Taiwan is Dope. July 26, 2015

I have completed my first full week in the field! I'll be honest, this was one of the hardest weeks of my life but also one of the coolest weeks and I've learned a ton! I'm still getting used to everything, but it doesn't stink anymore and the humidity isn't as uncomfortable! My trainer, Elder Zhao, has been working me really hard! We taught 20 lessons this past week. I'm super tired a lot of the time, but it's always better to be busy! As for food, everything is so cheap that we eat out for pretty much every meal. There's a lot of really good stuff everywhere you look and I've been trying to try as much as I can. A member of the bishopric took us to this very traditional Taiwanese place the other day and we had fish soup. That was pretty weird lol. I still need to get used to some stuff! My comp loves mcdonalds though, so we have gotten that a few times! The mcds here are surprisingly very similar to those in America! The members here in Taiwan are so awesome and they love to help us out with lessons! There are a lot of convert youth who are super awesome and love to help the missionaries out! We call them our little "Army of Helaman". One sad thing, a member got in a traffic accident a few days before I got here and passed away in the hospital this week. We went to the hospital with a bunch of members a few hours before they pulled the plug and sang to him and that same member of the bishopric that took us for fish soup gave the dying man a blessing and it was super spiritual even though I could only understand a little of it! I'm excited for more experiences here in Taiwan and to learn as much as I can. As always, love y'all!

-Elder Poon

 Finally got my new bike! She's a beaut and rides so smooth!

Our church! They are doing something to it. What it is, I still don't know!

The Field is Yellow and Ready to Harvest. July 19, 2015

Well I'm here! I have two hours to write, and there's a lot that happened this week so this one's gonna be pretty long! This last week was undoubtedly one of the craziest ones of my life. Tuesday morning we were told to be at the travel office by 6:30. At about 5:50, two elders that were dropping off one of their roommates at the travel office come into our room saying that the travel office made a mistake and we need to be there xianzai (right now)! We (me, my comp, and elder porter) proceeded to get ready as fast as we could. Anyways, we got there just in time to make the bus which took us straight to SLC!  The flight was not that bad! I slept a decent amount of the time, studied for little bit,  Tokyo was cool. We made it to Taiwan at approximately 8:00 pm (taiwan time) which is 6:00 am Utah time. We then proceeded to meet our mission president, his wife, and the APs. A 2 hour ride to the mission home from the Taipei airport and then finally some rest! I awoke to one of the best breakfasts of my life which consisted of a wide variety of the best tasting fruit and some Taiwanese bread thingies that were way good! Orientation for the next day and a half! Thursday night we had our first contacting activity and it was crazy! We went to a night market and "Dan Jones"ed. This means standing on a box and shouting your testimony. Pretty wild. Then we contacted for about an hour. One thing I'll say right now, Taiwanese people are really really nice and polite. Friday I met my Father (in training terms)! His name is Elder Zhao, he's a 24 year old convert from Michigan. He was born in China and moved to the U.S. when he was 7 so both his Chinese and English are flawless! He's an awesome missionary and example to me so I'm stoked to learn all I can from him! My first night I was a total deer in the headlights, and I just did not know what I had gotten myself into. Elder Zhao had scheduled two "miracle lessons" which is literally scheduling to have a miracle lesson. But miraculously, they happened! My first lesson ever was with this 40 year old guy named Cai, who had been contacted by the missionaries like 7 years ago and went to church once but nothing ever came of it, we knocked on his door and he let us in and taught about why we need to rely on the God and not ourselves. This really was a miracle because Cai eagerly set up another appointment, and as I was bearing my testimony I really realized that what I was saying was so true. That if we rely on the Lord and not upon ourselves, he will direct our paths. So in the two and a half days that we've been together, we have already taught 10 lessons. There's so much mission work to be done here, and according to my companion, this area is "golden"! The jet lag was brutal and up until yesterday, every day at like 5:00 pm I was dead. However, being busy is awesome and makes time fly so much faster. So now just some miscellaneous info mainly for Ma and Pa. My area is called Taiping and is on the outer parts of Taichung. I live on the 11th floor/12, and my apartment is a lot nicer than I was expecting. We have a fridge and our own washer and dryer which is nice. Our church is the nicest one in Taichung and is reeeaalllyy nice even by U.S. standards, so we do most of our lessons here! I haven't gotten my real bike yet so right now I have to use this infamous bike that has been named "The Blue Truck" lol. I think I've finally realized what I'm truly in for for the next 22 months. Taiwan is really hot. It is really humid. It rains really hard some times and you still need to bike to places. People really do speak really fast.There's a lot of food I'm going to need to get used to. It smells really weird in a lot of places. DANSHI (BUT), the people are kind and friendly, the fruit is incredible, air conditioning has been invented, I have the gift of tongues, and most importantly I have the Lord on my side! Til next week!

-Elder Poon

 In Portland.

 On the way to Taiwan.

 As per father's request - My trainer (Elder Zhao), and I at the mission home. That is a mango tree behind us.

 The apartment.

 Mangoes are life here in Taiwan.

A random parade broke out while we were teaching a lesson last night, it was kinda hard to teach while there was blazing Chinese music, gongs, and fireworks going on but it was cool to check it out afterwards!

Letter from the Mission President. July 17, 2015

Dear Brother and Sister James E Poon:

Sister Blickenstaff and I would like to inform you that Elder Poon arrived safely in Taiwan on 15 July 2015. We are excited and grateful to have him in the mission.  Please find attached pictures of him on his first day at the Mission Home.

Elder Poon stayed near the Taichung Mission Office a couple of nights for orientation before receiving his initial assignment to the city of Taiping. His companion is Elder Hanqing Zhao. I have carefully and prayerfully selected an outstanding missionary to serve as his first companion to ensure that his initial assignment will be a successful experience. My objective is to help each missionary reach his or her full potential and accomplish all that the Lord has sent each of them here to do. In this regard, your weekly letters of encouragement will be invaluable. I have also instructed Elder Poon to write or email you each week so that you may share his progress and spiritual experiences. Sister Blickenstaff maintains a blog of mission activities that you may enjoy at: http://taiwantaichungmission.blogspot.tw

We thank you for the solid foundation you have provided for your son and look forward to serving with him.

Sincerely,

President Kurt L Blickenstaff

Taiwan Taichung Mission

Time For Me to Fly. July 13, 2015

It is officially my last full day inside the MTC (or the compound as we like to call it here)! I seriously cannot believe I've already been here 9 weeks. Anyone who has experienced the MTC before can attest to what I mean when I say that MTC time is the weirdest thing in the world. In so many ways the time has gone by so incredibly fast, but in some aspects I feel like I've been here my entire life. I do think the time has been slightly accelerating though.... Anyways, I've really come to gain a real testimony of the MTC. I KNOW that I could not learn as much or as fast anywhere else in the entire world. My laoshi (teacher) taught us that the purpose of the mtc is not for us to learn Mandarin to the best of our abilities (although that is extremely important), but rather to teach us how to be the best missionaries we can be, to be independent in the field, and to be able to teach with the spirit according our investigator's needs. It was just a couple days a go on Saturday, Elder Duffin and I were teaching our last lesson with our "investigator" (played by our teacher) that we have been teaching for about 7 weeks now. Since we knew it was our last lesson, we felt like it would be appropriate for all of us to bear our testimonies. When Zhang DiXiong (our investigator) began to bear his testimony, that's when I really realized the reason why I'm here and for the first time tasted just a little bit of how awesome it will feel when I really help bring someone unto Christ. That's the magic of the MTC, after 7 weeks of teaching this "investigator" 5x a week, my companion and I truly came to love Zhang Di Xiong and I realized that only then could we truly teach with the spirit and learn all the things that we've learned. And for THAT I will be forever grateful for the MTC. Anyways I leave the MTC tomorrow at 6:30, and then at 11:33 I fly straight from Salt Lake to Tokyo and then Taiwan! Love you all, and thanks for everyone who sent me stuff and wrote me! You guys are awesome! But in the words of REO Speedwagon, "it's time for me to fly"!

-Elder Poon

Good bye pic with the whole zone!

​District 39-B with one of my favorite teachers Ge Laoshi (Brother Gerber)! love these guys and they've all taught me so much!

Chinese is Messing with My Brain.

Hello! 

This was a pretty wild week in the good ol' MTC. I received my flight plans and will be leaving July 14th at 11:30 am! It's pretty dang crazy that my stay here has almost expired, but I could not be more excited to get to Taiwan! I unfortunately do not know if I got my visa because they don't tell anyone until a few days before we leave for some reason, but I'm optimistic! Last Monday after I wrote, we went to clean the temple. They asked who wanted the "boring job" and nobody responded for a while and then I begrudgingly volunteered. Best decision of my life. Instead of cleaning lockers with q-tips and vinegar like everyone else. I got to be "Provo Temple Security" which means I got to scan recommends of people coming in and they even gave me pie and a really cool spiritual article to read. The Chinese is still coming along! I continue to have really weird dreams in Chinese and my English grammar is suffering because I've been trying to think in Chinese grammar so much. It's a struggle, but seeing the new missionaries coming in it's crazy to see where I started and how much I've learned, but as always, how much I still need to learn. The 4th of July was one of the best days here so far! We awoke to a perfect cloudy morning and played spike ball with the zone, then after classes we had a 4th of July devotional which was really cool and then off to the parking lot to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks! They let us stay up until 11:30 which is absolutely wild and is the latest I've stayed up in 2 months (weird). Seriously though, looking back at myself from when I first got here I can see how much my testimony has grown and how much I've learned. The Lord is truly watchful of his servants! Hope y'all have a fantastic week!

-Elder Poon

​A bunch of the zone with President and Sister Bertasso on July 4th!

​Cousin Woolley and I. Saturday was also "Treat Yo' Self" day. This meant having no regrets in eating snacks (not that I usually do anyways) but we definitely had our fair share of snacks i.e. pop rocks.

​More pics w/ friends

On a Mission Just Tryna Shift the Culture. June 29, 2015

Another week down! 
This past one has been pretty wild. So for most of the past week the new mission president seminar has been going on. This means that the main building (1M) was closed. 1M contains the cafeteria. You know what that means! Costa Vida, Chick Fil A, Subway, and T-Bell all catered and it was magical. We gained 650 new missionaries last Wednesday and like 30 elders that are going to Taiwan Taichung!! Seeing the new missionaries go through their first few days has really made me realize just how much I've learned here at the MTC and how legit the gift of tongues is! Also, I don't know if I've said this yet, but my teachers here are amazing. I have one teacher who I imagine as a wise old sage that sits on top of a high mountain waiting for people to journey to him and ask him questions (he is 22). Wu Laoshi, if you're reading this, you're the man! The MTC is seriously such a spiritual place and every day I can feel my spiritual canteen being filled every day. I need to remember to bring my journal when I do emails because I always forget much of things that happen throughout the week. This could be because my entire stay here at the MTC has felt like one eternal day, but who knows! I only have approximately 2 more weeks here! I should be getting my travel plans on Friday so I'll keep you guys updated on that! Have a good week y'all!

-Elder Poon

​These sisters were fast tracked so they all already knew Chinese and were only here for like 12 days! It was awesome to talk to them for the time they were here to learn about Taiwan and improve our Zhongwen! Also in this picture I am wearing the tie of shame, which is worn whenever you lose a bet lol. 

​Who knew Lebron and I had so much in common?

Life in the Compound. June 22, 2015

2/3 done!!! I'll be honest, I'm extremely ready to get to Taiwan. I just need to learn a little more Chinese I guess... Haha anyways thanks everyone for sending me stuff on birthday, I legit think I got more presents (mostly candy/snacks) than I would have if I were at home. People are really nice! Especially Sister Lemon, who is in my district and is a true homie. She made me a birthday sign and made me a "guitar" out of a tissue box. (yo sis if you're reading this in a year and a half, whassup). The Bruge waffles were the best gift I could have ever received so thanks sisters/bro in laws!! Nothing super exciting happened this week and I don't really have any time left cause I have to go plan a lesson. We are skyping real members that are living in Taiwan right now tonight and teaching them! It's gonna be awesome! 

Love y'all

Elder Poon

​Birthday Party in the sushe (residency) 

Elder Anderson has some dope pjs

It was also Elder Johnson's birthday too! Crazy! (on the far right)

​Flex Friday Wk.5

​Just cuz I'm on a mish don't mean I can't be hesh am i right?