October 29, 2017

To be honest not too much happened this week so it's going to be short! Last P-Day we kind of just went shopping to buy all the things that Elder Lee needed for Taiwan.

On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders! I was with Elder Kimmel this time and I just want to say it is really fun to go on exchanges with your classmate! We had so much fun and got some good work done, even if his bike tire popped and he ended up running up the mountain! Hahaha

Wednesday we finished exchanges and went to English class for the night and I had a lot of fun teaching all of them some riddles but we are more excited for next week because they asked us to prepare a lesson on "American Culture". I don't actually know any but it's going to be a great lesson that will probably involve everything we do for the fourth of July!

We have been finding on the streets everyday for the last four days because we have no investigators anymore but we haven't found anyone new either. I have been studying a lot about finding and just praying hard!

Love you all, Elder Holderness

October 22, 2017

Hey Everybody!

Well this last week was transfers and it was honestly the craziest week this mission has seen in awhile!

I am now training! My companion is Elder Lee from Cedar Hills Utah! He is awesome and already knows Chinese and already served in California for a transfer and already has lived in Taiwan before so it really doesn't feel like I am training him but it's still fun! He is actually part of the reason this week was so crazy!

Last week with transfers on the way president and the AP's were getting everything ready and we were expecting no new missionaries due to VISA problems. However, on Sunday night the mission department called and said all the problems were unexpectedly solved and they were sending the missionaries. So they changed all the transfers and found trainers for them. Then on Wednesday, they called and said there was another missionary coming as well. (Elder Lee). He was the only one coming on time and the others would get there on the weekend. He was born in Taiwan but adopted so he had dual citizenship. In order to come back to Taiwan they were going to make him do military service so he gave up his Taiwanese citizenship and came anyway. So on Thursday I got an unexpected call and got my new companion about 3 days earlier than I expected! That is okay he is awesome!

When President went to the Airport to pick up the others on Saturday night he found only 2 of the 14 waiting there and discovered the others had all been delayed and wouldn't get in till about 1:00 am so it was a late night for them and an early morning as they had to do all the training that morning!

During the time waiting for the others Elder Lee and I were in a different area with another missionary called to be a trainer. Now we are back in our area and ready to go! This weekend Zeng Jiemei was confirmed so she is official a member of the church! Other then her we have no investigators though so we are going to be finding a lot! It isn't the most fun thing ever but oh well.

Fun things this week! I got my companion and we got to eat some real steak cooked by our president on the roof of the mission home yesterday!

Before Elder Huang left last Monday we all went Laser Tag in Taibei! It was super fun!

Love you all!

October 15, 2017

He famiily! Well not too much happened this week for us! It has been raining none stop for about 5 days now so we really can't find too many people willing to stop for more than 5 seconds when they see that we are missionaries!

On Saturday we were supposed to have a baptismal interview with our invetigator but he didn't show up so that was really disappointing and really annoying to ask the Zone Leaders to come although down from their area to do the interview all for nothing! We just went and ate dinner with them afterward. And we really don't have too many other investigators to talk about.

Yesterday we had Stake Conference for the North Taibei Stake but because the English Ward is part of this stake there were many talks in English including our mission presidents wife! It was really quite a cool experience to hear all the talks in both English and Chinese. The topic of the conference was "The Joy of the Gospel in your Life".

Transfers are this week so we will see what happens! Last week we spent our P-Day with a recent convert in our ward and a returned missionary from GaoXiong that was visiting Taibei.

Love you all!

October 8, 2017

Hello everyone!

Well I'll just start with the best news of all! Last night, we had a fantastic baptismal service for Zeng Jiemei! It was really awesome to see her stand up to bear her testimony after the baptism and say very clearly to her daughter that she thought baptism was an incredible gift and encouraged her to prepare for her birthday which is in about 3 weeks! Zeng Jiemei's husband passed away about 6 years ago so she has raised her daughter on her own since she was just a year old. I am so glad that I could meet them! I have really come to love both of them!

The second best thing of this week was the amazing General Conference that we were able to watch! I have been looking forward to it all week! It goes by faster every time though! I laughed really hard at Elder Anderson's comment about being the last speaker of the last session because I remember very well having that feeling "When is this going to end?" But now I find myself wanting it to keep going. Their talks were so incredible and I was glad to be able to hear them all. I don't know if I have a favorite yet because I prefer to really study them from the Liahona but there were many that stuck out to me.

Besides this weekend, the week was pretty usual and boring. We don't have too many other investigators really progressing any more. Huang Yu Xiang's phone probably broke so we haven't been able to talk to him in a week. Hopefully we can meet with him again soon and decide when he wants to baptized.

Love you all! Elder Holderness

October 1, 2017

Hey everyone! It was another pretty normal week here in TianMu for Elder Huang and I! Last week for P-Day we just went up to DanShui and spent the day with our Zone Leaders, Elder Cooper and Elder Kimmel. We just played basketball and then board games. (Because we couldn't take our bikes with us we just had to catch a ride on the back of theirs! I thought Elder Huang and Elder Kimmel weren't going to make it! Hahaha

The rest of the week was pretty normal for us! But the Sisters in our area had a baptism last Sunday and she asked me to baptize her so we were pretty involved with the service! Too bad I got eye infection for the fourth time in a year so I couldn't even open my eyes for the pictures... Oh well! Hahaha

Speaking of baptisms, we are going to have one next Sunday! 曾姊妹 (Zeng JieMei) is all ready and we have the whole service planned! We are super excited for her!

We also hope that 黃昱翔 (Huang Yu Xiang) will be able to be baptized at the same time because his original date is set for Saturday, but we haven't gotten in touch with him for the last three days so we aren't sure yet.

Other than that it was normal here! Still loving it though! Just read the Book of Mormon and live works out. That's what I've learned.

Elder Holderness