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