August 28, 2016 The week dad ran away

This week was pretty sweet, a couple of reasons behind that the most important is the fact that my dad ran away (trainer is called dad, second infield comp is breaker,cuz he breaks your training habbits) then i personally call the killing elder a gladiator [too long of a story]) anyway dad ranaway to taidong ie the very farthest part of the mission and we are one area away from being the very furthest north mission. i really couldnt sit still during studies waiting to get a code to see what was gonna happen. then we got it after studies and my breaker is a bendi!!!!!!!!!! (native) he is super shuai!!!! and bomb and he is incredible with members and he is also an amazing teacher. we have had a few lessons together but mostly finding this bendi is so dope he literally never stops i've never been with a missionary like him, and ive been on some good amount of exchanges in my 2 transfers... its been a crazy week i have to be the one to make every decision and i reeally don't like it but it gets done either way. (quick note to elder facer- man i hate knowing the area more;) also you never wrote in my book) anyway so its been a lot of fun over here. and i realize if you have a bendi companion  it is so much easier to remember to always be speaking chinese. next awesome thing about elder zhuang (jew-awng) is that he has incredible drive to improve himself as well whenever possible he uses english to try to get better, it helps me a lot to remember to speak chinese more. 

Everything has been great lately. little stress about new comp is all gone! haha he is awesome! he sings a lot and we party all the time. also we get stopped by members, security guards, investigators, few other people, all telling us about us being on the news. we still use our giant pokeball! the other night we handed out over 300 english calss tracts in like 40 minutes, and the members are liking it more everytime! if you wanna see me speak some chinese for like 3 seconds look up taiwanese news about exchange students and a pokeball, thats really the only problem they said we were foreign exchange students. 

I am currently wearing that dope (Asian shirt) a member made and gave us the old fashion kung fu style one and basketball shorts cuz we are going to the beach and why not. also we now have 6 elders in the district again they are whitewash training in zhuwei and danshui is also training so two people yoounger than me! thats pretty cool this transfer we had 33 new missionaries and next we have another 23 coming in.... our mission has about 100 companionships... so doing the math about 60% of them will be training by next transfer this scares me a little but i think i am ok because I am pretty new still until next transfer anyway and ill probably move before my companion so its even less likely to whitewash train so i think im safe.... i hope.

God watches and he loves us a whole lot. i was reading the parable of the wheat and tares and i noticed when the servants asked to remove the tears the lord said not to because it would also pull up the wheat... as i pondered over this small portion i liked it more and more, the tears not only represent evil people but evil things in general in it ties back to 2nephi 2 verse 11 opposition and trials and evil is given that we can recognize the good and the happy things. i think the question "why does God let bad things happen?" is probably the silliest thing ever, thats why it is only ever asked when you are angry or upset or sad when all thinking is negative and not all that much thought out. "God doeth nothing save for the benefit of the world" "for He so loved the the world" God is working for you consider yourself currently to be a small rundown country home, the Lord to be the brand new owner and he will obviously want to fix you up. at first you can see where he is going even though it hurts you stand it because you see the end goal, tears down walls cuts things, adds new parts, changes the landscape and then you think awesome look how much better i am now, but then you continues on you are confused it should have been done but this hurts more, he puts more stress on you digs about adding boulders or trees, you think you almost cant bear it, and some people dont trust him they dont hold their own and crumble, but those that will trust in god soon realize that "your trials were but a small portion" "and thy reward is great" when you finally open your eyes and stop gritting your teeth you see that he has turned you into a glorious castle fit for your soul a son of god, a prince to this kingdom. God loves us, he loves me and he loves you. sometimes you dont know why and thats because you aren't god. just bear it boldly come unto christ trust him "learn of him" and he will help you bear up your burden,except that you cant know everything. I love you all jia you. keep going if you ever feel down email me i have good words for all of you.

LOVE KONG ZHANGLAO 

Last supper with Elder Facer

New companion is sleepy from working so hard. 

August 22, 2016 POKE-POCALYPSE

The week when there starts to every night be over 3 thousand people literally across your street in a small park. because of a game. Well as a missionary we took this very rare chance to turn it into a very effective finding time. The only problem is they are mostly not from beitou our area.  

POKE-POCALYPSE

So it happens our area has the very most poke stops in the smallest area in all taipei excpet 101 but the reason so many people come to our stop is we have a very rare pokemon named dragonite. People literally move in herds they stop traffic, clog roads, everything, literally the cops are here every night

POKE-POCALYPSE

 directing traffic, being careful, the news is there often(more coming about the news). lets just say we are pretty much golden over here in beitou and whats more its every night a whole crowd of new people that haven't seen us. Well we decided to call our whole zone in, consisting of about 14 or 16 missionaries to use this effectively. we painted over 40 eggs like pokeballs, we made a giant pokeball out of an old basketball, we got an english banner, got members, filled over 50 waterballoons and had ourselves a real life pokemon GO how many can you catch egg toss we called it "POKE-Dan(egg in chinese) GOTTA HATCH 'EM ALL" we were unbelievably proud of that name #ELDERFACER we had missionaries grabbing people selfies with the giant poke ball egg/waterbaloon toss, and a whole lot of sweaty fun! iIn the end we basically nailed it. I cant explain how much set up and build up it took because there was many txts calls, explainings and stuff but it started something great!!!!

We are about to go golfing with a nonmember so im excited! hopefully we dunk him soon:) but the other cool thing and the reasaon no monday Pday is Elder Evans from general 70 game to talk to us! that was so cool!! he gave a huge and amazing speach his wife enlightened us! also they announced that we dont have to wear suit jackets between MAY and OCTOBER!!!!!! wwwwwwwwwwwwwoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo it is unbeliveably good news!!!! we get to not burn to death!!!!!! 

Probably last thing i want to say is that me and Elder Facer may or may not have been on national news... mostly because we are dope we were walking around with our pokeball near the park trying to touch the outskirts a little, when up the hill ran a large heard of trainers, me and elder facer went directly to the middle of the herd and went the other way, i with the ball, he with a stack of english tracks. i held the ball high and yelled "jia you, pokemon GO jia you jia you" "shui ge jia you" "woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo" which was followed by the parting of the seas and laughter pictures selfies, enjoyment, and lots of people hearing about english, we walked all the way through and found it was time to go home, when we got to the bottom of the hill there was a large camera and elder facer and i looked at each other and he said lets go talk to them and i said ok, the second they saw us they

quickly pointed the camera and asked us questions hahahaha as we were walking over i was still yelling wan an to everyone hahaha. then we went home yelling and talking to everyone. when we woke up the next morning our RC congradulated us for making the news through a txt, and as we left for exercise our security gaurd was laughing saying good job "hen shuai" and then we decided we would hold the next district meeting on how to be famous thats the story of how i became famous.

LOVE KONG ZHANGLAO

PS we started this thing called selfies for salvation take a selfie for a street contact

Hand made shirts as a gift from a member. 

Poke-apocalypse 

Night time poke-apocalypse

Poke prep for park games 

August 14, 2016 Pop goes the... tire... twice

We had some dope adventures this week, including some exchanges and some parties, our ward has been bomb lately giving us referrals and having activities its been a party around here for us. we have been preparing 7 people to recieve baptism in the next 2 weeks but it looks like only 2 or 3 will make it, but that is all good we still got plenty of time. they are all amazing just some dont have the time to get to where they want to be. right now we are getting excited we have 2 super awesome investigators that have just been champions, they haven't had a problem accepting and keeping word of wisdom or chastity which is a miracle in and of itself hopefully it continues!! hahaha i love those guys!!!!

also this week david archuletta is in taiwan to help us celebrate we got a special mission conference to listen to him speak and sing. he is dope. he has a great voice, sometimes when you just got music rolling you forget people actually sing these songs, then you can see them perform them its incredible. yes he sang glorious, yes it was glorious. yes he shared mission stories, yes they are as incredible as ever. 

this week ironically the title doesn't involve me hehehe poor companion has hit it flat twice this week once was this morning as we were biking up and exploring the mountains for exercise, he had to run home, he got more exercise then me🐒😋 we found the thermal valley, also known as hell valley, how about that name. in honor of the stupid pokemon GO game, the hotsrpings would have brought rest to us had we not been on a mission and unable to enter. basically the dang boulder was in the way and we haven't found the HM strength to move it yet. but soon enough. 

MORE IMPORTANT THAN ALL ELSE this week i made a very good choice and bought a large sword, it has provided much fun already. and noone cares in fact they like it when you ride around on a bike with sword in hand. most people even at a public train area actually wanted to see me biao ming or present for them hahaha it was dope!!!!! im excited!!

also earlier this week we biked up a mountain and then hiked a small way through a large graveyard for exercise it was sick. i discovered a few things, taiwan blows too much money on graves, taiwan looks like the valley of peace in kung fu panda, me and my comp have similar senses of humor, at the top of mountains there arent very big leaves very often though they are pretty much everywhere else, banana spiders are basically like the bat signal for spider man, cuz they chill everywhere and blot out the sun in a very scary manner, and lastly prepare better for a hike elder facer....

love you guys!!! KONG ZHANG LAO OUT!!!!!!

ps we also found a lightsaber in our apartment.

August 8, 2016 There and back again an Elder's Tale

Well to start this week off, it started as you might expect in a small taiwanese apartment, we arose about 6:00 in the morning and prepared to exercise that we could remain healthy, a light jog later brought us to a bit older run down middleschool exercise area, as the Amas(grandmas yes they do like being called ama) strolled about and were doing their taiqi we began our time there, the next thrity minutes were simple enough, go ham all day er'y day. and then it was a simple walk down a large staircase to the welcome mart(ding hao) bought a light breakfast of 2 packs of juabings for the week (chinese pancake) and some mango icecream(i learned mondays is icecream sale day) then we returned and prepared for the day, studied, then readied ourselves to join wu di xiong (dx) for a momentous trip to danshui. the zoneleaders had planned to meet us in thirty minutes we ate together for lunch. then recieved a call that the zoneleaders were quite late. just as many 19-20 year old boys are. we began our journey a brisk pace along the river up to danshui, with many twists and turns in which all manner of large bugs and small critters must've creeped but we simply peddled along. we arrived at the boardwalk area, many tourists were about none looked unexcited, we got some snacks looked about for the ZL to arrive but recieved a call that they had gone to the beach on the northern tip. we mounted back up and set off at a brisk pace, for we are missionaries, and an RC and its not very polite to be late. 20 minutes (pretend days) later arrived at the beach. we journeyed across a large desoltaion of sand and rock, for we desired the very tip not the gentle inlet of delicious sand. we soon came to the tip that had many tide pools, with no clear path to follow there were many LOTR references to golem as he lead the hobbits through the large bog. mostly me of course but everyone laughed. after we arrived at the edge we stood about as conquerers of the journey but had not yet accomplished our design as to achieve the accompaniment of the ZL for they had gone ahead. and simply up to the inlet to the beach. as we were about to head back to find the object of our design our poor RC took a small tumple backards onto a bit rocky shallow part into the ocean. we quickly pulled him up and began to return to the safety of the sandy expanse, (i enjoyed this rocky part for they were no small rocks and it was like an obstacle course) we finally returned and cleaned up wu dx and then met the ZL who quickly had to run for they had angered a deep beast of the dark. possibilty of being LATE (damsel in distress scream) we had a nice gentle ride home with but a few souveniers of our journey, after all we were just missionaries no one could ever need as much as was hoarded in that beach. (end seen i aint no JR Tolkien but that is my tale of P day bike ride) it was pretty bomb.

after that we had zonemeeting good trainings there. i have passed of the first phase in language training and very close to phase 2 which means characters soon! woooooo then we had exchanges in the which me and Elder Hammond had some crazy miracles in finding people and setting some baptism dates on the street! then we finally had time to be in our area and do work, we have a taxi driver investigator who is pure gold he has a kareoke machine in his taxi, and offers us free rides every where! and he loves the gospel he is working so hard to get baptized on the 27 th he is awesome!!!! then we had a ward activity in which we had like 8 investigators come it was so awesome!!!!! thats like unheard of!!! and 2 are a couple that also have 2 kids we are hoping to bring a new family in here!!! then church the next day we had 7 investigators come!!! we were blown away miracles have been dropping into our lap lately for these progressing people!!!!then sunday night we had a fireside that we had 3 RC's come to one spoke! and then we had 2 of our best inv. come and it was super good i got to see some people from the MTC again as well as elder colletti from highschool, and i saw elder turner from ELA he is doing great! aside from that this week was pretty bomb i have pictures coming!!!

Kong Zhang Lao is happily ever after 

The End.

At the beach

Epic bike ride

This is really hat they use for a broom

Melons longer than my arm

More epic bike ride 

Sea urchin

August 1, 2016 Baby Gangster and the crew

whats happenin fam, uh thug lyfe, ya dog this week was real cool, we was all feedin sheep and helpin people, and just chillin dog. ya know. then we just like had some sweet success rollin in lately as we have been working day in day out for new people and for our dates to be movin dog. (Nevermind i cant do that anymore.) Me and elder Facer met a guy this week that said his name was BG (baby gangster) poki (poe-kai) he was telling us how he loved rap music and hip hop, he had pretty good english and he said he learned it by listening to rappers.... HAHAHAHA we decided it would be best to get hip with it and tried matching how he was talking, he thought he just met some more fam haha we discussed rappers with him and after telling him of krispy kreme (if you dont know who that is youtube it) (its worth the time) then we moved to gospel stuff and said a prayer with him, and we said amen he ended the prayer with "ya thug lyfe" and i forgot to mention when we said hello he waved us over and was like yeah west side(west side sign included) and then he was like y'all feedin sheep, thats awesome man, keep findin sheep dog yeah. and he said he was gonna come to english class and drop rhymes with us there. After that we asked what he believed in and he said he was part of Tupac's religion sayin we gotta be careful of illuminati and stuff so that was probably the highlight. 

Any way this week was bomb, we have been pretty good at keeping contact We have had a lot of new investigators lately and we have been setting a lot of baptismal dates. we have obviously met some good people, and lots of fun there! we have been getting into a real rhythm with teaching our lessons have been inproving and i have been more help! I have felt chinese coming along, and then i start to talk to another person and i remember i've only been in taiwan for 2 months and my chinese is very low level. hahaha i love it so much! the best is laughing with people about it! that has been one of my biggest tools is just laughing with people about not being able to understand them! laughter is a strong force friends! always laugh, make others laugh, enjoy what you have and rely on the lord for what you dont have:) 

we have been having a guy come to church lately that has a lot of faith but no time, so its hard to meet with him, but he comes to church and literally just loves it we finally had the firt lesson with him and set a date with him, he is so excited! we have this other lady that after teaching the plan to her asked if we could meet her every week for l unch, and she comes to church brings friends, and brings friends to lessons. she is so cool! this week and last week we had 5 investigators at church which has been an insane blessing! we have made plans to leep that climbing but literally the lord has just been answering prayers all day for us! and he answers yours, everytime just give him time, his time is different than yours. 

last week we went to a giant museum that has a bunch of stuff. I dont know what its called but we called it gu gong which i think is just chinese for meusum idk oh well, it had a bunch of jade and steel from ancient places, unfortunately the cooler big attractions are in taizhong, which is the jade cabbage a very famous amazing thing, which also has a gen conf talk about it so... you know. and then giant painting  scrolls that are like 10 feet long but we still had fun! this week is gonna be a giant bike ride.

spiritual thought 3 nephi 26-33 God loves the earth that we tread down enough to make it glorious and beautiful, how much do you think he loves you, how much do think he does for you, how well do you think he has made you? you are a very precious child unto him, and he will protect and keep you. God works from within, and trust me the world's eyes are worthless dont look upon worldly beauty but upon the godliness of others.

Love you guys, TONS see you next week on "Taiwan by Elder Conover(that new missionary guy)"

BG (baby gangster) 

Yay for Nutella

Typical breakfast...meat stuffed bread

Internet bar

Lunch at KFC the Chizza (chicken with pizza toppings on it)

July 24, 2016 The week of timeless work

This week was crazy busy, we had the first half full of visits to the bu (boo or mission home) because we werer needed there for stuff, then the weekend at the beginning of the week had 15 set ups... in 3 days including days that we alreaady have stuff set up... hahaha this week was bomb, so to start PDAY was dope we climbed a mountain that overlooked the northern tip of taiwan and then ran down the other side and got on the ferry across the large danshui river! my legs felt it hahah really! but what i wanna tell you is about the bannana spiders, i have no idea if they are deadly but they are big... like the smallest one i have met so far was longer than my pinky actually the smallest spider i have seen is as large as my pinky, but anyway these spiders dont only get long they're legs each is atleast the length of the body, and they dont really have a limit for size i have heard of them as big as your head from some dead missionaries that served in taidong (the southern side) but while we were hiking i saw atleast 50 of these things, and they dont really stay away from the trail either they actually quite enjoy being just above or at head height over the trail.... and the biggest one i saw the body was easily as big as my hand.. hahahah it was dope they are not happy looking but they are dope and big and aren't very aggressive though i did watch it eat many things... including a large caterpillar in a cacoon what a sucker! then we had exchanges the next day so i was in danshui met some dope people. then we had to go to the bu, and switch companions again hte next day and they were gone for a while. BUT we ate at costco! so that was gpood! then we had the follow up meeting for training which was about 7 hours long! but i saw everyone they are doing great! i am so glad that i have my companion the only problem we worry about is who is paying for copies! hahahahaha anyway then the next day interviews with the MP and training with the AP's and some how through out those days we were still getting lessons and finding new people! it was crazy! full of miracles this week! saturday was the biggest miracle i would say jk it is tied with church, but saturday we had 8 set ups between 1-9 pm we ended up getting members able to be at all of those!! and some were pretty big lessons! it was insane usually its hard to get like 3 members a day! like legit god prepared that day so well! not only that we still got new investigators that day! and at the end had to switch comps again so that Elder Facer could do an interview while we kept teaching! crazy!!!! SUNDAY we had committed about 6 people to come to church, the most we have had since i have been here and the most i have seen is 3 or 4 at church at that isnt common, mostly cuz most people walk and a lot of our chapels are on large hills.... and they really just dont come, anyway we had some problems that morning so we got there like 5 minutes before it started and didnt see anyone come, but then we walked up satirs and look inside 4 investigsators are sitting there, and one of them is fairly new, we sat by her and she told us she brought a friend that makes 5 at church! like holy cow!!!!!!!!! and it was a friend!!! like she is loving it!!! then after church we split with some members and we each taught a lesson and set 2 new dates right there. i met with the investigators friend and her, and we set the date right up, he was just so intent on the lesson! it was awesome!

K so we have been meeting with this guy he is way past ready for baptism but he just wont commit, we had a haert to heart with him, and i have gained a pretty good relation with him. and i looked him straight in the face at the end and i was like bruh we both know you can. he agreed to go for the 6th of august and im confident in him, we have his interview set-up! i am so pumped for him! AUGUST has been so setup for us i am so excited! needless to say we have said many grattitude prayers this weekend! I THANK YOU ALL FOR ALL OF THE SUPPORT! i have felt yours prayers! i am here to tell you he answers he has anwsered mine and will yours!!!

spiritual thought- if you have the thought to help someone do it. if you have the impression to say something say it. "by their fruits ye shall know them" "how can ye know the master ye have not served" just trust in it "all good things come of god" if it is good follow it. that is all I love you all I have a deep love for this gospel, this church, and my savior, because he really did suffer for ME and he really will save me every time i ask.

PS if you want a personal email or want to tell me something send me a personal email, id love to hear from you!

July 17,2016 Transfer 1

So today is the start of transfer 2 in field, and let me tell you the small things add up fast, we totalled our numbers for the transfer, and i'll be honest a lot of times you feel like you are running and running and knocking and talking, and asking, and nothing happens, but i'll be honest looking at the totals was a good feeling to look back and say holy cow in 6 weeks we did that! and its already been 6 weeks!!!!! like what up!!! i love seeing the fruits of the effort as we continue to just work! my trainer Elder Facer is an expert at staying focused onworking he sets an amazing high pace, and knows we can both reach it! he is a great missionary!!

 So this week i have been focusing and identifying what my motivation is, and how can i can better bring my motivation from better places. The better you know where you draw energy from the better you can use that energy and get more. Not only that but you can learn to draw energy from better deeper and stronger sources, i have been trying to focus on drawing energy from the work and the service. My favorite day this week was the day i reached my goal i set for myself for my mission. Before i left i told myself i wanted to be so lost in the work that when i come home i get planning done, and somehow find the energy to journal and brushteeth before collapsing into bed, literally me and Elder Facer walked in the door did everything we needed to and just pray and barely made it into bed utterly exhausted, I hope i can continue this in the same manner literally i want nothing more than to be exhausted everyday. because i know as i give everything the lord he takes over "MAN'S LIMITS ARE GOD'S OPPORTUNITY"!! 

Right so this week had a lot of cool stuff happened we had transfers and we lost 4 missionaries and only got 2 back, we had a huge number die, and very few come in, but next transfer is a huge load of new meat! super cool! so we closed one of our areas, and traded 2 out of the remaining 6 of us, which doesn't seem like a lot but its a pretty big change! Also i got to go to the temple here!!!! its super dope and crazy and dope and beautiful. then the President does waffles on temple days, so i ate a bunch, and then felt bad so we stopped eating, and just hung with a bunch of other elders! it was pretty cool! Some big hints were dropped but i wont tell you anything until next trranfer, also they changed the language training here so trying to adjust there! our zoneleader got switched too which effects me a tiny bit more because my comp is district leader. so im pretty tight with the zoneleaders! they are dope. anyway we had tremendous success in finding this week, and especially with long-term finding, meaning people that we got numbers from that have a little interest so we set-up at least one family and just got investigators! and the wierd thing is this week we didnt have a lot of time for finding! and we went on exchanges! so miracles all day! God has been allowing a few more language problems to become apparent so i can start getting over thoseand helping me become just that much more committed to learning and submitting! we have been getting very good with out members they are working really well with us and are trusting me alot more cuz my companion has already been in this area for 6 months, but we have seen miracles from them and for them.

This needs its own paragraph while we were in study time and on exchanges we (me and Elder Gray) recieved a call requesting a blesssing, it was a member brother for his non-member brother. we quickly hurried to the cancer specialty hospital... (fore-shadowing) when we arrived and met the man, and started to learn about the situation we were informed the man was only given a few days left to live, and blood had already begun to fill the lungs, so we went up to the 5th floor and walked in the man was noticeably uncomfortbale due to his situation, and had a few tubes pumping the slow flow of blood oout of his lungs. they had already tried chemo a few moths prior so he was already a little beat up. so we explained what was happening and what we would do, and he accepted, we put the oil on his head and i annointed him, after which Elder Gray stepped forward and began the blessing using english so as not to forget anything, then switeched to chinese for the actual blessing even though i couldn't understand everything there was an emense power in the room, and the man's breathing slowed and become more smooth, he settled under our hands and Elder Gray promised him peace in all things, but that if yhe truly believed he would recieve the healing he needed! when he closed there was silence and the man comfortably eyes still closed smiled slightly then returned to quietly sitting eyes still closed, the family then thank us, and we thanked them for the chance, and asked if we could do anything politely they said no and the member escorted us out, and as we were leaving the man said thank you. after which we stopped and bore testimony telling him that the blessing could be fulfilled and telling him we know god loves and will help you. we left and talked shortly with the member he thanked us and said it was a very powerful moment bore us a short testimony we told him to kkeep us informed and that we are always ready to help. his wife came and gave us cheese cake, and we thanked again and left. i have not yet heard anything but i know that god loves us and answers our prayers, i know that blessing are by god through us, and i know that he will fulfill all words according to his plan and pleasure. and i have doubt that if that man truly does believe our words he will be healed. I will forever be greatful for the priesthood which i hold, and the example of worthiness and leadership my father has shown me. i am grateful that i have had the chance to have blessings of all kinds in my kife, that i can have a testimony of their power, and truth. 

The priesthood isn't used for personal gain never was and never will be but it is for the blessing of the meek and sick and weak, for the building of a great kingdom and for the care of the others whether member or nonmember, god didnt giv eus this responsibilty that we can sit idly, but that we might be anxiously engaged in helping his children, and i will invite and encourage all to partake, to magnify to assist. i love this gospel, and the lord, and my final invite and question for this email, never lose the fire, just trust me and god go to church read pray, stay active help his children this is the one true and living church restored by god through a prophet and he still leads us through a living prophet, and i dont care what anyonme says i will forsake all things for him and follow him (matthew 19:26) (thanks dao qi for the scripture i keep it with me always written neatly and protected)

Waffle bar at mission home after temple. 

He and Elder Gray

View from hospital room 

Memorial hall