November 26, 2017

Hey Everybody!

Well for the most part I was just in the office all week so there isn't too much for me to actually talk about! I really do love this ward though! We had a delicious and awesome Thanksgiving Dinner on Friday night! It was pretty much your typical American Thanksgiving food but we also had extra stuff like Pot Stickers and Curry Rice! It was so good!

Another fun story happened last night when a companionship didn't call in that they were home so us and the AP's all had to walk back to the mission office and hop in the van to drive down to the other area. We got to there house at about midnight and then used the spare key to break in and found them sleeping peacefully with their phones on silent. That's alright we stopped by and got some breakfast because it wasn't the Sabbath anymore!

We get fed all the time in this area, mostly by less active members or non-members so it is a little weird but we still love it! Not too much is going on  for me that is interesting enough to write in an email! Love you all though!

November 19, 2017

Well everyone don't expect much from my emails for the rest of my mission pretty much. This week I got quite the surprise on Wednesday night. We were just about to start our English Class when I got a call from President Jergensen who asked me to be our mission's recorder.  So I packed up all my stuff that night and moved into the very heart of Taibei on Thursday. I am serving in our mission office now and for the most part, don't have a lot of time to do any normal missionary work, especially with all the changes to our mission that the smartphones brought.

Elder Lee is now going to finish his transfer in a tripanionship in Danshui with the Zone Leaders and I am being trained on how to do everything that I need to do now for the next 2 weeks. So far I have enjoyed it a lot but there really is a lot to remember how to do everything that we need to do here.

I love the new ward here now though! We serve in the same ward as the AP's and I live with them too so there is never a boring second at home! Yesterday at church I was able to meet some of the members of this new ward and I am really excited to serve here!

There' s not a lot to talk about in my emails now though because I don't really spent anytime out finding or teaching and as of right now we are to busy so we don't have any investigators. Hopefully we can get caught up in some of our work and figure out these phones so that I can teach at least some people!

Love you all, Elder Holderness

Note:  We asked Brian what exactly he will be doing as the "recorder".  This was his reply for what he and his companion will be doing...

There are only two elders at the office in our mission, recorder and operations. So my companion is Elder Qiu, a Taiwanese person. He is in charge of taking care of apartments and stuff, I am in charge of all the mission statistics, records and stuff but for the most part anytime any missionary has any problems at all they call me and I end up doing just about everything. My companion and I are also in charge of all translations for the mission.

November 12, 2017

Hey everyone!

Well to be honest this week was a boring one. We don't have any investigators still so for the most part every single day we were out on the streets or trying to find some type of effective activity to do. This week I translated some of the things for the upcoming #LightTheWorld activity, such as the calendar they made. I invite everyone to prepare to #光照世人!

Last P-Day we went up early in the morning to email and have lunch with Elder Kimmel, Cooper, Balmforth and Wetzel. Then the six of us went back into Taibei for choir practice. Elder Kimmel got a solo when we all jokingly told the director to give him one! (Pretty much we are living the old Footnotes choir days again.)

The rest of the week we were outside or sitting down trying to find new investigators. This area has always been a pretty hard area for that over the last couple years but lately it seems I can't get anyone to talk long enough to even invite them to learn more. We are hopefully for a huge Christmas activity we are doing next month! That should be able to get some people very interested!

A Recent Convert from out area recently referred his friend who doesn't live in our area but he works in our area at building with a ferris wheel and merry-go-round so we stopped by on Saturday to see how he was doing. He is progressing very well now and even asked his friends if they were interested too! None of them live in our area though so that was a bummer. (His name is Kevin and he has the buzz cut)

Love you all!

Elder Holderness

November 5, 2017

Why is it so hard to write an email sometimes?

This week was pretty uneventful for missionary work! Elder Lee and I really don't have any investigators so we have been trying to find new ones but it is hard sometimes to find new people!

Crazy news for this week, Taiwan is one of 9 foreign missions that has been approved for smartphones. So now we are going to be able to get a hold of our investigators finally! We are excited to finally use Line. (Really the only way Taiwanese people use their phones now.) You wouldn't believe how many people stopped investigating just because they didn't want to use normal text messages. Hahaha This is going to change everything!

The weather is getting cold here and me, who hates the cold is freezing already! I wear sweats and sweaters the second I get up and get home! Hahaha

We are doing well and having fun even if not much is happening!

Elder Holderness