Oh man, I'm a terrible person, ha! I'm sorry I didn't get a letter out last week and I can explain. We write our letters at an internet café. We have to pay 30 kuai, about one dollar, to use it for an hour. I used every bit of that hour last week trying to send my beloved family a big, fat juicy email. It came down to the last ten seconds and as I moved my hand towards the mouse to press "send", the computer shut off and I lost my email forever. After that we had a really busy schedule and I didn't have any time to write. It was ridiculous. Well, the work goes on and the scriptures say you have to forgive me...so it’s all good. :)
Okay, to review the recent activity of the building up a Zion in Taiwan. It’s been really good, but also really "xin ku,” (rough), but Elder Taylor and I are enjoying every moment of it.
Last week, there were some crazy episodes at church involving an investigator who’s been hiding with her kids from her husband because of an argument and money problems. He is a “male supremacist.” Anyway, the man has really no affiliation with the church, only through his wife who has a powerful testimony and a baptismal goal. He works in mainland China for 2 months at a time and comes home for ten days, and then he is terrible towards his family. So, he showed up to church and started yelling at his wife and kids to come home. There was a big confrontation in the church. I've never seen something like that before, (besides Elders basketball). It was a sad thing to see, but the 2nd counselor in the bishopric took care of things. He has dealt problems like theirs in the past, so it worked out really well. They were taught how the gospel blesses families and we sang. They ended up going home together, but the parents are still on bad terms.
We also saw a fight on the street the other day. There 3 guys going to town on this one guy. It was kind of frustrating, because missionaries are strictly forbidden from getting involved in anything like a beating. There’s been a couple times I've seen things here in Taiwan, where I've really wanted to get in there and establish some sort of peace, but, that kind of thing is strictly forbidden. We had to leave as these three guys were beating on this one man, but I think other people took care of things and the police were called. It was nuts. As we were riding by, I saw one guy uppercut the man, right in the stomach. His face was pretty messed up, too.
We are working with 12 investigators right now, and "Li" is the last name of six of the families, ha. I think that is kind of funny. They are all pretty good, and we plan to add most of them to the pool this next week.
We are working with a blessing right now, the Huang family. They were a street contact with a mei mei who I thought was extremely cute, so we approached them and started talking. The mei mei is 8 years old and when I spoke to her, she lowered her mouth cover ( the surgical mask that all the Taiwanese wear because of pollution) and I realized she had no front teeth, which made her even cuter!!! Her name is Angel. Anyway, they set up and we taught them the restoration. The mom already believes it and she is wonderful. Her favorite was the part about the Holy Ghost and what we understand it to be. She has investigated other Christian churches, but she knows ours to be true, yeah! She wants to be baptized and her family, too. The one problem is her husband. He is very devout Buddhist, and he might oppose the whole thing, which happens a lot here, sad to say.
Things are going pretty well. We are blessed with a lot of great investigators. It’s fun because Elder Taylor and I love to go out and have FUN doing the work! It’s awesome! I love, love, love missionary work. Elder Taylor always kids me and says that I will be training next transfer, because you "love missionary work and you love to contact families.” He's funny. Training next transfer is out of the question. I've been thinking about that lately though, for when I do get to train, about 5 transfers from now, hahaha. What types of things will a do for my trainee? Will I be really bold with him, like Elder Barton was with me or will I let him make his own decisions the whole time? We'll see some day.
We've had interviews recently. President likes us to prepare questions for interviews, so I prepared a lot about, "what to do for the Su family?" But, we talked about to Joyce’s main problem, which is her wanting to be alone forever. And another problem that we have discovered recently is that she doesn't love Heavenly Father, she only loves Jesus. So, yeah, things are different. President invited us to invite her to pray with all her heart, to find love for the father and her family, and through that we can promise her that she will come closer unto Jesus Christ. So, we did, and we will see how that goes......
President also talked to me a little bit about next transfer. He still doesn't know whether I'll be moving or not, but either way, it’s gonna be fun doing the Lord’s work. I love doing the Lord’s work, I love being in Taiwan, and whatever happens next transfer, so be it. 1 Nephi 3:7, baby!
Well anyway, this is my letter. Today we are going to Danshui and visit with the Su family and we’re going to hike a mountain! :) I'm excited and I'm finally going to see the ocean. By the way, I found out that the city I live in, is for sure the most populated city in Taiwan. I don't doubt it, this place in packed with people and I love it.
I love you very much! Elder Daniels
PS: A new record in the 100 meters? That’s nuts!
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