"Michael Jackson" is getting baptized!

Sorry for the late email!!  We are planning on attending the temple this week and so our p-day was moved to Wednesday from Monday.  We will get the opportunity to attend to the temple, which is absolutely fantastic!  I'm really excited for that! It will be in Chinese!  This week has been amazing and each week gets better and better!

Da peanut butter cheeseburger!

 

Eating with my boys!

A Gorilla at the zoo!

 

Monday October 19, 2015: 

For p-day this week we went to the zoo!  Super fun!  Afterward, we went to this burger joint and they had this hamburger that has peanut butter on it!  Elder Scovel was telling me that it is amazing!!  I decided to try it and it turned out to be amazing!!  Really good!  Who would have thought?!;)

Wednesday October 21, 2015: 

Today we met with an "eternal" investigator.  His name is Paul.  He has been one of Elder Scovel's investigators for a really long time!  He has already gone through all of the lessons, but he takes everything way to far.  He is an extremely intelligent individual, and he researches EVERYTHING!  When Elder Scovel was starting to teach him with his last companion, Paul started doing research about our church.  He stumbled upon some Anti-Mormon stuff online.  So, now he is all paranoid about our church.  He was an engineer and made quite a bit of money!  However, he lost his job 5 years ago and hasn't gotten a new one since. This week he ran out of all the money that he saved.  He is really sad, but honestly just an amazing person!  He is so curious about our church and just wants to find the truth, which Elder Scovel and I love!

Saturday October 24, 2015: 

Today had to be one of the funniest days of life!  Elder Scovel and I went finding and we were having some pretty good lessons.  We were in the middle of a lesson with a girl that we found, when all of a sudden there comes this  man!  He was riding on his 1960 vintage GIANT bike jamming to Michael Jackson's "Beat It".  He comes to an abrupt stop right in front of us and shouts in english, "HEY!  I like your style!"  He was rocking a straw hat, along with a white glove that Michael Jackson would wear in his prime.  So Elder Scovel was teaching the girl we were with before and tells me to go talk to this man by myself.  Elder Scovel and I were both teaching different people right next to one another.  I asked the man what his name is and he says:  "Call me Michael Jackson."  Honestly, the funniest person I have ever met!  I feel bad because I don't have a picture of him but I will get one as soon as I can!  The whole time that I was talking to him, he just sang Michael Jackson and did all of his dance moves! He then starting talking about how he is SanXia's Jay Chou!  Jay Chou is super popular here in Taiwan.  At the end of our lesson with "Michael Jackson", he started following us saying, "Alright who are we going to find next!  Don't worry I know Mandarin so I can translate for you!"  I ended up telling him about our church and when and where it is.  I really did this so that we could depart from each other because we had a lesson coming up with one of our investigators and we had to go meet with her.  At the time I thought that Michael Jackson was going to be a one time thing, however...

Sunday October 25, 2015:

HE CAME TO CHURCH!  During sacrament, I was sitting next to a member, when all of sudden I felt some one tap my shoulder. I turn around to see Michael Jackson!  He came to church, with the same clothes he was wearing the night before, rocking some cool shades, smelling like cigarettes and basically everything else that you could imagine!  I honestly did not expect him to come to church! He came and it just showed me that miracles can indeed happen in the presence of the Lord.  They say that cigarettes are the best possible smell to smell at church because it shows that people want to change and become better.   Later that night, we had FHE (Family Home Evening).  In Taiwan, it is the craziest event!  So, just imagine a little apartment room fitting an ENTIRE WARD of about 40 people.  It is basically just a dinner party and it was so much fun!  People walk around and talk, they say how terrible my chopstick skills are, they tell each other how awesome they are, they laugh, eat, and basically have a party... haha.  So much fun!

FHE in Taiwan!

 

Monday October 26, 2015:  

We met with Nancy again, and again she bought us lunch.  

She is honestly SO nice!  Love her!  She was talking about how her health isn't very good.  She is having intestinal problems in her older age.  We offered to give her a blessing and she accepted. Elder Scovel decided that I would give her the blessing for the sick and afflicted.  It went really good!  It really is crazy how much I have grown since I have been here.  Before, with Lin Da Ge, I was really nervous and didn't even know that we were going to give his grandchild a blessing....in Chinese!  This time, I could speak Chinese better and I knew exactly what I was saying! I felt a lot more confident with the blessing!  It was a really cool experience.  Then later that night, we met with Lin Da Ge.  It was a rough week for him. We didn't meet with him once last week because he wouldn't answer his phone or open his door when we yelled for him at his house.  He caved and drank alcohol this week. He felt terrible about it!  He didn't want to meet with us because he felt guilty!  He felt like he had let us down.  When we finally met with him, we told him how much we loved him and how we would never be upset with him. It was really spiritual.

Tuesday October 27, 2015:  

Two miracles happened today!  The first:  Paul (the "eternal" investigator) got a job!  It was because of our church that he got the job!  One of our members helped him find a place that he could work! I really think this will be a turning point for Paul's conversion to our church.  The second:  Michael Jackson is on date to get baptized!  We taught him the first lesson and it went great! At the end of the lesson, we asked him if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and get baptized.  He looks up and says, "Of course I will!  Jesus is my friend!"  I love Michael Jackson!  I should really learn his real name though because we don't want to be saying, when he is about to go under the water for baptism, "Michael Jackson, having the power of the..."  haha that would be quite humorous!;)

I love you all so much!  Thank you  for being such amazing role models and examples to me in my life.  I want to invite everyone to stop judging people by their covers.  When I first met Michael Jackson, I didn't expect him to go to church at all!  And then we he came I was absolutely blown away!  I never expected that.  But, then I felt pretty bad.  Who was I to instantly judge the type of person he is.  I learned that anyone, no matter what they look like or sound like, is a child of God and deserves to be treated like so.  My invitation is to look at everyone like they are a child of God, because that is who they are.  No more judging by their cover but rather by the 2nd chapter... possibly the 3rd;)  

Wo Ai Nimen!!!

Elder Coletti

 

I'm pretty sure I'm the only white kid from Utah on this bus?!

Crazy Buses and Hot Pots!

Elder Coletti's Letter 10/19/2015 Week 13

I don't know if I mentioned this, but the computers I use to email home are in Chinese! HAHA!

The Street outside of my apartment.

Having Hot Pots!

The fancy apartment Nancy took us to.

The street outside of the 5 star apartment.

 

The ceiling in the fancy apartment.

Elder Scovel and I at Nancy's apartment for lunch.

Elder Scovel and myself waiting at the apartment for Nancy.

The ward member of the San Xia district going tracting with us.

The buses here are crazy!

 

Monday Oct. 12, 2015:  

This was one of the craziest days of my life!  We went over to one of our investigator's homes.  His name is Lin Da Ge.  He has had a problem with the Word of Wisdom, but since meeting with the missionaries he has changed so much!  He went from drinking every hour to only drinking once last week!  He loves missionaries.  His whole family was home with him when we got there:  his wife who is from the Philippines, his 15 year old daughter (who has already has a  one week old baby) and his youngest child who is 12 years old. He started speaking really fast in Chinese. I had no clue what he was saying and so I turn to look at Elder Scovel for  translation. Elder Scovel says: "Hey, your going to give their baby a blessing of comfort and counsel."  I was like "WHAAAAAAA????" Hahaha!   I gave the baby a blessing and it truly was amazing.  The Lord helped me so much with bringing words into my remembrance and giving a somewhat comprehensible blessing in Chinese. After the blessing, Lin Da Ge told us that his whole entire family wants to be baptized. Hopefully the Lin Jiating (family) will continue to progress and will all be baptized together!

Wednesday Oct. 14, 2015:  

We had our Mianfei Yingwen Ban (Free English Class), which is awesome!  I taught the Advanced class again.  It was so much fun! The Asian students are all basically conversationally fluent  in English and so I taught them more specific words about the human body and the body senses.  We ended playing a little game that I picked up in the MTC.  It's called "Wo you liliang" (I have power).  You say that three times (Wo you liliang) and then point at something on your body and say it in English (example: arm). It was hilarious!

Thursday Oct. 15, 2015:

Nancy ( the Tai Chi lady from last week), met with us.  She took us to this 5 star apartment  in Taiwan.  They are called apartments because they don't really have hotels.  She ended up buying us a wonderful 3 course meal!  Elder Scovel and I tried to tell no, but she insisted!  She told us that she could tell that we are good people just by the way we shook her hand.  So.... always remember handshakes can define who you are!  She said that she will pay for lunch once a month no matter who the missionaries are!  She is an awesome lady!

Saturday Oct. 17, 2015:  

We went tracting with some of the members in our ward!  It was amazing.  Such a cool experience going with all of the ward members.  I have noticed that if the people on the streets see that our church has Taiwanese members, it makes them more willing to listen to our message.

Sorry I didn't write everything that happened this week.  If I had written every experience this week, I would be able to sell it as a book on Amazon!  So much happens in a day and I absolutely love it!  I love that not one day is the same as another.  I just want to give you a taste of what goes on during a week in Taiwan for me. 

My dad asked me what a typical day is like for me.  A typical day consist of studying (personal, companionship, language, etc.) up until 12 and then lunch from 12-1. From 1-5  it is whatever we have planned or scheduled.  We usually have scheduled lessons or appointments or finding more investigators on the street.  From 5- 6 dinner and from 6 -9 it is whatever we have planned or scheduled (same as 1-5). From  9- 10 daily planning for the next day and 10 -10:30 we get ready for bed.  Not one day is the exact same!  We are always doing something different and following our daily inspiration on what we should do or where we should go. I love trying all of the different things they have here to eat and we eat something new everyday.  I love "hot pots"!  In Chinese they are called huoguo....really good!

I want to invite everyone to read 2 Nephi 4: 15-35.  I really enjoyed reading this chapter this week and I know it can apply to everyone!  Remember to make everyone one of your prayers sincere and heartfelt. Try not to make your prayers routine and memorized because not one day is the same as the another! 

 

Wo ai nimen (I love you all)!  Qing ai wo (Please love me)!

Elder Coletti

 

 

Trash talking and Tai Chi

Elder Coletti's Letter 10/12/15 Week 12:

I cannot express how amazing Taiwan is!  I love everything about it!  There are the nicest people in the world here! The food is amazing (excluding Stinky Tofu)!  Did I mention I love biking in the rain?!  Everything is amazing here and I love it!

 

Tuesday Oct. 6, 2015:

We had a Zone Conference where we talked about our zone goals and what our zone needs to focus on.  Afterwards, I went on an exchange with one of the zone Leaders, Elder Elliot.  Elder Elliot is the smartest person I have ever met. Seriously.  He took the ACT when he was a freshman in High School and got a 36! A 36! He is fluent in Chinese, both spoken and written.  When we were on exchanges together, he would write everyone's name in Chinese Characters!  It completely blew my mind!  While I was working with him I asked as many questions as humanly possible!  Elder Elliot is an incredible planner and goal setter. He taught me some great ways to stay organized and make inspired goals!

 

On Wednesday Oct. 9, 2015:

We had English Class!  During the week we pass out flyers advertising a Free English Class. Every Wednesday at 7 o'clock we teach Asian students English!  It is so awesome!  There are 2 classes: Beginner and Advanced.  I taught Advanced because the majority of the teaching is in English (which is good... because that's a language I do know!) The Beginner class is a lot of Chinese students that are not very good at speaking English and need to speak Chinese in order to learn English. Elder Scovel and I were teaching our class and decided to teach about sports. While we were teaching, we ended up on the topic of "trash talking"! Hahaha!  It was so funny trying to explain to these Asian students how to "trash talk".  They have no idea what "trash talk" is or how to do it!  They kept saying, "Why would we speak about trash with them?"  It was so funny, but it also confirmed how kind the people of Taiwan are.  No one has ever heard of "trash talk" because they have never had a desire to tease or be mean to someone.  I love the people here!

On Thursday Oct. 8, 2015:

We met with a couple of members who needed a little bit of help.  Let me start by saying I'm sorry and I feel really bad about this.  I am really bad at remembering people's names, especially people with Chinese names! Elder Scovel and I refer to people with nicknames that will help us remember them.  I do not call them their nicknames to their face's.  It's how Elder Scovel and I keep people straight and remember them.  One person Elder Scovel and I met with was "wheelchair".  He is in wheelchair because he was born with deformed legs that cannot support his weight.  When I met him at his house, he would walk by way of crawling everywhere.  It was really sad and a very humbling experience.  It showed me how much joy and happiness the gospel can bring into people's lives. We also met with "mafia".  We call him "mafia" because... well.... he is in the mafia... haha!   He is one of the kindest people I have ever met!  He takes pictures of all of the missionaries and then prints out the picture.  He sticks the pictures of all the missionaries he meets on the ceiling above his bed so that he can look at us when he goes to bed and then again when he wakes up!  We met with him and taught him a little bit. We ended up discussing McDonalds!:)   BTW:  McDonalds is so expensive here!  Most meals in Taiwan cost around $60NT, which is about $2 dollars in American dollars. At McDonalds, the meals are around $150NT!  I guess that still isn't a lot, but compared to other places here, it is expensive. We also biked all over the place today. We biked at night and so we had to put on our reflective protectors, etc. Biking is the funnest thing!  I love it!:) 

 

On Saturday Oct. 10, 2015:

We watched conference today.  I love Conference!  I really liked Holland's and Uchtdorf's talks. In Taiwan, we watch Conference a week later than in the U.S. because it takes that long to translate it into Chinese for all of the natives here. The Asian people who speak Chinese watch Conference in one room and the people who want to hear it in English are in a different room.  It was awesome!

 

Sunday Oct. 11, 2015:

This had to be one of my favorite days here yet! In the morning we finished watching Conference.  Afterwards, all of the members at the church met us outside and gave SO MUCH FOOD!!!  It was ridiculous!  They gave us a large pizza, Taco Bell, 3 loafs of bread, and almost 25 cupcakes!  It was insanity at its finest!  Haha!!  The members here are so nice!  I said it last week and I'm going to say it again....they treat us like celebrities.  They always tell us how much we are sacrificing and that want to help us. They are seriously so kind. After church, we met with Yang Zhi Ming (for some reason, I can remember his name!).  He is a recent convert, and he is awesome!  He is so nice and completely open with his testimony, which I love!  After we met with him, we went out searching for people to share the gospel with.  We ended up having amazing conversations with two people we met!!   The first person we chatted with was a middle aged man named Minter.  I can't say I have ever heard of anyone named that before.  He could speak English, and so our conversation was in English.  After he told his name, he said, "Yeah. Minter.  As in Money Maker!"  It was so funny!  We talked to him for a while and we almost got him to commit to be baptized!  He said he wanted to read the Book of Mormon before he commits. We thought that would be a good idea! HAHA!    After Minter, we met a lady named Nancy.  She also spoke English!  She has lived in New Zealand for 27 years.  She taught us how to do TaiChi!!!  Honestly!  We were talking with her and all of a sudden she asks, "Do you two want to know how to do TaiChi?"  Of course we said yes!  For 20 minutes or so, right in the middle of this busy street, we were doing TaiChi with Nancy!!  It was so fun! We gave her a Book of Mormon and set up an appointment to come and teach her about it!

Taiwan is amazing!  I have loved every second of it.  The people are so nice and are so prepared to receive the blessing of the gospel.  They are humble, kind and teachable. I want to invite everyone to prepare themselves to receive the blessings of the gospel!  A lot of people just expect the blessings to come.  The truth is, if you meet God halfway, he will meet you the rest and fill you with his love!

 

Love you all!!!

Elder Coletti

 

I am in Taiwan!!!!

Elder Coletti's Letter 10/5/2015 Week 11:

 

This week has been a whirlwind! After 30 hours of traveling from the Provo MTC, all 14 of us Elders made it to Taiwan Taipei safely!  President Jergensen, Sister Jergensen, and their twins met us at the airport and we have been running ever since then!  We stayed at the Bu (Missionary HQ) which is literally across the street from the Taiwan temple.  We could look at the temple outside our window!  Really cool!  We went to Shang Hai Chek Memorial which was awesome and there is a lot of history behind it.  The next day we were assigned our companions aka our trainers.  The trainers train us and get us used to Taiwan.  It was really cool how it was presented.  They have a picture of the trainees on a big screen  ( the fourteen new missionaries).  We go up and introduce ourselves and then they reveal another picture of our trainer and that is how we find out who we are with. It was really exciting!  hahaha! My trainer/companion is Elder Scovel.  I call him my daddy!:)  He is a stud!  He has been in Taiwan for 6 months and is already basically fluent.  I've noticed that every missionary who has been here for at least 24 weeks are conversationally fluent so there is hope for me!! :)  Elder Scovel and I went to our area which is called the San Xia district.  It is south west of Taipei.  The people here are amazing!  They have a college here.  It is called Bei Da. There are a lot of college aged people who find Americans very interesting and they want to talk to us and get to know us!  We have been talking to a lot of people! Oh my gosh, the traffic!  The traffic is insane here!  It is so fast paced and condensed. Elder Scovel and I are riding bikes and it is crazy, but so much fun!!  We are basically riding in the middle of the road.  We turn in intersections.  We ride on the sidewalks.  Anywhere we want to go, we can go!  hahaha It is awesome!  Sunday.....  Church was a blast!  I walked into the chapel and it felt almost as if I was a celebrity or something!  I was surrounded by all of these little asians people shouting at me in Chinese!!!! It was awesome!  When you first come to the area the bishops have the new missionaries bear their testimonies. I bore my testimony and I was trying to say that Taiwan was really cool, but I member told me that I said Taiwan is really cute.  haha whoops!  There is not enough time to give all the details because so much happened today!  I'll try and be more organized next week .

Wo ai nimen (I love you all)!  Qing ai wo (Please love me)!

Elder Coletti 田長老