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