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