Week 55 on the Island

Hey !

So after Elder McAllister, it was Elder Kasner and then I came the the office and I started out with 3 companions (all of the office Elders), Elder Jensen (who was training me at how to be operations manager), Elder Zhuang, and Elder Siebert. Elder Jensen got done with training me and is now a Zone Leader in Tainan. So now, we are in a 3 man companionship (or TRI-panionship?). It is really nice so that Elder Zhuang (the mission Recorder) can stay and record things and crunch numbers while Elder Siebert (Special Projects) and I can do crazy cool things like going and opening a new apartment down in Chao Zhou like we did this past week and stuff like that. I am really liking this really busy crazy missionary life style. I get confused with who my companions are ever since Elder McAllister as well.

So yes it is now "Chinese New Years" This last like 8 or 9 days. It is common for people to give "Hong Bao" for this wonderful occasion to their children who are not employed. This is because usually this "Red Envelope" is just full of money. They don't ever know what to get to help the younger generations of people gift wise, so they just get them money. Smart in some ways.

So for this past week, the huge project has been ordering things and getting ready for ZONE CONFERENCE. It is going to be pretty insane. At big events like this, everybody gets a big bag of stuff full of proselyting stuff for their area. And I am the one that has to fill them all. I didn't know what I was getting my self into when I first thought about it. I think that I will be able to get it all done. I took a picture to send of me standing next to all of the bags that are going to the south half of the island. It doesn't look like much but, boy is it hard. And on top of all of that, the monthly order of copies of the Book of Mormon still hasn't come yet. It was supposed to be here forever ago. I've been talking to a few people up in Tai Bei and they should be on their way today. The only problem is that today starts the whole Chinese New Years festivities, and so the world has shut down. I'm surprised that email still works in Taiwan frankly. Literally everything is closed and people just all migrate home to their parent's house for a couple weeks. Kind of cool, but a little bit inconvenient.

On top of that, I need to get a plan done to make everybody on the island have a 72 hour kit, and do the normal reports. I am a little behind, but I'll probably take a little bit of my preparation day to finish up. It is really a lot of fun. Different, and fun.

Well, the others want to go out and see the festivities.

I hope that you all have a good time there in the cold weather (60's?). It's still pretty warm here.

Have a good week!