Babysitting

Hey All,

I think it's daylight savings or something in America right? So maybe you can all start getting my emails a little earlier! 

This Wednesday was pretty fun because a ton of new missionaries got shipped over to Taiwan a day early and didn't have companions, so a lot of the missionaries in and around the mission office came and picked up new temporary companions for a few hours, or in other words: babysit. My temporary companion was Elder Berges from Arizona. It was weird to be on my own away from Elder Bunn, but it was a lot of fun leading a new elder through my area. Luckily we didn't get lost.

Because it was Wednesday the New Missionaries were with us for English class so instead of having my districts normal 6 missionaries and English we had 13 (the sisters had 3 new sisters with them). So that was a little crazy, but it worked out because Wednesday was Halloween and so the second half of English class we spent having a Halloween activity (we aren't allowed to call them parties) with all the students and having a lot of new missionaries for people to talk to was really good. 

Elder Bunn and I were in charge of games for this party and we made this one where we taped little cups to a white board and had people try to throw a ping-pong ball into the cups for prizes. Kind of as a joke we made one Book of Mormon cup so people could theoretically go for that. What we didn't take into account though is that eventually the game evolved jnto just a few of the child students going over and over again, and this one brother and sister started exclusively aiming for the Book of Mormon cup. We refused to give either of them more than one actual copy but the brother would keep coming up to Elder Bunn to remind him that Elder Bunn owes him 4 more! It's extra funny because they aren't even members.

We also had a mission Conference this week with the General Young Men's President, President Owen, and two members of the 70, one of which was Elder Homer who apparently comes and visits us pretty often. It was a good conference and I walked away reflecting a lot on the importance of gratitude. I particularly liked one comment President Peterson made, talking about how Faith is not measured by coming home everyday having had a great day. Some days are just not so good. Faith is more about the consistent hope that if you are obedient and work hard, it will all work out. President Owen also made some great comments on graditude, reminding us that graditude is not comparing the present to what has been or what could be. It's about looking for the good and learning to appreciate God's hand in your life right now in the moment. 

Lastly, I tried Beef Noodle for the first time this week! It's one of the foods Taiwan is known for but all my past efforts to try it have been thwarted. But totaly worth the wait!

Hope you all have a great week! 

Elder Neilson

Elder Bunn and I with one of our new friends from this week. We shared the Book of Mormon the other day and he was super excited about it and said he would read and share his thoughts next time before we could even invite him! 

Elder Bunn in front of our Halloween game

Elder Bunn and I eating Beef Noodle