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
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