Wonderful Time of Year

Hello Everyone!

 

Well... sadly, Christmas is over, but a new year is about to begin! What a wonderful time of year. I think this is a great time to reflect back on all the good things that have happened this past year, all of the blessings, memories, or major events which have come into our lives. As I have been out here on my mission, I have really started to enjoy the time that we have at church more fully. One of the reasons is similar to what I have just talked about, it's a great time for me to reflect back on how things are going. Sometimes in the mission or life in general, we just start to go through the motions, but I have found that as I take the time to reflect back on my week each time at church and realize all that has happened, it motivates me for the next week and helps me to see what I can do better and what I need to continue to do. Reflection helps us to stay out of the rut of just going through the motions. One of my biggest goals in life, is for it to be FULL - filled with experiences, memories, family, friends and happiness. I hope that everyone can take the time to reflect and see what we can do this next year to achieve our goals. Make life fun!

 

This past week has been a good one. I was able to talk to the family over the phone and get a little taste of life back home. It sounds like all is going well! Even the Seahawks are having some success!? One of the highlights this past week has been the opportunity to serve. On Friday, we were able to go to a Buddhist temple and help out with their service team for about an hour. When I first got there I was wondering what it was going to be like and how the people would receive us, but as they took us around to the back and we saw so many people working together, I knew it would be a good experience. This Buddhist temple is famous for its service in the community over the years. That day we helped recycle plastics. Here in Taiwan, one of the popular things to eat is guava that you can buy from the street vendors. It comes in a small Styrofoam container and a plastic bag. Our job was to pick out any of the left over bits of fruit or leaves from the packaging so that the packaging could be recycled and used again. It was actually pretty fun, and all the older ladies who were working there thought it was pretty cool to see some young foreigners helping out. They were pretty great and took a big picture of us at the end. 

Another cool experience was going over to the home of Brother Wu who just got baptized about a week ago. His father had come to the baptism last week and Elder Johnson and I were able to meet him. Brother Wu really loves his family and was hoping that we could meet them sometime soon. So after the baptism we talked to his dad and set up a time to come back during this past week. Brother Wu told us how his family might not be too receptive to the gospel because they don't have a lot of interest in religion, but he still wanted us to come over anyways and at least get to know them. When we got there they were super friendly and we got to know a little bit more about this family and introduce ourselves - where we are from, and a little bit about our families back at home. As we started to talk about the gospel, Brother Wu's father proceeded to tell us about how impressed he was by the missionaries he has seen and their willingness to go to a completely new country and do all the things that we do. It was cool to hear that. We started to talk to him and his wife a little bit about the importance of families in our church and family history work too. You could see them start to open up a little bit more after that. We were able to set up a time with them to go to the family history center this next week. There was nothing super special about this visit, but to me it was memorable because I was able to see the big picture and look at the influence this gospel is starting to make on their family and how it is able to spread from person to person. I don't know if they will be up to hearing more about our message in the future, but I hope that things go well! There is so much joy that comes from this gospel. One last quick experience - this last week my companion and I were about to go to a pre-school and teach the children about the Christmas story on Christmas day. It was pretty cool! There were about 20 little kids running around when we got there. We were able to teach them about the nativity story, the birth of Christ, and sing some songs with them. It was pretty cool!

Well my time is about up here but it's been a fun week. I hope it has been a good one for you guys too! Don't let things change too much while I am gone!

Love you all!

Elder Bastian

Christmas Spirit

Hello Everybody!

It's Christmas Day here in Taiwan, and just a little bit longer until it reaches your end of the world too! I hope that everyone has a great day and enjoys the "Christmas Spirit". It truly is the most wonderful time of the year! This past week was pretty great. The highlight of the week was the baptism of our investigator, Wu Di Xiong. It was a great experience and everyone that was there was able to feel the spirit. Our mission president and his wife even ended up coming to it. Brother Wu has a new start and is doing so great. Right after the baptism, I was standing next to Brother Wu and I asked him how he felt. He told me that he felt something new in his heart that has sprouted and is starting to grow. I know that it is a feeling from above. How cool it is to see the love of God spread through other people. I'll never forget this experience. He has really jumped into being a part of the Zhong He family. 

Yesterday, was our Ward Christmas Activity, and he was there from the very start to the end helping out with all of the different stations and events. The Christmas activity was held outside in the middle of a large park hald Si Hao Gong Yuan. It was a big success! There were many people at the park who stopped by to see what all the hustle and bustle was about. There was a lot of Christmas music, games, food, and dancing. Many of the people asked which church we were, as they were really interested in the activity. The Christmas Spirit changes hearts in a way that other thing couldn't, just like the Grinch. It's a special time of year.

Some other highlights this week was teaching an 87 year old investigator my companion and I found while tracting a few weeks ago. He is christian but hadn't been to church in 60 years. He got a ride with a member and came to church 2 weeks ago, but this last Sunday didnt show up. As we met with him on Friday, we found out that he had tried to walk all the way to church by himself last time and got about halfway when his knee started to really hurt him so he turned back. What determination! Our sad feeling we had that Sunday before quickly turned to joy as we more fully understood the intentions and desires of this man. We taught him about the restoration of Christ's gospel and you could see his heart start to change at the lesson went along. It was very cool. 

We also had some other miracles happen this last week as we were going about sharing this gospel. One lady that we hadn't been able to get a hold of or meet with for about a month ended up inviting us over to meet with her AND her son! The worth both invigorated to learn more of the Book of Mormon and prophets and being able to learn of the truthfulness themselves. We have seen that as we've prayed for opportunities to share this gospel with families the Lord has been answering our prayers. I love it and know that the Lord will answer everyone's prayers. It may not come in the time or the way that we expect but He will always answer. He loves us and know perfectly what is best for us. We just need to do our best to align our lives with His will and we will find greatest happiness in this life. I have seen this starting to happen in so many lives including my own. I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

Love, Elder Bastian

P.S. I meant to attach some pictures of this weeks baptism and the previous ones, but we forgot our SD card adapter. Next week! Sorry!

Holiday Spirit

Hello Everybody!

 

How is everything back at home? I bet all of you are excited for the holiday spirit that is coming around! It's almost Christmas!  A funny thing happened on Sunday at church. Our ward mission leader came up to us after one of our meetings with a box full of Christmas stockings and told us to each pick one for them to hang up in the church. All of them had different sports teams/ American colleges on them. One was the Redskins, Connecticut, Huskies, Steelers, Michigan, Michigan State and a few others. It was so hard to choose because my allegiance lies with the Seahawks and BYU/UW. Eventually, I settled on the University of Michigan because my brother-in-law went there for graduate school. So I will represent them this Chirstmas! I'll try and put up the picture next week. It's a good one.

 

This past week has been pretty great! We got the transfer calls on Wednesday and the two temporary companions moved on Friday to other parts of northern Taiwan. My companion and I are staying put in Zhong He for at least 6 more weeks. We are so excited for this. This Saturday we will have a baptism for one of our investigators, Wu Di Xiong. He is the one that my companion ran after in front of the church my second week here. He is so great and his faith has truly blossomed as we have shared the restored gospel of Jesus Christ with him and he has began living the principles that Christ has taught us. On Sunday, he had his baptismal interview and afterward as we were talking to him about the baptismal service and who he could invite, he asked me if I would be the one to baptize him this next Saturday.  My heart was full. As I thought about the significance of the choice that this wonderful man is about to make, and that I will be able to assist in it, it really warmed my heart. The joy that comes from sharing this gospel and seeing people change their lives is like no other joy. It is true happiness. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here in Taiwan sharing this wonderful message. I have learned so much!

As I have been thinking about Christmas this past week, I've kept dwelling on an email that my brother sent to me last week. He talked about the importance of Christmas, and the most wonderful gift any of us has received in this life, the birth of Christ.  He told me that the best gift I could give to anyone, and be able to give back to Christ too, would be to work my hardest to share His message with those around me. This has really impressed upon my heart as I have dwelt on it. This gospel truly can change lives and bring unimaginable happiness and direction to this life. I hope that all of you back at home might be able to take the time to think about the importance of the true meaning of Christmas in your lives - it is such a wonderful time of year! These next few weeks my companion and I are really going to try and focus on finding a family and sharing this message with them. Each day as I forget about myself and focus on helping others I feel the hand of the Lord helping us do his work. Anyway, my time is up for this week. I hope everyone has an amazing week.

Love,

Elder Bastian

Photo Time!

The More the Better

Hello Family and Friends!

 

It's been a great week here in Taiwan! The work is moving along well. I hope everything has been going well back where you guys are!

On Monday this past week, my companion got a phone call from our mission president saying that because of emergency transfers in some of the other areas in Taiwan, we would be having two extra Elders join our companionship until the actual transfers this Friday. So this week we have been happy to be joined by Elders Davidson and Heaton. Both are from Utah and are fairly new to the mission like me. Elder Davidson has been out for about 6 months here in Taiwan and Elder Heaton has been out for about 3 months. It's been crazy having a companionship with 4 Elders but a lot of fun and we have been able to get a lot of work done! I will try and get a picture up of the four of us next week. We've been striving to effectively use our companionship so that we can get the most work done in these two weeks and really get our area Zhong He up and moving. It's been a bit of a challenge, but its worked out well. What we do each day is split the 4 Elders into 2 companionship's of 2, like we usually have, and then we both head out to different areas and lesson appointments so we can get double the work done. Usually each day we rotate the companions around so that we are all able to be with each other. Its been interesting to be with the two new additions because our language in not nearly as good as Elder Johnson's. So, when two of us younger Elders are together I've found that we really have to exert all effort and really push our language to get up and moving. Its been great. I have had a lot more opportunities to contact, hold conversations, and teach the people. It has also been nice to be able to learn from the other two Elders and have their help and inspiration in how we can better do the work.

On Saturday, as Elder Davidson and I were out working together, it was raining pretty hard and we hadn't had much success that day with being able to contact people who were interested. At about 3 o'clock we started to head back to the church building for a lesson we had scheduled, but when we got near the church we found out that our investigator cancelled on us for that day so we weren't going to be able to meet with him. As we reached the other corner across form the building, we stopped to cross the street and a man walked past us, so we said hello and he stopped and we proceeded to have a conversation with him. He told me that before he was Catholic, but right now he didn't believe in God and believed in a lot of the conceptual science things about the universe. He seemed interested but was hesitant to accept the belief of God - it seemed. At one point the man had explained to me that he actually thought that man made up God and that it was wrong to believe in him. He was very nice about this all and very open about it, but his expression still touched me deeply in my heart. At first I was a little taken back and didn't know what to do, but then I remembered my testimony. I testified to him that I do know He exists and that I came to know this through praying and reading the scriptures and how so many others have done the same, and that he can too. It seems that in times of need the Spirit jumps in and the lessons become much more soul to soul communication. My testimony was simple but sincere and you could see that the Spirit had touched his heart at that moment and softened it. Next, we asked if we could say a prayer with him to help him see how he could know these things for himself. He accepted. I offered a simple prayer and prayed that the man would be able to know these things for himself. Afterwards we asked the man how he felt. He said that he felt very peaceful and as if we really were talking to God when we prayed. It was so profound and cool. He said that he would have to think about all of this but we would probably be able to meet with him this next week. Whether he does or doesn't meet with us, I know that this gospel has had an influence in his life. I hope that he will choose to meet with us this week.

I just thought I would like to share this experience with you guys. I learned a lot from it. I have been learning so much as I have been out here doing the Lord's work. All other facets of teaching and things have been going well. We are excited for one of our investigators as he has been working with us to prepare for baptism at the end of this month - before Christmas. He is sooo great! He is the man that my companion met in front of the church. It has been so great to see the changes he has made in his life. We are really excited! This gospel is SO TRUE! I hope that all of you have a wonderful week with school and work and family, everything!

Love you guys,

Elder Bastian

This Book is Truly Amazing

Hello Everyone!

 

This past week has been pretty good here! We have been having a great time, my companion and I, finding and teaching the people in Taiwan. It's been so cool to see all of the different kinds of prepared people as we go out each day. This month our mission has been working on focusing around the Book of Mormon. Our mission President gave each district a box of Book of Mormons and wanted us to place them by the end of the month. My companion and I were supposed to place 7 and we ended up placing around 9. It has been so great to see the people's eyes light up as we tell them about this wonderful book and that it truely is the word of God.  I am learning quickly about the importance of a testimony of this book in the conversion process for investigators. You can see the difference in the investigator that reads it often and those that don't. It's not because they are better at keeping commitments or they are just willing that they progress faster. That may be part, but I firmly believe that it's because of the Spirit that is invited into their lives as they read the Word of God. I have seen several times recently of investigator telling me that they have a special feeling when they read this book. 

We had one investigator this week who read about Lehi's dream in chapter 8. I thought this may have been a confusing part for him but he was searching the book and was able to see past the outer story and find the deeper meaning of it. He said that he really loved that chapter and was able to receive a lot of personal inspiration on how he could better his life. This book is truly is amazing. I am so grateful for a loving God, who has prepared a way back to Him and has given us so many things to give us direction in this life.

Right now we have several investigators. We are learning the importance of having shorter, frequent visits as we go about week to week. I wish there was more time in the day and people didn't have to work! Haha. It's been great to be blessed to meet these people. We actually have an investigator that is preparing for baptism this month. He is just on fire. We got a phone call earlier this week from him, saying that he was going to find a different job that would allow him to go to church each week and keep the Sabbath day holy. We were so stunned! He has such faith and is so prepared to hear this message. You can see how much he loves this gospel and the Book of Mormon. He carries it with him when ever he comes to meet with us in its own little bag. We are very excited for him. He has truly allow this gospel to change his life.

This week has been pretty crazy. It has rained everyday and its been pretty big rain too! Im so grateful for my rain gear, but I think my guess was right when I said I would be seeing this a lot more. It keeps us on our toes as we rush from place to place trying to avoid it as best we can. The crazy food that I tried this week was.... pig tongue! I didn't even know what it was 'til after I ate it and then the member who we had dinner with started busting up laughing and then told me. It was a good laugh. But i dont think I will eat it too often. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well back at home and making time for the important things in life! I love you all!

Elder Bastian