Know/Do/Poison

5/22/16

Let us put some organization in this letter.

     Taiwan Stuff -- Sorry I have been bad in this category. The mosquitoes here are vicious beyond comprehension. That is not the reason I have been bad in this category, but it is the reason why my whole arm itches. We made some phone calls outside yesterday (bad idea) and got eaten alive. Not only that, it was raining! The mosquitoes could care less about the rain. Also, I realized that a snake I ran into a few months ago in Beitou is one of Taiwan's most poisonous snakes. We also got warned by a 5th grader to watch out for snakes hanging from trees. Oh! And doorbells here aren't the normal 'ding-dong' of America, but rather this tweeting bird thing that I can't explain.

     Investigator update  --  Eric 何信全 is pretty cool, but he is afraid he won't be able to get baptized because his parents won't let him. I mean, he is in his late 20s, but Taiwanese parents are pretty protective. Hana 陳怡君 has to go to court again at the end of July, but she is still working with us to get over her addictions so she could use a prayer or two. Nick 廖帥哥 is scheduled to be baptized on June 18th, but didn't come to church last Sunday. Bummer! Those three are our best investigators right now, but we have a lot of other awesome people we are meeting with as well!

     

    Spiritual Thought  --  I've been studying this last week about the whole knowing and doing process. Especially in the church, there are a lot of times where we need to just do without knowing (1 Nephi 3:7 kinda thing). That being said, there is a really good argument for knowing before doing (1 John 7:17 kinda thing). So, we have this interesting tension between knowing and doing. President Jergensen described it as a little bit like a slinky being held vertically. 12 o'clock is knowing, and 6 o'clock is doing, so you just have to continue up the slinky going through a process of understanding and action. I would just like to add a quick analogy that really helped me understand this process a little better. The way I see it, knowing and doing is like two friends walking along two parallel paths in a wooded forest. Because of the density of the trees, only every once in a while do the two come into correspondence. The important thing is to keep walking. Sometimes our name is Knowing, and other times our name is Doing, but I believe that when we can't see our other friend, we shouldn't panic. We just have to have a little faith and keep walking with the knowledge that if we do, we will eventually both know AND do the things the Lord asks of us. Sorry that was a little long, but I hope we all can understand that a little faith goes a long way. I love you all!

Pictures from the roof of our apartment. I seriously took like 5 or 6 photos that all looked ridiculous because it was super windy and super bright and so my tie was flying everywhere and my eyes were all squinty, and so this was the last photo after I just got sick of it.

Yes. I got cereal. So happy. So mad we couldn't find Honey Bunches of Oats (they sold out like a week before I got there) but the sacrifice of waking up at 5 to go to a special store for cereal was worth it.

Super cool beach! The whole zone went and played frisbee and football, and then as we were about to leave a huge storm came in and it was so pretty. We got soaked. There was this fishing guy fighting the waves, and I wish I could've gotten a better picture. There was something so poetic but I couldn't capture it. Sorry dad.

I couldn't resist the first picture. The chinese makes it even better: 
"Jojo makes everything look more beautiful." 

Check out the size of that butterfly. You see ones that big all the time!!!