Taiwan Oct 5, 2012

Hello everyone :D

     So It has been a good week!!!! A little tiring, but good none the less :D I'm really happy to be working hard, and to be doing as much as I can here in Taiwan! Ghee :D My new companion is Elder Barr, and he is from Ohio. He loves singing, playing the drums, and doing missionary work 

     So.... It's awesome to hear from you all :D Mom, I will go glasses shopping as soon as possible haha ;) We'll see when that is :D I'm actually just thinking of switching to contacts... I miss the days when I Didn't wear anything on my face haha :D 

     This week was definitely a week full of adventure and miracles!!!!! Want to know why? Well.... I'll tell you.... right after these messages!!!!! I'm excited for conference next week :D I'm really happy here in Feng Jia.... and.... ya.... onto the week :D 

Monday: Got my new companion and said goodbye to some other friends. It's weird how fast life goes and how we're all just here experiencing it haha :D sometimes I get thinking.... We got to visit russel tonight though!! I was so happy to see him :D It's so interesting how life goes :D 

Tuesday: The last..... melon... haha :D We had a good full day of contacting haha :D The we accidentally were 5 minutes late to our district meeting.... guess what happened, president blickenstaff was there. haha. That was awkward haha. But a fun time :D Then we had a member visit with the bishopric first councelor. 

Wednesday: Thenn...... october came haha. Somebody wake that one guy up, september's over. So today was another day full of contacting and we got to talk to one of our investigators with an baptismal goal! We couldn't find a member to go with us, and so we couldn't meet with her, but we got to see her haha :D She's doing super awesome!!!! then we had a really really good English Class! :D 

Thursday: Things were going really good! and still are :D ya! We had some lessons today with people... not too many, but a good number :D one of our investigators Mike Zhang got a baptismal goal today!!!!! It was so exciting :D He's doing really well, and progressing well. 

Friday: Had a lot of lessons not show up today, but that's ok, because that means we had more time to find, so that we can teach others! Ghee :D 

Saturday: So today we had two dinners haha.... one at a place that was almost exactly like stepping into Alice and wonderland.... that was weird. But the other one was with the person that met my mom two weeks ago!!! It's crazy how small this world is haha :D But that was really cool :D 

Sunday: We had church, and a good lesson with one of our only Christian investigators. It went really well, and we talked about the bible a lot, and about the invitation from the book of mormon to read it. About the other sheep that are talked about. So it was a really good lesson :D 

So yes! That was the week :D I would send you photos but... I don't have any haha. Sorry. Well I do, I guess it's just I have no way to get them on the computer right now. My advice for the week? Take a break and spend an hour on the church website, it's really enlightening :D 

CTR, 義 

Elder Dawson 陶長老 

Taiwan Sept 29, 2014

Well hello family!!!!!

     So sorry, I don't have a ton of time this week, so I wont have a chance to write a lot to you haha, but let it be known that I'm doing awesome!!!!!!!!!! 

My old companion moved, and now I have a new companion!!! His name is Elder Barr, and he's a cool guy, we should have fun this move call :D 

 

     ya! It looks like it's going to be a fun move call, life's good, and everything is fun :D ya...... life makes you wonder about how and why things happen haha, look at that ;) I met some cool people last week that have been to utah, and love the LDS people!!!!!! They were so nice :D They say you want to meet you mom!!! Fun fun fun :D 

     Well this week Sister Chen got confirmed, and it was good :D yes..... I love life!!! and life loves me! Sorry I'm so short on time haha, talk more next week!!!!!! :D 

CTR, 義 

Elder Dawson 陶長老 

Taiwan Sept 21, 2014

Howdy Everyone out there. I just realized,  I am officially past halfway on my mission. Weird how things happen like that haha ;) 

     So this week was a blast!!! well, most weeks are a blast, but especially this week! Tee hee :D I'll let you know in just a bit why! 

     Mom and dad that sounds awesome! Sounds like you two had a full and compelling week haha :D Traveling around... driving to St. George.... feeding a lot of Taiwanese people haha :D yay taiwanese people! fun times ;D 

     Well this week was full, and the best part of it was probably that we had a baptism!!!!!! Her name is Sister Chen, and she is a mother of Two. After she learned about the temple, she said "Oh... well then I guess I have to hurry and get my husband baptized so we can have an eternal family!" and we were like "Well yes, I guess you should" :D haha, she's so amazing, and I feel truly blessed that I got to know her! She's helping teach her 9 year old son right now so that he can be baptized, and then we can start visiting her house and meeting with her husband. yay FAMILIES!!!!!!!!!!!! Families can be together forever :D 

     So that was the highlight of this week..... other than that 呢？ well let me tell you right now :D 

Monday: We spent a day at the mission headquarters doing the baptismal interview for Sister Chen, and we got to meet her husband! He's super nice, and said he'd love to meet with us also :D And then we ate lunch at a really yummy hamburger place haha, joy :D ya.... then we did a lot of phone calls haha. 

Tuesday: A spiritually lifting and inspiring day! Today was our Zone Conference, and man, I just love having a whole day where we can learn from president, and be enlightened to go back to our own procelyting areas :D We talked a lot about our purpose in our missions, how to teach the first lesson, how to be safe with CO monitors, and so much more! It was cool :D Then we had what I think ranks on the top 5 most depressing lessons I've ever had. We met with a lady who's older brother just died and she was very depressed. We shared the plan of salvation with her, but something didn't quite click, and she just couldn't find a way to even want to start to believe. It was hard for me to see, but we tried to help the best we could, and now we just leave it up to her to accept or not. See if she will do her part, pray and ask. 

Wednesday: We taught the Plan of salvation again to another one of our investigators Sister Zhan! This time went a lot better haha, and she said she'd come to church again :D Then I had a kick butt english class!! It was so good, and then Elder Ai Got in to teach the spiritual share, and he taught about the law of chastity. Hm. Ya we had a talk about that haha ;) oh fun times ;D 

Thursday: A fun day full of lessons! One of the more prominant investigators is Fish. Or Sister Zhang. She's super awesome, and we taught her the Plan of salvation today and it went pretty well :D Then we had two new investigators (a family!!! Families families families!!!!!) and got to get to know them and spend a lesson teaching about who god and Jesus Christ are, and why they matter in our lives. It was a really good lesson!

Friday: We realized that most of our investigators at this point are 40 year old moms with 2 kids haha. We only have 3 college students, and we are now teaching 6 Moms, each with 2 kids haha. It's funny how these things work out, but you know what they say? 你尋找什麼，就得到什麼。What you look for is what you get :D and we want to teach families!! :D We got to practice a lot of singing for this sundays performance, and then on saturday we're singing at a art exhibit :D Then we had the baptism for Sister Chen!!!! We were so nervous!!!! The service started at 7, and at 6:55, NOBODY was there except for the missionaries and the person who was going to baptize her. We were so nervous, and nobody was answering there phones! ah! But in the end it was ok, at about 7:10 everybody started walking in, apparently the traffic was super bad, so everybody was delayed haha. In the end all was well, and the service went beautifully. When the missionaries started performing love at home, I looked over to see Sister Chen moved by the spirit, and crying all over the poor hymn book haha. It moved me. Truly. And when she shared her testimony, she started crying again. It's moments like these that's I'm truly glad to be a missionary. To see how much the gospel has touched the life of someone else. Oh, and to see how fast all the relief society women can run to the pulpit with tissues hahaha. It was like, Hey someone's crying? Quick! 7 people swarm them with tissues!! haha :D I love this church :D Ya, it was a phenominal day :D 

Saturday: Jesus wants me for a sunbeam! soooo...... today we found a family Tracting!!! (families families families!!!!!!) and that was a huge miracle :D then we had the chance to sing at an art Exhibition. Ok, i thought it would just be an ok thing, not to big. Oh no. This was one of the nicest things I have EVER SEEN. we were wearing suits and I still felt underdressed haha. But we sang our hymns, and I got to play an excerpt of one of Mendelsons violin Concerto's to honor the artist haha. It was a cool experience :D Then... oh.... then we had dinner, and then got to meet with a former, and the lesson went really good. I might just say ;) Then.... the Typhoon came!! along with a torrential downpoor. Me and my dinky little rain gear? not a chance. Haha, I got soaked in the first 5 minutes riding in that rain haha. And the fun thing about when it rains in the middle of the city? the rain isn't clean, so when it streams into your eyes, it stings. really bad. haha, so that was a fun ride home :D 

Sunday: Well... because of the Typhoon, they cancelled Church, and we were told to stay indoors. It didn't really rain at all on sunday, but I guess they just wanted to be safe. So we didn't have a church service, so all of our investigators who were going to go didn't get a chance, and then Sister Chen didn't get the gift of the Holy Ghost. So I guess that'll all have to wait till next week haha ;) so today we basically just cleaned..... went out and did some tracting... not a whole ton, worked as hard as we could with the time we were allowed haha :D Good times:D 

So yes, that was this week!!!!! After the ups and downs, I'll have you know, I still know this church is true, and I know that Heavenly Father Loves us. Sometimes I think I could list and go into a ton of details, but simplicity is key. God loves us. Amen. 

CTR, 義

Elder Dawsons 陶長老 

                                       P.S. The Baptism :D 

                                 
                                          The art Show! 

Taiwan Sept 14, 2014

Well hello worldwide sparklers, how are you? 

     The tab button on this computer doesn't work. That's frustrating. haha, never mind, all will be well if my posterity make it to zion. ;) what?? Who said that.... So, this week was a really fun, and really happy week!!!! Ghee!!!!!!!! :D 

     Mom and dad, It sounds like you're doing awesome. To answer some of your questions, yes, I have performed Savior redeemer of my soul here in Taiwan many times :D Next week I will be performing a song "Every step is faith" 每一步都是信心 and I'm pretty excited :D and mom guess what! My companion's last last area was 潮州 so if any of them were from the 潮州branch, then he might know them :D That's super cool! And if they're from 台中，well that's where I am now haha, it depends on which part they are from :D I wish you luck with that much cooking!! Take some photos and send them to me :D About the wooden shoes, I'll send them home today, and mom you can decide what you'd like to do with them :D 木鞋的價錢，一共是臺幣4,000 ：D 

     My companion is spanish, and so here, he sometimes speaks spanish, but not a lot haha, we usually just speak in English, unless he feels like talking to me in Chinese, then we will haha ;D Random thought, please pray that the new missionaries will be able to come on island this move call. Something happened with their visa's, and so there's been some problems and they might not be able to come. Just pray for them a lot ;D 

     Other than that, this week was a phenominal week full of Mispelling, miracles, and not knowing English!!! Ghee :D I suppose that happens to everyone at times, but this week just seemed a little.... obvious. I can't speak english, I can speak Chinese. Great. Kidding, My English is just fine ;) SMILE! it's so much from to hear from people. 

     This week 呢？ what did we do? Well let me tell you, it was an adventure in it all. Full of the exciting thrills, to the terrible heart breaks. I may sound like I'm exaggerating, but really, it was quite the week. 

Monday: A good P-day all in all :D then we went to a place called Carton king for lunch, the place where everything is made out of cardboard haha. It was really cool :D I bought my new bag for missionary work there. It's made completely out of carboard haha, but they said it can be washed.... I'm skeptical, but we'll see what happens haha ;) 

Tuesday: We had a meeting with our RC Steven, because he's going to GaoXiong 高雄 soon for schooling, so we were just preparing him for the switch down there :D We had a pretty good DTM on our calling as missionaries, and then practicing singing. We are going to be singing in a art festival in a few weeks, so we're practicing hard, and I'll get to play my violin for it :D After singing, I went on exchanges with Elder Watson!!!! Love that guy :D We were in his area up there in DongHai 東海 and we rocked it contacting the day and meeting with a member :D 

Wednesday: We contacted even more, and then had a good english class :D While contacting we met some really cool people!!!! But for some reason none of them lived in our area... weird, but that's ok, all is good as long as they get a chance to learn about the gospel: D 

Thursday: We had a chance to meet with a new investigator named Fish 張增瑜 who was super open to learning about the gospel! She graduated from the nicest university in Taiwan, and she's super smart! We love teaching her :D then we met with a mom who's going to be baptized this saturday!! Her name is Chen pei Xuan 陳沛璇 and she's from Mainland China :D She's progressing awesomely, and it's always a pleasure to meet with her :D 

Friday: a day of meditation and thought... and a fun weekly planning session haha. I realized that sometimes we spend far too much time thinking, and not enough time doing. That was a journey :D 

Saturday: 媽媽，祝你生日快樂！！！ 這個日子是妳真正的生日嗎？ 哈哈：D 我愛妳喔！  We met with another one of our investigators that's name is Justin. 'he's doing good, he's willing to read the book of Mormon to see if it's true, so we'll be praying for him that all goes well ;D After that heartbreak struck, and the girl that was going to be baptized today had to drop out because her father wouldn't let her be baptized :( we were all very heart broken, but her faith is super strong! And she's gonna keep going until she can get baptized!! Pray for her! Her name is Sandy Liu 劉騏甄 .  after that, Then our ward had a cooking competition. It was yummy, and a good chance for a bunch of our investigators to know ward members :D 

Sunday: We hit mission standards this week!!!! We're so excited!!! This area's been a little down ever since I've gotten here, and we've been trying to hit mission standards so hard, and we finally did it this week!!! ah!!! We're so excited :D Ya, other than that, we had a good church meeting :D Sang a lot afterwards, and I also had a chance to play my violin. Then we went to a Young single adult activity barbequing haha :D We had a chance to meet some less actives, and some new investigators :D It was a really good activity! and very yummy if I might say so too :D 

So yes, that was the week in a nutshell :D There was a lot of ups and downs this week. Not going to lie, but it's nice to know that in all we do, there is comfort and help. A comment was made this week that we don't speak of Christ enough in our lives. I've been pondering this thought, and pondering about the atonement and what exactly it means. It's been quite the week :D 

CTR, 義 

Elder Dawson 小可愛的陶長老 

P.S. Photos?? 

                                                  Steven and I :D 

                                          Cardboard bag :D 

Taiwan Sept 7, 2014

Well hello everyone!!!!!! :D 

     Hope you all had a good week :D My week was awesome!!!!! I just got to work hard, ride hard, and find people to teach!!!! This week had a bit of a different spice to it, because It was the Moon festival!!!! Oh joy ;) haha 

    So mom, I think no worries about the shirts and stuff :D There's a costco here, and I think we're going to buy some shirts from there :D If that doesn't work, then I will get back to you :D thanks so much though!!! I found out american candy is a great way to get members to like you even more :D haha :D oh fun times !! 

     So dad, the hill here is very comparable to the 1800 hill haha :D There probably about the same.... just riding up one of them in sunday clothes... ya... haha :D 

So, I really like the area I'm in right now :D I'm in FengJia, and it's fun!!! The ward is really nice. They don't know very well how to work with missionaries in doing the work, but hey, that is ok, because that is something me and my companion can help with :D Ya, we're super excited to keep going!!! The next transfers are in 3 weeks, and it's pretty definite that I'll be moving..... ya.... I guess we'll see what happens ;) 

Ya this week is going awesome!!!!! We found people to teach, had some crazy times running around, and basically just worked our absolute hardest!!! That was the best part of this week :D Actually who am I kidding, every week is amazing!!! And now that I'm 20, I feel even older!!! haha, look at that ;) good times ;) 

So yes..... let me tell you how this week went!!!!! 

monday: So today for P-day we had a good time going to a pizza buffet in our area, and then going out to Costco!!! I was really happy, because It was my first time going to Costco here in Taiwan ;D It's basically the exact same thing as america, just everything has a sticker on it with the Chinese translation hahahahaha :D It was really fun :D I bought some muffins for my birthday, and enough oatmeal to last me for the rest of my mission :D Good times!! Then that night we met with a member from Paraguay, and him and my companion talked in Spanish the whole time and were all happy :D Haha 

Tuesday: Well it was my birthday!! Today we were having Zone Training Meeting, and so the Zone leaders had us go up early so that "Elder Ai Could Draw something for them". haha, but really what happened when we got there is that They had Pizza, cake, and these really yummy drinks to celebrate my birthday :D haha, they're so nice :D The for ZTM president Blickenstaff and Sister Blickenstaff came, so that was really fun to get to see them :D and then a member gave us more muffins, so now we have twice as many muffins as we would have ever wanted.... hahahahaha :D We then contacted the day away finding the prepared souls that are out there in the world!!!!! 

Wednesday: We had a good day of talking and communication... yep ;D that was fun!! Then a Kick Butt English class at night about friends and families!!!! We rocked it, and thanks to my mother sending me good american candy, I bribed there friendship with Twizzlers haha :D Good days :D Then President Called me and said happy birthday to me, because he didn't know it was my birthday yesterday :D 

Thursday: We met with one of our Mainland China investigators and she's so awesome! Sister Chen, and she's golden haha! She's going to be baptized on September 20th, and she's looking like she's going to hit that goal :D Of course it was interesting, because we had to stop our Member from trying to convert her to Buhdism haha, so that was a fun journey ;) ya, and then at night we went procelyting in the Night Market and found some really nice People from africa :D 

Friday; Ok, from here on is where our week became even more crazy!!!! So today, we were out of the house early to do service at one of our RC's house, and then ran to teach another lesson to a Sister Zhan ;D It went well, but we had to ride like the wind to get to our next lesson with a less active named matthew :D All was well, and we got to do some of our Weekly Planning, and then we ran over to meet with a new investigator named Fish. She's super smart and graduated from Taiwan nation University!!! we're going to see how teaching her goes :D haha then we practiced singing and playing the violin for tomorrow. 

Saturday: Most crazy day of my life. Ok so the Chapel isn't in our area, and we had to ride to it and back to our area so many times today! So this morning we attended a really depressing funeral, and I played my violin there. I performed "Abide with me tis eventide." and it went really well. After that, we had to run back to our house, change, and then run to the church. Had a meeting there with one of our RC's, and then ran back to our area to have lunch with an investigator. After that, we ran back to the church for a baptism of an 8 year old boy (the bishopric 2nd councilors son) and it went really well ;D Then we ran back to our area to meet with our Christian investigator Ginger. Ginger is really awesome, and has a strong knowledge of the bible, so meeting with her has been interesting, because we actually use the bible to teach here haha :D fun times :D Then we ran back to the church to have a lesson with Steven, on of our RC's, and President and Sister Blickenstaff helped us teach him. It went really well, and was really fun :D and then we ran home before we were late :D Wow. Quite the fun day :D 

Sunday. today we had church, and no lessons because of the Moon Festival. You know what else happens on the Moon festival here??? Cakes. Lots and lots of Moon Cakes. Moon cakes are not like normal cakes you see, only about half of them are sweet. The other half are salty. So it's always a journey when you bite into a moon cake expecting sweet pineapple, only to get salty scallop. ya. it was a moon cake festival journey yesterday *shudder*. but all yummy in the end :D 

So ya! That was this week :D it was really exciting all the lessons we had and all that we were able to do! pray for us this week, and pray for our investigators :D We are looking for even more miracles this next week!!!!!!!!! 

CTR, 義 

Elder Dawson 陶長老

                                                My Birthday cake :D 

                                         
                                              Me at Costco (I got in Trouble for taking this picture haha) 

Taiwan Aug 31, 2014

Well hello everyone, how are you doing?? 

     媽媽，你說的沒錯，我們每天很忙，但天父真的每天的在祝福我 ：D 希望你那邊也是如此。 愛你囉！ So mom, thanks for sharing about when you left Taiwan :D We actually just got a chance to meet a Phillipino lady who came to Taiwan for 3 years, not speaking the language at all, but came here to work to earn money for her family. They're such strong examples it's really a good testimony builder :D 

     So mom and dad, it looks like Brother Harris's grandson Tanner Redding will be arriving in Taiwan on September 25th. I saw his picture yesterday, and we're all excited to invite the new missionaries onto Island!!! :D Happy days!! :D 

     Well good to know that the world still spins around overt there while I'm over here, good to know ;) haha, oh, and on that note....... HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNY!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you tons!!!!! And I hope you have an amazing birthday today!!!!!!! 

     So before you all ask me what we're doing today for Birthday, I'll let you know :D We're going to go to a Pizza buffet, and then we're going to go to Costco and get food for like the whole month haha :D Yay!!! Fun times.... ya, it should be a pretty good day :D 

Ya.... And on to the weekly report!!! 

Monday: Well this monday we spent at the church playing ping pong. I won, no biggie ;) haha, no but really, it was fun :D We played ping pong and and sang, and basically just had a good time :D then at night we went out and did calls, and contacted people :D 

Tuesday: Today we had a really awkward District Training meeting haha, but that's ok. Awkwardness happens. haha, and then we got to ride our bikes up the treacherous Hill! So the other Elder's in our area live on a hill. And it's really steep, and to bike from bottom to top, takes about 30 minutes of constant uphill. Lucky us they wanted to do English Proselyting at the very top of that hill. So that was a fun bike ride ;) Then we had a member visit with a Lin Zhe Hong 林哲弘 and it was a very yummy vegetarian restaurant :D I don't know if I've told you all yet or not... but My companion is Vegetarian, so we don't get to eat meat a lot haha ;) 

Wednesday: I realized that I have forgotten how to spell haha. Whoops ;) So we had a miracle today meeting with a former!!! She is a member of one of the most expensive real estate agencies in all of Taiwan, and she's super cool!!! Her name is Ginger, and she's a really funny person haha. So ya, it was a miracle getting to meet with her :D And then we had english class!! :D 

Thursday: We went on exchanges with the other Elders, and I was with an Elder Hintze from Kaysville utah :D It was really super fun!!! We rocked it in his area, and had another miracle! ok, so in the morning we did service for a family, and it went a little long... which means our study times and everything else got pushed back. So by the time we ate lunch, it was like 3 in the afternoon, and everywhere was closed. The place we wanted to go eat was closed, so we just decided to eat at a different place nearby. just like randomly pick a place and eat :D We got in there and chose what to eat, and then when we went up to pay, the boss lady said "Hey can I show you something?" and I was like, "well sure". She then proceeded to pull out a book of mormon from beneath the desk and told me "About 6 months ago people would come visit me and tell me about this book, and I would go to church with them every week. Then 4 months ago they suddenly stopped and I couldn't find them." She then continued saying "I went to church once or twice, but couldn't find any friends, so I stopped going." I was super suprised that we had found her! and then she continued saying "I watch you missionaries pass by here almost every day, but never was bold enough to go and talk to you all, because I've never met any of you, but when you walked into my shop today, i said to myself "This is it, they've finally come to find me, they've finally come!" I do have to say, I was really touched, and I've forever glad that we decided to eat lunch there and help this sister be able to know us, and start coming back to church, and hopefully be baptized :D Yay miracles!!! :D 

Friday: Well we had a good day meeting with some Recent converts, and having a good time teaching them more about the gospel :D You know, it's really nice to teach people the gospel when they've like already accepted it's true :D Amen. 

Saturday: We had a lot of lessons cancel, but we had a killer lesson with our investigator Sister Tian 田媽媽. We talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it was amazing! The spirt was so strong as our member shared his testimony about the atonement and how it will make us all better if we try. It was a really amazing lesson, and it jut reafirmes the fact that the spirit is the best teacher :D 

Sunday: well we had a good sunday.... Not a lot happened because we suddenly had to go to the mission home and stay there for a while. but that's ok :D I got to talk to them a lot, and got to see what's going on in the mission recently :D Other than that, this week at church, we had an abundance of people from mainland China at church, all not members, but all willing to learn :D So yes, it was another miracle! 

So yes, that was this week!!!! As I look back at this week, I feel like it was a hard week for some reason. But then as I'm writing home to you all, I realize just how many blessings and miracles I've been recieving! It's cool how that works. Sometimes it's during the harder times that the blessings come. Yay :D 

CTR, 義 

Elder Dawson 陶長老

Some Photos for you :D Because Jenny said I needed to send more photos home haha ;) 

Well look who's in my district ;) Nichole Peng from Bountiful Utah haha ;) 

 My zebra Tiles from cleaning ;) yes they were that dirty before I cleaned them haha ;)