My mission feels accepted

This could be the last letter from Elder Daniels...he returns in 5 days...

I received my birthday present, thanks. The chocolate was delicious. American money looks really weird now, ha-ha.

Elder Gassin and I were together yesterday just because we wanted to get some of the same souvenirs. Right now I am still doing my calling with Elder Worthen, we have three more exchanges to complete before the end. Today we are in Linkou, high on a mountain top. Sunday will be spent in Shipai where we will be in charge of a large Christmas party where a lot of missionaries will be performing, caroling and stuff. Saturday Elder Gassin and I will be attending a baptismal service in Hualien! And Saturday night another one in Taipei! Monday Elder Gassin and I will go out with the Lin family and spend some time together, then at night attend the "departing missionary funeral/banquet".

This past week, we saw a lot happen and did a lot of things. On Thursday we met with Fan in Danshui, a new member from Tucheng. He has been inactive which was kind of sad to see, but we had a really powerful lesson with him so he could more fully understand the magnitude of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. He was quite struck, and committed to start coming back to church.

I love this calling. It involves helping missionaries resolve their own personal concerns. Some are resolved naturally as they are invited to clean their house so the Spirit can dwell with them, some of the super hardworking missionaries need to sit back and understand the principle of "divine discontent." "Elder, you've got to sit back and eat a fruit off the tree every once in a while, smell the roses, buddy."

Anyway, enough rambling. Going on exchanges with my grandson was awesome. (His grandson is a missionary who was trained by a missionary who was trained by Jonathan.) There was a lot of "Elder Gong fire" within him, it was awesome. He is from the Philippines and speaks fluent English, Taiwanese and Chinese! He’s so awesome. That night we went to Taipei to sing Christmas songs at a really big shopping mall with 4 microphones provided, and a really nice sound system by a lady named Iris that we contacted on the street. She was looking for people to perform Christmas songs so we volunteered. We had called President Grimley for permission and he put me in charge of the activity. We ended up taking 2 zones, a total of 30 missionaries and sang Christmas carols for 2 hours. It was way fun!

Sunday we attended church back in my first area, San Chong. Only a few people could remember me this time, I was there so long ago. Joyce came to church! It was awesome!! We went and taught their family in the afternoon. It was the lesson of my MISSION! Holy smokes, it was so powerful. I love that family so much. I don't know how to explain my feelings after I left the lesson. They didn't commit to baptism. We didn't invite, but sharing with them so many principles that manifest so much of the power of Godliness, I couldn't walk away from that lesson feeling disappointed, I actually felt rather complete. Two years of praying every day for that family came out during that lesson, the Spirit led, we were all edified, the power of God was manifest, and they accepted our invite to ask whether or not the Book of Mormon is true. I couldn't help but feel complete. My mission felt accepted.

I had that same feeling as I bore my testimony in the last zone conference. I couldn't keep my composure. Everyone that attended KNOWS that I KNOW Jesus is the Christ, and the restored gospel has blessed and will continue to bless my family.

Monday we went on exchanges with President Uchtdorf’s grandson! His grandpa wrote him a letter, "There are three things to master on a mission: Punctuality, Accountability, and Responsibility." That was cool; I'm still working on that.

I was asked, "What do treasure most of all the things that you have experienced on your mission?" I like to learn now. I'm not in it for the "A".

The next day I went with ELDER READ! That was a blast, and we found a family! Elder Read has changed so much! He plans to run a marathon on his mission and is actively preparing for it!

We have seen so many miracles this week. The main thing I have noticed continually in my studies and planning for investigators recently is the doctrine of the principle...love.
Love God. Love others.

I love you all! Bye. Elder Daniels. See you next week!