Spirit and Finishing Training

10/13/16 

   Honestly not too much funny stuff or super crazy things happened this last week, so I will just share some awesome stuff!

    I was biking back to my area from the church, and I felt like I should talk to someone I had just passed. I debated it in my mind for like three or four blocks before I just gave in and turned around. I thought it was crazy because we weren't even in our area,but I went and did it. Luckily he hadn't turned down a side street, and we started talking to him. As it turned out, he both lived in our area and was super interested in coming to check out our church. The unfortunate part was that he didn't have a cell phone or a stable address due to his current work situation, but he said that he would definitely come to church next week. Super cool miracle! Anyone struggling to determining to act on what you aren't sure is a spiritual prompting or not can follow the advice a previous companion gave to me: "If you think about it for too long, just go and do it."

    This week is the end of the transfer! Super crazy! It seems like training has gone so fast. I'm excited to most likely be moving to a new area with new responsibilities, a new companion, and new people to work with, but I will also be pretty sad to leave Hualien. I started getting chocked up saying goodbye to people on Sunday. Leaving an area really hurts. On one hand you feel like you have left your mark, made your difference, and it is time to move on. On the other you feel like there is still more you want to do, you don't want to leave these amazing people, you don't ever want to leave this incredible place where you have been biking, contacting, teaching, learning, loving, and praying for half a year. I suppose that is that way it is with any sort of change. Half of you is excited, and the other half is reluctant. I guess the trick is to... Well... Love it. It makes you grow.

    Being a trainer for twelve weeks has been such a blessing. While there has been many rough patches and difficult struggles, both Elder Dickson and I have come out of these two transfers with a new wealth of knowledge and experience that I know is going to bless us for the rest of our missions and ultimately for the rest of our lives. I don't think I would be to excited about training again next transfer, but Elder Dickson has taught me way more than I taught him and I am very grateful for the opportunity to be his companion. I will let you know everything that happened at transfers next week! Love you all!

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 - Monday - biked all the way up to Li Yu Tan (a mountain lake) with the whole zone. Ate live shrimp. They were literally still jumping around in the soy sauce. A little bit barbaric maybe, but tasted good. In the nighttime had a bunch of lessons, which has been more rare than common lately. Met with a cool semi-active and just barely turned 15 young man named Ma Sheng Kai who showed us a bunch of magic card tricks. He was really good, but when he turned the cards over to me to try to do a trick he had just taught me, I purposefully did it wrong to which he and my companion quickly pointed out that I had messed up the trick. The looks on their faces was absolutely priceless as I pulled out the right card. Set three baptismal dates in a different lesson, which was a totally a blessing. They actually aren't very good investigators, but hey, we haven't had a date in forever and so we loved it.

 - Tuesday - Did a baptismal interview with this cute 10 year old girl who is the Sisters' investigator. She passed, and it was so much fun. Our schedule for the night was absolutely crazy, and at the last moment everyone cancelled and other people set up. I was pretty stressed, and I said a quick prayer in my heart that it would all work out. From that point on, the night was incredibly smooth. People would call and say they could meet earlier and stuff like that that just made it all work out so well. My prayer at night was really cool as well, and I felt like I received a lot of personal revelation during it.

 - Wednesday - had some set ups cancel, so turned into a day of not very interesting finding without too much good results. English class was pretty fun. Met with Peter Pan after and set another baptismal date. He is really working towards baptism now and I am super excited!

 - Thursday - a Taiwanese missionary held a chapel tour training today on how to give chapel tours. We didn't know it, but the first tour she took us on was an example of a bad tour. I thought it was real, but afterwards she told us that that was an example of a bad tour. Then we were all like, "Wow, that is how I do tours." Then she held a super good training of how to give a good tour like using analogies and teaching the first lesson while moving around the chapel. It was super awesome!

 - Friday - exchanged with Elder Hamilton, who is a blast to go on exchanges with. My tire exploded at one point, and a bunch of other crazy stuff happened. Had another baptismal interview that was absolutely exhausting. I was so stinking tired afterwards, but he passed.

 - Saturday - Long day of finding. Super amazing lesson with three Filipinos in the night. They were so humble and willing to listen. Asked amazing questions and we were able to just share everything so smoothly. They are practically slaves, and I feel so bad for how much they have to work.

 - Sunday - had Stake Conference, which was awesome. President Jergensen and his wife even came down. They gave great talks and I learned a lot. Turns out they were at the Boston marathon and had a prompting to go to the airport four hours early. When they got there they saw the television screens and found out that a bomb had gone off right across from where they were sitting and outside of a store they were going to go shop at when they got the prompting. Really cool story.

Taiwanese street at night from above

Food provided by a loving RC