Hey hey hey, I'm here, alive, and on :)

Peter and Smith both were baptized -- BEST Service I've ever had here in Taiwan, the ward brought it well and these two are so so so solid!!!

These two souls are amazing -- one being Elder Turner's and mine from one month ago, the other being taught since I was trained just over in Mingjian, added diversity to the night that made it even cooler!  I felt the Spirit so so so strong, especially when they shared their own testimonies!  I am so eternally grateful that God prepares souls, and then allows us to harvest the blessings for Him!  That's the best feeling ever.  Then it's our additional responsibility to make sure they don't leave!!!  Wahooooooey, let's doey!

Wow, you are awesome Steph, and I love you so much!!!  You are so great at serving those in need!!!  It's funny that at a place like BYU you are also worrying about less actives, those people here in Taiwan too -- hundreds of them usually in each unit!  Too Bad :)

PETER WILL BE IN CA, and he wants to go to church, but even cooler, he wants to visit Grandma and Gpa Brown!!!!!  Hahaha, he is so so so cool.  One of my best friends in Taiwan, really!!!

Ok, no Hun and his family this week, besides English Class.  I really need to just invite them to meet with us, because we haven''t yet, E Turner just told me that he is scared of a lot of missionaries, but I know he likes us!!!

I totally shared Mosiah 4:30 Mom, ah, so so so good.  Thanks!

Elder Washburn has an adopted older brother in his family...he played at BYU...now in Detroit, Michigan...yeaah!  ZIGGY is the older bro of my mission friend!!!

I went 39.2mph on my bike on Wednesday.  Whew.

I'm so so so glad Trevor your last Shoe went well, I got new shoes, haha-they're definitely 15$ shoes, but should be fine for 6 months, much better than my run down for two years shoes!!!

I LOVE that Story from President Sorensen, I love President and Sister Sorensen too!!!  How are they???!!!

So grateful for Kyle and The Missionaries ... we also take an 18 yr old boy to help us sometimes, he's got 4mths of military and then a mission call coming up!!!  I realize that's much like Trevor, wow!

Elder Turner's Dad had a car crash, and a huge surgery on his back on Friday, he was in our prayers and a fast yesterday...but we know now he is fine! 

I see so so so much good coming from wherever Brian is on the mission.  Recently there are only two companionships in our Zone hitting mission standards, but more importantly, hitting the real standard of True Converts making covenants and preparing for many more in the Temple!!!  Those indicators are just that: INDICATIONS that God is blessing righteous labors.  So in that regard I just want to shout out for Elder Otte and Roberts, cause they really are faithful, diligent, and obedient, and God is blessing them.  There's also another correlation between those companionships...nice job Spokane WA, and thank you LL Ward ;)

I was on the phone actually with them this morning, they had a great week and are now lacking some new baptismal goals, but as missionaries we are always trying to set more goals that we can harvest the blessings later, and we can only do that under God's direction AND God's timing!  SO I talked to them today about two families they're working with, and how they can lovingly teach and invite these families to Come unto Christ, I think they will get some goals this week!!!  WAhoooo!!!!!  And They want an old Pull up bar from our apt.  unfortunately we can't use it because our door frames are the wrong size ;(  But I said to get it from us they had to let me come over for exchanges...often.  They agreed :)  (I almost said they had to beat us in a pull up competition...but I didn't want to be unfair...to them ;)  Haha, just kidding, it's great to work near him, hope we have an exchange next week!!!  He keeps asking me and I want to so so so bad, but we have to help needy companionships first!

Love Drew

PS sorry the end is always so sloppy  I LOVE YOU SO MUCH  YOU’RE THE BEST

Love Drew :)

Love Mr MAc and Back to the Future

Field trip, faith in prayer, and 2 baptisms for the weekend!

January 18, 2015

I'm actually in Mingjian's area today, so surreal to be walking the Streets that I did with Elder Stone over a year ago :)  It's great though:

I've seen places where I saw a black man crash his motorcycle and crush his cell phone, a door that I tracted into a great schoolteacher, an intersection that I proselyted at, and a roadside where I helped an old fellow find the police man because he was bleeding but had no life insurance or something (health ba), etc...

Today Elder Turner and I got on a bus to Zhushan (the city we're in, still Mingjian's area) and we finally got here, with Elder Claflin and Gathright, and are now emailing :)  We will ride up past Lugu today to try to see a historical site called Xi Tou (west head) today...it's an aborigine site I think!  So I should be able to point out the Taiwan Tea Family store so these guys can go visit them!!!  They have long since me been lost to missionary contact...bummer!  Then if you remember, in my last days here I contacted a super old man, ninety two, and he only understood the pictures!  We will be going up to that area, but further, on the mountain!!!  Wahooo!!!  (I brought my frisbee too, cause we'll be in the forest on a mountain!), and then bus back down, this is the same hill I had that very scary very fast crash on...but we're busing today!!!  Then we'll buy breakfast groceries (oatmeal, eggs and toast), then we have five lessons with Peter, Jeff, Huang, Smith, and a mystery add tonight (great for a Monday night), and then we'll head in and to bed!!!

Anyways, my shoes are trashed...no support whatsoever, but I don't want you to send me new ones yet.  I think I can buy an of name brand here for like 300 or 500 Kuai, like 10 to 20 dollars, and if I can, I'll just do that and wear them down to the end of my Taiwanese time!

That's sweet!!!  Sounds great!!!

Story number one lies in my president's letter -- that new man James came to English Class, and then I added him for the next morning, he is cool, but very dramatic too, haha!  Hopefully he has a real desire, because he does have a goal now, and we want to help him feel the weight and importance of it!!!  On exchanges with Elder Shurtz we worked that morning on extending a baptismal invitation to someone who was nervous!  MIRACLE:  we then went to meet a new investigator named James Zou, and we extended an invitation just as I had practiced with Elder Shurtz.  And now he has a goal for February.  Heavenly Father wants to help us.  We just need to prepare then the blessings will come. 

Peter did Come to church on Saturday Evening, he was busy though Sunday morning...we had Sake Conference this week, so so so good!!!  The Temple President He(name) came down from Taipei, and an old President came up from Xinying, my old branch, so that was so cool and great to see them and hear them hit on Temple work!!!  Then our President Chen touched a lot on how wards can help missionaries stay busy through effective ward council!!!  ...not to mention do the other things like organize their own missionary work and rescue wandering souls!!!  I love that point though, so many ward leaders here are too shy to ask our help...BUT WE WANT TO HELP, and the ward is our first priority!!!  Elder Turner and I keep plenty busy and do well, but I know many missionaries, and I have felt in other areas that I just need more direction and more tasks from the ward!!!  So that was cool!!!

Peter brought his nephew too, he didn't understand the church terms, haha, so for once, I had to help a chinese person understand chinese ;) fun!!!

Then Smith, two Vietnamese girls, patrick, and Hun (a miracle non member dad of a member family) all came to stake conference from my English class!!!  Super cool!!!  In fact in English class, I tried to secretly pick people who I want to feel the power of prayer to say our closing prayer, and I picked Hun!!!  His wife laughed then he nudged her, said okay, AND SAID IT!!!!!  She told me later it was the first time he's ever prayed!!!  SO COOL!!!!  Miracle, I hope and pray we can teach them!!!

Love You

Love Drew

PS Oh my last District meeting  was here with Elder Claflin and he did a great job training us on Comp Unity as well as Bearing Testimony frequently, Elder Turner and I picked that topic for our zone, and he did great!!!  That was when I was with Elder Shurtz who came from Yuanlin, Elder Otte's area, I love d seeing Elder Otte several times this week!!!