October 30, 2016

Hello Family and Friends! Happy Halloween from Taiwan! This year I decided to be a missionary for Halloween! Hahaha!

Anyway, this week has been quite fun! I'll start where I left off last week, leaving for Taipei. Right after we finished up our emailing we left. The first thing on our schedule was the MaoKong cable cars! That's right, I got to live my Pokemon childhood! It was so pretty and one of the first quiet and peaceful moments I have had in Taiwan.

After that awesome trip we went into the city toward Temple Square. The Taipei temple is really really small but really really pretty. It is really simple but there are some very Chinese decorations too. We got to do all Chinese names and work. I loved the opportunity to visit and hope that I can return in 3 months but we'll have to see where I am serving. Afterward we got to eat some of Sister Jergensen's delicious caramel waffles! They were sooooo good! (I ate 5...)

So I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but my eye was really messed up on Wednesday, I ended up taking out my contacts and throwing them away because my eye was really red and hurt. So I spent about half the day without glasses. The next morning I woke up and couldn't open my eye for a little while and when I finally got it open, it was so blurry I couldn't see anything. We went to the eye doctor and it turns out I have an eye infection from the water here. That was a bummer. But I have eye drops that I have to use all the time right now and it is getting better. I hope that I can still see clearly when it is gone.

Things are getting better here. I am starting to see glimpses and have moments of happiness here. I am starting to enjoy the work and the Chinese is really coming along. I can understand so much now (my speaking is still behind a little though). I can kind of have conversations with the members now and can joke and have fun. It has been so relaxing and comforting to not stress about the language too much. I can't wait until I don't have to worry at all. Yesterday, a member asked me how long I had been in Taiwan and wouldn't believe me that it had only been 3 weeks. She made me show here my Alien Resident Card because she thought I had been out for a year. Hahaha!

Things are going...alright in our area.  We have a couple of good investigators right now. One's name is Phoenix. He is doing really well and passed all the baptism interview questions. He just doesn't feel ready yet and wants to read the Book of Mormon and pray more. He just hasn't gotten around to it. He says he is too busy and tired.

Well, that is just about all of my letter for this week. I love you all so much and happy to email you this Halloween! Good luck to all of you!

Oh, almost forgot, President called everyone on Friday and let us know about a change. Our schedule is shifted by 30 minutes. So we get up at 7 and go to bed at 11! It's really weird and I don't know if I like it yet but I trust him so I'll do it!

Love Elder Holderness

October 25, 2016

Hello Family! I am writing early today because I leave for the temple in about an hour.

This week was pretty good! I am starting to figure out Taiwan a little bit better! On Monday we went on a hike to a nearby mountain and it was really pretty but super small! I was glad to just spend sometime with the Zone Leaders though and talk English for a while.

Tuesday I had exchanges with them too so I got a whole day to see what it would be like to have a companion that knows how to speak English and understands how hard it is to learn Chinese. I really enjoyed it but it went too quickly!

Wednesday and pretty much of the rest of the week were pretty normal. I am really having a hard time still. I don't really know what is going on all the time. I am really looking forward to the end of my training.  We have 60 trainees right now. Every companionship is either training or in leadership. It's really really hard and I am still not quite up to myself yet. But it gets a little better each day.

Funny story of the week. We went to the chapel to wait for our investigator and found two of the elders from the other area there already. We waited and talked with them for about 30 minutes. Eventually we found out we were both waiting for the same person. He had scheduled with both companionships for the same time! And then when we asked were he lived he said both of our areas. It was so funny and so confusing! He's a very strange guy!

I really love you guys so much and will tell you all about the temple and send pictures next Monday but I haven't gone yet. Sorry this letter is a little short!

Love, Elder Holderness!

October 16, 2016

Dear Family and Friends!

I just want to thank everyone for their incredible support! The last week was really hard but things were a lot better this week! I am doing well! I am ready to work and enjoy these next two years as best as I can!

Alright, Monday, right after I got interrupted emailing for a lunch I don't know about because my companion didn't tell me, I had my worst day on the island. It was supposed to be my P-Day and time to relax but I didn't feel like I was relaxing at all and I was pretty much set on going home. But our Zone Leaders here are really a gift from God. One of them, Elder Hammond, took me on a much needed exchange and we went with his recent convert friend to get ice cream and bike around to some awesome places in our area. It really cheered me up and I got to ask him all the questions I still had and couldn't ask my companion. We also went to Costco and I got plenty of food for me to have at home in case I don't like the food that much. (Costco is awesome, everything is in English. I could be convinced I was back in Orem if there weren't so many Taiwanese people.) But food actually isn't really a problem too much anymore. Since day one I have been trying everything! And slowly but surely I am finding things I like and liking things that I didn't like at first.

Tuesday, was rough again but not nearly as bad and luckily we get to meet with the other missionaries in our zone often so when I am in desperate need for English I just try to make it to those times. I am getting quite good at understanding my companion though and I find that I have to translate for him more often than he translates for me.  I may have found my first investigator while finding. I can't speak super well with anyone but I started the conversation and Elder Liao picked up where I couldn't continue.

Wednesday, my companion went to Taipei for a district leader meeting so I was on exchanges with the other ZL, Elder Lin. He is a native but he is so awesome and he not only is super good at English but also super good at teaching me Chinese and showing me how to do things like how to do street contacting or how to find my way around.  We taught English Class for the first time and my class wasn't awesome but I survived!

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday we did a lot of work but didn't really get any success out of it. A lot of our lessons just change times over and over and then eventually cancel completely so that is really frustrating and I am trying to figure out how Liao and I can work better to keep them interested.

Yesterday was pretty busy but I got to share my testimony in Sacrament meeting and that went really well. All of our meetings and classes are in Chinese but I am already understanding a lot of what is said. I can't wait until I can contribute all that I am capable of. We met an awesome member family. The Wang Family. They often do exchange students with people in Utah so their English is pretty good and they know Utah super well. They are so loving and kind!

That's kind of how everything went this week. I am starting to really love Taiwan and the people here. The language is coming along really well even if it is slower than I want it to. (Maybe that's just because I am following my native companion all the time.)  I am finding lots of ways to be and stay happy and every time that I hit another rough patch, God always sends something to get me out of it. I know he is watching out for me and I am so thankful.

Love, Elder Holderness

P.S. Next week we are going to the Temple in Taipei so my email won't come until Wednesday. Don't worry! I am ok!

Also, a funny little design flaw joke! Hahaha I don't know if "Hello Kitty Hell" was what they were going for.

October 10, 2016

Ni Hao Everyone!!! I made it!!!

Alright, where to start? I finally got to leave the MTC! (But to be honest I am going to miss it a lot, I had some good times and some fun memories there. Especially the people in my district and zone.) We got on a bus and left for the train station! Wait what? Train station?? Yep, that's right, we didn't know we where going by train to the airport so it was quite a surprise when we found out that we had to not only get on an already late train, but also get off that train (with ALL the luggage for 50 missionaries) in one minute!! It was so crazy but we made it!! All the calling and boarding went well. We made it to San Francisco no problem! The flight to Taiwan was so long! SOOOO long! I was the middle seat of the middle aisle [XXX XOX XXX] (I'm the O) But we did get to fly on a Dreamliner which was so cool! It made it seem like we flew a whole night even though it never even got dark outside!

Okay. Taiwan. First impression: This place is hot. And humid. And sticky. But it is also so pretty and the most bizarre place I have ever been. Oh also, I Kan bu Dong and Ting bu Dong everything. (I can read but not understand and hear and not understand everything.) Our mission president picked us up from the airport and we went to the temple square in Taipei because that is where he lives and we spent the night. We ate a thing called a Jua Bing. It is pretty much an omelet wrapped up in a crepe. It was so good!! (But also the only delicious thing I have had so far.) We had to go to bed pretty quickly cause we arrived so late.

My view through my window my first night

The next morning we woke up extra early to go to the Grand Hotel. It is so big and so Asian! It is actually really close to the area that the mission was dedicated so we parked there and walked to the dedication site. President Jergensen gave us a little bit of the history of the mission and then invited us to take some time to dedicate ourselves in service for the Lord. It was a really unique and spiritual moment.

Grand Hotel

After we got back to the mission home, we got all of our new study material and gathered our belongings before we went to a quick conference. We all got our new trainers and areas. I had to say goodbye to the friends and family that I have grown to love these last two months so that was pretty hard. My trainer is Elder Liao, he is a 24 year old native. Our area is Tao Yuan. It is a city a little to the southwest of Taipei (I think).

After we got a ride from the Bishop from Taipei to our home (our very messy apartment) I put my stuff down and then tried to understand why my companion was saying we had to go. But I just gave up and followed him.

Now for biking. Oh sweet biking. Okay, I'm going to try and set the picture. Imagine New York City. Actually, there's not enough freeway exit and entrance ramps there. It's probably closer to Los Angeles. Crazy. But wait, don't forget that lines here are just a suggestion. You don't actually have to follow them. The way responsibility works here is that you are only responsible for what is in front of you. (You could really live without rear view mirrors) Bikes here are considered cars too. We don't have special lanes or sidewalks. We just ride in the middle of the street! It is CRAZY!!! I guess the best description I can give is that I literally live Toad's Turnpike from Mario Kart 64 everyday! Hahahaha! Oh and don't forget that my companion is a 24 year old native! So I'm trying not to die and he's just having a jolly time yo-yo-ing while he bikes! I could barely keep up!

Turns out he had scheduled a lesson for about an hour before I was even supposed to get to the apartment so welcome to the field I guess! I don't understand a word here. It is insane.

That first lesson was kind of rough and the next day was about the same. We had lessons and I started getting thrown into finding. Then I watched general conference again at our church building here.

That's about all the cool stuff that has happened. To be honest though, before I left the MTC there were 3 things I prayed for in my first area. 1) I wanted an American trainer 2) I wanted to be in the country and 3) I wanted to have other companionships in my apartment. But now I am living in the middle of a city alone with only my native companion. This is so hard and I haven't had a day without tears in my eyes. I don't know if I can do this. I feel so alone all the time. My companion doesn't speak English well at all so I never have any real conversations. He has left me when we are biking a couple of times and I don't know the area at all so I get pretty scared. I have been trying really hard with all the food but I still don't like to eat here so I haven't been full in like a week. I am really really struggling. I can barely make it from hour to hour. I like the ward but I also feel completely alone when I am with them cause my companion just goes and plays and talks with all of them and I don't understand the culture or language. The zone leader is pretty awesome though and he has been helping me these last two days and I really need your prayers. 

Love you all so much!