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| With Elder Nikell |
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| My Comp -- check out the meat! |
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| With a fan! |
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| Chillin' with fellow missionaries |
HEY
HEY HEY!
How's
it going again? Feels like just yesterday that we talked and now we're
back at it again. Before I forget I just wanted to mention that I did get
both packages, one from Nana and Papa K, and also from the family as well.
Thank you all so much for the goodies and other stuff inside. It
sounds like Aspen Grove was a blast for you all and I'm looking forward to
getting those pictures. Well, this was another fun week in XiaoGang, so
let's get right on into it.
Monday
night we visited with one of our really cool investigators, Brother Guo.
He is 16 years old, one of our fairly newer investigators, and super
smart. We shared with him the Plan of Salvation and everything just
clicked within him. He understood it all, but isn't quite sure whether
it's true or not. He is not your average 16 year old kid. Every
question we asked he sat and thought about it thoroughly, applying it to him
and all this other stuff. I definitely was not like him when I was
16. Things will start clicking and making more sense as he searches for
these answers through prayer and the scriptures, receiving them from the Holy
Ghost.
Tuesday
found me back as District Leader, teaching the DTM and we focused on a part of
Elder Bednar's talk entitled, "Becoming a Preach My Gospel
Missionary". The part we focused on was "getting out of the
way" of the Spirit. The Holy Ghost is the true, ultimate teacher,
and we as missionary's need to do our part to enable to let Him teach, and that
is by getting out of the way. I hope it was helpful for the members of
this district, and it has been something that I have been trying to work on
myself for a while now. From there I went on Zone Leader exchanges with Elder
Sanford and just had an awesome time. We had an awesome lesson with a
family, Hong family, we recently found and we mainly talked on the blessings
that come from a family prayer. Everything just flowed smoothly
throughout the lesson. The wife had mentioned that she had prayed before
and even brought up some blessings it has given her: peach, comfort, and made
things go a lot more smoothly. The thing about prayer is that we can do
it whenever, wherever, and as long as it is with real intent, we can receive
those blessings. We later on visited with one of the ward members,
Brother Zheng, who was actually the first branch president for XiaoGang.
He talked about the long years of service for the branch/ward, and even
sold his land to the church so that they could build a church there. It
was so good to hear the story of the start of the XiaoGang ward from the
"founder" himself.
Wednesday
was a not as busy as the rest of the week, due to the exchanges, all the
traveling, English proselyting, and English class. However, there was
some advice I was given by my zone leader Elder Sanford which goes along like
this, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." Other than it
being used by Muhammad Ali, it has a lot to do with how we proselyted together.
Thursday
we visited again with our Brother Guo and he is just doing great. We gave
him the story of Ammon to read the last time we met with him, and he basically
shared it with us as if he had known it his entire life. He just
absolutely loves reading books, and I can see why now. We just had a
great conversation about the importance of prayer, one thing that he finds
awkward and hard to get into the habit of, but it will slowly come along.
We gave him a portion to read from Alma 42 to prepare him for our next
lesson on justice and mercy.
Friday
we started on out by visiting a part member family. Other than them
throwing all this meat in our face (chicken, duck, goose, etc) we reviewed how
their week went. They mentioned that things have improved a lot for
themselves as well as their business, and they feel that prayer has been a
factor of that. We then talked about how sometimes we feel we are far
away from God and so that is why it is important to read the scriptures.
The prophet Joseph Smith talked about in the introduction of the Book of
Mormon that we will get nearer to God as we apply the principles in our own
lives. That has a lot of power. Not only do the principles help us
get nearer to God, but they help us become more like Him as we apply them.
We then visited this Hong family again, and the lesson didn't go as
smoothly as we expected it to go, but I'm just praying and hoping that even
though we are terrible teachers that the Holy Ghost touched their hearts
teaching them what they needed to hear. From there we visited a recent
convert, Brother Lin, as well as a less active, Brother Wu. We just got
to know them a lot more and just were there to strengthen them.
Saturday
was probably the funnest day I've had in a long time. Today was 傳道日,
which is missionary day. It was a stake YM/YW activity and we got to talk
the youth from all over West GaoXiong to our areas to proselyte. I took
around a 14 year old kid, Elder Fang, and had such a great time with him.
He was a bit shy, but I did the best I could to make things fun for him.
After we proselyted in XiaoGang for a while, the youth gathered together
at a night market and we Dan Jones'd it up. Oh it was so much fun!
It reminded me of the first time I Dan Jones'd, which was over a year ago
when I first got on island. It was really cool to think back to that day
and to see the change in myself from that day. I then took Elder Fang
around the night market and we just went to town on all the people there.
Although everyone we contacted were referrals, it was just a blast to be
doing the work with Elder Fang. One thing I learned from this activity is
that I'm grateful I am riding a bike everyday. Walking and walking and
walking just made me back and legs sore haha. But it was for a good
cause.
Sunday
was a great day as always. A few weeks ago while on exchanges, Elder
Nickell and I visited with a recent convert and actually gave his
sister/relative, Sister Wu, a baptismal goal and handed her on over to the
sister missionaries. Well, after a few weeks of teaching
and strengthening and all that stuff, I did her baptismal interview
and she passed. The miracle that happened was all the events that led up
to this very moment. I won't go into detail on that right now, but it
just goes to show that the Lord is always preparing people. With Sister
Wu, it began as she was a little girl as the missionaries taught her and her
family. After many years she is finally able to partake of the wonderful
blessing of baptism and enter onto the path that leads back to our Heavenly
Father. More will come about the baptism next week.
That's
about it for this week. It's so great to hear from you each week and to
hear what is going on clear on the other side of the world. The goodies
and stuff from the packages will be enjoyed and I cannot wait to hear from you
all next week. I love the land of XiaoGang and even more the land and
people of Taiwan. I love this opportunity I have to serve my God, and I'm
grateful for the gospel plan of happiness we enjoy. I love my family and
the rest of you too! Take care!
Love
the One and Only,
司馬長老
