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!