Happy Mother's Day

Hello Everyone!

 

It's Mother's Day back at home in the US, so, Happy Mother's Day!  I'm so grateful for the the role that mothers play in all of our lives, no matter who we are. My mom has made such a huge impact in my life and really has helped me become who I am today. I couldn't be more grateful. Thank you, Mom, for all that you do for each of us. We love you!

I will be video calling home in a little bit to talk with the family, so I will keep this week's update a little shorter since most of my email time will be spent video conferencing with family.

The past week here in Long Tan has gone well. There have been a lot of rainstorms lately that have lasted all day long, so we have been knocking doors most of time as there aren't many people out on the street to talk to. We have been able to meet with a few new people who are interested in the church.  It has been a lot of fun to get to know them, their background, and what has led them to come and investigate the church. Meeting and building relationships with so many people all of the time has been one of the greatest blessings of the mission. You can learn so much from those around you and their experiences. Life just feels FULL when you are surrounded by others.

We've also had a lot of opportunities to work with the less active members of the church. They are always so great to go visit. Seeing them smile and rejuvenate as the gospel is once again brought into their lives is amazing. I know this gospel is true.  It has brought so many blessings to my life and to my family, and it can for everyone else too!

We'll my time is about up, but I hope that everyone has a great week!

Love you all,

Elder Bastian

A Chance to Return to the Temple

Hello!

 

It's midway into the week here in Taiwan! This week our preparation day was changed to Wednesday because we have a multi-zone-wide temple day today. So my companion and I were up pretty early this morning to shoot out some quick emails, then we got ready for the day and headed off to Taipei, which is about an hour or so bus ride. It was so great to be able to enter into the House of the Lord today. It's been about 4 months or so since the last time we had a temple day. While I was there I was able to put away all my worries and stresses and focus on being edified by the Holy Ghost. Every time I go to the temple, I always have a feeling of peace that I have not felt anywhere else. It really is rejuvenating to go there.

This past week and a half has been pretty good! My companion and I have had some pretty cool experiences teaching others about the gospel. The first was with a Sister Long. She is a newer investigator. Early last week, my companion and I were tracting, going door to door, sharing our message. We only had about an hour and a half to use at that time because we needed to be back to the church for a lesson after that. We started tracting and knocked and knocked at different homes, but no one was interested at the moment. We went down the last alley of houses and were at the second to last house when my companion and I were deciding if we should just leave at that point and head back to a different part of town, but we just decided that we would try the last house really quickly. So, my companion rang the buzzer and we heard a lady's voice answering. At first she didn't seem interested, but then all of sudden she told us to wait a second and she would come down. She opened up her front door and let us in and sat us down at her table. She started to ask a few questions and then talked a little bit about how she loves to read.  My companion and I then turned to each other, smiled, and I pulled out a copy of the Book of Mormon. Her eyes seemed to light up as we explained a little bit about the book, it's contents, and it's history. She told us how she can read for hours straight and some times won't even sleep. I was excited.

We were able to head back to her house this past Sunday and talk more about the restoration of the gospel and it's connection to the Book of Mormon. She was really eating it up and we could all feel the spirit strongly. She told us that she had already read about a fourth of the Book of Mormon. She even asked if she could mark the book and make notes. We told her yes! She seems to be really interested.  My companion and I are really excited to continue meeting with her and seeing how things go.

We had another similar experience with a Brother Chen. It was his second time meeting with us and we also taught him about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. As we gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, he started to flip through it's front pages and scan the book intently.  The power of the Book of Mormon is so great. It really is at the center of our message to others and at the center of this Church. With out it, our church is nothing. It is so cool to see people who understand the importance of the Book of Mormon and begin the process of understanding the truthfulness of it.

Another fun little thing that happened during the week was when my companion and I were contacting people around the city lake on Monday. We were walking under some trees on this path when out of the corner of my eye, I saw this thing fall from out of the tree and "thud" on the ground. I walked over and saw this green circle thing that was moving. As I got closer to examine it, my companion and I were surprised to find out that it was a TURTLE!  It was stuck on the back of its shell so I flipped it over and then it crawled away. Pretty funny right? It was a good little highlight to the week.

Well, I hope this week goes great for everyone! It sounds like its starting to warm up at home and I would assume so for all of the other places too.

Four Story McDonald's

大家好!

(Hello Everyone!)

 

Today we decided to wake up a little earlier to do emails, so that we would have more time to do things during the day. The result: a beautiful sunrise! I hope the picture I attach shows up for you guys. When the weather is good here in Taiwan, it is so pretty!

The past week has gone pretty well for us here in Long Tan. Nothing too new, still finding and teaching everyday, and will for another year and a few months! The area where I am now, is a lot different from my first area in Zhong He. In my first area you could go anywhere you want and there would be people to talk, that we could share the gospel with, but Long Tan is a lot smaller and there is only one fairly small main road that has people out on it during the day, so my companion and I recently have been going to a little of different places to knock doors and invite people to come and learn more about Christ. It's been fun! You run into a lot of different situations and types of people. This past week we went to an area we have never been to before to go tracting. We got there and started to knock doors down one alley we had planned to go on and about the 3rd door down we ran into this super nice high school student. She has been to a church before a few times with her other friends and loves it. Her English was also pretty good, as she wants to do the foreign exchange program and go to America. When we found out these things, we quickly invited her to our English Class and invited her to learn more about church and Christ. She seemed excited! It was cool to see someone so willing to learn more!

One thing that is pretty interesting here in Taiwan, is that when you go house to house to share the gospel with others, you often run into one problem.... Their doorbells are broken! This is pretty common here, and I don't know why. So we usually have to knock pretty hard on the little gates that are out front and then call into there house, "Hello! Is anyone home?" Then, if they are home, about 10 seconds later someone will start to shuffle to and out the door to meet us. It's pretty fun, a lot different that I imagine it would be in America. We have also run into a lot of dogs lately that just bark their heads off if we go near their house. These things all add up to some pretty interesting and memorable experiences!

This past week I was able to go on exchanges again with Elder Mattson who lives in the neighboring town. We had a good time working together at his place and even had a member take us out to dinner at Mcdonalds! The Mcdonalds here are like our resturaunts in America, some even have 4 floors to them. It's just great.

Well I hope that everyone is doing well back at home! This about wraps it up for me here! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Bastian

Miracle of the Night

Hello!

 

Well, we are almost into May, can you believe that? Time seems to be really picking up! Thanks for the birthday wishes; I can't believe that I will be 20 on Wednesday. That's old!

The past week has been pretty great here in Long Tan. The weather seems to be shaping up for the most part and I hear that mango season in going to be coming around soon. Everyone raves about the mangos here. I was able to have my first fresh mango yesterday at a member's house and it was delicious! BUT, of more importance the Lord's work is going well and steady. We were able to meet with a lot of new people this last week and hope to be able to see them all again this week.

Last night my companion and I had a pretty cool experience. We were biking through this neighborhood to start tracting in an area and as we were going through it, we passed this older lady who seemed to be walking back to her house. We had traveled a little farther then stopped to park the bikes and begin tracting when we looked back and the lady had turned around and walked all the way back to where we had stopped. We started to talk to her and she said that she attend a church down the road, but that she has a son who is out of the country right now but will be back in July who is investigating different churches. She said that he felt the one by their house wasn't fitting for him, so she asked us for our number so she could have him get in contact with us when he gets back. We were so suprised! The little old lady we had passed turned out to be the miracle of the night! It was pretty cool to see the Lord direct the people to us, and help them to see us as messangers sent from God.

One of the things that our mission president has invited us to do this past month is to focus on strengthening our relationship with the Sprit by personally reconverting ourselves to the gospel daily. As I have strived to focus on my commitments that I have made with the Savior and Heavenly Father, I have really been able to feel the presence of the Spirit more fully in my life and in this work. Instead of little spurts everyonce in a while, they have become more consistent and long-lasting. The Gift of the Holy Ghost truly is the most precious that God has given to us in this life. He provides so much comfort and direction. How miraculous.  

Well, the end of the transfer is this week and we might be getting move calls on Wednesay letting us know if we move or stay. Elder Bennion and I are just starting to see the fruit of our labors in this area so we are hoping that we might be able to stay here and continue to see them grow, but what ever happens we know that it is where the Lord wants us to be.

I hope that you all have a wonderful week!

Love you all,

 

Elder Bastian

Sun Bursting Through

Hello from Taiwan!

 

Well it's Monday afternoon here in Taiwan, the rain has seemed to stop and the sun is bursting through! How great. I was really starting to miss the warmer weather. 

This past week has been full of meetings and conferences, the most important being General Conference for us members here in Taiwan. I was excited to see so much emphasis on missionary work! There are currently 65,000 missionaries, around 7,000 more than 6 months ago, another 20,000 who have already received their calls, and 6,000 in the application process. The Lord is truly hastening his work and I'm glad to be apart of it. What were your favorite parts? I know that there is always something for everyone when we sit down to watch conference. These talks are truly from God, given to us through his authorized servants here on earth.

Yesterday, Sunday, two new investigators came to attend the conference sessions with us. They seemed to have a wonderful time. One of them even came up to my companion and me afterward and asked if he could have another appointment with us.  He said that a member had mentioned something about this to him. We are so excited to be able to meet with him this coming  Wednesday!  I know that he could really feel the spirit as he heard and saw the prophet, apostles, and other church leaders speak to him.

Another cool thing that happened during the week was at one of our meetings with the local missionary zones and our mission president. They announced that in June we will be starting a new English Class program. Every Wednesday evening we have the opportunity to teach English to the people here for free. It is pretty fun and you can really see that the people enjoy it. A lot of their English is actually pretty good, they just never get opportunities to use it!  Sounds like this new program will really be vamped up and pretty professional. I'm excited to see how it turns out.

One of the special experiences I had this week was on Saturday evening after conference. We had gone out to the main road in Longtan to find people to talk to and share the gospel with. As I was riding my bike, I saw a guy sitting on his motor scooter so I decided to go up and talk to him. He turned out to be pretty good and interested. I was a little surprised by his interest, but when I asked if we would be willing to meet with us to learn more, he started giving us the common response that a lot of people here give, "Oh I'm busy, sorry, I can't." I felt impressed as he was saying this to bear humble testimony to him of the truthfulness and blessings of this gospel message we were sharing. His expression quickly changed and he said that yeah he could meet next weekend! I know if I hadn't followed the spirit, this man would not have had the opportunity to learn more about the gospel at this time in his life. It's always so cool to feel the promptings that Heavenly Father gives to us, and to follow those promptings, and then to see the blessings that come from it.

Well my time is about up for now. I hope that you all have a wonderful week!

I love you all!

Elder Bastian

General Conference

Hello Everyone!

 

I may be 10,000 miles away on a tiny little island in Asia, but I am so glad that I have the chance each week to keep in touch with everyone! Technology is just great! By the way, someone in church yesterday talked about some kind of "Google Glasses" that will be coming out next year. Sounds pretty crazy!  It will be cool to see all that has changed by the time I get home.

Well, this past week has gone pretty well! The work has moved a little slower this week since a lot of people went out of town to return to their original homes for a 4 day holiday. The Taiwanese people have a tradition called "Sao Mu" which is where once a year families will gather together, return home, and visit their ancestors' burial place and clean the graves. The Taiwanese culture really emphasizes families and this holiday is a really important one for them. So this week, we focused more of our efforts on the ward and finding and visiting less active members. We were able to get a hold of several of them and 3 of them came to church on Sunday. Pretty cool!  It has been fun to get to know the ward here in Long Tan. The ward starts to feel like family when you have been here for a bit.

This past week has been pretty rainy so the time that we spent contacting people, was mostly done by tracting which means going door to door and knocking and talking with people who answer their door. We were able to meet some very cool people!  There were a  few who were willing to let us in and they listened to our message. We ran into one family on Saturday that we were able to have a pretty cool experience with.  The wife let us in, and at first she was the only one to sit down and talk with us, but within 15 or so minutes the whole family had came down to listen also! They had a college age son that came down first, then the father, and then about half way through the father even called their daughter to come down and learn about prayer together. We were able to say a heartfelt prayer with them and I could see the spirit working with the father after that. In the end, the mom said that they would be pretty busy as they were only all home together that weekend because of the holiday, so meeting in the future with them might not work.  Still, I was glad to be able to plant a seed in their home with my companion, and I know that this seed will blossom in the future.

This past weekend was General Conference for the church, where many of the Apostles and the Prophet spoke to the worldwide church. Here in Taiwan, we have not been able to see and hear conference yet as they are still translating all of it, but we will be able to watch it this coming Saturday and Sunday. I can't wait to see it! How amazing it is that we have apostles and prophets in our day - just as in the days of the Savior. That is the key to our message. The windows of heaven are not closed. God still interacts with man and reveals his will to us as in times of old. The truth has been restored. How grateful I am to be a missionary here in Taiwan sharing this message with others each day.

I hope that many of you will have the opportunity to watch some of these conference addresses online.

Well, that's about it for the recap of the week. My time is just about up here for today. I hope that everyone has an awesome week!

I love you all!

Elder Bastian

Happy Easter

Hello Everyone!

 

I hope that everyone had a very Happy Easter! Its been interesting in Taiwan to celebrate Easter as it is almost non-existant here. Last night, I was thinking about this difference and started to ponder about the Savior and all that he has done for us no matter where we live in the world. I felt such a warm and calming feeling come over me as the Spirit testified to me of the life and divinity of the Son of God among men. He has lived for us and continues to live for us each day.

This week has been just great! The highlight of the week was the baptism of our investigator Sister Guan. It was a cloudy and rainy day, but our spirits were bright and high as we saw her enter into the waters of baptism to make a solemn covenant with her Father in Heaven. She was just so excited! It really brought a smile to my face.  Also, Remember how I told you that Sister Guan would call us and let us know how things were going? We have found another investigatot of the same such remarkable kind! His name is Brother Lu. Actually, my last companion and I ran into him about a month ago in front of McDonald's. I contacted him again about 2 weeks ago, but he was busy getting ready to return to Tai Cheng for the weekend. Last Monday, we were finishing up dinner and heading over to the church when we got a call from him. He told us that he was trying to find our church and wanted to meet with us that night. We ended up meeting with him and sharing a message about Heavenly Father and prayer. He just seemed so curious and interested in these things, the church and missionaries. He seemed to react well to what we shared with him that day but we weren't  totally sure until Saturday night, when he gave us another call to see what time church started the next day. He said that he would be there, and he was! He seemed to really like it and he had a lot of good questions. We are hoping to meet with him again this week! Its so great when the Lord brings the prepared people to us!

Last Monday, our Preparation Day, was another fun one. We were able to go hike Mount Shi Men. It was very pretty and the view from the top was quite pretty! We were able to find a small Buddhist temple and burial sight there which was so cool! I almost got lost on our way back down, but finally made it as we navigated our way through the trails to the karaoke singers that were situated near the trail head. Sounds weird, right? People here in Taiwan love karaoke so much that they have little huts in the mountains and the people go there to do it all the time. It was a lot of fun. 

This past week has been pretty great. Were doing well and are excited for another week of successful work!

I hope that you are all doing well at home and that you have a wonderful week!

Love you all,

Elder Bastian!