A PYTHON ON P-DAY

"So outside the temple on this tiny patch of grass lawn, we sat in a circle and taught her the Restoration. The spirit was super strong. President Jergensen is a boss! Then we invited her to pray and she was hesitant. But after about 30 seconds of silence she was willing! She said an AWESOME prayer."

Thought I had maybe broken my thumb...it's just sprained

Wow this week flew by and it's only been 5 days but SO much has happened. On Monday we took some time for p-day and went to Dan4Shui3, which is Uncle Dan's favorite area! We ate big ice cream cones and went shopping. That was tons of fun! I even held a python snake. Literally the scariest thing of my life haha especially when it was crawling up and licking my arm. 

While in Dan4Shui3 we also had some really cool missionary experiences. 

We passed this store and I felt like we should go back. We went back and I just wasn't sure why. Well the owner turns out to be a member! He was baptized about 15 years ago but became less active. He did say he was willing to meet with missionaries again so we took his number and referred him to the Dan4 Shui3 Elders. So that was really cool! We also met a couple, who were not members, that has a grandson on a mission in Hong Kong and we were able to talk to them a little bit about the Church. 

On Monday night we planned to meet with our less active member, Sun1 JM, and re-teach the Restoration to her. Our member Pei2 Ke4 (bailed out last minute) so we called President Jergensen and asked if he could help us teach her. He could! So outside the temple on this tiny patch of grass lawn, we sat in a circle and taught her the Restoration. The spirit was super strong. President Jergensen is a boss! Then we invited her to pray and she was hesitant. But after like 30 seconds of silence she was willing! She said an AWESOME prayer. Overall such a cool lesson.

This week has been filled with meet-n-greets. We have been accompanying the Jergensens to all the Zones to meet everyone and introduce their family. That's been really fun. We even went to the beautiful East Coast for a day. 

The drive to Hualian (the East Coast) is long but it is so pretty and so different from the city.  Lots of these pictures are taken from the car, or from an overlook, on our way. We went for the meet-n-greet there with President Jergensen and his family. 

On Tuesday we went out finding and saw some really cool miracles. We contacted into this couple who turned out to be Christian. I started teaching the husband and my companion the wife. Anyway, this guy starts trying to argue with me and tells me how our church is wrong. He's like a foot away from my face just whipping out Bible scriptures and telling me we aren't Christians. It was so cool for me cuz I felt so filled with the spirit I didn't care at all to argue with him. I even felt love for him. I started testifying of the Restoration, the Book of Mormon, and priesthood authority, and then he asked, "So you're telling me all the people I have baptized as a minister in the last 30 years don't count?" I boldly and lovingly shared my testimony with him that we believe that ours is the only true church on the earth and the only church with the proper P. Authority to baptize. It was so cool! I felt so pumped up by the end of the contact.  He even accepted a Book of Mormon and said he would try and read it! 

We found a new investigator Brother Fang1! Super great kid with some good potential. Our investigator Wang2 JM is great. She initially met missionaries in Ban3Qiao4 like 3 months ago where I was serving. So I'm not sure if that was me and my companion or the other Elders. But super cool! She is progressing great but just struggles a little with Joseph Smith but slowly she is changing! She's obeying all the commandments. Pray for her.  

On Thursday we met a really cool guy outside the chapel. Stanley is an atheist and doesn't believe in God. We asked him some questions and found out he had been struggling. But we taught him about prayer and the power of Jesus Christ and His atonement giving each of us the ability transform our family, our lives etc. We had a really spiritual lesson with him and he felt the spirit and recognized it too! He told us whenever he ran into trials and problems in his marriage he would think of this night and apply what he learned. It was really cool!

Stanley with Elder Stewart and Elder Willes

Yesterday and today we were on an exchange with the Tou2 Fen4 Elders. We saw some really cool miracles. Got a referral and felt like we should visit a less active RM.  After 30 minutes of searching for his house we found it, he was there, and let us in! Had a great lesson with him. The last couple of days a mini typhoon came through Taiwan. 

On exchanges with Elder Merrell (18 yrs).  He is great.

This is my recent convert, Xiang4 Mu4 JM.  She is living in Japan and doing great!  She is preparing to take a bunch of family names to the temple in August or September.  These Sisters serving in Japan email me and do a great job taking care of Xiang4 Mu4 JM.  

 Scripture of the week Jacob 3:1-2. "But behold, I...would speak unto you that are pure in heart.  Look unto God with firmness of mind, and O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your minds are firm, forever."  Jacob 3:1-2  This scripture brought me a lot of comfort and direction this week.  

I love you all. You are all in my prayers and I can feel your prayers for me.  

The church is true and the book is blue! 

The book is true too :) 

Have a great week!

Elder Willes

I AM WHERE I'M SUPPOSED TO BE

"It's been a crazy week but I'm feeling blessed. This week I feel very strongly that I am where I'm supposed to be. 

I haven't really had that feeling the past 6 weeks, but now I know, and am very grateful!"

Hello and Happy 4th of July everyone! 
We celebrated here in Taiwan by eating delicious American burgers and fries for a meal on Saturday. Seriously, American food tops it all. 

Last year on the 4th of July Elder Marchant and I found Brother Zhong1 who ended up being baptized so that was really cool! An even better way to celebrate. This year was a little harder. Lots of rejection, really hot, and lots of rain. It's all good this was such a great week!

This week I said goodbye to President and Sister Day. You could tell they had mixed feelings. Excited to see their family but sad to leave all the missionaries. 

The last day with President and Sister Day we went out for mango-ice.  The best!

Bright and early Tuesday morning (4:00 a.m.) Elder Stewart and I left to pick up our new Mission President and his family.  The Jergensen's flight had got in an hour early so they were already there at the airport waiting for us! We drove President Jergensen's 3 kids back to the mission home. The two 15 year old twin boys and their 19 year old daughter. It felt like I was back with Nate and Jake again. Pretty cool! 

Leaving bright and early to go pick up President Jergensen and his family

President Jergensen's kids

We got home from the airport and were super stressed trying to get everything situated and President Jergensen called us and said, "I want you to meet my family." So we went over and spent an hour introducing ourselves and getting to know each other.  The Jergensens are a really personal and loving family. Really easy to connect with! They LOVE boating and love sports. They also love to visit California and are HUGE BYU fans. I quizzed their BYU knowledge and yup they are definitely true blue. Said its a little rough living in Logan being a die-hard Cougar fan. Haha good stuff. 

The exchange of keys and phones.  Bitter-sweet for all of us!

The next morning we got a call from President and he said, "Elders we need to go do some missionary work this morning." So we went to breakfast with his family and then went on splits for about an hour. I went with Brecken one of the 15 year old twins. The first girl we talked to was really cool and we even had a lesson with her. Brecken prayed for her and bore his testimony all in Chinese. I was impressed! The Lord was pouring out miracles on us!  The entire family is just so pumped about being here to share the gospel.  It is incredible. It was definitely a morning of miracles. I loved it. President Jergensen was talking to everyone he could see. 

We took them on a variety of errands this week (food, camera shop, DMV for licenses and tons more). We have met with President and have created a vision for the mission that each companionship can have 1 baptism per month. There are like 93 companionships in the mission. That would be really cool! 

This week we also had a new meeting with the newly called District Leaders. It was the first time President Jergensen spoke to us all. He expressed how much he loved us and how they loved us before they got here. You can just feel that love! So great. 

The next day we had the Mission Leadership Council for all  Zone Leaders and all Sister Training Leaders. Elder Stewart and I trained on "the power and authority of your calling." We wanted to get all these missionary leaders fired up and pumped up for the week. To start our training I read my mission call and we talked about how the Lord from the get-go has put His trust and confidence in us. We shared some cool scriptures and to finish we had them all stand up. We talked about the importance of unity and uniting together as God's army and said, "Elders hug every single Elder in this room and Sisters the same with Sisters." We are striving to be one in purpose and action. Then we shared Mosiah 18:21 "One HUG, one faith, one united mission, one baptism." We are united and doing the same work together. It was super cool! Then we all sang Let us all Press on. It was So cool! Such a cool training. 

We had a great member lesson. Elder Stewart had a great idea with this member family. We sang hymns to them while they pondered about who was ready for a gospel message. They made a list of like 15 people and they are pumped to go and share the gospel with their friends and family. 

Our investigator Wang2 JM is doing really well! Coming to church every week and should be getting baptized July 25th so we are excited for that! Our less active member Sun1 JM came to church again so that was super exciting!! Sunday we had a new member fireside that I conducted and Sister Jergensen bore her testimony in Chinese! 

I love Grandma Bingham and will miss her and her fudge.  She is so great and happy and kind. Tell Mamoo I love her and am sorry about Grandma. 

It's been a crazy week but I'm feeling blessed. This week I feel very strongly that I am where I'm supposed to be. I haven't really had that feeling the past 6 weeks, but now I know, and am very grateful! By the way my p-day will be switching to Saturdays so we can help out on Mondays. Too much to do. So next week I will be emailing on Saturday. Good stuff. Love you all!! 

Elder Willes

We have 6 cute teenagers that are serving 7-day mission and going and living with missionaries for 7 days to do missionary work.  We assigned one of the Elders to Ban Qiao with Elder Tan.  We held a little transfer meeting for them.  It was cool!

Treats from home

Killing roaches