Dear Mom and Dad,
As I expected, Halloween is rather dull over here in Formosa. I guess I'll celebrate by buying groceries.
My trainer always talked about how he wanted to be Zone Leader or Assistant, and at the time, I thought he was crazy. Now that I am Senior/District Leader, I know he is crazy! I'm basically a Junior with a lot more responsibility. I feel a lot more tired at the end of the day, hahaha! Honestly, I felt like I went senior last movecall, so this movecall is going a lot smoother.
My new companion, Elder Wang, is great. He's from Taibei, a place I've heard of, but it doesn't seem like a real place. Kind of like the North Pole, but more Chinese people. We get along great! Regretfully, his english is basically fluent, so I need to work harder on SYL. The best part about living with a Taiwanese person is learning everyday Chinese. I can have an entire conversation about Lord of the Rings and Transformers. And the Gospel, of course. His brother served here 7 years ago, and his sister is also serving in this mission. Pretty cool. He's been a really good example of being focused on our purpose.
Now that we have two young, solid missionaries in a companionship, we've really been able to turn the area around. Most companionships have a good cop, bad cop kind of thing, I usually end up being the "bad cop", because I was the one who had to give investigators pressure to change. In this companionship, its the opposite, which is a good change of perspective. Its important to have a balance of change and growth, or else there is no progression. We've also made some big plans to build the ward. Gratefully, we've been able to build good ward relations the past month.
Oh, I forgot! Ask Sis. Jones if Brandon Jones's MTC teacher was Brother Sagars.
Elder Gong of the Seventy is coming here on Thursday, I'll have a chance to introduce him to my district. It should be pretty interesting. Being district leader is a lot of responsibility, but I have a lot of support. We do follow ups with the missionaries in the district every night, and follow up on their investigators with the Zone Leaders. I also prepare all of the District Training Meetings, do all of the baptismal interviews, and do the language pass offs. Yay! Luckily, my awesome junior takes care of a lot of things that I don't have time for.
I did get the ballot, thanks! Sorry it was so expensive... I love all the pictures you sent me, a picture is worth a thousand words. And Colbie is getting married! That's really weird, I can't believe it. Tess? Its probably best that she does get married. You are absolutely right, I am not in a hurry to get married. I have at least a year before I even have to think about it.
The national games were pretty cool, we found time to go see tae kwan do and judo. It was pretty cool to watch, I was cheering for the teams from Tainan. Taibei and Taizhong dominated the games, as far as I could tell. I'll send you a few pictures when I get the chance. It was fun, because we can't watch TV, but we can watch sports if its live action!
Go ahead, paint the walls purple. Yay!
I've been studying the Christlike attributes in Preach My Gospel, and I've been striving to be more Christlike. The past few weeks, I've been pondering how to have a change of heart. I've been praying for a change of heart, so all of my desires can be in tune with the Lord's. I'm far from perfect, but I've felt a large change in my life. Its easier to overcome temptation, and its easier to feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. Hopefully I can continue improving.
I love you both so much! I might buy shoes today, but I'll wait until next week to look for a suit. I love showing people my family picture, I always introduce my dad as a return missionary, and say that my parents are preparing to serve a mission together. Have a good week!
-Elder Travis Leatham
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