March 24, 2009 - Bike #2

Matching ties!
Bike #2

This is Jackie - He is taking the discussions. Ryan say's that he is very happy and that the Taiwanese people just don't like to smile.

March 17, 2009 - P-Day

March 15, 2009 - Beautiful Sunset

March 12, 2009 - Three Taiwan Missions Are Becoming Two

The Missionary Moms Website is buzzing today about the Kaohsiung Mission merging with the Taichung Mission becoming effective July of 2009. Here is some information on his new Mission President, Michael A. Hoer. He is the current Taichung Mission President. Ryan's current Mission President Hse is going home after serving almost three years.

Michael A. Hoer (pronounced “Hur”), 51, Fruit Heights 1st Ward, Fruit Heights Utah Stake; high priests group instructor; former high councilor, bishop, branch president, district Sunday school president and missionary in the Taiwan Taipei/Kaohsiung Missions. President and managing director, Continental Enterprises. Born in Denver, Colo., to Cletus Anthony and Phyllis Florene Russell Hoer. Married Laurie Ann Barton, four children.Sister Hoer is a former Branch Young Women president and counselor, counselor in ward and branch Primary presidencies, ward Relief Society secretary, seminary teacher and Sunday school teacher. Born in Los Angeles, Calif., to Joseph Henry and Mary Ann Anderson Barton.
In 1979, Michael A. Hoer was one of the first group of 17 students to study in China after China and the United States normalized relations. He also taught and consulted at the Xian University of Metallurgy and Construction Engineering in China between 1982 and 1983. He holds a BA in Chinese and an MBA from Brigham Young University. Married with four children, he has resided in Hong Kong for the last 16 years; he has also lived and worked in Taiwan, China, Japan, and Singapore. He is active in community affairs and speaks fluent Chinese and Japanese.
Mr. Hoer is Managing Director of ContiGroup Companies Inc.’s ContiAsia Division (formerly Continental Grain Company), and President of Continental Enterprises Limited. He manages ContiGroup’s Asian operations, including over 40 wholly-owned and joint venture investments in Asia. ContiGroup’s China investments are primarily in agribusinesses (integrated meat processing plants, feedmills, swine and poultry farms) that supply major restaurant chains and other food companies in China.

Here are some article's about the new Mission and President:

http://english.tccg.gov.tw/index.php?page=government_news_01&cate=0&id=407

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/taiwan-mayor-seeks-missionary-help

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/06/07/2003414082

March 12, 2009 - New Bike

The new bike that we ordered Ryan before he arrived in Kaohsiung

March 10, 2009 - Serving in Guerin North West from Kaohsiung

This is a picture of Ryan's first companion, Elder Joshua Alexander Solorzano from Taylorsville, Utah. This is also a picture of Ryan's new bike that he had for a whole two weeks before it was stolen when they were at church last Sunday.
This is a Buddhist Temple here in Guiren!!! In Chinese it is called a "Miao"

"Letter"

wow! my baby sister is going to be driving wow congrats!!!! how many hours does she need? so this week was the best week of my mission so far and the worst! please have mercy on me i have been taking this really hard on myself and trying to get over that my bike got stolen!!! it was so nice i dont even know how to express my feelings right now! on sunday we went to church.. our chapel is on the top of a bra store..so it is just in a building. i am in a very poor area and i dont think they are going to build a chapel any time soon. I want to let you know i always lock my bike!!!!! me and my companion lock it together to both of ours..... someone took mine and left my companions....i painted it red and yellow i know not the best colors but thats all we had! ya i took a pic of my bike before it got stolen....not painted tho. we went next door to the cell phone store and the cops came on tuesday to check the security tapes but the angle was bad..they said closed case...now im riding my companions bike and he is using a members kids bike...which is good cuz satan will never try and stop this work! mommy and Daddy i am so sorry!!! please forgive me! i just talked to president hsu and he heard my about my bike and said sorry and to go today to a used bike store. he also said that because of the economy 10 bikes have been stolen this month... one missionary that is about to go home has had his stolen 3 times! u may think a lock is the best way but its not one missionary said that he and his companion lock their bikes together to a post and they came out the next mornin and the post was gone and of course their brand new bikes! president said that my bike would break down anyways in 2 years and you are going to have to make repairs..and it is just smarter to buy a used bike!! i am going to use the rest of the mission money to buy one......tonight we are fasting for a family so i hope we find one! ok enough of this i am in a bad mood.. this week spiritually was amazing! my companion and i got the Standard of Excellence! president hsu called today as well to congratulate us! this achievment is we had 6 new investigators , 5 member lessons, 4 at church and 3 with a baptismal date. we found 7 new investigators! we had 9 member lessons, 5 at church and 4 with a baptismal date. elder solorzano said he has never gotten the standard of excellence before and we did it because of my faith!!! ha ya right it was all because of the lord!!! we have the numbers to do it again. i hope that i gained the presidents trust! i am just so ecited we did it it was a very hard week..the adversary tried to bring us down with the bike, but we are working hard and being exactly obedient! I have seen so many miracles! please pray for us to find a family! we really need one! so last thursday was my first zone conference..that was cool i saw elder linderman and elder wilson! we caught up which was nice..then friday i went on exchanges with my zone leader elder welling to jia yi....way fun the mountains are so green here! it was nice to get away from the polluted city! but it rained on us hard...i have never been in such a hard rain storm while riding on my bike. he said thats nothing wait till the summer for the typhoons!!!! haha that will be crazy to see! oh yesterday my companion went to kaohsiung to ltm. leadership trainin mtg. i went on another exchage to tainan about 30 min from guiren. oh and jia yi is 2 hours away...tainan was cool! a big city tho! it was intresting trying to get around on our bikes.. i always ride defensively the scooters can run you off the road but we had good success finding and teaching the gospel! oh i got your letter yesterday i will write you one today! just about my bike situation and the other cool stuff i have seen! i hope you forgive me again for the bike i know it was a waste of money! but buying a used one will reduce the chances of me losing another one! ok i love you all! dad i will fast tonight for you as well! mom glad to hear your job is secure. what a blessing it is to serve the lord in hard times and in good! cuz the lord sent me not to fail but to succeed! i love you all!

Love, Elder Christensen

March 9, 2009 - Letter and Picture from President Hsu

We received this picture in the mail of Sister Hsu, Ryan and President Hsu at the Mission Home the day after he arrived in Kaohsiung. Also included was the below letter.

March 4, 2009 - Zone Conference

Elder Wilson

March 4, 2009 - Ryan's first Taiwan P-day and letter home

Hey everyone it is my first p-day in Taiwan! it is 11:25 on wednesday! wow I have had a very exciting week since I talked to you last.. ya I tried to call in Korea at the airport but my calling card was not working plus no one could figure out how to use it. Anyways ya the plane ride was really long but the korean food was amazing! They treated us really good! Iwant to fly Singapore Air again! President and Sister Hsu are so amazing I love Sister Hsu she is so funny and has a great sense of humor! President Hsu is a man of revelation, because he put me with the best companion! Elder Joshua Alexander Solorzano! He's from Taylorsville, Utah! He has been out for 1 year and his chinese is so good! When he talks with people he rarely ever doesn't understand! I am in the middle area, North West of Kaohsiung! Guiren! It is alot of fun! I thought my chinese was good boy did I get humbled! The peoples accent here is so different than what we learned it is very hard to try and hear what they say. For example, instead of saying wo zhi dao...which is wo zhr dao..they slur it and say wo zi dao....anything that has an h in it they don't say... I am praying hard to adjust the environment! I straight up got culture shock! The humidity is nuts it gets way hot and you never stop sweating, but I like it cuz I hate the cold! The houses are very poor looking. My apartment took some time to get used to....there are a lot of coackroaches which scare me..cuz today in personal study one ran across the floor and into my suitcase! Every morning it is a rule to run 20 minutes! I hate running! At first it was hard to breath cuz of the humidity! but maybe it will be good for me! I hope I lose a lot of weight! I LOVE the food here! it is so good! I miss cereal but they have a pancake thing with eggs in it that I always buy every morning it is only 20 kuai...last week I ate a lot but my companion told me only spend 200 kuai or less everyday! That helped a lot.. I have a budget each day of what I spend so far this first transfer, yesterday I spent 120 cuz a member took us out to eat to a steak house!!!! We helped him clean his roof of his store, for service...that was nice! so Monday I spent 190 which all is for food! Which is really cheap here! I love it.

Sunday church was hard I didnt understand a thing!!!! oh you might be wondering why my letter is so long I have 60 minutes!!!! It's still not enough cuz I want to tell u more! But I hope you share this with everyone! So like I said food is so good my favorite so far is a traditional chinese lunchbox! rice vegetables, mushrooms and a meat of your choice.. the chicken is good! but yesterday we had bird meat haha I love it it is better than pork! so the weirdest thing I ate 2 days ago was duck blood!!! it was good but a little to spicy for me! I am excited cuz tonight we are going back and I want some more duck blood cake! that is my favorite dessert here so far.  So the fruit is so good here! the pineapple is the best! anyone ever try dates man they taste like apples but better...we always ride our bikes by a fish store.. my companion wants me to try the fish heads and the stinky tofu I doubt I could eat that I gag every time we ride by!

but ya my companion is by far the most spirituall and faith driven missionary I have met! he is my favorite so far...Elder Linderman was cool but me and zeng zhang lao thats his chinese name! we have seen miracles here in Guiren! we found an awesome family that is going to meet with us on friday and liang ting..his american name is timmy! last night we invited him to baptism! we have met with him 3 times! he is golden! I hope he prayed last night to find out for himself that the church is true.. its been hard for him though. his parents are buddhist but I told him last night in my poor chinglish that you can be an example to them by following Jesus Christ and accept baptism! I love that kid! he is 20 i will send a picture if he gets baptized! the buddhist temples here are so cool! next p-day we are going to go inside....I still have to get a dictionary and a helmet. I had to ride a old bike it was hard to keep up with zeng but my new bike came it is amazing!!!!I have to paint it today! so yeah Drayson can tell me updates on the Lakers but only their record! I don't care about the scores...ok cool so my time is up I love you all and I hope I answered all of your questions!

love Elder Christensen Guiren missionary!!!!

Duck Blood Cake