Let the 6th Transfer begin. Time goes by too fast, and I honestly never want this to end. The good news is I still have a long time to serve. I still have 10 maybe 11 transfers depending on extend dates. I will still have the opportunity to serve in the lovely harbor city of Dan Shui!!!!! YES!!!! Unfortunately Elder Gong is moving. He was a pleasure to work with and just an all around great person. A spiritual giant. I'm very thankful for the opportunity to work with him.
My new companion is an Elder Gist, on his 3rd transfer, and he is the mission's piano genius. Maybe he can teach me all the hymns in the hymnbook I have no idea how to sing. I look forward to serving with him.
Brother Liu was baptized Friday night!!! However Brother Zhao was not. We found out what happened with him. The Saturday night between his first baptismal interview and the one with our Mission President's counselor, Brother Zhao was visited by some friends, who then pressured him to drink wine. He eventually gave in and felt too bad to come to church Sunday. He is struggling, he feels remorseful and still wants to be baptized, but he has lost a lot of faith in whether or not he can do it. I hate Satan. He works especially hard on those close to being baptized. The following Tuesday I took a balloon to district meeting, and drew Satan's face on it. Then I gave anyone who wanted a chance to "kick Satan in the teeth." That is one of my trademark slogans out here. I started that, for real, not for pretend, the way Dad thinks he started "congrats."
Brother Liu is doing great though. His baptism was a nice and spiritual experience.
Yesterday we went to Stake Conference. It was a broadcast from Salt Lake to all the Asia Area. It was so good! It was like a mini general conference directed to the people in Asia's needs. President Osgathorpe of the Sunday School presidency who visited our mission a few weeks ago spoke, as did Sister Dibb, President Perkins (Asia Area president), and Elder Richard G. Scott. It was so good, so catered to the needs of Taiwanese members and people. I loved it, and it was great because it was all in Chinese and I could fully understand everything, be taught and religiously uplifted. What a miracle. The gift of tongues is so real.
Speaking of the gift of tongues, I passed the mission's Phase 2 test! It's no easy task because they raised the percentage needed to pass to 90 percent. But I got it!!! I missed concentrated liquids, screen part of the tv, and "turn over a new leaf"... If I ever use concentrated liquids on the streets of Taiwan, I'll be shocked. But now I know how to. Let the studying of Chinese characters begin, No easy task... but the Lord will continue to aid me if I'm doing my part.
In other news I just became district leader over the largest district in the mission. 10 missionaries!!! I'm young and inexperienced, but I'll rely on the Lord to help. Except for my very first transfer, I never even had a senior companion who was also district leader at the time. We'll see if I can remember what is going on. The other really cool news is there are 3 of us in our district from Lone Peak 2010 graduating class!! That's crazy! We're probably the only district in the world with 3 missionaries from the same high school and graduating class. It will be really fun, One of them was in my Chinese class, and the other was in my seminary class. I look forward to serving with them.
The future looks bright. I'm so excited to be in DanShui still. I'm looking forward to my new responsibility and going on more exchanges!!! Including exchanges with Zone Leaders, I think I'll have 9 exchanges this transfer. Up until this point on my mission I've only had 2 every transfer. It will be a big difference. Time is only going to go faster, which I'm not too excited about. I never want to stop doing this work. I've been studying Henry B. Eyring talks like crazy this last transfer, and I'm really inspired to try to meet my potential as a missionary. I'm super excited. I'll continue to work hard with Elder Gist!
Love you all,
Love Elder White
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