It was a great activity for finding and for planting seeds and letting them know that we weren't all crazy white guys who ride our bikes around all day. :) It was a bummer because most of them didn't live in our area, but hopefully the other areas were able to get in contact with them and will be able to start meeting with them. :) 

The English branch here had a Christmas party here and gave us a Christmas duck! :D so we ate that after church as missionaries :) And yes, I did actually kiss the duck on the beak. It was gross. :) 

Our zone leaders opening up and cutting the turkey. :) A Christmas miracle. :) 

The turkey and our Christmas tree. :) Captain America has an "A" for "Angel" is what my companion said. :) 

Email Excerpts 12/13/15

(in explanation for the picture above) The district leaders all had to get up and write their averages for the district numbers on the board and usually share a strength and something we want to improve. yeah, it was just a training for the zone; we do it once a month. :) Afterwards, the district leaders do a meeting and talk about our districts and stuff. :) Haha I didn't feel like throwing up with President Blickenstaff there, but the zone leaders looked pretty nervous at first. I don't blame them! :) I also hadn't eaten 2 hamburgers and 2 chocolate milks like when they showed up to my district meeting. :) I think that the tie I was wearing was the swirly one that's red and blue-ish color. It's one of the ones that we got at the missionary store before I left. 50's is nice. :) I'm super excited to Skype you and Grandma! :D Oh also, we got the Skype email today! We can Skype here on the 25th or the 26th, so the 24th or the 25th for you. I'll have about 45 minutes to Skype. :) When would you want to Skype? I'm guessing the church would be good, (to Skype) but we have an awesome member that owns a shop that's closer, and he might have Skype equipment we can use. :) I'm not sure yet.  I'll also have to ask Elder Anderson and see what he wants to do. :) 

(missionary Christmas activity) It was an awesome day!! :D The building was super cool! It took almost an hour to set up the picture. :| It looks nice, though. :) I'm on the right side of the picture behind the first wall. :)  Sun Moon Lake was super fun and we actually went to the Yuan Lin church afterwards to do our Christmas zone conference! :D I was able to see a couple of the members and friends from there before and afterwards! It was awesome!!! :D 

Next transfer is January 4th. It's coming up quick and right before my year mark. :o 

Good luck in the winter storm! :o 

Mom seems really excited that Grandma is coming out to visit. :) I'd be excited too! I'm sorry to hear about Uncle Jack. :( I hope that Grandpa Kip is doing alright and that Uncle Jack is doing well in the Spirit world. 

Things are well here. The ward here is amazing! So far, all the wards I've been in have been super great and I love them so much!! I hope that keeps happening through out my mission! :) It's hard work here but the work isn't hard. ...except for sometimes. ;) Finding has been pretty slow lately. :/ Things are good though and I hope I go somewhere cool and have a good ward and a good companion. :) Elder Anderson is doing well and he gets better and better every day at the work, the language, etc. It's super cool to see how far he's come and in such a short time! :) The language is good. :) I feel fluent in most conversations that I usually have, but if it gets more complicated, it's a little harder. It's alright though, and it's coming. :) I love and miss you too!! :) I pray for you all every day! 

-- 

Elder Fleming

Pretty sunset :) 

Me with Yi Wei, a member from Yuan Lin and more sunset picture.

The investigators I was working with back in the Yuan Lin 2nd ward who got baptized after I left! It was super awesome to see their pictures and I miss them so much!! :) 

MTC district plus more, I think I don't know, I didn't get a good look at the picture. :) That's us at the chi dao bao. :) Also it's the people from Lehi (minus a few of us--really, there are like 5 or 6 people in the mission from Lehi right now!) at Sun Moon Lake. :)

Sun Moon Lake pictures. SOO pretty!! :D 
Elder Anderson and I :) Elder Lin and I (he was in my district in Yuan Lin) :) 

Cool bird :)

My new scarf I'm bringing to RSL games. :D It's even the same colors! :D 
view at sun moon lakeThe view and also a sunset. :) 
Cool street at night with pretty red lanterns. :) 
A majestic goat statue we found in TaiZhong last p-day. :)