Couldn't Help But Smile

Hello Everyone!

Another week has flown by here in Taiwan.  Here are some highlights:

Last Monday after P-Day finished we were out finding and searching for less active Priesthood holders but weren't really seeing much success. It was getting close to the time we should head back home and we passed a man who was sitting down by a Family Mart. Elder Zhou had a feeling to go back and start talking to this man, so we did, and he turned out to be pretty good! He was really willing to talk about God and learn how to pray so that he can begin to feel God's existence and love for him. I hope we will be able to meet with him again soon. 

Our biggest miracle though right now is our one investigator Brother Wang. He has been continuing to meet with us twice a week. He is a very simple man, but he really understands what we teach him and he loves it. He smiled so big when we taught him about the Plan of Salvation this past week. When I saw him smiling, I couldn't help but have a huge smile myself. It is so joyful to meet with him and see him build his faith in Christ and in Heavenly Father. He also came to church for the first time this Sunday despite having to work from about 6-12 in the morning. That's his only challenge right now is getting work changed so that he can come every week, but he has a desire to come and we have faith the Lord will help him. I know he will.

Last sweet experience of the week was going on exchanges with my MTC companion Elder Lackey. He moved into our zone at the beginning of this transfer, which I was super excited for because the whole time we have been on the mission we have never served near each other. We were able to discuss a lot about how the past year and a half has gone. It was fun. We were able to see that we both have really grown a ton. 

I'm excited to see what miracles will happen next week. 

Hope everyone has a great week.

Love,

Elder Bastian

PS. I heard that the Seahawks have won the NFC championship and will be heading to the superbowl! GO SEAHAWKS!!!

Change in the Weather

Hello Everyone!

Well it's been a pretty busy week! On Friday, my companion and I headed up to Taibei to attend our monthly missionary leadership council and discuss that vision, goals, and plans we have for the mission in January. Once again it was a very spiritual meeting where I really felt the Holy Ghost helping us discern the needs of the mission. We will have our Zone meeting tomorrow, where we will re-convey the topics we talked about on Friday to all of the missionaries in our zone. I hope they catch the vision that President Day has and will have a stronger desire to head out and get the job done. I have really learned a lot from fulfilling my responsibilities as a Zone Leader, its been stressful, but fun!

This past week also had some rough bumps. I got sick on Wednesday and am just getting over it now. I have a pretty bad cold again that made my body ache and gave me a sore throat, but everything seems to be good now. I think the sickness came because of the change in the weather. It's been getting more cold lately, here.

To fill you guys in on the guy my companion and I tracted into about a week ago who was will to experiment on the word of God, We went back to visit him but at that time he wasn't there so we will try to visit him again this week! Hopefully all works out. He seemed great.

This past week we also had the opportunity to a Brother Wang. He is a simple man about 60 years old and has a great desire to draw closer to God. We met with him for the first time on Tuesday and taught him about the Restoration and invited him to be baptized. It was a spiritual lesson and he accepted! He really has a desire to be baptized. We met with him again on Saturday and he remember all of what we had taught him previous and continue to share with him about how prayer and obedience to God's commandment will help him to feel God's influence in his life much more fully. I hope he will take it all to heart! We are excited for him too!

Well my time is up for now, but things are going well here. 

Hope all is well back at home. I hear the Seahawks are tearing it up! Hope they win the super bowl!

Love you guys,

Elder Bastian

Zone Leader

Hello Everyone!

Well a lot of changes happened this past week! I moved! Which was a huge surprise. President Day combined the zone I was over with the neighboring zone and moved me to a different area to become the new combined zone's zone leader. It now has 32 missionaries in it! So im still trying to get adjusted to it as my last one only had 16. But its been a fun challenge, I feel that I really am learning so much as I strive to serve others. Everybody is so awesome!

I feel that the Lord has helped me to learn and grown in many important ways over the past few months as I have had the chance to work more closely with so many missionaries; doing my best to serve them and help us all fulfill our purpose as missionaries. I feel the Lord is opening my eyes and inspiring my mind. As we serve others, they are blessed, and in turn the Lord blesses us. What a cool principle!

My new area is called Xin Dian (sheen dee-ann). Its a little bit like the U-district down in seattle. 

My new companion is a native to Taiwan, so we speak a lot of Chinese, which I think will really help me progress faster with the language. He is super fun too!

It's been great to work with Elder Zhou so far. He is awesome and we really get along well! Its been so cool to see us come up with ideas and plans to help the new zone and watch the Spirit mesh our ideas into one. I really feel that some great things will happen this transfer, I hope even miracles!

The last part talked about a miracle that we had last night with finding! We went tracting as a result of our Less Active not coming to the new member fireside as he had planned. We were able to find a sweet potential! Its such a great story! I will have to re explain it next week. But it is about the power of doing the experiment upon the word of God which interested this man in meeting with us again where at first he professed to believe in no religion. I'm excited!

Love you all! Hope you have a great week.

Elder Bastian