Week #11

     Ni Hau,
 After I sent this email out last week we went grocery shopping at Costco with a member. The Costco here in Taiwan is the exact same as the Costco in America. Same products, same cafeteria place, same everything. It was pretty crazy. I never thought that I would be eating a Costco muffin for breakfast here, but it happened.
   We have got a couple of progressing investigators here. The first one is Zhang (In Taiwan there are about 5 last names, and about 2 million first names) He has a baptismal date in a month, and then he leaves for military service the week after that (but the navy is in our area, so I believe that we can still meet with him sometimes) But he is awesome. He has read 1,2,and 3 Nephi (cause he wants to read them all together.) But he came to church for the first time and he was bearing his testimony to us about how he wants to come to church every week.
    The second is Megan. She is progressing a little slower, but she is always willing to act on our invitations. I invited her to be baptized in November, and she accepted. It probably wasn't the greatest baptism invitation, but I definitely felt the Spirit.
    We were at a 7-11 calling some people and this lady walked up to us and talked about how she had been in a couple of accidents and how she was looking for a church because she was a living testimony of Jesus Christ. She had been to a lot of churches but she didn't like the things that they were teaching. She still hasn't had time to meet but hopefully she can meet with us because I know that Gospel is able to help everyone with anything that they might need.
     I taught my first English class on Wednesday. We teach the little kids class. Although I am fluent in English, it is much harder to teach than I thought it was going to be, and the little kids are crazy so it was fun, but also pretty hard. There was a member in our ward that we brought a card to (Taiwanese people love cards). We brought to her little soy bean curd pudding stand, and of course I had to have some (you will get a picture of it) But my companion had to eat most of it, cause it was pretty gross.
    We had a ward party which was fun cause the people in our ward are awesome, and there was really good food. At church on Sunday, people were just giving us food throughout church. So that tells you about how awesome our ward is. |There is a family from America that does not speak Chinese, but he works here, and she bore her testimony so I actually understood that. I am really loving it here. I still can't speak the language, but the work is progressing and I am happy to be a part of that.
 Elder Bosco

Elders Hansen, Graves, Bosco, Heath

Elder Bosco enjoying (?) the Soy Bean Curd Pudding

Elders Bosco and Health
Elders Hansen and Graves

Soy Bean Curd Pudding

Ward Party
(Elder Heath said that they left as soon as they started playing games because they were speaking Chinese "ultrafast")

Elder Heath and a "Black Hamburger" (Chocolate and Walnut bun)

Costco Pizza- Taiwan style

Costco Taiwan

Week #9/10 In Taiwan!

Ni hao family,
Well I made it here safely to Taiwan!!! The Typhoon made the plane ride a little bit bumpy but everything was good. When we got to the airport in Taiwan we had to wait for some elders coming from the Phillipines MTC, so we did some tracting in the airport. It was crazy cause none of us can speak Chinese, but the people here are super super nice, so it was really fun.
Since we got their so late we were only able to get about 3 hours of sleep. The next day we had a lot of orientation, and at night they brought a bunch of missionaries that were around the area and had them go contacting with us.
Then we went to dinner at a restaurant, and everybody at my table was basically asleep the whole time. On Friday we met our Trainers. My trainers name is Elder Heath. He went to a year of college so he is Wesley's age. He went to Lone Peak. He is super awesome and has been a really great companion for me.
We are serving in Gao Xiong. Most of it is a pretty wealthy area. It is a really great area, and the people here are super nice. The food is also really good. There are a couple of things that aren't my favorite, but for the most part I love the food here. We are living with 2 other elders, Elder Hansen, and Elder Graves.
 We haven't really had a lesson yet, because a lot of them are falling through. So we do a lot of contacting, and we really haven't found any new investigators, but this next week should be a lot better. We had lunch with the bishop and his wife. They made us a ton of food, and it was all super good. A lot of the time the bishop's wife was just laughing because me and Elder Hansen couldn't understand anything that was being said.
We went to a 7-11 to find someone to talk to (there are literally 7-11's EVERYWHERE). While we were there, some guy came up and talked to us about how he was baptized 20 years ago, but then he started smoking, but now he wants to stop smoking and try to make things better with his wife. We meet with him on Tuesday, so hopefully that goes well.
 There are two brothers in the ward name brother Ye (they are not related, and there aren't that many different last names here) one of them we just call Kirby. But they are both super awesome, and they are willing to do whatever to help the missionaries. Sunday was stake conference, so I still haven't met everybody in our ward.
Stake conference was really good (even though I couldn't really understand anything that was going on. We had the Taipei temple president, and a member of the 70 speak to us. At night we went to and FHE at Kirby's house. It was us, Kirby, a member of the stake Presidency and his family, two recent converts, and an investigator. Kirby is a really good baker so he made a bunch of good treats. Then we shared a little bit about the Book of Mormon. The investigators name is Zhang. His baptismal date is in a month, but he also has to go to the army (requirement in Taiwan) a week after that. So hopefully he will still want to be baptized, but I am confident that everything will turn out ok.
 I have been living out of my carry on this past week, and so today we were going to do laundry because I didn't have any garments or socks left. But then the water stopped working in our whole apartment. I think they were fixing something upstairs or something. So we aren't sure when it will work again, but everything is good and hopefully it will get fixed very very soon. There are 7-11 and Family Marts on every corner. mopeds everywhere, which means the traffic is super crazy, but I am getting used to riding a bike around. Well I am starting to love it here more and more everyday. The mission is super hard and challenging, but I know that the Lord prepares a way for us to accomplish the things that he has commanded us to do. I know that the more we rely on the Lord, the more we will be able to see his hand in our lives every day!
 Elder Bosco

Photo cred to Mark Melo (a member who knew Dallin on his mission because he was living in the Netherlands. He saw that he had a brother called to Taiwan - where he is now living- so he tracked him down at Stake Conference)
Collins first Sunday in Taiwan

Arriving at the Mission home in Taichung

Pres. and Sister Teh

at the airport

Week #8- Final week in the MTC

  
[Elder Bosco leaves early on Sept. 13th and arrives in Taiwan the evening of Sept. 14th]

Ni Hao!

We finally got our flight plans this week which means I AM FINALLY GOING TO TAIWAN! I don't know the language super well, but I am so excited to be able to get to know and serve the people. I have been a little bit sick this week, but I am recovering well so I should be good for the flight. This week was pretty much like the rest of the weeks so sorry if this letter is a little bit shorter. 

   

Chad Lewis came and spoke at the MTC on Sunday, and he really did make me go up in front of everybody and bear my testimony in Chinese. My legs were shaking pretty bad, but I did it, and when I was walking back to my seat one of the elders who speaks Chinese, and is here learning English, gave me a high five and said "Good Mandarin"! Then the next day an Elder from Taiwan who is one of our friends told me he could understand it, so I feel pretty good about it.

   

We had our last Skype TRC this week. We taught a girl named Helen. She is actually from Taichung, so she took a picture of us at the end in case we run into her in Taiwan. 

   

Our Tuesday night devotional was Elder D. Todd Christofferson. We have had 3 members of the Quorum of the 12 talk to us while we have been at the MTC, which they said has never happened in a span of 9 weeks. He talked about repentance and how when we are preaching repentance, we are testifying of Jesus Christ. And also when we are repenting, we are telling Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ that they are our lives and they we are willing to give up everything in our lives that is contradictory to their will. That is definitely something that I am trying harder to work on everyday.

   

Today my companion had to go to the doctors to get something for his back, so we went to Revere Health Clinic which is at the bottom of the hill. It was so weird to be in the outside world, and so close to home. I just had to get one last taste of it for 2 years. 

   

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be able to serve the people of Taiwan for 2 years. This language is basically impossible, and the humidity is going to be something else, but I know that they Lord is with me every step of the way and that he wants me to enjoy it and to succeed. 

                                                                                                   Elder Bosco

[From Chad Lewis (who after speaking with his wife Michelle at the MTC devotional on Sunday night, called on Collin to come up and give his testimony in Chinese)

"You would have been so proud of your son. He stood up in front of 2500 missionaries and shared his testimony in Chinese. It was awesome. I'm so glad that he is willing to share that in front of everyone that way."]

Elder Bosco with Chad Lewis after the devotional

Elder Bosco and Elder Vandermerwe (his older brother served with Dallin)