Elder Chase Millett: 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