The Countdown

Da Jia hao!

 

Thanks to everyone who has sent letters! I don't have much time to write back individually, but I want to let everyone know that I appreciate them and they always give me an extra boost of confidence and energy throughout the day. Hopefully my emails will give you a glimpse into how things are going, and I hope all is well for you too!

 

The time is counting down until I head out on a 14 hour flight to Taiwan! I am soo excited and trying to use every last minute I can to prepare to go with more knowledge and better skills, so that I might be able to help others. Everyone in the Chinese group is very anxious to leave.

 

Last Tuesday evening, we had the chance to hear from Elder David A. Bednar from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. There is a cool little story that goes along with it. Usually every Tuesday we will leave about 45 minutes early to the devotional but last Tuesday, we thought that we should go about 30 minutes earlier and wait at one of the side doors instead to see if we could try and get better seats. I thought one of the apostles could possibly be coming because it had been about 8 weeks since the last one came. They let everyone in about 25 minutes before it started and we ended up getting 3rd row seats right in the middle!  It was soo cool!. He is a very genuine person and a powerful speaker. Everyone loved hearing from him. Too bad I didn't get to shake his hand afterwards!  Maybe next time.

 

The other highlights of the week were on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we had our TRC teaching opportuninty. We found out about a minute before that my companion and I were going to be teaching an actual investigator. We were pretty shocked. A bit nervous, but very excited. Her name was Wu jie mei. She is from Beijing and is currently at BYU for school. She has some friends in the church and has always admired the values that our church has, so she decided to start meeting with the missionaries to find out more. Saturday, she came with her friend to the TRC to hear from the Chinese missionaries. It was very cool to be able to teach her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon. She was very interested and it was fun to be able to get a glimpse of what it will be like to teach people in Taiwan. The other highlight of the week was on Sunday.  The new Taiwan, Taipei temple president was in town for training and came up to the MTC to visit. He came to our branch meeting and then came and visited with my district afterwards. It was very nice to meet him and his wife. We were able to eat dinner with him and practice a little bit of our Chinese with him. He is a great guy and I can't wait to be able to see him again in Taipei!

 

Only 14 more days till I'm off to the tiny island on the other side of the world! Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well!

 

Love, Elder Bastian

 

P.S. I will attach a few pictures next week so you can see what the MTC is like. I didn't have much time to do it today.

The Buzz

Hello Everyone!

 

This has been awesome! We had, sure as some of you already know, General Conference for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints. We able to hear from a lot of the leader of the church, and it was very inspiring and cool! President Monson announced that the age requirement for missionaries was changed from 19 to 18 for the guys and from 21 to 19 for the girls! It doesnt sound to profound from an email but this is a very big thing. The amount of missionaries serving is to expected to increase dramatically over the next year or so. This makes it much more convienient for missionaries to serve right out of high school and more of an opportuninty for the girls if the decide to. I know for a fact the BYU will be changed for ever! Pretty much no more 18 freshman on campus, everyone will head there after the mission at 20. This is such a great opportunity beacuse it will really allow the gospel to spead and move forward at an excellerated rate. Right now there are roughly 58,000 missionaries around the word with some 340 missions open. They predict that this number will go up significantly and subsequently plan to open more missions to new countries in the follow years. Maybe China? haha well we will have to see in time. Some of the other elders in my district have already recieved some letters from some of the friends back at home or at college who had decided to serve missions right away! It cool to see that it's already taking effect.

 

Things are going very well here. Everyone is getting excited because we leave in about 3 weeks and we will probably get our travel plans the end of this week or next. I am so excited. I know that I probably wont be able to understand too much when I get taiwan but i know that i'll start to pick it up quick one i've been immersed in it. As I have been here at the MTC, my biggest priority is to continue to stengthen my testimony of Jesus Christ and his gospel so that I will be able to better help other know of the truths that I know and so many others around the world know. Obviously the next biggest priority is the language. It coming along well, but I wish that I was better at it! Often times when I am teaching I want to share some impressions or thoughts that I have but they come out in very broken chinese. It's frustrating sometimes, but i glad to know and at least have a little patience that it will all come in time.

 

On Sunday, our MTC devotional speaker was Chad Lewis the former NFL football player. I was so excited to see that he was speaking to us! I had met him on the BYU campus back in april as he over heard when I was talking to a friend that I would be going to Taiwan on my mission. He also went to Taiwan on his mission back in the 90's. He went to the mission my brother Marc went to, Tai Cheng. He gave me the biggest pep talk and was so excited for me! He told me how all I needed to know was how to say "Ni hao" and "Zai Jian" (hello, goodbye) and I would be ready to go and have an awesome time. So it was super cool to listen to him on sunday. He talked alot about the experience he had as a missionary and in the NFL and how all of his blessing in life after his mission has stemmed as a result of him serving. He is actually as of right now the NFL Ambassdor to China and translated the last Super Bowl for all of China. Pretty cool, huh? He is an awesome guy. He all so had the chance to hike mount kilimanjaro in Africa with some of the wounded warriors from afganistan and iraq, along with some of the other NFL players like Teddy Bruiski form the Patroit. As he was telling us these different experiences he related them all back to his mission and how when on the mission we need to rely on the Lord and He will do the rest. Often times we wont know what to say, but he said to just keep speaking, if you get discouraged, just pray. If you dont know what to do, just keep working. And as you do your best in all of these things, all areas of life, the Lord will take care of the rest. He will open doors to blessings you could have never have thought of. I really like his talk that he shared with us it was inspiring. I know that this is true. I have seen it in my life and countless others, including many of you who are reading this right now. I encourage everyone to recognize the the blessings you have been given in life, big and small. These are from the Lord. He loves you and is always taking care of you.

 

Wish I had more time to write, but I hope all is well for everyone!

 

Love, Elder Bastian

Being An Example

Shang ge libai guode hen hao! Nimen ne?

 

This past week has been pretty good! Lots of studying, eating and sleeping. Sometimes I wish I had more hours in the day to study everything that I want to. This weekend is General Conference where our prophet, Thomas Monson, the Twelve Apostles, and other church leaders will address the members around the world. There has been a lot of buzz around the MTC starting this week. We are all very excited to see what they have to say. I know that what they do say, is exactly what God wants us to hear at this time. How cool is that!? I hope everyone will be able to see it who wants to. Anyway, time is really starting to fly by. Last sunday marked the the one month count down 'til I leave for Taiwan! I am so excited. This past week we have been watching some of the mormon profile videos on Mormon.org. We watched a couple of the Chinese ones. It was pretty cool because we were able to see how the natives speak and it's a fun little test to see how much you know and cool to see different members around the world, in places where I will soon be! Another big thing that has happened this week is that all of the new Chinese speaking missionaries have arrived. It was funny to see the deer in the headlights expression that first day. I'm sure that's exactly how I looked. It's been great to get to know them a better and help them out.

 

On Sunday, the Branch President asked to speak with me and my companion. At first, we weren't to sure why, but he got to the point very quickly and asked if my companion and I would be will to serve as the next Zone Leaders (leaders for the Chinese speaking missionary group) from the following Sunday, until the older group of us leave to our respective countries. We were both pretty suprised. This has been why I chose to label this weeks email home, "Being an Example." As I have come to notice pretty quickly, is that when you are given an assignment like this... pretty quickly everyone knows who you are, especially the new missionaries and they look to you to been an example. It's been humbling to see all of those around me who I have an opportuninty to get to know better and serve and help in anyway I can. I'm trying hard to make sure that I am always doing my best in whatever I do so that I may be an example to them. The the most important thing that I want to do as a result of this assignment is to really just love everyone. Making sure that I am doing all that I can to help everyone in their needs. I'm excited for this experience that lies ahead of me!

 

On Saturday we again had the opportuninty to teach at the Teaching Resource Center. It was a little different this time around because instead of teaching two 20 min lessons like we have done before we were to teach one 40 min lesson. The person we met with this week was a returned missionary who is attending BYU. He grew up in Singapore and served his mission and Melbourne, Australia. Our topic that we wanted to teach about was the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We were able to discuss with him why he tought it was important, and how it has affected him in his life. As we strived to listen to the promptings of the Spirit we were guided in how to convey our message in a way that would allow him to be strengthened. 

At first, we thought that it would be hard to know what to say to him our how to go about the lesson because this guy was already a missionary and we didn't want to just teach another lesson to him. We wanted to convey it in a way that was personal to him and could help him even though he has already taught this same part many times. That is the goal of each of our lessons is to teach in a way that will convey the spirit to the investigator and allow them to know the truthfullness of the message and help build their faith and desire to act and change for the better. As we stopped worrying about what we needed to say and focused on him, we were guided in what to say. It was a very cool experience. Each time after we teach at TRC we always get a feed-back slip of how the people thought the lesson went. This week the returned missionary had written down our meeting together was the highlight of his week and really helped him to know what he should do in his life. So cool! I love teaching!

 

On last quick thing: I started playing 4 square this week its alot cooler than I remember back in elementary school! When everybody gets into it, its crazy fun!

Anyway, I got to get going but I hope that everyone has a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Bastian

Jia You

Hello Everybody!

 

This week has been great! We have been teaching most of the days to our role play investigators. I am really learning how to best teach each of the lessons and learn to teach by the spirit and allow Him to guide me in my words. Sometimes it's hard because I want say something in Chinese but I dont completely know how so this week I have been trying to expand my vocabulary so that I can testify and descibe things more effectively. I'm pretty sure that I have mastered that basic Chinese needed to teach! But I know that it is not good enough and that I need to keep striving to expand my vocabulary and listening skills. 

My companion and I taught at the Teaching Resource Center again on Saturday. The place where we teach real people who come in and volunteer to listen to us. It's pretty cool because we get to meet and share are message with new people each week. Most all of them are already members but I have had that chance to teach two people who aren't members so far. It is awesome. This last Saturday we taught a BYU student. It just so happens that I knew this student from BYU. He was is my missionary prep class. He has been taking Chinese for three years but hasn't had the opportunity to go because he has had some health issues but he hopes to get out soon. As we started to teach him and get to know him a little better I had the impression early on to bear my testimony to him that God loves him and that He knows each of us perfectly. 

That he is His son and that He is always there for him. I started to get choked up and didn't really know why I was testifying of these things at this point in the lesson, but I could feel the spirit and knew that he felt the spirit testifying to him that these things were true. He started to get a little choked up too. I know from then on that it wasn't and isn't ever me teaching the people but that I and all missionaries are just instruments in the Lord's hands to bring to pass His work. The spirit is the master teacher, and he will always let us know what is right. 

The second group of people that we were able to teach was a father and son and then another man who goes to BYU. You'd never guess but the son is only 8 years old and is already learning Chinese! I couldn't believe it. He doesn't know to much but he knew enough to introduce himself and say how old he is. His dad doesn't speak Chinese at all. The other guy was born and raised in China so his Chinese was perfect. It was fun to share our message with them and get to know them better. I have come to love teaching more and more.

I finally am over my cold after a long bout with it and it feels good to not be coughing anymore. This week I started to go jogging during my exercise time with one of the other elders. I have just do a mile each time we have run but still it feels good to be running again. The first time we went we ran a 7:34, the second time a 7:04, and then this last time a 5:49. I think I got a little ambitious :) but I'm loving it. I hope to be able to run a good solid mile by the time I leave. We will see what I can do then! Tonight we have our weekly devotional. We never know who the speaker is 'til we get there but we are hoping that one of the Apostles comes to speak again. The last once came about 4 weeks ago. We will see! I always love hearing from them. We hear such good talks every week! So spoiled! Anyway, time's up 'til next week.

 

Love,

Elder Bastian

Much More Learning

Da Jia hao!

 

This past week has been a pretty good one. I have been sick for the past few weeks and it is finally starting to go away which is great! I'm loving it here. I've reached the halfway point at the MTC. The older generation of Mandarin speaking missionaries all left today to their missions, so it's pretty quiet around our dorms and classrooms now. The total group had about 50 people in it and the new group that comes in 2 weeks only has 20. So, the Mandarin zone of missionaries will be much smaller for my last half of the MTC stay. It was cool to see how all of the missionaries have progressed in their language since I have been here. My branch president gave a farewell talk for the missionaries leaving and said how all of them next week would be sitting in Sacrament meetings all around the world. And possibly some of them would be assisting in a baptism that Saturday. How crazy would that be? It seems surreal to go from Provo, UT to the middle of Taiwan in about 14 hours. Im sure when I walk off the plane in about 6 weeks I will have a little bit of culture shock. David Jorgenson, my friend from High School just left to Tai zhong, Taiwan today. He was very exicted to leave. It will be cool to see how his experience is in Tai zhong and if there are many differences from how mine will be in Taibei. I'll be in the north half of Taiwan and possibly along the east coast (which supposedly has some of the world prettiest beaches!) and he will be in the southern half. I can't wait!

 

I titled this week's email, "much more learning" because as you reach the halfway point it seems like the learning curve starts to level out and you don't seem to be learning as quickly in the language. BUT, it all depends on your ability to study creatively and effectively. The Chinese language has some 5000 characters in it, and not to mention when you combine them it blossoms into thousands of meanings. My point is, there will always be more to learn! My branch president, (the leader for my group of missionaries church meetings) has studied the language for 50 years and he says he is still learning new things! He claims that you can never truly call yourself fluent in Chinese. It's pretty funny to think that. As my companion and I are figuring out, we need to constantly change our study so that it is effective and allows us to learn at a faster rate. My idea for this next week and into the coming weeks is to spend some of my time reading the Chinese Book of Mormon and comparing the English right along with the Chinese to learn some of the important terms that the scriptures have in them. I think this will allow me to utilize the Book of Mormon more effectively in my lesson and help the investigator be able to see how the Book of Mormon specifically applies to him or her. As of right now we usually use a scripture in our lessons but we really don't know what the investigator is saying when he reads them, we just have to remember the English meaning because the Book of Mormon language is much more formal and a larger vocabulary than I have learned. So we feel that this new way of studying will really be effective for us in learning and teaching.

 

Another importing thing that I learned this week, almost more important than being able to speak the language well, is the importance of having a strong and profound testimony of the Book of Mormon. A speaker came to talk to us this past Sunday about the Book of Mormon and its role in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the entire world. It was a very powerful and life changing talk. He talked about how the Book of Mormon is central to the belief in this entire church and how without it, it would be nothing. The Book of Mormon, truly was translated by the power of God. This book is "most correct of any book, and would help an man draw nearer to God than any other book if a man would abide by its precepts." -Joseph Smith. The Book of Mormon truly is the Word of God. It contains the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ and contains all the things we need to do to be able to return to our Father in Heaven. I learned from Brother Watson's talk that I must have a strong, unwavering testimony of this book if I am to help others see the imoportance of it. I love this book and I love reading it everyday and seeing how it helps me in my life and how it can help others. I hope that all other will come to see the truth of it also.

 

My time is up for this week, but I hope everything is going well for every as school is starting and the summer is ending!

 

Love,

Elder Bastian

The Work Continues

Dajia hao!

 

This week has been pretty great! I've started to get the used to the whole routine of studiying, eating, and teaching! Its been great though. The language is coming along well and my companion and I have had good success in our  lessons. We are really learning how to speak with the investigators!  This week we had about five opportunities to teach people. On Saturday for the first time we taught an investigator who is from mainland China. He is studying at BYU and is investigating the church with a friend. We had the oppurtininty to teach him about pray. It was very cool because he was able to see the importance of it and see how through prayer we can truly communicate with our Father in Heaven. He is always listening and will always help us, we just need to stay in touch with Him. I'm beginning to love teaching more and more. At first I was a little nervous with it because of the language barrier but the more I learn the easier it seems to teach. One thing that I have learned this week is that even though being able to speak Chinese is important, it's not everything. We need to be able to bring the Spirit to those we meet with and allow the Spirit of God to teach those we meet with the truths of His message. I have learned that this is not my work but it is the Lord's work. I am just assisting in it, and how great it is!

 

This week the group of Mandarin speaking missionaries that came in the transfer before us (transfer is every 6 weeks) are leaving to their missions around the world. There are people in the Chinese group going to Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, New York, Manchester England, Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto, California, and a few others that I'm sure I am forgetting. Its crazy to see how Christ's church is spreading around the world and how the fullness of His gospel is being spread to every continent, every nation, every city, and every ear. This is the Lord's work and He will cause it to go forth until everyone has the opportuninty to hear and accept it. I can't wait to get to Taiwan and experience everything that will go on there. I'm excited for the food, the city, the people, the culture, and yes I can't believe im saying this, but even the rain! (at least for now). Although I still have 7 more weeks here, which seems long, I am loving every minute of it. And I am sure I will love it even more once I arrive in Taiwan. I am learing more and more each day how to have love for each and every person. We are all truly God's children, He loves us, He wants us to return to him, and has provided a way through our Savior Jesus Christ.

 

Along with all the learning that has been going on, we do have the chance to get to get in some exercise and sports days out of the week for about and hour each day. I've been taking it pretty easy since I have been here. Not any running or anything, but I think I will be able to start up again soon. I have been playing a little bit of volleyball and frisbee which has been fun. But I can't wait to be able to go for a little jog again! Anyways, I am about out of time for this week. I hope everyone is doing well and doing their best!

 

Love,

Elder Bastian

A Teaching Frenzy

Hello Everyone!

 

What a week it has been! I am loving it here at the MTC. This past week we have been given several opportunities to teach. The first great experience was on Saturday. For the first time since we have been here, we went to the Teaching Resource Center (TRC) where we will now go to every Saturday to teach real people, instead of just teachers or others role playing. The people we teach at the TRC are usually BYU students or others who live in the area that have been to Chinese speaking mission, and also a few people who are from Chinese speaking areas who are here for vacations or who are studying abroad at BYU. So our first go at real teaching, we ended up with this guy and this girl who were attending BYU. I think they were dating, but they may have just been good friends. The guy had served his mission in Australia, Mandarin speaking and the girl was from Taiwan, Taipei. We were super exited to teach them. I was a little nervous before hand, but as my companion and I prayed beforehand to have the spirit to be with us to help us teach i felt a wave of calm come over me. I walked into the room where the two people were and instantly i had a smile on my face and thought, this is going to be great! The Chinese just came to my companion and I and we spoke so well! We were taught the two a little about God's plan for us and how through Jesus Christ we can return to our Heavenly Father after this life. We then talked about the Book of Mormon and how it talked about Jesus Christ and his gospel and that through reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it, we are able to know that it is the word of God, that the fullness of Christ's gospel and His church have been restored, and that we do have a modern prophet on the Earth again today. It was very cool to be able to testify of the truthfulness of these things in the Mandarin language. We then shared our favorite scriptures with them. Overall the first lesson went great! They both told us that they were suprised at how well we spoke the language. It was comforting to hear that from them.

 

The next pair that we taught was a father and son who are from Taiwan, Taipei! They are here in Provo 'til November beacuse the man's wife is going to school at BYU to get her degree. The were both so cool and so kind! We loved talking with them about our families and Taiwan and everything it was so fun. We also, taught them about the same things as we did the other pair. At the end I asked the man how the gospel has blessed him and his family in his life and he explained how throught scripture study and prayer to our Heavenly Father, his family has been able to over come any struggles that they have had. It was so cool to hear his testimony and it really just showed me that the church is true where ever you go around the world. We truly are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.

 

The next to opportunities to teach were with Wei di xiong and Mao jie mei. We had meet them both once before. They are our regular investigators. Again our lessons went sooo well. My companion and I just prepared as best as we could to teach the two and we left the rest up to the Lord to help us out, and He really did. There were times in the lesson where I was listening to our investigators speak and I didn't know what they were saying but I could understand what they meant. It was an awesome experience. The spirit truly helped us teach and testify to Mao and Wei. My companion and I walked away from the lessons feeling great. The language has just been coming along so well this past week!

 

I guess the only downside to this past week has been that a cold has been going around and I happened to get sick for a few days. I actually lost my voice from it so I could only whisper in a raspy voice and it was pretty funny to teach like that. I'm pretty sure that it was hard for them to understand me... but luckily it is gone and passed! I'm back to normal now. Well, my time is up for the computer, and I've got to get going.

Hope everyone is doing well! 

Love,

Elder Bastian