BIKING THROUGH TAIWAN *ALMOST GONE WRONG* - 10/1/18

Hello from the beautiful island of Taiwan! This week was super awesome!

P-day was so much fun. Not gonna lie it was way better than my Kansas ones. We started off with touring an old museum sort of thing with a recent convert and it was super fun to learn more about Taiwan and its history. We also had lunch with that same member and that was super delicious. Taiwan food is different from American food for sure but it is super good! After lunch, we went with the other missionaries (we were with the elders that live with us and then the sisters in our area as well) to the fisherman's wharf area and hopped on a ferry to Bali. Bali is a touristy place and has lots of things to take in. It was super fun though we had a good time walking around and seeing everything! After we caught the ferry back, the Elders split up from the Sisters and we did our grocery shopping for the week. Taiwanese grocery shopping is definitely interesting but I got what I needed and it's all good! That was basically all we did outside on P-day we came back to the flat and I took a nap and then when I woke up it was time to go to work! We went to the college in town and we actually found a cool guy named Ian (that's his English name) and we were able to share the gospel with him! We also had a teaching appointment at the chapel with Robert (his English name) and he set a baptismal goal for November 10! I was able to teach some of the Restoration using the Chinese I have and I got the message across so that was uplifting for me! That wrapped up the day basically, it rained a lot today too and biking in it was fun. It was quite refreshing!

Tuesday was a fun day. We started the morning with studies and then we got a text from a member saying he needed our help opening up the chapel. So we biked over to the chapel and helped him out but there were people at the chapel the whole time so he didn't end up needing our help. We were able to do some companionship study and grab some lunch at Bafang (it's basically like the McDonald's of Taiwan. They have dumplings and potstickers and other super good stuff). Then we had district meeting! My first one! That was super cool.  We have the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders in our district and then my companion is the District Leader so I am pretty low on the totem pole in the District. But it's cool.  I can learn a lot from everyone. After District Meeting, we took off and did some language study at a 7-Eleven near the college. Then we bumped over to the college and had some curry for dinner. Then we walked around the college and ended the day with an appointment! One thing I've learned from missionary work here and something Elder Hogge says is that missionaries here are the worst loiterers. We hang out at 7-Elevens and other convenience stores and never buy anything. But it's a good place to study and the only downside is that we hear the same 5 TV commercials the whole time. There are worse things that could happen. In other new,s there is a typhoon coming in scheduled for Friday and so we are getting rained on here and there in preparation for that. It'll be a good time!

Wednesday was probably the best day in Taiwan yet! We started off the day with some awesome studies. One of the biggest things I learned from Kansas is that studies are so great and I really fell in love with the scriptures there! So now studies are one of my most favorite times of the week.  After studies we had a lesson near the college and the lesson went well. After the lesson, we had lunch with some other Elders and then I got my English Class prepared and ready to teach later in the day. Since we didn't do the rest of our studies before our lesson we did the rest of our studies at a Starbucks near our flat and it was super zen. It is so quiet and peaceful and studying there is awesome. The rest of the day flew by because we had dinner at a members house and then had our English classes. On the way to our dinner, it started pouring rain and we got drenched on our bikes and it was honestly super fun. We showed up absolutely drenched but it was alright. Then my English Class went well also! I had some help teaching today but I think that next week I'll be on my own. It is fun everyone is so nice and teaching them English makes me so happy. So today was an awesome day and Taiwan is great!

Thursday was AMAZING. We had such a good day. After our usual studies we had lunch provided for us by a new member. It was some more curry and after we ate we taught her a new member lesson which went well. My Chinese is slowly improving and I'm able to contribute more and more to lessons. After our lunch, we finished our studies and then we tried to talk with people near the college. We had a cool experience where we made a mutually binding promise with Heavenly Father to have gospel conversations and we were blessed with 3 solid gospel discussions and that definitely bolstered my faith. Like Elder Pope says, "We shouldn't have faith-building experiences but experiences built on faith". So I had that experience because of my faith that it could happen! We grabbed some dinner and then biked to the chapel for a new member lesson and a lesson with a new person being taught. Both went well! Our lesson with the person being taught went so well. It was his first meeting with us and we taught him about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We also told him about the Book of Mormon and he loved it. I was able to contribute a lot more because he spoke English also. I felt the spirit so much and it made my whole day great! Biking home it rained a bunch and it was a perfect cherry on top.

Friday was a good day. Lots of studies and planning today. Today was our weekly planning session and it went super awesome! This week's session was technically my second one in Danshui but this week I was actually awake and not nodding off (I did the first one my first full day on the island. Dang jetlag). It was super effective and Elder Pope and I really feel good about this next week! I love having planning like that. It's how I know we had the spirit and it was revelatory! Now we just need to go execute our plans. Other than our planning we did some street contacting and talked to some awesome people! Today was also supposedly typhoon day but I guess it juked out Taiwan and is gonna hit Japan. Oh well, it still rained here!

Saturday was an epic day. We started it off by going to a funeral. I never thought I would go to a funeral on my mission, but today I did. It was for the mom of a member in the ward. The deceased wasn't a member of the church but hopefully, in the Spirit World she will accept it! After the funeral, we went to a 7-Eleven and did some study and also had a lesson at the same 7. That lesson went super awesome! Then we went to a Starbucks for a back to back lesson which also went well. And then we went to a different Starbucks for our third lesson of the day! All of our lessons today went superb. We grabbed some dinner and then went to the chapel for our 4th lesson, and that's when our luck ran out. The dude never showed up! Luckily our 5th lesson showed up and that wrapped up the day! We were super busy and that's how I like it! I also like the slight fall breeze I feel when biking at night :)

Sunday was pretty chill! We went to church in the morning and that was really cool. It was the Primary Program and the theme was 我是神的孩子 or I Am A Child Of God. So far my only two Sundays here in Taiwan have been around that theme. It's a super great message to remember. We are all children of God and have a divine identity to him. How awesome is that! After church, we had Correlation Meeting and then had a little lunch provided by some members at the church then we went to another members house that had invited us over for lunch. It was all super tasty and one thing about eating food in Taiwan is that whenever someone treats you to food, they always make sure you eat until you're full. I get full easy here so it isn't too hard for them. When we got back to the apartment we did some studies then had a lesson with one of our friends who has a baptism goal. We talked about that a little bit today and went over the interview questions. Then out of nowhere, he asked me if I would baptize him! Wow! I was caught off guard a little but agreed to do it! So if he holds his date then I'll be baptizing him. This friend is super cool (he says I look like Matt Damon 😁😁). After the awesome lesson we didn't have much time to do anything after finishing some studies and dinner but we were able to go finding at the college campus and that wrapped up an awesome last day of the week!

This week was amazing and I love Taiwan! The people are the kindest you'll ever meet and it's just so amazing! It's hard to put into words! I love you all so much and stay tuned for next week's installment of "'Elder Ciminski Official"!

宋希伯

I FOUND CHIN! - 9/24/18

Well maybe not the best skater in the world but I found the best mission in the world! This week was travel week!!

Monday was my last preparation day in the United States! How crazy is that?? We didn't do anything except play games.  It wasn't too different from the rest but after preparation day ended at 6 I packed up a lot of my things and got that stuff sorted out. So a pretty unexciting day, but I'm one step closer to Taiwan!

Tuesday was quite the roller coaster of emotions honestly. One thing I've developed on my mission already is that I am more emotional. It's pretty interesting! The day started off with waking up late at the zone leaders (we stayed the night with them and another set of elders and we played games and stuff pretty late). After that we got ready for the day and then did some service for a guy in one of the wards who is moving to Salem, North Carolina. A lot of people think missionaries are moving crews and that can get tiresome but doing service is good! I wasn't feeling too well and actually got told to sit down and do nothing because I didn't look good at all apparently but I just wanted to help. I did as I was told, reluctantly, and the job ended up getting done. I packed the rest of my things today and got all ready to go, and said goodbye to everyone. In leading up to actually leaving I was quite nervous and anxious. I was able to receive a blessing and it was a great experience. It was quite amazing and I shed some tears. Then we started the drive to Wichita and made it where I stayed with the Assistants and all the new greenies (super interesting). All in all a roller coaster of a day but tomorrow is the big day!!! WOO-HOO!!

Wednesday was wild too! I woke up at 4:05 with the assistants and they took me to the airport and got me on my way! It was a smooth time getting through security and all that jazz and my flights were all pretty good too. The flight from Wichita to Chicago was easy and the one from Chicago to San Francisco went by super quick. I had an aisle seat on both of those flights and that was a blessing too. Once I landed in San Francisco I had to walk all the way to the other side of the airport to the International gate but when I made it there was only one other missionary there. Soon after everyone else started flowing in and it was the happiest reunion ever. We were all so stoked to see each other and had an awesome time catching up with each other! We all made it onto the flight safely and we were on our way! The flight was really quick, at least that's what it felt like to me. I tried to sleep but didn't get that much sadly but it all worked out. I didn't sit by other missionaries so I still felt kinda alone. We landed in Taipei a little early and so we had to wait for President Peterson since he thought our flight was later. We got picked up and got driven all the way to the mission office which is literally across the street from the Taipei temple! We walked around the streets a little bit and it was super fun. Then we slept and I crashed so fast. (Everything from landing on is technically my Thursday entry so I'm gonna move on to Friday).

Friday was some orientations and then we met our trainers! President had a letter for each missionary and it was kinda like a mission call and so that was fun to read out loud. So my trainer is Elder Pope and we are currently in the Danshui area! We traveled to the area by the MRT and it's a fun city! The apartment is awesome and we live with 2 other missionaries so there's 4 total. We went to work and I love this city so much! We were out until the end of our day and then I came home and fell asleep so fast I was so tired. An awesome day!

Saturday was so fun. We did some study and then went back to the mission office to get my bike and also pick up my phone. I ended up getting the S9 because the shop they get phones from didn't carry the S8 anymore and I went ahead and upgraded. My phone is a Lilac Purple so it is a super fun color to have. When we got back we finished up some study then went out to work and I got to bike through Taiwan traffic! It was super wild and such a fun time. The whole day we just rode around and walked trying to talk to people. The language barrier is rough but I'm trying to listen and understand everything so it's coming along slowly but surely. Tomorrow we have Stake Conference so we have to go back to the mission office for the 3rd day in a row. So happy to be in Taiwan!

Sunday was a fun day. We had stake conference right next to the temple and that was cool. I barely understood anything but what I did understand was that we are all God's children and he loves us so much! I know that to be true and there is so much power in knowing that truth! After we got back from Stake Conference we did some studies and then had missionary correlation meeting. Biking around all day was rough. I need to strengthen my muscles but it helps that I do it every day! Maybe I'll actually be able to ride with dad when I get home! I am still adjusting to the life here and not knowing a lot of Chinese but I love Taiwan! The people have all been so nice and it's great.

This week was quite the week but now I am on the island and here to stay! I love you all so much and hope ya'll have an awesome week!

宋長老

I'M OFF TO SEARCH FOR ANIMAL CHIN! - 9/17/18

A great week again in the KWM!

P-day was super relaxed. We did a little bit of shopping and then hung out at the institute building pretty much the whole day. After preparation day ended we did some service for a lady who might get evicted from her house. So we helped her clean and hopefully, things go well for her and her situation! That was basically all of my day, not to much to write about from it.

Tuesday started off doing some service for the same lady from Monday. After service, we did our studies and had a revelatory weekly planning session! Elder Zolik and I had some awesome inspired ideas on how we can hasten the work in the Wakarusa Valley Ward! I am so stoked to get to work and see the fruits of it! We also helped our ward mission leader family move some stuff around his house because he just moved in about a month ago and so we moved some desks and it was hard work but he took us to Freddy's after so that was tasty! Then we went to institute and that was awesome!  That ended a wonderful Tuesday!

Wednesday was exhausting! We had zone council meeting in the morning and since we didn't have a car we got a ride to and from that but other than that we walked everywhere! I think we walked over 5 miles today, my feet were definitely hurting after that. We were able to try and visit people as well as find new people. This week we want to try and knock 500-1000 doors and so far we got 110 and we've found 5 potential people to teach! Since we walked a bunch that took up a lot of the day walking around so we didn't get to do too much besides walk and knock doors! It was a great day and I felt very productive and like I was fulfilling my full effort to the Lord.

Thursday was INCREDIBLE! It started off by knocking more doors and trying to talk to everyone! Even though a lot of people didn't want to talk to us we are trying to share the gospel! After some tracting, we were fortunate enough to go and visit the person being taught by the sister missionaries and give her a blessing to help her overcome personal struggles and feel comfort in her life. I gave the blessing and after I completed it she said it felt electric and super awesome. I'm not saying that to brag but to share how powerful the priesthood is! One should never shy away from using the priesthood or requesting a blessing by way of the priesthood. It can help so much and my testimony grows of that so often! The other amazing thing that happened today is an Elder and I went to knock some apartments rumored to have a lot of Chinese speaking people. As we went out knocking we didn't talk to hardly anyone! I street contacted an old Chinese lady who didn't even understand English at all. As I talked with her in mandarin she said: "I'm very tired I will go sleep". I was laughing at that for a minute but also amazed I had a conversation with a Chinese person and felt good about it! She actually understood me! Aside from that lady, we didn't talk to a lot of people. As we were walking in between buildings, I said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to provide me one person I could teach and if that person spoke Mandarin that would be great but even if they spoke English I just wanted to teach someone! And of course, the next door I knocked, a KU student opened the door and as we asked her name she said it was YiZi. That is a Chinese name and so I asked if she spoke Chinese. She said she did but English as well. So I talked with her for a minute about missionaries and what we do. We asked if she wanted to read the Book of Mormon and I offered her a Chinese Book of Mormon and she took that one! We also got her email so we can hopefully coordinate a time to visit with her again. HEAVENLY FATHER ANSWERS PRAYERS. No matter how imperfect we may be. No matter what we have done. He answers them. He cares about each and every one of us and I challenge you all to never forget that.

Friday was amazing! It started off with the 6-week accounting call with President McCuistion and when it was my turn to account, I said all of my stuff and then when I was done President said he had one more thing to tell me. He then told me I HAVE MY VISA!!!!! and that I would leave Monday unless I hear otherwise. I ended up getting my flight plans later and it turns out I leave Wednesday at the crack of dawn! I am so excited to leave and go to Taiwan! Not that I don't like Kansas but I know that Taiwan is where I am meant to be! And after 7 months of waiting, I am so stoked to finally go to the holy island! That was the best part of my day today so that is all I am going to write about but I am so excited!!

Saturday was quite the day. Mentally prepping to leave still and starting to get all of my stuff together. Still super excited! We went to Texas Roadhouse because one of the elders got a gift card from his mom and so he took us out and it was a great meal with some great people! One of the workers there complimented my tie.  That was a little funny but cool! Lately, all of the missionaries have been passing around a bug and I am one of the last ones to catch the sickness. Towards the end of the day, I had to stay at the apartment and rest up a little bit so Elder Zolik and I could go back out at night and invite people to come to church. In the end, all of the people we were going to invite got invited and I didn't feel too bad so it all ended well! We also had a bomb missionary correlation early in the morning too. I am glad I will be leaving this ward very missionary minded!

Sunday was an awesome day. It started off with church and we had 5 people at Sacrament, which was a transfer high for us! Along with finding 12 new people this week, it was a great week for Wakarusa Valley missionaries! After church, we had a lesson with a family we are teaching (who made it to church!) and that went well.  We invited them to watch General Conference and hopefully they decide to watch it! I am still kinda sick and so I laid down to rest my head and before I knew it I slept for almost an hour and a half. I feel bad for being sick but I am trying to chug water and get over it quick so I can be the most effective servant I can! This week I am sure it will get better. We also had an amazing dinner with some members and they are such an amazing family I am gonna miss them a lot!! If I ever come back to Kansas I will definitely visit them! The sabbath is the best day of the week!!

That's all I got to write about this week but I am doing amazing and super excited!!!!

I love you all and hope you all are doing great!

Elder Ciminski Official

PS. With Taiwan being so far ahead in time just keep that in mind when writing me next week! You'll be getting mine next Sunday night probably. Just an FYI.

HEBER CIMINSKI OFFICIAL IS BACK!!! - 9/10/18

Hello everyone! Without further ado let's get this week started!

Monday was a productive day! We started off the day with a study at the institute building with Bro. Mitchel and it was awesome. Very informative as always! After the study 5 of us went to WalMart and Ross to see what we could find. Then we went bowling! I started off my game really bad but in the end I had 5 or 6 strikes in one game! I've never done that before! Blessings of being a missionary i guess. After bowling we went to the institute building and played some games. I changed my paddle grip in ping pong recently and I've noticed a huge difference in my game. It's getting better! Mom you better watch out - our table top ping pong will be way more intense now . After P-day officially ended we went back to the apartment for dinner and we ended up staying the whole rest of the day because elder Zolik wasn't feeling well. I cleaned the whole apartment and it felt amazing, took the whole night, but very satisfying! It definitely makes up for all the times I didn't clean up my room back home. Or so I hope .

Tuesday was a little all over the place. We had to act as Uber for some elders who didn't have the car but needed it. So that took a lot of time. After we drove around we finished up our studies and did our weekly planning and got all that stuff done. It was also team member day at Chick-Fil-A so we got free food! Super good! Then we went to the library because I had some online courses I had to do for my missionary portal stuff. That took forever so when we finally got out of there it was time to go on a member team up to drop by our people being taught and try to get their daughter to mutual. The visit went well and we are still praying they come to church! Since it was Tuesday, we finished up the day at institute!

Wednesday was so nice. It rained a lot of the day and I love the rain. It's so soothing to study and listen to the steady rainfall. Ahh so relaxing. We also had a district council meeting. I gave a little training on How To Begin Teaching which went well. After the council meeting the whole zone went to panda express. Super delicious. After some errands, we went to family history and tried to contact a few people. No luck but still trying!! Then we ended the day in the best way possible. ASIAN CUPPING. The Zone Leaders have a set of the cups and so Elder Zolik and I both got cupped. It was so dang relaxing and I felt like a new man after it!! The marks are pretty gnarly too. So worth it though I wanna get my own set now  Too bad I still gotta fly to Taiwan and make flying weight! Definitely a sacrifice I'm willing to make. The cupping was amazing! Would recommend it to anyone!

Thursday was meh, to be honest. The best part of the day was doing service at a soup kitchen thing and helped served food to homeless people. It was totally fun and a good time and it felt awesome to do service! Other than that it was a slow day. When I have tough days I look inward and see what I can be doing better to maybe help turn it around. So in doing that I identified some things I could maybe improve on. Hopefully that, and a new day will help me get back in my groove!

Friday was a super great day! Partially what made it awesome was the fact that it rained. All. Day. It was awesome! Elder Zolik gave me his old sweater and so I put that on and the work went on! Also, we got some big news today. The whole mission is approved to use Instagram! It's such a weird time to be a missionary. Who knew we would be using these tools to share the gospel! It's wild! The last awesome thing was that we put someone on a date for baptism. The date is November 30, 2019! He has a complex situation but now he has a goal to work for! And that's awesome too! So this week was great!

Saturday was perfect. The weather was amazing. Low 70s and the sun peeking out of the clouds. Amazing. We didn't get to spend to much time outside though. Elder Zolik wasn't feeling too great so we took a little longer to get out of the flat. Once we got out we made a few stops then we had to take care of a few other things. I was able to pass off my lesson 2 in Mandarin! I have to pass off the third lesson this Thursday so that'll be a struggle to study. But I'll do it! The last big thing today was giving some priesthood blessings. A lot of the missionaries in the zone have been feeling ill and it's pretty gnarly how sick everyone gets. So last night our districts sisters called us up and asked us to give one of them a blessing. We immediately got dressed and went to help them! Then Elder Zolik requested one since he was sick too. It is always a humbling experience to administer a blessing. We were able to do that and help our fellow missionaries!

Sunday was a chill day. We went to Ward Council in the morning and then church service after. It went well and after church we had a lesson with the one family we are teaching. They weren't able to make it to church but we are hopeful for next week. Elder Zolik was still getting over his cold so we stayed in the apartment and I did a lot of studying. We went on exchanges and did some service for a lady that was referred to us and then we ended the day by watching the face to face with Elder Cook! It was so good and the Saints book it talks about is so awesome too.  I read the whole thing this week and it's such a testimony builder. Go check it out if you haven't already!

That's about it for this week. The Kansas Wichita Mission is awesome and I might get to stay for two transfers! My friend that left a district before me just got his visa and he's in his second transfer in his reassignment. So who knows what'll happen! God does and I trust in his plan.

Love you all!!

Elder Heber Ciminski

COLLEGE GAMEDAY!! *you won't believe what happened* - 9/3/18

Another week another great time in the KWM!!

Last P-day we had some elders come up from Emporia and hang out and we chilled at the institute building a lot and played a lot of pool and ping pong. I am becoming quite skilled at both so when I get home I might be able to give people a run for their money. I had one cool pool shark shot where I jumped the cue ball over a solid ball and hit my striped ball into the pocket! It was pretty cool I felt like a magician for a second. Other than that p-day was slow. They usually are since there isn't a lot to do in Lawrence that doesn't require money, so we just hang out and write all day and it's nice! I like the change of pace for the day. Helps me relax and refocus for the next week!

Tuesday was interesting. We had our weekly planning and stuff which means we don't get out the door until 2 o'clock. After all of our planning and studies, we went to try and contact a few people and then we had an appointment at 4:30 with someone that seemed super solid. But when we knocked on the door and nobody answered! Man, I was so bummed and not to mention this whole time it's raining a ton. Though we pressed forward and grabbed our raincoats and went knocking on doors. We knocked a whole street and only talked to 2 people. Despite all that rough stuff, we had an awesome institute class with Bro. Mitchell and we have a missionary morning study with him this Thursday. That'll be awesome. So overall today was kinda tough but who said missions are easy!

Wednesday we had interviews with the President. It went well! Mine was really short but I think it was because I'm a visa-waiter and he didn't really need to talk to me a bunch since I'm not long term. Though a lot of other missionaries had some long interviews. President can get real intense sometimes so I bet he helped a lot of people learn things. We went shopping today also because we got paid for the month. We bought a bunch of rice and some sauce and ramen. Plus eggs so that's my food for the rest of my time here. But I'm gonna mix it up to make it fun. We had a nice dinner with a family in the ward and they gave us 4 free bowling game passes. I know what we are doing on Monday!!

Thursday was awesome. We woke up to a thunderstorm that got super intense. Which I loved because rain is awesome and relaxing. Then we had some study with Bro. Mitchell and he threw a mind grenade on us and taught us a bunch of stuff from Isaiah and how to understand it. It took us 45 minutes to go through 6 verses of 2 Nephi 16. INSANE! Definitely made me motivated to study that more. We had to finish studies and stuff too even after that so by the time we were done we tried to walk to a house and we got lost so we ended up sitting on the side of the road waiting for a ride. Super hilarious and we got a bunch of weird looks. Then we had an awesome dinner and played some volleyball to end the day!

Friday we had 3-week follow up in Wichita. So we had to get up mega early to drive down. But we stopped along the way to see other missionaries and it was super fun. The meeting itself was ok. Hardly anything applied to me so I just kinda chilled and enjoyed it. Though President did a pushup challenge with another elder and that was awesome. After the follow-up, we visited some of our other Elder's recent converts in El Dorado and then got some grub and headed back up to Lawrence. That took up literally all the time from 6:30A-9:00P today so that's all I gotta write about!

Today was an interesting day. It was the first game day for KU this football season and man was it wild. We were knocking doors and it was 90% college kids doing party stuff. Super interesting (lots of girls with barely any clothes on) and we moved on real quick. After that, we did some surveys on Mass Street again. Since it was game day, people were out and we were able to talk to a lot of people! We were driving around trying to contact people and the KU tailgating was a riot. Whole streets were parties and wow, the only way to describe it is wild, just wild. Sadly all the people we tried to contact weren't home so we didn't talk to anyone. That's been the biggest struggle is just getting people to answer the door!! If that worked out then everything would be amazing. But of course, missions have to be work so that's what we do! Wouldn't have it any other way! The last little thing that was really nice today was that a Sister missionary in my district is sick and she called and asked Elder Zolik and me to give her a blessing. It can be easy to forget sometimes the power of the priesthood. But it is literally the power by which worlds are and were created!! So giving the blessing was a growing experience for me and helped me remember the power of the priesthood and the magnitude it possesses! It's truly miraculous!

Sunday was a great day. Church was good and we had another Elders Quorum lesson about families and parenting. Not too much to get out of that. After church, we had a lesson with the only people we are teaching and it went super well and we might actually get them to church!! We are praying and hoping that their progression will pick up again! Here's for the best. After that, we did our studies and tried to go to our 2 other lessons and one didn't answer our text and the other wasn't home either. So that wasn't too fun but it's ok. Later the YSA elders texted us for a team up with a house of college girls they found yesterday and I had a really bad feeling about it. I don't know why but we ended up not going and I felt good about it. Thank goodness for the protection of the spirit. Even if we don't know why we get promptings we need to follow them so the Lord knows we are willing! That ended out the day. Did some more Isaiah studies and all my other books I'm working on (Jesus the Christ, Alma, Matthew, Teachings of the Presidents). So many things I wanna study and so little time!! Hopefully, I can get through some of it!

I love being a missionary and wouldn't want to be doing anything else right now! I know the church is true and that it is the restored church on the earth today!!

I love you all so much!

Elder Heber Ciminski

THEY COULDN'T BELIEVE I ASKED HIM THIS - 8/27/18

Hey everyone! I hope you had an awesome week. Mine was super good! I won't waste any time and I'll start telling you about it!

On Monday it was P-day of course. We went and did some shopping. We started at Ross and I found some Stance socks for cheap which was nice and after Ross we went to Dollar World and I found some shoes for $6 and they look pretty cool. I'm quickly following in the traditions of the mission. After those two places, we went to Walmart to round out the trip and I got some cereal and milk (I have it so much nowadays). Other than that we went to the institute building and played some games with the other missionaries. Not much else happened Monday but it was a good day!

Tuesday didn't go to plan at all though. We had weekly planning and studies in the morning so that took a lot of our day. We also had a member take us out to lunch which was awesome! Once we finished planning and stuff we went to the Taiwanese bakery in town! I was able to talk to the guy in Mandarin and he understood me! It was so cool! And I got some AMAZING stuff from the bakery so I told him we would be back soon because it was so great! After the bakery, we were gonna go to Eudora and do a lot of contacting but as we pulled out of the bakery our car battery died! So that ate up all of our contacting time trying to find someone with jumpers to help us out. Not what we wanted to do, but it was out of our hands. We did get to go to institute and had another awesome lesson from Brother Mitchell! Institute is the best way to end the day!

Wednesday we had zone conference in Topeka. It was good! Lots of missionaries gathered together and it was very inspiring. I don't really have a lot to say regarding it but I had been saying a silent prayer for a long time to see one of my favorite movie clips (the death crawl scene from "Facing the Giants") and President McCuistion showed it and I was so happy! I love that scene it always reminds me that we can do more than we think we can and especially on the mission it's a great thing to remember. The other great part was I was asked to say the closing prayer for zone conference and I said it in Mandarin. It was quite the experience being able to speak my language and it made me tear up a little! Any time I speak Mandarin a lot of makes me emotional. Definitely kinda weird since I'm not the emotional type but Mandarin has taken me over!

Thursday we had zone leader exchanges which was fun. We started them in the morning after gym so we did our studies and planning and stuff at the apartment and we went to lunch together then got to work! We knocked doors for a few hours trying to find people. It was really fun because it was raining for some of it so we got to walk in the rain and get work done. It made it even more fun for sure. The rain stopped and it kinda heated back up a little, but cooled down again and ultimately was a great day. One thing I learned from my exchange was how to kinda go more with the flow and just accept that not everything is in my control. Learning how to go with what people say and make that relate to the gospel. I feel like the mission has mellowed me out a lot and I'm more go with the flow but today helped me learn how that can apply it to teaching people too. Not having a set lesson in mind no matter what but going in and listening to what the person says and what the spirit says. Using the Spirit and not just what I think. We all know we aren't as knowledgeable as God! Missions are awesome for learning new things about yourself and about how to be a better person and I love that! 

Friday was a day of an awesome tender mercy from the Lord. We did do work and stuff but it was the same old type of things so today is just a miracle story! We were out knocking doors today and we knocked into an Asian man and he wasn't interested in our message so we left. Why I mention he was Asian is because I didn't speak Mandarin to him even though he spoke it to other people in his house and I heard it. I didn't say anything and I totally missed a chance to maybe soften his heart by hearing it in his own language. Needless to say, I was disappointed. As we were walking to the next house I said a prayer to myself and asked Heavenly Father for a second chance and to help me run into someone who spoke Mandarin and that I could speak some with them. We kept on knocking and no luck, both in finding people and also finding my Mandarin opportunity! (Elder Zolik didn't know about this so he couldn't help me!) We went throughout the day and still no luck. Eventually, we were playing volleyball, the last event of the day where we play volleyball and invite less actives or members or investigators. Basically, anyone who wants to come. During the game, a man comes over and asked to play with us. Of course, we let him and he was actually super good and it was really fun! After the game, we talked to him a little and I asked if he spoke Mandarin (he also looked Asian and had an accent from China). All of the other missionaries were shocked and worried I asked him and maybe offended him, but he said he did and that he's actually from China! So I spoke Mandarin with him and it was amazing. Afterwards, all the other missionaries were shocked about what had happened and so I told them about the prayer and they were all amazed. I know God answers prayers but also that he gives second chances! I blew my first chance at speaking Mandarin to someone today but I got a second chance and didn't miss it! My testimony of those two things grew so much today :) 

Saturday was a good day. We had missionary correlation and that was good. We did have a goal to find three new people and get a return appointment. So we went knocking some streets and sure enough, the Lord blessed us with one solid return appointment and two other people who said we could come back later next week and try to follow up. The Lord is so amazing he provides a way for us to accomplish what we want to do! After that, we went to our dinner appointment. It was a wedding reception that we got invited to so needless to say we felt very uncomfortable there but the food was good and I think Sister Gordon-Ross sent home a photo of the missionaries there! Hopefully, you got that! The last thing I did was pass off lesson one in Chinese and Elder Fielding is a homie now and we had an awesome chat about Mandarin and missionary work and it was chill. All the missionaries out here are so chill and homies with everyone. It's so sweet. Elder Fielding said my Chinese was amazing he just had one question about something I had said but it turns out the MTC changed how you say the order of some words and so I was able to teach him something. It all worked out great!

Sunday was a good day. Church was good and we had another teaching appointment right after church. We brought the institute teacher with us so he could help us answer questions and the lesson went super well! So next Sunday when we do our next appointment we will hopefully move forward! The other great part of today was we had dinner with an awesome elderly couple in the ward and they told us some awesome stories. They were so nice. That basically wrapped up the day. It was great!!

That about wraps it up for the week. I also got my English name tags this week so it is a little weird being a normal missionary, but it's only temporary!  I love Kansas though and it is the best place to be right now! 

Love you all!
Elder Heber Ciminski

I FORGOT ENGLISH! - 8/20/18

Hello everyone! This week was another awesome week! I think I will start doing day-by-day recaps because it is easier for me to make sure I include everything I want to! And it makes it easy because I can type it up in my notes every night and copy and paste it. Kinda like keeping two journals. Well, here it goes... 

So last week I had my first P-day in the field and it was pretty fun. Much better than the MTC for sure. We started off the morning by going to the Rock Chalk gym for about three hours. The whole zone came down so we did basketball, soccer, and some more basketball! We left and went back to the apartment and started some laundry up (because we are blessed with a washer and a dryer in the apartment.) Other than that we spent a lot of time at the institute building with the zone playing games and having a good time with other missionaries! All in all, an awesome day in the field.

Tuesday was a lot of planning for the week and kinda getting prepared for this next week of work! We planned how we are going to work harder and get more work done! Two years is only so long you need to make every second count! Keep the "eye of the tiger" focus on the work and the purpose. One great thing that happened today was that I found out I could pass off my lessons (since we need to memorize the PMG ones) in Mandarin! Another Elder in the mission speaks Chinese and President gave the approval for me to Skype the Elder and pass off the lessons, HURRAH!! Other than that, Tuesday was a lot of trying to contact but also going to Institute!  I got registered so I can start getting credit for it. Hopefully, in Taiwan I can go also! I guess we will have to wait and see. And lastly, Elder Zolik and I tried to bake cookies and they turned out a little less than half-decent, nobody is perfect! 

Wednesday was a good day. Also, 1 week of being in Kansas too! Time flies so fast on the mission it's so insane! I'll blink and be sitting back at home wondering what just happened! Today we had a Zone Council Meeting where we talked about things we can do better at as a zone and how we can make our work more effective. It was really good and definitely gave me some good insight. After ZCM we had a zone lunch at this Hawaiian place and it was mega good. They had stickers and I couldn't resist!! I now have 1 sticker on my mission Hydroflask! You know how I am with stickers. Other than that, nothing much happened. We tried to contact somebody and we were successful so we are going to set up a return appointment for her. We also taught a lesson today! It was with two ladies named Tara and Diana. They are nice and we invited them to be baptized! They said they would have to think about it since they have some Word of Wisdom issues.  I'm hoping and praying they will be able to take that next step! Only time will tell.

So time did tell and we got the dreaded text that the people from our lesson yesterday no longer want to meet with us and told us to stop coming. A little sad but God has a plan for all his children and we don't know how his timing will work. After that, we decided to go out and knock some doors. The good old fashion tracting grind. We knocked a whole street and only found one person willing to maybe listen so hopefully when we contact them tomorrow it'll go well! We had an appointment with a family today and taught them some Plan of Salvation stuff. They have a lot of deep doctrine questions that are a little challenging. We invited them to come to church and hopefully, they can come! We had an awesome dinner with some members from the ward and we burned Elder Zolik's 1-year shirt because it was his 1-year mark! Another awesome thing that happened was that the sisters in our district asked me to baptize their convert this Saturday!! 

Friday was a long day. Probably the toughest yet. We had a good study in the morning with the institute teacher, Brother Mitchell. He's a wizard at the gospel and knows a bunch so he lets us ask him questions and stuff it's awesome! After that, we had studies and stuff and then started with our day. Elder Zolik interviewed the person accepting baptism (the one I baptized). He's all good to go! After driving the YSA elders to a few places we had dinner with a family in the ward. The lady has memory issues and it reminded me a lot of Grandma. She had some cool stories so listening to them a few times was totally cool! We tried to contact some people but once again had nobody answer their doors. It's kinda tough hearing about all the other areas in the zone get a bunch of new people and yet we can't even get a door opened. We'll keep on trying and have faith in the Lord and his timing for people. That was all the highlights from Friday. The weeks are flying by so fast here!

Today was William's baptism! It was such a nice service and I got to baptize him. He's a little bigger and the water shallower. So yeah, they ended having to get another elder in the font to help me get him all the way under. It was a little rough and I feel really bad about it (still)! But the ordinance was done, properly, which is what matters. I still feel bad though! Anyway, other than that we found two potential persons being taught today and so hopefully we can start teaching them! We also had a missionary correlation meeting with the new ward mission leader (he went to Taipei on his mission! He doesn't know much Mandarin though). The work is still progressing here and hopefully, it picks up more!

Sunday was awesome! We had church and that was good. After church as Elder Zolik and I were going to check the meal calendar I got run down by a YSA sister. She asked where I was going after my visa wait (I hadn't said a word to her so I was a little weirded out she knew that.). It turns out she served in the Taipei Mission a couple years ago and she saw my Chinese tags and figured I was going there. We talked a little in Mandarin and it was such a nice thing. I miss talking in Mandarin! As much as I may have disliked it in school I love it so much now! She also told me a lot about Taiwan but probably the most awesome thing she told me is that there is a Taiwanese bakery in town!! I can't wait to go try it! Such a small world. I've had a few people come up and say some Mandarin things to me and it's great. At the baptism yesterday some guy I didn't know read my tag as he walked by and I just started talking to him in Chinese and turns out he went to Taichung! Speaking of Mandarin this week I was trying to say Moroni 10:4-5 in English and halfway through I totally forgot it all! But I knew it in Chinese! It's nice to forget English now...it means my Mandarin is improving! I'm still trying to study every day and trying my best to still improve. Okay, Mandarin tangent over. Sunday was a chill day with not much happening. Though it rained and that was sweet. We spent most of the day in the apartment because apparently they don't want us going out in the rain. A little strange but I'm not here to question rules. Overall it was a good day and we have a fun p-day planned out so it'll be "most excellent".

I love you all so much and hope this week is also most excellent for you all!

Elder Heber Ciminski