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