From John in Taiwan

John in Taiwan sends the following:

Thanks so much for always taking the time out of your busy schedule to write to me and let me read of your love. It really means a lot to me, and the fact that I have such a good support system back home really makes me a better missionary everyday. Thanks so much! Wow. I cannot believe that it is already Thanksgiving. Time is flying. I remember when I had Thanksgiving dinner last year with Elder Miles and I had chicken nuggets from McDonalds. That was the closest thing that they had available for us. However, this year our ward is having a Thanksgiving party and because me and Elder Sewell make everyone laugh, they have asked us to take a part in it. I think we are gonna act out turkey hunting....haha. I love being able to serve close to Elder Sewell, he still cracks me up so much. Anyways, tonight in our English class we are going to be having a cooking competition. It will also be a Thanksgiving party. Everyone will be introducing their food and sharing how they made it using English, and than the missionaries get to test it all;) I love English class!!

*If you would like to read the rest of his letter, and receive them regularly, contact Aunt Helen. She is the best at missionary communication. I know this from personal experience and testify of its truth.

Mission Call!

Aunt Helen sends the following splendid news:

James received his mission call to Slovenia/Croatia. He will teach the gospel in Serbian. Who even knew that was a language?! He is really excited. He enters the MTC on his birthdate, Jan. 23.

Also, here are excerpts from a letter from John, followed by an excerpt from Jesse's last letter.

This week is going awesome, I am getting along with Elder Zhao, we have looked past our differences and are working harder than either of us have on our missions. Even though the area that we are serving in is not the most prepared area to boom with the gospel, we are seeing a ton of miracles and blessings.

I cannot believe that Christmas time is just right around the corner. Oh man. I remember that day like it was just yesterday. So we are receiving a lot of blessings, and not to mention the fact that I will be able to go to the temple today. James, I hope you know that I will be praying for you. Also, dear family, I appreciate all of your help and support, and especially your sacrifices. Thanks so much for all that you do!!! It is going to be a great week this week! Take care! Love, Elder John Marble ShiLin

And Jesse says:

We have a lot of hills here, which is another thing I'm not excited about for the winter. This week we had a twenty minute up hill bike ride to get home to have someone pick us up for dinner. There's not a whole lot of flatness in our area, and it's a pretty big area. I'm glad I did have Rathdrum, so I got a bit better at biking where it was flat before I had this challenge placed before me. Elder Morrison is a basketball player (meaning that he played everyday before his mission) and so he's in great shape. I guess I'll just blow someone's house down instead of knocking on their door, with all the huffing and puffing I'll be doing :)

I have to meet with a member of the Stake Presidency and High Council on Saturday Morning to coorelate how the work is going in my district. The Spanish District Leader comes too, and we have breakfast. You can imagine how ill-prepared I was this week, having only been here a few days. Well, guess who came along? First off, the High Council representative was Brother Neuenschwander, who's the son of Elder Neuenschwander, of the first Quorum of the Seventy. Well, guess who brought Dad along? Yep. So, the Spanish District Leader gave a pretty thorough report of his district, and I just gave him the few things that I knew of, which wasn't much. I guess the point is that I felt kinda stupid. I guess I better learn a lesson from it or something, or else it's likely to happen again.

I really liked the reference in Jesse's letter to the big bad wolf.

News from the North

Aunt Helen sends the following news:

James is waiting for his mission call. The status on his call is: "ready for assignment." He is excited about getting the call.

I hope you are all doing well. We have been busy at our house. We especially enjoyed the Fall Break on Monday and Tuesday of this week. We got a lot done in getting the yard ready for winter and getting rid of junk!

Liz has only two more months until she graduates from BYU with her BSN and will take her state test next year to be a full Registered Nurse.

Gordon is in his seventh year as the Bishop and continues to be a great Bishop. I am teaching the Marriage and Family Relations class in Sunday School. The past two months I've also been able to teach the Teachings for Our Time Relief Society Lesson.

At this time of Thanksgiving, I just wanted to say thanks for being such wonderful friends and family. You help make life great! Thanks for all your prayers for our family and especially for our missionary and soon-to-be missionary.