Holiday Greetings from Minxiong! December 21, 2015

Who knew that I'd be able to feel the Christmas spirit so strongly on a tropical Asian island?? It's really been a pretty festive week! We've had opportunities to be part of a Christmas parade, a huge church Christmas activity, and a Christmas concert in front of a giant mall. The work was actually super good this week too. Probably the busiest/most effective week since I've been in Minxiong. We found some really cool new investigators this week and also we helped our friend Brother Chen come back into activity! That's a big deal here in the Jia Yi district because they still need more tithe-paying Melchezidek priesthood holders! I know I've said this every week since I got to Minxiong, but Elder Mitton and I are really having a blast! We go get lunch at Costco like every day, but it's alright cause we both love it. Great guy. A straight up baller! Also, it was crazy meeting Mr. Chao! I got this super weird email from my dad last week saying that "Mr. Chao needs your phone number". It was kinda weird but I gave it to him and asked why he needs it and who Mr. Chao is. I got an email back saying that there was an email sent the previous week that explained who Mr. Chao was. I never got that email and my email time was all up so I couldn't get another response. Anyways, fast forward a few days... It was during language study and we get this call... guess who it is...... Mr. Chao!!! I still had no idea who he was at this point, but he told me that he had my Christmas present! Turns out Mr. Chao's son just moved into my home ward back in Utah. He went to visit because his son and his son's wife had a baby. Naturally, my parents had to have them over for dinner. They had a good time I guess and it was then decided that Mr. Chao could take my Christmas package to Taiwan and save my parents some pricey shipping fees. The craziest part is that of all the places in Taiwan, Mr. Chao only lives a few minutes away from the mansion! We met up at the grocery store across the street and I got to see all his pics from Utah and his pictures from IN MY HOUSE. Crazy. We're getting lunch with him later this week! 

Well anyways, I hope that everyone will have some time to just take a sec and think about how awesome it is that our Savior was born. The Plan of Salvation is literally THE PERFECT plan. I feel like I understand the true meaning of Christmas this year more than ever before. #missionblessings  Christmas is the greatest! I'm stoked to see the fam on Christmas day! Happy Holidays to all!!!

Elder Mitton hates gloves

I'm pretty sure the entire city of Jia Yi was at this parade. Lots of Asian Santa's!

Christmas Party at Sun Moon Lake December 14, 2015

We had our ONE holiday of the year this past week. The annual mission Christmas party! We took a bus up to Puli to go to Sun Moon Lake! I was kinda bummed it was at a place that I had already been to, but it was still awesome! Seeing all my friends and fellow missionaries was a great Christmas present. We had some time to see the lake and hit up the souvenir shops. Then the best part of the day.... Buffet. Unlimited steak and unlimited mochi. 'Nuf said. Then a great Christmas devotional. Several missionaries are going home this week so they all had opportunities to share their reflections on their missions. Reflections are one of my favorite things. You get to hear a fully experienced missionaries insights and advice, nothing beats it! One of my favorite things that was shared was one Elder likened missionary work to the building of Salt Lake temple. During the building of the temple it was discovered that there were cracks in the foundation. Brigham Young then had the decision to either redo the foundation or build a smaller temple. We all know what happened! This is much like missionary work in the fact that everyone comes out on their missions with cracks in their testimony's foundation. However, we all have the opportunity to rebuild our foundations. This is why missionary work is awesome and why it really is ordained of God. Being able to go out at a young age and finding out what the cracks are in our foundation so that we can go rebuild it is a huge blessing. Anyways, the work in Minxiong is a little hard right now. We got fang'ed a million times this past week which means we had some really long empty trips. That being said, Elder Mitton and I are still having a great time! I bought a guitar last week for 2400 NT dollars (approx. 65 US). I'm stoked to go play it later! There's a ton of Xmas decorations around Taiwan so that helps with the spirit, but from what I've heard not very many people actually celebrate Xmas. Elder Mitton has some Josh Groban Christmas music though so that helps! happy holidays all!

-Elder Poon

Mansion Life Continues December 7, 2015

I love Minxiong!!!!!! Have I told you guys yet that we have a Costco in our area?? Well, we have a Costco in our area and it's great. It's like going back to American every time we go there! What a blessing! It's been great finally getting to know the members this week. Minxiong is a great area. It's really big and there are some good urbanized parts but also a lot of rural parts. We have to bike A TON. It's approx. 45 minutes from the mansion to the church and 45 minutes to Zhong Zheng University where we have a lot of our lessons. Riding in the country side is really nice and peaceful though. Our branch has about 50 active members. Our branch president and his wife are awesome. They took Elder Mitton and I to an awesome Italian lunch the other day and then drove us around and helped us with a few lessons! We are working really hard in the  Jia Yi zone because the Jia Yi District is really close to becoming the Jia Yi Stake! That means that there is a lot of emphasis on reactivating Melchezidek priesthood holding males/Aaronic priesthood holding males that could receive the Melchezidek. It's a lot different in comparison to my other area where the focus was no doubt on baptism. It's really cool though cause I feel like I'm becoming more of a full-purpose missionary. Elder Mitton and I are still having a blast together which is great because it makes the super long bike rides not so bad! I finally got the general conference Liahona and I've loved reading from it. Also, I got a chance to see that new Christmas video that the church put out, A Savior Is Born. So awesome! I got the chills watching it. If you haven't watched, watch it! Sorry I haven't been able to upload very many photos lately. Since the church is super far away we have to use internet cafe's and they're super sketchy and have tons of virueses (viri?) but I'll find a way! 

Happy Holidays Y'all

-Elder Poon

The BAT CAVES

Day 1 with Elder Mitton at the train station!

November 30, 2015

This week was legendary. It's really been a new start moving to Min Xiong! I once again hardly know anyone and don't know how to get anywhere, but this time around my Chinese is a little better (hopefully) so I think it'll be a quick adjustment. Me new comp, Elder Mitton, and I are already homies! We have discovered that we have a lot of the same interests, the same camera, the same food allergy, our dad's have the same name, and I'VE BEEN IN HIS HOUSE. So a few months before I left on my mission I went to this party at this super nice house by the Provo temple. Turns out that Elder Mitton was already on his mission at the time, but his cousin was using his house to throw this party. Crazy! The best part of this week was undoubtedly getting to see Elder Stevenson (the older/the apostle). The whole mission came together in Taizhong and it was awesome. Seeing all the great missionaries/friends that I've made was almost as good as hearing Elder Stevenson speak. He spoke a lot about how important promised blessings are. They're really the only reason anyone has to be interested in learning about the church. "Therefore ask, Knock" is not a great scripture. Throw in the promised blessings and it becomes much more meaningful. I then got to hear Elder Stevenson again yesterday when he came to the Jia Yi district conference with President Blickenstaff. Man, I'm so blessed! 

-Elder Poon

The Min Xiong Mansion November 23, 2015

This morning I took an hour train ride from Taizhong down south to Jia Yi and then a small cab ride over to my new area: Min Xiong. Min Xiong is a relatively new area. It was started up right when I got on island. It is legendary for one thing: The Mansion. Through some crazy circumstances, the missionaries in Min Xiong now live in a 4 floor high rise house. So for the next little while it will be my new companion (Elder Mitten from Provo) and I in the Min Xiong Mansion! It's gonna be awesome. I'll miss Taiping and all the awesome people that I met there and I'm super grateful for all the things that I learned there, but I'm stoked to experience something new! This past week has been super fun and there were a lot of activities. Last P-day we went to the bat caves in the mountains of Taiping! It was a really long bike ride up, but it was definitely worth it! These caves were super fun, but super gross. Tons of bat poop all over the place, but we made it all the way through! A bat ran into Elder Parker's face and it was hilarious. We also ran into some members from Taipei so that's cool. Then this past Wednesday was our English Party/Talent show. I got to play the guitar and we did a rendition of I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus/Glorious. It was a real good time!  About a movecall ago, we contacted this super golden girl in Taiping and then taught her a few times but then found out she lives in different area so we referred her over there. Anyways, her baptism was this past Saturday so we got to go over to Daiya to attend! Sunday (yesterday) was really weird having to say goodbye to all the great people in Taiping. It's crazy how great of friends I've made over here already even though clear communication hasn't always been there! Well, gonna go grab some grub and then probably back to the mansion! There's some really famous mountains over here so I hope to go check those out some time! Also, I get to see an apostle this week! The whole mission is coming together to see Elder Stevenson (the older) when he comes and picks up his son Elder Stevenson (the younger).

Hagw y'all

-Elder Poon

(Pictures from mission blog from November 4th, Mission President's Tour to Taichung) 

I Believe in Christ musical number by these talented missionaries

Sun Moon Lake

Shi Baba (green shirt on the end)

Green Mango popsicles

.25 November 16, 2015

Hello! Sorry I have not written a big email in a while! My last couple p-days have been super busy!! Anyways, life is so awesome. Elder Chan and I are having a blast in Taiping and it makes the work so much better! The highlights of the last couple weeks are 1) mission tour! Elder Sam Wong from the 70 came and toured our mission. He gave some great insight on how we as missionaries have several different tools and skills that we need to work on so we can be prepared to be a good missionary in any phase of the work. It was a great conference and he also spoke at our stake's stake conference the following weekend so we got a double dose of Elder Wong and his wife and also of President and Sister Blickenstaff! Then last P-day, a member from Dali named Shi Baba, wanted to take a few of us missionaries to Sun Moon Lake! It was so awesome! So beautiful. I had almost forgotten how much I love nature. Shi Baba owns a few dongxi dians (stuff stores) so he is constantly reeling in the $$$$$. Therefore, he took us to a super nice lunch first and then bought us all tickets for a ferry around the island and tons of fruit along the way. The rides there and back were just as fun as the lake too! We had a guitar in the back and we jammed out hardcore (missionary style). Then this past week I celebrated my 6 month mark! I/4 done! My brain honestly cannot fathom it! To celebrate we went to Mr. Steak! However, a salmon bone got caught in my esophagus and that sucked... It was still good though! Then a few members invited us over for pizza!! A great day indeed. The work has been fairly solid as of late. We're just trying to keep diligent and we've seen the Lord's blessings in doing so! We had 3 miracle new investigators yesterday! Taiping is the best, man. I'm gonna miss it if I have to leave next Monday cause it's the end of the move call, but I'm also stoked to see new things and experience a new part of Taiwan! That's all folks! I'll try harder to not miss weeks in the future!

-Elder Poon 

6 month commemorative tie burning!

Teppenyaki!! Fun Fact: I'm sitting by an apostle's son in this pic.

The Land of Too Much Peace November 8, 2015

Happy Birthday Momma! For those of you that can't read Chinese (like me) this says, "Happy birthday mamassita I love you!"

Elder Parker pondering life while gazing over Taichung.

Perks of baptizing a hair sytlist.

Watchin' the Joseph Smith movie

Chairs represent move calls

The Legendary buffet (3rd time). I love this place so much but I always feel absolutely terrible by the end...... but it's so awesome.

Pan's for life! (In Chinese, there are only a certain amount of good last names so me and my boy elder parker here both have the same Chinese last name, Pan!)

I am Sww October 25, 2015

After close to four months here, Taiping is still awesome! The work is always the same but there's always new people and miracles that happen every day. Wednesdays have become one of my favorite days because we get to teach English! We usually have around 50 students. I teach the advanced class and it's super easy cause all my students' English is super good already. Sometimes it's even better than mine... Sometimes they ask me grammar questions and I have absolutely no idea what the answer is. Also, after English class we have 5 golden investigators that always want to meet! Two pairs of brother/sister and one other girl! That means 3 lessons...This poses a huge problem because there is only one me and one Elder Chan even if we do split work. Somehow it all usually works out though! Elder Chan is the man. He cooks me food. He used to be a cook at a country club. It's awesome. In other news, we started teaching this less active guy that has 3 personalities. 3. One of them exclusively uses Chinese, one of them is a girl, and of them can only say, "I am Sww" in English. It's really weird to teach him especially when he's in "I am Sww" mode because we'll ask him questions like, "What does this scripture mean to you?" or "So are you willing to come to church on Sunday" and his response is always, "I am Sww". We're still trying to figure out how to help him lol. 

Today I am going to go buy a laser fitted suit for a ridiculously cheap price. That is all. :)

-Elder Poon

First Week of Real Work October 18, 2015

Having an extra hour and a half of proselyting time is pretty exhausting. However, this past week was great. We had a baptism and we celebrated my new companion's birthday! That means we went and got really good (but also expensive) food. So worth it though! The baptism was awesome and I almost cried when our girl, Sister Zhang, started bearing her testimony of eternal families! That's what it's all about! Not much time though, I'll let the pictures say the rest!

 Her cousin (a bishop in another ward) got to baptize her!

For Elder Chan's b-day we went to a place called Mr. Steak. :)

Another American place called Shark Bites Toast. They're famous for  their papaya milkshakes... so good.

Training Complete October 12, 2015

I'm officially just a junior companion! Training was an adventure, and I'm ready to start doing more work. This movecall I will be staying in Taiping and my new companion is Elder Chan from Canada! He's been out for just over a year and he's super chill. We're gonna do some great things here, I know it! This last week was one of my favorite weeks of the mission. We had a lot of great things happen. First of all, that buffet last pday was so amazing and was just as good if not better than the first time we went. I have learned to love sushi. I ate like 3 rolls of this smoked salmon sushi... soooo good. Then Wednesday we had our English class's Halloween party. As English leader (the least desirable calling) I was in charge of planning it, but it actually turned out pretty decent! English class is one of our best ways of finding new investigators, fun fact. Then Friday we had Alex's baptism! It was my first time baptizing someone! It was awesome even though I had to dunk him twice because the first time his knees came out of the water. Afterwards, Alex bore a powerful testimony but instead of closing in the name of Jesus Christ, he said, "any question?". Lol. Then General conference was awesome. All the missionaries had a room to ourselves and we all bought a bunch of snacks so it was awesome. Very few things are better than getting spiritually and physically fed at the same time. I loved so many talks and I especially enjoyed the first talk given by President Uchtdorf. I definitely think that sometimes I make my discipleship more complicated than it needs to be so that is something that I'm going to work on. I'm also gonna start ponderizing every week and I encourage all of you to as well! I also really liked the quote (I forgot who said it), "You don't need to prepare yourself to start becoming who God wants you to be". Seriously, general conference is such a blessing and such a great way to receive revelation! This week we've got a lot of work to do, gotta find some new investigators!!!

-Elder Poon

The Spirit of Revelation October 5, 2015

Many miraculous things happened this week! To start off, I will tell a quick story. This last Saturday I was on exchanges with a certain Elder Stevenson. He is the son of the newly called apostle, Gary E. Stevenson. During the exchanges the conversation came up about conference and his dad being a general authority. I then asked Elder Stevenson, "Dude, what if your dad gets called as an apostle?!" He replied, "There's no way!". I thought for a second and then said, "Well, there's 'apostle'-bility!". Lolol so I basically prophesied a new apostle with a pun. Life is good. However, last Monday my companion and I rode our bikes home from the chapel in a typhoon with approx. 832 mph winds. Perhaps one of the crazier things that I've done life. In addition to the risk of trees and other things falling on us, my companion almost got his leg chopped off by a passing motor scooter and I was almost blown over into a barbed wire fence. We made it back to our apartment safely though! My entire body was super sore the next day though from battling the winds! Fun stuff. The work is awesome. This week we've been stressin' out a little bit because our golden people have had a few little issues, but we've worked them out and as long as nothing else happens, everything is ready! Tracting sucks. However, I've learned that tracting is a great way to show the Lord your diligence and He will bless you for that! It seems like every time we go tracting, there are very few results, but afterwards (like the next day) we will have a miracle new investigator or a miracle lesson. God works in mysterious ways! It's my last week of training and the movecall is next week! I'm thinking I'll probably stay in Taiping though... but who knows? 

Have a great week y'all

-Elder Poon

Swimmin' in Moon Cakes September 28, 2015

The Mid-Autumn Festival aka the Harvest Moon Festival has been going on over the weekend and it's been so awesome! There's this exclusively-Taiwanese tradition that during this festival, people BBQ. So in addition to about a thousand moon cakes that have been given to us, we've also had the opportunity to go to a few bbqs. Last night was the best one. The bishopric and their families and a few of their friends met at our second counselor's house for this bbq and invited my companion and I. I legit just sat there for an hour as people brought me rounds of meat and shishkabobs (no idea how to spell that). It was also awesome to see how happy these gospel-based families are. I mean, that's what the gospel is about, right? This week we also did a lot trying to get our two golden investigators ready for baptism. One of the coolest moments of my mission so far happened on Saturday. The other elders in my district had a baptism and our golden girl, Sister Zhang, attended. It was a way spiritual experience and at the end, the Dongying bishop spoke and bore his testimony. Even though I still can't fully understand all things, I could feel the spirit that this guy brought. Our investigator felt it even stronger and after the closing prayer, she left the room bawling! Elder Zhao and I were pretty concerned and started asking ourselves, "Shoot man, are those tears good or bad??" After she returned more composed, we asked her what her feelings were. She replied, "I feel that it's true". So awesome! I definitely have a testimony now of the powerful spirit that is present at baptisms! This week is gonna be awesome, we have interviews with the president, his wife, and the APs and our investigators have their baptismal interviews! There's also a typhoon going on right now so that's cool. :)

-Elder Poon

This was the coolest moon cake that I got, it was also the least delicious. I don't understand why people like red beans so much here...

Some scenic parts of Taiping

It's been a while, but I can still take a dece mirror pic!

From the temple trip a couple weeks ago

Chinese is still really hard. September 21, 2015

We got fang'ed (stood up) 9 times this week. Therefore, it wasn't a great week as far as numbers go but I had a whole lot of fun! Every other movecall we get the opportunity to take a bus two hours north and do some temple work at the Taipei temple! This was perhaps my favorite day of my mission so far. I went in fasting just looking for a little personal revelation, and it was so awesome. The session was in English, but it was super cool seeing the Asian influence in the art and symbolism. It was a much needed spiritual recharge! Later that day, however, we were in the park and what we like to do is have one of us making calls and the other one contacting people walking around/playing basketball.  So I see a lady walking around the track and in Chinese I say what I think is, "Hey Mrs., wanna come over here with me and take a break for a second" but what I really said, "Hey Mrs., want to rest with me?". She gave me a weird look and my companion started laughing way hard and then after he told me what I said I just had to laugh cause I know my Chinese needs so much work. We also got great news last night that we can keep our baptismal date on the 9th of October! We were worried because that weekend is general conference so the confirmation can't be on that weekend, but Pres. Blickenstaff said we can just do it the following Sunday! I'm super stoked and I'm super excited for our investigators cause I've already seen how much the gospel has helped them have more happiness and come to know our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ!

Saw a miracle! My comp stepped on this huge nail the other day, but good thing he has the thickest soles I've ever seen!

Got a chance to chuan the jiao (preach the gospel) with my homie from the MTC, Elder Parker! 

Tai-Bling Wk 9 September 14, 2015

After a pretty rough week last week, things are really starting to come back around! I am currently sipping on a winter melon tea with fresh milk and mint added in. It tastes like... Christmas. Drinks are seriously a way of life over here in Taiwan! This last week was suuuuuper busy. Elder Zhao and I decided that we were going to focus more on inviting people to baptism this past week. In doing so, we went from having no baptismal goals to having 5!! 3 of them are questionable, 1 of them is solid, and the other 1 is GOLDEN. She's a bishop in another area's cousin and we're gonna dunk her the day before general conference! This week I learned a lot about the blessings of work and how when you're really working and really striving to improve yourself, mission life is a lot more enjoyable. One reason why is because when you're working on improving yourself you can see how much you need to improve and it's a lot harder to be prideful. I'm gonna really try and remember this throughout my mission because I've also learned that when you let your pride win, missions suck. I have also come to really love the Sabbath. Church is awesome over here. There are a tooonnn of little kids and babies in our ward so sacrament meeting is crazy! It sometimes worries me what our investigators think when there are like 7 babies losing their minds at the time, but the spirit is still there! I <3 Taiping.

P.s. We get to go to the temple on Wednesday and I'm stoked.

This is our 92 year old investigator Principle Chen! Notice his Patriots breast-cancer awareness hat with the rim cut off. So cool. On the right is one of our members, Tim. He helps us with lessons all the time. Great guy.

Got some real American pizza :)

Whoooooo'lll Stop the Rain? September 6, 2015

This past week has not been very exciting. It has rained. A lot. I keep having Creedence Clearwater Revival songs stuck in my head lol. This week we switched into more of a finding mode which has been fun! There's this awesome park in our area and the Taiwanese park scene at night is always bumpin' (unless it's raining). There's a large basketball area with like 5 courts and it's way fun to go talk to bros over there about the NBA or their Nike's. So many people have way cool Nike's over here! and the Taiwanese loooove Kobe. I've got some real good numbers from guys over there and hopefully something will happen! We ask people if we can walk with them and they usually say no but some people are way chill and we get a good walk in and share some gospel! There's also a big zumba class that happens a few times a week I've been trying to convince Elder Zhao that we should go join them and contact, but I guess dancing is against the rules lol. This week I've really been trying to improve the effectiveness of my prayers and apply the things stated about prayer in PMG. This has helped me a ton and I love how PMG says that "effective prayer requires GREAT effort". There's a ton of things to pray for every day and it sometimes gets repetitive but I know that the only way we can get blessings is by asking for them!

This is at the trainer follow up meeting! It was way cool to see all my homies from the MTC and get some insight from President and Sister Blickenstaff!