26 June 2017 - Part 1 of the 2-Part Puli Season Finale

God Save the Sweaty me,
drowned in humidity,
This island I love!
(Copyright Elder Meanea 2017)

Monday, 19 June 2017
Another uneventful P-Day. Puli is beautiful, but activity-wise, there just isn't a lot to go out and DO on a P-day. But we were still able to get a lot of stuff done and play a card game called Skip-Bo with the sisters. So it was fun! Then the night was dedicated to finding those prepared souls. We also set up with Wang, our crazy pharmacist with a baptismal goal, and he actually read the chapter we gave him, which is great! So we're already off to a great start on a busy week!

Tuesday, 20 June 2017
We went to Carol's funeral warehouse and helped her clean up some stuff. Her and her husband ran a funeral service here in Puli, but her husband died right before her baptism and right before I got here, but she's doing really well. He wasn't a member, but their daughter is, and she actually trained a member from my MTC district in California. Small LDS world! So that was pretty fun. And then the only other notable thing was that we got preached at by a Buddhist missionary while we were tracting, and a couple from our ward helped us with a lesson with Wang. He's our baptismal goal friend, and it turned out to be a really great lesson. We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and just answered a lot of questions. He's super into getting baptized next month.

Wednesday, 21 June 2017
I did nothing today! Mostly because right out the door we had to go to Yuanlin for interviews. It's that bus/train/walk journey I was talking about last week. It was great to see president and Sister Teh. The interviews were really fun, and we got to talk to a lot of cool missionaries. We went to go catch our train home, but realized that Elder Densley's train/bus pass got left behind at a convenience store. So we walked back to get it, then got on the train, and stopped off in Taichung to get dinner, and then finally got our bus back to Puli. We got back around 8:00. We helped close up English class and came home! I was excited to find an envelope in the mail for me! Unfortunately is was also from me. I may or may not have mixed up where to put the recipient and sender on an envelope and sent a letter to myself... so if you haven't laughed yet today, you're welcome.

Thursday, 22 June 2017
We had time to eat at Carol's house, and then we had our district meeting with the Zone Leaders, Elder Cole and Elder Neuhaus! It's so cool to be in Elder Cole's zone again. He took my on my first exchange on the island, and he came with me today on his last. He goes home next week, and we had a great day biking up into the mountains to give some blessings to a member's parents, then ate a really good hot pot, after which we went and found our drunk friend Mr. Xiano, who was probably only partially drunk today when we found him! We talked about scriptures and prayer, and told him we'd talk about the Plan of Salvation when we came next, and he said we could again. And that was about it!

Friday, 23 June 2017
In the morning we just had time to do studies before it was time to exchange back. Elder Cole is so awesome. He's one of the most dedicated missionaries I ever met, and I learned a lot from him. And then it was back to the Densley/Meanea version of Puli. We ate with some members tonight who made us Italian bread and soup, after which we met with a less active lady and our Branch President. She was super cool and has a lot of Faith. She really wants her daughter to come back to church with her, and said that every time in the past few years she's gotten really sad or had a hard trial missionaries have always gotten in contact with her out of the blue. I love being a missionary.

Saturday, 24 June 2017
There are just some days where you don't have enough time as a missionary. This morning we spent working in Huang Laoshi's garden again, helping her with her trees, then she fed us. And you might have noticed that I didn't say "Weekly planning" yesterday! Well, that's because we literally ran out of time for it... so we did it today! And then we had a member invite us over for food, affectionately known as Monkey Joe. He fed us some noodles, and then we had a yoga activity for investigators, less-active members and such, but because of the rain, no one besides a cool guy named Brownie came. He's been coming to English class for a few weeks, and tonight we had a spiritual share after the activity and found out he has been having some problems in life, and he agreed to come to church tomorrow and check it out, so that was really cool!

Sunday, 25 June 2017
Oh boy, today was so great. We went to Sacrament and I just felt so happy during the meeting. It's amazing to think that God allows us so often to repent and re-commit ourselves in keeping our covenants. It might seem sometimes that since we break the covenant, sin, and have to renew it so often, that it's one of lesser importance, but to me it's come to mean that this is one of the most important covenants you make, your first. Obviously I don't know if there is an "importance scale" for commitments, but it seems like Heavenly Father wants us so badly to remember this covenant that He lets us renew it every week, reminds us, pleads with us to remember His Son and receive the blessing of the Holy Ghost. So that was great, and then we ate with Huang Laoshi. We helped her to make wontons, which were very ugly but delicious nonetheless. At the end of the night we were making calls in a family mart when, what do I see at a family mart? A family! I really wanted to talk to them, but I didn't know what to say, so as we were finishing calls and walking by I just said "hi" to the dad and started talking to him, and he was a lot nicer than he looked. I was super happy that I actually talked to them.

And that was the end of the week of Elder Meanea's Mission Season 3: Puli! Tune in next week to read the exciting continuation of his adventure on the tropical paradise of Formosa, where miracles abound, sweat is un-ending, and the work of the Lord will roll forth! Or will it??? Find out next week!

(Spoiler: It does)

-Elder Meanea

19 June 2017 - Bloated, With the spirit or food, we may never know...

As we bike the mountain highlands,
Tell these people of the Lord
Hearts are opened, spirits softened
As we eat Papaya gourds!
(Copyright Elder Meanea 2017 No. 277)

Monday, 12 June 2017
"P" for "Pretty much did nothing today" day. We just had to do some groceries, I got the least atrocious haircut I've ever had in Taiwan, and then a member lovingly referred to as Monkey Joe fed us a great dinner. It's the same Joe who we helped plant banana trees last week, so take that for what you will. Afterwards we biked up the mountain to find that family that we couldn't visit yesterday. They were really nice and happy to see us! It was super fun to go up and visit, even though we had to not use our brakes on the way down the mountain in order to get home on time. 

Tuesday, 13 June 2017
We biked up a giant canyon to visit the dad of one of the members. He is very Buddhist. And he didn't want to pray with us, so all we could do was make him feel like he was cared about. He's a nice enough man, he's just not willing to listen to one sentence of anything that isn't Buddhism. But who knows? Maybe one day the Spirit will touch his heart. Maybe it is right now. Because I believe the Spirit can change people if they let it. Really turn them into people that are willing to accept the Savior. And our prayers on their behalf can never hurt. Then we tracted a bit, did studies, and then went looking for an address that apparently doesn't exist. But we asked Shifu, our Buddhist master friend, and she said that it didn't, and then she asked us a bunch of questions for the Liahona magazine we gave to her a while back. It's so cool. She loves our church and talks to everyone about it. And she brought up something a previous Elder here said, and I thought it was really significant. "Taiwan is the kind of place that your body can leave but your heart can't." With all my heart, no matter what else happens on my mission, all I want to know of a surety is that I love them. Everyone here. And that I gave all I had for them. That's all I'll ever want. 

Wednesday, 14 June 2017
A full day of contacting! I felt really happy today, just singing as we biked, being able to smile at everyone. I just love being a missionary. And if everyone else understood, they'd all love seeing us as well. Of course there are many who don't want to talk to us, but that doesn't change the fact that this is the happiest message anyone will ever get in their lives. And it makes me want to help their experience be joyful. It would be odd to remember your start to learning the Gospel and picture two gloomy looking people talking about Jesus. I would imagine two shining people full of Gospel light and love. I want to live up to what kind of missionary they deserve, And I go all philosophical today just because there wasn't much else to mention that happened, other than that I ate pumpkin and pork dumplings that were really good. And while we were there, two random white people who didn't know what they were doing came into the restaurant and tried to order. So the register lady came to us and asked us to translate. That was weird, but cool. I have no idea what they were doing here, but then again, look at me. So now that I've covered all the important things, I'll see you tomorrow.

Thursday, 15 June 2017
Right out the door we went to Sister Chen, our recent convert's birthday celebration. Her friends put it on and invited us, and there was cake and KFC, so it obviously was a good party. After District meeting we came back to do our studies, after which we had to run right over to meet with an investigator named Holiday. It was my first time meeting him, and he was really cool. He is the other brother of a member and works for Amway, and he gave us a demonstration of their awesome products. Don't worry, I'm not taking out any money to buy stuff. And then we immediately had a lesson with Wang and his son at the chapel. It went fairly well, and Wang's son John asked some great questions. Sister Fan and Brother Su came to the lesson with us, and we taught half of the Plan of Salvation before Fan and Su took them on a chapel tour. And then someone gave us these things called Mantous. They are just basically giant dough balls, and they are delicous.

Friday, 16 June 2017
You guessed it, and I don't even need to say it, but I will say it starts with a "weekly" and ends with a "planning." Besides that we didn't have a lot of time to do anything interesting today, but we found a cool family of a former who had interest in their daughter going to English class. It's actually the second time we've stopped by, and all the people that live there are super nice. So that was pretty cool. We also ate with Carol, also known as Sister Chen. She is the recent convert that Elder Densley helped baptize just before I got to Puli. And that was the day! 

Saturday, 17 June 2017
Rain. Nothing but rain and water from the sky and a deluge and the flood and I'm pretty sure I saw Noah kayaking past on the street next to me today. Puli is basically made of water and I've never been more soaked in my life. But I like rain, so it's all good. We did some tracting today, and didn't find anyone, but more people know me and have to smile when they see me on the street now! We also went to Carol's house since today was her actual birthday and we gave her all cards. Then we (us and the sisters) ate some cake, sang, and hurried back to our apartments before curfew. Day!

Sunday, 18 June 2017
I am so full. After driving to stake conference and coming back we did our studies and then went to Tang Mama's house. If you ever meet any missionaries that have served in Puli, they all know the legend of Tang Mama and her cooking. She made 185 dumplings for us, and between the two sisters, us elders, them and their daughter, we ate them all. I personally ate 36. My stomach is so bloated, and that's mostly because she also brought out a chocolate peanut butter cake after that. I am so full. It's amazing. And that was basically the end of the week for us. We had a lesson set up, but he never called us back, so that didn't happen, but that's okay because we're going to find a bunch of super cool new investigators next week!

I can't believe I'm already closing another email home. The time just flies, and I love it all. I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have, and for every new day that I have to go out and spread the good news. I love you all!

-Elder Meanea

12 June 2017 - The Trek

Now to Taiwan, missionaries descending,
Contact, at, the light!
No Chinese or Ama fearing,
Contact, all night!
(Copyright Elder Meanea 2017, Ama: Old woman or Grandma)

Monday, 5 June 2017
A prosperous P-Day! The sisters tricked us into going to Taichung so they could hang out with other sisters and just talk. We didn't end up doing much else since part of the Zhong You mall was closed. But we did play Uno in a Family mart, of which I lost every single game, so that was not the best. Oh well. Still pretty fun! I slept on the bus ride home, which was about an hour, and then we just whiled away the night finding those willing to come unto Christ.

Tuesday, 6 June 2017
What a wacky day! Wow. We started out by trying to track down a former investigator, which we never found, but I saw people paragliding off of the mountain. So I'm going to see if we can get permission for that on P-Day. Cross your fingers. :-) Then we met up with a recent convert called "Monkey Joe" or Brother Zhou. We went up to his farm to help him plant some banana trees, which was super cool and fun. After that a little miracle happened. We were biking home, and a van pulled off next to us while we were stopped and asked if we knew a Mrs. Su. We contacted this lady a few weeks back and she invited us to go and speak to some of the kids. This man who pulled up worked there and is also a less active member in the church, and he set us up to go speak to about 50 kids at this facility, but it turns out it is kind of a correctional facility for troubled kids. So us and the sisters went and taught them about Heavenly Father. It was really cool to see that a few of the kids actually had real interest in our message. We really felt that it was a special opportunity for some of these kids. I expect to see one of their stories in the Ensign or Liahona one day. So that was really cool!

Wednesday, 7 June 2017
A "Woot Woot!" missionary day, Ladies and Gentlemen! We began by visiting our friend Wang. He is a former Pharmacist who is slightly crazy and handed me some pills that he said was for my complexion, but they were just pills in the little tin tray, no box or anything. So, I obviously let Elder Densley try them first. But after that, we taught him about Joseph Smith and he just said, "I believe it." So we said, "Cool, do you want to get baptized?" And he was like, "Sure. Sounds good." And we said, "Cool." And that was about it. After which we biked up a jungle mountain to meet with a drunk guy we met fishing who raises chickens. We met him a few weeks ago had another good lesson about the restoration of the Gospel. It was so cool. Both times we taught about the restoration today, I just had this supernal feeling of love from my Heavenly Father when we bore testimony that He loved us so much as to give us his prophets once again upon the Earth. He hasn't abandoned us to the opinions and theories of men. I would be pretty scared if that were the case, because just look at the world. But it's such a great relief to know that we can always trust a loving and perfect God to guide us. We in fact are commanded to pray to Him always, always asking for that which we stand in need. I bear testimony that the windows and balconies of heaven are wide open, and water-balloons full of guidance and blessings await, it only we humble ourselves and ask Him.

Thursday, 8 June 2017
We got up early to ride a bus, to catch a train, to walk to our zone conference this morning. It was pretty fun, about 3 hours travel time in all. The conference itself was an amazing time of much needed spiritual nurturing and spiritual nourishment. And also Subway Sandwiches. Which were also needed. After the conference we took the same trip back home. When we got back to Puli we got a call from Tang Mama who had just made some fresh cinnamon rolls, and desperately needed missionary help to devour them. It was already pretty late by the time we got back, so it was time to head home after that. She makes amazing food, like, incredible. So besides being well fed today, I really loved the chance to receive revelation for my personal needs and concerns. In Zone conference we discussed a lot about helping people apply the Gospel of Jesus Christ, namely faith in Him, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. It really hit me that it is impossible to testify of these things if we aren't living them ourselves. And how they need to become the pattern in which I live my entire life.

Friday, 9 June 2017
Of course, weekly planning, after which we went to meet with our cool college age investigator named Mardison. We prepared really well for this lesson, and extended a super spiritual Baptismal invite. But he's just not into it right now. It was sad, but it was really cool to feel the Spirit there, and to know that our actions were supported and confirmed by God. That's one way you can know to be satisfied with your efforts. People still have their agency, but if you "Teach Repentance" and "Invite others to come unto Christ," then you are the best missionary God could ask for.

Saturday, 10 June 2017
We spent the morning helping Huang Laoshi in her garden again, which was fun and hard. We burned ants for a while, then pretty much cut down all her trees, though she says that they'll grown back. They are mulberry trees! I don't know if I've ever had a mulberry before, but she promised us some jam soon. After which we were going to have a lesson, but then he cancelled on us, so we returned home, finished studies, and then went to the church to partake of the fruits of a Relief Society cooking activity. They were really good bagels. And then we went and dropped them off at a members house who is having a hard time recently. The sisters came with us and we had an impromptu family home evening with them and shared 2 Nephi 4. I love that chapter. And now I have to speak in Church tomorrow! So I'm going to go pass out and hope everyone forgot I was supposed to talk by the time I wake up. Cheers!

Sunday, 11 June 2017
Spoilers, I survived! I actually spoke for a solid 17 minutes and could have gone longer, but I was out of time. It was really cool. I could really feel the confidence the Lord gave me. As I was going up to speak I had the thought that I was speaking for their benefit, not for my own. And I had prepared, and thusly the Lord was certainly going to use me to help answer these peoples questions, just by the Spirit I hopefully brought. It was a cool realization. Then we took a trip up into the mountains tonight to visit a member family who's mom got sick a few weeks ago. The sisters guided us and we got lost. But we finally found the house, but it was too late to visit and we were soaking from the rain. And then we had a very rainy and burning-brake bike ride down the mountain.

And that was the week! It blows my mind every time I think of what I'm here doing. As I write this I'm watching my companion build a habitat for the giant Taiwanese beetle that we just caught on our porch and most definitely aren't going to keep as a pet, and I've been out here for almost a year because I know that Jesus Christ died for us, and he provides the only path to eternal peace, and I want all my brothers and sisters to find it. I love you all so much from the tiny island in the south China Sea! Have an amazing week finding that path every day.

-Elder Meanea

5 June 2017 - Deluge

Sun reflects upon my helmet,
as I bike in the mountains!
prayerful finding, here in Puli!
We will rescue all that's lost!
(Copyright Elder Meanea 207)

Monday, 29 May 2017
A rather uneventful P-Day, but I took it as a much needed respite. Moving into a new area and new routine is always a bit of a challenge, so I liked that we just went to a buffet, picked up groceries, emailed, and took a few minutes to nap at the apartment. When it was time to gear up tonight, we went out and immediately contacted a guy and his daughter walking down the road, who set up to hear more about the Gospel on Saturday! So that was fun. Then we went with some ward members to visit an investigator family that was at the hospital because their little daughter had a fever. We took them some "zongzi" little rice triangle meal things. Then we headed home!

Tuesday, 30 May 2017
With a little morning tracting we found a cool family who might be willing to let us come back and teach them later, and an old man that lives by himself and spoke no Chinese, only Taiwanese that we can't understand, but he is Christian and we gave him a Book of Mormon, so good, right? We also participated in a youth activity playing basketball with some of the youth and their friends. It was super cool, and we met a lot of cool (very teachable) people. The night ended with more tracting, sharing the restoration with one guy on his porch, and getting invited in by an old man who is also Christian. So today was just rise of the Christians basically. It also rained really, really hard tonight. Luckily I've got my rain gear back! Puli is great.

Wednesday, 31 May 2017
We had the Warners, a senior couple in our mission, over to our apartment this morning to inspect it and see if anything odd is growing under the sink and to help us repair our dryer. It's been broken since I got here, so that'll be a welcome luxury. Especially when the porch you try to dry your clothes on just constantly gets rained on. Besides some tracting, that was all that happened this morning. And then tonight we did some more tracting and ran into a Buddhist Zen master. He was cool, and gave us some fruit juice and talked about Trump and Korea while we nodded encouragingly. He was a lazy monk though, because he had a TV and wasn't wearing his robes because it was too hot. It was pretty funny. After helping with the spiritual thought after English class we went home and collapsed, satisfied with our work for the day.

Thursday, 1 June 2017
There's nothing like having a vegetarian brunch with a Buddhist monk to start the day. We met with Shifu and the sisters and another random couple Shifu invited over and had a lot of weird vegetarian food, including bitter-melon, seaweed, and lots of other stuff I would have never eaten in my previous life. But I believe that taste is also a gift of the Spirit, and I made it through all-right. Then we had a good district meeting and went straight off to Ward Correlation with Brother Luo. He's confined to a wheelchair, but he's super enthusiastic about missionary work, so that was fun! After that we had to very speedily bike over to Tang Mama's house. She is apparently a legend at feeding missionaries, the greatest being an Elder who gained 5 kilos (10 lbs) in one night. Her food was so good! I just about exploded because we hadn't eaten long before that, but it was all incredibly delicious. We had Chinese Tacos, Singapore curry rice and home-made chocolate pudding. After that it was just some contacting, but it was nice to finally get out and talk to some people tonight.

Friday, 2 June 2017
We had a hurried weekly planning and then biked top speed to the church in an attempt to outrun the rain. We had to meet a computer repair guy there, but it turned out we didn't have the key to the clerks office, so we biked to the sisters house. When we left the chapel there was a lull in the rain, and I figured I could bike fast enough to make it back before it started raining hard again, so I didn't need to wear my rain gear. Well about 45 seconds later that theory appeared slightly faulty as the sky opened back up on us. To make it worse, the computer guy couldn't come because of the rain. So we ended up eating Vietnamese subway sandwiches, which were very, very delicious, and then going to a restaurant in our area that's run by a member and employs all special needs adults. So they asked us to come and teach the Plan of Salvation, which was pretty fun! Then the night was not too eventful, just got rained on and thundered above all night. Also the Brother Li that sells ties and other super cool things fed us pizza in return for buying his merchandise. The pizza was pricey, but I think he made off like a bandit from my purchases alone. You can only get cool Chinese/gospel stuff so many places, you know?

Saturday, 3 June 2017
This was probably the wettest day of my life. Rivaling that one time when my family and I played in an ocean that smelled like a sewer (I mention this purely to bring back memories for them). It rained pretty hard on and off all day. It would go literally 2 minutes without raining, and then it would start again. By the night it was all in. And so were we. With full rain/battle gear, we were biking in an absolute deluge tonight. It was totally safe though. Definitely. No danger here. Today was mostly biking around trying to find people who weren't hiding from us and the rain. We did some tracting which was good, but most people just told us to go home because we were going to get sick. It was a super fun day though. We had to get Elder Densley's bike fixed, and then we got ice cream and noodles to start our fast. And then it was on to Fast Sunday!

Sunday, 4 June 2017
Wasn't fast. Just kidding, it was fine. I love when we get to fast, it feels like we get to consecrate a little bit more of ourselves for a while and just invite that guiding Spirit to be with us more easily. Not much happened today other than looking for an address that didn't exist and trying not to drown while biking, something I never before thought that would be possible.

And that's the week! Another one in the beautiful small village of Puli (Just for reference. When Tay refers to Puli as small, there are actually 90,000 people versus Cedar City which has 30,000 people). As always, I am so happy to be here on a mission, and my greatest goal is to serve with all I have in this short time that I have in Taiwan. Elder Densley is only a transfer ahead of me, and he just hit his year mark this week, so it kind of throws everything into perspective. There's only so much time! So I echo Gandalf in saying "All we have is to decide what to do with the time that is given us."

Have a great week coming closer to Christ.

-Elder Meanea