Fun Stuff!

He's got the whole world in his hands...OK, maybe just the sun!

This Elder’s on fire!

Our P-Day this week got moved to today, Wednesday, since this is also the day that we’ll be going to the temple in the afternoon. This morning, we woke up at 4am so we could bike over to a bridge to watch the sunrise with our district, as well as to film it with my GoPro in case we find a use for it in the videos that my companion and I are making for the mission. Later, we’ll be going to this place called MaoKong to ride the cable cars/gondolas.

Sunrise in Taiwan

Sunrise in Taiwan

Unfortunately, we heard last week about the missionary, Elder Hampton, in the TaiChung mission, that was hit and killed by a car. Apparently the seat on his bike wasn’t fully tightened, so as he was biking, the seat slipped and fell down from its higher position. This caused his bike to fall to the side as he lost control and fell into traffic. The car driving near him had no time to stop; there was really nothing that could have been done. Taiwan’s traffic is very crazy, so we’re all instructed to be careful as we’re biking both day and night and often have to ride through heavy and fast traffic.

Nice people everywhere we go!

Our investigators are doing pretty well. We have a 13 year old girl that was supposed to be baptized tomorrow evening, but for some reason our Bishop said we can’t – we think it’s a miscommunication since his reasoning behind it actually isn’t a problem. We’re working on finding another time to move it to. We also have another date in mid-May that we’re pretty confident that we’ll have a baptism.

A meeting without cookies is like a day without sunshine!

A meeting without cookies is like a day without sunshine!

Today is actually the day we’ll find out if we’re moving, since tomorrow it’s transfer day. We’ll most likely get a text message between 10am and 12pm telling us that we’re being transferred (if we are) and giving us a code to use to print out our moving instructions. My companion and I are not really sure if we’ll be moving or not. It’s very rare for a trainer and trainee to be companions right after training, but since we’re working on a video project for the mission together, there’s a higher probability of that happening. We’re also losing a missionary in our district this week who’s returning back home to the US – Sister Haacke. That’s why we’re trying to do super fun stuff today since it’s her last P-Day as a missionary!

Does this helmet make my head look fat?

Does this helmet make my head look fat?

My new "bestie", Kevin Yang

My new “bestie”, Kevin Yang

Anyways, we’re off to hopefully do something fun!

– Elder Austin Simonson
文長老

Kevin Yang

Small “editorial” by Mother Terresa

 (A big shout out to Kevin Yang for the following pictures! If all the Taiwanese people are as wonderful as he is, we’ll probably have a hard time getting Elder Simonson to come home!)

 

 

That Elder's so bright, I call him son!

That Elder’s so bright, I call him son!

See…I told you so!

If you keep making that face, it’ll get stuck like that!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun times in a wonderful place!

Fun times in a wonderful place!

The following pictures are from Maokong, which is an area in Southern Taipei. It is a mountainous area dotted with tea plantations, tea shops, and restaurants nestled on the edge of the mountains. The views are stunning! Maokong is accessible by riding the Maokong Gondola (and is really cheap…about $1.65 USD each way). The ride each way lasts about 25 minutes. If you are afraid of heights, you may not enjoy this attraction…and disregard the fact the bottom of many of the gondolas are glass!

Strike a pose!

Strike a pose!

Maokong Gondola - Going up?

Maokong Gondola – Going up?

Hindsight

Hindsight

View from the gondola

View from the gondola

Look past the feet...the bottom of the gondola is glass!

Look past the feet…the bottom of the gondola is glass!

Don't look down!

Don’t look down!

Elder Anderton, getting a photo of Elder Simonson's "good side"

Elder Anderton, getting a photo of Elder Simonson’s “good side”

This isn't orange juice?

This isn’t orange juice?

謝謝, Kevin Yang...我愛你的好意

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