WEEK 24 XIZHI: Well... I couldn't figure out how to break Gmail enough to let me send my subject line as a Gif. So. You will just have to see the Gif at the end of the email and replace that as my subject title. Thanks!

Sadder than broken ketchup bottles. 

Guess I could have just put that as my subject title. But this was more fun. 

"Had a good time, the rooms were nice, the service was good. I'd come back"

2.5 STARS??????

BnB is better anyways. 

Hello again and welcome back to another episode of BRONZE LEAGUE HEROES. Where we take the best of the best of the worst of the worst. 

Today we will be watching a rematch of Elder Baird against his mission. 

As we know the mission has kind of taken over Elder Baird and so we will see what happens. 

Thank you husky. 

(maybe this is why the viewer ratings have gone down... Nobody knows what I'm babaling about) 

And now for a dancing Kirby 

<(^^)>  <(^^>)   <(^^)>   (>^^)>

That makes me happy. 

So where to begin. Where to begin. Not a lot has happened this week in all honesty. My comp isn't feeling well and between that and the Corona virus... And rain... We haven't done a ton. That makes me sad. But there's not a lot I can do about it. 

However on Tuesday we went on exchanges with the APs and that was crazy. I went with a man named Elder Fsieikieieike (I don't know how to spell it) 

And it was crazy. We got 6 setups in one day!!! And we talked to a lot of people and got work in and it felt amazing! 

But then most of them stood us up and so thus the subject. Or the Gif. Now I've just confused myself. 

But it was sad. 

But that's how missionary work goes.

You talk to people, they say they're interested, and then they don't show. It's a good thing I have tough skin. I'm like... A snake... Or a cow. 

Snake-cows. 

Not to be confused with snake-clowns. Those things are terrifying. Definitely my biggest fear. 

"First try" 

Now that is a movie I miss. 

Honestly this week was kinda meh at best. Not every week can be golden. Not every week has a baptism. Not every week is fun. 

But every week we can improve, and that's what I've been trying to work on. Finding something each day that I can work on. 

As well everyday I get to practice Chinese which is hard. I'm starting to get better. It's a slow process. Really slow. But fun! Everything I do now is in Chinese. When cooking I have to cook in Chinese. When planning I have to plan in Chinese. Having a native companion does that to you.

Hmmmm... In other news Pokémon has made a powerful resurgence. Like way strong. Everyone here already plays Pokémon go. Like sometimes you'll see people with 5 phones just spasticlly tapping them all and youre like "huh, I didn't know this place was a pokestop". People are kinda addicted to their phones here. It's way sad. But way true.

But anyways, Pokémon just released a new set of cards. Everyone was waiting for them and it was crazy. All 7s and Family marts just had boxes of the new cards. And the people were buying them by the boxes. It was way crazy.

Then the missionaries got sucked in. My comp has probably spent over 1000 dollars on Pokémon cards. That's a lot of money. 

Sadly the Pokémon card game is going downhill as they had to introduce a new type of card to keep people interested and make them buy their game. I miss the good Ole days. Only basic Pokémon and game boys. *stares blankly as he begins to reminisce about the past*

But it has been quite the craze over here. It almost made people forget about the Corona virus. But alas. Still not out of the woods on that one either. We still can't set aside finding time so I spend a lot of time calling people and trying to set them up. Which has caused me to learn that Chinese and phone Chinese are two different languages. *sigh* it's coming along.

Anyways, people asked about the food this week. So now we get to talk about food! 

Taiwan food is great. You can find tons of variety here. Taiwanese, Korean, Vietnamese, ramen, fake American food.

Yah, anything that is American is not actually. Even when you buy American things they are Taiwanese. Like all the American stuff in Costco is still somehow Taiwanese. I don't understand. Even the American fruit snacks are different.

But all the food is pretty good here. And it's way cheap. But I generally eat at home because it's even cheaper. And better. 

But yah. If you've got good chicken recipes send them my way! 

Yah that's basically that. 

Also a guy said his day was bad because it was about to rain. This country and rain. It's way funny. Hope his day wasn't too bad! 

On the bright side a member made us hamburgers!

Those things are related. 

This emails kinda lame.

Nothings really happened this week. 

But I love you all. So that's why I'm writing this.

Hope that you all had a great week! 

Love you!

Elder Baird

Something about socks!

So, this week's come from........ You guessed it..Come follow me! 

Let's be honest, this week's was hard. Isaiah always be getting you like that. But at yjr very end we get 2 Nephi 25 which is basically just Nephis testimony of Jesus Christ. 

And in it he says this. 

"17 And the Lord will set his hand again the second time to restore his people from their lost and fallen state. Wherefore, he will proceed to do a marvelous work and a wonder among the children of men." 

Its cool for me to be like, 'Dang, I'm a part of that'.

But then I think about how this doesn't say anything about only being for full time missionaries. This verse is meant for all of us. Every single one. 

We are all able to be apart of this work. We just have to act. 

So I invite you all to act. Find one simple thing you can do this week to push the work along. God needs us all. So don't let him down! 

Have a good one! 

Also, I've decided that I'm going to build a laser tag area in the future. Anyone who's ever had the dream of doing that let me know. We can start planning.

Dang I hate writing lame emails. A lot. 

Pikachu Gif

Elder Ray at the battle of pottington

Pokémon addiction (my companions cards, not mine) 

Pertty

Mac And Cheese

The man Elder 飛

McDonald's wall paper be wak

WEEK 23 XIZHI: "Well isn't this just a travesty darling" said in a very southern accent

The day has come. 

The prophecy has been fulfilled. 

The legend is true. 

Corki is going to Harvard and Yale.

I've always been told by other missionaries that there comes a day when people slowly stop emailing you. You slowly become forgotten as your letters are just more and more often sent into the boxes where they can never return. 

And so I have decided to stop emailing. 

The email is over... Why are you still reading?

I'm just kidding! You all know me too well! You know that I would never not email, because I know it would break all of my loyal fans and followers hearts. And I don't know what I would do if I didn't email every week. It's like, the best part of my week! 

So here's this week email for all of those who are still with me! 

Wow I'm rambling. I'm surprised more people don't like me. I mean, who wouldn't like just being randomly bombarded by words of nonsense?

Well, I've been busy busy busy! Sometimes busy doing nothing, and sometimes busy doing something! We've visited a lot of members this week, and by visited I mean go to their house to find out they've moved. Not talking to people has been rough! 

But it's led to me calling a loooooot of people. Which takes us to two stories! One about me being an idiot, and one about a miracle! 

Let's start with me being an idiot. That sounds like fun! So, I'm calling through potentials, people who have potential in wanting to learn about the gospel, and I called a person and was like come to English Group! And she was like sure! And I was like great! And then because I'm a missionary I asked her if she was interested in learning more about the gospel to which she was like maybe. I asked her what her thoughts about Jesus were and she said the following.

"我覺得耶穌基督是我的爸爸，而且是我的媽媽。＂

I lost it. 

The other 2 elders next to me lost it too. 

She hung up.

We lost it very quietly so I don't think she actually heard us, I think there was phone troubles. 

I think.

We called back and her husband answered and said he'd come to English Group. So we will see if I get a second chance. 

Then the miracle one. I was sitting in a family Mart calling people and I saw someone that I'd already called like 2 times and they hadn't answered. I decided to give it a shot.

She picks up the phone and I tell her who we are and she says, "I've been waiting for months for you to call me! Where are you? I'll come and we can talk"

I was shocked. Told her that we couldn't meet right then and then set her up for the next day. 

We met with her and she's way interested! So we will see where that goes! 

And then the day came where we received a text from President which basically said, don't plan finding time but you can talk to people between your activities! 

I GET TO TALK ABOUT THE GOSPEL AGAIN! TO PEOPLE ON THE STREET! 

We got that text and I went and talked to the next guy I saw and it made me so happy even though he just walked away! 

I've also tried my hand at cooking. You will see pics down below. One could say I'm a master chef. 

I also just went to Costco and I found fruit snacks and one could say I'm a very happy Boi. 

Anyways, time for the question of the week. I really thought this would be a fun thing where anyone could ask any question and we would have a good time, but no one responded to my email... So... That was awkward. Luckily I woke up this morning and Grandma Betsy had responded and asked a question.

The question is, your companion question mark? 

Apparently I'm not good enough so we have to talk about someone else. 

Anyways. 

NOW INTRODUCING ELDER FANG! WITH THE RAPPER NAME OF YOUNG FANG AND COMING IN AT 168 CM HE'S A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH! 

Born and raised in the beautiful town of 高雄 he learned from a young age that something was missing. Was it the fact that he didn't fit in with other kids because he was to 帥 or was it something deeper... A spiritual longing for something more.

He started meeting with missionaries at 8 years old and by the time he was 9 he had decided to be baptized. As the first member in his family of him and his mom to be baptized it was an uphill battle. 

In middle school his mom joined the church. And before he knew it he was preparing to go on a mission. 

Now he's been out for over a year and just recently has acquired his best companion yet. Thank goodness for Elder Baird who he loves dearly. 

Elder Fang doesn't speak English. Loves to sing. Cooks. Scuba dives. And loves board games.

He's a great guy with a great heart and he's on the Lord's errand! 

And thus ends the question of the day. 

Now back to me. 

Dang I'm prideful, but no seriously I love him. 

I also got to play the piano yesterday and I'm not very good anymore and that makes me sad. I also woke up this morning and was instantly terrified because I didn't remember Calculus. That was scary. It's gonna be weird to get back into school. Good thing I still have a year and a half.

Holy that's a long time. Like it feels sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo far away. But I guess that's how life goes. I'm trying to focus more on living in the moment and not living in a moment a year and a half from now. It's really hard, but I work on it every day! 

Anyways, getting off of that. I realized the other day that I don't give God enough credit. I was on exchanges with Elder Lu the other day and we biked up this MASSIVE hill. And I mean massive. I did mountain biking for 3 years and biked crazy race courses and so I get uphill climbing and so I can say that this 算s MASSIVE.

The whole purpose of biking this hill was to get to a house at the top. As well as to bike down it. But we bike up and we knock on the door of the randomly lady who decided she wanted to live literally on the top of a mountain, and she answers. We talk for a while and she explains why she hasn't been going to church. 

We talk about it and then Elder Lu says something that I will never forget, "God sent us up here to give you a chance to come back."

'now that's a lie', I instantly thought. 

Then I stopped. I literally just stopped. (thankfully Elder Lu was still talking as my brain processed.)

I had taken all credit of being on the top of this mountain for myself. I thought that I had made the decision to come up here. We'd decided to. Not, we were sent by God up here. 

But we had. 

We were his instruments to give this woman another chance and I didn't even believe it. After Elder Lu said that my whole outlook shifted. I was on the Lord's errand and so where I went I was sent by God. He was leading and directing me. And I'd been too prideful to notice. 

It was a very humbling and great learning experience and it ended in a great ride down a mountain!

So I had learned. I am on God's errand and as such I have his power. 

Since this encounter with my Ego I've since become a lot bolder. I've realized it's something I've been missing. In my lessons I'm quicker to promise people blessings and testify with power. I have no need to fear the reproach of man. And so I don't anymore. I'm turning into a more bold representative of Christ and it makes me happy to improve! 

However I still have a ways to go. But I'm going to do it giving credit to the Lord. And I invite you all to start doing that as well. Give the credit to God for that is where it belongs. 

I'd also just like to testify of Joseph Smith. 

He is a Prophet of God. 

Through him the Gospel of Jesus Christ was restored. 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is the one and only true and complete church and it is the same church that Jesus Christ himself established while he was on the earth.

Joseph Smith was a man. 

Joseph Smith made mistakes. 

Joseph Smith was called of God. 

I know these things are true and I invite you all to find out for yourself the truthfulness of these things for yourself. Through reading and praying about the Book of Mormon you can know these things for yourself.

I also invite every person reading this to start reading the book "Saints". The church wrote this for a reason. And I invite all of you to read it and find out for yourselves why. It's an amazing book. It has strengthened my testimony, and it will strengthen yours if you allow it to. 

That's about all for this week. Know that I love you even if you don't email me and know that I literally want emails from you. Like you. Like the you who just read the word you five times. That you. Now 6.

I hope you have a good week! 

Love, 

Elder Baird 

A quick apology. 

I'm sorry I stole your joke Roman. I won't do it again. 

A quick original joke. 

Why do ducks have tail feathers? 

To cover their butt-quacks!!!

Something about socks. 

Here we go again. You all know what's about to happen here. I'm thinking about changing the title to "something about come follow me" but that would take too long to type. So nah. 

So. 2 Nephi 7. We've got ourselves an Isaiah chapter. What am I other than confused? Happy. Why? Cause I finally got something out of an Isaiah chapter. *confetti*

"I hid not my face from shame and spitting.

   7 For the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.

   8 And the Lord is near, and he justifieth me. Who will contend with me? Let us stand together. Who is mine adversary? Let him come near me, and I will smite him with the strength of my mouth.

   9 For the Lord God will help me."

DANG

How powerful is that?

Just the straight assurance and the steadfastness and knowledge. This is how I want to be. I want to not be ashamed and I want to be successful. 

But what is success? This is something I've thought a lot about as I've felt that I haven't been successful the last while. Thankfully in my Preach My Gospel study it just so happened to be about what makes you a successful missionary.

"Your success... is measured primarily by your commitment"

I was like, huh. Commitment. But what does that mean? 

The trait of sincere and steadfast fixity of purpose 

The act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action

Success is not based anything on any outward appearance. It's based on binding yourself to a course of action and then steadfastly and sincerely pursing that purpose.

That's what makes life good. Finding the purpose and then pushing for it. 

"but Elder Baird, how does this have anything to do with come follow m..."

*throws white board marker across the room*

So as we go about this committed purposeful life where we hope to feel successful and follow God's commandments and stuff we're gonna get stopped. We're gonna have trials. And it's gonna suck.

That's when we need to set our face as flint and stand with God. No matter what is being throw our way it cannot prevail. It can hurt and wound us. But it cannot prevail. 

So stand for God. 

Set your face. 

Be not confounded. 

And be successful. 

Fix yourself to the purpose of life, coming to know Christ, and stand immovable against whatever may come. 

And do come follow me. 

:)))

Holy today's email was long 

Pictures 

A delicious cuisine of meat of cow, season with a delectable store bout seasoning with just a pinch of salt. Cooked on pan for probably not long enough leaving this piece of meat still moping but at least I'm not dead and it tasted good.

Young Fang himself

Pretty

A Mammoth

Costco has real ice cream. I don't have enough money to buy it yet, but I will buy it soon!

The three kingdoms of glory. 3 pieces if bread. Jam, honey, chocolate sauce, bananas, and of course.... Protein powder. 

A fun hike

A flower

WEEK 22 XIZHI: Sit down. Be humble. Sit down. Meamu. Feat. Breaking & Entering

Hey, What's up, it's soloElderOnly back doing some more Weekly Update action! Here with his PhD to tell you that the mitochondria is the power house of the cell.

I'm so sorry. 

I've gotten a few... Thoughts... From the viewers back home saying that my emails are confusing at some parts because I'll say random stuff. Basically that's because they're all inside jokes with Roman Seipert. Or should I say, Elder Seipert!!! But, he is now on his mission and for those of you who got his email he said some weird stuff that you probably didn't get, but I did. 

And so I apologize, because for the next 2 years we are probably just going to be saying random stuff back and forth and everyone is going to be confused. 

You're welcome. 

:) 

Anyways wow it has been a whole week! It's like it was 7 days ago that I was emailing all of my loyal fans last. My how quickly time goes by. At least I'm told. 

This week has been....... Interesting.... 

I guess we will start at the beginning. There was God, and there was his word. Then man. Then a fall. Then I was born. Then I went on a mission. Then I got transfered to Xizhi. And then I made a goal. 

Our President has told us that we should be getting 20 gospel conversations a day. A quota of sorts. And when I moved here that was not happening. So I made a promise with God that I would get 20 conversations every day, even if I had to do it alone.

And so I did. It was going good. And then Wednesday rolled around and I got sat down. Meamued. 

We received a text from our mission president saying that we were no longer allowed to talk to people on the street. Due to the Corona virus.

"but... I promised God" if I'm being honest I wasn't humble enough to accept this. All I wanted to do was to keep talking with people. But it was a great moment of God's will is greater than my will. Even though I wanted to talk to people, I knew that God had told me no. 

So needless to say the goal was not kept! And missionary work is sooooo weird right now. 

I just bike down the streets and am like, well I can say hi, but I have no obligation to talk to any of you. Sooooo... This is weird. 

So we've been visiting members. That's all we can do. And this envolves a lot of sneaky tactics. Since most of our LAs have moved we spend a lot of time going to houses to see if they are there. We are then supposed to, if they aren't there, ask they're neighbors if they live there and then try to baptize them.

So, we are at this house and we knock the door and there's no answer. So we go to the neighbor and ask if people live there. She's an old woman and says she doesn't know. She then went inside. Came back out with some keys. And proceeded to open her neighbors house for us... So... We went inside...?

Luckily they had moved and no one lived there.

Phew... 

Anyways we've been also having to sneak into big high rise buildings and that's been fun! Completely legal.

Yep... 

It's been pretty crazy. Sooo many people have forgotten that they were baptized. It's kind of impressive. But soooo many have forgotten. We like knock on a door and they're like "who are you?"

"the missionaries" we reply

"huh?" they say in confusion

"yah, you're a member of our church. We saw your name and we want to get to know you!" we say in equal confusion"

"I'm not part of a church" their reply

"you were baptized in our church" we say in some amount of wonder. 

"ummmm.... Maybe a long time ago" they say hesitantly. 

"yah! You should come ba-" 

Door closes. 

That's kinda been the week. It's been way fun!

This week also brought food! 

Some things I ate this week. 

Strawberry shortcake. Or as close as it gets in Taiwan. Sweet isn't a big flavor here, but this thing had like actual cream and it tasted so good and I may or may not have cried. 

Frog

Actually not too bad. Lots of bones. But like this a frog the size of a chicken... So like that's kinda weird. But I would eat it again if I had the opportunity. It's very expensive. 

Sea snail. 

I guess it's a snail that lives in the sea? It was oddly textured cause snails are odd. But it was decent. 

Squid mouth. 

We were told it was squid eyes, but it turned out to be mouth? I don't think squids have mouths so I am a little confused... But it tasted fishy. 

Mala Tofu

For those who went to China with me, you know this beast. Pic is included. Numbingly spicy, odd flavor, has tofu, not good. 

Yah it was an odd food week. 

Think that's about it. Nothing is really happening with the area other than finding a lot of people who have moved. Not talking is tough. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed talking to people on the streets, teaching about Jesus, and praying they would meet with us. And so thats been hard. 

Also, my companion only speaks Chinese??? So I only speak Chinese??? And it's working somehow? That's fun. Still don't know what people are saying half of the time, but I can tell them that I need to borrow their Hotspot (story for another day) and that I know my face has problems and yes I would love to go to their special doctor or try their magic soap. 

Not sick of that one. 

Improvement!

Trying to think of what else to talk about. Maybe people can send me questions and I can talk about them in my emails. 

I like this! 

We're going to do a question of the week! Everyone can send in questions and I will choose one each week to talk about. These questions can be about absolutely anything! So please! Everyone! One and all! Send me an email! 

...With your question...

Or just an email. I'd enjoy that too. 

I'm so needy. 

And pictures too. 

:) 

I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week! PEACE! 

Elder Baird 

Okay I spoke too soon apparently. I had this email finished and then I went to get my haircut. Now I have no hair. I specifically said, cut the sides and not the top. She then proceeded to take like 2 inches off the top. 

Ugh. 

There's nothing to do now. 

Except cry. 

Something about Hats™©®

I'm gonna need one

So this week in come follow me (here we go again) I had some realizations. You may even call it... Inspiration *insert magical whooshing sounds here*

But life is hard. 

Shocker. 

But it is way hard. And so is the mission. Everyone said it was going to be hard, and I did believe them, but I didn't know what they meant at all. And now I'm here and I'm like dang. Life's... Not fun sometimes. 

Then you read things and you're like, Nephi, you OK bud? 

2 Nephi 5:27 "And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness" 

Don't that sound nice. 

And then you read things like the intro to PMG, preach my gospel, or perfect marriage guide, depends on your stage of life. 

"More happiness awaits you than you have ever experienced as you labor among his children" 

'What am I doing wrong?' a question I ask myself all the time. Where is my happiness. 

And I think I look at it wrong. 

Because just the chapter before Nephi talks about that life is hard. And it is. 

2 Nephi 4:17 "Yea my hear sorroweth because of my flesh; my soul greiveth because of mine iniquities" 

But even when life is hard, Nephi praises. 

2 Nephi 4:30 "Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation." 

So that's what I've been trying to do. Even when it's hard, I try to rejoice, even when I'm sad, I try to say thank you. 

So that's today's invitation. 

Praise. Don't complain. But praise. 

It's hard, but I believe that is where the true happiness comes from. 

Something about hats is a copyrighted entity of Spencer incorporated. Any usage will be strictly punished. 

Here's some pictures. I don't have enough time to write about them. Like I only have 30 seconds right now. Love you all!