Transfers, Service, and a KaoRou‏

Hello Family, 

I hope that this week has been a good one for you. This week has been a good one for me. Quite a bit happened so I will try my best to sum everything up.

So, transfers (move calls, as they are called here) are today. The calls have already come in and people are traveling to their new areas. As you have probably already guessed, I am not moving. Elder Watson and I will finish out our training and we will see where we go from there. But as for the rest of our district, every other companionship is changing. Yup, every single one. 

So, Elder Chapman, one of the awesome Elders in our district is going to go be a zone leader in GaoXiong East. And Elder Zhu, our awesome native district leader, is going up to Taichung. Sister Kwong, from the MTC, will also be getting a new companion as her companion is going home. So, in exchange for these we will be getting 2 new elders and one new sister. One of the Elders I know. He was my "Dan Jones" companion, Elder Jenkins. This will be the last transfer of his mission and he will be our district leader here in JiaYi. I don't know who else is coming though.

 So, we also did service this week. We went and helped Huang Di Xiong in our ward pull up some tarp stuff from his garden. And then he treated us to a huge KaoRou (Barbeque). 

So, here is where it gets funny. Elder Watson told me that he and his last companion had gone and done service for him before. He said that they only did like 30 minutes of service and then ate for like 3 hours! That is the same thing that happened here. We pulled up the tarps and folded them up, which took like 20 minutes, and then he came back with this HUGE box full of food. We went back to his little "house" that he built by his garden, and barbequed for like 2 hours! It was ridiculous! It was soooo good though. We ate pork, fish, vegetables, some kind of soup stuff, and more meat, of all kinds!! So that was fun and I will send pictures.

So, on Saturday, we had a lesson with our recent convert Chen Jie Mei from my first weeks here. She is doing great. She loves the church. She is reading her scriptures and praying. So all is well. After the lesson, we had forgotten that the branch was putting on an activity for all of the sisters in the branch. The Relief Society President, Wu Jie Mei, was demonstrating how to cook a healthy meal. They invited us and our Peike, Ye Di Xiong, to sit in with them during the activity. At first we weren't going too, but then our less active friend Rafiki came to the activity to take pictures for the branches Facebook page. It's kind of like his calling to do that. So, yeah, we stayed and mingled and ate some really good food afterwards. So not too bad.

Well, this week, we had a really cool experience. We got in contact with a potential investigator that Elder Watson and Elder Davis had found back during Guo Nian. He finally was able to meet with us and we met with him yesterday night. He is a really dedicated Taoist, almost like a "monk-in-training" sort of thing. He travels around, going to different Miao's and things like that. But, when we met with him, he seemed to love everything we were teaching. He was putting so many of the dots together, more so than any other investigator I've met with on my mission. He was paying attention and really focusing on what we were saying. We were able to give him a Book of Mormon and challenge him to read and start praying. At the end of the lesson, he said a wonderful prayer, a sincere prayer. This experience testified to me that it really is not the missionaries or their skill that touch peoples' hearts, but the message itself. The Spirit will stir their hearts and help them to know that the message is true if they are but willing to plant that seed of faith.

Yeah, I got the jam (on my birthday!) (mom is happy to know that Habanero and Jalapeno jam will make it through customs!)Thank you so much! It is so good!  It's funny. Elder Watson was so opposed to the idea of pepper jelly at first. But then he tried it and liked it. But he still thinks that spicy jelly is just weird. 

My birthday was fun. Apparently, Elder Watson called the zone leaders the day before my birthday and simply said, "Elder Dawson, I need a cake." "I'm on it!" he replied. The next day, after our district meeting, the zone leaders brought up this delicious mango cake It is fairly similar to regular cake, and OH MY GOSH it was so good!!! and the whole district sang to me. It was fun, and definitely very memorable. (Good thing that Elder Millett is biking about 10 miles a day :)

Yeah, apparently Elder Watson felt the earthquake. I didn't. It was at night and he said I must have slept through it. (Taiwan had a 6.6 earthquake on April 20, 2015)

Well, that is about it for this email. I hope it satisfied. I love you all and I can't wait to hear from you guys very soon. Stay safe, have fun, and know that we are on the Lord's side!

God Bless,

Elder Chase Joseph Millett

雷長老

Service

Scenery

Service

Scenery

Elder Watson

Elder Millett

Barbecue (KaoRou)

Yummy looking tomatoes that Elder Millett won't eat

More tomatoes

Exchange, Dong Gua, and I'm a Wizard‏

Hello Family, 

I hope that this week has been a good one for you guys, because it has certainly been a good one for us here in Taibao. We have had some wonderful experiences this week, which I am sure I will get too, but for now, I will address the things listed in my email subject. 

The first one is exchange. So this week, I went on companion exchanges with my District Leader Elder Zhu. He is a native Taiwanese, but his English is near flawless, so that made it a little bit easier. But I went to Jia Yi again while his companion Elder Shurtz, came down to Taibao with Elder Watson. It was a really fun exchange. Jia Yi was a lot of fun, but it is very different from Taibao. So, as you know, Taibao is pretty rural, with the cities in our area spread pretty far apart. Well, Jia Yi is a big city. So it is definitely very different in terms of missionary work. We are always talking to people on the street and going to and from the chapel for lessons. In Taibao, we are pretty lucky if we find someone on the street to talk to! But it was a lot of fun, and I learned a lot from Elder Zhu. And I also finally passed off my first Phase 1 lesson. If I haven't already told you, Phase 1 is the language learning program that missionaries in Taiwan use.  But I finally passed the first part and am preparing to pass the second part off this coming week. So I need to 加油. But yeah, that about sums that up.

So, I believe I have neglected to tell you guys about one of the most delicious things I've ever had in Taiwan, and that is 冬瓜茶, or Dong Gua Cha, Wintermelon Tea. It is like nectar from heaven it is so good!! And because it doesn't have tea leaves, no Word of Wisdom problems here! But it is super delicious. I always get it with 珍珠, or tapioca pearls, so that it is like a bubble tea. (Random Fact: Bubble Tea was created in Taiwan if I remember correctly!) But this week, I had another variation that was really good, and that was 冬瓜鮮奶, Dong Gua Xian Nai, which means Wintermelon milk. It is simply dong gua cha with some fresh milk mixed into it, and it is soooooo goooood!!!!! Anyways, enough about dong gua.

And Finally, the last part is simply because I'm a wizard. Elder Watson says that all the time. When he tells you that you are a wizard, it means you have impressed him in some way. Sooooo, yeah, I'm a wizard. And don't forget it.

So, today for P-Day, we are going to a Chi Dao Bao, or the Taiwanese take on an all you can eat buffet. There is one on the way to Pu Zi and we are going to eat there for lunch. You pay like 300 kuai (About 10 bucks ba. (Ba is just something you put onto the end of a sentence to show that you are suggesting something.) So yeah, it is about 10 American Dollars,  and you stuff yourself full for like 2 hours or something like that. So my mouth is watering already! 

Well, as I said earlier, we had a really neat spiritual experience this week. So, we have been meeting with this investigator, Chen Di Xiong (Di Xiong just means Brother, like we call people in the church Brother so and so.) So, this Chen DX has been a rather interesting guy to talk to. He is very very quiet and doesn't say much a lot of the time. And he rarely leaves his house other than to eat food. We had tried in the past to see if he wanted to come eat food with us and he usually rejected the offer. But this past week, we went over to teach him a lesson, and his whole personality had changed. He was excited to see us. He was super talkative. He was asking lots of good questions, and then afterward, HE INVITED US to eat with him. Yup, HE INVITED US!!! We were shocked. It was super awesome. He is starting to love the gospel. His understanding is only very very simple, and the scriptures confuse him at this point. So we started bringing him a copy or two of the Church's international magazine, the Liahona. He likes reading those because he can understand them better. But it has certainly opened the door for letting the gospel into his life. I can personally testify that the Lord is preparing people in his own time. We just have to have the patience to accept His will and work as He would have us work, relying on Him in all things, and He will put those whom He has prepared into our path. 

Well, that about sums up this week. I will attach a few pictures. know how much I love you and miss you guys. I look forward to Mother's Day coming up soon and am super excited to talk to you! Love you so much. Have a good week. Stay safe and have fun!

With lots of love,

Sincerely, your Son, Brother, Nephew, Cousin, and a Flippin Wizard,

Elder Chase Joseph Millett

雷長老

 

On Exchanges with Elder Zhu, eating at this awesome place called Shark Bite

In the Chapel, drinking my Dong Gua Xian Nai

General Conference, My First "Shuai Dao," and the 6-Month Mark‏

Well Family, the time has finally come. And it seems like it just snuck up on me.

That is right. 2 days from now will be April 15th, my 6 month mark. I will have finished a quarter of my mission. It seems to crazy to think about. But I've definitely done a lot of things these past six months. So I thought that I would reflect on them a little bit. I was in the MTC for just over 2 months. I went in on October 15th, 2014. I walked nervously into my class room where my tall, red-headed Wu Di Xiong of a teacher was waiting for me. I was actually the first one to arrive in the class room as well. I met my companions, Elder Noah Quist and Elder Jarom Hendricks a little while later. I then met the rest of our district, Elders Benjamin Chan and Marlou Marcelo, and Sisters Proffit, Kwong, Nemrow, and Hancock. What a fun group that was. 2 months later, after rigorous Mandarin study, visa-waiting, and many fun moments shared as a district, we got our reassignment notifications. I was reassigned to the Washington, Federal Way Mission. I flew out early, early, on a Saturday morning to the Seattle Airport with Elder Quist, and Elders Tan and Smith (some other Elders from my zone at the MTC.) And then I met my mission president and his wife, President and Sister Eaton. I was then introduced to my companions, yup, companionS. I was once again in a tri-panionship. My trainer was Elder Dold from Placerville, CA. And my other companion was a fairly new missionary, a convert of about a year and a half, Elder Odell. I then had a lot of adventures in the realms of Buckley, WA for the next two months. There were ups. There were downs. And there were in-between days as well. I learned a lot about the actual mission lifestyle there. Then the day came when I got a casual phone call from the mission office telling me that my visa came through and that I would finally be going to Taiwan on the 25th of February. The day came. I said goodbye to my awesome companions. I said goodbye to the friends I had made in Washington. And I met up with Elders Quist, Tan, and Smith again, and we stayed at the mission president's house that night. We left early the next morning from the Seattle Airport, flew to San Fransisco, and then to Taipei. The flight to Taipei was like the longest travel of my life! It felt like an eternity in that airplane! We landed in Taipei about 6:30 pm on the 25th of February. (Taiwan time of course.) We met our mission president, who was eager to greet us long awaited new missionaries. We spent a few days in mission housing and had some orientation. We ate some good food, had an awesome Dan Jones experience, yelling our testimonies in the middle of a crowded Taiwanese night market. And the next day, we met our trainers. I met Elder Watson, and we took a train and a bus to our area, Taibao! Taibao is a pretty rural area, with our cities scattered pretty far from each other. But it is a fun area. We have seen success. I have continued to learn a lot, and I am now halfway through the training period. And that leads us to where we are now. 

Wow, what an experience I have had so far. Pretty crazy in my opinion. But it has been rewarding, as well as refining. I look forward to the new adventures that still lay ahead.

Well, now that my reflections are over, how about some humor. I had my first Shuai Dao this week, which is essentially a crash. Yep, I crashed my bike. I am fine, it wasn't bad. We were on our way to our Branch President's house to do some Home Teaching. Elder Watson was in front and was slowing down. I didn't see that he was going to turn right, and I couldn't slow down in time. I jerked my handlebars to the right to avoid running into him, and the rest is history. I slammed onto the ground pretty hard, according to Elder Watson anyways. My hands got a little scraped up, but other than that I am "Hai Huo Zhe." (Still alive!) So, yeah.

And we had General Conference this last weekend. It was super awesome. So, the missionaries here have to go to Conference in the building where they serve, but they get to watch it in English. And because our branch is so small, it was only Elder Watson and I in the room. We had the clerk's office all to ourselves, where we enjoyed an amazing General Conference!! I still can't decide which talk was my favorite, but it might be Elder Holland's talk about the Atonement. That one really left an impression on me. I hope that all of you enjoyed Conference as much as I did.

Well, that about sums it up for this week. We found 3 new investigators this week, so we will see how far they go. And we are still working with Ke Guo Lin to found a baptismal date. But we are waiting until he gets back from Hong Kong. And the mission life goes on. 

I love you guys. Hope you have had a good week and I look forward to talking to you guys very soon!

Sincerely, your Son, Grandson, Brother, and Nephew,

Elder Chase Joseph Millett

雷長老

Training Follow-up Meeting - Jiayi with Cinnamon Rolls made with Love by Sister Blickenstaff 

Training Follow-up Meeting - Jiayi

Some nightly planning fun at the 7-11 by our house.

Aww....Love him!

Elder Quist and Millett together again!

Nom-Nom Star Fruit Breakfast!

Star fruit is really good! Kind of sour. Kind of sweet. It is just right. It is different though. 

Conference "Pai Dui"

Some Service we did for a member!

Happy Easter, Tomb Sweeping, and an Old Friend!

Well Family, 

Happy Easter. Yesterday. For me anyways... But that's beside the point. Happy Easter anyways!

So, this week has been pretty fun. Lots going on. Lots of crazy things happened. So, I will try to cover what I can.

So, as first mentioned, Easter was yesterday. Easter is not really a huge thing around here. People don't really know what it is. But we have been sharing the church's new video with people. We didn't really celebrate at all. In fact, we asked ourselves at one point during sacrament meeting, "Hey Dude, isn't it like, Easter today?" "Yeah, I think so."  It was also Fast Sunday for us here. For the first time, I got up and bore my testimony in Chinese. People said they could understand it though, so that makes me feel better.

So, on Saturday we went and did some 扫墓, or Grave Sweeping. There is a holiday here called 清明节, Qing Ming Jie, which is a holiday centered on this grave-sweeping thing. It is all about honoring ancestors and showing them respect. People will go and clean the graves of their loved ones every year. But there are a lot of graves that are either nameless or have been neglected for a very long time. That is where we missionaries come in! We got together as a zone and went and cleaned graves that hadn't been cleaned in a long time. We were hacking down 4-5 foot tall plants growing out of the ground by these graves. (I used this weird, long, machete-like thing, so that was fun.) It was super cool to see all of the old people come by and thank us for what we were doing. It was fun to see them so happy. We got to see them smile and participate in a unique cultural atmosphere. It also helped to build my testimony of the Plan of Salvation, and the fact that as we speak,  these people are being taught the gospel. It was amazing! The only downside to the whole thing was that it was flipping hot the whole day!!! It is starting to get super-hot here. This summer is going to be brutal. But, I will get by somehow.

We have been trying to find more people to teach recently. As for Ke Guo Lin and his baptism, it is probably going to be next week. Because of Qing Ming Jie this week and General Conference this coming weekend, he hasn't been available to get baptized. So we are working on that. We gave a priesthood blessing to a member's family in Pu Zi this week. That was neat.

Anyways, as for the old friend part. In addition to our zone, there were a couple of other missionaries who came down to help us because their companions were part of a new Mormon message that they are filming here. I don't know if it is going to be a world-wide Mormon message, or just specifically for Taiwan, but there is going to be. Anyways, one of the missionaries that came down.................was Elder Ben Lieske! I finally got to see him and catch up with him a little bit!! It was super cool!!! He only has like 2 transfers left after this one, so it was probably the only time that I will see him. But we had a blast cleaning graves and talking it up.

Most important thing I've learned this week, set goals!!

So, we have interviews with President and Sister Blickenstaff this coming week, and we were asked to prepare our Language Study Plans for the rest of our missions. Elder Watson already has his done from a while ago, so he helped me for like an hour helping me set goals and get the plan finished. Elder Watson is way focused on goal setting and making plans, so he has been a big help. And having good plans and goals for the coming day and week has been good for helping us use our time wisely. So I have a new appreciation for planning and goal setting.

Our recent convert You Jie Mei, invited us to her house last night for some 烤肉, or Barbeque!!!! And barbeque here is kind of different. Their barbeque is like this little metal box with coals in it pretty low to the ground. And they buy like 10 different kinds of meat and just keep throwing it on the grill and giving you more and more. So last night was a meat fest!!! I had everything from, Taiwanese Sausage to strips of steak to grilled prawns! It was like, the best meal I've had here so far. Oh my gosh, it was so good!!!!!

Anyways, that is about it for this week. It was fun. Love you so much.

Sincerely,

Elder Chase Joseph Millett

雷長老

Elder Millett and Elder Watson e-mailing on P-day.
Elder Millett had no new pictures to send to me, so he quickly took these two because he knows his mom loves to get pictures!