Jan 22, 2012

Well family this is Elder Graham,

Lately the weather has been on and off cold then really hot. Weird.. It doesn't rain a lot here during the winter.

So today we went to a "farm" but it was more of a zoo. With lots of cows and horses and other stuff like that. There were these bunnies. And a lot of them were pure white with blood red eyes. Scary. And we got to eat ostrich butt meat (that's the translation). So I hope you guys like those pictures.

Lately I have been studying out of Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage (spelling?). way sweet book. As well as I started reading the Book of Mormon again. I finished it again last move call. But now I am going to read it in a new hardback copy that I bought.

As far as a six month plan, I'm pretty sure I'm just going to go back to Best Buy. Also you guys shouldn't buy me a phone because I can get a pretty good discount there.
And nobody told me the 4runner died. What are we going to do?
Sisi. I know. Psych is awesome.

Right now we are teaching a basically homeless man who is a drunkard. But the branch here is great. They always give him food. And we painted his "house" all white. It used to be stained black from all the incense that they used to burn in it. And the branch gave him a full suit. Shoes, socks, pants, shirt, and jacket. And a few weeks ago I gave him one of my older ties. So now when he comes to church, he looks legit.
And yesterday we had a sixteen chubby kid named Alex Chen come to church for the first time. We were not expecting him to come because when we talked to him two days ago, he made it sound like his parents wouldn't want him to go. But yesterday his dad dropped him off and he had a good time.

So yeah that's everything from Taiwan. G2G bye bye
Elder Graham

Jan 15, 2012

Well family, hello.

This is Elder Graham
Well today is move day. But I'm not moving. Sweet. And everyone thought that my companion would leave. I even wrote him a song because I thought he was leaving. But he didn't. Which I am glad about because I still don't know this place as well as I should.
ummm lets see.
On Wednesday instead of teaching English, this Taiwanese guy taught my companion Spanish while I played "watermelon chess". Its a pretty fun "brain game" and I totally won. And the guy I was playing against has been playing since he was a small child.
On Monday we went to some daoist temples. Kinda cool

OK so I asked my mission president if it was appropriate to think about what we are going to do when we get home. Because for the most part if you do that everyone says you are a "trunky monkey". But he said I should have a six month plan for after we get home. Any ideas?

Well the Chinese new year is coming up. Everyone gets super excited about it here. Most people get 9 days off from work. Everyone comes back to their hometowns to their oldest living relatives house and has a massive feast. But apparently all the shops will be closed during that time. So all the members are going to feed us. Which is scary. All of the guo nian food is... traditional Taiwanese food ... like fish eyes stuffed in pig brains cooked in cow testicles then barbecued on a fire made out of tires and with chicken heads put on top.

See ya in a few months,

桂長老桂俊杰 Elder Graham

Jan 8, 2012 - It's a small world & prison guy

Hello family, this is Elder Graham speaking.

So this week was good. Here are some pictures from the last two weeks. I should be getting my bible today! Super excited. English KJV and Chinese.
I'm glad you guys got the package. Aren't the chopsticks legit? They are kinda cheaply made but the case still looks awesome.

OK Story time. So I was on a bus on the way home from doing exchanges with the district leader, and two white ladys walk on. Which is weird because it is literally in the middle of nowhere. Then the bus driver wanted them to sign his bus. But they didn't speak Chinese so the bus driver called me from the back and told me to translate. so while they were signing the bus I asked them where they were from just making small talk and the older woman said she is from San Diego. Then the other, younger one said she is from the "bay area". And I was like "oh really? where at?" she said "do you happen to know a place called Benicia?" I almost pooped my pants. Ummm lets just say YES. I know Benicia. I said "Yes it just so happens that I spent quite a few years there growing up." Then (this is the weird/ cool part) she said "Wait, were you in the ward there? Did you know the Picketts? Jamie Pickett? Or did you know Saydie Panye?" I pooped my pants again. She told us that all of her good friends were all Mormon and that she used to go to all the young men young women activities. But she never joined the church. And now she is an English teacher up north near the air port. Then she continued to update me on all the people in California. It was just super "its a small world" feeling. Literally on opposite ends of the earth. CA and here. So yeah that was interesting. So that was my story for the day.
SO yeah that's kinda it.

Oh yeah one more story. So there was this investigator that we met with the same night as the above story, and he is a huge guy. And he has been wanting to be baptized for a while but he stopped coming to church because his brother got in a huge car accident and he had to look after his brother. And because of all the worrying for his brothers life, he started smoking again. But anyway, we met with him and we were trying to set a new baptismal goal with him. He wanted to do it that Saturday. I told him that that was too fast. and that he needs to quit smoking and start coming back to church. So I suggested 2 weeks later and he said no. Fine three weeks, he said no. 4 weeks. no. 5, 6, 7, 8, weeks. No. "Xie di xiong you just said you wanted to be baptized. Why can't you do it any of these days?"
"Because I have to go to prison next week." for the third time that day I pooped my pants. "wwhhhatttt?"
I thought that I just heard wrong and that because of my bad Chinese, I just heard the wrong word. So I looked up in the phone the characters that he said. and hou4 lai2 yes he was going to prison for 8 months. And nobody is allowed to visit him for the first 3 months of him being in there. So I may not ever see this man ever again. We still aren't sure what he did... All we know is that last time he had to go, it was because he cut off someones leg.

Love you guys,
Elder Graham

Jan 2, 2012 - Sweet Bibles, riding with strangers & trunky monkeys

Hello family,

This is Elder Graham. I am going to apologize right now. I left my camera in a member's car and I won't get it back until today, so no new pictures for you guys this week. Sad day.

But anyway, this week was good. Cold. But good. I got my birthday package, thank you! Garments are a missionaries best gift. Well not much is going on here. Still working with the branch to find some people to teach. I must say I love my companion because he is super... Innocent. Super funny. I laugh all the time. And super geeky like me. But he is more of a programming nerd. Anyway. Today we will be going to a Christian book store and buying some sweet bibles with both English and Chinese. So legit. That's my birthday present to myself. The word of God.

So I'm going to tell a story. Don't get mad, mom. OK so we went to one of the farthest parts of my area (a place my companion has never been to before) to visit a less active. And this place is sooo not the city. It doesn't even have road names. Like there are roads. But they aren't names. There are just villages. Which means that you just kinda get in the area, then you ask a local and hopefully they know who the person is that you are trying to find. So we go to the village and the first person that we meet speaks fluent Spanish because he lived in Argentina for ten years. Which was funny because he wanted to teach us Spanish. But anyway, he showed us to the less actives house and they weren't home. Then we showed him the address of the former investigator we were trying to find. he said it was really far away. So he gave us a ride. Yup I rode in a strangers car. but you can't be mad cuz its like the 5th time I've done that on my mission. The place really was super far away. And the former was actually home. And we needed him to help us translate from Taiwanese to Chinese (then he would use Spanish..). So it was all good. Then he bought us dong gua cha. yummy. Then he took us back to our bikes and we went back to the church to teach English.
OK that's the story for today.

Yes pops it has gone by way fast. I don't know what plans to make for 2012. I'm not supposed to really be thinking about home and getting trunky. I don't want to get trunky. trunky monkeys are always the sad missionaries.

That is not fun at all that there is no SNOW! zenme ban?

See ya in a few months,
桂長老桂俊杰
Elder Graham