2016: A Year in the Service January 4, 2016

This is pretty sweet, an entire calendar year in Taiwan and an entire calendar year preaching the gospel! It's a real blessing, no doubt! Elder Mitton and I have put a lot of thought and prayer in our setting of both personal and companionship goals. It's a great time to set goals because it's both the start of a new year and a new move call! Pretty much all of our goals are based on helping us increase our effectiveness as missionaries and helping us become more in tune with the spirit. Our scripture of the week was Alms 37:6. Simple things can lead to big results. It's a simple phrase! But it's true. Also, I've learned to not try to catch too many rabbits at once (not setting too many goals). That way I can really focus and hit the goals that I set. For new years we got taken to a traditional Chinese restaurant by Mr. Chao, it was super good but half of the dishes had shrimp in it which means that neither Elder Mitton or myself could eat them sadly. Mr. Chao is hilarious. He tries to speak English with us and it's awesome. Friday night we saw a super cool miracle. We set out tracting and I instantly felt like we should go down this certain street and then Elder Mitton felt like we should start at this certain house. Since it was New Years night, this couple (that usually weren't home at that time of night) happened to be home! It was a super awesome time getting to know them and then as we started sharing about the blessings of the gospel, we could feel the atmosphere of the room change. It was suddenly 15x more peaceful. God leads the way! I'm just super glad that E. Mitton and I were paying attention so we could follow. Now that all the holidays are over, we can really start to get back to work. Happy new year to all it's gonna be a great one, no doubt!!!

-潘長老

dinner with Mr. Chao

Back to Work December 27, 2015

It was nothing short of a magical Christmas week in Minxiong! My first Christmas in Taiwan (and my first Christmas away from home) was a memorable one no doubt! Elder Mitton and I celebrated Christmas Eve by eating a ton of cheesecake that we bought from Costco. Christmas day we went over to our branch president, President Li's house to Skype. Our branch president and his wife are so awesome, they prepared cake for us and gave us gifts. These gifts ended up being just a ton of Ferrero Rocher (Mom's favorite). Elder Mitton Skyped first and then the Li's took us out to "the nicest restaurant in Minxiong" and I got Norweigan salmon which was super good. Then I Skyped! It was super weird and I feel like I had just saw them a few days before. 45 minutes is a really short time when you're talking to your family! Anyways, then Elder Mitton and I had a great Xmas dinner at Mr. Steak (there's another one Minxiong wahoo!). Then later that night a family in our ward invited us over to share a xmas message and eat a ton of curry. A great Christmas! It was amazing how it really felt like Christmas. As Elder Mitton and I went out to spread the cheer to ALL, we found that the people seemed merrier and nicer than usual. I think it's cool that the celebration of the savior of the world is able to bring a spirit to even a predominantly Buddhist small island in Asia. Then the day after Christmas, the Barlows, a half American family in our branch, invited us to dinner... It was the best dinner I've had in Taiwan. It was a REAL Christmas dinner. It was a REAL Christmas miracle. But now it's time to get back to work. Elder Mitton and I just found out yesterday that we'll be together for another move-call which we are stoked about. Just gotta set some good goals to keep us moving forward!

Hope everyone had an awesome Christmas and hope you all have a fantastic new year!

潘長老

The Jia Yi district choir outside the local mall!

Christmas eve selfie

Dinner at the Barlows

My new baby

#themansion

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