Transfers and 100%

7/18/16

Transfer Week! Wednesday morning Elder Jensen got on the train for Taipei and then flew out for the States on Friday, so now I am with my new companion Elder Stevenson!! The whole group coming down to Hualien and Taidong missed their train Wednesday afternoon, so we had 12 Elders arrive at our apartment at 1:30 in the morning Thursday. After feeling a little bit like Bilbo Baggins while feeding them french toast and getting them out the door, I got to go out and go to work with my new companion. You may or may not recognize the name Stevenson, but yes, he is the nephew of the new member of the Twelve. He is super awesome and I am really excited for another transfer in Hualien with a great companion.

     Today in studies I was reading in Alma 53 about the 2000 Stripling Warriors, but more specifically verse 9. Our mission told us to study this chapter with pride in mind, so I kind of took this verse apart and found some really interesting things. Footnote 9a takes you to Joshua, where we read of a similar experience where the someone takes of the 'accursed thing' and they lose a big battle because of it. I think it is also interesting to note that in Joshua they only send a part of their army up to battle. So I take word 'iniquity' in verse 9 to be both disobedience to the Lord's commandments, and an incomplete integrity of heart. Looking up dissension and intrigue in the dictionary, I found these definitions: dissension-difference of opinion, intrigue-secret plans or machinations. 

     Isn't that interesting? It maybe wasn't the actions of the Nephites that caused them to lose at all, but rather the condition of their heart. Maybe they were obedient in their actions but not their hearts. Maybe they did what they were supposed to but had their own ideas that were 'better'. Maybe they were all publicly supportive of their leaders but behind their backs talked them down. All of these things are sure signs of pride, and their pride put them in the "most dangerous circumstances". I will definitely work on being more genuine and supportive of those I work with. I love you all and I hope you have a great week next week!!

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Family: 

transfers happened! This next week is only a five week transfer, so I could be training next transfer. Almost 60 missionaries are coming into the mission in the next few transfers, so most missionaries will be training. This transfer I was also assigned to be a district leader which will be really fun. The funny part is that I am only district leader over the zone leaders and the sister training leaders, so my companion is the only one without a leadership position. Kinda funny, he is super awesome though. He really likes to have fun, and he describes himself as the band nerd in high school. Bad news though, he just found out today that his grandmother died of a stroke. Really sad and very sudden. He took it hard. As for Elder Jensen though, he taught me so much. He especially taught me about the importance of personal revelation, having the Spirit with you 100% of the time, and performing simple acts of service. I've tried to pick up a lot of his habits like ironing my companion and the zone leaders shirts, making my bed in the morning, asking people what their favorite part of the day is, and a few other things like that. Granted, he stole a lot of our people's contact information which has made things hard, but I learned a lot. So I have another question: lately I have been feeling pretty stressed. The problem is that if I don't do so well during a week (like last week) with key indicators, I get stressed. Then I get stressed about having to follow-up with mission leaders about it. Then I get stressed about being stressed because you aren't supposed to be stressed about those things. It just feels like this big cycle. I'm constantly stressed about being this awesome missionary, doing everything right, following up with all my investigators, being a good district leader, the new Fenglin branch and English Class, and being a good companion as well. Like, I just get pretty stressed sometimes and it seems like when I try to relax either myself or someone else corrects me for being lazy and not an efficient missionary. Do you know of any way to just relax and just sort of enjoy the journey without having a 'anything goes' and 'I don't really care' attitude?

super cool waterfall

 an amazing place we went to call Shi Ti Ping (sounds like 'sleeping')

recent convert named Arvin

 all the beds prepared for the elders arriving at 1:30 AM

huge spider we found

a candle ceremony Elder Stevenson and I stopped quickly and watched on the way home. At the ceremony, they lit candles inside of these little plastic lotus cups and then placed them in the river. They only made it about 20 yds before being extinguished, but it was super fun to watch

I think you can guess what happened in this picture set