LIFE IS SO GOOD! Yesterday, Sister Yan passed her baptismal interview with flying colors. She had a special interview with President Zeng of the mission presidency, who is also the chief engineer of the ultra famous Taipei speed rail! He is a genius and besides the president, probably one of the most famous people in Taiwan. He is one of them Mormons, too, and that’s the greatest part! Anyway, when the door opened, we were all anxiously waiting, and then the words, “Congratulations,” left the man’s lips! We were ecstatic. I remember that we almost gave them up to the other elders because her Chinese is really bad, and we thought Elder Zeng could speak Taiwanese with her and maybe it would have been the best thing for her situation. But I really didn't want to let that happen. We worked hard and we got 2 members at EVERY lesson to help us communicate with her, and Heavenly Father blessed us a lot to understand some of the Taiwanese that she would speak. (Taiwanese is a language completely different from Chinese). What a miracle!!!!! We were so ecstatic after the interview that we told her in order to celebrate we were going to go and play badminton, one of Taiwan’s favorite sports. :) Fifty-two-year old Sister Yan is a quite the badminton player!!!! I was so impressed because everything we hit into her radius, she returned back with fire! Ha ha, it was awesome. She is such a cute lady. I love her and she REALLY wants her family to be baptized. Wow, I cannot begin to tell the things that Heavenly Father allowed me to learn through teaching her.
I have 2 companions. Elder Gilbert’s companion was really depressed and went back home honorably. We’re happy for him, yet very sad that he couldn't finish the mission, but he did what Heavenly Father planned for him to do, so we were happy. So, we've been a threesome for 5 days now, and I will be the first one to tell you, it’s difficult. But, it’s also really awesome!!!! By the way, we cover three areas now so we have been quite busy. Last week we went back to Shulin, Elder Gilbert’s area, and I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with a ward priesthood member who was a missionary in Gaoxiong. While the other elders went back to Elder Gilbert’s apartment to get some things prepared for him to move, ward member Brother Lu and I got the chance to go and teach a family named Jian. They had a beautiful home, and 2 mei mei's. They were your picture perfect family, they each had a Book of Mormon, and they were all sitting around a table listening intently. It was a beautiful site, and after the lesson, they committed to pray to know the truth, come to Church and be baptized!!!!
It was insane and as long as Elder Gilbert is still my companion, I get to continue teaching this family, although they live in Shulin!
It’s interesting with three elders, hahaha, but it sure is fun, especially when we can manage to take care of time which is so precious. It’s also made the hole in our wall really big, hahahaha, but Brother Beauvie can fix anything so not to worry.
We had 80 people come to English class, and a record 41 came to my primary class. We taught the Restoration as a spiritual lesson. We helped a family move some stuff, we got our microwave fixed, and we went and did a temple tour with an investigator, then took him to eat American food at the senior couple Beauvie's house. THAT WAS AMAZING. The investigator lived in America for 40 years so his English was better then mine. He had so many questions about the church, and the atmosphere of the Beauvie’s house was amazing. The American food they cooked was impossible to describe. The three of us sang and it sounded like angels in their home. He wants to meet with the Taipei elders because that’s where he lives. He shows interest in baptism, he was agnostic before he met the church. The Beauvei's are remarkable people. We discussed everything about the church from having many wives to the creation of the world. Haha.
I also had the opportunity to baptize the Sister’s investigator who is now an AWESOME MEMBER!!!!! She has had a terrible life and gets beaten by her father, but she said this church has allowed her to meet her REAL father. :)
THANK YOU FOR SENDING THE SCRIPTURES! I CAN’T WAIT TO GET THEM!!!!! We take the subway to zone conference...time is up....I LOVE YOU.... Your son is the happiest of his LIFE! ELDER DANIELS!!!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Miracles, miracles, and more miracles!
Dear Family,
Here is Elder Daniels’ letter for February 10, 2009. I am so emotional after reading his words. My heart is so full of gratitude. He is experiencing some wonderful personal changes and seeing miracles all around. I usually do some editing of his letters, but today I will just clean up the punctuation and leave the letter in his poor English so you can get a feel for a missionary using two languages.
Love, Carol Anne/Mom
Well, let me just get it across. You know how every missionary has some sort of spark or change of heart in the midst of their mission? Mine has just finished changing and we've been seeing the blessings recently. Every morning I as I wake up and say my morning prayer, I start wondering what sort of miracle Heavenly Father is going to allow me and my companion Elder Read to see, because recently the miracles have been coming one right after the other. We attribute it to the fact that we have learned how to give up our own carnal man, let the Lord win, and have immortal faith rather then the opposing faith of the natural man.
As I sit here and write emails home every week, I gain a strong compassion for scripture, hahaha. Think about those people that wrote the scriptures for a second. Who were they? They were prophets under revelation, writing the things that brought peace and happiness to their soul. SO, what was the reason for their writings? The reason for their writings was to allow their descendants know what things brought them the most peace and happiness in their life. The experiences they write were absolutely amazing, the most of them. Now, what is the problem that they had to overcome? The problem is that they had to CARVE all of their experiences down on metal plates. This really limited their ability to express all of the things that they had experienced. (I feel the same way as I am writing this Email) The sad thing is, sometimes we feel like the scriptures are boring. OH MAN! Please don't let the boringness of my text misrepresent the remarkable changes that have encountered me in my recent life, hahaha!
My English really has become quite rotten...hahaha, oh well, it’s very a greater cause at the moment.
These last couple of days have been amazing. This last week we had 9 pei ke's! That is a record for Elder Daniels, for sure. I sure have gotten a grasp of this work and how to better do the work through the members. All of the recent miracles that Heavenly Father has allowed me to see can be attributed to Preach My Gospel and the use of member work.
All of our recent miracles have been small yet so, so, so, so, HUGE, because they have laid down the path to more, and far greater miracles! I take this time to pen my favorite miracle of the week...
The story started one month ago. Before Ryan was baptized, he was scared and quite worried about the whole thought of going against his parents will and being baptized into a church that he still didn't know very much about. I distinctly remember promising Ryan this blessing. Thus, the words I said to him were as follows. "After you are baptized and you change your actions and you are filled with the light that the members of this gospel enjoy, your parents will be so impressed with your change in countenance that they will not only support you in your decision to be baptized, but they in the future will also have a desire to learn the message that we are sharing with you." I remember how these words and promised blessing comforted him that day. And, I know that the experience Heavenly Father allowed us to come across yesterday is a confirmation of the affirmation that we gave him that day. Yesterday, at a red light, we ran into Ryan’s mother. We said hello to her really cheerfully, but I was half afraid to do any more then that because I was still apprehensive about her and the feelings she had towards us missionaries. She told us to pull over. She wanted to talk to us. She asked us if we still plan to keep in contact with Ryan. We said, “YES, he is our friend.” She said "good" because he loves you, and she started crying. She said, "And I love you as well." She said that she could not explain the change that had occurred in her son’s life in the past few months. She said he used to be so shy, he used to not like to talk to other people, and he was such an inward person. Then she said, "You changed him, thank you. You are welcome to come to my house anytime. I'm more than willing to support my son in your church. I actually exhorted him to get in touch with the Church in New Zealand (where he is attending school) because I know it will be good for him. I made him buy a bicycle so that he could ride it to Church on Sundays because he lives 40 minutes away from the church on foot and a bicycle will make things a lot easier."
Things came to pass. The promise we gave to Ryan has been fulfilled and now his mother has interest in the message that changed her son’s life. It was the message. I will never forget her eyes as she said these words to me. Never.
We shared this experience with 52 year old Sister Yan who has the same sort of opposition coming from her family. She needs some support from her husband. We bore testimony to her that as she changed her actions, her husband’s heart will also be opened. She has one trial, and its to keep the Sabbath day holy. She has a hard time coming to church because she has to drive her taxi and her husband wants her home sooner, but she has committed to keep it holy now. She was touched by Ryan’s story. The family will come along. In the mean time, her baptismal interview is next Tuesday night. It’s so interesting to see how Heavenly Father gave us this experience with Ryan so we could share it with Sister Yan. Oh, and the Li family as well, their son is 13, golden, and wants to be baptized. We are good friends with their family, but Jason will also have to go through the same type of experience.
Miracles, miracles, miracles. I also have about 17 more to share that are almost as cool as that but we'll see what time allows, hahaha ,seriously there are about 17.
Sunday night, we set up a lesson with a BEAUTIFUL FAMILY with 2 young boys that can be future missionaries some day. They live in the mountains of San Xia so it was kind of a special lesson and a little hard, to find members that are willing to go so far to attend the lesson, but we had it set up. We planned to meet with the Xu family who have two sons about the same age as the investigators that we planned to visit, so we got there and rang the doorbell. No answer. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! We were fang'ed (stood up). Oh man, I felt bad for our pei ke's, but we weren't going to put them to waste so we took them to go proselyting with us.
After knocking one door, the neighbors, we got a set up and a referral to some inactive members that we were unaware of that lived up on floor seven. Wow, so we went up to floor seven with the Xu family. We took the stairs because the elevator beeped when my companion stepped in and as we got up there we found a door with a sticker on the front of it that said, "Nothing can compensate for failure in the home." It was a lost sheep, part member family! And, they were good friends with the members we had brought with us! They were an AWESOME FAMILY. And it turns out that they are friends with the people we had initially set up with for that night. In fact the Xu family was as well, but we didn't know all this. They know each other because all of their kids are classmates! Whoa! It was insane. Miracle after miracle. We shared an awesome lesson about prayer and the restored gospel, which Elder Daniels throws in EVERY lesson, because he learned his lesson 3 zone conferences ago! Anyway, the outcome of the lesson was amazing. They all want and committed to come back to church, and the dad might even come as well, and he isn't even a member! They also want to invite the family that we had initially set up to meet with who ended up only forgetting that we had an appointment!!! Heavenly father gave us a big miracle that night!!!!
Oh man, my time is almost gone. The inactive Luo family came to church last week and loved it! We had a couple family nights with them. Brother Zhuang , a man who is inactive and desires his family to be members of the church, came out with his true concerns. We are now teaching him how to use sincere prayer to find an answer. He actually listens now. We became pretty familiar with the top of his head a couple months ago as we first found him and realized he had no interest, but after we gave him some time and were more attentive to his concerns, he opened up a lot more, and actually desires us to come back now.
I have learned SO much recently that I cannot describe the amount of things I have learned…numbers aren't big enough. And I think I can attribute most of it to the things Heavenly Father has taught me and Elder Read as a companionship.
I love this gospel. There is so much to learn, all I have to say is, we make mistakes, we learn. We fall down 7 times we get up 8.
I love you!!!!! Your son Elder Daniels
Here is Elder Daniels’ letter for February 10, 2009. I am so emotional after reading his words. My heart is so full of gratitude. He is experiencing some wonderful personal changes and seeing miracles all around. I usually do some editing of his letters, but today I will just clean up the punctuation and leave the letter in his poor English so you can get a feel for a missionary using two languages.
Love, Carol Anne/Mom
Well, let me just get it across. You know how every missionary has some sort of spark or change of heart in the midst of their mission? Mine has just finished changing and we've been seeing the blessings recently. Every morning I as I wake up and say my morning prayer, I start wondering what sort of miracle Heavenly Father is going to allow me and my companion Elder Read to see, because recently the miracles have been coming one right after the other. We attribute it to the fact that we have learned how to give up our own carnal man, let the Lord win, and have immortal faith rather then the opposing faith of the natural man.
As I sit here and write emails home every week, I gain a strong compassion for scripture, hahaha. Think about those people that wrote the scriptures for a second. Who were they? They were prophets under revelation, writing the things that brought peace and happiness to their soul. SO, what was the reason for their writings? The reason for their writings was to allow their descendants know what things brought them the most peace and happiness in their life. The experiences they write were absolutely amazing, the most of them. Now, what is the problem that they had to overcome? The problem is that they had to CARVE all of their experiences down on metal plates. This really limited their ability to express all of the things that they had experienced. (I feel the same way as I am writing this Email) The sad thing is, sometimes we feel like the scriptures are boring. OH MAN! Please don't let the boringness of my text misrepresent the remarkable changes that have encountered me in my recent life, hahaha!
My English really has become quite rotten...hahaha, oh well, it’s very a greater cause at the moment.
These last couple of days have been amazing. This last week we had 9 pei ke's! That is a record for Elder Daniels, for sure. I sure have gotten a grasp of this work and how to better do the work through the members. All of the recent miracles that Heavenly Father has allowed me to see can be attributed to Preach My Gospel and the use of member work.
All of our recent miracles have been small yet so, so, so, so, HUGE, because they have laid down the path to more, and far greater miracles! I take this time to pen my favorite miracle of the week...
The story started one month ago. Before Ryan was baptized, he was scared and quite worried about the whole thought of going against his parents will and being baptized into a church that he still didn't know very much about. I distinctly remember promising Ryan this blessing. Thus, the words I said to him were as follows. "After you are baptized and you change your actions and you are filled with the light that the members of this gospel enjoy, your parents will be so impressed with your change in countenance that they will not only support you in your decision to be baptized, but they in the future will also have a desire to learn the message that we are sharing with you." I remember how these words and promised blessing comforted him that day. And, I know that the experience Heavenly Father allowed us to come across yesterday is a confirmation of the affirmation that we gave him that day. Yesterday, at a red light, we ran into Ryan’s mother. We said hello to her really cheerfully, but I was half afraid to do any more then that because I was still apprehensive about her and the feelings she had towards us missionaries. She told us to pull over. She wanted to talk to us. She asked us if we still plan to keep in contact with Ryan. We said, “YES, he is our friend.” She said "good" because he loves you, and she started crying. She said, "And I love you as well." She said that she could not explain the change that had occurred in her son’s life in the past few months. She said he used to be so shy, he used to not like to talk to other people, and he was such an inward person. Then she said, "You changed him, thank you. You are welcome to come to my house anytime. I'm more than willing to support my son in your church. I actually exhorted him to get in touch with the Church in New Zealand (where he is attending school) because I know it will be good for him. I made him buy a bicycle so that he could ride it to Church on Sundays because he lives 40 minutes away from the church on foot and a bicycle will make things a lot easier."
Things came to pass. The promise we gave to Ryan has been fulfilled and now his mother has interest in the message that changed her son’s life. It was the message. I will never forget her eyes as she said these words to me. Never.
We shared this experience with 52 year old Sister Yan who has the same sort of opposition coming from her family. She needs some support from her husband. We bore testimony to her that as she changed her actions, her husband’s heart will also be opened. She has one trial, and its to keep the Sabbath day holy. She has a hard time coming to church because she has to drive her taxi and her husband wants her home sooner, but she has committed to keep it holy now. She was touched by Ryan’s story. The family will come along. In the mean time, her baptismal interview is next Tuesday night. It’s so interesting to see how Heavenly Father gave us this experience with Ryan so we could share it with Sister Yan. Oh, and the Li family as well, their son is 13, golden, and wants to be baptized. We are good friends with their family, but Jason will also have to go through the same type of experience.
Miracles, miracles, miracles. I also have about 17 more to share that are almost as cool as that but we'll see what time allows, hahaha ,seriously there are about 17.
Sunday night, we set up a lesson with a BEAUTIFUL FAMILY with 2 young boys that can be future missionaries some day. They live in the mountains of San Xia so it was kind of a special lesson and a little hard, to find members that are willing to go so far to attend the lesson, but we had it set up. We planned to meet with the Xu family who have two sons about the same age as the investigators that we planned to visit, so we got there and rang the doorbell. No answer. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! We were fang'ed (stood up). Oh man, I felt bad for our pei ke's, but we weren't going to put them to waste so we took them to go proselyting with us.
After knocking one door, the neighbors, we got a set up and a referral to some inactive members that we were unaware of that lived up on floor seven. Wow, so we went up to floor seven with the Xu family. We took the stairs because the elevator beeped when my companion stepped in and as we got up there we found a door with a sticker on the front of it that said, "Nothing can compensate for failure in the home." It was a lost sheep, part member family! And, they were good friends with the members we had brought with us! They were an AWESOME FAMILY. And it turns out that they are friends with the people we had initially set up with for that night. In fact the Xu family was as well, but we didn't know all this. They know each other because all of their kids are classmates! Whoa! It was insane. Miracle after miracle. We shared an awesome lesson about prayer and the restored gospel, which Elder Daniels throws in EVERY lesson, because he learned his lesson 3 zone conferences ago! Anyway, the outcome of the lesson was amazing. They all want and committed to come back to church, and the dad might even come as well, and he isn't even a member! They also want to invite the family that we had initially set up to meet with who ended up only forgetting that we had an appointment!!! Heavenly father gave us a big miracle that night!!!!
Oh man, my time is almost gone. The inactive Luo family came to church last week and loved it! We had a couple family nights with them. Brother Zhuang , a man who is inactive and desires his family to be members of the church, came out with his true concerns. We are now teaching him how to use sincere prayer to find an answer. He actually listens now. We became pretty familiar with the top of his head a couple months ago as we first found him and realized he had no interest, but after we gave him some time and were more attentive to his concerns, he opened up a lot more, and actually desires us to come back now.
I have learned SO much recently that I cannot describe the amount of things I have learned…numbers aren't big enough. And I think I can attribute most of it to the things Heavenly Father has taught me and Elder Read as a companionship.
I love this gospel. There is so much to learn, all I have to say is, we make mistakes, we learn. We fall down 7 times we get up 8.
I love you!!!!! Your son Elder Daniels
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Preach My Gospel works!
What a week. Well, time is short today so let’s get started. I will start with planning: I owe all of the success and miracles we have seen this week to successful planning at night time. Planning has changed my mission. I have a better relationship with the ward members. We have been able to find members to attend every single lesson that we teach. We are supposed to do that to begin with, but who actually does what “Preach My Gospel” says to do the first time they read it, haha. So, yeah, “Preach My Gospel” teaches us to have a member at every lesson. And Heavenly Father has answered our prayers in helping us find good friends and make a strong relationship with members of the ward. It used to be that if we were meeting with an investigator for the first time, we would be afraid to find a member to attend the lesson in case of a possible "no show." But the Lord has answered our prayers and helped us make strong enough member friends to overcome any obstacle a now show might bring. Last week we had 8 pei ke's (discussions?) and we had 7 the week before. That is huge and that’s all I have to say the amount of lessons taught. We have been focusing on better quality lessons rather than focusing on the quantity of lessons we teach. We have seen a lot of blessing come from it. We've even been having members attend the lessons with less- actives, which doesn't count as a number, but it is EXTREMELY nice! We are finally learning how to do missionary work and find new investigators through the ward rather than relying on ourselves and the blessings have come through our desire, through prayer, to do the Lord’s work and not our own work.
These experiences are real. "It helps to turn on the lights when you are reading in darkness" It takes more effort, but it makes the process run so much smoother.
WE HAD AN AMAZING LESSON THIS WEEK WITH SISTER YAN. She is 52, a taxi driver and such a sweet, cute lady, but her Buddhist background has kept her from understanding the point of Christianity. However, teaching her the basic principles of the Restored Gospel, faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.
With an awesome member attending the lessons, helping us teach principles, and share experience, we were able to work Sister Yan to the point where she understood the one principle that we were trying to get across to her. "Through applying these principles, we allow Christ to suffer our burdens, including her relationship with her husband." Then we wrote the words, “JIAN ZHENG(testimony) on the board and we missionaries and the member showed her how our experiences with these principles has brought a testimony to us, of our Savior and that GOD LIVES! SHE UNDERSTOOD IT! It was so difficult, but she got it. Now she is willing to sacrifice everything to come to Church every Sunday and show her love to for the Savior Jesus Christ!
WOAH!!!! She's going to baptized and we hope her son, too, on the 21st of February! Teaching Sister Yan has taken Elder Daniels to his teaching LIMIT!!!!! Wow, he has learned a lot.
I love this work. Gotta go,love you, ELDER DANIELS
These experiences are real. "It helps to turn on the lights when you are reading in darkness" It takes more effort, but it makes the process run so much smoother.
WE HAD AN AMAZING LESSON THIS WEEK WITH SISTER YAN. She is 52, a taxi driver and such a sweet, cute lady, but her Buddhist background has kept her from understanding the point of Christianity. However, teaching her the basic principles of the Restored Gospel, faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.
With an awesome member attending the lessons, helping us teach principles, and share experience, we were able to work Sister Yan to the point where she understood the one principle that we were trying to get across to her. "Through applying these principles, we allow Christ to suffer our burdens, including her relationship with her husband." Then we wrote the words, “JIAN ZHENG(testimony) on the board and we missionaries and the member showed her how our experiences with these principles has brought a testimony to us, of our Savior and that GOD LIVES! SHE UNDERSTOOD IT! It was so difficult, but she got it. Now she is willing to sacrifice everything to come to Church every Sunday and show her love to for the Savior Jesus Christ!
WOAH!!!! She's going to baptized and we hope her son, too, on the 21st of February! Teaching Sister Yan has taken Elder Daniels to his teaching LIMIT!!!!! Wow, he has learned a lot.
I love this work. Gotta go,love you, ELDER DANIELS
Sunday, January 18, 2009
A transfer or not?
Liginalihuobo! That is Taiwanese for, “Hello how is your day?” Haha, Taiwanese is crazy. I'm glad I'm not required to learn that language, Mandarin is hard enough. It gets harder and easier every single day, but don't worry about it, it’s hard to explain.
I LOVE TAIWAN. I LOVE THE TAIWANESE PEOPLE AND I LOVE MY NEW CALLING TO BE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT...HAHAHA!!
Just kidding! I would rather dig trenches for a living than spend so many precious mission hours in an office! My prayer was answered! I didn't move! I'm still serving in the San Xia/Tucheng and some of Shulin area. I love it here and I'm so happy because Elder Nathan Victor Read from Cedar City, Utah is still going to be my companion. He is quite different from Elder Daniels and Elder Daniels has been learning ALOT about patience this transfer. Elder Daniels desires to learn some of the wonderful attributes that his companion carries about him in his countenance. Elder Read is SO AWESOME, and I'm starting to realize why Heavenly Father has given me this wonderful opportunity to work with him. And it is to see miracles. The biggest miracles come after the trial of your faith and for a lot of missionaries, the trial of your faith lies in your Christlike attributes. If you are submissive and willing to meekly search after them, Heavenly Father will allow you to see miracles in accordance with the faith that we show Him. I'm learning a lot and it’s become exciting rather then painful to see the places I need to improve thanks, to ”Preach My Gospel.”
We've got a lot in store for this next transfer, only to add on to the miracles that we have already seen. Heavenly Father allowed us to see Ryan BATIZED last week! It was amazing. I cannot begin to describe the feelings I had at that baptism. Ryan is a rather shy person but when he bore his simple testimony, it was so power thanks to the Spirit that was there. Oh man, it was kind of rough at the start because the member that was supposed to baptize Ryan, called us 15 minutes before the meeting and said he couldn't come. We had to ride home, grab some white clothes and get back before the meeting started. It went well, and the best part was that 4 of our other investigators came to his service. Now they all want to set baptismal dates! Heavenly Father has been blessing us so much.
Well, time is a little bit short for today. I love this work. I've been learning a lot recently. Ryan is such a miracle. He will be my best friend/ pen pal for the rest of my life. And I know there are more to come…families with little mei meis and dei deis.
I LOVE TAIWAN. I LOVE THE TAIWANESE PEOPLE AND I LOVE MY NEW CALLING TO BE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT...HAHAHA!!
Just kidding! I would rather dig trenches for a living than spend so many precious mission hours in an office! My prayer was answered! I didn't move! I'm still serving in the San Xia/Tucheng and some of Shulin area. I love it here and I'm so happy because Elder Nathan Victor Read from Cedar City, Utah is still going to be my companion. He is quite different from Elder Daniels and Elder Daniels has been learning ALOT about patience this transfer. Elder Daniels desires to learn some of the wonderful attributes that his companion carries about him in his countenance. Elder Read is SO AWESOME, and I'm starting to realize why Heavenly Father has given me this wonderful opportunity to work with him. And it is to see miracles. The biggest miracles come after the trial of your faith and for a lot of missionaries, the trial of your faith lies in your Christlike attributes. If you are submissive and willing to meekly search after them, Heavenly Father will allow you to see miracles in accordance with the faith that we show Him. I'm learning a lot and it’s become exciting rather then painful to see the places I need to improve thanks, to ”Preach My Gospel.”
We've got a lot in store for this next transfer, only to add on to the miracles that we have already seen. Heavenly Father allowed us to see Ryan BATIZED last week! It was amazing. I cannot begin to describe the feelings I had at that baptism. Ryan is a rather shy person but when he bore his simple testimony, it was so power thanks to the Spirit that was there. Oh man, it was kind of rough at the start because the member that was supposed to baptize Ryan, called us 15 minutes before the meeting and said he couldn't come. We had to ride home, grab some white clothes and get back before the meeting started. It went well, and the best part was that 4 of our other investigators came to his service. Now they all want to set baptismal dates! Heavenly Father has been blessing us so much.
Well, time is a little bit short for today. I love this work. I've been learning a lot recently. Ryan is such a miracle. He will be my best friend/ pen pal for the rest of my life. And I know there are more to come…families with little mei meis and dei deis.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
A Baptism and a Lesson on Virtue
Hello! Well, the end of transfer 7 is coming to an end with training calls will coming out tomorrow night and moving calls the next. It will be very interesting to see what fate brings within the next couple of days. It’s uncertain whether or not I will stay because this will be my 4th one in the same area. At the same time, Elder Reed has only been in this area for three weeks and still isn't quite familiar with all of the investigators and things like that. Who knows what will happen, the important thing isn't judged by who is in the area, but what goes on in the area which is most important.
This week we have a baptism!!!!!!! CHEN XU REN (RYAN) passed his baptismal interview. We found out after a couple of really wonderfully spiritually led lessons that he still had a whole bunch of concerns that needed resolving.We meet with him 4 times a week and call him every night. It’s amazing how much time he has, especially for a Taiwanese. In the process, he has gone from an almost dropped investigator to a ready to be baptized investigator! Yesterday we met with him and the 1st counselor in the bishopric attended the lesson. The presence of the spirit was magnificent as our investigator listened to us teach the basic principles of the gospel, according to the 5th lesson. We were supported with great Chinese and wonderful knowledge and teaching skills as Brother Liang, from the bishopric, supported our testimonies of priesthood, missionary work, eternal marriage, temples and family history, service, and enduring to the end. It also lead to a great reference of "Christian Courage" as we referred to Abinadi's suffering (overcoming persecution). The lesson we had previously shared was about Peter walking on the water, concerning faith. Ryan was scared for a couple different reasons, but after casually resolving all of his concerns, the spirit allowed us to invite him to keep his eyes on Christ and take that step of faith. Anyway, he is set for baptism, Saturday night at 7:00! (Mountain time would make it Sat. the 17th at 4:00 AM.)
What a miracle...sigh.*
As for the other people in the pool, "they" are called Sister Yan.. We had an AWESOME couple lessons with her. We have had two way awesome members attending the lessons, too. They help us speak Taiwanese with her because her Mandarin isn't very good. She is a taxi driver with a busy schedule, so we invited a member who is also a taxi driver with a busy school, who was willing to come to church to help us teach “The Sabbath” to her and it went so amazing. They hit it right off and the member did an awesome job of bearing testimony to her. She will come to church now. She is what we call a “slow progresser.” She is old, and she doesn't understand much but she likes it all and wants her family to come.
Speaking of not understanding, I'm starting to realize again that the Taiwanese people are completely oblivious to the need of a Restoration of a fullness of times. They just don't understand the philosophies of truth and the role that it plays in mortal existence. They say, "I believe in Buddha. You need to find those like you who believe in your God. I don't have time.” The one that gets me the most is this when they say, “Do good things, and it’s all good.” Happiness, peace, hurray! (SLAM)!!!!
Ha, ha, this is the typical Taiwanese philosophy. They need to be taught so simply, LIKE A CHILD, otherwise you will never find success as a missionary and they won’t comprehend a thing you are saying.
We have a new investigator who is as sharp as they come. He loves church. We tried to set a baptismal date with him, and after what we thought was a simple and easy lesson to understand, it was refuted with the question, “Why? I don't understand.” We had a member with us, too, to interpret if there were any miscommunication problems, and he still just didn't have any idea in the world why we need a Prophet. (We had just spent 2 lessons and a Sunday telling him why.) He just didn't get it. He didn't get our question when we asked if he had the desire through prayer to know if Joseph Smith’s experiences were true or not. He was so confused. It was almost frustrating, after what we thought was a clear and simple lesson, and to still to have this kind of problem. It ended up humbling Elder Daniels, a lot...again.
*Some people don't progress as fast as we want, so that’s when the Lord teaches us patience and humility.
Anyway, things are going really good around here and we have been blessed so much. I hope that this time I can give all the glory to the Lord so he can continue to allow me to see some awesome miracles happen here in the mission.
I learned the step on HOW to give the glory to the Lord and to do it His way. It’s by obtaining the Spirit, and the way that is best to obtain the Spirit with you, to help you do the Lord’s work, is through virtue. It’s by garnishing your thoughts unceasingly, so that through every hour of the day, you are worthy of seeing the blessings that Heavenly Father wants you to see.
I know I've been taught this a million times in my life, but not until now do I truly understand the importance of this principle. According to not only our actions, but also our thoughts can Heavenly Father unlock the deepest desires of our heart, which should be a desire to accomplish His work. (Finding the elect people). I know that as I keep applying this principle, Heavenly Father will pour families upon my head as a blessing! I challenge everyone at home to go and read the virtue section of Christlike attributes and be honest with yourself as you apply it to your life. Tell me if you do or do not have room to progress. Actually, you can do this with every attribute. Virtue is actually one I have never really thought I needed to focus on, until the half way point on my mission! And, I feel right now that through virtue, we receive the okay to develop any other attributes. Also as long as we are truly virtuous, we can put the work in the Lord’s hands and not rely on ourselves. THAT is HOW to give the glory to the Lord! Don't let any of the attributes become forgotten, you will find that the attributes you put to the side and you feel you are successful with end up being the place you need to do the most work!
Well family, I'm sure it’s been a long and boring email, hahaha but THESE ARE MY ACCOUNTS! I know I haven't gone through the painful process of engraving them onto plates, but these are things by which I rejoice and that of which I labor diligently to write...
Dong yu jun zhang lao ELDER DANIELS
This week we have a baptism!!!!!!! CHEN XU REN (RYAN) passed his baptismal interview. We found out after a couple of really wonderfully spiritually led lessons that he still had a whole bunch of concerns that needed resolving.We meet with him 4 times a week and call him every night. It’s amazing how much time he has, especially for a Taiwanese. In the process, he has gone from an almost dropped investigator to a ready to be baptized investigator! Yesterday we met with him and the 1st counselor in the bishopric attended the lesson. The presence of the spirit was magnificent as our investigator listened to us teach the basic principles of the gospel, according to the 5th lesson. We were supported with great Chinese and wonderful knowledge and teaching skills as Brother Liang, from the bishopric, supported our testimonies of priesthood, missionary work, eternal marriage, temples and family history, service, and enduring to the end. It also lead to a great reference of "Christian Courage" as we referred to Abinadi's suffering (overcoming persecution). The lesson we had previously shared was about Peter walking on the water, concerning faith. Ryan was scared for a couple different reasons, but after casually resolving all of his concerns, the spirit allowed us to invite him to keep his eyes on Christ and take that step of faith. Anyway, he is set for baptism, Saturday night at 7:00! (Mountain time would make it Sat. the 17th at 4:00 AM.)
What a miracle...sigh.*
As for the other people in the pool, "they" are called Sister Yan.. We had an AWESOME couple lessons with her. We have had two way awesome members attending the lessons, too. They help us speak Taiwanese with her because her Mandarin isn't very good. She is a taxi driver with a busy schedule, so we invited a member who is also a taxi driver with a busy school, who was willing to come to church to help us teach “The Sabbath” to her and it went so amazing. They hit it right off and the member did an awesome job of bearing testimony to her. She will come to church now. She is what we call a “slow progresser.” She is old, and she doesn't understand much but she likes it all and wants her family to come.
Speaking of not understanding, I'm starting to realize again that the Taiwanese people are completely oblivious to the need of a Restoration of a fullness of times. They just don't understand the philosophies of truth and the role that it plays in mortal existence. They say, "I believe in Buddha. You need to find those like you who believe in your God. I don't have time.” The one that gets me the most is this when they say, “Do good things, and it’s all good.” Happiness, peace, hurray! (SLAM)!!!!
Ha, ha, this is the typical Taiwanese philosophy. They need to be taught so simply, LIKE A CHILD, otherwise you will never find success as a missionary and they won’t comprehend a thing you are saying.
We have a new investigator who is as sharp as they come. He loves church. We tried to set a baptismal date with him, and after what we thought was a simple and easy lesson to understand, it was refuted with the question, “Why? I don't understand.” We had a member with us, too, to interpret if there were any miscommunication problems, and he still just didn't have any idea in the world why we need a Prophet. (We had just spent 2 lessons and a Sunday telling him why.) He just didn't get it. He didn't get our question when we asked if he had the desire through prayer to know if Joseph Smith’s experiences were true or not. He was so confused. It was almost frustrating, after what we thought was a clear and simple lesson, and to still to have this kind of problem. It ended up humbling Elder Daniels, a lot...again.
*Some people don't progress as fast as we want, so that’s when the Lord teaches us patience and humility.
Anyway, things are going really good around here and we have been blessed so much. I hope that this time I can give all the glory to the Lord so he can continue to allow me to see some awesome miracles happen here in the mission.
I learned the step on HOW to give the glory to the Lord and to do it His way. It’s by obtaining the Spirit, and the way that is best to obtain the Spirit with you, to help you do the Lord’s work, is through virtue. It’s by garnishing your thoughts unceasingly, so that through every hour of the day, you are worthy of seeing the blessings that Heavenly Father wants you to see.
I know I've been taught this a million times in my life, but not until now do I truly understand the importance of this principle. According to not only our actions, but also our thoughts can Heavenly Father unlock the deepest desires of our heart, which should be a desire to accomplish His work. (Finding the elect people). I know that as I keep applying this principle, Heavenly Father will pour families upon my head as a blessing! I challenge everyone at home to go and read the virtue section of Christlike attributes and be honest with yourself as you apply it to your life. Tell me if you do or do not have room to progress. Actually, you can do this with every attribute. Virtue is actually one I have never really thought I needed to focus on, until the half way point on my mission! And, I feel right now that through virtue, we receive the okay to develop any other attributes. Also as long as we are truly virtuous, we can put the work in the Lord’s hands and not rely on ourselves. THAT is HOW to give the glory to the Lord! Don't let any of the attributes become forgotten, you will find that the attributes you put to the side and you feel you are successful with end up being the place you need to do the most work!
Well family, I'm sure it’s been a long and boring email, hahaha but THESE ARE MY ACCOUNTS! I know I haven't gone through the painful process of engraving them onto plates, but these are things by which I rejoice and that of which I labor diligently to write...
Dong yu jun zhang lao ELDER DANIELS
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
One year into the mission!
The new year is really big over here, especially around the end of January. We are already having members call us to set up meal appointments to feed us, 3 weeks in advance! It will be interesting because they eat some pretty crazy foods at that time.
Let’s get to the chase…this week was great!! Elder Reid and I are getting along great. He has been on the island approximately 3 months less then me, he is from Cedar City, Utah, he is the oldest of 5 kids, he is taller then me, has more hair, has an "outstanding English vernacular," and he loves missionary work. As for his reasons for being a vegetarian, I wish I had an explanation for you, but it’s quite confusing. Oh well, all I know is that when lunch time or dinner time rolls around, we try some special things, hahaha.
Elder Reid is already helping me change quite a lot. I've learned to be more sophisticated and careful, especially in my eating habits, haha, kind of. Anyway, he's gotten me to eat his daily morning breakfast which consists of 7 different grains, red beans, and real soy milk. I'm not gonna lie, after I added peanut butter to it, it was pretty dang good, haha. The most interesting thing of all is that the other day, he talked me into having us buying a bonsai tree for our apartment. We did it and luckily, we were able to talk the man selling the trees down to half price, which made buying the “hormone free” bonsai tree more bearable.
Elder Reid is awesome and I'm learning a lot from him. He was home schooled, his gospel knowledge is huge. He's also spent 4 months in China teaching English to little kids, so he fits right in with me teaching the Primary class. He didn't study much Chinese before his mission though.
Yesterday was one of the best days of the past week. There were news reporters at our free car wash again, and they interviewed several of us, in English and Chinese. Surprisingly, the interview was harder for me in English than it was in Chinese. I don't know why, the interviewer was from America with perfect English, but I have a problem. If somebody looks Chinese and starts talking to me, it doesn't matter how good they speak, it’s hard for me. My English comes out all funny and I got weird looks from the news reporter, hahaha, dangit. Sometimes it gets confusing and hard to explain things, because English and Chinese grammar are completely different, like enemy languages, so as one gets good the other gets worse. Usually when you learn a new language, it helps your mother tongue, not when you speak English and you are learning Chinese, apparently.
Yesterday we met with Ryan. Last week we realized he still has quite a few big concerns that need resolving: doubt, fear, and some big questions from the second lesson. We shared with him yesterday and focused on Christ, and it was the BEST LESSON I have ever taught in my life! It went so smooth. MY TIME IS SHORT! He is so ready for baptism now and he has testimony.
Let’s get to the chase…this week was great!! Elder Reid and I are getting along great. He has been on the island approximately 3 months less then me, he is from Cedar City, Utah, he is the oldest of 5 kids, he is taller then me, has more hair, has an "outstanding English vernacular," and he loves missionary work. As for his reasons for being a vegetarian, I wish I had an explanation for you, but it’s quite confusing. Oh well, all I know is that when lunch time or dinner time rolls around, we try some special things, hahaha.
Elder Reid is already helping me change quite a lot. I've learned to be more sophisticated and careful, especially in my eating habits, haha, kind of. Anyway, he's gotten me to eat his daily morning breakfast which consists of 7 different grains, red beans, and real soy milk. I'm not gonna lie, after I added peanut butter to it, it was pretty dang good, haha. The most interesting thing of all is that the other day, he talked me into having us buying a bonsai tree for our apartment. We did it and luckily, we were able to talk the man selling the trees down to half price, which made buying the “hormone free” bonsai tree more bearable.
Elder Reid is awesome and I'm learning a lot from him. He was home schooled, his gospel knowledge is huge. He's also spent 4 months in China teaching English to little kids, so he fits right in with me teaching the Primary class. He didn't study much Chinese before his mission though.
Yesterday was one of the best days of the past week. There were news reporters at our free car wash again, and they interviewed several of us, in English and Chinese. Surprisingly, the interview was harder for me in English than it was in Chinese. I don't know why, the interviewer was from America with perfect English, but I have a problem. If somebody looks Chinese and starts talking to me, it doesn't matter how good they speak, it’s hard for me. My English comes out all funny and I got weird looks from the news reporter, hahaha, dangit. Sometimes it gets confusing and hard to explain things, because English and Chinese grammar are completely different, like enemy languages, so as one gets good the other gets worse. Usually when you learn a new language, it helps your mother tongue, not when you speak English and you are learning Chinese, apparently.
Yesterday we met with Ryan. Last week we realized he still has quite a few big concerns that need resolving: doubt, fear, and some big questions from the second lesson. We shared with him yesterday and focused on Christ, and it was the BEST LESSON I have ever taught in my life! It went so smooth. MY TIME IS SHORT! He is so ready for baptism now and he has testimony.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
A surprise transfer
Hey family, wow!
It sure was great to talk to you! By the sound of your voices, it seems like not much has changed back home. Babies are still cute, Marianne is still clever, Melanie is still bossing, David is still silly, Joel is still Joel, Dad is still shoveling snow and finding good deals, Mom is still sweet and loving. It was good to talk to everyone!
Changes, changes, 3 week exchanges. The night of your phone call a special thing happened. It was 10:00 p.m., the time when we can't call investigators anymore, when my phone went off and the letters “A and P” were on the back of the cell phone screen. I answered the phone with concern and heard Elder Rice's bright and shiny voice say the words, “Elder Daniels, how are you?” Me, “Good.” Elder Rice,“Excellent. Your new companion is Elder READ!!!!!" Me, “Whoa, hahaha, really?” Elder Rice, “Yes. Can I talk to your companion?”
So, today I am sitting here with Elder Read and my son Elder Gong is in the land of Beitou. Oh boy, that was out of the blue. I guess sometimes they do random companion transfers. Anyway, Elder Read is the man, the same elder read that I have gone on exchanges with twice before. The same Elder Read with all the bicycle problems, the same Elder Read that doesn't eat meat, the same Elder Read that enjoys the simple things in life, the same Elder Read whose English makes Elder Daniels cry in his sleep, the same Elder Read that has been in Elder Daniels district for the past 3 months. Hahaha. Elder Read is the man.
I miss Elder Gong a lot, however. He was such a Lehi (outstanding) junior companion and I loved working together with him. Before he left, we traveled to San Xia to attend a singles family night where we taught the lesson and had two investigators attend. The spirit was so powerful, with 25 people in that little house. That was an awesome group. The closing prayer was offered in Taiwanese, which was amazing because I've never heard a prayer in Taiwanese before. It was a pretty moving experience because the lady that offered the Taiwanese prayer was 80 years old.
Elder Read and I got off to a quick start as he moved over to the San Xia apartment from the Tu Cheng apartment. He hasn't even finished unpacking his things because there has been no time. Yesterday we had a very long lesson with Ryan and miracles were in the midst. We started off teaching from the Bible, John 15 and 14, focusing in depth on the commandments, the Holy Ghost, and the role of prophets. We taught it through the parable of the vine and it was a very powerful lesson, it was awesome. During the lesson, we, through the Spirit, were able to help Ryan find his testimony of the Church, Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon. He believes that they are all from God. We asked him why he believed, and he said, "logic.” Then we focused on knowing the truth of these things through the Spirit (which is best). At the end of the lesson, after we had taken him out to eat dinner with us, we helped him realize and acknowledge his testimony of the Church comes through the Holy Ghost. It’s hard to recognize sometimes, before confirmation. He was excited when we said we could see that he believed and he is set to pass a baptismal interview now. He is so great and asked us so many questions yesterday and the Spirit answered every last one of them. It was such a special feeling being with him yesterday. I will never forget that feeling. I know I've “met” Ryan before I came to Taiwan.
We just need to help him get better support from his parents who don't oppose, but they also don't support. It’s in the Lord’s hands. He's going bowling with our district today, so that should be fun!
Well, it’s time to go. I love you all so much! Happy New Year!!! PS: we also had a golden investigator come to church and we'll be meeting with him tomorrow! Hooray! One step closer to that family!
It sure was great to talk to you! By the sound of your voices, it seems like not much has changed back home. Babies are still cute, Marianne is still clever, Melanie is still bossing, David is still silly, Joel is still Joel, Dad is still shoveling snow and finding good deals, Mom is still sweet and loving. It was good to talk to everyone!
Changes, changes, 3 week exchanges. The night of your phone call a special thing happened. It was 10:00 p.m., the time when we can't call investigators anymore, when my phone went off and the letters “A and P” were on the back of the cell phone screen. I answered the phone with concern and heard Elder Rice's bright and shiny voice say the words, “Elder Daniels, how are you?” Me, “Good.” Elder Rice,“Excellent. Your new companion is Elder READ!!!!!" Me, “Whoa, hahaha, really?” Elder Rice, “Yes. Can I talk to your companion?”
So, today I am sitting here with Elder Read and my son Elder Gong is in the land of Beitou. Oh boy, that was out of the blue. I guess sometimes they do random companion transfers. Anyway, Elder Read is the man, the same elder read that I have gone on exchanges with twice before. The same Elder Read with all the bicycle problems, the same Elder Read that doesn't eat meat, the same Elder Read that enjoys the simple things in life, the same Elder Read whose English makes Elder Daniels cry in his sleep, the same Elder Read that has been in Elder Daniels district for the past 3 months. Hahaha. Elder Read is the man.
I miss Elder Gong a lot, however. He was such a Lehi (outstanding) junior companion and I loved working together with him. Before he left, we traveled to San Xia to attend a singles family night where we taught the lesson and had two investigators attend. The spirit was so powerful, with 25 people in that little house. That was an awesome group. The closing prayer was offered in Taiwanese, which was amazing because I've never heard a prayer in Taiwanese before. It was a pretty moving experience because the lady that offered the Taiwanese prayer was 80 years old.
Elder Read and I got off to a quick start as he moved over to the San Xia apartment from the Tu Cheng apartment. He hasn't even finished unpacking his things because there has been no time. Yesterday we had a very long lesson with Ryan and miracles were in the midst. We started off teaching from the Bible, John 15 and 14, focusing in depth on the commandments, the Holy Ghost, and the role of prophets. We taught it through the parable of the vine and it was a very powerful lesson, it was awesome. During the lesson, we, through the Spirit, were able to help Ryan find his testimony of the Church, Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon. He believes that they are all from God. We asked him why he believed, and he said, "logic.” Then we focused on knowing the truth of these things through the Spirit (which is best). At the end of the lesson, after we had taken him out to eat dinner with us, we helped him realize and acknowledge his testimony of the Church comes through the Holy Ghost. It’s hard to recognize sometimes, before confirmation. He was excited when we said we could see that he believed and he is set to pass a baptismal interview now. He is so great and asked us so many questions yesterday and the Spirit answered every last one of them. It was such a special feeling being with him yesterday. I will never forget that feeling. I know I've “met” Ryan before I came to Taiwan.
We just need to help him get better support from his parents who don't oppose, but they also don't support. It’s in the Lord’s hands. He's going bowling with our district today, so that should be fun!
Well, it’s time to go. I love you all so much! Happy New Year!!! PS: we also had a golden investigator come to church and we'll be meeting with him tomorrow! Hooray! One step closer to that family!
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