Ryan's Mother Day call came in at exactly 6:00 p.m. tonight as planned. He was calling from his apartment in Guiren. It was 9:00 a.m. Monday the 11th his time and day. He spoke in Chinese when I answered the phone. I had no idea what he said, I was so absorbed in just hearing his voice. He was only allowed 40 minutes to speak to us and near the end of the conversation Brycson said to him, "did you for get to say something to Mommy?" Ryan said, "what?" Brycson said, "Happy Mother's Day". Ryan told him that that was the first thing he said in Chinese when I answered!!
He sounded so wonderful and happy. He loves his companion and they are experiencing a lot of success together. He also mentioned that he was in a bike accident yesterday. Also, that this was his second one since he has been there. An older gentlemen was on a scooter and rear ended Ryan. Ryan went over his handle bars and sustained a large road rash and he thinks he sprained his ankle. The older gentlemen set down the scooter and was taken away by ambulance with a bloody head injury. We have heard about how dangerous the scooters are there.
He said that he and his companion called Sister Hsu and that she is the funniest person he has ever met. She said, remember what Elder Bednar said, if you sneeze in Australia in America they think you have Malaria.
He is almost ready to pass off the brown book in his personal studies and is making great progress in learning the language all of the sudden. He can teach in Chinese and the next lessons are more in how to say hello and small talk on the street.
He said he loves his church music that he has on his I pod, especially the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
He said his favorite food is still pigs feet and just recently tried pig skin of which he did enjoy!
He thanked Talia for her letters and asked about how his cousin Tanner is doing in Uruguay. He can't beleive that he is coming home in September.
He gave us his whole days schedule, which was very busy. It starts with a mile run and sit ups. He still has trouble with the humidity and does not enjoy it too much. For anyone that know's Ryan, running is also not his favorite thing!
He said that time is going by so slow but what he has learned is that this gives them more time to find a lot of people and teach a lot of people. He thinks that this will be the slowest two years of his life but the best. They kid him and say that his companion is Trunkie and Ryan is homesick.
The children there are highly educated and go to two schools a day. One during the day and one during the evening. Ryan and his companion rides up in the elevator with the children at the end of their day and always ask him how their day went. They always say "bad". They go to school 7 days a week and are very smart kids. When they are born in Taiwan they are taught Ti Wu,, (Taiwanese). When they go to school they are then taught to speak Mandarin.
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