Taichung Time
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
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