Hello everyone.
I hope you had a great conference weekend. We won't get it until next week here. I hope I get to watch it...in English. I'm really excited to listen to the words of a living prophet.
Conference here is a bit different. We don't watch it the week of. They will send the DVD's translated into Chinese to each ward, and each ward will show it. My first area Zhubei had a lot of Filipino members so it had an English translation. I got to watch it in English with them while the bulk of the ward was watching it in Chinese. I don't know if I'll get that here. When I transferred to ZhuDong with Elder Bogle he hadn't been able to watch conference. I hope that doesn't happen to me here. Speaking of Elder Bogle, he and Elder Erickson are together now as zone leaders down in ZhuBei. Talk about an awesome companionship.
I took conference for granted so much before the mission. It's too good!! I still remember conference in college before I left on my mission. Skyler and I listened to Saturday's first two sessions, Saturday night came along and it was time for priesthood. That same night there were 2 concerts in Salt Lake City of bands we both really liked. We were tempted to go to the concerts and just wait for the Ensign to read priesthood, but ultimately we went to priesthood session. That was an important decision. Now I'm in Taiwan serving the Lord, and Skyler is going into the MTC this week!!!
I'm too happy!
What a great week it has been here in DanShui. My time in DanShui has been nothing but pure bliss. This is truly a blessed place. This is known as one of the prettiest places in all the mission, but I think it's also one of the most blessed. It's a miracles factory!!!!
This last Saturday Brother Zhuang, the interior designer who played college basketball was baptized. It was such a great experience. He is so great because he really grasps the big picture of things. He really understood the covenant he made with his Father in Heaven, and he is committed. He also brought his wife to the baptism and to church Sunday which is a great miracle. We'll work on her next.
Our investigators really are making progress. Our next step is baptizing a Brother Liu and a Brother Zhao. They are both scheduled for the 22 of this month, the last day of this transfer. It will be so amazing when they meet their goal because we started teaching them right when I got here the first week of this transfer, and if they were able to be baptized in the same transfer that'd be amazing. That's incredibly rare. I can't explain how much I love DanShui. However, the DanShui winter is coming, which I've heard is brutal. I experienced the first taste of it last night. Cold, hard, rain. Huge wind. It will be great! I have the feeling I'll be here a while.
Brother Zhao is a funny investigator. He teaches me Chinese idioms, (that make your Chinese sound incredible if you can use them right) and he always tries to teach me Taiwanese. He's really funny. Last night we had our mission's fireside they hold for investigators and new members down in Taibei, and he rode the hour train ride both ways with us. He was trying to get me to speak Taiwanese to people on the train the whole time. He's a funny, 55 year old guy. We met him through our English class. His new dream is to come to Utah and find me after my mission and after he retires. So be prepared family. Yesterday when he rolled up to church on his scooter, and parked it, he bumped and knocked down 3 adjacent scooters. He's really funny.
So we have to be in our house by 9:00 every night, and one night this week it was 8:55, we were almost home, but I saw a family, so obviously we had to go try to contact them very quickly. I met Edward. He grew up in Canada, but he's originally from Hong Kong and he has a wife and a baby. Due to time I was just able to get his phone number. However, I called him the next day and we were able to go out to his house. What a wonderful family!!! He's such a humble and nice guy and his interest is all because of concern for his son. He was an amazing miracle, and a demonstration of what happens when we use every minute of the Lord's time his way. It would have been easy to not contact that very last person of the night, but we did, and we saw miracles!!! I'm super excited to continue to share this amazing gospel with Edward and his family.
Saturday we were contacting in an intersection close to the church. When I heard some loud yelling from inside a Buddhist bakery shop place. I rode by and I saw 2 guys beginning to fight. Then they knocked down shelves of bread in their struggle. Naturally I continued to ride by back and forth and take glances. The 2nd time I rolled by they were on the ground wrestling. Then things got crazy, I rolled by again and one person was holding another person down while someone else was kicking his face in, then I rode by and they were elbowing the man on the ground's head. It was awful. Things like this don't happen in Taiwan. We're talking about a country whose top story in the news is sometimes like a snake was out on the street or someone's locker at work was broken into and they take 20 minutes to cover those stories. This was a real fight. In the end 4 cop cars came. It was mayhem in Taiwan.
I'm glad to hear all the wonderful reports about friends and family back home. Say prayers. I'm loving the work, love my companion, LOVE DANSHUI. What a wonderful opportunity it is to represent my Savior in Taiwan.
I'm too excited for Skyler! Big props to him. Also really excited Hayden Simmons put in his papers. I'll have to know where he's going when he finds out.
I hope all is well. I continue to pray for you.
I love you all,
Love Elder White
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