Monday, December 22, 2014

MY HEART IS FULL TODAY. JUST SO, SO, SO HAPPY!

Hello! I want to wish everyone an early Merry Christmas! 

My heart is full today. I don't really know why. Just so, so, so happy! At this Christmas time, yes I miss the family. Yesterday at church a 17 year old boy gave a talk about his brother who just got back from his mission and how he has been such a great example to him. Then the next speaker was the older brother who had just returned home :) Reminded me of Nate. Also, there was a brother- brother combo, one who was blessing and one passing the sacrament and that reminded me of Nate and Jake as well. I wish I could see them doing all these good things. 



But this week was another great one here in Taiwan :)  First, our investigator Chen2 Jie3 Mei4 passed her baptismal interview :) As long as everything goes well she will be getting baptized on Christmas Day! How cool is that? We are just praying everything goes well. Ever since we shared with her the quit smoking program 2 1/2 weeks ago she hasn't picked up another cigarette. So cool. 

Chen2 Ji3 Mei4 will hopefully be baptized on Christmas Day!  Isn't that awesome?!  She feeds us TONS of fruit.

Also, our other investigator Lai4 Jie3 Mei4 is by far the kindest person I've ever met. Holy cow so Christlike. She is such a good person. It truly has been an honor being able to find these 2 daughters of God and see them progress the past few months! Lai4 Jie3 Mei4 and Chen2 Jie3 Mei4 are both loved by the ward! Everyone adores them! Lai4 Jie3 Mei4 is having her baptismal interview this weekend and will be getting baptized next week on January 4th :). Every time we meet with her she feeds us food and gets us gloves and warmers to keep us warm. Mom and dad you would really love these two!

With Jimmy, our investigator from Haiti.  He is progressing slowly slowly slowly as is Huang2 Jessica and Hook.  They are all busy BUT Hook did come to church yesterday.
Also, we had another cool experience this week. Our Ward Mission Leader, Wu2 Di4 Xiong1, drove us to the farthest part of our area (30 minute drive) to find some LA's. The first few hours we had very little, in fact no success. The people we visited weren't home. But we call this random guy, Brother Yang2. He said he could meet! So we met up with him.  He had been baptized 8 years ago and about 6 years ago stopped coming to church. We lovingly invited him back into the fold and to partake of the blessings of the gospel. And he's prepared! He accepted. He came an hour early to church yesterday in a very good looking suit :) Cool miracle!! 

Elder Jensen is great. He wanted to eat at a BBQ and he payed for me! It was so nice of him!! We ate some crazy stuff.  Chicken heart, more ostrich, deer meat, squid, pig intestine, chicken cartilage. Also, we had this fish that was pregnant and the belly was full of hundreds of tiny eggs. Haha interesting. Chicken heart is really good and ostrich is really good!

Elder Jensen and Elder Willes enjoying some BBQ - Taiwan style!




This week was special because members and LA's were great to us. The Chen2 Family took us to this AMAZING hot pot place. OH so good. Also, Chen2 DX, a LA, took us out for Thai food. Elder Jensen loves Thai food and now I do too. Holy cow so delicious. 

This is the Chen2 family.  They are recent converts and are so good to us.  They treat us like kings.  I LOVE them.  Mom and Dad they want to meet you when we come back to Taiwan!

So great being with these people.  I love Thai food.  Man that was good.  Chen2 DX with Elders Jensen and Willes.

So many spiritual experiences this week. One was with a former investigator of 8 years, Bao3 Feng4. Her sister is a member but she isn't baptized because her family opposes. We had a cool lesson where we had her write down all the things the gospel has blessed her with and invited her to give it to her husband. She said she couldn't do it. Then we invited her to pray. In the middle of the prayer she just stopped... Was just crying and crying. For like 5 minutes there was just silence and then she had the courage and said one of the most sincere prayers ever. After the prayer she just started writing and writing. It was so cool! She was happy and excited to once again ask her husband to participate in church activities! Pray for her! 

Lastly we had the chance last night to go to Wu2 Di4 Xiong1's house, our Ward Mission Leader. They moved and were dedicating their house. He asked me to say the prayer. It was a really cool experience for me.  Ahh man. Things are good here :) Couldn't be happier. 

Alma 42:31. "And now, O my son, ye are called of God to preach the word unto this people.  And now, my son, go thy way, declare the word with truth and soberness, that thou mayest bring souls unto repentance, that the great plan of mercy may have claim upon them.  And may God grant unto you even according to my words.  Amen." 

This is my calling. All of my dreams are about missionary work. Haha love you all. Have a merry Christmas and don't forget the real meaning of Christmas! 

Elder Willes

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