Elder Noah Goo: Taiwan Tapei Mission, September 2020 to September 2022

 大家好! Christmas week on the mission was a little weird but so awesome! We weren't able to have a lot of lessons because most of our friends were busy or gone for the week but we had a lot of great member visits. The sweaters Luda gave us Tuesday we went to Luda's again and she gave us all sweaters. Mine was too small and I think maybe a women's sweater but she made us all put them on anyway haha. We also dropped off some more homemade ornaments to members. Each time someone was home they'd always give us some food which is usually apples so now we have a ton of apples in our apartment. We met some of the less active members of our branch which was awesome. The trio Thursday didn't feel like Christmas Eve that much. We had another visit with Luda and Lai but then from 4-9 was technically P-day. Our Zone did a white elephant gift exchange which was really fun because everyone got joke gifts. One of our members Andy made dinner for the 6 of us Chinese Elders. He's

 大家好! This week was so cool! Tuesday we had a mission devotional with Elder and Sister Rasband! They have a grandson in our mission so this was there Christmas gift to him haha. Elder Rasband told us "this is your mission". Even though some of us are here temporarily we have been reassigned by apostles and this is where we are supposed to be. It was a good reminder that I should be focusing on the work here instead of looking to Taiwan too much. He also allowed one Elder and Sister to ask a question and my companion Elder Lopez was chosen! So he got to introduce us and ask his question to an Apostle which was so cool. Our Christmas ornaments Thursday we had Zone Conference which was really a mission conference over zoom because we can't meet in person. It was like 7 hours long but it was really good. There was a lot of training on finding and being more creative in our finding ways. We've been trying to implement that and we've been making some Christmas ornaments

 大家好! This week was so good and I can't believe I'm already halfway done with the transfer. Tuesday we had a great lesson with 陸先生. We talked about following the prophet and he said he believed in our living prophet today so we moved on to the Word of Wisdom. He told us that he drinks sometimes but then was totally willing to give it up to follow the Word or Wisdom. He has a  testimony of this gospel but he says he's not ready for baptism yet so we're praying for him. Wednesday we taught our friend Meili and gave her a Book of Mormon. We don't have set appointments with her so we usually just show up and see if she's home. She seems to really be interested in learning more about the gospel and is opening up to us now so that's really cool. 奶黃包 from Oakland Thursday we had a bunch of member visits. We visited with a guy named Jay who has been a member for almost a year now. He actually goes to an English ward so he can learn English (and our branch is pretty

 大家好! Not gonna lie this week was kinda slow. I'm still adjusting to missionary life and working hard all day. MTC definitely spoiled me because I had so much free time and could sleep a lot more haha. It's been good though and it's getting better. Hot pot We found a new person to teach this week! Her name is Meili and she's a sweet little Chinese lady that lives close to Luda. You need to teach someone twice for it to count as a new person so we had two lessons with her just on her porch. I can't really understand much of what she says but I get the basic understanding of what she says. We also had some good visits with less active members in our branch and we even got one to join our church zoom call! We blessed Luda and Lais sacrament with the other Chinese elders this week and it was actually really cool. Luda shared her testimony with us and you could feel the Spirit with all of us there. More boba Tuesday we went to hot pot for 文長老 birthday dinner. His parents

 大家好! Wow, it's crazy that I've been out here one week already. I flew out on Tuesday and I was with a bunch of people from my district so it was fun until I left with my new companions. That first night felt so weird as I was laying in a new bed surrounded by strangers. As many of you know I'm pretty quiet especially around new people haha. It'll still take some more time to adjust but I'm getting used to living with my companions and working as a missionary. First time meeting my companions I'm in a trio so my trainer is Elder Vos and then we also have Elder Lopez. They're both super cool and have been out here for about 4 months now. Elder Vos has pretty good Chinese but we're all still new so we don't quite understand everything people say haha. I realized that I actually learned quite a bit of vocabulary in the MTC but now I need to work on fluency and understanding others. We split our branch with another Chinese trio and we do a lot of stuff w

 大家好! Wow, I'm finally done with MTC. It's been an amazing nine weeks and I've learned and grown so much. At first, I was nervous for online MTC, but it's been so much better than I thought. I've been able to feel the Spirit every day Last two classes and just have fun with my district. Even over zoom our district became such good friends and I'm thankful for their strong testimonies. My teachers were so amazing and I'm grateful for them in helping me get to where I am now. It's starting to get real that I leave next week because I've been gathering my stuff and packing up my room. I'll get to be on a flight with some people from my district including Jackson 长老 so I'm excited for that. My Chinese isn't great haha and I still have a lot to learn but I'm so excited to get out there and just start. I will say nine weeks of being at home, while great, seemed to take forever haha. One of my teachers 李老师 said that we have grown out of our