Oh Taiwan.....

This is the group Emma traveled to Taiwan with.  They are standing in front of the Grand Hotel in Taipei.

ok. ok. ok. Everyone calm down. I'm in TAIWAN!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow. I think I have died and gone to...kind of heaven... Ok it's not heaven, but I love it with all my heart!!!!!!

I have so much to say but so little time!!!!!!! 

Recap of the last week of the MTC. 

It was good. 

Felt the spirit.

Had a sweet roast with our district.

Cried.

Said goodbyes:( 

Then left to the airport!

Being picked up at he Taiwan Airport.  That must have been a sight!  They look so good!

We flew from SLC to SAN FRAN and then from there to TAIWAN! The flight overall took 15 hours.....it was a little long, but for some reason it felt like it just flew by. Classes at the MTC felt like they were longer than our flight to Taiwan..dang..hahah. 

Sister S, and Sister M from Emma's MTC District.

Elder Roe is a friend from Mountain Crest High School and that's the Taiwan Taipei Temple! The other handsome young  man is one of Pres. and Sister Jorgensen's twin sons living in Taiwan with them:) Cute boys!

Finding dinner the first night in Taiwan.

Dinner

We arrived in Taiwan and had to wait in customs for about an hour. It felt like we were in a zoo....we are a huge group of white teenagers surrounded by tons of short asian!!!! They all kept looking at us and saying, " hen piao liang!" Which means, beautiful or pretty. They are so stinking nice:) I've honestly never met such kind people in my life. Even when they are turning us down they are SO NICE. Agh:) anways, so we got through customs and met president!!! The first person I saw was my good pal Elder Porter Roe! (Emma went to school with Porter, and his is one of the AP's right now.)I died a little bit. We got all of our luggage and jumped on a bus to Taipei!

We unloaded all our luggage at the church by the temple and went out for some food:) My first taiwanese meal was....zhua bing and wintermelon tea!!!!! and. it. was. fantastic. I've never felt so free in my whole life:) It was an experience full of so many feelings that I can't even explain!

**(is a note for my aunt and uncles: Send me the food requests ASAP! xie xie nine) 

we stayed our first night in the mission home and then woke up at 5 the next morning to head to the Grand Hotel and Mission Dedication sight:) It was beautiful!!! We all dedicated our own personal mission with a prayer and then headed back to the Bu (office). We all gathered in Presidents home and ate breakfast together! They were egg sandwiches and then these interesting fruit ones..it was awesome:) After that we filled out some paperwork and had interviews! So much fun:)

Face masks everywhere!

Some of Emma's favorite gals!

The Grand Hotel.  And some elders:)

Later we went to the church by the temple for some training! We learned all sorts of traffic rules and basically how to survive in taiwan:) AFter that we met our new trainers, trained some more, ate lunch, and then we headed to our areas!!! It was a bit overwhelming....

My companion is Sister Komatsu!! She is the most wonderful adorable girl I've ever met. I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful trainer:) Our area is called Zhongli! It's about 45 minutes south of Taipei. I love it. Completely different than anything I've ever experience!!! Oh taiwan...so many face masks, so many scooters, so much rain, so many smells, so many asians, so much awesome work to be done! I . LOVE. IT.

She ate it, and she loved it!

We don't have tons of investigators right now so we have been doing tons of street contacting. it the best. My chinese is crap but they just smile at me cause I'm white. :)

We had some luck the other night and met an awesome guy named Jiang Dixiong:) He is the coolest. At first when we started talking to him he wasn't to interested, but as we kept talking, and introduced the Book of Mormon it completely changed. He said, " I have interest! Everyone reads the bible. But I've never heard of the Book of Mormon!" So basically he's a hipster that wants to be different..:) Perfect:) We are meeting with him saturday! Get pumped!

We watched a baptism on saturday and that was awesome!! her name is Ruby and she is wonderful. :) We have another this week, and  next week, and the week after...Man:) I've got some big shoes to fill and help out with!

Outside Emma's apartment

Emma with her new companion Sister Komatsu.

Welcome to JungLi.  (or Zhongli as James and all my sibs say.)

Emma outside of "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints"

Sunday night dinner with the Bishop of the ward, and the other missionaries.  Thank you Bishop!!

Sunday was fantastic. Our ward is the best and they are all so nice!!! I have no idea what anyone is saying half the time, but they are so welcoming and loving and make me feel like a million bucks!! They seriously are amazing! We had dinner last night at Bishops house with his fam. I have no idea what it was we ate, but it was awesome. The End. I ate a whole shrimp. Like head, eyes, legs, the whole thing. SO good:) It POURED HARD last night when we were walking back. It's funny, we like box people in with our umbrellas when we are contacting..:) hahahaha we've got em cornered!! There are so many people here and they are all wonderful.

I have so much to say but no time!!! Taiwan is amazing. This Gospel is amazing. I'm so BLESSED.

xoxxoxo

sista clawson