Follow Up, Family, and Forgiveness

10/16/16

One miracle we saw this last week was seeing the FengLin Elders getting a family to come to church. The whole ward just swarmed the family after sacrament meeting and made them feel so welcome. I felt like it really got the ward excited, and it was amazing to see. The family was so golden, and the Elders haven't even met with them more than once or twice but they still wanted to come to church (45 minute drive or more) and just see how it was. It totally brought the ward together and it got me really excited to work hard and baptize some Melchizedek Priesthood Holders so that there are enough to open a branch down there! 

     This last week we went up to Taipei to have the trainer/trainee follow-up meeting. Basically, it is a meeting halfway through training to just see how things were going and to make plans to be successful for the remaining transfer. I'm not exactly a happy grasshopper on an ATV when I have to catch a train at 6 in the morning, but the meeting was awesome and we learned a ton. One thing we decided on was to take a serious look at dropping our investigators. We don't have many, so it will have to take a lot of faith, but we haven't had an investigator at church for a very long time and we decided to use it as a gauge to measure whether or not we should keep meeting with these investigators. Next week after prayer, inviting everyone to church, seeing who came to church, and prayer again, we will see who to keep meeting with. So, in terms of investigators, not too much else to report on.

     One of my all-time favorite passages of scripture is John 8:1-11. What an extremely powerful example of teaching and such a touching message of forgiveness. With but three questions and one command, He changes the life of a woman and causes an anger-driven group of scribes and Pharisees to retreat in introspection and deep-thought. I can only imagine what it would feel like to be those Pharisees, and I can only begin to imagine what it would feel like to be that woman. How often do we feel as she does--lonely, guilty, ashamed, imperfect, accused? We all have a time when we are cast in the dirt, spiritually floundering, begging for any kind of mercy but finding none. What hope we can all find in those comforting words, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." What a testimony I have that through this wonderful Master Teacher, our Savior Jesus Christ, we can leave whatever mess we might think we are and become that wonderful child of God that He knows we are. That is why I am here in Taiwan. I believe that is all why we are here, wherever we are. I hope this next week you can take a moment or two with me to ponder on the joy of forgiveness, and the enabling power of Christ's Atonement. I love you all!

heart attack for a convert's house. Trying to win their hearts! 

giant scary bee! 

Do you see the problem with the layout of this bathroom? They could have thought this one through a bit longer.......

What happens when your companion's binder gets soaking wet.

remainder of the typhoon, more typhoon remainder, last one of that lighthouse. Sorry for the picture overload. It's the pictures for like the last three weeks (I'm getting a new camera today probably)

Typhoon remainder  

the shells of the snails they eat here

my companion's bike crash! 

Stumbling, Transfers, and Cops

10/9/16

 Pretty crazy week! Unfortunately a lot of it is newsy stuff without a ton of excitements, but it was crazy! Elder Dickson and I are still in training, so there wasn't any change in our companionship at the end of the transfer, but two companionships in our zone started training, a companionship moved down to 鳳林 FengLin(!!!!), and Elder Hamilton (in the MTC with me) came down to be the new zone leader that lives in our apartment! Super crazy changes! They also made a big change in the key indicators last week, so new investigators are only counted after we have met with them off of the street and set up for another time. This means that new investigators can't just be found on the street anymore. Also, today I found out that my previous companion Elder Karlinsey (now Mr.Karlinsey) is getting married!!!! So cool!

     Last preparation day was pretty crazy! We just so happened to be on exchanges with the zone leaders, so Elder Miner and I went with a few members to go visit a recent convert. The recent convert has been on the other side of the island for several months staying with her sister who has been in the hospital recovering from an almost fatal condition, so lately she hasn't been able to come to church. When her sister got better enough, she returned to Hualien but hasn't been acting herself lately, so her mother called a member and invited us to come give her a blessing. We arrived at the house with the member and a few other friends, but a strange man answered the door and wouldn't let us in. He said that neither the recent convert nor the mother were at home, when they had just called and set up with the member that drove us to her house. I still don't know how, but things got heated enough to the point that the member called the police. We had already left at this point, planning to visit another member and then come back when they had worked it out, and the rest of the story isn't very clear. All I know is that the police came and made everyone come out of the house. They found the mother, but not the recent convert, so they gave the mother a blessing and left. Crazy!

     So I have to mention Conference, because Conference was amazing!!!! I learned so much and I am so excited to go back through my notes and start applying everything I learned. I especially loved the talk about 'stumbling blocks', and how we all need to be valiant in our testimony of Christ. I just really like the idea of taking those stumbling blocks that are impeding or distracting from our focus on eternal life, and making them into stepping stones. It goes along well with an idea I was studying the other week: we, as children of God, are all heaven-bound. If we stay on the road prepared for us, we all make it. All we have to do is remove those things that have gotten in our way (i.e. sin, unawareness, pride). I love to ask people on the street, as well as myself, what their 'ideal self' is. Then, I ask, "what is the difference between you now and that person you want to become?", or, "what can you change to become more like that ideal self?" Take away these things that are limiting our potential, and we see miracles. I love all you guys and I hope you have a fantastic week!

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I got the package in time!! Thank you guys so much!!!! It was literally so awesome! The rest of my birthday didn't feel like a birthday at all, but that HUGE package made me feel like a king! Thank you! Your notes were just absolutely the best and the gifts were perfect. I'm wearing the shoes right now and half the bag of Mike and Ikes are gone. The 11-in-one tool thing is in my bag, the zone leaders have been shooting each other incessantly with the penguin thing, the fruit snacks are gone, the rats and cockroaches have already been part of several pranks (my companion flipped out during conference when he saw them in his bag of popcorn), and everything else in the box is all over my desk. It made my birthday so awesome! I woke up in the middle of the night too in a sweating rage. I didn't figure out why until you just told me you went to get Cafe Rio and Neilsens chocolate shakes on my birthday ;) I love you guys!!!

pictures from someone else's phone. I'll get a new camera this week ;) us singing at a baptism

our zone eating dinner before the big transfer

Megi and Tribulation

10/2/16

  Let me just start out with how excited I am for conference. I have heard little rumors here and there and it sounds like it was just the best. Because of translation, we watch conference a week later than everyone else so don't spill the beans.

     Elder Dickson and I worked really hard this last week to have a bunch of investigators at church, but in the end we only got three people to commit to coming, none of which actually came. Pretty disappointing, but they will come next week. The problem is that one of the ones that didn't come was our investigator Peter Pan, so now we have to move his baptismal date. Right now we are just working really hard to get more solid investigators so there is more to tell you guys about!

     This whole summer I have just been praying and praying for a typhoon to just slam into HuaLien. As typhoon after gargantuan typhoon slammed into southern Taiwan or spun off to the north, my hopes and dreams slowly broke like the windows of an abandoned house. Then, last week, that house was rebuilt into a glorious palace as we got slammed by typhoon Megi. I was on cloud 9. We were inside all of Tuesday as the baseball field flooded behind our house, wind knocked down tree after tree and fence after fence, rivers and canals filled to their brims, and waves pounded the coast. We heard the waves got to 15-20 feet high in some places, and a lot of the Hualien missionaries could actually see the size of the waves from their apartments! I was so jealous! All in all, the damage wasn't too bad, and cleanup went by pretty fast. It did take them a while to get the garbage truck out of the field where we play frisbee though....

     This last week has brought some interesting perspectives on tribulation. In fact, I ran into this gem this morning in D&C 58:2-4. "He that is faithful in tribulation, the reward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven. Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the glory which shall follow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings." As I read in True to the Faith, it seems that when we enter tribulation it is better to ask like Nephi, "What can I learn? Who can I go and help?" than to ask like Laman and Lemuel, "Why me? What did I do wrong?" Life truly is a refiners fire, and we just have to decide how moldable we are going to be. I love all you guys! Have a great week!

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Thank you! Feels weird that this next week I leave the land of 'teenager' and enter the world of 'ager'. This next decade is full of what it seems to be the most exciting, most stressful, most fulfilling, most happy, most sad, and most memorable decisions and experiences in ones lifetime. Granted, there are ups and downs at every age and decisions both big and small every day, but I do feel that these next 10 years are quite a rollercoaster. Any birthday advice next week would be so awesome! I promise I will go buy a mango something or other. The problem is that we are already out of mango season, but I will keep an eye 'peeled'. Typhoon was pretty crazy at some parts, and honestly pretty mellow at others. Still super fun. Things have been better this last week with my companion, although there are still a few tensions every now and then. I think it is hard because he isn't used to adjusting to other missionary's way of doing the work. It is different for every missionary, and the first week or so of a transfer takes a little bit to get into. He just seems determined not to adjust to the way I do things. Part of the problem I think is that because he is from Missouri he is used to being 'alone' in a sense that not many other people have the same standards as him. So he comes on a mission, and he thinks he has to be better than everyone else because they don't have the same standards as him. I dunno, that is sort of the feelings I get. He is super awesome though, and I really could be learning more from him. The mission nurse got me on some 'anti-gas' medications that have been working pretty well lately so no big problems there. I slept on my back wrong the other night, but it is already better. I'm doing great medical wise. Did Mary get braces??????????????????

Ok, we are a little bit nuts. During the typhoon we figured out that we had a bunch of dried out pomello peels. It turns out they make for wonderful frisbees. The one we got a video of actually wasn't that impressive, but all the ones before got caught in the wind and were blown incredibly far away. Don't worry, they are biodegradable and there weren't that many of them.....

They also make great hats

The night before the typhoon

Motivation

 9/25/16

        Last week one of the Elders that lives in our apartment asked me to study motivation for him. I think motivation is something we all struggle with at some point in our lives, and missionaries are no exception. I find it interesting that motivation is not something that we just either have or don't have, but rather that it often fluctuates. In other words, if we are motivated we have to keep motivating ourselves, and if we aren't motivated there are always ways to help us become so. As I like to do, I started studying motivation with a dictionary. Though I can't remember the exact definition (you can look it up), it goes something like this: "the effect of a motive." I hate those definitions. Not to be deterred, I then turned to 'motivate': "to create a desire or need that brings one to action." There it is. After studying 'desire' and 'need' in the Topical Guide of the scriptures and skimming through various sections of True To the Faith, I came to this conclusion: a deeper study and thereby understanding of the principles and doctrines of the gospel increases the need to live the gospel, and further application and thereby experience with those same doctrines and principles leads to an increase in desire to follow Christ.

       A great example is our current investigator who I mentioned in last week's letter named Peter Pan. He is so awesome! He accepts everything we teach him and seems really excited to continue learning. Through meeting with us missionaries, his knowledge of gospel principles has increased and he is more motivated meet with us again and prepare for baptism. After talking with him however, we discovered he had been praying but not praying specifically about the truthfulness of our message. He committed to doing so, and I know that when he does, he will experience the power of God's love and be even more willing to work towards baptism.

     My letter this week is a little backwards from the normal ones I send, but this last week I felt like I have really learned how better to motivate myself and hope we can all increase our understanding and application of the gospel in order to better live the way God would have us live. I love all of you guys and hope you have a great week! Pray that the incoming typhoon is crazy big, hits Hualien dead-on, and doesn't do any damage!

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I'm sorry I'm not doing well about describing basic things. I just sit down at the computer and don't know what to talk about. If you send me specific questions in your letters, I can usually think about those and then write a pretty good response, but otherwise there just isn't enough time for me to sit back and think what I should be telling you guys about. Sorry about that. My companion is Elder Dickson from Missouri. He is 18, straight out of High School, and the son of a Stake President. Being a trainer has been super rough. I'm not sure why, but he just drives me up a wall. He isn't even a bad missionary. In fact, he is a really good one. He already has an incredible understanding of how the work is supposed to be and what he needs to do to make it happen. I think part of the problem is that with that knowledge brings a little bit of pride. He sets most of the goals in our companionship about what we need to improve in and what we need to do better. He is constantly writing down in his planner better ways to follow Preach My Gospel and be more effective. Everything he does is super awesome, but for some reason that I cannot explain, I can't stand it. He doesn't follow much of what I say, and disagrees with a lot of what I do. Everything he encourages me to do (which are really good things) just makes me want to do exactly the opposite. Before he came I was always worried about how we started companion study really late because we were too slow to get started (getting distracted in the middle with the other Elders). I thought about lots of different ways we could make that transition better and smoother. Now, however, when Elder Dickson does little things to get that transition faster (starting to sing the hymn while we are slowly making our way to being ready) it only makes me relish when we do things that make that transition slower. I don't know what the problem is, because everything he is setting goals for and encouraging me to do is backed up by Preach My Gospel and the Missionary Handbook. I find myself arguing with him against my own personal opinions, just because I can't stand the way he says things. This last week was probably the most stressed I've ever been--especially Friday and Sunday. Sunday night I was literally numb and out of it because of how stressed and sick of missionary work I was. I really don't want to complain or anything of the sort, but lately has been so hard and I don't want it to continue like this. I have an unending task list that doesn't get done because I don't have any personal time, we struggle to get progressing investigators and meet the standards of excellence every week, my relationship with my companion is bad and I don't have any desire to make it better, every time I ask President Jergensen or others about missionary work I feel misunderstood, I keep having to take Elder Dickson's big and grand ideas, present them to the ward, and take all the heat for why we are even thinking about those kinds of things and why it is out of our responsibility, and overall I am just stressed mostly because I am stressed. I want to be so focused on other people that I stress myself out because I'm not. I'm sorry, I just really want to express how I'm feeling because I really want to not feel like this. I've tried the whole "forget yourself and go to work" mentality but it just makes me more stressed. Do you know of anything I can do?

Don't stress about me being stressed though ;) just let me know if there is anything I can do. It isn't every day that is like that. In fact, today I don't feel like that at all. I am just trying to remember feelings from yesterday and last Friday to see if there is any suggestions you have for future occurrences. In the middle, on Saturday, I had such a great day. I just went out with the attitude that I was just going to be a quiet, loving missionary. The problem is that the next day I totally lost that perspective. I still have hope that I can become that missionary I want to be, I just have no idea what the next step is.

  

 

Motivation

 9/25/16

        Last week one of the Elders that lives in our apartment asked me to study motivation for him. I think motivation is something we all struggle with at some point in our lives, and missionaries are no exception. I find it interesting that motivation is not something that we just either have or don't have, but rather that it often fluctuates. In other words, if we are motivated we have to keep motivating ourselves, and if we aren't motivated there are always ways to help us become so. As I like to do, I started studying motivation with a dictionary. Though I can't remember the exact definition (you can look it up), it goes something like this: "the effect of a motive." I hate those definitions. Not to be deterred, I then turned to 'motivate': "to create a desire or need that brings one to action." There it is. After studying 'desire' and 'need' in the Topical Guide of the scriptures and skimming through various sections of True To the Faith, I came to this conclusion: a deeper study and thereby understanding of the principles and doctrines of the gospel increases the need to live the gospel, and further application and thereby experience with those same doctrines and principles leads to an increase in desire to follow Christ.

       A great example is our current investigator who I mentioned in last week's letter named Peter Pan. He is so awesome! He accepts everything we teach him and seems really excited to continue learning. Through meeting with us missionaries, his knowledge of gospel principles has increased and he is more motivated meet with us again and prepare for baptism. After talking with him however, we discovered he had been praying but not praying specifically about the truthfulness of our message. He committed to doing so, and I know that when he does, he will experience the power of God's love and be even more willing to work towards baptism.

     My letter this week is a little backwards from the normal ones I send, but this last week I felt like I have really learned how better to motivate myself and hope we can all increase our understanding and application of the gospel in order to better live the way God would have us live. I love all of you guys and hope you have a great week! Pray that the incoming typhoon is crazy big, hits Hualien dead-on, and doesn't do any damage!

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I'm sorry I'm not doing well about describing basic things. I just sit down at the computer and don't know what to talk about. If you send me specific questions in your letters, I can usually think about those and then write a pretty good response, but otherwise there just isn't enough time for me to sit back and think what I should be telling you guys about. Sorry about that. My companion is Elder Dickson from Missouri. He is 18, straight out of High School, and the son of a Stake President. Being a trainer has been super rough. I'm not sure why, but he just drives me up a wall. He isn't even a bad missionary. In fact, he is a really good one. He already has an incredible understanding of how the work is supposed to be and what he needs to do to make it happen. I think part of the problem is that with that knowledge brings a little bit of pride. He sets most of the goals in our companionship about what we need to improve in and what we need to do better. He is constantly writing down in his planner better ways to follow Preach My Gospel and be more effective. Everything he does is super awesome, but for some reason that I cannot explain, I can't stand it. He doesn't follow much of what I say, and disagrees with a lot of what I do. Everything he encourages me to do (which are really good things) just makes me want to do exactly the opposite. Before he came I was always worried about how we started companion study really late because we were too slow to get started (getting distracted in the middle with the other Elders). I thought about lots of different ways we could make that transition better and smoother. Now, however, when Elder Dickson does little things to get that transition faster (starting to sing the hymn while we are slowly making our way to being ready) it only makes me relish when we do things that make that transition slower. I don't know what the problem is, because everything he is setting goals for and encouraging me to do is backed up by Preach My Gospel and the Missionary Handbook. I find myself arguing with him against my own personal opinions, just because I can't stand the way he says things. This last week was probably the most stressed I've ever been--especially Friday and Sunday. Sunday night I was literally numb and out of it because of how stressed and sick of missionary work I was. I really don't want to complain or anything of the sort, but lately has been so hard and I don't want it to continue like this. I have an unending task list that doesn't get done because I don't have any personal time, we struggle to get progressing investigators and meet the standards of excellence every week, my relationship with my companion is bad and I don't have any desire to make it better, every time I ask President Jergensen or others about missionary work I feel misunderstood, I keep having to take Elder Dickson's big and grand ideas, present them to the ward, and take all the heat for why we are even thinking about those kinds of things and why it is out of our responsibility, and overall I am just stressed mostly because I am stressed. I want to be so focused on other people that I stress myself out because I'm not. I'm sorry, I just really want to express how I'm feeling because I really want to not feel like this. I've tried the whole "forget yourself and go to work" mentality but it just makes me more stressed. Do you know of anything I can do?

Don't stress about me being stressed though ;) just let me know if there is anything I can do. It isn't every day that is like that. In fact, today I don't feel like that at all. I am just trying to remember feelings from yesterday and last Friday to see if there is any suggestions you have for future occurrences. In the middle, on Saturday, I had such a great day. I just went out with the attitude that I was just going to be a quiet, loving missionary. The problem is that the next day I totally lost that perspective. I still have hope that I can become that missionary I want to be, I just have no idea what the next step is.

Photos: two blurry pictures I took before realizing my focus was off. A beautiful photo spot i found while biking. Fifth...sometimes we have too much fun at the apartment.