Last preparation day in 花蓮! Pretty crazy how fast time goes. Monday was an awesome day. I started it off by accompanying my best friend Elder Ray to the hospital for him to get some tests done. He is getting some illnesses ruled out but he's moving this week too so it's a race against the clock to try and figure out his sickness. I'm sending prayers his way and trust God will answer them in his time. After that, we had lunch with all the missionaries and our ward mission leader as well. It was very tasty and after that, we spent the rest of the day at the chapel having some fun with some other Elders. Cracking jokes and trying to help some guys figure out some college stuff. Loads of fun! When we got back to 鳳林 we had a lesson with a guy who treated us to fried chicken! Super tasty and the appointment filled me up with spiritual and physical nourishment!
Tuesday we had a good day. Started off by going to 花蓮 for the last District Council of the transfer! We had a good discussion and did some fun activities revolving around street contacts and applying President Ballard's invitations he gave us. When we got back to 鳳林 on the train we biked straight out to my good friend 朝秋開's house, the man I helped baptize! We reviewed Lesson 3 with him and I said a goodbye to him. I'm going to miss him! He's such an amazing man and I love him so much. He's like another grandfather to me. We biked back and had dinner and language study, which concluded the day. Most of my stuff is all packed and ready to move already so it is pretty low maintenance as of now. I'm just taking it one step at a time and trust that everything will work out.
My last day in 鳳林. Super crazy how the time flies so fast. We spent Wednesday just getting me all ready to go. I got all my luggage packed and it all fit just how I wanted! I also took my language test to see if I can study characters, and I passed!! I'm very pleased and relieved that now I can study characters without feeling bad. On top of all that I shipped my bike to 台北. So I got everything set to go and at night we took a train to 花蓮 so I can take my train out of here tomorrow morning. Crazy day!!
Thursday was the big day! I, along with Elder Ray, got to the train station in the morning and took our train all the way to 台北! We got to sit next to each other and it was a sweet ending to our time together. He's definitely one of my best friends and I'm going to miss him a lot. We had to split up on the MRT and I went to the mission office where I met my companion, Elder 楊, who is full Taiwanese! He's way awesome and after we met up I grabbed my new language study materials (characters!!!) and then we made our way back to our area. And let me tell you, 三峽 is the best. This place is awesome. It's got that amazing city vibe, and no missionaries around us, so we can teach everyone we find! It was so amazing just walking around the city and drawing from that energy. Absolutely incredible. We had an awesome Missionary Correlation Meeting also and turns out our Ward Mission Leader is actually a member from my first area! Way small world. Moving day was a success and I'm so so happy to be here and already see my language improving with Elder 楊.
Friday was my first full day in the promised land. It was awesome. We had to walk everywhere because I still don't have my bike (next Monday I'll get it) so that limited us only a little bit. We had our first weekly planning session and that was super awesome. After we did our studies we grabbed dinner, contacted people and then met with some members! The members here are so awesome, working with them will be a real pleasure. Being with a native Taiwanese companion is awesome. My head hurts from using Chinese 24/7 but I'm learning so much and Elder 楊 is seriously so awesome. We are going to have an awesome time together for sure and my English will become awful, but that's what I want!
Saturday was way awesome! Elder 楊 and I had a great day doing some studies (we went to the college library for language study and it was absolutely amazing) and in addition to that did some activity planning for some ward stuff. Then we were able to meet with a member and I got to meet a super great family. We also biked a little bit today using the city bike system because we got tired of walking. So we were able to spin the wheels for a little bit. Since we are still walking everywhere time goes by way quick. Once my bike gets dropped off it'll be a lot quicker!
Sunday funday! It was pretty awesome we had church in the morning and I got to meet the ward for the first time! They are all way awesome and I can already feel the love they have for the gospel and each other. When we got back from church we did some studies and then had our first lesson together. When that was over we talked with our Ward Mission Leader about a possible activity in the future and then we had dinner. When dinner was done we went to the 台北 recent convert fireside! It was my first time going in 6 months and it was way good. The music was sublime. Afterwards, I had the chance to see a lot of missionary friends and catch up with them a bit. Probably the best part of today though came after the fireside when I got to see a member from 淡水 and I talked with her for a bit and she mentioned multiple times how much I have improved since then. She said I'm more lively and speak more Chinese, since in training I just stood behind Elder Pope and let him do it and was pretty shy. She mentioned it multiple times and it made me so happy. Elder 楊 has already helped me break out of my Chinese shell and I feel so much more comfortable talking now. I naturally revert to Chinese now instead of English. How crazy is that!
Elder Heber Chase Ciminski
謝希伯長老