August 29, 2010

hello family.

so last Saturday was move calls. i am very lucky to be staying in feng jia with elder Thomas. and dont worry we have set some high goals and we are going to get a lot more done this move call.

umm nothing really big happened this week except i just thought of a story. so on Wednesday i contacted this guy on the street and he is from the south right where my companion spent most of his mission and he said the reason he let us talk to him is because his half brother is on a mission just like us. and we were like cool and so his family is obviously Mormon. but the cool part about this story is that his family is a family who elder Thomas baptised and the mom said "we have another son that we wish you could teach, but we don't know where he is and we don't know his cell phone number or anything. he just visits once in a while" but we found him here in Taichung. so we are going to start teaching him. cool huh?

so yeah thats pretty much it. oh on Thursday i helped people do "Dan Jones" night which was pretty cool because it showed me how far my chinese has come. i picked the most nervous looking missionary so that my chinese could be better than his and i could actually help him. so i will be on his dvd haha but he did pretty well! he gave away 3 copies of the book of mormon. so thats pretty cool.

yesterday we did a "member mtc" for the two wards in xitun. we taught all the members there how to talk to their friends about the gospel and how to peike (when a member assists in teaching an investigator) and how to act around them at church and things like that. it was pretty fun except i didnt eat breakfast and it got over at 2:45 so i was pretty hungry.

i have a poem i want to send you guys if you cant find it online its called "he's been there before" by Elder Troy Whittle. its really good.

oh i have another story but i cant remember if i said it already... anyway so there is this computer game called starcraft that josh and i have been playing for forever. anyway starcraft 2 came out a few weeks ago and its been kinda hard not to think about it because there are posters of it everywhere at all of the 7/11s and things like that. well anyway my companion and i were making phone calls at a 7/11 and i saw a big flag for starcraft 2 and i was like "come on why is this everywhere?" so trying to focus i turn away from the 7/11 and right then a huge bus covered in starcraft 2 stuff pulls up and stops right in front of me because of a red light! i was so mad because i was trying not to think about it! anyway..

so that one girl i baptised about 6 weeks ago gave us an awesome referral. her older brother! yay. so now we are starting to teach him which is awesome because he sees all the things his sister does like read the Book of Mormon and pray and stuff like that. and he already believes that the earth didn't just magically appear and things like that which is good.

kami. i am good.

pops not a lot of people email me things. sorry i still dont have a picture of the old lady i baptizzled. but yesterday she brought her grand kids to church and they were really loud. and no no pictures of eating the squid. for them it would have been awkward because its normal for them and she asked me if i eat sea food and i said yes and she just plopped a squid on my plate.

we are allowed to listen to music just not at the mtc and not on mp3 players.

yes we are still meeting with duo. last time we met with him we watched the joseph smith movie and he said after that he knew joseph smith was a prophet. but he couldnt come to church yesterday because he was in taibei

See you in two years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

August 15, 2010

so this week i baptised chen yu jie and a little girl whos dad couldnt because he doesnt have the preisthood. it was really cool. but i had to say the baptismal prayer three times for the girl haha. the first time i accedently said the word for Lord instead of father (fu4 not zhu3) the second time she got really scared and only went partway under water haha. the third time i had to force her little body under water haha it was really funny. after she came up to me and told me to write my name on a piece of paper so she can always remember who helped her get baptised. awwww so cute. i wanted to give her a hug but we arent allowed to.. oh well. her family owns a bing shop so we are going to print out pictures and buy a frame for the girl and take it to the shop today.

yu jie was so funny. i was kidding around and i told him to breakdance in the front part of the church in his white baptism clothes. but asians dont get sarcasm so he did it anyway.. haha sweet.
--
See ya in two years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham

New Letters from Elder Graham

Hi fiends and family,

I have last weeks correspondence from Elder Beau:

5/3/10 Beaus e-mail mostly answering our questions:

im going to try and write as much as i can in this email because im not sure how much time i will have to write. i have a lot of Chinese to learn for this weeks teaching activity. pops thats way cool that you are learning how to bug houses and stuff. sweet. im not allowed to listen to music in the mtc. its a new rule cuz i guess some missionaries broke some rules a little while ago. im sorry that you dont have a computer person there to help out. i promise the laptop is all legal. i think its cool the girls got to use my shirts and stuff. thatnks for the pics. i dont get dear elders on saturday or sunday.i really cant call on mothers day sorry sisi. i have been to "boondocks" i went there with sarah on her 18th birthday. ummm there was something i was going to tell you guys but now i forget. so im going to tell you guys about elder geddes because i dont think i have before. elder geddes is elder tito's companion. i also met him about 2 and a half years ago. he and i went to efy together. mitch should remember jeff geddes from efy. so yeah we are in the same distric and he is way cool and i think its funny we knew eachother before getting called here. and he took 6 years of spanish and still got called to taiwan so its extra awesome. i have to go cuz its almost dinner time 5:44 and im still in my pday clothes...

later aligators

Then we received this letter in the mail on 5/6/10:

Dear family,

I wish I had a ton more time to write. I guess you guys will have to wait to hear the 3 Kingdoms story.

Last Wednesday 4 new districts of Chinese speakers came in to the MTC. We are now the "old" people here. It's cool - this whole time I thought I wasn't progressing at all, but now I realize how far I've come and how much I know. My companion and I are now mentors for two of the new missionaries. It's pretty cool to see how far I've come. One of the new missionaries is from Seattle and he only has one leg. I am so proud to be his mentor.

Thanks for the pics. My camera does not do that cool stuff. Elder Orams camera is a cannon powershot with "color accent" which means it can take pictures that are black and white except for one color. (we got these cool pics of flowers at the Temple - black and white with just the flower a color)

I haven't had a chance to be a host yet and I'm not sure when I will do that.

I have some cool scriptures I want you guys to read. They are kinda directed at missionaries but that's ok. D&C 31:3, D&C 84:80-88 and finally and obviously 3 Nephi 11:14.

My Branch President is awesome - like on Sunday our district leader said "Ok, let's sing a hymn", and the Branch President said, "It's better than a her!" And we all laughed because his wife was there and she said "Oh, George" in a funny old person voice. and later when he came up to our dorms, someone made a joke about hiding in the closet, and he said "Well, as long as you don't come out of the closet..." and we all laughed even harder. It was so funny.

One of our Branch Presidency members was released last week and I'm sad because he was so funny. He is a combination of Mater from Cars (Disney movie), the prospecter from Toy Story 2 and the grandpa from Up. He does not speak Chinese and it is so funny - he knows "hello". But he thinks wan an is goodbye but it's goodnight. Anyway he is awesome. But he is in an English speaking zone now. Oh well.

Tell grandma and grandpa thanks for the ties from Africa. Everyone loves them.

And thanks for the puppy - Qo yang lao almost started crying he was so happy. He was jumping up and down like a little kid. It was awesome. Well I have to go to bed now...

So let me know what you think of those Scripts!

From yo Elda Gwammm

Love to all from the Grahams

Hi friends and family- we got this e-mail a couple of weeks ago, but then waited for a letter that never came. I waited by the mailbox all week!:)

hello family. i wrote you guys a letter. thanks for all the dear elders. i got ten today! wow. plus a letter from the packs and from emilie which was awesome. so i cant send a mem card home this week because i dont have any more cards so you guys need to send me those ones back. It stinks that lady isnt doing anymore mini pmgs. they are so cool. a bunch of people left today. now my district is the "old" district and we will get new mandarin speakers in a week. we also have a new distric leader and his name is elder van noy. if there is one person i want to be like besides Christ it would be him. he is 100% obedient and is kind and uplifting to everyone. k gotta go. i will see you guys in??????? two years.
-
See ya in two years,

Elder Graham

Then we got another text last week explaining why there was no letter in the mail:


hello family. sorry you didnt get any mail last week, i wrote a letter but then i wanted to write more on tuesday and then we had a lesson monday night on being obedient. so i decided to not write until today. sarah should be getting an sd card full of awesome pics. and the laptop microsoft licence is LEGAL!! if it says it isnt you just call microsoft and say you had to format the hard drive. which i did have to do.
pops i hope your talk goes well sunday. ummm the only thing that i remember from mission prep were some cool stories from the recent rm's that got me extremely excited for my mission. and the extra spirit i felt there.

--
See ya in two years,
Elder Graham

Then on Thursday we got a good sized letter - two weeks worth:

Dear fam,
Hey mom? Will you send me a puppy?

Also I forgot to tell you something funny. So Elder Tito is from Australia and before he came here, he watched "The Best Two years". In that movie a missionary says "flip", so he says "flip" all the time because "That's how American missionaries talk".

Umm... this is awkward because... Mom...I'm not allowed to call you on Mother's Day. Can't do that at the MTC ...sorry.

I need like a pocket dictionary just like a mini one (Pinyin) that has English to Chinese and visa versa.

And I just found out I have to move upstairs, which is poop (is he allowed to say that?:)) because the whole "national treasure" thing is based on the fact that I was in this room. Now I have to start all over. (OK, the burnt paper and screw driver make a little more sense now!)

Another story about Elder Tito...Apparently in Australia, "hale no" is appropriate to say, even for Mormons...because it's out of the Bible or something. Anyway he asked the Lao shi how to say "hale no" in zhong wen, and it was pretty funny!

I wrote you guys another letter but I can't find it... so I'm sorry this is short. Maybe I can write more later. Oh, I did get to see Josh for a few minutes, it was pretty cool! (Beau's long time friend from California days (Josh) is in the Men's Chorus at BYU and came to sing at the MTC)

You guys didn't get a letter last week and I'm sorry. This is why: last Monday I wrote this letter but I didn't finish, and I thought I would just finish it on Wednesday. But then we had a lesson about obedience, and you're only supposed to write on Mondays. So I decided not to keep writing until today. Sorry.

Tell the people in the ward thank you for their letters. Especially Ryker Bowen, his made me laugh. An tell Grandma and Grandpa thanks for the pie. Yum. Thanks for the little basketball and hoop. Umm... we don't know how to play scripture basketball, so we just play basketball.

So I am sending you guys my daily planner that I have used already. that way you guys can see what I do.

Oh, I taught my first lesson in Chinese last Saturday. And then on Sunday I gave a talk in Chinese. Just so you guys know, it is really hard here and I feel like crying every day because of how stressful it is, but I like it and it's going faster than I thought it would because I'm working hard.

Sarah should be getting a memory card with a lot of pictures on it. I hope you guys like them. (I need to figure out how to put them on this e-mail so you all can see them.)

Pops - how did your trip go?

Mom, the burnt paper is for a treasure map. All I really need now is some tape. (yes, I sent him some the next day. I can't help it!)

My new District Leader Elder Van Noy is cool and I told you guys about him in my e-mail last time. He is about my height and kind of weird/awkward but he is AWESOME!

Well that was it. He didn't sign it - I guess Pday was over!
Until next time,
The Grahams