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