12-9-2013

12-9-2013

Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2013 15:44:02 +0800
Subject: Move call and the goodbye's
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello Family and friends!

This week has been a good one full of people to meet, places to see and big changes. so lets just dive right in =)

First because this week was the last one before move call the English class that we teach had a party to celebrate the occasion and to allow a lot of the English student's as well as some ward members to just come and say goodbye.  So we went down to Douliu, had a good time, talked with a lot of people and kind of said some good byes because we didn't know who was going where.  After that I had the chance to go on transfers with the Zone Leaders here which was really awesome, its always good to be with new missionaries and see how they do the missionary work, how they teach and how I can improve the way I teach and find through them.  During the exchange I had the chance to meet with one of our coolest investigators named Sister Zhang.  I have mentioned her before but we came and tried to help her translate the name of some random agriculture machinery because her husband sells that kind of stuff.  It was kinda fun and we had a really good spiritual share right after that talking about scriptures and the importance of them.

Later that week I also had the chance to go on exchanges with the District leader here which is in Douliu, so I was with a Taiwanese person named Elder Yeh for a day and while we were talking he told me about his conversion story, which was really cool but after he told me about it I noticed something interesting while we were out proselyting, which is this, everybody, no matter who they are or where they come from has a part of the gospel that they really love, be it the plan of salvation, the missionaries, the Book of Mormon or anything else, they all have one, and while Elder Yeh was telling me about his conversion story he said that the first thing that the missionaries said to him was "Hey are you happy today?"  and that is what really struck home with him, so while we were out preaching the gospel that is how he would start every conversation or every contact.  and so I realized that the way people do missionary work is a real reflection on what they like about the gospel, what they think of it and what part they like about it. Kind of interesting

Well Finally the biggest piece of news this week is that after 3 move calls hanging out in Huwei the time has come that I get a new companion!..  His name is Elder Stratford, he comes from Salt Lake City, the only thing that I really knew about him before I met him was that he is able to read and write in Elvish (from Lord of the Rings) and after meeting him I have learned that he's a really chill guy.  So I'm really excited to start working with him and seeing how the work goes with a new companion!

Well thats about it for this week.  Hope that you all have a good one and are able to keep smiling and stay happy!!

Until next week

Elder Heaton

Still hanging in Huwei

何長老

12-2-2013

12-2-2013

Date: Mon, 2 Dec 2013 11:24:12 +0800
Subject: Young Men's and Mr. Soup
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello Family and friends!

Things are going good here in the land of Huwei and as the temperature cools down we have been starting to wear jackets and buy warmer foods for snacks.  All in all everything is going good and we are enjoying our time here, meeting with some cool people and just having a good time.

So as far as food things go I think the thing that I want to mention is a little thing called buo ba (bwoah bah) which are little black balls, about the size of a marble, really soft and you add them to your drinks for something extra to suck up in or straw... or just because they taste good, either way.  they have a smaller version called zhen zhu which means pearl, but its usually about 5-10 NT which is about 1 quarter, to add to a drink and its really good.  Also another interesting thing that I want to note is just that here, when its cold out everything you drink is going to be warm... thats just the way it is, and so as you go visit people's houses they will give you warm/hot water and normally when you buy stuff from a tea stand people will ask if you want it warm. Kind of a different thing, but it makes sense when you think about it... so yeah I've been drinking a lot of warm things lately.

So beyond that as far as the work goes, we have noticed lately that our young men's and young women's program here in huwei... doesn't really exist, yesterday in sacrament we had a grand total of zero people in either class, it was a little interesting so see seeing as how my young men's class had like 20 people in it and there just always seemed to have people.  So this week, because we sometimes have some young investigators that we would want to go to that class, we have talked with the leaders here to see if there were any people we could work with and try to get them back to church.  So this week we will probably talk with some of them and see if we can get them up and running.

I think the final thing I want to talk about is that we had mission tour this week, and for it we had Elder Randy Funk come (He spoke in this last Conference) and we talked a lot about making sure people are converted and just making sure that we were teaching all the doctrine in a simple, direct way that the spirit could testify to.  It was good and I was able to see a lot of people from my MTC district there.

Well that was pretty much my week, things are going well and this week is move call and so next week I might be going somewhere else, or I might stay longer in Huwei, only time will tell, but I know that wherever I go it will be according to where the lord needs me and where I can be of the most service.  Know I'm doing well and that the people are treating me nice =)

Until Next week

Elder Heaton

何長老

11-25-2013

11-25-2013

Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2013 14:47:44 +0800
Subject: The Hunt for space, and a a new location
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello the Family and everyone else!

This week has been a good one full of actually a lot of lessons and being able to meet a bunch of cool people, so without further adieu lets just jump right in.

So this week food wise there wasn't much interesting here but I think one intersting thing I ate, at least interesting for being here in Taiwan is Pizza!! So pizza here is really expensive, and by expensive I mean about the same price that it is in America if your not getting the cheep $5 pizza, so we normally don't have enough money to buy pizza and Taiwanese people just don't normally eat pizza so yeah.  But one of the members here got a coupon to get a pizza for $150 NT which is 5 dollars about, and he wanted to share it with us, so we went out and got a pizza and it was awesome, he actually ended up buying 2 pizzas one was a Hawaiian and the other was I think squid or octopus flavor.  Both were really good and the member asked us which was better, I told him that the Hawaiian tasted like American food and the squid one tasted like Taiwanese food, and he went off on a little tangent saying that it was Japanese flavor, fun stuff.

So beyond that the biggest event that happened is that the chapel here in Huwei which was about a 30 second walk from our missionary apartment has finally closed down, people had been talking about this chapel closing from the moment that I got here in Huwei and I didn't think much of it but now that it's closed its weird to think that it is gone, now the closest chapel to us in about a 50 minute bike ride from our house.  So we are working to try and find a new location to hold lessons and things like that here in Huwei.

This week we also had a bunch of parties to say farewell to the chapel, the first one happened this Wednesday with our last English class for now here in Huwei where we had a pot luck and played a few games, it went really well and it was fun, and afterwards we had a lot of food in our fridge to sustain us for the rest of the week or so so that was nice =) Later that week the only american family that lives in the ward here decided to have a little Thanksgiving party because they don't celebrate that here.  So they went out and found a Turkey and some yams and pie, just a bunch of traditional thanksgiving food that they don't really eat here and had a fun thanksgiving party.  It was really fun and they invited some foreign exchange students to come and enjoy the food as well, so that was pretty fun.

Finally the weirdest experience that I had this week happened in church yesterday.  So we were in church during the 3rd hour, doing to priesthood part which they were holding in the chapel,and some guy comes and knocks on the chapel doors, asking to be let in.  the odd thing is that I dont think that the doors were locked or anything like that.  Anyway he comes and sits down, and while the speaker is talking I think he said something like "We can feel the spirit as we read the scriptures" and this guy just yells as loud as he could "WRONG!!" pretty much for no reason whatsoever... so they continue and he just keeps yelling WRONG a couple more times and some people tell him to be quiet or leave, really nicely and the guy kinda flips out and just starts yelling.  Eventually he left but it was kinda strange...  So yeah I met a crazy guy this week.

Well that's just about it for this week, things are going well here and we are meeting a lot of new people who seem really interested in the church and are really willing to meet with us so hopefully we see some things from that

Well until next week

Elder Heaton

何長老

11-18-2013

11-18-2013

Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 11:36:07 +0800
Subject: Chilling out in Huwei
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello the Family and others!

Hello everybody, how are you all doing, things are going good down here in Huwei, the weather is starting to get relatively colder here in Huwei actually making me want to wear a jacket, which is an interesting change of pace.  But beyond that there's not really much change in things here.

So this after this week the chapel that we have been going to which is in Huwei will close, it was in a large office building and the rent was too expensive and so starting this next Sunday we will have to go to Douliu for church which will be an interesting change of pace and a bit of a challenge for us I think trying to get investigators to a church building that's about a 45 minute bike ride from where I live.  But that's thats just me thinking out loud.

Our investigator pool, however, is actually seeming to grow a lot more, we have spent a lot more time working on contacting more people, trying to make sure we meet 2 people that are willing to wit with us every day and its starting to pay off and I think that right now is the most investigators that I have had so far while on my mission.  Little blessings just come everywhere.  But as far as people working to get baptized there's only 1-2 that have a baptismal goal. One is named Sister Zhang, shes really cool and has two little girls that are tons of fun, so its always fun just to sit with her.  Right now she just has a small word of wisdom problem but I think that she can overcome it as her testimony grows and she really sees why she needs to follow it.

Beyond that I just want to mention the weather again, just because I think its so weird.  So as you might have guessed they use Celsius here and during my whole stay here in Taiwan it has been at a hot but sometimes comfortable 30 degrees.  But this week the temperature actually dropped down to a chilling 20!  which is about 68 degrees, but I think that is so funny thinking about it because if I was at home 68 degrees would be nice and warm, and I wouldn't think of wearing a jacket, but because I have been here for awhile and gotten used to the warm weather, 68 is actually really cold...  But that's something to think about.

Well that's just about it for this week.  I hope that everyone is doing well and that you are all able to enjoy the rest of this month, its almost thanksgiving! which they don't really celebrate here but, there's a family here from the US and they are throwing a thanksgiving party so know that I will be well fed =)

I love you all and hope for the best, Taiwan is awesome and the people are nice.  Can't imagine serving anywhere else in the world, talking to people about church.

Until next week

Elder Heaton

何長老

11-11-2013

11-11-2013

Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2013 13:14:34 +0800
Subject: Meetings and interviews
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello the family and the people

This week has been a little different of a week, as we have had the chance to do a few extra meetings which means a little less proselyting but a little more time with other missionaries.  Its nice to have a change sometimes.

So this week was interviews with the mission president, which meant that most of our Tuesday was taken up trying to fit in the interview schedule, and that took up most of the day but it was nice and we got to go to Chiayi city for it which is a cool place.  Then because we had interviews on Tuesday we has our ZTM on Wednesday which took up a lot of that time, but also on Wednesday's we have a free English class so with ZTM and English there was just nothing going on for the first half of the week. =/

But as far as food goes I think that the most interesting thing that I have eaten this week is probably just Sushi.  Not really exciting but I dont think I ever really ate sushi while I was in America.  But its not really the most amazing stuff, kinda boring really.

Also today I had the chance to go to Costco, which is apparently a really big thing here for the missionaries because you can buy a lot of things in bulk and they have a lot of american food, so that was kinda fun, but its pretty much exactly the same thing as Sams Club so that just reminded me of all the fun times that I had going shopping with my mom on Saturdays (at least the times that I went with her =) )

Well thats just about all the news for this week, there really wasn't much that happened this week, My Chinese is slowly picking up and I can slowly understand more and more of what people are saying.  Here for language learning they have a language study plan that they just call Phase 1, 2, and 3.  Phase 1 is just preach my gospel chapter 3 and key words and phrases that are useful in teaching the missionary lessons.  After you finish that your free to do what ever language study you like but they also offer the phase 2 and 3.  Phase 2 is just a ton of flash cards with random vocabulary words on them with an example sentence which is nice.  And finally Phase 3 is a bunch of flash cards with every single character that they use in the Book of Mormon... which is a lot, and so I got the phase 3 because they were out of phase 2 when I had the chance to get them, so my language is slowly picking up.

Well thats just about it, Taiwan is going good, its still really hot here with little to no signs of cooling off yet, the food is still good, the people are nice and we are meeting with some nice people.

Until Next week

Elder Heaton 

何長老

11-4-2013

11-4-2013

Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2013 16:26:18 +0800
Subject: Contacting till the earth shakes
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello family how are you!!!!

So this week has been going well, full of traveling to not too far but far enough that it still takes a little bit to get there, kind of an interesting mix but it happens... But enough about that, onto the news

So this week I had the chance to eat at a... breakfast shop ( that's what their really called) like 5 times this week, and a lot of the time it wasn't even for breakfast.  So breakfast in Taiwan is very similar to breakfast in America... if your not eating cereal, or drinking milk.  its actually an interesting thing about Taiwan is that nobody here drinks cow milk, its all soy milk or bust.   So that makes buying normal milk really expensive ( I think a 1.5 liter bottle is about 3.50 compared to soymilk which would be about 1.50) But the things they eat for breakfast in a breakfast shop is normally a crepe like thing with egg and bacon in it or something like that or a Dan bao which is like a hamburger with ham instead of a patty... interesting.

 Well as far as the whole subject goes there's a cool story to go with that, so we were on our way to meet with Brother Chen (the one I was talking about in the last e-mail I think) and we contacted this guy who was waiting outside a hospital for his wife and kid or something like that.  We got to talking with him and introduced the church and he had heard of Mormons before but he was wondering why we were called that.  So we brought out a Book of Mormon and was going to have him read the introduction to it and from that we were going to talk about it with him.  But right before he read the first character... an earthquake hit!!  I was totally excited because I have never felt one before, it was a really small one, just a little shaking but it totally happened, however after that, he had closed the book, the contact was kinda ruined and we just left with his number... so that was kinda interesting.

Well beyond that things are going well, I am enjoying my time here and the work is moving along, The people we are working with are all really cool and we are working on trying to find at least 2 new people that set up a time to meet with us in the next day or two, really fun.

Well I hope everybody is doing well back at home.  Its still hot as ever here in Taiwan and I'm happily sporting my short-sleeve shirts still, life is going good and Taiwanese people are all really cool.  Hope that you are all enjoying to cool weather and just finding enjoyment in school, work, play and other what ever that may be.  I know that the work I'm doing here is good, and that this church really has blessed my life in ways that I probably don't even realize yet, but also in many ways that become more apparent every day.  Hope you are all doing well =)

Until next week

Elder Heaton

何長老

10-28-2013

10-28-2013

Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 11:36:00 +0800
Subject: Leading the area and move call madness
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello family and friends!

This week has been a good one, full of fun things, meeting new people and preparing for transfers and seeing who might be going where.

So there's not much talk about on the food front.  I went to a night market for dinner once this week and got a steak, the cool thing about the night market stake though it that it comes with noodles, an egg and a lot of some mystery sauce that I don't really know what it is but it tastes good, the cool thing though it that when they bring you your plate, the sauce and all the food is still boiling hot and so when they hand it to you its still bubbling, steaming and just has a great presentation. yum

Well beyond that, this week I went on exchanges with the Douliu elders this week and had the chance to lead the area in Huwei, which actually kinda stressed me out for the first little bit because I for the most part am still totally lost when i'm wandering the streets here, but it turned out ok, I was able to find the people I needed to find, and we had a lot of fun going around talking to people.

Later in the week the sisters in our district had a baptism, her name was Sister Wang, she had investigated the church for a LONG time and had wanted to be baptized for a while but her parents opposed it and so she couldn't, but this Saturday was her birthday and she told her parents that all she wanted for her birthday was to get baptized... an amazing story and in the end they allowed her to do that.  It was a great story to hear.  And we got one of our investigators to go to the baptism so we were able to attend it, lots of fun.

Now for a little bit of a funny story.  So we are meeting with this less active member, his name is Brother Chen, hes a really cool guy, really smart but has a few mental problems, anyway we had decided to reteach him the missionary lessons because he had forgotten a lot of the basics, so in this lesson we taught him the plan of salvation.  While we were teaching it we would ask him some question or maybe make a comment like "So this is the plan of salvation..." and whenever he wanted to say something or make a comment he would start with "Bu shi" or like that's incorrect, or thats not right.  It happened so much that by the end of the lesson it was hard not to laugh when he said it.  we would say something like "So that's what the atonement can do for us." then he would say "No the atonement is..."  it was actually really fun, I love that guy.

And finally the part that you have all been waiting for, This was the last week of tansfers so we got movecall this last Saturday night, it was really suspenseful because after training you are almost guaranteed to be split up from your trainer, so we were waiting to get the call, and all of last week Elder Raley was practically convinced that he was moving so he told everybody that this was his last week here and that they should come to church to hear his farewell talk.  So we got the call and learned that neither of us are leaving Huwei right now!  We both get to stay here for at least one more move call!  So that's the exciting news for the month, I haven't moved yet.

Well that's all the news that I have this week, I hope that you all have a great week, learn something from the scriptures and are able to liken the scriptures to yourselves, this church really has brought a lot of happiness to my life and I hope that I can share that with a lot of people here in Taiwan

This is Elder Heaton, until next week, Later!

  何長老

10-21-2013

10-21-2013

Date: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 12:27:21 +0800
Subject: Halloween Party and Gaoxiong
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello everybody!!

This week has been one that really flew by and I'm actually surprised that its Monday once again.  But I'll try to remember things that we did this week and anything cool that happened.

As far as the whole food thing goes there are two stories that go to the same food so i'll have to tell you about that.  The first story goes like this, our ward (its actually a branch but ward sounds better) this last Saturday set up a Halloween party that we were able to attend and enjoy, we spent most of the day just trying to invite a ton of investigators to it and just to have some fun with it but in the end almost nobody we invited came, but that was alright because it was more of a little kids party than anything.  But while we were there they had a table spread out with some random foods that I got to try and one of them was this thing, its like a crunchy Churro, just like covered with brown sugar and was ok.  But the other story was we went tracting for awhile and the last house we visited had a couple kids just hanging around outside it and as it turns out one of them lived there.  But the people that answered had no interest, but were really nice and so they gave us this bag of these churro things and told us that they were really cheap and were just like a little kids snack so that was kinda cool.

So more info on the Halloween party, there wasn't much to it, but one of the families that are in this branch are American and because Taiwan doesn't celebrate Halloween, she wanted her kids to have a halloween so she, with the help from the branch, set this up and the people really like it, but all that it really was was a bunch of little games that you could go to like put the head on the skeleton, fishing and stuff like that, but I think that the highlight of the night was probably our bishop dressed up as Mickey Mouse for it, really cool and some of the kids were totally freaking out about it, awesome.

Next is that this week we had the chance to go to Gaoxiong (Kaohsiung) for a "specialized training" which just talked about stress management and things like that, but the problem is Gaoxiong is about a 2 hour train ride from where we get on the train station, and the train station is a 20 minute bike ride from our house, then the Gaoxiong chapel is a 15 minute walk from the train station, and the training meeting turned out to be about 4 hours long. so in the end... it actually took the whole day for that conference, which was kinda sad, but the I guess thats really just the interesting story for the day.

Well before I go I just want to tell you that next Monday is move day and so I will probably have a new companion, maybe a new area, so if anything weird happens just know its probably because of that.

Well the work is going well and things are starting to pick up here.  The members are getting really into the missionary work and we have been getting a lot of referrals lately, which is really cool, its kinda weird the difference in the church culture here because just about everyone here is a convert and so everyone is very familiar with what exactly it is that the missionaries teach and do where as back home I feel like before you actually go and do it, you really dont have a clear understanding as to what they do. But that's just something to think about.

Well until next week

Keep smiling

Elder Heaton

何長老

10-14-2013

10-14-2013

Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2013 11:35:07 +0800
Subject: Assistant Exchanges and Conference
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello the family and everyone!

So another week has come and gone, and within that week there was a ton of things that happened that its actually kinda hard to remember a lot of it (that happens sometimes) but here's some of the highlights that came out if this week

As far as food goes the most interesting thing that I ate would probably be a giant... I think my companion called it a "Fish Ball" which is pretty much what it sounds like, but the weird thing about it was that the ball was about the size of a soft ball, and the ward members laughed when the bishop gave both me and my companion one each to eat, it was pretty good but it just had a lot of random little things in it (I mean just random food objects of fish and meat) so you can think about what that means =)

This week as the subject says I had the chance to go on assistant exchanges, which unlike normal exchanges where one missionary would switch with another missionary and they would just go through a day like that, one Assistant would just go with our companionship and the other would go with another one somewhere else.  So the assistant that went with us is named Elder Limpanastraphong, you can have fun trying to say that.  But it was really cool going with him as he really was a hard worker, if there was a person to talk to he would be talking to him, and so as we would go to any appointment it would take us like 5 times longer than normal because of it.  but the exchange was really awesome and I was able to learn a lot from him, and his chinese was super good as well.

Now I think the last big thing that happened here was that I finally had the chance to watch conference here (they show it a week later so they have time to translate it) and they actually have another TV going for all of us foreigners in English, so that was cool.  I think my favorite talk that I watched would probably be Uchtdorf's talk in the Priesthood Session where he talked about how he fell down and couldn't get up, it was a super powerful talk and I liked it a lot.  But I think this was probably the first time I stayed awake for the entirety of Conference and I think I got a lot more out of it because of that.

Well that's all that happened this week, the work is going well and the people here are awesome, the Chinese is slowly coming along and each day I can catch a little more of what these people are talking about it so that's exciting.

Until next week

Elder Heaton 

何長老

10-7-2013

10-7-2013

Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2013 16:19:31 +0800
Subject: A week of... things
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello Everybody

I realize that this e-mail is a little late and... I dont know what else but beyond that lets just get onto the things that happened this week... it wasn't really that much.

So as far as weeks go this one has probably been one of the more bland ones, where nothing really spectacular happened.  We talked to some people, we learned from some people, we stayed busy and we went places.  But we didn't really eat any interesting food, so if that was your favorite part... well sorry =/

So this week we had ZTM or Zone Training Meeting, where we went, got together as a zone and were trained... it was fun, but the biggest thing that happened there was the fact that President Blickenstaff decided that he wanted to implement some mission standards.  Which are just weekly numbers that you are encouraged to strive to reach.  The way that they presented them I really liked because they had been doing a lot of research on the numbers that a person needed to be able to get a baptism each month, and from that data they boiled it down to what you need to be able to reach each week in order to mathematically get a baptism each month.  So I liked it and I think it really gives you a bar that you can strive to reach.

Beyond that though I had the opportunity to once again go on exchanges.  Now the funny thing is, Elder Raley has really been shooting for me to lead the Huwei area for awhile now and I still chickened out of this one as well.  But it seems like every time we have transfers, something really fun is happening back in my area (ward bowling activity, BBQ's, cooking activity ect.) so this next time I will probably be leading the area myself, but I am totally lost when I am here and don't really know how to get around yet so we will have to see how that goes.

Also this Sunday President Blickenstaff actually came down to Huwei for a meeting with the ward counsel, and beforehand everyone thought that they were going to be talking about how they have been thinking of closing down the Huwei chapel lately and people have been worried about that, and so everyone thought that we were going to talk about that, but in the meeting all we talked about was how to best rescue the less actives that are in the ward.  It was kinda interesting but not what people were expecting for the meeting.

Now as for the reason that I am e-mailing so late, its that for this P-day we with the Douliu elders, went out to an amusement park called "Fancy World" which was kinda fun, we were able to ride a couple of rollercoasters and do some really fun stuff there.  It was really interesting being in an amusement park where everything was in Chinese, and so we all (except for the two natives that were with us) didn't totally understand everything that was going on, but it was a blast and we all had a good time.  They have 2 roller coasters there, one is really short but is just a straight down drop for a part of it, while the other one is a more traditional roller coaster.  so that was cool, I'll include a couple of pictures of that =)

Well that's really all that has happened this week.  Thank you for all the prayers and support that you all have given me, I hope that you are all able to be happy and enjoy your time wherever you might be at the moment.  But as for me and the awesome place of Taiwan.  We are doing GREAT!

Until next week.

Elder Heaton

何長老

9-30-2013

9-30-2013

Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 12:24:34 +0800
Subject: Zone Conference, and...not much else
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello Everybody!!!

Things seem to be going well down there in good ol Utah and life seems to keep moving along no matter how far away I go so that's kinda weird.  This week has actually been rather uneventful but I will try to expound as much as I can =).

I guess first off is just the food... I didn't really eat anything too interesting but I did manage to get the package from my mommy this last Wednesday (Thanks mom =) it was wonderful) and... the chocolate totally melted so I ended up with 3 really cool bricks of chocolate.  I have been enjoying that lately and the top of my desk right now is covered in chocolate dust from me and Elder Raley just breaking off pieces of the chocolate.  But we actually have plans to make cookies with the other 2 bags today so that should be good =)

So as far as the week goes, it was pretty much a usual week, on Tuesday I went on exchanges with the zone leaders, which was actually really fun, but the person I was with had just barely come to the area so we both didn't really know how to get around the town.  However he seemed to pick it up pretty well and it turned out to be a really good exchange in the end.  After we switched back Elder Raley had decided during the exchange that it was time to really work with all the former investigators that we had accumulated and try to find some cool ones to teach.  So that has been one of our focuses for this week.  However I think that the biggest thing that happened this week would probably be the fact that we had zone conference.  Which is just a really huge training meeting that is actually led by the mission president, which lasted us from 10 AM to 4 PM, it took awhile but it was also really fun and we learned a lot about repentance, how to teach it, and what it really means.  It was a good time and I enjoy further cementing the idea of what people need to do to truly repent and change their lives.

So I think I mentioned this before but lately (because Huwei is actually a college town and school is starting around now ) we have been running into a few Vietnamese people who actually only speak English and Vietnamese, so we have been working on setting up with them and getting lessons down, however its hard because English is still their second language and they don't really know "church" terms, ie. when I contacted them they had no idea what the word "missionary" meant, and I didn't really know how to explain it because usually when I say it in chinese they get it... so yeah.  Anyway that has just been a topic of discussion that we have had lately because we weren't sure if it would be worth our time at the moment to be teaching them.

Well that's really all that has happened this week, but I do want to point out one thing, which is HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARA!!!!!!!!! HOPE THAT YOU HAVE HAD AN AWESOME YEAR, THAT COLLEGE LIFE IS GOING GOOD AND THAT YOU ARE ABLE TO ENJOY EVERYTHING THAT YOU SET OUT TO DO. So yeah!

Well I guess I just want to say that I do know that the things that I am teaching these people here is true, that I know through this gospel we have the opportunity to live with our families forever, and that this is the message that can bring the most happiness to everyone's lives, I know these things to be true and I know that we have a living god that can truly help us in our daily lives. These things I know in the name of Jesus Christ Amen!

Until next week

Elder Heaton

何長老

9-23-2013

9-23-2013

Date: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 12:11:57 +0800
Subject: Moon Festival, and BBQ's
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello the family, the friends, and i guess everybody else.

This week has been a rather long week full of finding, contacting, talking to people and most importantly barbecuing... maybe I have my priorities a little out of order.

So seeing as this week (Thursday) was the moon festival the little town of Huwei got a little more exciting and has a lot of strange faces that came here to visit family.  So the interesting thing that I thought of this week is that there are missionaries that are in the cities, like Tainan, Taichung, Taipei ect. then you have the missionaries that are a little more out of the way in the random parts of the area, which is places like huwei. But I think what makes a big difference is that when you are in these more rural areas, during the festival this is the place where people come to visit their families, because this is where they grew up, whereas when your in the bigger cities during the holidays, that's where all the people leave and the town gets a lot emptier during the holidays.  kinda a subtle difference but one I noticed, as I talked to a lot of people who were from Gaoxiong, Taibei and all the other big towns here on the island.

But as far as food goes, the only real interesting thing that I ate this week was called a star fruit or a liang (the same liang as my name) pao (pronounced pow) which is a very unique fruit because well... it actually kinda looks like a star.  it is rather delicious, or I like it, but my companion isn't the biggest fan of them.  Other than that though I think the biggest part of my diet consisted of barbecuing this week as I had the opportunity to go to about 5 different ones, each one was basically eat until your full then eat a little more, and is practically only meat.  so that was fun.

Now that thats over with, I think I need to repent of my forgetfulness as last week I didn't say HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMS!!!!!!!! I sent you a card in the mail but it might take awhile for it to get to you because the mail has all been stopped here until, well, today due to the moon festival so tell me when you get that =)

Well this week has been a rather boring one besides that, as far as the whole moon festival goes, having a BBQ and just going home to visit family is all people really do here so there wasn't that much excitement about it.  We have been working on trying to find new investigators as our progressing investigator pool is currently at 0.  So the week has been long as we have had nobody to teach. But we had the opportunity to talk to a lot of people, and got some potentials that might be willing to meet with us so I'll tell you if anything from that pans out.

The new move call has started, seeing as I'm still in training I didn't switch companions or areas, but the effects of the move call made my companion the new district leader, which so far really only mean's that he's on the phone a little longer than normal, but that might be because our district only has 6 people in it. But things are going well here and I'm happy to be doing the work.

Sorry for the lack luster e-mail but I hope that everyone is doing all right, the weather here is cooling down and the taiphoon season is starting to come to an end so all in all, everything seems to be going good.

Until next week

Elder Heaton