(Season 6 Episode 5) - 4/8/19

Pretty uneventful preparation day not going to lie. In the morning we went to Carrefour with our Ward Mission Leader which was fun. He's a fun guy who served his mission in Detroit! After that trip we spent the rest of the day at the chapel. Played some awesome basketball and talked with the other missionaries. When the weather gets better we are going to get out more and do more activities. For now as the rain continues the basketball probably will too! It was a good day and a good start to the week. Should be a good one.

Super awesome day Tuesday. Started off normal and we headed to 玉里 for the normal district council things. Then instead of going home I started an exchange with Elder Zhong! He is one transfer younger than me so two young missionaries took over 玉里! We had an awesome night making some visits to members of their branch and doing some studies. We played lots of ping pong today. We play every week before district council and that's a fun time. I'm improving a lot and definitely better than I was in Kansas when we would play every preparation day. I love putting spin on the ball and it's a big part of my style. It also makes it harder to return and I get some good reactions. We also played ping pong tonight with some potentials and one of them was super good. He is a spinner too and so when we played we were loading up the ball with so much spin. We were evenly matched so we each won 2 games against each other. It was loads of fun I wish I could play ping pong more!

Another fun filled day Wednesday. Woke up and went to the gym for a great workout and then came back and started the day. As we were doing our personal study we had another earthquake! I don't even mention them anymore because they aren't anything super crazy but it's always a strange feeling going through one. We got started with our day however, and played a little bit more ping pong before we took a train to end our exchange. We got swapped back and we did our daily contacting to people and then ate some dinner before heading out to play badminton the rest of the night. Badminton is a tough sport I'm not gonna lie and I'm gonna be sore for sure. It is very fun though and we had a good night practicing and getting ready to play against people for reals!!

Thursday was a pretty solid day. We had 3 scheduled appointments and they all went very well. One especially really inspired me because the man we met with is very old, but as we were talking with him he just said that when we were at his home he felt very happy and he liked it. What an awesome testimony of seeing him feel the Spirit and be able to recognize it in his life! I have faith he will hit his baptismal goal and then always have the Spirit with him! We also had a chance to do some knocking as well and even though we didn't get anyone with a firm appointment we definitely put the effort in. Recently I have been feeling inadequate and that sometimes even my best sometimes just doesn't measure up. Thankfully I have a very skilled companion who can help me learn and improve my own skills as to help me not feel that way. I have to remind myself that we are on the Eternal Progression, not the one-day-and-you're-done progression. As long as we are trying our best then Heavenly Father will reward our efforts.

Friday was a good day! We stayed busy with doing weekly planning and lots of visits as well. The visits were to members of the 小組 to make sure they were coming to church since this weekend it is in 花蓮. Those went well and we got to share a little message with them to help bring the spirit to them as well. Aside from those visits and stuff we filled the rest of the time with studies and that type of stuff. Pretty packed day! Our weekly planning session today was cool. Elder Lee is helping me improve a lot and learn tons of new things so I am really enjoying that and striving to become better. There always feels like so much to improve on but I'll take it one step at a time.

Another day! Saturday was pretty good we started off with the usual routine then waited for an hour for an English class that didn't happen. We just got some advertisements out so we were really hopeful that students would come but luck wasn't on our side this week. It was fine though we had a lesson with one of our people on baptismal date right now and she is looking super promising to hit her goal still! We are very excited for her. We tried to bike out and visit a man we have been teaching as well but we actually ran into him along the way to his house and had a good streetside conversation with him for a few minutes to see how he's been doing recently. Then that was basically the day because we took a train up to 花蓮 for Fast Sunday church and we took the early train for our monthly tradition of getting McDonald's for dinner. Today was a great day!

The Sabbath is truly a delight. We had an awesome spirit-filled meeting and I really enjoyed it. We even had one of our friends come to church which made it the best!! He's totally gonna hit his baptismal goal. After church, I went on an exchange with my good friend Elder Ray. His companion has been on bedrest for the last 2 weeks with a messed up back so I was able to help Elder Ray get out and do some missionary work and we had an awesome night teaching two lessons to 3 people! We taught 2 lesson 1s and it was really powerful I felt the spirit as I testified and that made we want to do it more!

Elder Heber Chase Ciminski
謝希伯長老

BROTHER HEBER BACK ON THE FARM (Season 6 Episode 4) - 4/1/19

Another 7 days in paradise!

Had a fun preparation day Monday up in the city. We had a pretty chill morning with all the elders calling their families and doing some cleaning. We grabbed a super tasty lunch at my favorite place then headed to the chapel where we played a lot of basketball. I haven't played ball that hard ever. Definitely got some good exercise and had a good time. That was basically the day though because we came back to our area and got ready then called a few people and shopped then had our weekly coordination meeting. This week should be a fun week. I'm excited.

Pretty sweet Tuesday! We went to 玉里 for our first district council of the transfer and it was good. We basically got retrained and heard a bunch of the same things we have been hearing recently but I guess it's that important. A lot of focus right now on member work and talking to lots of people. All good things to push the work forward and help everyone hear the gospel! When we got back to 鳳林 we had a good night of finding. We were able to knock some houses and try to get some appointments but no one set up. Thank goodness we did our former calling for the day because we got an appointment from that. I really hope this appointment goes through because the last few times we have tried to visit these formers they have canceled when we already got there (and they don't live close). I have faith though that this is the time! They will keep the appointment and get to hear the gospel!

Pretty sweet day Wednesday. I got word that Shane got his mission call to Ohio! So I am super stoked for him. He's going to be a great missionary! Today we had two lessons. One with our friend with a baptismal date and the other with two sisters who are progressing very well. I think the two sisters will accept baptism very soon so I will continue having faith in that. Our other friend with a date is dealing with some other issues but I still have faith that she will hit the goal. I am trying to increase my faith in all aspects of life and that begins with missionary work! Since that's my life right now I need to develop it as much as I can.

Thursday was a very tiring day. We brought 6 missionaries with us and we went and spent a day on the farm! Brother Heber working a days labor in the fields! It was pretty hard work but we got so much done today I was very grateful we had a lot of help and could provide that service for our group leader. We got a nice workout in and a good sunburn/tan! Aside from that, we didn't do a lot today but we did get three new friends to teach because a family was willing to meet with us! That was super awesome and a cool cap off for a great day.

Friday was awesome. We started off playing basketball in the morning with a bunch of kids at the elementary school right next to our apartment. We've been playing with them this whole week and it's been a lot of fun. They told me today I couldn't dunk anymore so that's kinda sad but it's still loads of fun. We had our weekly planning today and also did some research about possibly playing badminton in 鳳林! We found the place they play and they said we could play for free once a week! So we are going to start playing every week. We have to get our own racquets so we will be all professional and stuff. It should be a good time and a cool source of finding people to teach.

Super good Saturday. We had a pretty good day making visits and also having some fun with the kids in 鳳林. We met up with the kids we play ball with in the mornings and this afternoon played with them. They are good kids and they play a hard game of ball. We also practiced some badminton, and let's just say I'll need to improve a lot. That's what practice is for! The last big part of the day was spending the night at the night market. We handed out a lot of English flyers and had a good time!

A good Sunday for the books. We had a good church meeting where I got to say a prayer and share a testimony also. I shared about faith because that has been my focus for a bit so that was cool. Afterward, Elder Lee and I had a good chat with some members about helping their son do some mission prep. We also had a lesson today and the man we met with set a baptismal goal with us! We are very excited for him and his progress he is super humble and his progression is going to be awesome!!

Elder Heber Chase Ciminski
謝希伯長老

THE PINEAPPLE GLADE (Season 6 Episode 3) - 3/25/19

Where do these weeks go?

Monday was an awesome preparation day. We had a good morning taking care of the necessities and then headed up to the city to have some fun with other missionaries. We had lunch together at my favorite dumpling place and then all headed to the beach for some frisbee. This is the first time this transfer we have played and we got some real good players now so it's a lot of fun. The weather today was sublime. The sun was shining nice and bright and the ocean looked beautiful and we had some nice instrumental music going as we were playing and it just made the whole environment amazing. The vibe was incredible. One of those that just fills you up with joy. Then we just sat on the beach and talked about all types of stuff and just soaked in the rays. Such an awesome day with great people and definitely a day I'll remember for a while.

Fun day Tuesday! Did the usual morning stuff and I'm still overcoming a recent cold so it takes a little bit to get started in the mornings, but by the time we are out the door I'm feeling good! Today we tried to visit some people and made some calls too. We also walked around some smaller towns to talk with people also. Didn't see a lot of appointments set today but we are gonna keep on pushing forward and we'll see the success soon enough. Today was a pretty normal day in terms of the work so nothing super noteworthy to write about.

Wednesday was a cool day. We started off by doing some farm work for our group leader and we just made some rows of soil that he could start planting. It was actually hard work and it felt very satisfying to finish and see the results of our work. Just goes to show that some of the most rewarding things come after hard work! After we finished up the daily labor we did some spiritual labor and did our studies as well as teach a lesson to our friend on baptismal date. She is doing well and I think she will be able to hit her goal. After that though we had dinner then set up for English class.

Boy Thursday was a packed day. We woke up in 花蓮 very early because we had to catch a 6:03 AM train to 台北 for a special mission conference with Elder David F. Evans. We were blessed to be able to make it there safely and the conference was great too. We received a lot of training and inspiration. One big takeaway I got was from a metaphor President Peterson used about coasting. How when we coast we can lose control very easy, but we can regain control when we have a little resistance and pressure. It will help us grow and improve more. Pretty cool. Today was also probably the last day I see my mission father, Elder Pope, before he goes home at the end of this transfer. I look back fondly on the times we shared and am excited to see what his future has in store for him! I also got to see lots of other missionary friends today so it was an awesome day! After the conference ended we had to travel back to the area and by the time we got back we had to get home for curfew.

Good day Friday. Had a busy night after the morning and afternoon studies and whatnot. After we finished weekly planning we headed out and biked to a aboriginal village and talked with people. Nobody was super interested, but we tried our best! Afterwards, we had a lesson set up with a person we stopped meeting with a little while ago. She set up for tonight but when we showed up she canceled. Hopefully she still has the desire to learn. We made the bike ride back and finished out the day calling some formers and one set up an appointment! I am very excited for that.

Great day Saturday. We had three appointments set up for the day, but none of them went through so we are going to have to be more diligent in getting more appointments. We started off strong now we gotta keep up the pace. We spent a lot of today trying to find some formers and hopefully help them feel the spirit again and set an appointment with us, but sadly we either could not find the address or they didn't answer their doors. We call people everyday too so I'm satisfied with all our efforts that we are doing. Recently I have been in a bit of a slump. I hear it's common around the point I'm at in my mission. Lots of prayers and study are helping me overcome this slump and with the week wrapping up I really gotta set myself up for this next week. The mission can be hard mentally and I just need to focus on what's good and take the counsel of President Hinckley's dad, forget myself and go to work. That's the secret for success no matter what!

Sunday was such a great sabbath day! We had a great church meeting without any drunk incidents. Thank goodness. We had a great day after church biking around to try and have 2 lessons. One of them we biked the 45 minutes there and than got stood up so that was fun. Then we had a lesson that went super well! I have total faith the man we met with will be baptized. He has a cousin in our group that's already a member and he seemed super willing today. I'm excited to see how it goes moving forward. It was a great day today. The slump I mentioned a few days ago is pretty much over with. I had a great study about faith and diligence today so that helped me a lot. The power of the scriptures is unreal.

Elder Heber Chase Ciminski 

謝希伯長老

FENGLIN GONE WILD (Season 6 Episode 2) - 3/18/19

Weekly weekly!

Super chill preparation day. We grabbed some lunch with the 花蓮 missionaries and then went to some shops! At the shops I saw a Supreme hoodie with a skateboarder on it so I bought it. It looks super cool!! Then we went to a western style mall thing where we spent some time just walking around. All in all, today was very chill since we didn't play frisbee or anything like that. The missionary work for the night was chill too. We made some videos for our English class and small group to get them pumped for this week! Then called some more formers and cleaned up the area book. It was a super productive time for us. This week is gonna be a fun week I am excited for it.

Tuesday was a pretty interesting day. We spent the whole morning and a chunk of the afternoon helping our group leader build his house!! It was so much fun. We helped with the concrete for his foundation. We got these super slick work boots and were walking in the cement and moving it around and stuff. It was a lot of fun. All the other workers were a bunch of old dudes drinking beer and chewing betel nut so they were having a good time, for obvious reasons. It was such a good time and a unique experience too, just helping a guy build a house in the middle of the forest in Taiwan. It was awesome! When we finished we just went back and did studies and that was the whole day, so lots of service!

Wednesday we did some more construction type work for our group leader, but we didn't do it for as long. It's hard work though I just hope that by the time I move out lots of progress will be made! I think we are planning on helping him out some more in the future so it'll be cool to see the progression. Other than that, we had a lesson and it was with a former investigator but she accepted a baptismal goal and we are meeting with her again next week to help her prepare for baptism! We also taught English class and it was really cool. We got another appointment from it for next week. Things seem to really be taking off for our area. We only want to move forward and upward from here.

Thursday was another fun filled day going to 台東 for a Zone Council! We had a great council today and I walked away with a renewed motivation to be diligent in the work and to really improve myself as a missionary. We talked a lot about goals and baptism today so I really want to go forward being more bold in my invitations for people to be baptized and confirmed a member of the Church. I also had some good discussions today with other Elders about language study and I got the impression to change up my study plan to help more with retention of words. All these refinements going forward are really going to help me I am confident of it. Aside from Zone Council, we had dinner together and than it was a train ride back to 鳳林 to end the day. So nothing super exciting there but I am also thinking of changing my Chinese last name. Since Michael learned mandarin for his mission and his last name is 謝 (from the word thank you) I think I will change it to that. People have changed their names before so I am not worried about that and I think it would be cool for all the Ciminski Chinese speakers to share the same last name!

Busy day Friday. We did our normal studies and then got weekly planning all done as well. That left us the late afternoon and evening to go out to work. We made 5 visits today and as a result got 3 return appointments from it. One of the visits was a member visit and they made us dinner too which was awesome. The last visit didn't answer the door, can't win them all I guess. It was a very good day though. Today I also began implementing the plans to act on the inspiration I received yesterday. The biggest difference was in my language study. Today I reviewed over 100 words and began a new method for better retention. Throughout my whole mission I've always struggled with language study. From being distracted to having no motivation, but now is the time for me to repent and buckle down. I have other goals and things I am working towards as well but those are still getting plans made for them.

This week has been busy. It feels good having stuff to do and I enjoy that a lot. In the morning we did the latest adventure in helping our group leader build his house! That was a good time and then we got taken out to lunch and started our day. We had some appointments today and one was a great Plan of Salvation lesson and the other one the lady was drunk so we ended up playing basketball with these kids that were following us around. I can only imagine the thoughts of two white dudes dressed up playing ball with kids, but now they are our friends and will hear the gospel someday! We finished up the night going to a night market in town and trying to hand out as many English flyers as we could to try and get more students! Hopefully that will yield the results. We hope it will.

Started off today (Sunday) pretty normal. Got ready and headed over to the chapel to get ready for church. On our way though we saw a member across the street and he's obviously drunk but he's calling for us to come over, we just say we need to set up and prepare for church and we walk inside. As we are setting up the sacrament the same member walks in and literally starts yelling at us. I thought things were going to get physical but thankfully he just yelled at us. I actually got pretty scared but he ended up just leaving midway through sacrament and nothing else happened. Pretty crazy experience. Other than that, today was pretty relaxed and we had to bike a bit but that was no big deal. Super solid end to the week.

Elder Heber Chase Ciminski 

謝希伯長老

THE BEGINNING OF AN ERA (Season 6 Episode 1) - 3/11/19

Transfer week this week! That means some good times and new changes!

Preparation day was pretty awesome on Monday! We got up early to watch the sunrise at the beach with some other missionaries. It was amazing the scenery was so beautiful. We then enjoyed a super great game of frisbee and then just went to the chapel for some computer time. Super great time and that was the majority of the activities from the day. The night when we started missionary work again we got 2 appointments for the week and that is some great progress from recent history. Last night we got transfer calls also. I am staying in this promised land but will be welcoming Elder Lee to the land also! I have done a couple preparation days with him and he is a really fun guy I am so excited for him to come! Elder Crimm will be moving back up to 台北, which is where he wanted to go. So all is right in the world!

Busy day Tuesday. Started off with a super great District Council in 玉里. It was the last one of the transfer so that was a little sad since half of the district is moving, but the only constant of life is change. We did talk about consecration and it was a great topic. Consecration always seems to be the unachievable dream, but what I gleaned from today is that it is all about the effort. If we are trying our best and make a conscious effort to consecrate ourselves we will see the results. Aside from district council we got 2 appointments arranged today! One is with a member for this weekend and the other is with a lady we knocked into also planned for this weekend. It always feels good to get these setups since they have been few and far between here. This is the start of a new era! 鳳林 is gonna blow up!

9 months on the mission Wednesday! Didn't feel that different, but cool nonetheless. Today we had to do some errands to get Elder Crimm ready to move and things like that. We had to ship a package, ship a bike and go to 花蓮 to pick up a bike for Elder Lee to use. We were able to get that all sorted out and ready to rock and roll. We made a visit to one of Elder Crimm's recent converts and had some dinner then it was time for English class! We had students show up tonight so that was a great way to end the day. I can say that as an English Unit Leader I have tripled the number of students attending class (even though 0 to 3 isn't a lot, but for the area it is)! Tomorrow is gonna be a big day and I am excited! Transfers are much better when you are not moving, but get to welcome someone else in!

Thursday was a crazy day! Started off pretty normal with studies and stuff and then we had to pick up my new companion Elder Lee from the train station! Thankfully he made it here safely and all his stuff as well! Since there was an overlap between him coming and Elder Crimm leaving we grabbed lunch together and then Elder Lee unpacked a bit and then the time came to drop Elder Crimm off for good. Kinda a surreal experience since I have been with him for the last 3 months, but the change is great and now I can learn a lot from Elder Lee. We had a great time today getting to know each other better and from first impressions, we are going to have a great time together. We had a lesson tonight also which was super good and we are super close to getting our only investigators on a baptismal date. So excited for them!!

Friday was a great day!! Elder Lee and I did a lot of fun things today. One thing included walking up a mountain to visit a member! We walked because it was raining and I didn't want a repeat of the last time we went up there, and it took about the same time too so why not? When we came back though we did Weekly Planning Session, which was amazing. Elder Lee is bringing in such a fire and energy into this area, and it is exactly what the area needs. We didn't get to finish today, but we have already discussed a lot of great things we are going to do to strengthen the 小組 and the members that are here, as well as ways to use all our resources as missionaries. I am so looking forward to this time with Elder Lee, from the first looks of it, it is going to light 鳳林 up! We also got some fun traditions we are gonna start doing but I will talk about those as we do them 😉.

Saturday was super fun! Elder Lee and I headed out in the morning pretty early to go to a lesson with a lady who told us she was more available on weekends and we show up.... she's at work. We ended up knocking doors for a bit. Talked to some cool people so it was good! We did some studies and English class and whatnot then we had to finish our weekly planning we started yesterday. We finished setting some great goals and getting a vision of what we want to accomplish and to sum it up. When we are done here people will be asking to serve in 鳳林! We have some great vision and by executing our plans we will achieve it!! We finished up the day by coming to 花蓮 because of Ward Conference tomorrow and we got McDonald's for dinner as part of our new tradition. Every time we come up for a Fast Sunday we get McDonald's for dinner (we missed last fast Sunday obviously so we made up for it tonight)!

Sunday was a pretty busy day. We started off the morning with some studies and other things of that sort until we had our Weekly Coordination meeting before church. We got some good suggestions for some things we are doing right now so I'd count it a success. We then had an awesome Ward Conference and the theme was everlasting hope. It really made me think about if I have a hope for things and what I do hope for? Bottom line it was really thought-provoking. Then the second hour focused on getting people back out and inviting people. All in all a super great conference! After church, we planned out some English classes and then had a dinner appointment with our Group Leader! It was super great because Elder Lee and I really expressed our desire for working in this area and what our vision is and they really liked it. They were able to help us and give us more information regarding our area and some people we are working with. We got a ride back to 鳳林 and ended out the night making some calls to formers and got 3 setups from it! Miracles are happening down here it's so awesome to see!

Elder Heber Chase Ciminski 

宋希伯長老

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