Humbling Moments

Hello Everyone!

 

I hope you are all doing well back in the US. It's been a pretty good week here on the other side of the world. My companion and I have had a lot of learning and growing experiences this past little while. If there is one thing that I have learned on the mission and am still learning (probably will the rest of my life) is the principle that Heavenly Father will never push us further than what we can handle. He knows us better than we know ourselves, which means he knows our potential and our limits more than we do. The mission is full of challenges, but full of miracles as we come to see who we really are and what we and all of God's children can achieve in this life as well as in the next. I'm so grateful for the many examples I have in my life. You guys are the best!

Here are a few of the cool experiences we were able to have this past week. Up until Saturday, we had been struggling to find people with interest in this special message. Saturday afternoon though, we went to meet with a potential investigator we had run into while knocking doors the week before. She had invited us back to teach her and her grandchildren. Elder Bennion and I weren't too sure if she would remember our appointment with her, but she did! AND she had 3 of her grandchildren there, ages 9,10, and 11. We were able to teach them about prayer and share part of the restoration of the gospel with them. They were so great and invited us back for next Saturday evening when the kids' parents will be home! The lesson we taught them turned out to be our only lesson with investigators this past week, but it was a definite set up by Heavenly Father, which ended in four new, pure hearts that were willing to learn about the gospel.  You definitely have some "humbling moments" while out on the mission. I think my faith was a little lower before that point, but once again, without fail, God has shown me that he is ALWAYS watching over us and tending to his field the way he wants to.

This next week, we really hope to be able to meet with our other investigators that have been busy lately. We have many that have such great potential! I hope they will all choose to stick around and see the blessings that this gospel will bring to their lives.

Another cool experience we had, happened last night. We decided to go street contacting in an area of the town that usually isn't very populated. After talking to a few people who weren't interested, we came to the end of the more populated part of the road and were about to head back, but then decided to keep going a little further. We quickly ran into a high school student who is really interested in Christianity. He has recently started to read the bible and wants to be baptized, but hasn't been to church before. We quickly invited him and he said that he would love to come and also meet with us! We are super excited for him and hope that all works out! Life is full of so many memorable experiences.

This mission is awesome!

I hope that you all have a wonderful week back at home.

Love,

Elder Bastian

Blessing Families

Hello Everyone!

 

I hope that all is going well back at home! Things are alive and kicking here in good ol' Long Tan. The past week we have been able to have some pretty cool experiences!

About two weeks ago we ran into a man named Mr. Xie. He said he had met missionaries about 10 years ago and gone to church a few times with them, but hadn't since. He said he was really glad to see us and that he would bring his family to church the next Sunday. We were stoked! The sad thing is... That Sunday we had our Stake Conference in another city called Tao Yuan. We had tried to call him the night before to let him know, but he never answered. The next day at the meeting he called us and said, "Hey, I'm at the church, where are you guys?" Our hearts dropped. He showed up and no one was there!

BUT, the experience gets better. My companion and I this past week were biking towards the small lake in our town, and my companion got the impression that we should go visit this man. We stopped by his house, knocked...lo and behold he answers and welcomes us in! We were able to sit down with him and he started to tell us about how his life wasn't going too well lately. We taught him about Heavenly Father and prayer. He said he hadn't prayed in years, but that he was willing to try again. We were able to say one with him and afterwards he explained that his heart felt so warm and peaceful! At the end of the short lesson he said a closing prayer and it was beautiful and humble. We could all really feel the spirit. Afterwards another man came downstairs and I looked back... it just so happened to be another guy that I had contacted a few days before! They were brothers! It was a very cool experience to see the Lord working through us to help out this family. This past Sunday Mr. Xie's family came to church and I think they had a great experience! We hope to be able to meet with all of them again soon. He has such a great desire to help his family.

Last night I also had another cool experience. We went on splits with our local ward leaders to go and visit less-active members. I ended up going with the Bishop. As we were getting in the car to leave he told me how we would be going to visit and give a blessing to a man who was recently hospitalized with the possibility of having cancer. His mother is a member of another ward in our stake and asked if we could go visit him since he was in our area. Then he said, I want you to give the blessing. I was a little shocked at first, I have only given one other blessing since I've been on the mission and it was on my second transfer. I was glad to have the opportuninty to use my priesthood to bless the lives of others. We were able to visit the man; he is currently working in the military and is very nice. I was able to give him a blessing, a spirit of calmness entered into the room. It was a neat experience. I hope that everything turns out well for this man as I may never see him again.

The Lord is always blessing us with experiences to learn, grow, and help others. I'm so grateful to be serving a mission at this time!

I hope that everyone has a great week back at home. I've got to get going now.

Love you all!

Elder Bastian

Happy Mother's Day

Hello Everyone!

 

It's Mother's Day back at home in the US, so, Happy Mother's Day!  I'm so grateful for the the role that mothers play in all of our lives, no matter who we are. My mom has made such a huge impact in my life and really has helped me become who I am today. I couldn't be more grateful. Thank you, Mom, for all that you do for each of us. We love you!

I will be video calling home in a little bit to talk with the family, so I will keep this week's update a little shorter since most of my email time will be spent video conferencing with family.

The past week here in Long Tan has gone well. There have been a lot of rainstorms lately that have lasted all day long, so we have been knocking doors most of time as there aren't many people out on the street to talk to. We have been able to meet with a few new people who are interested in the church.  It has been a lot of fun to get to know them, their background, and what has led them to come and investigate the church. Meeting and building relationships with so many people all of the time has been one of the greatest blessings of the mission. You can learn so much from those around you and their experiences. Life just feels FULL when you are surrounded by others.

We've also had a lot of opportunities to work with the less active members of the church. They are always so great to go visit. Seeing them smile and rejuvenate as the gospel is once again brought into their lives is amazing. I know this gospel is true.  It has brought so many blessings to my life and to my family, and it can for everyone else too!

We'll my time is about up, but I hope that everyone has a great week!

Love you all,

Elder Bastian

A Chance to Return to the Temple

Hello!

 

It's midway into the week here in Taiwan! This week our preparation day was changed to Wednesday because we have a multi-zone-wide temple day today. So my companion and I were up pretty early this morning to shoot out some quick emails, then we got ready for the day and headed off to Taipei, which is about an hour or so bus ride. It was so great to be able to enter into the House of the Lord today. It's been about 4 months or so since the last time we had a temple day. While I was there I was able to put away all my worries and stresses and focus on being edified by the Holy Ghost. Every time I go to the temple, I always have a feeling of peace that I have not felt anywhere else. It really is rejuvenating to go there.

This past week and a half has been pretty good! My companion and I have had some pretty cool experiences teaching others about the gospel. The first was with a Sister Long. She is a newer investigator. Early last week, my companion and I were tracting, going door to door, sharing our message. We only had about an hour and a half to use at that time because we needed to be back to the church for a lesson after that. We started tracting and knocked and knocked at different homes, but no one was interested at the moment. We went down the last alley of houses and were at the second to last house when my companion and I were deciding if we should just leave at that point and head back to a different part of town, but we just decided that we would try the last house really quickly. So, my companion rang the buzzer and we heard a lady's voice answering. At first she didn't seem interested, but then all of sudden she told us to wait a second and she would come down. She opened up her front door and let us in and sat us down at her table. She started to ask a few questions and then talked a little bit about how she loves to read.  My companion and I then turned to each other, smiled, and I pulled out a copy of the Book of Mormon. Her eyes seemed to light up as we explained a little bit about the book, it's contents, and it's history. She told us how she can read for hours straight and some times won't even sleep. I was excited.

We were able to head back to her house this past Sunday and talk more about the restoration of the gospel and it's connection to the Book of Mormon. She was really eating it up and we could all feel the spirit strongly. She told us that she had already read about a fourth of the Book of Mormon. She even asked if she could mark the book and make notes. We told her yes! She seems to be really interested.  My companion and I are really excited to continue meeting with her and seeing how things go.

We had another similar experience with a Brother Chen. It was his second time meeting with us and we also taught him about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, he started to flip through it's front pages and scan the book intently.  The power of the Book of Mormon is so great. It really is at the center of our message to others and at the center of this Church. With out it, our church is nothing. It is so cool to see people who understand the importance of the Book of Mormon and begin the process of understanding the truthfulness of it.

Another fun little thing that happened during the week was when my companion and I were contacting people around the city lake on Monday. We were walking under some trees on this path when out of the corner of my eye, I saw this thing fall from out of the tree and "thud" on the ground. I walked over and saw this green circle thing that was moving. As I got closer to examine it, my companion and I were surprised to find out that it was a TURTLE!  It was stuck on the back of its shell so I flipped it over and then it crawled away. Pretty funny right? It was a good little highlight to the week.

Well, I hope this week goes great for everyone! It sounds like its starting to warm up at home and I would assume so for all of the other places too.

Four Story McDonald's

大家好!

(Hello Everyone!)

 

Today we decided to wake up a little earlier to do emails, so that we would have more time to do things during the day. The result: a beautiful sunrise! I hope the picture I attach shows up for you guys. When the weather is good here in Taiwan, it is so pretty!

The past week has gone pretty well for us here in Long Tan. Nothing too new, still finding and teaching everyday, and will for another year and a few months! The area where I am now, is a lot different from my first area in Zhong He. In my first area you could go anywhere you want and there would be people to talk, that we could share the gospel with, but Long Tan is a lot smaller and there is only one fairly small main road that has people out on it during the day, so my companion and I recently have been going to a little of different places to knock doors and invite people to come and learn more about Christ. It's been fun! You run into a lot of different situations and types of people. This past week we went to an area we have never been to before to go tracting. We got there and started to knock doors down one alley we had planned to go on and about the 3rd door down we ran into this super nice high school student. She has been to a church before a few times with her other friends and loves it. Her English was also pretty good, as she wants to do the foreign exchange program and go to America. When we found out these things, we quickly invited her to our English Class and invited her to learn more about church and Christ. She seemed excited! It was cool to see someone so willing to learn more!

One thing that is pretty interesting here in Taiwan, is that when you go house to house to share the gospel with others, you often run into one problem.... Their doorbells are broken! This is pretty common here, and I don't know why. So we usually have to knock pretty hard on the little gates that are out front and then call into there house, "Hello! Is anyone home?" Then, if they are home, about 10 seconds later someone will start to shuffle to and out the door to meet us. It's pretty fun, a lot different that I imagine it would be in America. We have also run into a lot of dogs lately that just bark their heads off if we go near their house. These things all add up to some pretty interesting and memorable experiences!

This past week I was able to go on exchanges again with Elder Mattson who lives in the neighboring town. We had a good time working together at his place and even had a member take us out to dinner at Mcdonalds! The Mcdonalds here are like our resturaunts in America, some even have 4 floors to them. It's just great.

Well I hope that everyone is doing well back at home! This about wraps it up for me here! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Bastian