June 12, 2016

Hello!

Most of this week it has been reining pretty hard, I think Typhoon season is here. It's kind of fun to see some big storms but it makes it a lot harder to do things as a missionary that is constantly outside on a bike. Thankfully we have been inside a lot the last few days when it has been really bad.

Is the guy Erin met Jordan Rock? I think he just went home.

Grant told me he tried out for concert choir last week but he didn't tell me he made it, that is supper cool!

Have you looked at making a dropbox account yet? I can only send one or two pictures per email so I think a dropbox account would work a lot better if I wanted to send more than that or if I had any videos.

This is going to be Josephs first time at EFY, right? I think he is going to love it.

Most weeks we will spend a little time looking for less active members and we usually end up in neighborhoods that look like this.  I don't know how people ever get around on their scooters on roads like this..

This is us after FHE with Paris (Rebecca's youngest daughter). they are both doing great and have said they are excited for their baptism coming up in a few weeks!

I hope you both have a great week!

Elder Wills

June 5, 2016

Hello!

This was a pretty fun week. It has been raining a lot harder these last few days. It was raining rely hard this morning and we got soaked on the short bike ride over to the internet cafe. Rebecca (the investigator I was talking about last week) did set a baptismal goal with her youngest daughter, Paris, for 7-2. This week was  a little harder for her than last week, one of her old pastures and good friends passed away but we were able to meet with her a few times last week and she seems to be doing pretty good right now. We still haven't been able to meet with her older daughter but we talked to her and she said she could  come to church this week.

On Tuesday we got to go to zone conference and I finally got to meet the rest of the zone. It was  really fun meeting and I was able to get a lot from it. I think one of the best parts was  when the zone leaders scattered a bunch of tacks across the room and made an elder take of his shoes, blind folded him, and made his  companion guide him through all of the tacks. It was really funny to watch and a pretty good object lesson on Faith.

Chinese is still pretty difficult but I've started to really enjoy my language study time. I'm finally at the point where I can read most of the book of Mormon in all Chinese. There are about 3,000 characters that are used in the book of Mormon so there are still parts I cant read (especially the Isaiah chapters in 2nd Nephi) but it is fun to be able to read it without the romanized pinyin.

This week should be pretty great, hopefully we can find a few more people to set some baptism goals with! I hope you both have a great week!

Elder Wills

One of Mark's previous companions he saw on his temple trip.

May 29, 2016

Hello Again!

This week someone told me I look like Captain America, someone else said I look like James Bond and then someone else said I look like Superman. So I guess you could say it was a pretty great week.

Last week I mentioned an investigator that is supper great. He is planning on getting baptized in two weeks but a few days ago he called us and told us that he would be moving to Taipei. He is still doing great and I'm sure he will get baptized in the next few weeks, he will just be in Taipei when it does happen. We have also been meeting with someone else named Rebecca and this week we were also able to start meeting with her daughters. Last night they accepted a baptismal goal and they are doing great. I have only been here a few weeks but it is amazing to see how much she has changed in these last few weeks. She has been divorced twice and five years ago her oldest daughter died. All she would ever talk or think about is how sad she is and how hard her life is. But this week she had a huge change and is now one of the happiest people I know. She said that coming to church with her daughters has given them something to talk about and over these last few days they have improved their relationship a ton. It has been a great thing to see and I'm really excited to see where things go from here.

Do you all have any fun plans for the upcoming summer? I'v heard this is expected to be the hottest summer Taiwan has had in quite a while. It should be lots of fun...

I found a picture from the temple trip last week.

I had another picture but I cant figure out my camera again. Sorry.

I'm sorry I had to take a lot of money out this month. Usually we get about 7000 NT a month and that is usually enough but this month I only got 6000, I don't know why. and then I moved which was pretty expensive so I ended up taking out about 3000 NT this month. A few weeks ago I mentioned I was now doing P90X for my morning work outs and I think it has helped me lot with having more energy and just feeling better in general. I was wondering if I could work out some kind of deal with you to get some new shoes for it. Every work out starts out with a warning to not wear running shoes and lately my feet have started hurting a little after some workouts. I was in the hospital less than a year ago with an injured foot so I don't want to take to many chances if I can avoid them. So could I maybe ask for another really early birthday present? If not I should be able to get by with my running shoes for a while. 

Thank you for taking the time to send me all of those pictures and emailing me again this week. I love you and I hope you have an absolutely fantastic week!

Elder Wills

May 22, 2016

Hello!

This week was a lot of fun in my new area. The city I am in is called dongfeng, it is really close to the center of Taichung. It is very different then my other areas so far. First, it is still actually a branch. I was wrong in my last email when I said it was a ward, it has just started the process of becoming a ward and it will probably be made official in a few weeks. Even though it is just a branch the members area  lot stronger than the other wards I have served in. The members are supper willing to work with us and do there own missionary work. We even have an investigator that has gone looking for other people we can teach.  Second, our apartment isn't in our area, its actually not even in our zone so we need to bike a little was each day to get to our area. Third, we share our apartment with another companionship. They are both supper awesome so it had been a lot of fun.

The temple trip this week was also awesome! We went with another zone and on the was I ran into one of my past companions. We served together a while ago and at the time a had a little bit of a hard time working with him but we sat together on the bus to the temple and I'm happy to say that now we are great friends :) The actually temple part of things was really cool too. thankfully they had a session in English for all of us. If I move in the next few transfers there is a chance I wont get to go on another temple trip again until the end of my mission, so hopefully I stay here for a while, I wouldn't mind going to the temple again soon.

That's about all I have for now, I hope you have a great week!!

Elder Wills

May 16, 2014

Hello!

I'm sorry, I don't have as much time to email today. I moved again and now I am in the most northern part of the mission. I wasn't expecting to move because I was only in my last area for 3 months but I think I am going to really like it hear. Up until yesterday this was a branch but it was just officially made a ward.  I haven't met any of the members yet but I  have heard lots of great things about them. My new companion is Elder Heath from Utah. He has been in Taiwan for two transfers now so I am just is second companion. He is supper cool and seems like a hard working, dedicated missionary. I am relay looking forward to these next few months. And I am really looking forward to this Wednesday, I'm going on my first trip to the Taipei temple! Hopefully I will be able to get a few pictures. Do you maybe have a Dropbox account I could upload pictures to for you to see? We also just had a rule change recently and we can take videos now and if I ever wanted to send a video to you I think Dropbox would be easier for me. I love you both and I'll talk to you again next week!

Elder WIlls  

May 1, 2016

Hello again!

I still don't know anything about mothers day yet, so I don't really know what to do about that. I'm sure we will be able to figure it out though.

I finally got the garments. when they got to the mission home they accidentally forwarded them to an Elder Williams. He had to wait until Monday before he could send them back to the mission home and then they sent them to me. So it took me a little longer to get them them then it should have. Thank you for sending them to me. 

It's weird to think that it is still cold there. Its starting to get really hot it Taiwan  so I'm back to sweating 24/7 and doing my best to drink 50 gallons of water a day so I don't die from dehydration. But By now we are only a week away  from mango season, so there are a few good things about all of the heat. And thankfully we finally got an AC unit in our study room. studying your scriptures while you are reading scriptures is not very much fun.

The hose is probably going to feel really home with everyone home and Jared's 6 ducks.  Now if you just found a few rabbits and chickens and it would be just like the summer we had a few years ago :)

I'm sorry I don't have much to say again today but I'm looking forward to talking to you all soon!

April 17, 2016

Hello :)

I still don't know anything about Skype on mothers day, I will let you know as soon as I know.

I got some glasses but haven't been able to get my eyes tested and the real lens put into them yet. I pulled the money out to go do it but I didn't actually end up spending it on glasses... I'm sorry, I probably should have asked you first but I have been working really  hard on being healthy and having good work outs in the morning. But a few weeks ago a member was going to Japan and he mentioned something about how P90X is a lot cheaper in Japan and he helps a lot of missionaries buy it when he goes. So I had him get it for me too. Sorry for not asking before hand if it would be ok but on the bright side my workouts this week have been a lot better than they have in the past.

I still haven't had any mangos yet. The mango season should be starting any day now. I pretty excited. But pineapple season just started and I already had a few of those, they are supper good. But I'm going to have a hard time eating pineapple again in america, They will just taste really sour in comparison to the pineapple they grow here.

I don't really have a lot more to say about this week. We did talk to a few people at the end of the week that might have some potential to become new investigators and I think our relationship with the ward has been improving a lot. So I think these next few weeks should be pretty good.

Thank you for all that you do for me!

Love,

Elder Wills