First week of the New Year

Hey All,

Not a hugely exciting week to be honest. We didn't have a ton of lessons and a lot of the lessons we had fell through. It's all good though we just had another week of a lot of finding.

There is this one young kid we found who is crazy willing to do anything, almost to the point of us getting suspicious that he isn't actually down to learn about the Gospel, but he keeps following through on stuff so I guess he is just really really prepared! He also bows to us all the time which is funny.

Two hour church yesterday was awesome. I think pretty much the whole church is universally excited about this new year especially with the new  Come Follow Me stuff. My companion and I make that our Sunday personal study and it's been pretty good so far. I'm excited to learn more about the New Testament because I feel like after the four gospels I don't really know what happens.

Today we went back to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. It's still pretty cool. Got a lot of pictures this time, and everyone got really carried away trying to take the best photos using the selective focus (portrait mode) on the phones. The actual memorial was in the middle of changing guards when we got up there so there was a few Taiwanese soldiers doing the ceremonial salutes and stuff which was cool.

Hope everyone had a good New Years on Tuesday and good luck on all the new year's goals. My district has a whole goal strategy we are doing together and it's actually pretty effective. Our system basically comes down to choosing three goals (the classic formula is one physical, one mental, and one spiritual goal) that you have 100% control over achieving, such as doing a certain number of push-ups every day or writing in a journal every night. They can't be a goal that is too broad or something you don't have control over because the whole process is intented to build your discipline not achieve some wild crazy Dream. Then you do those goals for 3 weeks straight. And if you miss a day you have to start over all three goals from day one again. It's a pretty effective system if you choose three simple goals to start building good habits.

Have a great week! 

Elder Neilson

P.S. Costco is literally exactly the same everywhere, haha. Its like a portal to America! It's $50 NTD (for a hot dog and soda), which is about $1.50 USD. So basically the same. Costco is the only place I have ever seen Pepsi products in Taiwan. Thank you so much. Costco membership is above and beyond!

Note from "publisher" (Tustins mom. 😊): We learned that Elder Merrill (Tustin's current companion), is the grandson of  a man who served in the bishopric with Tustin's Grandpa Greene in the California, Van Nuys 2nd Ward in the late 70's. Small world, and such a great family history connection!