Great week to begin my 10th transfer in here in Taiwan. Pretty crazy to write that out. I never thought I'd hit my 10th transfer. I'm pretty sure I just walked off the airplane last week. I have no idea where time has gone, but I'm thankful for every minute of this opportunity that I've had. Being a missionary is such an amazing experience. I love teaching and testifying of the Gospel.
This week went by so fast. I don't even remember much of what happened. I love my new companion, Elder Sheng. He is Taiwanese. He is an amazing missionary. He is vegan. This is due to the fact that he has a serious skin allergy and the eating of meats, eggs, etc. can intesify his skin allergy. Therefore, in honor of Elder Sheng, and to develop district unity, all the Elders in our district are vegetarian this transfer (with the exception of one who's holding out). It's been pretty fun.
Elder Sheng has a great story. He was baptized at age 10 with his family (mother, father, younger brother.) They then went to the temple 1 year later and were sealed. Then they slowly went inactive. Elder Sheng went to college and went really inactive, got caught up in the party kind of lifestyle and ended up flunking out of college. At that time he prayed to Heavenly Father for direction, and felt prompted that Heavenly Father wanted him to serve a mission. So he made the neccessary changes to do so. His family is still inactive but his mom has since been getting back into the church. He's come out to serve the Lord and has done a great job. He's a really incredible missionary. It's really great working with him.
The TaoYuan zone is on fire. Things are amazing here. The work here couldn't get much better. As far as our area, the Huang family is doing great. We taught them the Word of Wisdom this last week and they were taken back a bit, but they committed to live it. Then later in the week we dropped off a card and some drinks (that we could drink) to them and left it with the man at the front desk of their apartment building. They loved it! They will be interviewed for baptism either this weekend or next. Pray for them.
Another great miracle this week came after visiting with Ru PeiYuan (the nametag story, less active). He's begun coming back to church and doing a bit better. My current companion is also a big help. The miracle though is that as we were leaving their apartment complex the other day I invited a kid out front to church this Sunday. Not a very good contact or anything, just told him the time and location (we didn't have much time to talk). Didn't even think anything else of it... until Sunday. When Ru PeiYuan showed up with him to church. The kid's name is Li, and he knew that we knew PeiYuan so he got a hold of PeiYuan and came to church with him. Stayed all 3 hours, loved it! He's really inteligent and tried to answer all the questions in Young Mens. Then after church we sat down and had a lesson with him. He set a baptismal date, said he felt the spirit. He goes to a high school really far away so he lives in the dorms Monday through Friday. These are his words. "I can't come here and meet too often because I'm not in TaoYuan Monday through Friday, but if you give me the Book of Mormon, I can study it on my own." Miraculous was that this was before we even had talked about the Book of Mormon or given one to him. He set up a time to meet with us next Saturday, but he also said he's not sure how his mom with react because she is Taoist. He said he'd ask her this week, and I said we'd call and confirm his time Friday and see if it'd be ok. A few hours later he called and said he'd talked to his mom, she's totally fine with it, and that he's excited to meet Saturday. It was pretty sweet!
Our area is so busy. I feel bad because there are people who have a lot of potential that I feel sometimes fall through the cracks because we have no time to meet with them. We are so busy, it's really great! I wouldn't have it any other way but our investigator pool is massive right now. This combined with the zone responsibilities and organizing meetings/exchanges has forced me to be a lot more organized person. It's been a great learning experience. I love TaoYuan, it's amazing how many really prepared people live in our tiny area. I know the Lord is definitely preparing them.
I honestly can't believe how fast time flies. I love this mission. I honestly don't ever want it to end.
The gospel is true!
Taiwan's humid season has begun. Buckle up.
Elder White
***This next section was in answer to some of our questions:***
Brother Tsai met with us last week, he knows his problem is the Sabbath, he knows that he should be in church, he takes a lot of crap about the church at work, and so sometimes he gets in these little spurts of reading just the Bible and not the Book of Mormon. When that happens he always says he feels a difference, doesn't feel as good. One of the biggest problems is that the boss lets those guys with wives and kids rest the weekend, so he never has a day off. We're meeting with him tonight at the Bishop's house. Should be a good lesson. The lesson with him this week was pretty powerful and he committed to do whatever the Lord tells him to do in order to overcome this problem.
My mission president has 1 more transfer after this one. so like 2 1/2 months. Last week at zone leader council I had the weirdest thought flash through my mind, of holding that meeting with a different mission president at the head of the table. It will be crazy, I'm going to miss President Grimley. I feel like he is a perfect mission president and I really have a lot of respect for him. I know very little about President Day. I have no idea what he'll be like. However I do know that he is called of God by a living prophet. It'll be interesting but I'm excited.
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