Great P-day Monday. Had a good morning and enjoyed some time at the park by the beach for a little bit and then spent a good amount of time at the chapel. Just playing Basketball and stuff like that. The usual thing we do! I did go and get Mom's Mothers Day gift and I'm excited for her to get it. We caught a train back home because we had an activity with our 小組, we watched Legacy and had food! It was so much fun!
Super good day Tuesday. I sent home my big package of stuff and then we jetted off on a train to 花蓮 for some District Council and Exchanges! We had a good time leading up to District Council doing personal study and companionship study then we had a great meeting and afterward Elder Ray and I fixed up a sisters bike and then I started an exchange with his companion, Elder Berges. We had to solve some of his bike problems and then have dinner and language study. That took up most of the rest of the night except for the lesson we had with some 台中 missionaries with a referral they have for us. Pretty interesting lesson, but the man is very cool and despite technical problems, we had an uplifting time.
Wednesday was awesome! I had the awesome chance to finish up my exchange with Elder Berges. We had a good time talking to people on the streets, at their homes, and wherever else we could find them. We also had a lesson which went well, a little long, but good all in all. After that, we switched back to our normal companions and Elder Lee and I had some time before dinner to plan English class and then we had some McDonald's with a member that came down from 台北 to see Elder Lee. The member was super cool so that was a good time. Then we had the amazing opportunity to hear a special fireside from President M. Russell Ballard because he is in Taiwan! They broadcasted it to our chapel and his remarks, along with the other general authorities with him, were awesome. President Ballard really emphasized building up our spiritual selves and how that strength will carry over to our physical well being. Very inspiring remarks and I definitely took a lot of notes.
Thursday was the big day! We took the train in the morning all the way to 台北! We were blessed to be able to hear from President Ballard! When he walked in the room you just knew. There was such a tangible spirit and shaking his hand was a sweet experience. He's a very nice man and I felt the love radiating from him the whole time. His remarks today really hit on becoming a great teacher and knowing Preach My Gospel chapter 3 very, very well. That was a takeaway for me but I had others for sure. There's so much to say about it but suffice it to say it was a very memorable experience. Once the meeting ended and President Ballard left, the whole mission walked to a famous tourist spot nearby and took a mission picture. That was super unique too because the mission is seldom all in one place together! One funny experience from today came from the train ride to 台北. I was walking through the train and in one of the cars there was a big group of elementary school-aged students and they must have been taking a field trip or something. As I was walking through the car they saw me and screamed and freaked out (because I was a foreigner) and they all wanted high fives and they just all went crazy and crowded me like a celebrity! It was such a fun experience I was smiling so big after that. They were some awesome kids!
Friday starts all of the "lasts" for me in this wonderful area. We did our last weekly planning of the transfer and made some plans to have a killer last few days of the transfer. In addition to that, we taught some English to some local kids and made some calls around to get some miscellaneous items taken care of (one of them being securing a new chapel key for us because ours broke). We also grabbed dirt, yes you read that right, dirt for the sisters in our district. They requested some 鳳林 dirt for part of their next English class. Interesting request but we came through for them.
Saturday was a great day. We had a solid morning and we actually had an English class! That was way awesome and afterwards, we biked out to a further part of our area to find some formers! We had some good discussions and talked to some other cool people but nothing in terms of setups. I still feel good about it though because I haven't been to that part of the area in a long time. It was super good for sure. Then we caught a train and had some dinner in 花蓮 because tomorrow is Stake Conference.
Sunday was a chill day. We had Stake Conference so it was cool to see all the missionaries in the zone. After the conference, we had a super tasty lunch provided by some members, very nice of them. Once that was all done I spent the day with Elder Ray. He has contracted some crazy illness recently and so he has to take it way easy, and I was his companion for the day. Just like the last time this happened, I did some personal Study, language study, and took a nap and talked with Elder Ray. That was the day, the other exciting thing was that transfer calls came out. I am moving to 三峽! It's in west 台北 and my companion is native Taiwanese! What a super good time we will have.
Elder Heber Chase Ciminski
謝希伯長老
