January 13, 2013

 Doing the bus

 Taking the bus

 Taiwan

 Me and Jason, one of my converts and good friends from TuCheng

 A Taiwanese Elder I went on exchanges with... while on exchanges we went and got the sweet drink that I'm drinking in that pic

 Lunch with Su family

 Coldstone was buy one get one

 my comp sippin his sidra

Wassup y'all. I am emailing you for the 2nd to last time in Taiwan. 

WHAT??? 

This last week was one of my favorite weeks here in SanChong. We saw so many miracles. We had a lot of success and a lot of fun. One of the best parts of a mission winding to a close is I can call converts and friends from former areas. IT HAS BEEN GREAT. I love them all so much and I feel so blessed to have shared with them my testimony and helped them live the gospel. Today some members from TaoYuan are coming to take me and my companion to somewhere really fun for P-Day. Brother Tsai (the body guard), Brother Chen, and Brother You (who actually isn't "my convert" but I was the first TaoYuan missionary to contact him, then I taught him a lot on exchanges, and then did his baptismal interview) are all coming. All 3 of them now hold the Melchizedek priesthood. Nami, a female convert is also coming, and she is preparing to go on a mission. I'm so excited to see all of them, and I'm so excited to see that they are continuing to grow in the gospel.

This week one of my converts from TuCheng came and visited me during our weekly free English class. It was really fun and he was also interested in going on a mission and asked me lots of questions about missions. It was really great. I forced him to speak English to my family and recorded it on my camera. I'll show you it in a couple weeks. He's great.

Another cool thing was that my former companion from TuCheng Elder Su, now Brother Su came with his whole family to visit me and they took us out to eat. It was a lot of fun. His parents would not stop talking to me. They loved me because they are hardcore vegetarians and I told them I eat vegetarian most of the time on my mission. They wouldn't stop going off about it. They are great but I didn't get much of a chance to talk to Elder Su... haha. It was really funny.

This week was full of so many great miracles. One took place Monday night that I'd like to share. I was looking through our phone list of investigators and came across the name of Arty. I found Arty my first week in SanChong. He is a cool Filipino, but he stopped investigating and we hadn't contacted him in quite some time. I had a feeling I should call Arty. I didn't know why, but I acted. I called and talked to Arty a bit and checked to see if he was doing alright. I didn't really know what to say and I followed up a bit on whether or not he had read the Book of Mormon and whether or not he had been praying. Then all of a sudden he said he was with a friend right now who was a member of the Church. He said she wanted to talk to me. I talked to her a bit and found out she was baptized in the Philippines. She had since moved to Taiwan and used to have the English ward missionary's phone number, but had lost it. She had been wanting to know where and how to attend church in Taiwan. She had been looking for the missionaries for quite some time and so that night me calling was an answer to her prayers. It was really cool.

Another great miracle this week was that we were able to begin teaching one of the coolest people ever. His English name is Kites. Yes, I said Kites. He picked it because he likes to feel free, but knows that to feel most free you still need something to keep you grounded (like the string from the kite). I'm super ready to share an awesome string to gospel analogy. Anyways... he was a member from TaiChung's referral. He just got back from Vancouver Canada where he lived for one year. While there he met a Taiwanese girl studying there... a member of our church. They began dating and he came back and wanted to meet with missionaries. We met with him Saturday. Then Sunday he came to all 3 hours of church, loved it, and then stayed after to meet with us again. He set a baptismal date and wants to be baptized before he leaves for Japan in March. He's super golden, intelligent, cool, and will be a great asset to the church. I'm sad we started meeting with him this late in the transfer. He's so great, and I'm excited to meet with him and help him prepare as much as possible before I leave.

Another great miracle is that a less active member my trainee reactivated through his free English class he taught was called to be the Elder's quorum president this week. That's really cool. He was less active when my trainee started teaching the intermediate class, but my trainee invited him to church and started sharing some messages and he came back. Now he's an Elder's Quorum President. YEAH!

Our great investigator Jackie is still dealing with family opposition, but this week was really good. Last week we couldn't get ahold of him at all. He had disappeared. This week we were still having trouble getting ahold of him and on Wednesday we prayed really really hard just to have the chance to get ahold of him. Wednesday evening he called us. He said he let his friend borrow his phone the previous week and that's why he hadn't answered. It was so good to get back in contact with him.

Another great investigator, Brother Li, is making real progress. He's been praying and started looking for new work that will let him attend church on Sunday. He's been developing faith and after Chinese New Year he will be getting new work and be baptized as soon as possible after that. It's really exciting!

Overall this week was really fun, tiring, rewarding, and exciting. We found a lot of great new people with lots of potential. We had a lot of fire, which I really needed. I felt like the last little while I was too "busy'' making sure to do all the little things the mission wanted us to be doing, and I was forgetting what has helped me have the success that I've had on my mission. That being straight up hard work and focusing on my purpose as a missionary and my reason for coming on a mission. It felt good. I called it doing missionary work President Grimley style. Haha. It resulted in lots of awesome miracles and there is nothing more satisfying to come home DEAD tired after a long day's work, kneel down and give an accounting to the Lord of our day's doings.

This week also had its fair share of Taiwanese people doing funny things. I was on exchanges in another area this week and we went to a less active member lady's house for dinner. She was hilarious, a little crazy, and a great cook. At one point though I began talking to her about her fish because it was a Beta fish and I wanted to know how to say Beta fish in Chinese. She then mentioned in a joking manner that her fish hadn't been baptized, I told her it wouldn't be hard because he's already immersed in the water, then she asked me to baptize her fish. I, for obvious reasons, refused, but she persisted. When I continued to refuse she took it upon herself to baptize her fish. She stuck her finger in the water and touched the fish, then she put her other hand to the square and said "little blue fish..." and went on the say the baptism prayer. So borderline crazy less active member also baptized her fish this week. I wish I could count that in my key indicators, but "Little Blue Fish" hadn't had his baptismal interview so it didn't count.

I'm going to miss Taiwan and the people here SO MUCH. I love this place. I'm so thankful I was able to come here on a mission. I know it's exactly where I was supposed to be. I'm so grateful for missions. I'm especially grateful for grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and friends who all set an example to me by serving faithful missions. I absolutely love this gospel. I know the fullness including proper priesthood authority was restored by the Lord through His chosen latter-day prophet Joseph Smith... and it makes me excited! Families can be eternal, the fullness of the atonement can be used, salvation can be obtained!

It's wonderful and it's been an absolute privilege to share it.

I love you all.

Elder White