Jared 1-24

ni hao!
Do you all gather around and read my emails like we used to do? That was good fun. Sorry but you can't skype with me, especially not every Sunday :P But in about 2 weeks I'll be heading over to Taiwan! And I get to call you from the airport :) hmm... What else would you be interested to know... Our zone leaders are leaving next week, which is weird. Have I told you about them? They're brothers, from France, going back to France Chinese speaking. Weird right? Ummm we took a zone picture yesterday which was fun :)
It's kind of odd getting letters from back home from my friends. I love it like crazy, it's just weird to think that there is life outside the MTC. Mtc is way cool. We had a new sister join our district, and that's way cool because she speaks like perfect Chinese. (She lived in Taiwan for a couple years) and so it's cool that we can talk with her and practice with her and what not. It feels like just yesterday when I last emailed you. Kind of crazy. I often forget what I've already told you, and what I wrote to other people, so I apologize if I leave big things out (like you'd be able to tell) or keep telling you the same thing. Hey! speaking of saying the same thing, I'd really like to have my Chinese Chess board. It's magnectic and folded in half in my box of stuff. You're welcome to use my money to send it over :)
Thanks for all the letters this week. I don't really have time to respond to every single one, but I'll do my best to at least aknowledge everyone. I'm slightly confused by Nathan's letter. He said that he made it very clear that they aren't missionaries. And I just had some imagination of them breaking like every mission rule :P aha it sounds amazing down there tho :) I'm not quite sure why I'm emailing this to you, but i just assume that it will eventually get to him.
I get plenty of sleep here actually. from 10:30 sharp to 6:25 I sleep, and it's great amount. I am however, continually tired. I think it's because I've become incredibly lazy. So that'll be fun to go from never moving around to riding my bike everywhere I go, but it'll be exciting. When we first get to Taiwan we have an orientation for three days, I wonder what that's like. We stay at the Mission home, and supposedly don't have our stuff so that's exciting :)
Hey Natalie thank you so much for my Christmas card in chinese! All i got was a bunch of numbers and number signs (like 1284#1782, 129e#7129) but I still very much enjoyed it :P How is wu loashi anyways? I keep looking back at how aweful I was at chinese and laughing :P But she really did help me learn Characters, and I'm just more associated with the complexity and sbeauty of the language. I really do love it :)
Oh yeah it's a new year! What were your goals for this year?? I'm really curious to know :) I love goals. They are seriously amazing. I've become so goal oreinted it's amazing. Really helps you stay focused and keep your head on straight when you have a destination your working for :)
And thanks for the 6300 character letter. I didn't know there was a limit, and now not only do I know, but I know what it looks like! Thanks Miranda that was really great <3 I'm not sure if I got "your present" Miranda. Did they have names on them? Because I never really aknowledged what was from who, I just assumed they were all from Santa.
I've accepted that China most likely won't open up on my mission, and that's okay. I'm crazy excited to go to Taiwan and serve the people there :) and I think I'll just serve there when I'm older. Like a senior missionary, and my asian wife :P haha jk. That's not the important stuff.
So I had about 4 minutes left over of free time, so I thought you would enjoy the story of my first mentor:
This last week he was out tracking with his senuior companion in the boonies, and a pleasant seeming man let them in. As time went on, they had a feeling that they should leave, but unfortunately did not. One thing after another, my mentor broke his ankle jumping over a fence in flight from a man with a machette. I'm excited to go to Taiwan :D
So in closing I hope you know that I love you all very much. And I hope that you are all making the necessary steps to build your faith in Christ and in this beatuiful gospel. I love you, keep being amazing member missionaries :)
-Elder Tate