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