Well, family, this week was insane! It started off nice on Wednesday when we went to the temple. I sat there and thought a lot about the eternities. It was a really peaceful thinking session. Then that night we returned to the real world where we taught English to little Taiwanese kids, one of my favorite things. Here is last week’s lesson plan: ABC's, tic-tac-toe, hangman, spelling game, describing game, old Macdonald, the hokey pokey, Simon says, SMASH BANNANAS, duck, duck goose, Let the wind blow,Fruit basket, charades, draw animals, musical chairs, 4 corners. Sing songs like Sing, sing sing, wiseman and the foolishman, head shoulders knees and toes, once there was a snowman, popcorn popping, pigs blood, toilet paper (being out). It was fun, so if you have any other ideas for teaching little Chinese children English, you just let me know.
We got a referral from the other elders. The guy’s name is Ryan. We met with him and he had been given a Book of Mormon that he had read a little with the other elders, and he's heard a little bit. We reviewed the 1st lesson and taught him a second and it went SO good!!!! I felt by the end of the lesson to invite for baptism and he accepted, after meeting with him one time!!! We told him that through this gospel, you can reach your ultimate potential! In order to reach it, you have to set goals, so we want to set a goal with you that will set you on track to reach that ultimate potential. He was a little scared at first, but excited in the end. He likes reading the Book of Mormon, he wants to know it is true. He's had some typical questions about God, and why He commanded Nephi to kill Laban, etc, but we answered, in a spiritual atmosphere. He's a laid back person, pretty accepting and his concerns aren't too deep. We asked him to pray and read about the things we have told him. The next time we met with him, he said he had talked about his baptismal goal with his parents, so he's taking it seriously. They said it was okay even though they oppose it. We will probably write a letter to his mom pretty soon. We call every night and follow up. He is a very good investigator, but he needs a spiritual experience. He's awesome and it will come. We are more bold with him and it goes really well. We tell him how it is and it has more meaning to him. I'm excited for this investigator, he is 20 years old and needs purpose in his life. He has good English, but we use Chinese. His date is set for New Years!
We’ve also found a couple families to work with. We've been filled up with lessons lately and it’s been WONDERFUL!!!! We've been working with the ward. There are 326 members in this ward, but only 120 are active, so we've been fishing for inactives. It’s really uncertain if they will be home or not when we visit, so we usually leave notes on their doors expressing our love. We ran into a Zhuang family the other day. The dad is the only member, the wife is Buddhist and the kids are half and half. The lesson went smoothly with them and both parents encouraged their kids to come to the ward activity and church. The parents can't ever come…they have work. (I roll my eyes). Anyway, their three kids came and they loved it and they are going to start coming more often.
We had a meeting with Eros, the most closed-minded man ever, we found two new families, one with a meimei called "Angel." We found a previous investigator who just so happened to be at his house when we stopped by and he thought it was fate. He said he wanted to come to church, but he's so busy with work, he'll do his best to get time off…ha. And the last thing is I've been able to find the holiday spirit. It’s been getting colder so we wear jackets and we go caroling on big street corners…it’s awesome! I love Christmas.
Today’s plans are MASSIVE. We're going back to San Chong to visit the Su FAMILY. Joyce is inviting Elders Taylor and Larson over to her house for Thanksgiving with her family. I am so excited to see them all again!!! When the Su family is finally baptized my, mission will be complete! Continue to pray for them and maybe you can write her a letter with your testimony. She would appreciate that.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
It has been a crazy week!
I love missionary work. I am staying in Taiwan forever. I love the people, the cute little meimei's in particular. I love being able to go out everyday, speaking to people that don't look exactly like me, hoping that they will understand my Chinese! I love riding my bicycle in the Taiwanese traffic, which is just like a video game. I don't think you will ever understand unless you come here. There are no traffic rules, but I would say that there are fewer wrecks than in America. It’s awesome, and I can't explain why it works out that way, but I think they are just better drivers here! It still scares me to death when I see a mom with three kids on a scooter, one being a baby in her arm! Wow! I love so much about Taiwan.
We had a lot of interesting experiences this past week. Two days ago we tracted and found a nurse across the street from the church. Now, I don't know much about Taiwanese nurses, but she seemed pretty sketchy from the moment we met her, haha. I showed her my family pictures and it got us on the topic of baldness, haha. She started off telling us that the reason people go bald early is because they eat too much meat! Once she told me this, I knew she was a quack, ha, so I said to her, "you know what? My friend’s back has some problems. It always pops when he bends over and I think he'd like it if you'd check it out!” She pulled Elder Gong into the operating room, he couldn’t understand what was going on completely, and she started doing some of the craziest procedures I have ever seen for fixing backs! It was so funny and kind of evil of Elder Daniels to wield his innocent companion to such torture, but hey, Elder Gong got his revenge when he said to her in his trainee Chinese, "Elder Daniels’ chest hurts." The next thing I knew, I was forced onto a table with 6 udder looking suction cups sticking out of my chest. I had no idea the purpose of them, but I walked away with 6 HUGE red spots on my chest and a popped neck, wow. You gotta love the old people in Taiwan, especially the grandmas, haha. You have to do what they say.
We saw a lot of silly things this week. We tracted a guy wearing a red speedo, who was completely plastered. One lady said if she saw God, she still wouldn't come to church, and a lot of other crazy things. We said a prayer of faith and found the Dong family. Wow time is out, I'll write better next time. Love, Elder Daniels
We had a lot of interesting experiences this past week. Two days ago we tracted and found a nurse across the street from the church. Now, I don't know much about Taiwanese nurses, but she seemed pretty sketchy from the moment we met her, haha. I showed her my family pictures and it got us on the topic of baldness, haha. She started off telling us that the reason people go bald early is because they eat too much meat! Once she told me this, I knew she was a quack, ha, so I said to her, "you know what? My friend’s back has some problems. It always pops when he bends over and I think he'd like it if you'd check it out!” She pulled Elder Gong into the operating room, he couldn’t understand what was going on completely, and she started doing some of the craziest procedures I have ever seen for fixing backs! It was so funny and kind of evil of Elder Daniels to wield his innocent companion to such torture, but hey, Elder Gong got his revenge when he said to her in his trainee Chinese, "Elder Daniels’ chest hurts." The next thing I knew, I was forced onto a table with 6 udder looking suction cups sticking out of my chest. I had no idea the purpose of them, but I walked away with 6 HUGE red spots on my chest and a popped neck, wow. You gotta love the old people in Taiwan, especially the grandmas, haha. You have to do what they say.
We saw a lot of silly things this week. We tracted a guy wearing a red speedo, who was completely plastered. One lady said if she saw God, she still wouldn't come to church, and a lot of other crazy things. We said a prayer of faith and found the Dong family. Wow time is out, I'll write better next time. Love, Elder Daniels
Friday, November 14, 2008
"The Process of Becoming Meek"
Note from Mom: Jonathan calls himself Elder Daniels thoughout the letter, so be prepared. :)
I finished reading the Book of Mormon in Chinese! Heavenly Father has blessed Elder Daniels a lot!!! Last week were president’s interviews, and oh man, Elder Daniels learned so much again. President instructed Elder Daniels on how to take advantage of every moment on his mission. President shared a lot with Elder Daniels, but what Elder Daniels took away the most was when president talked about the families he taught. That is what Elder Daniels desires most. Elder Daniels hasn't seen that much baptism on his mission, but President promised Elder Daniels that as he gives his time to the Lord, He will see that the families will start coming.
I've become familiar again with Jesus Christ’s gospel and the process of repentance, the process of becoming meek and teachable. It started last week during interviews when Elder Daniels and Elder Gong taught the zone leaders in a role play lesson. The goal: get the person we were teaching into the Book of Mormon. It didn't go very well. Elder Daniels saw a lot of his weaknesses and devised a theory to help him overcome the weaknesses. Elder Daniels is going through the Book of Mormon again and applying a whole new scheme to help him teach better while using the Book of Mormon and it has been AWESOME! I've been getting more out of the book than I ever have before. Preach My Gospel talks about the people who read the Book of Mormon and only get stories. My goal has been to go through each story and ask questions pertaining to some of the more important precepts that can be learned from each passage. You would be surprised by what the Spirit has helped me to learn. AWESOME.
I've been applying faith as I study, knowing that the words I read will need to be the words that our investigators need to hear and as I’ve gone through, I've been able to find perfect stories and situations for some of our investigators. This new way of looking at the Book of Mormon has brought even more excitement to my studies and has helped me teach using the Book of Mormon in a very simple manner. I love it.
Here is the big story of my repentance. Yesterday was Zone conference and everyone was excited because Elder Perkins of the seventy was coming to visit. (By the way, I have repented for all the time I thought "he isn't an apostle, he's just a seventy. Let’s listen to something else". Wow, I took the 70's talks for granted in the MTC so many times. Ah man, these people are AMAZING.
So I came into this zone conference with many questions prepared and I felt like the entire meeting was focused on Elder Daniels’ needs. And not only in reality, but it was literally focused on Elder Daniels needs! I'll tell you why. During the meeting they needed to have a companionship come up and do a role-play by teaching a first lesson to another companionship. Out of all 90 missionaries that were in the room, the names, "Elder Daniels and Elder Gong" were the ones to be announced for the role-play…ouch.
Elder Daniels was the senior companion and he needed to teach a ten minute 1st lesson with his trainee, to Elders Youd and Pullsipher, who were supposed to be 26 year old college students. In the audience was every single one of Elder Daniels’ peers, the mission president, his wife and a General Authority, who was boldly waiting to give us feedback. Elder Daniels had to represent the entire mission's teaching abilities and weaknesses in front of the general authority. No pressure, Elder Daniels.
It was a mess. I felt like a rambling monkey. It was almost as if Elder Daniels was under influence of the spirit to do everything wrong and go against the game plan he had made in his mind in order to give support to Elder Perkins theory for missionaries in their problems with teaching. I felt kind of like Christ, sort of, suffering the blow for everybody in that room. It was painful. But, I got the best feedback of my life. Elder Perkins started on how we need to "GET TO THE RESTORATION!” He asked us, “If you had to explain the gospel in six words, what would it be?” My favorite was, "GOD LOVES US and PROPHETS ARE BACK!"
That was a hard and painful learning process, and I was so nervous. By the way, it was all in Chinese! Elder Daniels was humbled and called to repentance again for sure. I learned so much from this experience. We bore testimonies afterward, and I had to share mine because the spirit there was too dang strong.
One big lesson was how I learned to walk away from the experience, discouraged or meek. I took a mixture and got humbled really fast again. Part of me was grateful and happy to have learned so much, and the other half felt terrible for thinking it went really bad, and it led to a tiny bit of discouragement. Elder Daniels didn't like that though. Last night in my prayers I said, “Heavenly Father, I can't do this on my own anymore, you win.” And Elder Daniels’ attitude changed. It was such an awesome experience, painful yes, but that is the process of becoming a more meek servant to the Lord, which is what we need to become to see those mei mei's and their families get baptized. Elder Daniels Faith is SO high now! Woooohoooo!! The Lord has blessed Elder Daniels beyond what he imagined.
I finished reading the Book of Mormon in Chinese! Heavenly Father has blessed Elder Daniels a lot!!! Last week were president’s interviews, and oh man, Elder Daniels learned so much again. President instructed Elder Daniels on how to take advantage of every moment on his mission. President shared a lot with Elder Daniels, but what Elder Daniels took away the most was when president talked about the families he taught. That is what Elder Daniels desires most. Elder Daniels hasn't seen that much baptism on his mission, but President promised Elder Daniels that as he gives his time to the Lord, He will see that the families will start coming.
I've become familiar again with Jesus Christ’s gospel and the process of repentance, the process of becoming meek and teachable. It started last week during interviews when Elder Daniels and Elder Gong taught the zone leaders in a role play lesson. The goal: get the person we were teaching into the Book of Mormon. It didn't go very well. Elder Daniels saw a lot of his weaknesses and devised a theory to help him overcome the weaknesses. Elder Daniels is going through the Book of Mormon again and applying a whole new scheme to help him teach better while using the Book of Mormon and it has been AWESOME! I've been getting more out of the book than I ever have before. Preach My Gospel talks about the people who read the Book of Mormon and only get stories. My goal has been to go through each story and ask questions pertaining to some of the more important precepts that can be learned from each passage. You would be surprised by what the Spirit has helped me to learn. AWESOME.
I've been applying faith as I study, knowing that the words I read will need to be the words that our investigators need to hear and as I’ve gone through, I've been able to find perfect stories and situations for some of our investigators. This new way of looking at the Book of Mormon has brought even more excitement to my studies and has helped me teach using the Book of Mormon in a very simple manner. I love it.
Here is the big story of my repentance. Yesterday was Zone conference and everyone was excited because Elder Perkins of the seventy was coming to visit. (By the way, I have repented for all the time I thought "he isn't an apostle, he's just a seventy. Let’s listen to something else". Wow, I took the 70's talks for granted in the MTC so many times. Ah man, these people are AMAZING.
So I came into this zone conference with many questions prepared and I felt like the entire meeting was focused on Elder Daniels’ needs. And not only in reality, but it was literally focused on Elder Daniels needs! I'll tell you why. During the meeting they needed to have a companionship come up and do a role-play by teaching a first lesson to another companionship. Out of all 90 missionaries that were in the room, the names, "Elder Daniels and Elder Gong" were the ones to be announced for the role-play…ouch.
Elder Daniels was the senior companion and he needed to teach a ten minute 1st lesson with his trainee, to Elders Youd and Pullsipher, who were supposed to be 26 year old college students. In the audience was every single one of Elder Daniels’ peers, the mission president, his wife and a General Authority, who was boldly waiting to give us feedback. Elder Daniels had to represent the entire mission's teaching abilities and weaknesses in front of the general authority. No pressure, Elder Daniels.
It was a mess. I felt like a rambling monkey. It was almost as if Elder Daniels was under influence of the spirit to do everything wrong and go against the game plan he had made in his mind in order to give support to Elder Perkins theory for missionaries in their problems with teaching. I felt kind of like Christ, sort of, suffering the blow for everybody in that room. It was painful. But, I got the best feedback of my life. Elder Perkins started on how we need to "GET TO THE RESTORATION!” He asked us, “If you had to explain the gospel in six words, what would it be?” My favorite was, "GOD LOVES US and PROPHETS ARE BACK!"
That was a hard and painful learning process, and I was so nervous. By the way, it was all in Chinese! Elder Daniels was humbled and called to repentance again for sure. I learned so much from this experience. We bore testimonies afterward, and I had to share mine because the spirit there was too dang strong.
One big lesson was how I learned to walk away from the experience, discouraged or meek. I took a mixture and got humbled really fast again. Part of me was grateful and happy to have learned so much, and the other half felt terrible for thinking it went really bad, and it led to a tiny bit of discouragement. Elder Daniels didn't like that though. Last night in my prayers I said, “Heavenly Father, I can't do this on my own anymore, you win.” And Elder Daniels’ attitude changed. It was such an awesome experience, painful yes, but that is the process of becoming a more meek servant to the Lord, which is what we need to become to see those mei mei's and their families get baptized. Elder Daniels Faith is SO high now! Woooohoooo!! The Lord has blessed Elder Daniels beyond what he imagined.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
You learn a lot on a mission
Ok, fine, I'll write, haha. (To our dismay, we figure our letters didn’t arrive in time) :( Well, this week has been a week to remember. A lot happened and a lot was learned.
I was touched by the Prophet’s last conference talk and thinking about how I can change my mission to have to have even more of an impact on my life. I realized I can judge my progress by how much I feel I have served has impacted the lives of the people around me and not just myself. There is so little time on the mission, there is so little time on this earth, why waste a second of it doing only for yourself. The things you do for yourself die with you, but the things you do for others leaves a legacy.
I’ve been on a spiritual high ever since the baptism last week, where I’ve been singing hymns peacefully, thinking of the purpose of life, etc. The spirit continued through the weekend, through district meeting, which was amazing thanks to a Filipino sister’s testimony that made everyone cry. It continued through exchanges with Elder Smith, all the way to last night when sharing with Elder Gong about looking for families and through our discussion about "progression" and "potential" as servants of the Lord, and the potential for all of God’s children. I learned about Jesus Christ’s gospel this week. It was wonderful.
We had a lot of time this week. We worked hard and we “attacked” the big tall buildings. One night we knocked on 65 doors between dinner and going home. The very last door at 8:59 let us in, hahahaha, and we shared a wonderful lesson with a family. They are very into Buddhism, so their time may not be ready just yet, but I saw the message hitting them, especially the father. He said come back someday. :)
We have been fishing for new investigators at the moment because we are trying to the find the ones that are willing and have the desire to progress. We've been keeping our line in the water, and we're excited for the next fish to bite...
Yesterday we went on exchanges and a lot was learned by Elder Daniels! I went out with Elder Smith who is the type of guy that is impossible not to like. He is insanely good with people and I learned a lot from him. It’s fun to go on exchanges with another elder who has been on the Island for a while and has had experience teaching lessons and who has been doing missionary work for a while. We taught very, very well together. It helped me remember how missionary work was supposed to be done, it was like being jr. companion again. I tried to take advantage of that time, since it was a learning experience. While together, we taught 5 lessons and added one kid to the pool that they have been working with for quite sometime. It was wonderful.
Towards the end of the exchange, we received a phone call from the other companionship. Elder Gong was with Elder Reid in our area, Tu Cheng. Elder Gong had authority to act as senior companion, hahaha. He was so excited to lead and be out with a young missionary. He did awesome too. Elder Gong is the man! I think he felt a little discouraged towards the end of the exchange because the Hu family had called. Because he didn't quite understand what they were saying, the Hu’s had a friend who speaks English call and talk to him. I'm still not to clear on the situation, but apparently the Hu family grandma
opposes the whole Hu family having any affiliation with our church, so they asked us not to come back anymore. It killed me when I heard this news but I knew it had hurt my companion more, because it was his first family. "Our Hu family." They were so close. Their interviews for baptism were next week, so hopefully we can get this situation settled some time soon. In the mean time, Elder Gong have had a lot to talk about. It’s his first time seeing a family fall out of the teaching pool. Heavenly Father helped me a lot so I could know what to say to strengthen my companion’s faith. I was kind of waiting for this type of experience to happen. I remember when it happened to me with the Jin family and it killed me. I learned a lot from it. Heavenly Father likes to test our faith and He gives us trials to make us strong.
I know that families are on the way. Oh man, when I was on exchanges with Elder Smith, we visited a new member family who have the cutest mei mei in the world. They are such a happy, Mormon family, that applies gospel principles. They love each other and the feeling in their home was so warm and tender. That was a taste, a reminder of the things that we are hoping for as missionaries. I see all these Taiwanese families who need the gospel, so they can have that same loving and tender feelings in their home. Just like the family we visited.
The spirit, the warmth in that family's home was so strong. Their mei mei had been living with the grandma down south for the first 3 years of her life and the mother and father only saw her once every two weeks. Since they have been members, the mei mei has come back to their home to live. It was such a wonderful blessing to be there and witness the power of a Mormon family. I took 45 pictures of that cute, little mei mei.
That is what I want to see more of. I am here for families and I think Elder Gong understands the picture of it all now. He is going to be a family finding machine!
I'm tired of missionaries looking for singles. You get the families converted and the singles will come. I haven't had a family baptized yet. They are harder, but when they are baptized, you get families like the one Elder Smith and I visited.
Well I gotta go. We're going to the zoo today with the Lin family today! :) I love you, Elder Daniels
I was touched by the Prophet’s last conference talk and thinking about how I can change my mission to have to have even more of an impact on my life. I realized I can judge my progress by how much I feel I have served has impacted the lives of the people around me and not just myself. There is so little time on the mission, there is so little time on this earth, why waste a second of it doing only for yourself. The things you do for yourself die with you, but the things you do for others leaves a legacy.
I’ve been on a spiritual high ever since the baptism last week, where I’ve been singing hymns peacefully, thinking of the purpose of life, etc. The spirit continued through the weekend, through district meeting, which was amazing thanks to a Filipino sister’s testimony that made everyone cry. It continued through exchanges with Elder Smith, all the way to last night when sharing with Elder Gong about looking for families and through our discussion about "progression" and "potential" as servants of the Lord, and the potential for all of God’s children. I learned about Jesus Christ’s gospel this week. It was wonderful.
We had a lot of time this week. We worked hard and we “attacked” the big tall buildings. One night we knocked on 65 doors between dinner and going home. The very last door at 8:59 let us in, hahahaha, and we shared a wonderful lesson with a family. They are very into Buddhism, so their time may not be ready just yet, but I saw the message hitting them, especially the father. He said come back someday. :)
We have been fishing for new investigators at the moment because we are trying to the find the ones that are willing and have the desire to progress. We've been keeping our line in the water, and we're excited for the next fish to bite...
Yesterday we went on exchanges and a lot was learned by Elder Daniels! I went out with Elder Smith who is the type of guy that is impossible not to like. He is insanely good with people and I learned a lot from him. It’s fun to go on exchanges with another elder who has been on the Island for a while and has had experience teaching lessons and who has been doing missionary work for a while. We taught very, very well together. It helped me remember how missionary work was supposed to be done, it was like being jr. companion again. I tried to take advantage of that time, since it was a learning experience. While together, we taught 5 lessons and added one kid to the pool that they have been working with for quite sometime. It was wonderful.
Towards the end of the exchange, we received a phone call from the other companionship. Elder Gong was with Elder Reid in our area, Tu Cheng. Elder Gong had authority to act as senior companion, hahaha. He was so excited to lead and be out with a young missionary. He did awesome too. Elder Gong is the man! I think he felt a little discouraged towards the end of the exchange because the Hu family had called. Because he didn't quite understand what they were saying, the Hu’s had a friend who speaks English call and talk to him. I'm still not to clear on the situation, but apparently the Hu family grandma
opposes the whole Hu family having any affiliation with our church, so they asked us not to come back anymore. It killed me when I heard this news but I knew it had hurt my companion more, because it was his first family. "Our Hu family." They were so close. Their interviews for baptism were next week, so hopefully we can get this situation settled some time soon. In the mean time, Elder Gong have had a lot to talk about. It’s his first time seeing a family fall out of the teaching pool. Heavenly Father helped me a lot so I could know what to say to strengthen my companion’s faith. I was kind of waiting for this type of experience to happen. I remember when it happened to me with the Jin family and it killed me. I learned a lot from it. Heavenly Father likes to test our faith and He gives us trials to make us strong.
I know that families are on the way. Oh man, when I was on exchanges with Elder Smith, we visited a new member family who have the cutest mei mei in the world. They are such a happy, Mormon family, that applies gospel principles. They love each other and the feeling in their home was so warm and tender. That was a taste, a reminder of the things that we are hoping for as missionaries. I see all these Taiwanese families who need the gospel, so they can have that same loving and tender feelings in their home. Just like the family we visited.
The spirit, the warmth in that family's home was so strong. Their mei mei had been living with the grandma down south for the first 3 years of her life and the mother and father only saw her once every two weeks. Since they have been members, the mei mei has come back to their home to live. It was such a wonderful blessing to be there and witness the power of a Mormon family. I took 45 pictures of that cute, little mei mei.
That is what I want to see more of. I am here for families and I think Elder Gong understands the picture of it all now. He is going to be a family finding machine!
I'm tired of missionaries looking for singles. You get the families converted and the singles will come. I haven't had a family baptized yet. They are harder, but when they are baptized, you get families like the one Elder Smith and I visited.
Well I gotta go. We're going to the zoo today with the Lin family today! :) I love you, Elder Daniels
Monday, October 27, 2008
Skinny missionary
We found a new family last week over in San Xia while we were visiting our Hu family! They are great! Our Hu family is doing well too. They are willing to keep all the commandments, we just need to share tithing and we're done. The only hard one for them is to keep the Sabbath day holy. The husband has a bad leg and it’s hard for him to go anywhere. Maybe this is a blessing Heavenly Father has given them to help them increase their faith before baptism, to give them a long enduring conversion. They love the scriptures, they love prayer, and they believe the church is true. They'll be really good members as they see how going to church will bless them as a family. The husband is more "manmanlai"(he needs time), he still has a word of wisdom problem, but the mother and kids are "lihai"(AWESOME)!!! Such a blessing.
We had a sweet miracle the last day of the transfer, my companion and I wanted to get 7 setups in a day. We tried all transfer long, stayed diligent, having faith, hoping that if it be God's will, He would let us see it. On the last day of the transfer, Heavenly Father allowed us to see 7 people get setup, (and 3 families)! Things are good and the church is true.
That is kind of a brief summary of what’s been going on. I love our new area and apartment. We are still the missionaries in charge of San Xia, so we go there often. It’s about a ten mile difference and my legs are getting HUGE. It’s pretty sweet, but all in all I've gotten a lot skinnier, I think. I haven't been drinking as much milk. I talked to Elder Wyatt from my MTC district the other day and he refers to me as the elder from Ethiopia, hahaha, I'm not that skinny. But, I have lost about 11 pounds, and everyone is Taiwan is skinny.
I crave rice now. I have to have rice. Seriously, whenever I am hungry, rice and cabbage and weird Taiwanese foods are the first things that come to mind. This is just "write random things day,” by the way.
I am still with Elder Gong and I’m glad. We are great friends after 6 weeks together and we both like to work hard.
Other things happened this week. My companion had his identity stolen in Germany. Other elders had their bags stolen, a total of $1000 worth of stuff inside: electric dictionaries, cameras, other dictionaries, priceless pictures, and scriptures. My bag never leaves my side and my electronic dictionary stays at home now.
Wow, my time is short today. We have to go to Taipei with Elder Smith’s new companion and grab some stuff. The clock is ticking...37 seconds…I love you.
We had a sweet miracle the last day of the transfer, my companion and I wanted to get 7 setups in a day. We tried all transfer long, stayed diligent, having faith, hoping that if it be God's will, He would let us see it. On the last day of the transfer, Heavenly Father allowed us to see 7 people get setup, (and 3 families)! Things are good and the church is true.
That is kind of a brief summary of what’s been going on. I love our new area and apartment. We are still the missionaries in charge of San Xia, so we go there often. It’s about a ten mile difference and my legs are getting HUGE. It’s pretty sweet, but all in all I've gotten a lot skinnier, I think. I haven't been drinking as much milk. I talked to Elder Wyatt from my MTC district the other day and he refers to me as the elder from Ethiopia, hahaha, I'm not that skinny. But, I have lost about 11 pounds, and everyone is Taiwan is skinny.
I crave rice now. I have to have rice. Seriously, whenever I am hungry, rice and cabbage and weird Taiwanese foods are the first things that come to mind. This is just "write random things day,” by the way.
I am still with Elder Gong and I’m glad. We are great friends after 6 weeks together and we both like to work hard.
Other things happened this week. My companion had his identity stolen in Germany. Other elders had their bags stolen, a total of $1000 worth of stuff inside: electric dictionaries, cameras, other dictionaries, priceless pictures, and scriptures. My bag never leaves my side and my electronic dictionary stays at home now.
Wow, my time is short today. We have to go to Taipei with Elder Smith’s new companion and grab some stuff. The clock is ticking...37 seconds…I love you.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
My mission is going way too fast!
It is week 6 and this transfer FLEW by. President Monson’s talk about taking advantage of the time we are given is coming to pass. Time is so little, change is so long, but it comes before we can notice it. Wow, my mission is going way too fast. I wish I could put it on pause, go back and fix all of the flaws. There are so many, but that is not possible.
I have learned so much this transfer. Training is a very humbling process. I'm thinking that I have learned just as much from my companion as he might have learned from me. Wow. We both found a lot of places to improve in our missionary work. I could not have made it through this transfer if it weren't for the help of the Holy Ghost. I learned the importance of companionship unity this transfer, and being in unity with the Holy Ghost. It started with us being able to trust each other. I know you might think, "shoot that’s easy", but sometimes things happen that give you the decision to act on that trust or not and sometimes it is a subconscious decision not to, "the natural man.” However, as we trusted each other and applied Christlike attributes, the Lord showed us how to humble ourselves and allow us to have His spirit, which helped us know how to look inward before we look outward. It puts us in harmony with one purpose, and that is to get God’s work done. I am lucky to have a trainee with fire in his eyes, who is willing to work hard and tear things up. I love that. He has learned a lot about patience, humility, and working with a very young missionary, me, who may not know everything, but he knows a little. It was a great process, and work got done through it.
The Hu family is an example of the miracles we have seen. We just need to teach them tithing and they are all set to go. The husband is ready to stop drinking and smoking. Their faith is becoming stronger and their desire to know Christ is vastly improving. Such a blessing.
We've been working hard this week. We moved to Tu Cheng and our new apartment is AWESOME and I love it. We are working hard finding new investigators so we are whitewashing again, except this time we have inactive and recent converts to visit. Wow, before we had none, so now we can get a full schedule every day, it is beautiful! Missionary work is starting to be like it is supposed to be.
The other day we got a new investigator, a lady who sells shrimp and crab. We go by everyday and she gives us endless shrimp and crab, and we're talking REAL SHRIMP AND REAL CRAB! She says she'll come to church, but she is progressing slowly at the moment. She has prayed but not read anything yet. I'm afraid we're going to have to miss out on the free food if she doesn't keep progressing!
The fishing last week went great! I loved seeing the Su family. Man, I missed them. They all gave Jonathan “gege” a big old hug. I told them NO HUGS, but they did it anyway! We didn't catch any fish but it was a great time.
Chinese is really, really hard, but it’s still coming. I'm on page 400 in the Book of Mormon.
I have learned so much this transfer. Training is a very humbling process. I'm thinking that I have learned just as much from my companion as he might have learned from me. Wow. We both found a lot of places to improve in our missionary work. I could not have made it through this transfer if it weren't for the help of the Holy Ghost. I learned the importance of companionship unity this transfer, and being in unity with the Holy Ghost. It started with us being able to trust each other. I know you might think, "shoot that’s easy", but sometimes things happen that give you the decision to act on that trust or not and sometimes it is a subconscious decision not to, "the natural man.” However, as we trusted each other and applied Christlike attributes, the Lord showed us how to humble ourselves and allow us to have His spirit, which helped us know how to look inward before we look outward. It puts us in harmony with one purpose, and that is to get God’s work done. I am lucky to have a trainee with fire in his eyes, who is willing to work hard and tear things up. I love that. He has learned a lot about patience, humility, and working with a very young missionary, me, who may not know everything, but he knows a little. It was a great process, and work got done through it.
The Hu family is an example of the miracles we have seen. We just need to teach them tithing and they are all set to go. The husband is ready to stop drinking and smoking. Their faith is becoming stronger and their desire to know Christ is vastly improving. Such a blessing.
We've been working hard this week. We moved to Tu Cheng and our new apartment is AWESOME and I love it. We are working hard finding new investigators so we are whitewashing again, except this time we have inactive and recent converts to visit. Wow, before we had none, so now we can get a full schedule every day, it is beautiful! Missionary work is starting to be like it is supposed to be.
The other day we got a new investigator, a lady who sells shrimp and crab. We go by everyday and she gives us endless shrimp and crab, and we're talking REAL SHRIMP AND REAL CRAB! She says she'll come to church, but she is progressing slowly at the moment. She has prayed but not read anything yet. I'm afraid we're going to have to miss out on the free food if she doesn't keep progressing!
The fishing last week went great! I loved seeing the Su family. Man, I missed them. They all gave Jonathan “gege” a big old hug. I told them NO HUGS, but they did it anyway! We didn't catch any fish but it was a great time.
Chinese is really, really hard, but it’s still coming. I'm on page 400 in the Book of Mormon.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
"And it came to pass"
Wow, it’s neat to hear all the cool things that are going on back home. I’m looking forward to General Conference like it’s the Superbowl. I'm so excited and I'm gonna make sure the Su family from San Chong gets a chance to see it too. We have to wait so long to watch it because they have to translate everything into Chinese, oh well.
Let’s get to the business. First of all, last week the Su family came to Tu Cheng and dropped off three boxes full of food, and left a note on top begging us to go back to San Chong and play with the kids. They miss us a lot. It kinda pricked my heart a little. Joyce says the kids ask her every day, "When is Jonathan gege coming back?" Gege means “big brother.” Man I love them.
My companion and I have had a lot of humbling experiences lately that have been really helpful. We get along really well, but we have both learned the true meaning of the words, "and it came to pass," ha, ha, especially my companion. He's learned a lot recently, about how he can trust his trainer and everything like that, ha, ha. The experience came as we were teaching a lesson to a lady in McDonalds. We taught her in English because she was fluent. My companion was way excited to teach the lesson and he did an awesome job, but wasn't quite in line with his companion. The lesson still went really well but the spirit wasn't as strong as it could've been. We talked about it afterward, and it was a learning experience for both of us. You learn early on your mission that you can trust the people above you. I learned that from Elder Barton and it was a humbling process. I shared all of these experiences with my trainee, and then the same thing happened to him, and “things started coming to pass. We make mistakes and we learn from them. We learn not to rely on ourselves, but on the Lord or the people who serve Him. We don't realize it when we mess up sometimes, but then when we become humbled, as when “things come to pass.”
Recently I have learned a little bit about the word "meekness". In the topical guide, meekness is referenced to "teachable". This process occurs more and more on my mission, and “it came to pass.” Elder Barton was right, ha, ha, ha. Elder Gong has learned that too, and he's learned to trust me a lot more and is helped him improve SO fast because he has become "teachable". He memorizes scripture like crazy now and his Chinese has gotten SO GOOD. We teach in Unity now and the message of the restoration is so much more powerful. I love Elder Gong. I learn so much from him.
Okay, now the Hu family. We went to their house again to have dinner with them and it went really, really well. Then Sister Hu said the words, "By the way, we won't be able to join your church." OH NO!!! We played it cool and she explained, “We want to learn more about your church before we join because we heard Mormons are bad, from other people.” We explained and it went very well. We ended up putting them back on the baptismal pool. They came to church, and they LOVED IT! It was great. They love the Book of Mormon. They said, "It’s so clear and easy to understand." Mmmmmm, yup!
The ward was divided last week, but you wouldn't know it because 21 investigators came to church last week. It was insane! Six of them came all the way from San Xia, woo hoo! I love the Hu family. They are so awesome and the two kids are so cool. They aren't shy at all and they love to play with us. One is 14 and one is 7. The mom is awesome and she is a big time jokester. I love it here in San Xia. I love the people.
We rode up into the mountains yesterday and met with a couple Vietnamese people who speak terrible Chinese. They are poor. Their families live in Vietnam and they work here at a steel mill to earn money. We shared the lesson with them as much as we could. They didn't understand much but they are coming to church where we'll give them Vietnamese books of Mormon. Book of Mormons. Copies of the Book of Mormon? :) Ha,ha.
A cool thing happened two days ago, that was an expensive sacrifice for a great investigator. My tire exploded. As we were walking to the bike store, this man self contacted us. This was the nicest man I ever met. He took us to the store, helped us bargain the people down to 1300 dollars (about $43). I fixed the other things on my bike while I was at it, broken brakes, broken lights, etc. Then he took us around town to show us all the good places to buy food cheap. He set himself up with us for tomorrow afternoon. He also ran into the other elders in Tu Cheng and sat in on one of their lessons. Crazy huh? The other elders said he was nice to them too. He's like a mystery miracle man.
Yeah, there has been a lot going on. We've been working way hard and I've been getting up at 5:30 in the morning. I plan to do that until I get the Book of Mormon finished. I cracked out 21 pages yesterday! We have seen so many miracles. I love being with Elder Gong. He's a lot about having a sense of urgency in the work, which I love. He is going to be so lehi! Lehi in Chinese means EXTRAORDINARILY AWESOME!!!
Now for the icing on the cake. We had president’s interviews last week. Interviews are a big thing on your mission because you get a lot of insight in such a short amount of time. This interview went completely different than it has in the past. President was asking me questions this time. He asked me what needed to be done in San Xia. Then he invited me to pray about it and let him know. He wanted me to help him and the zone leaders pick the new area, it was crazy. President is amazing. He actually cares about the opinions that his missionaries give him. He is such a spiritually lead man and it’s so cool because I learn so much from him.
Now for the craziest part. When we were talking about me and my companion’s relationship, I started talking about some things that I learned from Elder Barton and how I have applied some of things that he has taught me on my mission. Out of nowhere, President asked me, “Elder Daniels, have you ever thought about what you might do after your mission?” As a missionary in my 5th transfer, to be honest I haven't thought much of it at all, so this question caught me quite off guard. But, I listened with open ears because I felt like some huge insight was well on it’s way. Him being my mission president after all, and practically a prophet, so I suspected president must have some important reason for asking this type of question, especially for him to be asking me about this so early in my mission. He then went on to ask me if I have ever thought about going into the military or going to a military school. I replied "yes." In fact, once when I was attending the temple while at the MTC, I had a random feeling come over me as someone was saying a prayer. In that prayer they blessed the armed forces and the rest of that day I pondered it, because of that feeling that came over me. It was reconfirmed in this interview with my mission president. It caught me so off guard, but it felt so right at the time we were talking about it. President and I talked about it for a little while. He invited me to pray about it and he told me to tell you to check and see what it would take to get me into the ROTC program at BYU or into the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. I've prayed about it, and that is what I want to do. I'm joining the Air Force when I get home, (as of right now). But I don't think this decision will change, so will you check that out for me? Whew. I hope President tells me what to study in the next interview...
Well, I love you so much. I pray for you all the time and I can feel your prayers for me. I love you and miss you. Keep the BYU news coming, I need details. I love you. :)
Let’s get to the business. First of all, last week the Su family came to Tu Cheng and dropped off three boxes full of food, and left a note on top begging us to go back to San Chong and play with the kids. They miss us a lot. It kinda pricked my heart a little. Joyce says the kids ask her every day, "When is Jonathan gege coming back?" Gege means “big brother.” Man I love them.
My companion and I have had a lot of humbling experiences lately that have been really helpful. We get along really well, but we have both learned the true meaning of the words, "and it came to pass," ha, ha, especially my companion. He's learned a lot recently, about how he can trust his trainer and everything like that, ha, ha. The experience came as we were teaching a lesson to a lady in McDonalds. We taught her in English because she was fluent. My companion was way excited to teach the lesson and he did an awesome job, but wasn't quite in line with his companion. The lesson still went really well but the spirit wasn't as strong as it could've been. We talked about it afterward, and it was a learning experience for both of us. You learn early on your mission that you can trust the people above you. I learned that from Elder Barton and it was a humbling process. I shared all of these experiences with my trainee, and then the same thing happened to him, and “things started coming to pass. We make mistakes and we learn from them. We learn not to rely on ourselves, but on the Lord or the people who serve Him. We don't realize it when we mess up sometimes, but then when we become humbled, as when “things come to pass.”
Recently I have learned a little bit about the word "meekness". In the topical guide, meekness is referenced to "teachable". This process occurs more and more on my mission, and “it came to pass.” Elder Barton was right, ha, ha, ha. Elder Gong has learned that too, and he's learned to trust me a lot more and is helped him improve SO fast because he has become "teachable". He memorizes scripture like crazy now and his Chinese has gotten SO GOOD. We teach in Unity now and the message of the restoration is so much more powerful. I love Elder Gong. I learn so much from him.
Okay, now the Hu family. We went to their house again to have dinner with them and it went really, really well. Then Sister Hu said the words, "By the way, we won't be able to join your church." OH NO!!! We played it cool and she explained, “We want to learn more about your church before we join because we heard Mormons are bad, from other people.” We explained and it went very well. We ended up putting them back on the baptismal pool. They came to church, and they LOVED IT! It was great. They love the Book of Mormon. They said, "It’s so clear and easy to understand." Mmmmmm, yup!
The ward was divided last week, but you wouldn't know it because 21 investigators came to church last week. It was insane! Six of them came all the way from San Xia, woo hoo! I love the Hu family. They are so awesome and the two kids are so cool. They aren't shy at all and they love to play with us. One is 14 and one is 7. The mom is awesome and she is a big time jokester. I love it here in San Xia. I love the people.
We rode up into the mountains yesterday and met with a couple Vietnamese people who speak terrible Chinese. They are poor. Their families live in Vietnam and they work here at a steel mill to earn money. We shared the lesson with them as much as we could. They didn't understand much but they are coming to church where we'll give them Vietnamese books of Mormon. Book of Mormons. Copies of the Book of Mormon? :) Ha,ha.
A cool thing happened two days ago, that was an expensive sacrifice for a great investigator. My tire exploded. As we were walking to the bike store, this man self contacted us. This was the nicest man I ever met. He took us to the store, helped us bargain the people down to 1300 dollars (about $43). I fixed the other things on my bike while I was at it, broken brakes, broken lights, etc. Then he took us around town to show us all the good places to buy food cheap. He set himself up with us for tomorrow afternoon. He also ran into the other elders in Tu Cheng and sat in on one of their lessons. Crazy huh? The other elders said he was nice to them too. He's like a mystery miracle man.
Yeah, there has been a lot going on. We've been working way hard and I've been getting up at 5:30 in the morning. I plan to do that until I get the Book of Mormon finished. I cracked out 21 pages yesterday! We have seen so many miracles. I love being with Elder Gong. He's a lot about having a sense of urgency in the work, which I love. He is going to be so lehi! Lehi in Chinese means EXTRAORDINARILY AWESOME!!!
Now for the icing on the cake. We had president’s interviews last week. Interviews are a big thing on your mission because you get a lot of insight in such a short amount of time. This interview went completely different than it has in the past. President was asking me questions this time. He asked me what needed to be done in San Xia. Then he invited me to pray about it and let him know. He wanted me to help him and the zone leaders pick the new area, it was crazy. President is amazing. He actually cares about the opinions that his missionaries give him. He is such a spiritually lead man and it’s so cool because I learn so much from him.
Now for the craziest part. When we were talking about me and my companion’s relationship, I started talking about some things that I learned from Elder Barton and how I have applied some of things that he has taught me on my mission. Out of nowhere, President asked me, “Elder Daniels, have you ever thought about what you might do after your mission?” As a missionary in my 5th transfer, to be honest I haven't thought much of it at all, so this question caught me quite off guard. But, I listened with open ears because I felt like some huge insight was well on it’s way. Him being my mission president after all, and practically a prophet, so I suspected president must have some important reason for asking this type of question, especially for him to be asking me about this so early in my mission. He then went on to ask me if I have ever thought about going into the military or going to a military school. I replied "yes." In fact, once when I was attending the temple while at the MTC, I had a random feeling come over me as someone was saying a prayer. In that prayer they blessed the armed forces and the rest of that day I pondered it, because of that feeling that came over me. It was reconfirmed in this interview with my mission president. It caught me so off guard, but it felt so right at the time we were talking about it. President and I talked about it for a little while. He invited me to pray about it and he told me to tell you to check and see what it would take to get me into the ROTC program at BYU or into the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. I've prayed about it, and that is what I want to do. I'm joining the Air Force when I get home, (as of right now). But I don't think this decision will change, so will you check that out for me? Whew. I hope President tells me what to study in the next interview...
Well, I love you so much. I pray for you all the time and I can feel your prayers for me. I love you and miss you. Keep the BYU news coming, I need details. I love you. :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
