The night before Christmas

Short post today because I am really trying to enjoy myself during this season. Well, it took a lot of Christmas music, lots of church videos and preparing to give a talk on Christmas day to get me through it but I think that I'm doing just fine this year. Yes, this is the second year in a row that I have not been able to be home for Christmas; something that hasn't happened since I went on my mission ten years ago. The only difference between now and then is that I was crazy busy every day doing the work of the Lord and now I'm only crazy busy doing the work of the Lord part-time and kind of sucking at it as of late. But there has been something special about this Christmas. Again I have felt the love of the Lord pulling me through not being able to be with my family, which feels so terrible, but this year I have started to feel a reliance on the Lord that I haven't felt in a while. One thing I learned on my mission was reliance on the Lord because if you didn't have that, well you just about went crazy. But ever since being back I guess I didn't feel so much like it was just me and the Lord in the world and I started putting my trust in others, not forgetting about the Lord of course; at first. You know if there is one thing that I really put forth a big effort in doing in my life is keeping in contact with the people who I've become friends with whether or not it has been in the past or the present. Now I'm not the best at it but I really try stay in contact with people that I care about and try not to miss important dates and things. Staying in touch with the Lord shouldn't be as hard as staying in contact with people but sometimes it just is. Through this Christmas season I have had to rely on something other than the relationships that I've had and the relationships that I have now. I've had to rely more on myself, more than I ever had before and whenever I do that I realize how terribly short I fall. That is when I remember my primary and Sunday School lessons which has taught me that whenever I fall short that I always have somewhere to turn to. That's why I've made a resolution this year that I'm going to make sure that I come home for Christmas every year. Now I might not be able to come to my earthly home with my brother's and sister and my Mom and Dad but I can come home to the place that I know that I will be always welcome no matter what I do or who I am. I know that I am always welcome in the arms of the Lord. Just as the prodigal son, if I return to him then I know that every time he will come running to the rescue. This has never failed me in my life and has been the only constant in this unreliable world. I love the Lord and the things he has done for me. Merry Christmas everybody.

Yes ladies and gentleman, It's time for another Good Idea, Bad Idea

Good Idea: rewarding yourself for a long eventful and productive day by eating a piece of pizza. Bad Idea: trying to make up for a long day of not eating and staying in bed because you felt sick to your stomach by eating a whole medium size pizza along with garlic bread and three spicy drumsticks. The End, at least I wished. I have realized that the more I stay in this country that has little to no meals based on anything dairy, the more I become intolerant to lactose. Eating all that food was definitely not the satisfying end to a hard day that I wanted. The happy ending is that I did actually get to sleep eventually and woke up feeling loads better.

I've gotten a lot better at staying on top of things and keeping myself busy with little projects this week. I'm getting really excited for Christmas not because I'm doing anything special for Christmas but for the observance of the holiday. Living in a country that doesn't have all the Christmas hullabaloo during this time of year, you really have to wait until Christmastime to see anybody getting into the holiday at all. I find myself going to American stores like Costco so I can see the tree and feel a little bit of it's magic. I remember Christmases when I was going to BYU. When I was coming home for Christmas during my first year at BYU I was driving on the cold and snowy road that I had driven down so many times before but there was a new excitement this time. I was listening to the radio to catch the Christmas tunes to put me in the Christmas mood and I remember one song came on that brought tears to my eyes. I know it's a kind of sappy memory but bear with me. It was Kenny Loggins "Celebrate me home." I've always loved soulful songs where you can make up your own melodies to sing in the background with a gospel choir to back you up and this just gave me an excuse to start singing at the top of my lungs. Ever since that Christmas it has been a tradition of mine to play that song whenever I am traveling home for Christmas and even though last Christmas and this Christmas I have not been able to get home I love listening to the music of this season because it inspires us and brings back the memories that make this season so magical. I feel that among the many lessons and principles that this season teaches there lies one that rings a special tune, and that one is of remembrance. Not only remembrance of Christmases past, of family togetherness and memories of dear friends and family who have left this world, but also of the way the first Christmas was passed and the incredible gift of love that was brought to this earth that night. I hope that everyone really does have a great Christmas this year and is able to spend it with the people that they love because it is the people in this life that make it sweet.

Ok, preachy sappy post is now over. I shall now get down from my proverbial soap box.

I am now officially inactive!!!

I have now not been in the area of Daliao for church for three weeks! I feel really bad because I have to keep asking the Bishop to help me organize the lesson for the Young Men. Three weeks ago was the Singles Conference, last week I woke up with a terrible headache and was exhausted from coming back from the Singles Conference without stopping for a breath and then this last week I remembered on Thursday that I had a School paid for trip with all of the other teachers that was traveling back home on Sunday so I would have to miss another day. I made sure that I read some General Conference talks to try to get a little of the spiritual nourishment that I need to get through this next week.

The trip was really cathartic though. We went to Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan which is the biggest lake they have there up in the tall mountains. It looked just like one of those wistful Chinese paintings with the gargantuan mountains leaping out of the ethereal mist wandering through the lower valleys. We went on a lot of scenic little excursions including a little ferry ride across the lake with a tour and a nature walk up in the mountains surrounding. It was all so magical and just gorgeous! My favorite was a little metal pathway called the skywalk that started from a ridge and made it so you were walking among the tops of the trees. It was awesome! I felt like I was on some kind of Swiss Family Robinson house or something. The best thing I got from the trip I think is that I got to become closer friends with some of my non-American co-workers. More and more I am feeling like a regular part of the staff and not some foreign piece of garnish that isn't included in the stuff that matters and doesn't know how to do the stuff that doesn't.

All in all I'm now officially excited about Christmas, except for the fact that I won't be spending Christmas with my family, again. I really hope that they know that I love them dearly and think about them all of the time. Here's wishing everybody that reads this the best Holiday season.

Hiding in Bed, not fun

So hiding in my bed with a headache after a long week is not as comforting as it may sound to some people who are wishing they could catch a break like this. Sometimes I wake up so tired for work and just wish that I had some kind of ailment so I could validate staying at home but when it really happens I have to deal with the pain and annoyance of being sick which makes the rest a very non-enjoyable activity.

Anyway, at least this gives me time to write on my blog and catch people up on exactly why I have my head swimming in Acetaminophen. Last weekend I got to have a lot of fun. I went to my first ever Single's Conference. For all of you who don't know what this is, it's when a bunch of church-going single people get together and rent out a hotel and have a fun weekend full of hearing inspirational messages, doing service in the community, while all at the same time trying to exchange as many phone numbers as possible and complaining to your buddies why so many girls are completely ignoring them and how are they ever going to get married if the girls don't do their job of realizing how sexy they are (overheard conversation in bedroom, Ha!). Well I didn't plan on going, in fact I really didn't pay much attention to this activity until the church leader who was organizing it, who just happens to be my boss at work as well, asked me to provide a little night music (pardon the musical pun) for the singles to dance to. He said that he wanted me to be one of the choices on a night where the singles had free time to participate in a lot of different things. My boss wanted me to put on a romantic night of live Jazz music so the Singles could dance to it but have it be more of a romantic atmosphere instead of a night club atmosphere. I didn't think that Taiwanese people really connected to Jazz music, which I later found out that I was correct, but I jumped at the chance to perform especially since it was one of my most favorite music styles. Well it was a big hit! I mean they couldn't figure out how to dance to it, which most Taiwanese people in my experience don't really understand how to dance to anything but line dancing, but they said that they really thought the night went well and they met a lot of people. I was surprised because I thought that they were going to act like the youth at a dance, just a couple of people having fun while the rest of the people sit in their little groups on the sidelines. The majority of the people were on the dance floor dancing, talking and otherwise socializing. I also met some awesome people there too as well. I went to be able to find more people my age that I could get to know better and I think I accomplished that.

Needless to say I didn't get much sleep that weekend and this week I have not been doing much to make up for that loss. Between catch up grading, catch up playing and catch up tv shows I haven't been very nice to my body this week so it is taking it's revenge. Hopefully this next week I'll be more responsible. Love you guys and hope your Thanksgiving preparations bring you joy and the feelings of gratefulness.

All that Jazz

So I was in my office, minding my own business, probably wasting my time, when a big event's reminder decided to disrupt my very restful time and hit my heart with such force that I gasped and almost fell out of my chair. "I have to perform that single's Jazz night next weekend!!" I exclaimed. Don't you just love it how you plan for things that are so far in the future that it seems like they will never actually happen and then all of a sudden they are here? Well, gratefully I had been preparing here a little bit and there a little bit so I was not completely at my wits end but it certainly has made this weekend a nerve-wracking experience of continual practice and memorization of lyrics. I would normally be completely no worries. I always have one or two jazz songs that I can perform at the drop of a hat but this performance is for a National Singles Conference and I have to fill around an hour and half of time. *gulp* Now the upside is that this is no concert. I'm just providing "background music" for a romantic night. There will also be cameo appearances by the presiding Stake Presidency, and another girl that sang with me on the theme song for the Conference. So I do have some help to fill up the time but that still leaves me with a lot of material to practice and a lot of programming to think about so that people don't get too bored or feel like I'm singing too much. I'm already thinking of some Chinese jokes that I can use to lighten the mood a little bit because since this is a Mormon Singles Conference you know that there are going to people out there who are gonna be sweatin' bullets! I on the other hand am avoiding the awkward night by being the one in the spotlight which is a great compromise.

I'm so ready for this season to be here though. Even though I live in a foreign country where they don't celebrate the upcoming holidays I still can feel the peace and feelings of gratefulness that they remind me of. This Holiday Season is going to be special, I just know it.

Be careful what you wish for...

So lately I have been trying to connect with a young man that I became acquainted with when I was serving in the Young Men's Presidency here in Taiwan. Lately he seems to be slowly distancing himself from things that he used to be so actively attending before and I just haven't been that active in catching up with him since I've been back. I wasn't serving in Young Men's anymore, he wasn't my Home Teaching Companion like he was before, but I still felt responsible as a friend to see how he was doing. Through this effort I started missing serving with the Young Men and wished that I was still involved somehow. Well then...WAPOW! My wish has been granted. I am now the Young Men's President. You know when you start to get a feeling about a calling and it turns out that it was probably the spirit telling you about upcoming events. Well maybe that is what was happening to me because here I am getting called to the calling that I kind of started doing already through trying to reconnect to this Young Man in danger. Now our ward has one more Young Man since I left for home over the summer so we have doubled in size! The bishop also wants me to work on reactivating a Young Man that fell inactive when I first got here last year. I had grown close to him back then but life just took over. Hopefully I can reconnect with this dude too and see if I can't try to get him to come back to church. Regardless, I am happy about my new calling even though I am still a ward choir director and a seminary teacher.

Also, this week I was able to go to an incredible monument built to the Buddhist main deity, the original Buddha. This is the first time that I have seen a religious Buddhist building that is new and I was so impressed with the architecture and the attention to detail. To tell you the truth the place looked like a scene straight out of the Nickelodeon show Avatar. The courtyard was so gargantuan and the Buddha statue in the backdrop was so enormous that it was just so incredible to be there. The only thing missing was the signs of excavation. It seriously looked like an ancient relic temple being unearthed in the jungles of South America. It kind of excited me and made me want to run around like a little kid jumping off of benches and doing made up karate moves. Definitely a must see for anyone that wants to come out here and visit me (hint, hint).

Well, as I start this next month I know that things are gonna get really busy for me. This month I have a big performance that I'm preparing for the singles conference of my church, I just started teaching another middle school English Class, plus I am still preparing for the big presentation for early December. Things are starting to gather speed. I pray that I don't get hives this year like I did last year from the stress!

And just like that things are back to normal

So I'm a little late with this posting. I kind of find it funny that when I have more time to do things that I need to do I am less effective or less motivated to actually get those things done. I had a three day weekend this last weekend and really took advantage of the time to take it easy and have a great weekend. Also, this weekend was GENERAL CONFERENCE!! That just contributed to the niceness of the weekend and probably why it was a little more difficult to write a post. This week I was trying to prepare to listen to the talks from General Conference and figure out what I needed to hear. There's a lot of things that I have goals for this year but I find that unless there is something dramatically wrong in my life I don't have something specific that I'm looking for, but I did find a lot of comfort and validation for the things that I am progressively working on this year. I especially loved the first talk from Richard G. Scott about scripture study and memorizing scriptures. For the past week teaching seminary has actually become something that I've enjoyed doing. Besides how exhausted I feel I have really loved reading the old testament and preparing the lessons. I also really enjoyed memorizing the different scriptures in Chinese. I need to be better with that part of my life, and I don't say that like what people normally say that they need to be better when they really are doing fine. That is one of the goals that I have for myself this year. I feel like the very close and intimate relationship I had with the scriptures when I was young has been like I moved to a foreign country and I just check back with that good friend every now and then. The fact of the matter is though that wherever you move or wherever you are the scriptures are never too far to contact and be close with. They are so much more available in my life than they ever have been before. I've got some kind of copy of them on every single electronic device that I own and those that know me know that my electronics are never more than an arm-stretch away. I need to be a better friend and get to know the scriptures again.

Speaking of needing to get to know the scriptures I received some bad news on Monday. Everything is going back to normal because I am no longer teaching seminary in the morning. They have called a new full-time teacher to teach in the mornings so my substituting is no longer needed. Based on my reaction when I was told that I would be teaching in the morning this seems like it should be a relief but I didn't feel like that when I received the news. I am very sad that I'm not going to be with those students in the morning anymore. But I think that I still want to continue to read the Old Testament because I realize that I really don't know that book as well as the other books of scripture. Another good thing to come from this is now I can attend Institute again which I was not able to before because it would keep me up too late. All in all I think it is a good thing but I still am a little disappointed. This does free me up to any and all callings now though *gulp*. Who knows what the Lord has in store for me next.

Ding Dong! The sitch is Red!

Hello all! Yet another snippet into the life of Clinton. I had to post these pictures because first of all one of them has me with my new very Taiwanese fashion glasses on and also what a night market in Taiwan looks like. This place was huge and was pretty fun to look around though most of the places, me and Daniel decided, were mostly clothing shops for girls. It was pretty fun to walk around though. Definitely have to go back there if anyone of you people decides to come and visit me (just so you know that was a hint).

Well this week has been rife with new projects to be started. First project I started this week was french! There is a teacher here from Paris named Adrien and he comes to our school to teach the French club. Here is a super cool guy and we've become acquainted whenever he comes on Wednesdays. Well at the end of last school year I realized that I have an opportunity that I'm not taking advantage of. I took 2 years of French when I was in high school because I was pretty interested in the language, mostly because girls were interested in the language (they weren't interested in the language perse as much as hearing guys speak the language). Well anyway, any and all such knowledge that was gleaned from those two years has since laid dormant in the recesses of my mind since learning Chinese and using that foreign language to supplement any need of international communication. Well I thought that since there is this guy here that is a native fluent speaker of French and he speaks very good Chinese (with a french accent which is super funny to listen to) I should be taking advantage of this opportunity to dust off my French knowledge and have him tutor me. We correlated our schedules and worked out that he would stick around campus after he taught his french club and tutor me for as long as I needed it every week. We started this week and I'm excited to report that I understood at least 50% of the french that was spoken which surprised me. I'm not sure if it was from words that I remembered from taking it all those years previous or that he was speaking in very rudimentary french or the English-French similarity or a combination of all of them but I thought I did pretty good. Now I was pretty much dumb when it came to speaking but I hope that that will come quickly without too much pain and anguish.

Another project that I'm starting is yet another performance that I need to prepare for. Not only am I supposed to provide a singles conference with a night of Jazz music hosted and performed by yours truly (something that I have never attempted by myself, let alone in a foreign country!) but now the school wants me to do a "music of Christmas around the world" presentation of sorts to hundreds of high school kids in December for an hour. So I've got a little bit more on my plate to collect and plan for the future in my "me" time but I think that I'll enjoy the preparation, and even the getting up in front of those people will probably a thrill as well. I'm just not looking forward to the imminent nervous break-downs that are sure to come caused by worrying about all of the little details that I will want to have perfect that Taiwan people seem so inept at providing comfort for. Maybe that's being unfair. I've only dealt with places and school systems in Utah county for things like this and let's face it, that area is the land of over-achievers so maybe outside of that very accommodating bubble maybe everybody else is just like them. It just drives me nuts sometimes because it is such an anarchy of chain of command! You see, the stress is already starting. Well anyways, I'm hoping that this year's fall semester will not include last year's interesting experience of shingles again. I do think that these things will really make my fall semester full of growth which I can't complain about because that is one of my big goals this year, to take advantage of growth experiences and milk them dry. I pray that while I'm sucking the marrow from life this year that I don't die choking on a bone.

Short but sweet

Nope. I didn't find a cute vertically challenged girl if that was what you were thinking from the title. I just don't have a lot of time to write a nice post like I usually do but I did want to record a great experience that I had this weekend here in the land of jungle and heat. This weekend in Taiwan they had an All Taiwan Missionary Reunion up in TaiZhong and me and another friend of mine decided to go up and attend. I have never attended any type of reunion ever, not because I don't want to but because for some reason I'm always either out of the loop, or out of the country, or just out of my mind. For what it's worth I've always wanted to go to some kind of reunion because I love seeing people that I haven't seen in a long time that I've been close to in the past. I really mean that. I flew across the country this summer just so I could see some of these "haven't seen in a long time that I've been close to" friends so it definitely is something that stands as a priority in my life. Anyway, I went up to this reunion but I didn't see anybody that I knew. I really wasn't expecting to because there were only two native Taiwan missionaries in my mission when I was here so anybody else would have had to fly into Taiwan to attend, and that comes out to a really expensive ticket. But I did have a great time getting to know a lot of the returned missionaries from previous years. In fact this reunion they had a special guest there. It turns out that one of the first four missionaries that came to Taiwan has now returned to serve in the Temple and they had him speak. I was fascinated by the stories that he told because it was like learning a bit of church history that was so foreign to me. I mean I'm pretty familiar with American church history which I am fascinated already with but I don't know a lot about how the church started out here on the island that I know and love. Well his stories really brought things into perspective. It reminded me a lot of Elder Groberg's books and how the world was just so different back then and how much of a risk missionaries during that time period would take to go on their missions. I had a lot of respect for the early missionaries, and members of Taiwan after his message. But the part that moved me the most was a little video of some native missionaries challenging the youth to go out on missions. It was pretty cute and inspiring to see these native missionaries but for just 5 seconds of this video I saw one of my closest friends that I have made out here, Josh who is on a mission right now, and it caught me off guard. I haven't seen this guy in over a half of a year and this guy had to go through so many trials to actually get out on this mission including getting constantly berated by the people that he loved the most, thrown out of the house, warned to never come back and that he was no longer a part of his family. I put him up in my place right before he left on his mission so he wouldn't go homeless. But when I saw him on this video his face had such a glow to it, and he looked so different; not so much that he looked older but he was no longer Josh my good friend that I would always hang out with, he was Josh the missionary and representative of Jesus Christ. The change was so palpable and it hit me that he had received so many blessings by going through that experience to help him out on his mission. I was so moved that I cried a little bit because I knew that Heavenly Father helped Josh because he loved him which I was so happy because I love him as well. It is always such an awesome feeling to see when people who are close to me are blessed by the grace of God. I guess it acts as a testimony that it can happen in my life as well. I love the Lord and the many blessings which I receive from him daily. Hurrah for Israel!

Happy Middle Moon Festival!

Well this week I had a pleasant surprise. On Sunday we (meaning me and my American co-workers) went out with some of the funniest Taiwan friends that I have and had a Middle Moon Festival barbecue, Taiwan style. For all you Americans that don't know what the difference between a Taiwan barbecue and our I'll give you the low-down. In America we have innovated the Barbecue to be a standing up activity, where the man controls the cooking and we have even limited the selection of foods that you can put on a barbecue to mainly beef, pork and hot-dogs with the occasional fish and Ka-bob assortment. In Taiwan they do not lug around a big machine or even have that much of an expert way to barbecue. They just put charred pieces of wood between a man-made thing of rocks, or inside a thin metal box that is later thrown away and put a screen of some sort over the top to put the things that you are barbecuing on. The creativity of things to barbecue is also very plenteous as well. You name it, they've covered it in Teriyaki sauce and put it on their little campfire contraption. From vegetables that look like cattail roots and fish-product pancakes, to whole squid and chicken-heart-ka-bobs they will broil away to their hearts content. The point of having a barbecue on the Middle Moon festival is also so that you can be outside and look at the moon and the Moon was very pretty that night. We also ended up having a water fight started by a big beefy dude named JiaMing that kind of got out of hand and almost made it so we couldn't continue the barbecue but it was all in good fun.

Anyway, my pleasant surprise came after that night of fun. As we were driving home that night I voiced how I didn't want to go back to school the next day and my friend said, "You don't have school tomorrow. Tomorrow is the Middle Moon Festival holiday." and I was like, "I know but I thought we were still going to school." to which he replied, "Who would go to school on a holiday?" I don't know what I was thinking but I went home with a much lighter countenance knowing that I had one more day off before I had to go back to teaching. I think I slept more than I played but it turned out to be a great day.

I just received another answer to prayer this week as well. Coming back here I've made specific goals for myself to be more motivated on doing the things that I should be doing every day more consistently. I've been doing pretty well in implementing them but I just play a little bit too much so that I get really tired by the end of the week and those things kind of get left in the dust. Well, I just received another assignment under a calling that I already have. Since this year we don't have any students that need to take seminary at Zhong Shan we have discontinued the release time class, but they did not release me from my Seminary teacher calling. Well, apparently the early morning seminary teacher that teaches the youth here in Daliao has not been feeling well lately and they need a substitute to take over for the classes being taught at 5:50am. Ahhhhhhh! I told the bishop that it would be really difficult to keep a calling in the ward while doing this so he promised me that my Sunday responsibilities that needed preparation during the week would not be given while I did this. I then told him that this couldn't have come at a better time because I have been kind of thinking that I need a lifestyle change. Maybe this will make me a more responsible person with my scripture reading and my sleep schedule. Hopefully I don't have to have a major break down to change my lifestyle habits :) Nobody likes a crabby seminary teacher. I know because I lived with one for 4 years. I would appreciate any prayers that can be spared for my well being. I'm sure that I will at least love teaching the youth the gospel again because that does really feed my need for doing something that really makes a difference. Well, here's to another week. Hurrah for Israel!!

...and I thought my brother was bad!

Whew! First full week of classes and I am wiped! I do feel a lot more prepared and natural than last year though. I'm not as nervous for classes that I don't feel prepared for and the kids no longer scare me. Yes, you heard me right. My first year of teaching I had a very real fear of children. Not of all adolescents in general or anything, just any adolescent that had the detriment of taking my class. Maybe I had first time jitters, maybe it was worrying about acceptance, maybe it was repressed memories from my past about how hard elementary and middle school was, I don't know. I just know that entering the school campus and being around high school kids, even during my student-teaching experience, kind of made me have a little shortness of breath. The thing is is back when, when I was younger, that kind of fear would paralyze me whereas now that kind of fear fuels me to continue on and gives me the energy to be the person that I am today. I'm one of those freaks that likes scary movies for this reason. They give me energy and make me so much more excited about the world around me.

So, like last year, at the beginning of the year is when the students that don't have English names get to choose their English name. This is a very important part of the curriculum because to a teenager a new name is a very exciting and identifying moment so I take it seriously as well. I usually give them some sheets of paper that list different English names, whether they are boy or girl names and what they mean to facilitate this activity but only a handful of the students actually use them. Mostly the students will think of names of things that they have heard in the media that define popular and/or in-style feelings that make their name unique to themselves. Now we do the same thing in our culture when we choose names for our children. My brother and his wife I thought were numero uno when it comes to inventing different exotic and inventive variations on a name to name their kids which I have mocked them for in the past. But my kids make them look like mere amateurs! I will get names like Apple, milk, milk tea, chocolate, double-egg, hot, sugar, and coffee. If you thought that those were weird though, I'm just getting started. Just this year I have students named Prada, Nike, Adidas, Kappa, Fire Truck, Coach, a girl named Converse and a guy named Chanel (as in #5). I even had a girl that wanted to be named Victoria Secret but I talked her down to the name Secret. But at least those are actually real things. Then we get into the names that are just noises. In one class alone I have the name Lu-lu, mu-mu, Yo-mo, Mo-mo, Schmo-mo, Nichun (pronounced Nick-yun), and Ilo (prounounced YO!). I mean every time I think that they have gone over the line and I should tell them that that is not a name I am brought back to my dear brother and others in America who are likewise as creative and I think, "I've heard of rappers being named worse." The one student that takes the cake though, that I finally did interject and tell her that she could not have this name, was a sweet little girl who wanted to be named Pee-pee. That's right, PEE-PEE! I lost it right in the middle of class and almost fell over I was laughing so hard. The truly horrible thing is that when I explained to her that her name was the name for urine she didn't seem at all phased. I made her change it to Emily instead.

On a more serious note, I have really enjoyed coming back to this island. I have so many people here that I love and have made so many friends that it was hard to be away in America for that short two month period. I'm starting to feel what it is going to be like when I have to leave here and I don't like it. I might be setting myself up for not being satisfied with any job that doesn't either have some kind of traveling out of the country or makes me enough money that I can travel out of the country as much as I want. Now I can see why some people don't want to really venture away to live too far from home, because then the people you develop relationships with can be close enough to go and visit frequently. This having good close friends in countries halfway across the world kind of sucks. Maybe this is Heavenly Father motivating me to be successful in anything that I do so that I can have the freedom to stay close with all of these amazing people. Whatever does happen I've seen that no matter if you are or you aren't near those people that you really love, Heavenly Father takes care of them for you. I'm so grateful for his guiding hand, not only in my life but in the lives of the friends and family that I care about a lot. Heavenly Father does answer prayers of protection as long as we pray with faith.

Back in Taiwan and ready for action

Well, here I am back in Taiwan and things seem to be just the way I left them with minor variations. The school is still so last minute and unorganized that I'm amazed at how well it does, the ward is still full of warm and kind people that make me feel so loved and accepted, the Taiwanese people are still so accommodating that it makes me want to be a better person, and Kaohsiung is still a wet hot mess. The minor changes to the atmosphere are just the people that I see often. Because the school did not get all of their certifications in on time and everything their Kindergarten that has been successfully built is now going to be used by the high school students as classrooms until they do get that certification done, which means that our International department just hired two more teachers than normal and now don't have the classes to satisfy the contracted amount that they said they would give them. Therefore they had to talk to our part-time teacher Mark, who was told that they would still have need of his services, and kind of had to say "psych!" and tell him that they actually didn't have enough classes to give him this year. Also, all the English Honors classes need are three teachers to manage it so they gave those classes to the three new teachers, which cut into my hours a lot. But, never fear! Superhuman Clinton can also speak Chinese so he can handle all of the vocational English classes which are very much like the overseas Chinese class that gave him such a headache last year because of all of the little stipulations that a regular Chinese teacher would know about because of the familiarity of the educational culture and the fact that they know how to read the announcements on the website. I am definitely a little nervous about this whole situation yet like last year I'm sure that everything will work out. Another change of scenery is that my "companion" from last year to which I relied on for inspiration, elocution-al accuracy, vocabularical prowess, and all around buddyness, Erica, has left my side to go on to bigger and better things. I'm happy and excited for her future yet sad that our futures are not coinciding this year.

Yet we're starting off with a bang! I already saw my beloved 2-13 class and have warned them that this year is going to be a step up from last year because they are now third years and are expected to aim higher. Hopefully that speech but the fear of God into them so they are more pliable and willing to work. I'm such an evil teacher and gave them homework on the first day of school :). It seems like every night this week I also have been out seeing the people that I love and getting to know the people that are new. I've already taken my new co-workers out to an island called 旗津 (Qijin) and one of them already got sick from that outing and another got yelled at by a security guard for trying to swim in the ocean which I in turn got yelled at by my co-worker because he was upset that he couldn't swim. Definitely a change from last year but I love the different dynamic. Life has a way of making things different just to make things interesting and non-stagnant. I also have some personal goals and expectations for myself this year that I hope will be met with excitement and motivation instead of the usual laziness and waning desire. Hurrah for Israel! The work still goes on in my life as I hope it goes on for others.