Smile!

Elder Coletti 11/22/2015 Week 18

This week was one the best weeks of my life!  Honestly it was so crazy and all over the place, but I loved every second of it.

Monday Nov. 16, 2015:

P-Day: We went on an exchange. Elder Brandley and Elder Scovel had to go to the Bu to handle some personal matters, so me and Elder McClellan went to an underground mall place!  It was super cool! We ate an ice cream sundae that was bigger than my face!  It took 3 of us to eat it and there was still some left! The APs decided to sleep at our house because they had some stuff they needed to get done in SanXia.  We ended up having 6 people trying to sleep in a 2 person apartment. It was super funny.  I ended up sleep walking (surprise, surprise) and basically smacked Elder Huntsman (one of the APs) and then passed out! Hysterical!

 

 

Wednesday Nov. 18, 2015:  

Elder Scovel and I had a lesson with some new investigators called the Zheng Jia Ting family.  They are so funny!  Honestly, trying to teach them is just an adventure! They have a cute son that is autistic. The dad is partially deaf and we have to shout in Chinese when we teach him. The mom has a lazy eye and it kind of just freaks me out! They could not believe that we actually believed in Christ!  They started asking us if we even believe in Christmas!!  They said: "If you believe in Christmas, then when do you celebrate it?"  It totally reminded me of the scene in the movie Elf when he asks Santa:  "If your Santa, what did I sing to you on your birthday?"  Super funny!  They are such a cute family and I really enjoyed teaching them.  After we said the closing prayer with them, the little autistic son started to cry and he ran up to me and Elder Scovel and gave us a big hug.  It was very heartwarming.

 

Friday Nov. 20, 2015:  

Elder Scovel got pretty sick, so we had to stay inside.  I decided to start calling people and trying to set up appointments with them.  Wow, that was crazy! Most of the time I didn't understand a word that they were saying!  I decided to call the people that I knew I could understand.  I decided to call Michael Jackson! He is awesome.  I don't have pictures with him yet  because we didn't meet with him this week. I called him and he said that he couldn't meet with us today.  He said: "Sorry, but  I am helping the children because they are the hope of this world to make it a better place."  He is the best and just makes me smile.  I really want to get a picture with him.  I will at some point!

 

This week really was crazy.  A lot of stuff was seemed to be happening and changing.  Starting with the APs coming to do an Exchange with the ZLs, to an exchange with Elder Brandley! It was crazy, but super fun.  I've learned to have a good attitude in everything you do.  Out of everything you put on today, the most important thing is your smile.  This week I was just enjoying all of the little things and trying to make the most fun out of every opportunity that came upon me.  It really made a difference and made this week one of my favorite!  Nothing monumental happened that made this week special, but rather I made the most of every opportunity and I did it with a smile.  I want to invite everyone to put on that smile!  Make the most out of everything that happens.  I know that it will change your lives forever!!

Also, Thanksgiving is coming up!  We won't celebrate it here in Taiwan (haha), but my peeps in America will be!  Here is my challenge:  Make a list of 20 things that you are grateful for. Try to think of the people that you are grateful for and tell them that you are grateful for whatever they have done in your lives.  Here on my mission, there are a lot of times that we tell people that we love them.  That is kind of the premise of mission work.....Love.  A lot of the time we tell people we love them, but we don't say WHY.  It's easy to say that you love someone, but the true love comes when you have a why to it.  So, I invite everyone to not only tell someone that you love them and that you are grateful for them, but also tell them why.  Go out of your way to make someones day.

I love you all so much!!  Thank you for all of the support!  Happy Thankgiving!!  Gobble Gobble Gobble!

Elder Coletti

田長老

 

 

The "Taiwan" diet

The "Taiwan" diet seems to be working for Elder Coletti.  Our missionary is melting!  The first picture was in July and the second was in November.

"Taiwanese?"

Elder Coletti 11/15/2015 Week 17

This was a fairly decent week!;)  I got over my food poisoning, so that was nice!:)   We indeed had some funny experiences this week!

 

 

 

 

Tuesday Nov 10, 2015:  

We went finding for a couple of hours and it was awesome!  We went to this apartment building and in the front of the apartment building they have this doorbell thing that Elder Scovel and I started to ring.  Each doorbell leads to a room in the apartment.  The very first doorbell we ring, the door to the apartment opens and out comes an old Taiwanese man.  He just looks at us and laughs.  When he laughs, his whole body just shakes!  It's absolutely hilarious!  We start sharing with him our message about God and Christ and the whole time he is just having this little seizure from laughing right in front of us!  We ask him if we could come inside his apartment to share our message.  He nods yes and starts to laugh and jiggle, but he doesn't move to let us in.  We asked if it was alright to come in right now.  He starts to bounce, laugh and jiggle again! Suddenly his 35 year old son comes out and tells us: "bu hao yi si ta hui jiang tai yu eryi" which translates as, "Sorry, he only knows Taiwanese!"  We were at the door for about 5 minutes talking to someone who had absolutely no idea what we were saying!  He only speaks Taiwanese and we are speaking Chinese! Haha:) I guess that is why he was just shaking and laughing!  I got a nice little giggle out of that. ;) Funny!

 

Wednesday Nov 11, 2015:  

Today we had our Trainer-Trainee Follow Up Meeting.  All of the missionaries who came to Taiwan with me were reunited!  It was so cool to see everyone and how much all of us have changed in this past month or so.

Thursday Nov 12, 2015:

Elder Scovel had a District Leader Meeting. While he was gone, I went on a mini exchange with a bundi (Taiwan native)!  We went to my area and I was basically the senior companion!  It was so weird.  I had to know where were going (which I don't) and know what we were doing (which, again, I don't).   Also, Elder Zhuang's (the bundi) has very limited English.  It was very interesting communicating to him.... haha.  It ended up going great!  We had a lesson and Elder Zhuang and the investigator spoke Taiwanese the entire time.  What the Heck!!!  I'm sick of Taiwanese already!  (Not really though haha Taiwanese is SICK!!!)  It was really cool to watch a lesson in Taiwanese.  My head was just turning back and forth between the two.  Elder Zhuang is a great missionary!

Friday Nov 13, 2015:  

We met with Michael Jackson today....haha!:)  Sorry, no picture of him yet.  I always forget because I am just so mesmerized by his actions.  He is quite the humorous individual.  While we were teaching him, he was playing the Cranberries.  They are some old band (I guess) .  I have never heard of them before.  He was listening to a song called "Ode to My Family" and while he was listening, he had a cigarette in his mouth with his eyes rolled back in the back of his head.  He was shouting out the lyrics to this song by the Cranberries!   I really need to get a picture of this shuaige (Handsome Guy).  We are trying to find out exactly what his true nature is and if he is actually somewhat normal.  I think he actually might be insane, but I love him for it;)

 

This week was very funny with lots of laughs.  Something that I have learned here in the mission field is to do everything that is in my power.  I was a little down because a lot of our investigators aren't progressing as well as we would like.  I realized that in the end, it really is not up to us.  We do everything we can, and the Lord will do the rest. 

 

 I love you all!  Have a wonderful week!!

Elder Coletti

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My body just said: "OOOOOOAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHWHHHOOOAO"

Quick email today!!

First:  As I have started to adjust to Taiwan, my body just said, "OOOOOOAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHWHHHOOOAO".  This basically just translates to "I think my insides, want to be on my outside."  I'm not sure what I ate but I ended up getting food poisoning hahaaha.  I'm fine now so there is no need to worry (Mom),  but I was basically on the toilet the whole day!  Elder Scovel and I tried to go finding, and literally within 30 minutes I used the bathroom 4 times!  But, nonetheless, I survived haha. 

Second:  I went on an exchange with my grandpa, Elder Roe this week.  Elder Roe is my dad's (Elder Scovel) dad.  Elder Roe is our Zone Leader and he is awesome!  He taught me so much about becoming a great missionary and what it takes.  He told me that you have to be BOLD.  If you are not BOLD, you cannot do missionary work.  So that is something that I will be starting to do now!  I'll check up with everyone and tell you all how it goes!

Lastly:  On November 10, 1972, a very, very important person was born.  My wonderful mother!  My mom, Dani, is the greatest mom in the world!  She has done so much for me throughout my life and I have never really realized it up until now.  I love her so much and my love for her is ineffable.  I know, without a doubt, I am the person I am today because of her being an AMAZING role model and the love that she always had present in our home throughout my life.  It's really hard not being able to tell her happy birthday in person, but I know that she is going to be alright.  I love you mom!  Thank you for all that you have done for me throughout my childhood!

 I have two invites for everybody this week:
 I want everyone to be BOLD!  Now bold doesn't mean that there is not love involved with it.  Alma 38: 12 (i think) talks about how the difference between bold and overbearing is love.  Overbearing would be forcing someone to do something.  Whereas, bold is going out of you way to help someone because you love them and want to help them.  Be bold and help someone that needs it.  It may not be easy or feel comfortable.  But I promise that it is for the best and that is what our Father in Heaven wants of us.  To bring the world unto repentance and into his love and care.
 Second invite is to tell my mom happy birthday!!  Give her a big hug for me!  Tell her what you love about her and make her feel like the princess that she is;)

L ove you all!  Thank you for everything that you all do in my life.

P.S. I want to pay my respects to my little league football coach, Kip McRae.  He taught me so many life skills about how to become a better man.  I know that it is hard now, but he is in a better place.  The Lord will bless.  The McRae family will be in my prayers.

Elder Coletti

 

 

Enjoy the little things in life.....

11/2/2015  Week 15

 

 

For P-day this week we decided to go to the Space Museum as a Zone!  It was a blast!  They had so many fun activities and the whole Zone had a great time together!  I'm not going to lie though..  I didn't learn much at all at the Museum... hahaha!  Everything was in Chinese and so I couldn't read what the exhibits were trying to teach us!  But it was fun, nonetheless!  After the Space Museum, we went to the temple!  The temple is absolutely GORGEOUS!  The Taipei temple has such an "Asiany" feel to it.  The chair designs, the window designs, everything is very......Chinese?:) It is a temple of God though and it definitely felt like one.  The Spirit was so strong and I felt it throughout the entire experience!   This Sunday was Fast Sunday which went really well.  It's funny because for Fast Sunday's here, the members begin their fast the day before and so when lunch time comes around right after church, they go crazy!  Everyone brings a little bit of food and just starts chowing down!  It's awesome! We also had a fireside Sunday.  It was super cool!  All of the recent converts give 3 minutes testimonies about why they got baptized. We brought some of our investigators and it was wonderful to let them listen to the recent converts words.  It is a shorter email today because of the lack of time.  I love you all!  My invitation this week is to enjoy the little things.  There is a really cool quote that my marvelous mother has in our home. It says, "Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you will look back and realize that they were the big things."  I love this quote.  As I have been on my mission, I have been thinking about all of the little things I miss about my life back at home.  How lucky I was to have all of the amazing people I had in my life!  Being separated from my life back home has helped me become more grateful for what I had!  So, just appreciate the little things and realize how truly blessed each and everyone of your lives truly are.  Blessings are Heavenly Father's hand in our life and we need to express gratitude to him...for all of the little things.

Wo ai nimen!

Elder Coletti

"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