SO THERE'S THAT

We sang, "I Am a Child of God" for them and that was really powerful! We then prayed for their families. 

The best part was all the kids huddled around us in the pitch dark with a little phone light 

as we were showing them the pictures inside the Book of Mormon.

(Oh my cute William looks so tired - Marianne)

Our recent convert, Wang JM took us all out for dinner.  Super nice of her!

Hello!

This week was another fantastic week here in Taiwan with tons of exchanges. The weeks really do fly by. This week it was confirmed that our group of missionaries will be going home December 19th. So there's that. I still have tons of work to do! I love it here, love the people, and love missionary work. I ate some pretty interesting food this week. Snail. I didn't dig that. Also, some interesting Korean food that I'm not sure what was.

Sunday was great! Lin2 JM came to all 3 hours of church and loved it. She fits right in and is doing well! We are meeting with her again tomorrow. 

On Monday I went on exchanges with a new missionary, Elder Peterson. He got on island last week and I was his first exchange. I took him back to my area and we saw some sweet miracles. We set out to go finding on the street, we said a prayer, and then right after we met these 2 really cool guys from Ireland. They asked us, "What is different about our church?" So I looked at Elder Peterson and said, "Share the Restoration baby!" So Elder Peterson started sharing his testimony and we had a really spiritual lesson. It was awesome teaching them that God has given us a book that shows how to return to Him and to feel of His love. Such a cool experience. I've had the opportunity to meet and share the gospel with tons of people from all over the world. On the top of my head---China, Japan, Marshall Islands, America, Korea, Ireland, England, Africa, Turkey, Mongolia, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Haiti, Germany, and obviously Taiwan. Literally all over. Mosiah 3:20 It was a great exchange.

Elder Peterson and Elder Willes.  Elder Peterson is a hockey player.

Mike and Kahmar (from Ireland) with Elders Peterson and Willes

On Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Green in his area. I used to live in the same apartment with him so that was really fun. We went out finding in the pouring rain and met some really great people. Met a cool girl who lives in Taichung and taught her about the Book of Mormon. She also said her first prayer. We then kept walking and felt like we should go down this little road. We kept walking and walking and there was no one in sight. We almost turned back but then we found this little park and there were 2 moms there playing with their kids. At first they didn't seem interested but over time they all got more interested. We sang, "I Am a Child of God" for them and that was really powerful! We then prayed for their families. The best part was all the kids kinda huddled around us in the pitch dark with a little phone light as we were showing them the pictures inside the Book of Mormon. It was so cool! We gave them all little pass along cards and copies of the Book of Mormon and they set up to meet with the missionaries again next week. Huge miracle! Chahooo!!! 

This week was also filled with lots of meetings. (Trainers and trainees meeting, new English leader meeting etc.) We are working on making changes to our English class textbooks and spiritual shares so we can have more effective English class! Elder Stewart and I also made a cool baptismal calendar for missionaries to use with their investigators. 

Yesterday we went on another exchange in Xin1 Zhu2 my first area! That was a blast. I was with Elder Payne who is a Zone Leader there. We went to visit Wang2 DX who was baptized last year. Do you remember? His baptism was when the baptismal font flooded last year. That was the one. Anyway we had a cool lesson with him. We were reading the Book of Mormon and I felt like we should pray again. So we said another prayer. And then it was so cool to see how the spirit taught him and how he started experiencing the scriptures! Super great :) When we sincerely pray, God will open up our spiritual eyes to learn from His word. 

I saw Thomas in Xin Zhu. Love this guy!

Elder Willes and Elder Perkins who is from Bountiful (Perkins and Payne are companions in Xin Zhu)

Elder Willes and Elder Payne

Brother Wang and Elder Willes

I saw this kid with a Minnesota Vikings t-shirt.  Go Vikings baby!

Elder Stewart and Elder Willes hitting the links on p-day

Look out boys

My awesome comp Elder Stewart

Sister Teng, the wife of my MTC Branch President, was visiting Taiwan.  Cool to see her.

Went on a bike ride for a little exercise

It was a great and fulfilling week! I learned that the spirit of God is always around us we just need to look for it! Also we need to pray before we do anything to invite the spirit. Alma 37:36-37

I love being a missionary. Life is good! Miss you and love you all!

Elder Willes