"Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.
O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in the time of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation ..." Mormon 9: 21, 27
 |
| Elder Tan and Elder Willes |
Hello from Taiwan! Hope everyone had a good week in America. This week was another great week here. My first district meeting, as district leader, went really well! I led a discussion on following the spirit and everyone shared personal experiences of theirs while following the spirit. It was really spiritual and really cool! We had a great week with our investigators as well!
Our investigator Xu2 DX is almost 2 weeks clean from drinking tea and coffee and he passed his baptismal interview!! As long as everything goes to plan he will be getting baptized this upcoming Saturday night! He's a 25 year old guy that is so excited to come unto Christ. He really wants to get baptized because he wants the gift of the Holy Ghost. Super sweet. We are pumped for him! Keep him in your prayers. I also had the opportunity to do my first baptismal interview as district leader. It was such a cool experience. I interviewed Chen2 DX, the Sister's investigator. He's a guy in his 60's who has such a fire for gospel learning. He was just preaching to me and bearing testimony the whole interview. It was awesome. So he got baptized 2 days ago on Saturday! His baptism was really cool. Even President and Sister Day came. I also will be doing the Sister's other investigator's interview tonight. Diamon is his name. Super cool guy in his 20's. Keep him in your prayers so he can be able to overcome his challenges and be baptized.
All of our other investigators are doing really well. Our 17 year old investigator Isabel is so cool! We met with her and read with her in 3 Nephi 27 about baptism. The spirit was so strong. She told us in her other church she didn't feel the spirit that much, but she feels that ever since she met us and has been reading the Book of Mormon her relationship with God is so much better! Isabel has set a baptismal date for the middle of April!
My English teaching/speaking/grammar is pretty bad so Elder Tan and I are going to work on some role plays where he, who just got to Taiwan, practices teaching in Chinese and I teach in English. We will see how that goes and if it helps! Isabel speaks English. She is from the Philippines. She texted us yesterday and her parents, who are Catholic, aren't very happy she met us and has been reading the Book of Mormon so keep her in your prayers as well. We are going to try and get to know her parents this week.
Our RC Lin2 Zhi4 Ren2 DX is such a BOSS. Oh man.. We couldn't find a pei2 ke4 (member accompanied lesson) and all the sudden he calls us and he's like "I want to go and do missionary work with you guys today! Do you have any lessons I could help with?" We were like, "Yes!! Yes we do!" He's super, super cool. His testimony is so strong. He received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday and is looking forward to temple baptisms with us in April!
 |
| Lin2 Zhi4 Ren2 DX and Elder Willes |
Our ward also had a cool activity this week where all of the missionaries in our zone taught members how to do missionary work. We did role plays, practices, etc. Then we all went on splits together and went street contacting. I took Lin2 DX and our Bishop's daughter who is 19 yrs old and we went out contacting. We knelt on the sidewalk and asked Heavenly Father where we should go. We started contacting and I felt like we should turn around. The first guy we bumped into was a Christian and we were able to teach him a lesson and give him a Book of Mormon! We had 4 lessons on the street. So crazy! There was this one guy who said he didn't believe in God. Then Lin2 DX said, " Before I didn't either. But once you come to church and feel Christ's love you will KNOW that God is there and cares about you.! " He is a natural missionary. It was so fun!
 |
| Our companionship |
Probably the biggest miracle this week was with our other investigator Xiao1 JM this week. She is the woman we met on the street during Chinese New Year whose mom had recently passed away. Xiao1 JM is in her 40's, lives alone, has seizures everyday, and is really sick. But she came to church! In fact an hour early! She was all dressed up and looked so happy. It was so cool. In gospel principles class the teacher had her introduce herself. Xiao1 JM talked about how she had never been to church in her life and how she woke up Sunday morning feeling so nervous and almost backed out. But then she prayed and got this overwhelming feeling that she needed to go to church and how glad she was she could come! The teacher had all these little slips of paper with life problems on them. She wanted everyone in the class to grab one of these slips of paper and then discuss how prayer could help us overcome these challenges. Xiao1 JM was the first one to grab a slip of paper. She returned to her seat and read it to me and the paper said, "sicknesses." Xiao1 JM just started crying. She shared with the class how she has never prayed for herself because she feels selfish even though now she is very sick, but she knows this experience at church is a sign God loves her and cares about her. We talked in class about how according to our needs God will bless us. So so so cool. Mormon 9:21, 27.
"Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.
O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in the time of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation ..."
She loved church! Oh man there was just too many miracles this week.
Also, Tang2 DX got a calling and guess what it was?? He's a ward missionary!! Chahooo. Such a stud. Oh man. We also had 4 LA's at church. Bishop also gave a great talk in Sacrament meeting. He shared a quote I really liked, "It's not about if we are active in the church, it's about if we are active in the gospel." I know President Uchtdorf said the best way to experience the gospel's joy is to live it. So I invite all of you to enjoy the journey. Live the gospel. Be optimistic. God loves us! The church is true!
And today is p-day so we're going to the zoo!!
 |
| Good food just never gets old |
Love,
Elder Willes
No comments:
Post a Comment