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December 24, 2012

Hello momma! How was your week? MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Sounds like christmas has been pretty busy! Haha the christmas tree is looking pretty good! Tell conner and corrin they did a pretty great job! That is so cool, voyager ward has 3 more missionaries out! Man our ward is so great. Tell the ward thanks so much for the christmas letters they sent me! I enjoyed reading them. Also, thank you for the christmas package!! I have not opened any of the wrapped things yet because..well it's not christmas! I will open one tonight though. Sounds like moving everything out of Darcis house was quite the job! Like Dad said, too bad he didn't have any bird brains over there helping him out!

      This was a pretty good week for us. We are already starting to see christmas miracles! On thursday we had our mission christmas activity! We went to this place called ming jian and went around to see some of the cool places there. We also had a little fireside at the end of the day and talked about Christ being our foundation. On our way home, our bus broke down so we ended up having to walk over to the train station and hop on the train. After sitting down in our seats we started up a conversation with the people next to us who were way cool. 

       This week we also had a christmas activity with our branch at the chapel! We had a few investigators come and they had a great experience. We watched a bit of the beggining of the christmas devotional from the first presidency and then the projector fell over so we played we went straight to the activity part which every loved. It was super great for our investigators because they got to know the ward better and had a chance to learn the real meaning of christmas as well as feel the spirit of it! So great. I am very grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and at this christmas time I am filled with even more gratitude as I reflect on the meaning of Christmas and the story of Christ's birth. Born as a baby in a manger, come to save the world from sin. What a miraculous story!

       So about skyping! We are going to come to the internet cafe which has webcams and skype and what not and skype you on wednesday morning at 8 which means it will be teusday night at 5pm for you! Is that cool? We will plan on that! and I will be using my own skype account so watch out for me! Talk to yuo soon! Love you bunches!

December 17th, 2012

      How was staying at Aunt Alices with grandma? If you see her let her know that I love her! That is so weird that Nick is already home, it does not seem like 2 years ago that we went to his farewell. How is he doing? 

       Paul-HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! You better slow it down a bit! I think you can get into movies for the senior price now right? That must be nice. Haha love you bro. Miss you! Hope all is going well! Have a sweet birthday!

      This week was a pretty good week. It was Elder Hansen's very last week on the mission! It is super weird to think he is leaving! We dropped him off at the train station this morning! My new companion is Elder Stratford. I was actually with him in the MTC for six weeks! It is cool to be able to see him again and see how great of a missionary he has become! I am excited for this coming move call with him! We are going to work hard and have a good time. I am sure he is going to love xin ying, this place is the best. The members here are so great. Speaking of which, this last week we got taken out to dinner quite a few times because Elder Hansen was leaving. Sweeeet :D The ward here really supports the missionaries big time and loves doing missionary work, it is the greatest! I am super glad I have had the opportunity to serve here. I have met life long friends, including Tyler! He is my big bro in taiwan. He wants to add you and dad on facebook and he says if you want you can email him- tylerpetersonlds@gmail.com. Haha he is a funny one. Super cool kid, tell him he is your son in taiwan, he says he wants to be part of the fam. This week we also had a pretty cool christmas activity in jaiyi. Our whole district went and they had some performances and a huge lunch! Christian organizations from all around town came and did some performances as well! It made me realize how much the church has an impact on the community! We had some recent converts and investigators come with us to it which was super cool too.  One of the greatest feelings ever-when your investigators consistantly have good experiences while reading the Book of Mormon. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and the huge blessings it brings into our lives when we read it and strive to better understand it. Just as Joseph Smith said, we can grow closer to God by reading and living by the teachings in the Book of Mormon than by reading and living by the teachings of any other book. 

       Well I hope you have a great week! Thanks for the music!

Love and miss you! 

Oh yes and for christmas we will either skype you on christmas morning or night. Not sure yet, we have to tlak with some members and see what their schedule is like. I will let you know next monday.      

December 10, 2012

Yeah I got the if you could hie to kolob one, but I did not get the masters hand one. Thank you!! Make sure when you send the music that they are Mp3 files, otherwise they will not work. The if you could hie to kolob was mp3 but that christmas music was not. And yes I can get CDs onto my drive no problem! As far as new music goes I will think some this coming week and let you know next week! So when can I skype you on christmas? We are pretty much cool whenever so it is up to you guys! Let me know what time you want to do it so we can start making some plans! 

        All is going pretty well, the weather is getting cold! It has been pretty rainy and cold lately. It is kind of a nice change though. A few people even put up christmas trees! Pretty awesome. Well time is getting short we gotta jet! Sorry this week is a little short! Love you momma! Love    -Elder Ripley

          Another great week here as well. It is starting to get pretty cold these days! Darci is moving into a house right next to the gilbert temple? That is so cool! That is super close to our house too!  I really liked the picture of your breakfast the other day, I have been craving a breakfast like that lately! Haha love you dad. I wish we could go get a tree together too. Miss you guys! Go get one and take the stick with my picture on it with you :D Well our time is about up. Love you dad! Talk to you next week!  
             Love   -Elder Ripley Tell paul he is getting old! 

December 3, 2012

Hello!!! Wow it looks like the wedding was a success! You have no idea how bummed I am that I missed it!! Ahhhh I wish I could have been there. I would have loved to have spent time with everyone and support my sista! Tell her I love and miss her so much! Disneyland was probably a blast too! Sounds like everything is super exciting back home! And christmas is coming up so quick!  I am glad I could attend the wedding as a picture on a stick at least :D  Better than not being there at all right? Riding those buses sounds like it would be a pretty nice ride! Wait how is Dan related to the Udalls again? I still remember hanging out with them in california! Fun stuff.

       As for me all is going pretty great! This week was pretty sweet. It has been getting cold! Right now it isn't too cold but it has cooled off abunch I love it! When I first got to taiwan in the summer I couldn't even begin to imagine it being cold in taiwan. I thought it was miserably hot year round haha. It is nice though sometimes I can wear my long sleeve shirts now. I am having a great time with my new companion Elder Hansen, he is pretty cool. It is weird to think he is going back to America in two weeks! Crazy...This week we saw some cool miracles with our investigators. 

      Well it is about time to get going, love you all bunches and hope you have a wonderful coming week! Thanks so much for the music mom!!! I am super pumped to listen to it! Love you!

      -Elder Ripley

November 26, 2012

       Hey Mom!! The music works! I can download it onto my flash drive! Thanks so much! I will start thinking of some music I want :D Thanks for the birthday card as well, I really enjoyed it! Thanks so much mom and dad! I know I am getting so old, it is super weird to say I am 20, especially since I have to tell people everyday on the streets. (That is one of taiwanese peoples favorite questions to ask you when you contact them, they all freak out because of how young we are, especially when I was 19!) Disneyland sounds like it has been a blast so far! I am super duper jealous! It has been awhile since I have been there! Thanksgiving sounds like it was pretty awesome too, I have been craving dads pancakes lately. I try to make pancakes on sundays, but I just can't do it quite as good as dad, I am getting there though! Yeah that picture of us holding our bikes up is from a few weeks ago when we rode our bikes to bu dai! The ocean! That was pretty sweet. Will you send me that picture?

       This week was pretty good. Elder Hansen and I found some pretty sweet new investigators. The ward here in xin ying is so great. They are some of the coolest people!  One of the ideas that alot of people have here is every church teaches the same thing, do good things! So every church is good because they are all the same! Yes, alot of churches are great, and they really do teach people to do "good things" which is awesome. Our message to the world is quite abit different then do good things though, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has the restored Gospel and restored priesthood authority of God in order to help God's children understand how to recieve their greatest happiness in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come. There is no greater purpose than God's, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. I am so grateful for this gospel and the blessings it brings into our family as well as the people I get the chance to teach. 

       Well hope you had a great week and have a good coming week as well! Enjoy disneyland! Love and miss you!

November 19, 2012

     Momma! Thanks for the birthday wishes! It is weird to think that I am almost 20!  Tell Julie thanks for me! Lauren Filichia is already home!? That is crazy! I miss Matt. Tell him hello for me if you see him again! Sounds like Kenny is a little sick! Hope she gets well soon! Tell her I love her for me! Blake and Blythe sound like the did pretty good in their primary program. I can just see Blythe going up and saying uhh I kinda forgot hahaha she is a cutie. Disneyland is coming up soon isn't it? I am sure they are freaking out. Send me a churro if you get the chance!
      Taiwan is fantastic! This week the weather just got alot colder and rainy and today it is warm again. There's Taiwan weather for yu. Unpredictable. I got a new companion today! His name is Elder Hansen. I knew him when I was in taizhong becuase he was an office elder at the time! He is the bomb. He leaves in 4 weeks! So crazy. He comes here and then leaves so fast. I am super excited to be his last companion and work hard together! This last week we had a mission tour! Elder Wilson from the asia area presidency and his wife came and toured our mission. We talked about working with members and teaching by the scriptures, especially the Book of Mormon. It was super great, I learned abunch about missionary work and am excited to apply what we learned from Elder Wilson. Today we ate shi tou again. The all you can eat meat/ everything else restaurant. Oh man it is so good, but I forgot to take pictures again! Sorry! I will be sending a memory card home soon with all my pictures on it though. Well love you momma and have a great week! Sorry I feel like everytime I email I am in a rush and i never type one long enough or that could even come close to explaining all of the experiences I am having! Hope you still enjoy them. Love and miss you!