Baptisms!

Elder Daniels’ English is suffering!

Dear Family
This is son 5, child 7, reporting. You may more formally know me as "Favorite." I am here to report upon the events of the past week.

My companion thought that it was very funny as a lady pushing a cart stole the trash he had been carrying to put in the garbage truck, ha ha. The garbage trucks are special here by the way. They are very similar to those ice cream trucks back in America because of the music that they play as they roll through the neighborhood. Someday I will take a video of how the trash is collected here in Taiwan and I will send it home to you, because I feel like words can not do the art of the act justice.

Big miracle #1 Brother Fan passed his baptismal interview! As a side note, his faith is so strong that he has been able to overcome those negative, uncertain, regretful feelings that Satan likes to give us before baptism. He shared this past week has been hard to feel the Spirit so profoundly as it has been in the past. The lessons we shared about baptism by water and by fire brought comfort back into his life. He is special. He is truly converted to the gospel, and he is converted through the witness given to him from Heavenly Father. He is genuine. That is SOME PIG! (Charlotte’s Web reference.) The Spirit told me to give him a phone call yesterday, and conveniently, it was at a good time that I could resolve a couple of concerns he had. At the end of the phone call he felt prompted to watch "Finding Faith in Christ" - a movie we had given him and he said afterward, that all his concerns are resolved and he could really feel the influence of the Spirit. Briefly, I told him that after he is confirmed he has that ability to have that comforter with him at all time and in all places. He was ecstatic!

We've been blessed recently with a lot of special investigators, the kinds that love to learn and have real concerns. The type of lessons that missionaries LOVE TO TEACH....for example, a concern that Elder Daniels loves to address is: "I feel like the Book of Mormon doesn't have much influence on me." In response to this particular concern I went right to the beef of the Book of Mormon and shared 3 Nephi 11:3 when it talks about Christ’s voice. The Spirit entered and we all were edified and the inactive member committed to come back to church. I LIVE FOR THAT!!! wohoooo!

We've been blessed with investigators who actually have a DESIRE TO LEARN, so we actually get to focus on the power of the Book of Mormon as we teach. its great. It help us find a lot of new investigators this past week and also helped us commit one inactive family and 3 singles to come back to church. The Book of Mormon answers questions of the soul!

Big Miracle #2 The Lan family set a baptismal date. Our last lesson we got to use 1st Nephi to show her how the gospel blesses "broken families" (the beginning of the Book of .Mormon is about a broken family) She loved 1 Nephi 1:1, and also 1 Nephi 8. Sister Lan loves the church and she wants her family to be in it. She knows it will help her autistic child to progress a lot. They set a date to be baptized April 25th!!! They have a really good fellowshipping family that brings her and her son to church every week.

Big Miracle #3 We met with a brand new investigator named Liu, he is Christian, but not an active one. He is also a fireman. We found him on the street and he set a date to be baptized too, the first time we met with him! The lesson was a "perfect lesson." He is a good investigator because he has desire, and Elder Daniels loves resolving his concerns with the Spirit and Book of Mormon as his weapons!!!

Missionaries have so many weapons that Heavenly Father gives them, if only we would use them all the time. Example: Preach my gospel, the BOM, the Holy Ghost, the ward, Jesus, etc. A tool that I am also just recently discovering is family.

I have a question.... How do I help my district have more unity? We all love each other, but sometimes there is distrust between companionships. The main recent ruckus has been communication between elders and sisters

I have to admit, sisters are on a different playing field then elders because they are older, graduated from college, and girls. So my question is, how can I, as a 20 year old Elder, gain their trust? It’s not been a problem before, but the problem started when we had a district leader move in that hasn't gotten along with sister missionaries in the past, and he is now in the same district as a sister who "feels like she is in Taiwan to clean up the mess that elders make."

It’s never been a problem before, but something that has become a matter now is the fact that the sisters, because they are fewer in number cover ALL the areas in the district, and sometimes heads clash and schedules conflict when we have made appointments to meet with certain members and investigators in our designated areas.

This doesn't sound very orderly, and it’s not. I'm just trying to know what to do to resolve the matter because there is often moments of miscommunication that lead to friction.

My opinion is, it doesn't matter who teaches them as long as they get baptized, families are free game, men teach men and women teach women. If I feel like the most convenient thing to do is to give them to the sisters to teach, I will do it, even if it is a family.

I also support the quote, "It takes a DISTRICT to get a family baptized, more than one companionship." Maybe the mouths of members of our district will agree with this, but what do you do if their actions do not? Ha, communication, what a thing.

I have another question. How do you give somebody a suggestion or a recommendation? What are the steps, assuming there is legitimate reasoning to give the suggestion in the first place?


Moving on, we went to a funeral. That was different. We were aware of this funeral 2 months ago by the way, it was interesting to see how sad everyone was. It wasn't a funeral sponsored by our church, however she was a member and rather famous, judging by the amount of people that went. We carried the casket. Funerals are HUGE in Taiwan.

Elder Z. came up briefly to visit an old investigator and we went with him. It was good to see Elder Z. He is my best friend. He is on the top of the list in the back of my journal titled "Angels Heavenly Father has allowed me to meet on my mission." I love looking at that list. It reminds me of all the help Heavenly Father has been generous enough to give me on my mission through the angels He has sent.

I'm very happy to hear that things are rolling along so well back home. I hope that everyone is happy with the road that they have chosen and the plates they have in front of them. Just remember this bit of advice. Mosiah 3: 17 "And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given, nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent"

Follow Him. I love you so much, you are my family...I want to live with you forever!!! Love you, Elder Jonathan Daniels