Hualien, Taiwan

So I love being a missionary!! Yay. That's a good thing wouldn't you agree? Things have been going good down here in Hualien. I really believe this is one of the most prepared places in all of Taiwan. You have no Idea.

Fun things that went down this week:

We have 4 investigators preparing to be baptized next month! This is seriously so cool. It has been frustrating though because one has been trying for weeks but she had to get a second interview, and then she drank tea on saturday and is super busy on the weekends and has to be keeping all the commandments for at least a week. BUT that is not to diminish the progress she has made. She cut smoking cold turkey last week and has not gone back. She is awesome. I just love these people! Agh, I can't stop smiling :)

Another Investigator that is doing really well is Iris. She is so cool and seriously a huge miracle. She met the zone leaders at a night market and they invited her to come to English Class. She came to it that night and agreed to set up with us to learn about the Gospel. As time went on we realized that she is Golden as far as investigators go. I say this because the first baptismal date we set for her was June 6th. When we proposed that she looked at us funny and said "那麼久?" or in English "That long?"  So the next time we met with her we bumped it up to a time we thought was still reasonable and she was like is "Is anyone else getting baptized then?" We told her the baptism closest to her new date was on the 17th, a whole week sooner and she was like "lets do it then, so I can be baptized with someone else". So my mind is blown that I keep meeting all these awesome people. So many blessings.

As far as life goes I feel really bad for Elder Marchant, he is feeling the trunkiness for sure although he is working really hard to fight it. I want to know the best thing I can do to help a dying missionary if you have any suggestions in that regard but the thing is, I think he is a great companion. He wants to work hard and he is a hard worker! And I really admire how in tune with the spirit he is. Because of that one of the most amazing things I have seen in the field happened here. We were just visiting an RC when My companion had this super strong prompting that we should go to the Zhou families house. When we got there, we saw these white people in there meeting with him and we were super worried they were like another churches missionaries or something but when we got in it just so happened to be a returned missionary that Elder Marchant said was assistant way back before I got on the Island. His parents were the owners of DoTerra Oils! How crazy is that? AND they are from Smithfield originally. Sky View Alumni. Small world. Anyways, We ended up sitting down and they introduced us to the dad of the Zhou family who was not yet baptized. It was my first time meeting him and because of the situation and the spirit that was in that room when we met him Zhou Dx finally agreed to meet with the missionaries! It was a super cool experience.

I seriously feel like Heavenly Father has literally opened the windows of heaven and poured out enough blessings that I don't have room to receive any more. The people we meet are just coming to us, Hualien is so prepared it is ridiculous! We have 4 baptisms scheduled for next month. FOUR!!! I saw 1 in 6 months in my last area. I am learning and growing so much here. I love the people in Taiwan SO much. I love them I love them I love them. I am the happiest that I have ever been serving a mission and the more I have learned to lose myself and serving others the more that happiness has increased. I can scarcely stop smiling :)

I love hearing from you all!

 Take care and talk to you next week!

Love, Elder Heaps :)

We  GOT FOOD! Super awesome meal. Members bought us all this wonderful SEAFOOD!!! Sushi, Shark, Shark Fin, Jelly Fish, Mambo Fish, Wasabi, and then in addition to that there was Pigs Foot, Jumbo Shrimp, Guava Juice, and Mochi Balls! I was the only Elder there that liked seafood. Also the only missionary that liked the sushi, I ate a lot. That sushi platter was eaten 80 percent by me. Good Food...

Yangmei - March 1, 2015

Dear Friends and Family,

A lot went down this week. Ok, so maybe not as much as the previous week, but I finally have proof that I have gained weight! Ok again not really proof, more on that later. Just lots of random fun things. HERE WE GO!

Tuesday! This was our P-Day last week (As many of you know) and to celebrate our possible last transfer together Elder Jensen Elder Miller Elder Whitlock and I all decided to go hiking. Silly me I forgot to bring a change of clothes. It didn't really occur to me until we got there and everyone (including my companion) had some basketball shorts and a T-shirt and sneakers. It's ok though. I looked the best while we were up there! Hiking in Yangmei is loads of fun and it was a beautiful ride. We had another qingke at the end of the day and met with Kim, our golden investigator.

Wednesday we didn't seem to get a whole lot done but my companion bemusedly pointed out that as we were biking near one of the highschools some student that was with her boyfriend saw me bike past them and turned and smacked her boyfriend pointing at me and shouting "he is so shuai(handsome)!!! do you see how shuai he is?" The way he described it I am surprised I didn't notice but apparently it was pretty funny. Aside from that we just had English Party that night.

Thursday we took a member with us and went out to all of our investigators that hate setting times to meet but always have time. We had a lot of fun with the member (Leon) and we got in quite a few lessons that afternoon. We had a couple meetings that were just extra spiritual and I really enjoyed the time we had to work. That night we got to meet with Kim again! That was amazing. He will go on mormon.org between our appointments and learn stuff himself. Well after resolving the last concern he had before deciding to be baptized we set a baptismal interview date with him. As we were leaving I gave Brother You(like in yo-yo) the ward mission leader, who had helped us teach kim, a great big hug. He then stopped looked at me with christ like love and touched my shoulder saying,"ni bian pang le" or in modern english translation "you've gotten fat"... I think that means he loves me if he is willing to be that open about it? Regardless I got a good laugh out of that one. Here is my first evidence that I have gained weight.

Friday we just planned for next week and talked to people. One cool experience was being out finding and as we started to go home I had a prompting to turn around and go back to a place where we had already knocked a previous day and didn't get an answer. When we got there there was this great guy just waiting for his family. We had a great talk with him and gave him a book of mormon. He actually wasn't very interested in religion but he really liked what our message contained. It was a neat experience and I was glad that I listened.

Saturday was pretty chill. We let an investigator cut our hair for our service project (she wanted to take before and after pictures so that she could use us as haircut models) and went to visit one of our less active members. Elder Whitlock got sick at the end of the night though so we didn't really get to do anything after dinner. He is better now it was just some serious side pains I guess.

Yesterday was a miracle for sure. Kim had his baptismal interview and passed and we had a few investigators at church. I felt really bad for Elder Whitlock though! We met this high school girl who TOTALLY fell in love with him. Like he was the only reason she would come to church and everytime someone would try to talk to her she would like grab his harm and try to bury her face into his side if she was next to him. We both went to lengths to keep them separated.  Aside from that we talked to Kim and set the plans for his baptism. Then as I was talking to Effie one of the girls in the ward about when her mission call came she stopped and looked at me and said. "ni bian pang le". The ward mission leader was right behind her and he started laughing super hard. I wonder if they were in on it together. They have both always liked to tease me. Anyway, this is how you can all know that I became fat over the new year.

Really this week was just so busy. I am mentally drained right now so I am going to enjoy the rest of my P-Day and RELAX. Hmm.. That will be nice. Y'all take care now!

Love Elder Heaps.