WEEK 16 HUALIAN: The one about a missed train, 2 packages, being Santa Clause, and some good lessons.

Hello all of my FRIENDS

(I'm just trying too hard now with my jokes, I think I'm breaking (if anyone got my joke shoot me an email and you'll get a surprise!)).

Well it seems like it was just 5 days ago that I was writing my email, as opposed to the usual 7! Wow time is flying by here! (someone save me). 

So yep, ya'll better get ready for some crazy stuffs cause it's gonna happen whether you're ready or not. 

I kind of never know what to put in these emails, like there's so much that happens but it's just like living-life things. There's no way to kind of put them into an email that's not boring and that people won't care. Because in all honestly I only care about the viewer count. Maybe I should start making up stories... On that note, invite your friends to read these emails! 

So we were walking down the street and we saw a 17ft tall bear. My companion then ripped his shirt off and started to yell and scream. Then they charged at each other and my comp did a flying back flip to kick the bear in the face and then it died. 

I clapped. 

There's the story for the week. 

Okay goodbye now. 

Okay fine, ya'll are so needy. Dang chill. I get it. I'm just too funny and you want to hear more. Fine fine. I'll give another story. 

So Friday morning we woke up at 5:30 so we could catch a 7:00 train and pack. It kind of sucks to wake up that early because I'm already exhausted all the time, but we needed to head up to 臺北 Taipei for my 6 week follow up meeting. Woot. -_- We were also then spending the night in 臺東 Taidong for exchanges. 

But anyways, we got up and as I was sleepily getting ready I decided to look at the tickets. "that's the moment he realized, he messed up" (censorship added) (you're welcome) 

The tickets were for 6:00. It was 5:50. I had way screwed up. I knew that this was my fault cause I was the one keeping the tickets. And I had messed up. 

I immediately hung my head in disappointment. My companion said "what are you doing, let's go! Stop moping and let's go!" 

"It's impossible", I responded. And it was. We were 25 minutes from the station and had 10 minutes. Even if we biked full out it would still take 15 minutes. 

But we grabbed all of our stuff, well not all, a lot was forgotten. We then took off and I was just kinda beating myself up the whole time. 

We got to the station and ran in and of course our train had already left. We were 10 minutes late. But my companion went and talked to the train people and they switched us, for free, to a train that would leave in 15 minutes! It was way nice. 

As we were waiting there I was buying me a water bottle and asked which one my companion wanted. We had both forgotten our water bottles which was my fault and I wanted to get him one. 

He responded that he didn't want one. I pressed a little more cause I was just trying to make up for what I'd done. 

"I'm not mad", he replied. I didn't believe him. 

He then said, "Actually, there is one thing that I'm frustrated about." 

'Here we go' I thought with kind of a sad sigh. 

"I don't care that we were late or that we missed our train or any of that, I'm frustrated that you gave up. You read that and you immediately gave up and lost all of your faith. The whole ride over here I was praying for a miracle, that either our train would be late our we would be able to switch, and look what happened! But you gave up. You can't ever give up on your mission. Ever! You have to have that faith and always go and do."

I was left dumbfounded. I knew that I'd messed up, but he was so right. I'd given up. I'd let my faith slip away and just gave up. 

I learned a lot from that. Always maintaining the faith is critical in anything we do. We can't just give up when things get hard. That's not what faith is. Faith is going when things are hard. It was a very valuable lesson to learn and we didn't even end up being late for the meeting! Crazy miracle. 

Well, the meeting was ish and we stopped to pick up some packages on our way back home. We have two sisters in our district whose Christmas packages came late so they had not had Christmas yet, and one of them was brand new, first week on island. So we took on the job of Santa and carried these packages, very big ones mind you, down to 臺東 where we were doing exchanges, and then back up to 花蓮 where we live. 

Now as I said they were big and heavy, and when we arrived at the train station we were confronted with the problem of how to get them home. I said call someone, but my companion was like trust me. 

We the proceeded to tie them to our bikes with our bike locks. 

I was skeptical. 

And for very good reason. 

We start going and the box on my companions bike falls off. This is one minute into our 25 minute bike ride to their house. Then mine falls off. Pretty soon we start to realize that there is no way that this is going to work, at least safely. 

That's when a lady on a scooter pulls up and is like, let me help. And we were like no, we don't want to inconvenience you. And she's like, you're stupid, let me help. A while later we decided to let her help cause we just weren't gonna be able to do it. And so we shoved these boxes where her feet would go on her scooter and off we go. 

She was worried about crashing or them falling off but I was like, "Don't worry, I already prayed for you! You're going to be fine." 

I think she was a little weirded out, but I knew it was true. And we were! 

I then decided that Santa must be a pretty happy fellow, cause we dropped the packages off and ran and hid when we told the sisters to come out. The new one comes running out and does a little jump and you could just see her happiness. It made me way happy too! Because let me tell you, there is nothing that is better than receiving a package as a missionary. When you're just out it's so fun and makes you so happy when you get a package.

So it was fun to be Santa for them and see it make them happy! They have no clue the chaos we went through to get them there, and honestly I didn't explain it very well cause it was just crazy. But it was worth it! 

You know there's the story for the day. I don't know what else to write. But I'm tired and want to take a nap, so I think I'll go do that now. 

Hope you all have an awesome week and eat some good food for me! 

Love you all! 

Elder Baird

百長老

我是最帥的傳教士。嘿啊。

Something about socks, but basically an apology. 

"Sorry I didn't send pictures last week mom, I'll try to remember this week."

(Also, my Mickey Mouse socks that had a hole in them? I got new ones for Christmas! It was great (this ones actually about socks, how convenient!)) 

Okay here's the pictures 

So Christmas may not be big here, but let me tell you, 過年 Chinese new year, is crazy. It starts in a month, but they getting ready. I'm a little scared because basically it's all you can eat food for 3 meals a day maybe even more. But when you want to stop you're not allowed to cause Taiwanese people. 

I love that to get the glass breaking hammer you have to break the glass. Asian technology my friends.

Missionaries be tired.

My little Christmas desk! M stands for ME

This poor dog is going to fall off

Guy casually walking his tortoise down the street

District

Beautiful

Translations. How fun.

WEEK 15 HUALIAN: It's Christmas. At least I think it is? But like... Is it?

Well hello everyone! I'm so sorry that I probably terrified you all to death because you weren't able to read an email from me the moment you woke up Monday morning.

This is my apology for that, but don't worry! Next week you can read it first thing in the morning! Don't worry! It's okay! But now you're going to get the best Christmas gift this year! Second to Jesus. But other than that you getting to read this email is definitely the best gift then! What could be better? Nothing. Probably. Pride again? Nah.

So yah, basiclly I'm done with my first Transfer and onto my second! And this one is going to be the best! My new comp is literally a shark. Never stops. Goes for what he wants and gets it. We've seen so many miracles and we are working so freaking hard and it is paying off! We're finding new people to teach, talking to people, teaching, and just having a good time!

Yah, things are going good! I love how hard he works and I am just struggling to try to keep up. I think he forgets I've only been here for 6 weeks... And that I'm not in the air force. 

Oh yah he's in the airforce. And he's a machine. I've been going running with him in the mornings, or I guess it's more appropriate to say that I've been going chasing with him. I can't keep up. Did not realize how much I'd lost my legs. But hey! No time like the present to get going!

Yah but things are going great. 

So the other day taught a guy who said that he was the Buddhist version of Jesus. Apparently they have a story that's basically a Jesus rip off, and this guy legit thinks that he is this guy, and that this is his second coming. He tried to convince us that he was him. 

Needless to say we aren't teaching him anymore. 

Yah there are a lot of crazy people here. Like it's insane. They're just straight up off their rocker and there are a ton of them. It's kinda weird. But sometimes you don't know they are until you get in a lesson with them and they just start going insane. It's odd. Real odd.

Well, the days went by and they were packed. I'm honestly so tired. We just work so freaking hard now and it's crazy. I love it though. 

But that brings us to Christmas eve. 

Now, Christmas really isn't a thing here. At all. And that's been real sad for me. Cause I freaking love Christmas. And Tuesday I just kept forgetting that it was Christmas eve. Cause there's nothing to remind me at all. And we are just so busy. And it's just a normal day here. We had a giant chicken nugget for Christmas eve dinner. It was good. But it's just not the same. 

Luckily on Sunday we had a mission Christmas singing concert and it was fun to sing.

But yah, Tuesday night I was just like, dang, I'm not doing any of my traditions with my family this year. I'm not really even having a Christmas. And it was a little saddening. 

Then that night as we biked home my comp and I just started shouting merry Christmas to everyone that we passed! It was so funny to see their confused expressions. They really don't get it sadly. But it made me happy to just be shouting at them!

After that and talking with my companion I was feeling better about the whole Christmas thing. And then I realized that I am more or less giving up my Christmas, so I can help others have Christmas. I thought that was pretty cool to think about. 

But yah, I had Christmas before all ya'll. Ya'll will just be getting out of bed and I'll be long done with the... Festivities...? But yah. Must suck being in America. Having Christmas late. Oooooof. Big oof. 

Yah life is pretty chill! I hope that you all have an amazing time tomorrow! Merry Christmas!

Love you all! 

Elder Baird 

Yes today was shorter. Don't want to take up too much of your Christmas. I know I'm the most important thing, but I also want you to have other fun today, so since I'm super nice and basically the best, I'll let ya'll get to other things like opening presents and doing the other things that come after reading my email.

Something about socks! 

For Christmas I got a pair of Mickey socks! And they're black and so I can wear them! I'm happy! 

As well, while I was in the MTC I realized that I didn't have a super strong testimony on tithing. I knew it was good and had always followed it, but that's all it had been. Teaching about it was hard cause I didn't have anywhere to come from. 

So I prayed a lot and asked my parents how tithing had helped them. Eventually I forgot about it cause I felt better about it and kinda moved on.

But the other day we were teaching one of our friends tithing for the first time and he had some questions and I just felt like I should bear my testimony. The testimony that I didn't feel like I had. 

But I followed the spirit and tried my best to bear my testimony. My Chinese on the subject was a little rusty, but I tried. And as I tried I just felt the spirit so strong. It was such a neat experience and now I can honestly say I have a testimony of tithing. Because the spirit bore record of it to me. 

Personal revelation is critical in all that we do. When we don't understand something we need to take the time to receive revelation on it. That's our responsibility. 

So yah, it was pretty nifty! 

MERRY Christmas! Love ya'll!

---------------------

Christmas 2019 Missionary Concert! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZvpKWLj1dk&feature=youtu.be

WEEK 14 HUALIAN: Well, I guess I lied..... BISHOP! I know longer want to be the word clerk! There is a new calling out there for me! Instead, I will travel the world!

What's up! It's Elder Baird on the train! Hope that everything is going dandy in wherever you currently call your place of residence, but it definitely doesn't beat 6 hours on a train!

"6 hours on a train? But Elder Baird Elder Baird! What on earth are you doing?"

Quite the annoying side voice in my mind that I have given an actual voice to by putting him in my email for the comedic purpose of posing a question that may be asked by someone reading my emails but seeing as the fact that I'm basically writing to myself I end up talking to myself and then sending out an email about me talking to myself and just to prove a point that I'm not crazy.

That was as long sentence.

So non existent voice self. That is a great question! And the answer is! I'm touring the world!

So yah, I'm currently on my way to Taipei. But that's not even the half of it.

This week started out with Pday, for that we drove about an hour and a half down the coast and went to the beach. It was amazing! Pictures will follow, but it was amazing to just got outside! It was so pretty and it was a really cold winter day at about 75 degrees. So what could be better than that!

Then we drove and did a fun little hike where we were able to see the ocean! And it was a great view!

Yah that was a pretty necessary Pday.

That night we were biking to an appointment and I looked over and there was an internet cafe. And what happened to be on the screen of the young teenager sitting there?

A level one jungle leash. The man looked like he was playing adc, the game was just starting, and the leash was beginning.

Yah I know that means nothing to any of you except a few, but needless to say he was playing my favorite video game.

2 years.

Then we went and a member fed us some McDonald's! That's like really high end here in Taiwan, what I wasn't expecting though was to take a sip of my drink, and taste.... Corn...

Yep, corn is huge here. Like when you got to any restaurant and you order like the meet you're gonna put in your dumplings, one of the options is always corn. It's way popular.

But yah, you can buy corn juice at McDonald's. Who knew!

The next day we took a train ride down to a city called Yuli.

Yuli is a tiny little city kinda out in the middle of nowhere, and that's where our district leader lives. 

So we went down there for exchanges and it was way good! It's way pretty and we got an awesome sunset and I got to see the stars!

A crazy guy also gave me an 1000 dollar piece of Jade...

Yah there are a lot of crazys here. And it is funny. Like they just come up to you and you and your comp look at each other and just think, "yep, this guys crazy." And I was always like, maybe were just judging them to quick, but no, when the native Taiwanese are like yah this guys not right up stairs then you really know.

So yah, this crazy guy was basically our chauffeur Tuesday night. He's a member in the ward there and so he drove me and Elder Yang, the district leader and person I was going on exchanges with, to another crazy persons house.

Crazy person behind the wheel=crazy driving. Let's just say he spent more time on the left side of the road than he did on the right.

Then we visited this crazy lady members house and she had completely forgotten who Elder Yang was. He'd been there for 3 transfers and talked to her like evert week, but absolutely no memory... It was weird.

We them went back to Hualian on Wednesday. Did our night there, then on Thursday morning we took a 2 hour train ride down to Taidong which is where the Zone leaders live. Because we were doing exchanges down there.

Exchanges were great down there, my companion for the day is a marine so we  talked military a lot. He is way cool.

Then Friday we took a train back up to Hualian. We had a lesson with our friend who is on baptismal date and we did Chastity and Word of Wisdom. As we were waiting for him we were both like, okay, let's hope he accepts this. We hadn't ever seen any super obvious signs of a problem but you never know. 

He then proceeded to walk in with a drink. He then quickly excused himself to use the restroom. I turn to our Peike, that's the word for the member who goes to the lesson with us to help, and ask what kind of drink that was.

It was coffee.

But as we taught the word of wisdom he reached up to where he had put it on the table and put it on the floor.

It was so simple but it really showed his desire to follow Gods commandments. And so January 10th could very possibly be my first baptism!

This all brings us to Sunday night. We are waiting for a friend to show up when my companion gets a call for the mission president.

He then finds out that he is going to be transfered to Yuli, that really tiny town, yep. And... Yah.

So... I'm kinda terrified. I've been on island for 5 weeks barely and now I am getting a new trainer. This trainer doesn't know this area or anything about this place. I'm going to be the only one who knows anything about the area and that's scary.

So yah, I get a new companion on Wednesday. Who knew!

Anyways, now I'm on a train to Taipei. Maybe I'll talk about Taipei in this email if I have time, but who knows! I guess you'll find out if you scroll down a little bit More, but I currently don't know. Email time lines are weird.

But yah, that's my week!

So basically in Taiwan I just sang a lot. It was choir practice! So that was awesome! 

This time on the lighter side!

Skittles here are way better than American Skittles. All except the grape ones. The grape ones taste super weird. And so I looked on the back of the thing and typed the characters into my little "Chinese characters make no sense translator" app and found out why.

They're not grape.

They are black currant.

Asian candy man. Can't an elder just get a normal grape skittle? Or mtn dew? Not just a weird tasting one? Who knows.

As well, my name in Chinese is 百思本。This translates to like 100 fast thoughts our something. But my given name 思本，is pronounced si ben. And the characters have a good meaning, but when the words si ben are said with the right tones you get something different. 私奔 Is pronounced the exact same way. Sadly, it means to elope.

So yah.

I might need to change my name.

Whoops.

Yah that's about it for this week. Traveling is way fun. I get to see lots of cool stuff that's not just my little area. So that is good!

Well, hope that y'all had a good week too!

Love you all!

Elder Baird

百長老

這是我的中文的名字

我非常愛你們！

我知道你看不懂這些字，但是我不管。

哈哈哈開玩笑

一些事情關於襪子

So recently I've been reading 1 Nephi. And there is a lot that one can learn in the first 22 chapters in the Book of Mormon. I've read through this section quite a few times, but this time my mind was drawn to something different. As I read I started to do some counting. This is what I ended up with.

In 1 Nephi, the word "murmur" is used 20 times.

In the rest of the Book of Mormon, it is used 13 times.

I can't but help think that that is significant.

What is it that God is trying to tell us through this?

This is my take on it.

Laman and Lemuel were asked to do the same hard things that Nephi and Sam were asked to do.

Both sets of brothers did what was asked of them. Both left Jerusalem. Both went back for the plates. Both went back for the daughters. Both built a ship. Both went to the promised land.

Both of them did what was asked of them to do.

What was the one difference? Laman and Lemuel murmured.

There are 0 doubts in my mind that Nephi had thoughts that were along the line of, what on earth is going. Why am I leaving my house. How am I supposed to build a boat?

He had these thoughts, but he never vocalized them. 

That's where the difference is. Vocalizing versus thinking and then trusting.

So I invite all of you to think about the things that you murmur about. The simple act of holding your tongue can change so much. The thoughts will come, but you choose to say them or not.

So yah, thought that was interesting!

Now for pictures!

Also this video is killer. I didn't know when I put my papers in I was signing up to be an actor...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VYhdJDg2MccLpjk2A

Also I don't know what picture ended up getting sent. So here's some pics I guess. Have fun looking at them or something.

Beach Day:

Other Pics:

WEEK 13 HUALIAN: I'm basically a Wiseman. As well, Bishop, when I get home you can sign me up for that ward clerk position. I'm already a pro.

Well! I'm back again! And with news! So that Roman punk that I talked about last email, yah that one. Well, he has gotten his mission call! He will be heading to Oregon! He will soon know just how hard this actually is!

So, yah, that's enough of other people. Let's talk about me now! That's why everyone's here right? I mean, why read and email about me if you don't want to hear about me! Me! It's all about me!

So today I want to talk about humility.

Okay that's enough on humility.

So I don't really have a lot to talk about today. So I'm gonna talk a little bit about what things are like here in Taiwan. Not Thailand. I'm in Taiwan. It's a common mistake I know. But yes, Taiwan, not Thailand. That's my dad.

Speaking of my dad apparently my dad and I look like a character from October sky. Some member was like, are you a movie star? And I was like know. And then I showed him a picture of my dad and he was like 'that's him'! So yah, apparently my dad was a big actor back in his days.

So the people in Taiwan are funny. They are like to nice to be mean. This makes trying to talk to people very hard. Because they'll kind of sit there and try to make weird excuses. But they're to nice to actually leave you, so when they don't want to talk we have to be the one who ends the conversation. So... It's kind of weird. 

They also love celebrating their Gods birthdays. Like you'll just randomly look outside and there are giant floats with colorful lights and blaring music. It's really fun cause it's like Christmas lights in a parade. And then this week they had a firework show! And that was awesome!

As well, they love their food. Like food is such a big thing here. It's crazy. A lot of time you won't ask how someone's day has been, you ask them if they've eaten. But... It is asia, which means there are some weird food things. Like sweet isn't a super huge thing. So I ordered and extra extra large lemonade the other day. Turns out it was straight lemon juice. Drank the whole thing though. Yah, big rip. Also, be careful when ordering strawberry toast that you don't get garlic toast....

So stop signs aren't a thing here. And all the stoplights are sideways. And the yellow lights are all super long. Which really just encourages running red lights. But that's not a big problem here. If you're gonna run a light that just turned red. You just honk the horn a couple of times and everyone will know that they should stop and let you go. Actual thing though. Kind of weird.

So on a more spiritual side of things. I have been spending a lot of time going through ward records and doing ward clerk stuff. I'm loving it! Just trying to track down all of these LAs. And last Sunday we had 4 LAs there! This was so great! We may not have a ton of people to teach, but if we can start reactivating people then that is amazing! It made me so happy and I was just like, wow, I'm actually doing things! That was great for me and made me super happy!

Yah, the week has been pretty good. Taiwan winter is rough. It's like 70 degrees and sunny. Well cloudy sunny. It's always cloudy. And rainy. But still nice!

Hope that the winter in all your areas of the world is treating you as nicely as mine is treating me!

Love you all!

Elder Baird

百長老

Something about socks:

P-Day equals stitch socks day! So thanks Jared! Love these socks!

So goals. Goals are important. Some people don't feel that way, but I think they are.

We have a goal to talk to 20 people about the gospel every day, and that is a hard goal. Still have not accomplished it. But we try. We went to 玉里, another city, for a meeting. And we made a goal to talk to 2 people before we got on the train.

Well, that didn't happen.

We went through the day and we ended up talking to 18 people. I was looking for two more on our way home, but it just wasn't meant to be. 

Got home and started writing in my journal and it hit me. If we had tried and accomplished that first goal it would have been my first day with 20 contacts. But instead I learned a lesson. A very good one no doubt.

Something about socks, PART 2

So I figured that since I missed something about socks 3 weeks ago, I'll just add a second one in here.

So in church we watched the Christ Child. And for those of you who don't know my feelings towards the video, it is my all time favorite. This was my 3rd time watching it, and something different stuck out. 

I've always loved the part when the Wiseman just bow down at the feet of the toddler. Love it. Gets the tears every time.

But this time I thought of something different. I thought about the journey they made to get there. And what was at the end. Jesus. How long was the journey? Two years. All to know? Jesus.

And so yah. I'm on a journey for two years and at the end my joy will be as theirs. And the joy comes from Jesus. And helping other people come to that

So basically, I'm a Wiseman. On a two year journey. That's totally worth it because at the end is Jesus. Of course the whole thing is Jesus. But the joy at the end will be worth it!

Woot!

A video

https://photos.app.goo.gl/t7pnVaJjbb5Hh1e2A

Pretty place in 花蓮

Super cute dog

We left a present at a member's door. It's a little bread thing.

Family

Rice field

Rice pyramid

Ikea still reigns! Even down here.

The district

Google photos has this thing where it does flashbacks to previous years. This was a photo I took two years ago. I still remember taking it, and it doesn't feel that long away 2 years is really short! Also I wanted to embarrass Katie and Emy!

Apartment inspection