Dec 31, 2008 Email

Wow!

So I talked to a lot of you on the phone for christmas. That was fun! but really weird. hahaha... Not to mention Ali made fun of me and said my english was weird. ;) Thanks Ali, just kidding i love ya.

Sorry i didnt really know what to tell you all about. I dont know why, but everytime i call home i get really nervous. its like i am calling a really pretty girl to ask her out on a date. that probably sounds weird but seriously thats how it is. So although it was fun to talk to you, it is nice to be back to typing emails. :)

There is a guard who watches our building that we talk with a lot. We told him that we got to call home and he thought that it was strange that we only got to call home twice a year. We told him that we got to email every week and he was amazed. A lot of people really admire and respect the missionaries over here, and thats how we get a lot of people to listen to our message. So everytime we go out on the street we have to be looking and acting our best because people are always watching. We only have to wear our suits on Sundays and then after church we can take them off, but in the Taipei mission they have to wear them all day! I guess since Taipei is a little bit more upper class they want the missionaries to be dressed more professional.

So on Saturday Lin Miao Yin was baptized! He is a really awesome little 65 year old guy. He is only 5'0" but has the spirit of a tiger hahaha... Its funny because I have never seen someone his age accept the gospel. Most people just say they are too old to change religions, but this little guy read and prayed and knew it was true. On Tuesday nights the church has a seminary lesson that anyone can come to, right now they are studying the New Testament, anyways, he looks forward to that everyweek. He says his favorite days are Tuesdays and Sundays so that he can come to class. Lin Miao Yin doesnt have very much money. He has enough for living and paying his rent, but thats about it so my companion and I bought him a white collared shirt and tie so that he looks just like all the other members at church. Brother Lin was so touched that we did that for him. It was really neat to see someone so grateful for the missionaries like he is.

Christmas was pretty fun. It was awesome talking to you guys! Then we had the Mission Conference, where all the missionaries from all over come down and go eat at a really nice all you can eat buffet. Its probably one of the nicest places in Kaohsiung and it was only like $15 USD. Thats alot to spend on 1 meal, but in America it would have been a lot more. I wish food was that cheap in the US. it was good food too, they had all you can eat Hagen Dahz ice cream. MMMMM... i hadnt eaten that kind of food in a while. usually we just eat the rice and noodle "specials". There is a lot of good food here, but we usually try and be somewhat frugal with our money. So every week we will go eat somewhere nicer than the standard street shop. Dont worry the street shops are pretty clean, and we arent stupid we know which ones are good and which ones are bad.

love ya
Elder Craig Anderson
Taiwan Kaohsiung Mission (the other side of the world)