Elder Noah Quist: Week 51

Island Jumping

I really loved this last week. The winter is coming and even though Taiwan doesn't have a real winter, it is getting cooler and cooler everyday. Last week had a very fall feel about it and I loved it. However, I need to forget all about the fall weather, because I am moving! I am moving from Fengyuan, the mission's most northern area, down to HengChun, the mission's most southern area (literally the tip of the island). Apparently it can get pretty hot here, but we are just lucky we are here in the winter and not in the summer. This area is well known for it's beautiful landscape. It is surrounded by the ocean, and apparently very beautiful. I will send some more pictures next week. Apparently, we are the only area in the mission that actually touches the east coast.

My new companion is Elder Dalmer. He has been on island just for a little less than me. He is an awesome missionary and I look forward to working with him. I also am working with a branch again, the HengChun (which means Eternal Spring) branch. I am excited that I can work with the people down here.

This last week we saw a lot of good things. We were able to find 7 new investigators. They came from miraculous means, like English students setting up, or part member families coming to church. We also found a lot of people from our contacting efforts. I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to serve in Fengyuan! I am so sad that I had to leave, but I know I will love this new area just as much. It will just take a little time.

I got to see the entire island today! I road from the north all the way to the bottom. I was surprised how different Taiwan was the further we went south. You will have to pray for me, because apparently this area is pretty rural. There are a lot of stray dogs and everyone speaks Taiwanese, which is the native language of Taiwan. Although most people also speak Chinese, their Chinese is really influenced by their Taiwanese. Also, apparently there is also a lot of biking down here. Since we don't have much of a chapel, we spend a lot of our time biking and looking for investigators. I guess we will also see a lot of foreigners down here, because there is a big world renowned resort in our area called KenDing.

Lastly, we also got to watch General Conference yesterday! We were delayed because we had to wait for the translation into Chinese (although we still watch it in English). I was so inspired! I felt this was an especially good session of conference. I really liked the talk by Elder Holland about mothers, although it made me feel guilty for not treating my mom better.

I hope you are all doing well in America. Congrats to Nate on passing the bar exam and congrats to Zac on getting some cool internship offers and congrats to Josh on a new job!

These move weeks, adjusting to a new area and companion, are always the hardest weeks, so please pray for me.

Love you guys,

Elder Quist