In a word, "Awesome!"

Hey, hey, hey! woooowwwweeeeee. I'm really, really sorry about the $300 surprise, ha, ha. No, it wasn't because my bike was stolen, but you’re going to laugh at me. When I moved here to Tu Cheng, I noticed all the missionaries had "electric dictionaries" and that struck an anxiety bone. The others talked me into it so I decided to buy an electric dictionary. However, the reason I got it isn't just to have way good Chinese, but it’s for the Taiwanese people. Really though, and I can use it for the rest of my life. I plan to study Chinese when I get back home. It put a big whole in my wallet, but I'm telling you that it’s worth it. It’s better than 300 pairs of brand new shoes!
Seriously, my reading in the Book of Mormon has exploded ever since I got it. Before, when I came across a character that I didn't recognize while I was reading, it would take about one minute to look it up using the good old dictionary. Now with this bad boy electric dictionary, all I have to do is write it and I can find it in 2 seconds. It’s amazing. So now I'm flying through the Book of Mormon which I plan to finish within the next 40 days. President encourages us to finish it by our year mark on the island, but I'm gonna get it done as fast as possible. It’s so nice now during lessons because I can actually teach out of the Book of Mormon. I CAN FINALLY READ!!!! I'm not illiterate anymore, but there is still ALOT more to learn. My English has gotten terrible, by the way.

That’s how it’s going with the Chinese language right now. Heavenly Father’s countless blessings have really been a great help. It is so fun to think that it’s one year ago that I got my call, and I barely knew where Taiwan was on the globe! It all goes back to the “intentions.” That’s what I've been recently sharing with my companion, prayers of faith, intentions, etc., Heavenly Father wants a loving babysitter to watch over his kids and teach them the gospel. If our intentions are one with His and His work and His glory, He will bless us. My companion is so awesome, he is a scripture memorizing machine! It’s great! He's going to be a great missionary. He's diligent and has a great work ethic. He's smart. We've learned a lot from each other. He's starting to develop some great charity for these people. I love working with him. He also has blue handlebars on his bike, it’s a Barton/Daniels tradition. Elder Barton is doing well and he's written a couple times. He is so awesome, he contacts his investigators EVERY DAY!!! (Elder Barton was Jonathan’s trainer when he first arrived in Taiwan and has completed his mission)

Okay, enough cheap talk, let’s get to the business. The work is GOOD here in San Xia. President is considering not moving us, because the work is going so well, and it’s all because of my companion’s faith. We go out and we look for families, and that’s what we've found, and in that process, the singles have been coming. Last week we met with a Hu family that we had met the first week that we got here. They were especially excited to meet with us! They have a seven-year-old meimei and a 14 year-old didi and then the mom and dad. I love them and they love us. When we first met with them, the Spirit was just screaming at me, “Invite, invite, invite, invite, invite, baptism, baptism, invite, invite...so we did...and they accepted!!! It was a miracle! So we have a family who will be baptized at the end of this month. They loved the message and they believe it all to be true!! Hooray! Right after that appointment, we had one with a 19 year-old kid at McDonalds. We gave him an English name, Spike. My companion wasn't sure if he would show or not, because he seemed pretty flakey at first, but he did and he brought three friends! They all set up to meet with us again after church. Most of our lessons are at McDonalds because the church is way too far away, 45 minutes. Church ended up being cancelled because of the typhoon. (typhoons three weekends in a row!) so they had no chance of coming, but they are coming the next week. (according to the Taiepei Times, there could be a 4th typhoon this weekend!) We had 12 new investigators last week, it was insane! That’s the most I've ever had. A companion’s faith is awesome.

We have two other really strong investigators as well and they are awesome. We have been focusing on how we can show the restoration on the street rather than be teaching it straight up, and we've had some great opportunities. We have been teaching the Su kid, (a different Su). We taught him a first discussion on a bus and he loved it. He LOVES reading the Book of Mormon and thinks it is so awesome. He is 17 years old and wanted to see how we missionaries do things. That night he came with us to a church activity and had a great time. He loved the feeling of the church and had a special feeling as he met some of the members. Later that night, he went with us to a lesson with Ayi, the homeless lady. He was excited to see how this gospel helps people, so when we met with Ayi, I was expecting some miracles, ha,ha,ha.

"And it came to pass, Ayi's prayer had been answered. She found a job, however because of the hardness of her heart, she was unwilling to skip work on Sundays so she could come to church, to worship the God who blessed her." But then, BOB, the Su kid, stepped in and helped her see the miracle she wasn't seeing. He started to believe for himself that the message was true. He asked her, “Miss, how long have you been looking for work?” “Four months." "Wow, and you've only known these missionaries for a week, they helped you pray to find work, and you've found it, but you don't believe it was because God answered your prayer? I think you should reconsider." J

Heavenly Father sure gave us a chance to SHOW the restoration that night. The Su kid is now going to skip class to come to church for an hour and then go back, which is AWESOME! The kids in Taiwan have to go to school a lot so they can test well into a good college. He's sacrificing to come to church. Awesome

I think we are still going to be moving because our apartment is so far away from the church, but we can still come back and visit our investigators. It’s just difficult because half of our area is 45 minutes away. President might leave us in San Xia, because it’s been so hot lately. Initially, he wanted to have us move to Tu Cheng and build up that area some more and then move a branch to San Xia sometime. We're not sure what will happen right now, but tomorrow are interviews, so we'll probably find out more then, fun stuff.

I love it here. I love being a missionary. We help change people’s lives every day!!! It’s awesome! Gotta go, I LOVE YOU. ELDER DANIELS
GO COUGARS........ ROOOOAAAAAAAAR #8 WOOOOOAAAAAH!