This week was sweet! We went to the Temple in Taipei with all of the soon to be departing missionaries as well as President and Sister Teh. It was super fun to get the elders from our generation of missionaries all together one last time before we head home.

This week we met with a lot of members and enjoyed the Chinese New Year, while trying to strengthen their families and share how we can all be better missionaries. It was very fulfilling! As my time here shrinks shorter and shorter I try to make the most of it and use every minute the Lord has given me. It will be great to see family and friends in two weeks, but I will miss the adventures of being a missionary in Taiwan for sure!

Love,

Elder Stroud

Chiang Kai Shem memorial in Taipei

Year of the Dog Meme

Happy Chinese New Year! This is the Year of the Dog, and it’s is pretty fun here! There are lots of cool Chinese puns regarding the new year with the biggest one this year being 汪(the sound a dog makes) and 旺(which means prosperity) both are pronounced “wang” with the first being in the first tone and the other in the fourth. Chinese new year is the most crazy time of year here. Everyone gets work off and does nothing but sit at home with family, eat a lot of food, and worship their ancestors.

Playing Majiang, a Chinese new years staple

One of our New Year’s feasts

Some graffiti we did at a members house， 耶穌是我家之主- Jesus is the Lord of my house.

Most people are caught up in their traditions, so it makes doing missionary work next to impossible. We have been doing a lot of service and working with the members very closely.

Some of the service we’ve been doing

The members rarely feed us during the rest of the year, but during new years, we have lunch and dinner feasts almost every day.

Our new year’s card we are giving to all of the members who feed us

I am sick of eating. But it is a very fun time to be here! The atmosphere is pretty electric, regardless of all the rejections we get.

Go eat some Panda Express and enjoy the Chinese New Year’s!

Helping Hands service – Cleaning up the park

Hello all! Another good week here! You probably heard that Taiwan had a big earthquake! We are all safe. I probably would have slept through it if I hadn’t had to get up to go pee in the middle of the night right as the earthquake happened haha!

Right now we are trying to progress our investigators towards baptism, as well as finding ones to build up our pool with. We have about 4 people right now who are qualified for baptism, but for whatever reason aren’t getting baptized. It’s pretty frustrating. But being a missionary is great and I love my time here, no matter how little I have left!

Japanese BBQ buffet for pday today

I gave my final testimony and reflection of my mission at Zone Conference last week. It was a weird feeling. I will miss Taiwan, but I’m grateful to still be here! Have a great week! Love yall!

Sweet political cartoon with 蔡英文, president of Taiwan and Trump ganging up on N. Korea’s dictator.

My new companion, Elder Huang and I

Hi all! Another week in the books! It is freezing here! Our apartment says it’s about 50 degrees inside, and we have no heat! No way it was this cold last winter!  This week we worked with a bunch of members and had a lot of fun helping people set up personal family mission plans.

Today we went hiking up in the mountains of NanTou. Super pretty place. I love being with Elder Huang and talking about our fun times at BYU, and working hard. Being a missionary is great! I hope everyone has a good week!