First Week in Taiwan

Hey everyone I made it! 

The first couple days we just hungout at the mission home and had a few orientation meetings, went on a run to an awesome park, contacted people, ate at a few awesome places and then had out first transfer meeting!

My trainer is Elder Kaluhiokalani and he's awesome! He's a big football player (like me! haha no he's like 250 pounds...) he's from Hawaii and is like a quarter Chinese. He's been out here for 10 months and he's great. I don't have much of an idea what is going on but I'm sure he'll show me the ropes. So I'm assigned to the Zhubei area. Just north Hsinchu, the city I was born and the city that my grandma still lives in! I talked with some of the sisters in the ward here (In Chinese... so awesome!) and they told me they would tell my grandma that I'm here so I'll probably get to see her soon! 

Also the bishop of my ward apparently knew me in Hsinchu when I was 1 years old! He remembers my whole family and asked how Heather and Melody are doing. Sooo cool. Also in the ward is the Teng family! (Until June) They found out I'm from Provo and went to Timpview and they told me that Ben Teng is in the Taichung mission right now, the other Taiwan mission and their other son is Sam Teng! They also know Will Crosland, it's just a small world! So crazy. I'm so so so blessed to be here.What's also really cool is a lot of them told me I have really good Chinese for someone who just got here 3 days ago! So I'm really happy about that. They tell me it sounds really good and gaoji, which pretty much means like educated sounding, but it's just kind of slow. So either I do have good Chinese or they're just really nice haha so probably mainly the latter. 

It's crazy to think I'm pretty much in my hometown! Hsinchu is just like 15 minutes away by bike. So awesome. Let's see I've already taught a bunch of lessons to a bunch of people and it's been awesome. Man these Taiwanese kids are adorable. I'll have to get some pictures this next week. The next couple of weeks are going to be really hard to get times to teach people because it's Chinese New Year and it's a really really big deal here. All the kids get like 2 weeks off of school or something for it. So I hope we can get some appointments going still. We taught the Lin family and they're going to be baptized in 2 weeks after the New Year and last night we taught a Phillipino guy, Jess,and man he's awesome. He's so prepared. So we met with him for the first time last night and as we were getting to know him he said his parents were Jehovah's Witness but he never really believed and always had questions so he asked about Jesus Christ and we taught him about Jesus and his role. Then he asked about "everlasting life" and how he can get that. So we taught him about the Gospel and the steps we need to take. He just ate it all up! Doesn't believe in the trinity, which I guess is really rare for Phillipinos here with his kind of background but he is so ready. We're going to meet with him next Sunday as well because that's his only free time and me and my companion are both super excited for him. So awesome. It made me so happy teaching him. 

Taiwan is awesome and it's so great to be here. We bike everywhere and what's funny is during my first interview with the mission president when I got here I told him I love to bike and it's not a problem and exercising is no big deal and stuff and now I'm in Zhubei! It's infamous because our apartment is on top of this really big hill and it's pretty tough to get up. Takes probably 20 minutes or so. Apparently it's pretty well known because all the other missionaries told me about it when they heard I was coming here. So it may have been a mistake to tell my mission president, President Day that I love exercising haha. But it's good because my butt will look great, it's pretty sore right now. So awesome. 

Let's see well I have pictures to put and I should have taken more, the first few days have just kind of been crazy and I haven't been thinking about pictures haha. Oh and there was a package waiting for me when I got here so that was awesome! Thanks Caroline! I really liked all the stuff in there, wore the tie and it's pretty shui! (handsome) Thanks :) Well family I love you all and miss you too! ... But Taiwan is kind of awesome so I'm pretty happy don't worry about me! But the drivers are pretty crazy and I've already been hit by a car so maybe pray for me... Haha no just kidding I haven't been hit by any cars. I also haven't gained any weight. 

Sorry Tess. Well I'll upload some pictures now and I love you all so much! Muah!


My Address in Taiwan is:  Taiwan Taipei Mission

4/F, #24, Lane 183

Chin Hua Street

Taipei 106

Taiwan R.O.C.

Elder Hopper on the plane from Tokyo to Taiwan... a long day haha.

First full day in Taiwan with my MTC companion, the notorious Elder Cheung. 

My awesome new tag. hen coo ah!! ( so cool ah!)

Sister Anderson from my MTC generation. First day in Taiwan. We're really excited to be here.

At a member's house. Sister Tian is amazing. Sooo much fooood!! In awe face. Soooooo gooooood.  

Yep. 

Our washing machine broke...? No problem. 

My temporary bike until my own arrives today. I've been using the one with the hearts on it. So cute. 

Week 10

Nimen da jia hao! 

I think this is my last email here at the MTC and I'm so happy it is quite honestly! I leave in exactly one week and I don't know if I could be more excited. Chinese is awesome and studying the Gospel is just as awesome, basically, everything is awesome. Last Tuesday I saw Hannah Morley in the temple and that was so cool! She's going to be an amazing missionary. 

I also saw my bishop at the temple, Bishop and Sister Bennett! Seems I always see someone I know when I go to the temple. That'll be a different story in Taiwan haha. Well actually maybe not because I have family there too! Haha man life is just awesome sometimes. I also heard Mckyna is recovering and doing better! I'm so glad to hear that I was worried. Let's see life here at the MTC is basically the same as it was the first day except now instead of unpacking I'm starting to pack up all my things! I've heard from my teachers here who went to Taipei, that the first day we get there we go out all over the city and proselyte! I'm so excited to just talk to people and not know what they're saying but smile anyways and tell them I'm a missionary. 

Also, another cool thing is that I'm kind of starting to learn basic characters and I'm pretty sure the awesome feeling I get inside while I write them is that I'm in love with them. Characters are so awesome and have so much meaning and I'm just scratching the surface. I'm so happy to be a missionary and on top of that, learning Chinese and going back to Taiwan. Like I said in the beginning, life is awesome and when we realize that it's more awesome. Wow I've used awesome probably like 14 times in this letter so far. I want you all to know that I love this gospel and I'm so excited to share it with people and bless them. 

I love you all. 

Elder Hagedorn

Picture Time:

Me and Elder Wilson at the temple on Sunday! He leaves next Monday and I leave next Tuesday! 

Me and the Korean sisters from down the hall at the Temple!

Me and Sean! Two Elder Hagedorns!

At the MTC the night before we left!! Getting our Asian on!

Week 9

Hey everyone! 
Hope your new year has been awesome so far! Mine definitely has. This last week has been pretty great because I've been able to help other missionaries a lot, especially with their Chinese, which in turn helps mine and it just feels good to help haha. 

Let's see this past week we had a little stomach bug going around so a good amount of missionaries in the zone were sick but it's passed now so that's good. While it was here it was pretty crazy though, so I was running back and forth fetching them their meals (bananas, crackers and jell-o). Yesterday I got new teachers and they're pretty awesome! Basically, everything is awesome. For the specifics, yesterday I got a hole in my pants so I took them down to the Byu tailor just a block down the street and man did it feel good to just walk outside of the Mtc, if only for 30 minutes. I've never felt so free haha. It's still good here though, and I'm getting closer and closer to going to Taiwan! I leave in exactly 2 weeks, on January 22nd. We expect to get our flight itinerary this weekend so in my next email I'll let you all know! I'll be able to call home from the airport so I'll try and figure out around what time that will be as well. Man am I excited to go! Just talking to people on the street and having no idea what they're saying but smiling anyway cause I'm a dork! Oh man will it be so fun. Goodness I am so excited! 

Anyway, we've had some exciting times the past week. From the pictures you saw Elder Price and Elder Collard locked in a duel lasting about 12 minutes. It was intense. 12 minutes neither of them blinked! Crazy. And then it's been freezing lately here in Provo and our builiding must be built wrong or something but our rooms are so cold! I sleep in sweatpants, with socks (I hate that by the way) 2 t-shirts and a fleece sweater. It's cold trust me. 

But it's all an adventure and kind of fun so you don't need to worry about me. Studying everyday about the Gospel and Chinese has been awesome. I've really started to love Chinese. It's such an awesome, logical and beautiful language and there's so much more to learn and I'm so excited to learn all of it. I've started to really love the Gospel too and realize how amazing it really is. Not only is it true and why we're all here but it's just so cool! You can really get some aweseome stuff out of the scriptures. Anyway, I'm loving it here and being happy is good. Be happy! I love you all very much. 

Love, Elder Hagedorn

Pictures:

Staring contest. This is about 5 minutes in. I think it lasted 12 minutes total. Elder Price's record is 15 minutes he said. Elder Collard just has pure will. 

Our room window. It's been freezing lately and our rooms have also been very cold... But we have a fridge now! 

Week 8

Hello everyone! 

This holiday season was pretty awesome! I hope all of you also had a great time. This last week I was made zone leader so that's pretty crazy. I have a good amount of responsibilities and I hope I can do a good job, I'll be the zone leader here until I leave the MTC. The zone is just all the Chinese speakers here at the MTC. So when Sean gets here on January 9th I'll be able to greet him and show him around and stuff! Because that's what Zone leaders do, apparently. So that's awesome! 

Let's see my two main teachers were both on vacation this last week so my district had different teachers like everyday and a lot of free study time. It was hard to focus and be effective but it was also nice to be able to tone it all down for the holidays. I go to Taiwan in 3 weeks!! I'm so stinking excited. Holy smokes. I'm super excited to just talk to random people on the street and not know what they're saying and simply just smile. For some reason I'm very excited for that. It's crazy how 19 year old boys can go to some other country, speaking another language, to a complete stranger, get invited into their home, teach them and get them to change their whole life. It's crazy to think about. But I love it so much. I'm so excited to be with the people in Taiwan and really come to love them. I feel I already do just thinking about them. Man am I excited. It's going to be awesome. 

On the downside a lot of the Elders in my zone are getting sick, just last night two Elders were up all night throwing up in the bathroom. I'm not sure what they have but hopefully they get better and their sickness doesn't spread. I'm still happy to be here but man, Taiwan is going to be so awesome! Oh, Elder Sumner left to South Caroline yesterday morning and I was able to say goodbye to him Sunday night. I think he will do awesome and I'm very excited for him. Well family and friends, I love you all very much and hope your holiday season was awesome. 

Love, Elder Hagedorn


Picture time:

Zone Leaders!

New Year's Eve...

Don't know if I sent this already but we made the dragon puzzle Caroline got me, it was awesome.

She knows me too well. 

Party getting pumping

Week 7

Merry Christmas everyone! 

I hope Christmas has gone well so far, mine definitely has. Today is also my preparation day so in order to get my laundry done around all the Christmas activities the MTC has for us, I had to wake up very early to get it done. So I opened my presents first thing, I'm not very patient... Thank you everyone for your gifts! They made me very happy and I've already used them a bit. 

Later today my district and I are singing at our Christmas devotional "God Rest You Merry Gentleman" and hopefully we'll sing well and blow everyone out of the water. Also earlier today we were able to hear Elder Russell M. Nelson speak and that was awesome! He gave a great talk about the spirit of Christmas and how we carry the greatest gift of all: The message of the Gospel. I'm very excited to go to Taiwan and share it with the people there. Man it's going to be awesome. 

I thought Christmas here was going to be a bit dull but it's actually been pretty fun! I still have a long day of activities ahead, but so far it's been great! Though I do miss you all and wish I could be with you during this special time celebrating our Savior. The greatest truth about Christmas is that the greatest gift has already been given. I love Christmas. Also, I got a tape recorder from Caroline with a little message so that was nice. I had to listen to it in a bathroom stall away from my district because they were harassing me and really wanted to hear it haha. It was kind of funny. It's been nice to have a day off but honestly I'm excited for tomorrow to start again so I can get back to work. It feels weird to not really be doing anything... But it is nice. 

I miss you all very much and know that my Christmas has been awesome and it still is awesome. I hope you all enjoy yours as well and to remember why we really celebrate. Mosiah 3:8.
I love you all, 

Love Elder Hagedorn

Picture Time:

My crazy district posing in our bathroom... :)

Elder Kunz is fascinated by the mtc jell-o

Me and my trusty companion Elder Cheung on Christmas Eve