July 30, 2012

Hello Momma! How was your week? Sounds pretty busy to me! It seems like everyone is getting sick these days! Tell David I say hello and to take it easy. Ohhh i know what you are talking about now! I was sitting on the couch in the mission home with some buddies while waiting for my new companion to get here if I am thinking of the right picture. I remember that girl taking our picture but I didn't know her name! Oops. Has Elder Warners mom emailed you yet? How are the pinckards doing? Tell them hello for me! Trent's birthday is coming up! Ask him if there is anything from taiwan that he wants haha. What is Bora bora?

 

Taiwan is great! The weather this week wasn't as hot because we got quite abit of rain which was nice. We had some pretty big thunder storms! Last monday night my companion and I were riding our bikes down the street and all of a sudden everything around us lit up really bright and we heard this huge CRACK! It was super scary, and I lost my eyebrows but other than that I am ok. Oh yeah and now sometimes when I touch people I give them a little shock. Kind of like nephi in 1 nephi 17:53.

 

Lately we have been meeting with two young kids. Yu an and Que yi. They are both so solid. One is 13 ish and the other is about 16. They are reading and praying everyday and coming to church and they love it! There is no doubt they are feeling the spirit and love the support from ward members. The only probably is we have been having problems with their parents being against them getting baptized. They are ok with their kids meeting with us and going to church but do not want them to get baptized. This is pretty common in taiwan, the younger generation is more open to learning about Christ and more willing to meet with missionaries while most of the older people are very traditional buddhist/daoist/a mix of the two and really do not want to change, though there are definitely exceptions. We have been trying all week to find a time to bring a brother from the ward with us to meet their parents and talk a little about our church and about baptism but everything keeps falling through! It is kind of frustrating, but we are working and praying to see some miracles happen this week and see the Lord soften hearts.

 

We did see a huge miracle this week with one of our eternal investigators (investigators that are very willing to meet with you but only progress to a certain point or just not at all) brother Yang. He met with the missionaries once in february of this year and then dissapeared and then met with Elder Bentley and I right when i got here in august and has been meeting with us on and off ever since. He will randomly call us up and ask to meet with us and then dissapear again. He has told us he is going to come to church quite a few times in the last 4 months but hasn't come once.....until yesterday!! We were so excited to see him! Last time we met with him he had read the entire new liahona magazine too. He seems to be making some progress these days! I know he will be baptized some day, I am just not sure when. He really liked church and definitely felt the spirit, so I hope he comes back! Funny fact about brother Yang-everytime we see him he is wearing the same super duper high pants. Ha he is a great guy. Everytime we have a lesson with him he is furiously taking notes the whole time, it is pretty amazing. He was the same way at church!

 

We went to visit an older guy in our ward named brother Huang this week. He doesn't come to church because of his health (He is almost 90 and can't move around too well) so us missionaries go over and see how he is doing every once in awhile. He loves to tell us stories about when he was young. When he was first baptized about 50+ years ago, president Hinckley would often come to taiwan and he tells us alllll about it. He is so funny. This week he actually stood up out of his chair and imitated President Hinckley giving a talk and it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. He pretending like he was speaking english and just made random noises and pretended like we were the people attending the talk. He just stood and pointed at us making these funny noises as if he was president Hinckley giving us a bold lecture hahaha. Just thought I would tell you about that.

Well I gotta get going, I hope you have an amazing week! I feel your prayers every day and I pray for you every day as well! This gospel is true! Love you    -Elder Ripley