New companion and "byebye sticks"...

Well, just to let you know, that every six weeks on Monday is transfer day and we will have our p-day on Monday. So, six weeks from now you can have a letter prepared for that day!

I said goodbye to Elder Barton. Oh man, I cannot even begin to tell you how grateful I am for Elder Barton. He is such an amazing elder, holy moly, with so much faith. He helped me out so much because he was a great friend who knew who to be stern when he needed to be. He has a gift for seeing people at their full potential, so he knows when to put pressure on. It can be really frustrating at times, but it’s because he cares so much that I reach my full potential, in my language, in my studies, in my faith... everything. He can do it with investigators, too. Elder Barton has such a special spirit with him, I'm thankful for him.

Before he left, we had an opportunity to focus a lot on Joyce. Joyce answered the question, “If you had the choice to be baptized right now, or NEVER, which would you choose?" It took her two days to decide, but when we brought President and his wife over to attend our lesson with Joyce, she answered, “I guess I would choose to be baptized.” Ha, ha, ha, that was huge!!!!! She still doesn't think she's ready to become a Mormon yet, but she's still progressing, oh so slowly.

Her whole family came to church yesterday for the 1st TIME!!!!!! Even the grandma came! She's such a cute lady. That night we went to Joyce's house to play games and say goodbye to "Cody", (Elder Barton. She insists on calling us by our first names.) We had so much fun. We sang, “God be with you to will meet again”, and as Joyce started saying the prayer, she started crying. She loves missionaries so much. She's so close, just still a little prideful, and scared, I think. The ward here in Sanchong is really good. They all know Joyce really well because we made prayer cards for their family.

My new companion is great and he will be good for Joyce because he is very humble and has a huge heart. His name is Elder Tuveson. He is short like Elder Barton, but extremely, extremely humble. He would never correct me on my Chinese because he is flat out TOO humble, so that will be a change. I'm going to learn so much from him. He's a lot different from Elder Barton, who would never stop talking about faith and charity and things that he recently learned. We'd always “pick” on each other and make jokes, it was so much fun. Elder Tuveson is a lot more quiet, but extremely obedient and dedicated and perfect for this Su family!!!! I'm so excited to get to work with him. I'm going to be “killing” two missionaries in a row though, because Elder Tuveson is also “dying” this next transfer. He is from Millard, Utah. He's 22 years old and awesome! It’s crazy though, because he just moved into my area, I will have to do most of the leading because he doesn't know anything about the area. It looks like I have to learn how to be responsible now, ha, ha. It’s going to be tricky finding our way around because I still can't read signs. They are in Chinese characters.

I am allowed to start studying characters now. Elder Barton says I'm ready. I passed off all the lessons in Preach My Gospel to him and I've got the tones and sounds of the language almost down now. Thanks to a trainer who made me memorize 42 scriptures! I was so prideful with Elder Barton. He says I was a good boy, but I was definitely prideful at times. He told me that I had to say 42 scriptures to him in a row without looking or help with perfect sounds and then I'd be ready to study characters. Man, I had so much doubt at first, but then I did it, and BAM, Elder Barton was right. I feel ready to start learning characters. Elder Barton helped me set some good goals. I'm going to start reading the Book of Mormon in Chinese now. IT’S SO SLOW! Then I'll move to the Ensign and then Jesus the Christ, in Chinese. It'll be tough.

Christian churches over here are completely different. The people don't understand that Christianity has different sects. There is Catholicism, Christianity and the Mormons. It’s kinda frustrating sometimes. They have the wrong concepts of God and the trinity and a lot of the people are confused about Christianity because of what the Catholics did when they first got here to Taiwan. They told the Taiwanese people how evil they were for worshiping false gods and how they can't worship their ancestors by waving “worship byebye sticks”. So the Taiwanese don’t have a good view of Christians but they're starting to find out that the Mormons are different. They see them as the best of the Christians because they have the best standards and are the nicest people. And, our church still allows them to wave “worship byebye sticks", as long as they aren't worshiping or bowing. (It’s interesting to share what we do for our ancestors in our church). Permission comes straight from the First Presidency for them to wave the “byebye sticks”. They said it is kind of like us putting flowers on our loved one’s graves in America. We do it to honor our ancestors, but it isn’t worship or bowing. This rule has helped overcome family opposition. The older parents don't like their kids to join Christianity because they need their kids to "worship Byebye" them.

The culture is completely different over here, but I'd have to say I’m getting used to it. Elder Barton said he is so afraid to go back to America and see mean white people again.
Well, I gotta go, I love you to death.... Elder Daniels