Aug 20, 2008 email

So this week i went to the Post Office to cash in my reciept. On all the reciept they have a lottery number so everytime you buy something you get a lottery number. Anyways i took the reciept to the PO and went to the banking section to cash it. I gave it to the lady and she started counting how many numbers i had. 3 is good, but 5 i thought the PO was going to throw a party for me. once the lady realized i had gotten 5 she called over to her friends. HE GOT 5 HE GOT 5. They all came over and were laughing and telling me i needed to take my companion to go eat a steak dinner. then the lady said go shopping go shopping. its really funny how they say it. the word for shopping is shopping. so its all chinese but then they say shopping in a chinese accents and its really cute. makes me laugh every time. anyways, i was a little embarassed to go cash my reciept, especially because taiwanese people think all americans are millionaires. but they were really cool about it and were excited for me, i think most people know that us missionaries live pretty frugally. i took my district to go eat and then i gave the rest back to the mission. anyways it was a experience to remember.

this week we had some amazing lessons. we have a baptism in a couple weeks for mr. hong. and then we have this new investigator who is just amazing, he is cruising through all the reading assignments we give him and he is so smart. he is about 26 and is a teacher. i love him hes the best. we are actually just waiting for him to ask us when he can be baptized. if he wants to he could also do it on the 6th of september with our other investigator. how cool would that be? anyways, i love all of our investigators. i think i am going to have to move in a couple weeks, and i really dont want to. i love this place so much. the members here are so amazing and are always willing to help us teach. plus i have grown really close to these investigators here, the two that are going to get baptized soon. they came to us having no understanding, completely blank, and it so awesome to see them grow and understand what being a follower of Jesus Christ really means.

anyways, we are only allowed to use our cameras on wednesdays and on special occassions, but last night i wish i had a camera. there was this little old man with this little rust out old bike. on the back rack of his bike he had a brand spankind new 60 inche plasma balanced perfectly as he pedaled. i just gazed in amazment. the tv was HUGE! and here was this little old guy carrying it on the back of his bike. i think most americans would have used a truck to carry this tv. i am still astonished, i just wish i could have gotten a picture of it.

another funny story. on monday my companion and i had about an hour to fill so we decided to go down town and talk to people and invite them to come to church. on the way there we ran into this guy that we gave a Book Of Mormon to about 2 weeks ago. he didnt see us on the rode next to him and he took off going the opposite direction. we had written down his number wrong so we hadnt been able to get in contact with him again. i yelled at my companion. then i flipped around and barreled down after him.

you wouldnt think that those little scooters they ride are that fast, but ill tell you what they are fast as heck. i pedaled as hard as i could and i lost sight of him a couple times, my companion was trying to catch up to me. finally a big old truck slowed him down enough for me to catch up. i smiled and pulled up next to him and waved him over to the side. he came on over. i tried to catch my breath, but i was so tired. i had chased him for like 5 minutes. i could hardly write down his number and our number to give to him because i was shaking so bad. he said he had been reading and really liked it so we are going to meet with him this week.

i am so suprised we recognized him on the street. the only reason we recognized him was cuz he had this very unique scar on his left arm, and when he drove by i saw it. asians dont all look the same to me anymore. they did when i first got here. actually a couple times in my first area i got ward members confused with other ward members. it was kinda embarassing. its getting better though, you just pick different features to focus on when remembering faces.

well thats that. i cant think of anything else crazy that happened this week. we are going to play tennis with Rick our investigator today. i am excited. i havent played since high school.

love ya all

elder craig anderson