April 14, 2014 Toothbrush Salesman in Taiwan

I haven't had too many crazy adventures this week, but lots of fun stuff happens all the time. I try and look for a weird strange or funny thing that happens every day and usually theres at least one haha. one thing while contacting an old man yelled out of his truck HALLELUIA to us as he drove by and it was pretty funny. while watching conference on saturday some random guy walked in and hands me a toothbrush and tells me to mo.(touch or feel) it and he just starts pulling our all these four packs eight packs and 24 packs of tooth brushes and is giving me a sales pitch in the middle of watching conference in the chapel and it was just hilarious. he realizes that we are in church and he just bu hao yi se's and just leaves. yup those are probably two of the weirder things that happened. sad to hear about puppy and it sounds like she got pretty messed up, (our dog was hit by a car on Friday and needed stitches but is ok).  I found Nala's lost family here, there is a family of cats that live around the chapel here and are always playing and running around on the grounds. I pray for you all by name every night to be safe healthy and happy. I love you all so much, give Nala a kiss for me and let her know everyone in taiwan thinks shes absolutely beautiful.  I'll write a letter soon. Love you all.

Sincerely,

Elder Dexter

Quinn sent a bunch of pictures this week so I will attempt to add all of them below.

                                                   Peanut butter and banana burger.
                                                   He says it was actually pretty good!

                                                    Any guesses as to what this means?

                                     He's not kidding about security.  This is someone's front door.

                                              This must be the local college motto!

                                          Somebody is playing the alphabet game in Taiwan.

                                            This one is for you Grandma Donna.    
                                         

                                                                 What in the world?
                                                   

McDonald's Happy Meal Advertisement

April 7, 2014 "My Bowels are . . . Open?!"

Im in the area of Xin Zhuang, and I have a ton of stuff to say, theres like no time at all. I got qinged for the first time here and ate soup with giant shrimp, clams, mushrooms and Tofu skin. sounds like fun for someone who has never liked any of that haha, I buckled down and ate my fill until I accidentally bit down on one of the shells and the entire left side of my mouth shot into unbearable pain. I cant wait to get my residential card so I can see a dentist. please send me milkyways, or twizzlers, or sweedish fish, at night I'm starving and they dont sell any of those there, but some stuff I've found is KINDER!!! they have kinder chocolate here, it is pretty amazing, and this weird flavor of Kiwi Fanta. theyre super weird and super good, street food is getting to me a little though. not being able to eat eggs is pretty obnoxious here because they put it on EVERYTHING, even their burgers... yes eggs on burgers. but we have like 5 or 6 investigators ready for baptism on the 19th of this month, we just have to get their parents permission. on wednesday I taught my first english class, we were studying the V and B sounds it was alright because I teach the advanced class, so then we started talking about b words, and someone asks about the word Bowel... yup bowels, and old people here talk about bodily functions like they're nothing here, so the oldest guy in class "Luke" goes off on asking all these questions about bowels, and he said "Can you say, MY BOWELS ARE.. OPEN!?" about 30 times and I just had to keep saying yes haha, but we talked about bowels for like 15 minutes. it was pretty fun. the language is still rough, but its going to work out alright. I found a guitar in my appartment and figured out how to play a few songs on it, smoke on the water, moon dance, fields of gold (when I found that one me and my companion both started talking about how much our mom's love sting haha) I almost die like every night riding all over the roads, and there are so many cool looking cars here, you either have a super nice street racer car, a super fancy car, or you drive a box delivery truck... Miles, remember all those cars we made with legos as kids... make those life sized and they probably have it here in Taiwan. I'll work on getting more pictures of me, but I'll send what I have now. yes mom you'd feel right at home here in Taiwan, EVERYONE has these reinforced doors and they all have super cool designs on them I'll send a picture of one of my favorites later, but here in Xin Zhuang, the Church is going well, I've knocked on about 22 doors so far and always ALWAYS they yell BU YONG (It means i'm good or I dont need your religion) it hurts sometimes because we know how much better their lives could be if they only let us in their house for 10 minutes to share about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but those same two words will deny them that for as long as they live. its pertty sad :( At least I tried, and I'll keep looking for the diamonds in the ruff to those people who are prepared by the Lord to hear the Gospel by the mouth of His servant. 

Much love, 

Elder Dexter

                                                     This advertisement is awesome!! 

Video of Elder Dexter in the LAX Airport on his way to Taipei

TAIWAAANNNNNNNNNN

Quinn sent this email Monday morning:

I leave tomorrow morning at 6 AM and I'm sending 2 packages home full of stuff. take all the dear elders and letters and stuff and you can scrap book them if you want just put them in a file somewhere. I'm super excited to go and I can't wait to get there. I love you all and miss you a bunch, my mtc address won't work after tomorrow so I don't really know what to do about all the stuff that is still in the mail. hope it gets here in time. Love you all lots.

Elder Dexter

We were able to talk to him while he was waiting in the SLC airport to fly out.  He said someone just walked over and offered him their Iphone and he was able to call us and then the guy sent me some pictures of him and the companions he was flying with.  I also received some pictures from a sweet lady in the LAX airport.  There are really nice people in the world!!

Hi Vanessa. I had the privilege of meeting your son on his flight to LA He said to tell you he loves you. . He is so excited to get to Taiwan. I have twins serving in Taiwan right now. One in each mission.

                                                    off they go to Taiwan!!

Haven't heard from him yet in Taiwan.  Awaiting his email now saying he arrived safe and sound.

T-minus two weeks and counting

Latest epistle from Quinn:

I've been pretty lonely here without being able to hang out with miles and roman, or to even have you in the room. I miss your fried chicken soooooo bad I've met a bunch of sisters going to Nashville, TN and I told them to come to our house if they were ever stationed in chattanooga or signal mountain. I miss my kitten soooooo much literally there are a bunch of people whose hair look like hers, like how it stands up straight. I only have 12 days left and it is getting real. I haven't gotten my flight plans or even my all character name tags. but they should come by Friday. I cant believe Ive been here for 2 months now and I only have 22 months left on my mission... I took a few pictures the last week so there will be more (: Tell Emma gong xi fa cai, ask miles to say it, it means congratulations, and that I'm proud of her for doing that. Im still trying to find time to write all my thank you notes, I hardly have time to think let alone write like 8 or 9 letters. but I'll still try. give my kitten a big hug and a kiss for me ok?

I haven't heard anything about my visa so I don't really know. Elder Warner's family came on Sunday and Elder Willes' grandparents are in the japanese branch presidency so both of them get to see their family while I get almost no letters, and the dearelders have stopped coming. hmmmmmm.

I'm district leader now so I'm working a lot harder, so there's that.  I hope things are going well and thanks for keeping my kitten haha







this is about it, but I'm going to take some pictures at the temple again today, I love you Mom send some random stuff in a package for me, I'll be soon sending a package home with the stuff I wont need,

I love you and miss you bunches. 

now your turn,

Elder Dexter

Personal Day #5 February 26, 2014

I'm here, I had a doctor's appointment that I had to go to, I have a cold and I cant sleep at night, so I just went in for a follow up. I forgot to bring my camera today so I wont be able to send pictures, sorry, How's Emma doing? hows the weather? its getting pretty perfect here, I never thought Id say I'm glad its in the 40's

we go to bed at 10:30, the trio definitely has its ups and downs, but we are getting along quite well. Zac left on monday and I saw him on Saturday I think, I gave him a hug, but I didn't get to see him right before he left. thanks for the haircut, I haven't done anything with my mission bike, can you take care of that for me? I dont have enough time to do that. tell James (Hamn) I'll play him when I get back and to be ready for a but kickin on tattoine. The new jeans both fit and I got a lava lava that I'm required to wear every P-day which is awesome so I dont mind. Ive only heard from the Mendenhalls and thats it, I did get an email from the older caughmans which was nice apparently one of my co workers is now showing interest in the gospel. its pretty aweseome. anyways I dont have much time, anything else you want to know?

(My questions:  what are you doing to get better sleep at night?  Try reading the Old Testament.  Also, why are you wearing a lava lava?)

A lava lava because it was given to me in a pass down ceremony and I'm required to wear it every pday and it is a symbol of peace between the koreans who done messed up and the mandarins. thanks for taking care of the bike.. haha I've actually been thinking about reading the old testament, but I'm trying to finish the Book of Mormon first, I'm already in Alma 24 so Ive still got some distance to go but it will be good. anyways I love you all and Miss you all greatly.

Sinserioulsy,

Elder Dexter

Personal day #4

Did you forget it was P-Day? haha anyways Im doing well here at the MTC, my one month anniversary of entering the MTC is coming up like tomorrow, its pretty crazy how long ive been stuck here, and I still have 5 more weeks to go... uuuughghhhghg last night an Elder Perkins from the 70 spoke to us in a devotional, he was the previous missionary president for the Taiwan Taipei mission... and he talked a lot about how AWESOME it was in Taiwan... I WANNA GO ALREADY! I dont care how my chinese is right now, I just want to go haha, the food here is beginning to lose taste except for the apple juice and the bacon which I ate 35 strips of this morning (we got to late breakfast and they just gave me all the bacon that was left) it was delicious. the next district above us is leaving on Friday, theyve been here since December 18th, theyre ready to leave. but they are so cool that im going to be sad to see another district leave. all the yingwens (english speakers) are complaining about their 12 day stay here at the MTC and I pity and envy them. they know not of the hardships faced by the mandarin, Thai, Russian, Japanese, and the SEAL families face. (SEAL's are south eastern asian languages) I love you all back home, and Im glad to hear from a few more individuals through dearelder.com it makes me happy every time I get a single one, I'd like to thank everyone especially the Mendenhall family for sending all the Dear Elders, Tony, I'm still waiting to complete the set. youre the only one I havent heard from yet. I'll be waiting. I'd like the Thank the Parry's for sending me cookies, the hand drawn pictures, and the mints(: I love you guys and miss you, I hope you all are doing well and are all happy. Im loving how much more mail ive been getting, its awesome. class is still going well, the chinese is still coming i suppose, our lessons are getting better and better day by day so I'm getting excited to actually get out there and teach. I dont know what else to say, Love you all,

Elder Dexter

                                                       Quinn's District at the MTC