Taichung Time

Monday, May 27, 2013

May 26, 2013

     Well, it's been another week on the beautiful island of Taiwan! One of the highlights of the week, we've got an investigator with a baptismal goal for the 15th of June!! YEAH!!! I don't know if I told you about the "merry Monday" crew back from Tainan or not, but one of the guys moved here to Gaoxiong and so we met him for dinner again last monday and he's meeting with us again tonight! He's an awesome guy, and we're gonna work hard to try and get him active in the church! You ban fa!  Well, time for the day by day update:   
    Tuesday: Exchanges! Oh so much fun. I stayed in my area and led around Elder W(one of my Zone leaders from Signapore) for Tuesday and Wednesday. We had some awesome success, and racked up some serious numbers! It was a good day for sure. We also went to the elementary school to do some English Proselyting (just advertising the English Class)... we felt a little like pedophiles, but we got some good families to come to English class and I'm sure it will lead to some new families converting unto Christ!   
      Wednesday: Interviews! Every 3 months President Bishop will visit each Zone and conduct personal interviews, I love these interviews! He's such an incredible guy and he really makes you feel special as he talks with you. He's got a remarkable memory! He remembers things that I said in my first interview with him, he quotes things that I said but don't even remember! Super lihai!! I did leave on a bit of a sad note... During interviews, the Assisstants (and President Bishop himself) very bluntly hinted to Elder M that he would be training this next move call, which means I'm gonna get kicked out of here! Man! I'm super happy for Elder M, but I'll be SO sad to leave this area!!   
      Thursday: Basically had a normal finding day! Spent almost all of it outside in the nice, hot, sun and got some good new investigators! We also met with this guy who is from Oregon!! He's got Taiwanese parents, but he was born in the states. He's a pretty cool dude! We talked with him for longer than an hour and I think he'll be a very likely candidate for baptism and enduring conversion! I can't wait to see the Gospel begin to change his life! We also spent the night teaching a Recent Convert who has become less active... We weren't teaching the Gospel though, I was teaching him... how to ride a bike!! haha, poor guy! He's got a few reasons why he's less active, but one of the big ones is that he's got no way to come to church!! So I spent about an hour teaching him how to ride so he can start coming to church with us on Sundays! I was about 10 minutes away from trying dad's method and ripping his shirt off of him as he pedals!!! But he's getting there... slowly. :)    
     Friday, Saturday, and Sunday: Just a normal weekend! Spent most of it at the older mans house that we take care of, and the rest of it was spent teaching some lessons and a whole lot of contacting! It's always a little hard to get up and go contact out in the hot sun, but if we don't do it, we're never going to help others come unto Christ! It's definitely a neccessary sacrifice! And it's also very worth while!    
     Why do we have commandments? Why is it that God has told us to keep all these "rules?" What do you think? Would you believe me if I told you it's because He loves us? We're given these commandments for our own benefit and protection! It's for the same reason that we have all of our warning signs (don't touch, don't smoke, don't feed the animals, etc.)! Very easy to understand why we shouldn't touch the bright red light on the humidifier, right Dad? These signs are usually the result of somebody with greater knowledge, wanting to help protect the people on earth... Sound anything like a God? God is all powerful and all knowing! He also is filled with love for us, He will do everything He can to protect us (withouth taking away our own Personal Agency) and this is the exact reason he's given us these commandments. Sometimes we don't know what the reasoning is for a certain rule, but there's always a good reason! Exact obedience will ensure our safety and it will give us strength to overcome any trial!     I love you guys all to the moon and back! Hope everything is still going well, I'm certainly doing great out here! Loving every minute of every day! Jiayou!!
proselyting

Good morning!

Monday, May 20, 2013

May 19, 2013

What up Americans? Are you reading this as you bask in the smell of B.O. and second hand smoke, sweating in an internet cafe too? No? You should try it some time... :D 
     Wow, what a week!! It started off INCREDIBLY hot!! I honestly feel like I'm in an oven! But what to our surprise when we woke up Friday morning, still sweating, to the sound of CRAZY hard rain outside... it didn't stop until last night!! You gotta love summer in Gaoxiong! Well, first things first, my new companion! He's from Lancaster, CA!! He's a super cool guy, really chillax and he's got an awesome testimony! I love teaching with him and our companionship studies are always really insightful! He reminds me a lot of Elder S actually! It's really funny actually, I met Elder M my first day in Tainan. He was serving in the second ward and the Saturday I got there, we had a big service activity. I worked with him for a little over an hour, talking and joking, and then he left for the north the next day. And now we're companions! Kinda cool the way things work out, huh? We had a super busy week, and it absolutely FLEW by! Lessons were jam-packed everyday!! We honestly barely had any time to go out and contact people because we were always in the chapel teaching people! We met a couple new people this week and we've set up some more baptismal dates, so the work is really going great! We've got this one investigator that we're trying to help quit smoking, it's been a battle! He told us that he quit, and so we were hoping that he could get baptized in the next week or so... but when he came to church yesterday, I found a pack of cigarettes in his shirt pocket!!! I was so sad!! I took the cigs from him, gave him some money, and he promised he wouldn't buy any more. He's now got a goal for the 1st of June, and I really think he can do it!! I'm so excited for him, he needs the Gospel so bad!!! I love him to death! 
     We had another lesson on Thursday (or Friday, I lose track of the days out here guys, give me a break!) with a new investigator that I met at the train station a few days ago. He was super interested in learning English, and that was pretty much the only reason he agreed to meet with us... at first! We started talking to him, and I had an impression to say a prayer with him. Not exactly a weird impression, but while I was praying, I had the distinct impression to bless him and his family, and to be a little more sincere in the way I talked with God. When I finished my prayer, I had another impression, DON'T SAY A WORD!! I sat there and looked at my investigator (everyone else in the room must have had the same impression, 'cause that room was SILENT.)... just stared at him. After a minute or so, he looked at me and said, "I feel so good!" I about ran over there and hugged him! We taught about the Spirit of God and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and then gave him a baptismal date for the 15 of June... the next day we found out that he lives outside of our area... super sad, but it is what it is! He'll still be willing to get baptized, and that's the important part!
     Those are basically the highlights of the week! It's been super great!! My spiritual message of the week is this, "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul, Whose mighty hand hath made me whole. Whose infinite power hath raised me up, and filled with sweet my bitter cup." Not totally sure on the exact wording of the lyrics, but that's pretty close! This song really sums up my testimony of the Savior pretty well. I testify that He truly is our Savior and Redeemer. Through His mighty Atonement, we can be made whole! No matter our background or the situation we are in right now, we can look forward with a brightness of hope, knowing that the Lord will make us whole if we allow Him to. His infinite power and Loving nature will lift us to heights we've never dreamed of, and it will fill every bitter aspect of our lives with a sweetness no earthly word can describe. I know these things our true. I know it not only with my mind, but every fiber of my being testifies of these things and cements my faith! I promise you, if you lean on the ever out-stretched arm of the Lord, your faith will be cemented and no matter the size of the storm, nothing will be able to tear you down. 
     I love you all! Love, Elder Noll




Sunday, May 12, 2013

Mother's Day 2013!

Oh the joys of move day! I apologize in advance, this letter will be a little bit shorter! I've only got a little bit of time to write this right now! Well, I'm on a nice little spiritual high right now after seeing you guys yesterday!... granted, you were just frozen in the screen for 30 minutes until you disappeared entirely, but I saw you for about 10 minutes and heard your voices! I'm okay with that! You all looked like you're doing great, even if you were a little tired! Sorry about that! I'm looking forward to seeing you again at Christmas! 
     This week has been H O T!! I didn't think it was possible to get any hotter, but Gaoxiong has shown me some pretty hot days! It definitely brings some rockin' fruit though, so I don't worry about it too much! We had an AWESOME experience this week with one of our investigators! He had a dream that gave him an answer to his prayers!  This investigator is super great, but he's always had a problem that we just couldn't quite figure out! Finally, last week, we did a mock baptismal interview with him and found out that he didn't believe in Joseph Smith or the Book of Mormon... he's keeping EVERY single commandment, but he doesn't believe that Joseph Smith actually saw God. So we told him to fast with us. The morning after our special fast he called us and told us (in English): "I've had an epiphany of Jesus Christ..." ?!? I had no idea what that meant, but you can bet I was nervous! We met with him on Thursday and he drew this huge, detailed dream up on the board for us to interpret... it was seriously intricate! If you want to see a copy of it, ask my parents in a couple of weeks, I'm sending a copy to them. By the end of the dream, he writes up 4 numbers on the board. 1836. He says: "Elder Luo, do you know what this means?" I told him I had not a clue!! He then pulls out his Book of Mormon and shows us something in the index about Joseph Smith translating the Book of Mormon in June of 1830... the sixth month in the year of 1830!!! I never would have made that connection, but he's a smart dude! He then tells us that he fully believes in the Book of Mormon and in Joseph Smith, it couldn't have made me any happier! The only problem now is that his family doesn't agree with him getting baptized, so it'll be a while! But it's okay, because I know that one day he'll make that step and he'll start on the path to Eternal Life.
     So we've found out that Elder D is now going Zone Leader! He'll rock it up north! My new companion is on his way down here right now, his name is Elder M. I met him my first day in Tainan and he's a super cool guy! We're gonna do some serious work here in Lingya!! I'll have more details about him next week!
 
     I want to bear my testimony to you about how incredible the work of the Lord is, and the importance of His hand in everything we do. This work is absolutely without price. I know because I'm now apart of it more than ever! Seeing the changes it's made in peoples lives is nothing short of miraculous. The most important part of this work, though, is to have the Lord's Spirit to be with us as we do it. That requires us to do and give us certain things! It means we must be worthy, that's the first step to anything in the Church! Personal worthiness is a requirement to work alongside our God. It means we must put forth serious effort. Not only the physical effort (and I'm here to tell you, there's PLENTY of physical demands!) but we must exercise our minds by studying the scriptures and the words of the prophets! We must also be wise in things of the world, including how to budget money, how to wash clothes, how to get along with people, and basic necessities of life! I promise that when we put forth the effort to do these things, the Lord with bring us to heights that we've never even dreamed of! Everything is possible with the Lord on our side. This is my promise and invitation, in the name of our beloved Savior and Redeemer, even Jesus Christ, amen.

    
Happy Mother's Day!

Best MD Gift!!

Even the dog got in on the action...LOL

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

May 5, 2013

What's up everybody?? Well, honestly this week has been a slow one... not to say it went by slow, it flew by, but there wasn't a whole lot of excitement in it! Last P-day we just kind of chilled. I painted my bike while Elder D wrote a bunch of letters and then we just hung out at home while I played some guitar. I'm working on a new song that I'll send you guys once I get it right... it'll be a while. :) Other than that, we had a very abnormal week... our schedule was jam packed with lessons every single day. I'm serious when I say it's hard to find a time to even use the bathroom, that's how busy we were SUPPOSED to be... but, we got our pigeons placed (Chinese idiom for getting stood up) about 4-5 times each day. Really annoying, because our whole personal and companionship study is supposed to be focused on the lessons we teach to our appointments! But God knows what we're supposed to be doing, and the backup plans we had led to some miracles! I'll have to start out with the saddest (not too sad, but it makes me sad) part of the week. Our investigator, the one I went to the beach with, doesn't live in our area!!! This is the second investigator that we've had to pass off to other Elder's, and he's getting baptized in 2 weeks!! I'm super happy he's still getting baptized, but now we don't get to see him as often! Super sad. But we've got some other investigators who have some baptismal goals for May, so we're still doing good! And we've made sure that they live in our area!! haha
     One of the most exciting events of the week was cockroach hunting at our crippled friend's house! Wow, it was scary man. The man we take care of told us that the cockroaches were starting to crawl on him and bite him, and he said that they would crawl into his food when he was trying to eat! So we went out and bought 2 cans of the highest class RAID and went to work. I can't even tell you how many cockroaches we killed!!! It definitely got my blood pumping as we sprayed them off the walls and basically fumigated this guy's house! As scary as it was, it was funny at the same time. The older man was yelling at us to get certain ones, and then he would crack up as we sprayed them, and then he'd see another one and scream again. We had a pretty good time.
     I haven't eaten anything too crazy this week, other than some weird kind of soup my investigator gave me. I started eating it, and it wasn't too bad. Just a little weird and lumpy. The meet was all kind of a grayish color, and it didn't have a whole lot of taste. I asked him what it was and he told me it's pig intestines, pig liver, and some other kind of stuff that they threw in a pot and cooked. I'm convinced that they just took the insides of a pig and dumped it in my bowl. Needless to say, I was a little bit surprised... but you'll be proud to know that I licked the bowl clean! Aren't you guys excited for me to bring you back here? You'll never know what I'm ordering for you! MuwaHAHAHA! It's payback for going to Hawaii without me... :D
    
     I've been thinking a lot this past week about what it means to love the Savior. He puts it pretty simply himself, "If you love me, keep my commandments... Greater love hath no man than this, that a man layeth his life down for his friends... verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye are my disciples if ye have love one for another..." Those are the 3 things I want to talk about really quick.
Obedience. The first law of heaven! What kind of society would we have if we didn't recognize the Laws which have been laid down for us? The law of obedience is not only a way to protect us and bring ourselves blessings, but it's the ideal way to show the love and respect we have for God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I heard a talk in Sacrament meeting just a couple weeks ago that touched on this aspect of the Gospel. He said: "There are 3 reasons why we keep the Commandments. 1. We're scared of punishment. This is alright, we're still keeping the commandments, right? 2. We want the reward of Eternal Life. This is a little better, but we can still improve. 3. We love God." It's as simple as that. We need to "FORGET OURSELVES, and go to work...", go to work by keeping the Commandments.
"Greater love hath no man than this,..." The first example that comes to mind when I read this scripture is obviously Christ Himself. He laid his life down for all of mankind! I think of other obvious, great examples such as Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the Pioneers, and others who have died for the cause of truth. But when we think deeper, laying your life down doesn't have to mean "death." Each and every Prophet and General Authority has laid His life down to work for the Church and help bring to pass this great work! Many parents and spouses have laid their lives down to provide for children or to be with each other. I'm not saying we need to go and throw ourselves off a building because we love Christ, but let's be "anxiously involved in a good cause," hm?
"...love for one another..." We know, from King Benjamin in the book of Mosiah, that "...when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God." Christ tells us likewise, in Matthew, "And the King shall answer and say unto him, verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these your bretheren, ye have done it unto me." If we want to express our love to Christ, let's serve one another and lift each other up.
     Love you all tons! Love, Elder Noll