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