Train trips this week....still going strong!

Hey ya'll!                                                                                                  June 27, 2016

This last week was one that was full of travel, and also a lot of miracles. For starters on Monday we were on exchanges. I was with Elder Luther who is so awesome! I learned so much from that guy, he is going to do amazing things in the south zone! Then on Tuesday we went to district meeting, I got to go back to MuZha chapel for the meeting which was so fun!

Prepping for our teaching at Zone Conferences

Got these pics from the a member there in Taiwan...so fun to see Elder Roe actually teaching in Zone Conference!!!

Then on Wednesday we had our Zone Conference with the Central and East zones. I think it went well. Probably just as good as the other ones, at least I didn't think it was much different. Right after the meeting we hopped on a train and headed off to Hualien! :)

Enjoying our pday at the beautiful beach...this is as far as we are allowed to go into the water.

Beautiful shot of the Elders on the beach

 We got there Wednesday night, and on Thursday we exchanged with Elder's Humphries and Miner. I was with Elder Miner, I love him so much! He was super impressive and I learned so much from him. We saw a ton of miracles! We had a afternoon full of finding and we found  5 of the most prepared people ever! So awesome! But holy hannah it is so hot down there. Literally we sweat buckets.Then Friday morning we played Frisbee with the Taidong and Hualien zones which was super intense

Feeling at home near the water!

. Then afterward had Zone Conference. It was different in a way since there weren't so many missionaries, it went well and we had a good experience. It was a good way to end the conferences. After the meeting we hopped on another train and went to Taidong. I was on exchanges with my already long time friend Elder Magness! I love him so much as well! (lot's of love this week) We had a great time and worked hard. We found some awesome people, he told me last night they met with one of the people we met and she brought her friend and is doing really well. So I'm excited to see where that will go. That night (saturday) we hopped on the last train and came back to Taibei. Home at last. 

One of my most favorite women in Taiwan!!! She's so good to me.

Had a great lunch from these ladies!

Sunday morning we had Brother Bian's baptism! It was awesome! He invited friends both non-member and LA. It went really smooth and he was so happy! I have pics of his baptism but not on me today. I'll send them next week! After that we had Church and had 7 of our investigators there which was busy but a miracle since we weren't here at all this last week. Brother Huang came back to church! (remind me to tell you about him)

Overall life is going well! Super awesome stuff is happening over on this side of the world. I hope your all doing well! I love you and miss you! 

Elder Roe

The grandma was 100 years old! 

Met some incredible people on exchanges this week!!! 100 year old Ama!

Dragon Boat Celebration and Miracles

Hello America,                                                                                         June 10, 2016

This week was one full of trainings The week after the  transfer is always a fun one. Now everyone is in their new areas, with new companions and trying to get to adjust to all the change, so fun!

 This week we had a meeting with the new English Unit Leaders and District leaders and then the trainer/trainee follow-up meeting. I felt like the District Leader training finally went well for once. Each time I have done it, I felt it wasn't great or super engaging. But this time we had lots of great discussion and I feel like they left the meeting feeling like, "I know what I"m doing." The District Leaders are SO important! They really make or break it for their District.

Celebrating with friends at the Dragon Boat Celebration 

The  trainer/trainee follow-up meeting is by far my favorite meeting that we do. It is always really tender, especially for the new young missionaries. After 6 weeks the initial adrenaline has kind of faded a bit, and they have come across some challenges. It's a great thing to watch them as they come through the struggle and learn and grow. The time we had switched it up and I got to stay with the trainees the whole time and hear how they were doing. It was a blast to year about those early mission struggles, the heat, the culture, rejection, comp. relations, and worst; the language. I guess the good thing was I could tell them, "it does get better!" But this group is awesome and they have already learned so much. They will be just fine.

Treated ourselves to Texas Roadhouse this week. Yeah, we're fatties.

This week we have seen so much success/improvement from our investigator Bro. B卞 He was just 下定決心 determined to be baptized. It has been so fun teaching him. He has already invited a ton of friends to his baptism including some LA's that were members when he was in High School, he is seriously so awesome!

Two other quick miracles. First was on exchanges two days ago, on the way home we met this guy named L Y 盧毅 from Macau. He is so great! We were biking and he was on a bike too. So I started talking to him as we biked and then told him our Chapel was like two minutes away and asked if he wanted to see it. So he biked over there with us and we taught him a small lesson and set him up for Saturday night. Then yesterday night I was biking somewhere else and ran into him again! So we stopped and talked, and talked a lot about the gospel and how it blesses our lives. It was so great, he loved it and he loves us. He is going to be one of my best friends! 

This guy is going to be one of my best friends!

Last thing. Yesterday we got a call from the temple front desk saying there was a man here we could teach, and needed some help. Apparently he came in and said "My wife told me I needed to leave the house, and repent. So here I am." Anyway we taught  him, it was one of the weirdest lessons I have ever taught. His wife called during the lesson and I got to talk to her which answered a lot of questions. He is a big alcoholic, and I'll tell you what, he was drunker than a skunk. Like so bad. He was soooo out of it. Yet also really "there." It was interesting. I think we were able to get through a little bit, I was pretty blunt (as usual) and told him since he was so drunk there was no way he would be able to learn anything and he needed to come back tomorrow sober. So he said he would and I set up the appointment in his phone so he wouldn't forget and I guess we will see what happens. I really hope he comes and we can turn his life back around and get it on the right track. 

I love you all! Have a fantastic week! 

Elder Roe

Look at this 帥哥 

Happy 20th Birthday Porter.....hope you got one of these...your favorite Mango Smoothie!!!!!

Welcome to the 16 new missionaries!!!

我親愛的朋友們,                                                                                               June 3, 2016

This week was super fun! :) We were blessed to have 16 new missionaries arrive safely to Taiwan as well as some incredible missionaries finish their missions and return home. So nuts! It was so weird to see this group of Elders  go home because this was the group that was in the MTC when we entered. They are all amazing and I have loved associating with all of them. Something a little crazy that happened. All the new missionaries arrived on Wednesday, and the returning missionaries departed on Friday. However pn Thursday, the airport flooded. So that was a little nuts, and a big clean up job. We were lucky they were able to clean it all up in a timely fashion. Then for those going home, their flight changed, had some crazy layovers and everyone was running around looking for a passport one of the missionaries accidentally misplaced. Needless to say, preparation day came just in time. 

Our new group of missionaries we welcomed this week!!!

Welcome to the best mission in the world!!!

This week was Zone Conferences. Elder Liston and I attended the XinZhu and TaoYuan zone meetings. They all did such an amazing job! I really love going back out to XinZhu and seeing my first area! The Chapel and all brings back so many fun memories. It was also Elder Listons first time really seeing the West Coast... sort of. Anyway that made it pretty fun.

We are working hard and really seeing some great things happen!

Last saturday we went on a picnic the the Wang family, Cai JM, EnCi, Pei Cheng, and co. It was a blast. We spend the day at the 中正紀念堂 which has a beautiful garden where we fed the fish and visited all day. Oh man I love those people! Sister Clawson is super lucky, she just got transfered to MuZha. The members will take good care of her there.

This pic just makes me smile!!! Love him!!!

Had a great day with my dear friends!

Miracle of the week. Our investigator B DX had a big moment/breakthrough and is going to be baptized in two weeks. I am really looking forward to it. He is really serious about doing what it takes to be baptized. Setting out a lot of time and making a lot of sacrifice to do what God wants him to do and what he thinks is right.

MOM!!! Had dinner with Wanda and her family!!! She is as awesome as you told me she was!!! She has a great family!!

Love this man! He is the man!!!

I am so excited for this last transfer! It is going to be the best one yet. I have lot's of goals and things to focus on so I am excited to be here with Elder Liston and blow up the XinAn ward! 

Hope you all are doing amazing! Go find a mango... and eat it. 

Elder Roe

PS... Shout out to Bre!!! Way to go Cous! So proud of you....you made it through! MC Grad 2016!!!

Bre and Brenna at Graduation!

Celebrating 60 years of Missionary work here!!!

Hello everyone,                                                                                                 June 2, 2016

Wow the last two weeks were so much fun. Last Saturday morning was one of the events for celebrating the 60th anniversary of missionary work in Taiwan. It was up at the Grand Hotel in DaZhi. That Friday night when we went to set up was crazy. The same day was the presidential inauguration of 蔡英文, and the dinner banquet was in the same part of town so traffic was nuts. But super fun to head up there with the Elders. The Grand Hotel is stunning at night. The big red pillars stretching up into the sky overlooking the HePing 和平公園 park and the rest of Taipei is absolutely majestic. It's a sight to behold, I love living in Taiwan with all of the Ancient Chinese structure.

Love spending time with this awesome family and I love these two boys!

Saturday morning we woke up early and went up to the Hotel and had a buffet breakfast, which was delicious :) The ceremony went really well! The Choir was incredible and loved hearing from all of the speakers. Afterward, we ate lunch with our Gospel Doctrine teacher Tan JM and then had a ward finding activity! This was the first time the ward has ever done a finding activity. (like MuZha) So we are working on get it up and running. It turned out to be a raining day which was a little disappointing because it made it so not as many members showed up. But it was still a huge success. Then that night our district/zone had so many baptisms! It was incredible! I had the privilege of baptizing Brother 陳建均 Which was a great experience. He will be a great member and is already a great Dad. Then we headed off to SongShan where Elder Liston got to baptize someone that he had taught just before he moved here with me. So overall it was a great night! 

I was so happy to baptize Brother C! He is an awesome Dad and will be a great member!

On Sunday we had a whomping 38 investigators at Church. It was an awesome day! We had invited a school hear in Taipei that studies religion to come and attend our Church meeting. So awesome! They are all Catholic, so it was  really cool to go into sacrament meeting and have 32 nuns and fathers sitting in the pews. After sacrament they split into classes, and then the last hour we had the Mission President with us, the Stake President, Temple President, and Bishop have a question/answer session. It was awesome! These people were really curious to learn more! How cool is that!

Then on Monday we were privileged to have our newest Senior Couple arrive, the Vatchers. Elder Liston and I got to take them out on Monday and help them buy all the things they needed for their home here. We had a great time getting to know them, they will be a great asset to our mission. We are so excited to have them! Then the rest of this week was busy while we have been filming for a English Class promoting thing and working on transfers etc. All good things, all good things.

We took a fun hike

I loved this cute Ama

 Lastly, this last Friday was MLC (Mission Leadership Conference). Yeah that sneaked up on us super duper fast! So we cranked out a plan super fast. President and Sister Jergensen focused/trained about Fear & Faith. It was incredible (as always) and then Elder Liston and I trained on working more with members. The key focus was how to teach and encourage members to talk with their friends about the gospel. I think it went well, I had never been trained on something like that before, so we didn't have much of a foundation to go off of, but I think in the end it turned out ok. Thank heavens I have Elder Liston who can carry me and make anything good, I love that guy!

Man, I love Elder Liston. He's a stellar companion!

Finishing out today we went to the last event of the Celebration here at the Chapel. It was really good and was very similar to last week. One of the greatest parts was to hear from Elder Kitchen, who was the first missionary to come to Taiwan. I had the honor of talking with him a lot as he as been here over the past week. He is truly inspirational and I'm so grateful for the faithful service he has given to Taiwan. If it weren't for him and his companions the Church would not be anywhere close to where it is today here in Taiwan. He took time out of his busy schedule to talk to our mission. It was nothing but inspirational. They suffered so many hardships while here. I can't imagine all they went through but I'm grateful that all of us that where in that room shared something in common: what it is like to be a missionary in Taiwan, and the incomprehensible love for the Taiwanese people.  

Hope all is well! Love  you all more than  you know! 

Elder Roe