YOU GOTTA PLANT THE CROP BEFORE YOU CAN HARVEST

TRANSFER 4 WEEK 1

GOODBYE XINZHU --- HELLO ZHONGLI

 "I always remind myself we only have 2 years to serve and an eternity to think about how we did. 

Keep pushing.  Keep going.  The Lord WILL bless us."

Our investigator Shi2 Di4 Xiong1 took Elder Marchant and I out for Japanese food our last day together.

Our investigator Shi2 Di4 Xiong1

The coolest member out there. - Thomas Chen.

XinZhu District

I'm all packed and ready to go.

This week was a bit of a slower week. I was pretty stressed having to pack all of my stuff and leave my birth place (my first area). The week ended great though with Habib's wife, Chen2 Ya3 Yi4, getting baptized! It was really special. Elder Marchant and I and the sisters have pretty much both been teaching her so all of us were really happy to see her baptized. Habib was also able to skype the Turkish missionaries again for his new member lessons. That was cool. The whole ward pretty much came to the baptism. They all LOVE Habib and Chen Ya3 Yi4. Habib dunked her like a boss! We taught him the prayer (in English) and he practiced over and over for like an hour before the baptism. He went in the water and said it perfectly! She was super scared of water but he was able to get her down! It was really cool. To end the baptism the whole ward sang I Am a Child of God. That is Habib's and Chen2 Ya3 Yi's favorite song. Then she went up and shared her testimony. She talked a lot about how her goal in life is to endure to the end.  I was like what?? Super special night. 

Our brother Habib.  He is so great!

The following pictures were sent to Elder Willes' mom from Habib.  This one pictures
Habib giving Elder Willes a hug for his mom.

Bishop Huang2 and his wife.  The Bishop in XinZhu.  They are awesome!

We headed into Taipei.  Since Elder Marchant is training he was in meetings all day. So I spent the day with Elder Kattleman and Elder Bastian. They both have been here 2 years and were leaving that transfer meeting. So their last time doing full-time missionary work in Taiwan was with me.  Their example were great! They loved everyone on the street and we spread the good word for hours on end. That night we stayed with other missionaries in an apartment (7 total missionaries with only 4 beds).  We slept on the floor with all the cockroaches so that was a little creepy, but we survived.

Got to see Elder Dethloff and Elder Hughes at the transfer meeting. Elder Hughes is training now! Crazy stuff. Elder Dethloff is now in a tripanionship. Elder Marchant was called to train Elder Nixon who I used to play basketball with at BYU so that was pretty cool. At the transfer meeting my picture came up on the screen and showed I was going to the Tao3 Yan3 Zone Zhong1 Li4 with Elder Nelson who ironically was sitting right next to me. We gave each other a big old hug. I'm super excited because my zone leader is my trainer Elder Westover!! So I will see him at zone meeting tomorrow!

Zhongli is a large city and is about a 20 minute drive from XinZhu.  The 2 cities are pretty similar.  Zhongli is near TaoYan.  It looks exactly the same as XinZhu.  The things that are different is that this apartment in Zhongli is really nice, there are more American restaurants and the subway is here.  We also have a huge sogo mall outside of our apartment.

Elder Nelson and Elder Marchant

Elder Nelson is from Delta, Utah. Our area just baptized a great family, the Chen2 family.  A member referral. That is really great. We don't really have many investigators. We have 2 people that we hope to meet with this week. We met last Saturday with a guy from West Africa, O. He is a super smart guy and knows a lot about the Bible. It was a really interesting lesson. He is Muslim and wouldn't really listen to us. He was just trying to Bible bash. Bizarre. 

Some graffiti we found while "finding."  This area is HUGE.  My bike isn't here yet so we are walking.
My bike is being shipped by train.

This area is a lot like Xin1 Zhu2 my last area. It is an industrial area. Cha1bie3 (differences) are this place has a big sogo mall and movie theater outside our apartment. It also has some American food places.  We have a ping pong table in our apartment complex. 

A 4-story McDonald's in Zhongli.

This place is sweet.  It is a big apartment.  Elder Nelson keeps it really clean.
We both have our own refrigerator and freezer.

Last P-day I got to try a cool new food: Sha1Yu2 SHARK! haha it was delicious. Tastes just like chicken. 

"SHARK...looks and tastes just like chicken."

On Sunday we went to church and the ward was so nice to me. They were all coming up to me and welcoming me to the ward. We actually have 3 white guys in our ward. One is Brother Bell from England. Another is an older guy who I haven't met yet. The last is an RM who is now married to a Chinese woman and lives here now. He actually blessed his newborn baby in sacrament meeting. It was cool! He also translates for the other two. I had the chance to bear my testimony to the ward. It was cool. I could feel the spirit. I shared 3 Nephi 15:9 always look unto Christ. I felt really comforted knowing that even though it was hard leaving it will be a great new experience and I've already met a lot of really cool members so far. I'm excited to keep finding the prepared people. You gotta plant the crop before you can harvest so that's exactly what we are going to do! 

I came across another great scripture this week. Alma 30:44. Scriptures can help us feel Heavenly Father's love for us. I love the Book of Mormon so much and learn so much from it everyday. I always remind myself we only have 2 years to serve and an eternity to think about how we did. Keep pushing. Keep going. The Lord WILL bless us.  Love you all! 

Have an amazing week!

Elder Willes