Feb 23, 2014 - letter To Dad

Hey Dad!

So some BIG changes there in the Alpine Stake! Wow!!! I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later that President Nilson would be released. He is such a good man and such a great leader. He has had such a profound impact on me and blessed my life so much. I hope his future will only continue onward and upward from here for him and his family.

I agrees whole heartedly that the Spirit testifies through us when we personally testify, rather than saying our church or mormons believe. It is something that comes from the heart and truly opens the channels for spirits to communicate which leave a lasting profound effect compared to physical.

This past week has been our Power Week. Wowee it has been so much more push on doing missionary work. We leave the door at 9 in the morning and eat super quick meals, preferrably ones on the go. But so each day we had challenges to try and achieve and if we hit the challenge or mission we would call President at night and tell him our names with mission accomplished. Monday was tract into 2 sit down lessons. Monday was to hand out 13 Book of Mormons with plans to follow up on their reading later in the week. Wednesday was to get 20 adds meaning exchange information with 20 people that each have a time set up to meet. Thursday was to extend 5 baptismal goals all for March 22. Friday was to confirm 15 people for church. Saturday was to talk with 20 families sharing about how the gospel can bless and help to have an eternal family. And Sunday was to have 4 investigators attend church. Elder Mudrow and I hit Monday, Friday, and Saturday's missions. We still worked hard and have had lots of success. We got 7 new investigators from this past week. 

Wednesday was hard though because it was cold and then ended up raining. We got pretty much soaked and had to return home to change into warm, dry clothese.

But Elder Mudrow and I this past week have been so blessed with so many miracles and blessings.

To start last Monday Elder Mudrow and I tracted into a Catholic Doctor. He had had missionaries contact him before, so he seemed like he had already heard the same old story and everything. But we really talked with him, we testified, and actually just standing in his doorway taught the whole 1st lesson on the Message of the Restoration. We gave him a Book of Mormon to read and set up to come back the next night. We came back the next night kind of with the plan to progress onto the next lesson. But he expressed that he felt like he didn't have any connection with the Book of Mormon or that it could help him like the Bible has or ancient Buddhist scripts have. So we completely focused on the Book of Mormon and read together with him, teaching, applying, and promising blessings to him. It completely changed his feelings around to that he wouldn't just give up but actually strive to pray and read. He has such a great understanding of view of life that he loves his family and he is cautious of not wanting to become to materialistic or caught up in things. But he feels a little sad as he feels his wife (who is from the Philippines) has become more materialistic. He really has his greatest care and concern for his wife and daughter. So we pray and hope that he will progress.

Then this past week we had dinner together with one of our investigators who has been investigating for 4 years. The following day he was going to have his baptismal interview and progress for his date of 3/8. But just so happens that night after dinner Jehova's Witnesses contacted him, and when we met the next day (took a little effort to get him to come to the church) he basically was doubting everything we have taught and shared with him. He believed the Bible but the Book of Mormon he didn't know anymore. Those darn JWs. We had a really powerful lesson to teach him of the Book of Mormon and gave him the assignment of 2 Nephi 29. He has read it but still hasn't prayed. He came to church though. I pray so much for him that he will progress and refind the answers he had had.

We were also blessed this last night to go and attend a fireside that Bishop Stevenson (the presiding Bishop) talked to us. He has such a powerful testimony and touched my heart with his testimony. 

So now the big news that I have now known for a week (since last Monday night). Elder Mudrow is training! :D good for him :( bad for me Elder Mudrow gets his new companion tomorrow. So I am moving out tomorrow morning up to Zhanghua 彰化. I am going to be with two native companions for this next week until the new move call starts next week and go to my new area. I am so sad to leave Jiayi and Elder Mudrow. At parts and times I have been sad and mad. But it has been such a blessing of patience, humility, and trust. The Lord knows his work and knows where He needs me and who is needed in Jiayi.

Lastly, today as my last P-day in Jiayi we are going to Fancy World! :D it is an amusement park that is Viking themed. The 4 man is going and we are going to have a blast and a half!

I love you so much and appreciate everything that you teach me and share with me. Your emails about change are no coincidence for this week. Then yesterday I got the email with the speech from Bro. Wilcox. I love that speech so much. It has opened my eyes so much.

Love you totally!

Elder Roo

Feb 23, 2014 - letter to Mom

Hey Mom!

I will talk about change and everything with Dad's email. But right now I can talk about some other stuff with you.

You know it is interesting that you will get to share about integrity to the YW. I feel that this is one of the most precious and invaluable traits a person can have. It actually mentions in my patriarchal blessing about being blessed with the gifts of honesty and integrity. So Heavenly Father at least thinks you have come to the right person. 

I feel like honesty and integrity go hand in hand. Honesty to me pertains to more be truthful and not lying to those around you, no matter what the consequences may be. I feel though that integrity adds to this. It builds upon what honesty has done for a person. It's almost like it is a higher law. Like with the Law of Moses and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel didn't come forth to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it and add upon it. Integrity to me entails being honest in your works, actions, and words but with one small difference. That small difference being your works, actions, and words are put forth with your full effort, your whole heart, and your whole soul. You don't leave anything half-done. You don't half-heartedly work. You do an honest mans job. My greatest example I can think of is everyday I go out the door. I could rotely go through the routine and talk towards people. But that is not possessing the trait of integrity. When I go out with my whole will and mind striving to be the Lord's, I put my whole heart into talking WITH people, loving them, and wanting to help them. That is what integrity means to me. 

Definitely even though I am far, I am near. I pray many times and particularly this past week I have prayed several times that you and Dad can really feel the love I have for you. There are definitely connections and the Spirit working in the midst of us, especially after what I have to tell you all about in Dad's email. Love you so much!

Elder Roo

Feb 16, 2014 - letter to Dad

Hey Dad!

Well I am kind of at a loss of words right now of what exactly to say. I actually have a lot of time to email since not very many others have emailed. Guess first off is to address your email, and then I can try to share more from my week of happenings.

So I didn't know JD was actually going out. I knew he had been preparing and getting ready. I in all honesty don't even remember what call he got and where he is going. Well back now. So from Mom's email I now know that JD is going to Tennessee. He will be a good missionary and will be blessed with many cherished experiences.

Thanks for passing along the responses from several close friends. Truly I have been blessed so much with such wonderful people and examples to help and guide me. I definitely could not have arrived at the level I am at now without the Lord's hand in my life as he brought these spiritual giants to lift me up, to heal my wounds, and to stand by me when I was weak. I will forever be indebted to what they have done for me and how much they have helped to change my life for the better.

That is very touching what Bishop Wood said. I definitely miss being able to talk or even just see all these great people. But it is a small price to pay when the rewards gained are eternal not just for me, but those who are around me from fellow missionaries to the people of Taiwan.

Definitely for sure Cody, Pat, Kevin, and I will be doing initiatories together. :D But the sad thing is I don't know what their plans for college are. I know Kevin will be at BYU. So I will try and room with him when he comes back. But Cody it sounds like may not be down in the Utah Valley. I would be very sad :( I don't know. I really hope things will work out for the best, really hope that we will still be close to each other after we are all back.

Yes I have been praying for you and your new assignment with Netapp. I feel confident in you though that you will be completely fine. One of the many blessings I have seen come from my mission is how much my praying has developed. I honestly am astounded at how quick and sometimes shallow my praying before my mission would be. But now I seem to not be able to stop as I have so much to thank the Lord for and so much of the Lord's strength and hands not just in my life but in the lives of those around me. I end up praying anywhere from 5-10 minutes each night as I have so much to share and so much realization of how I can't do this work just by myself.

So this past week has been a buildup of things. Elder Chan left yesterday for Taizhong and is leaving today for England. They are keeping us a 4-man, that Elder Ng's new companion is......Elder Palmer. Elder Palmer was companions with the same Elder Chen I was companions with. So we will be having a ton of fun! I am so excited I am still with Elder Mudrow for now and that we still have the 4-man apartment. 

It's sad to see Elder Chan go though. It was a ton of fun having an English Chap around. But all good things must come to an end.

I feel that out of Elder Mudrow's and mine past week our greatest achievement and success came from meeting with an investigator. He had been out of town for all of Chinese New Year and didn't come back until last week. We met with him last week and we found that he had drank coffee and tea over Chinese New Year. We could tell in lesson he wasn't his normal self and off a little bit. We went over repentance. But still upon leaving that lesson he just seemed off. We met again with him on Saturday and such a powerful and Spirit filled lesson. We planned on sharing and reviewing the Plan of Salvation with him. And we did just this focusing on the Savior and His sacrifice. We came to discover and understand that he was feeling really nervous and scared about baptism and afterwards of being perfect. This was a blessing to me as I had a touching opportunity to share with him about my own life, going home from the MTC and working to come back out, and especially the knowledge and understanding I have come to gain that no one is perfect and will not attain that in this life. It helped to lift burdens so much for him and afterwards Elder Mudrow commented on how powerful and how much the Spirit was there in that lesson and that he said definitely you were called here to help this man and to essentially crack his shell. He has been an investigator for a while (I think a year or more). That touched me for Elder Mudrow to say that. But so we met with him again yesterday and have set his new baptismal goal for March 8th. I really feel that he is ready and can achieve this goal. We helped to clarify his concerns about the importance of baptism and he has that desire there not because of us but because of the plan of salvation and celestial kingdom.

I certainly pray and hope that our hard work that Elder Mudrow and I put in will help to bless others. I have come more and more to the feeling and understanding that sometimes I just don't really care if I am blessed or benefited. I just care more that others will be benefited and blessed. I wish and pray so badly that they come to feel what I have felt. I pray that they will seek to understand and know the truth. But this past week was a very effective week for us. We hit all of the mission standards set by President and have a drive to go out and smash what we set this past week. We ended up having a total of 30 lessons this past week. It's crazy the differences throughout the whole world. Elder Ellison mentioned how that there Area Presidency has received revelation that each companionship each week should baptize and have 50-60 lessons in a week. That seems like heaven sent manna to me if I could achieve having that much missionary work. For us in Taiwan President Blickenstaff has felt impressed that we can get 20 lessons a week and a baptism a month. Definitely an interesting world we live in.

So I don't know if I ever shared about another investigator. He has come to be such a good friend. And he was none other than through English class. This was back my first week here in 嘉義. He attended and marked that he would like to learn more and meet with missionaries. So we began meeting with him. He had attended a baptismal service, has come to church several times, and we have taught him through the Plan of Salvation. Elder Mudrow and I have such good laughs with him and is so great teaching him. When we were teaching the Plan of Salvation he expressed that he believes what we have taught him. It made me so happy and so excited. The only bummer part is that he got work up in 桃園 up by 台北. He started this past week and deals a lot with testing power and other things. He said it is way interesting and fun because a lot of his coworkers are Philipino, so he is having to use English more and more, so he can improve it too. He keeps his Book of Mormon by him at work so when he gets chances he will read from it. We knew he would be going up to 桃園 and would occasionally on weekends come back to 嘉義. So we had been preparing and getting ready to hand him off. To our discovery he had on his own went online to the lds.org website and found where the church was located where he was going. But so we called him this last Friday to see how he was and see if the missionaries had talked with him. He had gone to English class, but we found that he was coming back down this past weekend to get some stuff and to our joy said he was coming to attend at our church this Sunday. We didn't get time to sit down with him afterwards, but we gave him a Gospel pamphlet to read as he would ride the train back north. I pray for him and hope that he continues to progress and come to baptism and enduring to the end. We will hopefully get to see him occasionally when he comes back down. But he was so happy and having such a good time when he attended church yesterday and I can see how much what we have shared with him has blessed his life. I feel the biggest trial for him will come when the missionaries will share with him about the Word of Wisdom. His faith though and conversion have already begun to be set and I feel that he will easily accept it and strive to be obedient. 

Well this is just some from the recent happenings. Sorry it doesn't seem like there is much. Sometimes I build off of what you share to help to formulate my own thoughts. I love you so much!

Elder Roo

Feb 16, 2014 - letter to Mom

Hey Mom!

It's more important that you be visiting your mom and dad. Grandpa has been going through some difficult challenges and having surgery. Those are never fun or happy. I am sure to see one of his kids helped to cheer him up some. Elder Mudrow and I were actually talking about this last night about how in parts we actually just kind of forget about our families. Not badly. Just like we don't really know what is actually going on with them and so on. In parts though it helps us to focus all the more on what we do each day.

Yeah Dad talked about JD talking as well as Brea. He didn't mention where JD was going, but now I know because you mentioned. Thanks! :D Definitely these two people are huge examples of making choices, agency, the consequences of our choices, and enabling the healing power of the Atonement. I know a lot of people feel like they thought I was like an Alma the Younger. But if I was to call myself someone I would feel like it is more Aaron. Just from my experiences and going through serving in 鳳山 and now coming to 嘉義 where it seems like there are many miracles that I am blessed with. If you don't get my meaning go back read about Aaron and Ammon and compare the two experiences from the 4 sons of Mosiah parted ways until after Ammon comes and frees Aaron.

Of course, I couldn't turn it down when it said Snoopy. I will get a picture today actually. Some members called us this morning and invited us to come along to the burger place for lunch. So I will for sure get a picture for you! :D Maybe I will add another patty as well ;)

Yes it truly is a blessing how much the Lord blesses me. I have actually over the last day been thinking about the language blessing, because several, several people comment on that. Basically “你只有在台灣六個月和你的中文那麼厲害” or you are only on Taiwan for 6 months and your Chinese is that good. I mean it is nice that people compliment me, but I keep thinking that sometimes I feel this is a way that Satan uses to get people to not hear about the Gospel. Our time is precious with each and every person. So I have been feeling more than just feeling 不好意思 and trying to redirect the compliment that I will try the approach of directly upfront saying that I am God's servant and have come to Taiwan to share about the gospel and Jesus Christ. I feel sometimes that when people compliment they are kind of directing the conversation away from what we as missionaries are wanting to share. So my feelings are to try and direct it back to the gospel, but more importantly how it can bless them.

Well now to switch back over to Dad's email. I love you mom so much! Still haven't gotten the Valentines Day card, but that is ok. :D The Family Marts here have a special out for a couple weeks of soft serve strawberry ice cream.

Love Elder Roo

Feb 9, 2014 - letter to Dad

Hey Dad!

Oh man that is so weird that Statler is now home too! But way cool that he recognized you guys and love his analogy about having a super car and how you treat your covenants. It's way funny actually as I have progressed more and more as a missionary and teacher how much analogies I use. I mean I mentioned this to Elder Mudrow the other day, but that I feel I can pull anything ordinary from my life and make it into an analogy to teach the Gospel. It is beautiful how much the Gospel is simple and around us each day in our lives. We simply must humble ourselves and open our eyes to see just how much everything can testify that Jesus is the Christ.

As for Statler having an African accent still that is way funny and I count that as a blessing. Whereas for me I will come home and will not be able to speak English at all as I will naturally and instinctively speak Chinese (it already happens, I just go along and naturally parts just come out in Chinese). Actually often times contacting or teaching in English is really weird and sometimes hard.

Definitely the Lord knew exactly when he needed you when Brother Johnson called and was seeking help for his home. There are many small miracles and blessings like this each day in our lives, sometimes we are just blind to actually seeing it. Definitely there are many times where this has happened to me whether it be being in a place contacting or tracting and there is a person there, or maybe in a lesson or something else and the timing was just right.

Man I am so happy for Kevin and can't wait until he gets out. He will have such a good time. And I think it is perfect that he will only be in the MTC for 2 weeks (definitely the field will be great for him).

I think that is awesome that they call the soon to leave missionaries to teach the 11 year old boys. It teaches you so much to have patience, love, teaching to a child's understanding, and having fun. It was a good trend to set :)

So sad can't watch the Olympics with you :( Oh well, you will need to enjoy them for me! Also I have heard of NetApp before. Sounds like a big responsibility. But I know you can do it! You are President Uchtdorf right now and I am his 12 year old grandson. You can do it now! I know you can. You have always faced your challenges head on and you always push yourself to overcome and achieve. So I know you can handle this one too. :)

I am assuming this letter I got this past week from Florida is the one from Disney. It's all handwritten from all of you. So I guess that is the one. Way nice to read. Elder Chan leaves next Sunday for Taizhong and for London on Monday. You will have to see Allisa's email for my feelings on what will happen to the 4-man after next week. As for the Kailiponis I am not sure when they will leave. 

Wayne had gotten the letters and everything. I think he tried reading them, but his reading skills are slower than speaking. But he really appreciated them and expressed that they were very thoughtful. I thought it was very nice and really great to see such effort on a teachers quorum to write to a new member half way around the world.

Now to try and write as much as I can about this past week with the time I have left. Because there is a lot that has happened this past week! Here goes!

So last Monday night was probably one of the best dinners I have had in Taiwan. We had a family take us out for Chinese New Year (our 4 man plus the Kailiponis). We went to a way nice restaurant that can count as equal to the Melting Pot. This however had a hot pot in the middle and then two grilling spots (one on each side). You cook and grill your own food and meat. Basically you have little slips of paper that you can fill out and ring for someone to pick it up and then they bring the food to you to cook. I ate so much. Basically it is a 吃到飽 as well as 吃到飽 ice cream. The restaurant is called 石頭.

This past week we also had dinner at a way rich family. Their table could seat like 16 people. But because Tuesday night President Blickenstaff interviewed the Kailiponis, they showed up to the dinner as well. So we had all of the Jiayi missionaries (our 4 man, ZLs, Sisters, and the Kailiponis) as well as the Blickenstaffs join our dinner. That was a lot of fun. The next day we had interviews and it was really good to talk with President Blickenstaff. I really learned a lot from him, much more appreciation for him, and he has helped me a lot as well.

So Thursday was a day full of miracles and good food as well. We ended up having 6 lessons that day. One of our investigators 楊凱程 had a baptismal interview that day and he passed. He is such a humble man, he really has faith, believes, and he even fasted this last Sunday with us (and will continue to in the future). The only problem is that he is a 空軍, or in the Airforce so he gets very little time off, and especially Sunday. He still needs to come to church one more time, but we also want him to try and get established so he can attend church. But for February he has no Sundays off, so we are praying and hoping that March will work out.

But later that night we went up on the hill by 大雅路. I got way spoiled for dinner. There is a restaurant on the hill there called The Freen Burger. There burgers and fries are just like American. It's a bit more expensive, but we felt to celebrate having such a good day and having so many lessons planned and taught. I got a burger called the Snoopy. Yes our little black and white favorite dog. It was a way good burger. And guess what it had on it. Peanut Butter. Yes Peanut Butter. It was way good.

After dinner we went to an LA's house and had a lesson with him. He shared about how his family has been members for 20+ years and how he wishes to be a better example for his son. With Elder Mudrow's prompting and prompting from the Spirit I shared about the story of Kevin, Cody, Pat, and I and being an example. I shared it in pretty great detail even sharing about that I went home from the MTC and went back out. All concluding with that we are all now going to or have been serving missions. It really touched this man's heart and we definitely felt the spirit there. After the lesson I was actually shocked a bit at just how I had shared that experience completely in Chinese. Truly the Lord blesses me so much to speak the language.

Saturday we went up to 大林 because we didn't have anything set up. But immediately after getting off the train we had 2 miracles of a self-contact and exchanging information as well as another contact that turned into a sit down lesson. And then about 30 minutes after this miracle:

“This past week we had many miracles, but one of the biggest happened on Saturday. Saturday we had no lessons set up. So we decided to go up to one of our secondary areas, Dalin. After arriving we biked into town a little bit, contacting along the way. We had passed a 7 and then decided we should make some calls to formers and members in the area as well as do some language study since we hadn't had it yet. Instead of going back to the 7 (probably only a 100 feet behind us) we kept going forward to a OK Mart (a little bit further ahead than the 7). We sat down and about 10 minutes later we hear behind us "Hey missionaries!" It was this lady whose English was not too bad. As it turns out she had been baptized in Utah (she was studying as well as having some work there). She had come back to Taiwan but was a bit hesitant feeling that the atmospheres between church in Taiwan and in Utah were not the same. She normally works in Taibei and lives there, but for Guonian she was in Jiayi. She had never told her bishop her address and her bishop several times has talked with her and asked so her records could be transferred. But definitely it was a miracle that we came to that OK Mart (because her family's house is right next to it and her Mom saw us and told her to say hi to us). We got Satine (her name) to come to church the next day and even sat down with her to review the 1st lesson (she hasn't been taught any lessons after being baptized). It was a really good lesson, and Lin Dixiong who helped peike has a friend where Satine lives in Taibei and is helping out to get Satine more friends and become more active. Truly we were answers to a bishop's prayer as well as others. It is amazing when you can see the Lord's hand in your life and can stand back and watch it unfold.”

But so last week we went out to some type of zoo thing. It was interesting but lots of fun with the 4 man. Got lots of good memories and we even shot a bow and arrow while we were there. So much fun!!!!

It is amazing how much more spiritually in tune and sensitive I have become since being on my mission. I have noticed so much more how things really touch me and I feel the Spirit. It makes me to not want to leave at all and even thoughts of going home make it seem so sad and disheartening to leave all this. I love this life!

I love you lots and lots!

Elder Roo

Feb 2, 2014 - letter to Mom

Hey Mom! 

I hope all is well with you as Dad has been gone and off for work! I hope you and the puppies are having a fun time together.

Yes definitely I have fit in more and more as I have gotten situated and comfortable. It's been great.

Alright so Test Track sounds like it is pretty fun. That's a lot of improvements since I was there last. Definitely I would be stuck on designing the car for a long time. Which is funny the thought just coming to mind is actually how set on what I want to do with my future and what I want to study and what I know my interests are and everything. I have talked with Elder Mudrow and he says he will go to BYU (he hasn't gone to college yet) but he has no idea what he is going to do or even study, especially that first year.

So yeah that is Zhong. He cuts lots of missionaries hairs for free. I am surprised you didn't remember me telling about his mother passing away. We accompanied him when they did the whole burning the body and everything.

That's really sad about Grandpa being sick. That can't be any fun at all and probably a lot of pain and discomfort. I will keep him in my prayers. I wish I would have known earlier. I could have prayed earlier for him and especially could have fasted for him yesterday. That's all my purpose as a missionary. To help others. Right in the first words of our purpose "Help others". I will start now though to pray for him.

Oh yeah sorry another thought came to mind. My mind is a little all over the place right now. But since Dad was asking about what I want for my birthday, I just remembered something that I do not want you to send. Do not send pens! I do not need pens! At all! Especially since the ones you have sent are .7 mm ballpoint. They are great for when I am writing English or other things back home in the States. But over here first the Asians love their stationary stores and second I much prefer writing with smaller ballpoint pens. I am using a triple pen (three colors and can buy refills) that is .38 ballpoint. I had used a .28 ballpoint before, but it is too small for my taste. So yeah I have this .38 ballpoint triple pen that is pretty awesome. Elder Mudrow actually has the same as well as several other missionaries. Elder Mudrow calls it the super pen. But yeah it's the same brand, that Mitsubishi Uni-ball. But so yes you do not need to send me pens. To buy that super pen and three ink cartridges was like 68 kuai which is about 2 bucks. It's pretty cheap.

That's a bummer Elder Peterson needed to come home for a bit to get surgery done. That's actually kind of funny though that for P-day they were playing basketball. It seems like some of the last things here in Taiwan that we do is play sports with other missionaries. Definitely our 4 man does tons of things together. But like today we are going to some zoo place. In the future there is another zoo we will definitely go to, definitely will go to 阿里山 (really big mountain here by Jiayi), and then also go to Fancy World (we are really excited about this one). But yeah it always seems like we are going off to places. Also we have a Costco in our area. Definitely we can try and see if a member could take us, but I was also thinking if maybe you were ok and thought it safe to send me one of your Costco cards so that here or in future areas I would have a card myself to use at Costco (like still maybe have a member who could drive but maybe they don't have a Costco card). Just a thought. It's up to you.

It would actually be really weird and hard to come home for a week or two and then go back out. It would almost kind of throw off the whole groove of things and just really being 100% focused on the work and my purpose.

I will also keep Elder Rhodes in my prayer. White-washing is not an easy thing (it's almost kind of like what Elder Mudrow and I are doing. Elder Brinley was trained by Elder Woolsey. Elder Woolsey went home at Christmas and Elder Mudrow came. This was the mini-transfer. Then Elder Brinley moved at this last move-call and I came. So Elder Mudrow only had like 3 and half weeks here before I came. So we are definitely still getting to know the place and the branch). Sometimes the Lord puts us in very difficult and hard situations to test us to our limits. I know Elder Rhodes will be ok. He has always been one to keep smiling. But definitely I will pray for him.

Thanks for what you shared from your text book. That is really cool that you found that. 

I love you Mom! 我愛你！狠狠狠狠多！我每天想你！

Elder Roo 戴長老

Feb 2, 2014 - letter to Dad

Hey Dad!

So for now the post office is closed through Wednesday. So I don't know when I will get them exactly. But that is alright. I have so much to do and so much to see and so much to serve.

Yeah definitely that time in New York was an interesting experience. There was a lot of fun, but also a lot of down times. But things have progressed so much and are not at that same spot anymore. That is way cool about sharing your testimony and meeting Mitt Romney and his wife. And then also the guy who served here in Taiwan. Yeah Jiayi is way beautiful.

Of course I am striving to work hard. I try each day. I work hard with the language. I strive as best I can in contacting to make people smile and laugh. Sometimes (a lesson I learned from Elder Mudrow) I just laugh when a person I am contacting is doing stupid things and not talking or giving the 不用 hand. It's just funny to see how people act and react to that which around them. Something about Elder Mudrow that I love so much is just his way of always having fun, just laughing, smiling in any situation but also working hard.

So yeah I completely forgot there was even the Super Bowl. Seriously being over here you just lost track of everything. There is just this great world of being a missionary and that is all you need to worry about. I also completely forgot that Olympics are almost right now going to start. I don't even remember where they are at. Maybe Russia? But sounds like New York was crazy. Definitely similar thing of when people ask where I am from they don't even know Utah at all. I have even met people who thought there were 52 or 53 states.

So this past week Chinese New Year started. Probably the hardest and most annoying thing about Chinese New Year is people saying when we ask to meet 過年後就好了. So lessons are really hard to set up with people or like a lot of our solid progressing investigators or recent converts leaving town and going home to their 老家. But it’s alright we still see and meet lots of people. Like the other night on Saturday we were tracting and ended up talking to a really nice guy and his son that were out walking. He said right off the bat he had met our 其他的傳教士, the 哈比人 or hobbits. Elder Mudrow and I were just laughing a lot because that was Elder Ng and Elder Chan who are definitely shorter than Elder Mudrow and I. He also called Elder Mudrow and I the football team. But yeah his English was not too bad and we feel like they will definitely come to English on Wednesday.

Later that night about 5 minutes after we tracted a guy’s house that outside was really beautiful with wood, green, and very Japanese feel to it. We started off introducing a bit and then I told him how his house was really beautiful (we are at the door), and he was like really?! He then started talking about how it creates a good environment and feeling. I was like yeah a very peaceful feeling. He then shouts out yeah, (pointing at me) I like this guy. Needless to say he went off for like the next 10 minutes talking about the whole set up, the feelings and moods it makes in a person, and even the interconnection between us and the plants and the elements. Even eventually talking about the interconnection that spans between me and you and mom and even talking about there is the 3rd dimension, but also 4th, 5th dimension and how Jesus is in the 5th dimension and that is how we can't see him. But yeah it was an interesting conversation.

So as for Chinese New Year there are some cools but also some disappointments. I had some expectations but so far some of them are let down. There really hasn't been any cool things that have happened. Everything just closes down. We get to eat meals at member’s homes (having up to 2 hours to eat with them). And they literally stuff you so full of food. It makes you feel 不太徐福, almost sick to your stomach. But last night’s dinner was really good with the District President's family. They made pasta with broccoli, sauce, chicken, then fruit as well as Costco muffins. They were so good. But there has definitely been lots of yummy meals with lots of traditional food. Sorry I don't have pictures, but we are only allowed to take pictures on P-days during our time of P-day. Definitely as I hear more and more, our mission is one of the most strict and obedient in the world. Not being prideful, but we hear and see about what missionaries are doing in different missions (even our sister mission) that just makes us wonder why they are doing that. 

Love you so much!

Elder Roo