11 months on the mission and a good amount left! Monday we enjoyed a chill preparation with nothing super crazy happening. We played some basketball and that was the most exciting thing. At night we stayed in 花蓮 because we have District Council so we got the apartment we stay in now ready to move because the Elders are moving this week! We are gonna help them this week so that should be fun. P-days don't have to much to write about because they are super chill.
Man Tuesday was a pretty wild day. We are quite the jet-setting pair of missionaries! Tuesday we woke up in 花蓮 and did the normal stuff and we also had our first district council of the transfer! We have a set of Elders and a set of Sisters in our district, which makes for 6 total. The sisters weren't going to be able to attend for some reason and so we were thinking of how to make it super fun, and we decided on a 烤肉 barbecue! I haven't done one in a very long time but we decided to do it Tuesday and it was awesome. Just us 4 guys and we had lots of good meat and ice cream and drinks and we talked about missionary work and it was such a good time. After we finished that, Elder Lee and I had to take a train straight from 花蓮 way down south to 台東 for exchanges with the Zone Leaders. And that was our day basically. Lots of travel recently. I'm a little ready to settle back down but I love the travel too.
Another day another place to travel to. We had a chill morning in 台東 and we ended up getting out of the house late because the Zone Leaders had to report and stuff but the assistants were way late for it so that bumped us back. I was with Elder Ward and we just did some studies and had a good talk about missionary work and the more real and raw side of it. It was kind of a continuation of a discussion the 4 of us yesterday night, a lot about mission politics and the sad reality of the mission culture now. Being surrounded by older missionaries all the time is really cool because you really get the multiple perspectives of it and it's very cool to hear and contrast since they served under the previous Mission President also. We had a super bomb dinner with all the missionaries in 台東 then we caught a train back to our area finally! I haven't slept in my own bed since last Friday so I am actually pretty stoked for that.
Thursday was a normal day finally. We had some lessons with a lot of our friends and it was really good. They seem to all be doing well and we were able to see our friend who is getting baptized on Saturday and he is still all good to go and we are very stoked for him!! It was a fairly low-key day though, so nothing crazy to write about.
Friday was a good day. We had the usual including weekly planning and the excitement happened after we finished all that. We left on a train for 花蓮 because the Elders are moving places and they needed our help. So we got up there and helped them move into a legit house! It is so crazy nice they easily got the best place in the mission. That took a good bit though and it's 3 floors so moving beds and all that upstairs provided some good workout. Pretty great day though!
Saturday was amazing!! We spent the night in the new house because we had our baptism! That was the best part of the day for sure. One of my favorite people ever got baptized Saturday! Just in time for his 80th birthday which is Sunday! He's amazing though and when he came out of the water he was smiling so big and I couldn't help but feel so much joy! It was indescribable. When that was completed we stayed at the chapel for a bit because Elder Lee has some friends from a past area coming to take us for P-day on Monday but they got here early. So they picked us up and took us around 花蓮 and we ended up at a massive night market and had a lot of fun! We took a train back and that ended up the day! The highlight was definitely seeing one of my best friends be baptized!!
Sunday was a very slow day. At church though our friend that got baptized yesterday was confirmed and I got to stand in the circle and help! It was very awesome and a nice wrap up to the story of him receiving the gospel! After church, we spent the day inside doing studies, some well-needed cleaning, and planning some stuff for the week ahead. All the downtime let me get in some extra language study so that was good too. Towards the end of the night, Elder Lee's friends came and picked us up and drove us to 花蓮 so we can be up here for P-day as usual.
Elder Heber Chase Ciminski
謝希伯長老