February 25, 2018

Well it was another fantastic transfer week this last week. By fantastic I mean lots of stress and a lot of time trying to figure out how to best move all the missionaries and their bikes around! But all is well, it went smoothly and this new transfer is going to be great!

In the middle of all this preparation and execution of the transfers it was very nice for me to be able to sit down and listen in on one of the other missionary companionships here teaching their spiritual message at English Class. They were teaching the advanced class and decided to discuss with them Elder Stevenson's talk "Your Four Minutes" because their topic that day was about the Olympics. At first I couldn't remember what the talk was about but as we started reading it together it quickly came back to me and I was able to remember when he gave it. The part that really stuck out to me was that we all have this short time to perform our best. It may seem unfair to some but we always have God to help us and we can do our very best with him. His analogy was more about our entire life on earth but I was able to apply very easily to my mission and also to the last week. The principle is always the same, just work hard and do your best; God will always help you.

I am super excited to go another transfer with my companion Elder Hong, we probably will have another one after this too so we are gonna be pretty good friends!

Not too much happens for me week to week now but I will try to make my letter better next week!

Love you all!
Elder Holderness

February 18, 2018

Well this week was the Chinese New Year week! I don't know if a lot of people know what it's like but here in Taibei just about everyone leaves the city so it is just super quiet and all the stores are closed because everyone gets the whole week off. We got the opportunity to go to three members homes this year and eat with them. It was super nice to be able to have the delicious food they made and get to know them better.

Not very much actually happened because of the New Year though. We were in the office doing work almost all week. This week is transfer week so I have been doing the travel plans of all the missionaries lately and will probably be up pretty late again tonight and tomorrow. 

This week we met a man from China that absolutely loves our church and knows everything about it. Everything. He has one of the strongest testimonies I have ever heard but sadly because he lives in China he doesn't have an opportunity to be baptized and therefore can't go to church there either. It was an incredible miracle to be able to meet and teach him though and he was able to come to church on Sunday.

Elder Holderness

February 11, 2018

Well I don't have too much to talk about this week! Sorry!

Some of the highlights real quick. Last week we had two nights in a row that we woke up to earthquakes and alarms on our phones warning us to be careful. We weren't affected by it at all but there were still other missionaries calling me about 5 minutes after asking me what they should do. I just told them to go back home and back to sleep but they wouldn't and some of them even stayed out and slept under the stars! Hahaha

We are looking forward to the Chinese New Year this week. It starts on Thursday and will go to the next week which is also transfer week for us so it is going to be a little crazy around here for us all!

There really isn't too much to write about here because I have just been doing a lot of stuff in the office that no one really wants to hear about anyway!

Elder Holderness

February 4, 2018

Wow I really can't remember what happened this last week! It was really short though.

Last Wednesday the temple went really well. I actually really enjoy the Chinese one I have decided. Afterward we went and finished the day and went ice skating which was super fun.

The rest of the week was kind of centered around the MLC we had on Friday. We stayed up very late getting prepared for it but it went very well. The training was based around Captain Moroni and his title of liberty. One of the AP's ended up tearing his shirt off which had a pre-written title of liberty for our mission.

President Jergensen got sick this week so the AP's and us had to go and pick up the one new missionary we just got. He is from South Korea and is awesome.

This week we also had a giant service project where we had to help in the setting up of 3000 tables and 30000 chairs for a government party.

Yep that's about it. We were just really busy!