This Week in Yuan Lin 4/27/15

Hello everyone!! It sounds like you are all doing well, I am super glad you are!! :D 

     I am super excited to get my first package in Taiwan! :D I am also super grateful for the pictures you sent this past week! :) It was really cool to see some of my friends from the MTC, even if it was only through pictures! :) I have only seen my MTC companion, Elder Ludwig, when we were doing mission-wide interviews, because they group multiple zones together, but not the entire mission all at once. I kind of hope that I get to see some of them soon! I am kind of relieved that I am not the freshest thing on the island anymore. :) It is kind of hard living with a companion who is about to go home. It's hard because he is at the end of his mission and he wants to get going and do as much as he can now, which is hard, because I'm still new and figuring things out, and he keeps talking about going home soon at the same time, which is also kind of hard, because I'm on the opposite end; I don't go home for another 2 years almost. Other than that though, he's an amazing companion though, and I really hope that I can learn all I need to before he goes home. :) 

     I am also really excited for Mother's Day and that I will get to talk with you! :D It will be Skype I've been told and they said that we could either do it on May 10th or May 11th I think. I will just be following what Elder Bak is doing. ;) 

     This was a good week, but one with a couple of character building moments. One of which was when I had to eat shrimp! :0 My companion forced me to eat it, knowing I don't like seafood. Traitor! :) I had to break its shell and its head and tail off, which was difficult, and then I had to eat it. It was actually ok, but I won't tell my companion that! ;) I also had to eat some cooked oysters, which weren't as good as the shrimp. I survived, though. :) I also had stinky tofu, which was better than I thought it was going to be. :) It really smelled, though! :)

    This week was my first transfer out in the mission, which was kind of exciting and weird. I don't like change. :) One of the Elders got assigned to go to a different area and we are getting 2 new companion ships in Yuan Lin!! There used to be 3, but we are getting more missionaries here! :D I'm really hoping one of the people coming here are one of the people in training so I won't feel so young anymore. :) I am pretty excited for this transfer, because we are getting more missionaries. :) 

     I also attended my first baptism on my mission yesterday!! :D ...I should have taken pictures of that. :/ It was really cool and we were able to get some of our investigators there! :D 

     We had some good character-building moments this week too, like on Saturday we went contacting all day because we didn't have any appointments set up and I wasn't feeling well and we went out to Tian Zhong, which is about an hour bike ride away. I was able to make it and everything and I learned that if I forget myself and try to serve God, He will watch out for me and help me out, too. :) Saturday was a long day, but we were able to get some good contacts and we have a couple more potentials now. :) No one lit themselves on fire this week, so I count it as a success! ;)   

     I don't really know what else to say right now, but I really love you all! :D I am really glad that you are doing well! I miss you a lot and think and worry about you, but I know that God is watching over you and is there to help you. :) 

-- 

Elder Fleming

Our area books

Stinky tofu :)

My companion being a little un-Christlike to a member. :)

My last day with Elder Roberts (he is changing areas)

Beautiful view of Taiwan on an overpass! :D

 Saw this nasty spider outside our apartment and had to take a picture. We think it's a banana spider. :0 That thing was huge!! 

 We had an English social for English class (we teach English every Wednesday) and had a big result. Elder Bak made nachos which were a huge hit! :) 

This Week's News

 Hello everyone!! :) I hope that all is well at home! (besides the window) ;) I'm glad to hear that the weather was mostly nice and getting warmer! That's bad for me, because that means that it will be more and more humid and hotter and hotter! :0   

     This week we were able to see a TON of miracles!! We were really blessed this week! We were able to have a lot of lessons with investigators and we had a lot of really good lessons with investigators! :D We are teaching a couple families too, which is a big miracle itself! :) 

     I also experienced my first earthquake today! We are on the 7th floor of an apartment, and the floor started rocking back and forth. It was really weird but kinda cool. :) Nothing broke or fell though, so that was good. :) 

     We are still meeting with the random guy. His last name is Lin. He can be random, but he is really sincere and he seems to have a desire to learn about the Gospel and is coming along really well. I am really happy for him. :) When we met with him last time, he showed us some of his kung fu, so we did it with him a little bit, and it seemed to help him focus more during the lesson, so we might do stuff like that more often when we meet with him. :)

     They also have garbage trucks here and they play this music that makes them seem like ice cream trucks. It's to help people hear them, so they can take out their garbage, but every time I hear that noise, I just think of ice cream! :)

     We are meeting with a family who has triplets and they are all 11. They are a really cool family. :) The children are really funny and pretty cool, and we are trying to help the mom start progressing. She has a hard time understanding the scriptures and applying them, so if you have any tips to help her out, let me know. :) 

     Sundays are pretty good, they are really busy at and after church, because we are focused on our investigators when and if they come. We have to call them before usually to make sure they're coming still, have people sit with them to help fellowship them, then afterwards, we go and talk to them and help show them where to go and stuff like that. We also try to set up lessons after church with members and get members to set up times to go over and visit investigators and stuff. It's pretty intense! It usually winds down afterwards, though. :) We had 5 investigators at sacrament meeting yesterday, which was a huge miracle!! :D Everything worked out really well too! :D I was super happy! Getting investigators to church has been hard for us since we got here, but it was so nice to get some investigators to church yesterday! :) 

     I love you all so much and pictures are soon to come! :) I made it one of my goals for this week to take more pictures. ;) I still didn't do super well, but I'll keep working on it. :) It's like repentance; I'm not perfect, but I will keep trying and hope you can forgive my lack of pictures I send. ;) I love you all and you're always in my prayers! :)
--

Elder Fleming

Some Elders and I outside a chi dao bao (one of the really fancy buffets) :) 

A massive bag of marshmallows. :) 

My bike :D

 Lin; he is the one who gets really random sometimes. :) Last week, we were teaching him the Plan of Salvation and he said he had to show us something, then pulled out his nun-chucks and whipped them around for a little bit. Haha, it was pretty funny! :) 

Elder Bak practices kung fu with Lin. :)

Dong gua cha, or winter tea. This stuff is super good!! :)

A $1000NT bill. :) It's about $30USD :) I feel really rich when I just pull one of those out. :) 

I discovered apple milk last week. It is super good! :)

 That's all I've got for this week, I'll try to take more for next week! Love you!! :D

This Week 4/13/15

Hey, it was really good to hear from you! :) 

Yeah, my companion is pretty cool, although he can definitely be a goofball sometimes, and it built my testimony that when you get a few young men together, their collective IQ goes down. ;) Yes, he is from Minnesota, but his family moved, so he will be going home to North Carolina. It's getting hotter and hotter here, which I'm not ready for. :0 They don't sell deodorant here, I guess. 

Yeah, I do like the Blickenstaffs (mission president and his wife). They are really cool, really nice, and really caring. :) The mission home is about a 30 minute train ride away from where we are now, I think. :) I haven't seen them very much, but it sounds like we interview with them every other move call (12 weeks) :) I am also really glad for all they do and for maintaining the mission blog. I think that it is super cool that they do that. I was able to see Elder Ludwig, my MTC companion there, which was really cool! We were able to catch up a little bit and swap stories. :) 

I did get to watch conference and it was really good! :D I liked the talks and it was really good to sit down and listen to the Prophet and Apostles. :) It was also kind of nice to hear some solid English for a little while. :) Anyway, overall, it's been a pretty good week. :) The members here are amazing and I wish I could communicate with them better, because they are super cool! :)

Ok, so when I get back from my mission, we HAVE to come to Taiwan. :) I can show you around and we can eat at chi dao bao's and stuff. :)  I love you all and pray for all of you every day, and multiple times every day. I am so glad that you are all doing well at home and that the Lord is taking care of you for me. :) This week was good, more teaching, contacting, tracting, biking, and more contacting. :) We are working with someone we found the other day who has this disorder that's a lot like ADD. :) It was super funny to teach him, because in the middle of the lesson, he would just jump to something totally random! :) For example, he started singing "Amazing Grace" while we were talking about prophets. :) It was cracking me up! :) It almost reminded me of when I would be with Curtis and we would be doing something, and he would just do something totally random. :) He also talked about kung fu right after we taught Joseph Smith's first vision. the guy is really nice and he is really cool, and I am really excited to teach him again, because I'm excited to see what he does next!! :) Anyway, I love you all and you're in my prayers. :) I'll try to take more pictures and send them to you. I told my companion that I made it my goal to do that. ;)  

-- 

Elder Fleming

 My bike that broke last week. :/ I guess the metal and stuff was bad, so when I tried to switch gears, the thing on the back broke and came up into my tire in between the spokes and stuff. :0 My companion's bike also broke twice since we got here, and we went to the same store three times in two weeks to fix our bikes. They looked surprised when we came in for the third time in 10 days. :) We are probably their favorite customers. ;)

 My MTC companion, Elder Ludwig! I got to see him at that trainer meeting thing the other day. It was really cool to see him and to catch up with him. :) 

There is meat cooked in this rice stuff that we ate at a little while ago, which looked kind of sketchy, but tasted really good! :)

 Elder Fleming was on the Taichung, Taiwan Mission blog. There was a a follow up training meeting. We copied the pictures here, but you can read more about the meetings HERE.

Where's Waldo  Elder Fleming? 

Week 3 in Yuan Lin

Hey everyone! :) 

I'm glad to hear that everyone had a good week! It was really good to hear from you!

     We haven't listened to General Conference yet, because we wait a week so it can be translated into Mandarin. The missionaries still watch it in English, but we usually watch it at the same time as the ward because it's more convenient. I am super excited to watch it and see what the Prophet and Apostles have to say! Elder Bak told me it's kind of like a miniature vacation almost, because the missionaries will all get to watch conference together for a little while. :) 

     This week has been pretty good and very intense! Especially Friday and Saturday! We have found a decent amount of people, and we definitely need to keep finding, but we are teaching a couple of families who are super cool! :) We are also working with a part-member family who's also less-active. Her son in 10 or 11 and we were able to give him a baptismal goal for next month! :D Hopefully he and his mom will start coming back to church! We are also working with a family who has triplets and then another kid as well. The moms have baptismal goals and their kids are super amazing!! :D Elder Bak has pictures of them, so hopefully he can get those to me and I can send them to you. :) I took pictures of the apartment, and will get those to you, but I still haven't taken a picture of my bike yet. :/ I'll do that later today if I have time or next week. :) 

     I kind of really want to come back to Taiwan after my mission as a tourist with all of you sometime. There are some super awesome things here that I really want to share with you!! :D Especially the chi dao bao's! ;) That's crazy to think that it snowed in Utah the other day! It's sooo hot here!! :0 

     That's really cool that you got to go to the Carter's for Easter! People don't celebrate Easter here, but they have Grave Sweeping Day, a day where they show respect for their ancestors by cleaning their graves, which is pretty cool. :)  

     Oh yeah!! Friday and Saturday. :) So, on Friday,the day was pretty smooth and normal, but Friday night was pretty intense. We were going to visit a former investigator and Elder Bak's bike broke down. We got to the former investigator's house and were blessed that he was home and he gave us a ride back to the apartment. He was pretty cool and we were able to have a good conversation with him on the way back to the apartment. :) Then on Saturday we were super busy! I don't know if you can look up where we went, but we had to bike from Yuan Lin to Tian Wei to teach that former family I mentioned earlier and then we went to Tian Zhong to teach some more investigators and then we had to race back to Yuan Lin to eat dinner with some members. That day was crazy intense but super cool! :) And then we had fast Sunday the next day, which was a little hard, because I was super tired from Saturday! :) Anyway, it was a pretty good week. :) My companion is great and the members are amazing! :D 

  

Elder Fleming

 When you first walk in the door in our apt. We have a cool balcony (we are on the top floor), where we have our washer and dryers. :) 

Our living room, where we often work out to p90x in the mornings. :) You can see the kitchen on the left by the fridge and then our rooms are on the right. :)

Our kitchen

Our closet

Our room (it's a little messy) :) 

Our bathroom (each companionship has their own room and bathroom, I just didn't take a picture of theirs.) :) 

 Hehe, so my companion is really hairy and he accidentally burned his nipple because he was lighting his chest hair on fire to try to get rid of it. I should be a more diligent companion in protecting him from physical danger. ;)