October 2, 2011 - Training is so much fun!

Dear Family,

Hello. How is everybody?
Well Elder graham is doing pretty good. But for some reason my camera's battery isn't working so sorry. No new pictures. :\
But this week we have spent a lot of time talking to everyone and visiting with all the members we can and just trying to get anybody we can to listen to us! Come to church! gosh.

Training is so much fun. I am laughing all the time with my super tall companion. There are so many things that I didn't realize that I learned that someone brand new to Taiwan wouldn't know. Like don't stick your chopsticks straight up and down in your bowl. It is a sign of death and it attracts ghosts. We almost got kicked out of a house, but luckily the members knew that he was new and didn't know. Haha
Oh yeah. Thanks for the package. The cookies were in crumbs but my comp thought they were awesome so he ate them. I'm trying to stay off sugar. I'm back up to around 145 pounds and my super buff companion is putting me on the p90x program as well as running. So all sugar things are going to him. But that's OK. I'm trying to be more healthy.
This week is general conference. Sweet. Hopefully that goes well. We usually have problems with the translations. Anyway. So pops, I haven't heard any of them yet.
It is starting to get really cold. This morning we ran in the rain and wind. But it felt good.

Well Elder graham has to write his presidents letter now.. bye bye
桂長老桂俊杰
Elder Graham

Sept 25, 2011

Hello family!!
So this week was pretty good. Lately we have been struggling to find people to teach.This is going to be super short sorry.. But We have a ton of stuff to do. I might need a new gospel study journal... mine is all filled up. That's a good thing I think. That's so weird that Aaron Naylor is coming home so soon. Training is a lot more fun than everyone says it is. We just need to keep working with the people in the ward to find some new families to teach!!
Get them in the water!
Anyway, I hope everything is going good back there. I think my release date is in April some time.
I don't know how it is going to work but I am going to try and send my credit card home, the one from best buy. And you guys can get all the money off that. It doesn't work here. And it expires in March.
Ji di xiong's grandpa died and so he couldn't come to church yesterday. sad face.
Well elder graham has to go... Sorry this was short.

桂長老桂俊杰

Elder Graham

September 18, 2011 - Companion progressing fast!

Hello family,
Well this week went by really fast. My trainee is super sweet. He is so willing to work as hard as he can. He just wants to learn and keep learning. His Chinese is way better than mine was when I first got here. He is very humble in the way that he wants me to correct everything he says wrong. Its kinda funny sometimes. And now that everyone is comparing my Chinese to his, They all say that mine is really good. But last movecall, nobody said that. Anyway. But what I have figured out is that I have a Taiwanese accent. At the MTC they teach mainland Chinese. VERY DIFFERENT. Whatever Sarah is learning right now will be different than what I speak everyday.
Just a couple weeks ago the mission changed to "contacting in unity" which means that we contact together instead of separately. Which is very different from when I was trained. My companion is progressing a lot faster than I did. Its awesome.
These past few weeks, we have been having a hard time finding new people to teach that are willing to come to church. We have been working with a lot of part member families. Which has been giving us lots of good lessons but not a lot of progressing investigators. But this week we got 4 member referrals from ACTIVE members which was really cool. (and a first).
I'm glad you guys are doing good. I think we are Thrashing. Its been interesting to see how far I have come since it was my first move call.
I'm sorry this was short but Elder Graham doesn't have a lot of time today because we have a lot of things we have to get for my new companion. There's a lot of stuff he doesn't have!
Sisi - boys are just weird in general. Just so you know.

Love Elder Graham

桂長老桂俊杰

September 11, 2011 - New comp Elder Ipsen

Hello family,
Ok drummmmmm roolllllllllll. The big news of the week is that Elder Graham has now evolved into..... Trainer Elder Graham!! I have a sweet new trainee who is super tall. Over 6 feet. I thank the Lord for being able to be together with my awesome trainee! Elder Ipsen is so awesome. He is missionary 2.0. 台中 is going to blow up with this ordained missionary of God. Even with being extremely tired from jetlag he is still doing awesome. He talks with EVERYBODY. He is always asking how to improve. "How can I do ______?" "How do I say____?". He is an amazing missionary. He is extremely willing to keep all the missionary rules. He wants to be a 100% obedient missionary. Sweet. Last night we were practicing contacting and we ran into a man who had been to church several times before and he was extremely willing to meet. That really boosted his confidence. In companionship study we set up a plan for this whole week of all the things we want to work on during companionship study. Down to the minute. Every day is planned out so we know exactly what we are going to work on that day of the week. We are going to tear this place apart "thrashing the nations with the power of [the Lords] Spirit." Life is good.
He is from Mesa Arizona and he likes volleyball, basketball (duh) and fishing. His family owns a house in Alaska and they go there during the summer and hunt and fish. Legit.
It is so interesting training. Like... Elder Graham doesn't know how far he has come since he came here, until he started training. (I know I am talking in third person, don't worry). But its really weird to realize that at one point I really didn't know anything like he doesn't.
So the office is going to call and ask me when I want to come home. What do you guys think? the end of Feb. or the middle of April?
Well other than that, not a ton has happened. We are still searching for new investigators. Most of my time will be spent training my companion to do the things that we do everyday as missionaries. Things that I didn't realize that I never knew how to do.
Love Elder Graham

桂長老桂俊杰

September 4, 20011 - Super Cool Youth Activity

Dear Family plus friends and anybody else,

First off, yes I know Elder Max Wood. His chinese is super way good.

Anyway. This week was better than last week. My companion is teaching me how to play chinese chess. And there are a million ways to play. Its really fun.

So last week I didn't have time to write about the youth activity that happened like two weeks ago. My companion is asian and so they chose him as an actor in the play that we put on. So anyway, thats how I got to go. But basically it was EFY but only for three days. The cool part is that it was for ALL of Taiwan. So ALL of the youth in taiwan got together and it was really powerful. So the part that the missionaries did was a play about going on a mission. The theme of the youth activity was "Seeds of Faith". It was really awesome. I got to see some recent converts and people from all my old wards and stuff. It was really cool at the end - all of the youth committed to going on missions. Thousands of asians flooding the earth with the gospel. BOOM!

Just like Daniel sounds Mexican, I will most likely sound asian when I come home. And some words I won't know in english. I will have to learn english all over again. I speak chinese almost 24/7 now. I've started dreaming in chinese...

Thats pretty weird that you guys don't have any men at the house. Both of us are across the world!!!

The ward newsletter looks really good!

Well, Thats all for now folks this elder is going to go eat some pizza.

See ya in a year,

桂長老桂俊杰

Elder Graham

Aug 28, 2011 - Ji di Xiong Baptism & Best story of my Mission

Hello fam,

Well the "no show" kid.... We still have only talked to him on the phone, other than that, nothing else has happened with him.
But on saturday, Ji wen pong di xiong got baptized and it was really good. Unfortunately his wife and daughter couldn't come because his cute little girl was sick and the mom had to take her to the doctor. He is really great. After the baptism, my companion told him that he has a big responsibility now. Ji di xiong asked "what is that?". My companion answered "you have to get your wife to believe in God." He replied with "I know, I will let her see my change(s)." Pretty good!

Ok my finger is fine mostly. They only had to cut a little bit off.
Well we had hardly any sit-downs and adds and anything else this week. We are kinda struggling to find anybody new.
I was just kidding about my finger. The infection went away after a few days.

As for the missionary spotlight in the newsletter, I don't know. I think I have learned a lot.

1. Anything is possible if it is God's will.
2. We can do hard things. Especially when we set goals and make plans.
3. The Book of Mormon is a very powerful collection of God's word and can change anybody.

I think the best story from my mission is about a man named Chen Di xiong. When I first met him, he wouldn't accept a Book of Mormon and laughed when we asked if we could pray with him. His wife had been a member for a year and a half. Six months later he had stopped smoking, drinking tea and alcohol, gambling, working on Sunday, and many other things. He now has a habit of reading his scriptures every day (with his family and by himself), praying every day (with his family and by himself), and coming to church every week. Whenever he sees somebody smoking he says it makes his stomach hurt and he wants to throw up whenever he smells the smoke. He made such big changes that his daughter and his daughter's friend and his daughter's friend's daughter all got baptized on the same day a few weeks after his Baptism. And he baptized them. All of his other children are investigating the church. Later he gave the church 900 years worth of family history so that all those thousands of Chen's can have their ordinances done for them in the temple. (trust me there are lots of Chens). He and his wife have plans to get sealed in the temple next year. This gospel is for everybody.
Thats probably all I have for that.

Sisi don't run too fast.
Looks like Dad will be doing fine in Afghanistan. Does anyone know what he is even doing there? are we allowed to know?

Gotta go,
Elder Graham

Aug 21. 2011 - Infected Finger & Fanged Baptism

Well happy birthday pops and good luck in Afghanistan.

This week was... well not as good as it could have been. I got some really big infection on my right ring finger. I had to go to the doctor here which isn't fun. and now I have to take all these antibiotics for a few days. And if it isn't better after I run out of pills than he has to cut my finger off.

This week something new happened. This has never happened to me before.... We were supposed to have a baptism two days ago. But then he "fanged" his own baptism. Which means he never showed up. He stood up his baptism. not fun. Then yesterday he didn't come to church. We finally got a hold of him and we are meeting with him tonight to figure out what happened.

Pops I'm sorry I didn't get anything for your birthday.
Yes I would like to see some pictures!
OK MOM YOU FREAKED ME OUT. In the email you said "arrow got shaved" what does that mean? I thought my arrow died... Why would you shave a dead cat? Maybe you just meant Cupid got shaved.
I thought Geoffrey was already in Mexico. That's really weird that Abbey is even old enough to be going to college. Wow.

Well there isn't much to say. I still don't know when I will be going home exactly. I emailed President, and he said I will most likely be going home April 14th ish. Unless there is some reason to go home 6 weeks earlier. Like school starting or something like that.

Love Elder Graham

I was kidding about having to cut my finger off by the way. But he will have to cut out the infected part next to my fingernail if it doesn't go away.

Aug 14, 2011 -

Dear Family,

Well that is sad that Arrow is now in kitty spirit paradise. That means we need a new cat that will take naps with me when I get home. :(

I did not know about the fire. That's pretty sad too.

This week my companions brother is getting married in the Taibei temple. On Friday he will get to go there to see that. Which will be really cool for him. But I have to stay here and do a whole weekly planning session by myself in an area that I don't know. Which isn't fun at all. But I am excited for my comp.

Also this week we will have a baptism. He is a 14 year old boy who walks to church by himself and he is pretty cool. And next week we should also have a pretty cool baptism of 紀di xiong. His sister is a member who lives in the states and got married in the salt lake temple (I think) and he saw how happy she is and so he started investigating the church.

I bought some really cheap crocs 50元 (about $1.33 USD). Sweet.

Sisi I don't really remember any of those names. But that's OK I'm sure that they are all good.
Pops I'm not sure about my release date yet but it is either Feb 29th or April 11th -ish.
Pops you also need to not cry so much..

Well that is kinda it for now, I have to write my Mission President.
Elder Graham

Aug 7, 2011 - My new comp & eating snake

Hello family! Its good to hear that you are having a good time. In taiwan today is fathers day. Happy fathers day pops!
So this week has been interesting. My companions english is not the best. And so it is really funny to hear him try and speak.

Last monday after I emailed you guys, we went out and ate snake. Isn't that sweet? if you zoom in on the picture, you should be able to see the snake skin and everything.
Its kinda weird being district leader here. I guess that a little while after I left, this whole zone kinda stopped doing to well. This is the biggest zone in the mission. And in the last 8 months its been the lowest baptizing. So they whitewashed (moved both of them and brought in two ...cough... more experienced ones) the zone leaders and brought in all new district leaders. Last week this area got 2 people at church. Yesterday we got 7. This is how we do it! This area is going to start blowing up. The members are super nice here in dong hai. Yesterday at church I saw a bunch of people that I knew from last year. Its pretty sweet. Today we are going to fong jia to go to a resteraunt that I used to go to.
My new companion has a sister who is in this same mission. (wouldn't that be weird) And his ex-girlfriend is going to fongjia but he says that it doesn't bother him. But anyway, his sister is in the hospital because she has brain cancer. But she is getting better! She will be coming back later this month. Yeah Τ快猭!!
It would be really weird to serve like in provo or something like that where home would just be like an hour away.

See ya in a year,
ρ
玊狽
Elder Graham

July 31, 2011 - District Leader over my old area - Taizhong!

Sooo helloooooooo family,
This is Elder Graham. Happy birthday mom!! Just so you know I sent a package. It was about 60 bucks to send. But it only has some shoes and things like that. A hat. And a really big scroll. Some of it is for me when I get back, like the shoes. But you guys can put the poster up in the house and wear the hat. The hat is really funny i think. It isn't made by our church but basically it says if you believe in Jesus you will be saved.

So yes. I moved. And guess where I moved to? Taizhong. I am now the district leader over my first area! I even get to go to the same chapel! I'm so excited! I get to see all the old people and go on exchanges in my old area! Isn't that cool? And guess what else. Oh man I am super lucky. My companion is a 台灣人. Isn't that sweeeeeet? He is from taidong. And he is going to help me with my characters and speaking and he will teach me a little 台語.
He is super cool. Kinda a bigger guy and he is like a teddy bear. sweet. So yeah. My new area is in 台中西屯區 just like my first area! But this time I am by DungHai University. (deng hai). Our house looks over the school grounds and our apartment is huge. The best apartment I have had so far. So sweet. We are going to do some cool stuff.

Sisi, That lady was right. Boys are all stupid. And you shouldn't care what other people think anyway.
Yes Sisi. That's why dad gave me a shotgun for my twelfth birthday.
What kind of phone did dad get mom?
Chinese food is way better than Thai.
Like I really want to come back to Taiwan. I am planning on it. But I just don't know when..
Well this elder has to go. We don't have a lot of time.. Next week will be better.
Love Elder Graham

July 24, 2011

OK the pictures are sweet but they are so small I can't see who is who.
But anyway. It looks like you guys had lots of fun.
Kami. you will never be a woman. Sorry. You will just be my sister.
Sisi. You don't like boys yet. And don't mention food. I'm soooo hungry. But guess what? I am going to an all you can eat place with all you can eat Hagen daz Ice cream. It is sooooooooo good. yay.

OK so this week was pretty good. Nothing huge happened. Rudi has been watching over his grandma while she is in the hospital. Hospitals are different here. Like you have to do everything yourself. You even have to bring your own toilet paper. Soooo he may or may not be getting baptized on Saturday. I'm not going to lie to you guys. I haven't been tracting in my whole mission. Maybe like 3 times for about 5 minutes every time. Its way more boring than talking to people on the street.

Am I surprised about everything that I have learned on my mission. Hmm. Some people will turn their backs on God. Even after spiritual confirmations of truth. People will let other things get in the way of things that will effect eternity. Things that don't matter.

So I just barely emailed on Wednesday and I don't have any new pictures. Sorry.

This week we hit most of our weekly goals. We had a good four investigators at church. This is the last week of the move call. I hope I don't go trainer......... I also don't want to move. But I have been here for three move calls and my time might be up.

Anyway. I'm sorry this was short again. I will talk to you guys again next week.!

Elder Graham

July 20, 2011 - Rain, Temple & Zone Conference

Hello family,
This is Elder Graham.

This week has rained like crazy. It rains every day for long periods of time. which is not fun because if we aren't teaching a lesson, we are outside contacting people. But when its raining, there isn't anybody to talk to. AND its in the rain and we are soaking wet.

Thank you for the package with garments. YAY for new garments. I've been sweating in mine everyday for over a year. Its weird to think that I've been here for over a year.

So today we went to the Taibei temple. It was really good. And I got to see a sister who I served around when I was in 蔼动. She went home two transfers ago. But now she works for the church in . She is going to BYU in December and I told her to get in contact with you guys when she gets there. Her name is Chen xiao ting. I think... I forgot. Anyway..

Sisi I don't think that Dad is getting slower. You are just getting faster .
OK for like the fifth time. When you say you are having "the talk" with Sarah. What does that mean?

Zone conference was really good last week. I learned a lot. Then yesterday was Leadership Training Meeting. Which was also really good. But they take all day and all it is, is we get taught for half an hour, then we practice for an hour on the thing that we learned about. I always have a headache by the end of the day. They last about 10 hours.

Rudi passed his interview.... But then last Saturday he went to a wedding and drank some alcohol. sad face. But yeah. After that, we didn't get a hold of him for two days. It made me worried. But he finally picked up his phone and we are meeting with him tomorrow. He is still planning on getting baptized on the 30th.

Next move call is in a week and a half. I might be training in the next couple move calls. We are getting like 40 new missionaries soon. That's a lot.

I told my President about my weakness of loving babies to death and he said that when he was on his mission here, he held babies all the time. It wasn't a rule back then. But it is now and we need to obey the rules. We have some super cute babies in this ward...

Well sorry this was short. We got back late.

Elder Graham

July 10, 2011 - He2 Di Xiong Baptism!

Dear Family,

I do miss the 4th of July, I hope you guys had a good time. So yes.
He2 di xiong got baptized and confirmed. He will be getting the priesthood next week hopefully. His service was really good. Really smooth in the water and out. One solid dunk. He said that the thing that made him want to be baptized in the first place was that he had a great feeling when he attended a baptism last move call. And ever since then he has really wanted to experience the same thing. I'm really glad that we invited him to go to that baptism!
Other recent convert news, Lin2 jin4 tian2 (baptized last month) is having his interview to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood next week. Sweet. And he has three callings! I love that man. So willing to serve the Lord. He is slowly sharing the gospel with his family as well.
Rudi. Rudi is slowly progressing. Right now he has a goal to be baptized on the 30th of this month. We are helping him work towards a baptismal interview this weekend.

This week is zone conference. I can't wait. They are awesome. And next week is the temple trip. Which means I won't be emailing until Wednesday of next week.
Here is just has been really really hot. I sweat all the time. No matter what. Even if there is AC. Its an auto-sweat zone here. When we come back we are all going to die.
We found out that in the next couple months, there will be 40 new missionaries coming on island. That is a lot of newbz. But it also means that there will be lots of trainers and lots of young leaders. Oh boy I hope I don't train. haha

OK. there is a missionary rule... That I am super tempted to break. Every single Sunday. Every Sunday all the members bring their cute little Asian babies to church. And here babies are just passed around like a bag of chips. Everyone gets to hold the baby. And every week someone offers me a baby to hold. They hold the baby out and expect me to take the cute bundle of angel sauce. But like cigarettes, I have to avoid it as best I can and just say no. It makes me so sad.

So yeah. I miss holding babies. Like, Jesus said bring the children unto me. And I'm just trying to be like Jesus!!! gosh... But it's against the rules. Someone better give me a baby to hold when I get home. I miss babies.

Anyway. I have to go now. Love you peeps and I will email you next Wednesday

July 3, 2011 - Rudi not ready

Dear Family,

Yeah sorry our whole zone went to cao tun to play frisbee and football. I was the only one who didn't bring a change of clothes. So i played in my proselyting clothes. so after getting all sweaty, we went and ate an all you can eat bar b q. It was really good, but as always, too expensive. 400NT.

So yeah. Anyway. So this past week... Well our investigator Rudi failed his baptismal interview. He isn't willing to stop drinking tea, or pay tithing after he is baptized.

But there was an investigator he2 di xiong. He was our investigator but then we found out that he lives in the other elders area. He is getting baptized on Saturday. He asked me to baptize him. Sweet. we are trying to find him some girls to date because he is 43 and doesn't have any family. His parents ditched him when he was 13. And he is taking the eternal marriage class that is every Wednesday at the church. And there are plenty of older women in both wards who aren't married. Sooo hopefully we can set something up.

Hmm lets see.

Pops the translator that I have can let you do that, but I think you can find programs like that on itunes for my ipod touch, or something like that.

When I talk to people on the street, I call them a 帥哥 and then I talk to them about their families. Like it says in Preach my Gospel. Sometimes I ask them a question of the soul like 你相信神的存在嗎? But then they say yes, but they are talking about idols and stuff. But sometimes we just ask them questions like 你覺得人生的目的是什麼? Man it is a million times harder to type in Chinese. Especially cuz they don't use pin yin here. They use ㄅㄆㄇㄈ. bopomofo. So its a little hard to type cuz I'm still learning. I could just write it a lot faster..

Well I hope you guys are doing good. Its really hot here too. Even in air conditioned places it is really really hot and I just sweat all the time. I drink lots of water.

Oh yeah. Happy fourth of July. That's today for me. Nobody here even knows about it.

OK well I have to go now. You guys have a good week.
Elder Graham

June 26, 2011 - 4 Converts to the Temple & Rudi

Hello family.

Sisi I don't know what that means. You had what talk with Sarah?
I also did not know of the sunday tradition of eating smores.

Yeah so last week our district gained two new missionaries.

Something pretty cool happened this week. Last month not a single one of our recent converts went to the temple. But this month, we got four of them to go and do baptisms for the dead. So it was really sweet. They all loved it. Hopefully it will help them all endure to the end.

Pops, the plan of salvation is : 救恩計劃 or jiu4 en1 ji4 hua4

Not a lot has happened this week, but last night there was an earthquake. And it was raining really hard for a couple hours.

My companion is a really hard worker and I want to be as diligent as he is. He is on the phone calling investigators or members until 10:30 when we have to go to bed. really li hai.

Thats really cool that Geoff is in the MTC. He should have a good time in there. The mtc feels like a long time...

The investigator that lives in the other elders area is super solid and is having his interview tomorrow. We helped him find a job and so he is going to try and stay at his current apartment. His name is He2 di xiong.

We also have another investigator who's name is Rudi. Rudi has been an investigator for over a year. He may or may not be ready but he is going to have his interview sometime this week.

Everyone here claims to be Buddhist, but then you ask them certain questions and basically nobody actually believes in it. They just do it because their parents did it and they don't want to break tradition. They don't even know what Buddhist believe. They just go to the temple every month or so and bow down before the idols.

Anyway. Thats all I have for today. Not much to report on. I have a goal to be able to write 500 characters from memory by the end of next month so hopefully that works out

Elder Graham

June 19, 2011 -

Dear Family,
Today is move day. My companion and I are staying here which I think is good. We are starting to get this place built up again. We are working with the members and working hard. We had three pretty solid investigators at church. The problem is that the most solid one.... Lives in the other Elder's area. But he might move at the end of the month. He is so good. Anyway.
So... Ok today my trainer goes home. He was only on his 7th transfer when He trained me. I am on my tenth. At most I have 42 weeks left on this island. This time is going by pretty fast. The last few days have been spent thinking about goals and plans for those goals. I want to master the art of setting goals and then doing them. What I need to work on is making daily plans and then recording every day how my plans are doing.
Other than that nothing really happened.
I got a letter from Josh that was sent over 4 months ago. Weird. I hope it doesn't take that long for my letter to him to get there! Thats crazy.

I didn't get the stuff from mitch but I don't think he can send emails to me with attachments for some reason.
Sorry this was short. I have to babysit a junior companion while we wait for his new companion to get here.
Love elder Graham

June 12, 2011 - SunMoon Bay/ My favorite Lin

Hello family,

Sorry about last week. we went to sun moon lake. which would be fun if we had all day. But.... We don't. We have to be outside talking with people about the gospel at 6 pm. and we got back to the town that I live in at like 530. SO yeah. sorry.
Then we thought our bikes were stolen because they weren't where we left them. They were next to the police station. In a huge pile of other bikes. Soo that took a while to get out.

This week was pretty good.

This week saw our recent convert Lin Di Xiong bless the sacrament. He is so good. He made around 25 scripture cases for everyone in the ward. Everyone calls him Lin Ba Ba. The members love him. I love him. He is going to the temple at the end of the month and on Sunday he will receive his first calling. I'm so excited! And his granddaughter is one of the sister's investigators.

Thats so crazy about Nana and Papa. They have been in that house since I was a little tiny baby!
In response to last weeks letter, yes Our water got fixed and we now have an electric heater that we have to turn on and off. No more gas! Thats good that you got cherry hill passes. Thats cool you got to have dinner with the Evesons. I don't think its "scheming".

Today is the last week of the transfer cycle. Next week I will be starting my 10th transfer cycle which makes me old. Its like turning 40 in real life. Not that that means you guys are old mom and dad........ cough.
Anyway. I will be coming home in like 40 ish weeks. So I need to make sure I start making some good mission goals so that I can get the things done that the Lord has sent me to do.

Sorry this was short again, We are all going to an all you can eat bar b q as a district.
Love Elder Beau Chandler Graham
Ps..... I may need some bottom garments......

June 5, 2011 - Forced Zone Activity

Sorry we had a boring day long, forced, zone activity that was a waste of time and money. I have to be teaching a lesson in twenty minutes and all my stuff is at the house and we still have to buy a bunch of stuff.

I got the package, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE GARMENTS. And the candy. But I am trying to loose weight...haha.

Yes Sisi you can confirm Pinky on facebook. She has the absolutely cutest Asian baby you have ever seen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! promise! And when we come back I want to see that baby. I also promised her that When that baby turns 8 I will come to Taiwan and baptize her. She is super cute.
Well I'm sorry. I have to go buy food and stuff for the week.
Elder Graham

May 29,2011 - Baptism and Elder Bednar

Dear Family,

OK so this week... lets see...was good.
Brother Lin was baptized! Yay! It was really cool.
This week was combined district training meeting and it was really cool and I learned a lot about how to help people have a good experience at church. I also got to hear my trainer give his "bye bye" speech. Its so weird that my first companion is going home. At that same meeting I had to present my districts numbers. Which of course made me look good except most of the baptisms are from the sisters.. Oh well.
you guys should go on my facebook and confirm chen hsiao ting. She is the most lihai missionary. Baptizing family after family after family... But she went home and is going to BYU soon I think. I don't know. She has better English than I do. Its really sad.
Yesterday at church I had to translate for the white guy that lives in our ward. He has been here for 6 years and does not speak Chinese. He is also our ward mission leader. He spoke on missionary work. So I knew all the vocab and stuff.

Thank you for the garments and stuff. This week our water heater broke and our landlord is lazy and hasn't fixed it yet. Which means cold, cold, cold, freezing cold showers. And our washing machine has this thing where it NEEDS hot water or else it wont work. So yeah we haven't been able to wash our clothes either.

That's really cool that Dale is the new bishop. He will be good.

Oh yeah. On Saturday David A. Bednar came to Taiwan and spoke to all the members in Taiwan. Using really cool tech stuff, it was broadcasted to all the stake centers. Including our building. It was really cool. It wasn't just him up there speaking on a topic that he wanted to talk about either. He had a question and answer session. And anyone in Taiwan could call and ask a question. All the youth asked about marriage and dating. All of the local church leaders wanted to know how to best help the lost sheep that are known as less active members. So yeah it was really cool. It took twice as long because he had a translator translate for him and and someone translating for the Taiwan.

Well this elder has to write his presidents letter now.
Love Elder Graham

May 22, 2011 - Idol Worship & I got hit by a truck!

Hello family!
So this week was pretty good. Two days ago we had an investigator pass an interview. He is really good. His name is 林弟兄 and he is about 60 years old. He was a former investigator and everyone in the ward already knows him. His only problem is that he worships idols. He literally has an alter where there is three statues of "gods". He bows down to them every night and every morning. And in the past this had prevented him from getting baptized. But we kinda dug deeper and asked him WHY in the heck he "worships" these idols. He said that the only reason that he does it is because his sons who don't live at home actually believe that the idols can help them. And its a rule that the idols have to stay in the grandpa's house until the one of the sons gets a real house with at least 2 levels so that the idols can stay on the top floor. Or something weird like that, I don't know. But anyway, the only reason he does it is because his sons will get really mad if he doesn't bai bai everyday. He doesn't actually believe in the idols. He believes Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are the only Gods that actually exist. So I talked to the mission president about it and he said that because he is doing it for his family and not for himself, he is allowed to be baptized. That was easy.... OK so the hard part was convincing lin dx that it is OK. So we brought over a member who is in the same situation. It was really cool. When we first got there we had no idea how we were going to tell him that he was allowed to be baptized. Then randomly a thought popped into my head to share the scripture in Mosiah 13:12 where Abinadi is explaining the ten commandments. Specifically the whole "don't worship idols" thing... Anyway. In English its not that cool. But in Chinese it fit perfectly for this situation. In English it says something like, "Do not make unto yourself any graven image". And in chinese it says "ni bu ke wei ziji...." Which basically means that you cant worship idols for your benefit. Kinda. I don't really know how to explain "wei" in English. Anyway. It was cool. Just know that.

I don't think I need glasses, I just think they look cool. Everyone here has glasses that they wear, even if you don't need them.
Oh yeah, last week I went to a special training meeting in Taizhong for district and zone leaders. It was really good.

OHHHHＹＥＡＨ. OK so this morning when we were going to play basketball at the church, and on the way there it was raining really hard. It was 6:10 in the morning, and there was basically nobody on the roads. (when it even sprinkles the Asians all get scared and hide inside their houses). And on the way there, I got HIT BY A TRUCK! yup you read that right, I finally got hit. It was freakin sweet. So the guy came whizzing around a corner and went flying onto the road that I was on and since it had been raining, his brakes were not good at all and he hit the back of my bike. I got knocked wayyyy off my bike. Like I went flying and I landed about 8-10 feet away from my bike (which also got knocked into the air). But luckily, because of my ninja skills, I landed cat-like on my feet... actually I wouldn't use the word "cat-like". You know when... OK when you are on a moving vehicle and you jump off, you have to take a few steps when you land or else you fall flat on your face. well that's more like what happened. And because we are in Taiwan, most people don't have insurance and don't want to get in any trouble so the guy picked up my bike said sorry in English and then drove off. I would have been mad except I wasn't even hurt. I had adrenaline running through my body for a few minutes but that is about it.

Good music would be nice. But I can only listen to Motab, EFY, and any hymns sung by anybody as long as it isn't like "singles ward" rock versions of hymns.
Don't worry about my laptop. Elder Graham can fix it when he gets home.
Elder Luck is 100% back in the game. He played basketball with us this morning.
We don't have that ensign yet. but there is a mission conference this Thursday.

Love,
Elder Graham
PS sorry for the lack of pictures.

See ya in a year,
桂長老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

May 15, 2011 - Record number of investigators at church

Hi Family-

So this week was pretty good.
We went to see monkeys today... again.. haha
I have to go kinda fast. we have an hour and my computer keeps shutting down.....

This week was pretty good because we were plentifully blessed with investigators. At the beginning of sacrament meeting we only had three investigators. But then a couple who just got married came. It was cool because they also brought his dad, his mom, his sister, and his sister's kids. So we had a really big family at church and the ward had a record number of people in sacrament meeting. 101 people. When I first got here is was average like 75 or 80. But slowly we started working with less actives who are slowly coming back to church. It was really cool. And the bishop during priesthood stood up and made an announcement. He said that lately there have been more investigators at church (which is true, the missionaries here usually got 1 at most) so he made this big announcement like if you see someone that you don't know to go up to them and say hi and welcome them and ask them if they have met with missionaries yet. haha He is a really good bishop. He has only been a member for 6 years but he knows how to run the show. And he helps us teach as well. He loves to give out baptismal goals as well.

Yummy street food breakfast! ---->

See ya in a year,
桂長老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

May 8, 2011 - Happy Mother's Day!

Hello family!

It was nice to talk to you guys! the next time I get to do that is in seven months...
Sorry I don't have many pictures. Today we had to email right out the door. So we haven't eaten yet. sorry.
Ummm so there isn't much to say right now. But I did find something cool during personal study a few days ago:

In Luke 2 Verse 52 it says "And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man"
SO that is four things that Jesus worked on.
Wisdom = Intellectual
Stature = Physical
Favor with God = Spiritual
Favor with man = Social

So I decided to make goals for these four categories in my life. And those are the things I will probably work on when I get home as well.

Me and Frank at the Hot Pot last week.

Love,
Elder Graham

Ps I hope you get your Mother's Day package soon. Its nothing big...

May 1, 2011 - Mother's Day Call / Sisters are flying!

Hello Family-
OK so this week was pretty short because its only been like 5 days since i last emailed. But YES Elder Luck is out of the hospital and for the last few days he wasn't allowed to ride a bike so they have been walking to and from the church. About 15 minute walk. But as of this morning he is allowed to ride his bike and later we are going to an all-you-can-eat hot pot. So that should be good.

This last week I did two more interviews for the sisters. Holy cow. All of the interviews that I have done have been for the sisters. They are flying. I don't know how they do it. But yeah they are making this place sing with baptisms. Ever since I've been here there has been at least one baptism a week. Isn't that crazy? too bad Sister Clyde is going home from her mission in 7 days. And sister Pomeroy is brand new and may or may not know what is going on. But the sisters said that they have "set goals and made plans" to make sure that when Sister Pomeroy gets a new senior companion, that she will know the area.
Next week I will most likely also be getting a new companion.

So yeah we teach English in almost every area. Way to go Sisi for being president. Actually pops we go through the temple in English and the missionaries who only speak Chinese have headphones.

So lately I've been studying in the New Testament. Because we have two investigators who are already Christian and who already believe in the Bible and they were very surprised to find out that we also believe in the bible. And that is because their priest person said that we don't believe in the bible and that we only believe in the Book of Mormon. I've been learning some interesting stuff. And I am very confused about how people can believe in san1wei4 yi1ti3. The trinity. three people in one body. Its a good thing we have living prophets as well as the Book of Mormon to give us the correct answers.

So I will be calling on the 9th in the morning. So that is Mother's Day night for you guys.I'm not completely sure what time... like 6 in the morning here.
Yes that would be nice for you guys to try and apply for a few schools. I just want some good computer classes (sorry that's really broad) and chinese as well.

See ya in a year,
桂長老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

April 27, 2011 - Temple and stressful week

So the reason that you didn't hear from me on P-day is because this week we went to the temple today. And that means that we sacrifice our preparation day to go to the temple. It was really good.

Sooo this week was really stressful because I am the District Leader and some not so good stuff happened:

First, Elder Luck, the brand new trainee in my district had to go to the hospital for surgery because he had appendicitis. So he had to have surgery and that was last Thursday. He got out today while we were at the temple. Sooo yeah my little "grand kid" was in the hospital and we had to bring them all the stuff that they needed and the hospital didn't provide so many things. Like toilet paper and other things like that.
Then two of the sister's investigators who were supposed to be baptized last Saturday, dropped out because their husbands are jerks and won't let them get baptized.
THEN the assistants came and the plan was to go on exchanges with them. One assistant with us and one with the other elders. But as mentioned above, the other elders are in the hospital. So what ended up happening is that one assistant went with me and one with my companion. Which means that we had to make two plans and make sure that we didn't visit the same people or do anything the same. PLUS I had to prepare an hour and a half District Training meeting. So yeah. that's kinda it.

I did get the package, thank you. I wasn't able to eat any of the candy yet because I got it last night and we had to get up early (4:30) to get to the temple. I can get my own flash drive.

The picture is at the Taibei temple visitor center/ chapel.

The people here seem to think that all Christian churches are the same and if someone is already Christian, then they don't listen to you just as much as anybody else.

Sorry I'm not writing too much, I have a massive headache because I haven't eaten since last nights dinner and its dinner time right now. so Its been 24 hours. Should have done a fasting prayer... So yeah I can't think of anything more that really happened this week besides the normal.

Oh except there is this white guy in our ward who is our ward mission leader. He is like 55 and he lives in the English school that he teaches at. He has been here for seven years and doesn't speak any Chinese. So when his home teacher went over to his house, we had to go and kinda translate because his home teacher thinks that he knows English but he doesn't really. Anyway. It was really awkward because he was trying to set up the guy with a girl and he kept on telling him that he needs a girlfriend and that he should have been married a long time ago and things like that.

OK sorry that's it for today. Today is short because we need to go start English class.

See ya in a year,
桂長老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

April 17, 2011 - Zone Conf and monkeys

Hello family,

How is everybody? Poor Kami is sick.

This week was pretty good. The sisters in my district are flying. Last Saturday they had two baptisms and two (more) baptismal interviews! So this Saturday they will have a 3 more people entering into the covenant of baptism. So Good.

Sorry I know that my pictures are huge but I want them that way so that when I get home I can make a sweet slide show. Sorry that is bu fangbian.

Yes sisi about boys. It changes in our minds. You can ask Sarah about when she found out...

This last week we had zone conference and it was really good. I got to see my MTC companion for the first time since Christmas. And after the main part of Zone Conference, there was a leadership training meeting and we talked for about an hour about how best to run DTM and things like number formats and such.

So today before we emailed, as a zone we went to see a ton of monkeys. It was sweet. There were a lot. And some of them were really mean. But that might be because we weren't supposed to feed them....

Right now we are teaching a thirteen year old kid whose mom is already a member. He has some problems and doesn't believe in God because his dad died a few years ago from cancer. We have only been able to meet with him once so far but zhang di di might be a really good young man after we get done teaching him. Right now he is making all the wrong choices and will probably end up being a taike if he doesn't change.

This week I did 3 baptismal interviews. One lady asked me "why do people hate Mormon's so much?". She had seen an American movie where the two main characters got lost and found themselves in a nasty, dirty, dark place. One of the characters asked the other "who would ever live in a place like this, it's so scary." and the other person replied "maybe the Mormons." Anyway. I didn't know how to answer her question. What I ended up telling her is that most people don't understand and that they just don't know. And then I gave her examples about how in the past, the true church of God has always been persecuted. Jesus Christ for one. And I just happened to have a picture of Moses and I asked her "why did moses have to part the red sea?". She didn't know. She only knew that he did it. Then I explained that he had to do that to run away from people who were trying to kill the people of God. I also gave a few more examples. But I don't think I really answered the question of "why?". What should I have said?

Ummm I don't really know about calling on Mother's Day. All I know is that it is on the last week of the move call.
Oh yeah. I had to buy another journal because I ran out of room on mine. I wrote it all up!

See ya in a year,
桂長老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

April 10, 2011 - "Tomb Sweeping Day" & Jiang Pei Huan Baptism

Dear Family!

Hello. This is Elder Graham. Nice to hear that you guys had fun in Vegas. And its cool that Sisi got her patriarchal blessing.

My District is flying right now. Since I've been here we have had 4 baptisms and two more coming this week for the girls that I did baptismal interviews for. And many more to come. Conference was awesome. (duh) but we only got to watch Sundays sessions because they never burned the Saturday session for us. Anyway. we will probably get to watch those next preparation day. This is my third Conference as a missionary! Every night is really busy for me because I am on the phone talking to my district and then reporting about my district to the zone leaders. All night until 1030 when its lights off and time for bed. But that's OK.


So last week on Tuesday was 4 yue(month) 4 hao(day). and when you say the number four in Chinese it sounds like you are saying "death" but with a different tone. So here that is a holiday called "tomb sweeping day" And every year the missionaries go and help out with the tomb sweeping. (pictures will come in the next email i send today). It was interesting. All the yellow paper that you see is fake money for the ancestors to use in the afterlife. They normally burn the money after they "bai bai" an ancestor. One thing that is super weird is that after seven years of being buried the oldest grandson of that person has to go to the grave and dig up the bones (sometimes they just bury the bones in a pot, not the whole body in a coffin). Then after the oldest grandson digs up the body, he destroys the tombstone and all the "gods" that were built around the grave to protect it. Its really weird.

Then not much happened until Saturday when we had the two baptisms, and three sessions of conference! we didn't have time to do any proselyting. But we managed to get two lessons in that day. Anyway. At the baptism, I was the one who conducted it. In Chinese. sweet. So it went pretty well. The sisters here really helped us out by helping the little nine year old girl in the bathroom. Her name is Jiang Pei Huan and she was really scared to bear her testimony. But while she was changing into her normal clothes, the sisters practiced with her and she did great. They also took my camera and took a few pictures of jiang pei huan as she came into the bathroom all wet from baptismal font water. It was really good. Then right after they left I had to do a Phase 1 evaluation. And that just means I make sure that the younger missionaries have good Chinese. Then RIGHT after that conference started. It was really good. I got a lot of revelation for my self, for my district, and for my investigators.

One thing that I learned this morning in personal study is how important the book of mormon is to missionary work. If you would turn with me to Alma 37:9, you will find out how I found out.

We are teaching this kinda crazy guy named li3. His job is fixing and painting and just all around maintaining Daoist gods. But the reason he is meeting with us is... well he has 2.
1. There are way too many Daoist gods and he is sick of trying to memorize them all.
2. If they really were real gods then they wouldn't break down and need repainting and stuff like that and his job would be really easy.
haha isn't that funny?

I forgot to tell you that my last day in Gaoxiong I drank this soup that is made by crushing turtle shells to dust and then adding hot water. Its really good for your bones apparently.
Also we have a ton of lizards that are in our house. Its so annoying. All they do is poo everywhere.

Love elder graham.

--
See ya in a year,
桂長老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

April 3, 2011 - New area - Yuan Lin

OK this week was pretty good. I got the "hump day" package! And It's a good thing I did too because for us, yesterday was fast Sunday and we forgot to buy food for dinner. So I had candy! Which was yummy but the problem is that right after dinner we went to 北斗. Which is over 5 miles away. And we obviously took our bikes. Which means that if we go as fast as we can and don't stop to talk to people and if we "get around" the red lights, it takes about 45 minutes to get there. We then taught a quick 15 minute lesson and had to bike 45 minutes back as fast as we could because the Sisters had two baptismal interviews that I had to do. So yes last night I biked 10 miles really fast and did my first baptismal interviews as a district leader (they passed). The sisters are really good and very focused on their purpose. They had 16 investigators at church yesterday. So I am very grateful to be in this position to learn from the best. I also get to check up on the new trainees' Chinese in a few days.



I'm super sorry that I don't have Monday madness still. I haven't unpacked yet! I don't have any time at all anymore! I haven't even unpacked my sheets yet or anything! So yeah I'm sorry.

I'm also sorry I don't have any really good pictures or anything with me in them. This letter might be short. I had a lot to talk to president bishop about because I am in charge of a district now. Hopefully next week will be better.

Can you guys do something for me? Every few weeks we get emails that have word documents attached to them but the computers here at this specific place that we email doesn't have even a basic word processor. Sooooo can you guys go to portableapps.com and download openofficeportable for me? and then email it to me so I can just save that to my memory stick and run it off of that and open those documents instead of having to got to a print shop and pay to print off one little thing? thanks. Also have you guys seen those "universal remote"'s that only turn off TV's? that would be useful. Not like the expensive kind that works with all of your gadgets. The kind that I want works with almost any TV but all it can do is turn a TV off. That is its sole purpose. On the internet they should be about $5. Not very much.

My companion is Elder Gillespie. He is really good and he is from.... Well I don't know where. And neither does he. His dad is in the air force so he's lived everywhere. Right now his parents live in Germany. We get to watch conference next week on Saturday and on Sunday. I can't wait! Last time was soooo good! I can't believe its already here again. That was fast. Anyway. Elder Graham has to go now and prepare some stuff for District Training Meeting that is tomorrow. And tomorrow we are doing a giant service project. Sweeping tombs!!

See ya in a year,
桂長老
桂俊杰
Love Elder Graham