Highlights

Hello Everyone!

 

How has the past week been for all of you back at home? I hope it's been a good one. It's been a pretty busy week here in Taiwan. We have been able to do a lot of successful missionary work to help others come unto Christ. I think one of the highlights of this week was being able to meet with one of our investigators who had seemed to us to be dropping off the past few weeks. She met with us this week and explained that she had been thinking a lot about baptism lately and she wanted to move her baptismal date up. We were really surprised!  Sometimes we are able to see the improvements that people are making, but sometimes they just come out of no where. During this last lesson that we had with her, I could really see the Spirit working through her to prepare her for this important step that she is going to take in her life. She really has a great testimony and is excited to be baptized this coming week. We are excited too!

Another highlight has been meeting with the families that we have that are investigating the church. Right now we have two families that are fairly new investigators. They are both great and seem to have a lot of interest. It is a little different teaching families than teaching a single person because there are a lot more factors that go into having a successful lesson. I think the first is finding a time to meet with them when all of them are home!  With the first family, we have often stopped by to visit them and either they were not there or only 2 out of the 6 were there. It has been slower than I thought it would be in sharing the gospel with them, but I have been able to see the changes that have already come into their lives with what we have shared. There seems to be a stronger spirit of love and optimism in their home when we go to visit them. The second family is also so great. I had told you a little bit about them two weeks ago when we were in the middle of the Chinese New Year. They are the ones that asked us in when we knocked on their door, because they felt badly for us since it was the holiday and we were still outside working. My companion called them this week and the husband said that we could come back to visit them. I was really excited, because before I wasn't too sure how receptive they were to our message. This week, we were able to share with them the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. The wife seemed pretty interested in the Book of Mormon. She even asked us, "do you really think the principles in this book can help us? I mean it's a super old record...".  I told her, "I know they can! They have helped my family so much!" She also said that she had noticed before that our church really emphasizes families and she really likes that. I hope that they will really take the time to read this book and continue meeting with us so that they will be able to partake of the vast amount of blessings that are waiting for them, especially the blessing of an eternal family. I'm excited too see what happens over the next few weeks!

I'd like to share a cool story with you guys that happened this past week. I hope it will help you to better understand the type of people that live here in Taiwan. They are such a hard working people! A couple days ago my companion and I were out on the out-skirts of town searching for, and trying to visit, some less active members from the church.  We had stopped at one small, little house that was in a smaller alley. Some of these little houses will have gardens out in front that the people use for growing food.  As we passed one garden, we saw an old man that was hunched over in the rain tending to his garden. I thought, wow, he is very diligent to be out here like this. After we stopped at the house next to his, he looked up and noticed us and came over to ask us what we were up to. We told him we were trying to find a friend. We started to talk to him for a little bit and he explained to us that he is an 88 year old man! He lives by himself with his dog and works out in his garden, by himself, everyday. I was blown away. How many 88 year olds do you know that live by themselves all alone and are able to go outside and tend to a garden in the cold rain. It was a cool sight to see and it boosted my confidence about growing old.

The people here are so great, and I love working with them. Although it sometimes feels hard to be away from home, I really am loving the people more and more here. What a great experience it is to be a missionary.

I love all of you guys and hope that you all have a wonderful week!

Elder Bastian

Pig Ear, Pig Feet

Hello Everyone!

 

Well, the Chinese New Year has finished up here in Taiwan! It was an eventful week as we visited many member families and were able to have some awesome meals with them. Our ward set up a meal schedule for our companionship. Everyday, we had the opportunity to eat at a member's home for lunch and dinner. There were so many families willing to feed us! I had a good time being able to meet with all of these people and build relationships with them. I definitely ate some pretty weird things though. The two that really were pretty strange were Pig Ear and Pig Foot. Sounds pretty gross, right? There is a lot of food here that I don't think a lot of people in America would eat.

One day this past week, we had a sister in the ward who had invited us over to her place. She ended up living really far away up on the mountain at the edge of the little city that we live in. I thought it would be a good little bike ride to her place. It was! Except by little, I mean hard! The hill that went up the mountain was probably the steepest and longest hill I have ever biked. I was in the absolutely lowest gear possible the whole way going up. It reminded me of a running workout that we did back in high school at cross country camp each year where we ran up Mt. Constitution on Orcas Island off the coast of Washington. I just had to tell myself, "OK Jeff, just keep on going, keep on going..."   Eventually we made it to the top and got to the member's place in one piece and had a good meal.

This week has been a little bit harder for missionary work because a lot of our investigators have been out of town or really busy with the Chinese New Year activities. We have had some good lessons though, that I felt have really been able to help our investigators. I hope they continue to progress! It's been very interesting to have the perspective of a missionary and be able to see so many people begin exercising their faith and then begin repenting and truly changing their lives to come unto Christ. It has really helped build my testimony of this gospel as I realize it's power to help all of us overcome any challenge or trial that we face in this life.

I am pretty excited for tomorrow as we will have Elder Evans and Elder Watson of the Quorum of the Seventy come to visit us at the mission headquarters. We will be having a mission wide meeting with them. I am excited to hear what they will say to us! It is always great to be able to meet with the leaders of the church. They have so much experience in the gospel and really know how things work within the Lord's kingdom. I'll let you guys know how it goes next week!

I hope you all have a great week back at home!

Love,

Elder Bastian

Chinese New Year

Hello Everyone!

 

Well, another week has gone by here in Long Tan! It is the beginning of Chinese New Year. The New Year's Celebration here in Taiwan is much different than in America. In fact, New Year's here lasts about a week and a half long! Crazy huh? During this time all of the family will return back to their parent's home and visit and eat a TON of food! The streets have been empty these past few days, but late at night the fireworks start blasting from the roads. It is pretty exciting to see them from our apartment window.

This past week has been pretty exciting here in Long Tan. We were able to have a lot of success. On Monday, we were able to visit a family that is investigating the church. It's a mother, father, and their son. When we stopped by, only the son and his aunt were home so we decided to meet with the son for a little bit and share a message with him. As we were doing so his aunt started to sit down and listen too. I thought, wow, that's pretty cool! Then a little bit later the son's mom arrived home from work with her other daughter and they both sat down and joined in on the lesson...AND then about 5 minutes later, the aunt's daughter came home and joined in too! We had 5 people listening to the message and the 2 mothers were pretty excited to have their kids listen and participate. They kept trying to get their kids to say a prayer and one of the daughters did! It was a great lesson and a huge blessing from the Lord. We hope to be able to meet with them again soon after the new year!

We were also able to have a lesson with a high school kid that I had contacted on the street about a week ago. When we first started to meet with him, I wasn't sure what his perspective was going to be, but we soon found out that he has actually attended 17 different churches and is really interested in religion. His parents are Taoist, but he seems to often ponder some of life's deepest questions, and he is only 16, the same age as my brother Daniel! We were able to talk about the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him and really help him understand God, prophets and the gospel. He had a lot of questions but was really interested in the lesson and said that he was going to start reading the book of Mormon and start praying. We are actually meeting with him again tonight so we will see how it goes!

On Friday, I had the opportunity to exchange companions for a day. I went to the area called Bada, with an Elder Mattson. He is from California and is a pretty funny kid. We had a lot of fun contacting people at stop lights on our way to visit some members. He was able to bring a great spirit to the work and really made it fun! Saturday was the start of the New Year here so lately we have had a lot of members inviting us over for lunch or dinner. Their New Year's meals are huge and they just keep telling us, "eat more, eat more". It's really funny. I will have to take some pictures.

It's been a very busy week here and I am still getting use to the area and a new companion, but things have been going well. I have really been able to learn a lot about missionary work recently. It's cool to see the different people that the Lord is preparing all around us. We had a really cool experience Saturday night. After we finished dinner at a member's home we decided to go out and contact some people on the streets. The streets were all super empty so there wasn't really anyone to talk to. Then my companion decided to knock on a few doors for the last little bit of the night. At first we had no success, but we decided to knock on one more door and a lady opened. She didn't seem interested at first but then started to open up and say "Well, why don't you guys come in and sit down for a bit.  It's New Year's and you guys are still outside working!" We were able to visit with her and her family and share a short message with her, her husband and their 1 year old. The wife had a lot of questions about our church. In the end the family said they might be willing to meet again in the future and chat. They were super nice and it really was a miracle for them to let us in like that. How cool!

Well, I really hope that everything is going well for everyone back at home or school. You are all so great! Keep it up!

Love,

Elder Bastian

Enjoyable English Class

Hello Everyone!

 

It is early Monday morning here in Taiwan. I hope everything is going well back at home! This past week has been pretty good! It was my first full week of service here in Long Tan. It is a great area. My companion and I are excited to see what will happen during this transfer (6 week period). The highlight this week was the baptism of our investigator Zhang Han Bing. He is just great. He is 14 years old and actually has an older brother who is 18 that was baptized a few months ago. The baptism went great. You could really feel the spirit as we saw this young man committing to follow our Father in Heaven and his Son Jesus Christ by entering into the waters of baptism. I didn't have the opportunity to see all the changes he has made as I have only been in Long Tan a short time, but I know that he is just great! I have been able to sit next to him the past two Sundays at church. He is a funny kid and you can tell that he and his brother really love this gospel.

Another cool miracle that we saw this week was on Wednesday.  Every Wednesday evening we have an English class that we hold at the church. I am the teacher for the intermediate and advanced class, because I speak the most English here. Coincidence, huh? It is a lot of fun. But on Wednesday night at about 6:45 pm, we had someone come to the church for class. He was new and happened to find out about our English class by finding our website online.  He recently was in America for work.  Guess what? Of all the places he could have gone, he went to Utah for a few months.  How cool is that?!  While he was there he had the opportunity to go to church several times with his friend who is a member and he also was able to do a tour of Temple Square and a few other church historical sites. He is so cool! At the end of every English class we always have a spiritual thought. I shared about God's plan for us, his children. Peter, the new student, really liked it and was asking a lot of good questions and had some good comments. I asked him after class if he would be willing to meet with my companion and me to hear more about the message that we are sharing with others. He said "Yeah sure!" He seems to be really into the church. We will meet with him this week for the first time.  I'm excited.  The Lord truly is preparing people all around the world to accept this gospel.

Another cool experience was on Monday  My companion and I had the opportunity to meet with a member of the ward. His name is Brother Zhang. He was baptized a long time ago and has been a member for over 20 years but over the past few months he has started to fall away from the church. As he met with us, he started to open up about his feelings. He explained that he had been a member for a long time, used to go to church every week and participate actively in his callings and everything, but he felt that he had a lot of questions recently that he just couldn't find the answers to in church. He said that he wasn't sure anymore if this church was the true Church of Jesus Christ that had been restored in our day. As I came to understand this brother's situation more and more, my heart yearned for him to once again return to church and experience the blessings that come from following the gospel. I felt impressed to share with him part of the introduction to the Book of Mormon which reads, "We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to ponder in their hearts the message it contains, and then to ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost. (See Moroni 10:3–5.)  Those who gain this divine witness from the Holy Spirit will also come to know by the same power that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, that Joseph Smith is his revelator and prophet in these last days, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the Lord’s kingdom once again established on the earth, preparatory to the second coming of the Messiah."

This is our unique message to the world. That once again, the original truths, authority, and church of Jesus Christ have been restored to the earth in our time. I told him that no matter who we are, if we want to know the truthfulness of this church, we must have a testimony of this book and the message it contains, because if we know that the Book of Mormon is true, then everything in this church we will also know is true. I asked him if he would once again take the time to read this book and pray about its truthfulness. He said he would and hopes that he gets the answer he is looking for. I know he will.

It's been a great week here and it is a cool experience to be a missionary here in Taiwan. I feel that my testimony to the truthfulness of the work has grown so much since I have been out here.

I hope that everyone at home is having a great time! I love you all.

Elder Bastian

Move Calls

Hello Everyone!

 

Well, there have been a lot of changes here for me! On Wednesday, we got "Move Calls" and I found out that I would be moving on Friday. My companion and I went to the Transfer Meeting where I found out that I would be moving to an area called Long Tan, which means Dragon Lake in English. It's a smaller city northwest of Taipei. It was so great to be able to serve in Zhong He for 3 moths with Elder Johnson. I really hope that the people there continue to blossom.

I've only been in Long Tan now for 3 days but it's been pretty great so far! It's completely different from Zhong He. My area before was just packed with people and 8 story buildings in every direction you looked. Long Tan is much smaller. It is outside of main Taipei city. It's a lot more spread out, less people, and the buildings are only 2 or 3 stories high. I think this type of environment will really help me to learn how to love people more fully as the ward here is smaller and the area is not as rushed and busy as before. I think we will be able to build and create some great relationships here. My new companion is Elder Wang. He is 26 and is a native from Tai Zhong. It's been great here with him so far. He is a great missionary. He is very loving and seeks to help those around him, especially me. Its been so nice as he has been patient in helping me with my language. His English is pretty good.  I think this will really help my Chinese improve a ton! Elder Wang has only been a member for two years, but it does not seem like that at all. He has a great knowledge of the gospel and he truly understands how people work.  He has given me much insight into this work already. I think that this transfer we will really be able to help the people of Long Tan improve and we will be able to help our brothers and sisters come unto Christ.

This past couple of days has already been great here in Long Tan. On Saturday, one of our investigators had his baptismal interview. He passed and is ready to be baptized! He is the younger brother of a recent convert. He is 15 but you can see that he loves the church and although he sometimes tries not to show it, he seeks to understand the principles of this gospel and really believes them. Elder Wang and I are really excited for this upcoming baptism. Saturday was a pretty cool day too because we were able to get a lot of good work done. Elder Wang said that it was the most work completed in a day since he has been here. I have a strong vision that through diligence and effective use of our efforts we can really help Long Tan flourish. We have a few investigators that have already finished the lessons and have committed to a baptismal date. 

This following week and beyond, we are really going to strive to help our investigators overcome their concerns so that they can feel prepared and qualified for baptism. Yesterday I was able to meet the ward members at church. The ward is much smaller here, but the people are great! We also had a great experience working with the Bishop and the Elders Quorum President last night as we went out to visit Less Active and Part Member families. I went out with the Bishop and we were able to visit a family whose father is a less active member. We were able to visit with Brother Fan and his wife. They really opened up to us and they are super kind and funny. I think this was a start to a good relationship! I guess these family visits are something that we will be doing every Sunday night. I think that it is absolutely great because we are able to build our relationships with ward members and with the leaders. I think these visits will open the door to a lot of success in the future.

I'm really excited for the experience I will be able to have here in Long Tan. The mission is just great. I hope that everyone is doing well back at home and at school. I miss you all! Have a great week!

Elder Bastian