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.

^ month mark

This was probably the first valentines that I actually got a kiss and took someone out.... haha just kidding. I actually didn't realize it was valentines until the next day haha  It was just another day as a missionary couldn't really ask for much more than that.  So last week I said it had started to get warm.... haha this week has been pretty cold... Monday it started to rain but we just stayed in and cleaned our apartment pretty much the whole day! We went out for dinner and my bike broke. The crankshaft, the piece that makes it so when I pedal my bike will go and holds my peddles centered in the bike, yeah pretty much the most important piece on the bike broke so elder Washburn has been pulling me everywhere which hasn't been to bad but it isn’t helping me stay in shape though.  Now I am really getting fat! haha it takes us twice as long to get anywhere though!! They said the part should be here no later than last Friday though so that’s good..... haha I  still don’t have the part  other than that the week has been awesome though  It has flown by I can’t believe it is already Monday again!!

This week we have had some pretty interesting things happen!! One day we woke up and I got out of bed and stood up then elder Washburn started to tell me he didn't know how to play the game and he didn't know how to do it. I was pretty confused and trying to figure out what he was talking about then shortly gave up and asked what he was talking about then we both started to laugh cause he was totally sleep talking and woke up half way through it!  It was a good way to wake up. Then another exciting experience was our investigator that is getting baptized this week that acts like a little kid. This week we went to see him and he answered the door in a hoodie and supper hero little kid underwear then sat through the whole lesson in his underwear he thinks he is so funny!

This week we had a family take us out for hot pot, I haven't had hot pot since I first got on the island and they took us to marijuana.  I didn't like it and couldn't finish it the first time but my taste buds have definitively changed and my stomach has gotten bigger! I ate all of it and it wasn't to bad.  It is pretty much just a bunch of vegetables that you boil on the table right in front of you then you have some sauce and some rice to eat it  I was pretty impressed that I ate it all!!!

One last story I went on splits with a member because we had two lessons at the same time . My lesson was with a less active member. When we got there we talked a little bit and I asked how his day was and he responded by saying good but my wife doesn't want you guys being here late anymore. This was right before we headed home for the night so it was kind of late so I just started to share things that went good and stuff and then he and his wife started talking about the law of Chasity. Not really sure why?  Then he was asking me a question and I couldn't really understand what he was saying so he said it in English "Making love with a lot of people" I’m not really sure what the question was but I could kind of guess so I decided to just bear my testimony on it, so I did and then he asked me how to know what is a bad sin and what isn't a sin?  That was hard to explain in Chinese. He said to use English so I did a little and it looked like a light bulb turned on in his head and things just clicked. He probably didn't understand a thing I said but because of the spirit he knew what I meant! The spirit is so amazing and without the spirit I would be nothing!! The spirit told him exactly what he needed to hear and all I did was help it testify to him!!

Love you guys hope you have a good week!  Just another day in PARADISE!!!!

Love Elder Roberts

Broken bike so Elder Washburn is giving me a ride.

This week has been super different but I will try to answer all of moms questions first. I heard about the super bowl.... haha sorry Brett! I wish I could be there eating that food with you!! It sounds so good!! I haven’t had Mexican food since I got here and it is really hard to find and if you do find it, it’s really expensive..... Well for Taiwan food anyway. But I had my first mountain dew on Saturday since I left on my mission it was soooooooo good!!! I was so happy for the rest of the day!! I also had real milk that day to so I was one happy boy! haha As for my clothes they are getting a little tight but nothing to bad I don’t know if it is just because it is starting to get hot or if my collars are getting tighter but they are getting really annoying!! This month I hit my 6 month mark!! It feels like I have been gone forever but it has gone by fast to!!! It is kind of a weird feeling but before I know it I will be home so I am trying to enjoy it while I can. In the next package if you could send my go-pro chest mount that would be awesome!!! Then I could wear it around and show you guys more of what Taiwan is like and send a football!! They don’t have any footballs in Taiwan!!!!!! What the heck haha that would be a fun little thing to play with!

The little old people are awesome the son is a member but the mom isn’t she says she promised her dad that she would stay Baptist her whole life so..... but she really loves us and they take good care of us and always load us up with fruit and drinks and healthy old people stuff.... haha so good.... :)

Last Monday we went shopping and then went back to the church and one of the members gave us all facials!!! That was pretty sweet!! haha I will send a picture of it.

This week was Guo Nian or Chinese New Year!! It was so sick!! haha nobody wanted to meet with us and everyone went out of town!!! But we also got feed a lot!!! On Thursday night we went over to a super-rich guys house. He has a pent house on the 24th and 25th floor of a building!! haha it was super nice!! We went out onto the deck and looked out over Taiwan or as much as we could until it all disappeared into the pollution which isn’t very far but it was still really cool!! We even saw some stars!! That was the first time in Taiwan I have noticed starts!! haha Then on Saturday we got taken out to an all you can eat place.  The grill is in the middle of the table then you go get the meet you want and you bbq it on the table, it was really cool, but I was sitting right by the grill.... so I got fed a lot!!! I am pretty sure they did it on purpose but they just kept putting meat and food on my plate! They cooked it faster than I could eat it so I was eating nonstop for 2 hours straight!! It was good but I was full 30 minutes into it and they just kept making it and putting it on my plate... haha I had some chicken butt and a plastic tin full of just cheese!! haha They would laugh every time they put more food on my plate to so they knew exactly what they were doing!!! haha Then yesterday we had two dinners!!! The first one was pretty good but the second one was a Taiwanese meal for sure!!! We had squid, fish eggs, rice and veggies... haha and every time I would put down my chop sticks they would tell me not to be polite and to eat more.... haha so I did... it was so good! You know how much I love fish!!! haha

So this week was pretty good nothing to exciting except a ton of food!!!! I haven’t paid for a meal since Thursday!!! Just another day in Paradise!!! Love you guys!!

Love Elder Roberts!

Facials form a member