Weekly Report: No longer a greenie, 2012, bird in the stairwell

Hey Everyone!!!
This week was fabulous! I hope you all had as great a time as I did! My first move call is over! I'm no longer a greenie! I'm a true blue missionary! I'm not moving, and neither is Elder Wilson, though he's the district leader this move call, which means I'll be doing a lot of planning on my own while he does followups with the missionaries in the district at night. Should be fun.
 
Food Review: A double feature!!!
Chou dou fu (stinky tofu): This food is the obligitory "scary food" that each Taiwanese trainee must eat in their first move call. We forgot about it until Saturday night, so we scambled over to a stand and bought some. It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. I give it 3 olfactory gas bombs out of 5.
Pi2 dan4: Basically, it's a duck egg soaked in lyme. Not a bad flavor, but the whites are clear, and the yolk is green, and has the consistency of sludge. Not great. I give it 1 culinary abominations out of 5.
 
Excuse Review
This last week, I contacted a guy at a street light and asked him if he believed in God. He said, "I don't because I believe in 2012." I responded, "That movie was terrible. You should come to church." He didn't add a baptismal goal, but his friend on the scooter did. I give the excuse 1 apocalyptic falsehoods out of 5.
 
This week I'd like to share something that I hate about Taiwan. Hehe. That sounds terrible. The people here are great, but Satan has other ways of keeping people from accepting the Gospel. WIth the Taiwanese people, he has made them so busy they can't listen. Two such evils are buxi and danbing. Buxi is basically cram school. Kids go from school straight to buxi and then straight home to do homework till bedtime. It's ridiculous, and it means they can't ever meet with us, cause they cram even on the weekends. Danbing is mandatory military service. A lot of times, you'll meet someone great, but they can't meet with you because they're never off. Satan is a clever little jerk, but the important thing to remember is that in the end, he won't succeed. God's power will always overcome Satan's deceit.
 
I had exchanges with Elder Wood, our district leader on Tuesday. He's great. I had a lot of fun. His Chinese is really good because he studies constantly. In his bathroom, all the walls are covered in characters because he writes on the walls with a dry erase marker as he showers. Really funny. He's really great and is everyone's friend when he's contacting. I learned a lot from him. My favorite thing he does is when he meets someone on the street, and they're walking, he'll slide off his bike seat and then sit on the bike frame, and kind of waddle alongside the person. It's hard to describe, but it's really funny. When I tried to do it, I nearly died. Not comfortable. At night, we found a bird in the stairwell, and tried to chase it out so it could live. Big mistake. It turned at me and then opened its mouth and hissed! It was like a little dragon; it's mouth made up at least a quarter of it's body and it's eyes were huge! We left it there and went and taught our lesson. Later that night, we came back, and when we opened the door to the stairwell, it flew out over our heads. We both screamed like little girls (not really, but we were taken aback). It was so funny. Random things like that make missionary work hilarious.
 
At the end of the week, Elder Lindsey came and stayed with Elder Wilson and I, because Elder Wood is training next move call, and had to go get his new companion. Elder Lindsey is super cool. He's three move calls ahead of me, and his racial heritage is the same as me, though he didn't learn Chinese until coming here. He's super random (like he randomly broke out into Beach Boys during lunch one day) and funny. We had tons of fun, but also worked really hard and had lots of success. From him, I learned the importance of being peoples' friends when you contact on the street. I learned the importance of loving missionary work, and just having fun doing it. I think sometimes I just do things because it's my duty, and not because I really want to. I'm working on loving missionary work more. It's been a fun couple of days. This morning, Elder Lindsey moved to Tainan.
 
I'm not sure what my challenge for all of you this week is. Nothing has happened to me this week that has made me think of one. So I guess I'll just write my testimony. I know that God lives. I know that He loves each and everyone of us, even the ones we don't think are so loveable. He wants all of His children to come back to Him. I know Jesus Christ is our Savior, and through His Atonement, we can become clean. He will always forgive us if we will reach for Him. He is our perfect example, and in all things He was and is perfect. By relying upon Him, we can do all that He wants and we need to do.
 
I love you all,
Elder Siebert