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