Emails 1/25/16

Well, after a whole 3 weeks in Tai Nan, one of the best places in Taiwan ever, I moved. It was really weird and I thought that the Zone Leaders were kidding. Every 6 weeks, we have "movecall" and in the middle of it (the 3rd week) we have "mini movecall" I don't know why we have it, but we do. There were about 5 missionaries that moved, and I was one of them. They moved me down to Hengchun, which is as far south as you can get.  I'm a two hour bus ride from Gao Xiong in Hengchun right now. :o We are about a 2 hour bus ride from the nearest train station (this place is apparently pretty rural), and about an hour bus ride from the nearest missionaries. I am going to be serving in a branch. I don't know how many members there are, but it's not a ton. :) I'm a little excited, nervous and kind of frustrated. I was really liking Tai Nan and it was so nice, and I left after only 3 weeks. :/ Oh well, it'll be cool here, hopefully. :) 

Also, I had to ride my bike as  well as hold on to another bike to get it ready for the next missionary coming in to Tai Nan and I totally biffed it. It was weird, I've never crashed while doing that before. I went face-first over the front of my bike, but thankfully was ok. My face is alright and I only got some scratches on my elbow and my knee and somehow, the top of my foot. Other than that, I got hit by an Ama (Grandma) on a scooter this week. It wasn't bad, she just turned into me and barely tapped me. I was wondering when something like that would happen. People drive pretty nuts here sometimes. :) We also had a missionary broadcast, which I thought was going to be super cool and that they were going to announce something crazy, but then they didn't really announce anything. :/ They just talked about some of the fundamentals of missionary work. :/ That's probably all the big announcements of the week, I think. :) My new companion is an Elder Hanna. He seems cool, and he's from Oregon, which is pretty neat. Hopefully, things end up being super cool here. :) Oh, also, I'm a Facebook missionary now. I don't know what that means, but you might be able to look me up on Facebook if I make one this week. :) I don't know if you'll be able to read it or anything, because it will probably all be in Chinese... :) 

Anyway, I love you and miss you and think about you lots! :) 

--

Elder Fleming

Some of these pictures are of a wedding reception, where our boy, Ricky basically "DJ'ed" I don't know if that's the right word to use, but yeah, he talked and guided the activities that they did and stuff. :) He's super awesome. :) Another picture is of me in a Batman mask I found while on exchanges with the district leader. :) "I'm Batman" :) Another picture is of one of our RC's and my companion passed out in Sacrament. :) Another one is of me and Elder Williams, who I saw at the missionary broadcast thingy. :) 

This is a barbecue and hot pot chi dao bao we went to in Tai Nan. :) It's a little expensive at $400NT ($12US), but it's SUPER good!! :D It's pretty much all you can eat meat, desserts and great drinks. :) And you cook the meat yourself, so you don't fill up too fast. :) Super good stuff! :D 

Emails 1/18/16

Sorry, I always mix Tai Nan and Nan Tou up for some reason. I'm in Tai Nan. :) Elder Anderson is still in Tan Zi. That's awesome that Nicole got into Utah State!! :D That's super good for her! That's cool that Nicole was accepted to the U, even if she isn't planning on going there. :)

Woo! :) The snow is crazy! I keep forgetting that it's winter and that it's snowy there! :o  Woohoo! Another package? :D Hmm, as for a package, I'm almost out of fireballs to keep me awake during meetings. :) Other than that, I don't know. Cinnamon bears? ;)  

Things are good with Elder Bradford and I'm enjoying the work here and working with him. :) It's been a pretty good couple of weeks. :) I need to email Elder Anderson; I haven't done that yet. :( I was going to do that today. 

the interviews went well. It's nice to talk to President Blickenstaff. :) Yeah, I miss taking naps, and since I got out in the field I didn't sleep during church much until I trained Elder Anderson. I fall asleep sometimes now, but it's not usually every week. :) 

I like that scripture in Corinthians (2 Corinthians 5:7  "for we walk by faith, not by sight."). I haven't read that scripture before, but I've heard of that phrase before. I like it. I heard that in the premortal world, we walked by sight, because we were with and lived with Heavenly Father, but now we need to rely on faith in our mortal lives. :) 

Well, some cool and crazy things happened this week. We went to the Sister's super rich investigator who had an elevator in her house! She was loaded! It was pretty cool. :) Then Tuesday we went on exchanges and on Wednesday we had English class where a mouse ran in the classroom right behind me as I was teaching, which startled the students. :) Then on Thursday, we went to the park to have some sit down lessons with random people. We met this nice lady from mainland China and met with her and were about to exchange information and set up to meet with her again when this random dude came up and wanted to listen about Jesus, too. At first, I was like, this guy's Satan! He's trying to get rid of our potential investigator! Then the lady left and we weren't able to exchange information and the guy sat down with us and we taught him, then he left and wouldn't set up, either! :/ Then we went across the street to check out a store (where I bought a cool Taiwan pin) and this old dude wanted to talk to us in the store next door, so we did that. He kept saying he was Christian, too and asked if we'd pray with him, so we did. :) Friday was good, too. We went to a library to see if we could get some sit downs there, but then it was super quiet so we left. Saturday, we had a baptism! It was super cool! :D Then Sunday was alright. And now it's pday. Yay! :D 

Also this week on Saturday, we had an English student invite us to this art gallery thingy and then they started inviting people from the audience to speak (I don't know why) but then they saw that there were white people (us) and invited my companion to go up and speak, so he did. :) I thought I was going to as well, but then I didn't, which was a bummer. :/ It was pretty funny to watch him go up and speak! :) He said something like "I don't know what you want me to speak about, because I don't know what you're all talking about" :) That was my favorite line he said. :) He said we were missionaries sharing about Jesus and that we were coming to look at the art, because we had a friend with art in the gallery. 

I love you all and hope you all have a great week! I love you and miss you lots!! 

--

Elder Fleming

Sweet! I figured out how to put a bunch of pictures in the same email! :D 

Emails 1/11/16

Haha happy hump day. :) I'm excited to see you too, and I'm glad I'm on the downward side, as well as a little bummed. I got the package, thanks so much!! :D Your timing was amazing!!! :D It came on the 8th or the 9th I think. :) I'm glad to hear that Grandma Carter's home and feeling better. :) That's a big relief.

I'm excited; it's Chinese New Year next month! :D 

Well it was a good week in Tai Nan. It's been pretty fun working with Elder Bradford and the people here are super cool! :D The food's amazing as well! The area is super cool; it's pretty here and there are beaches close by as well as a few rivers. I call them rivers; you might call them streams, but they seem bigger than streams. I don't know. :) Anyway, my companion Elder Bradford's pretty good and it's been pretty fun working with him. Finding is going a lot better here. The people are a lot more nice and willing to talk here as well. :) We were able to find some cool new investigators, so hopefully they'll start meeting with us more and progressing. We also went to Gao Xiong today! That's why I'm emailing so late. I'll send the pictures in a minute. :) It was really cool and I was able to learn some cool stuff about Buddhism. Hmmm, other than that, this week was good; the regular stuff--finding, teaching, eating and sleeping. :) That's probably about it for now. :) 

-- 

Elder Fleming

One of our new investigators we found on the road biking to the church who took a tour with us. :) The other picture is of Christmas time cookies I found in Costco!!!!!! XD

APARTMENT PICTURES!! 

The apartment is HUGE!! :D 

The kitchen (That box thingy in the corner is our shower) :)

Oh yeah, squatters! They're actually pretty nice to use. 

2 dryers! Woo! :D 

Epic picture of Elder Bradford mountain biking... in front of our local Costco. :) 

The cool Buddhist place we went to today. Also me and Elder Bradford. :) 

Massive golden Buddha statue! Seriously, this thing's super big!!! 

A wooden sculpture with a billion people on it and Buddha and also these underground catacombs of buddhist stuff (it's a display of what they're really like, we weren't actually down there) :) 

Me and Brother Chen "Ricky" :)