July 30, 2017

Hello everyone! Well! This week has now been a year on my mission and I really can't believe how fast it has gone by! I love Taiwan so much!

This week was a pretty crazy one too! On Monday we went with some of the members from all over the island on a hike! It was super fun and a great view of all of Taibei!

Then on Tuesday night we got the surprise (not really) call that Elder Kelemen is going to be training next transfer which also meant that I was going to move! He and I went to go get some delicious Mango CuaBing to say goodbye! Most of the investigators there are doing well though so I am not too worried and should be able to go back in a couple weeks for 張庭瑜's baptism!

And now I am in 天母 (TianMu)! I am so excited to be here! My new companion is 黃長老 (Elder Huang) from TaiZhong, Taiwan! He is so awesome! He has been a member for almost two years now but he has an incredible testimony and I love him! We should be pretty good friends and definitely will be able to work well together! He also loved the American candy that you sent mom! Hahaha! He said you are welcome to send more anytime and that it is a good thing he wasn't born in America or he would be super fat! Hahaha

TianMu is pretty good! We were supposed to have a baptism last Saturday but it was my first Typhoon! So they canceled a lot of baptisms and they even canceled church in most places! (Ours got canceled but then they just moved it to the afternoon) I am really excited to start working here, we have some good investigators already but we also need new ones! It is really hard to be back in Taibei again! No one has time and no one wants to talk to missionaries here! I am still trying to find out the best way to find new investigators!

That's about it! Love you!

Elder Holderness

July 23, 2017

Well this week was pretty short because I just wrote last Wednesday!

Temple day was great! I love being able to go to the temple here and this time I got to do the whole session in Chinese! It was awesome and I hope I can do it again next time! The rest of the day we just relaxed and got ready for our English Class that night!

Thursday we had our district meeting so we got to go biking down the mountain again! (We are going to get our whole district to do it with us today too!) But after district meeting we just kind of started finding again!

The area is doing well but for the most part we are just out on the streets every night talking to anyone that we think we should! Hahaha! Abbie and Andy are doing well! They hopefully will be able to set a date for their baptism this week! 張庭瑜 is doing super well too! She fasted with us this week because she had to ask her parents for permission to get baptized last Saturday! But then she surprised us and told us that she was going back down south to visit so she was going to just ask in person! Her mom said yes, but she had to delay it one week because of her tests so August 5th is the date!

Yesterday we got investigators to church! That is awesome living up here where we have to go down for church! Sadly none of them were our real progressing investigators but it was nice to have a couple new people there for their first time!

That's about it for this week! And sadly, I don't have any pictures to send so here's a nice picture of the Taibei 101 I took awhile ago! Enjoy!

Elder Holderness

July 19, 2017

Well every week I sit down at the computer and ask myself. What did I do this week? 

This was a good week! We kind of didn't do too much for P-Day last week. We originally planned on going to a beach up at the top of Taiwan but because it was the Sister's that planned it we ended up riding the train, then the bus up there and then straight back home with no time to actually do anything there!

The rest of the week was really just good! We have two investigators I think I talked about them before. Abby and Andy. They are doing well and she just finished her tests so now she has more time and hopefully can start really progressing!

On Saturday we went to LongTan again for Elder Kelemen's baptisms! But that morning we went to the temple with the family from last week and did baptisms with them! And we got to go the temple again today and do a session!

Also Jim got baptized from old area last week!

We got to go to Jenny Oaks Baker's concert yesterday with 張庭瑜! That went really well and she really felt the spirit! She is still preparing to get baptized next Saturday!

Yeah sorry this email is actually really poorly written but I don't have a lot of attention span in the afternoon.

Elder Holderness

July 9, 2017

We had an awesome week this week! And I wrote on a little sticky note all the highlights! But then I forgot to bring it... whoops.

Last Monday was super fun! We got to hiking with one of Elder Kelemen's RC in Taibei and it was super fun! The view of the 101 is the best from there!

On Tuesday for district meeting we normally take the train into the other city but this time we decided to ride the public bikes down the mountain! It was the closest I will get to Disneyland here and it was so much fun!

This week we saw some incredible miracles! We met a girl named Annitar from Uganda and she is awesome! She was really interested in the Book of Mormon and really loved all that she has read so far! She understands the scriptures better than most of the people we teach so it is really fun to talk about them with her!

We also met a really awesome young couple! They're names are Abby and Andy. They're both 19 and happily dating but they were totally willing to set up with us and we got to meet with them twice last week! They happily accepted the invitation to pray and read the Book of Mormon. The really awesome part though is that because they don't live in the same city, they do FaceTime prayers together at night! How cool is that?

Another miracle was a girl name 張庭瑜 (Sorry, good luck) She was sitting next to us in Starbucks when we were reviewing the Plan of Salvation with an RC. We invited her to sit in and listen and she loved it! She met again a couple days later and shared the Restoration. She came with us to church yesterday too and loved it! I am so excited to teach her! Also, because she lives in the other ward. (I don't know if I told you but Elder Kelemen and I are over two wards right now.) We went to the other ward yesterday and it is in the same chapel as my first area! I loved being able to go back there and see some of the other members!

Yeah, all our eyes are closed so we'll have to take a better one later!

On Saturday we also got to go to 龍潭 Longtan/Dragon Pool for a baptism there for Elder Kelemen! It was awesome to go and see an awesome family be baptized! They are going to be incredible members! The funny part of that story was our journey there... The bus sign lied and told us the bus was gonna be there at 5:15 but at 5:15 it changed to "Arrive in 60 minutes". So we panicked and hopped on a train for Taibei so we could go from there down to Longtan. Of course that included us running just under a mile in our suits through the middle of Taibei! (Right past the mission office!) It was hilarious and totally unnecessary! We should've just waited for the original bus! But we made it!

That's about it! Love you all!

Elder Holderness

July 2, 2017

Dear Family,

This was an awesome week of missionary work! Elder Kelemen and I are loving it up in our Kingdom on the Hill 林口! Last P-Day we went on a hike up in 九份 (JiuFen) with a couple of other missionaries which was really fun!

The area is starting to really pick up here now! We are starting to find some really cool investigators and the others are progressing well! I am really excited to see how all this potential turns out! (I just found out that Jim from my last area should be getting baptized next week which is awesome!)

We got a hold of the Russian Family again this week and got to teach them about repentance! It was the best lesson every and I a was so excited for it! They set a baptismal date and I can't wait to keep teaching them!

A lot of our other investigators are doing well but they are all pretty new so I am not sure how much to write about them right now! We are really excited to have found lots of families lately because of our English class! Elder Kelemen teaches the kids class and he had three families come and their kids are so cute! We should be able to start teaching some of them in the near future!

Another fun adventure was on Saturday we helped a family in our ward move lots of furniture around in their house and move some from other cities! It was awesome cause we never get to do service here ever!

Our moving truck

It was just a great week! I love Taiwan and I love my mission!

Elder Holderness