April 1, 2012 - See you at the airport!

Well family,

Yes this is my last email. Next Monday I will definitely not have time. It might be a little short. Sorry in advance. Someone should tell Sarah that I'm sorry. She probably hasn't gotten any letters lately and probably won't until I get back. I wrote them and sent them! But some of them came back and they said I didn't put enough postage on them. Even though I went to the post office and had them weigh it and stuff. So that's my bad, but not really. She'll get them eventually.

OK there are just some little things that I need for when I get home. Like when I get home, I will only have one pair of garments, the ones I'm wearing. So yeah I'll need some of those, and just normal hygiene stuff. Toothpaste, toothbrush etc... And my warts have not fallen off yet, and I'm supposed to go see the doctor again on Thursday. So I get to watch general conference the Saturday and Sunday before I go home. So that should help me through personal revelation figure out what I want to do with my life.

Well I'm not sure what I want to talk on... Like I've learned a ton. I have two journals and two study journals full of all the stuff that I have learned. Like I would kinda like to talk about missionary work and all the miracles that can happen from that. Help the youngins have more of a desire to go on a mission. But I'm assuming I'll be asked to share with the youth or share in the mission prep class about that. And I could talk about anything, like any of the Christ-like attributes. or Setting goals and making plans. Or being a good example. Or true conversion. Or family history. Or the atonement.... or... ANYTHing. I'm not sure if there is one massive huge thing that I have learned. I have learned a lot ... a ton. Of a lot of different subjects. Over two years worth of studying for one hour by myself and one hour with my companion every single day. So yeah. Like you guys told me that they want me to pick a subject like two weeks ago. And I've been thinking about it and I still am not sure. Sorry.

Well. I'll see you guys on the other side. Sarah told me I might not get released until Wednesday night. What am I supposed to do all Wednesday? Go find the missionaries in K-town? haha. That would be kinda fun. I wonder what they do all day. hmmm,,, haha but yeah that would be not fun for Elder (soon to be Beau) Graham.

Something that has been kinda bothering me the last few days is during personal study a few days ago I was reading in Jacob and I read the scripture in chapter 6 verse 3: "And how blessed are they who have labored diligently in his vineyard..." Like, have I given my absolute 100% best? Have I completed what I was sent to complete? Will I be among the"blessed" as stated in the scripture? I'm sure lots of missionaries have wondered the things I am wondering.

Well I love you guys and I will see you at the airport on Tuesday the 10th. Just a friendly reminder. smiley face. I am sad to leave. I do enjoy it here. Oh well it is time to move on.

Love Elder Graham

March 25, 2012 - See you in 2 weeks!

Well hello family, the ones not in Hawaii,
Well this week was interesting, on Monday we went to the Zone activity and made some kind of Taiwanese food that is kinda like a Mexican taco. Kinda.

Tuesday we met with 3 investigators and had DTM, normal stuff.

Wednesday was just English class. We had 3 new people which is the highest this area has seen in over a year.

Thursday I had my warts frozen off. Ouch painfulllllllllness. And they aren't blistering as fast as last time. zao gao. Riding a bike when you have two warts on the inside of your palm is not fun. Then that night we tracted into a pretty cool family. (that was the first time I had ever been tracting ... ever) It was the first door that we knocked on. And the mom answered the door and said she was too busy but that we could talk to her sons. So we did, gave them a Book of Mormon and set up another time to meet because we had a branch meeting right then.

Friday we went with our branch president to the farther places in our area. We had a good three lessons with him.
Saturday was Saturday. nothing really happened.
Sunday we had 2 investigators at church. Then later we met with the two kids we tracted into. And their dad. Their dad is a RELIGIONS professor at a local college. Wow. and he spent 8 years in Philadelphia getting his PHD in religion studies. Which at first scared the poo out of me. But he ended up being really cool and really open and he said he would be happy if his two sons joined the church. He said they were old enough to start making their own decisions as far as religion goes. He was really interested to hear what we had to say. His main question was why would God restore his one and only true church on the American continent, not among the Jews. Like why not in Jerusalem. Or at least in the middle east where Gods chosen people are. He had some interesting views. But we had to hurry and finish that lesson because we were supposed to be teaching at a family home evening that had already started that was a half hour bike ride away. So I gave him a talk by Tad Callister from the last general conference on the Book of Mormon. So hopefully he will like that. Then I gave his kids all their own copy of For the Strength of the Youth - and he really liked that... but unfortunately I wont ever see them again. They are going on a trip to Europe for two weeks. When do I go home? two weeks. Then at the family home evening, I lost the game that they were playing so my companion told them that I should have to sing a song for loosing. So they all made me sing "I need thee every hour" in English.
So yeah that was my week.

I do miss America, but I will miss Taiwan. I can already feel myself missing it here.
Well that's all for today. Next time will be the last time you guys hear from me until the airport.

See ya in a couple weeks,

桂長老桂俊杰

Elder Graham

March 18,2012 - My Miracle Story

Hello Family-

As you probably know, my two year mark has passed. Weird. On Saturday we went with that one dude who took us around in his car without knowing us at all ... remember him? yeah, well he took us out to an all you can eat hot pot. And I bought some Haagen dahz ice cream. yummy.

I want to tell you about my Miracle Story. It is that of a man named Chen Zheng Gong. When I first met him, his wife had been a member for a year and a half. She wanted us to teach him. When we first went over to his restaurant, he didn't seem comfortable with us there. He wouldn't let us pray, talk about the church or give him a Book of Mormon. We didn't visit him much after that. We would still pass by his restaurant and say hi once in a while, but that was it.
About one and a half move calls later, his wife called us right after a DTM. She was so excited.
"He wants a Book of Mormon!, he wants a Book of Mormon!"
That afternoon we went over and taught a really spiritual first lesson and gave him a Book of Mormon. He still wouldn't pray, but from that day on, he read a chapter a day out of the Book of Mormon. After about two weeks of teaching him, he finally prayed by himself for the first time. His wife cried. His simple heartfelt prayer was a big improvement. About a month later of meeting with us, he wanted to be baptized. But he still smoked, drank, gambled, and needed a second interview. After two weeks of not making any progress with his quit smoking plan, we felt like that for some reason we should put him in an interview. After the interview with the Zone leaders, he had enough faith to quit all of his bad habits. We aren't sure what changed in him, but he was determined to quit. To be baptized. Alcohol was easy... as was gambling. Smoking was harder. But a miracle happened. After ten days of struggling to quit, he was helping his mom move and some of the other people started smoking. He saw them smoking and smelled the cigarettes. He said it made him want to throw up. After that he stopped smoking 100%. Whenever he smelled smoke, he felt like he was going to throw up. When people would smoke around them, he would tell them to go away. His body couldn't handle it. Two weeks later he was baptized.
Because of the change that he made, his daughter, and his daughter's best friend, and her daughter were all baptized a month later. They saw the miracle that had happened in him and wanted to be as happy as he was and is.
Sometime after his baptism and before his daughter's baptism, he was once again helping his mother move. This time he found all of his family records for the last 900 years. All of the way past the very first Chen to ever come to Taiwan. For me it was wonderful to see a man with semi-anti feelings toward the church, turn into someone who is a strong member who has baptized his family. Immediate family as well as been baptized in the House of the Lord for his ancestors. He is taking the temple preparation classes, and will be sealed in the temple soon after I leave the island. It has made me happy to see the happiness that the gospel has brought to his family.
Love Elder Graham

See ya in a couple weeks,
桂長老桂俊杰
Elder Graham

March 11, 2012 - I don't know when I'm coming home!

Dear fam,

So I got an interesting email today check it out:

"Dear Sisters and Elders,
When you receive your returning packet letter, you will see that you have flight plans. I received information on Thursday evening that these were canceled and as of yet she has not been back to let me know when and what! So ignore your flight plans for now. I will send the new one with your “Leaving Itinerary Letter” in a couple of weeks. Please let your parents know on your p-day of the situation as they too received a travel itinerary. Travel now is becoming more difficult as they try to fill the planes to their limit. Never fear, we will get you home!!
Thanks for your hard work and great missionary service.
Love,
Sister Liston 劉姐妹"

Uh Oh! That's not good. So don't make any plans yet. They still don't know when I'm coming home! But most of the day emailing today I have to find pictures for them to make a going home video for all of us going home. So sorry about that.

So yesterday was pretty good. We had 4 investigators at church. And a big 39 people were at sacrament. Which in all reality isn't that much but in our small branch, its a lot. So that was good.
And this week with Lin Zan Dong he told us he believes in the atonement. I asked him if he believes Christ atoned for our sins, and he said "It doesn't matter what I believe, it really did happen." Meaning whether or not we believe it, the atonement of Jesus Christ happened. We still aren't sure why he doesn't want to be baptized. Sad face.

As for the people who came to church, two were formers, one comes every week but he won't quit smoking and drinking. And the other one was someone we met on the street two weeks ago, and he just randomly stumbled in. He has some mental problems and for some reason after church was over, he wouldn't leave. And even after his dad came to pick him up, he wouldn't leave. At first he wouldn't get out of his chair, then after he got out of his chair, he would walk to the door and just stop. Then he finally left but only because Elder Baxter told him to. He really likes Elder Baxter.

Well family, I'm sorry I don't have any new pictures.
But I need to go now.

See ya in a month or so..........................
Elder Graham

March 4, 2012

Well family this is Elder Graham,

Thank you for the letter with all the pictures. I finally got it. It took like a month. Oh well. It was good getting pictures. And Sarah sent me all the majors and minors at UVU. Small problem is that I don't see "Chinese" on there anywhere. So I also need a list of other classes that they offer. And there are so many things I want to major/minor in! poo. How to choose? And I'm guessing that I might have to take some other Chinese stuff somewhere else. Online?

Well Elder Graham only has five weeks left... sad face. But I do get to see you guys so its OK.
Well this past week was bad as far as numbers go. Hopefully this week we do a lot better on those things.

On Monday we went to an all you can eat "hot pot". It was pretty good. And a friend of mine from Yuan Lin came down and ate with us. And then we went to Jia Yi park to take pictures. Its a pretty cool looking park. Really big.

Tuesday the only thing that happened was DTM.

Wednesday was English class. And not a soul came.

Thursday we met with our favorite investigator Lin Zan Dong. He LOVES the Book of Mormon. Especially the Book of Alma. He is in Alma 18 right now. And he has been to church twice. Super smart guy. But for some reason he doesn't want to be baptized.

Friday was weekly planning. and then we went with our branch president to visit a bunch of people. He is really good.

Saturday we had a really good meeting with the branch leaders.

Sunday was depressing because we only had one investigator and NO recent converts. So that was sad. But then right before we were about to report our weekly numbers the Zone Leaders called us and told us that our investigator Lin zan dong went to church over in Jia Yi. So that was good that he went. Happy face.
So that was this week.

On another note. Don't buy elder graham a phone(unless you already have) or a computer or a car or anything like that. I'm hoping that I can get back on with Best Buy and get some money coming in. And get a discount on a phone and plan. The computer I am planning on getting so that I can do all the stuff I want to do for all my college classes is fairly expensive. ($1600-2000) And I kinda want to save up for that myself. Obviously help might be needed haha. And I might have to save up for a car first. ZAO GAO!

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

Feb 26, 2012

OK family, well I don't have a lot to write and from now on I probably might write less. Wow sorry my English isn't good.

Well last Saturday was move call day. But the zone leaders didn't get the move call fax until Sunday morning and my companion was freaking out because we were all like 99 % sure that he was moving. But he is staying with Elder Graham for at least another 3 weeks if not another 6 weeks. Sweet. But this is my 16th and final move call. Which is weird. Because now I am allowed to call all my recent converts. Whenever I want. And I need to start thinking about stuff for home. And I need to figure out if I can go to the temple with my recent converts in GaoXiong.

I'm still taking the meds but I still get headaches sometimes. I'm not sure why.
Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of my brain. sad face.

Mom just so you know, I'm not planning on taking any of my clothes that I brought on my mission home. Because they are all really gross by now.

Well the work here in the middle of nowhere is slow. however it is still fun.
Can't wait to see you guys. Sorry this was short. But elder Graham has to go.

Hope you like the pics of the "Rock-on" God and the Buddha Warrior!

See ya in a couple months,

桂長老桂俊杰

Elder Graham

Feb 19,2012

Dear family,
Thanks for the package! its all gone now. And I feel fat. oh well Sarah said I can just lose it after I get home.
This week was ok. Sorry I don't have any pictures this week.
Well hows everybody doing? Sisi that's not fun that you were sick, but hopefully your knees are good to go now.
President said I should have a 6 month plan (at least) of what I am going to do. And I am probably going to work at best buy. But other than that, I don't know about anything else. I never really looked into schools before my mission. So I don't know on that. Except I know Weber doesn't have a Chinese program. So that's out. Also I heard that lots of the missionaries here are going to UVU. Because they have a Chinese program. But I don't anything about that school.
So I'm guessing you guys have heard of the "Linsanity" guy that everybody here has been talking about. So I guess his parents are Taiwanese and so its huge news here in Taiwan. Everybody tells us about it. One cool thing is that I have been to the super small village where his parents are from. They are from Zhang Hua, Bei Dou. Which is a really small "Township" that is in my area when I first went senior/ district leader. So that's pretty cool. But the thing that's weird, or at least to me, is that his name is林 Which is pronounced "leen" not "lin" so when people started saying "linsanity" to me I didn't understand. They had to write it down. So now a lot of people are asking me what "sanity" means. Uhhhh that's kinda hard to explain the play on words on that one.
So then on Thursday I had to go to the hospital again. There is nothing wrong with my brain that they can see. But I did get to see all the CT scan pictures. My brain is kinda weird looking. And I think my nose is bent. And my eyeballs looked way cool too. And now I'm on two daily medicines. Those are supposed to be "preventative" meds. But I'm only going to take them for 7 days. One of them I take before every meal. The other one I take before bed because its major side effect is extreme drowsiness. Then he gave me two more meds that are only for when the headaches come back. The first one is normal ibuprofen. I think.... And the other one is supposed to be super strong and you can't take it more than once every 3 days or else it could kill you/ mess you up real bad. So he only gave 2 of those pills. so yeah that was that.
Well that was Elder Graham's week. Sorry for the lack of pictures. my bad.
See ya in a few months,
桂長老桂俊杰
Elder Graham

Feb 12, 2012 - Hospital again

Well I haven't gotten an email from the girls yet but thats ok. I'm sure they are having fun somewhere else haha
Well this week was power week... and what that means is that we don't get language study. Which means that we leave the door half an hour early. and at lunch we don't get language study. But that is ok.
Sooooo last week I told you guys about the massive headache right? Well what happens is that if i don't take the meds they gave me, the headache comes back. so that's not good. So on Thursday we went to the hospital at 9 in the morning. And we didn't leave until 1:30. super lame. They asked me if I had ever had a seizure before and obviouslyI said yes. So they made me do two tests. One was the CT scan and the other one they put this gel into my hair and hooked up all these electric wires up to my head. Then they checked my eyes for photo-sensitivity.
But the cool thing is is that the lady putting gel in my hair had interest in church. For some reason she was surprised that it was free... But anyway that was the only good thing that came from that. And while I was there the headache came back. Its weird. It's always in the same front right side of my head.
oh, one cool thing about it is that because I have the Taiwanese health insurance that everybody gets through the government, the whole thing, the ct scan, the electric cords with the gel in my hair test, and 7 days worth of meds cost about $340TB. Which is about $11.50 USD. yeah. Super cheap health care. And this week on thursday I find out the results of all the tests. And probably get more meds. sad face. So basically our "power week" was super lame week for this companionship. Some of the worst numbers I have ever had before. Except we did get 50% Recent Converts at Church. Which is really good. Last week we had 0%. So thats a good improvement. So we got a blender on tuesday from a companionship in XinYing because they had two. So Ive been making ICEE type things for the last few days out of all the stuff I can find I our fridge. So mostly chocolate and peanut butter smoothie type things.
Well what else happened this week?.... hmmmmm
Oh and pops do you know how to say Afghanistan in chinese? a1 fu4 han4 阿富汗.
Oh yeah and there is this recent convert that is so funny. She is 50ish years old and she was in the hospital on Saturday because when she was little she killed her kidneys from eating weight loss pills and she has to go every other day to filter her blood. Any way, we went to go visit her and she was so funny. She was on her schizophrenia medication and she told us she wants us to email home and see if we can find any 60-80 year old men that would be willing to be her boyfriend. She said he doesn't have to be rich, just have a good heart and she will cook for him every day. So yeah. She wants a white boyfriend. haha she is funny. And she shares the gospel with all the nurses that take care of her. So she is nice.
Well I think that that is it for this week. G2G bye bye

Feb 5, 2012 - Headache/ Hospital / Investigator

Well family this is Elder Graham, But that is Elder Baxter warming his hands!

So last Monday we went bowling with the rest of the district. As of right now we have the biggest district in the whole mission. five companionships. And I beat the zone leaders. Sweet. So that was Monday.

Tuesday.. oh yeah. we went on exchanges with the zone leaders which was good. We found some good people. We decided to drop our drunk investigator because he tries to hide from us now. So we don't visit him very much.

Wednesday was English class.

Thursday we went out to one of the father parts of our area. A place that no missionary had been on a bike before. Only when members took them there. And it took 55 minutes of straight biking as fast as we could to get back home. I almost died.

Friday I had a headache and we went with our branch president to visit some people.
Saturday I had a headache and we didn't teach any lessons. we spent the whole time finding people to teach.

Sunday was probably the most eventful Sunday I have had. So our only "good" investigator who in the past couldn't come to church, came for all three hours. Then when we went home to do our studies and the headache I had the past two days came back. And didn't go away. Like it was hurting super bad and I was sensitive to light. And I couldn't stand up or else I would get really dizzy. So I had my companion call Sister Bishop and she talked to president and they said I should go to the hospital. So we had our Branch President drive me to the hospital. The doctor made me take this IV thing in my hand for an hour and a half. Then he gave me caffeine pills and ibuprofen and some other stuff that I have to take for 3 days and if it is still there then there is a big problem. Then about half an hour after we got back from the hospital, our branch had an activity that we went to. And our awesome investigator showed up. Which was really fun.
deng yi xia

Sorry the pictures are big. These cool looking ones were taken on a members sweet camera.

Well you guys. after this I will only be emailing you guys 8 more times. And all my clothes and all my shoes and everything.. well, I will be leaving all that stuff here... if thats ok with you guys. Like they are thrashed.
See ya in a few months,

桂長老桂俊杰

Elder Graham

Jan 29, 2012 - Chinese New Year

Well this is Elder Graham,

I don't really have any new pictures. So this past week was Chinese New Years. It was ok. Except for everyone that we talked to was not from here so we had to refer a ton of people. So we didn't have a lot of lessons. And not very many people came to church. Sad day. So yeah we ate at members houses most days because all the little shops that sell food on the road were all closed. So our choices were left to McDonald's or members houses. So we chose member houses.

Also we had zone conference which was fun. A 2 hour train ride to GaoXiong and a two hour ride back. And since we are way far away from the train station we had to wake up at 5. Then take a 45 min bus ride to the train station. So it was way fun to go back to my old area for a few hours. And see most of the missionaries from my MTC district. And its really weird. There isn't a zone conference next move call. Which means that the next time that I see those guys will be in TaiZhong. In our last hours of being missionaries. Right before we take a bus to the airport. Its super weird. I am so old. I am the oldest missionary in the whole zone.

As far as drunk homeless guy... we dropped him because he skipped out on church again, and he hides from us whenever we go over there. But we can see him in his "room" smoking. So we are going to leave him alone for a while. And Alex Chen doesn't ever have his phone on. But we are meeting with him on Wednesday.

Sorry I don't have any pictures. I sent them all last week. Today we are going into the city to go bowling. so that should Be fun.
Yeah I dont know what I would do without a car when I got home.
Will somebody tell Sarah to not send confetti bombs in the mail? It gets everywhere. haha
Well not much happened this week. All the post offices were closed this week so I didn't get any letters. :(

Love Elder Graham