Week 5

Hello everyone!!! :) First off I want to start off, Dad last week you sent me an email saying it looks like I have lost weight.... come on don't say that, that is like me saying "wow dad it looks like you have put on a few pounds..haha gees I have been working hard and trying to gain weight... I am actually up to about 155 now :) so I have gained over ten pounds since I left and about 5 since I got here! All the rice is almost giving me a belly though I actually had to start doing crunches and stuff so I don't lose my "abs" haha Families have taking us out about 4 times a week probably. Last night we went to a member’s house and they made spaghetti! Not as good as dads but it was still pretty good!! Last P day we went to the batting cages after we finished emailing you guys so that was pretty fun.... except I suck really bad now haha Softball messed me up bad!! Oh well It was still fun.

 

Anyways this week has been pretty good I am actually starting to understand most things that people say to me so that is good. It feels good when you can get people to smile because of your complement. There was this one kid with his girlfriend on the back of a scooter. He pulled up next to us and I looked over at him and said "hwa!! hello shui ge, Nihao ma" which is handsome boy how are you and he looked at me then looked at his girl and just started smiling like that’s right an American just complemented me. Then I talked to him for a while about church and he was smiling the whole time!! It is the best feeling knowing that you are making someone happy. It puts you in a good mood every time! Try it if you are ever feeling down, go and do something for someone else to make them happy and I guaranty you will feel better.

 

We are teaching this super cool guy right now! His name is C.J. and he is 33. He lived in Texas for about 2 years. So his English is really good but he came to English class and that is how we met him! We met with him a couple days later and started to teach him but I forget to ask him to read and pray. The next day we met with him again and he said he prayed at work because he was getting frustrated and then he read a couple PAGES of the book of Mormon. He is so cool!! I have a lot of respect for him to because he was going to school in Texas and had a really good job so his life was going really good and then he found out he had a daughter here in Taiwan!!! He decided he wanted to be a part of her life so he left everything he had there to come back here and now he is working in a noodle factory with his mom and is taking care of his daughter!! Today when we were on our way to email he pulled up next to us and we talked to him and we finally got to meet his daughter!! She is so cute!!! she is 4. He is pretty much a stud and is super respectful and humble. And he is such a cool guy! He took us out for noodles the other night which was pretty cool. Elder Gish told an amazing story relating god to dragon ball z!!! haha I guess in one of the episodes the main guys son is in a fight and he is getting beat up pretty good and everyone was telling the dad to step in and help. But he wouldn't, he would say that his son needs to learn! I know he can do it, and he never lost faith in his son! The son ended up coming back and winning and the father said see I told you he could do it and now because of that he is stronger and better than he was before!!

 

That is how the God is for us sometimes. We might be going through some pretty hard times and wondering why is God doing this to me? Why is this happening to me? But God has faith in us. He knows we can do it! He will help us as much as he can but there is a point where if he just keeps helping us we are not going to be able to learn, grow and develop! I know we all have our challenges and struggles but as long as we keep pushing through them and find the best in them then we will be able to come out and gain something from it! Our purpose here on earth is to learn, grow and develop so that we can return to live with our father in heaven again someday!!

 

I love you guys and hope you have a good week!! 

 

 

 

 

Revelations 3:20-21

2 Nephi 25:28,29

 

Love Elder Roberts

 

阮俊雄 

ruan jun xiong

week 4 in Taiwan

Nov 18, 2013

 

 

This week has been super crazy with stuff.  A lot of weird things has happened to me, like I learned how to solve a rubric's cube... ha-ha but other stuff even cooler, funnier and weirder than that has happened!!  Hope you guys are enjoying the weather and the snow there!!! It has been 80 to 85 degrees this week :) Can you guys send me some pictures of like the activities we do there those are the pictures the people here like to see the most! They love the pictures of KY ha-ha everyone freaks out when they see them! He is such a stud! :)

 

So last night I was doing intersection contacting while Elder Gish called people and tried to get the week set up. So we were just at an intersection and I was riding in a circle talking to people and trying to get their number so we could set up a time to meet with them and one guy, when I reached out to shake his hand, he wasn’t really sure what to do so he started to massage my hand.... ha-ha it was so funny and he just kept rubbing it the whole time I was talking to him, in the middle of the road... ha-ha then another guy started talking to me in a language that was not Chinese!! At least I hope it wasn't ha-ha I didn’t understand anything he was saying. Then he said "what’s your name" in English and to clarify that's what he said I repeated back "what’s my name?" Then he said "what’s my name" so I said confused "What’s your name? “Then he said "what’s your name? “This went on back and forth for a while I was super confused because he just kept saying whatever I would say then the light turned green and he said bye and  just rode off...It was so funny and weird! Ha-ha super funny! Later that night we went to a less active members house for dinner and I gave my first blessing in Chinese!!! It was scary ha-ha. I am also getting used to feeling awkward and just going with it :) haha I can just kind of go with it now and make the other person feel even more awkward than I do :)

 

I have had to start taking the lead in the lessons lately and it is super hard when you know as little Chinese as I do. We were teaching this kid named brother lai and Elder Gish had me take over and I had no idea what they were talking about but I just started to talk. Ha-ha I asked him a question and what I had said was exactly what he needed and wanted to hear and led right into what we were planning on talking about, it was crazy. Then Elder Gish told me to prepare a lesson for Brother Liu and when Brother Liu came to the church it wasn't the same Brother Liu that I was expecting when I prepared the lesson.... and this Brother Liu was an inactive member and hadn't come to church in a while! So I decided to just stick with it see what happened. Through most of the lesson he had tears in his eyes and the spirit was so strong and he ended up coming to church yesterday! It was awesome!

 

The lord works in mysterious ways and sometimes, we might not know exactly why things are happening the they are but if you put your trust in the Lord and keep moving forward things will work out a lot better than if you do it by yourself, because he knows what you are going through so if you will turn to him and let him help you through it you will be able to do anything!

 

I love you guys hope everything is going good there! Things are awesome here!!

 

Love Elder Roberts

 

 

 

Week 3 in the great Taiwan!!!

     So to start out, I am going to tell a funny and weird story. One of the first couple days I was here Elder Gish told me about one night him and his companion went out on the deck and there was a bunch of cigarette ashes out there.... I didn't really believe him until the other night we got home and our inside door was open, the outside door was closed and locked but the second one was opened... we thought it was kind of weird but didn't really think anything of it until later that night we went out on the deck and there was a cigarette out on the floor... So we think someone comes in our house every now and then and smokes out on our deck because they know we are usually gone all day!! haha kind of scary but they haven't taken anything yet so it’s not too big of a deal.

      So we are teaching a guy named zhang cong zheng he is so freaking cute! I think he has a little bit of a mental disability because we have to teach him the same stuff over and over before he remembers it but he is so happy and funny! He is super little probably about the same size as Brett ;) he comes to about my elbow and when he sits on chairs at church his feet just dangle! haha it is so funny and we don't really know why we like him so much because he never does what we ask him to do or anything and he is progressing VERY slowly but he really wants it and is trying and he is so cute. So we are still trying to work with him he should be getting baptized in like 2 weeks I think. I remember the first time I met him it was my first week at church he showed up to church all by himself without us calling him or anything and he was SUPER drunk! haha he could barely stand! We were in class and he kept almost falling out of his chair! Since then we have gone to his house and taken all of his alcohol away, he had a jug like the water jugs that we used for football! The big 2 gallon one and it was about half way gone just from that day, but since then he hasn't had any. We have also gone and helped clean his house, it was so bad.  There was urine all over the bathroom floor. Now his black floor is white it was like magic! It still smells way bad and I want to go get him some febreeze or something to help with that! Even though it smells bad and it is dirty there, just seeing his toothless smile makes it worth it. .ha-ha and he is so nice! :)

 

     I think I might end up marrying a Taiwan girl... ;) ha-ha,  just kidding but the little kids are so cute here it is very tempting! There are these two little girls in our ward that are so cute! They are so fun to play with and super smart! Some of them when you try to give them a high five they just look at you like your dumb and keep walking... ha-ha but most of them are like cool, a white guy.

 

     Friday night we went to a Night market to do "English proselyting" and we found some watches and Elder Gish bought 2 of them. He bought me one for my birthday it is so cool I took a picture of it but we can’t send pictures from this place so I will have to try to send them next week but it is turquoise and the hand and numbers are pink! And it was only about 3 bucks!!! It is so cool.  Elder Gish got a purple one with blue inside it is way cool to! My birthday went for a good two days because they said it is still my birthday in Utah.... Elder Gish bought me a good dinner to he is awesome! He thinks it is funny to tell everyone it is my birthday to especially when we are doing street contacts.... so everyone is telling me happy birthday still! :) 

 

     That will be awesome to have a Christmas tree! We will be one of the very few that have one! :) I haven't got the gadget for my bike or really bought anything yet because we aren't really supposed to shop until p day. I think I will maybe pull money out today and go get some fun stuff.

     There are some hills here but not many it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I am still in the city so the landscape isn’t that great it just looks like a big city! There are so many scooters!!! It’s still crazy. I saw a mom and 3 kids on one scooter, and they always drive around with their dogs on the foot part of the scooter. I have seen little kids in their strollers on the foot part!!

 

     We went out to lunch today right before we came here to email and it was a really expensive Japanese restaurant at least for here it is. it wasn’t that great, but I ate octopus!!  It is not my favorite kind of food... it was not bad just not my favorite! We sat on the ground though and that was cool. I took pictures though so if I can send pictures I will :)

 

 

Love Elder Roberts

 

The view from my apartment!!

 

Our bus to the temple!

Birthday gift from Elder Gish!

Octopus lunch!  YUMMY!!!!

 

Week 2 in Taiwan

This week has been pretty awesome! It is getting a little tougher though because Elder Gish is pushing me pretty hard to be the best I can which; isn’t a bad thing but it definitely puts me out of my comfort zone!!! The good side is I can kind of talk to people on the street now and get their number! :) I have about 4 girls now that are going to wait the two years... ;) ha-ha just kidding but on my way to the email place I got a number! I think they only pull over because they can't understand me then I give them the card to write their number on and they do it and then later Elder Gish calls them :) ha-ha it is so fun though and so out of my comfort zone! I am getting really good at balancing on my bike at red lights though!! :)

 

So to answer some of your questions before I forget :) The only plan for my birthday is we are going to a night market for English proselyting and that was just coincidence but I might buys some stuff for myself there! :) The one thing I have been wanting to get is a little computer thing for my bike that says how far I have gone and stuff and that is about 40 bucks I think. I got the one letter on Halloween and then I got your card today!! :) It seems like it takes about 2 weeks. They do sell skittles here but I still have a big bag from what people sent me at the MTC but they have been going pretty quick! :) The best thing for Christmas would probably just be money stuff is so much cheaper here and it would make it a lot cheaper for me to buy it here instead of you shipping it, but maybe a nice light rain jacket would be sweet! They have them here but the quality isn't super good. Just send stuff to the mission home and they send it out to us.

 

The story about me telling someone to go die I just asked him about it I don't remember so obviously I didn't notice!!! Oops: p For Halloween... they don't really celibate it here. The earth quake was pretty crazy though! Ha we were in the church teaching a lesson when it happened but I definitely felt it! It made me feel really motion sick but it felt like we were on a boat rocking back and forth. It wasn't too bad, kind of a cool experience though. It was like a 6.3 so it was a pretty good sized one! 

 

That sucks about KY and football! I just wrote you guys a letter and in kys I talked about football..... Oops oh well :) There is more to life then high school sports! Don't be one of those guys that lives in your high school days! Ha-ha Things only get better after high school... for the most part! I mean look at me I'm living in Taiwan and still have my parents paying for me to live how awesome is that! ;) Ha-ha congrats on school to man!! That is awesome!! You are such a stud!!!

 

I noticed in all the pictures you guys are in big coats like its cold or something!!! I wake up at 6 and go down to the track right outside in front of our building and by the end of my work out I am sweating! The weather is so nice right now! This last week it has been kind of humid but the temperature is really nice! It would be sweet to go hit the slopes though!!! Thanks for rubbing that in my face but I don't miss the cold to much! :)

 

So the people here just give themselves American names and we met a guy on the street and asked him what his name was then later we asked if he had an English name and he thought for a second then said Milk!!! Things are so different and weird here it is awesome! I just wish I could talk to them better!! People always say nige to it means that or like you can call a person that to haha but there is a drink here that is called a nige and it is so good! It is like sprite with key wee in it and a lot of their drinks have like rubber chewy candies at the bottom that you can suck up and chew on while you drink it is awesome! Yesterday for dinner we had McDonalds and I got the new burger in a large combo and some chicken nuggets for about 5 buck! The food is so cheap hear and that is expensive because it is American food! Usually we can eat a full good meal for about 2 bucks! :) Love you guys

 

Love Elder Roberts

 

Things are going pretty good here though hopefully they are there to! Some scriptures and things I have been studying that have been good are:

-Ether 12:9-10, 12

-Ether 12:24-27 I like where it says "fools mock but they shall mourn"

-Alma 30:43-44 and Alma 14 is probably my favorite chapter it is so cool!

 

 

-I started reading "Our search for happiness" that is pretty good

 

 

What we do with our powers during planning... ha-ha :) pretty cool huh :)