I MADE IT ON CHURCH NEWS!! (Season 7 Episode 1) - 4/22/19

Another week marker in the books. Preparation day was pretty slow Monday, we had the morning calling families and chilling in the apartment then we got some lunch and McDonald's and headed to the chapel to play some sport. We had a frisbee with us and I made a full court shot with the disc! It was awesome I felt like I was in a Dude Perfect video! In all honesty I want to play ultimate in the future and I don't know how it'll work out but I'm going to make it happen. Maybe BYU has something that could help me live the dream. Anyways that was a really fun time throwing the disc around and having a good time. We finally headed off to our area and left the tri-panionship we were in with Elder Ray. I'm excited for him he's such a great missionary and this week he will get a new companion to light his area up on fire. He's got the drive and this week will have the means to do it. I'm stoked for him. We are also setting up for a great transfer and I'm stoked for us too!!

Last district council of the 3 Kingdoms district! We had a good discussion Tuesday about our favorite conference talks. Of course I talked about Tad R. Callister's talk because he's my favorite general conference speaker. It was very good to hear others insights from the conference. Proof that everyone is entitled to personal revelation! We also taught a lesson that went well. It was to the man who believed in psychic powers and whatnot. Today he understood our lesson and he didn't have any questions so definitely an improvement from last time and he set up again so we can continue teaching him! That is exciting for sure.

Wednesday was really good! Elder Lee and I had a fun day. We got transfer calls last night and we learned that we have one more transfer together and my last one in 鳳林. We pretty much knew that but nothing is ever official until calls are out. Elder Lee is our district leader now and so that means more exchanges with zone leaders and members of our district. It will be a lot of fun though I'm sure I can learn a lot this transfer! We taught one lesson today and our 83 year old friend is super prepared and finished the 4th lesson today! He's super great and I'm very excited for him. After the lesson we played basketball with some kids in the village and then played badminton in 鳳林 with some local kids also. Super solid day.

Thursday was quite the crazy day! Nothing super special happened except for a massive 6.1 magnitude earthquake! We were sitting in a 7 and all the sudden things started shaking a lot and I thought things were gonna start toppling or something. Thankfully everything was ok and even though the epicenter was close to 鳳林 all the missionaries around us are safe! Definitely a memory that will be kept for a long time. We had a few visits as well today that all went well also. To end the night we had to catch a train to 花蓮 because Elder Lee has to take care of college things but 鳳林 has no computers for us to use! So we have to go to the chapel tomorrow morning and use those. And our train was delayed 45 minutes because of the earthquake. Great times.

Friday was a pretty weird day. We spent the whole morning doing Elder Lee's college stuff in 花蓮 and by the time we made it home it and ready for the day it was about 2 o'clock so we did weekly planning and the rest of our studies and didn't have time for anything else. Nothing big on the earthquake front just some small aftershocks and an article on Newsroom! I guess you could say our mission is pretty famous now. We survived the quake! Today was also Elder Pope's last day in the mission because he has completed his 2 years. It is crazy to see him go but I am so excited to see what he will do in the future. I'm going to miss him though. He's helped me a lot on my mission!

Another packed Saturday! We helped our group leader at his house for the morning, which we haven't done in awhile. Things are really coming together though it's looking really good! When we finished we got ready for the day and then got ready for our English class which we had 6 people confirmed for! And 0 showed up! Probably the biggest stand-up I have seen. We did our studies instead then had a lesson with our friend nearing baptism! He's so awesome and will definitely hit his goal. We are super pumped. We ended off the night at the night market in 鳳林 trying to hand out some English flyers.

Super solid sabbath day. Started off the morning with an awesome church meeting. It was also the first Sunday of not having to wear suits and it was quite nice. After church we had some awesome chats with our members and I really love our small group! Our members are super unique but I love them all a bunch. We had a surprise meeting with our baptismal date friend and just read some scriptures with him. We are actually gonna bump up his date one week so he should still be able to make the goal! We did studies the rest of the day and tried to get people set up for the week with some success on the member front. Then we came up to 花蓮 for preparation day! Super awesome day but chill too.

Elder Heber Chase Ciminski 

謝希伯長老

MY BIKE GOT STOLEN! (Season 6 Episode 6) - 4/15/19

Monday was a pretty chill preparation day. We woke up and had a slow morning calling families and emailing friends, then Elder Ray and I went out to run some errands and whatnot. The weather was beautiful today so being out was very refreshing. We went to a little trinket store and I got some materials I needed and then a Peanuts sticker because my water bottle doesn't have enough stickers already! We didn't do anything super exciting today but I enjoyed the rest and rejuvenation. I was also able to receive some answer to prayer via Mom and Dad. They helped me realize that on my mission I need to do exactly what I told all my viewers to do on YouTube, "Do more, be happy, and enjoy the moments". It was exactly what I needed to hear and the Spirit testified it was true and so I am looking forward to the results of it this week. I also had a cool experience where I was on Facebook Messenger and saw that Elder Zolik (my trainer in Kansas) was online so I just sent him a quick note saying I loved him and God did too. He messaged me back and said that he really needed that pick me up and in the email he sent me later he said that it was inspired. I'm so grateful I heeded that prompting and was able to lift up someone else, especially someone as awesome as Elder Zolik! Today I felt the most joy I have in a long while and I will definitely keep this feeling throughout the week as I continue to be happy and enjoy the moments!

What an awesome Tuesday! We started another exchange in 玉里 and this time I was with my district leader, Elder Thayne. We had a fun afternoon performing some service for a member of their branch, which consisted of helping him build a chicken coop! We just pounded some metal rods into the ground to get it started but it was some tough work. We were using a pickaxe as our "hammer" and my hands were so sore and shaky afterward because of the vibrations. It was awesome though we had an amazing view and the weather was perfect!! We got to watch the sunset and had a fun drive back down the mountain (he lives way on top of a mountain). When we got back in town we had some dinner, did a study, and then played ping pong with the potential from last week! He is super good still and this last week I bought my own paddle so I got to use that today and it took some adjusting to but I got the hang of it and won quite a few games! It was a great day and a cool first half of my exchange!

Wednesday was a wild day. I woke up the normal time in 玉里 and when nobody else woke up on time I basically got an extra hour of language study today. Pretty interesting, but it's whatever for me. Once we got out of the house we went straight to the train station to catch our train to 花蓮 for interviews with President Peterson. My interview with him went well. He low key called me out for some things, but it was good. I needed the shift in perspective so I think it was helpful. He did call me the "man with a walk" today (referencing his comment at Zone Conference about walking like a cowboy that just did 6 seconds on the bull and conquered) and told me I would be staying in 鳳林 one more transfer! That's good news to me and so in late May, I'll be heading to a new area. Still got a good while. After interviews, we had to say goodbye to Elder Endicott because he flies home tomorrow for medical purposes. It is so sad to see him go because he is such a great guy I really learned a lot from him the 5 weeks I had around him. He needs answers to his problems so it's for the best. We finally made it back to our area and had dinner and played badminton with some kids to end the night! They had a lot of fun with us and they helped us improve a lot (we won 5 games and they won 1)!

Our only full day this week in 鳳林 was Thursday. We had 4 lessons so we made the most of it. The lessons all went well and our 2 baptismal date friends are looking good to keep progressing and hit their goals!! We are very excited for them. One of the other lessons was with a former who agreed to meet with us again next week and hopefully, she can start taking those steps for baptism once again. The last lesson was with a man who believes in psychic powers and magic because he saw it on TV. Just gonna leave it at that, but he set up again for next week so we can help him understand Jesus more. That was basically the day though! Elder Lee and I are having a great time in this area so we just gotta keep the fire going!

Today was a wild Friday! We did the usual thing we do on Fridays and that was weekly planning. We got that done pretty smoothly and afterward, we went to visit a less active member who works at a ranch resort thing near 鳳林! This place is super, super big and has a bunch of animals and different things like that and the sister we visit works there!! It was super cool and when we were talking with her she offered to give us a tour! So she drove us around on a golf cart and we saw a bunch of cool animals and whatnot. That was pretty awesome and afterward, we took a train to 花蓮 for an epic weekend. Except when we got to the train station the exchange bike I use was gone... so I ran around 花蓮 for a bit to get to the chapel and get to the apartment we stay at which has an extra bike. Definitely didn't expect to get that exercise, but it was pretty refreshing!

Saturday was such a great day. We spent 12 hours at the chapel today which was pretty crazy but totally worth it because we got to watch General Conference! I loved it so much and definitely have a testimony of our prophet. He truly does lead this church and is called of God. I loved the talks and learned a lot from it!! My favorite talk was by Elder Stevenson about the Priesthood Playbook. I loved the reference to all the athletes that testified of the Gospel. I thought that was so cool. Another reason Conference was great was because we had a lot of food! Since not a lot of people watch the English version we turned it into a potluck and it was super good. Definitely gonna have to start heeding President Nelson's counsel about treating my body better. After Conference, we did a study at the chapel and then attended an activity for a young man who leaves on his mission to Florida next week! He is super excited and I am excited for him! Missions are the hardest thing ever but definitely the best thing also!

Another super great Sunday in the awesome city of 花蓮. We woke up and went for a 20-mile bike ride to a lake because the other elders have a friend they are teaching that loves to bike so we took this chance to develop a better relationship with him! We biked to a lake and it was so beautiful! Once we biked back though we caught the last talk of the Sunday morning conference session and then watch the afternoon session. We made up the morning session later thankfully. Tad R. Callister is my favorite speaker and he spoke in that session! After all that we had a Family Home Evening with the ward which was super awesome and we finished up the night with studies. I'm super sad Conference is already over. It feels like it goes by so much quicker every time I wish it could last longer! I'm glad I was able to watch it all.

Elder Heber Chase Ciminski 

謝希伯長老

(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