WEEK 20 HUALIAN: It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Hopefully I don't run into copyright issues with this one either. 

Yes you heard me right! The trees are up! The lights are on! And once again it is Christmas! 

Well... At least I'm counting it as Christmas. Yes yes it may be Chinese New Year, but this is the only thing this country celebrates so yes I am celebrating Christmas.

Do I turn my Christmas lights on? Yes. Am I listening to Christmas music? Yes. Do I deserve this? Yes. Does my companion hate me for it? Yes. 

But that's okay. 

Anyways that's right, it's Chinese New Year down here and that means everyone goes ballistic. As a missionary it honestly kind of sucks. We're not really able to celebrate, nobody wants to talk with us like at all. And all we do is eat food at members houses! And man has there been a looooot of food. Like a looooot. And we have to finish it. And the members just say, eat more eat more. And then our mission president says, you have to eat all of it and man I don't know if I can take it. 

I am keeping daily track of my weight so tune in for that reveal next week! 

Always got to find ways to keep the viewers coming back to the emails. Maybe this will work. 

Anyway, other than that people kind of just launch of fireworks randomly. It's kind of like the 4th of July, but really haphazardous. Like we saw someone launching them at the electric wires and stuff and that was kinda sketch. 

As well the air is just filled with smoke. Everyone is lighting fires and burning fake money that they've bought with real money. I don't understand it but I guess it makes them happy? 

It's been kinda a crazy time. I'm excited for it to be over so I can get back to normal missionary work, but sadly it will be somewhere else. 

Oh yes.

Elder Baird is moving!

I'm moving up to Taipei to a city called 汐止 (xizhi (pronounced she zhi)

It's a way big city and I'm not a big city fan, but I guess I am now! And the bestest news of all though!!! They have a Costco!!! And that means Costco pizza and hotdogs and churros and milk and real food and good life and a happy Elder! 

Anyway, we will see how this move goes! This is my first real transfer and I am now no longer in training. That's kind of scary. I've almost been out here for 3 months and I've almost been on my mission for 5. It's been fast if I'm being honest but 2 years still feels really far away. And I know it's not, but my brain just doesn't like it and it will probably feel far away till like my last transfer. And you know what? That's okay! 

Now a shout-out to Tayda! She's leaving to the MTC in Wednesday! It will be fun and she doesn't know what she's getting into! Hahahabahahahahhahahahahabhahabababbsb evil laughter. 

Yah this week has been pretty eh though. No one meets with us because of Chinese New Year and those who said they would don't show up. But in still really sad to be leaving. I've loved it here and I love our members and the people I'm working with, they are in good hands with Elder Hughes though. So that is good!

Honestly that's pretty much it. I'm leaving, I'll miss it, but God has called me somewhere else. 

I'll also miss the bois here. We had a 烤肉 on our roof as like a going away thing. It was way fun! I'll send pictures.

Kinda cool miracle though, the other day we had an LA we are working with tell us she has a friend who wants to learn more about the gospel. So he came to the chapel for a tour. 

Turns out this guy is in charge of HR for the army down here. He loved it and said he's going to tell all his men to come here for help! So who knows where that's going to lead, but I'm excited to find out! 

Yah that's it, this one's a little shorter but still worth the time to read I hope! 

Hope that everyone is having a good week! I love you all! 

Elder Baird 

Something about socks:

So the allegory of the olive tree in Jacob is always a long one to read through. But as I was studying it earlier this week I loved something that I found. 

"21 And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: How comest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard.

 22 And the Lord of the vineyard said unto him: Counsel me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit."

I was blown away. 

Sometimes in life we feel like we are the ones who have been planted in an awful spot. Our situation is no good, we don't like our circumstances, and we feel like we have been planted in the poorest spot. 

And it may be true. 

But no matter where we are planted, no matter where! We still all have the choice on if we will accept the Lord's help or not. Because through the Lord's help we can flourish into a beautiful tree and bring forth much fruit. Even in the poorest spot of land. 

That's kind of the testimony I want to leave behind today. Through Jesus and his gospel we can flourish. When we make and honor our covenants we will bring forth fruit. We have to be the ones who decide to do it though. We decided if we flourish or not. Not our ground. Not our personality. Not our social economic situations. It's our desire. Through simple things like Come Follow Me (yah I'm getting back on this soap box, it's that good) we can start to bring forth fruit in any circumstances we find ourselves in. 

It's all our choice. So I invite everyone to stop worrying about the ground that they're in, and start worrying about growing. Cause that's all we've been asked to do. 

Love yall!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PfWwmQHF61bRmPUH6

WEEK 19 HUALIAN: Good Things Fall Apart

...I hate writing emails on my phone. It's just randomly sends it when I'm not done. Ugh. Here we go again...

I sure hope I don't run into copyright issues with that..... Oh well... 

Well my faithful follower. The new year has past. But has still not begun. One may wonder how this is possible. But in the land of the Asians anything is possible! (it's not wrong to say that...? Right? Man being politically missionarily correct is hard. I don't even know the standards. Also how much do I care? I'm sure ya'll already know the answer to that)

THIS JUST IN: MY MOTHER LIED!!! The only correct way to conjunct "you all" is Y'all. Since I am stubborn I will from here on out just be using yall. Hah.

I hope my dad doesn't feel bad that I never talk about him... Oh well. He's pretty cool too. He doesn't lie though. Go him. 

Anyways, man where to begin with this week. Literally I get to my email each week and I'm like "Wow I've got so much to say because I did so much this week!" 

Now I'm here and don't know what to say.

Well, I guess we can start at Wednesday, that sounds like a nice ambiguous day to choose. 

So Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Gibson. He's only been out 5 weeks longer than I have. That means that we are both very very young. So we set some massive goals and we went out for the day. After someone 放鴿子 us. Stood us up. We were like, well we have a lot of time. Let's see if we can get 30 people today.

So we went and freaking talked to 37 people! It was pretty lit! Even though neither of us spoke the language we still got out there and we set up some people up for the future! One of them was going to meet us on Friday and it was going good! It was a good time and I really learned a lot!

During our Language Study time though we were studying in a Starbucks and all of the sudden "GOOD THINGS FALL APART" by Jon Bellion started playing! Both of us at the same time just like perked up and we're like "No Way!" we were both way hyped cause he's also a big Jon Bellion fan. That pretty much made my day. Was it a blessing from God to give me a way to hear a song I love with out breaking the mission rules?

Yes. 

Yes it was.

However, I was not ready for the foreshadowing that the song provided. 

The week then enduded up with every single one of our lessons 放鴿子. We got stood up like 10 times this week. All of our friends were like "nah" and things just really didn't go well. Like at all.

You know that kind of sucks. Like a lot. 

But no one said it was going to be easy.

And it's not. 

But Ima be here and just go as hard as I can. Cause that's all that God asks of us. God only asks for us to try. Each day to be better. To do better and be better each day. 

Coincidentally that's the name of a talk that our Prophet gave recently. I recommend that everyone take a look at it. 

We all need to repent. Repentance is just continuing. It's just trying to be more like Jesus. It's changing things about ourselves to become more like Him. 

So this is me calling everyone to repentance :) Man being a missionary is fun. I can just be like, yall are sinners so repent. Isn't that fun!?

Anyways that's enough of that. 

Somethings funny, your bois still got the charm! Low-key knocked into a house with two younger females and got their numbers. Definitely not cause they were interested in my companion. It was me. I swear. 

Well maybe it was the gospel. 

Anyways hopefully the sister missionaries can bring them to salvation. Who knows. 

CHINESE NEW YEAR

So this week begins the Chinese New year. What does that mean for me? It means that I'm going to be eating like I'm on a cruise and still do missionary work. It means that since I'm on the coast and people don't super care about laws they will just close down random parts of streets to do plays and fireworks.

But like seriously, we're just driving around and then suddenly you can't take a road cause they're doing a performance. Like laws kinda go out the window on the streets. It's way crazy. 

More about that next week. 

For know I think that's about it. I've spent today cleaning again. I've spent over half my Pdays on Island cleaning. Apparently it's a message from God telling me that I should change my profession. 

Well! Thank you all for taking the time to read this! I love that I get to do this, and I love all emails, pictures, videos, and things that get sent to me! It makes me way happy! 

Have a good week everyone! Keep up the good work! 

Love, 

Elder Baird 

BREAKING NEWS:

There's a new way to here all about Elder Baird time in Taiwan! No longer do you have to scroll back through all my emails during your daily "Have to read something that Elder Baird wrote" fix! 

Thanks to the hard work and countless hours of a mother who is too nice there is now a new way! 

https://elderspencerbaird.blogspot.com/

Click on the link above and you will be taken to an internet blogging platform that will have all my letters and pictures in one place! As well as added pictures and videos never before seen! So there you go! Invite all your friends as well! The more the merrier! 

If you'd like to support the blog please send all your love in the form of a package to the address listed on the blog! 

Something about socks:

What does it mean to grind? To really grind? I learned a little bit about that this week. 

After one day of being stood up 5 times, we were just done. So we went and knocked. And we knocked. And we were like, "God, we are going to go until we are able to get someone to let us in and become a friend. 

And so we did. We put our trust in the Lord and we went for it. And we knocked for a loooong time. Knocking is generally not a huge thing in this country. But we went and went. 

It was getting late and we were like, dang. It's late. But we kept going. And then all of the sudden we were invited into a house and they were like "sit! Here's some food and water! We know you don't drink tea so have this." and so we just sat there and taught them. And it was way good! And it was a huge miracle! So that way way cool! 

God blesses us when we work for it. It was a cool experience. So keep up the grind! Keep up the grind for God!

Pictures are few this week. Next week will have more. Probably. But here's a funny video.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PrdkXW3JcTocxj6Z7

Me and Elder Hughes! The man's a shark!

WEEK 18 HUALIAN: THE RACE HAS BEEN RAN. THE VOTES HAVE BEEN CAST! THE NUMBERS ARE IN! AND THE WINNER IS!!!

Hi guys. It's me. I mean you probably already knew that cause it's coming from my email. But this is me. 

It's free real estate.

Good memes. 

Anyways, it's been a week which means that there's another email because that's what happens. Hopefully you don't need me to explain it more than that. Even if you did, I wouldn't.

So yah, I'm purposely holding you all hostage by using a very captivating title. If you want the answer then just scroll to the bottom. It's down there.

So yah, the week has been pretty chill. Just doing the normal things. It's kinda just getting that way. I'm doing the work. I'm enjoying it. Nothing super special. 

Oh. I almost forgot. 

Liam got baptized. 

OH YAH, THAT'S RIGHT, YOUR BOI JUST HELPED A SOUL PROGRESS ONTO ETERNAL SALVATION. *insert mic drop here*

Yah that's enough of that. 

Anyways, yah that was a way cool experience. And I'm really happy that Liam made that decision. It's kinda cool to be like able to help someone get to the Ola e where they can make that decision. And I guess that's what missionary work is all about. Salvation of souls! 

It was kind of funny though. The time for his program was 6 o'clock. Somehow he was there at 3. So he calls us and is like, "where is everyone?"

Uh oh. We were worried that cause of this he wouldn't be able to meet with us. This was after he had already told us earlier that he was super busy. And do to the lack of his English ability we thought he was telling us he couldn't be baptized. 

But we worked everything out and it ended up all good! 

So ts been the Taiwanese Presidential election for the past couple since I've got heres. Anyways I was down on exchanges in 臺東 on voting day which made missionary work a little hard. But we had a good time nonetheless. I was with a native for the day and man Chinese is just hard. 

Anyways. 英文 won. Yes, my friends who speak my Chinese. That is her name. 

Idk why

Anyways, some weird culture things. We've talked about rain before. It's basically the killer of all fun. It's raining outside? All of your lessons cancel. It's raining outside? No members can visit. It's raining outside? Anyone on the street won't talk to you. It's raining outside? Sorry no one is at church. It's raining outside? Cool, this is a perfect time to launch off our fireworks. 

What??? 

Don't tell me you can't meet cause it's raining, and then launch off your fireworks and firecrackers while it's raining. Dang. I just don't get the culture sometimes. Think it has something to do with me being white. I think so. 

Maybe not though. 

Yah life's pretty chill. We just closed out the old apartment and that was an adventure. Spent the whole Pday cleaning. Again. And next week we have to deep clean our current apartment because of Chinese New Year and more asain culture things. This is like the 5th Pday I've spent cleaning. I've spent over half of the Pdays on my mission cleaning. Missionary? More like Missionary Maid. (ooooo alliteration) so yah. I'm kinda done with cleaning. I just want to sleep. Lol. But yah, probably won't have a ton of time for an email next week. May be short. Or maybe I will just write it on Sunday.... Oooooooh

Hope everything's going well for ya'll, (look mom, I used the correct pronunciation. (I got in trouble for just typing yall. So there it is all nice and fixed)) that's going to be it for this week. 

Catch you on the flip side

Elder Baird

Something about Socks! 

More accurately though

Something about Peeing. 

Elder Hughes though, not me. 

So on our way home Thursday night, Elder Hughes really had to pee. So we stopped at a family Mart so he could have that relief. As we stopped we saw a guy sitting outside and so I went and sat next to him and started talking. He wasnt very interested to talk to us but I kind of just forced the conversation anyways. Then we shared Ether 12:6 and he started to open up. We asked when he could meet and he said that he had 10 minutes right then. So we taught him the first lesson and he was way interested and set up again! 

So the scriptures are way powerful. That's my testimony and share for the day. 

They give us power. So use them. Do come follow me. It's an amazing resource and I have already learned so much from going through just the first couple chapters of Nephi again. 

The scriptures are good for you. End of vlog :) 

Also, remember there's a blog now too so you can read at your own leisure!

Pictures! 

The bulls may have some copyright issues... 

Also I like just barely as I'm sending this went to a Taiwanese Chiropractor. That was an experience. 

K bye! 

Do you really think that I would really just let you skip my whole email? The answer is no. It's in my email somewhere. Scroll back to the top and read the whole thing. 

Dispicable human beings. 

Skipping to the bottom. 

How could you. 

:)

The bulls may have some copyright issues...

WEEK 17 HUALIAN: Call me Daniel

This may have been my shortest subject line ever. 

I'm losing my touch. 

Well hello everyone! It's another week, another year, and even another decade! And of course the best thing to do is celebrate by reading this! Obviously. What could be better than me? A lot of things probably, but they're not super important right now. 

Dang I gotta work on that. 

Welp, yah. It's a new year. It's 2020. Like wow. I've been on my mission for like a year now. And I come home next year. Dang isn't time going fast? I'm like half way through by this logic! Ain't that something! 

So yah, new years isn't really a holiday here either. Nothing happens execpet everoyene just says, happy new year. That's it. So I spent New Years on exchanges actually. And it just so happened that I went to the most out of the way place in the mission for this exchange. It was... Something else. 

I feel bad for any missionaries who go there. It's so difficult there because there's like no one there, and the people there are all super old and don't want to hear about the gospel. It was definitely an eye opening experience. 

It was kind of creepy in this place once it started getting late. Cause we were in like a jungle sort of place and it was scary. Like way sketch. 

And that wasn't even the scariest part.

The dogs. 

Holy ravioli. 

They were terrifying. Like I was not a fan at all. And there were so many. So I was kinda sketched out the whole time we were knocking. And then we were trying to get down a road when what do we see? 

Not popcorn. Let me tell you that. 

3 big dogs guarding the way. 3 big growling yapping barking mean dogs slowly stalking towards us. 

Now I was ready to turn around, but that was the way we needed to go, that was the way that our bikes were at, and it was the place of a former we were trying to visit. 

But I did not want to go. 

However, Elder Godfrey was a lot more brave than me and had a lot more faith. He said we should go for it, so I said a quick little prayer and asked for protection. Then putting my faith in God I started to walk forward. 

And the dogs just kinda stopped. 

Then we walked through them and past them and they started again, but we were on the other said completely safe. It was really cool to see that little blessing right there. And that's something I'm way grateful for. 

So thus the title. It was a cool miracle. 

Then we went back to their house which is in the middle of nowhere. Like really in the middle of nowhere. 

So yah, I spent the new year with the bats.

Oh yah, there were bats in the house. I don't know why. But it's kinda a sketch place. Soooooo. Fun stuff I guess! 

Yah that's the big story for the week. Everything's been pretty normal for the week. Kinda is just starting to get like that. Get up, work, go to bed. Then get up. I'm way tired, but this week I'm going to be able to baptize a guy we have been teaching! I'm really excited for that! It'll be my first baptism, and I've been here for all his lessons! That will be cool. 

Let's see... Well I saw a guy wearing a "Gelvin Kiain" shirt... Someone does not know how to read English brand names apparently. I don't understand some Asian things. Nor will I probably ever. 

Yah, that's about it. Pretty solid week. Exhausted as always, but happy nonetheless! 

I can't help but feel like I have more to write. But I can't remember. And if I don't hit send I won't be able to send this. So I'm going to hit send now... Well, now... 

Dang

Now! 

Nope, 

Right N

Love you all! 

Elder Baird

BREAKING NEWS:

There's a new way to hear all about Elder Baird's time in Taiwan! No longer do you have to scroll back through all my emails during your daily "Have to read something that Elder Baird wrote" fix! 

Thanks to the hard work and countless hours of a mother who is too nice there is now a new way! 

https://elderspencerbaird.blogspot.com/

Click on the link above and you will be taken to an internet blogging platform that will have all my letters and pictures in one place! As well as added pictures and videos never before seen! So there you go! Invite all your friends as well! The more the merrier! 

If you'd like to support the blog please send all your love in the form of a package to the adress listed on the blog! 

I think that's going to be my something about socks for the day! 

Videos! Yay we all love videos! 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/EYyQXfzpea88JwWx5

Cool view! 

Yoshi! 

The English class! 

We saw a giant Christmas light thing! More in the videos above!

Pickachu! More in the videos above!

All genders are appreciated in this bathroom!