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