June 1, 2014

This week has been super fun and crazy!! Ha we got the most lessons I have gotten my entire mission for a week! Elder Greenhalgh is super awesome and he reminds me a lot of Elder Gish! So he is pretty much just a stud all around! ha This week end we were contacting on the way home and we were messing around having fun but still working hard and we pulled up to this guy on a scooter at a light and I started talking to him and I told him I was from Africa.... haha he looked at me kind of confused and asked aren't people from there black? you don't have black skin then I said south Africa and he believed me haha then I said hey this is my friend he is from England, as I was pointing to Elder Greenhalgh and so he starts talking in an accent and the guy asked what part and he said London it was super funny the guy ended up adding and is going to meet with us! He is a super cool guy, his name was Eric!

On our way to email today we had a little accident ha we were going down this bridge and Elder Greenhalgh turned and looked back to see if there were any cars or scooters coming and he kind of went over a little bit and hit the edge of the bridge and ended up wiping out pretty bad! His arm got super torn up, he scratched his chin a little bit, he tore his shirt, pants and bike seat and his front break got kind of broke.... poor guy but it was kind of funny but really crazy! It looked like he hit his face hard from my point of view but I guess he didn't too bad, luckily!!! His arm and knuckles are all scraped up though it looks pretty gnarly!!! haha

This week we met this super cool guy.  We were standing out in front of the church and he came up to us on Tuesday night and was looking for the English class and so we told him it was Wednesday night and then started to talk to him and he ended up living in our area and set up a time to meet with us on Thursday. Thursday we sat down with him and had a sweet lesson with him, we shared Moroni 10:3-5 with him and at the end of the lesson he said when we read that he had a weird feeling and it was kind of scary.... at first he said it was a sad feeling so we started to ask questions about it and were trying to figure out if it was good or bad, he ended up saying it was a good feeling but it made him feel like he wanted to cry, so we told him that is the spirit. He set up another time to meet with us on Tuesday and kept saying thank you! Then later that night just after we finished planning our phone rings and it was him, he sounded kind of sad at first but then he asked if the Book of Mormon we gave him was his and if he could write in it and take note, after he told us when he was looking at our pictures of our families he could tell that we were all so happy and he wanted that and he felt super happy and good tonight when he met with us! He thanked us again and then we hung up!! It was super cool seeing the spirit work on someone so quickly and so strongly, hopefully we will be able to continue helping him and teaching him so he can be baptized!!!

One last thing, this week I was reading in Moses one and it was talking about how there is so much more to the gospel that we don't even know about, so I came up with this example :) The gospel is a lot like the ocean, a lot of people here stuff about it and some is bad and some is good for example all the storms and sharks and crazy stuff that can happen in the ocean or how beautiful it is and how fun it is to play in and all the stuff you can do in it! There are a lot of people that just hear about the storms and the boats sinking and the shark attacks and so they are afraid of it and never get to enjoy the ocean for what it is. There are also the people who go and play on the beach and swim and get to enjoy it and they learn to love it but then they hear about the sharks and they run away and never come back or they are just content with staying in the shallow water and enjoying that part but it isn’t until you really go in and explore (or study) that you really find out what is down there and how amazing everything is and how pretty it is. It could completely change your view on the ocean (or life) but even the people that know the very most about it still don’t know everything there is so much out there that has been unexplored! There is so much in the gospel that we don't know about but what we do have we need to study and learn and take it in and enjoy it so that it can be a blessing in our life! I know this church is true and that it can bless everyone, sometimes it is hard and times get rough but if we put our trust in the lord he will help us get through it a lot easier than we could by ourselves! Our trials are just to help us grow and be stronger, learn from them! 

Love you guys hope you all have a great week in the mountains!! JUST ANOTHER WEEK IN PARADISE!!! 

Love Elder Roberts :)

April 6th 2014

Wow another week has already come and gone!!! So crazy!! This week was pretty good, we decided to drop a lot of our investigators because they weren't improving and weren't really wanting to move on so as for he is going to be left alone for a little while.... Sad but he wouldn't read and wouldn't do anything we asked him so we decided to let him do his thing for a little while and hopefully he comes back around! Eric is doing alright he still hasn't come to church though but we are making slow progress with him. But we dropped pretty much all of our investigators so now we only have one progressing  but we found a lot this week and so things should start looking better for us here in gang shan. As for me being sore at night I don’t think I have really ever been sore ha just my arms from lifting every now and then. But my bed is pretty comfortable :) As for knocking on doors a lot of people open the door and see we are white and get scared then look at our name tag and all of a sudden they are super busy.... haha and then the door is shut it is fun though trying to keep the door open in the most polite way we can.  But we do most of our finding by street contacting it is super easy because everyone rides scooters so you just pull up to them and talk to them but a lot of the time with that you get a hand and them saying they have no time instead of a door but then you say kindly " but sir the light is still red :) haha then you tell them what you have to say.  A mission is super humbling though that’s for sure but it is so fun to!! Just the challenge of it, there is always something you can do better at!

Saturday was a super awesome day!!! Our entire day was just service pretty much!! So Saturday was a Taiwan holiday and it is called grave sweeping day haha so everyone goes and cleans graves and worship their ancestors (they call it bye bye here)  it is kind of weird but pretty interesting! So we left the house at 7:30 and went and cleaned graves until about 12. I got to see Elder Washburn again and spent most of the time talking with him it was super nice to see him! He is a stud! Then we went straight from that to a members house and helped pull weeds and helped them move into their new house... kind of. I say kind of because they hired movers to help them and they were so ridiculous!! haha like we all just stood and watched with our mouths open, it was like a circus act!!! One guy moved a two piece dresser thing by himself.... but he took both pieces at the same time!!!!! When we saw him trying to pick up the first one we thought no way just because how awkward it would be and it was big!!! But then he got it up on his head and shoulders and turned around to pick up the bottom piece and he carried both of them into the house!!! So crazy I wish I would have gotten pictures, you would not believe it!!! We thought maybe it wasn’t very heavy until it took 3 of us to pick of the top piece of the dresser thing.... and that was balanced on his head!!! Then they were carrying 3 of these boxes that it took 2 of us to carry one.... haha we just stood there and watched because we were kind of embarrassed as you can imagine! It was so amazing!

One last happy note about this week was we finally got a baptismal goal!!! This is the first baptismal goal our side of gang shan has had since December.... kind of sad but happy we finally got one!! haha hopefully we can keep helping him progress!! And a couple people I was teaching in my last areas got baptized last month!!! So happy for them!!!

Scripture for the week 1 Nephi 7:12 I know this is true! If you have enough faith anything is possible with god!!

Love you guys lots and just hope you all watch out for grandpa I heard he likes to hit people in the face with 2x4's ;)  don’t want your nose to end up like Daves!!! :)

JUST ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE!!

Love Elder Roberts :)

March 30th 2014

This week has been so crazy and so AWESOME!!! haha I will start off with the date night thing.  One of the members set us Elders up on a date for tonight.... hmmm haha we went to McDonalds for dinner on Saturday and willy (member), new one of the girls that worked there so we started to tell him to ask her on a date. We said she was cute to give him confidence and stuff and we set everything up and told him to invite her to dinner and we all could go. Then after we could all go to family night! So we were getting a new investigator and setting him up on a date.... at least that's what we thought then after he went to talk to her he came back and told us that he invited her to dinner and that he told her we, the Elders thought she was cute and wanted her to come..... haha that kind of put us in a bad situation but we have a date tonight so not many missionaries can say that right? haha But he also told us after all of this and after we were saying it isn't our date it is yours he said it isn't a date because she has a boyfriend. haha Not sure why he didn't say that right at first but oh well it makes for a good story!

For conference we watch it a week after you guys do and I think we just go to our church and watch it on a TV or something I am not really sure... and for Easter we don’t do anything for Easter I haven't seen one Easter thing here except for some missionaries that got stuff sent to them! Everyone here for the most part is Buddhist or Taoist so they haven't even really heard of Christ!!! 

This week I had the opportunity to give a blessing to a sister in our district! We were on our way to English meeting and they called to ask if we could do it before English so we say yes but instantly get super nervous!!! Elder Ng said he would do it because they didn't really say who they wanted to do it. When we got to the church things just started to take forever to get ready then when we finally thought we were ready elder ng just stood there.... haha he was trying to prepare himself but then they decided to switch and asked me to do it. Of course I say I will but inside I am praying that I will know what to say then to make it even easier I asked what the blessing was for and she says "just follow the spirit"........ umm haha that doesn't make it any easier!!! Well hopefully I have been living right and have the spirit with me!!!! The blessing ended up going good though and Willy said, when I finished, "I felt it three times" as in he got the chills three times during the blessing and got the chills it was a pretty neat experience and I hope it was able to help her!

This week we have met with an investigater twice and the spirit has been super strong!! He knows it is true but now we just need him to have the desire to change his life!! We had a pretty awesome lesson with a less active member named Eric! Most of the time when we go over he just plays on his phone and ignores everything we say so I decided to have a family night and play card games and make him get involved! It was amazing the change once we finally got him away from his electronics, by the end of the night he was laughing and joking with us and he walked us out the door and was talking to us where before we were lucky to shake his hand when we left. Hopefully we can help him come back!

The last thing is this last week we had a ward activity and the little kids came and did missionary work with us which was pretty cool and fun!! haha by the end of the day they were all exhausted it was super funny but this week they spoke in sacrament and it was super funny to hear what they had to say and the stuff that is just like everyday things and normal to us were like terrifying for them! For example knocking on doors :) haha one girl that is about 12 was saying how scary it was and she explained how like every door they knocked on the door was shut in her face before she could say anything she didn’t know how the missionaries were able to talk to people! It was super cool to hear people talk about what we do every day and it is just routine now!

I love you guys and hope you have a great week!! Here is a picture from one of our less actives house last Friday! 

Crazy to think a little over a year ago I was standing on top of snow basin looking out over Ogden now I am standing on the other side of the world looking out over the ocean!

March 24th 2014

This week has been pretty interesting, my mood has changed a little bit..... haha and I have just put my head down just trying to stay focused on the work! Some exciting things that have happened this week, we had an earthquake that was pretty crazy being up on the 8th floor in our church and you start to feel the ground start moving and your swaying back and forth... haha Elder liu (leo) he is one of the other elders in our apartment, but he got in a pretty bad accident this week and luckily just a couple scrapes and bruises. He was coming around a corner out in farm land and there were bushes blocking so they couldn't really see around the corner and a scooter came flying around and slammed into him! The scooter was like totaled and the guy on the scooter messed up his nose and had blood all over his face and it was going everywhere!! Elder Liu got knocked out for a little while they spent most of the day at the hospital and came back later that day. He is doing fine now and his bike is fine to!!! So amazing!!!  That was pretty exciting. ha

Couple questions for you guys. Has Brett got his learners permit yet?? haha I haven't heard anything on that I am guessing he has but maybe not... If he has I am super happy I am on the other side of the world!! (just kidding Brett) Then what happened to a picture every month?  The last one I got was on my 6th month mark but it was for my third month... I only have up to my third month haha Love you guys.

The work is kind of the same as before just trying to find some good people and get our eternal investigators to commit! We have one that is super cool!! He is 23 and I am determined to baptize him!! I think he will eventually, just need to keep working with him! He says he hasn't had a strong feeling yet but he also hasn't been reading and praying. We found this cool Pilipino this week and he actually lives in our apartment building, he is a member but hasn't known where a church is at so he hasn't gone since he got to Taiwan. He is super cool he is on a dance team and they travel and get paid to dance!!! His favorite dance style is to crump!

I also had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the zone leaders this week and that was awesome!! He is so funny! We contacted a guy or what we thought was a guy then we heard it start to talk and we weren't really sure what it was haha he/she acted really femmy and sounded like a girl but had a little mustache and short guy looking hair. Then Elder Magnason just straight up asked him by saying "sorry but are you a boy or a girl...." haha it was a guy luckily because he started off by calling him a shuai ge (handsome boy) but He said he had interest before we even really started talking to him so hopefully it was in the gospel and not us!!! haha

Today we went to see a cool HUGE buda that is why we are emailing later. I will send pictures, we took a lot but it was super Asian and probably what you guys think of when you think of Taiwan!!!  Just another day in PARADISE!!! Love you all!!!

Love Elder Roberts :)

Jacob 6:12 :)

March 16, 2014

March 16, 2014

To start off I would like to just give a little shout out to a beautiful girl named Morgan!!! Happy Birthday last week!! Hope it was a good one!

This week has been a little slow nothing to exciting except last Friday was pretty interesting… You will probably think that I am a bad missionary for this but I guess that kind of is half of the reason, just my normal Braden Roberts side coming out but it is also because my Chinese is bad and so I just say what pops into my mind!! haha Anyways we were on our way to a less actives house and a tai ke (punk kid) drove by with his girlfriend on the back and he yelled hello trying be funny and speed by us but luckily for me the light just down the road turned red so I pick up the speed a little so I could talk to him and I cruise up and skid up next to him and this is how the conversation went:

Me: wow hello handsome boy!!! ( with a huge smile)

Him: hello.... ( kind of embarrassed but happy because a white guy just called him handsome in front of his girlfriend)

Me: how’s your day?

Him: not to bad!

Me: Oh cool, so where are you off to?

Him: I’m going home....

This is when I decide to have some fun haha I get a little grin on my face and look back at his girlfriend then back at him and say:

Me: Oh that should be fun.... haha

Oooops probably shouldn't do that as a missionary.... but those are the words that came to my head.... the guy just smiled and the girl got super embarrassed and put her face into the guys back and wouldn't talk to me.... haha I talked to him a little more but the light changed and they left and I had a good laugh about it and kept on my way to the less actives house. This less active was super cool!! He plays the guitar and a Chinese version of a violin, but that isn't even the cool part.  He lives on the beach and has a beach front house!!! But wait there is even more!!! haha His job is to take people scuba diving and they take harpoon guns!!! We went and visited him at 7 pm and when we were leaving he started to get ready to go to work.... it is dark and it is like 8pm!!!  But I found out they go out from like 11pm to 4am. There is no way you could get me out in the middle of the ocean at 1 in the morning to go hunting for fish that are bigger than me!!! They are crazy!!!

Earlier Friday we had another funny experience one that Elder Ng says he has never seen before and he has been here over a year!! We were out riding around contacting and a big buss full of like high school students was turning in front of us and they were all staring at us.... so I decided to smile and wave at them. In the back of the buss I noticed some girls were already waving so I looked at them and waved then they started to blow me kisses, that was awkward at first, I went to blow them back but then I thought I was a missionary so I probably shouldn't do that! Then it got really awkward so I just smiled and kept waving... haha just part of a day’s work as Elder Roberts :)

The church is true and will bless you more than anything else! This week I read one of my favorite chapters in the book of Mormon!! Alma 14! It is so good you guys should read it and tell me what you think!! I know that through our Faith we can accomplish anything!! Stay strong and stay on the Lords side and you will see miracles! 

Love you guys!! Just another Week in PARADISE! I’m about to take off!!! Hope you feel the same way about your life if not then change something so it is paradise!! Your day will only be as good as you make it!!! 

Love you lots!!

Love Elder Roberts!!!!!

March 9, 2014

March 9, 2014

Wow Mom You still know what I am thinking even though I am on the other side of the world! Pretty much everything you said in your email I have been thinking about this week! I kept wondering if you guys had got the cars fixed yet haha that’s weird! I don’t know why that came to mind! About Brett’s baseball game, of course he is a favorite haha look who he is coming after LOL he is such a stud tell him good luck and I wish I could be there! Oh what I would give to sit and watch a baseball game with my family right now :) Then just this morning we were talking about Garrett hitting his year mark and when I left he was around his 5 month mark. We also were talking about how close Rob and Amy are to having a little girl!! When is she due? :) That is so awesome I wish I could be there to hear you speak! You will be fine. Let me know how many times you cry ;) haha I gave my 5th talk in sacrament Sunday but it was in Chinese so a little bit more complicated. I use pretty much every single word I know and it barely lasted like 3 minutes. So fun! They called me Saturday night when we were planning and asked if I could give a five minute talk on Sunday in sacrament meeting. They kind of just think since we are missionaries we don't need any preparation we just have it ready which kind of is the case but still. Elder Brinely got asked 5 minutes before priesthood meeting started if he would do a 5 minute spiritual share to start class...... haha no pressure! :) I'm sure you will do great mom good luck!!!

Our area is pretty cool, we are in a 4 man so it is like a party all the time, especially at night! Me and Elder Brinely are getting pretty close, he is only one move call ahead of me so we are kind of in the same spot of our mission but his Chinese is way better than mine! In our apartment it is pretty packed! It isn't much bigger than a normal one but there is twice as many people so it gets pretty squishy!! It is super fun being in a 4 man though but hard because there is always someone to talk to so you have to stay focused! My companion is super awesome, he is so humble and caring! He reminds me of grandma almost haha for example I farted when we were getting ready and it was a pretty good one so I warned him and then he pulls out his febreze and sprays over by me then waits about 30 seconds and asks if that is better and if I’m ok? He sprayed the febreze so I wouldn't smell it anymore.... haha silly guy :)

The area with investigators is really slow right now but I am hopefully going to change that.  That is my goal at least!  We don't have any baptismal dates and like 0 progressing investigators.... not sure what was going on before but we have a couple interesting eternal investigators (they have been investigating for like 6 months) one of them I met with by myself and we talked about baptism and I asked him like why he hadn't been baptized and he said he doesn't have any motivation and no goal.... so I jumped on that and gave him a goal that he accepted at first then at the end of the lesson he decided not to and said he hates goals and he has had a lot and they don't do anything, it really confused me but he said he knows the church is true and so we just need to find the one thing that will help him get the motivation. The other guys just kind of wants to hear about the church and learn more so I’m not really sure what to do with him he doesn't really have any interest in baptism.... so wish us luck with them!

The ward here is awesome though!! They are so willing to help us and do missionary work with us it is amazing! People say that this is one of the best wards in Taiwan so I feel really lucky to be here and a lot of people speak English so that makes it even better!  We have one RC (recent convert) he is 87 and we went and played ping pong with him and got completely embarrassed!! He totally dominated us!!! haha he is super cool! 

We did a lot of tracking and finding this week and we had some funny experiences! We knocked on a door and an older lady came out and started to talk to us in Taiwanese and Elder Ng (ing) knows some so he talked a little bit and most people act like they don't know Chinese because they don’t want to talk to us, which is what she was doing! haha but we aren't that stupid and Elder Ng slowly worked the conversation to Chinese, silly lady forgot she knew Chinese I guess. We also went and visited this really old guy named fu bei bei (few bay bay) and when he opened the door he said he didn’t have time because he was eating.... haha so we talked to him a little bit then he started to get really mad at us and start to tell us how we never bring him anything and he is super hungry and doesn't have any food.  He eventually let us in and talked to us how he doesn't have food or warm clothes, but he was wearing a sweater with a vest and then he also had food all over his face!!! haha it gave me a good laugh!

This week we had a really amazing miracle happen to us! I think it was this last Wednesday we were trying really hard to get lessons set up for in the morning but we couldn't get anything until lunch and so Elder Ng decided to take me to one of our secondary areas to show me around, he says we don't go over there very often but it would be good for me to get to know the area, so we headed over there right out the door. As we were riding down the road contacting, some members pulled up and asked if we could go with them for a little bit because they needed help. So we said we could because we didn't have anything going on for a little bit and it seemed like they really needed our help! When we got in the car they started to tell us what was going on and they said one of their friends is going in for surgery tomorrow because he has a tumor on his back and they wanted us to give him a blessing. They had been trying to get a hold of us but they couldn't find our number and so they said they had just been praying that they would be able to find us or run into us and geng hao we were both at the same intersection at the same time!! Such a miracle that they were able to find us and that we were able to help them! We were kind of frustrated not being able to set things up but that just shows that God know better than us and knows where we need to be and what we need to do!

Put your faith in the Lord let him lead you and your life will work out a lot smoother!! He knows what we need and what is best for us! Stay positive and follow his words and you will be happy! I love you guys and miss you. I hope everything is going great for you!

Your day is only as good as you make it so why not make it PARADISE!!! :) Love ya!

Love Elder Roberts

P.S. make sure ky is going to mission prep!! It is so important and I really wish I would have taken advantage of it while I could!! Everything you do there and learn there is what you need for your mission! It will make life a lot easier when you get to the field if you already know how to teach the lessons!!! Love ya!

I'm moving!!!! AGAIN!!!! haha Elder Washburn is training and gets his trainee tomorrow morning so today is my last day in this area... not sure where I am going yet but it should me awesome where ever it is!

I got the package and the letter yesterday, thank you so much you guys rock!!  The conference was really good the spirit was so strong and the talks were really good, they were on missionary stuff hahaha SURPRISE!!! They talked about a lot of stuff from preach my gospel, being obedient, and just helping people. They shared stories about some of their mission experiences and awesome stuff like that. It just got me super pumped to be here doing what I am doing! 

Our baptism didn't work out because his son got sick and had to stay in the hospital so he is probably going to get baptized this Saturday... and I will be gone.... there might, be a chance that I can come back for the day though, fingers crossed! My bike still isn't fixed... haha We got the part yesterday so we are going to go get it fixed today after emailing!

This week was POWER WEEK so it has been pretty crazy, we have done a lot of contacting and finding people. We have been super busy but nothing to exciting has happened so my letter this week might kind of suck haha we traveled up to jia yi on thursday and spent most of the day there for a trainers meeting for Elder Washburn, that was pretty fun... haha then we have had to travel to nanzi for some baptismal interviews so that has been pretty fun and expensive. One of the kids that had the interview was really cool! He makes cameras for the iphone!! He was super cool and we decided to show him how good the cameras were on our nokia brick phones and then got into all the cool apps and how cool the calculator was on our phone and all the cool games it had.... haha the funny part is he was trying to be nice and acted like it really was cool because he is so polite!! haha we all had a good laugh about it.

So the other day I was thinking about how fast time is going and I looked at the calendar you guys sent me and it had a picture of us on the cruise and so I started thinking about that and it feels like it was just yesterday then I realized... That was 2 years ago!!! Holy cow.  It made me really think about how fast it is going to go over here and I will be back to a boring life again, when I feel like my life is so busy watching tv and playing video games haha it is weird to think how busy I thought my life was and now I have 30 min. a day to just relax... kind of haha I get to relax from 10pm to 10:30pm and that is usually spent getting ready for bed. It is so awesome though getting home and sitting down planning and realizing how much you have accomplished that day! 

So I don't know if it is because people like to mess with the missionaries or they just do it because they do but all the time especially in church we will be sitting there listening to a talk in sacrament and I feel like I am doing good I can understand and kind of get the main idea of what they are talking about then all of a sudden I don't understand anything... hmmm wanna know why because they start talking in Taiwanese... ha, not funny, They do it when they don't want us to know what they are talking about... haha super annoying imagine sitting in sacrament and every now and then the speaker throws in a line or two in Spanish... haha The best one is when you are tracting and you come to an old person and they talk to you in Taiwanese and say they don't know Chinese .. haha  it is so fun maybe by the end of my mission I will know 3 languages!! :)

I opened the package this morning that you guys sent me and was looking at the pictures and it made me realize how much I miss baseball haha.  Brett enjoy it while you can!! Before you know it is going to be over and you might be on the other side of the world to!!  It really made me want to start just enjoying the time I am in right now and just focus on the now and live it to the fullest!! It also made me realize how freakin amazing I look in a baseball jersey haha I am one shuai baseball player.

The last thing I want to do is give a shout out to my little big brother, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! He is 18 and now I guess an adult... haha but mentally we all know he isn’t haha just kidding Love you man!!! Hope your birthday was good! Did you get my card I sent you?

I love all of you and hope you remember to enjoy this next week we all have in PARADISE!!!

Love Elder Roberts :)

Here are some pictures of a couple of members from the ward I am in right now.