August 5, 2018 - The Last Post!

Well everyone this last week was really great!

Elder Wetzel joined us in a tripanionship which was extremely fun and thankfully we were busy the whole week so we could make the most of it.

Our investigators are doing great. Charlotte had a change of heart this last week and surprised us by letting us know that she would like to be baptized as soon as possible and is now hoping to be baptized next week!

Sister Chen has had no problems and is looking forward to being baptized this weekend so she can be a member when she returns to China later this month.

Cynthia came to church again this week and to our ward activity on Saturday. Many of the members thought she was just a member from a different ward visiting because she looked so familiar and enjoyed the activity a lot! She is progressing so well and hopefully we can set a baptismal date with her this week!

I have loved my time here in Toufen! This ward is awesome!

Love you all, Elder Holderness

July 29, 2018

Hi everyone!

This last week was great! I don't actually remember what we did too much but I do know that Sister Chen from China is doing great! She met with us many times this week and is excited for her baptism before she goes back to China in August.

This week we also started teaching a girl names Cynthia who is best friends with a girl from my last ward in Taibei. They both came for her lesson and then Cynthia came to church on Sunday by herself. The really awesome thing about the ward here though is that before I could even stand up to welcome her. There were two members that beat me to it. I could barely talk to her at all the whole three hours because she was always busy talking to the members. This ward is truly incredible!

Other news this week... I found out I am a lot more allergic to dogs than I used to be. Elder Wetzel from the neighboring area is going to be our companion for the week which is super fun! Also, his bicycle got hit by a scooter and destroyed the front tire on his first night with us.

Love you all!

(Dog allergy story...One of our investigators has a dog and I played with it a little while we were teaching her with no problems. It itched a little bit on my arms and face but I quickly found anywhere I scratched would quickly enflame, have a rash and itch and hurt a lot. It spread to my arms and around my neck and chin. I took a picture or my elbow after it had calmed down a little.  You can't see it very well because of the lighting but I had those bumps from the elbow to about my forearm on both arms and my neck)

 

July 22, 2018

Well I talked to you all just a couple days ago because of the temple day changing my schedule! It was great to do a session again!

This week we didn't do a lot since I last talked to you to be honest! We had a lot of fun with our ward! Our ward had 4 families sealed in the last two months which is incredible so we held a wedding reception type activity for them. We were almost late home two days in a row just trying to set up the decorations and I found out how bad my cursive is when I had to write on the cake! Hahaha

Yesterday we met a really incredible investigator who lives in China right now but is from Taiwan. She is visiting for the month just to visit her family and also... To be baptized. She had been going to church actively there and wants to be baptized now. I am excited to start teaching her!

July 17, 2018

Good morning! I'm off to the temple right now so it's a little earlier than normal!

I hope your week was great because ours was as good as ever! We met a really awesome girl last week named Heidi who has really been reading the Book of Mormon and thinking about it! She even apologized that all of her questions were from first Nephi and that she hasn't started second Nephi. It's only been around 4 days though so it definitely wasn't a problem for us! She read more than anyone ever does!

We had interviews with our new misson president last week and I love him! He is truly inspired but also so excited to be back in Taiwan as a missionary. He is so ready to work and help the mission work here! He is going to do an incredible job!

This last week we had a lot of fun with the other Elders in the area and we got to visit some beautiful parts of Taiwan here.

July 8, 2018

Good morning everyone!

Well this last week was pretty good! On Tuesday we played basketball with some of the other missionaries in our zone and afterward went to eat barbecue for the 4th of July. Too bad there were no fireworks though!

Elder Park and I were having a hard time this week finding people that were willing to learn or meet with us, but surprisingly we had 3 people just show up to church yesterday for the first time and 2 of them were very interested! That was really fun and cool to see.

This week the rain started again and we decided to make some cookies for the ward so that we can bike around and deliver them rather than mindlessly biking around in the rain all day.

A recent convert from my last area came to our sacrament meeting yesterday and that was really fun to see him. It is incredible to me when I see how much living the gospel of Jesus Christ can change a person's life. Even if life was already going really well for them. We just need to do as Elder Uchtdorf recommends and simplify the gospel and enjoy it. It works. It works wonderfully.

Love you all!

July 2, 2018

Hi!

Well as it turns out my last companion is Elder Park from Korea! Didn't expect to be with a Korean companion when I started my mission but looking back now, of my 16 transfers on my mission only 6 of them were with a white person so I probably should've seen it coming. Haha

This week was pretty good! The other Elders in our area got closed because 30 missionaries went home last transfer and only 9 arrived. We are trying to start teaching all of their people but it really is proving to be kind of difficult to make it a smooth transition.

Elder Park just moved here from my old area in Banqiao so we got to go back to my second area last Saturday and attend the baptism of one of the people he was teaching there. It was really fun to go see those members and a fun trip through my good memories in that area/chapel.

We got to meet our new misson president yesterday and he is going to do great serving here! He seems to be very anxious and excited to be back in Taiwan where he served his mission.

The work is going well in Toufen and I love the ward!

Love ya, Elder Holderness

P.S. I know these pictures we have our eyes closed but it was really bright.

June 24, 2018

Hey family!

Well Saturday was great because Emily was baptized! She came to church yesterday and was confirmed and it was really awesome to see her change so quickly from the start of church to the end of church now that she is a member. After the baptism we held our own barbeque outside of our new apartment complex.

For Elder Cooper and Elder Clyde's last district meeting we held it in a Korean Barbeque store and just barbecued for two hours. I'm gonna miss those two but I'll see them soon enough so 沒關係.

We are holding transfers early because our mission president is going home this week. I'll be you know who my new companion is later.

June 17, 2018

Well it was a busy week.

On Monday we didn't really do much. On Tuesday morning we got up early and went to Taibei for our last zone conference with President Jergensen. We will miss him lots but we loved his training. They invited all of us to their house one last time for waffles with their homemade caramel and banana sauce. (Heaven on waffles). I love them a lot.

On Wednesday we held our English Class party for the Dragon Boat festival. It went really well and we did a homemade rain gutter regatta!

Friday was crazy because we got called at 10 am and were told that the air conditioners in our new house were already installed so we could start moving. We got all of it done in that one day but it was a very long day. Our old house is completely empty but the new one is beautiful. I think it is the best in the entire mission and I feel like I live in a hotel sometimes.

Saturday morning Emily passed her baptismal interview so we are preparing for her baptism this Saturday! That will be Elder Clyde's last Saturday so it is an exciting way to finish his mission!

On Sunday the ward held a family home evening that was super fun. I love this ward so much! They had my companion and Elder Cooper show pictures and talk all about their mission's. They also forced us to eat a plate of pig stomach, pig tongue and thousand year eggs. It was terrible but they all thought it was the funniest thing in the world so we didn't mind having fun with them.

June 10, 2018

Hey Everyone!

Well this week was actually pretty crazy because we got to go house shopping for like 3 days and we ended up just biking from apartment building to apartment building all across our area until we found one that could work for us. We had two that looked perfect but both failed. That's ok though because the new one will be awesome! We move in next week.

This week was really good for both Jojo and Emily! They are both progressing really well and are still working for their baptismal dates of June 23! We are super excited for them!

With the dragon boat festival coming up this week we planned an English class activity for next Wednesday and hope that we can get some new investigators from it! Last week we were able to make some rice balls in preparation and they were fantastic!

On Wednesday mornings this last transfer we have been teaching English at an elementary school which is super fun. But the best part is that we get to play dodgeball with them! They have a very official form of dodgeball and actually this school just won the island dodgeball league for their age group and they're going to Japan to play in an international tournament. Yep. Those lucky 5th graders, I never got to do anything like that. Hahaha

June 3, 2018

Hi everyone!

We had another awesome week in Toufen!

Last P-Day we went up to an old village in our area and on the way there also stopped at a Buddhist temple to look at the scenery there. It was super fun and really pretty!

On Tuesday one of our members that is a little bit special decided to take us to dinner. He thinks missionaries love to eat weird foods. So he took us out for some delicious (but not really) squid, octopus, snails, pigs blood cake and duck liver! We finished it all but even the 3 of us that have been here for almost two years decided it was the worst meal we have ever eaten here.

Our investigators are doing great here. However, one of them, Peter, just told his parents that he has been meeting with us and they aren't happy about it so we will probably stop meeting with him. Another, Emily, is doing great and came to a ward activity this week and the whole ward really knows her now.

We went back to Taibei last night because Elder Cooper and Elder Clyde were singing for their last fireside and we are on our way back up today to spend the P-Day.

Love you all! Elder Holderness

 Oh we also can buy mangos for about 50¢ which is awesome and the best breakfast ever.

May 27, 2018

Well hello everyone again from the small little middle of nowhere Toufen Taiwan!

This last week was super fun! For P-Day we actually got out the door pretty quickly and took a train to Taoyuan to be with some of the missionaries there. We didn't do too much, just played basketball and ate lunch but it was fun to see all the people there.

All of our investigators have been progressing really well and we were able to have a ton of teaching appointments but it was sad on Sunday because only one of them came even though they said they all would.

On Saturday we went on a ward trip to the other side of the island and I finally got to see just a tiny bit of the East Coast. I wanted to serve there really bad but won't have the opportunity anymore. The best part of the trip was when my companion called his RC and she took us around the whole area in the 2 hour long lunch break we had! The worst part of the trip was the 3 hours of Chinese karaoke in the bus that our ward thought was necessary to make the trip go faster.

Things are going well but I don't feel like writing  very much right now so I'll just put some pictures in.

Elder Holderness

Oh and it is pretty hot here. I'm ok with that though cause I hate the cold.

May 20, 2018

Well I'm super down because I just wrote a super good email but then it all got delete somehow....

It has been a long time since I wrote a long email or really an interesting email at all so I'll try my best today!

I have lived in Taibei for a year and half now, even though I moved areas and stuff, really it was all just the same city! I have grown to just love every part of Taibei and it is the only home I know away from home. But my time is up and I'm moving out.

I got to spend my last few weeks there super well though! My last Saturday I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Heaton and we went back up to Tianmu to attend the baptism of Kening who is the daughter of Zeng Jiemei that was baptized back when I was in Tianmu! She is just about to turn 9 and so cute. She normally is a shy and quiet girl but she got up and bore her testimony so well! She even talked about how her favorite part of church was the sacrament! ...Because the bread tastes good! Haha

After the baptism I came back to the office and had to pack all my stuff up into boxes to take home! It was actually really hard to say goodbye to all the good memories have there but the new Recorder came in on Sunday so it had to be ready for him.

He got here on Sunday night and we started right away because we only had 3 days to train and one of those was P-Day and the other two were transfers. It was a little crazy but he should be alright. The manual I wrote should be able to help him get through.

For my final P-Day we went to one of my favorite places on this island, the Taibei 101. It was really fun to go up and see my area all around me this time. I could recognize all the different places.

After finishing up all our meetings and getting all the new missionaries to their areas it was time for me to leave too! I have been called to 頭份 (Toufen)! It is a small rural area on the west side of Taiwan and it is a lot different than Taibei! Haha it is going to take me a little bit of time before I feel familiar here.

I rode on a hour and a half long train by myself through rice paddies to get here and that was quite a sight to see! My new companion is Elder Clyde and he actually will go home this transfer so we are both pretty used to the work and should be able to keep things pretty relaxed.

The chapel here is actually just the second floor of the bus station! That means we can't have a normal baptismal font so we actually just use a portable hot tub! It's awesome! And it's a good thing we had one because we had a baptism yesterday after church! A 14 year old young women was baptized by her older brother that was baptized last week!

This area is doing really well! We have incredible members and investigators! In fact, my first day here, we found a girl that has already set a baptismal date and came to church with us yesterday. She was so excited for her baptism that she was telling everyone in the ward about it!

On Saturday we had a member ask us to do some service for him and his family up at the restaurant. We ended up driving up into the mountains of Taiwan and it is beautiful up there! I hadn't seen pine trees in a long time!

I love the work here and I'm super excited for these next two transfers! God really watches over us and I love being able to help other people realize that too!

Love you, Elder Holderness!

I forgot to mention my best friend got called as AP and Zhao Jiemei makes the best food!

My bike is still in Taibei...

And just to show you what bathrooms are like in Taiwan.