Elder William Willes Taiwan Taipei: RATS AND RAIN

TRANSFER 11 - WEEK 3

"I don't know how our area is seeing so many miracles because we are so busy and don't have a lot of time in our area but we are working hard and the Lord is definitely watching out for us."

After being out in one of the many rain storms of the week

Hello everyone! Wow this week was probably the most tiring week from my mission but it was such a great week.

I haven't driven a car in a LONG time. Lots and lots of biking but no driving. Well on Wednesday I drove President and Sister Day to ZhuNan for Zone Conferences. It is about a 1 hour and 30 minute drive. It was kinda scary. There are like a million scooters on the roads here. It is unlike anything I've ever seen. We got there safely though so that's good. We had our first official day of Zone Conferences together. It was super fun. Elder Stewart and I did our training on role plays in companionship study. Also while in ZhuNan I got to go on exchanges with Elder Dethloff! So much fun. Reunited with my college brotha! Our last day at BYU together I treated him to Dairy Queen and he said he always remembered that and so he treated me to some nice McDonald's Taiwan Style. It was sweet. He and I also taught their English class. He teaches the little kids and I loved it! It was a great exchange.

Elder Willes and Elder Dethloff

The next day we went to Tao2 Yuan2 for Zone Conferences. There I went on exchanges with Elder Griffin who I took out to do missionary work his very first night here in Taiwan last winter. We had some pretty crazy finding stories together!

Elder Willes and Elder Griffin

We were sitting next to this guy talking with him and all of the sudden there was, I kid you not, 15 rats running around us. Literally it was nuts! We kept getting rejected and rejected while we were out finding together but then we saw this guy about 100 yards away and I said, "Let's run after him and tell him we have a really important message we want to share with him." So we start sprinting after this guy in the rain. Elder Griffin had all of his little pamphlets fall out of his pocket (we call that a "pocket puke") But despite the rain, the pocket puke and the 100 yard advantage, we chased this kid down and he turned out to be a 20 year old who was leaving to study in Canada in a few days. He was super cool. We taught him how to pray. Prayed for him. Gave him a Book of Mormon and had an awesome lesson with him. Super cool miracle.

Worth the chase

That night we were contacting again and ran into this old guy. He was a little crazy but we told him we wanted to show him the chapel. So we walked this old guy to the chapel and gave him a chapel tour. We sat in our beautiful chapel and I played hymns for him and Elder Griffin and I taught him about the Sacrament and Jesus Christ. We all sang together Sweet Hour of Prayer. This old dude just started glowing with the spirit. He could feel it so strong. I felt so grateful for chapels and how the spirit is so strong there! He said he hoped to come to church on Sunday!

The NEXT day I had the 3-PEAT with my 3rd straight day of exchanges in different cities. I went with the Zone Leader in Tucheng, Elder Huntsman, and he is a boss! We had a great exchange. We had lots of time for more finding but did eat some American burgers. Before we went out finding Elder Huntsman said such a spiritual prayer. Our prayers were answered and we met this guy from Belgium. Super cool guy. It can be intimidating on the streets but we both had the spirit with us and we taught him about prayer and had a really cool lesson with him. Talked a lot about God. Why we believe in Him. How we can know if He's there. It was a really cool lesson. Super cool meeting people from all around the world and teaching the gospel. "All nations, kindreds, tongues, AND people" will hear the gospel. Super cool.

Elder Huntsman, Elder Willes and the investigator they found from Belgium

Another tender mercy and blessing I saw was a sister in our mission who ran out of Chinese copies of the Book of Mormon. This week she only had Tagalog copies so whenever she saw any Filipinos on the street she would give them a Book of Mormon. So sick!!

Lastly our investigator Chen2 JM Rita was baptized this week. Super special baptismal service. She has a great testimony. We sang a musical number for her, her favorite song Because I Have Been Given Much.

Rita, Elder Stewart and Elder Willes

I don't know how our area is seeing so many miracles because we are so busy and don't have a lot of time in our area but we are working hard and the Lord is definitely watching out for us. Our investigator Wang2 JM has a baptismal date for June 27th. She is progressing well. Also Lu2 JM is progressing well.

On Sunday we took the Sacrament to a less active member with health problems and that was really cool. We got completely DOMINATED by a Taiwan rain storm.