A Transfer!

I am in the "Celestial Kingdom of Taiwan!" Hualien! The place that missionaries joke about being called to with other missionaries on moving, call Friday, because it’s everyone’s dream. The place where the mangos are the most sweet, the place where ocean and mountains are the surrounding scenery. The world renowned hot tourist spot. The place where I will take my wife and kids to visit. A place of abundance, milk and honey, "the Promised land." There are rice paddies, old Taiwanese people working in the fields with big hats. FRESH AIR with a fresh ocean breeze. It’s a completely different world, that’s all I have to say. I am on the most beautiful and famous part of the East Coast, and it took a 3 hour train ride to get here!!! I left at 5:58 in the morning and arrived at 8:55 am.

I think this is my reward for being one of those "forgotten missionaries," the kind of missionary that stays in one or two places for an abnormal amount of time, and by the looks of things, I might just be here for quite some time. I LOVE IT HERE...
I described my Friday night phone call to people like this. I am half happy, half sad. Half happy because it’s Hualien and the Lord desires me to serve here, and half sad because I have to leave all the member and investigator friends that I have made in Sanxia and Tucheng in the past 8 months. It was very difficult actually. I love those people. A lot of them have been added to my angel list in the back of my journal. The Liang family came to church, (an investigator family that destiny brought me to love.) They want to start taking the lessons more willfully now. I said goodbye to Brother Fan, Leo, Liu, the Lan family, Sister Yan, Ma, Lu, Cai, Rusty, and everyone else!!!! Oh man, they had a surprise party for me at Rusty’s house. Rusty is a single and is addicted to service! He is the most active member I have ever met. I will deeply miss them.

I was rather touched during conference. (The missionaries saw Conference a week later). There are so many talks that touched me so deeply. Those men truly have the keys of the holy priesthood. I was also touched by the gesture of a little boy whose family we found that ended up being baptized. He gave me a hug and a game of Chinese chess, because we used to play with him and his dad who is slower with accepting the church and isn't baptized yet.

Wow, my time is almost GONE???? I WILL DEEPLY miss Elder Teshima, the most righteous and pure man of all time. I am VERY, VERY excited to work with Elder Dickson. He has been in Taiwan for almost two years now and it looks like he's holding things down really well over here. I have heard a lot about him. He is a Powerhouse of Faith. TIME!!! I love you.