April 23, 2012

Hello family! Week 2 is already over! Even though i have only been here for 2 and a half weeks time already seems to move quicker and quicker every day.

 

Last Monday we played some ultimate frisbee at the park with the Elders from the area next to ours called da keng, their bishop, and another brother in their ward it was pretty sweet. The big park nearby our apartment is pretty sweet, in the morning there are tons of older people there all doing tai ji (tai chi) to some awesome music, and there are some people doing some sort of dance instruction, it looks pretty fun maybe we will have to try it out one day. Just went until you here where we went for lunch, blake is going to be so jealous...ninja turtle pizza! There is a restaurant right by the mission home (which is about a 15 minute bike ride from our apartment) called ninja turtle pizza and it is probably the coolest pizzeria i have ever been to. They have pictures of ninja turtles everywhere and the handles on the doors are sais (which are raphaels weapons). I will send you the pictures soon.

 

On tuesday we had zone conference which was great! My zone is so awesome i love them all. There are all such great examples of great missionarys to me. We talked about having faith to find. Have faith that there are people out there who are ready to here the gospel and will accept it.You need to talk to everyone no matter who they are or what they look like. You never know what there life is like and everyone deserves the chance to hear the gospel. Here in taichung city it isn't hard to find someone to talk to. There are people everywhere! It is hard to find the balance of talking to as many people as you can and also be on time to appointments and meetings. Side note-at zone conference we got to eat chicken bakes from costco...score.

 

Wednesday was a super rainy day! We had english class, and for english we go to Da ya which is about a 25-30 minute bike ride from beitun (my area) because the only missionarys in da ya are two native taiwanese elders so we go to help them out. My english class is so great, they are all super nice, especially janet! (We all go by our english names in english class) Janet is probably in her 40's and she travels all of the time and whenever she goes on a trip she always brings presents back for the missionarys. Last week she gave us these little cheese cake snacks from japan! This week she bought us some fruit from one of the markets, she is too nice! On our bike ride home from english it rained super hard the whole time, but yes, i did buy rain clothes so no worries. Rain is nice, it cools the weather off for a few days. Also, on wednesday we taught one of our new investigators, brother Liao. He is a little older than us missionarys. We went to church with him last week and this week was our first lesson with him. We taught the restoration and he just got it. He was understanding and willing to pray and read the book of Mormon to learn for himself of the truthfulness of it. During the lesson we asked him if he knew what prayers was, and he said yes so we asked him if he had ever prayed before, and he said yes i started praying about two weeks ago every night for God to help me. People are being prepared for the gospel there is no doubt about it. I can't wait for our next lesson with him to see how he is doing. I know that when we are truly looking for an answer, God really does answer our prayers. An amazing answer to how to recieve answers to our prayers came from a speaker in the MTC, Julie Swensen. She said often the answers to our prayers come not when we are sitting waiting for them, but when we get up and serve others. Or as Elder Bednar says we should go forward with an idea and look for a confirmation rather than wait for the heavens to tell us what to do. I know that as i have followed this advice in my life, i have truly recieved answers to prayers while serving others and looking for a confirmation rather than waiting for the answer fall out of sky and hit me. Thanks for always being such amazing examples to me of always serving others mom and dad.

 

On saturday one of our investigators had his baptismal interview! Hi name is brother Su and he is 16. Our district leader is the one that interviews him so we didn't get to be in the room during the interview, but Brother Bailey, our district leader, told us afterwards that the very last question he asked was Brother Su, why do you want to be baptized, and he answered I want to recieve complete forgiveness from God. I am so grateful to be able to watch Brother Su's testimony grow everytime we see him, he understands the importance of the steps he is taking in his life and i am so excited to watch him make those decisions and recieve such huge blessing sin his life.

 

Sunday we had stake conference and Elder Gong from the quorum of the seventy was there! Afterwards i had the opportunity to talk with him for a little bit. He is an apostle of God and it was an amazing experience to feel the spirit he brings, even though i didn't understand all of his talk...heh he speaks very good english though. Also on sunday one of our referrals just called us up and wanted to meet! He and his girlfriend came to the church to meet us and we talked with them for a little about their questions, and they had a few about ancestors and what our beliefs are about them, because alot of people here in taiwan worship their ancestors. After a little explanation a church meeting was going to start so we went ahead and attended it with them and the topic was temples and temple work! How perfect. He wasn't very excited about church but his girlfriend (coral or yu shan) loved it! She wants to meet more so we reffered her too the sisters. She said she felt very peaceful at church.

 

This week I found a new favorite food in the streets of Taiwan. nai you bing. It is hong dou bing (Read bean cookie) But instead of red bean in it there is a vanilla, butter type mixture and it is absolutely delicious. They kind of look like hockey pucks. Just the shape though.

 

Well time is up. Hope your guy's week was just amazing and i hope this coming week is even better! Jesus Christ is our savior and He loves us all. Rely on the atonement "the atonement not only gives a remission of sins, it increases capacity to do good. It gives us strenght beyond our own" -Elder Bednar. Love you all!    Mom if you can find a way to get a cable for my camera to hook it up to the computer i can just send all of my pictures through email. The camer is a Nikon coolPIX S3100. 

           **Please don't send meat (including beef jerky), seeds, fruit, plants in packages. Pretty much any animal or fresh plant products. They are not allowed and i will have to pay to send them back i think. Just a note. Any type of candy or anything else is fine. Thanks love you!