November 24, 2013

Hey guys!! How is everything goin' back there in the land of snow and Christmas??? (neither of which are over here) It's always incredible to me to read e-mails from back home and hear about all the huge changes that are going on! I don't know what to even expect when I get back home! I've still got a year until I see it all too! It's gotta be pretty crazy! Even though it's only been four days since I last wrote, I still feel like I just read a years worth of news from back home! Ha, maybe this is what God feels like as he watches us all the time, seeing as a day in His time is equal to thousands of years down here!

 

Well, it's been a pretty eventful four days! Let me tell ya! The temple was absolutely incredible. The bus ride is always really fun up there because everyone is super excited and we get to watch church movies for the 2 hour trip... a little different from last time when I sat with Elder B and just chatted like high school girls for the entire 4 hours on the bus! We got to the temple around 9:00 and went in to do our stuff. It's such a beautiful temple! It's got a really cool Asian kind of feel going on, but it's still obviously a Temple of the Lord. The furniture and paintings and decorations are all very Taiwanese while it all complements to the feel of peace and serenity. I love it! I was kind of forced to do a Chinese session this time, which I was a little worried about, so I grabbed a translator before it started... after about 3 minutes, my ear with the cauliflower-ear was killing me so I just took the headphones out. I was really surprised to find that I understood the Chinese almost better than I understood the English! The Spirit is a great teacher! I even got to the point where I wasn't TRYING to understand the Chinese, but I was actually receiving answers to all the questions that I had before I went in the temple that day! Super incredible.

 

Wednesday night was probably the highlight of my entire week (on a more worldly note)... did I tell you about the Lord of the Rings swords that we bought a few weeks ago? Well, did I tell you that they can cut flying fruit right out of the air? Yes, we played fruit ninja with real swords, and yes, we took video so you can all see once I get home. There is only one word that can do this activity justice...

 

 

Legendary

 

 

Another interesting activity of the week? Eating some AWESOME beef noodles with one of our investigators. This guy is about 60 years old and has got some pretty good English when it comes to vocab... He's a fun guy, and we're really trying to get him to set a baptismal goal, but he's a pretty stubborn dude as well! He likes to buy us these beef noodles every week though, and that's always fun. Taiwanese beef noodles are super delish! The noodles are super thick and super good, and there are GIANT chunks of super juicy beef all floating around a beef broth full of spices and vegies! Super amazing! I love it!

 

The Spiritual insight of the week? It comes from watching a Recent Convert give a talk in church yesterday. This is an older guy (probably in his 60's or 70s) who I've known since I first got here to Daya. When I first got here, he was active, but his testimony was honestly nearly absent. He went to church because his wife did, he met with us because he thought we were funny guys, and he didn't care much for prayer or scripture study. We've seen him steadily improve since I've been here, never anything too obvious or noteworthy, but his testimony was growing little by little. I've seen massive improvement and strength in his testimony in this last month. He received the Melchezidek Priesthood a couple weeks ago, and he's a changed man. As he spoke yesterday, I felt like I was seeing someone entirely different! I honestly didn't get a lot of new knowledge or revelation from his talk itself, but his Testimony was just radiating through him as he talked about gratitude and how grateful he was for all the Church had done for him and his family. As I watched and listened, I thought of the last verse to "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul." :"O'er rule mine acts to serve thine ends. Change frowning foes to smiling friends! Chasten my soul till I shall be in perfect harmony with Thee! Make me more worthy of the love, and fit me for the life above." This is my humble prayer. That we will all give ourselves over to the God who loves us. He is all knowing and all powerful, if we can humble ourselves before him and give him our everything, He can turn us into the Kings and Queens which we are destined to become.

 

 

Love you all! Have a great week!

 

Elder Noll

November 20, 2013

Yet another week... and a few days BECAUSE WE JUST WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!! So yeah, sorry I didn't e-mail Monday! We just got back from the Temple and we are rushing to do our e-mails really quick, so we don't actually have a whole lot of time! I'll try to get in a good recap of the whole week and a half really quick and go into more detail next week!
     First things first... we went on a quest last P-day... a quest to look for swords!! We found them. We met this member who forges his own knives and swords in Tanzi. He's super famous for the quality of his work and pretty much all of Taiwan knows his name. We heard of him from the missionaries serving in Tanzi and they said that he sells Lord of the Rings swords to missionaries for SUPER cheap, so we of course had to go and check it out! Turns out he only had 4 left, so we bought them. I got the giant 2 foot long knife that Aragorn uses in the 1st movie for a total of SIX American dollars!!! it's pretty dang awesome!! That was definitely one of the best events of the week... especially carrying it home on the bus. We got some weird looks!
     We also did Interviews this week! We had an awesome chance to sit down with President Blickenstaff and discuss how we were doing and have a personal 12 minute interview with him. It was super fun! President Blickenstaff is a really chillax, super awesome guy! I feel like I was able to learn some valuable things from him and I've started putting them to use already! He's a smart fella!
     I was a little disappointed that the new temple movie has not started playing in Taiwan yet, but it's all good! I got to do a session in Chinese, and I honestly think I got more out of it! The English is just so Biblical and advanced, whereas Chinese is super formal ALL the time anyways, so I feel like I noticed some interesting things that I never really noticed before in the English sessions. The Temple is so special! I don't have any incredible experiences to share today, but it was just so refreshing to have a chance to GO to the temple and kind of "recharge" for a day!
     Sorry I'm keepin' it so short this week, but it's time for the Spiritual Share!! This last week, while we were at church, I was looking around the congregation and noticed that one specific mother looked a little fidgety. She kept looking toward the back of the chapel for the first few minutes of Sacrament meeting... about 10 minutes in, a lady walked into the chapel and sat down next to the missionaries. The mother who seemed so anxious just a few minutes earlier turned around and absolutely LIT UP. It was her friend that she had invited to come meet with the sister missionaries and then come to church. It was a little bit of a reminder to me that sharing the gospel brings a matchless joy! It was wonderful to see this sister express her love for the Savior by sharing her testimony with someone that she loved! I invite you all to reach out to a struggling friend, whether they're a member or not, and bring them to church! Help them feel the love that you feel in your lives! I promise you'll find that "fountain of everlasting life" that Christ so often talks about!
     Well, I love you all tons! Jiayou! I hope everything continues to go well and that you guys all stay healthy and happy!! I have only one piece of advice... GO FORTH AND BE EPIC. :D


love, Elder Noll

November 10, 2013

We've had another miraculous week over here in my little sauna... Taiwan. It's been nice and humid the past few days! The past few weeks, we've REALLY been struggling with rejection and investigators setting up times with us and not showing up. We've had very few lessons and even fewer progressing investigators... I'm grateful for Dad's Spiritual thought that he sent me this week, because Elder C and I had a similar experience. I (the supposedly happy-go-lucky, hard working, never get discouraged, Chinese speaking senior companion) just let my frustration explode for about an hour this week. We had 3 days of straight up knocking doors and street contacting, and we had NOTHING to show for it... or so it seemed to me, who was absolutely sick and tired of getting rejected by people who treated me like I was bugging them... "oh, sorry sir, I just thought you might not want to spend eternity in Hell..." Nah, I never really said that!! I might've been thinking it, but it never escaped my mouth! :) I started complaining to Elder C about how we had no success and making little jokes about not finding anybody to teach and stuff like that when he said something to me I'll never forget. He looked at me and said: "Elder Noll, I'm just glad that we're making people smile! I'm just glad that they even give us the time of day in the first place! That's the most important thing. We always hear that it takes almost 10 times being contacted by the missionaries until they will accept the message, so we can't stop." It kind of shocked me a little bit, because normally Elder C doesn't really talk so much, but he really helped me get out of that little rut and then I looked at our never-ending contacting days as much more of a blessing than a trial. Now, at the end of the week, we've met 2 new GOLDEN families and set up with some former investigators for next week. Miracles happen people!!! 

I'll give you a little re-cap of the week really quick... K?

Monday:

     SHABU SHABU. SO GOOD!!! It's this big buffet here in Taiwan and it's FULL of so much delicious food I could almost cry!! We went there and pigged out for a little while! They had this awesome little ice cream machine where you take a block of ice cream, put it in a little crevice in the machine, and then you turn the machine on... it smashes the ice cream and then pushes it out so that you can stick it in a waffle cone!!! It's the coolest thing in the world! It even plays music for you as the machine is going! Oh you gotta love awesome Asian gadgets! 

Tuesday:

     The most exciting part of the day was meeting the drunk guy. We saw this guy trying to fix his bike on the side of the road, so we pulled over and fixed it for him... he was pretty wasted. I thought my nostrils were burning from the inside just from conversing with him! It was nice to help him out for a little while and try to invite him to Church. Taiwanese is a pretty difficult language, but I'm picking up quite a bit and I understand most of it... that is until you try talking with a guy who's wasted! makes for a good journal entry though!~

Wednesday:

     I LOVE TEACHING ENGLISH!!! Our English program in Daya has been growing RAPIDLY!! We went from 30 total students to almost 90 in less than 2 months! CrAzY!! Elder C and I are in charge of the intermediate class and our students just love us to death... of course it could be the fact that Elder C looks like Hugh Jackman, but whatever works! We had a great class and had a super awesome spiritual share about the Atonement. It's interesting how much people love talking about Christ here when they have the time! 

Thursday:

     I've decided that the awesome guy we just baptized has made the ranks of top 3 favorite recent converts! He's incredible!! He will be receiving the Priesthood next week, and he's working on getting to the temple soon after that! He's such an awesome guy!!! We had a good lesson with him on Thursday, a review of the Plan of Salvation and he just gets it all! Super smart! 

Friday:

     We met with one of our teenage investigators and had an awesome lesson with him, we also did this thing called "Sacrament Power-boarding" which is where we go out with a big cardboard poster and talk to everyone in the intersection for about 1/2 an hour or so. Pretty fun day! 

Saturday:

     Met with an older investigator and then went to play tennis with him that night... Let me tell ya, I stunk just as bad this time as I did the last time when we were playing in San Diego with Scott, Eric and Kevin! I got my bum kicked by a 60 year old man who can't even run! Let's just say that Elder Noll will not be pursuing a career in professional tennis. 

Sunday:

     Met the miracle family! They walked into Sacrament meeting about 10 minutes before it started and said they just saw the chapel on the side of the road and decided to check it out! It was a mom with her 17 year old son, and it was their first time coming to a Christian church. They loved it! We talked to them about Joseph Smith after church and gave them a tour of the whole chapel. They were really touched when we told them about Joseph Smith's first vision and invited them to pray about it. I'll always remember the Mom's question and the tone of her voice: "Will he really answer me?" It sounded like a little toddler asking the same question, filled with so much hope and awe that it nearly broke my heart! It made me so happy to be able to look her in the eyes and say with all the feeling that I could muster, "yes. He will answer you." 

My spiritual thought of the week comes from the Book of Mormon. In 1Nephi 17 (might be chapter 16) it talks about Nephi and his family coming out of the wilderness and making it to the seashore. Nephi makes a few comments about the trials and hardships that they went through and how much stronger they all became because of those trials and hardships! His brothers on the other hand, can't seem to get past the thought that the trials were hard and the hardships were trying (did you like that wordplay right there? see! My English hasn't completely left me yet!). As I read this scripture, I thought of missionaries headed home. I thought of the trials and hardships that we go through on our missions and realized that they are not all that horrible, they truly mold us into the people that God intends for us to be. Remember that the Jaredites went through the same "molding" journey until they came to the seashore that would take them to America? We are all going through these journey's and sometimes it seems that God has stopped leading us. It seems that He won't allow us to feel light, or have the pleasantries that we would like. It would be best if we would just do our best and keep our heads up, looking forward toward that beautiful seashore ahead.

I love you guys! You're all awesome and super legendary. JIAYOU!!

Love, Elder Noll

November 3, 2013

Hey guys! Well, it's been yet another week full of more miraculous stories! It's interesting that I used to have the hardest time trying to keep a journal at home, but now that I'm on a mission, seeing miracles daily, it would be hard NOT to keep a journal! I'm really shocked at all the things that I've seen and done since coming here! It's only on a mission that you can experience these kinds of things, and I'm grateful for this opportunity every single day. 

     Well, here we go with the activities of the week! Sorry last weeks letter was such a dud, I'll try to make up for it with this week's!:

Monday: Such an awesome, exhausting day!! Saw a ton of people that I haven't seen in FOREVER!! My RC came up from Gaoxiong to see me, along with 3 or 4 other friends that came up with him! I saw tons of missionaries that I haven't seen for a really long time, including Elder D, Sister W, Elder G and a couple others! It was kinda like a giant family reunion! (not that we really did many of those, but I'm guessing it's something like that!) 

Tuesday and Wednesday: Talk about Dejavu!! Went on Exchanges with Elder M and had a super fun time! We ate like Kings for 2 days straight and spent a LOT of money! Well, not THAT much, but it felt like it! It's really super fun to be in the same area as Elder M! He's definitely one of my favorite companions of my Mission! He's super fun, but he knows how to work! I don't know how much I"ve told you about Daya, but we have a District of 6 missionaries here and we all share the same area. We run into each other multiple times a day, and the Elders eat pretty much every meal together when our schedules allow, so it's definitely a lot different from most other proselyting areas! We enjoy it a lot!

Thursday: Happy Halloween! We actually did do a little bit of Trick or Treating... with church tracts... and we didn't get any candy... I guess it's not all that similar to Trick or Treating, but we DID knock on a bunch of doors! :) We met a guy from a ward in the southern part of Taichung who sells some really awesome ties! These ones are a lot better quality than the first one that I sent you guys, and they look 100X cooler! I bought a couple and it was SO worth it. At night, the 4 Elders all went out to a graveyard to do something scary for Halloween... we tried a bunch of Taiwanese superstitions (whistling after dark, looking at a grave upside down from between your legs, stupid stuff like that) but they didn't work! It was definitely a little scary though! haha yes, we're kind of childish once proselyting hours are over.

Friday: The most incredible miracle. We've been having a really hard time finding progressing investigators lately, but we had an AWESOME lesson today with one of our English students. We met with him for the first time last week, and invited him to be baptized. He rejected us and so we challenged him to pray about it... we followed up with him on Friday and saw the miracles happen! He got super serious when we asked him how he felt about baptism, and he said: "when I prayed about it, I just felt so comfortable!" The Spirit came in the room so strongly as we continued discussing the Holy Ghost and how It works in each of us, and then we invited him, once again, to be baptized. He accepted IMMEDIATELY, but then he told us that his parents would never allow him to be baptized. My heart just sank as I saw the look of despair cross his face and as he begging, asked us if he could be baptized without his parents permission... I had to tell him "no" he can't be baptized without his parents permission. I prayed in my heart about what we should do, and then I looked at him and promised him that if he prayed, read his scriptures daily, and came to church weekly that his parents would allow him to be baptized. I can't even describe how bright his face lit up as we gave him that promise. It was like a giant ray of hope for him! We're super excited to keep working with him! 

Those were the most exciting events of the week! 

The spiritual thought that I'll leave with you this week has to do with weekly church attendance and partaking of the Sacrament. We are much more similar to cars than most people would think! We really do need to "fill up the tank" pretty often! I'm not just talking about nutrients and filling our stomachs, but "all work and no play makes jack a dull boy" is a true statement! If we don't take some time to really fill up our Spiritual Tanks, we're going to crash and burn. The Sacrament is the best way that we can fill up our tanks weekly. Of course, it's not enough to just do that and nothing else, but we definitely DO need to partake of the Sacrament weekly in order to continue resisting temptation, in order to strengthen our testimony, and in order to remember the Lord in everything we do and say! I know that this is true, and I challenge each of you to pay attention to your Spiritual Tank, Spiritual Batteries or whatever you want to call it, the next time that you partake of the Sacrament. Notice the little burst that you will feel, it's a promise that God has given to each of us who live in this generation, that we can do this weekly and receive the power we need from worthily partaking. I testify of the divinity of this dispensation, and I add my testimony that He lives and loves us. He directs His church today through His chosen prophet, Thomas S. Monson and I am His servant forevermore. 

I love ya guys! jiayou!!

Elder Noll