First Move Call (Transfer)

Things on the island are quite swell. I’m trying my hardest to adapt to my new area, companion, and style of doing mission work. I really miss my old companion, but my new one is still great as well. My new area is so different. The change of scenery is actually a nice thing. Taibao is a huge area. It is actually a city, my old area was a town. However, it’s just a small city. The roads are huge here and the area is actually a lot like a city from the states. I would relate this place to a greener, Asian version of Scottsdale. I’m not sure why but this place really reminds me of Scottsdale. Maybe because all of the buildings are brand new, lots of new development going on with apartments, malls, hotels, houses, etc. The streets remind me of AZ as well. Huge wide lanes, very open area, gridlock style. It is a lot different than my last area. It is a very nice place. The county government building is actually right next to our house so I often see very nice cars and more well-off people on a daily basis which is different as well. We have a lot of what they call "secondary areas" which are little towns about the size of my last town all over. Because we are the only companionship around here (closest companionship to us is an hour away), we are in charge of a lot of land. I thought I biked a lot before, but nowadays I’m biking almost double of what I was doing in Xihu. The food is a lot better food around here as well (including Mcdonalds!). I actually had my new favorite meal 2 days ago for the first time, it was this fried rice and pork but wrapped in an scrambled egg. Kinda hard to explain but so tasty. It’s like this huge egg ball with an interior of rice and meat, as soon as you stick your fork in everything spills out and its so delicious.

My branch is small. It’s weird having only 20 people at best at church. It makes missionary work a lot more difficult as there are less people to fellowship our investigators. I gave my introduction in sacrament meeting yesterday. I greeted everyone in Taiyu (Taiwanese) which they all loved because no one ever speaks it at church, they got a real kick out of that. A lot more people speak Taiyu here as well which is different. The further south you go, the more Taiyu is spoken. The branch president here is amazing. He’s such a humble, caring guy. He has only been a member for 10 years and he lives in our apartment building (his apartment is much nicer though). Earlier this week he let me borrow his bike (while mine was being shipped) and he drove us around to lessons to help teach and stuff in our farther areas. He’s so cool. He and his wife actually had us over for dinner last night. They cooked an amazing chicken curry and rice meal (restaurant quality... so good). This was actually the first time I have been fed by a member since being on the island. They don’t do it often, but our branch president does because he cares so much about the missionaries as we are his only hope to turn this branch into a ward.

My companions name is Elder Vance (just like my really good friend in the mtc- they literally have the exact same name, Jonathon Vance... kinda weird how that happened). He’s from San Diego. His Chinese is phenomenal. Way better than my last comp's. I was worried because he is so young in terms of mission age, however he took Chinese in college before his mission and he’s absolutely amazing at it. His approach towards mission work is a lot different than my last comp's so it’s a little hard getting used to it. I think he looks exactly like "Big Dick" (Keith Dickinson), a little skinnier but for the most part it’s a good look alike. We get along pretty well, but nothing like Elder Beus and I. Elder Beus and I just naturally clicked so well. There’s also this really cool American guy and his wife who live in our building and go to our branch. He served his mission Spanish speaking in LA and she served somewhere else. They are living here for the summer teaching English in Taibao. It’s cool to see them and be able to speak English with them. I miss having English conversations.

Well thanks for the update. I love and miss you so much. Hope you enjoy my letter. Ask questions if I didn’t hit everything. I can’t wait to here from you next week!

Love, jeremy