Hi Family, I hope that
you are doing well as I write this letter to you.
Anyways, I will start
explaining the weird title of my letter. The first part earthquake occurred
last week when I was emailing. It is pretty self-explanatory I'm guessing. We
were sitting there emailing when we felt an earthquake, not big at all, just enough
to shake our monitors and shake us up a little bit. Nothing bad though, we just
laughed afterwards. So that was fun.
The second part is a
short story, but it is still a mystery to us. So, we were biking around on
Thursday I think. We were going to some places in our area that we hadn't been
to yet, and we found quite a strange sight. There was a road that we passed
that was completely covered in corn kernels! It was so weird. And it wasn't
like a load of corn off of a truck spilled onto the road, no, this looked like
it was done purposefully. So I took a picture. I will attach it.
And the third part will
take some explaining. So, in Taiwan the word for Grandma is "Amma."
(Pronounced Ah-mah) And around Taiwan, there are lots of these Amma's that drive
scooters loaded with junk on them! Apparently a lot of them collect like
cardboard and stuff to recycle and earn a little bit of money. Anyways, usually
the backs of their scooters are piled ridiculously high with stuff, and they
manage to keep them balanced while they are riding. So, this is where it
pertains to us, we have an investigator that lives in Pu Zi = Pooh (and then Zi is a "ts" sound followed by
"uh.") that needed a bicycle.
So, at our apartment we had a missionary's old bicycle that he'd left when he
went home, so we told him that we could bring that one to him. Here was our
dilemma though; we had to get a third bike to Pu Zi, already about a 20 minute
bike ride away, while riding our bicycles. How it was to be done, we did not
know. Traditionally, missionaries do what's called "ghosting." Now, ghosting
is where you roll the extra bicycle alongside the one that you are riding, so
that it has the appearance of a "ghost: riding the extra bike. But we had
a problem; this bicycle had strange handlebars that did not allow for proper
ghosting. So we had to figure out a new plan. So, after a few minutes of
thinking and experimenting, we finally found the solution. We took one of the
bungee cords from my bicycle box and laid the bike on the back of Elder
Watson's bike. We strapped it down as tight as we could and took off. After a
few close calls, the bike finally settled and we were able to get it to Pu Zi.
It was quite the adventure and I have pictures! Anyways, we decided that we had
reached Amma status because we had put something ridiculous on the back of our
bike and were able to ride without issue. It made us pretty proud of ourselves.
So, other than those few
fun adventures that we had, things are going really well here. Ke Guo Lin came
to church again and is now ready to be baptized. Now we are trying to figure
out the most convenient date for him. We had a lesson with Ke Guo Lin this morning. We watched the
hour long Joseph Smith movie with him. He liked it. He said that it helped him
understand Joseph Smith a little bit more. It has been tricky to plan though, because there is a big
holiday coming up called "Sa Mo" (I think that is how it's said.) But
it is the Grave-Sweeping holiday. Because the culture is so focused on family
and ancestor respect, every year they have this holiday where they go and clean
up the graves all around the island, usually their own family ones. But every
year missionaries help clean the graves and use the opportunity to talk to
people and spread the message of eternal families. So that is pretty cool.
As for culinary
adventures this week, nothing too out-of-the-ordinary. I have discovered that I
love the fresh fruit-juice here. It is SO fresh, like we watch them make it. I
had some watermelon milk and pineapple juice. Mmm, so good!!
We didn't
have any new investigators this week, which is kind of sad, but this area is
kind of hard. There are not a lot of people here. The weather is really
unpredictable around here. One day, the wind will be blowing, and the sky
overcast, and we will need to have a jacket on, and the next day it will be
warm and sunny and we will be sweating away. So it is really hard to tell. As
for rain, down here it isn't as frequent. Apparently up north like in Taipei
they get a lot more, but we have only had a little bit here so far. But typhoon
season is not too far away so it may start raining more soon. The beach here is kind of different (than
California). Not a lot of activity there, at least at the one where I was at.
Just a couple of fisherman. I guess from what I've heard is that people try to
find oysters at the beaches. There are a lot of them apparently. I haven't seen
them yet. We have a
section of beach in our area in a town called Dong Shih, just past Pu Zi. We
really don't have mountains. Our area is just like flat. You can google earth
it. Just look up Taibao City and if you want to be more specific you can look
up Taibao 2nd Road and that's the road we live off of.
We will
get to watch conference, but it will be a week later than back home. For
Easter, the church is starting its new initiative. I'm sure you've heard about
it. The Because He Lives initiative. We are going to get special pass-along
cards at Zone Meeting tomorrow and we are going to be spreading the website the
church just created. helives.mormon.org
There is
candy here; some of it is similar, but not a lot. There are Oreos. Which is
good. Very Good. I have discovered the Coconut Delight Oreos and they are like
manna from heaven! Fruit is super popular. There is a lot of it. There are like
3-4 fruit markets in Pu Zi alone. Food in Taiwan is not as extreme as it is in
America. It's not as sweet, not as salty. It is super good though. We don't eat
with members a lot. Our branch is pretty small. We have about 15-20 people in
our congregation max every week.
Well, that is about it
for right now, I look forward to talking to you and know how much I love and
miss you guys!
Your brother, son,
grandson, and so on,
Elder Chase Joseph
Millett
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| "Amma" status |
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| Corn |
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