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!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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