MOVING ON! (Not to Taiwan, but getting closer

What a fun surprise to look at my email and see an unexpected e-mail from my sweet missionary!

So this time it is for REAL! Here is the e-mail I got from Elder Chase Joseph Millett last night: 

"Today, we received our reassignments and are leaving on Saturday. Me, Elder Quist, and a couple of other guys from our zone are going to.........The Washington, Federal Way Mission!!!

We will probably only be spending a couple of weeks there, until we get the visas, but we are leaving on Saturday.Off to Washington I go!!!!!

We are thrilled that he is moving forward. After 9 weeks in the MTC he is one flight closer to Taichung Taiwan. AND we get to talk to him at the airport tomorrow morning! This is one excited mom!!!

"Come Thou Font of Every Blessing"

"So, I want to share something with you. I heard this song for the first time here at the MTC, and I found out how much significance it has. This song has become my companion when I feel down. I heard a quote once that in every soul there is a song. I believe that this is my song. I will send you the link and before I get off I would like you to listen to it, even show your class if that's allowed. I believe it shares my testimony. I want to share it with you and with the world.

http://www.mormontabernaclechoir.org/articles/the-history-of-come-thou-fount-of-every-blessing?lang=eng

I believe that I have and this song embodies the burning testimony I have of this work and of the truth and power of the word of God. I have witnessed the many miracles it can work in my life. And I too, can never repay the debt that our Savior paid for us. So, I too must live and Seal My Heart for the Lord above."

P-day #9- I still have no idea what's going on!

Well, friends, family, and all those in between. Where do I start this week. I guess I better just get the hard part off of my chest first. 

We are not going to Taiwan on Tuesday.......

We were called to the travel office and they told us that we would not be receiving our visas on time. They cancelled our travel plans and told us to sit tight. They told us that they are not going to reassign us yet because they feel that we could probably get our visas before Christmas, but to us that simply means that they have no idea what's going on. It could be this week, it could be two weeks from now. All I know is that my MTC stay is going to be a little bit longer than I'd originally thought. 

And while this has me a little bit down, I do find solace in the fact that things are supposed to happen in the Lord's time, not my own. If the Lord doesn't want us in Taiwan right now, then the time isn't now. So, we consider this at least a little bit of a blessing in that we have a bit more time to learn Chinese we would not originally have had time for. We have time to prepare, both physically and spiritually before we depart. So, it's not all bad. I guess I'm just itching to get out into the field.

But, I think the hardest thing right now is the fact that this week, we will be saying goodbye to both Elder Chan and Elder Marcelo, since they are going to California. In fact, tomorrow morning at like 3:30 in the morning, we will be sending Elder Chan off. Today is his last day at the MTC. He has to get a bunch of stuff done, packing and other things. And then we will send Elder Marcelo off Wednesday at like the same time. It will be just me and Elder Quist in our residence. It will definitely be very quiet... But we are very excited to see them getting to get out and start preaching this wonderful gospel to the people of California.

I love them both and wish them the best of luck.

As for the rest of this week, not much more has happened. We got the Christmas Eve/Day Schedule for the MTC. It sounds wonderful, but I do hope to be out in the field before then. I guess it all depends on the Lord's will.

Anyways, I love you all and wish you all the best in your lives. Good luck and may the Lord bless your life as he has blessed mine.

Sincerely, Son, Brother, and Eternal Friend

Elder Chase Millett

雷長老

Pday #8 :It's going to be a very Asian Christmas!

We did not expected this week to come with reassignment details: Here is the e-mail I received:
"Hey Mom, I only have a few minutes but I will be on again a little bit later. But we got our travel plans..........I fly out of Salt Lake International next Tuesday morning to........................................................................Seattle!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, I'll talk to you a little bit later!!!"

I preceded to call, text, and e-mail everyone! Then: about an hour later:

"Oops!! I actually forgot to tell you something..... We have our travel plans.

And after we land in Seattle, we fly to Tokyo.

And from Tokyo to TAIWAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got our travel plans last Thursday. And someone told us that they wouldn't buy our tickets unless they knew that we were going to get our visas. So, it is VERY VERY VERY likely that we will be going straight to Taiwan. Someone else told us that no one who's gotten travel plans to Taiwan has had to be reassigned or stayed. If you have travel plans, you're probably going.

So we are pretty excited.

WE GOT OUR TRAVEL PLANS ON THURSDAY!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, that is right!! We leave next Tuesday morning at like 3:35 in the morning to go to the airport. We then fly to Seattle at like 8:30 that morning. And from Seattle, we fly to Tokyo. (Yes Amber, be jelly)..... And from Tokyo, we fly to Taipei and take a 2 hour bus ride down to the mission home in Taichung. With layovers and other things, it's over 24 hours of traveling! GOOD GRIEF!!! But it will all be worth it.

BUT, THERE IS ONE THING TO REMEMBER! While this is all fine and dandy, it's still not 100% guaranteed at this point. They told us that it is VERY VERY VERY likely that we will be going to Taiwan on time. But there is still a slim slim chance that something could change. But someone told us that anyone who's received travel plans for Taiwan has not had to be reassigned or delayed, so that gives us some relief. So yeah.....pretty much the highlight of my week.

But among other things, everything else is still progressing well. We are trying to cram in as much language study as we can this last week in hopes of being able to know at least enough to get us by when we get there. Our district is like a family here. We all love and support one another. We are still teaching our 2 investigators, Han Di Xiong (Brother Han) and Chen Jie Mei (Sister Chen). Every Monday we are doing Skype TRC teaching. We get to Skype with members in Taiwan and teach them lessons and stuff. They help us with our Chinese and share their testimonies and stuff, so that has been really cool. 

But yeah, we are doing fantastic and I am loving the language. It's weird to think that this like my last full week here. Time sure does fly. And I'm going to miss this place, but I am so excited to get to the field that I can barely contain it. I guess our prayers have been answered. And our time to help the people of California and Taiwan is almost nigh. "

Elder Chase Joseph Millett

雷長老

Bummer, but it's okay!

So we definitely missed our Elder over the Thanksgiving holiday, and apparently he missed us too.

"This week has been bittersweet, as I'm sure you can guess. Thanksgiving was really good, but really hard at the same time. The "Thanksgiving Lunch" was meh, ok I guess, but still tasted mass-produced. The devotionals we had this week from Elder Oaks and Elder Bednar were amazing. The Bednar one was more like a Q&A than a devotional. He passed out a few hundred cell phones to the congregation and had them text in any questions that they had. He would try to answer as many as he could. It was really cool. The Elder Oaks one was cool too. He talked about remembering that our mission is about the Savior. It was really a privilege to hear from two members of the Twelve in a matter of two days. Let's see, what else happened this week."

So proud of Chase! : " I am the new district leader for our district. I will the district leader for the remainder of our time here, so that's pretty cool."

Chase was set to leave the MTC on December 16 and head to Taiwan..but......

" And just today we received some news. The districts leaving ahead of us are staying an extra week or so in the MTC and then going right to Taiwan. But, it's because their reassignments were cancelled because they thought that they were going to get their visas on time. We received an email from the Taichung mission this morning talking about what would happen when we got there. We were so excited because we thought that we were going to get our visas on time. We went to the travel office to confirm this, and we were told that we were about 99% likely to get reassigned. IT SUCKS!!!! I was so looking forward to getting to Taiwan. If, (more like when), I get reassigned, I will probably be speaking English, and because we will be there for a whole transfer, which is like 6 weeks, I am afraid I will lose some of my Chinese. And not only that, I thought that I was going to be spending Christmas in Taiwan, which would be really cool. But now, when I get reassigned, I'm going to have to spend Christmas in like (Some US State) or some other not-as-interesting place like that. I'm so bummed because I don't want that to happen. But I mean, there's not much I can do at this point. Soo....I don't know."

I wrote back to him and asked him why he was serving, was it because he was going to Taiwan, or  was it to teach the gospel to people everywhere? I told him that even people in (Some US state) deserve to hear  about the gospel and the true church of Jesus Christ.

"you're absolutely right. People need the gospel everywhere and I am glad and willing to bring it to them! I am really looking forward to going wherever I'll end up going"

I know that he is anxious to get to Taiwan, but I am so proud of his positive attitude. He has an amazing district and they are such a support to one another! 7 weeks down! On the upside, I can add a few more fun things to his Christmas package that was supposed to be shipped this afternoon. There are things that I can't send to Taiwan, so now I can send him a few extra things....AND it won't cost me a small fortune to send :) Happy December!