Da jia hao!

(That pretty much means "hello everyone!") :) I loved hearing from you all this week! I hope that you all are doing well and had a great week! Hmm, good stories of the week would be that we had Stake Conference, which was pretty cool, we have interviews with President Blickenstaff next week, which will be cool. :) Elder Sales and I have been doing well and working ok together. :) Also, we found a couple of cool people that have some good potential! No funny Ama's this week, though. ;) I love you tons and it's always good to hear from you! I pray for you guys all the time! :)  

My awesome watch tan. (That means we've been doing too much contacting lately) ;)

President Blickenstaff and I after stake conference.

 Also we went bowling last week and I got 5 strikes in one game and got a 155!! :D Blessings of being a missionary!! :) I got 4 strikes in a row and then got another strike a little later! It was super cool! :) We went with a member, and I got an action shot of him bowling, which is pretty cool. :) The other picture is of the strikes, because  I figured if I didn't take the picture, you wouldn't believe that I got so many strikes. ;) 

Hello Fam! 6/21/15

As always, it was sooo good to hear from you guys!! :D I love getting and reading your emails every week! :)I'm glad you're all doing well! Also, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!!!!!!! :D It's been pretty busy here, and I've been getting along with my companion still, yay! :) I really wish I could do more, though. I wish I could study faster, teach better and help out this ward. It's hard when you work hard and push yourself and don't see the results you want. :/ Oh well, It's still going well and we are still seeing miracles and blessings and stuff, but I wish I could do even more! :) Anyway, a couple funny and cool stories of the week:

1. We went tracting a few days ago, and tracted into an Ama (grandma). She was actually super nice and about 75 years old. She kept insisting that we come inside and sit down with her. There wasn't another male in the house, but I didn't know it at the time, so I just said "okay!" and we went inside. Then, she insisted on buying us a drink, so she had us stay in the house, as she left us alone in her house as she walked out the door, down the street to a little store where she bought us drinks. :) It was really funny and a little uncomfortable. :) She came back with coca cola. I'm pretty sure she had Alzheimer's, because she asked if I was married about 20 or so times and kept telling my companion that he looked Taiwanese. :) I gave her a pamphlet, because I wanted to help her out, and then she asked if the picture of Jesus on the cover was my Dad. Haha. :) It was really funny and kind of refreshing to have someone so nice answer the door like that. Usually people are really nice here, but not usually that nice. :) We had to leave a little while later, because there wasn't another guy there. :)

2. The second story was Elder Sales and I were trying to visit a Less-Active, and at the bottom of his house was a ice restaurant. As we were walking in, a lady pulled up to us and asked if we had eaten at the restaurant before. We hadn't and she said she'd buy us some stuff from there! We just figured, "ok, maybe she's a member or something and we can sit down with her and get in a lesson at the restaurant." She told us to sit down in the restaurant as she ordered our food. Then, as we were sitting and after she had paid, she just left. She had bought us two things of shaved ice, and bought to more to take to go when we left. I was in shock! It was super cool!! :D I just wish I could've known who she was and thanked her more and stuff! Neither Elder Sales nor I knew her. It was really weird, but super cool!!   

Mom, you asked me how my language and stuff was coming. It's been ok, but I feel like it's not coming fast enough. :/ I'm getting better and and understanding more and more, which was good. :) 

--

Elder Fleming

The view from our apartment... mmm, palm trees. :)

I've also been learning Chinese chess 

The super good view from the other Elder's apartment--it was beautiful!! 

Jedi Elder Braydon playing with an investigator while we were on exchanges. :)  

a massive cockroach that was in the other Elders' apartment. Elder Braydon spent about 10 to 15 minutes trying to kill it. :) It was super gross!! :) We were told soap would kill it, but nope!! We ended up killing it by smashing it's head off with a water bottle. :)

The other one is of a super good dessert pizza that we ate on Monday. It had a bunch of chocolate and ice cream on it. :) 

06/15/15

It was awesome to hear from you! :D I love you so much!! :). Elder Sales is cool, he's about a year into his mission and I don't know where from in the Bay Area. We are getting along pretty well I think and hopefully that will continue. :) The new area is a little different and so is the ward. They are a cool ward and seem nice, but I've only met a couple people so far because everyone's so busy. The bishop has 3 jobs. :o It was hard because I saw my RC, Jerry on Sunday and it broke my heart a little because I couldn't sit with him at sacrament meeting and stuff. That was super hard. :(  I'm just really bummed that I can't do more to help him. He's a stud, and when he goes on his mission to the States when he's 18 or 19, I'm going to take him out to eat. :)

The apartment actually doesn't have any hot water right now, so I've just given up on the idea of having a hot shower again for these next 2 years. :) There  are just the 2 of us in our apartment, which has pros and cons. We have a cell phone between the two of us. :) 

Oh no! Bummer about the Cavs! :( Hopefully they can still pull it off. :) That's awesome about the women's team!! :D Hopefully they'll win!! 

I love you a ton and I really miss you. I always pray for you, too. :) 

--

Elder Fleming

new apartment

I have my own bathroom!! :D

bedroom

Spare rooms :) It was going to be a 4 man, but there aren't enough missionaries right now to do that. 

Study room

There's a gas station literally right in front of the temple. It was a little weird. :)

Bonus Email and Pictures 6/10/15

I saw one of my friends from high school! She is a Sister Missionary and I guess she's in the Taizhong mission with us! It was cool to see her. :) It was her first week here in Taiwan. Also I saw one of my friends from the MTC, who was a few weeks younger than me there in Taipei at the temple! :) It was pretty cool and I'm glad I'm not so new anymore. :) I thought that it was so weird that I was already starting my 6th month the other day. :o The time has been going by really fast for me! Maybe time is faster here in Taiwan... ;) 

I can't remember if I showed you that picture of the crazy spider or not, but here it is again. :) Elder Bak tried to kill it last week, then it jumped at him, so he screamed like a girl and jumped away, but he jumped high!! :) We ended up throwing a basketball at it, which broke its leg and then squished it like a bug ;) It was pretty gross and a little frightening. :)

 I like the new pin and I'm excited it's not green anymore. ;) (on his missionary board)

I love you, too and it's been awesome to hear from you! :D
-- 

Elder Fleming

Elder Bak and I right before he left. :'( 

My new companion, Elder Sales! :)

President Blickenstaff, Elder Sales and I in front of the Taipei Temple. :)

Taipei Temple

06/08/15

Hello! Today was the first day of the new move call and I got my new companion. He is Elder Sales. He is from the Bay Area. He seems pretty cool! It was weird and sad saying goodbye to Elder Bak. I hate change. Also, I moved areas! :o I am now in the Yuan Lin 2nd ward instead of the Yuan Lin 1st ward, so I change apartments, (which isn't so bad, it's only about 5 minutes away from where my old one was). :) We also have a temple trip coming up, on Wednesday, so instead of Pday today, we are going to the temple on Wednesday! :D We usually have 2 hours for email a week, but because of this trip, we only have an hour today. :/ But we will get another hour on Wednesday at some point!! :D So I'll be able to email you a little bit on Wednesday. :) (I think it's Tuesday for you) :) 

     This last week was good, and I got to do a bunch of stuff that seemed to wrap up my training pretty well. :) One of the things was that some other Elders and I participated in a funeral. It was a different christian church officiating it, which was a little weird, but it was cool. We sung and were the pall-bearers. :) We also baptized Lin Jie Mei (Sister Lin)!!! :D It was super cool, because the other ward (the one I'm moving into) also baptized someone! It was awesome!! :D It was a really good way to end the transfer. Because of all the people going home soon, our district got smaller, so we gave all our investigators to the other 1st ward Elders. It used to be two companionships per ward, but now there is only one per ward. :/ Hmm, that's all I can think of for now, but I'll send some pictures and let you know more. :) 

We visited a college campus. It was really pretty! :)

Awesome ice cream

Lin Jie Mei's baptism pictures!! :D She is super awesome.

A rice field with mountains in the background. :)

The spider

So on Monday night, we got back late to find a big spider in the apartment. :o Elder Bak went to kill it, missed and it came at him before running away. Elder Bak jumped sooo high and screamed like a girl, it was hilarious! :) We spent the next 10 or 15 minutes trying to find and kill it, because it was either the spider or us at that point. :) We eventually cornered and squished it. :) 

The battle

The aftermath of our battle with the giant spider. :) It was pretty intense. :) 

The first Chinese stop sign I've seen since I got to Taiwan (usually they just have traffic lights and stuff) :)

Us doing shots at a super cool restaurant ;) It was a huo guo (hot pot) and was super good!!

last week Elder Bak and I went to Taizhong with the Su family, some of his friends from JiaYi (I think that's how it's spelled.) :) and hung out there. :)  

Elder Bak and the Su family and I. :)  

The Su families little girl. She was super cute and funny!! :) 

The other one is a picture I took of Elder Bak and the Su family. He helped baptize them and taught them and stuff. So, the picture looks pretty cool, but when you think about what it could represent, like Elder Bak helping the Su family towards the glory of the sun (celestial kingdom). That picture moves me. :)

Email Excerpts 6/1/15

It was great to hear from you as always! :D I always look forward to email time on Pdays. :) It's really nice to see what's been going on and stuff. :)

Oh yeah, also, there has been a TON of rain here! I thought it was cool the first day, but it makes contacting a pain!! :) We've been getting through it, though, which is good, even though contacting and finding is a bit slower because of the rain. It will still rain off and on here. It's kind of like Utah, but a little more sudden. :)

The ward I'm serving in has about 400 members in it, but only about 60 who are active. :o

That's super weird that the Jensen boy and the Todd boy are leaving already! I remember hearing about it and thinking "That's so far away!" The time has gone by so fast! I hope that it continues to go fast, but that I can also enjoy it. :)  (2 young men in our ward are leaving for missions this week.) 

Mom wrote: 

I was reading the scriptures tonight and this one really touched me tonight. 1 Nephi 17:51 51 And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship? It's amazing what the Lord can help us do. He helped Nephi build a boat! Nephi didn't know how to do that. I am impressed not only by what the Lord can help us accomplish, but also by the amount of faith Nephi had. He knew if the Lord instructed him to do that, even though he didn't know how, he could do it. That is awesome. I want the faith like Nephi had. I'm working on it. I have faith, but not as strong and unwavering as Nephi.

Elder Fleming: Elder Bak and I shared that chapter with some of our investigators this last week. :) That's a really good chapter and you can learn a lot from it. :) We compared building the boat to building testimonies. :) 

Question: New companion this week? 
Answer: I'm getting one next week. :/ I really hope that he's good, works hard and that we can get along. :) I'm doing really well, but sad Elder Bak is leaving. :/

Question: Are you good on clothes, pictures etc? Let us know if you want us to send something. Do you have rain gear?
Answer: I'm good on clothes, and I have rain gear, which is good. :) I'm out of those atomic fireballs; which I was using to keep me awake during meetings, though. :) Maybe if you wanted to send some pictures, that would be cool too, like when Mom and Nicole get back from their trip or something. :)  

Bummer about RSL losing. :( 

 I remember when I was younger, I thought that missionary work was mostly just tracting, but it was so cool to see that you do so much more! :) It was also really weird to bear my testimony to random people at first, but now it's a lot more natural. :) Anyway, the time is up and I have to go. I love you so much and you are in my prayers. :) Love you. :)


Elder Fleming