CALLED TO SERVE

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Time and Typhoons

7/3/16

I have heard rumors from members about a typhoon hitting Taiwan in the next 3 or 4 days! I'm super excited! Still not 100% guaranteed it will hit us, but I certainly hope it will. Typhoon=3 days of nice cool weather before it hits, service opportunities, crazy mission stories, and a week or so without 小黑蚊('little black mosquito')!!! More info on the little black mosquitos: they are actually a type of larva that, like mosquitoes, suck blood and inject a chemical that makes you itch like crazy. The difference between 小黑蚊 and regular mosquitoes is that 小黑蚊 are about the size of small moles on your arm and their itch lasts a lot longer. They are horrible because you don't notice them until after they have burrowed into your skin and left their deadly itch inside of you. Anyways, it turns out that typhoons kill off the little buggers for a few weeks and leaves the world a whole lot happier.

Yesterday was a pretty big bummer. No investigators at church. 張安夫 Zhang An Fu (the old guy) didn't show up, 陳佳宜 Chen Jia Yi (awesome investigator) hasn't answered the phone in a while, 張寶心 Zhang Bao Xin (other awesome investigator) set a baptismal date this last week (yes!!) but wasn't able to come to church. We had a lot of awesome service opportunities this week like helping a member walk her electric wheelchair back to her house because it was out of battery and cleaning up two bags of recycling that fell off a truck on a main road.

During studies the last week I was feeling a little guilty about asking members to be at our lessons so often. As I thought about it, something hit me--the more time we spend involved in the Gospel, the deeper our conversion becomes. Take serving a mission for an example. We spend 100% of our time doing the work. It takes all our thoughts, all our heart, and all our energy. Missions are an incredible investment of time in the gospel, but the results are equally if not more incredible. I'm convinced that the more we make Christ the center of our lives like the clay on the potter's wheel from last year's general conference, the deeper our conversion will be. I love all of you, and wish you a happy Fourth of July!

Great photos! (You're getting better.) Typhoon is Nepartak. Just a tropical storm now. Should be strong (Cat 3) by the time it approaches Taiwan, though most warning tracks have it bending north and just glancing Taiwan. Hopefully enough to kill the LBBs (Little Black B_stards) and cool things down. In Japan, the cool air usually followed Typhoons, which kind of sucked all the humidity out of the air. --Dad

Across the street to the right is a low ridge with the beach on the other side. Pretty cool

I went to Taroko Gorge last week. Absolutely stunning. Very much a must-see of Taiwan. Look up some pictures on google and you will know what I am talking about.

curtain falls! Freezing water pours through these cracks in the walls. It was super fun to run through

banana spider

ant nest in a tree

sweet lizard on a bamboo fence

More incredible scenery

I didn't get on the top of the tunnel don't worry

this is the house of Zhang An Fu, cement floors and all. Smells bad with not good lighting. At least there is that really cool mural on the wall of his neighbors house.

So many amazing things to take pictures of. Here is a hiking trail. All hiking trails in Taiwan consist of stairs that just go straight up the mountain. No need for switchbacks.

Some members and I

a view from MeiLunShan 美崙山 across Hualien and over the ocean

a picture after some service Elder Jensen and I did (pushing the electric wheelchair for almost two hours while street contacting on the way). The little kid is Christian's age, and he reminded me of Christian so much!! So stinking cute

Time and Typhoons

Lightening and Zone Conference

6/26/16

(Advice for a Teipei bound elder): Pretty small shoulder bag, anything big isn't very convenient. Also something waterproof to put it in if you can find something. Most times during the summer we just put everything in our shoulder bag that could get ruined and just go out. It is too hot to wear any sort of rain gear during the summer so we just soak in the rain. Keeping that in mind, everything waterproof is helpful. Two pairs of shoes is good so that you can let one pair dry out for a day while you get the other pair wet. Switch everyday to avoid bad stuff. Bring a sweater or two even though it will seem crazy when he first gets here. Prepare to sweat. Have good eating habits. Dont bring envelopes. Metal things rust easily. Be very careful of mold. Pretty much it!

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The storms here have been getting gnarly. As we enter the middle of the rainy season and the beginning of the typhoon season in Taiwan, the storms just get more wild. The other day, we were biking through pouring rain, and about 20 yards later the road was dry. Completely dry. Because we are in between the coast and the mountains, the rain clouds just don't move ... they just come straight down. Also, lightning storms have been wild. I'm talking about strokes every 5-6 seconds. Hidden by thick sheets of rain, all you see is the whole sky light up and then a resounding boom of thunder. It might be a few weeks, but I can't wait for the first typhoon to hit.

The cicadas are going full bore as well here. The days are filled with the sound of cicadas, periodically swinging from a buzz to a roar and back again. Earthquakes are common occurrences and geckos are all over the place. Nature is incredible in Hualien.

Yesterday we found out that our recent convert named 蔡亞之 Cai Ya Zhi had an abortion and didn't tell us about it before her baptism and also sometimes feels like she is Satan. Apparently her grandmother was a witch, so she got caught up in some really weird stuff. We are trying to help her through it, though she could probably use a few prayers her way. We also found out that 張安夫 Zhang An Fu (a 70 year-old former investigator from two years ago that we started meeting with again) used to do illegal drugs, got baptized into another church about a year ago and is still involved in their church, and has lots of Jehovah's Witness pamphlets in his house. Interesting week for investigators.

We had Zone Conference this week, and we learned a lot about pride, fighting back negative thoughts, and trials. I've been studying a little more in depth about those three topics, and I found some interesting insights about trials. There are three sources of trials: those caused by our pride and disobedience, those in consequence of living an earthly life, and those incurred by the mistakes and harmful words and actions of others. The way we overcome these three trials is through repentance/obedience, trust in God, and forgiveness. I found it interesting that the faster and better we do these three things, the quicker we reach peace of mind and happiness. We most likely still have the trial, but the quicker we do those three things, the faster we can just sit back and enjoy our challenges because we know it is helping us become who God wants us to be. I hope we can all--and me especially--be a little quicker to repent, a little faster to trust in God, and a little more ready to forgive others. I love you all and I hope you have great weeks!

Iain Letter 4

Dear Wonderful Friend Elder Hawkes,

I have been remiss these past weeks in emailing you. "Life" and my "age" tending and caring for three little kids 24/7 has been quite a challenge- especially when their bi polar mother, our daughter, has been "crashing" again. Well, you don't need excuses because your contacts and investigators give you a steady stream of those!!!! Bottom line: Heavenly Father knows the beginning from the end. Mortality is a walk of faith and trust. I have to keep reminding myself of this. We simply have to do our best CONSTANTLY and CONTINUALLY and let the Lord do the worrying. It is HIs Church ! I shed some tears hearing about the challenges facing some of your converts and investigators, The destroying angels have been released and Satan in all powerful. But we can be happy and have a strong conviction- even knowledge- that these are all signs of the last days and have been prophesised. WE KNOW what the end will be. We have a Maori saying in the Church in New Zealand. We quote it all the time: Kia Kaha. It means BE STRONG, in the Gospel and in life -doing those things we know to be true and good.

Hugs and love from our family .In our family prayers the girls pray for you all the time.

Iain

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Lightning and Zone Conference

6/26/16

The storms here have been getting gnarly. As we enter the middle of the rainy season and the beginning of the typhoon season in Taiwan, the storms just get more wild. The other day, we were biking through pouring rain, and about 20 yards later the road was dry. Completely dry. Because we are in between the coast and the mountains, the rain clouds just don't move ... they just come straight down. Also, lightning storms have been wild. I'm talking about strokes every 5-6 seconds. Hidden by thick sheets of rain, all you see is the whole sky light up and then a resounding boom of thunder. It might be a few weeks, but I can't wait for the first typhoon to hit.

his place is called Shui Yuan Di,

really fun cliff-jumping that we got to watch the whole way up....

So close with the English, but no cigar

Yes, we may have found roller blades in this old persons yard and they let us take them and fix them up. Yes there is a Christmas tree with lights in our area still set up in almost July

hua lian is so beautiful

Stories: Tall and Short

6/19/16

Tall Tale of the Week: this isn't my tall tale but rather one of a guy we met on the street the other day. We were talking/walking with one of our investigators down the road when we noticed someone on the side of the street watching us. Because we are missionaries, anyone that looks at us for more than a few seconds gets contacted. We finished our conversation and went back and he just started complimenting us on what awesome people we were. It was a pretty normal conversation until Elder Jensen asked about this huge dent in the corner of the man's head. To our surprise, he told us that he was a police officer and that it was from a man that had taken a bat to his head and then shot him in the chest (at which point he lifted his shirt way up and showed us the scar). But he said it was ok because he 把他殺死了, or, "grab-him-kill-death-ed". He invited us in and then after a short while we determined the man had hit him a little to hard in the head, which was confirmed when the sister drove up and told us those were scars from surgery because of some 'head problems'.

Investigators: Kay Jia Yi is totally awesome and accepted all the commandments like cake which means she will probably be baptized in two-ish weeks. Wang Ya Hui is remembering more and more (bad car accident a year ago) each time we teach the first and second lessons but still hasn't talked to her dad about coming to church.

Short Stories: I was reading a talk last week by Elder Claudio R.M. Costa from last year's October conference entitled: "That They Do Always Remember Him." I loved it. In it, he talks about fulfilling our baptismal covenant and 'always remembering' Christ. One specific way he mentioned we could do so was by telling the stories of Jesus and remembering important events in the life of Christ. The stories of Christ truly are incredible, and during the week when I would visualize one, I got this awesome feeling and I really did feel closer to Christ. I know that as we learn more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we have more of a desire to draw closer to Christ through repentance. As we understand the Atonement better, we feel just how possible it is for us to change. We have a hope that we can recognize more of our potential as children of God. The easier it feels, the more likely we are to do it. I hope you all can take some time this week to ponder on the stories of Jesus as well as His infinite Atonement. I love you all, have a great week!

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I asked Elder Jensen to study your question Mom, and he had a few awesome tips I'll share: 1-count your blessings and see what good it's brought you, 2-think of the consequences of not living the Gospel or having it in your life, 3-look at what you lack and work to achieve it, 4-study and serve always looking to apply new principles, 5-do missionary work/magnify your calling/think of why you are doing it, 6-talk about it more with family, friends, and through sincere prayer to Heavenly Father. Pretty good tips for finding motivation to live the Gospel more fully. I also thought about it a lot, and I mostly came up with the spiritual share that I put in the email to everyone, but also another thing. Having gospel discussions. I know I always have more motivation to learn and grow when I simply just talk about gospel doctrines with family or friends and stuff. Having gospel discussions helps us focus on the significance it has in our lives and stuff like that. Also, some homework if you get the time: "It Works Wonderfully" Uchtdorf October 2015, Bonnie L. Oscarson from this April, and True to the Faith on conversion. Good reads. Ok, sorry, I really got to go, but I hope those are pretty cool. I will send more next week.