Miracles Follow

This past week has had a lot of good events happen! My companion and I were able to attend Elder Martin and Elder Illu's baptism at our Chapel. We had been preparing for their baptism too, that week we made a goal to invite every single investigator that we met with to come and see Brother Xie's baptism. Saturday rolled around and 2 of our investigators came and one brought his friend too! I think it was a really good experience for both of them. They both have a desire to get baptized and one should be in about 3 weeks!

The past few weeks we have been working with a Brother Zhang. He is Golden! He eats up everything we teach him. This past weeks miracle came when we shared with him the Word of Wisdom. He said that he had a problem with tea and coffee as he often drinks them both but he commited on the spot to quit. When he came to the baptism, he walked up to me and said, "Elder Bastian! I have quit drinking tea and coffee!" It was touching to see his enthusiasm to keep the commandments. I know its only been a few days since we shared it, but his desire to follow the Savior will lead him to a life full of faithfulness.

The other investigator that came to the Baptism doing great too. He absolutely loves the gospel and knows its all true. We are now just praying and waiting on his parents to soften their hearts and allow him to join the church. He is at Tai Da (The best college in Taiwan) and they fear his grades will drop if he comes to church.
It will be exciting to see Brother Zhang get baptized as this will be my first baptism since March! The hard work seems to be finally paying off!!!

This past week I also had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Gerrard and Elder Beck who are in the zone. They both are doing great and has a pure desire to serve the Lord.
Elder Gerrard is just a solid missionary. His skills are all balanced and all great! The thing that stuck out to me the most was his desire to talk to everyone and share his testimony. He had a wonderful self quote that said something along the lines of, "you can never share too much testimony." Elder Beck is a ball of missionary fire as always. Its inspiring to be around this newer missionary. When we were on exchanges Friday i told him that we would have to cut our dinner time short to be able to make it to an appointment on time and he said, "Its ok, as long as we are preaching the gospel!" .
The both of them are doing great!

Elder Chatman and I are getting the hang of things around here. Its been a good few last weeks. We are focusing on taking care of the awesome investigators we have and find some good new ones! We have had to switch up a lot of the things that we had originally wanted or used to do since now we proselyte completely by foot because Elder Chatman's knee is injured and cant ride a bike. It limits us in some ways, but has truly opend doors in others. We have seen the guidance of the Lord as we rely on Him, and miracles follow.
We are learning a lot and I love it.
Hope everyone has a great week at home, work or school.

希望你们都有一个成功的礼拜！

Love you all!

Elder Bastian

Moroni's Promise

Hello Everyone!

 

Another week has flown by here in Tucheng. It felt like we spent a lot of time up in Taibei this past week and then I look back and see that week actually did! It was great to be able to attend the temple, participate in the specialized training, and be able to a special broadcast last night. I often felt the spirit, helping me know that I am doing what the Lord wants me to. I am so greatful this opportunity to serve and for all the wonderful experiences I have shared with these people here. I pray that I wont forget them.

 A big miracle this past week was when we met with our investigator 李弟兄 (Brother Li). He has met for a while now and has had a lot of concerns, but I could always feel his potential. It wasn't until our last lesson with him until he has shown it. We read the first chapter of Nephi with him to help him see how he can receive revelation from the Book of Mormon and then reveiwed Moroni's promise of how to know if this book is true. Afterwards he turned to us and said. "You know, If I knew this book is true... I would get baptized really fast!" We were super excited. We promised fervently that he could get his answer from God as he reads and prays sincerely. I hope he gets it soon! We plan to set a baptismal date with him this week. 

Right now we have one investigator that will be baptized in November. His name is 张弟兄 (Brother Zhang). He is pretty golden! We taught him that Sabbath day on Friday and at first he expressed that he had some concerns with it because he used to meet with his friend every Sunday. We told he we knew this was a commandment from God and that if he prayed about it God would provide a way for him to meet with his friend and be able to come to church. He commited. Sunday night he came to the conference, said that he had talked to his friend and he change his time to meet with him so he can come to church every Sunday now! WOOOO! M i r a c l e!

This week we will be going on exchanges with Elder Gerrard and Mansell. I will be with Elder Mansell in XinBan. It will be a great opportunity to continue to help him progress his skills. He is a great missionary and has a pure desire to serve the Lord. 

On Friday we also had the opportunity to meet with the Bishop in our ward and his family to strengthen our relationship with them. It was my first time meeting with his family we had a good time. We will also be meeting with the Ward Mission Leader's family tonight. Elder Chatman and I really hope that our efforts will make long-term impacts in the ward here, so that more doors will be opened and missionary work can progress as members and missionaries work together.

I am grateful for the many blessing that I have in my life, particularly my family and this restored gospel. I hope and pray that many others will be able to recieve these wonderful blessings also!

Have a great week everyone!

I love you!

Elder Bastian

Transfers and a New Companion

Hello Everyone!

 

It's been a pretty eventful last week here in Tucheng including transfers, a new companion and being able to watch Genereal Conference. All of it was great!

My companion Elder Forbes ended up moving to TaiDong, which is a city on the South eastern coast of Taiwan. It is often the dream place to go to for many missionaries. I'm sure he will love it there. I also have a new companion! His name is Jordan Chatman and he happens to be from Washington also, Vancouver. He is an awesome missionary. I have been blessed to have some great companions who have I learned a lot from their examples. Elder Chatman will finish his mission in May or so and will head back to play basketball for BYU as a point guard so I'm sure you will hear more of him in the near future. We have only been together for about a week, but we are already seeing miracles. We are excited for the success that we will be able to see in these coming transfers.

This past week has been pretty great. One of the highlights was on Thursday before Elder Forbes moved, our investigator who is college student right now called us and he told us how he is so grateful that he has been able to meet us about a month ago and expressed how thankful he for this gospel and all the changes that it has made to his life already. It was a really neat exprerience that really helped us feel that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing here in Taiwan. His parents have a bit of opposition to him joining the church right now as they fear that he it will influence his school a lot, but we are praying that they will open up more to it in the coming weeks. We will be able to meet with him this Wednesday after our English class. We're excited!

Another huge highlight was being able to watch the broadcast of General Conference. I really like all of the talks from the Prophet and other General Authorities. It is always inspiring to hear the council they give us. I know that it truly is what God whats us to know at this period of time. I especially like Elder Hales talk about the importance to review and study these talks that they have all given and seek to apply these gospel principles in our lives as that is what will truly bring us blessing. I know that is something that I want to do in these coming months so that I may continue to receive inspiration on how I can have a more happy life and be able to more fully help all of these people around me.

Today is our Preparation Day and we will have the opportunity to go to the temple. I'm really excited because I havent been able to go for about 7 months, since I was on the east coast for a while and it was too far away from the temple to go then. I know that the temple truly is the house of the Lord and that we can go there to seek and find the peace and comfort that we need as we go about our lives. It is always a special experience to go to the temple.

After that we will also go to this mountain top gondola ride as a zone activity. I have heard that it is really pretty and fun. I will take pictures and try to send some home next week for everyone to see!

Well that about wraps it up for this past week. I hope that everyone has a great time at school, work or what ever the current project is!

Love you all!

Elder Bastian 

Waiting 'Til The Weekend for Conference

Hello Everyone!

 

Another week has flown by here in Tucheng. The transfers ends this Friday and I will probably be getting a new companion as Elder Forbes has already served here for 4 transfers which is usually how long a Zone Leader is in one area. It will be sad to see him go! We have seen so many cool miracles together!

Well this past weekend was General Conference, I hope that all of you had the opportunity to watch it. I'm sure it was just amazing! Sadly, we have to wait till this next weekend to watch it here because they need to first translate everything. So, I am anxiously waiting to here from the Prophet, Apostles, and other General Authorities!

Last week went pretty great! We were able to meet with more of the people we have recently contacted, so there has been some great new people coming in to investigate the church. One of the cool miracles happened on Tuesday. We had scheduled to meet with a man named Mr. Yang. This was his second time meeting with us and as we finished up our other lesson and walked out to meet Mr. Yang we say 3 people instead of 1... He brought his wife and child! We were so excited to be able to start teaching a family, they seem really great too. He had let his wife know that he would be coming to our church to learn more and she asked if she could come with him! We were able to sit down with them and introduce ourselves and our purpose as missionaries and then teach them a few basic principle of the gospel. We hope to be able to meet with them again this week and then see them at church on sunday!

Another great part of the week was last night. We saw so many miracles! We had originally planned to head up to Taipei with a recent convert to watch a missionary program that the mission puts on every first week of the month, but our recent convert last minute wasnt able to come. So as we left the subway station we went outside to our bike and pray to know where the Lord would want us to go this evening. After praying my companion and I felt that we should bike over to the neighboring city (Shu Lin) which is about 20 minutes away. Last night, almost every person that we talked to stopped and was willing to listen us and 3 people set up to meet with us right on the spot! It was awesome! The best part is that 2 of the people that set up said they would also bring their families when they come! So my companion and I are really excited for the next week and we have a lot of new people that we should be meeting with.

On Wednesday we also had the opportunity to head over to Taipei for our Mission Leadership Council, where all the zone leaders, the assistants, and the mission president meet and discuss a vision, goals, and plans for the next months work here in Taiwan for the mission. It was a really special experience as we all prayed and humbly saught the Lord's direction in this meeting. We were all able to see the spirit lead this meeting and in the end were able to come up with some great plans.

Well it should be an exciting next week! I hope that everyone back at home has a great time! This about wraps it up for me.

I love you all!

Elder Bastian

Short on Time

Hello Everyone!

 

Sadly, I must say that this email will be shorter than last week's email. This week time is a little more limited, Sorry!

Last week turned out to be a really good week. We were able to do a lot of good finding and saw some amazing miracles as we sought to follow the spirit and do our best. We were able to run into and college student named Eric Zhang and he set up to meet with us later last week. We taught him about God and the restoration of the gospel. He loved it! He said, "I know I don't know much about this, but I believe in Jesus now!" He also said that he would be willing to get baptized as he comes to feel that this is the right decision for him. I was so stoked! The Lord is truly preparing people and placing them in our paths. 

I am so grateful that I am just able to be here and be a part of this work. We have also recently started meeting with another student who studies at the number 1 college here in Taiwan. He is super smart and loves the gospel. He has come to church the past two weeks and has stuck around and hung out with others there on his own! We are really excited for him too.

Well that's about all I have time for. The rain has started to come back as I hear it has too in Washington. The seasons are finally beginning to change.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week. I love you all SO much!

Elder Bastian

The Book of Mormon Really Does Have The Answers

Hello Everyone!

 

This week's letter will be a bit shorter due to time, but it's been a solid past week here in Tucheng. We were able to withstand another Typhoon! (It sounds impressive but it actually wasn't too bad where I live). The rains came and there was a little bit of wind but we were still able to go outside and tract in the city.

This past week we were able to have some key lessons with a few investigators. One of them was Brother Que. He is 52 and has a great desire to be baptized, but is still struggling with smoking and finding someone to take care of his elderly father on Sunday morning so he can come to church. We met with him last night and were able to talk about the power of the atonement in helping us to change as we turn towards the savior like Alma the Younger did in the Book of Mormon. It was a great lesson and he felt that he was really able to relate with him. After we read that part with him, he stopped and looked at us with a quiet but happy look and said, "The Book of Mormon really does have all the answers..." It was a powerful witness to me of the importance of this book in regards to our message and the conversion of anyone who seeks to learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm confident that through the Lord's help Brother Que will be able fully prepare for baptism.

We were also able to go on exchanges again this past week. I was able to go with an Elder Hagedorn and Elder Illu who are both from Utah. They are great missionaries and it was fun to be able to work for the Lord with both of them.

Overall this past week was another good week.

I love the Lord, and I love this work. It may be difficult at times, but salvation never did come easy, so I am willing to put for the work for my Savior and my fellow brothers and sisters.

I hope that everyone has a great week back at home!

Love you all!

Elder Bastian