December 16, 2012

 

Wow... let the last transfer of my mission begin. It's surreal that it's coming to end. This experience has gone by so fast. I really can't believe it.

The Lord has blessed me with an amazing last companion to finish out my mission. His name is Elder Davidson. He's from Syracuse, Utah. He's a younger missionary; he's been in Taiwan a few months. We've both prayed that he and I would have the chance to be companions... and it happened!!! Elder Davidson is a super Christ-like missionary. He always writes investigators, members, and other missionaries little notes of encouragement. He's a super positive person and it will be great to be around him and work with him these last 6 weeks of my mission.

This last week was really amazing. I'm 21 years old!!!! WOW!!! It's hard to believe that the world keeps going on while we're out here being missionaries. I feel like I should just be going home as the 19 year old that entered the MTC a couple years ago. It was a great birthday though. Last Monday some converts from TaoYuan took me and my companion, as well as Elder Vandenberghe (my MTC companion) and his companion to a really beautiful part of Taiwan in order to celebrate my birthday and Elder Vandenberghe's last P-Day. It was a lot of fun to see some beautiful parts of this island that missionaries don't get to see too often due to the fact that they are only accessible by car. 

Then that night we went to a family in our ward's house to have a birthday celebration. The father of the Wang family, a Sister missionary serving in our ward, and I all have the same birthday. The 3 of us were all born on December 13. We celebrated with pizza and cake. It was very nice and thoughtful of them. My favorite birthday surprise however, took place Wednesday night. Every Wednesday night we teach our free English class. I work the reception desk here in SanChong while the other missionaries teach the class. The class begins at 7 and goes til 8:30. At 7:15 I was sitting bored at my desk with no one to talk to when all of a sudden Andy Huang, one of my favorite converts, from TuCheng walks in. I was so surprised to see him. He asked where everyone was? I  didn't know what he meant. And then he said "They were all supposed to get here at 7. A few minutes later 5 other TuCheng members came in with a big birthday cake to surprise me, but Andy had ruined the surprise. It was really funny. But it was also so much fun. 

While the other missionaries taught English I was able to celebrate my birthday with 3 of my converts from TuCheng as well as some of my closest member friends from that ward. It was a great surprise and super thoughtful of them. I'm so thankful for all the wonderful areas I've been able to serve in and all the amazing friends I've been able to make. It was a great birthday!

This week was also filled with some great miracles. On Thursday night we had a lesson with one of our really good investigators. It went smoothly and concluded at 8 p.m. We had nothing else scheduled so we'd normally go out and contact people or knock doors on our way home. I was overcome with a feeling that we needed to stay in the chapel a little bit longer. Our chapel here is on the 7th floor of a big building. We sat down and I made a couple phone calls when the elevator doors opened. In walked Jackie Zhu, my favorite investigator right now. He came by total surprise and in his hand was a bag. He walked in and said he had brought us coffee for my birthday. Hahaha. He was confused by the laughter from Elder Peterson and me. We thanked in for the thoughtful gift and then informed him we don't drink coffee. He seemed confused and so we asked if we could sit down and have a lesson with him. We taught the Word of Wisdom and the law of chastity. We invited him to live them both. HE IMMEDIATELY ACCEPTED. He's truly GOLDEN. He's such a great kid and it was so cool to have him come out of the blue and meet with us. It was super thoughtful of him.

I'm thankful for the spirit that helps us do this work. If we'd have immediately left the chapel after our lesson Jackie would have come up to an empty chapel, and we would have missed that opportunity to teach him more about God's will for us. Jackie is so awesome! He came down with a bit of a cold this weekend, but he still came to Sacrament meeting. It was easy to see that he wasn't feeling too good, and after he left sacrament his mom took him to the doctor. It was really cool to have him come to church even while feeling a bit under the weather. He's really dedicated to doing what God wants us to do.

Another great miracle this week happened on Saturday night. We invited our investigator. Brother Li, to attend a live nativity activity being held at the temple square in Taipei. We also got his recently baptized ex-wife (they still act like a married couple around each other) to attend with him. After the activity we took them on a temple square tour. These tours are set up through the mission and involve Sister missionaries taking investigators around the neighboring chapel and showing them gospel artwork while teaching gospel principles. Our tour took the theme of eternal marriage, and both Brother Li and his ex-wife Sister Hong's faces lit up as we stopped at a window that looks out onto the temple and talked about temple marriage. Brother Li is really good and would get baptized except that he has Sunday work and isn't willing to do anything about it at this point. Hopefully the tour will have given him more motivation.

I'm sorry this letter is a little bit all over the place. I know my English is getting worse, and I apologize for any spelling or grammatical errors.

I'm thankful I have 6 more weeks to do this work. I still have a little gas left in the tank and I look forward to giving everything I've got left these last 6 weeks. It was sad seeing the other Elders in my MTC group go home and know they will be with their families for Christmas this year, and they'll be getting right back into school, but I had a wonderful spiritual confirmation at this weeks move call meeting that I made the right choice in taking an extra transfer. I know there is more the Lord needs me to do here. I know there are more miracles to be seen, lives to change, and souls to save. I'm looking forward to doing work with Elder Davidson. He's a great person and a great missionary. It's going to be a great transfer.

I love you all!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Elder White

December 9, 2012

This week was probably one of my favorite weeks since I've been in SanChong. It started out on a great note and was miracle packed and full of fun. I don't know where to begin. 


How about last Monday? We went to a special night market in a really old part of Taipei last preparation day. Our purpose in going there? It's the only place in Taipei that one can legally eat SNAKE MEAT. We went and ate snake meat. Snake meat was only part of the deal. Our meal also included weird snake gall bladder which was quite disgusting. Overall it was a unique experience. Snakes have a lot of bones, as do their meat. Snake blood, surprisingly not too shabby.


The real highlight Monday night was meeting Brother Li. Brother Li has an interesting situation. He and his ex-wife were baptized in central Taiwan one year ago. They unexpectedly moved to Taipei on a whim the following day and never ended up being confirmed. Now one year later and a week off of a fresh divorce, Brother Li's wife entered the waters of baptism again, this time to be confirmed (baptized by fire) the following day. Brother Li recently moved into SanChong as did his recently baptized ex-wife, (not co-habitating) and now he wants to prepare for baptism. We met with him Monday night and he is great. The biggest obstacle is he's in a tough financial situation and is working on Sunday. Other than that he's reading and praying and I think has a lot of potential. We met with him 3 times this week and all 3 meetings were very spiritual. The 3rd of the 3 meetings he brought his ex-wife (they had just been out on a date?) and we met with them both. It went so well and we talked about how God is a God of miracles. He committed to begin praying for work off and committed to act on any promptings God gives him about his work situation. It's been a big blessing adding him to our investigator pool.

This week we also were privileged of meeting an amazing kid named Jackie Zhu. Jackie was contacted last week by an Elder in our neighboring area. He felt prompted to give Jackie a Book of Mormon and invited Jackie to English class. He came this last Wednesday and after class we sat down with him to meet for the first time. Jackie had read and prayed every day for over a week. He already read to 2 Nephi. He also already received a spiritual witness of it's truthfulness. WOW! This was all before the first official meet. At the beginning of that lesson we sang "I am a Child of God" I asked him what his favorite line in that song was. He replied "lead me, guide me, walk beside me." I asked him why. He said he really wanted to follow Jesus. We committed him to keep the Sabbath day holy on the spot and he said he would. He came to church this week for the first time and it was the primary program. He said while the kids were singing he had a really good, warm feeling. SO GOOD!!! Such an amazing miracle.

I feel like my trainee and my teaching together has gotten quite good, and we had evidence this week. We did a practice teaching situation where we taught a sister in our district the Word of Wisdom, but we talk the "higher law of the Word of Wisdom, a.k.a. pescitarianism." (not eating meat, just fish and seafood) We convinced her just like the law of consecration is a higher law to tithing, that the current Word of Wisdom is like a mosaic standard of what the Lord REALLY wants us to do. Long story short, we committed her to try and live it and she hasn't eaten meat in 6 days. Haha, all the while Elder Peterson and I are out eating snake! The best part is she's a General Authority's daughter! Don't worry we'll tell her this week at district meeting. If only Elder Peterson and I could teach that well to our investigators...

Another great thing happened this week. I've been hoping and praying to be able to do something meaningful with my bike when I leave. Leave it to someone who needs it. It's a really nice bike and I didn't want it just getting sent to the mission home and being used for parts. This week we were visiting Brother Zhang, the 13 year old less active we've brought back. HE'S SO COOL by the way. We were meeting with him when unexpectedly Bishop came over to visit too. Bishop was talking to him a little bit about how he can start seminary when he turns 14 in January. Seminary here is at the church and starts at 5:30. Brother Zhang was really excited about it because he knows it will help him prepare for a mission, but was a little sad because the church is a bus or a subway ride away from his home. The buses don't start until about 5:20 and he doesn't know the route and would have to pay to ride the bus everyday. The subway doesn't open until after 6. Right then and there I felt like I had my answer to my prayer. I told him if he's willing to actively attend seminary daily I'd leave my bike to him so he can go attend. He was thrilled. He doesn't currently have a bike and he comes from a very humble, single mother home. I'm so excited I was able to find a way to do good with my bike once I leave. It will be a big blessing for Brother Zhang and I know it will be put to good use. I'm so happy I can leave it to such a great person who I so dearly love.

This week was also a great week as our investigator Brother Zhang (another one) made somewhat of a comeback. After finding his job it's been tough to meet with him and he'd been going to other places a lot with his family on Sundays. The last little bit he's been able to find time to meet and we've had some good lessons. This week we called him Saturday night and he committed to come to church. He hadn't been in 6 weeks. He came, had a good experience, and also shared some great personal testimony in Sunday School. I think we cleared up some misunderstanding that was keeping him from coming and now I think he's back on the right track, a track that leads to baptism!!

This week another great miracle came through my personal prayer. The ward lacks priesthood and as a result, the 3rd hour church (priesthood) all the young men, elders, and high priest's are together. We've got a young man coming back into activity and a few investigators who are young men, and I was praying for ideas on how to help them have a better church experience. I had the prompting to call bishop and see if we could teach a young men's class this week. HE WAS THRILLED. We taught the class and it went really well. Bishop was so happy, he came and sat in on the end of it. I later found out in ward council he'd been stressing over this quite a bit prior to my call. He's been unable to call a young men's president, because the ward still doesn't even have an elder's quorum president. They just barely got a 2nd counselor in the bishopric. He had been praying about this for a while before I called him. I told him I'd be willing to teach every week until they got a member called or until my mission ends. He was thankful, and I'm excited because we've got some good young men who just need the proper guidance and example. I don't think the ward has a single priesthood holder who is a returned missionary. I'm excited for this new opportunity and to work with Brother Zhang, our less active, our recent convert Brother Huang's son, and some good investigator kids. I felt like the Lord really heard not only my prayer but Bishop's prayer also.

It was a great week. I'm super happy!!! I've really enjoyed training Elder Peterson, we spend most of our companion study or planning times laughing and joking. It's been a fun couple transfers kicking it in our haunted apartment in SanChong together. My training him will conclude this Friday, and I will meet my new and last companion. Hope he's a good one. Time has gone so fast out here. My MTC companion and good friend Elder Vandenberghe goes home this Friday. It's been a wild trip. I've got 7 more weeks of work the Lord needs and wants me to give. It's so amazing! I love this work and I love the Lord.

Elder White

December 2, 2012

 pumpkin pie!!!!! Check out Elder Vandenberghe's tie

 The ice cream that my comp has eaten in the last 2 weeks 

 My birthday gift from a member in TuCheng... it's a small bag to put coins in from Australia.... i wanted one so bad and I　finally got one. A few missionaries (as well as my trainer had them from an Australian elder back in the mission way back when) see if you can read what it says

My new running shoes. I　Love Running now!!!

Wow. This week was exceptionally fast. It feels like a complete BLUR to me. I really don't know where to begin. I think I'll take things from the start, meaning last P-day. We went down to my favorite place in all of Taiwan! The TaoYuan 3rd ward. It was really great to get to see some old member friends and converts. I was also able to spend some time with Elder VanDenBerghe (MTC companion) before he goes home in a couple weeks. We ended up going to the Costco down there and bought a PUMPKIN PIE! I thought I'd have to go another year without my favorite Thanksgiving food, but such was not the case with the new TaoYuan Costco. Costco is cool here, because it's exactly like Costco in America. Built the exact same, stocked the same way, carrying the same items. With the exception that everyone in there is speaking Chinese and speaking mandarin, it was like a step back into America. CRAZY! It was great visiting TaoYuan again. I really loved that ward, and it was great to see so many of them. It's amazing how much I've come to love the Taiwanese people. I'm very grateful I've been called to serve in this amazing land.
 

Our biggest miracle from last week continues to be our biggest miracle this week. We visited a less active last Thursday named Brother Zhang who ended up being amazing! He's such a cool 13 year old kid. He ended up attending our ward activity last week, meeting with bishop, and passing the sacrament. But the miracle didn't stop last week. He's on fire!! This week we went and did a temple square tour with him, giving him the desire to get a temple recommend. We also learn in Preach My Gospel that an indicator of true conversion is a desire to share the gospel with others. In the last 10 days Brother Zhang has given us four referrals of his friends, three of which we've been able to meet with us multiple times now, attended a baptism and the Christmas choir activity, and best of all, they attended church with him this last Sunday! He's been an answer to prayers here in SanChong.

Another answer to our prayers is our recent convert Brother Huang. He's doing so well!! He actively attends all of the meetings and activities. He's still strong on his abstinence of cigarettes. He's doing and looking so great. He's feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost strongly in his life. I'm so blessed just to know him, let alone to have had the chance to teach and baptize him. Another cool thing about Brother Huang is that his work is selling fruit at the morning markets. It's a really tough job, he wakes up between 2 and 2:30 a.m. every morning. His stand he works at sells only imported fruit, and often he gives some to us when we visit him. He's been giving us the biggest, ripest, Washington apples I've ever seen lately. So juicy!! We've also got to eat some Japanese and Korean fruit while over at his house. It's pretty great. I continue to love the food and fruit here in Taiwan. I'll definitely miss it in a couple months. 

I'm excited to finish out strong these last couple months of the mission. The mission president sent out an e-mail talking about how December and January have a tradition in Taiwan of being the least fruitful months with regard to missionary work. That will not be the case here in SanChong. I won't allow it to happen. I'm going to give everything I have left in the tank these last two months and try to work hard for the ward and the Lord. Sometimes I feel as if I'm running on fumes, but I know I can rest a bit when I知 back home. I'm excited for the miracles still in store as we have faith and work hard here in SanChong.

 
Thank you for all of your prayers and support. 
I love you all!
Elder White

November 26, 2012

We took chairs on the subway, got a lot of funny looks

 

comp sleeping!

 Last p-day we had a billion missionaries at pizza hut

A cool place we stopped for lunch on exchanges with elder phelps (from alpine UTah)

 Coolest bakery ever

"White's pastry shop"

Pics of our Thanksgiving activity.

 Me and Brother Huang. He and his family are doing so well

 Me and my comp laughing it up

 

 Me and Brother Zhang (in the Knicks shirt, as well as his friends who are

now our investigators)

At our Thanksgiving, party we found out an hour before it began that they wanted us missionaries to do some kind of musical number... like sing a hymn. That day there just happened to be a guitar at church that the missionaries in the neighboring area were giving to us because neither of them play. Instead of just singing "Count Your Blessings" we decided to write a song about Thanksgiving and perform it. We wrote the chorus lyrics on the board so they could sing along. I don't have all the lyrics but I wrote the chorus and I can tell you the lyrics to the verse I wrote.
 

Chorus:

Food, Football, Friends, and Family

Indians, Pilgrims, Turkey.. it's Thanksgiving

My Verse:

Thankgiving on the mission, it's just not the same,

No friends no family, just me in the rain,

And my companion, we're both wet and cold

Just trying to bring lambs back to the fold,

Climbing stairs knocking door after door,

I'm thankful my fist isn't too sore.

Thanksgiving dinner, It just feels wrong,

No turkey no stuffing, just another BianDang (really cheap Taiwanese little boxed meal they eat all the time)

Then hit the streets again, no one wants to hear,

Pumpkin pie and an afternoon nap? Maybe next year.....

I'm thankful for all of you!! Sounds like things are good.

 

TIME FLIES. 2 Months left. Hard to believe. It was a really good week here in SanChong. I was healthy!!! The work moved forward. It's amazing how much more productive one can be as a missionary when not throwing up every few hours or drowsy on medication. It was a very good week and I reflected a lot on what I'm thankful for. I've realized Heavenly Father has blessed me so much. First and foremost I'm so thankful for my family. I can't express how much I love them and I'm grateful for their love and support. I'm so grateful for my parents' example and for teaching us and raising us in righteousness but allowing us to develop our own testimony. I'm thankful for my friends. I'm so thankful for the opportunity I've had to come to Taiwan. I love it here. I'm even more thankful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission here and represent my Savior. I'm so thankful for the success I've been blessed to have as a missionary and the miracles I've been blessed to see. I don't know why I've been so blessed but I'm super grateful. I was sitting in the Huang family's home this week and was overcome with a spirit of gratitude, just at the fact that I'm sitting with these wonderful people I love, it's a blessing to have been able to meet them, it's a blessing I'm speaking Chinese with them. What a great blessing it is to learn this great language. I'm so thankful. The thing I'm most thankful for is actually a person, to whom I'm most indebted, my Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. He is so amazing. I love Him. He lives, He loves, He changes lives. He's changed mine for the better and I've watched Him change and touch many more over these last 22 months. I'm so thankful for His gospel and His example.

This week was such a great week. There were some special miracles, and overall there were a lot of fun things that happened. I'll start with Thanksgiving day. A day full of proselyting, rain, proselyting and more rain. There is no celebration of Thanksgiving here. It wasn't until late afternoon I realized it was Thanksgiving, nevertheless, it was a great day to pause and reflect on the many blessings the Lord has bestowed upon me. Thanksgiving dinner? 3 slices of wheat toast, and a candy bar.

However, Thanksgiving night brought probably the biggest miracles this week. We were out in the rain contracting. That's where you pick a street, and then simultaneously contact people on the street while tracting doors on the street you are on. Then I suddenly had the feeling that I've learned to love as a missionary. It was the "there is something else we should be doing right now'' feeling. I love that feeling because it usually precedes a big miracle if we're able to effectively follow the Spirit in order to do what Heavenly Father wants us to. With a prayer in my heart I decided we should go knock the door of a less active member the bishop had said we could visit when we first got here to SanChong. Bishop had actually never met this person, and the first 3 times we visited he was not home. We had forgotten about him and hadn't returned in quite some time, but that night, we were in the neighborhood and I felt the Lord wanted us to go pay him a visit.

We might have forgotten about him, but the Lord hadn't. We knocked, he answered, and invited us in. We then met Brother Zhang, a 13 year old kid who was baptized 2 years ago in a city on Taiwan's east coast. Probably the coolest 13 year old kid I've ever met. He's a Taiwanese aborigine and he's in a big budget movie they made about his tribe. He's lived in SanChong for a year and a half and hasn't been to church since moving here. He was so happy to meet us, and talk with us, and committed to come to our Thanksgiving activity Saturday and church Sunday. At the activity Saturday, he brought a friend, who's now our new investigator. He also met a lot of members and the bishop. He was able to go up in the front and introduce himself, and while introducing himself he said he's sorry he hadn't been coming to church and he won't miss another Sunday! He met with the bishop that night who invited him to pass the sacrament that Sunday. He came, fulfilled his priesthood duty, and loved church! We met with him after church and talked about missions and invited him to start preparing now, for a future mission. He said he really wants to serve. It was an amazing miracle, this lost lamb who's coming back to the fold.

The Thanksgiving activity we put on Saturday was a big success. A great turnout and lots of food. They assigned us missionaries a missionary performance and we wrote a song about Thanksgiving. (see above) My companion and I decided to make mashed potatoes. We bought a big bag of U.S. imported potatoes at the market and then boiled and mashed them up with tiny forks. They turned out great though and were the only authentic Thanksgiving food found on the entire table. The activity was really great and lots of fun. We had 5 less active priesthood holders come!!! 4 of which came to church the following Sunday! Such a huge miracle. Our first week in SanChong there were 6 priesthood holders in Elder's quorum. I'd say the average is more like 10-12, so you can see what a big influence an extra 4 or 5 can have. 2 participated in blessing or passing the sacrament, and another one of the less actives we've helped back taught the Elder's Quorum lesson.

Another great miracle this week was helping one of our ward missionaries. Her name is Hana or Sister Tsai. She's really cool and really good to us missionaries. She is a convert of a little over a year and was baptized while backpacking in France. The missionary who baptized her was a friend I made in the MTC going to France speaking Chinese. So cool. She used to be a crazy party girl and has tattoos all over from all the different countries she's visited. Now she's a crazy good convert endowed in the temple and helps us missionaries so much. I suggested once to her to go on a mission, but she was really hesitant. Lately a member of the bishopric also encouraged her to go, but she wasn't sure. Then she lost her job and was really unsure about what to do at this stage in her life. After having ward mission meeting, we and the sister missionaries shared a little bit with her. The Spirit was really strong and we invited her to go to the temple and pray about what Heavenly Father wants her to do. She went to the temple the next day, and then decided she would go "Duanchuan" It's a common thing in our mission where if there is an odd number of missionaries then they will have try to find worthy members to serve for a few weeks or a transfer. Our mission needed a Sister DuanChuan and so right now Sister Tsai is off somewhere in our mission, being a missionary. If it goes well, she'll be a lot more likely to start papers and prepare to serve. It was a really cool miracle!

There were some really good miracles this week, and overall it was a really fun week. We also now have a guitar in our apartment so companion study just got a whole lot better as we've been writing songs for our ward mission leader as well as others!

I'm just thankful to be here in Taiwan serving my brothers and sisters and serving my Lord.

Elder White