CALLED TO SERVE: Listening to the Breeze and Holy Shark Week

12/4/16

DECEMBER!! Getting colder here, although definitely not the freezing cold of last year. My fingers are still defrosting from last year and thankfully there hasn't been a chance for them to refreeze this year. Who thought that what everyone thought was a tropical island wasn't what everyone thought but rather a place of strangely unfrozen icicles? I didn't!

This last week was "Holy Shark Week." Origin of the name is unknown. In a nutshell, we cut personal study and companion study to only a half hour each, skipped language study, and came back at 10 pm instead of 9:30. Absolutely crazy, very exhausting, but led to some cool new investigators and other miracles. On Saturday, us and the other TianMu Elders went and did a puppet show for some adults with mental disabilities as part of a big performance put on by the ward. It was a blast, and everyone loved it!

On Tuesday we went on exchanges with the zone leaders, and I got to go with Elder Dong! When I was in training a year ago in Beitou he was in our district and also in training, so it was super cool to go on exchanges with him again! We had two lessons in the nighttime, and they both went incredibly well. Some of the best lessons I have had on my mission. Neither investigator was really interested in joining our church, but we taught the doctrine so well, invited the Spirit so strong, explained so crystal clear, and discussed in such a constructive way that I felt like we gave them every possible opportunity. Ultimately, that is our purpose and I felt like we totally accomplished it.

I think there was an important part to it though: during the middle of the lesson I was feeling a bit too good about how well I was teaching, and I felt a small little prompting say, "Careful Elder Hawkes, you don't want to be proud." I listened, and it hit me that I was in fact being pretty proud. I took a step back from the lesson for a second, humbled myself, and recognized that it was only a good lesson because we weren't in the way of the Spirit (which I was about to change). I made a commitment to be more humble, and the remainder of the lesson was even better than the first part. The Spirit was so strong.

I was reading in 1 Nephi 18 about Lehi's family almost being lost in the storm because Laman and Lemuel had tied up their brother Nephi when I came across a few interesting verses. Verses 17 through 20. It took the power of God in the form of a huge tempest threatening them with death and destruction for them to soften their hearts. How often I am just like them: ears deaf to the wind and a heart stubborn against doing something I don't want to do just because I think I'm right and others are wrong. How much better a disciple I could be if every time the Spirit blew like a breeze I softened my heart and listened--rather than wait for it to become a tempest. I wish I could say that in every lesson when I heart the Spirit tell me to be humble or to teach a certain doctrine I listened, but I can't and that's ok. I'm just grateful to be here in the mission field, learning and sharing. You are all so awesome! Hope if you get the chance this next week you can check out those verses and keep #Lighting the World! Love you guys!

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Sorry I don't have time for a full week report but I will add some other highlights:

-went to a very, very, very rich mans home for dinner. He has his fingers in the honey pot of a billion dollar company in China. His son lives in the States and they hope people there are taking care of his son so he and his wife wanted to take care of us. We got there and he was eating dinner with three of his former students when he taught at Taipei University (best college in Taiwan). His wife wasn't home yet, but it was a weird situation. You could totally feel the power in the room. When he talked the other three had to stop talking. He was clearly in charge, and they were just drinking his very expensive wine (and a lot of it too). His home was gigantic and the food was amazing. The other three just sat silently because he wanted to drill us on gay marriage and the word of wisdom. He went in hard, but being 20 year old missionaries we weren't scared and I think we answered pretty well. In the end we had to leave abruptly because of another lesson, but it was an interesting experience.

-this last Sunday during sacrament meeting, we sung "I Stand All Amazed" before the sacrament and I felt the Spirit just completely overcome me as the words of the hymn sunk in like only words of a song can.

-a member chewed me out for 20 minutes about how the missionary closet at our chapel was a disaster but he taught me some amazing principles that I felt like was Heavenly Father answering a prayer of how I could be a better missionary.

-went to the temple with a recent convert and saw a ton of missionaries I knew

-accompanied Elder Boyce on the piano at a missionary fireside in Taipei, he sang super well

-went last Preparation Day back to Beitou, trip down memory lane!!!!!!!!

biking all the way up to Yang Ming Shan national park like I did last year

conquering the mountain

lighting was amazing and got some really cool pictures. This guy was a guy I met last year at the exact same spot. He is the one that sold a CD to Elder Dixon of his traveling adventures and pictures he had taken. If I had snapped the photo a second later his hand would have been up in a farewell wave