Week 23

Because He Lives

This week was interesting weather-wise. It was pretty cold and rainy at the beginning of last week, then it got pretty warm this last weekend. But we had a really beautiful weekend. It is really rare to have clear days, because of the pollution, but we had some! The sky actually looks really blue!

We had the awesome opportunity to bike out to a members house a longs ways from the church. We biked out to his house on Tuesday, and we helped him in his rice fields. It was beautiful out in the rice fields.  It's super green and they have a lot of cool plants and palms trees. We helped him plant some watermelon and clear some weeds. That is one of my favorite parts about Taiwan- you can be in a crowded city one moment and the next moment be in the middle of beautiful rice fields.

We also got the chance to go to the Taipei temple last Wednesday. It was a good trip. We had to get up at 5 o clock in the morning and have a member drive us about 30 minutes. After that we traveled by bus about 2 and a half hours to get to the temple. When we were there we got to do sealings and a session. The session was in English. (Thank Goodness!) I also got to see a lot of Taiwan traveling from here to Taipei. I noticed that Taiwan is really green and it has a lot of green mountains covered in mist, kind of like what you see in the movies.

Another cool thing that happened this week happened on Sunday. We had a former come to church, with a couple of our other solid investigators. The former was pretty crazy, he would clap after every talk, and he would say AMEN so loud, but he was a really nice guy. Then afterwards we had the chance to bike out to LongJing, which is about a 30 minute bike ride. There we met a super nice family who are willing to meet with us. The dad really wants his kids to learn more English and get associated with English things. So today he came to the church and we showed him around. He said he is going to bring his kids to English class this week. 

This week I learned something important about my Chinese. There are times when I feel like my Chinese is extremely weak, and I could improve so much. At those times, I pray harder and work harder for the gift of tongues. The time following the diligent praying and studying, results in an amazing improvement in my Chinese, to the point I can see the hand of the Lord and the power of the spirit in my improvement. Then I begin to be more prideful about it, and I begin to lose my skills. I realize that I cannot learn Chinese fast enough on my own, but through the Lord and through the spirit I can improve. It's like my own personal language apostasy pattern.

I am so happy I get the chance to serve here! Thank you all for your emails and I love you!

Elder Quist

Week 22

From Cold to Hot

This week I learned something about Taiwan. There are very few days I would consider the weather comfortable. The cold weather quickly left last week, and it was replaced by stuffy, hot weather. We went from using heaters in our house to 3 short days later turning on the air conditioner in our room. The craziest part is that the weather never cools down. It seems just as hot at 9 o clock at night than it does at 3 o clock in the afternoon. It's not so bad, but I also wouldn't consider it comfortable.

The days are getting easier and easier to survive in Taiwan. I am getting more and more used to the food here and the Chinese is getting easier and easier. This week at church I could follow along in class and Sacrament meeting. They even asked me a question in Gospel Principles and I was able to answer! It was great.

This last week we had a few cool things. We had a nice rest day for PDAY on Friday, because we probably won't get a day to just rest a little until next Monday, because this week we have a temple trip to Taipei instead of PDAY. We also had a unique experience where we met a guy on the street, invited him to church, and he actually showed up! It was great! He seems like a really nice guy, but he has no time to meet with us. He said he wanted to keep coming to church, and he even borrowed a gospel principles book, because he wanted to "study" it. Things like that don't happen all the time in Taiwan.

We also had an investigator we only met once take us out to dinner this week. He felt really bad because he didn't come to church on Sunday, so he took us to get hotpots on Wednesday before English Class. He is really cool and is really interested in what missionaries do.

Other than that, things just keep rolling on. Taiwan is great, the ward here is really great, and the language is getting easier. Sorry I don't have time to email more, we only have an hour to email this week because of the temple trip! Thanks for all the emails!

Love,

Elder Quist

Week 21

Another good week on the island of Taiwan! 

This last Monday one of our investigators was at the internet cafe we email at, so we went to lunch with him after. We went to a buffet where you use hotpots, these pots full of hot soup you can cook things in. So we would grab raw meet of all kinds (all you can eat) and we would throw it into the pot. There was also a bunch of other things all you could eat, like dumplings. After that, we went to a Miao, which is a religious temple. They are everywhere in Taiwan. There were a bunch of people inside worshiping Asian gods and they even had a gift shop in the basement. It was a good P-DAY and our investigator even told us he was having a really hard day until we came to the internet cafe.

That night we met with a new investigator who is investigating the church because his girlfriend is a member.  So he is definitely going to get baptized. He is a super chill guy and even wears a suit to church (which is really rare for an investigator, especially in Taiwan). 

On Wednesday we had English Class at night. I don't know if I talked about it last week, but English Class is how we do service in Taiwan. We send out a bunch of flyers about our free English Class in the church and then people come on Wednesday nights. I teach my own class, the Advanced English Class, because it's a rule they can only speak English. This last week I had 5 students, which is a pretty small class. The other classes, like Intermediate and "Xiao Pengyou" (Little Friends) class both have probably more like 15 people. But it was a good class.  All the people who came have pretty good English.

On Saturday it was Elder Fox's birthday. We started the day in Dajia, which is the bigger city in our area and we taught our investigator in a local Starbucks. After the lesson we had lunch at one of his favorite places in Dajia, a place called SharkBites. They basically had a bunch of American food.  I got grilled cheese and fries. Then that night we had dinner outside and Elder Fox chose a random corner on a street to eat our dinner. It must have been inspired because we had a guy come start talking to us and he told us he wanted to start meeting with missionaries! Then another guy came up to us after that and told us he was an inactive member that was baptized when he was 8 and he "has been feeling like he should come back to church". It was a miracle place!

Sunday was the best day of all though, because we had 6 investigators come to church! The best part about it all was after church we had a huge lunch, because a returned missionary (who used to serve in Taiwan) came to the ward to visit that week. So our investigators got to eat and visit with all the members.

All in all, it was a really good week. We saw a lot of miracles and tender mercies from the Lord. This next week will be kind of weird, because we don't have PDAY today, we actually have PDAY on Friday this week. I think it's because we are getting more visa waiters this week. We were just allowed to email today, but I might be back on Friday, I am not sure. Thanks everyone! 

Love you, 

Elder Quist

Week 20

Taiwan Week 1

Good first week in Taiwan! I actually happened to have a baptism this week! He already had his date when I got here, but it was still cool to see it. A member of the ward baptized him and it was all in Chinese, but I still enjoyed it! My first baptism in the mission field!

This last week I got to meet a lot of our investigators. Right now Shalu is on fire. We have a bunch of good investigators (one of them is actually sitting right next to me right now.. small world). They are all pretty solid, but they all have their own problems and some of them make me eat horrible food.

This last week I got to try Stinky Tofu, which was a good experience... And last weekend I ate something that tasted like death. I learned that my gag reflex is horrible, or really good?  Every time I put something in my mouth I don't like, my body just tries to reject it. I am able to get most things down and I am even learning to love the weird food. For the most part the food is really good here. There are a lot of good fried rice places and good noodle places, not to mention all the dumplings we get to eat. One bad thing about a mission in Taiwan is I am not learning how to cook. I only have to cook on Sundays and I usually just have bread and eggs on Sunday.

I also had zone conference this last week. It was a really good experience. We learned about following the spirit and becoming more consecrated missionaries. It was actually a lot like the one I just had in Washington. I was fortunate enough to have 2 zone conferences in less than a month. 

I don't have a lot of good pictures this week, because I actually got really tired last PDAY and we ended up just sleeping for an hour at the house.  But today we are going to Dajia, one of the bigger cities of our area, and we are going to visit a miao (like an Asian temple) there. We are also going to an Asian buffet, so I will take some good pictures there.

Shalu is great!  The members are great and everyone here is really nice. The weather is kind of cold lately (nothing like Washington or Utah though) but I guess it's going to warm up really quick. The hardest part about Shalu is that it's right on the coast, so it's really windy here.

My Chinese is getting better everyday. I am enjoying my experience here and look forward to my stay on this island! I will also include more stuff next week about my investigators.  Right now I am still getting a feel for things.

Love you all,

Elder Quist

Week 19

Shalu the Zion

I am in Taiwan!!!  This last week was so crazy and filled with so many different things.. I don't know if I can even email all of it. I guess I will just start day by day.

Monday I said goodbye to Elder Kim and Elder Nelson. At about 8 at night we drove down to the mission home and I stayed there for the night. I didn't sleep as well as I would've liked.  I probably got about 3 and a half hours, because I had to get up at 4:30. Then we packed up and went to the airport. We traveled from Seattle to San Francisco. In San Francisco we met up with all our old Elders and Sisters from the MTC. Then we hopped on another plane and we flew from San Fran to Taipei. I was glad we got to fly straight to Taipei. I had a middle seat, which made me a little disappointed until I found out it was also an emergency exit seat! So I had so much leg room! It was about a 14 hour flight, and I tried to sleep during it, but I just couldn't ever get comfortable. We arrived in Taipei at about 6:30pm Taipei time and like 2 or 3am Utah time. We had no problems, it was a quick and easy transition from the airport to the bus. We met the Mission President in the airport then all got in a big bus. It looked so cool, all the party buses in Taiwan look pretty awesome. Then we rode two hours to get to Taizhong.  The whole time we introduced ourselves and talked about the mission. Then we got to the mission home, and it was super warm outside. I was actually really surprised! That night I slept in the AP's apartment, which is right above the mission office and right next to the mission home. I slept surprisingly well that night!

On Thursday we woke up and exercised at a stadium close to the mission office. We ran a mile and I did pretty bad, it took me like 6 minutes and 40 seconds. I think it's because in Washington I was always in a car. Then for rest of the day we had orientation, where we learned about the mission and the mission president. That night we went to dinner at a really nice restaurant. I got the opportunity, I guess you could say, to eat the fish eye. It tasted fine but was surprisingly crunchy. But for the most part the food was really good there. Then we went out to one of the biggest night markets in Taizhong. There we did a Dan Jones approach thing where we all got to soapbox. It was exciting. After we soapboxed they gave us a companion (I had the zone leader of the main Taizhong zone) and we went around contacting people in Chinese. It was pretty great. Then we went back and slept, because we were all super exhausted.

The next morning we worked out some more at the stadium, and after we went to the church by the mission home and did personal study. They made us stay in the basement while the trainers had a meeting. After about an hour we got to go up. We had an hour meeting with the President, then he called missionaries up individually and gave them a red envelope. In the red envelope was our companion's name and our area's name. My companion is Elder Fox, a missionary from Tremonton, Utah, and my area is called Shalu. So after that we went to our areas. Me and Elder Fox got on a bus and drove for about an hour and a half north to Shalu. Then we went to our apartment, which is one of the nicest apartments in the whole mission, and I think definitely the biggest. It has 2 floors, I will send pictures of it, it is so big. And Shalu is kind of rural in some areas, but other areas have a lot of people. Our whole area is actually really big though, even bigger than my area in Washington. We technically have 8 cities in our area, and Shalu is just one of them. My companion said it would take like 3 or 4 hours to bike from one side of our area to the other. 

Then that night we happened to have a ward activity for Chinese New Year. I went to the church (and we have a really good ward, especially for Taiwan. We have like 100 people come every week!) and had some dinner. I met a lot of nice people, who all tried to speak to me in Mandarin.  Then we went and played a game as a ward. It was super weird for me, because I didn't understand a lot of it. But it was basically a riddle game. It was a crazy first day in my area. 

Then next we went around to tract. We started with an area, and my companion just asked me to pick a street to tract. So I picked a street and met this guy outside his house. We talked to him for a while, he was really nice (actually all people in Taiwan are really nice). Then we went down another street and this old guy let us in his house. He was 90 years old and from mainland China! I could not understand him. Then we got on a bus and drove to a city called Dajia. On the bus, however, I met this kid going to high school. My companion asked me to talk to him, so I did.  And I got his number and he said he would meet with us this week! It was so cool! After that we got to Dajia, which is a pretty big city full of night markets and crazy drivers. We found a decent place to eat, then we went to Starbucks to have a lesson with an investigator. He was a super cool investigator, and after we taught him he wanted to take us to the night markets to feed us. We went to this one stand and he bought us like tofu and this thick skin stuff. It was all right, but I had to force some of it down. Then we went to another store, because he wanted to buy us more. This next food almost killed me. It was like oyster and shrimp, which was fine, but it was covered in this disgusting sauce. I was eating super slow, and we had to leave eventually, so I took it to go and just threw it away when I got away from our investigator.

The next day was Sunday. Church was.. good. It was testimony meeting, so people told stories I didn't really understand. After that we taught a couple more investigators, including a guy named Mike. He is pretty sweet.  He is a magician and he showed me a bunch of card tricks. Then we went around with a member to a bunch of less actives houses. It was another good day. I really enjoyed my first few days here.

My area is really nice. Hard to explain because it has both rice fields and big cities. It goes all along the ocean, but I haven't been to the coast yet because it's like a 30 minute bike ride from our apartment. It's always really windy, and sometimes a little cold, but they told me this was like the best summer area, because the south is super hot in the summer (I am in the northern most part of my mission). 

It was a good week! I am ready for more Taiwan food! There have been a bunch of crazy fireworks and stuff because people are still celebrating Chinese New Year. I will include some pictures and write more next week.

Love,

Elder Quist

Party bus to the mission home