Elder Chen ( my former companion and me)
Me and an instrument I almost bought on the street for like 7 USD
Elder Workman and Me
My 80 cent USD lunch (Tofu and rice)
Brother Tsai Yong Sheng, and Chen Hao Yun and myself.
Me with Ru PeiYuan (Less Active I've been working with)(nametag story)
Peter Pan, a local security guard at an apartment complex that we have some investigators at, he's great, so funny, and he is now our new investigator, this is him with his cologne.
You may have noticed I'm not good at starting these emails. Anyway, it was an interesting week here in TaoYuan. I spent most of the week proselyting and teaching with a fever. That was no fun. My sickness has lasted over a month now, but I'm feeling a lot better today and plan on resting this P-day and trying to get all the way over it. This week was also filled with ridiculous bike problems, because it just isn't my mission without some bike problems. Having a fever all week kind of put a damper on the week, but a lot of great things happened.
I'll start with Monday. The Assistants came down on exchanges and I got to work with Elder Workman again, always a pleasure. That night we went and taught the Huang family. Some really good things happened. They set a new baptismal date and LiAn was able to bear some good testimony to her mother and brother. Sister Huang said if she gets the answer before the 23rd of June she'll get baptized. I'm worried though. Her only concern is that she believes in other Gods as well and she feels that these other Gods have really helped her in the past. It's such an interesting situation, and something I haven't seen on my mission yet. She can pass all the baptismal interview questions, including do you believe God is your Eternal Father. She believes, she just believes he's not the only one. She keeps all the commandments, comes to church every Sunday, and she pays tithing. I want it so bad for their family, and I've tried to do everything. I've tried to approach the problem from every angle, I've done all that Preach My Gospel says to do, I've found members to come help us teach who were also devout members of some of these Eastern religions before they were converted, but she's still not there. I feel like I don't know what more I can do. I really, really want this for their family.
Let's talk about the bike. Monday through Thursday were spent in the bike shop because it was breaking down daily. I was really frustrated. We also had to cancel an exchange this week because I was afraid of riding to this far away area and then having my bike break down. Thursday I took the bike in and Brother Tsui (bike shop owner and good friend) was replacing the tube when he noticed a really big problem with the entire back wheel. He said this would take about a week to fix and that I should try to find a replacement bike (which I found--a hello kitty women's bike with a big basket on the front, really cute). A couple days later Brother Tsui called me all excited saying that he called the company's headquarters and explained that I was a missionary and needed my bike to do Heavenly Father's work and got them to speed deliver the needed parts, then he called the next day saying it would be done. I went in the next day terrified. I knew that it was no small repair and a lot of things had been replaced. I knew it would be about 2500 dollars NT, about 75 USD. When I went in I found out that Brother Tsui's friend, who we'd also shared the gospel with in Brother Tsui's shop a couple times, had come in and seen my bike, recognized it was mine and paid for all the repairs. It was a HUGE blessing. I was extremely grateful. I can't even explain it. It was really a miracle.
Every week before we teach our free English class, we have a pre-English class meeting. During this week's pre-English class meeting I decided I wanted to name someone Shiz if we had a new student who didn't have a name (a rare occurrence in the intermediate class I teach) However this week we had a new student. We tried to help him pick a name, so we wrote a bunch of names up on the board. One of those names we wrote on the board was Church. He wasn't feeling the name Shiz, so he picked the name Joey, I told him that's not a very good name, and so he said he likes the name Church. I knew that was the one, so we had our new student, Church. After class I asked Church if he wanted to come to church and learn more. He said he was willing and we met with him the following day and set a baptismal date. I then invited Church to attend church with us this last Sunday. He came. Church had a great time at church. During priesthood when they invite new people to stand to introduce themselves, Church didn't quite understood what it meant, so he went up to the front and gave a short speech about how he met us missionaries through English class, and he set a baptismal date, but he isn't sure if he wants to commit to doing it and go all the way yet (this is after only 1 meet ) and he'll still have to think about it but he's willing to continue coming to church and learning... HaHa, way better than the typical name and where you live intro.
Another sweet miracles besides Church is the progress of Brother Xu's girlfriend. Brother Xu is the less active I pulled over on the scooter just by yelling at him as we were driving off. Then he brought his girlfriend and they set a baptismal date and came to church. She's progressing really well. We taught her the restoration and the plan of salvation this week, and she loved it and wants to go to the Celestial Kingdom. It was just a huge miracle to find him, and then through him, her. He's determined to come back and stay active as well.
This month our mission's topic is the spirit. I'm so excited to learn all I can on the topic. I know it will bless me not only on my mission but also when I get back, I feel like it's so much easier to follow the spirit here while I'm on the mission, but I need to learn to follow it better so I can continue to do so when I get back.
We had our last Zone Leader Council with President Grimley this week. He leaves at the end of this month. It's too crazy to think about getting a new mission president. It definitely will be an experience.
Yesterday I once again experienced the blessing of staying in an area. It's been so great to see my recent converts grow in the gospel. Two of them got up and bore testimony in testimony meeting. I've been really blessed here in TaoYuan, really more than I could deserve, lots of priesthood added to the ward. The gospel is true and I've been so blessed to share it here in TaoYuan.
I'm more tired than ever, but that's ok. It's a good thing. When I come home I'll probably spend the first 3 days sleeping, but that's way down the road stuff, don't need to think about that now.
I love you all,
The Church is True
Elder White
No comments:
Post a Comment