Called To Serve - Taiwan, Taipei

I was so excited to get Ben's first email today!!! He sounds great. I can't wait to see what the next two years bring!

Here is the letter he sent today:

Family,

I LOVE YOU GUYS! But please never EVER say howdy again. I like the idea of you guys writing every sunday though, so you can keep that up! Ill start off by saying its hard to miss the "tooting" when the MTC food does nothing but give the other Elders here GAS. So you could say that's the lords way of keeping us cancer free!

I think that it is crazy that all this stuff is happening at home right after I LEAVE. Ugh they couldn't wait for me to come home. You can tell Bishop he is very welcome for the amount of people at my farewell. I strive every day to be as awesome as I am and it is a good thing that it finally is paying off for someone else!

Is it wrong that your description of Wednesday and the idea of Josh rolling down the hill with his drum on made me smile? Ha I'm glad you all miss me because I miss you too. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not homesick or anything!

I love it here at the MTC! My companion is awesome! His name is Elder Elliot and his dad is the Senior organist for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! He actually really reminds me of Josh, because he is really into programming and how things work. We have one district (group of elders) that will be leaving for Taipei in three weeks and they have all been super cool. I love my district that came in with me though! My district has 10 missionaries (4 Sisters and 6 Elders) and we are the only district in the new group that has sisters and we have a military elder who is on leave for his mission (his name is Elder Wheeler and we sang bohemian rhapsody all the way through during our temple walk yesterday....) He is my kind of guy. BUT GUESS WHO CAME TO THE MTC THE SAME DAY I DID!!!!! Elder Eyring! (Not Henry B. Eyring, but his grandson).

We have already started teaching "investigators" here and since Elder Elliot already knew some Chinese too we did really well on our first 2 lessons, meaning we gave her a Book of Mormon and she promised to read and pray about it and she said the closing prayer after we taught her how to pray! Oh this is so much fun! Yesterday was our first sacrament meeting and I got to say the opening prayer in Chinese. I actually was surprised to find out that two of the elders in my district had studied Chinese for 6 years and I still knew more than both of them! Don't worry, I still need to practice because I want to give the best lessons I can with our investigators, (did I mention we have to teach all our lessons in chinese and ONLY chinese?) 

Today I got to go through the temple and it was so amazing! I am beyond grateful that we are right next to the Provo temple and will have the privilege to go every monday! Ill close with my testimony. In chinese of course! I need the practice. 我知道耶稣基督的福音是真实！我感谢神给我们耶稣基督的赎罪。我知道约瑟斯密是神的限制。奉耶稣基督阿门。If any of that translates weird, I am sorry and will say it in english next time. LOVE YOU!

Elder Heaps