Taiwan!

This place is absolutely amazing. I already love it so much.

Last week was definitely another crazy week. It was really hard saying good bye to a lot of awesome people in Colorado. I'm beyond grateful to have had the opportunity of serving in that wonderful mission.

The flights from Colorado Springs to Denver, and from Denver to San Francisco were both really short. However the flight from San Francisco to Taiwan was brutal. Way too long. But we're here now and so happy.

The Grand Hotel with my buddy
Elder Smith

We stayed in Temple Patron housing right across the street from the temple for the first two nights. That was really cool. For the first two days we did a lot of orientation and training and we actually got to tour a bit of Taipei. We went to the dedication site for missionary work in Taiwan. It was at the bottom of a hill near the Grand Hotel. President Day had each of us find a spot and say our own dedicatory prayer for our service here in Taiwan. It was a very special experience.

President Day is so great. Him and Sister Day are just so fun. They are both amazing people. I'm so blessed to be serving with them.

The beautiful Taipei, Taiiwan temple at night

Thursday night all of the new missionaries got paired up with random trainers (or "random" trainers) and hit the streets for our first contacting experience here on island. I got paired up with Elder Stanford and it was so fun! All of the people here are so willing to talk. There are tons of people who aren't very interested, or just don't want anything to do with the church, but they still love to stop and talk. They are all so humble.

My Chinese isn't amazing haha. Now that I'm here it's slowing improving. Whether it's terrible or amazing, when someone hear's you say something beyond "ni hao" they start to say ohh your chinese is so good! hahaha so that makes me feel confident.. a little bit. The people are patient though, and I have a good companion that helps me out a ton.

View from our apartment

So my trainer's name is Elder McClellan. He's a great guy. We've already had some good fun together. I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks with him. We are out in an area called Long Tan (Dragon Pond). It's a really nice area. It's west of Taipei. It's sort of a sub city to Taoyuan. The ward is awesome. Really small, we had about 40 people at church yesterday, but they're all great.
The food is incredible!! (sorry dad hahaha). Every time I have a meal, I think of you and how much you would love the food. So many people were telling me that Taiwanese food is kinda sketch...okay maybe a little tine bit. But it's SO good.

The food is amazing!

This past week I've had some pigs blood cake (cake made of well, pigs blood). It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Nothing I would go out of my way to eat it, but I'll eat it haha. I ate a 1000 yr old egg. Yes, that's one-thousand. It's funny though because I really don't think it's actually a thousand years old ahahah. It definitely looks like it's super old, but I'm not sure if it really is. That also wasn't too bad. (Looks are deceiving!) I had some tofu skin that was pretty good. Fried up chicken skin. Good. Tons of chicken, beef, pork, fish, rice, and noodles. The food is just great.

Biking has been tons of fun. The traffic laws are basically just suggestions. Everyone rides on scooters. But those that are driving cars and the bus drivers just go. So riding a bike is kind of like playing a game. Just dodge the vehicles going faster than you hahah. Don't worry mom, I'm being safe!

My collage of the people I love

I'm so blessed to be in this country doing this great work. It's a night and day difference than my experience in Colorado, but it's still the same work and I'm honored to be a part of it. I am loving this opportunity to be a missionary. It's been awesome being able to see how great God's creation of the world is. It's a neat feeling to know that these people are children of God. So different than people I'm used to being around, but they are God's children. And I am honored to be serving them. Already, they have loved me and treated me so well. There's nothing I'd rather do than to serve them to help them find true and everlasting happiness in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. How great is this work!

Love
Elder Chase Matua