Pig Ear, Pig Feet

Hello Everyone!

 

Well, the Chinese New Year has finished up here in Taiwan! It was an eventful week as we visited many member families and were able to have some awesome meals with them. Our ward set up a meal schedule for our companionship. Everyday, we had the opportunity to eat at a member's home for lunch and dinner. There were so many families willing to feed us! I had a good time being able to meet with all of these people and build relationships with them. I definitely ate some pretty weird things though. The two that really were pretty strange were Pig Ear and Pig Foot. Sounds pretty gross, right? There is a lot of food here that I don't think a lot of people in America would eat.

One day this past week, we had a sister in the ward who had invited us over to her place. She ended up living really far away up on the mountain at the edge of the little city that we live in. I thought it would be a good little bike ride to her place. It was! Except by little, I mean hard! The hill that went up the mountain was probably the steepest and longest hill I have ever biked. I was in the absolutely lowest gear possible the whole way going up. It reminded me of a running workout that we did back in high school at cross country camp each year where we ran up Mt. Constitution on Orcas Island off the coast of Washington. I just had to tell myself, "OK Jeff, just keep on going, keep on going..."   Eventually we made it to the top and got to the member's place in one piece and had a good meal.

This week has been a little bit harder for missionary work because a lot of our investigators have been out of town or really busy with the Chinese New Year activities. We have had some good lessons though, that I felt have really been able to help our investigators. I hope they continue to progress! It's been very interesting to have the perspective of a missionary and be able to see so many people begin exercising their faith and then begin repenting and truly changing their lives to come unto Christ. It has really helped build my testimony of this gospel as I realize it's power to help all of us overcome any challenge or trial that we face in this life.

I am pretty excited for tomorrow as we will have Elder Evans and Elder Watson of the Quorum of the Seventy come to visit us at the mission headquarters. We will be having a mission wide meeting with them. I am excited to hear what they will say to us! It is always great to be able to meet with the leaders of the church. They have so much experience in the gospel and really know how things work within the Lord's kingdom. I'll let you guys know how it goes next week!

I hope you all have a great week back at home!

Love,

Elder Bastian