Great Week

Hello Everyone!

 

It's Monday morning here in Taiwan. I hope you all had a great last week! My companion and I had a great week also! We were able to teach a lot of lessons and meet several new, cool people. The highlight of the week was on Thursday. That morning, my companion and I went out to find a referral that the sister missionaries had found a week before while tracting. We went to the man's house and were surprised to find 3 high school seniors there. They turned out to be the man's nephew and his friends.  We were able to sit down with them and teach them what we as missionaries are doing here in Taiwan. They all seemed to be pretty interested, especially one of them when we started to talk about the existence of God and how each of them can come to know for themselves that God is our loving Father in Heaven who wants to help us. He kept asking great questions which we were able to answer as we helped him better understand this principle. The sad part for me and my companion is that these high school boys all live up in Taipei and not here in Yuli! So, we won't be able to teach them, but we will send their contact information to the missionaries up there so that they can get a hold of them. I'm glad that these young men will have a chance to learn the gospel wherever they go!

This past week we were able to meet with the Rong Family again. We talked to them about about their baptismal date and the parents seem really excited! They understand that they will have to make some changes in their lives, but they truly have a desire to draw closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ through baptism. We went by on Friday night to visit really quickly and say hi, and we were able to talk to the father. He said that he and his family have started to read the Book of Mormon together as a family most nights! I was shocked - how cool!  In the previous lesson, I had shared with them how my family just read a little bit together each night.  They took this to heart and started doing it too. It has been a really sweet experience to see this family change as they begin to live the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Jesus's Christ's atonement truly provides the power for all of us to make changes in our life for the better. I'm excited to see how the family progresses and will keep you updated!

Today is our preparation day so we have until 6 in the evening to do what we want and then prepare for the coming week. My companion and I will take the train down to Taidong and Coastal City and spend the day with the elders there. Hopefully, we will be going to the beach also, which will be my first time since I have been in Taiwan, so I am super pumped!  I will make sure to take pictures for you guys to see.

Well, that about wraps it up for this week! I'm so thankful for all the prayers and support from each of you. I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!

Elder Bastian

The Power of Personal Prayer

Hello!

 

The heat is kicking up here in Taiwan, but the work still moves forward! My companion and I had a great week last week. It was full of focus, vision, and hard work! We were able to meet with a few new people including a high school student named Xie Yu Quan and and older man named Brother Jian. I met brother Jian on the street the beginning of last week and shared a little bit about the power of the gospel in helping us to overcome life's challenges and to make changes for the better. He seems to have had a lot of struggles in his life and saw hope in the message we are sharing. We met with him a second time on Thursdayevening, but back at the chapel this time. As we got to know him more, we learned that he has a little bit of christian background and has attended a few other christian churches here but at the moment he doesn't seem to be very active in any of them. We felt impressed to share with him more about the nature of God as our literal Father in Heaven and also how we can communicate with him through prayer. We invited him to say a prayer at the end of the lesson and he did. It was so sincere and beautiful! After he prayed, he explained that at first when we asked him to pray he didn't want to, but then he said he felt God encouraging him to do so and when he was praying and after he finished praying, he had such a wonderful feeling, as if God was right by his side lifting him up. He said that at all the other churches he had been to taught him to read/memorize prayers from the bible, but that every time he did that, he never felt anything, but when he said a personal prayer with his own words a whole new door was opened.  SO COOL!  We are excited to keep meeting with him and watch him progress.

The rest of our time this past week was spent visiting members and doing service. On Thursday, we had the opportunity to help a less active man that has started coming back to church move some things in his house as he was in the process of remodeling.  Afterwards, he bought lunch for us. Saturday, we also had another big service opportunity as my companion, some priesthood brethren, and I went to a widowed sister's home who is in the Branch and we repainted her small home for her. It was pretty fun and her house looked so good afterwards! I wish I had some pictures to show you, but i forgot to bring my camera that day.

Sometimes my companion and I are asked why our church does not have a cross on it and I always think back to the quote by President Hinckley that the symbol of our devotion to Christ is manifested in the lives and action of our members. Whenever we have the opportunity to serve others, I always feel that we are really fulfilling our purpose as followers of Christ. Service is fun too!

Well, that about wraps it up for the week here in Yuli. Things are going well and we are working hard! I hope that everyone is having a great summer. 

Love ya!

Elder Bastian