I'm staying in Hualien…relief! :) I love it here. I think I might just stay here until I die.
Sister Lin left, she was awesome! There was a point where they had 15 people in their baptismal pool! She’s left the reigns to her trainee Sister Ackerson who has been called to be Senior Companion in her 4th transfer! She has got a big load on her shoulders due to all the investigators that they are teaching, hahahaha. It will be exciting to watch their growth. Her new companion is awesome, her name is Sister Ho. Get this, her first name is "Ida"! I love this district! We’re like a family. :) God loves us!
We have AWESOME investigators right now. There are 7 in our pool at the moment...
The Lin family- they are progressing the slowest but we're planning to have some pretty forward lessons with them in the near future.
William Gao- we have been teaching him a very important principle about accountability, a “Preach My Gospel special,” also D&C 58: 26-29. He decided himself he's not quite prepared to be baptized, and he made the decision to take a train to Taizhong and visit his family, hoping he can persuade them to support his baptismal decision. We’re really proud of him. He will never go inactive this way. He asked us if we could give him a hug after our last lesson with him, and he promised us he would come back with his parents permission. :) He and I are best friends. That’s something I've really cherished on my mission; all of the investigators that I've seen baptized are my best friends. Ryan’s story really gave William some courage. Ryan writes me from New Zealand every week. He is awesome!
Next is Peter. This week we taught him Tithing and finally got his deepest concerns out. It turns out coffee and church isn’t that big of a problem. We have always thought he was kind of a different, older aged man. He is the most nervous looking guy I have ever met. Haha, it’s because he is quite famous, a very well known author and news writer. He's so nervous because a couple of years ago he got really hot handed with a credit card with 20% interest on it that increased by 20% a month. So he got into debt and filed for bankruptcy. Because he's so famous this hit the news and was so embarrassed that he went into hiding for a couple years and lived with dogs, always thinking about killing himself. Ninety percent of his money that he makes right now goes to the bank. The other 10 percent goes to his living expenses, housing, and he has little money for food. So the law of tithing will be a little difficult for him. We’re still trying to figure out what to do for him at the moment; he really wants to be baptized. Crazy huh, a man who was compelled to be humble. He will make it for sure, though 9/19/09 is his date.
Next is Hank, the man that is Golden beyond golden. He is so golden, he has moved one step up to diamond, more than diamond even, he is Mythril (like Frodo's armor vest). He is “Joseph Smith II.” The man receives revelation from the Holy Ghost in the midst of teaching him. We were teaching the Resurrection and he realized what it meant when it says, “The spirit of the Lord can’t dwell in unholy houses.” He shares that scripture with us and asked, “Does this mean we will get a new body?” We were so shocked!!! This man has never studied Christian literature before...he loved the SECOND lesson!!! He asks us all the time, “AREN'T YOU SO HAPPY? The truth is restored! We have direction and purpose in our lives.” He took pages and pages of notes in church. Holy smokes, all because I opened my mouth at a red light when we were a little bit rushed to get back to the church. A 1 ½ minute setup and now this. He is 45 years old but looks like he's 30; he is a really nice and genuine guy.
Everybody I mentioned in this letter so far will be baptized before the 19th of September, the Lin family might need some time though.
Miracles, miracles, miracles. I love this work. We've got an awesome vision brewing for this next transfer, it’s a biggie! I love you
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Thursday, August 13, 2009
TYPHOON! Golden Investigator!
I am still alive!!! The typhoon was insane. The entire city of Pingdong along the southern coast of Taiwan was completely flooded!!! The missionaries serving in the Taichung Mission went to service, supposedly they had to go and rescue the 4 elders serving in a district that were stuck in their home! We might be heading down to Taidong to help clean up some stuff that broke in the typhoon if needed, but everything on the east coast is okay. We could see the waves from our house!!! The day of the typhoon, (for morning exercises before the typhoon came) we rode our bikes to the ocean to see the waves. They were already massive by then and it was awesome!!! An hour later we were called to stay in for the rest of the day. I read scriptures and memorized characters all day. We used our time effectively, I'm not going to lie, it was kind of a tender mercy to stay in for a while and rest, but as the night rolled round we wanted to go outside! Since then we've been busy offering service at random places, helping people clean up their homes and sweep up leaves and stuff like that. There were no floods in Hualien, but we've been feeling a lot of earthquakes. Last night there were 2 big ones! I never know what the outcomes of these disasters are because we never watch TV. Oh Taiwan!!!
We just barely got back from Ocean Park Amusement park with the District! Ha-ha, it’s in the mountains right by the ocean, the world’s most beautiful place. It’s like a miniature Disneyland (I think, I wouldn't know, since I’ve never been there! Ha-ha.) It was a blast. We saw some aquariums and PERFORMING DOLPHINS AND SEA LIONS!!! It was so AWESOME!!! Those dolphins flew like 10 feet out of the water, back flipping. We had a member who is on our inactive list who took us around the park; he is such a nice guy!
This past week we have been pretty busy. The Lin family is out of town for two weeks but they are still progressing EXTREMELY SLOW. They are still standing on the edge of the pool. We are working with William Gao about some of his issues so we had a lesson with him about honesty and self dependency that probably influenced his entire life! To this date he is fine, he's repented sincerely we feel, so he will do his interview this week and be baptized the 1st week of next transfer!! The other elders initially had one set for this weekend but his parents suddenly decided to go against it, so we're praying for him.
I had exchanges this week with Elder Waters. One thing that I noticed that our Zone needs to work on is opening our mouths. We have old investigators that aren't progressing, we need new ones. So here is a miracle. I prayed to have experiences on exchanges where Elder Waters could learn the principle of having faith to opening one’s mouth. On that exchange we set 5 people up at RED LIGHTS, people on scooters, and one of which the next morning set a baptismal date and is THE most GOLDEN investigator EVER! It was awesome. Elder Waters walked away with the desire to open his mouth!
“I can speak with the sound of a trump but without charity it will be the sounding of brass.” I love that scripture in 1st Corinthians. It’s kind of the focal point for the things I've been learning recently. I want everything that is good, not only on my outside, but also on my inside.
By the way, that golden investigator truly is golden. I asked him, "Are you a member pretending to be an investigator?" He said, "No, but this is just the answer to all of my questions." He understood everything, and he even gave analogies to support his understanding! Huge miracle! :)
Next, Peter Zhan is still progressing. Some people need time and special plans to help with some addictions, especially coffee, but his goal is to give it all up is the end of August and then he will be baptized on September 19th! He’s awesome! Pretty shy, but he REALLY wants to be baptized, he used to be a devout Catholic.
Lastly, I probably won't move, but just in case, transfers are Monday so you'll know by then. Oh man, time is flying by. I have to start thinking about life now. President gave me permission to check out the classes on BYU's website, so I think I will do that now.
We just barely got back from Ocean Park Amusement park with the District! Ha-ha, it’s in the mountains right by the ocean, the world’s most beautiful place. It’s like a miniature Disneyland (I think, I wouldn't know, since I’ve never been there! Ha-ha.) It was a blast. We saw some aquariums and PERFORMING DOLPHINS AND SEA LIONS!!! It was so AWESOME!!! Those dolphins flew like 10 feet out of the water, back flipping. We had a member who is on our inactive list who took us around the park; he is such a nice guy!
This past week we have been pretty busy. The Lin family is out of town for two weeks but they are still progressing EXTREMELY SLOW. They are still standing on the edge of the pool. We are working with William Gao about some of his issues so we had a lesson with him about honesty and self dependency that probably influenced his entire life! To this date he is fine, he's repented sincerely we feel, so he will do his interview this week and be baptized the 1st week of next transfer!! The other elders initially had one set for this weekend but his parents suddenly decided to go against it, so we're praying for him.
I had exchanges this week with Elder Waters. One thing that I noticed that our Zone needs to work on is opening our mouths. We have old investigators that aren't progressing, we need new ones. So here is a miracle. I prayed to have experiences on exchanges where Elder Waters could learn the principle of having faith to opening one’s mouth. On that exchange we set 5 people up at RED LIGHTS, people on scooters, and one of which the next morning set a baptismal date and is THE most GOLDEN investigator EVER! It was awesome. Elder Waters walked away with the desire to open his mouth!
“I can speak with the sound of a trump but without charity it will be the sounding of brass.” I love that scripture in 1st Corinthians. It’s kind of the focal point for the things I've been learning recently. I want everything that is good, not only on my outside, but also on my inside.
By the way, that golden investigator truly is golden. I asked him, "Are you a member pretending to be an investigator?" He said, "No, but this is just the answer to all of my questions." He understood everything, and he even gave analogies to support his understanding! Huge miracle! :)
Next, Peter Zhan is still progressing. Some people need time and special plans to help with some addictions, especially coffee, but his goal is to give it all up is the end of August and then he will be baptized on September 19th! He’s awesome! Pretty shy, but he REALLY wants to be baptized, he used to be a devout Catholic.
Lastly, I probably won't move, but just in case, transfers are Monday so you'll know by then. Oh man, time is flying by. I have to start thinking about life now. President gave me permission to check out the classes on BYU's website, so I think I will do that now.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
A really, really busy week!
A lot happened and I'm trying to remember what, hahaha. We delayed William Gao one week so we could focus on repentance, he couldn't make it to church. I just really want to make sure he is fully converted so he won't go inactive after the mission. However it looks like he is set and ready to go. He wants to be baptized really badly, so he will have his interview on Saturday. Jeff’s sister didn't come to church because her mom wouldn’t allow her too. Their mom needs some help.
I don't know what to write because I don't know where to start ha-ha. We've just been REALLY, REALLY busy teaching a lot of lessons, less finding recently. We taught almost 30 lessons last week. That’s A LOT, ha-ha, and it’s been really fun. We've been putting our focus on the Lin family, who is progressing VERY slowly, Peter who really wants to be baptized but just needs to come to Sacrament meeting and give up coffee, and William Gao. We also taught a lot of inactives. We are sad because one of them doesn't want to meet with us anymore, but on the other side, we've almost got a family reactivated at the moment.
We went down to Taidong where my companion did his first baptismal interview...she passed. It was 2½ hours long. She had a lot of questions, but my companion did a very good job. In the mean time, I went on exchanges with Elder Slade and we taught a family and ate dinner with them. The dad set a baptismal date. Their kids were so cute. The mom is an inactive member who is making her way back. The kids loved my magic tricks, which are really lame unless you’re a kid.
I've been studying a lot about charity. We taught a district meeting about it and it was awesome! Prayers without charity are vain. I love the definition of prayer in the Bible dictionary, “One must have the mind of Christ."
We've been focusing on referrals and got a couple. One was from an old grandma who referred somebody in her apartment complex and now he's meeting with us. He is a really a pitiful being, quite self deprecating, but the message was powerful to him.
I just remembered for classes back at BYU, I talked to the assistants and they said it’s best if you sign me up. I would recommend talking to a counselor and keep me posted on anything important.
I love being in church for youth activities. Last time we played volleyball in the gym with an exercise ball and it was quite a sight, especially because the net was only 5 feet tall. Sometimes people’s reflexes aren't the best when you are that close. :) “MWHAHAHA!” (Maniacal laughter).
I'm buying new pants today because some of my other got a little too friendly with my bike chain, if you know what I mean. Gotta go, I love you. I promise next week’s letter will be more interesting. Weird things start becoming normal when you've been here for a while. Ha-ha
I don't know what to write because I don't know where to start ha-ha. We've just been REALLY, REALLY busy teaching a lot of lessons, less finding recently. We taught almost 30 lessons last week. That’s A LOT, ha-ha, and it’s been really fun. We've been putting our focus on the Lin family, who is progressing VERY slowly, Peter who really wants to be baptized but just needs to come to Sacrament meeting and give up coffee, and William Gao. We also taught a lot of inactives. We are sad because one of them doesn't want to meet with us anymore, but on the other side, we've almost got a family reactivated at the moment.
We went down to Taidong where my companion did his first baptismal interview...she passed. It was 2½ hours long. She had a lot of questions, but my companion did a very good job. In the mean time, I went on exchanges with Elder Slade and we taught a family and ate dinner with them. The dad set a baptismal date. Their kids were so cute. The mom is an inactive member who is making her way back. The kids loved my magic tricks, which are really lame unless you’re a kid.
I've been studying a lot about charity. We taught a district meeting about it and it was awesome! Prayers without charity are vain. I love the definition of prayer in the Bible dictionary, “One must have the mind of Christ."
We've been focusing on referrals and got a couple. One was from an old grandma who referred somebody in her apartment complex and now he's meeting with us. He is a really a pitiful being, quite self deprecating, but the message was powerful to him.
I just remembered for classes back at BYU, I talked to the assistants and they said it’s best if you sign me up. I would recommend talking to a counselor and keep me posted on anything important.
I love being in church for youth activities. Last time we played volleyball in the gym with an exercise ball and it was quite a sight, especially because the net was only 5 feet tall. Sometimes people’s reflexes aren't the best when you are that close. :) “MWHAHAHA!” (Maniacal laughter).
I'm buying new pants today because some of my other got a little too friendly with my bike chain, if you know what I mean. Gotta go, I love you. I promise next week’s letter will be more interesting. Weird things start becoming normal when you've been here for a while. Ha-ha
Friday, July 31, 2009
It's been a great week!
Hello, sorry, I’m sending this one day late. The server was down yesterday so I didn't have time to send my email off. They gave everyone in the mission who didn't get off emails due to a broken server another day to write home.
We haven't dumped our trash in about 7 weeks. Our freezers are overflowing with mango pits and banana skins as well as left over rice and noodles that we were unable to finish. It’s difficult because you have to be there when the trash man comes or else it doesn't get taken out, and even when you do get it out, they don't accept it half the time because they don't trust that Americans know how to recycle. They rip the bags open and if they see anything not unrecyclable, they will throw the whole bag out and we have to take it back home.
Now to answer your questions...
1. Transfers will be on Monday the 17th
2. Sister Durrant from the mission office invited me to tell her when I was planning to head back home and I told her I needed some time to decide. I never got my answer until I decided to act and call back telling her that I would not be extending. After the phone call the Spirit confirmed to me that the decision I made was right. I need to get home and start school, and regardless, Heavenly Father knows how to take care of His work. His work continuing is not dependent on whether or not I decide to extend. I would love to extend, but I've got to start life sometime, I will be headed home December 22, 2009. (Happy mother!)
3. Yes start the readmissions, I will be returning to BYU. “RISE AND SHOUT THE COUGARS ARE OUT, THEY’RE ON THE TRAIL TO FAME AND GLORY…”
4. I’m not sure what works best, basically for the next semester, I would like to enroll in some GE's and Chinese classes. Maybe you could find a counselor to help me set up a solid RM schedule, or I'm sure the mission has some sort of system that I could use to sign up for classes. I imagine they do because this situation probably occurs a lot. I can find out this week. Lastly, just in case it’s really what I want to do, see what I would need to do to get into ROTC. I still need to spend some time praying about that one, however it'd be nice to know what the requirements are.
Well, family, this week was great! William Gao is so set for baptism! His interview will be on Saturday. He is so funny. In high school the term I would use to describe him is “Scody mug,” ha-ha-ha. He is really scruffy, his English is really lazy sounding, and he’s just really funny. He's changed a lot since meeting with us and learning the gospel. He's got new friends, Jeff especially, and they hang out all the time. He has finished all of the lessons and is ready to go. He had a faith strengthening trial on Sunday when he realized his money had been stolen out of his locked apartment. After a lesson on trials and partaking of the sacrament, he understood that importance and thanked God for giving him so many trials in the closing prayer in our last lesson with him.
We've been focusing on repentance and baptism as we teach and we've been seeing A LOT of blessings. THE COMMANDMENT 3 Nephi 27:20!!
William Gao is awesome. We've met with Jeff and his sister a couple times now and she is going to be baptized as well. The lin family is progressing slowly, we only get to meet with them once a week.
Peter Zhang is working on giving up coffee, and he wants to be baptized but he's got to fully repent first. He is 50 years old, had met 3 years ago with missionaries, and now he's for real. I asked him last time, “What would you rather have, remission of sins or life time supply of coffee?” He said remission of sins. He is awesome
We had a missionary fireside a couple nights ago. I think this was different from any missionary fireside anyone has every seen in Taiwan. Typically, when members think of a missionary fireside they think of someone talking from a pulpit and eating refreshments. That is why they stopped doing them in the Jian branch 8 months ago. This time we wanted to give all the members a missionary work “recharge!!” We decide to make it half funny and half spiritual. For the funny part, my companion and I performed on the stage in the gym, pretending to be midget missionaries. Everyone laughed themselves to tears as we and the other elders substituted their arms for ours, and we acted out "an average day in the life of a missionary." We shaved, brushed out teeth, worked out, ate, contacted, and tracted. It’s on tape see you can see it in when I get home. It was so funny! Afterwards, we went into the chapel and watched a missionary video that was spiritually filling, just music and pictures of people being baptized. The movie was called "Believe." Everyone cried again and then Sister Lin and I sang a duet. Last, we invited Jeff to come up and share his testimony about the blessings he has seen through helping the missionaries. It was AMAZING!! They want to have a fireside regularly now. :)
I have good news! A brother and sister I taught in Tucheng are going to be baptized, first the sister and then her brother a little later. They just need permission from their parents... They ARE AWESOME and will both go on missions! Sandy wrote me a letter and told me, it was awesome news.
Times up. I love you family. Elder Daniels
We haven't dumped our trash in about 7 weeks. Our freezers are overflowing with mango pits and banana skins as well as left over rice and noodles that we were unable to finish. It’s difficult because you have to be there when the trash man comes or else it doesn't get taken out, and even when you do get it out, they don't accept it half the time because they don't trust that Americans know how to recycle. They rip the bags open and if they see anything not unrecyclable, they will throw the whole bag out and we have to take it back home.
Now to answer your questions...
1. Transfers will be on Monday the 17th
2. Sister Durrant from the mission office invited me to tell her when I was planning to head back home and I told her I needed some time to decide. I never got my answer until I decided to act and call back telling her that I would not be extending. After the phone call the Spirit confirmed to me that the decision I made was right. I need to get home and start school, and regardless, Heavenly Father knows how to take care of His work. His work continuing is not dependent on whether or not I decide to extend. I would love to extend, but I've got to start life sometime, I will be headed home December 22, 2009. (Happy mother!)
3. Yes start the readmissions, I will be returning to BYU. “RISE AND SHOUT THE COUGARS ARE OUT, THEY’RE ON THE TRAIL TO FAME AND GLORY…”
4. I’m not sure what works best, basically for the next semester, I would like to enroll in some GE's and Chinese classes. Maybe you could find a counselor to help me set up a solid RM schedule, or I'm sure the mission has some sort of system that I could use to sign up for classes. I imagine they do because this situation probably occurs a lot. I can find out this week. Lastly, just in case it’s really what I want to do, see what I would need to do to get into ROTC. I still need to spend some time praying about that one, however it'd be nice to know what the requirements are.
Well, family, this week was great! William Gao is so set for baptism! His interview will be on Saturday. He is so funny. In high school the term I would use to describe him is “Scody mug,” ha-ha-ha. He is really scruffy, his English is really lazy sounding, and he’s just really funny. He's changed a lot since meeting with us and learning the gospel. He's got new friends, Jeff especially, and they hang out all the time. He has finished all of the lessons and is ready to go. He had a faith strengthening trial on Sunday when he realized his money had been stolen out of his locked apartment. After a lesson on trials and partaking of the sacrament, he understood that importance and thanked God for giving him so many trials in the closing prayer in our last lesson with him.
We've been focusing on repentance and baptism as we teach and we've been seeing A LOT of blessings. THE COMMANDMENT 3 Nephi 27:20!!
William Gao is awesome. We've met with Jeff and his sister a couple times now and she is going to be baptized as well. The lin family is progressing slowly, we only get to meet with them once a week.
Peter Zhang is working on giving up coffee, and he wants to be baptized but he's got to fully repent first. He is 50 years old, had met 3 years ago with missionaries, and now he's for real. I asked him last time, “What would you rather have, remission of sins or life time supply of coffee?” He said remission of sins. He is awesome
We had a missionary fireside a couple nights ago. I think this was different from any missionary fireside anyone has every seen in Taiwan. Typically, when members think of a missionary fireside they think of someone talking from a pulpit and eating refreshments. That is why they stopped doing them in the Jian branch 8 months ago. This time we wanted to give all the members a missionary work “recharge!!” We decide to make it half funny and half spiritual. For the funny part, my companion and I performed on the stage in the gym, pretending to be midget missionaries. Everyone laughed themselves to tears as we and the other elders substituted their arms for ours, and we acted out "an average day in the life of a missionary." We shaved, brushed out teeth, worked out, ate, contacted, and tracted. It’s on tape see you can see it in when I get home. It was so funny! Afterwards, we went into the chapel and watched a missionary video that was spiritually filling, just music and pictures of people being baptized. The movie was called "Believe." Everyone cried again and then Sister Lin and I sang a duet. Last, we invited Jeff to come up and share his testimony about the blessings he has seen through helping the missionaries. It was AMAZING!! They want to have a fireside regularly now. :)
I have good news! A brother and sister I taught in Tucheng are going to be baptized, first the sister and then her brother a little later. They just need permission from their parents... They ARE AWESOME and will both go on missions! Sandy wrote me a letter and told me, it was awesome news.
Times up. I love you family. Elder Daniels
Thursday, July 23, 2009
A seasoned missionary
What a busy, busy week, phew! I'm still a little tired be cause we got up at 5:00 the past two mornings to get to and from Taidong for exchanges. We had exchanges with the assistants last week as well, zone conference, and a lot of action in the investigator field. I also finally held my first baptismal interview... he failed however.
Zone conference was awesome! I saw Elder Larson and Elder Dickson again and they came and hung out on Wednesday. :) I won, bowling a 174! Ha-ha
We were told at the last second that we were supposed to give a 1 hour sharing in zone conference about the visions that we should be making. Luckily, Heavenly Father had prepared us in advanced through our studies so the message went really well. We talked about “Diligence of mind,” (Mosiah 7:33) and finding unity with the Doctrine. President Grimley’s topic was similar, he hasked us the same question Elder Perry asked him, "Do you get it?"
“Do you get it?” That seems rather broad but actually is rather simple when you understand the relationship between the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, as well as the 5 first principles of the gospel. They are all brought together for the same purpose...UNITY!!!!
Heavenly Father blessed me to learn this principle at the very beginning of my mission while teaching the Su family. Only through Christ can we have unity with the Father. We must walk the path that Christ walked, and repent when we fall short, etc. This is all that we have been focusing on since zone conference and we have seen a HUGE difference. We went from having one person in the baptismal pool to 7 going on 8, four of which comes from the Lin family! They set DATES!!!
The lesson we shared with the Lin family was AWESOME! The dad was receiving revelation right before our eyes. We could see him piecing the message together in his mind and then he would explain it to his family. We focused on prayer and the Restoration and each person in their family FINALLY grasped on to the importance of this message. They are now praying for their answers (using the right method). In the past, they said they would lay on their backs and ponder some thoughts in their mind and end in the name of Christ. Now they are sincere and progressing, using all the faculties of their hearts to ask for the truthfulness of this gospel!!!
Brother Gao is FABULOUS! He calls us all the time now and asks if we have time to meet with him, ha-ha, not because he's struggling but he loves feeling the Spirit. He can't wait to receive the baptism by fire. He will go through on August 8th. He is 20 years old; he is also best friends with Jeff! They both work at McDonalds now.
I feel like an experienced missionary now, there are so many young people in my zone. They are going through a lot of trials and challenges that I remember going through. It’s very interesting to see how Heavenly Father has prepared me through my experiences to help other missionaries resolve some of their concerns. Elder Gassin, an assistant, went on exchanges with me. From day one Elder Gassin was a different missionary (people called him the chosen one) ha-ha! He is on a different level of missionary work than anyone I have ever met. He studied Chinese before his mission for a long time and he had some sort of conversion process that gave him a strong seed of faith from a long time ago. Basically he has given his heart to Christ completely, and he's been molded into a POWERFUL instrument in the Lord’s hands. I learned so much from him and I feel like after being on exchanges with him, my missionary work has changed. My companion told me he feels like I've reached a new level recently, after exchanges with elder Gassin. I feel like it’s been the focus on becoming unified with Christ and unified with the doctrine. I think I know what I need to do in order to endure to the end now, and it’s not just the end of my mission.
The more you become your own savior on mount Zion, the more you become unified with the true Shepherd!!!
Zone conference was awesome! I saw Elder Larson and Elder Dickson again and they came and hung out on Wednesday. :) I won, bowling a 174! Ha-ha
We were told at the last second that we were supposed to give a 1 hour sharing in zone conference about the visions that we should be making. Luckily, Heavenly Father had prepared us in advanced through our studies so the message went really well. We talked about “Diligence of mind,” (Mosiah 7:33) and finding unity with the Doctrine. President Grimley’s topic was similar, he hasked us the same question Elder Perry asked him, "Do you get it?"
“Do you get it?” That seems rather broad but actually is rather simple when you understand the relationship between the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, as well as the 5 first principles of the gospel. They are all brought together for the same purpose...UNITY!!!!
Heavenly Father blessed me to learn this principle at the very beginning of my mission while teaching the Su family. Only through Christ can we have unity with the Father. We must walk the path that Christ walked, and repent when we fall short, etc. This is all that we have been focusing on since zone conference and we have seen a HUGE difference. We went from having one person in the baptismal pool to 7 going on 8, four of which comes from the Lin family! They set DATES!!!
The lesson we shared with the Lin family was AWESOME! The dad was receiving revelation right before our eyes. We could see him piecing the message together in his mind and then he would explain it to his family. We focused on prayer and the Restoration and each person in their family FINALLY grasped on to the importance of this message. They are now praying for their answers (using the right method). In the past, they said they would lay on their backs and ponder some thoughts in their mind and end in the name of Christ. Now they are sincere and progressing, using all the faculties of their hearts to ask for the truthfulness of this gospel!!!
Brother Gao is FABULOUS! He calls us all the time now and asks if we have time to meet with him, ha-ha, not because he's struggling but he loves feeling the Spirit. He can't wait to receive the baptism by fire. He will go through on August 8th. He is 20 years old; he is also best friends with Jeff! They both work at McDonalds now.
I feel like an experienced missionary now, there are so many young people in my zone. They are going through a lot of trials and challenges that I remember going through. It’s very interesting to see how Heavenly Father has prepared me through my experiences to help other missionaries resolve some of their concerns. Elder Gassin, an assistant, went on exchanges with me. From day one Elder Gassin was a different missionary (people called him the chosen one) ha-ha! He is on a different level of missionary work than anyone I have ever met. He studied Chinese before his mission for a long time and he had some sort of conversion process that gave him a strong seed of faith from a long time ago. Basically he has given his heart to Christ completely, and he's been molded into a POWERFUL instrument in the Lord’s hands. I learned so much from him and I feel like after being on exchanges with him, my missionary work has changed. My companion told me he feels like I've reached a new level recently, after exchanges with elder Gassin. I feel like it’s been the focus on becoming unified with Christ and unified with the doctrine. I think I know what I need to do in order to endure to the end now, and it’s not just the end of my mission.
The more you become your own savior on mount Zion, the more you become unified with the true Shepherd!!!
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
The word is AWESOME!
I love my mission, still. I'm getting older. I don't know if you will recognize me when I get home, ha-ha. I don't know if my shoulders are getting smaller do to the limited amount of exercise or if it’s because the weight of missionary work is getting heavier and heavier, ha-ha. The principle I've been learning recently is virtue. Virtue is power; my companion is a good example of virtue. Godliness is purity. Grace by grace we become more pure.
The new mission president is awesome! Though he is different from Pres. Nielsen, I am not worried about him at all. He has been a missionary before and has spent 30 years applying the principles from his mission. He talked about unity at the last Jedi council, which was awesome!!! I've been praying for his wife. I think she was quite shocked by the power of the Priesthood in that meeting. She has never attended a meeting with just men before, and this wasn't just any meeting. It was Zone Leader Council, the place where the word “edification” was invented by way of revelation!!! I think she was pretty overwhelmed by the way the meeting was led and the power that was there. I could see how the mission is going to change her life. It was weird. I’ve never had a vision like that for somebody 40 years older then me before. They will do marvelous for the mission.
I got some personal revelation in that meeting. I feel like a lot of missionaries start to stray from the trail that has been blazed for them because it seems too simple or common, which is actually a priest craft against the doctrine taught in Alma 37:6. We have Preach My Gospel as a guide; the lessons are in chapter three. There is no such thing as “Preach Elder Daniels’ Gospel.” Nobody cares to read an “encyclopedia of opinions,” just stick to the basic doctrine, stick to the trail that has been blazed before us. That’s what prophets do. They have all taught the same doctrine since doctrine was doctrine. I got some seriously awesome revelation in that meeting.
My companion is an AWESOME TEACHER. He is a genius. Our styles are different, so we're learning a lot. I think we're the coolest zone leaders ever, ha-ha. My companion’s brother asked him, “What type of zone leader is Elder Daniels? Stress freak? Controlling? Letter of the Law? etc.” His response was, “He’s happy!” That made me laugh.
Investigators:
The Lin family is, okay. We had a family night with them and it was alright. They are just learning the importance of the message, yet, things like, God exists or He doesn’t exist, one or the other. The church is true or it’s not true, etc. We're starting over from prayer, but they are still willing to learn and they have desire. They are just a tiny bit prideful.
Brother Gao is kickin’! We shared the 3rd yesterday through reading the Book of Mormon and it answered his question perfectly. He feels like sometimes he has "doubtful feelings," so we taught Baptism of FIRE! It was awesome! He is hooked. We also had the oldest member in the ward pei ke and help us teach “Endure to the End.” He will be baptized on the 8th and he is willing to keep the Sabbath now. He just got on at McDonalds with Jeff!!! Jeff is the most active member in the world!!!!
There are a couple others but I’ll update those next week. One is a mother of three who started off anti-Mormon and finished off pro-Mormon. She cried during the teaching of the First Vision. We've been taking out some youth from the ward to go and find with us and they've had a lot of fun doing that.
We’ve been finding a lot of people lately. Some come, some don't. We've been making our commitments with more boldness lately so they will show more faith. I love teaching lessons. I can't wait to do home teaching when I get home!!! Ha-ha
Elder Dickson, Elder Larson and some other elders are here today for Zone Conference. (These are the Traveling Assistants to the President and both are former companions of Elder Daniels.) We are celebrating Sister Lin’s birthday, and I’m excited because we’re going bowling! I love you all!
The new mission president is awesome! Though he is different from Pres. Nielsen, I am not worried about him at all. He has been a missionary before and has spent 30 years applying the principles from his mission. He talked about unity at the last Jedi council, which was awesome!!! I've been praying for his wife. I think she was quite shocked by the power of the Priesthood in that meeting. She has never attended a meeting with just men before, and this wasn't just any meeting. It was Zone Leader Council, the place where the word “edification” was invented by way of revelation!!! I think she was pretty overwhelmed by the way the meeting was led and the power that was there. I could see how the mission is going to change her life. It was weird. I’ve never had a vision like that for somebody 40 years older then me before. They will do marvelous for the mission.
I got some personal revelation in that meeting. I feel like a lot of missionaries start to stray from the trail that has been blazed for them because it seems too simple or common, which is actually a priest craft against the doctrine taught in Alma 37:6. We have Preach My Gospel as a guide; the lessons are in chapter three. There is no such thing as “Preach Elder Daniels’ Gospel.” Nobody cares to read an “encyclopedia of opinions,” just stick to the basic doctrine, stick to the trail that has been blazed before us. That’s what prophets do. They have all taught the same doctrine since doctrine was doctrine. I got some seriously awesome revelation in that meeting.
My companion is an AWESOME TEACHER. He is a genius. Our styles are different, so we're learning a lot. I think we're the coolest zone leaders ever, ha-ha. My companion’s brother asked him, “What type of zone leader is Elder Daniels? Stress freak? Controlling? Letter of the Law? etc.” His response was, “He’s happy!” That made me laugh.
Investigators:
The Lin family is, okay. We had a family night with them and it was alright. They are just learning the importance of the message, yet, things like, God exists or He doesn’t exist, one or the other. The church is true or it’s not true, etc. We're starting over from prayer, but they are still willing to learn and they have desire. They are just a tiny bit prideful.
Brother Gao is kickin’! We shared the 3rd yesterday through reading the Book of Mormon and it answered his question perfectly. He feels like sometimes he has "doubtful feelings," so we taught Baptism of FIRE! It was awesome! He is hooked. We also had the oldest member in the ward pei ke and help us teach “Endure to the End.” He will be baptized on the 8th and he is willing to keep the Sabbath now. He just got on at McDonalds with Jeff!!! Jeff is the most active member in the world!!!!
There are a couple others but I’ll update those next week. One is a mother of three who started off anti-Mormon and finished off pro-Mormon. She cried during the teaching of the First Vision. We've been taking out some youth from the ward to go and find with us and they've had a lot of fun doing that.
We’ve been finding a lot of people lately. Some come, some don't. We've been making our commitments with more boldness lately so they will show more faith. I love teaching lessons. I can't wait to do home teaching when I get home!!! Ha-ha
Elder Dickson, Elder Larson and some other elders are here today for Zone Conference. (These are the Traveling Assistants to the President and both are former companions of Elder Daniels.) We are celebrating Sister Lin’s birthday, and I’m excited because we’re going bowling! I love you all!
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
It's been a great week!
Wow. It seems like a lot has happened since last week!!! Lin family, Gao, sun, messenger, set ups, awesome comp, Dustin, splits, 15 in Sisters’ pool, direction, exchanges, lesson in Taidong, principle, new members, remission of sins, Book of Mormon, pig.
We will start with the “beef” again. The LIN FAMILY! We went over there with the branch president and his wife and they did an awesome job. The whole family ended up committing to read and pray, (family consists of mom and dad, Larry (14) and Kerry (11.) We went to their house yesterday in the afternoon and we ran into their two kids. As I was sharing Samuel the Lamanite with them, in the doorway their dad had pulled up in his car and invited us in to sit! (Everyday follow-ups are great). We shared Jacob 4 and talked about the golden plates and importance of the BOM. They loved it! It was such a tender mercy; the dad was right with us. He loves history so he thought the whole introduction of the Book of Mormon and the background was really interesting. They are a really smart family! He is really excited to read it now and while we were there, he started encouraging his kids to read it! We gave them all individual reading assignments and they all accepted. They’ve also been praying, and this week they will come to church!!! Oh man...we're so excited to be working with a family.
Brother Gao (20), a student, just got a job at McDonalds. He has problems with the Word of Wisdom but he understands the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation now. He wants to go to the Celestial kingdom and he believes that everything we've shared with him is true, especially the Book of Mormon, so he is trying really hard to keep the commandments so he can be baptized. Currently his goal is on the 26th, but we might have to move him back a bit. We have a couple other solid investigators; I'll update their status as they progress.
My companion is the man. He is a very passionate missionary and works really, really hard. He is very smart and has every talent in the world. Recently we've been working with the area book so we can have more direction in the area as we are finding. It’s been really good and we've seen a lot of people set up. We’re hoping to see less people set up this week, and more people become investigators. My companion always tells me that the thing he feels he is supposed to learn from me is how to be happy, hahaha, it makes me feel good when he says that. I have a lot I can learn from him. He is a really a bold missionary who tells people how it is. I like that and hope to acquire more of that. At first it was a little difficult because our missionary styles are a lot different and he wasn't quite used to following yet. And, I hadn't lead for quite a while, however the Lord has helped us put our two different styles together and we've seen some really successful lessons. There is so much potential for success in the area right now, and we've already seen some change in the area.
I went on exchanges with the district leader in Taidong on Monday and attended the district meeting there. It was really good, but I can see where there is room for improvement. Luckily, I have a good relationship with Elder ____ and I could tell him straight up, the feelings I had. Some missionaries are inclined to "turn off" when receiving recommendations from leaders, but he was open as we talked about his area and position.
After district meeting, I was taught by a greeny Sister. New missionaries are supposed to teach Zone Leaders once a transfer and she did a good job. The Lord was able to bless us to have the Spirit as I gave her evaluation. I could tell she was struggling and everything, but I felt like the Lord helped me to give the best evaluation I have ever given on my mission. She got emotional, and then it hit me when she said, "You've been on your mission for a while haven't you?" I didn't know what to say, I felt so "Old." I bore my testimony of Jesus Christ and how He molds us if we are who we are, rather then trying to be somebody that we're not. I think that’s a problem I had for a long time on my mission. I tried to be somebody I wasn't. Hualien has been a blessing because in this position I've learned to be myself. Sometimes when we get some authority, we try to become someone that we aren't.
If that makes sense, hooray!
We had a new member yesterday who honestly feels the remission of sins. He quit smoking and has forsaken his sin. He was glowing with light emulating from his eyes, he was so happy!!! Finally: 1. doctrine, 2. testimonies, 3. applications.
TIMES up!!! Love ya.
We will start with the “beef” again. The LIN FAMILY! We went over there with the branch president and his wife and they did an awesome job. The whole family ended up committing to read and pray, (family consists of mom and dad, Larry (14) and Kerry (11.) We went to their house yesterday in the afternoon and we ran into their two kids. As I was sharing Samuel the Lamanite with them, in the doorway their dad had pulled up in his car and invited us in to sit! (Everyday follow-ups are great). We shared Jacob 4 and talked about the golden plates and importance of the BOM. They loved it! It was such a tender mercy; the dad was right with us. He loves history so he thought the whole introduction of the Book of Mormon and the background was really interesting. They are a really smart family! He is really excited to read it now and while we were there, he started encouraging his kids to read it! We gave them all individual reading assignments and they all accepted. They’ve also been praying, and this week they will come to church!!! Oh man...we're so excited to be working with a family.
Brother Gao (20), a student, just got a job at McDonalds. He has problems with the Word of Wisdom but he understands the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation now. He wants to go to the Celestial kingdom and he believes that everything we've shared with him is true, especially the Book of Mormon, so he is trying really hard to keep the commandments so he can be baptized. Currently his goal is on the 26th, but we might have to move him back a bit. We have a couple other solid investigators; I'll update their status as they progress.
My companion is the man. He is a very passionate missionary and works really, really hard. He is very smart and has every talent in the world. Recently we've been working with the area book so we can have more direction in the area as we are finding. It’s been really good and we've seen a lot of people set up. We’re hoping to see less people set up this week, and more people become investigators. My companion always tells me that the thing he feels he is supposed to learn from me is how to be happy, hahaha, it makes me feel good when he says that. I have a lot I can learn from him. He is a really a bold missionary who tells people how it is. I like that and hope to acquire more of that. At first it was a little difficult because our missionary styles are a lot different and he wasn't quite used to following yet. And, I hadn't lead for quite a while, however the Lord has helped us put our two different styles together and we've seen some really successful lessons. There is so much potential for success in the area right now, and we've already seen some change in the area.
I went on exchanges with the district leader in Taidong on Monday and attended the district meeting there. It was really good, but I can see where there is room for improvement. Luckily, I have a good relationship with Elder ____ and I could tell him straight up, the feelings I had. Some missionaries are inclined to "turn off" when receiving recommendations from leaders, but he was open as we talked about his area and position.
After district meeting, I was taught by a greeny Sister. New missionaries are supposed to teach Zone Leaders once a transfer and she did a good job. The Lord was able to bless us to have the Spirit as I gave her evaluation. I could tell she was struggling and everything, but I felt like the Lord helped me to give the best evaluation I have ever given on my mission. She got emotional, and then it hit me when she said, "You've been on your mission for a while haven't you?" I didn't know what to say, I felt so "Old." I bore my testimony of Jesus Christ and how He molds us if we are who we are, rather then trying to be somebody that we're not. I think that’s a problem I had for a long time on my mission. I tried to be somebody I wasn't. Hualien has been a blessing because in this position I've learned to be myself. Sometimes when we get some authority, we try to become someone that we aren't.
If that makes sense, hooray!
We had a new member yesterday who honestly feels the remission of sins. He quit smoking and has forsaken his sin. He was glowing with light emulating from his eyes, he was so happy!!! Finally: 1. doctrine, 2. testimonies, 3. applications.
TIMES up!!! Love ya.
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