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!

April 16, 2012

Hello family! First full week and i am alive and kickin! Taiwan is the greatest. It is probably really nice having Dad working so close now. Tell Blake i am proud of him! He must be the best soccer player i know. I can not wait to see the Gilbert temple! Send me a picture! Tell Rachelle and Natalie thanks for taking care of my momma! Love them! Let Kalvin know there is a letter on the way for him, and surprisingly enough there is hardly ever a time when you see someone riding a scooter without a helmet here, i think it might be a law or something. Dustin got a new motorcycle? Tell him to send me a picture! This week i saw quite a few miracles! This truly is the work of the Lord.

 

Last monday night we were riding our bikes, it was getting a little late and there was a man walking across the street in front of us so we stopped and to talked to him. Turns out he was baptized about a year ago but is too embarrased to come to church because he has been smoking lately. The first thing he did when we started talking to him was ask if we had a Book of Mormon on us that he could have, and of course we did! He wanted to buy us dinner but we told him we had already eaten. He told us he has been sleeping at the internet cafe nearby because he doesn't have a home right now. Despite his circumstances he continued to ask if he could buy us dinner! I was very humbled by his willingness to help where ever he can.

 

On wednesday we had english class which is so great! I got to teach the advanced class so i talked in english pretty much the whole time it was weird to speak so much english to taiwanese people! 

 

The next day we had a lesson with brother Deng who i think i talked about last week a little bit. We talked more about the restoration, and as i was quoting the first vision i got to the part "I saw two personages", and he suddenly interrupted me and says no you got it wrong he just saw one person! My companion and I looked at eachother slightly perplexed and brother Deng continued oh yeah and he was in his bedroom not in a grove of trees. Finally we realized he was talking about Moroni, and we explained to him that those were two different experiences. He had read in the intro to the Book of Mormon about Moroni, it was a funny experiences. We then talked about baptism, what it means and how to do it. He seemed to just understand, and we set a baptismal date for may 12th! I am excied to watch him as he changes his life to follow the Lord. Our lesson was at Seven eleven again and he bought us sodas again, what an awesome guy!

 

Friday the thirteenth was a fantastic day, despite it having the reputation of being unlucky! We met with brother Chen, who had met with the missionaries about two months ago and has not met with them since because he has been busy. We called him up to see how he was doing and set up an appointment! We went into the lesson thinking we would review the first lesson, the restoration, since it had been awhile since he had met with the missioanries. We started talking about how God is our loving heavenly father, and we said that because he loves us he provided a way to return to live with him again. After that brother Chen asks us well how do we do it then? And we told him the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then he asks well what is that? Our lesson totally switched tracks and we started talking about the gospel of Jesus Christ, faith repentance, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. The whole time we were teaching he was furiously taking notes. When we got to the gift of the holy ghost part he says so...when can i get baptized! My companion and I were startled! He proceeded to pretty much set up his own baptismal time and everything on may 12th! The Lord really is preparing people all over the place to accept his gospel, we just need to find them!

 

Well i am about out of time. Hope all is well at home! I love you all and miss you much! Mom if the family, bishop, or stake president has an address change please tell me. Kind of random i know but president Bishop needs to know if that happens. Next package you send me throw a picture of the whole family in there please! Nothing urgent, just next time you send a letter or something. I am so grateful for all of you! Jesus Christ lives! His church is growing everyday and there is so much work to be done but the laborers are few! We need your help! Love you all so much. Talk to you next week.

 

1st letter from Taiwan

April 9, 2012
Area: Beitun
Companion: Elder Bentley

Hello family!! I made it! I am in Taiwan!! I can't belive i am actually here, i think to myself sometimes and say am i actually in Taiwan or just dreaming? It is a whole different world here. Everything is different, it smells different, it looks different, the people are different it and it just feels different.My first companion and my trainer is Elder Bentley! He is an awesome missionary.  I learn more and more from him every day about being a good misionary. I know that the Lord matches up our companionships, no doubt. My first area i have been assigned to is in taichung city! I am in the beitun area.There are scooters EVERYWHERE. And i don't understand the traffic 100% quite yet so it is a little scary riding around on my bike with scooters whizzing by and past and every which way. It's good though because you never run out of people to talk to, ever! At night before heading home all the stores and buildings all around are lit up with flashing signs and what not, it is a pretty cool site. I haven't had the chance to get to know alot of people really well yet but i already love how amazing the people here are. Just the other day we were headed to a less active members house, brother jin, to visit and we saw a middle age looking man sitting at a table by 7 eleven so we went up and started talking to him and he just got up and went into 7 and bought us slushies! Haha it was pretty awesome but apparantely sometimes you have to be careful because you might get something you don't exactly want to drink! We gave him a book of mormon and encouraged him to read the intro before we meet again this week and then headed over to brother jin's house. Right as we sat down at brother jin's house and started talking to him, Mr. Deng (the man who bought us slushies) called us and says hey i started reading that book you gave me and i just wanted to say it is a really good book, ok bye! He is a funny guy. All of the members i met at church on saturday and sunday while watching conference were super kind as well. (Conference was shown here this week so i got to watch it twice!) I still struggle with getting to know them really well becuase my language skills aren't the best, but i am working on it.

 

These past few days we taught a new investigator brother Lin. So far we have only taught him the first lesson, and he has committed to read the book of mormon and pray about it so hopefully this week we will have a chance to meet with him again and see how he is doing.

 

Right now i am just working on getting into the groove of things, getting rid of jet lag, and figuring out how things work around here. Don't worry about sending me abunch of crazy packages or anything, i did not think you forgot about me! My preparation days are on mondays so i will probably check my e mail around 11AM which is 9PM sunday night for you i think. I am glad Darci was excited to get my letter! Tell her i love her for me! Tell Dad he better be glad i never sold that weight set because now he can get back in shape! Love you family and I hope you all enjoyed conference weekend and Easter weekend! Hope all is well! 

Love, Elder Ripley

Safe Arrival

April 3, 2012 - Elder Ripley on his way to Taiwan!

March 27, 2012

Hello family! All is well here at the MTC but i am sure you know that, i would rather hear about you guys! This week was a great week as always, but we had a few out of the ordinary special events!

 

First of all, our speaker at deviotional last tuesday was Dallin H. Oaks! It is such a privledge for us missionarys to be able to here from such great speakers constantly! I sure am going to miss this when i get to Taiwan. Sister Oaks spoke first, and some of the points she hit that stuck out to me were This is your time, be bold! She told us how if she would have known as a missionary what she knows now, she would have been so much more bold. It just made me think live your mission with no regrets. Even though she is talking about a mission this message can apply to all of us! Live each day with no regrets! My branch president, President Baker, is big on one liners, so as he would say "live in a way that when you look back you will be able to say i am glad i did instead of i wish i had. I think one of the most important things we can do to live every day with no regrets is simple, just be happy! When you are happy it is so much easier to make sure you are always turning out and helping others, because you want them to have what is making you happy. That way you can always say i am glad i did. Dallin H. Oaks spoke mostly about the sacrament and the Holy Ghost. One thing he said was "The key to having the spirit with us always is in the sacrament prayers". As long as we are keeping our covenants that we made with God, we wil have his spirit to be with us. Sometimes we get so used to taking the sacrament all of the time that we don't often think about what we are doing as much as we should. He also mentioned how If we are commanded to take the sacrament every week (which we are) Then it must be very important! Which it is! So make sure we are taking it every single week!

 

Another exciting thing that happened this week was our zone got to host! Hosting means we are the missionarys that are standing by your car when you drop your missionary off at the MTC. We grab their luggage, bring them to their room, get their study materials, and take them straight to class! Some elders in our zone got the opportunity of hosting the international missionarys that came in! I hosted Elder Da Silva from Brazil! He is going to Japan and is such an awesome Elder. He is going to be an amazing missionary I already know. We also get to host tomorrow so that will be fun!

 

So last out of the ordinary thing....we got our travel plans this week!!! Yes!! We are flying from SLC to Portland, from Portland to Tokyo, and then from Tokyo to Taiwan! I am so excited to be out in the field! (And stopping in japan is going to be awespme :D) We have a 1 hour lay over in portland, so that is probably when i will end up calling. I think when we get to japan it is going to be really late for you guys, i am not sure though so if i don't call while in portland be ready for anything :D I am going to get a calling card here at the MTC.

 

Thanks for sending me the soap, kleenex, and some treats! You are the best Mom in the world! (Sorry if i offend anyone with that comment, but hey you gotta admit, she's the best) Also thanks for sending me kaitlin's letters! I love to hear how she is doing! General conference is coming up, so don't forget to watch every session! Something that really put the importance of general conference into perspective for me was a story told by my old seminary teacher, Brother Franzen. He said one day he was walking out of his house and his neighbor, who is a non-member, was outside and started chatting with him. His neighbor brought up general conference and how it was going to be on the next day and asked some simple questions about it. The next day Brother Franzen was busy in the morning with something and didn't end up watching the morning session of saturday conference. When he got home he walked up to his house and his neighbor was outside again. His neighbor stopped him and said hey how was conference, and Brother Franzen proceeded to tell him how he was busy this morning and didn't have time to watch it. Astonished, his neighbor said what let me get this straight, you believe you have a prophet on the earth who tells you the words of God and what God wants for you, and you didn't listen to him? (You can finish the rest of the story yourself) Wow! How true that is! Conference is so important, we need to watch it, so don't miss it! I love and miss you family! Thanks for all the love and support you give me! I feel it everyday! Have a wonderful week and an amazing conference weekend! I can't wait to talk to you on tuesday! (Our flight arrives in portland in the afternoon sometime, our flight leaves at 11 i think) Love you all! -Elder Ripley         

March 20, 2012

Another great week comes to end! Hope all is well back home. I miss and love you all!

 

This week was a little bit of an exciting week! Our new mandaran speaking missionaries came to the MTC! We now have 44 mandarin speaking missionaries! They are all so great and i can already tell they are going to be awesome missionaries. Elder James and I had the opportunity of teaching them how to have companionship inventories and how to make sure to resolve problems with your companion and things like that. Afterwards we got to take them all on a tour of the MTC campus and show them where everything is. It has been a pretty awesome experience to see them start right where we started when we got here. It kind of made us realize how fast you grow in the MTC and how fast you learn the language! It is going to be a great experience for the new people to be in the spot we are now and realize have fast they have grown as well. Even though we have been at the MTC long enough to be the "experienced" ones, I am about to start all over being the new guy in 2 weeks! It is coming so quick!

 

You would not beilieve who speak at our devotional last week! President Cardon! Or Elder Cardon now. :D I wanted to say hi to him afterwards really bad but he got up and left pretty quick so i didn't get the chance. His talk was great though, he talked about how us  missionaries are in smilitude of the Only Begotten, and we need to devote 100% of our time to the Lord. He talked about how he was writing Sister Cardon and eventually decided that writing her every week and looking at her picture all of the time would distract him from the work so he wrote her a letter saying he wasn't going to be writing her every week anymore. The day after sending the letter he got a letter from a friend saying something to the affect of your girlfriend is starting to hang out with some other guy so you better do something about it! Hahaha it is pretty funny that they ended up getting married. I admire him, he is such a hard worker!

 

This week for our weekly sunday night movie, they were playing Elder Bednar's talk on the character of Christ in one of them rooms so i went and watched it again! I love that talk so much! Some of our branch presidency is saying it is one of the best talks ever given at the MTC. Everytime i hear it i get more and more out of it. The first time you are eyes are just glued on the screen and you can't even think to take notes because it is so good! I wish you guys could see it! He is extremely bold which i absolutely love. One thing that i loved about it is he talks about in Mathew chapter 4 when Jesus is being tempted by satan, and how after fasting for 40 days and being put through such temptations it is reasonable that angels would come bare him up, but if you look at the JST for that verse it is talking about John when it says "him". After going through all the things He did, the first thing Christ does is worry about John being in prison and angels minister to him. And he also talks about when Christ is on the cross, and he is worrying about his mother and asking God to forgive the men who are crucifying him "For they know no what they do". The character of Christ is turning out when the natural man in us would turn in. He says" The atonement not only gives us remission of our sins, it gives us strength beyond our own". Strenght to help us become Christlike and turn out instead of in! I just love that talk so much.

 

Well i am running out of time so i will wrap it up. Dad, thanks for the box of food again! Everyone is loving it! I don't know if we are going to be able to finish all of that in 2 weeks but we sure are trying. And everyone thought the little diagram that tells you wethere or not you can eat your food after you drop it was hilareous! And by the way lately i have bene getting alot of compliments on my ties, and everytime i say these are my Dad's ties, he is the one with the good taste! So they told me to tell you that you have awesome ties :D Thanks for sending me Robby and kaitlin's letters! I love to read those! Goodbye love you all! The gospel is true!