President Ballard

Hi All!

On Wednesday this week we got stuck in the hospital again with Elder Raymond, one of the Zone Leaders, who has been having a really bad cough recently and thinks he has pnuemonia. We originally went to a random doctor recommended by a member but they couldn't help with Elder Raymond's lungs or with Elder Ransbottom's ingrown toe nail so we headed back to the hospital. We decided that Elder Ransbottom should just wait until Monday for his appointment instead of seeing a new doctor but, due to some exchanges stuff, we were the only ones who could get into the apartment. So we decided to stay and give Elder Raymond some emotional support through his hospital experience. It was a wild ride and the hospital had us running everywhere for x-rays, payments, and drugs and stuff. But finally we got out of there with the doctors basically saying they didn't know what was happening, and here are some default drugs. It was really funny because Elder Raymond came out of the doctor office after they looked at his x-ray and he said they looked at these two big gray blobs in his lungs and just said the picture was probably blurry. Oh well! He has a return appointment and Sister Peterson, the mission presidents wife, got him some other medicine which is helping.

On Thursday President M. Russell Ballard came and visited our mission so we had a big Mission Conference and every missionary in the Taipei mission came up, which is special because usually all the missionaries are not allowed to be in one place at the same time. It was a really cool meeting and I could really feel President Ballard's love for missionary work and missionaries. He talked about how we need to be the best teachers perhaps in the history of the Restoration of the Gospel because people now a days have so many distractions and are so busy that it is harder than ever to get them to take time and learn about the Gospel. That is a pretty big call to action. So excited to work on being the best teacher in the history of the Restoration!

It was also cool to see all the missionaries in the mission and after the meeting we went to the National Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall to take a picture with everyone. Pretty cool moment. In one of them you can see some tourists at the top of the stairs taking a picture of the 180+ish outsiders. 

Yeah, that was the big highlight for the week but this weekend we also had 3 baptisms in the district which was exciting. One was in our ward (it was the sisters baptism) and there were two in the Xinzhu 3 ward. In total this transfer our zone beat its goal of 6 baptism by 2! Pretty awesome!

Have a great week everyone!

Elder Neilson

Random U-bikes in front of a 7-Eleven. I thought it captured the essence of Taiwan

Elder Ransbottom, Raymond, Anderson and I traveling up to the mission conference.

A giant blow up tank and man to commemorate the guy who stood in front the tank in that famous video

A bird that got trapped in the church

The mission with President Ballard

The mission

another picture of the mission

Exchanges for Days

Hey Everyone,

So last P-day we moved into into the Zone Leaders apartment but the very next morning I went to Zhudong again for another exchange. It was a fun time. I exchanged with Elder Duncan this time who is right out of training but he is already a really great missionary and it was a lot of fun to serve with him. We taught some lessons and we had this funny one where we spent the whole time teaching why baptism is important and essentially drawing the covenant path with the gate of baptism on a white board, probably explaining the purpose of baptism the best I have ever explained it, Then right after we asked him, "so do you understand the importance of baptism" he said "no" and both of us were really confused and didn't really know what to do. Later we realized the person didn't know what baptism was (like how we do it or anything) so I thought back to the District 3 videos where one sister missionary thinks of showing the video of the baptism of Christ and because of technology is able to do it on the fly. So I thought, well if it worked for her it can work for us and pulled up the video. The awkward thing is that neither of us had ever watched that video and so it took a quick second to find and then little did we know, but the video shows 5 or so other people getting baptized before Jesus! It was super awkward because we kept saying stuff like, "okay that's not Jesus but he is coming up." I understand one or even maybe 2 examples before hand to show that Jesus was baptized like other people was and that John baptized lots of people but seriously- let's cut to the chase! It all worked out though. He said he understands baptism more now.

The day after that we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders again, which is a lot easier now that we live in the same apartment. But it made for a lot of time without my companion which makes a week feel really bizzare. 

The next day there was a massive thunder storm all night and into the morning. It was a pretty legit thunderstorm. Elder Raymond is convinced he saw a bolt of lightning land between the apartment buildings in our complex. I'm not sure that's true but there was a big flash and then immediate crazy thunder. So... Maybe. But, miracles, it stopped raining right when we finished studies and went out for the day! Pretty sweet. 

This whole week Elder Ransbottom has had an increasingly worsening ingrown toenail and so on Saturday we finally decided we should get it checked out. So we headed to the nearest hospital to see if a doctor was in. Taiwan has socialized Healthcare which is a positive and a negative. Positive, once you live here for 6  months you get taken into the national Healthcare system and you get a Taiwan insurance health card that makes medical care way cheep. The bad thing is its pretty slow. We walked into the hospital and it felt like a DMV. We took a number and waited to be called up to a registration desk. Luckily we didn't have to wait too long to get called up to a desk but unfortunately no dermotoligists work on weekends so we had to set an appointment for Monday. We desicided to check one other hospital too incase it was just the one hospital but no, seems like no dermotoligists work on weekends. Oh well. 

So that's what we did pday morning untill about 12:30: waiting for Elder Ransbottom appointment number to be called. He was the last number, number 39, so it took a while. No worries! We got him all checked up. The doctor wanted to take some tests to see if it's an infection or actually an ingrown toenail. They gave him some pain medication and antibiotics and we will come back in a week!

We had one lesson this week where a friend was basically just being really passive with the commitments we were giving him saying he is just trying to know if the Gospel will really help him before going all out. And we just sat down and had to tell it to him straight that the only way to know if the Gospel is true is to really try to live it and use that as an experiment (see John 7:17 and Alma 32). Only through our experiences can we come to know the truth about the Gospel. We had a good talk and I hope he will really be able to devote himself to learning if this is true. It's really the only thing we ever need to know! 

Wishing you all a great week! 

Elder Neilson

Eating mango shaved ice for the first time. Mangos are finally back in season. 

Kind of hard to see but the trees in this picture are some banana trees right by the church

District pday dinner at a all you can eat shabu shabu

Moving

Hey Everyone,

This week from Tuesday to Wednesday we went on exchanges with the elders in Zhudong, which is the farthest area from the rest of the district. About a 30 minute train ride away. I got to head out their with Elder Harmon who is actually only 6 weeks younger than me in terms of mission age so that was kind of weird. I realized I am an old missionary (my year mark is only a few weeks away on June 6th). It was a really fun time. Zhu Dong is much more remote and has less people then Xinzhu so it was a fun place to be for a little while.

On Thursday we had to head back up to Zhudong so Elder Ransbottom could do a baptismal interview and then we had lunch with a returning member in our ward who is actually an American living in Taiwan. He took us to a really nice steak house which was honestly one of the best meals I have had in Taiwan so far. Crazy good! He is a really cool guy too. Pretty sure we can get him back to church.

I also bought a huge rice farmer hat that night which is super epic. I have always wanted one.

On Friday we actually got two new friends because we met with someone who came to English class (who is fun to teach because his English is really good and we can teach mostly in english) and a dad who is friends with a member in Zhudong. He is really stressed out about being a dad and the Gospel could really do him good. Also his friend from Zhudong is trying really hard to help him and is great member missionary and so sometimes it feels like we are just there as the member present. But that's okay. Honestly that's more or less how missionary work should be done! Member focused efforts with the missionaries as the on call teachers. So we will see how that goes.

We also tried a crazy 40元 all you can eat vegetarian restaurant which is basically eating as much food as you want for a little over a dollar. It is insane how cheap it is. I think it's basically just some Buddists living thier faith to the max. But nice for us!

On Saturday we had to go back out to Zhudong to sign the baptismal form that we didn't have time to do earlier in the week so yeah, we spent a lot of time in Zhudong. 

Finally, we moved this week so Sunday night we did a ton of packing and today we spent most of the P-day moving some stuff to the the Zone Leaders apartment. It will be a big change but the new apartment is a lot nicer and a lot closer to the part of our area we want to spend the most time in. So it will be a good situation. 

Happy Mothers Day to all the awesome women out there! Especially my mom the most awesome woman I know!

Have a great week!

Elder Neilson

 Elder Harmon and I at a Hot Pot on exchagnes

 An English class advertisement we made. It's pretty funny

Elder Ransbottom and I with our giant hat salesman

Elder Ransbottom and I getting a mid-move Pepsi from the vending machine across from the new apartment. (It also has Mountain Dew which is a huge win!)

Me carrying some moving stuff with my rice farmer hat. One of the members helping us out literally saw it and said "you look like a farmer!"

Not a lot of Time to Write

Hey All,

Not a lot of time today so it will be a short one. 

It was honestly a pretty normal week except that we had a zone Conference on Tuesday about using the Book of Mormon in everything that we do. And then we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. During that exchange the Zone Leaders were on a call with President and now we will be moving into the zone leaders apartment at some point. Probably next P-day. So that will be a big change. New house, and back to a 4 man instead of a 2 man apartment. Itll be fun.

A few returned missionaries who served in this area before came back so it was cool to see their perspective and love for the people. They all also comment on how crazy it is that we have smart phones now! It really is a crazy time to be a missionary. 

Work is going well! Also I found in the scriptures where it talks about the baptism of Adam! Check Moses 6:64-66! Pretty cool stuff.

Have a great week!

Elder Neilson

Some sort of parade In our neighborhood

Our zone

My current ward.