July 22

Dear Everyone! Helllooooooooooooooooo!

Last P-day we just chilled so hard. Went to this restraunt called A-ma's. That is Grandma in Taiwanese. A-ma is the definition of a little old lady. Haha. She's probably... 85..ish. But she works so hard. I've seen her sit down like twice and we've been there a ton. When you go there they give you this special drink. It's really special. It's a bean drink and I call it Pond Juice. It looks like it is straight from a Pond. Haha. But it's not bad. The other day it was warm... Just made it more like a real pond. After A-ma's we went to this beach, and when I came to Taiwan the first time we stayed in a hostile right on the same Beach!!! So crazy! After that we watched Incredibles. So sick. Then this night we went to one of our investigator's house. Yang dixiong(His English name is Andy. Haha), we went there to talk to his mom about him getting baptized. He wants to get baptized so bad, but his mom won't let him. We brought our Branch President with us, we did everything in our power to tell her Baptism is only a good thing, but she still didn't change. It sucks because he has the Testimony! He will be blessed though. I know it.

Tuesday, we were supossed to be at the chapel at 5:45 in the morning to go to Hualian for a meeting........ We woke up at 5:42. Hahaa. This reminded me of every morning before school. haha. We had a Zone Training in Hualian which is a three hour train ride. The first thing they told us about was the Sister's dress code. They want them to look more lively. More Blake Lively. Not so much like Sister Wives. When we got back we went Enlglish contacting. Which is you just go around talking about our free English class. I love Enlish contacting because I only have to know how to say a few things. Ni tingguo women de yingwen ban ma? I say that over and over. Haha. I met a lady named Kevita. SUCH A SWEETHEART. She thanked me like 6 times for coming to Taiwan and sharing our happy message. Meeting people like her make everything I do worth it.

Wednesday, we were supposed to meed Hou Dixiong(man with no teeth) for lunch, but he wouldn't answer his phone. So we went to his house and he was eating lunch with his family. He totally spaced lunch. Haha. No worries, he invited us in to eat with him. I felt like we were intruding, for real. But they are so freaking nice. We ate this shrimp that looked like it was still alive, but wasn't. We had to peel off all the stuff of of them... Head, legs, shell guy, everything. Supry'singly they were really good. They put out a plate of fengli aka Pineapple..... I ate the whole plate pretty much... :/ Sorry. They are too good to us. Today we went to the hospital and sang to all the old people. We sang to this woman who is 94. Be Still My Soul is Zhongwen. It sounded so good. That was cool. Then had English class. I played Two Truths and a Lie with them. Haha. It was so fun. Paul, the 75ish man, first thing he says... "I'm a millionare." Hahaaha. He's awesome. He has some mole hair that's 6 inches long. At least.

Okay 19-20-21 all kinda meshed together. On the 19th I went on Exchanges with the South Elders. I was with You Zhanglao. He's from Taizhong. He's awesome. On the 19th I ate McDonald's here for the first time. It's HAO CHI! Aka delicious. Weirdly good. I don't know what they do here to make it so much better... I ate it for dinner two days in a row. Haha. On the 20th we were contacting on a super busy street, and Elder Peterson turns around to go talk to a man in his car... This man is probably the best person we've found just on the street. He is SO awesome! We talked to him for probably 15 minutes and I love him so much. His name is Yu Dixiong.

And Yesterday was awesome. I always love Sundae's. Even though I don't understand much, the spirit is so strong. Last night we met with a less active named Zhu dixiong. He said he was having a lot of doubts. We told him to CPR. Come to Church, Pray, and Read the scriptures. The Spirit was so strong. At the end he said twice he wasn't doubting as much. Such a cool experience. He remindes me of the big guy on Seseme Street with really long hair. "Hey Big Bird." Super deep voice. Ya know?

Alright, I love you guys!!!!!! So much. Have the best week of your lives. PEACE!

July 15

Ni Hao!!!!!

This week was off the chain. It was so good. Seriously though, it feels like yesterday I was writing you. So flippin weird. So after I e-mailed you last week we did thdutieth then we went shoppin. We have a grocery store here called Carre Four. It's the Taiwanese equivalent to... Wal-mart. It's nice. Then we went to the church and ate so much fruit. So good. And then we watched Empirer's New Groove. WE CAN WATCH MOVIES! Sister Day is redoing the list. I recommended How to Train Your Dragon of course. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard and Empirer's New Groove before. It was nice to watch a real movie. :)

Toozdai, we went real running. Holy. It was so bad. Because I only have my vans. Haha. My calves have never been so sore in their lives(they are still sore). Stairs were terrible. I'm buying running shoes today. That'll be nice. We had District Meeting this day. That was cool. Then one of the Zone Leader's, Elder Townsend and I went on exchanges. It was sick. He was also born in Taidong so he knows all of these less actives and former investies we could visit. We visited the coolest guy. Lai dixiong I think is his name. He gave us this frozen pineapple in a bag thing. It was so good.

Wednesday, this was a good day. Elder Peterson(Bi zhanglao(my companion(my trainer(my dad)))) got a referral on the street for this family. So we thought we would go find them. We didn't even know if we turned onto the right street, biked on that forever, and then they were all chillin outside. It was a miracle we found them. They are so cool. Right when we got there they got chairs for us, poured us some water. I'm telling you, the people here are amazing. So it's a family, and three of the kids came to church yesterday!!!! They were so bored in Sacrament. Haha. But, so was I. I looked at them cross eyed for a while. Haha. Then on Wendesday, I taught my English class. There were 10 people there! What. More than triple last week. I gave them a ton of idioms. Haha. They love them. "Okay guys. Have you heard this one. I gave my two cents.........." Silence.......... "Can anyone guess what it means?"......... Then I tell them the meaning. Haha. They loved the "He's in the doghouse" one. Haha. The spiritual thought was so cool. I didn't even know what I was going to share. I started off with how our Heavenly Father is perfect and he loves all of us perfectly. It was so cool. I love Yingwen ban. aka English Class.

Thursday I went to Yuli because my companion had to go to Taiwan for a training meeting(he's District Leader). So I went and chilled with the Yuli elders. I was there from thursday mid-day to Saturday at 5... It felt like I was gone for a year. All of the days there feel like one day so I'll just say some stuff that happened. First off, they had a guitar and Ukelele in their apartment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SO grateful. And the guitar even had a capo... I've never spelled that before... It was so fun though. I forgot everything! By day two I started to remember. I played every Desert Noises song I know how to play. :) AND, Elder Bowler had a song by Kyle Henderson. A Hymn! Nearer My God To Thee. You should look it up. We listened to it like 8 times... It wasn't enough. In Yuli guess what I ate....... Two disgusting things... chou doufu and..... Curry. Chou doufu aka stinky as crap toufu. Literally when you eat it, it tastes/smells like there is a bathroom(out house) chillin in your mouth. So bad. And the curry actually wasn't bad at all. I had 6 dumplings with curry in them. At them all. Didn't throw up. Yuli is like as country as you can get in the Taipei mission. It smells like Idaho. Aka Cows. It is SO BEAUTIFUL though. We biked to this little village, it was so cool. So cool.

Got back on Saturday around 5 and at 7 these elder's in our district, South Taidong had a baptism! So awesome. And two of our investigators came. Mai dixiong(Mikilo), came. He is so awesome. He's the one who doesn't have any friends. I love this man. I'll get a picture with him this week and show you. It was nice to get back in Taidong. You know when you go on vacation and then you walk in your house and you feel like you haven't been there for years. That's how it felt walking back into the apartment.

Sundae, was so good. We had 7 people come to church!!! It was nuts trying to keep track of all of them. Haha. It was so cool though. The ward here is so SICK! I love every person. And all these little asians running around all the time. So flippin cute. And good news, I'm starting to understand more and more. haha. So that's nice.

Okay, I love you all so much!!!! You beautiful people. I'm grateful for all of you. I'm so grateful I get to be in not just Taiwan but Taidong! Everything here is so awesome. I love it all. :) Missions are the cooletht thing. I'm so grateful for this Gospel and everything it teaches us! And that I get to teach people about it! Okay. I love you all. Have the best week of your LIVES!

Another Letter from the Ry-Guy

Ni Haoooooooooooooo evleeonnneee! 

 

This week was awesome! Crazy. These days are going by so flippin fast. I feel like yesterday I was just e-mailing you.... After I e-mailed last week we went to houzi shan aka MONKEY MOUNTAIN! It was so sick. I promise I will send tons of Pictures next week. There were monkeys errywhere. Right in front of me. I was holding a banana one climbed right up my body. Haha. It was a sick first P-day to say the least. After houzi shan we went to this frozen ice place. They love ice treats here. But for some reason they put beans and this slimy gooey stuff. The gooey stuff is like the consistency of... You know those balls that have all those stretchy... tassels on them. Haha. I don't know how to describe this ball. BUT, the gooey stuff is like the consistency of one of those... tassels. It's weird. And they love it here. And since members are buying them for us we have to eat all of it. Which is nice.

 

Tuesday, my companion had to got to Hualian for a training meeting. He is District Leader. So I got to go on Exchanges with my Australian MATE, ELDAH WRIGHT! It was awesome. His Chinese is so bad. Haha. I mean, so is mine, but with his Australian accent, it's so funny hearing him pronunciate things. Haha. We met with three of their investies, they were all so amazing.

 

Wednesday, I taught my first Yingwen Ban. Aka English Class. Haha. Their English is way better than mine. I have three students. Paul, Sunny, and Ted. Paul is 75? I think, sweet heart. I asked him if he's heard of the Beatles... He hadn't. Sunny is middle aged woman, so nice. They are both retired teachers. Ted is just Ted. haha. He's like 42 probably. He's cool. Since it was the 4th of July I thought I'd tell a patriotic story. I chose The Boston Tea Party. Turns out I don't know a lot about that story. Haha. This is how it went. Yeah, so, Britain was like taxing America like crazy... So they were not too happy. Then they dressed up Native Americans... and threw all the tea into the harbor... Any questions? That's how it went. They were so confused. Haha. Sorry, guys. It was way fun though.

 

Thursday, we went to our mission Leader's house and helped him get this metal water tub thing on top of his roof. After he took us to eat. To drink we had sweetened asparagus juice, appetizer: Pigs ear, intesties, and seaweed. Then we had noodles. The pig ear was especially nice. Mom, you would have loved it. Hahah. :) The noodles were delicious. This day was a tough finding day. Everyone was so flippin busy. We had our first weekly planning sesh, which includes companion inventory. It was great. Elder Peterson is awesome. Such a great trainer. His Chinese is so ridiculous. It's nice.

 

Friday we went and visited the Houjiating again. I love them. They call me shuizhanglao. Translation: Elder Handsome. Haha. That's a confidence booster. Everytime we visit them they give us so much MANGO. Which makes me so happy, because mango is my favourite thing to eat. It is so freaking good. Soooooooooooooooooooooo good. I want you guys to come to Taiwan and eat it. So you can know. The picture of the two people that is Houdixiong and Houjiemei. Houdixiong doesn't have any teeth. And in the picture he doesn't look like the happiest man, but he is. Everytime he smiles it makes me so happy. I'll get another picture with him where he's smiling. It will make your life better. I promise.

 

Saturday, we went to Hualian again and met with our new Mission President and his wife. I love them! They are so awesome. Seriously so cool. Sister Day told us if we are ever having a tough day, and we just need a mama to talk to we can call her. She is such a sweet heart. That night we had a lesson fall through, but then a man showed up at the church. His name is Maidixiong. He's so nice. He told us he doesn't have any friends. He's from one of the Islands off Taiwan and his whole family is there. We told him he has three new friends. Us and Sister Burton. That's the sister who found him. I'm just going to love the crap out of him.

 

Sundae was awesome. In church I have no idea what is going on. Haha. But it's great. The branch members are so awesome. In Priesthood meeting the teacher asked me what women should we respect... I said my Mission President... Haha. That's just one example of where I wish I could speak Chinese.

 

This work is awesome. I love being a missionary. I'm learning so much every single day. I love you all so much. Thank you for bean you. :)

Elder Handsome's best friend   

Monkey's

Elder Relyea's first letter from Taiwan

Ryan was in the MTC for 8 weeks. He had an amazing experience there and loved every second of it. His letters while he was in the MTC were pretty short so I didn't bother posting any of those, but last week was his first week in Taiwan and he had a great week! It makes it so much easier for us that he is loving it so much!!

Hehrrrooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!

 

Good news, first night I was here I did not throw up curry everywhere. So it was a good shart... I mean start. TAIWAN IS AWESOME! It is crazy! And I love it! Haha. I have no idea what is going on most of the time, but it is awesome. I've had some sick experiences already! I'll share them in a bit.

 

So the flight here was awesome. Literally, I love every single person that was in my zone. And I love traveling. So :) When we got to Japan our flight was delayed an hour and a half, so we just chilled hard in Japan. That was fun. I got a mango-peach vitamin water. That was delicious. So we got to Taiwan about two hours late. Rode a bus for a bit, President Grimely chatted with us when we were on the bus. He is so awesome. I love him and I barely know him. So we got to the mission home at 1:30, went to bed at 2 and got up at 6. Haha. That was fun. And from jetlag everyone in my room woke up at 4. haha. And in my room it was Chatman, Allred, and Hodges my HOMIES from the MTC. So that was awesome.

 

Thursday, we went to the dedicatory spot where Taiwan was Dedicated to have Missionary work done here. Mom, in my message I left you I kept saying dedidicory. haha. That's a hard word. It was cool, when we were there President had us all say our own dedicatory prayers. Dedicating ourselves to missionary work. After that we had orientations... Then we met our Trainers. My trainer is awesome. His name is Elder Peterson. Bizhanglao. His Chinese is so retardedly good. It's awesome. After we met our trainers we were off to our areas! Haha. Crazy. "It's all happening. It's all happening." George, name that movie. We rode a train for 3 hours down to hualien. We got to travel with Elder Wright and Elder Devisser. Elder Wright is my Austrailian mate! AH, GOODAY MATE! TOITALLY! We stayed the night there. Then in the morning we rode another train to our area, Taidong. It is the most south-east you can get. IT IS BEAUTIFUL!!! Heavenly Father knew I didn't want to be in a huge city... He's watchin out for me.

 

Friday, On the train to our area, there was this lady. Her shirt said: "smoking lady give delight." Haha. And she got this box lunch. The meet looked like what Sebulba eats in Phantom Menace. Ya know? Super delicious. We got home, did our 4 hours of studies(seems long, but when you're used to the MTC. Aka 8 hours a day in a classroom, 4 is nice to me), then we went and met Houdixiong. This awesome member. He was helping us teach Guodixiong. This investigator who owns a dry cleaner... Which will be nice when he gets baptized. :) Then that night we went and had a family home evening with the Hou jiating. Different Hou than who helped us. These guys are soooooooooooo nice! The dad doesn't have any teeth. Hahahaha. He is my favourite person I've ever met. I'll get a picture with him so you can see him. He speaks some english and he asked me 3 times how many girlfriends I have. Hahaha. And they gave us mangguo. BEST THING I'VE EVER EATEN.

 

Saturday, we went to a ward activity where we play softball. It was sick. Super fun. Every peson in this branch aka ward is awesome. All such sweet people. There was this one little baller who reminded me of K-dog (Kenton). He was like 8 and way better than me at Softball. Haha. Later that night, we were ridin our bikes (classic us), and I saw this girl. Decided to talk to her. Her name was Jessica. She was a SWEET HEART. Had the best spirit about her. Turns out she's Christian. I bore my testimony on the Savior and the Atonement. She guess how long I'd been here. She thought 2 years. Haha. Close... 3 days. She was blown away. I told her Heavenly Father helped me. We gave her a Book of Mormon. She was so grateful. She could speak a little English. She thanked us for coming to Taiwan and sharing this happy message. Such a cool experience. Things like this want me to talk to every single person! And believe me, we try to.

 

Sundae, we went to this recent convert less actives house and invited him to come to church. He was showering, but he came anyway! :) I had to bear my testimony.... Haha. But honesty, I wasn't too nervous. Not as nervous as I usually am to bear wo de jianzheng. EVERY PERSON IN THE WARD IS AWESOME! All these cute lil asians running around. I'm adopting a Little asian. It's for sure. We had two investigators who had never come to church come yesterday!!!!! And they loved it. So cool. So freaking cool.

 

I already love this work SO much! And it is just getting better by the day! I cannot wait till I can actually communicate with them! These people are so ready for the Gospel. So humble, so nice. I love them. :) I'm so grateful to be in Taiwan and to be speaking Zhongwen.

 

I love you all so much. Seriously. Thank you, for being you.

 

Love, Yezhanglao aka Elder Relyea

 

Fun Fact: Ye means leaf. I'm Elder Leaf. :)

Elder Relyea and Elder Thatcher. FHC in Taiwan!!!

Farewell to Elder Relyea

So I am finally fulfilling my sisterly duties by starting and "Elder Relyea" blog.  Sorry it has taken me so long! But Ryan has been in the MTC and his letters were awesome, but all pretty much the same so there was nothing really to post. So here is his farewell talk if anyone missed it or just want to hear his cute voice.

Love,  The big sister Sky