Baptism and Jolly Rancher

3/12/17

 We had a baptism this last week! 王俊賢 Wang Jun Xian is so cool! he told us yesterday that his girlfriend in mainland China agreed to get married in the Salt Lake Temple. Granted, she isn't baptized yet and even after that they have to wait a year, but it is so cool that he has already set his sights on the temple and to have an eternal family. The back of his phone case has a picture of Christ, his phone background is the Salt Lake Temple, he didn't answer his phone on Sunday because he turns off his phone for the Sabbath, and he always talks about the difference in his life since meeting us missionaries. So awesome!

     Last week I was able to go on two companionship exchanges with different Elders in the zone. I love being able to go on so many exchanges in a transfer, because I get to learn from every Elder I go with. Each missionary receives their own insights and revelation, teaches in their own unique way, and comes from a completely different background. There is a lot to learn from the people you surround yourself with, and I know of no better place to find good people to surround yourself with than in the church.

     Kind of had a funny story during sacrament meeting yesterday. As I have shared before, lately I have been bringing little snacks or things to help me stay awake during sacrament meeting and so yesterday I brought this jolly rancher I had found in our apartment. Unfortunately, the humidity in Taiwan is so high that pretty much any hard candy will go gooey after just a day or so. I forgot about that until I took it out of my pocket and tried to unwrap it. Well, there I was, sucking on a jolly rancher and quite awake learning a lot from sacrament meeting, but with a big problem--my hands were sticky!! We all know how many hands missionaries shake right after sacrament meeting, so I was in a predicament. Sucking on my fingers didn't help, so I was done for. I remember thinking to myself, "Sorry, Heavenly Father. I probably should have brought something else. What can I do to clean my hands?" A few minutes later, completely out of the blue, Wang Jun Xian pulled out some wet-wipes to clean off his hands. I asked for one, and boom! Clean!

     I think this funny little experience taught me two awesome lessons. The first is prayer. Recently I have been trying to keep a prayer in my heart (i.e. praying while biking, asking for help during lessons, giving thanks for tender mercies), and it is truly incredible how many of those prayers get answered. We don't have to reach out in a Rameumptom prayer to access God's help and love--a simple heartfelt prayer works just fine.

     The second is forgiveness. Ironic that the 'jolly-rancher incident' was during sacrament meeting (where we take the sacrament and are forgiven). Like eating a sticky jolly rancher, we often make mistakes in life. While we do our best to cover them (licking my hands), there truly is no other way to be forgiven than to repent and ask God in prayer for His mercy, and for His empowering love. When we do, when we make that change and turn back to face towards Him, He is there every step of the way. He offers us the way. How grateful I am for that opportunity to repent daily of my many sins and weaknesses, big and small, and become one with His will. I love you guys and hope you have a great week!

Next to me in the gray suit is Wang Jun Xian (this is at his baptism). Two in front of me wearing the black suit on the first row is a guy named Bobby, who is absolutely hilarious. He speaks English pretty well, and pulls these random English idioms out all the time. I taught him supercalifragilisticexpialadocious this last week and he has been using it all the time now. He is so stinking funny, and gives us these cards all the time (I will send you a picture of his cards when I get my camera charged). Sorry, I have a little bit of extra time but I'm not sure what to say about last week. This next week has the Mission Conference with Elder Funk of the 70 and interviews with President Jergensen, so it should be pretty exciting!! I have a huge tasklist a mile long with a ton of different goals I have and stuff I'm working on.... I should take a picture of a bunch of little stuff like that to show you guys.... Hey, Elder Facer had a really good suggestion last week. I know we probably don't have to sign up for classes at BYU yet, but the suggestion was to sign up for a ton of classes with your brother or sister because then if one of you has to miss the class or something like that you can just bother each other for help and apparently it is really useful and super fun! I would love to take a bunch of classes with Sarah!!