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)