Townsend2Taiwan: Typhoon! Pictures!

Welcome to the East Coast Brothers and Sisters,

This Last preparation we went to up to Hualian and more than that, Tailuge. Basically think of Avatar (Mostly the blue people Avatar one) all right. Well I went there you can say. It was crazy, it was "Raining" but it was more like someone had turned on a mist machine because we were up so high in the mountains. We didn't have a whole lot of time so we couldn't hike or go to the top as we planned up it was still rad. I think the best part was getting to know one of the hualian members. Wan dixiong. He is their mission leader and he is great. He is a hair stylist and he kept asking us if we wanted our hair cut. (I couldn't tell if my hair was that bad or he was wanting to be the taiwanese generous) Anyways it was good. It was cool I figured out some words in the car and so we when we went to the beach I was able to talk to him about boating, the ocean, and fishing. It was awesome. Nicest guy.

That night up in Hualian we helped out the Zone leaders with a couple of lessons. They went pretty well. The only problem we had was transportation and the rain. we had two bikes, four missionaries. Not good numbers. So Elder Leavitt and I had to run from lesson to lesson and lesson to home. Ha I was trying to picture what this would look like to the Taiwanese people. Two white foreigners in dress clothes and yellow plastic bags (Ponchos), running in the rain down the road. Ha We had one car slow down and she asked us in her best English, "do you need help?!" ha we laughed told her we were ok. She drove off and then we realized we had a problem. We didn't share the Gospel with her! ha next time. By the end of that experience, I was soaked (I believe it wasn't rain, more like sweat), one of my shoes was full of rain (Somehow it got left out in the rain when we were at the lesson and the other one was fine), and jolly. Ha it makes the work more fun when you sing and work your hardest.

On tuesday we had interviews with president. It was great, it was about 7 minutes, but I could have gone a lot longer talking to President, such an amazing man. No doubt about it he was chosen to come here.

Wednesday the highlight was English Class. It was gnarly. ha They are so great, we went over food. Its really funny for me because I need to use more Chinese then I am used to while teaching English. The best part was that they did their homework! I had a couple of new comers but the three members from last time, they all shared their testimony in English! It was fantastic and spiritual. The spiritual thought at the end was also really good too. They all participated in it so it brought the spirit in.

Heavenly Father really does answer prayers. We had a friend, Alfonso, who we couldn't get a hold of for a couple of weeks. I had praying none stop to be able to have at least one more chance to meet him. We finally got a hold of him and set up for Friday. So on Friday I got to see him again. It was great to see him, but a bit sad at the same time because he had been so good about reading and praying before the "break" and now he hadn't done any of that. I could really notice the light and dimmed a bit. But the good news is that he is willing to start meeting again, read, and pray! Such a blessing and I just thank heavenly father for it.

I love Church. But Church for some reason was a bit more difficult to understand as usually. Its all good though. I just love the fact that I have the privilege to be surrounded by so many great people. They trully are some of the hardest working and spiritually intuned people. After Church we meet with Alfonso and I asked Johnson to help us peike (accompany our lesson). The lesson went amazing, we hadn't planned on meeting with him till later that night but since he had to change plans he was able to come. The lesson was completely guided by the Spirit and it was just too amazing. Well the funniest story has to be at night when we went to visit Zhang jun cheng. Ha We shared a scripture about how we need to have our treasure in heaven. He was telling us how God wouldn't steal our money and our treasure. He somehow got on the issue that God doesn't use money or accept because he doesn't have pockets. Hahaha He was so funny, He would use a Godly voice when he would reject it. ha he also showed us a picture of Jesus and said, "See! He doesn't have pockets!, he might keep it in his belt but he doesn't have pockets!" ha I love the man.

Well lots of love and hope you enjoy the extremely long letter!

Elder Townsend

Tailuge, beach, and the amazing alfonso! I promise I am not that white,. also these last couple of weeks we have been hit by a typhoon so lots of rain lots of wet clothing. I think I need to invest in rain gear. (AKA jacket, pants) I am a little bit tired of coming home with soaked pants and clothing in general, but its ok! It sounds like everything is busy on the homefront but still good as ever. Remember that I love all of you and wish sometimes I could join you over there, but I am in Taiwan, which is fantastic doing the Lord's work.

love, buster