Dear Family and Friends,
Well, I gotta admit, this week was rough,
but it was definitely worth it and we had some fun as we went along.
It was so great to hear from all of you and know how you all are doing.
All your stories, long and short, just give me an extra fire to go out
each week and work even harder. So thank you all! Well, I don't
know if you have heard about the typhoon that hit Taiwan this last week or not,
but it completely flooded out HengChun and turns out the same typhoon turned
around and is headed back to Taiwan. I'm doing just fine, all is well,
and hope to have the chance to head back down to that amazing place to do some
service cleaning in the next few days here. Well, now that that's said
and done, let's get on with this week.
Monday not a whole lot happened besides
visiting with a less active, Brother Hong. We didn't have a whole lot of
time to sit down with him, but had enough time to get to know the basics about
him. He is super busy with work, raising and taking care of fish, and so
we look forward to strengthening his faith and testimony from here on out.
Tuesday began with our District Training
Meeting and it was on sharing the blessings of the Book of Mormon. What I
have come to realize as I have been on my mission is that the Book of Mormon is
just full and full of promised blessings. Blessings were given to the
righteous as they heeded the counsel from on high, and blessings were given to
those who had a change of heart began to do so. In addition to to that,
blessings will shed forth as we go and act on the principles and teachings from
within. One thing I would just invite all of you to do right now is to
stop and think of the blessings that you have received from the Book of Mormon.
I then went on exchanges with Elder Garey's new missionary, Elder
Robison, and we just had a great time together. He is such a hard working
missionary and focused on his purpose. I just remember that exactly 1 year
ago I was in his same shoes, fresh on the island of Taiwan. We had a few
great first lessons and they went great because we took what we learned from
DTM and applied it into the lesson.
Wednesday we visited with one of our
progressing investigators, Brother Hong. He is doing really awesome.
I'm sure I've talked about him before, he is in his 50s/60s.
Anyway, we focused the lesson on prophets with him, how they are called,
their role, the benefits of listening to the words of the prophets, and then
talked on how God through his prophets have testified of Christ. Might
sound like it was a super complex lesson, but the scriptures teach these truths
plainly for all to understand. We then talked about Christ's ministry and
Him establishing his church in the America's, focusing on the power and
authority. He understood it all, but declined the invitation to be
baptized saying that his time just wasn't up. We're gonna still be
working with him and strengthening his testimony on the Book of Mormon and
prayer. From what he has already gone through, he knows the importance of
the Book of Mormon and that the bringing forth of the Book of Mormon was a
miracle in and of itself. Love this man!
Thursday was a long rough day (mainly due
to the typhoon). Let's just put it at that haha. I had a another
taste of the days I spent in HengChun, but it was only 1 day out of the week
this time.
Friday was another long day, just because
of the typhoon. We spent a lot of time at a 7-11 making phone calls and
then had some nice home grilled burgers done by our good ol' friend Ray (a 60+
year old Vietnam veteran from Kentucky). Oh, you do not know how bad I
miss those good ol' American burgers! OH! Anyway, he reminded us of
all the good tasting food we have in America and also told us that we
missionaries are crazy for proselyting in this typhoon. He said something
along the lines of, "You guys are either really religious or you are just
crazy." Went on telling us about a fella who actually passed away
the night before cause the wind knocked off a sign from a building and landed
on his car. Mom, don't get nervous, the Lord will protect his
missionaries. Well, we went back out into the storm and got back to work
and actually had a few lessons afterwards.
Saturday was the best day of the week by
far. It began by visiting with another one of our progressors, Jay.
He is doing great and has recently discovered the help that comes from
prayer. He and his family have been discussing about purchasing a new car
and going the that whole procedure, and he mentioned that prayer gave him more
power in the decisions he has made so far and felt that God was backing him
up.. Well, we testified that as he prays specifically about the Book of
Mormon and Joseph Smith that he would get the same kind of feeling. After
his lesson we cruised on over to Elder Garey's area to do a baptismal interview
for their investigator Liu bei bei, an 82 year old from China. Love,
this, man! and his accent! At first I was worried that I wouldn't be able
to understand him very well, cause is mainland accent was pretty thick, but
thanks to the Spirit all went well. He passed and I look forward to
attend his baptism next week. We cruised right on back and visited
with a former investigator named Jerry. He recently became a Christian
after the previous missionaries dropped him and now knows that he can't rely on
himself anymore cause that has gotten him nowhere. Jerry is your average
heavy beetlenut chewer, smoker, and drinker, but he has a huge desire to give it
all up. We talked that it'll come through faith, reading and praying that
he will receive God's help in quitting and coming to know the truth. I
hope to be able to share more about Jerry, he is honestly the world's funniest
man alive! We then cruised back on over to the church to do another
baptismal interview for one of the sister's investigators. Long story
short, the process up to her baptismal interview was a miracle in and of
itself. She passed her interview and immediately attended the baptismal
service of an investigator that Elder Christensen and I began visiting with and
then turned on over to the sisters to finish off the rest. Her name is Wu
Dong Xian and there has been a huge change within her every since we turned her
on over. She is a lot more happy and giddy which is one blessing the
gospel brings, eternal happiness.
One thing I absolutely love about being a
missionary and a member of this church is the knowledge I have of the gospel
plan. God gave us the gospel plan cause he knew it would bring us
happiness. The center of this gospel plan is His Son, Jesus Christ, and
His atoning sacrifice. It is through the Atonement that every unfair
thing in life can be made right. It has brought happiness to my life, it
has brought happiness to the investigators I have worked with, and it will
continue to bring happiness to the honest seekers of truth. I also know
that it will continue to bring happiness to each of you as well. I love
you all!!
Love the One and Only,
司馬長老
