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