November 28, 2010 Thanksgiving and I gave my first Blessing!

Dear family,
I haven't gotten an email yet from you guys but that's OK because you guys didn't know I would be emailing this early. But my bike is at the shop because I'm putting new handlebars on it. Anyway we are going to the island today so we emailed early.

I got the package last Saturday! Thank you guys! And again the pictures were the best part! I still expect to get pictures in the mail once in a while! And all the thanksgiving stuff was perfect because on Friday we went to our white bishop's house and had a massive Thanksgiving feast! That was the first time I've seen sushi and dumplings at a Thanksgiving party.. Anyway as we were leaving, the bishop's wife gave us lasagna and a whole chicken from Costco! And we were going to make all the stuff last night for dinner but we forgot to buy milk and butter and other essential things. So we haven't made it yet. And tell the girls that the cookies were amazing! I ate them all already. And I gave my companion 3 of them and he said (directly translated into English) "super good eat!" Which of course means they were really good.

This week I did something I have never done before. I gave a blessing! An older lady named Amy Lee needed a blessing and us Elders were the only ones at the church with the authority to do it. I gave it in English and she understood. It was just a normal priesthood blessing. Not one for the sick. But it was cool and she has told me several times that she is feeling a lot better.

So this week I started reading the Book of Mormon in Chinese. So far in any random verse I can read about 50-60% of the characters. Yay for progress!!

On Saturday we went to this place to buy some parts for my companions bike and it was so funny. Everything there is secondhand which here just means it was stolen. Anyway, we went there and I bought a watch for 50 Yuan which is really cheap and its cool because it is solar powered which is perfect because I'm out in the sun all day!

Last week we got an email from President Bishop saying he wants us to add lots of investigators this past week and give them all goals to be baptized on Christmas! cool huh? Anyway so this week we talked to lots of people and had lots of first lessons. That lesson just never gets old does it?

This is from Elder Lai:
我愛你們的餅乾 !! 這些餅乾讓我覺得我在美國傳教 ! (I love your cookies!! These cookies make me feel like I'm serving a mission in the United States!)

OK umm if I don't get an email from you guys by the time we leave, I'm going to try and pull out money to buy the camera. Thanks you guys so much. I hope its not like a big financial burden.
Ummm right now I have to write my presidents letter so if I think of anything else i want to say I will email again.

See ya in two years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

November 22, 2010 Cigarette Experiment

Ok hello family. So today was move day. But our entire district is the same haha so woooohoooo I'm am still with elder Lai! He is so Asian it’s awesome. Apparently President Bishop was in one area when he was on his mission and so he doesn't like to do lots of moving around. Which I like. Oh but a lot of my friends from the MTC are senior companions now and my MTC companion is a district leader already. wow. He is so legit. He has already read the Book of Mormon in Chinese and is reading the doctrine and covenants in Chinese. so sweet. I just barely started on characters and right now I have about 200 down. But it’s cool because Elder Lai is trying to learn English and so we quiz each other on the same words. We learn it better that way.

An experience.... hmmm sometimes I feel like contacting a certain person for no specific reason. Sometimes they turn me down and I'm sometimes really confused about why the spirit told me to contact that person. Maybe it’s for a reason unknown. Or just to see if I would follow a prompting. Another time, when we were at monkey mountain, I ran ahead of the group and I thought my companion was right behind me. I stopped at one point and my companion wasn't there and neither was anybody else. A thought popped into my head to turn around. So I went back and it turns out I had taken a wrong turn at one of the many forks on the trails of monkey mountain.

This week I did a little experiment. Anytime anyone was smoking I would ask them to put out their cigarette and ask them to give me their pack and their lighter. I thought it was interesting how the younger they were the more willing they were to give it up. But as you get to the older generation, they freak out at you when you ask them to give you their smokes. One young kid (about 15) actually thanked me and said he would try and quit. so in the last week my toilet has swallowed lots of tar and tobacco. haha sweet.

Thanks for Josh's address. I'm not allowed to go on dearelder.com... Oh well.
This move call is going to be exciting! Thanksgiving and Christmas! all in the same move call! Oh yeah. Our American bishop is having us over for thanksgiving to eat turkey! yay.
Sorry there aren’t a lot of pictures today. We didn’t do anything fun.
Love Elder Graham

Nov 15,2010 Zone Conference

Hello family!
In answer to your e-mail... It is getting a little cooler here and it rains once in a while. Good job Sisi for making the basketball team and for getting first in your race. Way to go Kami for doing all those things in the play.
That's cool that you got to pick up Josh and take him to the MTC. What is his mtc address?
Sounds like stake conference was good. Yes I would still like some information about other religions. I think I would be able to print stuff off if it was in an attachment. I don't think that book you suggested would be approved for reading but it sounds super interesting.
My Chinese has improved since being with Elder Lai. Exchanges like last week don't happen very often. The thing that made it really different is that zhou zhang lao makes me laugh just because of how awkward and special he is. He is like my personal Sid the sloth.
Sorry I don't have many new pictures. We didn't do anything before email today.
This week we had zone conference and it was really good. We all learned a lot. So at all of the Zone conferences all of the missionaries going home get to give a 5 minute talk in front of half of the mission. It is interesting to me to hear what they have to say about their missions and all that they have accomplished. It makes me think about the future and goals and things like that.
My scripture of the week is Mosiah 2:41 I share this scripture
all the time with investigators.

Look - yummy cockroaches on a stick!

See ya in two years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

November 8, 2010 - Baptism & exchanges w/ Zhou Zhang Lao

Dear family,

hello hello hello. That's cool you got to go with the Hoers to eat food!
And YES Mr. wei got baptized and confirmed and he might baptize his girlfriend in a few weeks. YAY!

You asked about what you could send me for Christmas. Hhhmmmmm stuff to send me...... They don't have very good deodorant here and even if you can find an American brand, its about seven USD, so i think a little expensive. And maybe some axe spray stuff or some smelly stuff or something. All we do is sweat all day. And maybe that super small book of mormon you can get at that place that you can get garments. That has an index and can be helpful. The copy I carry around doesn't have an index or anything. I don't think I really need anything else.

Mom, that's really cool that you are doing "Rhodelles going nuts!" When I get home, I'll make a website. hao ma? The last few nights I've accidentally fallen asleep early. ha!

No Kami, I didn't do any of those things. My companions camera is really cool. It does everything in HD and stuff. Anyway, he has this thing where he can take ten pictures in one second. So all I did was just jump up in the air at the pier and his camera got it all.

Mom and dad, you wanted details about Dan Jones night... hmm I just remember waiting and I think I was one of the last ones to go on the box and say stuff. Then the elder who is now my companion, led me around and we just talked to people about the Book of Mormon. Then I remember going back and we counted all of our numbers and President Hoer told us that according to the statistics, out of all of the people we talked to, about 5 of them would be baptized.

Sisi, about your friend, you might want to ask her about her religion to better understand what she is used to. That's what our mission president just told us today in an email. And just do your best to answer questions.


So this week I went on exchanges with one of the zone leaders and also went on exchanges with ...... MY FAVORITE........ ZHOU ZHANG LAOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! I went crazy. He came over to my area and we went to visit the old guy and that was fun. Then after dinner we rode around trying to find an investigator's house, but I forgot where it was. So at 730 we started just going around a busy intersection and contacting everybody. We stayed there until it was time to go home at 9. I talked to 60 people in that time and exactly 50% of them gave me their name and number. That's 30 people. I ran out of contact cards. I've never done that much in one day let alone an hour and half. So that was fun. And then I just started handing our pamphlets to everybody. And if they were smoking I would take the cigarette from their hand or mouth and throw it on the ground. Then tell them it was bad for them and point to the picture of a smokers lung that I have taped to my box on my bike. So yup.

Oh yeah. Today as a zone we all went to monkey mountain. Again. So yes I have more monkey pictures. When we where hiking a monkey stole my drink and also my sucker.

--
See ya in two years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

November 1, 2010 "I have felt your power and wish to join your church."

Dear family and anybody else who wants to read,

Thank you family for the package! Yay. Candy! Nobody here really does Halloween except for the American schools. I ate the bread this morning for breakfast. Anyway..

This week... My companion's bike broke four times. Oops. This letter might be short because we have to fix my companion's bike and we set up a time to visit Mr old guy. We went to his house yesterday, but he was asleep already. He is so funny. Old people fall asleep way early....

I also painted my bike so it looks legit. And while we had the tape out, I decided it would be funny to put it on my leg and rip half of the hairs off my white skin. It wasn't that funny though. It really hurt. But that part of my leg is really smooth now and my companion could not stop laughing about it. He has the piece of tape with all the hairs on it, pinned up onto his cork board. Asians are weird.

So yesterday after church we got a call from the assistants saying they had an investigator set up for us. He was amazing. He had been to church four times already and was a former investigator. He didn't pass the interview that he had a few months ago and he had some things he needed to work on. He has now taken care of all of those things and wants to be baptized. He had an interview with the zone leaders and his baptism is set up for this Friday. Oh, how lucky we are! In his prayer he said "Heavenly Father, I am here because I have felt your power and wish to join your church." So amazing. He and his girlfriend are going to get baptized together and are planning on going to the temple in a year. Cute. Anyway... sweeeett!

Right now I am copying over all my pictures to a flash drive so I can send it to you guys.

See ya in 1 1/2 years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

October 24, 2010 92 Year Old Faithful Member

My companion is so funny. The only English he knows is slang and it makes me so happy when he says things in English. But he has an amazingly good accent.

So once again.... Not a lot has happened this week, but last preparation day after emailing you guys we went to some "temples". I put quotes because it’s more of an amusement park. They had little ride things and games and lots of amusement park food as well as some not so amusement park food.. Eww. Anyway. And the stuff in the temples is really messed up and all about devils and killing people and different kinds of monsters and this like that. Really really messed up things..
Also there was another typhoon, but it was fairly small. It just rained a lot. And the wind was really really strong.
On Saturday we went to visit a former investigator and he didn't really remember meeting with the missionaries. But he has a neighbor who is Mormon and he remembered that. And he told us that this member was old and sick and couldn't come to church anymore. And so he took us over to this old guy’s house, and wow. I didn't know Asians could live that long! This guy is 92 years old. And he has been a member since he was 55. If I had a calculator I would do the math for you and tell you that that was a LONG TIME AGO! He was baptized in 1973! And according to him, he came to church every Sunday and he read his scriptures and prayed every day. But eventually he couldn't take care of himself and his family hired a full time nurse to take care of his and now he just sits in the same spot buy the door all day long eating and drinking and peeing into his urine tube. And he told us that missionaries haven't visited his for over a year. He told us to go to the church and get tithing slips for him because he hasn't paid his tithing in over a year either. But he saved up his tithing money and next week we are going to get a member to help him come to church. He is the cutest old guy I have ever seen. He says the funniest things. He asked me how long I have been in Taiwan and I told him 4 months and he was impressed. And then he turned to my companion who is Taiwanese and said "your Chinese is pretty good, how long have you been in Taiwan?" I laughed for a long time. But the part that made me laugh was when my companion said he was Taiwanese. After he said that the old guy had this smile on his face and said "you look like a foreigner" and then I laughed some more. And so on Sunday we took him the tithing slips he asked for and we tried to bless the sacrament for him but apparently he forgot what that was. Anyway after we said a closing prayer, he asked if he could pray and of course we said yes. And so he prayed for us to baptize all of Taiwan. It made me laugh. I love that old man. So faithful.


Anyway. Today we went to "MONKEY MOUNTAIN!" I took lots of pictures of the monkeys and so I will send you guys some. And speaking of pictures I am going to buy an 8 gig usb flash drive and next week, copy all of the pictures over to that and send it home to you guys. And after you guys copy all of them to an external hard drive or something like that, you can send it back. And then I can delete them off my card and start over again.

October 17, 2010 Gold Mine Discovered

Dear Family,

So as you all know last week I moved to the big city of Kaohsiung. (weird spelling huh?) And that was my first time moving. Ohhh moving is horrible. Last monday (the day that I moved) started out like this; I woke up at 6:00 a.m. like normal, but unlike normal I woke up with a massively horrible bloody nose. Then, after treating my bloody nose I had to finish packing. The night before I stayed up until 1:30 ish packing and doing laundry but because our dryer is broken I had to just hang my clothes up overnight on the balcony. Unfortunately it rained a little during the night... But at 730 we had to go to the mission office.. So after a quick shower I put my still semi-wet clothes in plastic bags and put them in my suitcase. Then we put my bike and my suitcases on a tjoin truck to be delivered the next day at my new apartment. We then took the bus to the Mission office, said goodbye to the missionaries who were going home, said goodbye to my companion, and got on another bus to go to the train station. After the three hour train ride I got off the train, said hi to my mtc companion and found my new companion! And my new companion is the same asian that helped me on Dan Jones night my first night in Taiwan. cool huh?
I got lucky because he didn't have a bike there for me but our area and our apartment is only a ten minute walk from the train station. My companion and his old companion love bikes. So on preparation days they would find random broken bikes that were in trash cans, and use the parts to build a bike. So for the first 2 days here, I rode this crazy bike.

Also for that two days I only had my small bag consisting of my scriptures and two days worth of garments and basic toiletries. uhhh horrible.
But I do love having a local companion. He is so funny. He makes me laugh all the time and now I have to use chinese all the time and just in the last week my chinese has improved more than I thought possible in just one week. He's so asian. Silly asians. But I love them...

Anyway this week went by really fast, without a lot of special things. There is a member in our ward who is a white guy who married a taiwanese girl, and his chinese is way good. He speaks with a beijing accent but with the "ah"s on the end just like the taiwanese do. Its kinda funny. But anyway, yesterday he was made the bishop of the ward. Him and his kids are the only white people in the ward! Its a good thing his chinese is so good. He served his mission in Houston Texas speaking chinese and then he moved here for work and never went back. And he has been here for about 15 years. He even recognised my name correctly which even some taiwanese people don't do.

Did I tell you guys about one of the new Elders in this mission named Elder Mutton? Anyway if didn't I'm sorry because its so funny. The name they gave him at the MTC is yang2 rou4! I laughed for about ten minutes. yang2 rou4 zhang3 lao3..... Elder lamb meat.... anyway. I thought it was funny. I think they might have changed his name by now though. So funny.

Im sad to hear broke city stopped playing together.

So yesterday at church I don't know why but we were in the library and because there used to be an English branch there, I found stacks and stacks of old Ensigns starting in 1992. All the way to like 2002ish. Gold! Money in the bank. Who knew that my favorite part of being a missionary is the hour of personal study we get every morning. And I love reading the Ensigns. But I read through some of the old ones from 1992 and its interesting to me that back then we didn't have the cell phones we have today, mp3`s didn't exist let alone ipods and such. But the prophets were speaking on the problems we still have today. I don't know. It was interesting to me.

ummm right now we dont have any investigators or anything and we dont have very many lessons. I havent gotten a package yet. nope.
Sisi - you run really fast.

See you in two years,

Beau

October 10,2010 - Transfer to Gaoxiong

Dear family,

Today I moved to Gaoxiong which is a really big city and it's right on the ocean basically. But I didn't get to email until later because I had to take a 3 hour train ride to southern Taiwan. My new companion is a Taiwanese person! I hope I can learn a lot from him.

Other than that not very much happened this week. Packing is quite the heavy burden. I was up till 1:30 this morning packing. It's weird to think that I have exactly 1 year and six months left. It seems like a long time, but then I look back on the last six and a half months and feel like I haven't gotten very far. I feel like I should know much more than I do right now. But that's the good thing about moving. Its a new start and I can work as hard as I can.

In my new district, I am one of only two wai guo ren. And so all the others are Taiwanese! and my trainer is my zone leader now too.

Oh conference was soooooooo goooooood! I have way toooo many favorite talks. And everyone talked about prophets or agency it seems like. So good. To watch conference in English, we had four missionaries in one room watching it on dvd. And we had desks and the members said we got the VIP room. It was funny. Anyway. How lucky we are to have a living prophet that can lead us the way God wants.

On Sunday the girl with the tattoo came for the first time since she got it and it doesn't say "heavenly father is always by my side" even more ironically it says "keep God's commandments" in this really fancy handwriting - haha I laughed for a while!

The first thing we did when I got to my new area is go bowling! yay. But I owned those Asians! After 4 strikes and 3 spares, I ended up with a 163 score. Which as of right now is my record! My old record is 155 I think..

Yea Sisi braces hurt. really bad. I wasn't lying!!
And yes here in the south, it is so much more hot! ugh. apparently the temperatures are lower here but the humidity is really bad.
Yay for no school Kami and Sisi!!!

I just found out this is my companions first time having a foreign companion. haha

See ya in 1.5 years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

October 3, 2010

Dear fam,
So........ coooool story for you guys.... you might even freak out a little. I know I did. So in my last package that you guys sent me, you gave me a copy of an article from the New Era, and I told you guys it probably happened around the area that I am in because we have one of the most famous night markets in Taiwan in our area. Anyway, we found that the guy from the story not only lives in the city that I serve in, not only is he in my zone and in the stake where I am serving, but he is in MY AREA and in MY WARD!! Did that just blow your mind?! Cuz it blew my mind right out of the water bucket. Anyway, I think I’m going to type in my journal entry from that night:
9/28/10
Sooooooo today was cool. Tonight we went to visit a member family. The Cai family. (1Tim 4:12 written in the margin) and they were great. All we did was get to know them and let them know us, where we are from, our families etc.. And then we asked them if we could help them in any way. Then Cai di xiong got up and left. To answer our question, Cai jie mei just said "eat the pineapple I gave you" and then she laughed. sad face. But then Cai dixiong came back with the latest Liahona (September 2010) and opened to "Miracle at a Stoplight". He told us that this story happened here in feng jia. Elder Thomas and I were like... "oh that’s pretty cool". But then he explained more. The guy in the story, Su meng wei, still lives here! Him, his wife and his 5 children. He even holds the melcheizedek preisthood. But he is less active. What happened is he married his wife, had 4 kids, but then him and his wife got in lots of fights and that’s why, in the story, he was having a bad day. Anyway, he still got a divorce but then he married a woman who had 2 kids already. But before he married her, him and his kids got baptized. And according to the Cai family, his wife and her kids are members as well. Here is the problem; her parents didn’t approve of them getting married in the first place. So to satisfy her parents, they got a divorce and they aren’t technically married. But they still live together and do all the things married people do... So when they had their interview to get married in the temple, the stake president said they couldn’t go because legally they weren’t married, and thereby were technically breaking the law of chastity. So because he couldn’t go to the temple, he stopped coming to church. So Cai di xiong gave us his number so we could work on them coming back to church and hopefully to the temple! He lives about the distance between our house in Kaysville and church. So close!
Ok you are out of my journal now.
I read a cool talk by Arlene Calkins from the sep 2008 ensign called "casual gratitude".It’s really short but I’m sure you will still like it.
ummm what else happened this week... deng yi xia.
My scripture of the week is john 14:26 notice how it says remembrance. I think it’s pretty deep.

I can’t wait for conference! Yes mom, we made it just fine with the money we had. The members rarely feed us. Which I think is awesome because it’s always something really gross like squid. Ewww! This week we did lots of cleaning at night and we found out we have a wok and two blenders and a juicer thing and lots of random stuff like that. Favorite food.... hmmm today we will be eating kal rou (bbq) and its sooo good. It’s an unlimited amount of food and its all meat! But it’s expensive! like 9 US dollars. I don’t think there is anything I need. ..except for less distractions... haha!
--
See ya in two years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

September 26. 2010

Dear family
So once again not a ton has happened this week. For three days this week my companion was in training meetings for a total of over 18 hours. Ouch. In the meantime I went on splits with an elder Webb and an elder Rostedt. They have a member that was baptized in 1963. That a long time ago. They also have a less active member who we talked to that told us that he hears the devils voice in his head whenever he doesn’t smoke. And we asked him, "do you mean like temptation?" and he said no. he hears an actual voice. Yeah...
and on Wednesday we went to an American breakfast shop for lunch and it was so good. It smelled like Grannie Annie's in there. Yumm
so I think conference is on this week for you guys. You can’t tell me anything! I don’t get to listen to it until a week after you do.
I think you guys should find and read a talk by Neil l Anderson called "it's true isn’t it? What else matters?" It’s good
I was teaching my English class and we had two new people that week so I showed them the picture of the family. And then they all asked me who the person in the middle was and I was like... that’s me... and they were like whoa because apparently it looks like I lost a lot of weight. But I don’t think I have lost a lot of weight, I just had a jacket on in that picture. All the food here is fried this and fried that. It’s kind of gross. Was the food like that for you pops?
Oh and my whole class all thinks I look like Mr. Bean. ummm who in the heck is Mr. bean? I’ve never seen Mr. bean before...
so last week I won the claw machine twice in one day!!! anyway hopefully pics will come from that. I won two Patricks! a small one and a big one.
also this week we are living a little tight because we were supposed to get money last Friday, but we won’t get money until this Thursday. So we arent spending a lot of money on food and stuff. And my companions tire is about to pop which isnt good. but we bought about 20 lemons for about one US dollar and some really cheap sugar, and we make lemonade instead of buying drinks like winter melon tea. those drinks are like 75 cents U.S.
I’m proud of you sisi for running so fast! The Taiwanese people think it’s weird to pray because when they think of Christian prayers they think of recited memorized prayers. when they realize they can actually talk to God and receive revelation, it’s cool. speaking of other Christians... can you guys send me some information on what some other Christian sects believe? specifically Protestant churches and Presbyterian, Catholics. it’s good to know what others believe.
this week was like fourth of July or something for them here and I got so many videos of fireworks but I can only send the shortest one. they were setting them off right behind our house! no Kami, Taiwan is nothing like Utah. haha

September 19, 2010

dear family,
so this week was the first time i have ever seen the moon in taiwan. i got a package from you guys this week too. yummy yummy. the bag of mms has more calories than a whole big mac meal. speaking of big macs.. last preparation day we found out that we have 10 McDonald's in our area and we have one of the smallest areas in the mission. thats so many!
this week our dryer broke and we fixed it temporarily (for about an hour) by using rubber bands. also yesterday there was a typhoon and it was so bad the windows were shaking and church was cancelled. but as taiwan missionaries we are still required to be outside working, even though every Taiwanese person is indoors except the cops and everyone thinks we are crazy wai guo ren. which we are for going outside in weather like that. at one point sunday morning, the wind was blowing so fast that one of the cranes on top of a building that is still under construction was spinning around in circles. hopefully i can sent a video of that. we also saw people putting boards up on all their doors and windows.
on Thursday, one of the area presidency, Elder Pratt, came and talked to one third of us. and he changed a lot of things. he made the standard a lot higher for the requirements of somebody getting baptised. so there are some good changes going on.
we have this investigator who we haven't really been sure why he still meets with us because he hasn't been progressing for over 2 months, and he has only been to church once. and that was 2 months ago. he has 3 jobs and doesn't read the book of mormon and he cant come to church for a long time. but when we met with jiang di xiong (during his lunch break) he had a huge smile on his face. he said he had been having lots and lots of problems with people and other things, but then he prayed and he said his mind was so clear on what he needed to do and what he needed to say to people like his bosses. and then he said all of the things that were bothering him are gone and it is because of prayer.
my favorite scripture this week is alma 37:37
oh so we met with that guy whos family my companion baptizzled. pretty cool guy. he cant come to church for a few weeks but still pretty solid.
this week is also the week that taiwan became its own country or something like that so there have been lots of fireworks and cal rou-ing. which is there version of a bbq.
oh.... last night we went to this members house and she fed us steaks. which she cooked. kind of. she just made sure the outside was brown... but the inside was completely just raw deep red meat. ewwww i almost threw up. and then she gave us this soup with some kind of meat in it. it tasted like rubber.
and family you cant get mad at me for having short letters. we are one of the only missions in the world that only lets missionaries only have an hour to write to the mission president and to families. most people can spend all day if they want to. and they are allowed to type it in word so they can add pictures and stuff in the actual email not just as attachments. we aren't allowed to do things like that.
this week i got a cute letter from the Gardner's so say thanks to them.

thanks everyone for writing me. and i got your package and i was going to tell you guys about that article. the story took place most likely in my area. we have the biggest and most famous night market in all of taiwan here in the fengjia area. well i have to write the president now so i will see if i have time to write more after.

See ya in two years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

September 12, 2010

dear family and friends. hello. so this week... not a lot happened. so sorry if this is short. i will try and tell a few stories.
so that guy thats family is down south and my companion elder Thomas baptised, we thought he gave us a fake number, but we decided to call it one lst time and he told us his cell phone was broken or something and he isnt in taizhong right now. but he will come back this week and so we have hope!
so here there is carrefour and its like a walmart, and they have everything. and a few weeks ago i bought pants there for less than $6 USD. sweet huh? the missionaries all call them naked pants because they are so thin. but that's perfect for missionaries who have to ride bikes all day long..

a few weeks ago we went to the post office to send letters and there was a huge line and that made us sad because we didnt want to waste time. so i prayed that it wouldnt take an hour like it looked like it would. and then this guy ran into the post office and yelled "the cops are here to give us all tickets!" and everyone in line left to move their illegally parked scooters to a legal area. we didnt have to leave because they cant ticket bikes! so we were instantly bumped up to the first people in line. prayer works you guys.

last week it was like just sprinkling, not really raining and we were biking on a really long stretch of road and this guy pulls up beside us and says "i bless you with safety because it is raining" oh and whenever i say someone says something in any of my stories you guys have to assume its in chinese unless otherwise specified. k? thanks.

oh my goodness the funniest thing happened. well i think its funny. the sisters have this really strong new convert and she got a tattoo really big on her arm that says "heavenly father is always by my side" in english! i laughed my head off. but the funny part is that the sisters were the ones who translated it for her so that it would be in english! they didnt know she was going to get it tattooed in huge letters on her forearm hahaahaa is that mean for me to laugh?

i think my favorite scripture right now is alma 24:14. its pretty good...

last night there was a huge storm and elder Thomas got some really good pictures of it. he has a really nice camera. but i think im fine with the one i have.

the light saber is just a scripture highlighter that the person taking the picture holds.
--
See ya in two years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

September 5, 2010

so this week there isn't a lot to write, but thats ok. In responce to your letters, I still teach the advance English class. i just wing it! And about the music, i can get something here once i need it. So far, most missionaries have speakers and a cd player. our apartment even has one that a missionary going home left here. my official release date is April 11, 2012. but it might change later. right now the guy that i contacted who's half brother is on a mission hasnt answered his phone... yes sisi i have sister guffy. sarah is up there right now? my sarah? or a different sarah? haha i miss Halloween.. you guys are going to California???? sad face. oh well im not sure if i told you guys but i like this from PMG. the very center of our purpose is the two words Jesus Christ. like.. look at how many words there are in the purpose in chapter 1. divide it by two and its 17.5? maybe.. anyway i remember its right in the space between Jesus and Christ. kinda cool that the center of our purpose is literally Jesus Christ. oh yeah so this week there were three typhoons!! cool huh? anyway hopefully my videos aren't too big to send. sweet. umm so two nights ago we found stuff to make like tacos so we went to the carrefour and bought chicken and last night we cooked it but then we realised we didnt have tortillas. sad face. so we used bread instead. haha i have to hurry and write my presidents letter now. ill write some more after. if i have time.

--
See ya in two years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

August 29, 2010

hello family.

so last Saturday was move calls. i am very lucky to be staying in feng jia with elder Thomas. and dont worry we have set some high goals and we are going to get a lot more done this move call.

umm nothing really big happened this week except i just thought of a story. so on Wednesday i contacted this guy on the street and he is from the south right where my companion spent most of his mission and he said the reason he let us talk to him is because his half brother is on a mission just like us. and we were like cool and so his family is obviously Mormon. but the cool part about this story is that his family is a family who elder Thomas baptised and the mom said "we have another son that we wish you could teach, but we don't know where he is and we don't know his cell phone number or anything. he just visits once in a while" but we found him here in Taichung. so we are going to start teaching him. cool huh?

so yeah thats pretty much it. oh on Thursday i helped people do "Dan Jones" night which was pretty cool because it showed me how far my chinese has come. i picked the most nervous looking missionary so that my chinese could be better than his and i could actually help him. so i will be on his dvd haha but he did pretty well! he gave away 3 copies of the book of mormon. so thats pretty cool.

yesterday we did a "member mtc" for the two wards in xitun. we taught all the members there how to talk to their friends about the gospel and how to peike (when a member assists in teaching an investigator) and how to act around them at church and things like that. it was pretty fun except i didnt eat breakfast and it got over at 2:45 so i was pretty hungry.

i have a poem i want to send you guys if you cant find it online its called "he's been there before" by Elder Troy Whittle. its really good.

oh i have another story but i cant remember if i said it already... anyway so there is this computer game called starcraft that josh and i have been playing for forever. anyway starcraft 2 came out a few weeks ago and its been kinda hard not to think about it because there are posters of it everywhere at all of the 7/11s and things like that. well anyway my companion and i were making phone calls at a 7/11 and i saw a big flag for starcraft 2 and i was like "come on why is this everywhere?" so trying to focus i turn away from the 7/11 and right then a huge bus covered in starcraft 2 stuff pulls up and stops right in front of me because of a red light! i was so mad because i was trying not to think about it! anyway..

so that one girl i baptised about 6 weeks ago gave us an awesome referral. her older brother! yay. so now we are starting to teach him which is awesome because he sees all the things his sister does like read the Book of Mormon and pray and stuff like that. and he already believes that the earth didn't just magically appear and things like that which is good.

kami. i am good.

pops not a lot of people email me things. sorry i still dont have a picture of the old lady i baptizzled. but yesterday she brought her grand kids to church and they were really loud. and no no pictures of eating the squid. for them it would have been awkward because its normal for them and she asked me if i eat sea food and i said yes and she just plopped a squid on my plate.

we are allowed to listen to music just not at the mtc and not on mp3 players.

yes we are still meeting with duo. last time we met with him we watched the joseph smith movie and he said after that he knew joseph smith was a prophet. but he couldnt come to church yesterday because he was in taibei

See you in two years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

August 15, 2010

so this week i baptised chen yu jie and a little girl whos dad couldnt because he doesnt have the preisthood. it was really cool. but i had to say the baptismal prayer three times for the girl haha. the first time i accedently said the word for Lord instead of father (fu4 not zhu3) the second time she got really scared and only went partway under water haha. the third time i had to force her little body under water haha it was really funny. after she came up to me and told me to write my name on a piece of paper so she can always remember who helped her get baptised. awwww so cute. i wanted to give her a hug but we arent allowed to.. oh well. her family owns a bing shop so we are going to print out pictures and buy a frame for the girl and take it to the shop today.

yu jie was so funny. i was kidding around and i told him to breakdance in the front part of the church in his white baptism clothes. but asians dont get sarcasm so he did it anyway.. haha sweet.
--
See ya in two years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

New Letters from Elder Graham

Hi fiends and family,

I have last weeks correspondence from Elder Beau:

5/3/10 Beaus e-mail mostly answering our questions:

im going to try and write as much as i can in this email because im not sure how much time i will have to write. i have a lot of Chinese to learn for this weeks teaching activity. pops thats way cool that you are learning how to bug houses and stuff. sweet. im not allowed to listen to music in the mtc. its a new rule cuz i guess some missionaries broke some rules a little while ago. im sorry that you dont have a computer person there to help out. i promise the laptop is all legal. i think its cool the girls got to use my shirts and stuff. thatnks for the pics. i dont get dear elders on saturday or sunday.i really cant call on mothers day sorry sisi. i have been to "boondocks" i went there with sarah on her 18th birthday. ummm there was something i was going to tell you guys but now i forget. so im going to tell you guys about elder geddes because i dont think i have before. elder geddes is elder tito's companion. i also met him about 2 and a half years ago. he and i went to efy together. mitch should remember jeff geddes from efy. so yeah we are in the same distric and he is way cool and i think its funny we knew eachother before getting called here. and he took 6 years of spanish and still got called to taiwan so its extra awesome. i have to go cuz its almost dinner time 5:44 and im still in my pday clothes...

later aligators

Then we received this letter in the mail on 5/6/10:

Dear family,

I wish I had a ton more time to write. I guess you guys will have to wait to hear the 3 Kingdoms story.

Last Wednesday 4 new districts of Chinese speakers came in to the MTC. We are now the "old" people here. It's cool - this whole time I thought I wasn't progressing at all, but now I realize how far I've come and how much I know. My companion and I are now mentors for two of the new missionaries. It's pretty cool to see how far I've come. One of the new missionaries is from Seattle and he only has one leg. I am so proud to be his mentor.

Thanks for the pics. My camera does not do that cool stuff. Elder Orams camera is a cannon powershot with "color accent" which means it can take pictures that are black and white except for one color. (we got these cool pics of flowers at the Temple - black and white with just the flower a color)

I haven't had a chance to be a host yet and I'm not sure when I will do that.

I have some cool scriptures I want you guys to read. They are kinda directed at missionaries but that's ok. D&C 31:3, D&C 84:80-88 and finally and obviously 3 Nephi 11:14.

My Branch President is awesome - like on Sunday our district leader said "Ok, let's sing a hymn", and the Branch President said, "It's better than a her!" And we all laughed because his wife was there and she said "Oh, George" in a funny old person voice. and later when he came up to our dorms, someone made a joke about hiding in the closet, and he said "Well, as long as you don't come out of the closet..." and we all laughed even harder. It was so funny.

One of our Branch Presidency members was released last week and I'm sad because he was so funny. He is a combination of Mater from Cars (Disney movie), the prospecter from Toy Story 2 and the grandpa from Up. He does not speak Chinese and it is so funny - he knows "hello". But he thinks wan an is goodbye but it's goodnight. Anyway he is awesome. But he is in an English speaking zone now. Oh well.

Tell grandma and grandpa thanks for the ties from Africa. Everyone loves them.

And thanks for the puppy - Qo yang lao almost started crying he was so happy. He was jumping up and down like a little kid. It was awesome. Well I have to go to bed now...

So let me know what you think of those Scripts!

From yo Elda Gwammm

Love to all from the Grahams

Hi friends and family- we got this e-mail a couple of weeks ago, but then waited for a letter that never came. I waited by the mailbox all week!:)

hello family. i wrote you guys a letter. thanks for all the dear elders. i got ten today! wow. plus a letter from the packs and from emilie which was awesome. so i cant send a mem card home this week because i dont have any more cards so you guys need to send me those ones back. It stinks that lady isnt doing anymore mini pmgs. they are so cool. a bunch of people left today. now my district is the "old" district and we will get new mandarin speakers in a week. we also have a new distric leader and his name is elder van noy. if there is one person i want to be like besides Christ it would be him. he is 100% obedient and is kind and uplifting to everyone. k gotta go. i will see you guys in??????? two years.
-
See ya in two years,

Elder Graham

Then we got another text last week explaining why there was no letter in the mail:


hello family. sorry you didnt get any mail last week, i wrote a letter but then i wanted to write more on tuesday and then we had a lesson monday night on being obedient. so i decided to not write until today. sarah should be getting an sd card full of awesome pics. and the laptop microsoft licence is LEGAL!! if it says it isnt you just call microsoft and say you had to format the hard drive. which i did have to do.
pops i hope your talk goes well sunday. ummm the only thing that i remember from mission prep were some cool stories from the recent rm's that got me extremely excited for my mission. and the extra spirit i felt there.

--
See ya in two years,
Elder Graham

Then on Thursday we got a good sized letter - two weeks worth:

Dear fam,
Hey mom? Will you send me a puppy?

Also I forgot to tell you something funny. So Elder Tito is from Australia and before he came here, he watched "The Best Two years". In that movie a missionary says "flip", so he says "flip" all the time because "That's how American missionaries talk".

Umm... this is awkward because... Mom...I'm not allowed to call you on Mother's Day. Can't do that at the MTC ...sorry.

I need like a pocket dictionary just like a mini one (Pinyin) that has English to Chinese and visa versa.

And I just found out I have to move upstairs, which is poop (is he allowed to say that?:)) because the whole "national treasure" thing is based on the fact that I was in this room. Now I have to start all over. (OK, the burnt paper and screw driver make a little more sense now!)

Another story about Elder Tito...Apparently in Australia, "hale no" is appropriate to say, even for Mormons...because it's out of the Bible or something. Anyway he asked the Lao shi how to say "hale no" in zhong wen, and it was pretty funny!

I wrote you guys another letter but I can't find it... so I'm sorry this is short. Maybe I can write more later. Oh, I did get to see Josh for a few minutes, it was pretty cool! (Beau's long time friend from California days (Josh) is in the Men's Chorus at BYU and came to sing at the MTC)

You guys didn't get a letter last week and I'm sorry. This is why: last Monday I wrote this letter but I didn't finish, and I thought I would just finish it on Wednesday. But then we had a lesson about obedience, and you're only supposed to write on Mondays. So I decided not to keep writing until today. Sorry.

Tell the people in the ward thank you for their letters. Especially Ryker Bowen, his made me laugh. An tell Grandma and Grandpa thanks for the pie. Yum. Thanks for the little basketball and hoop. Umm... we don't know how to play scripture basketball, so we just play basketball.

So I am sending you guys my daily planner that I have used already. that way you guys can see what I do.

Oh, I taught my first lesson in Chinese last Saturday. And then on Sunday I gave a talk in Chinese. Just so you guys know, it is really hard here and I feel like crying every day because of how stressful it is, but I like it and it's going faster than I thought it would because I'm working hard.

Sarah should be getting a memory card with a lot of pictures on it. I hope you guys like them. (I need to figure out how to put them on this e-mail so you all can see them.)

Pops - how did your trip go?

Mom, the burnt paper is for a treasure map. All I really need now is some tape. (yes, I sent him some the next day. I can't help it!)

My new District Leader Elder Van Noy is cool and I told you guys about him in my e-mail last time. He is about my height and kind of weird/awkward but he is AWESOME!

Well that was it. He didn't sign it - I guess Pday was over!
Until next time,
The Grahams