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!