Elder Daniels meets Elder Barton

Well, I'm in Taiwan and I love it!!! We arrived at approximately 12:00 am, where we met the AP's and our mission president. President Nielsen and his wife are very, very, very sweet people and they are so full of love. I'm so grateful to have them. On the bus ride to their house, they handed us new books and drinks and some sweet Taiwanese candy, and they began the orientation. When we arrived to the house, they sent us to an apartment on floor three. We were beat and we crashed in the most comfortable beds in the world, compared to the MTC table beds.
The next day we woke up and I realized that the temple was right across the street and my, was it gorgeous. We went for a run at the Chang Kai Shek (check spelling) memorial. It was a gorgeous morning.
After that, we returned and had orientations all day, until night, where they finally let us go off with some older missionaries to do some contacting!!! It was insane!!! We contacted everyone we had a chance to talk to. I then realized that I couldn't understand a single word they were saying! I think they taught us the wrong language in the MTC or something or maybe I got on the wrong flight and went to Japan, ha, just kidding. I could catch a couple things that were being said, but not much. Right now my ability to speak the language is far superior to my ability to understand it, but I'll catch on after about a month or so.
That first night was sweet. I went with Elder Marble who told me that I should “dan jones” it on a street corner. "It's a wonderful feeling," he said! Ha. I thought he was kidding at first, but he was being quite serious so I obeyed. At a 90 SECOND STOPLIGHT, I went up on a bike I was borrowing for the night, and I bore my testimony to the people as loud as I could. I got some pretty weird looks. Some people smiled, I don't remember what I said, but all I remember was that It sure felt great to stand there on that street corner. It gave me confidence and we got 3 appointments that night.
The next day we went to the place where Taiwan was dedicated for missionary work. They allowed us to go off on our own and dedicate the next two years of our life to the Lord. It was a great experience, the spirit was very powerful there. When we got back, we ate and had a testimony meeting at the president’s home, in preparation to meet our Trainers! They had us go back down to floor three and get our stuff together so that when we met our trainers we could be all set to depart.
We went across the street to the temple/church/visitor center building where they had already hidden our trainers in a special room. They put us in a different room w/ our luggage. They told us to grab our scriptures and get ready to meet our trainers. From a distant room we heard the song "Called to Serve" playing loudly on a piano. They had us line up and walk into the room where we saw 9 missionaries singing "Called to Serve" at the top of their lungs. We joined in, and then they made the announcements of who would be with who. I was the second to last to be called up and they announced ELDER BARTON and ELDER DANIELS! That was great.
Elder Barton is an answer to my prayers, he has a VERY strong testimony of Jesus Christ, and is full of charity for the people here in Taiwan. I will learn so much from this Elder, I am so grateful. He is from Parowan, UT. He went to the Naval Academy before he served. This elder is so awesome, I've had so many people tell me that he has THE BEST Chinese in the mission, I don't doubt that at all. He's been out for a year and a half and he's read Jesus the Christ in characters, the Book of Mormon, the entire mission library. Ha, impressive.... but what’s most impressive is his desire. He loves this work, he loves these people and he has so much faith.
We've been called to labor in the Sanchong mission, which is 20 minutes from the temple. It is a PACKED city FULL of families with little mei mei's and didi's ready to hear the gospel. This is a big change for him because he's been serving in the Taipei temple area where he has been zone leader for the past 6 months. He is such a good missionary. He's just as excited as I am to get to work here in Sanchong. We'll be "whitewashing" the area.
So yeah, after I met My trainer Elder Barton, we went out and bought all the mission stuff including a bike and rain gear which were STOLEN already. They were locked up I promise. I'm sorry. I think the Lord wants me to learn some sort of lesson from this, I'm still trying to figure that out.... man, I'm so sorry that bike was stolen. It was so beautiful, the bike and rain gear together were about 9500 kuai.... 305 dollars ish. Today I have to buy a new one. My president and companion recommended to me that that was the best thing to do because its gotta last me two years. I'm sorry. I'm going to paint this one up and make it look like trash. The story was crazy, about how it was stolen, I'll write more about it later. I don't have time right now. We have to fix up our new apartment and take care of everything so we can get to work, bringing souls unto Christ.
We've been working with 2 families here. We baptized the Yang family yesterday!!! My companion is such an amazing guy. I baptized their boy, Yangshanbo. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life and there will definitely be more to come. My companion has a picture of a little girl from Sanchong and we’re going to find her and baptize her family and I'm going to find a Ma family in this city. Well, I really don't have any more time, there is so much to say but so little time. I LOVE it here, the people are soo sooo sooooooo kind. Please pray for the Ling family. They are having a hard time giving up their tea. They have testimonies, but they need some help, prayer and fasting. Thanks family, I love you so, so much.