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

I AM THE LUCKIEST MISSIONARY IN THE WORLD! (Saturday, August 15, 2015)

"Your prayers have helped me to see lots of miracles on my mission. Blessings have come to me 

in abundance. Your prayers and support have given me energy when I don't know how I've been able to keep going. They've given me faith when I've needed it the most. I'm so grateful Heavenly Father 

answers prayers through action. I know that Heavenly Father answers all of my prayers and yours too. 

I know that He loves us and through His son we will all be able to return to Him one day." 

Friends and family!

This week was a really busy one! It was transfer week AND we got new missionaries!

Taiwan humidity problems - books and pages stuck together

On Monday of this week we actually had time to go out proselyting and I went with our new operations assistant Elder Xiao1. We saw some sweet miracles. The first guy we met lived in Ban3Qiao2, my last area. We asked him to pull over while we were all stopped at a red light. He did and we had a cool lesson with him. He was really cool and I'm glad we could plant a seed there. We also met a Filipino man, Sean, from Delaware of all places haha. He believed in a great spirit but didn't know who God was. I immediately thought of how Ammon (my scripture hero) taught King Lamoni and helped him have a spiritual experience. So we taught Sean who God is and how He has a perfect and personal relationship with everyone. He said a cool prayer and we asked him how he felt and he said he felt closer to God and how he actually now believes he can rely on God in his life. We were like wow! Sweet! So we hope to meet with him again this next week. 

Other than Monday, Elder Stewart and I have not had a ton of time in our area this week, but we are praying with faith that our area will see miracles and that referrals will come! We did receive a referral from the Wanda Elders. Lin2 JM is 21 and  likes English, music, and is a really cool girl. Our first lesson with her we felt prompted to just teach her about the Book of Mormon. (she already had one) As we reviewed the Restoration and taught her about the Restoration she told us she didn't believe it, had no desire to read the Book of Mormon, and probably wouldn't read it. She did say that she wanted to be closer to God. We told her the Book of Mormon is HOW she can become closer to God. We invited her to read Alma 32 and she said she would read it! 3 days later she called us and said she had read Alma 32 and indeed felt closer to God. We told her that these feelings were coming from the Spirit. It was super cool! She's coming to church tomorrow and we are excited about her. We also have one other investigator we haven't met yet but we hope to meet with her in the upcoming week. Please pray for these investigators.

This week we welcomed 25 new missionaries. All so bright and so excited to be here. 5 of the new missionaries are from Taiwan. Soooo cool. The new missionaries do make me feel old though. They all ask, "Elder Willes how long have you been serving?" I would tell them about a year and a half and their eyes would get huge. Man the time really does fly. Gotta make every day count!

Going to pick up some new TAIWAN TAIPEI MISSIONARIES!

Elders Willes and Stewart with President and Sister Jergensen eating at the airport 

The ONLY drinking fountain I've ever seen in Taiwan

25 new missionaries outside the Grand Hotel

Airport Pic (taken from the Jergensen's blog)

On the bus with all the new missionaries (taken from the Jergensen's blog)

The Taiwanese missionaries had just come out of security and one of the sisters had left her passport in the bathroom way before customs check in! We were worried. So we all said a prayer that the passport would still be there and that they would find it. These Sisters ran and about 2 minutes later were back with the passport. That was a big blessing. 

We were also able to take all the new missionaries to the temple this week. That was a special and sacred experience for me. It was one I will remember always. It was so cool to go to the temple 3 times in the past 3 weeks! I am the LUCKIEST MISSIONARY IN THE WORLD. :)

Elder Willes with some of the new Taipei missionaries

Elder Stewart and I are eternal companions! We are on our 3rd transfer together. That's exciting. Should be a fun one. We have lots of exchanges and outdoor Zone Conferences coming up. 

Cool quote: "We feel the Spirit whenever we are listening." We just have to be listening and allow God to love us and bless us! He will answer all our prayers. Your prayers have helped me to see lots of miracles on my mission. Blessings have come to me in abundance. Your prayers and support have given me energy when I don't know how I've been able to keep going. They've given me faith when I've needed it the most. I'm so grateful Heavenly Father answers prayers through action. I know that Heavenly Father answers all of my prayers and yours too. I know that He loves us and through His son we will all be able to return to Him one day. 

Love you all! Have a great week

Elder Willes

MLC (taken from the Jergensen's blog)

MLC (taken from the Jergensen's blog)

SAFE AND SOUND AND ALL IS WELL

"We said a prayer on the sidewalk and the next person we talked to was this mom. 

We sat down and had a great lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon. I love teaching. 

I love the spirit you feel when you get to share truth with others."

WOW! A crazy week on the island of Taiwan. We are all safe and sound and all is well! 

DRENCHED IN THE RAIN

Typhoon Soudelor rolled into Taiwan with a fury. It has been crazy. Winds and rains like I've never seen before. I've weathered several typhoons while in Taiwan and this wasn't even comparable. Super cool to look outside and watch the storm. This will give us missionaries plenty of service opportunities. Awesome! President Dieter F. Uchtdorf personally called President Jergensen to make sure that all the missionaries were safe and inside and stayed where they were supposed to be until the typhoon passed. So President Jergensen had us call and relay this information.

This last week Elder Stewart and I got in a car accident on the freeway. My companion was driving. Driving is crazy here.  We are OK!  Such a Big blessing. We did have to spend a full day at the police station filling out paperwork and Elder Stewart did have to take some alcohol tests. What a crazy adventure.  

I went on 2 exchanges this week. Both with two different Zone Leaders - Elder Taulepa from Australia and Elder Loke from Malaysia. So so cool. Elder Taulepa and I went out finding and met some really cool people. We said a prayer on the sidewalk and the next person we talked to was this mom. She was really nice. We sat down with her and had a great lesson and gave her a Book of Mormon. I love teaching. I love the spirit you feel when you get to share truth with others. It was really cool. Elder Taulepa was so nice and told me on the exchange that he felt so strongly that I was where I needed to be serving and that I am the right man to help him and the other missionaries. It meant the world to me to hear those words. Overall a great exchange!

Elder Taulepa and Elder Willes

The other exchange I had was with Elder Loke. It was great. We were out contacting and we met a girl with my same name! It was crazy because my name Wei2 is very rare and that was the first time I've ever talked to somebody with my same name. It was cool. She didn't have a lot of interest in meeting with us but she did take a Book of Mormon and that was cool! Also, we met with a less active member, Brother Guo1. We are really pushing to help him. We had a great spiritual lesson with him and we hope he will be coming to church tomorrow! We are praying for him!

Elder Loke and Wei2 and Wei 2

Brother Guo1 DX and Elder Willes

A really spiritual contact (Daphne) with Elder Loke and Elder Willes

We had the Mission Leadership Council last week and Sister Jergensen made us Cafe Rio!!! Big burritos with rice and beans and everything! Let's just say we were all in HEAVEN for an hour. Incredible! The meeting went really well. Our motto for the month is "Captained by Christ." President and Sister Jergensen gave an example of how when we are on a boat we don't always see or hear the captain but he's always there. Just like Christ. He's always there for us and we are the servants. He trusts us to go and do. So it was a really powerful meeting and we are all striving everyday to be Captained by Christ! Really really cool. 

Awesome chefs in the kitchen. Awesome people!

One of the highlights of the week, yesterday (Friday), we actually got to take all of our recent converts (Chen JM, Huang2 DX, Lai4 JM, and Wang2 JM Vanessa) to the temple to do temple baptisms. It was such a neat experience. They all loved it. Wang2 JM got really scared of the water before she went in but once she got in the temple the spirit calmed her and she loved it. They all loved it! It was such a great night! How cool is that, that I get to see people I love move forward by going to the temple? The best.

Our other recent convert Chen JM spoke at the new member fireside last Sunday. She talked about the spirit she felt strongly when Elder Stewart and I shared D&C 121:6-8. "Remember thy suffering saints, O our God; and thy servants will rejoice in thy name forever. My son, peace be unto they soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; and then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all they foes." Chen JM then said that God has helped her to share the gospel. She has already given us 4 referrals! 3 don't live in our area but Penny has already set a baptismal date and is doing really well! Wow when we just open our mouths the Lord will tell us what to say. Such a big miracle. 

I'm so glad Nate had a boss time in Fiji. That is such a fun and cool pre-mission experience. Also, knowing that Jake and dad were at scout camp brings back some good memories! Mom I'm so glad you and the family are able to meet some of my Taiwanese buddies. They love you! 

Sorry this week has been such a blur. D&C 123:17.  

"Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; 

and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, 

and for his arm to be revealed."

Just love it. We can't control our situation at times or other people's decisions, but we can control our attitude and our diligence. This scripture has helped me out a lot lately. Love this work. Love Jesus Christ. So grateful to have a perfect and fixed example to follow everyday. Love you all!

Have a great week! 

Elder Willes

MORE FROM TAIWAN

The baptismal font at the Toufen Chapel

A really spiritual contact that we referred to the Muzha Sisters