End of the Line

Hey All,

We have had some interesting developments recently. You know how last week I said that Taiwan was so under control that the church thought it would be better to leave all the missionaries where we were? Well that is still true; BUT the twelve apostles decided this Wednesday that, despite how safe it is in Taiwan, it would still be better for us to be at home with our families, or at least in our home nations, just in case the situation gets worse and travel becomes difficult or any missionaries are at an increased risk. So that happened! it has been absolute madness since then!

After the announcement on wednesday afternoon we taught some lessons and met with some members but spent a lot of time packing before we had to meet the rest of the returning missionaries on Friday afternoon- at which point we went to the airport, said our last goodbyes, took our last pictures, and split off for our various flights. I was on a large flight of missionaries to California and then after a few hours layover, to New York landing Saturday morning. 

It's super bizarre to be back in the USA. It feels a lot like I never even left. Although it was exceedingly weird to watch this weekend's historic General Conference in my own home the day I got back, and not in a chapel a week from now when it would have been shown in Taiwan! In any case I am super happy to have been allowed to serve the Taiwanese people for 22 months with some of the best missionaries in the world. I like something my Mission President says about the whole situation... as full time missionaries we are working at the pleasure of the quorum of the 12 apostles and we are simply assisting them in their work. If they ask us to do that work in a different way, or go home early or anything like that, it is the Lord's will. I know that despite the fact that a lot of missionaries are no longer out doing standard full time missionary work, the Lord still has a plan for us all and has a work for us to do. 

Anyways, it has been a good run. I had a great mission and I loved being able to serve in Taiwan, learn the Chinese language and how to be a better follower of Jesus Christ. I loved being in the middle of the plan of salvation and learning so much about God's plan and love for each of us. I learned a lot, changed a lot, and I am excited to see how those skills and habits I formed on my mission will help me to make the world a better place now that I am back to being a normal disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Love you all! Stay COVID free!

Tustin Neilson

We visited a famous Buddist and Daoist Temple on p-day. Super fun cultural adventure.

My companions like to take pictures of me as I fail to stay awake in language study. I am excited to be home and get some more rest!

Biking up a hill to one of our last member visits,

the tripanionship

taking a selfie with some of the elders on the flight to CA. 

All the missionaries from my mission going home on friday night. 

6 Companions, 4 areas. 7 days

Hey all,

It's been a whirlwind of a week. as they subject says, since last email, I have worked with 6 different missionaries, and worked in different 4 areas. It's been quite the ride. 

Started off on exchanges with the traveling assistants to the president whos job it is to just go on exchanges with every elder in the mission. For one day I was with both and then for the second day just one of them. Then after that exchange I went to Zhong He with the elder there because both our companions are in isolation so president put us together to wait until our companions are free. Then the very next day I went on exchanges with my zone leader Elder Gray and during that exchange we talked to president and decided it would actually be a better long term plan to keep me in the xindian tri-companioship and create a Zhong he tripanionship out of the three people over there to cut down everyone's travel time. So after that exchange I went back to xindian to be with Elder Zhang and Elder Gibson again. It's been so fun but very tiring.

We did see some cool miracles. While with the traveling Assistants we set up 3 people from the streets and calling people who were taught in the past and during this week all three met with us and became new friends of ours. It's just been a really fun time doing a lot of missionary work. 

We started doing virtual church using Zoom like I know some other places have been trying out. This week worked out pretty well, we just went way over time beacause the ward originally planned on only a 30 minute meeting it then people wanted to keep sharing testimonies and so we went to about 45 minutes. It was cool to see how people could still come together to share about the Savior despite current challenges. 

COVID-19 rages on but we are still safe here in Taiwan so no really updates on that. Hope all my friends and family in the USA stay safe though! Things are getting pretty wild over there from what I am hearing. 

Love you all,

Elder Neilson 

I ate IKEA for dinner with one of the traveling assistants since it's his favorite food. Connecting with our shared Scandinavian heritage

I finally took a cheesy picture in front of these angel wings painted on a wall in my first area. I have been meaning to take a picture here since training a year and a half ago!

An elder in our apartment had a birthday so we all wore our matching space masks to celebrate

Biking down the road

Weekly frisbee

Tuning in for church

COVID-19 in Taiwan

Hey all,

Since the Corona Virus is pretty much the only thing anyone talks about now a-days I figured I would give a wholesale update on how Taiwan is dealing with it and how it has affected missionary work here. 

As I'm sure a lot of you know, most missions in the world are being affected by the virus outbreak either in the form of missionaries begin isolated, or being sent to work in their home nations. However, Taiwan is one of the safest nations in the world right now and so in most ways our missionary work goes on as normal. 

Taiwan was hit really heavily by a smaller outbreak of a different virus called SARS back a few years ago and since then the government and the people have learned how to respond to this kind of threat. 

Months ago, when the virus was still only in China, Taiwan was already creating travel restrictions from the infected areas and the people acted quickly by buying and wearing masks almost immediately. This helped stop any spreading of the virus in the early days. 

Another cultural note that helped keep Taiwan safe is how people deal with illness. In Taiwan if you get sick, you go straight to the hospital or some sort of clinic. There is very little self medication or self diagnosis going on. So the healthcare system in Taiwan is used to dealing with a lot of people coming for help, and it also has access to a lot of information on the current state of the nations health. It is easy for Taiwan to learn of new cases of the disease because when people get sick they go to the doctor and get professional help and are tested for the virus. So at least from my understanding, Taiwan probably has some of the most accurate understanding of how many people are sick and how to prevent further spread. 

So long story short, because the people have done such a good job of controlling the virus in Taiwan, life goes on as normal. Most if not all businesses are running as normally, (although they might leave all the doors and windows open to help get more air flow or something like that) and missionary work goes on more or less as normal. 

We still contact people on the street and still try to meet with people as much as we can. We do a lot more video call lessons and stuff like that but no major adjustments have been made in the way we do things. 

We are trying to protect ourselves as much as we can, we wear masks in busy places and when we meet with members, we don't shake hands anymore, and we wash our hands a lot. It's a fun time here in Taiwan trying to do as much as we can to help people while also being cautious and trying to protect ourselves and others.

It's been a fun week of doing just that in my tripanionship. It's been a fun time. This week it should be changing and I'll work with another elder as my normal companion waits in Isolation for 14 days with some other missionaries who are also in isolation. ( any missionaries now entering Taiwan from other places have to isolate) So I have at least 2 weeks before my life returns to complete normalcy. But I love to get all the weird assignments because it sure is more fun.

Hope you all stay safe,

Elder Neilson

Costco on pday

Noodle lunch

Elder Zhang and I fall asleep in language study a lot

- random other pictures

 Elder Gibson contacting someone 

Tripanionship

Hey all,

This week transfers happened and I started out my companionship with Elder Dobbs, but he actually has a leg injury and had to go back to the USA on Saturday and we don't know how long he will be there. So, for the time being I am in a tri-panionship with Elder Gibson (the Elder I trained in Hualian) and Elder Zhang. It's been really fun. 

So it's been a busy week of packing, unpacking, packing more, moving and switching companions. 

Sorry not a lot of time to write today. 

I'll just leave it as saying we got to teach some cool people and now that I am in a tripanionship we have many more friends who I have never met!

Love you all. Stay virus free!

Elder Nelson

Moving a members cabinets 

A few pictures of places we went on pday.

District transfers are chairs picture

Elder Dobbs and I trying to visit Returning members

Elder Dobbs after we tied his suitcase to his back with rope and ducktape to bike it over to the train station 

New companions

Hey All, 

This week was a fun one. We had interviews with President, started meeting with a new family (only over video call to midigate the rise of passing any sickness) and had two different district councils because we used to have it on Thursday but President announced Monday night to the mission that he wants us all to have district council on Tuesday. Our poor district leader had no time to prepare so he had us do a short goal setting district council on Tuesday but then all the training parts of district council on Thursday.

In interviews with President, President Peterson told Elder Meredith and I that he wasn't exactly sure if he was going to keep us both in Ankang this transfer because he is thinking about putting sisters in the area, or if not enough visas come for new missionaries he might take us out temporarily. In any case we knew that Elder Meredith was going to leave but it sure made transfers more exciting for me to know that the location of my last two transfers as a missionary were pretty up in the air. 

Transfers came this morning and turns out nothing too dramatic is happening. President decided to leave me here and my new companion will be a younger missionary named Elder Dobbs. He was actually MTC companions with the misisonary I trained in Hualian (Elder Gibson). And wouldn't you know it but Elder Gibson is coming up to South zone to be in the other companionship in my same ward. So it will be like a weird little reunion after just two transfers. Pretty funny. 

The Carona virus keeps making its way around the globe but Taiwan is still pretty much the same. This week some members made all the missionaries some nice cloth masks that you use to cover a normal mask barrier thing. Basically just makes face masks more comfortable and capable of using longer. Should help us stay pretty safe since Elder Meredith and I were running out of other masks to use! 

I just finished second Nephi this week in my Chinese reading and was struck by his last line as well. I then went through and skimmed all of first and second Nephi to look for all the good scriptures on obedience that he wrote for us. It's a long list!

1 Nephi 3:7

1 Nephi 9:5

1 Nephi 15:10–11

1 Nephi 16:8, 28

1 Nephi 17:3, 8–9, 13, 15

1 Nephi 19:1, 3

1 Nephi 22:30–31

2 Nephi 1:9, 20

2 Nephi 2:21, 28

2 Nephi 3:2

2 Nephi 5:10, 27, 31

2 Nephi 9:23, 27

2 Nephi 25:24, 30

2 Nephi 26:24, 27–28

2 Nephi 28:30

2 Nephi 31:7, 10, 14, 20

2 Nephi 33:9, 11

Nephi is probably one of the scripture prophets we get the most information about. We don't get such a clear look into the lives of many of the other ones. So amazing to have his example of obedience and faith recorded in such detail! I think it's wonderful to think how the Lord specifically prepared this handwritten account of Nephi for us to read and learn from. We were so close to having a third person account by Mormon! Who knows how that version went. I'm sure it was most of the same stories but I love the personal glimpse we get into Nephis life from his own record. 

That's about it. 

Have a great week! 

Elder Neilson 

a tasty hamburger we got with a member on preparation day. They like to put peanut butter on hamburgers in Taiwan. Sounds strange at first but it's actually really good! 

me standing in front of a broken fountain that we thought looked kind of cool (sorry didn't take a lot of good pictures this week. Kind of have to scrape the bottom of the barrel)

- cool scenery

- one of my new fancy masks. It's got some nice dinosaurs on it. 

- district council part two with drinks and chips

Exchange Miracles

Hey All,

This week for P-day we went on a short hike in a farther corner of our area by a place called Bitan. There were many ruins of former structures including a theme park from the 1980s. Not too much remained except a murual of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and what I think were the footings for a ferris-wheel and some other rides. For anyone who knows me well, anything about theme park history catches my interest! I wish I had some pictures of the Bitan Theme Park to better imagine what it must have looked like back in the day! 

We went on two different exchanges back to back this week. One with the zone leaders and one with the traveling assistants (a new assignment president started this transfer where two additional assistants to the president are chosen to simply make the rounds and go on exchanges with ever Elder in the mission). It was a fun time and we had a few cool miracles happen during the course of the week. 

First miracle occurred as we visited some returning member families we haven't been able to get in contact with. We didn't have time to visit a lot of members but we chose one that I had visited before but they were never home. This time the doorbell didn't work, and they didn't come the first or second time we knocked but we knew there were people inside because we could hear them. We didn't have a phone number on record to call so we just kept knocking hoping they would hear! At last the son came out and we were able to meet the family. It was some pretty perfect timing too because that family was in the process of moving that very week. If we had not gotten ahold of them at that moment they probably would have moved without anyone knowing, and without an accurate address on record we probably would have lost contact with them forever.

Second cool miracle came in a Family Mart as we were doing language study. We were doing our studies up at some bar-style seating and we were sitting next to a young kid. I looked over and felt a small nudge to talk to him. So after a second I said hello and introduced myself. The kid is a about to graduate high school this year and doesn't believe we can prove God exists, but thinks highly of the religious beliefs of others. I asked him if he had ever tried to 認識 "renshi" (or come to know) God before and he asked me why we would have to come to know God, which launched us into a quick discussion about the Plan of Salvation and how God is our Father, and our purpose in this life is to prepare to return to His presence and to become more like Him. He later asked me how I know that this is true and not just the thoughts of men, which tied nicely into the Book of Mormon. All in all it was a very cool experience of impromptu teaching someone and I am still answering a lot of his questions over messaging in prep for our next meeting. It's so awesome to see how the Lord can lead you to interested people if we are only willing to listen for and act on the promptings He is always trying to give us. 

That's about it for the week. The Corona virus situation in Taiwan is still under control. There are a few more cases but we are still safer than a lot of other Asian countries. We are still out doing misisonary work. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts! 

Love you all,

Elder Neilson  

If you look closely you can see snow white and some dwarves on this cement wall

- Me standing on one of the footings of what might have been a Ferris Wheel

- Elder Meredith and I at the top of our hike

- Biking up a hill on exchanges with the traveling assistants

Animals, Zhone Conference, and Calls

Hey All,

This week started off with a fun pday to the zoo! It was a great time spent with some old mission buddies and companions. We saw some cool animals, later played some frisbee at a feild across from the zoo, and then Elder Meredith and I felt really ambitious and went to Costco. Unfortunately, we forgot about how difficult it would be to carry around our large amount of costco groceries home by bus in a bag. After a difficult and strenuous journey we made it home with enough food to last us quite a while. 

This week we had a zone conference where President talked about obedience, and using pamphlets to teach people. It was a great meeting. I really felt like president's teachings were what the Lord wanted me to hear at that time and I felt truly inspired and motivated to change and improve. I think that is when we really know our leaders in the church are called of God, when we receive direct instruction in answer to our prayers or to the unspoken desires of our hearts. What a great blessing to have priesthood leaders who receive revelation and guidence for us. 

Due to the Corona virus we have been spending a lot of time calling lists of names and phone numbers, trying to get in contact with people who have previously shown interets in learning about the gospel or calling members trying to find times to meet and strengthen them. It's very different from the normal on the street missionary work we strive for in our mission. I think everyone in Taiwan is hoping the virus is controlled quickly so we can all get back to our normal lives! Hahaha.

Deadly virus aside, things have been going well for us this week. We found three new people to start teaching, including two brothers. It is always fun to start teaching new people and getting to introduce people to the most basic principles of spirituality, such as their identity as a child of God and how they can communicate with Him through prayer.

It's a good time to be a missionary! 

Have a great week!

Elder Neilson

A pretty cool shot of the above ground railway, a raised highway, and a ground level road all on top of each other! Good transportation is a must! 

our costco food on an excalator

Eating a traditional breakfast dish on a cold rainy night.

P-day zoo trip

 Our zone at zone conference

Sorry it's a short one again

Hey All, 

Busy pday. Got a lot done but we are cutting it close! 

Anyways, it has been a fun week. Pday we went to a lantern festival exhibit and explored Taipei with some friends. It was a lot of fun. Found some interesting lanterns made by elementary school kids like the half iron man half Spiderman mouse! 

It was Elder Meredith's year mark this week and the weird tradition is to burn a shirt. I didn't do that when I was out a year but Elder Meredith really wanted to so we packed up our eagle scout badges and burned a shirt in a controlled manner. 

Biked up a lot of mountains to visit members this week. It was wild. So tired! 

Hope you all have a good week! 

Elder Neilson 

Misty Mountains

Hey All,

It was a fun week here in Taiwan! We started out with a good pday hiking with some mission buddies, including my old companion Elder Ransbottom from my time in XinZhu. The mountains we were on had a ton of mist on them so it was impossible to see any good views but it made for some cool atmosphere effects. Hiking and exploring Taiwan is just one of my favorite ways to start a week! 

This week we have been trying to emphasize visiting with members and helping them to either become more active in the church or do more missionary work. It's been a lot of fun to finally meet with some of the active families in the ward and start to get to know them! We have been trying to find good ways to build up their ability to do missionary work and so far our best stratagy is to send the members a conference talk on missionary work before hand, then simply have  a discussion about what successes or challenges they are facing right now in doing missionary work and how we missionaries can help them or giving any advice we have. Its been super cool to see how some of our members are trying to do missionary work in their daily lives. Anything form simply bringing up the fact that they are a member of the church in a natural way with coworkers or sharing how the gospel is impacting their lives on facebook. Every little opportunity counts! I love Elder Uchtdorf's last talk on missionary work titled, "Missionary Work: Sharing what is in your heart." He says:

"In whatever ways seem natural and normal to you, share with people why Jesus Christ and His Church are important to you. Invite them to “come and see.” Then encourage them to come and help. There are numerous opportunities for people to help in our Church.

"Pray not only for the missionaries to find the elect. Pray daily with all your heart that you will find those who will come and see, come and help, and come and stay."

That's powerful stuff right there!

We have been focusing a lot on helping some of our current new friends to read the Book of Mormon. I might have said this before but I have learned as a missionary that it is prettymuch useless to start teaching people the commandments and asking them to live them if they are not already praying, reading the Scriptures (specifically the Book of Mormon), or coming to church. Coming to church can be hard for people if their schedule doest allow it but every one can find time to read and pray. However if they don't, they never develop the faith to move forwards with their testimony or repentance. So I don't really like moving past the first couple missionary lessons (the restoration of the gospel, the plan of Salvation, and the gospel of Jesus Christ [think the doctrine of Christ: faith, repentance, baptism....etc.]) if people are not reading and praying. So that's what we are doing with some of our friends when we meet, reading and praying with them! I have been enjoying it a lot. I think it is really important to read the Scriptures with people and show how we can liken it to ourselves and think deeper about the Scriptures that just what is happening. I had parents, and teachers and friends in the church to show me how that is done but new people learning about the church have no such resources at first. So it's fun to be their guide through a spiritual journey. 

Well I could go on about more stuff but this is already a pretty long letter! Hope you all have a great week! 

Love,

Elder Neilson

Misty Bridge from pday

Elder Ransbottom, Me, and Elder Engel (another elder that went in the The MTC the same time as me) on the pday hike.

We saw a tiny tiny motorcycle outside a family mart this week.

Eating awesome noodles on exchanges with Elder Zhang

Sometimes you run into a small enclosure of turtles. This happens more often then you would expect

Food and Viruses

Hey Everyone! 

So this week marked the end of the Chinese new year season. Always a unique time in the life of a missionary. With all the member meals I think my stomach is stretched to twice its normal size! I'm always hungry! Hahaha. 😅

With the coronavirus going around I'm sure you are all wondering what the mission is doing to help us stay safe. Basically we all are encouraged to wear face masks in crowded public areas, wash our hands or use hand sanatizer often, and not to shake hands or hug anyone. President even told us not to plan strict street finding activities but only to work with members and find along the way in order to reduce risk of running into random people who might be infected. So far so good.

People in Taiwan are very preoccupied with health and so everyone is taking this very serously. You often see lines around the block to get into stores that have face masks in stock. At church the missionaries were assigned to take everyone's temperature as they walked in to the building, spray their hands with hand sanatizer and give them a face mask if they didn't have one. We really didn't have to supply many masks though since everyone was already wearing one!

Its the start of a new transfer which is always a good time to set new goals and plans. I have set some personal goals to achieve some things I have always wanted to do on my mission, such as read the Book of Mormon in Characters. I have gospel library helping me out with a daily study goal and its been going well so far. It's fun to read the stories and teachings of the Book of Mormon in a new language. It makes things fresh and new again. Never quite sure how something will be phrased in Chinese as compared to English. It's like a new twist on a familiar tale! Same teachings and same testimony of Christ though. Got to love the power of the Book of Mormon. I have found that when I dive into the teachings of the Book of Mormon my days go better. If you haven't already I recommend you get yourself a copy of the Come Follow Me for this year and get started. I always find my studies go a little better when I have that structure to help me stay focused. I also love the page titled Prophetic Promises in the introduction pages. It's simply a few promises from our latter day prophets on how the Book of Mormon will change our lives. I love sharing those promises with members. I know they are true! 

Have a great week everyone. Go forth and achieve!

Elder Neilson 

- The Elders in front of Ikea (this week's pday adventure)

 Ikea Going hard with the Chinese new year colored stuff

- A picture we took with the district where every chair represents one transfer on your mission

- A cool picture of Elder Meredith on some stairs

- helping give out masks, hand sanatizer and take the temperature of members at church,

A member let me sit in their fancy lazy boy chair after a meal. Man I need to get myself one of these!