TOUR DE TAIWAN STAGE 2 (Season 5 Episode 6) - 3/4/19

Last full week of this transfer, where does time go???

We had a great preparation day on Monday! Went up to 花蓮 and called the family at the chapel up there. We had a great talk about scripture study insights and things of that sort. I loved it and felt totally uplifted and inspired by it. Mom and Dad are some spiritual titans (whatever is bigger than giants). They have so much insight and wisdom to share. As for the day with other missionaries we biked to a place that sells aboriginal knives and a lot of missionaries bought some. I didn't though which is surprising since I love knives!! Who knows, maybe someday I'll crack and go get one. Once we got back to the missionary work we tried to go visit someone and they weren't home so we went and talked to the people next door and they were so nice! They even gave us some bread and winter melon tea, so delicious! What was even better is that they asked us questions that perfectly led to the Plan of Salvation. We didn't have time to teach them then but they said they would come to church and we could teach them after church. Such a great miracle!

Tuesday was a pretty interesting day. We went to 玉里 for our district council! It was a great time Elder Crimm and I did our Companionship Study while playing ping pong and it was probably not the most focused we've ever been but we still got it done. We had a good council though we talked about miracles a bit and stuff and I surprised myself by saying my thoughts which I didn't even know I had, definitely some inspiration. My thoughts were that miracles are not always the things we see. Sometimes the miracles are what we don't see, the "near misses" of life. People look for the big manifestations of miracles and things of that sort but I am under the belief that miracles just as big occur but we don't even know it. It is all dependent on the perspective of the person! When we returned from council we made some visits and wrapped up the night. Nothing super crazy but I am definitely pleased with how the day turned out.

Wednesday was kind of backward. By that, I mean that we did some visits and things in the morning then did our studies in the afternoon. We originally planned on reading the scriptures with some members but when we got there we learned it had been canceled.  So we decided to make a visit to another member in the area and read with her. We did that but in the process, I left on my bike and went down a back road right next to us and Elder Crimm didn't see me go so he took off another way and we ended up separated for a bit and it was scary! We ended up reuniting and went on with our day, but I learned just how important it is to be with your companion always! Anyways we had our backward day today which I actually didn't mind. We also had English Class today! The last 3 weeks we have had people attend and it is so great to be able to teach again! I am so grateful for that chance to be provided once again!

Thursday was quite the tiring day! We got up early today and caught a train to 玉里 to go on exchanges! We did the normal routine in the morning and stuff. The big part of the day though was biking 15 miles to a town by the edge of our area's borders. There is a member that lives out there and he drove us around for some visits and showed us some of the area. It was actually very cool!  He fed us food which is always a nice treat. People in Taiwan are so kind and I think it is awesome. We had to start biking back though and that took a good chunk of time so when we got back to town we finished studies and did some contacting and it wrapped up the day. I really enjoy going on exchanges because I like to mix it up a bit and see how other people do missionary work! Everyone is different and seeing different styles is cool. Plus days where you bike around 40 miles total allows you to sleep well at night as well.

Friday was a fun day. Started off the morning by going to the gym and getting a good workout in. I honestly don't know my way around a gym so I just kinda do things like I've seen in workout videos and hope I don't look like a fool. I ended up on the rowing machine and got a good session in on that. The gym is fun maybe it'll be a part of my life in the future. After the gym we did the normal morning stuff and headed to the station to catch our train back home. Right as we got on the platform we watched the doors on the train close and pull away... and that meant we were stuck in 玉里 most of the day. We made it as productive as we could and finally made it home after a long time. We taught a lesson tonight too! The people we've taught have been meeting with missionaries for a while but we had a great discussion about Lesson 3 and scripture study. It was awesome and we set up a time for next week to come back. Miracles are truly happening and I know it's because of God! Our Heavenly Father knows what we need and will provide it in his own timing. We just need to trust in that.

Another 30 miles on the bike on Saturday! We had some visits at opposite ends of our area today so in the future, we will have to plan better but we survived today! The visits went well though we had a few kids come help us knock a door! They literally swarmed us when we parked our bikes and we had no idea who they were but we asked if they wanted to missionary with us for a second and they said yeah so they came and walked around with us! We knocked a door and all 3 of the kids knocked it too. It was pretty cute maybe someday they will accept the gospel and be able to go out on their own missions! The other visit we made was a member visit that was pretty good. They weren't there so we left a little gift for them and a note and called it good. They are a great family and the wife was just in the hospital so we wanted to show them we were thinking of them. We ended off the day taking a train to 花蓮 to spend the night for fast and testimony meeting tomorrow!

What a great Sabbath! We had a great church day and we spent the whole day in 花蓮 and are sleeping over again for preparation day tomorrow. We did our weekly planning and other studies so our day was taken up by that. I reckon it was pretty productive though we got a lot of good ideas for this next transfer since this week is Transfer Week! Elder Crimm is probably moving so this was me kinda just getting ready for introducing a new companion to the area. I am excited though it is going to be a great time! Due to the excessive studies today it makes for a pretty uninteresting day to write about! Whoops.

Love you all so much!!!! Thank you for all the support and prayers!

Elder Heber Chase Ciminski
宋希伯長老

WIPEOUT (Season 5 Episode 5) - 2/25/19

Another week in the life of a servant of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! What a blessing to represent Him everyday. 

Awesome preparation day on Monday! We learned how to do a dance with a member that came down from the 台北 area. It was a super good time I enjoyed it and there was a lot of laughter. Before that happened I got to call home! It's such an amazing change I think the potential this has to help other people is so amazing and I can't wait to continue using it to it's full advantage. And it's nice to see and hear Mom and Dad's voices! Along with Noah too but sadly today I didn't get to video call him, I dropped the ball on that. Nonetheless the change is awesome. We also played a great game of ultimate frisbee today. I made some stellar throws and catches and our team ended up winning! Playing ultimate has always been one of my favorite pastimes so doing it today was super awesome. Aside from that nothing super special happened but it's gonna be a great week this week!

Tuesday was exchange day! We took a train down to 玉里 to do a District Leader exchange. I am with the District Leader himself Elder Thayne! We had a great day today biking around and visiting some people and we actually sat down and shared with three different people and it was incredible! The first was with their investigator closest to baptism and we watched President Nelson's talk about the Book of Mormon and talked about it some with her. Then we biked to a man's house who they call, "Mr. Yellow" since that's what he calls himself. We shared a Restoration story with him and it went so well. The last visit was more of a sit and listen since the man really likes to talk. It was all good though he has some good Christian values, even though not a member of our church he still agrees with some points we share about. I got to really be a part of the teaching and sharing today and I felt so confident in doing so. I know it was Heavenly Father's blessing. I even made 2 phone calls today which is way out of my comfort zone, but I did it. This exchange has already helped me a lot! Tomorrow before we finish I'll have to see what other insights I can learn!

Wednesday was such a great day. We finished up exchanges in 玉里 and hopped on the train back home. Because the time was weird we still had to do our studies so the day got pushed back to the point where we finished studies and had to eat dinner than prepare for our English class! Exchanges was really great though and I learned a lot from Elder Thayne. The biggest thing I learned pertains to how to make a mission really "your mission" and not be a robot. I think I can apply a lot of it into my own mission! I also learned that since moving down to 鳳林 I have lost 8 pounds. Pretty crazy but just goes to show how much biking we do everyday. Elder Thayne also has a skateboard he bought in a previous area (... 🤔🤔😏) and this morning I landed the first nollie of my skateboard career. Definitive proof that miracles happen on missions! I'm just kidding, but miracles do happen and amazing things unfold in my life every day!! That's what makes a mission so amazing is seeing the hand of God touch your life and others as well.

Thursday was incredible! We woke up in 花蓮 and played an awesome game of ultimate frisbee for our morning exercise than we got ready and headed to the chapel for Zone Conference! We had to be there early so we could practice our special musical number (will say more on that later...). The conference itself was amazing. Sister Peterson spoke to us about receiving revelation and I learned a lot from that. Then President Peterson spoke about recognizing the Spirit and using it to teach and always striving to feel it. I learned so much from these talks if we had ended the conference right then I would have been so filled spiritually! We didn't and received some other awesome trainings and it was super great. And of course we performed our musical number. It was the first time I have ever sung solo in front of a group of people in my life. And I was terrified. Thankfully it was only 1 verse out of 4. The number went great though. Everyone said they liked it so I'll take that as a great compliment! This was definitely a push out of my comfort zone but it ended up great (despite that however, I probably will never volunteer or let myself be volunteered for anything like that again). Zone Conference was the highlight of the day though and I really learned a lot that will help me in my ministry!

Friday was a great day! Due to the fact it is Friday it was our Weekly Planning Session once again. This week though I really tried to follow Preach My Gospel to the letter and follow all the parts it has. I really noticed the difference between using it as a guidebook and not a suggestion book. We set a lot of great goals and made plans to make it all happen! There is lots to be done, even in the second most remote area in the whole mission. I have that responsibility to make it happen, talk about pressure! Thankfully I have a companion to help, and we are really gonna rely on the Lord and it will all be done the way it needs to be. We also did some finding today and though we didn't get any firm return appointments we met a really nice Grandma who said we can try back on Monday or Tuesday. All the rest of the houses rejected us but we had that one small success! I am totally pleased. It is by small and simple things that great things are brought about.

Saturday was interesting to say the least. God's hand was definitely in it!! Nothing too crazy happened till we went to visit a member who lives on top of a mountain (no joke). We tried biking up but it ended up turning into just us walking our bikes up. It was raining too so we were literally walking in the clouds and it was pretty awesome. I tried to take pictures but felt like that one scene in Walter Mitty when Sean doesn't take the picture of the leopard. It was just so pretty the pictures wouldn't do it justice! We had a cool visit then came the fun part. Biking down a mountain in the rain. Needless to say I was scared and knew what could go wrong in this scenario. So we said a prayer for safety and started our descent. About a third of the way down though I took a section too fast and tried to brake but my bike slid out from under me and I slid about 10 feet on the road then off the side of it (no guards or anything and just a straight drop). My bike slid off the road too but thankfully neither my bike nor I sustained any serious damage. Just some great road rash and some ripped pants. My bike lost one bolt but it's an easy fix. I definitely had a great brush with disaster but I know that Heavenly Father had His hand in it and prevented a very bad outcome from occurring. I'm still beating myself up about the situation and I'm just grateful that things aren't worse.

I woke up Sunday feeling sore from the crash Saturday. As if my knee wasn't hurting enough now I got a nice big scrape to keep my attention on it. Thankfully once I got moving it felt a bit better. Sunday was a great day! Church was awesome and we got to participate in the circle of giving the gift of the Holy Ghost to the man we baptized last week! That was a very cool experience for me. We didn't have any appointments today so we biked out to a further part of our area to do some finding. Not a lot of people willing to talk but that's how it is sometimes. We were blessed with lots of rain today which made for some beautiful scenery! It was one of those times where pictures can't capture it all. It made me very grateful once again to be serving in such a beautiful place.

This week was pretty wild!! Thankfully I can see the end of it. Thanks for your prayers I know they are answered!!

Elder Heber Chase Ciminski 

宋希伯長老

ANOTHER BAPTISM! (Season 5 Episode 4) - 2/18/19

Another week in the books!

Monday was a pretty good preparation day! We got the usual things done in the morning and then hopped on the train to go to 花蓮 and spend time with the missionaries up there. We did some emailing and lunch at the chapel and then we headed to the beach and played some frisbee and then went down to the water. I waded a bit and went to a different part of the beach than before and it was super cool. Another Elder found a fish clinging to life and he picked it up and saved it's life! Just another day on the job, it was pretty cool though. I really like standing on the beach and letting the waves hit me and roll back and forth. It's so relaxing and throw in some rocks to skip and I'm in heaven! It started to rain on our way back so going out to work tonight I had on my rain coat and some waterproof gloves I found on the ground earlier this week that work perfectly! I kept very dry and now don't really mind the rain that much. Goes to show how having the proper tools and preparations can change the outlook of the situation! Though I am looking forward to the summer a bit. Even though it will be scorching I'm an Arizona boy and the heat is always better than the cold!

Tuesday was a pretty great day. Due to the fact it is Tuesday we had district council in the wonderful land of 玉里! The weather was amazing compared to yesterday and 玉里 is a great place to be! The Zone Leaders came down as well and it turned out really well. I got some inspiration for how we can potentially help the people we are teaching so I will qualify that a great success! For lunch we were also able to eat 八方 and that's one of my favorite places to eat and since 鳳林 doesn't have it it's a treat whenever I can eat it! After our arrival back to our area we made a visit to one of our investigators who we haven't met with in a long time and were able to share a short message with them from the Book of Mormon! It was pretty cool but than right after we got stood up for a lesson with someone else. Such is life, ups and downs, wins and losses. All in all I can't complain I've been given so many blessings the little things don't matter in the end! Just like that one Hope Works speech, it won't matter in a thousand years.

Super great day on Wednesday! We started off the day going to a members home to read the Come Follow Me scriptures for the week. A few other members came also and we read the chapters. It was quite a stretch for me since I haven't studied characters but after a while, I was recognizing more and more. I still needed a lot of help though but I made it through! Nothing else super special happened today but we had an English Class today, my first one in 2 months! It was a little less than ideal since it's been so long since either Elder Crimm or I have taught. Now that we had 2 people come we can get back into the swing of it. Because I am English Unit Leader for our area I really wanna leave this English class better than I found it! I have some ideas but I also need to seek inspiration from Heavenly Father too. He knows the ways already! For now, I am thankful for the chance to have taught an English class. I really love teaching (not just English class, but teaching in general)! Now the hope is the students keep coming!

Happy Valentine's Day! Thursday was a good day. We did lots of biking but it feels good for the legs to get a good spin in. We did a lot of planning for English class today so we can have a great lesson next week! We also tried to visit one of our friends but they weren't home so we couldn't share with her so that just led to more English planning. I got a good feeling about this English class! At night we paid a visit to a returning member and invited him to church and he said he would try. His mom is having some problems so if she is doing well enough he will come. Then we did some exploring of a part of our area we haven't been too. When we do that it kind of feels like the Maze Runner because we are "running" out farther and farther, not necessarily to escape the maze but to find some cool people! And we always have to make it back in time at night! It's a stretch but it makes sense to me. And lastly, we saw a snake tonight on a road! It was pretty long just cruising around. Thankfully it was chill and didn't come after us!

Friday was a pretty interesting day. We had to spend a lot of time inside today for various planning things. We did our Weekly Planning Session and it went really well. We are scheduled to have a baptism next Saturday! Today I was also presented an opportunity to develop my singing talent once again! In our zone group chat the Zone Leaders asked if anyone wanted to do a musical number for our Zone Conference next Thursday. Elder Pope jokingly volunteered me and Elder Crimm, and someone else also joked that we wanted to do it. The jokes on them because now we are both singing in Zone Conference next Thursday! It'll be a great time but we gotta get practicing! Not only do I have the same first name as Heber J. Grant but I also share his sentiments about singing and that expression of talents.

What a historic day Saturday was! We woke up to the announcement of the new preparation day options for communications with our families! I think it's a cool change because it allows the family to be more involved with the missionary and makes it better for the whole family! As for what we did today though we did a lot of biking and some visits to people as well. Nothing super exciting but it rained and I always enjoy a good rain mixed with bike riding. Today was also another SYL day which means that outside the apartment we only speak Chinese (or very little English)! I think these days are really helping my Chinese so that's a good sign. Onward and upward from here!

Wow Sunday was a whirlwind! We had an awesome church meeting and it was nice to have the schedules sent out in advance this week! We got it Thursday or so and I scanned it to make sure I wasn't speaking or anything... I hope you see where this is going. I rechecked the schedule 10 minutes before the meeting started and sure enough I was slated to share a testimony and spiritual thought during sacrament meeting! It all worked out. I shared some scriptures and talked a bit about service and helping others, and although I'm not a man of eloquence, I feel very good about my share and I hope it helped some others too. After church we learned about and organized the baptismal service for the friend that was going to be baptized this Saturday! Thankfully we were able to get train tickets up to 花蓮 and everything worked out. The service was great and I was able to be a witness and I just felt the spirit so strong throughout the whole time. Baptism is such an amazing thing! Even though the whole trip took up our whole day I don't regret it at all. To see someone be baptized is always worth it!!

Such a great week this week!! Being a missionary is awesome and I appreciate all of the prayers and support I am receiving! They truly make a difference every day.

宋長老
Elder Ciminski

ARAGOG STRIKES AGAIN! (Season 5 Episode 3) - 2/11/19

It's 過年 time and that means some crazy stories!

P-day was so amazing on Monday! We woke up in 吉安 and had a great morning. It was a little special though because of Chinese New Year and in the tradition of doing a lot of cleaning at this time of year, all the missionaries deep cleaned their apartments! Since we weren't at our own apartment we helped clean the other Elder's apartment and I had a lot of fun doing it. Cleaning is so fun and it feels great afterwards! I found some cool little trinkets I'm taking back to 鳳林 with me but one of those trinkets is a pair of slacks! So it's not all useless 😜. After the cleaning we went to the beach and played some football and frisbee. I had probably the best games of my whole life! In football we were going to 4 and the first to get 4 points wins. Of those 4 points I scored 3 kickoff return touchdowns and got 1 interception and ran it all the way down the field for the 4th touchdown. That good of a game reignited my dreams of playing rugby (sorry, Mom probably doesn't wanna hear that). In frisbee I made a sweet diving catch to score a point for my team and all in all today was a great day athletically for me. That made me super happy 😊 (it also paralleled nice with the Super Bowl going on at the same time. Which I forgot about until another missionary talked about it). We finished off the day with an amazing dinner with the Bishop's family and today is officially 過年 time so there was a lot of food and it turns into a game since they won't let you stop eating! The food was so good so I didn't mind eating a ton of it. Because of the New Year there are so many fireworks going off all day I love the atmosphere! At first impressions this is gonna be a great week!

Tuesday was such a cool day. I got to go to the land of my forefather. By that I mean I finally got to go to the area Elder Pope talked about the most (of his previous areas) when I was in training, 玉里! We are now in a district with those Elders and the Elders in 鹿野. And that means the 3 most remote areas of the mission have assembled into the three kingdoms. It's pretty awesome and we had a great District Council. The 鹿野 Elders couldn't make it so it was just 4 of us but we just talked about our areas and got to know each other more and our areas too. Even though it wasn't an actual training I felt so much upliftment because we can all relate to our areas and can really take our challenges and concerns and bring them in to receive awesome suggestions from others going through the same things. I am glad this district has been formed because it's going to do a lot of good! Travel ate up a lot of time but that's the reoccurring theme of being in this area. The travel time is great and the reimbursement amounts are super great! I wouldn't have it any other way, 鳳林 is heaven on earth.

Wednesday was a fun day. And with it being the 6th of the month it also is another month mark on my mission, number 8! Onward, ever onward! The work never ceases. Today we had a good time knocking. We did a little exploring and a dog started following us around and we ended taking some pretty awesome unplanned pictures (me and the dog), and it was a cool view! Then a bit later we ended up finding the house the previously mentioned dog was from and we talked with the lady living there. She seems pretty set in her religious preference but we still left her with a Book of Mormon and hopefully she'll feel impressed to read it! When we were leaving the house two of their other dogs came up and I started petting them and squatted down to get close to them. Then as we were walking away the lady said that one of the dogs bites people, but it didn't even hint at that with me, not even a bark or growl. As Elder Crimm and I were walking way all I said was, "I'm Daniel dude." It was super cool! I know all the times dogs haven't given me a hard time has been a blessing from Heavenly Father and I sure am grateful for it! I also saw some clovers that had heart shaped leaves so that was cute. Overall today was an awesome day!

What a day. Thursday was lots of biking and a lot of it probably wasn't necessary. We had set up with our friend previously talked about in previous weeks (the Book of Mormon miracle one) and we biked all the way to his house (45 minute ride) and when we show up his Grandma walks out and tells us he had "things" and had to leave. So it was a bummer that that happened. All is well we will learn for next time. We had an awesome dinner tonight as part of Chinese New Year celebrations and that was basically the day! Nothing super exciting since we also did Weekly Planning also. That went super well though I took some pages from my Kansas book and I feel super good about it all! We made a "Plan 2 Baptize" and I have the faith that if we follow the plan we will see some results!

Friday was a super great day. We had a great morning and had our apartment inspection with President! He video called us and we showed him our clean apartment and I'm pretty proud of it. When I first got here things were super dingy but after some hard work we've got it super clean! We have 3 guitars in the apartment which is fun. Elder Crimm plays one and I fixed up one of them and now I'm learning the guitar! It's pretty fun I got a PDF from Elder Crimm of a whole lesson book so I can really learn the basics and build up. As for today's events we had a great lunch with a member and his family and man, during Chinese New Year they feed you a ton. I ate so much I felt so uncomfortable after. The food was good though, I absolutely love Taiwan food. We walked around a lot today as well trying to find people and I was able to swap some more stories with Elder Crimm and get to know him a bit better so that was fun as well. All in all a really good day!

Saturday was such a great day! We just did some knocking and whatnot up until our dinner! Tonight it was the last New Year's dinner with members! And this one was with 陳榮光 and his family! Their family is so cool we had a great time talking and we even heard Brother 陳's conversion story. He's been doing stunts and other cool stuff his whole life, but I loved what he said about the gospel changing his life along with his wife's life also. He hasn't had it easy either, lots of accidents and such that made him angry before he heard the Gospel, but he's always so happy and I truly believe it's because of the Gospel. I know that the Gospel has made my life have so much more happiness, so I know it can be that way for others also. Lastly, on a fun side note when we got to their house they had a Maze Runner movie playing, I think it was The Death Cure, it looked really good so I'll have to check it out someday. I've definitely cherished those little exposures to "worldy" things as I have gone further along in my mission. Tender mercies? I think so.

Sunday was a slow Sabbath. They usually are and I think it's pretty nice. We had a great church service and I blessed the Sacrament again. The prayers are becoming more familiar in Chinese and I can understand the meaning so it is more than just sounds. It makes a difference! I am glad I have had the chance to do it so much and become more familiar with them. Aside from church, nothing super exciting happened. Except for the fact we killed 2 more spiders as big as my hand. The first one of the day I got on video but the second one I missed! I flubbed up and I'm pretty bummed because it was quite the ordeal killing the second one. It was in a corner in the roof and we ended up taking one of Elder Crimm's sandals and throwing it at the spider to get it to hopefully fall on the ground and then when it fell we put a box full of heavy things on top of it to crush it. It was pretty gnarly but I will sleep better knowing that two less giant spiders are crawling around the chapel! Hopefully we don't have any more run-ins with Aragog and his posse.

The Chinese New Year time is over and it was exciting! Lots of fireworks going off all over the place and a lot of people coming too see their families. It was an exciting time and it was great to experience the culture even more! 新年快樂!

宋長老

Elder Ciminski

WE HAD ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE! (Season 5 Episode 2) - 2/4/19

Another week another crazy adventure on the Isla Formosa!

Monday we had an awesome preparation day. The Elders from 吉安 came and slept over at our apartment Sunday night so we could party in 鳳林! We had a super cool adventure biking around and taking lots of pictures on bridges, underneath them and every place in between! It was a super fun day and we were blessed with amazing weather. Recently it's been cold and cloudy and really feeling like winter but today it was sunny, warm and felt so awesome. I definitely am thanking Heavenly Father for that blessing. The rest of the day was pretty relaxed, I gave another haircut (I'm a good missionary barber if I do say so myself). Then when we got back to work we knocked the whole time. I'm tired of not being able to teach people and I really want to teach someone I'm really busting my chops to find and begin teaching. So I'm going to do whatever it takes to make it happen. Stay tuned for the results of this effort!

Tuesday was a great day. We had lots of scheduled finding time today and so we were able to get a lot of knocking done. We did get stood up by our hopeful friend from last week (the one that lives very far away and already had a Book of Mormon), but that just gave us more time to knock. We need all the time to find we can get. We have a very shallow teaching pool and I want to make sure that changes because I want to teach! Although with Chinese New Year coming up people are very busy and getting appointments is going to be challenging. It will give us some time to do member work.  And some members are generous enough to feed us! Back to today though, we also had a fun run-in with fireworks! As we were knocking some kids were running around and lighting off crackers and whatnot and we were caught in the thick of it! They were popping all around us and it was awesome! It's an exciting time to be in Taiwan!

Wednesday was a great day. I feel like I really made today count. We didn't have any lessons or anything and we once again had no students show up for English class. It's all good though. Whatever spare time we had today we spent knocking. We had some cool conversations and handed out a lot of tracts. We also walked up a cool hill and it had an amazing view of the valley and surrounding mountains so of course, I had to get a picture! Taiwan is so beautiful even when it's all cloudy. Words are inadequate to express how grateful and fortunate I am to be here. Sometimes when knocking I feel like I'm really testing the definition of insanity. We try the same things without different results. Just because the results aren't changing right now I know that they will soon. I have faith that Heavenly Father has put prepared people in this area. The last point for today is I am starting to speak more Chinese and despite my stutter making its presence known occasionally, I press forward and I'm feeling like I'm improving a lot! There's always a silver lining to everything . Speaking of the language, we had a small earthquake today during language study! I was sitting at my desk (we did it inside today since Elder Crimm's back is hurting), and all the sudden things started shaking for about 10 seconds! It was pretty small but still a unique experience, only my second Taiwan earthquake!

Thursday we had an awesome Zone Council in 台東! That meant that our day was pretty much taken up by train travel, council, dinner and our train back. It was a great time though and we talked about planning and making sure we are doing meaningful things. I really enjoyed it because that's a focus I want to have is making sure that everything I do is furthering our area and contributing to that growth. It will definitely have a lot of future application in my personal ministry. We had dinner at Sam's Burger again and I got the granddaddy of all burgers. I didn't finish it though because I had too much to eat before dinner but I got some good leftovers to enjoy later! That was pretty much today, travel and council. It was nice to see Elder Pope once again and other members of the Zone I don't get to see too often. In my opinio,n our zone is the best in the mission so I feel very lucky to be a part of it and learn so much from others.

Friday we had a pretty busy day with lots to get done. We were able to make some visits and even had a surprise lesson with someone we found a couple weeks ago! That was a pretty cool thing. We also biked 10 kilometers to 光復 and taught a lesson there as well. So 2 lessons in one day is definitely something to be happy about! I'm definitely pleased. This weekend is gonna be pretty crazy though, it is Chinese New Year next week but the people have started celebrating way early and it turns into just a whole February holiday. We also have church in 花蓮 and 2 different people treating us to food both Sunday and Monday. I'm excited for my first 過年 in Taiwan!

Saturday was an interesting day. We had to get a lot of behind the scenes stuff done. With the Chinese New Year coming up we had to shop for groceries since the grocery store won't be open most likely. Basically, everything closes down so there will be lots of time to celebrate and have a good time! We also had weekly planning today as well as trying to teach English class. Once again we didn't have any students so it was just more piano practice time for me! My skills are slowly improving I can muddle my way through a lot of the hymns. We also had a lesson scheduled but when we showed up everyone was drunk so that didn't go as planned, and since there was a lot of smoking as well, I think my lungs got a little more black. The last part of the day we caught a train to 花蓮 and will be here until Monday night. On the train, this crazy drunk dude sat right next to Elder Crimm and I and started talking with us and we were the only ones in the train car so it was very awkward. We just kinda let him do his thing and we did ours. Taiwan definitely isn't short in the memorable experiences category.

Sunday was such an awesome Sabbath! It started off amazing when I woke up and looked out the window it was such a beautiful sunrise and it blew me away I had to take pictures of it, of course. We had some good studies in the morning as well and by the time we finished it all, it was time for church! Because it was fast Sunday we attended in 花蓮. It was a good fast and testimony meeting and I definitely feel renewed and refreshed going into this new week. After church was done we helped the Elders make some arts and crafts for their various member dinners during this New Years week. Then we went to a member dinner of our own! It was so delicious. So much good food and I definitely ate my share. The members in Taiwan are so giving to missionaries it is amazing. We went street contacting the rest of the night and actually got one person to set up and hear more about the gospel so I quantify that an absolute success!

This last week was pretty interesting and this next week is going to be great too! I love you all and can't wait to share it with you!

宋長老
Elder Ciminski

TOUR DE TAIWAN STAGE 1 (Season 5 Episode 1) - 1/28/19

Woah this week was wild! Hopefully my writing will capture it all.

So Monday we had preparation day and we spent it at the chapel in 花蓮 all day. We had a super good time we played some basketball and just talked with other missionaries about random stuff. It was really fun! Before we went up I sent some letters from the post office, I am still a firm believer in snail mail! I love writing and receiving it. And it's really cheap so even better! Today was a really fun day I enjoyed it all. Last night we got transfer details and I already knew I was staying here (and President keeps saying I'll stay for 4 transfers. Like I said before though I'm taking it transfer by transfer). The work we did tonight was just knocking around but it was also a full moon tonight and I was looking at a moon and it just kind of hit me how big the solar system is and how many other things are out there but God knows them all individually. How amazing is that! Someone who knows all of that to care about us individually and loves us so much just fills me with so much joy.

Tuesday was very interesting. We spent the morning doing service for our group leader. We moved some boxes onto a truck and went with him all the way down to 花蓮 basically to drop them off at this little shop place I guess he is turning into his own bike repair shop. It's actually super cool! The drive down the highway was so amazing. I just had my arm out the window and feeling the nice crisp winter wind and seeing more of the beautiful island just filled me with such an all-around joy. We had District Council not too long afterward so we got dropped off at the chapel which was really nice. District Council was nice, but a little sad since 鳳林 will be moving into a new district with 玉里 and 鹿野. These three areas are the three most remote in the whole mission so we are nick-naming ourselves "The 偏僻 Kingdoms" since we are all so remote. It'll be a good time though since we are all in the same boat we can have better discussions about our areas and help each other more. It'll be super cool! On our way back to the train station to come home some members from 台北 treated us to some stinky tofu randomly. Tasty and a super nice gesture! Once we got home we had to do personal and companionship study after dinner so that was the rest of our day. An interesting day but sometimes missions will have those!

Wednesday was pretty dang awesome. We saw such a cool miracle! We went to a part of our area pretty far away (approximately an hour away as the biker bikes). Neither Elder Crimm or I were familiar with this place so we decided to go and check it out today. As we were knocking doors I saw a kid sweeping his driveway a few doors down and just felt like talking with him. So after the door we were at didn't answer I walked over to start talking with him. I ended up helping him sweep his driveway and we talked about the gospel (he also had some American pop music playing in the background so that was a tender mercy), and he eventually invited us inside to share a quick message. While inside, we shared a scripture and he set up to hear more on Saturday! What makes it even cooler is as I was sitting there looking at this kid's super cool house I noticed a bookcase way across the room and noticed one book in particular. I recognized it after a second and then when we walked out on the way I walked over to this case and pulled out a BOOK OF MORMON he already had in his house! I invited him to read the introduction before Saturday and he said he would! Heavenly Father has blessed me with a keen sense of observation and it has proved helpful many times on my mission and I am grateful for that gift. That was a little long of a story but it was so cool I just had to share it! Miracles happen! God is a God of miracles!

Thursday was the first day of the new transfer! And that meant I could wear a different tie! I'm not sure if any of you noticed but I wore the same tie every day last transfer. It actually got hard towards the end, but I stuck it out! Let's just say though, I probably won't wear that tie again for a long time... Today was a weird day because we had an activity for our ward in 花蓮 and today was transfer day too so the bikes we usually use in the city were all taken. That led to us biking 20 miles from 鳳林 all the way to 花蓮! It was a long ride (an hour and 40 minutes) but we saw some amazing scenery and I felt super good after finishing. The activity was also super awesome because it was centered on motivating youth to go on missions! That's one of President Peterson's biggest goals for us as missionaries is to strengthen the church in Taiwan and help the youth go on missions. It's super awesome to be a part of this amazing countries church growth! After the activity, there was a train that could take our bikes back on it to 鳳林 so we didn't have to bike back thankfully! Despite being busy and not having a lot of actually missionary time today (we also did weekly planning today too), I feel super good about how things are going and I am ready for my next transfer in this awesome area!

Friday was a good day. Nothing too exciting happened but I did cut my hair once again. I recently read a talk from Tad R. Callister about becoming a consecrated missionary (what it is with him and giving great talks???) Part of the talk that really hit home was laying pride on the sacrificial altar of missionary work. I really do like my hair, especially when it is long and I can do stuff with it. After reading the white handbook for grooming I decided it was too long so I took my longest guard on my clippers to it. It was definitely a lot shorter than I thought it was going to be but hair grows back. No worries, now it is a more appropriate length that I am happy with. That's one of many things I will be changing this transfer to be a better missionary. Some will be physical, like hair, and others will be more internal, like not thinking about trivial things that don't matter at the time. Nonetheless, this next transfer is only the beginning of the transformation. It'll be exciting to see all the great things that will happen!

Saturday was a day of letdowns. We started the day with 3 lessons scheduled and ended the day having taught none of them. Plus another English class with no students. Those two parts of the day were kinda tough but I still end up feeling so much joy at the end of the day. It's awesome how that works out. A few days ago I found a straw hat on the road and decided to keep it and clean it up. I wore it out walking around town today and I feel like a pioneer with it, people should start calling me "Brother Heber". That would be pretty funny. The mission has given me lots of time to reflect on my previous years and now I have a small flicker of desire to go on Trek but now my time has passed. The pioneers are a great example for us all we would do well to learn about their faith and their stories. They still have application today! Church history in its entirety is super cool to study. I guess that's some of my thoughts from the day, kinda all over the place but that's how it is sometimes! 

Sunday was pretty slow. We had an awesome church meeting in the morning and after that, the day was pretty slow and relaxing. We did our studies and then waited for a member to get back to us about a potential visit to our investigator. We did actually end up making the visit and it was such a good visit. We went over the time limit we established and the members that came with us provided such a strong testimony. When they finished sharing we all just sat there and I was feeling the spirit so strongly. It was such a powerful lesson and I know it helped our friend feel the spirit too and will help her progress towards baptism more. That was definitely the best part of the day. The Spirit is such an amazing thing and it is such a great privilege we have as members of the church to have the chance to always have it with us. I am trying to always feel the spirit and it is my wish for everyone to do the same! Without the spirit it's like going on a dangerous expedition with no directional tools. It's so necessary!

I love you all a bunch and I'm always praying for you! I know you pray for me and I can feel the power of those prayers when I need it most. Thank you!

宋長老

Elder Ciminski

I CAN'T EVEN THINK OF A TITLE FOR THIS. - 1/21/19

You probably already know what I am going to say about this week. It was awesome as always!!

Monday we had such a fun day. The night before we took a train to 花蓮 to stay the night and make preparation day a little more convenient. So I woke up, got my study done, worked out and got ready for the day and then we all got up and headed out because we did a hike! This hike was notorious for causing some strong ankle pain and stuff so I was worried about my knees because they aren't the best. Long story short we had an amazing hike but my knees are hurting a bit. I bought knee braces today for future hikes so I won't feel uncomfortable. After that we did the usual game of ultimate frisbee and spent time with a lot of missionaries having some fun! After that we just came back to our area, got stood up for our lesson, and then spent the rest of the time arranging times to meet with members of our small group this week. Even with getting stood up today was a great way to start the week!

Tuesday was sweet because we had District Council in 花蓮 and got to grow more as a District. The Sisters weren't there today so I volunteered my very limited piano abilities... let's just say I got a long way to go. I still think I'm progressing well since I have really only learned on my mission and time is limited. After our District Council, we just came back to our area and got to work! We tried to visit some members and they were all sleeping. They are also all pretty aged so I don't blame them. We did go knocking though and ended up having an awesome with a girl who is a student at a college in 花蓮 but we talked about the Bible and we all shared our favorite story from it. It was super cool and she ended up expressing interest in the Gospel so it's super exciting! It was a great rebound from my lame attempts at contacting early in the night. Whenever I tried to talk I would stutter and for lack of a better way to put it I was a man of a stammering tongue like Moses. It was a blow to my confidence but I got over it and I'll try to improve in the future. Not every day can be perfect but that doesn't mean I'm gonna give up! Every day is a great day when you're serving a mission in the best country ever!

Wednesday was a crazy day. Some interesting experiences. The first being I had a dream last night but in my dream, I heard my alarm tone I wake up to every morning. Hearing this triggered something in my head so I actually woke up in real life! It doesn't stop there, I started saying my morning prayer and during this prayer I actually had this thought come to me, "wait. Did my alarm even go off?" and when I finished the prayer I checked my phone and it was only 4 AM! So I got some more sleep but it was a funny experience. The other crazy thing is we finally took care of the spider in the chapel that was bigger than my hand. We mustered the courage to take care of it and when we went to go do it IT HAD MOVED. We both freaked out but I was even more scared because this thing could have been anywhere. We finally located it and it was positioned perfectly in between water jugs and the wall. So I filmed and did my best Bear Grylls imitation while Elder Crimm squashed the thing. It was so wild I am just relieved the problem is resolved. Nonetheless it ,was an awesome day! 

Thursday was a more administrative day. We had studies then did our weekly planning session. So lots of discussion and planning for our people we are teaching. After we finished that however, we had a cool visit with our 小組 leader and his family. Our message centered around thanking them for all they put into our group. They honestly do so much and I feel like they don't always get the thanks they deserve so it felt good to express to them how we felt. They were very grateful. That was pretty much the day though. Nothing super exciting but I loved it! Got some good biking miles in today. I think I might be biking more miles than dad is 😜!

Friday was a pretty good day. We had our normal Friday basketball and share experience. Except this time we shared with the mom before we played and then the kids after. It was super cool and I have hope for all of them to progress. That was a lot of the day though by the time we finished studies and things like that. There isn't too much to share from the day but I was reading the Life of Heber C. Kimball and came across such a powerful quote that hit me hard. This is the Lord talking to Heber and it says, "therefore thy name is written in heaven, no more to be blotted out forever, because of these things; and this Spirit and blessing shall rest down upon thy posterity for ever and ever: for they shall be called after thy name..." This hit me so hard especially when I read that they will be called after his name. I guess it is pretty obvious why that stuck out to me but I am continually striving to add upon my great name and give it a fame that cannot be slain! Our names are so important we shouldn't do anything to mess up something so important!

Saturday was a slower day. We spent the day trying to visit some members and that ended up well. They really enjoy talking so the control is a tad difficult but it was nice to just hear what they had to say. It makes me wonder how many people actually listen to them and have conversations with them. After the visits and stuff like that we went to teach a lesson, and the people weren't home so we got stood up. It wasn't the worst situation ever because as a result we got to meet a cool family and they shared some oranges with us and we shared the message of the Restoration with them! The father believes that all Christian churches are the same, which is a common belief here, but we will hopefully be able to fix that belief and help him realize what makes our church the only true and living church upon the face of the Earth! Today was a good day, lots of biking and talking with people. A pretty normal day in the life of a Taiwan missionary!

Sunday was super cool! We had a cool church meeting and had a cool Come Follow Me lesson. I love the new program. I just wish I had an English copy of the orange book I could use for myself! I'll hopefully acquire one soon. After church we talked with a member for a bit and she was showing us videos of her husband's work because they were recently in China doing stuff. He is the member that does all the motorcycle racing and stunts and stuff. So the videos were super cool it looks like a lot of fun! After we got home though we did the usual routine and then went on a visit with our group leader to a member whose brother died recently. We sang some songs and said a prayer with him, I hope it helped him feel better. We then went and biked around a bit and tried to knock some doors to close the day. Some more rejection but it's all good. Like I mentioned before I'm planting seeds! On a side note I was watching a video from the LDS Media Library about Zions Camp and it was cool to see it put to visual form. That was definitely quite the experience for those involved but it helped prepare the leaders and future leaders of the church in that time. It was super cool!

That's all I got for this week I hope you all are doing great! I'm sending prayers your way always. 加油!

宋長老

Elder Ciminski