Mission conference

Dear Everyone,

So this week we had a big mission conference where Elder David F. Evans, the area authority over the Asia area or something like that (to be tottaly honest, the 70 and the area authorities really confuse me. I'm not really sure how it all works. Are those even the same thing?) came and trained us. He talked a lot of about finding but my favorite point he made was that President Nelson always says "start with the end in mind" meaning the temple. We need to be teaching people not towards baptism, but towards the sacred ordinances of the Temple. That's the real end game. Baptism is just the start. All too often though, people get taught with baptism as the goal and then once they are baptised the person disappears. They were not prepared for a life of enduring to the end. 

President Peterson also shared a great thought about how enduring to the end is not "coasting" but  is pushing with everything you have to become better. Enduring to the end is not a relaxing process. It is hard and should require work. I really liked that.

This week I tried some savory soy milk at a breakfast shop. It was just called Xian Dou Jiang or salty soy milk so I was hoping for some soy milk that was slightly salty since that sounded pretty good but that is not what I got. Instead I basically just got rotten curdled soy milk with random stuff in it including tiny shrimp. It was really really bad. Probably the worst thing I have had in Taiwan to be honest. I could literally only force down 5 tiny sips or so. Next time I am going to try the soy milk + egg. That sounds good.

On sunday, They re-did the boundaries of the three ward's that meet in our building so now there are only two wards. Our ward, XiangShan got dissolved and essentially absorbed by the XinZhu 1 ward. The mission hasn't officially told us what to do but we are assuming we are jumping into that ward with the Sister Training Leaders. I have never shared a ward with other missionaries, so this should be interesting. Good thing is I didn't really know the ward that well yet so It's not like I had a lot of ward memorizing work put to waste. Also our ward is pretty much all the same people just with a lot more added. 

Unfortunately, Elder Vernon got really sick Sunday night and we had to stay home for most of the day. It was weird kind of milling about while Elder Vernon was asleep. Being a lone missionary in your apartment doesnt leave you with a lot of stuff to do so I basically just milled about, did some tidying up, read, and stuff like that. Hopefully I don't get sick too. That can be kind of hard though when you have to be around a sick person 24/7!

Wish you all a great and amazing week. Also Happy Birthday to my mom on the 26th!

Love, 

Elder Neilson

example of one of taiwans plentiful claw mashine stores. There are many all over the place

 the XinZhu train station. We had to take a train from here up to the mission office at about 5:55 to get up to the mission conference. That meant waking up at 4:30! Rough.

 Picture taken at the mission conference. About half the zones (all the non-taipei zones) were at this session. I am about halfway up the stairs, along the wall.

Crazy pet stores

Hey everyone,

 I keep leaving the writing of this email to the last minute and don't have a lot of time again. Sorry this keeps happening.

The big news of the week is that President Peterson challenged us all to get 20 gospel based conversations with people on the street, including some sort of invite, every day, which is double the old daily goal. It's a pretty big change but we have seen a lot of miracles and have had some good fun working to try and hit the goal. 

The first night out after the announcement Elder Vernon and I were on exchanges with the Zone Leaders, and I was with Elder Raymond. We got a ton of contacts in, worked really hard, and had a ton of random encounters with really cool foreigners who were actually rather receptive which is pretty surprising. Usually foreigners are hard to contact but we got self contacted by one group of 8 foreign exchange students and then by another guy at a restaurant.

Other cool news, is during a comp Study in a park Elder Vernon and I watched a bird catch about 10+ worms, snakes and bugs. It was just like something out of discovery Channel or animal planet!

For P-day we went to a lot of random stores that have always caught our attention. We went to two pet stores. One huge one that had  almost every type of werid fish imaginable and another shop that had a tucan, hawk, ground hog, and a Llama. Pretty crazy stuff! 

Have a great week!

Oh I also tried stinky tofu for the first time this week. It wasn't too bad.

Elder Neilson

Transfers

Last weeks letter.....(editor- whoops!)
3/4/2019

So its transfer time again! This is basically the first time I have ever had a transfer call that actually mattered. I was pretty safe the last three but this time we were sure I was moving. I have been sent to Xiangshan B in Xinzhu. I think the "B" means we might have two sets of elders in our ward but I am not totally sure. I'll let you all know next week. My new companion will be Elder Vernon. I have heard a lot of good things about him. I'm pretty excited. It's a little sad to leave my first area but I am also excited to try something new. 

In other news this week we had a really good lesson with a friend that really wasn't a lesson or anything just a Gospel centered discussion. I didn't feel like we were teaching, just sharing the Gospel with someone. I wish more of my interactions as a missionary could felt that way. Maybe I'll work on that.

Anyways today for P-day we played some soccer in the morning with other missionries, and then played laser tag with some other missionaries. Pretty fun times. Never thought I would be playing laser tag on my mission to be honest. And Elder Merrill is actually crazy good at laser tag for some reason!

Sorry for the rushed letter. It has been a hectic day. Have a good week.

Elder Neilson


This weeks letter
3/11/2019

So like I said last week, Transfers came and I have been moved to xiang shan 香山 to be with Elder Vernon. The move was quite the experience. Elder Morgan and I went to the train station together but we had a really hard time getting a taxi to the train station which made us a little behind schedule. Then the train station was really confusing and we would have missed our train if it were not for a member who walked us through the whole process. He literally went so far as to buy Elder Morgan's ticket for speed purposes and then paid to get onto the platform even though he wasn't taking a train just so he could walk us right there. He even walked me into my train! Total life saver!

It's sad to leave the only home I have known in Taiwan. I have come to love the people there. I am excited for change however.

Xiang shan has been pretty fun so far. Really rainy and cold the last couple days but today was nice and we went bowling with a lot of our district. Elder Vernon is a really great guy and I am excited to be working with him this transfer.

I don't know too much about the ward except that it is really small. Smaller than my last ward. Everyone seems really nice though and there are some young families with lots of kids which is so good to see! My last ward had hardly any children. The Church needs a future!

Anyways that's about it for now. It's been a crazy time of change! But change is good. Staying stagnant is counterproductive to the plan of Salvation. 

Have a good week!

Elder Neilson 

倪長老

Elder Morgan and I at the train station leaving our "birth" areas together

Me and Elder Vernon walking across a rainy bridge in xiang shan

Eating snails at a restaurant a zhong he member took us too before I left

A last district (plus random member) photo taken our last night after English class on wednesday