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!!!