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