Transfer 5 - Week 5

Hello my wonderful family and friends! 

Honestly speaking, this last week was a bit rough haha. But it's not too bad! First off we were not able to get in touch with Brother Lin (Cookies. We call him Cookies cause he would always give us cookies) so that was too bad because he didn't make his baptismal date but I'm thinking he'll turn up. Secondly, there was another typhoon this week! So you know what that means, yep another day stuck inside! But we ended up cleaning our apartment pretty hardcore so now it's pretty nice :) Also both Elder Morgan and I's bikes broke this week on different days so we had to "scooter" our bikes across the city to the nearest bike store in the crazy traffic of Xinzhuang, Taiwan. (It's insane, trust me.) I'll have to get a picture of it or something. So we scootered our bikes acoss the city to the nearest bike store only to learn that what we needed was a brand specific part so we then had to scooter in the opposite direction basically and go to the other bike store! It was hot outside and I was definitely sweating big time, but in hindsight, I realize that I was sweating like a flipping GREASE MONKEY OUT THERE!! But it was fun. And then another thing happened is that while on exchanges, Elder Morgan accidentally typed our phone passcode wrong a few times so our phone restarted or whatever and we can't use it for 5 days so that was too bad but it was pretty funny. He was pretty down on himself cause it was hard to get hold of investigators and such but it will definitely be fun to bring this event back up with him in the future. Another sweet thing that happened is we went to a boy band concert! Oh ya! Our church has a boy band apparently called "Beyond 5" and they are doing a tour of Asia so our church sponsored them to come to Taiwan and do some concerts in some of the churches here. So we went to the one up in Taipei with our investigator Nick and it was pretty rad! Definitely made me miss good ol' N'Sync. Oh I forgot I'll be training again!! So that should be pretty fun. I'll also be staying in Xinzhuang so I'm going to be like the father figure of Xinzhuang, it'll be great. It was definitely a week full of adventures. And the work is slowly progressing as well! It's crazy, I turn 20 next month! I'm going to be so old sheesh. 

Anyway, I love you all!

 

Love,

Elder Hagedorn

Our shoes kind of get wet a lot so we make do haha.

At the Beyond 5 Concert with our peeps from Xinzhuang!

A few of us from my MTC district at the Beyond 5 concert!

On exchanges with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Forbes. It was raining so we whipped out our rain gear and this is what he had bahahaha. First thought when I saw him was 'Zone Overlord Forbes" It practically has a cape!

My planner on a normal day! Trying to start to write in Chinese more :D

Transfer 5 - Week 2

It was a good week! Definitely were able to pick it up a bit from last week because some investigators got back from out of town and have more time. 

One of our investigators, who is actually from Africa and doesn't even speak Chinese is Ronnie. He lives in Linkou, a city on a hill above Xinzhuang. A few miles up the hill. So after a few lessons fell through Elder Morgan decided to head up there earlier so we could contact and stuff up there. So we biked up the hill and I can proudly say I didn't stop once! That hill is a beast! Took us 25 minutes to get up there. By the time we got up, it looked like we had literally just jumped into a pool. We were completely soaked in sweat! It was marvelous! I felt pretty accomplished haha. 

As we continued biking afterward I did the Lance Armstrong fist pump celebration thing. We met up with our investigator and his friend was waiting for us too! We talked to our new friend Peter a little bit about the Book of Mormon and he's willing to meet with us! The Lord blesses those who are willing to bike up long hills I guess! But it was a really good week! We're making with some great people right now and we're excited for them. Brother Lin is working on quitting tea right now and his faith is so strong! We taught him the Word of Wisdom about 2 weeks ago and he's gone from drinking a lot everyday, like 15 glasses he said, to just one cup every few days! And that will go to none soon! We're very excited for him he's awesome! We are working on finding new investigators because some of our investigators right now are a bit stubborn and don't want to progress but it's ok! All in due time. But keep us in your prayers that we can find some new investigators! 

I'm working on reading the Book of Mormon in Chinese and it's pretty tricky! I'm right now at 2 Nephi 7 and it's pretty interesting reading the scriptures in a different language. You get different meaning out of it sometimes, it's really cool! Today for P-day we want to go to this Titanic exhibit over in Taibei so we're pretty excited. It's going to be pretty sweet. Also one of my buddies "Colt", Brother Wu is going to America soon! He's going to Provo for part of his visit and I told him to go to my family's cafe so maybe you can meet him! He's the bee's knees. Look out for him, he's a lady killer. It was a good week for us and I hope it was also good for all of you! Love you!

 

Love,

Elder Hagedorn

Elder Morgan wearing a "Linkin Pork" hat. Bahahaha

Awkward photo of the day? Got a yummy sandwich inside that bag. Mmmm...

Transfer 5 - Week 1

First week of the transfer and it was a good one! 

A little bit slower because a lot of appointments fell through but still a good one! Some exciting things happened. First, I got hit by a car and no longer have the use of my left leg. Ha no just kidding! But I did get in a little scooter accident, though the only thing that happened was a little scrape on my elbow and a little rip in my shirt. I'm actually pretty proud of the rip in my shirt, it's my first "seasoned" shirt! I was biking down the road, the usual and then a guy on his scooter came up on my left and then cut across over me hitting my front wheel, spinning it awkwardly, causing me to wreck. I had just gone down a hill too so I had some speed. Somehow, he must not have seen me cause he cut me off pretty good and I was just going straight. And then afterwards he turned left so I don't know why cut across over me from the left to the right, just to go back left. A little weird but whatever the case I'm fine! It was pretty much a miracle that I only had a small scrape. When I crashed I put my hands down to soften the impact and they both hit the ground pretty hard and I thought would at least get scraped up pretty good but somehow they didn't even have a scratch. It was pretty cool. Guess he's looking out for me! Second, Brother Cai got baptized! His wife is a member and it was mainly because of her that he got baptized. She's pregnant and so I'm very happy that he got baptized. They'll start a family with the Gospel in their lives! Third, it was the first full week of the transfer! Another month has gone by and it's crazy how fast time is going by. I was just emailing my man Elder Shumway and he's almost been out for a year! I have too! Pretty insane. Elder Morgan and I have definitely been enjoying one another, Ha though that is an interesting way to say it. We joke around probably too much but we laugh and think we're funny. In companionship study I'll read the Book of Mormon in characters and he'll read it in Pinyin (romanized Chinese) so we like doing that to improve Chinese and to do something together. We also read same chapters in the Scriptures sometimes and then discuss it throughout reading and afterwards. It's good fun! Also, the missionary dress code has changed so we can wear khakis now! I've decided I need to get my hands on a brown tie, khakis, brown shoes and a brown belt. I think I want to fully embrace this new policy and go all out... Hehe. Well I think that's about it! I love you all and hope all is well!

 

Love,

Elder Hagedorn

All that happened! Miracle!

Brother Cai!

Some food we put in the fridge at the church about a month ago that we forgot about... Mold... We were starving we had no choice but to eat it. Hahaha no we chucked it.

Transfer 4 - Week 6

This week we had transfer meeting! 

I'm not on my 5th transfer which is pretty weird... Still young though! A few interesting things have happened. A new area opened up in Xinzhuang so now instead of just 4 missionaries here we have 6! We're slowly growing! 

And also I'm district leader which is pretty crazy! Two of the new missionaries in the area are natives of Taiwan and the other missionaries in the district are all on their 3rd transfer or under so their Chinese is not bad. (haihao) District meetings will be interesting! We've also given a few of our investigators to the new Elders so we'll need to rebuild our investigator pool in the next couple weeks. Give out some Books of Mormon! Also, one of our investigators, James, moved to Texas to go to Texas A&M for his Ph.D. so that was sad! He's an awesome guy and we were sad to see him go! He's come a long way since Elder Beck and I started teaching him. When we first met him he would not even take a Book of Mormon but now he reads it almost every day and loves it! Most recent chapter he read was Alma 32 and he really liked it. So he's in Texas now and he'll be able to meet with missionaries there and go to church too! 

Chinese is still coming along and still working on Phase 3. In order to pass off phase 3 you sit down with the mission president and he randomly chooses a scripture from the book of mormon and then you have to know 80 percent of the characters and then tell him in English the meaning of the scripture. So as for passing it off I could do that but it's kind of bothersome to travel to Taipei so I don't know if I ever will pass it off. When you pass it off you don't get anything other than a handshake so I don't know if I'll ever pass it off because it's kind of a hassle to set up a time with him and takes a good amount of time to do. 

But don't worry I'm still studying Chinese like a madman! Still studying characters and improving but just don't get uneasy if I never say I pass it off cause I don't see much of a point of passing it off. Actually my mom wrote me an email in Chinese this morning and I could pretty much read all of it except for like 3 characters so that was cool! Sorry this week's email is a lot shorter because I'm pretty tired... But things are going well and we're working with some awesome people! Love you all!

 

Love,

Elder Hagedorn