June 13 Email

Dear Mom and Dad,
I know you won't read this letter for a bit, but that's okay! I hope your trip to Europe is fun, I'll go with you next time in 2013, okay?
This was a fairly interesting week, I took notes so I could tell you about it.
This past saturday, Li dixiong was baptized. It was the first time I've actually baptized someone, it was a great experience. I had a goal of not actually baptizing someone, because its better if a ward member does it. It helps them both endure to the end. But Li dixiong asked me to do it, so I accepted. It really was a happy experience, you only have so many chances to baptize someone in your life. It was fun, because the sisters had a baptism as well, Cai jiemei, double baptism baby! The ward asked my RC Jiarong to perform the baptism. It was really cool to be baptizing with someone I helped baptize. He was nervous, but he did really well. The prayer is pretty in Chinese: "(name) wo meng Yesu Jidu de weipai, feng Fu, Zi, he Shengling de ming, wei ni shixi. Amen." The names in Chinese are really easy too. The hardest part is they all sound the same, and the tones have to be right. I baptized Li Jinxing, and my RC's are Ye Qimao, Xie Guanghua, and Zhang Jiarong. Ye Qimao is the one with tortises, he's super solid. He's a really cool guy, really nice and handsome. But he's 34, and hasn't been on a date for 10 years! SO we're xianging a little banfa and trying to find a girl he can take to the temple. Jiarong is 30, he used to be a Presbyterian, which is the biggest Christian church in Taiwan. He was a real pain when we first met with him, all he would do is complain and refused to do any commitments. His friend, who was the one referred him, scolded him for not listening to the missionaries, and after that, no problems. He was baptized in a week and hasn't missed church since. Sometimes we show up at the church and we'll find him cleaning. Awesome. Xie Guanghua has a few more issues, he isn't enduring to the end as smoothly as hoped. But he has came to church 2 weeks in a row, which is good.
Here's something interesting about Taiwan. At night, hundreds of bats come out and fly around the city. Its not scary or anything, it just looks like a bunch of birds flying around, but not as smooth in their movements. If your curious, bian3fu2 is how you say bat in chinese. "kan yixia, na shi yiga bianfu!!!"
I've been trying to learn how to explain my name in Chinese, because "Leatham" confuses everyone. So for fun, I learned how to have a conversation about vikings in chinese. Here's a few useful phrases:
be iou hai dao = viking (North Europe pirate) qin ru = invade da ting = longboat Nuo wei = Norway
Cool huh? That's how I use my language study. Haha! I've learned a lot of the gospel Chinese, so now I'm learning a lot of conversational Chinese. My bike needed to be adjusted, so I learned how to explain how to fix my bike in Chinese.
Speaking of my bike, I crashed it! I was riding down a street behind the church, when I lost control of my handle bars and biffed it hard. luckily I landed on my hands, not my face. I'm a little bruised, but no blood or broken bones. My bike was a little banged up, luckily the Giant store does free tune ups. God protects his missionaries, I could've been a lot worse off.
I will not go back to the medicine man: he does not live in my area. Anyways, it was a strange experience, if it helped at all, it was gone after I crashed my bike. But its sure interesting talking about!
I had to take out a bit of money to dry clean my clothes, my suit was pretty gross. Thought I'd tell you.
So, I've converted. I totally believe in ghosts. I have to deal with evil spirits and stuff all the time, definitely an interesting mission. Hey dad, when you taught the ten commandments, did you usually teach that if your car or money is more important than going to church, its considered idol worship? A lot of missionaries teach it like that, but not in Taiwan! We actually have to teach people that idol worship is wrong. A lot of people are buddhist, so they worship Buddha statues, and a lot of people worship their ancestors. Those aren't as bad to handle, because they have really good intentions. There are acceptions set by the church for people who face family opposition, as long as they do it in the appropriate way. But the Daoist stuff is creepy. They make these scary little black statues with red eyes, and make really loud noises and music to invite a spirit to live in the statue. Most people will just worship the statue, but some hardcore Daoists will beat themselves with spiked clubs, or cut themselves to see if there is a god in their blood. Some will tattoo gods onto their bodies to invite the spirit to live in them. My zone leader has had to cast an evil spirit out of an investigator before. If you read the stories about Jesus Christ casting demons out of people, its not a metaphor at all. Its absolutely real, especially in a country where people are messing around with spirits like the Daoists do. It makes me take my calling a lot more seriously, because these people need to hear the gospel. We are literally battling the powers of Satan. Its not that scary, because I know I'm on the right side.
Hey, I have some questions. How is Jace Garner doing? Who was the guy who moved into the ward and his wife separated with him a month later? Casey, Cadey? How is he? How about the big family that moved into the ward, that you thought you knew his dad? I was thinking about these people the past few weeks.
Well, there's your big letter, just as I promised. I love you, and I'm excited to hear all about Italy! Have a good trip, be safe, have fun!
-Elder Travis Leatham