February 14, 2016

Hello again!

This was a pretty exciting week. I got lots of pictures but with the way things turned out today I don't actually have any of the pictures with me right now so I will just have lots to send next week.

For basically the entire week we were eating tons of food and there were constantly fireworks and parades out in the streets. Sometimes it was hard to concentrate on our morning studies with all of the fireworks and drums outside but we ate lots of food and we were able to meet with a lot more of the members because they were all inviting us over to their homes to feed us. This week were were able to get the work with the members moving a little faster. The last few weeks it felt like we weren't having any success but this week was a lot better. A lot of the members were really willing to help us out and introduce us to their friends and then at the end of the week were had our first FHE for the YSA and 14 people show up. It was pretty great. 

And now that we were able to get the ward up and going I got transferred. I am now in yongkang, about an hour drive north of where I was just at. Yongkang is where the Earthquake was the worst and there is still a lot of cleanup going on. Its going to be interesting just to see how that effects missionary work. Now I am actually really close to my first area again. The first ward I served in had to move buildings because the first one wasn't safe so now they actually meet in the same building I am in right now. So I will probably get to see a lot of the members from my first area again, It should be a lot of fun. 

Moving was a little sad because Elder Frye and I were doing really well together but my new companion is also pretty cool and I've only heard good things about his so I think Its going to be a fun transfer. I'm sorry I didn't have the pictures this week, I'll do my best to get them to you next week.

I love you!

Elder Wills

February 7, 2016

Hello:)

So the earthquake was pretty crazy this week. I was actually on exchanges when it happened, at first I thought my companion had come over to my side of the room and was trying to rip my mattress out from under me. I haven't seen any buildings down in my area from it but I've heard there were quite a few that fell over in my first area. I haven't heard from any of the members over their yet, I hope they are all ok.

Dad- When I said "My companion is still supper awesome" last week I guess it was just a poor choice of wording. I guess what I meant to say is that we are still getting along really well and we have a supper awesome companionship. unfortunately I think there is a pretty good chance i will be transferred next week...

I'm sorry i forgot to take pictures again this week, I'm sure I will have lots of them for you next week though.

Thank you for everything that you do for me and thank you for being such great parents!

I love you!

Elder wills

(MARK HAS STARTED TO SEND PICTURES OF LETTERS HE WROTE DURING THE WEEK SO HE CAN WRITE US A LITTLE MORE.  HERE IS AN EXCERPT FROM ONE)

Hello,

Happy New Year!  According to the Chinese Calendar today is the first day of the new year.  I think this next week will pretty much just be a huge party that lasts a whole week.  It might be a little harder to teach lessons but we are hoping to get some solid references that we will be working with these next few weeks.  Hopefully it all goes well!

                I don’t know if you have seen it on the news at at all, our mission president might have actually emailed you already, but we had a pretty big earthquake Friday night/Saturday morning.  Everything is fine where I am but in my first area (less than 5 miles north) there were a few pretty big building that fell over.  It hit at about 4:00 AM and immediately woke me up because it almost threw me out of bed.  We are on the 6^th floor of our apartment so it was even worse because of how high up we are.  I’ve been in a few smaller earthquakes that rocked us back and forth a little but this was completely different.  It felt like I was in a really old roller coaster and it lasted long enough I felt motion sick by the time it was done.  I haven’t actually been able to look at the news but I have heard it was rated as a 6.6 earthquake.

February 1, 2016

Hello :)

Thankfully this week has been a little warmer. I was able to find a blanket so I haven't frozen in the middle of the night yet. I haven't found a jacket but it usually isn't to cold in the day and these last few days it has started to warm up a little more.

Not a ton happened this week. Right now we don't real progressing investigators so most days we spend a few hours talking to people on the streets trying to find new people to talk to but we haven't seen to much success.

Thank you for everything that the two of you do for me. I always love hearing from you and seeing all of the funpictures of things you are all doing :)

I love you!

Elder Wills

P.S. Sometimes the shirts here are kinda funny. most of the time the English on them makes  absolutely no scene. But right now I don't know if my English is any better

January 24, 2016

Jan 24

Hi Mom!

The weather has been crazy these last few days. It hasn't snowed here but it got below freezing these last few days. If we counted wind chill i don't even know how cold it actually is, well below zero. And none of us were really prepared for it, my short sleeved shirts and thin rain jacket weren't really enough to fight it all off. We tried to go buy a coat but I couldn't find any that fit me. Thankfully I was at least able to find a pair of gloves and a scarf. None of the buildings have heaters either so it is just as cold inside as it is outside, at least there isn't any wind. I don't really have a blanket so last night I had to put on almost all of the cloths I have so I didn't freeze to death. Its still supper cold and i think it will be for the next few days But I think the worst is over.

I know I have sent a lot of monkey pictures but this week we were biking through the mountains and we came around the corner to a small parking lot and IO think there were at least 40 of the running around jumping on peoples cars and stuff. so I'm sending another monkey picture

anyway, not a lot happened this week. the weather was freezing and raining so nobody wanted to talk to us and most people we had lessons set up just never showed up. That happened a lot but this week it happened more that usual. Hopefully this week goes a little better and I don't freeze to death. Thank you for taking the time to email me again this week. I love you!

Love,

Elder Wills

January 10, 2016

Hello Mom :)

This was another pretty great week. My companion is awesome and we have been able to get a lot done these last few weeks. Right now we are still doing a lot of different things to try and find new investigators because we don't have to many right now. So things are going a little slow but we are working supper hard and we have met a lot of supper cool people these last few days.

It was pretty cool to see sister Borden this week. I never really talked to her back in Minnesota but it was a lot of fun to get to know her. The Dewitt's invited us and a few other missionaries over to their house on Saturday and gave us all lunch. They made some Mexican type food with lots of beans, meat and salsa with root beer floats for desert. It didn't settle to well with my stomach after these last few months with nothing but Taiwanese food but it was still pretty good. Thank you for sending that package with her, it was great :) I was supper excited to see the Messiah music in their and I think my companion was about as excited as I was. Neither of us own a CD player though so we are still trying to figure that out.... I loved the tie and watch too. I feel a little like James Bond with the watch, I have an entire world map and two different clocks all on my wrist. And really the only variety in what missionaries can wear is our ties and watch so I think you did pretty good. :) thanks :)

Last Email I asked about my patriarchal blessing and those scriptures. I then realized I could probably look up the scriptures on my own because it is an official church website and I found out that the scriptures were a lot more expensive than I thought they were. When I'm living off of just a few dollars a day though I guess everything is relatively expensive. But anyway, they were a lot more money that I thought and it isn't an absolute necessity so you don't actually need to worry about that.  But if there is a way you know of to get a new copy of my patriarchal blessing I would still really appreciate that.

A lot happened this week but now that I want to write about it I cant remember much of it... Yesterday when church was done there was a huge Buddhist parade right in front of our church. I have seen lots of them before but I think this was probably the biggest/loudest/longest one I have ever seen. There were lots of people dressed up as the different Buddhist gods, lots of people carrying around their idols and TONS of fireworks.  When church was done we went back to our apartment for our companionship study and we couldn't ever hear each other talk because all of the music and fireworks were so loud. The local religions here are pretty strange most of the time.

I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures this week. I'm trying to get better at taking pictures but I have a really hard time remembering to take out my camera when i see something cool. Hopefully I will remember to get a few this week. Thank you for everything that you do for me, you are great :)

I love you!

Elder Wills

January 3, 2016

Jan 3, 2016

Sorry I wasn't able to email you back last week, sometimes I forget about some of the things I need to do during my emailing time. but to answer your questions...

How are you doing? Pretty Great :)

How is the language going? Its still pretty hard but between my companion and I we can pretty much figure anything out and we don't really have any problems with the language as far as teaching lessons and other missionary related activities go. We have a lot of practice with that stuff.

What helps you stay motivated? Sometimes its hard to stay motivated all the time. Sometimes we just need to take a five minuet break and talk about something else and then get back to work. It also helps to try and see the bigger picture of things or keep a vision of the missionary I would like to become. When I have those things in my mind its a lot easier to keep on going after a few hours of rejection in every direction.

How is it going teaching and finding investigators?  these last few days with Elder Frye have been great. The first day we were together we had nearly twenty people from off the streets agree to meet with the missionaries. A lot of them were female so we refereed them to the sisters and we haven't actually been able to meet with all of them yet but we are hoping to find a lot of new investigators these next few weeks. As far as teaching goes other than the new people we have found we only really have one investigator that has been investigating the church for a long time but has lots of excuses to not get baptized. We had a crazy lesson with him a few days ago that lasted two and a half hours and by the end of it he was literally trembling because the spirit was so strong in the room. We are hoping he will get baptized in the next few weeks. If things keep on going the way they have these last few days this will end up being a pretty great transfer.

Brother Dewitt called me and said he will just invite us and Sister Borden over to dinner together. He is supper great and willing to help missionaries so meeting up with her shouldn't be to much of a problem :)

It looks like you all had a lot of fun these last few days. Thank you again for all of the pictures :) New years and Christmas were pretty normal days of missionary work for us but the Chinese New year is coming up and I've heard that can get pretty crazy. From what I can tell Its like a party that lasts an entire week and by the end of it I would have eaten so much that I might slip into a food coma. I'm sure I will have lots of fun pictures to send when that actually does happen.

Now I have a few random questions 1) Is there any way to get a new copy of my Patriarchal blessing? Mine didn't come out of the printer very nice in the first place and now there are a few parts of it that are pretty difficult to read. 2) does the church make the small compact scripture quads still? I think I remember when I got my set of scriptures we couldn't find them anywhere but lately I have seen a few elders that had bought some in the last few years. If they do make them do they have any options that aren't supper expensive and would it at all be possible for me to get a hold of a pair of them?  I feel kinda bad asking right after Christmas and I know you sent me some nice scriptures for my birthday. The ones I got for my birthday have been a huge help but there have been quite a few times I regretted not having the bible with my. so them these last few days I've had my bigger scriptures with me which hasn't been super convenient and I decided I wouldn't mind getting a new set of scriptures to study with an actually marking system which I regret not having when I got my scriptures after graduating seminary. But it isn't a necessity and I'm guessing they can be a little expensive so you don't need to worry about that to much. 

now for a few random pictures......

​almost every missionary that serves on the coast takes one of these pictures so I decided to jump on the bandwagon.

we came across a transformers statue and Just couldn't resist....

these next two pictures might help you better understand the diversity of lifestyles in Shizhong. they were taken about ten minuets apart.

I'm sorry I have been really bad at emailing you lately, I promise I will try doing a better job at that. These next few weeks should be pretty exciting so that should also help with he quality of my emails a little. Last week when we were skyping I said something about how I don't have a ton of emailing time and then the next week you apologized for taking up my emailing time. That wasn't what I meant when I said I don't have a lot of time and I don't want you to feel like its a burden for me to read and respond to your emails. I absolutely love hearing from you, everything you have to say, and I love seeing all of the pictures you send. Sometimes I don't have enough time to do everything that I want to during my emailing time so a lot of times I don't get around to emailing you back or all of my emails are short and don't really mean much. I think I might start trying to get better at writing letters, I personally think they are a lot more convenient because I don't have a time limit and I think most people would agree that it is more fun to get a letter from Taiwan then a short Email.

Thank you so much for everything that you do for me., I really do feel extremely lucky to have such a great  Mom :) I love you so much and I always love hearing from you.

我愛你!

-溫長老

Elder Wills