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
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