Well I guess I should apologize for not emailing on Saturday. It is a long story, but basically I fell asleep. We got busy working in the morning and I completely forgot that it was our day to rest! To me it just felt like a normal day. Being in the office is just like that, we usually don’t get a preparation day and if we do it is just a couple hours to take a breather. So I am sorry if you waited for my email and never got it.
Another busy busy week fighting Chinese cell phone companies. And by the way, no they do not speak English, its quite funny when they try though. It is also very frustrating because they try and take advantage of us because they think the church is rich, they don’t realize that the missionaries are the ones paying for it and that each missionary only has 400 USD a month to survive. Those little scam artists. Its okay we are slowly beating them into submission.
Things have started to slow down now that I have gotten settled in. Although I was in the office before it is a completely different experience here. Back in Kaohsiung, the senior missionary couple there did a lot more than the ones here, so I have to do a lot of extra stuff, which is one of the reasons we are always so busy. Plus President Hoer is always throwing on new projects and stuff. You are probably all wondering, what kind of projects could a mission president possibly come up with? You know what I wonder that a lot too, but sure enough he seems to find ones.
Recently I have been working on getting all the water filters for the entire mission figured out. If you drank the water that comes out of the tap over here, you would most likely turn into a werewolf or a vampire, if you were lucky. It’s pretty gross stuff! I guess when you put 23 million people on a little tiny island you can’t expect the water sanitation to be that great! Anyways, so all the missionary apartments all have these permanent water filter units installed. The filters in them need to be changed periodically. It used to be that missionaries would keep track and change the filters themselves, but we have found that missionaries often forget to swap filters, which isn’t good because we don’t want werewolf missionaries, although vampire missionaries could beneficial because then we could just bite people, and they would turn into a Mormon missionary vampires. But for now we are just going to stick to our normal way or preaching the gospel, I will put in a suggestion though that in the future we could consider upgrading all our missionaries to vampire status.
That project has been going really well, we are getting all the schedules synchronized and organizing the mass amounts of replacement filters that were previously stored at every missionary’s house. Now we are storing all the filters at my house! I have to swim though filters to find my stuff in the mornings . Its okay, though, if it floods again I won’t have to worry about finding drinking water, I can just open up my doors and windows, let all the water in and use the replacement filters as straws.
Apart from the experiences listed above we had some great proselyting experiences. I ran into this guy from Idaho, he was pretty nice guy, his girlfriend who was also from Idaho was not a nice guy. She was a mean girl! I talked to him for a couple minutes and he was great, he was interested and was like “Yeah, okay, I will meet with you.” So I set up a time and then his girlfriend came out to get on the scooter with him and she was not cool. I should have told her to go back inside and let the big boys talk. Just before he was about to give me his cell phone number she hopped on the scooter and was like, “Oh we are not interested.” And I was like “No, actually he is.” I can’t stand it when people try and talk for other people, it happens all the time. Usually with couples, the husband will be really cool and then the wife is terrible. Sometimes I on the street, I will politely tell the wives that I am speaking with their husbands not them. If you do it politely in Chinese it is actually not rude at all. Anyways, I was so made at this Idaho girl, I love teaching Americans, I am sure you remember Robert the Jewish guy. He was a blast to teach! By the way he is doing good and his 2 sons were baptized 3 weeks after I left.
Mike, this guy from Idaho, was like, “Well she will get mad at me if I meet with you.” So I asked her “Hey, kaylee(I can’t remember her name now, I think my mind subconsciously wiped it from my memory) will you get mad at Mike if he comes to church?” Finally, she was like “No I guess not.” And then she started to be nice. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and our purpose here on this earth. I told them “Even if you don’t have interest in what we share you can at least come and understand what we are all about. Heck, at least you will have a cool story to share with your friends.” They laughed and agreed that their friends would think that them meeting with the Mormon missionaries would be a quite intriguing story. Sad part of the story though is that since they just got here to teach english, they don’t have cell phones yet and they didn’t want to give me their bosses number because they thought it might get them in trouble if the missionaries called him. They also don’t know where they will be moving either. I gave them my cell number and they took it, he said he would call. I sure hope they call, but the interesting thing is that people very rarely will take the initiative to get in touch with us. The few that do are usually really really really ready for the gospel, or crazy and want to talk to the handsome Americans. I hope that Mike calls!!
On the street occasionally people will say to us “Why do you go preach, everybody already knows! Leave us alone!” If everybody already knew then we would not have over 1500 baptisms a year in our mission alone mostly from street contacts. People need somebody else to take the initiative for them. Even though a lot of people are interested they would never go out and look for the missionaries. As a matter of fact, I have talked with well over a hundred people on the street that were like, “I am so glad that you stopped to talk to me, I have always wanted to meet with you guys, but I was to shy to wave you down.”
Anyways, I think the moral of the story is that, despite the fact that occasionally somebody will get angry with us for contacting them on the street, it is worth it when we truly find someone who has been prepared by the Lord for us to find. We are not confrontational usually ;), so I think it is very interesting when people start yelling at us before we have even finished our “hello, how are you?” sentence. It is fun though, I have learned that there is nothing better to do but smile as wide as you can. Although, smiling wider might make the person that is yelling at you angrier, it makes the bystanders realize that we are just nice young men trying to share the truth about God.
That reminds me of onetime when I was in Kaohsiung, I pulled up to talk to this man and right of the bat he started swearing and yelling at me in Taiwanese. Luckily, or unluckily, depending on how you see it, I speak enough Taiwanese to know exactly what he was saying. He made himself look like a fool, in the end though a lady that had pulled up behind us watched the whole thing. She watched as this man attempted to spit on me, don’t worry I dodged it, and then afterwards she actually contacted us and was like hey, where is your church? I want my sons to go. She even offered to buy my companion a new basket for his bicycle because his was all broken up. I’m not really headed anywhere with this, just sharing some random missionary experiences.
Peace,
Elder Anderson
Saturday, September 26, 2009
You Though AT&T Was Bad Aug 28, 2009
Well Grandma Wood gets my award of appreciation for her email this week. She was the only one that remembered that there is a poor little missionary over in the South China Sea floating around. Ok ok ok… so now that the typhoon is gone I am no longer floating. Thanks grams I love you to pieces.
I was just teasing you all, I am sure that you haven’t gotten used to the fact that I email on Saturdays now Instead of Wednesdays. This week has gone by so fast! Being in the office just makes time fly by. We are just busy busy busy. All day!
I am in charge of working out the cell phone situations for all the missionaries in the mission. We currently have 118 cell phones. So recently I have been working with a cell phone company called ZhongHua to get a new cell phone contract signed. It makes me want to pull my hair out. You thought cell phone companies in the states were bad. Ha… Try Taiwanese cell phone companies, you have to be extra careful or else they will try and charge you all sorts of penalties. For example 2 days ago I sent an email to our contact at the cell phone company, She didn’t respond. So yesterday early in the morning I sent another email, no response. Finally at about 4:30 pm I called her and was like hey did you get my emails. And she was like yeah, but I finish doing it before responding. Whatever she was trying to wait until the next payment period started before responding. What I told her to do in the emails was cancel 10 phone lines, before July. We pay month to month so as soon as the 1st of the month comes around we are automatically signed up for the entire month. Anyways, so after I called and told her I wanted them cancelled yesterday she was like okay. You know what happened? She called us back about an hour and a half later. She knows that the Operations Manager (me) is in charge of the phone stuff, but she asked to talk with President Hoer. Luckily, I heard my companion answer the phone. Anyways, so she got on the line with President Hoer. President didn’t know that I have been trying to get her to cancel the phones for the past 3 days. So I started listening to the conversation on speaker phone and then she said, “So I will just go ahead and cancel those phones next week, is that okay?” Sneaky little stinker huh? She knows how our mission office runs because they have been dealing with us for years, so she tried to go around the person that actually does the phones so that they could force us to sign up for another month. However, I ran into President’s Office and told him, “Hey, tell her not okay, she needs to cancel those phones today!” So he told her and then she tried to say, well lets just wait until Monday, but Monday would be the start of a new payment period. Isn’t that a slimy thing to do?! I was so ticked. Anyways, we got them cancelled.
Hahaha… I feel bad for you all. You have to read about me whining about cell phone companies. You probably want to hear about missionary stuff. Hahaha… well, we had a couple of good lessons last night. We were walking around in this park looking for people to contact and I ran into this somewhat drunk man. He wasn’t like drunk drunk, he was just a little buzzed. You know the really friendly type. Anyways, as soon as he saw me HE started talking to ME. Crazy! People hardly ever talk to us first, usually they look at us like we are alien cyborgs. So I sat down with this man and started talking with him. Really nice guy! Anyways, he told me all about how when he was younger he was in some Chinese mafia and used to be the one they would send to scare people or beat up people. Then he got married and decided to leave the mafia and all his mafia friends abandoned him. He had a really bad drinking problem though. And then a couple years ago he had his first kid, so he got a real job and stopped smoking. Then after another year he started to not drink as much. So now he only drinks on Friday nights occasionally with his friends in the park. Anyways, I sat down with him and we talked about eternal families, that if we prepare in this life we can live with our families in the life to come. He loved it! And said he would come to church on Sunday. He wasn’t really drunk so he won’t forget, plus I have his cell phone number. But he wants to bring his whole family. It was perfect too because he said he was looking for something to help him make the final change to being a good person. I told him through Jesus Christ we can all change. We will see what happens I guess.
Love ya
Elder Anderson
I was just teasing you all, I am sure that you haven’t gotten used to the fact that I email on Saturdays now Instead of Wednesdays. This week has gone by so fast! Being in the office just makes time fly by. We are just busy busy busy. All day!
I am in charge of working out the cell phone situations for all the missionaries in the mission. We currently have 118 cell phones. So recently I have been working with a cell phone company called ZhongHua to get a new cell phone contract signed. It makes me want to pull my hair out. You thought cell phone companies in the states were bad. Ha… Try Taiwanese cell phone companies, you have to be extra careful or else they will try and charge you all sorts of penalties. For example 2 days ago I sent an email to our contact at the cell phone company, She didn’t respond. So yesterday early in the morning I sent another email, no response. Finally at about 4:30 pm I called her and was like hey did you get my emails. And she was like yeah, but I finish doing it before responding. Whatever she was trying to wait until the next payment period started before responding. What I told her to do in the emails was cancel 10 phone lines, before July. We pay month to month so as soon as the 1st of the month comes around we are automatically signed up for the entire month. Anyways, so after I called and told her I wanted them cancelled yesterday she was like okay. You know what happened? She called us back about an hour and a half later. She knows that the Operations Manager (me) is in charge of the phone stuff, but she asked to talk with President Hoer. Luckily, I heard my companion answer the phone. Anyways, so she got on the line with President Hoer. President didn’t know that I have been trying to get her to cancel the phones for the past 3 days. So I started listening to the conversation on speaker phone and then she said, “So I will just go ahead and cancel those phones next week, is that okay?” Sneaky little stinker huh? She knows how our mission office runs because they have been dealing with us for years, so she tried to go around the person that actually does the phones so that they could force us to sign up for another month. However, I ran into President’s Office and told him, “Hey, tell her not okay, she needs to cancel those phones today!” So he told her and then she tried to say, well lets just wait until Monday, but Monday would be the start of a new payment period. Isn’t that a slimy thing to do?! I was so ticked. Anyways, we got them cancelled.
Hahaha… I feel bad for you all. You have to read about me whining about cell phone companies. You probably want to hear about missionary stuff. Hahaha… well, we had a couple of good lessons last night. We were walking around in this park looking for people to contact and I ran into this somewhat drunk man. He wasn’t like drunk drunk, he was just a little buzzed. You know the really friendly type. Anyways, as soon as he saw me HE started talking to ME. Crazy! People hardly ever talk to us first, usually they look at us like we are alien cyborgs. So I sat down with this man and started talking with him. Really nice guy! Anyways, he told me all about how when he was younger he was in some Chinese mafia and used to be the one they would send to scare people or beat up people. Then he got married and decided to leave the mafia and all his mafia friends abandoned him. He had a really bad drinking problem though. And then a couple years ago he had his first kid, so he got a real job and stopped smoking. Then after another year he started to not drink as much. So now he only drinks on Friday nights occasionally with his friends in the park. Anyways, I sat down with him and we talked about eternal families, that if we prepare in this life we can live with our families in the life to come. He loved it! And said he would come to church on Sunday. He wasn’t really drunk so he won’t forget, plus I have his cell phone number. But he wants to bring his whole family. It was perfect too because he said he was looking for something to help him make the final change to being a good person. I told him through Jesus Christ we can all change. We will see what happens I guess.
Love ya
Elder Anderson
Monday, August 24, 2009
MIssion Office Chapter 2 Aug 21, 2009
Well things have settled down back to normal here. well at least as normal as things can get. We are working away in the office. Although the flooding has been really devastating to a lot of people here, it has been a great opportunity for everyone to work together and serve each other. i think it has been a tragic typhoon, but it has also been an uplifting experience to see people performing selfless service. many of the missionaries were down there cleaning up mud and debris that had been washed into peoples homes. i was moved to Taichung the day that they organized the service groups. Oh well, my work here in the office is important too.
If I had one complaint about being in the office, it would be that you miss out on all the action. Being in the office in Taichung is about the same as being in the office in Kaohsiung, of course there is a different mission president i report to, but for the most part it is the same. my duties here are quite a bit different though. I work on apartments and getting contracts setup with land lords. because missionaries move so often there has to be someone that organizes all the apartment stuff. I prepare all the stuff for new missionaries and missionaries going home. I am currently working on our english class website for all of Taiwan, it will be a website that Taiwanese people can go to to check locations and times for our english classes. Usually by 6pm we are out the door doing normal missionary stuff for 3 hours. My companion is a native, but we both are so busy that we hardly ever talk. Elder Li my companion is in charge of recording all the baptisms in the mission. That is what i used to do!
I still can't believe that I am back in the office. There are 186 missionaries in our mission and I have been in here twice!!! If I didn't know that they needed me here I would feel like it was some sort of punishment. hahaha...
President Hoer is great! he is a fast pace guy, I like it! We get along really well and so far it has been a great experience working with him. He used to be a business man in China before so I have a lot to learn from him.
I wish I could explain everything that I do, but it is hard. I am whats called the Mission Operations Manager, basically anytime there is anything that happens in the, whether its the Mayor of Taichung coming to visit us or a missionaries toilet gets broken, I get to deal with it. I was looking at my phone records for the past 2 weeks and it looks like I will average about 800 outgoing calls and about 1000 incoming calls in a month. Thats a lot of phone calls!!! So that is what I do.
There are 4 Elders in the Office. Elder Li, Elder Yang, Elder Alexander and I. Elder Yang and Elder Alexander are Assistants, they are hardly ever here though. Within 6 weeks they visit about a third of the missionaries in the mission. So that is about 60 missionaries, it takes them a long time, about 30 days to go and drive to every place and spend a full day with all the missionaries. It sounds like a lot of fun, but I am glad that I don't have to do that, I like sleeping in my own bed.
There are also a senoir couple that works in the office. Elder and Sister Douse, they are great. I work right next to Elder Douse.
We unfortunately do not get fed here. We have to fend for ourselves, but its okay because Taiwan has soooo many great places to eat.
President and Sister Hoer are great, we are their inside Assistants. We help them do things to help the mission. Most of it is just managerial stuff and organization nonsense. I am sure you are all a little shocked to hear that i have to be organized. Crazy huh?
My favorite thing about being in the office is the Air Conditioning hahaha... Really!! Apart from loving the AC I really doing things that help the other missionaries better do the work.
Of course the toughest thing about being here is not being able to be a normal missionary. Also it is tough not sleeping as much. We are often out past midnight doing running errands. Like last week, a land lord called and told us that we needed to move our stuff out in 24 hours, he originally told us we had 1 week. So we took the mission vans and were packing stuff until about 2 in the morning. Oh ya, we still have to get up at 6:30, so that other missionaries don't misunderstand and think we are being lazy.
Thank goodness though, when we do get to sleep our apartment is right about the office. It makes it very convenient for 2 reasons. Its easy to get home :), and 2nd if anyone ever tried to break in we would here them for sure.
Although I hate to admit it, i think i will probably be here until i come home. i am hoping that that is not so, but we will see.
Taichung city is great! It is really big and I am still a little lost, since we don't spend all day outside wandering around I still don't know the roads that great. I know how to get to different cities because we visit other areas quite often, but as far as downtown I still don't quite get it. i haven't even been here for 2 weeks though, i am sure i will figure it out.
Well i kinda rambled a lot. i better go. love yall
Elder Craig Anderson
If I had one complaint about being in the office, it would be that you miss out on all the action. Being in the office in Taichung is about the same as being in the office in Kaohsiung, of course there is a different mission president i report to, but for the most part it is the same. my duties here are quite a bit different though. I work on apartments and getting contracts setup with land lords. because missionaries move so often there has to be someone that organizes all the apartment stuff. I prepare all the stuff for new missionaries and missionaries going home. I am currently working on our english class website for all of Taiwan, it will be a website that Taiwanese people can go to to check locations and times for our english classes. Usually by 6pm we are out the door doing normal missionary stuff for 3 hours. My companion is a native, but we both are so busy that we hardly ever talk. Elder Li my companion is in charge of recording all the baptisms in the mission. That is what i used to do!
I still can't believe that I am back in the office. There are 186 missionaries in our mission and I have been in here twice!!! If I didn't know that they needed me here I would feel like it was some sort of punishment. hahaha...
President Hoer is great! he is a fast pace guy, I like it! We get along really well and so far it has been a great experience working with him. He used to be a business man in China before so I have a lot to learn from him.
I wish I could explain everything that I do, but it is hard. I am whats called the Mission Operations Manager, basically anytime there is anything that happens in the, whether its the Mayor of Taichung coming to visit us or a missionaries toilet gets broken, I get to deal with it. I was looking at my phone records for the past 2 weeks and it looks like I will average about 800 outgoing calls and about 1000 incoming calls in a month. Thats a lot of phone calls!!! So that is what I do.
There are 4 Elders in the Office. Elder Li, Elder Yang, Elder Alexander and I. Elder Yang and Elder Alexander are Assistants, they are hardly ever here though. Within 6 weeks they visit about a third of the missionaries in the mission. So that is about 60 missionaries, it takes them a long time, about 30 days to go and drive to every place and spend a full day with all the missionaries. It sounds like a lot of fun, but I am glad that I don't have to do that, I like sleeping in my own bed.
There are also a senoir couple that works in the office. Elder and Sister Douse, they are great. I work right next to Elder Douse.
We unfortunately do not get fed here. We have to fend for ourselves, but its okay because Taiwan has soooo many great places to eat.
President and Sister Hoer are great, we are their inside Assistants. We help them do things to help the mission. Most of it is just managerial stuff and organization nonsense. I am sure you are all a little shocked to hear that i have to be organized. Crazy huh?
My favorite thing about being in the office is the Air Conditioning hahaha... Really!! Apart from loving the AC I really doing things that help the other missionaries better do the work.
Of course the toughest thing about being here is not being able to be a normal missionary. Also it is tough not sleeping as much. We are often out past midnight doing running errands. Like last week, a land lord called and told us that we needed to move our stuff out in 24 hours, he originally told us we had 1 week. So we took the mission vans and were packing stuff until about 2 in the morning. Oh ya, we still have to get up at 6:30, so that other missionaries don't misunderstand and think we are being lazy.
Thank goodness though, when we do get to sleep our apartment is right about the office. It makes it very convenient for 2 reasons. Its easy to get home :), and 2nd if anyone ever tried to break in we would here them for sure.
Although I hate to admit it, i think i will probably be here until i come home. i am hoping that that is not so, but we will see.
Taichung city is great! It is really big and I am still a little lost, since we don't spend all day outside wandering around I still don't know the roads that great. I know how to get to different cities because we visit other areas quite often, but as far as downtown I still don't quite get it. i haven't even been here for 2 weeks though, i am sure i will figure it out.
Well i kinda rambled a lot. i better go. love yall
Elder Craig Anderson
I'm Alive Aug 14, 2009
Well, i am sorry for the lack of communication the past couple weeks. As i am sure you can guess, things have been crazy hahaha... well i might as well tell you right off the bat, i am back in the office. Its okay though, i am excited to work with President Hoer, he is an awesome man. I was able to make it out of the office for a little over a month, but i am back in! it will be fun to help out in a different ways.
Oh ya, so i moved to Taichung. It is really far away from where i was. I was just in FengShan, the typhoon hit there so bad. Crazy Crazy! My companion and I were running around every where trying to help out. We tried to get a sandbagging crew put together, but no one had any sand bags. So it was pretty sad to just see the water fill up in peoples houses and not be able to do anything about it. Don't worry it was really safe, we were not anywhere in the mountains. Luckily, we do not have any missionaries that live up in the mountains. Really though, we are okay, not a really big deal. I have got some really cool videos though.
Shortly after the typhoon started to leave, i got a call informing me that i was to report back to the office. i was a little sad at first, but i am really glad to be able to help out.
Because of the flooding it was so hard to get from FengShan to TaiChung. Normally the trip would take about 3 hours on the train, but there was some flooding over the tracks and some bridges got washed away. So i had to change trains 4 times and them i had to get on 2 buses that transfered me to different train stops. It took 7 hours to get here. I am happy to be here. I have been here since Monday.
from now on i will be emailing on saturday. That is the preparation day that president has set aside for us.
I love my mission! This is just another opportunity to serve in a different capacity. President Hoer is hoping that i can help out a lot, since I know the Kaohsiung mission. Ideally, this will make the merge better.
Well I love you all. Thank you for all the emails. Sorry I don't have time to write each one of you. I only get an hour if that. In the office, we get so busy that sometimes we can only find 10 minutes to write.
Love,
Elder Anderson
Oh ya, so i moved to Taichung. It is really far away from where i was. I was just in FengShan, the typhoon hit there so bad. Crazy Crazy! My companion and I were running around every where trying to help out. We tried to get a sandbagging crew put together, but no one had any sand bags. So it was pretty sad to just see the water fill up in peoples houses and not be able to do anything about it. Don't worry it was really safe, we were not anywhere in the mountains. Luckily, we do not have any missionaries that live up in the mountains. Really though, we are okay, not a really big deal. I have got some really cool videos though.
Shortly after the typhoon started to leave, i got a call informing me that i was to report back to the office. i was a little sad at first, but i am really glad to be able to help out.
Because of the flooding it was so hard to get from FengShan to TaiChung. Normally the trip would take about 3 hours on the train, but there was some flooding over the tracks and some bridges got washed away. So i had to change trains 4 times and them i had to get on 2 buses that transfered me to different train stops. It took 7 hours to get here. I am happy to be here. I have been here since Monday.
from now on i will be emailing on saturday. That is the preparation day that president has set aside for us.
I love my mission! This is just another opportunity to serve in a different capacity. President Hoer is hoping that i can help out a lot, since I know the Kaohsiung mission. Ideally, this will make the merge better.
Well I love you all. Thank you for all the emails. Sorry I don't have time to write each one of you. I only get an hour if that. In the office, we get so busy that sometimes we can only find 10 minutes to write.
Love,
Elder Anderson
I'm Okay Aug 14, 2009
im okay. don't worry. there was little flooding where i was. i will email you in a couple hours.
love
elder anderson
love
elder anderson
Sorry Sorry Sorry Aug 4, 2009
So last week there was a major computer failure! We are only supposed to use this email system, but last week the email systems all went down. I had just spent 40 minutes typing to you all last week and then when I went to send it kept saying server not found. Me and my companion were pretty agitated. This seems to happen a lot. We found out later that President Hoer gave people permission to use another email system like yahoo or gmail, but by the time we found out our day was already over and we couldn't go back to email. Sorry Sorry Sorry!
I will try and sum up last week and this week. I think I told you already our investigator Andy got baptized. He is doing really good! On Sunday he even went up during Sacrament meeting and shared his testimony and conversion with the entire congregation! He is a really awesome kid!
Well last week we had an interesting visit to the hospital hahahaha... I figure by now all you readers are on the edge of your seats. It wasn't that intense. My foot has been bothering me for the past 8 months because of this stupid ingrown toenail. Usually I can just dig the little stinker out my self, but about 2 weeks ago that little nail decided it wanted to become a submarine and dive to the bottom. Sure enough it took a 90 degree turn right into my foot. I did pretty good and i had dug it out all the way, but then the nail broke off and I knew i was in trouble. About 3 days later I could hardly walk so I called up Sister Hoer to ask her if I could go to the hospital to get it cut out. She gave me the go ahead and so we went.
I felt like I was walking to my death bed hahaha... I think Amy had an ingrown toenail once. And I remember her saying how much it hurt and then I remember one time her little gauze thing that was on it fell off and I saw her foot and it terrified me. So needless to say I was very reluctant to go. (Sorry Amy if it wasn't you, but I do remember very distinctly when I was really young somebody had an ingrown toenail and it sounded scary.
Don't worry the hospital we went to was one of the nicest hospitals I have ever been to. They sent me to the Dermatologist. The doctor was really good. She looked at it and said okay we can do this. And I was like no we can't, not with out serious anesthetic. I tried to get her to give me laughing gas, but she just laughed at me and grabbed pliers. She was really nice and once she realized how deep it was she agreed that we needed to do use a little local anesthetic. I was so glad! I had heard of other missionaries where the doctor calls the nurse in and a couple of the nurses quickly grab the missionary and hold him down while the doctor rips out the nail. Luckily, the doctor just shot some stuff in my foot which did actually hurt a little, but after that i didn't feel a thing. They went in and hacked away like Indiana Jones in the Amazon. It was pretty crazy watching this lady chop up my foot. I am sure you are all noxious by now so I will spare you the details, but it has been a week and it is basically healed up. The day after I could hardly walk, but after that it was fine. I am all better now though!
It was kind of a fun experience because I learned a bunch of new medical terms like Local anesthitic and laughing gas. When I asked the doctor if I she could give me laughing gas, she looked at me and laughed and said no no no no. I was sad, i thought that if i said it in chinese she might be nice.
Earthquake! The other night me and my companion were sleeping and at about 3 in the morning everything started shaking. I woke up and i looked over and saw my companion sitting up in his bad. He sounded scared, he has only been here for about 4 months so the Earthquakes are a little new to him. I think the funniest earthquake i have seen on my mission was during our personal study in the morning. When i was in the big city, with Elder Johnson, I was sitting there reading the New Testament and i had my feet on the legs of the chair I was sitting on. Then all of the sudden I felt my chair shaking and I thought it was my companion messing with me. So I was like "Hey Elder, knock it off, quite kicking my chair." Then I flipped around and realized that it was an earthquake. It was pretty funny, i felt stupid.
Oh Ya!!! So you know how i was jocking about delivering mineral water to the World Games?!?! Well Guess what?! It wasn't mineral water, it was fruit tea! Hahaha... isnt that hilarious, I had a feeling it was going to be something heavy and boring so I guessed a beverage. Sure enough, we showed up and they had us load an armored car full of Fruit Tea. It was fun though to be able to talk with some Americans and chat about what they thought of Taiwan. They spoke a little chinese, later on I found out that they were both Majoring in Chinese and Asian Studies. One of them was this really funny African American Lady from Kansas. She was super nice and just thought we were awesome. I convinced her to go on a mission for her church when she gets back. Seriously, i am not kidding, either that or the Peace Corp she said. Anyways, we rode in the Armored car to go drop off the tea at this venue. After that we hung out at the venue and talked with the people that came into the American Booth. It was pretty cool, every country had their own little booth. Not to be arrogant, but the American Booth was by far the coolest. Everyone that came in got free Oreos and Ocean Spray Fruit Tea. Then they had an astronaut come and talk to commenmorate the 40th anniversary of us landing on the moon. To bad it was all in English, most of the people there couldn't speak English. I almost volunteered to translate for them, but i stopped myself when the astronaut starting saying "Lunar Module, Moon Roover, liquid oxygen rocket propellant, gravitational orbit reentry " hahaha... yeah sorry NASA. I haven't learned what those words even mean in English yet. It was fun though.
We went to the Vaticaan Booth. That was actually pretty cool, but all the volunteers got really nervous when we walked in and they started to try and speak English with us but I had no idea what they were saying, which made me nervous, so finally we just asked them to speak in Chinese and once they realized we spoke chinese they all calmed down and everything went back to normal. They took us around and showed us all about Mass. It was a little awkward, but neat at the same time. I still don't really get the whole deal about praying to the all the different Saints though.
After that we went and looked at the Israel Tent. That was pretty cool too, we had a Christian Chinese Israeli guide us through the tent. So we learned about Judaism and Catholsism.
Well I hope i remembered everything from last week. My companion and i are doing really good. I might have time to send some pictures next week. We are going to go play ping pong in a second. Alright well i love yall.
Elder Craig Anderson
I will try and sum up last week and this week. I think I told you already our investigator Andy got baptized. He is doing really good! On Sunday he even went up during Sacrament meeting and shared his testimony and conversion with the entire congregation! He is a really awesome kid!
Well last week we had an interesting visit to the hospital hahahaha... I figure by now all you readers are on the edge of your seats. It wasn't that intense. My foot has been bothering me for the past 8 months because of this stupid ingrown toenail. Usually I can just dig the little stinker out my self, but about 2 weeks ago that little nail decided it wanted to become a submarine and dive to the bottom. Sure enough it took a 90 degree turn right into my foot. I did pretty good and i had dug it out all the way, but then the nail broke off and I knew i was in trouble. About 3 days later I could hardly walk so I called up Sister Hoer to ask her if I could go to the hospital to get it cut out. She gave me the go ahead and so we went.
I felt like I was walking to my death bed hahaha... I think Amy had an ingrown toenail once. And I remember her saying how much it hurt and then I remember one time her little gauze thing that was on it fell off and I saw her foot and it terrified me. So needless to say I was very reluctant to go. (Sorry Amy if it wasn't you, but I do remember very distinctly when I was really young somebody had an ingrown toenail and it sounded scary.
Don't worry the hospital we went to was one of the nicest hospitals I have ever been to. They sent me to the Dermatologist. The doctor was really good. She looked at it and said okay we can do this. And I was like no we can't, not with out serious anesthetic. I tried to get her to give me laughing gas, but she just laughed at me and grabbed pliers. She was really nice and once she realized how deep it was she agreed that we needed to do use a little local anesthetic. I was so glad! I had heard of other missionaries where the doctor calls the nurse in and a couple of the nurses quickly grab the missionary and hold him down while the doctor rips out the nail. Luckily, the doctor just shot some stuff in my foot which did actually hurt a little, but after that i didn't feel a thing. They went in and hacked away like Indiana Jones in the Amazon. It was pretty crazy watching this lady chop up my foot. I am sure you are all noxious by now so I will spare you the details, but it has been a week and it is basically healed up. The day after I could hardly walk, but after that it was fine. I am all better now though!
It was kind of a fun experience because I learned a bunch of new medical terms like Local anesthitic and laughing gas. When I asked the doctor if I she could give me laughing gas, she looked at me and laughed and said no no no no. I was sad, i thought that if i said it in chinese she might be nice.
Earthquake! The other night me and my companion were sleeping and at about 3 in the morning everything started shaking. I woke up and i looked over and saw my companion sitting up in his bad. He sounded scared, he has only been here for about 4 months so the Earthquakes are a little new to him. I think the funniest earthquake i have seen on my mission was during our personal study in the morning. When i was in the big city, with Elder Johnson, I was sitting there reading the New Testament and i had my feet on the legs of the chair I was sitting on. Then all of the sudden I felt my chair shaking and I thought it was my companion messing with me. So I was like "Hey Elder, knock it off, quite kicking my chair." Then I flipped around and realized that it was an earthquake. It was pretty funny, i felt stupid.
Oh Ya!!! So you know how i was jocking about delivering mineral water to the World Games?!?! Well Guess what?! It wasn't mineral water, it was fruit tea! Hahaha... isnt that hilarious, I had a feeling it was going to be something heavy and boring so I guessed a beverage. Sure enough, we showed up and they had us load an armored car full of Fruit Tea. It was fun though to be able to talk with some Americans and chat about what they thought of Taiwan. They spoke a little chinese, later on I found out that they were both Majoring in Chinese and Asian Studies. One of them was this really funny African American Lady from Kansas. She was super nice and just thought we were awesome. I convinced her to go on a mission for her church when she gets back. Seriously, i am not kidding, either that or the Peace Corp she said. Anyways, we rode in the Armored car to go drop off the tea at this venue. After that we hung out at the venue and talked with the people that came into the American Booth. It was pretty cool, every country had their own little booth. Not to be arrogant, but the American Booth was by far the coolest. Everyone that came in got free Oreos and Ocean Spray Fruit Tea. Then they had an astronaut come and talk to commenmorate the 40th anniversary of us landing on the moon. To bad it was all in English, most of the people there couldn't speak English. I almost volunteered to translate for them, but i stopped myself when the astronaut starting saying "Lunar Module, Moon Roover, liquid oxygen rocket propellant, gravitational orbit reentry " hahaha... yeah sorry NASA. I haven't learned what those words even mean in English yet. It was fun though.
We went to the Vaticaan Booth. That was actually pretty cool, but all the volunteers got really nervous when we walked in and they started to try and speak English with us but I had no idea what they were saying, which made me nervous, so finally we just asked them to speak in Chinese and once they realized we spoke chinese they all calmed down and everything went back to normal. They took us around and showed us all about Mass. It was a little awkward, but neat at the same time. I still don't really get the whole deal about praying to the all the different Saints though.
After that we went and looked at the Israel Tent. That was pretty cool too, we had a Christian Chinese Israeli guide us through the tent. So we learned about Judaism and Catholsism.
Well I hope i remembered everything from last week. My companion and i are doing really good. I might have time to send some pictures next week. We are going to go play ping pong in a second. Alright well i love yall.
Elder Craig Anderson
the Summit and Operation World Games July 21, 2009
Hey Hey hey!!!!
I can't believe that Ali and Dad made it! Sounds like it was quite the adventure. I am so jealous! Although we get to see a lot of neat things happen on a mission, in Taiwan it is not very adventurous. The only adventurous thing we ever really get to do is eat crazy things, but by now I have already eaten them all. Plus, I have been here so long I am starting to like the crazy weird things.
I bet that hike was so hard. I was thinking, since we do live at about 6000 feet i am sure you guys were already pretty ready for the hike. Not to mention the training that i know you have been doing. so cool!!
Although we didn't get to go on some crazy African safari, On Sunday we did have a little activity with the American "Embassay" in Taiwan. I have to put Embassay in paranthesis because since the UN will not recognize Taiwan as its own country, technically, we are not allowed to have an embassay. However, we do have what is called AIT. Which is the American Institue in Taiwan. That's pretty clever huh? They say we can't build an embassay so we said fine we aren't building an embassay we are builing and "insitute" punks. Hahaha...
Anyways, Sunday night because the World Games are going on in Kaohsiung right now, the embassay (lower case e ;) ) needed people that are both fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese to assist the Athletes and what not. So they had us stationed at different hotels throughout the city to assist the athletes in getting to this big event at the mall. Our job was to excort the athletes from their hotels to the American Party at the mall. Well it just so happens that the hotel we were scheduled to be stationed at was for all the Frisbee Players. And they just so happened to have an event that night, so NOONE came for us to excort. O well it was still fun standing their feeling important.
So we called up the embassay and told them that none of our atheletes came but they told us to come to the American Party anyways. So we went to this huge party the funniest thing that happened was that our bishop was there. As we went to walk though "pseudo-security" that they had setup we saw our bishop who is a police chief. He is a really nice guy and he was glad to see us. I call it pseudo security because as soon as I walked through the metal detectors they started beeping and ringing like I was carrying a fully automatic machine gun. But I think all the police officers were to embarassed to come pat me down. Plus right as the alarms went off our bishop came over with a big smile on his face to shake our hands. I could have been packing heat!!! How do they know i wasn't? And maybe our bishop was in on it. ssshhhh... don't tell them.
At the party we were supposed to help the guest and what not, but it turns out that the majority of the people that came to the party were not even American. Out of all the people at the American Party only about 5 percent of them were American and that includes the 10 missionaries that were there. President Hoer came down to attend, originally we were supposed to do a little more translating for the athletes, but it turns out most of the athletes didn't really seem to mind not understanding.
It is okay though. Elder Christensen and I have another assignment on friday at the embassay. On this assignment we get to ride in an armored car. Hahaha... Seriously, but it is not that cool we are just helping them transport some stuff to the world games. I think we are supposed to help the driver get there and unload the stuff safely, I am pretty sure the driver is American. As of right now we don't know what the "stuff" is but apparently it needs to be transported in an Armored car. Who better to trust then a pair of Mormon Missionaries hahahah... That is probably what the embassay is thinking too.
The reason we got this service oppurtunity is because the main guy at the embassay is a returned missionary who served in Taiwan, he has really good chinese and he is kind of like the liason between the english speakers and the chinese speakers. but because of the World Games he has had to much on his hands so he asked the Mission if we could help out and do a little service for Taiwan and for the United States. It should be pretty cool. I am sure Mom is reading this thinking, I don't want my son riding in an armored car with who knows what they are transporting. Don't worry mom, i bet we are in charge of the imported mineral water that the american athletes demand to drink. i still don't get the whole concept of putting water in a bottle and selling it at ridiculous prices.
As i am sure you know, we love to do service and we are hoping that by doing service like this that we can be a good influence on everybody.
i think i told you about how we went and taught the cops english right? we were joking about it the other day, if we ever get in trouble in Taiwan i think we will be okay. The embassay loves us, the Kaohsiung Police chief loves us, heck we could probably get a permit to park our bicycles where ever we want. :)
So apart from the service we have been doing our investigators are also doing really well. We have a baptism scheduled for Saturday. Zheng Cong Da. He is a great kid! 15 years old and is moving right along in learning about the gospel. We are excited for him!
Yesterday we went to Taichung to have our first Zone Conference as the new mission. I love our new mission president. President Hoer is just as amazing as President Hsu. I guess when people are called directly by a Prophet of God they usually are pretty great people. Its amazing how inspired the callings and assignments for all the volunteers in the church are.
Well as you all continue to climb the "mountains" in your life, remember to take a shot at climbing the spiritual Kilimanjaros that are sitting right before us.
Love you all,
Elder Craig Anderson
P.S. - Oh ya can somebody do me a favor and call Obama and tell him that I am not going to be able to make it to our Luncheon on Friday. Tell him Jack Bower and I are busy transporting the mineral water.
I can't believe that Ali and Dad made it! Sounds like it was quite the adventure. I am so jealous! Although we get to see a lot of neat things happen on a mission, in Taiwan it is not very adventurous. The only adventurous thing we ever really get to do is eat crazy things, but by now I have already eaten them all. Plus, I have been here so long I am starting to like the crazy weird things.
I bet that hike was so hard. I was thinking, since we do live at about 6000 feet i am sure you guys were already pretty ready for the hike. Not to mention the training that i know you have been doing. so cool!!
Although we didn't get to go on some crazy African safari, On Sunday we did have a little activity with the American "Embassay" in Taiwan. I have to put Embassay in paranthesis because since the UN will not recognize Taiwan as its own country, technically, we are not allowed to have an embassay. However, we do have what is called AIT. Which is the American Institue in Taiwan. That's pretty clever huh? They say we can't build an embassay so we said fine we aren't building an embassay we are builing and "insitute" punks. Hahaha...
Anyways, Sunday night because the World Games are going on in Kaohsiung right now, the embassay (lower case e ;) ) needed people that are both fluent in English and Mandarin Chinese to assist the Athletes and what not. So they had us stationed at different hotels throughout the city to assist the athletes in getting to this big event at the mall. Our job was to excort the athletes from their hotels to the American Party at the mall. Well it just so happens that the hotel we were scheduled to be stationed at was for all the Frisbee Players. And they just so happened to have an event that night, so NOONE came for us to excort. O well it was still fun standing their feeling important.
So we called up the embassay and told them that none of our atheletes came but they told us to come to the American Party anyways. So we went to this huge party the funniest thing that happened was that our bishop was there. As we went to walk though "pseudo-security" that they had setup we saw our bishop who is a police chief. He is a really nice guy and he was glad to see us. I call it pseudo security because as soon as I walked through the metal detectors they started beeping and ringing like I was carrying a fully automatic machine gun. But I think all the police officers were to embarassed to come pat me down. Plus right as the alarms went off our bishop came over with a big smile on his face to shake our hands. I could have been packing heat!!! How do they know i wasn't? And maybe our bishop was in on it. ssshhhh... don't tell them.
At the party we were supposed to help the guest and what not, but it turns out that the majority of the people that came to the party were not even American. Out of all the people at the American Party only about 5 percent of them were American and that includes the 10 missionaries that were there. President Hoer came down to attend, originally we were supposed to do a little more translating for the athletes, but it turns out most of the athletes didn't really seem to mind not understanding.
It is okay though. Elder Christensen and I have another assignment on friday at the embassay. On this assignment we get to ride in an armored car. Hahaha... Seriously, but it is not that cool we are just helping them transport some stuff to the world games. I think we are supposed to help the driver get there and unload the stuff safely, I am pretty sure the driver is American. As of right now we don't know what the "stuff" is but apparently it needs to be transported in an Armored car. Who better to trust then a pair of Mormon Missionaries hahahah... That is probably what the embassay is thinking too.
The reason we got this service oppurtunity is because the main guy at the embassay is a returned missionary who served in Taiwan, he has really good chinese and he is kind of like the liason between the english speakers and the chinese speakers. but because of the World Games he has had to much on his hands so he asked the Mission if we could help out and do a little service for Taiwan and for the United States. It should be pretty cool. I am sure Mom is reading this thinking, I don't want my son riding in an armored car with who knows what they are transporting. Don't worry mom, i bet we are in charge of the imported mineral water that the american athletes demand to drink. i still don't get the whole concept of putting water in a bottle and selling it at ridiculous prices.
As i am sure you know, we love to do service and we are hoping that by doing service like this that we can be a good influence on everybody.
i think i told you about how we went and taught the cops english right? we were joking about it the other day, if we ever get in trouble in Taiwan i think we will be okay. The embassay loves us, the Kaohsiung Police chief loves us, heck we could probably get a permit to park our bicycles where ever we want. :)
So apart from the service we have been doing our investigators are also doing really well. We have a baptism scheduled for Saturday. Zheng Cong Da. He is a great kid! 15 years old and is moving right along in learning about the gospel. We are excited for him!
Yesterday we went to Taichung to have our first Zone Conference as the new mission. I love our new mission president. President Hoer is just as amazing as President Hsu. I guess when people are called directly by a Prophet of God they usually are pretty great people. Its amazing how inspired the callings and assignments for all the volunteers in the church are.
Well as you all continue to climb the "mountains" in your life, remember to take a shot at climbing the spiritual Kilimanjaros that are sitting right before us.
Love you all,
Elder Craig Anderson
P.S. - Oh ya can somebody do me a favor and call Obama and tell him that I am not going to be able to make it to our Luncheon on Friday. Tell him Jack Bower and I are busy transporting the mineral water.
Stunt Devils and teenagers July 14, 2009
well i may not be summiting everest this week. but it has been a pretty good week:). i hope dad and ali are doing good and having fun.
this week was such an awesome week. we talked with a lot of people and it was awesome. we didn't reach the goal of talking with 1000 people, which was fine because this week we spent most of our time teaching people. everyday we had about 5-7 appointments. it was really nice. there are 3 young kids that we have been working with that are getting ready to get baptized. there are all 16 year old guys and they are awesome. i never knew 16 year old guys ccould be so spiritual. anyways, we are trying to make them all become friends so that they can strengthen each as they grow in the church.
there is one kid named Andiee who is just awesome. He met the missionaries about 3 years ago and came to church a lot, but his parents didn't like him going to church because they are buddhist so they told him he couldn't go anymore. well last week we ran into him on the street and he was like yeah i would love to come back to church, but my parents say i can't. so we told him to go tell his parents that he wanted to come to church on sundays and stuff and his parents said that would be great as long as it makes him a better person. which of course it will!! he loves praying and reading the scriptures and he loves church. there aren't to many 16 year olds who love sitting thru 3 hours of church, but you can just tell he loves every minute of it.
the other 2 kids are Weng Kid and, Xu kid. I found these drumsticks in our apartment, i have no idea what they were doing there. anyways, the Xu kid plays the drums so we took them over to his house last night and gave them too him. his dad was so touched by us giving him these old drumsticks that we found. now his dad is super happy that his son is going to become christian. as a matter of fact he has been asking us, what else does he need to do? he will even make sure his son is saying his prayers at night! isn't that awesome! his dad is buddhist, but will still make sure that his son is being true to his commitments.
as far as preaching the gospel, everything has been going great. however, recently my companion took up being a stuntman. 4 days ago we were going to visit this investigator out in the middle of no where and we were cruising down this pretty steep hill, i was about 50 yards behind my companion, when all of the sudden this scooter pulled out from a side street right into his path. my companion isn't a very coordinated kid and he kind of freaked out and ran straight into the scooter. He went flying thru the air and did a full flip. hahahaha... luckily he was fine, but now i call him Evil Kanevil. his bike was beat up really badly and he was a little scratched up. the front tie on his bike was all crooked! i guess thats what happens when you ram right into a scooter.
he has only been here for 3 months and is still getting used to the driving style over here. its okay though, i think this accident has been a great learning experience hahaha.
well it was great to hear that Grandma is doing so well. sounds like everything is under control. hope you start feeling better grams. i love you and pray for you all the time.
love you all,
Elder Anderson
this week was such an awesome week. we talked with a lot of people and it was awesome. we didn't reach the goal of talking with 1000 people, which was fine because this week we spent most of our time teaching people. everyday we had about 5-7 appointments. it was really nice. there are 3 young kids that we have been working with that are getting ready to get baptized. there are all 16 year old guys and they are awesome. i never knew 16 year old guys ccould be so spiritual. anyways, we are trying to make them all become friends so that they can strengthen each as they grow in the church.
there is one kid named Andiee who is just awesome. He met the missionaries about 3 years ago and came to church a lot, but his parents didn't like him going to church because they are buddhist so they told him he couldn't go anymore. well last week we ran into him on the street and he was like yeah i would love to come back to church, but my parents say i can't. so we told him to go tell his parents that he wanted to come to church on sundays and stuff and his parents said that would be great as long as it makes him a better person. which of course it will!! he loves praying and reading the scriptures and he loves church. there aren't to many 16 year olds who love sitting thru 3 hours of church, but you can just tell he loves every minute of it.
the other 2 kids are Weng Kid and, Xu kid. I found these drumsticks in our apartment, i have no idea what they were doing there. anyways, the Xu kid plays the drums so we took them over to his house last night and gave them too him. his dad was so touched by us giving him these old drumsticks that we found. now his dad is super happy that his son is going to become christian. as a matter of fact he has been asking us, what else does he need to do? he will even make sure his son is saying his prayers at night! isn't that awesome! his dad is buddhist, but will still make sure that his son is being true to his commitments.
as far as preaching the gospel, everything has been going great. however, recently my companion took up being a stuntman. 4 days ago we were going to visit this investigator out in the middle of no where and we were cruising down this pretty steep hill, i was about 50 yards behind my companion, when all of the sudden this scooter pulled out from a side street right into his path. my companion isn't a very coordinated kid and he kind of freaked out and ran straight into the scooter. He went flying thru the air and did a full flip. hahahaha... luckily he was fine, but now i call him Evil Kanevil. his bike was beat up really badly and he was a little scratched up. the front tie on his bike was all crooked! i guess thats what happens when you ram right into a scooter.
he has only been here for 3 months and is still getting used to the driving style over here. its okay though, i think this accident has been a great learning experience hahaha.
well it was great to hear that Grandma is doing so well. sounds like everything is under control. hope you start feeling better grams. i love you and pray for you all the time.
love you all,
Elder Anderson
sombreros and spagetti July 16, 2009
This week was another very interesting and busy week. The weeks seem to flying by! President Hsu will be heading home in less than 2 weeks! After that our new Mission President will be coming down and meeting with the office staff down here. Hopefully, I will get to leave the mission office and get to go back into the field. At the present time I should be going back out to be a normal missionary soon.
I really want to go to a place that is smaller and more rural. I feel like I can do more good in those places. In the city there is just TOO much stuff to do you can’t figure out what to do. But out in the country you can really focus on a couple people rather than trying to juggle 20 or more in the city.
So you will not believe this! Right next to our office is a new Mexican Restaurant. It is authentic!! There is this guy from LA. He grew up in the states but his parents are Taiwanese. He doesn’t really speak Chinese, but he speaks English just as good as any American. He isn’t really Taiwanese at all he is American. Anyways, he just opened up this shop and the food is so good. He is a really nice guy and he is already asking questions about us. I am hoping that we can just kind of eat Mexican food with him and talk to him about the gospel. He is such a nice guy, probably about 26, his name is Mark Wu.
It was really funny, because lately I have been thinking about how much I missed Mexican food and then sure enough we see the sign for “Pacos Tacos” pop up last week. Eating at peoples restaurants and making friends with them is such a great way to share the Gospel. What happens is people kind of realize that we are people too. A lot of people when they see us must see us as aliens or machines or something. There is this Wei Family that I always go and eat their noodles at their noodle shop. They might be coming to church soon. They love us though and think we are the funniest nicest people in the world. In actuality they are the funniest nicest people in the world.
Well I need to go get my fix of Mexican food.
LOVE YA,
So I ripped apart our network here at the office, because whoever put it together before must have thought that networks are supposed to look like a bowl full of spaghetti noodles. Hope you like the pics!
Sunday, July 5, 2009
July 5, 2009. Hoses and 1000
I finally moved away from the office!! I am a place called Feng Shan now and it is an awesome place. It is rural in some places and really busy in others. It is perfect. My new companion is Elder Nicolai Christensen from Park City, UT. This is the first companion that I have had that has lived so close to us.
Once I found out he was from Park City, I had to ask him if he ever remembered when the big red "PC" statue in front of their school got painted yellow. He said he remembered it and he told me all about it. I started laughing and had to tell him that it was me that painted it. Small world huh? It was homecoming week so I had to do something to show my school spirit right?
Anyways, today is our P-day because we merged with Tiachung Mission last week. All the people in Taichung are moving today. So I will still email you on Wednesday as normal.
Elder Christensen is on his 3rd move so he is still really new, which is really fun. For example last night we were eating at a members house and Sister Lin was asking if we were full, and we were so full, so I told her that I was full but my companion was still starving so she came back with a big old plate full of sausage and kept putting them in his bowl. Hahahahaha... And then 2 days ago there was this kid playing with a hose and I told the kid, "Hey my companion wants you to spray him!" and so the kid looked at me like "Really?" and I was like "Yeah, he says it is really hot and that he wants you to spray him a little bit." Right as the kid started to spray my companion Elder Christensen figured out what was going on and ran away.
We are getting along great. He is a really great guy! Our area is struggling a little bit, we don't really have a lot of investigators currently, but we have a goal to invite 1000 people to meet with us this week. I think we can do it!
The Taichung Mission is really different from my old Kaohsiung Mission. They have different ways of doing things and different rules, which will be hard to adjust too but I think it will a great learning experience. I miss President and Sister Hsu so much. Those 2 were so awesome, I hope they are doing good and having a nice rest in Hawaii. That is where they live so I guess it isn't probably like the vacation we would think it is, but I bet they are taking a rest after 3 years of service.
Being a missionary really takes a lot out of people. I saw President and Sister Hsu's picture from 3 years ago and they looked so much younger hahahaha... I guess they did worry a lot about us missionaries.
So funny story, I have been using a left over bike from a missionary that just went home and it is terrible. If you pedal to hard the chain will skip off of the teeth on the gears. Anyways i was pedaling up the driveway from the parking garage underneath out apartment and sure enough it started skipping of the teeth. it is really loud when it does it, so the security guard that protects our complex came running over and saw me walking my bike up the embankment with the chain clicking against the gears. I told him "This bike is a piece of junk." and he laughed and in English said "Made in China." Hahaha... it was just funny because Taiwanese people are really proud of the quality stuff that they make so it made me laugh.
Today we are going to a science museum so that should be pretty cool. I have actually been wanting to go to this museum for a long time, but all my other companions had either already been or they just didn't want to go. But this morning Elder Christensen was like hey do you wanna go? So i we are going. Probably sounds boring to you, but I think it will be cool.
Pray for us this week so that we can talk with 1000 people! Love you all,
Elder Anderson
Once I found out he was from Park City, I had to ask him if he ever remembered when the big red "PC" statue in front of their school got painted yellow. He said he remembered it and he told me all about it. I started laughing and had to tell him that it was me that painted it. Small world huh? It was homecoming week so I had to do something to show my school spirit right?
Anyways, today is our P-day because we merged with Tiachung Mission last week. All the people in Taichung are moving today. So I will still email you on Wednesday as normal.
Elder Christensen is on his 3rd move so he is still really new, which is really fun. For example last night we were eating at a members house and Sister Lin was asking if we were full, and we were so full, so I told her that I was full but my companion was still starving so she came back with a big old plate full of sausage and kept putting them in his bowl. Hahahahaha... And then 2 days ago there was this kid playing with a hose and I told the kid, "Hey my companion wants you to spray him!" and so the kid looked at me like "Really?" and I was like "Yeah, he says it is really hot and that he wants you to spray him a little bit." Right as the kid started to spray my companion Elder Christensen figured out what was going on and ran away.
We are getting along great. He is a really great guy! Our area is struggling a little bit, we don't really have a lot of investigators currently, but we have a goal to invite 1000 people to meet with us this week. I think we can do it!
The Taichung Mission is really different from my old Kaohsiung Mission. They have different ways of doing things and different rules, which will be hard to adjust too but I think it will a great learning experience. I miss President and Sister Hsu so much. Those 2 were so awesome, I hope they are doing good and having a nice rest in Hawaii. That is where they live so I guess it isn't probably like the vacation we would think it is, but I bet they are taking a rest after 3 years of service.
Being a missionary really takes a lot out of people. I saw President and Sister Hsu's picture from 3 years ago and they looked so much younger hahahaha... I guess they did worry a lot about us missionaries.
So funny story, I have been using a left over bike from a missionary that just went home and it is terrible. If you pedal to hard the chain will skip off of the teeth on the gears. Anyways i was pedaling up the driveway from the parking garage underneath out apartment and sure enough it started skipping of the teeth. it is really loud when it does it, so the security guard that protects our complex came running over and saw me walking my bike up the embankment with the chain clicking against the gears. I told him "This bike is a piece of junk." and he laughed and in English said "Made in China." Hahaha... it was just funny because Taiwanese people are really proud of the quality stuff that they make so it made me laugh.
Today we are going to a science museum so that should be pretty cool. I have actually been wanting to go to this museum for a long time, but all my other companions had either already been or they just didn't want to go. But this morning Elder Christensen was like hey do you wanna go? So i we are going. Probably sounds boring to you, but I think it will be cool.
Pray for us this week so that we can talk with 1000 people! Love you all,
Elder Anderson
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
June 30, 2009 Email
Elder Yang just happens to be terrified of elevators. As we have been packing up the mission office, it has been hilarious to see Elder Yang as he nervously gets in the elevator with all the boxes. Finally, we took the last trip to the car and we headed back up to clean the office.
Well we cleaned everything up and at about 10:15PM decided to head home to get some sleep. As we headed down the elevators we all looked at each other and it just seem to click in everybody’s head all at the same time. “1..2...3.. JUMP!” So we took a little jump in the elevator just to scare Elder Yang, however, it must have also shocked the elevator too because it came to an abrupt stop! We started pushing all the buttons and it wouldn’t move.
Luckily however we did have ice cream on hand so we called the management and then sat down and started to eat our ice cream. Finally an hour and a half later, all of the sudden it started moving again and we were freed. It was a very interesting being in the elevator that late at night, for a minute or two there I thought that we might be having a little camp out in the elevator.
Love Elder Craig Anderson
Well we cleaned everything up and at about 10:15PM decided to head home to get some sleep. As we headed down the elevators we all looked at each other and it just seem to click in everybody’s head all at the same time. “1..2...3.. JUMP!” So we took a little jump in the elevator just to scare Elder Yang, however, it must have also shocked the elevator too because it came to an abrupt stop! We started pushing all the buttons and it wouldn’t move.
Luckily however we did have ice cream on hand so we called the management and then sat down and started to eat our ice cream. Finally an hour and a half later, all of the sudden it started moving again and we were freed. It was a very interesting being in the elevator that late at night, for a minute or two there I thought that we might be having a little camp out in the elevator.
Love Elder Craig Anderson
Friday, June 26, 2009
Return Date
As you will see in the letter below. Craig's official release date will be December 22, 2009. What fun to have him home right before Christmas and for the holidays.
Robert
HELLO!!!So this week was so stinking awesome! We had 2 baptisms. I know I have told you all about the Jewish man that we have been working with. He has been doing so well lately and then finally he was ready. He has been meeting with the missionaries for over a year and has progressed slowly the whole time. Since he is about 60 years old and has a very strong Jewish background, it has been a hard long road. But through the power of the Spirit influencing him day by day he was able to change.
His story is very unique. A little over a year ago, the missionaries were heading home late at night and they ran across a drunken white man on the street. His name was Robert Hirsch. He was lost and drunk out of his mind. They felt bad for the poor guy so they asked him for his wallet to see if they could find his address for him. They found his address and realized that it was way too far away to walk. So they jumped in a taxi with him and took him home. After dropping him off the missionaries headed home. A couple days went by and the missionaries didn’t think much about the incident, but they had a strong impression to call him and see if he was doing ok.
They called him up and asked how he was doing. He was so thankful for what they did for him that he invited them over for dinner. Days later they went over to his house to eat a special spaghetti dinner that he had prepared for them. He introduced the missionaries to his wife and 3 kids. They all sat down for a good ol’ American dinner as Robert would call it. During the dinner of course the topic turned to religion. Poor guy just wanted to thank the Elders for helping him, he probably didn’t want to talk about religion. Hahaha… Well what did he expect. However it went very well and Robert was very interested in the “Mormon” religion that he had always heard so much about. The missionaries quickly explained that the “Mormon Church” is not our actually name, it is a nickname that other people have given us and they told him that our church’s full name is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They explained that the center of our religion is the savior Jesus Christ. Of course Robert teased them about some of the rumors and half truths he had heard about our church but in the end he was still very intrigued and decided to keep listening.
The first several lessons were very rough. Coming from a non-Christian background made learning the gospel just that much more difficult. As he continued to meet with missionaries regularly his attitude started to change. He started to treat his family more kindly, he started to quit some of his addictions, and he started to feel the love of the Lord as he began to pray and repent.
His progress has been very obvious, about 5 months ago I had the opportunity of being in this same area. On several occasions I was able to meet Robert and talk to him at church. At the time he was meeting with the other Elders so I never taught him at his home, but at church I would talk with him and we started to develop a friendship. I don’t know why, but I always seem to make friends with 60 year guys. They are usually the smartest and most interesting people though.
Well I moved away for a couple months and then came back to this area when I moved into the Mission Office. We started teaching him regularly and began helping him to prepare for baptism. I think the most memorable moment of teaching Robert was the night that we got him to forfeit all of his cigarettes and alcohol. He has always struggled with drinking and smoking, but on that night he decided to change. He went into the back room, grabbed several bottles of rice whiskey and we all went and dumped them out. Since Robert doesn’t speak Chinese I asked his son in Chinese if there was any more alcohol in the house. His son thought about it for a minute and ran off into another room and came back with another bottle. So once again we went back and dumped it all out. It was kind of funny because I don’t think Robert was trying to hide it, he just forgot about that bottle, but of course we had to tease him a little bit about it.
We left that night with several packs of cigarettes in our pockets. Thank goodness our Mission President didn’t come visit us. It would have been a little hard to explain why our pockets were full of cigarettes and why we smelled like smoke. Hahaha… Luckily we didn’t run into anyone so we just went home and flushed them down the toilet because we were afraid that if we threw them in the trash our neighbors might think we were smoking.
Anyways, finally on Thursday he was baptized. He still isn’t perfect and will probably struggle with several things throughout the remainder of his life. However, the change that has happened to his family is so amazing. They truly have felt the love of the Gospel. His wife decided to wait a little while to be baptized, but Robert and his daughter Elli were baptized. They all come every Sunday and are probably the most active members of our ward.
Here are their pictures. Elder Frandsen performed the baptisms, Elder and Sister Frandsen are the coolest. Elder Frandsen was a missionary here about 30 years ago. Him and his wife have been here for about 1 year and they always feed us really good food They will be heading home in about October just before I come home on the 22nd of December. Oh and yes that is the official day I will be coming home.
Anyways, I hope that Robert’s conversion story makes sense. I am having a hard time thinking how to write today. I am sure I left out a ton of little details but I will rewrite it in my journal later. Love ya all.
Peace,
Elder Craig Anderso
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Sombreos and Spagetti
This week was another very interesting and busy week. The weeks seem to flying by! President Hsu will be heading home in less than 2 weeks! After that our new Mission President will be coming down and meeting with the office staff down here. Hopefully, I will get to leave the mission office and get to go back into the field. At the present time I should be going back out to be a normal missionary soon.
I really want to go to a place that is smaller and more rural. I feel like I can do more good in those places. In the city there is just TOO much stuff to do you can’t figure out what to do. But out in the country you can really focus on a couple people rather than trying to juggle 20 or more in the city.
So you will not believe this! Right next to our office is a new Mexican Restaurant. It is authentic!! There is this guy from LA. He grew up in the states but his parents are Taiwanese. He doesn’t really speak Chinese, but he speaks English just as good as any American. He isn’t really Taiwanese at all he is American. Anyways, he just opened up this shop and the food is so good. He is a really nice guy and he is already asking questions about us. I am hoping that we can just kind of eat Mexican food with him and talk to him about the gospel. He is such a nice guy, probably about 26, his name is Mark Wu.
It was really funny, because lately I have been thinking about how much I missed Mexican food and then sure enough we see the sign for “Pacos Tacos” pop up last week. Eating at peoples restaurants and making friends with them is such a great way to share the Gospel. What happens is people kind of realize that we are people too. A lot of people when they see us must see us as aliens or machines or something. There is this Wei Family that I always go and eat their noodles at their noodle shop. They might be coming to church soon. They love us though and think we are the funniest nicest people in the world. In actuality they are the funniest nicest people in the world.
Well I need to go get my fix of Mexican food.
LOVE YA,
So I ripped apart our network here at the office, because whoever put it together before must have thought that networks are supposed to look like a bowl full of spaghetti noodles. Hope you like the pics!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
June 9, 2009
A picture of one of the clearest days i have ever seen in Taiwan!
I don't know if i have ever told you all about the random fireworks that get light off over here. Somedays you will be biking down the street and all of the sudden things will start exploding all around you. I am starting to get used to it, but the other day I honestly thought the Bloods and the Crips had started a turf war and I was stuck in the middle. Of course my companion who is a native was probably wondering why in the world I dove underneath an empty dumpster and curled up in the fetal position. They don't have guns over here so when they hear fireworks they think " oh fireworks!" or as they would think in chinese "ah! qing chang hong hang bang bing bong su ran pao" (And yes that is all one word). But of course being an American I hear loud bangs and 2 thoughts go through my head the 1st "Is it hunting season?" If the answer is yes, then everything is ok. If the answer is no, then of course the next natural reaction is to curl up in a ball and hide. hahaha...
so if you are wondering whether or not i really did curl up underneath a dumpster or not, the answer is no i didn't not. but only because there aren't any dumpsters here. They recycle everything so they won't put dumpsters out on the street because if they do people will use them. But the other day i almost really did get a bottle rocket to the face. That was fun. Just like old times.
Love you all,
Elder Craig Anderson
PS – stay away from fireworks!
I don't know if i have ever told you all about the random fireworks that get light off over here. Somedays you will be biking down the street and all of the sudden things will start exploding all around you. I am starting to get used to it, but the other day I honestly thought the Bloods and the Crips had started a turf war and I was stuck in the middle. Of course my companion who is a native was probably wondering why in the world I dove underneath an empty dumpster and curled up in the fetal position. They don't have guns over here so when they hear fireworks they think " oh fireworks!" or as they would think in chinese "ah! qing chang hong hang bang bing bong su ran pao" (And yes that is all one word). But of course being an American I hear loud bangs and 2 thoughts go through my head the 1st "Is it hunting season?" If the answer is yes, then everything is ok. If the answer is no, then of course the next natural reaction is to curl up in a ball and hide. hahaha...
so if you are wondering whether or not i really did curl up underneath a dumpster or not, the answer is no i didn't not. but only because there aren't any dumpsters here. They recycle everything so they won't put dumpsters out on the street because if they do people will use them. But the other day i almost really did get a bottle rocket to the face. That was fun. Just like old times.
Love you all,
Elder Craig Anderson
PS – stay away from fireworks!
June 4, 2009 Monkeys
Well I am sorry I didn’t email yesterday! Things got really crazy and we were so busy I couldn’t even sit down for 10 minutes. I t turns out moving a mission is a lot of work. It’s okay though, it is really fun and I get to learn a lot.
This week has been another wonderful week. Yesterday morning we actually went to a place called Monkey Mountain. And yes you guessed it. It had monkeys on it. Lots of monkeys, they are crazy. I thought they were going to eat me. We brought a loaf of bread with us to feed them and it was very intense. You had to be really sneaky about pulling the bread out of your bag or else they would jump you. They are evil little creatures!!
I am sure Ali is reading this and just shaking her head thinking that monkeys can’t be mean. Ali trust me all I can say is Wrong, Evil, Smell, Bad, gross, mean. Hahaha… it was really fun though to get outside of the office and go climb a mountain. Besides the monkeys there was a really good view of the city. Luckily there wasn’t that much pollution in the air yesterday so it was pretty clear.
I start to love the culture more and more here. What I mean by that is the old Chinese culture. In old Chinese culture, people are very respectful, families are the most important and they believe in doing good things. Their views are very similar to ours or at least used to be very similar to ours.
Here are some pictures of the monkey gang that we ran into. I hope you like them.
love ya
Elder Craig Anderson
May 19, 2009
This week we met the coolest guy on the street. He is so perfect! We went and ate dinner together and he was asking all these really deep soul searching questions. I really like him a lot. He is a computer programmer in the building across the street from ours. On the way home the other night we saw him on the street and started talking with him. At first he was really stand offish, but then I started talking about computers with him and he really warmed up.
We gave him a church pamphlet and invited him to read it. So we setup a time to meet a couple days later. We all went to this little shop across the street and ate. He had read the pamphlet several times and had all these awesome questions about, "why are we here on earth?" "how do we know what is true?" So good! We gave him a Book of Mormon and setup another time to meet. He was so excited to read scriptures, when we gave it to him he could hardly pay attention to what we were talking about because he was flipping over the pages and holding it like it was the best gift he had ever gotten.
His name is Benjamin Chen, we actually helped him pick the name Benjamin because he didn't have an English name. Most people over here have an English name that they use. But Benjamin didn't so we helped him pick.
Today there are some new missionaries coming to our mission. 3 new ones to be exact. The new missionaries are so much fun because they are so perfect. Their faith is so strong and they just have no idea what to do. But you can feel their enthusiasm for the work and its awesome. Although they are completely clueless about how to do missionary work, they bring a spirit and a drive that is a strong inspiration and motivation to us. I love being around the new missionaries because they are basically white slates. You can teach them, and they are willing to accept what you teach. Even when we eat it is just so hilarious to watch this missionaries try to use chopsticks hahahaha... Don't worry I usually don't laugh at them. As I am sure you can tell I am excited to welcome these new missionaries today.
I have good news too! I do not have to do referrals anymore! Last week I was supposed to move from my current job to do that, but my company Elder Zheng isn't moving. I am so relieved, I was really not that excited to do that job. So I get to keep doing what I have been doing for a while now. Anyways, thats good right?
I also have some more good news. I might be leaving the Office on July 1st to go back out into the field. Originally President Hoer of the Taichong Mission was going to take all of us in the Mission Office up to Taichong and work from there, but now it looks like they won't need us so we can go back and be normal missionaries again!!!! I am so excited, but still plans could change. Lets just hope I can get out into the field soon.
Well thats the story for the week. If you have complaints please email them to somebody else. :) hahaha
love ya
Elder Craig Anderson
We gave him a church pamphlet and invited him to read it. So we setup a time to meet a couple days later. We all went to this little shop across the street and ate. He had read the pamphlet several times and had all these awesome questions about, "why are we here on earth?" "how do we know what is true?" So good! We gave him a Book of Mormon and setup another time to meet. He was so excited to read scriptures, when we gave it to him he could hardly pay attention to what we were talking about because he was flipping over the pages and holding it like it was the best gift he had ever gotten.
His name is Benjamin Chen, we actually helped him pick the name Benjamin because he didn't have an English name. Most people over here have an English name that they use. But Benjamin didn't so we helped him pick.
Today there are some new missionaries coming to our mission. 3 new ones to be exact. The new missionaries are so much fun because they are so perfect. Their faith is so strong and they just have no idea what to do. But you can feel their enthusiasm for the work and its awesome. Although they are completely clueless about how to do missionary work, they bring a spirit and a drive that is a strong inspiration and motivation to us. I love being around the new missionaries because they are basically white slates. You can teach them, and they are willing to accept what you teach. Even when we eat it is just so hilarious to watch this missionaries try to use chopsticks hahahaha... Don't worry I usually don't laugh at them. As I am sure you can tell I am excited to welcome these new missionaries today.
I have good news too! I do not have to do referrals anymore! Last week I was supposed to move from my current job to do that, but my company Elder Zheng isn't moving. I am so relieved, I was really not that excited to do that job. So I get to keep doing what I have been doing for a while now. Anyways, thats good right?
I also have some more good news. I might be leaving the Office on July 1st to go back out into the field. Originally President Hoer of the Taichong Mission was going to take all of us in the Mission Office up to Taichong and work from there, but now it looks like they won't need us so we can go back and be normal missionaries again!!!! I am so excited, but still plans could change. Lets just hope I can get out into the field soon.
Well thats the story for the week. If you have complaints please email them to somebody else. :) hahaha
love ya
Elder Craig Anderson
May 12, 2009
Happy Mother’s Day to everybody!
It has been another great week in the service of the Lord! We saw so many miracles and blessings this week. Since we only have a couple hours at night to go proselyte we usually do not find that many people to teach, but lately we have been so blessed to find people everywhere. It seems like we can hardly step foot out of the office without talking with somebody that has an interest in hearing the Gospel.
Last night we got out of the office a little late and were hoping that we could find one person that would set up a time with us for latter in the week. Instead of finding 1 person, we found 2 and instead of setting them up they agreed to sitting down with us immediately. Both of them have setup times to meet with us again. They are so good!!
On Sunday, we had a really neat experience with a man that just walked into the church. I know that doesn’t sound that miraculous to you, but in Taiwan, people do not just walk into a Christian Church. So we gave him a little tour of the Chapel and then sat down with him. As we were talking with him we asked him, “Why did you decide to come into the Church?” and he said, “When I saw it, it looked really warm and friendly, kind of like as if it were my home.” It was one of the best lessons I think I have ever seen. He was so excited about reading the scriptures and when we offered to give him the Book of Mormon, he insisted he must buy the book. Obviously we can’t take many, so we insisted that we absolutely would not accept any payment. He was so astonished and excited about this new scripture he had to read. Unfortunately, his family was still waiting for him outside. They had been eating at the restaurant next to our Chapel and he finished early so he could come take a look inside our church. So he had to leave in a hurry and we didn’t get a chance to set up another time to meet with him. I hope he comes back next week, he was really intelligent.
Then when we were tracting the other night we were trying desperately to find a family. We could not for the life of us find a family that was willing to listen to our message about eternal families. Finally, we knocked on this one door and at first I didn’t think they were going to let us in, but they did and we taught them all about who Heavenly Father is and what his plan is for us. It was a very different family, it was an uncle who takes care of his brothers kids. One of the kids was mentally handicapped and we think that the uncle might have adopted the kids because their parents passed away or just aren’t able to care for these kids. We are going back on Sunday to teach them more about the Plan of Salvation.
As for the office week, it continues on. We are still preparing for the merge of the 2 missions on July 1st. So we have about 6 weeks to get everything ready for that. But guess what happened!? My shredder broke! I was so sad, but after fiddling with it for a while I fixed it. My companion tried to stick about 30 sheets thru at the same time and it clogged it up really good. Anyways, as the sequel to my last adventure with the shredder I have included some pictures.
1st picture is my companion and I with 2 other elders at the Aquarium on our rest day. My companion is on the far left. And then there is Elder Fronk and Elder Wang
2nd picture is me fiddling with the shredder…. Hahaha I am sure you hate pictures of this by now
And then the rest are just some random pictures
Love yall
Elder Craig Anderson
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
April 2- what you see below
Hey Hey Hey
Well it has been another wonderful week in the Office. Since it was the end of the move last week I was really busy. I have to prepare a lot of things when missionaries get moved around, so it is a big headache. When 50 people get up and move and you have to keep track of them all it makes it really tough. I can't even imagine how they got work done back in the day when they didn't have computers. I have a hard enough time working with everything even though I can use a computer.
Since we don't go out that much, I don't really have any cool stories, so I figured I would have to spoil you all with some pictures.
1 - We went and hiked this mountain on preparation day and on the very top of the mountain there are these natural gas geysers. Anyways, they spit out this really cool mud stuff and over time it makes these little mud pillars, or mud volcanoes. I was worried it might explode while I was on top of it... Just kidding they don't really explode, they just kind of squirt.
2 - You remember that old man who would always cheat when we played Ping Pong. Well we got him on tape, I might have to notify the local judicial system about the evidence we have gathered. Currently it is still an on-going investigation, but with this latest break through I think we can close it.
3 - This is my old companion Elder Li! He is awesome and we had such an amazing 4 weeks together. It was to bad that we didn't get to spend the whole 6 weeks working together, but I had to go and get myself assigned to working in the Mission Office.
4 - This is my favorite food street in Gang Shan. They have the best curry pork in the entire world. Oh and just so you know, this is one of the wider alley ways. They can get a lot smaller, trust me.
5 - For those of you that know me really well, this picture might seem weird. I hate bowling! But we went on preparation day and it was actually really fun.
6 - This is just some random guy that wanted to take a picture with me. They were really nice and we invited them to come to church.
7 - And last but not least (matter of fact this is my favorite picture), this is the Soy Sauce aisle at the grocery store. Everything on the left hand side is strictly Soy Sauce!!! Who would have thought that they would have that much Soy Sauce in Asia!
Anyways, things are going great I am still acclimating to being in an office. We stay really busy, you would think that because I can use a computer pretty well it would make things go smoother, which it does, but then I end up picking up extra projects and what not to help out the office. Like the software we are making for the native missionaries to learn English. It is fun though, and it is a whole different aspect of Missionary work that i get to learn about. It is also fun to be able to talk with president hsu as often as we get to and learn about how the mission is run and about the inspiration that is involved with every little detail.
Well I hope these pictures can stifle your thirst to know about what is going on in my life.
I love you all so much,
Elder Craig Anderson
Well it has been another wonderful week in the Office. Since it was the end of the move last week I was really busy. I have to prepare a lot of things when missionaries get moved around, so it is a big headache. When 50 people get up and move and you have to keep track of them all it makes it really tough. I can't even imagine how they got work done back in the day when they didn't have computers. I have a hard enough time working with everything even though I can use a computer.
Since we don't go out that much, I don't really have any cool stories, so I figured I would have to spoil you all with some pictures.
1 - We went and hiked this mountain on preparation day and on the very top of the mountain there are these natural gas geysers. Anyways, they spit out this really cool mud stuff and over time it makes these little mud pillars, or mud volcanoes. I was worried it might explode while I was on top of it... Just kidding they don't really explode, they just kind of squirt.
2 - You remember that old man who would always cheat when we played Ping Pong. Well we got him on tape, I might have to notify the local judicial system about the evidence we have gathered. Currently it is still an on-going investigation, but with this latest break through I think we can close it.
3 - This is my old companion Elder Li! He is awesome and we had such an amazing 4 weeks together. It was to bad that we didn't get to spend the whole 6 weeks working together, but I had to go and get myself assigned to working in the Mission Office.
4 - This is my favorite food street in Gang Shan. They have the best curry pork in the entire world. Oh and just so you know, this is one of the wider alley ways. They can get a lot smaller, trust me.
5 - For those of you that know me really well, this picture might seem weird. I hate bowling! But we went on preparation day and it was actually really fun.
6 - This is just some random guy that wanted to take a picture with me. They were really nice and we invited them to come to church.
7 - And last but not least (matter of fact this is my favorite picture), this is the Soy Sauce aisle at the grocery store. Everything on the left hand side is strictly Soy Sauce!!! Who would have thought that they would have that much Soy Sauce in Asia!
Anyways, things are going great I am still acclimating to being in an office. We stay really busy, you would think that because I can use a computer pretty well it would make things go smoother, which it does, but then I end up picking up extra projects and what not to help out the office. Like the software we are making for the native missionaries to learn English. It is fun though, and it is a whole different aspect of Missionary work that i get to learn about. It is also fun to be able to talk with president hsu as often as we get to and learn about how the mission is run and about the inspiration that is involved with every little detail.
Well I hope these pictures can stifle your thirst to know about what is going on in my life.
I love you all so much,
Elder Craig Anderson
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
FIRST WEEK IN THE OFFICE.......
MARCH 31
Well its not as bad as I thought it was going to be being inside. I am actually very grateful that I get to sit in the air conditioning during the heat of the day hahaha... Summer is almost here too and it is starting to get really hot out there. My schedule is basically the same. 6:30 get up and run for 20 minutes. 7:00 shower, 7:45 eat breakfast. 8:00 personal study, 9:00 - 9:50 companion study. Then after that my time is a little more uncertain. Usually, I have to make a ton of phone calls to gather some information about the mission. So from about 10:00 - 10:30 I spend time talking to other missionaries about their areas and their recent baptisms. When I have time there are some things that I need to do. The first thing I do is organize baptismal records. When people get baptized they send the records to me and then I type them into the computer and make back ups in case the original gets lost. Then I type in all their information so that we can send them mail easily. After that I send it all to Taibei.
Then before Wednesday of every week I prepare a powerpoint of the mission. I just include a bunch of things that President Hsu needs to know about. Like which areas are struggling and which areas are doing really good. This helps him to know how to better help the mission improve. My favorite part of my job is the little side projects that i get to do. Right now I am writing a program for the Chinese Elders after they go home to help them learn English. It is going to be an interactive CD that they can use on their computer to practice English. And lastly my job is to backup everything and prepare for the move up to Taichong in 3 months. I have a lot of time so it should go pretty smooth. Basically that is my job right now. Some days are really exciting and we get to drive around and visit far away places, and then other days are really boring and you just sit there and type away all day. Oh ya... I got an International Drivers License so I can drive around the mission cars. Last week we went to Ping Dong (my favorite place in Taiwan) to help setup an activity that was going on over there. Obviously, our rules are a little more flexible then most missionaries. Sometimes we have to stay out late or get up early, so that is kind of nice not always being in a rush to get home at night. Right now we have an investigator named Robert. Robert is American, he is about 60 years old and is very close to getting baptized. I met Robert 3 months ago when I was here and I got to be really good friends with him. Now I get to teach him! It is really strange teaching in English. Robert is very patient and is sure to correct me when what I am saying doesn't make sense. We laugh about it because sometimes, I say things in Chinese and I don't even realize and he just looks at me like, "Are you trying to be cute boy?!" hahaha its funny. He is a really nice guy who was raised Jewish. When he was in his 30's he started traveling the world teaching English. He has got a lot of crazy stories, Anyways he ended up in Taiwan and got married and has been here for about 17years. He has 3 kids and a wife. Robert, his wife and his daughter all are getting ready to be baptized in May. I'm so excited for them. Well, I love you all keep up the good work!
Elder Craig Anderson
Well its not as bad as I thought it was going to be being inside. I am actually very grateful that I get to sit in the air conditioning during the heat of the day hahaha... Summer is almost here too and it is starting to get really hot out there. My schedule is basically the same. 6:30 get up and run for 20 minutes. 7:00 shower, 7:45 eat breakfast. 8:00 personal study, 9:00 - 9:50 companion study. Then after that my time is a little more uncertain. Usually, I have to make a ton of phone calls to gather some information about the mission. So from about 10:00 - 10:30 I spend time talking to other missionaries about their areas and their recent baptisms. When I have time there are some things that I need to do. The first thing I do is organize baptismal records. When people get baptized they send the records to me and then I type them into the computer and make back ups in case the original gets lost. Then I type in all their information so that we can send them mail easily. After that I send it all to Taibei.
Then before Wednesday of every week I prepare a powerpoint of the mission. I just include a bunch of things that President Hsu needs to know about. Like which areas are struggling and which areas are doing really good. This helps him to know how to better help the mission improve. My favorite part of my job is the little side projects that i get to do. Right now I am writing a program for the Chinese Elders after they go home to help them learn English. It is going to be an interactive CD that they can use on their computer to practice English. And lastly my job is to backup everything and prepare for the move up to Taichong in 3 months. I have a lot of time so it should go pretty smooth. Basically that is my job right now. Some days are really exciting and we get to drive around and visit far away places, and then other days are really boring and you just sit there and type away all day. Oh ya... I got an International Drivers License so I can drive around the mission cars. Last week we went to Ping Dong (my favorite place in Taiwan) to help setup an activity that was going on over there. Obviously, our rules are a little more flexible then most missionaries. Sometimes we have to stay out late or get up early, so that is kind of nice not always being in a rush to get home at night. Right now we have an investigator named Robert. Robert is American, he is about 60 years old and is very close to getting baptized. I met Robert 3 months ago when I was here and I got to be really good friends with him. Now I get to teach him! It is really strange teaching in English. Robert is very patient and is sure to correct me when what I am saying doesn't make sense. We laugh about it because sometimes, I say things in Chinese and I don't even realize and he just looks at me like, "Are you trying to be cute boy?!" hahaha its funny. He is a really nice guy who was raised Jewish. When he was in his 30's he started traveling the world teaching English. He has got a lot of crazy stories, Anyways he ended up in Taiwan and got married and has been here for about 17years. He has 3 kids and a wife. Robert, his wife and his daughter all are getting ready to be baptized in May. I'm so excited for them. Well, I love you all keep up the good work!
Elder Craig Anderson
WELL I GOT SOME NEWS.....
MARCH 24
Hey, Well quite a lot has happened since we last talked. On last Thursday, about 30 seconds after I had gotten out of bed. The phone started to ring. Since it was 6:30 am, I was already a little drowsy. I answered the phone and quickly realized that the person on the other end was our Mission President, President Hsu. I already knew what he wanted. On Wednesday night I had a very strange feeling that the next day President Hsu was going to call me to be a Mission Office Elder. Sure enough President Hsu told me that he had decided to call me to be the Recorder in the mission office. He said that because of the merging of our mission and the Taichong mission they need me to come be here during the transfer to make sure all the data and what not gets setup correctly. Right now I am emailing you from my desk. It is really weird, I can't believe that I am no longer out in the mission field. It is okay though because from 6 pm to 9pm we get to be normal missionaries. It is also weird from not being able to use computers to using a computer all day long. It is fun though, I get to learn a lot about how the Missionary work is going. It is also neat because part of my job is to record the new baptisms, so I get to share in the excitement and joy of seeing somebody accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My job basically includes processing the mission information to better help President Hsu run the mission. Apart from that I am the computer repairman of course. After President Hsu called me on Thursday it has been crazy. He told me I needed to pack up and be at the office in 3 hours. So I threw everything in my bags, including my wet clothes that were still in the washer. Hahahaha... It has been great though. There is a lot to learn and the Elder that I am replacing only has about 1 week to show me everything that I am supposed to do. It is really fun though to be back in my old area. Last night we went to visit one of my old investigators from 3 months ago. I am back in the city now. Downtown Kaohsiung. It is great! So now when you guys think of me, don't think of me being out on the street talking with people or walking down the street preaching. I am in and office from 8am - 6pm. But after 6pm I am normal again get to go outside! I love going outside. I was never much of an inside person. But I am happy to be in a position that I can help out. Right now this is where I am needed and I know that the Lord confirmed it to me that Wednesday night before I got the call. My investigators in Gang Shan will be taken care of by my old companion. My new company is an Elder Zheng. He is awesome and is from Taiwan. He is hilarious! Well I have got a lot of stuff to do so I gotta go but I love you all and look forward to hearing your responses next week.
Craig
Hey, Well quite a lot has happened since we last talked. On last Thursday, about 30 seconds after I had gotten out of bed. The phone started to ring. Since it was 6:30 am, I was already a little drowsy. I answered the phone and quickly realized that the person on the other end was our Mission President, President Hsu. I already knew what he wanted. On Wednesday night I had a very strange feeling that the next day President Hsu was going to call me to be a Mission Office Elder. Sure enough President Hsu told me that he had decided to call me to be the Recorder in the mission office. He said that because of the merging of our mission and the Taichong mission they need me to come be here during the transfer to make sure all the data and what not gets setup correctly. Right now I am emailing you from my desk. It is really weird, I can't believe that I am no longer out in the mission field. It is okay though because from 6 pm to 9pm we get to be normal missionaries. It is also weird from not being able to use computers to using a computer all day long. It is fun though, I get to learn a lot about how the Missionary work is going. It is also neat because part of my job is to record the new baptisms, so I get to share in the excitement and joy of seeing somebody accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My job basically includes processing the mission information to better help President Hsu run the mission. Apart from that I am the computer repairman of course. After President Hsu called me on Thursday it has been crazy. He told me I needed to pack up and be at the office in 3 hours. So I threw everything in my bags, including my wet clothes that were still in the washer. Hahahaha... It has been great though. There is a lot to learn and the Elder that I am replacing only has about 1 week to show me everything that I am supposed to do. It is really fun though to be back in my old area. Last night we went to visit one of my old investigators from 3 months ago. I am back in the city now. Downtown Kaohsiung. It is great! So now when you guys think of me, don't think of me being out on the street talking with people or walking down the street preaching. I am in and office from 8am - 6pm. But after 6pm I am normal again get to go outside! I love going outside. I was never much of an inside person. But I am happy to be in a position that I can help out. Right now this is where I am needed and I know that the Lord confirmed it to me that Wednesday night before I got the call. My investigators in Gang Shan will be taken care of by my old companion. My new company is an Elder Zheng. He is awesome and is from Taiwan. He is hilarious! Well I have got a lot of stuff to do so I gotta go but I love you all and look forward to hearing your responses next week.
Craig
Jehovah's Witness and Rick
MARCH 17
This week, I got to play Ping Pong twice! Right before English class I played for about 15 minutes! I never realized how much I missed little things like that. We played with that old man a couple weeks ago, but we don't have a whole lot of time. I bought a Chinese paddle, and I have got some crazy spins on that ball now. All of our investigators are doing awesome. We have 3 that are so close to getting baptized. It seems like people always get right up to the very last step and then they lose faith. If only they would take one more step of faith. There is a new college kid that we have been meeting with named Cai Jing Wei. He is so cool! Everytime we set up an appointment he rides his bike 30 minutes to come meet with us. And then on Sundays he rides his bike 30 minutes there and back to come to Church. He is a really humble kid, who is sincere in his desire to know. Sometimes people we meet with aren't really there to learn they are just there to mock us or start arguments. Usually, the people that argue are the funniest because, us missionaries refuse to argue. It doesn't do any good to argue. No one learns anything and the Spirit leaves. We won't raise our voices, which usually just makes them more agitate because they are trying to makes them more agitate because they are trying to get a reaction out of us.
Speaking of arguments. These Jehovahs Witness missionaries are staulking me. They came to our church and were trying to tell me that every hardship that we have, is God punishing us! I was nice to them and told them that I believed differently. Look at Job for example, He was such a good guy, but he went through some really tough hardships. Anyways, they were very agressive, but we were still nice to them. I guess I wasn't mean enough though because they keep coming back. Everytime they come they tell me that they just want to encourage us to read the Bible. I was a little more firm this time and I told I do read the Bible, every morning for at least one hour. And they were like no you need to read the Bible, what they meant was I needed to read the Bible the way they see the Bible. Finally I told them listen, there are thousands of different christian churches in this world, how do I know that your perspective on the Bible is the correct one? They seemed a little confused and said that if I was reading the Bible carefully then there wouldn't be any confusion about correct doctrine. I told them that is what every church says. I don't think they have had many chances to talk to other Christians. Less than 5 percent of Taiwan is Christian so they mostly talk with Taoists and Buddhists. Anyways, I shared with them in Ephesians 4 about, Apostles, Prophets, and Evangelists. I asked them if Christ promised us these Apostles and Prophets, Where are they now? I love that chapter in it, it talks about how, Apostles and Prophets are necessary for the unifying of the saints. I love that line! Anyways, I told them that I truly believe Heavenly Father has once again given us Apostles and Prophets, just like Moses and Abraham. To guide us so that we are not 'tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine' that is blown our way. I tried to give them a Book of Mormon, but of course they didn't accept. They didn't really want to let me talk actually. If people want to have an open discussion where both sides get to share spiritual experiences and insights I am more than willing to participate. But if you want to come and start arguments and say things that are meant to hurt people, then I won't sit down with you. The Jehovahs witness missionaries always want to sit down, but I know that if we sit down we will just spend an hour and a half listening to them talk. Next time they come I am going to hide, hahaha, just kidding. I won't hide. But I WILL continue to bare testimony for the living Prophets and Apostles on the earth today. Anyways, i wrote a lot more about them than I wanted. :). Guess who came to see my on Sunday? Rick, my new convert from Ping Dong. I didn't know he was coming and when he walked into the Chapel I almost had a heartattack. Hahaha... I haven't seem him in months. He is doing so good and is a Sunday School teacher now. Every other week he teaches the adult Sunday School and then on the weeks he isn't teaching the Adults he teaches the 8 to 12 year olds. He is so awesome! He is so smart and has learned the Gospel so fast! It is amazing that someone who wasn't christian 8 months ago, now has one of the strongest testimonies of Jesus Christ. It was so good to see him and it made me want to work even harder as a missionary to find more people that are ready to hear the Gospel. When people learn by the spirit like Rick, rather than learning by the intellect, you can learn so much faster. To me it is amazing that members like Rick can understand the Bible better than people that have been studying it there whole lives. If you study it like a Chemistry textbook, you aren't going to learn a whole lot, but if you study it as the word of God you are going to learn really fast.
Well I got to go eat hot pot. Hot pot is like a big stew and everyone has there own pot and you through in all sorts of stuff. Its great because everyone gets there own so you get to make your own soup. Usually you boil your meat and vegetables and then you pull them out and dip them in sauce and eat it with rice. Its sooooo good. thinking about it right now makes me even hungry,
Love yall Elder Craig Anderson
Taiwan Kaohsiung Mission
This week, I got to play Ping Pong twice! Right before English class I played for about 15 minutes! I never realized how much I missed little things like that. We played with that old man a couple weeks ago, but we don't have a whole lot of time. I bought a Chinese paddle, and I have got some crazy spins on that ball now. All of our investigators are doing awesome. We have 3 that are so close to getting baptized. It seems like people always get right up to the very last step and then they lose faith. If only they would take one more step of faith. There is a new college kid that we have been meeting with named Cai Jing Wei. He is so cool! Everytime we set up an appointment he rides his bike 30 minutes to come meet with us. And then on Sundays he rides his bike 30 minutes there and back to come to Church. He is a really humble kid, who is sincere in his desire to know. Sometimes people we meet with aren't really there to learn they are just there to mock us or start arguments. Usually, the people that argue are the funniest because, us missionaries refuse to argue. It doesn't do any good to argue. No one learns anything and the Spirit leaves. We won't raise our voices, which usually just makes them more agitate because they are trying to makes them more agitate because they are trying to get a reaction out of us.
Speaking of arguments. These Jehovahs Witness missionaries are staulking me. They came to our church and were trying to tell me that every hardship that we have, is God punishing us! I was nice to them and told them that I believed differently. Look at Job for example, He was such a good guy, but he went through some really tough hardships. Anyways, they were very agressive, but we were still nice to them. I guess I wasn't mean enough though because they keep coming back. Everytime they come they tell me that they just want to encourage us to read the Bible. I was a little more firm this time and I told I do read the Bible, every morning for at least one hour. And they were like no you need to read the Bible, what they meant was I needed to read the Bible the way they see the Bible. Finally I told them listen, there are thousands of different christian churches in this world, how do I know that your perspective on the Bible is the correct one? They seemed a little confused and said that if I was reading the Bible carefully then there wouldn't be any confusion about correct doctrine. I told them that is what every church says. I don't think they have had many chances to talk to other Christians. Less than 5 percent of Taiwan is Christian so they mostly talk with Taoists and Buddhists. Anyways, I shared with them in Ephesians 4 about, Apostles, Prophets, and Evangelists. I asked them if Christ promised us these Apostles and Prophets, Where are they now? I love that chapter in it, it talks about how, Apostles and Prophets are necessary for the unifying of the saints. I love that line! Anyways, I told them that I truly believe Heavenly Father has once again given us Apostles and Prophets, just like Moses and Abraham. To guide us so that we are not 'tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine' that is blown our way. I tried to give them a Book of Mormon, but of course they didn't accept. They didn't really want to let me talk actually. If people want to have an open discussion where both sides get to share spiritual experiences and insights I am more than willing to participate. But if you want to come and start arguments and say things that are meant to hurt people, then I won't sit down with you. The Jehovahs witness missionaries always want to sit down, but I know that if we sit down we will just spend an hour and a half listening to them talk. Next time they come I am going to hide, hahaha, just kidding. I won't hide. But I WILL continue to bare testimony for the living Prophets and Apostles on the earth today. Anyways, i wrote a lot more about them than I wanted. :). Guess who came to see my on Sunday? Rick, my new convert from Ping Dong. I didn't know he was coming and when he walked into the Chapel I almost had a heartattack. Hahaha... I haven't seem him in months. He is doing so good and is a Sunday School teacher now. Every other week he teaches the adult Sunday School and then on the weeks he isn't teaching the Adults he teaches the 8 to 12 year olds. He is so awesome! He is so smart and has learned the Gospel so fast! It is amazing that someone who wasn't christian 8 months ago, now has one of the strongest testimonies of Jesus Christ. It was so good to see him and it made me want to work even harder as a missionary to find more people that are ready to hear the Gospel. When people learn by the spirit like Rick, rather than learning by the intellect, you can learn so much faster. To me it is amazing that members like Rick can understand the Bible better than people that have been studying it there whole lives. If you study it like a Chemistry textbook, you aren't going to learn a whole lot, but if you study it as the word of God you are going to learn really fast.
Well I got to go eat hot pot. Hot pot is like a big stew and everyone has there own pot and you through in all sorts of stuff. Its great because everyone gets there own so you get to make your own soup. Usually you boil your meat and vegetables and then you pull them out and dip them in sauce and eat it with rice. Its sooooo good. thinking about it right now makes me even hungry,
Love yall Elder Craig Anderson
Taiwan Kaohsiung Mission
Thursday, March 12, 2009
CRAIG STILL DOING WELL
Elder Craig Anderson is as enthusiastic as ever about his call to serve the people in Taiwan. His latest email described a new and exciting change that will occur in his mission in July.His current Mission President will be released and two mission will combine to make one.
The Taichung Mission President, Michael Hoer will oversee the new larger mission and he now serves as the president of the current, smaller Taiwan, Taichung Mission.This mission covers the area north of Elder Anderson's current mission.Elder Anderson is excited about this upcoming change as it means he will get to see more of Taiwan. His family anxiously awaits to see if this means he will be coming home at the same date he originally was given in December. We all wish Elder Anderson the best and are so excited for this new development.
The Taichung Mission President, Michael Hoer will oversee the new larger mission and he now serves as the president of the current, smaller Taiwan, Taichung Mission.This mission covers the area north of Elder Anderson's current mission.Elder Anderson is excited about this upcoming change as it means he will get to see more of Taiwan. His family anxiously awaits to see if this means he will be coming home at the same date he originally was given in December. We all wish Elder Anderson the best and are so excited for this new development.
March 10, 2009
Taichong Mission and Exterminators
I have some really cool things to tell you guys! As a matter of fact they will change the rest of my mission. As I am sure some of you know President Hsu our mission president will be heading home in July. So the past couple weeks we have been waiting to hear who our new mission President will be. Well yesterday at the Leadership Training Meeting, President Hsu read to us a letter from the Prophet. In the letter it stated that the Kaohsiung Mission will be consolidated into the Taichong mission! Starting July 1st I will be a Taichong Mission Missionary. The Kaohsiung Mission is becoming part of Taichong. How crazy is that? I will now have a chance maybe to go serve in Central Taiwan. Taichong doesnt take care of northern Taiwan though so i wont go to Taibei. But still. Not many missionaries get to say they served in 2 different missions. My new mission president is the current Taichong Mission President. I don't know him or much about him, but it will be fun to work with a new mission president. All the missionaries are so suprised. We are excited though, it will probably be a little tough to transition at first, but it should be a great learning opportunity.
After the Leadership Training Meeting yesterday, I helped president Hsu setup a backup for his computer. I wrote a really cool backup program that they use in the mission office and he just wanted me to put that on one more computer so it was pretty easy. I was teasing him that he can't tell the new mission president that I can fix computers, maybe I can keep it a secret and fly under the radar. haha actually if they need help I am willing to help.
This week we have had 2 investigators that are so close to baptism. One is a native aboriginee kid, named kang bi. He is awesome, as a matter of fact, he is the pianist for another church here in Gang Shan. Its an aboriginee christian church and is a little different from most christian churches, but he has been reading the scriptures and praying like crazy. If you do those 2 things you will gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. If you dont you wont. He is awesome. We invited him to be baptized and he said he would have to think about it. Since right now he has a responsibility at the other church he doesn't want to just run away. He is so awesome! we don't want him to ditch his responsibility either, so he has been trying to find somebody else to take his place. As soon as he can find somebody he will get baptized. We just hope he can find somebody!!!
Our other investigator is a filipino guy named Greg. I think I have told you about Greg before. He is so hilarious. Since my companion can't speak English, usually Greg and I just talk. I help my companion translate if he wants, but usually he just lets me teach Greg. We taught Greg at a 7-11 so the environment wasn't the best. I invited him to be baptized and he agreed!!! But he said he doesn't want to in Taiwan. I don't blame him either. If I was him chuch is very difficult to attend in Chinese. I translate for him, but it is not the same. He is going home in September or October and wants to be baptized when he gets home!! We will forward all the information to the Phillipines, but until then we will keep meeting with him.
Well My time is running low. Time is not like gasoline unfortunately, you can not refill it whenever you are almost out.
Gotta go Love Elder Anderson
ooo hahaha... so this week our aparment complex hired exterminators to come and spray all the sewers in the area. It smelled really bad cuz they use this smoke stuff, but I couldn't help but laugh at all those little mosquitos in there choking. My companion knows a little enlglish and he does an imitation of a mosuito in the sewers. He bends his knees and starts to shake and says "I'm so sccaarreedd!" Hahahah it looks so hilarious. I am glad they finally did something about the mosquitos thoough, cuz it was getting really bad.
I have some really cool things to tell you guys! As a matter of fact they will change the rest of my mission. As I am sure some of you know President Hsu our mission president will be heading home in July. So the past couple weeks we have been waiting to hear who our new mission President will be. Well yesterday at the Leadership Training Meeting, President Hsu read to us a letter from the Prophet. In the letter it stated that the Kaohsiung Mission will be consolidated into the Taichong mission! Starting July 1st I will be a Taichong Mission Missionary. The Kaohsiung Mission is becoming part of Taichong. How crazy is that? I will now have a chance maybe to go serve in Central Taiwan. Taichong doesnt take care of northern Taiwan though so i wont go to Taibei. But still. Not many missionaries get to say they served in 2 different missions. My new mission president is the current Taichong Mission President. I don't know him or much about him, but it will be fun to work with a new mission president. All the missionaries are so suprised. We are excited though, it will probably be a little tough to transition at first, but it should be a great learning opportunity.
After the Leadership Training Meeting yesterday, I helped president Hsu setup a backup for his computer. I wrote a really cool backup program that they use in the mission office and he just wanted me to put that on one more computer so it was pretty easy. I was teasing him that he can't tell the new mission president that I can fix computers, maybe I can keep it a secret and fly under the radar. haha actually if they need help I am willing to help.
This week we have had 2 investigators that are so close to baptism. One is a native aboriginee kid, named kang bi. He is awesome, as a matter of fact, he is the pianist for another church here in Gang Shan. Its an aboriginee christian church and is a little different from most christian churches, but he has been reading the scriptures and praying like crazy. If you do those 2 things you will gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon. If you dont you wont. He is awesome. We invited him to be baptized and he said he would have to think about it. Since right now he has a responsibility at the other church he doesn't want to just run away. He is so awesome! we don't want him to ditch his responsibility either, so he has been trying to find somebody else to take his place. As soon as he can find somebody he will get baptized. We just hope he can find somebody!!!
Our other investigator is a filipino guy named Greg. I think I have told you about Greg before. He is so hilarious. Since my companion can't speak English, usually Greg and I just talk. I help my companion translate if he wants, but usually he just lets me teach Greg. We taught Greg at a 7-11 so the environment wasn't the best. I invited him to be baptized and he agreed!!! But he said he doesn't want to in Taiwan. I don't blame him either. If I was him chuch is very difficult to attend in Chinese. I translate for him, but it is not the same. He is going home in September or October and wants to be baptized when he gets home!! We will forward all the information to the Phillipines, but until then we will keep meeting with him.
Well My time is running low. Time is not like gasoline unfortunately, you can not refill it whenever you are almost out.
Gotta go Love Elder Anderson
ooo hahaha... so this week our aparment complex hired exterminators to come and spray all the sewers in the area. It smelled really bad cuz they use this smoke stuff, but I couldn't help but laugh at all those little mosquitos in there choking. My companion knows a little enlglish and he does an imitation of a mosuito in the sewers. He bends his knees and starts to shake and says "I'm so sccaarreedd!" Hahahah it looks so hilarious. I am glad they finally did something about the mosquitos thoough, cuz it was getting really bad.
March 3, 2009
NEW BABIES AND F-22'S
Congratulations to Crystal and Jake! So his name is Samuel? Can i call him Sambo, or Simba for short? Hahaha, I hear he is cute and looks a lot like Jake. But you really can't tell he is so young. Crystal you should be glad people don't say he looks like you, if people started telling me that I looked like a pudgy little bald bundle of love I might be a little offend.) I can't believe i have a new nephew, before I get home someone better teach that kid how to hold a fishing rod. I have 2 nieces and one nephew now. SO stink cool! Well Gang Shan is doing crazy good! Because there are only 2 of us now, we stay very busy. As a matter of fact, during our nightly planning sessions we only have to spend about 5 minutes planning, because the days are already planned out for this week. Lots and lots of lessons.
We visited the new Liu family this week. They love us, we brought some games over to there house and talked about how our priorities effect our lives and that family should be our number one priority. The parents loved it and invited us over again this saturday, this time to talk about our church's message.
Last night we met with the funniest man I have ever met. He was so energetic and at first I thought he was mocking us because he was acting so excited when were teaching him new stuff! But then I realized he was genuinely excited, we gave him a Book of Mormon and he said we would have it read in 2 weeks. We tried to tell him that speed wasn't the most important thing and that pondering its message was most important, but he seemed pretty intent on reading in 2 weeks. hahaha... o well it should be good. That was one of the best lessons I think I have ever had. When I spoke it just seemed so natural, usually I am usually trying to compose grammar and think of the right word, but last night it was perfect. It truly was an awesome lesson!
I love my new companion. Elder Li is hilarious. We get along great! I really like being with native companions, they seem a lot more humble. We are doing so great here! I probably won't be moving at least for another 2 months or so, so I am glad that our area is doing so well. When your area is struggling it makes the work a lot tougher. Last Sunday I played the piano again for Sacrament meeting, but this time i had practiced. During lunch and dinner time last week I practiced a couple new Hymns. I really like to play piano, just not in front of 80 people. It is weird how you can play a song perfectly by yourself, but as soon as you get up in front of a congregation its totally different. It is also tough, because you have to listen to the congregation and adjust your speed. I had never really be a church pianist before until I came here. Hahahaha.... poor Gang Shan has to listen to me every Sunday. Its not that bad, as long as I can practice during meal times.
I have I ever whined about the mosquitos here. Man they are everywhere, I swam through a flock of them the other night. There were so many I thought that they were going to pick me up and carry me away. My companion calls them F-22 like the fighter airplanes. It's hilarious cuz he says it in English and it makes me laugh every time. Right after he says it he makes the sound of a turbine engine. Oh good times. Amazingly, I havent gotten bitten at all recently, I have been really careful cuz some of them have got a weird fever thing that I dont want to get. I guess Gang Shan is infamous for mosquitos. We are famous for 2 things here, Mosquitos and Goat meat. Its actually pretty good eatin, sometimes the Mosquitos get a little fiesty when you try and put then in the Microwave, but I usually just flex my muslcles and show them who is boss and they jump right in.
We live in an brand spanking new apartment complex built for Veterans so all the people there are mostly old army dudes. They are pretty hardcore old guys there. That guy I play ping pong with is an old army man. Anyways, it is weird cuz there are thousands of older people and then these young 20 year olds. It kind of feels like we are living in an retirement home. hahaha, I dont feel retired, I feel tired, but not retired. Wow to be "re"-tired most be really tiring. Ok that wasn't funny.
I know I tell you all the time, but I love my mission. I don't think there is anything more that I would like to do write now than be a missionary. Of course I miss home and america but it is fun to be have the chance to serve that I have. Lastly, iIwanted to tell you about Superman. There is a member here named Superman. He is very special. Really weird actually, anyways, he is about 45 years old.He is working on graduating from college, which I think is awesome. But he wants me to do all his English homework. I guess its not really homework, he has to translate his thesis into english. Most of the students just pay to have it done, but he doesnt have enough money. A couple weeks ago my companion volunteered me to translate this paper. It is so hard, I just finished yesterday. This paper destroyed my confidence hahaha. I thought that i had okay chinese, but this paper was going off on all this crazy stuff, like mechanically engineering. I wanted to cry when I was trying to translate it. Anyways, superman was very grateful for the free missionary english translation. It was interesting service that we were able to do this week. Plus I learned a lot of useless technical terms I almost got eaten by our elevator. Elevators in asia are different then our American elevators. Elevators here have an appetite. And if you get stuck in the middle they will squeeze you until you are flat as a piece of paper. Its okay though we were able to pry it open and release me from it evil little jaws. My shoulders are still a little sore. Hahahaha... Well I pray for me to find more families to teach.
Love ya Elder Craig Anderson
Congratulations to Crystal and Jake! So his name is Samuel? Can i call him Sambo, or Simba for short? Hahaha, I hear he is cute and looks a lot like Jake. But you really can't tell he is so young. Crystal you should be glad people don't say he looks like you, if people started telling me that I looked like a pudgy little bald bundle of love I might be a little offend.) I can't believe i have a new nephew, before I get home someone better teach that kid how to hold a fishing rod. I have 2 nieces and one nephew now. SO stink cool! Well Gang Shan is doing crazy good! Because there are only 2 of us now, we stay very busy. As a matter of fact, during our nightly planning sessions we only have to spend about 5 minutes planning, because the days are already planned out for this week. Lots and lots of lessons.
We visited the new Liu family this week. They love us, we brought some games over to there house and talked about how our priorities effect our lives and that family should be our number one priority. The parents loved it and invited us over again this saturday, this time to talk about our church's message.
Last night we met with the funniest man I have ever met. He was so energetic and at first I thought he was mocking us because he was acting so excited when were teaching him new stuff! But then I realized he was genuinely excited, we gave him a Book of Mormon and he said we would have it read in 2 weeks. We tried to tell him that speed wasn't the most important thing and that pondering its message was most important, but he seemed pretty intent on reading in 2 weeks. hahaha... o well it should be good. That was one of the best lessons I think I have ever had. When I spoke it just seemed so natural, usually I am usually trying to compose grammar and think of the right word, but last night it was perfect. It truly was an awesome lesson!
I love my new companion. Elder Li is hilarious. We get along great! I really like being with native companions, they seem a lot more humble. We are doing so great here! I probably won't be moving at least for another 2 months or so, so I am glad that our area is doing so well. When your area is struggling it makes the work a lot tougher. Last Sunday I played the piano again for Sacrament meeting, but this time i had practiced. During lunch and dinner time last week I practiced a couple new Hymns. I really like to play piano, just not in front of 80 people. It is weird how you can play a song perfectly by yourself, but as soon as you get up in front of a congregation its totally different. It is also tough, because you have to listen to the congregation and adjust your speed. I had never really be a church pianist before until I came here. Hahahaha.... poor Gang Shan has to listen to me every Sunday. Its not that bad, as long as I can practice during meal times.
I have I ever whined about the mosquitos here. Man they are everywhere, I swam through a flock of them the other night. There were so many I thought that they were going to pick me up and carry me away. My companion calls them F-22 like the fighter airplanes. It's hilarious cuz he says it in English and it makes me laugh every time. Right after he says it he makes the sound of a turbine engine. Oh good times. Amazingly, I havent gotten bitten at all recently, I have been really careful cuz some of them have got a weird fever thing that I dont want to get. I guess Gang Shan is infamous for mosquitos. We are famous for 2 things here, Mosquitos and Goat meat. Its actually pretty good eatin, sometimes the Mosquitos get a little fiesty when you try and put then in the Microwave, but I usually just flex my muslcles and show them who is boss and they jump right in.
We live in an brand spanking new apartment complex built for Veterans so all the people there are mostly old army dudes. They are pretty hardcore old guys there. That guy I play ping pong with is an old army man. Anyways, it is weird cuz there are thousands of older people and then these young 20 year olds. It kind of feels like we are living in an retirement home. hahaha, I dont feel retired, I feel tired, but not retired. Wow to be "re"-tired most be really tiring. Ok that wasn't funny.
I know I tell you all the time, but I love my mission. I don't think there is anything more that I would like to do write now than be a missionary. Of course I miss home and america but it is fun to be have the chance to serve that I have. Lastly, iIwanted to tell you about Superman. There is a member here named Superman. He is very special. Really weird actually, anyways, he is about 45 years old.He is working on graduating from college, which I think is awesome. But he wants me to do all his English homework. I guess its not really homework, he has to translate his thesis into english. Most of the students just pay to have it done, but he doesnt have enough money. A couple weeks ago my companion volunteered me to translate this paper. It is so hard, I just finished yesterday. This paper destroyed my confidence hahaha. I thought that i had okay chinese, but this paper was going off on all this crazy stuff, like mechanically engineering. I wanted to cry when I was trying to translate it. Anyways, superman was very grateful for the free missionary english translation. It was interesting service that we were able to do this week. Plus I learned a lot of useless technical terms I almost got eaten by our elevator. Elevators in asia are different then our American elevators. Elevators here have an appetite. And if you get stuck in the middle they will squeeze you until you are flat as a piece of paper. Its okay though we were able to pry it open and release me from it evil little jaws. My shoulders are still a little sore. Hahahaha... Well I pray for me to find more families to teach.
Love ya Elder Craig Anderson
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
