December 29, 2013

Happy Holidays from Taiwan! It's interesting because here in Taiwan, they think that Christmas is our New Year celebration... it's also pretty funny because they don't celebrate Christmas and they don't celebrate the new year on Dec. 31 or Jan. 1 either! Asia does things their own way! We had an incredible Christmas Holiday this year! The entire week was full of hilarious stories and many miracles! I'll go ahead and take you through the week day by day!

Monday:

     We hung out with a member from Tanzi (one of Elder R's recent converts and one of my good friends that I met while in Daya) and he drove us over to a place called Lugang, where I did some Christmas shopping and started getting my Christmas package for you guys ready to go. It was fun to hang out with this member and with the other Elders in the District! Lugang was really interesting too! They have a special dish that they are known for called: "Oyster omelet." it's basically got a bunch of oyster meat wrapped up in a funky, gooey, rice-like stuff... no eggs, so I"m not really sure why they call it an omelet, but it's pretty good! I surprise even myself with the things that I enjoy eating now! 

     We met a new family of investigators on Monday as well. They are Christian and have met missionaries before, but don't really want much to do with the LDS church. We had a great visit with him and established a good friendship with them, but all the dad really wanted to do was bible bash... we'll see what happens!

Tuesday: 

     Christmas eve!!! We had a mini exchange this day with the other Elders in our District! One is from Korea (born in america) and the other is Argentinian and spoke NO English before the MTC... Elder Z is absolutely hilarious and his English is actually pretty dang good now! Almost fluent! I had the chance to lead him around my area on Tuesday and it was super fun! We talked a lot and had the chance to teach quite a few lessons! One of the lessons we taught was to a man with a broken legs and he was high on his pain meds... not a whole lot accomplished there! But at night, we had a lesson with our investigator who had a goal to be baptized on Saturday. It went really well! We set everything up for the Baptism and then had a great testimony session about what Baptism is and the blessings it will bring. 

Wednesday:

     Let's see, what was the highlight of Wednesday? Kind of a boring day... nothing big really happened... WAIT! I saw my family today!!! Totally made my whole year to see all of you guys! It's weird to see how much things are changing! Everything looks so different from what I remember it being and the people all look different! It's SUPER crazy!! (Sorry Grandma, I've been trying to be good and not use that word, but it's just so great!) We went over to the house of an incredible member in our ward to use his SKYPE and stuff, and it went really good. No major technical problems or anything! We're taking the member out to a buffet today to thank him! 

Skype with the family :)

 

Thursday:

     This was a day full of crazy stories! We went contacting right out the door and decided to go up to the college in our area. As we were riding around, I saw a giant yellow stuffed duck on the side of the road. You need a little background to understand why this story is funny... Taiwan is obsessed with ducks. I don't know why, but they love this Yellow Duck! They have two GIANT ducks floating in Taipei and Gaoxiong, and now every one on this island just loves ducks. While we were thinking of ideas for this move calls English party, my companion suggested that we do a "yellow duck party." So, we're doing a "yellow duck party." When I found this duck, we decided we could use it for the party, so we went over to look at it. It was NASTY. It smelled like someone had stuffed drugs inside of it (I still haven't checked but I'll get back to you on that) and then maybe used it to scrub a toilet, then thrown out side. The head was half off and the stuffing was coming out. We didn't have anything to carry it with, so we used a bike lock and our safety reflective harnesses to strap this sucker to the back of my bike, then we rode around town with it all day. We're probably gonna think of some awesome way to sacrifice it or something. 

     We kept riding around and then found a tree with some funky nuts on it. When we asked a kid what the nuts were, he said: "Bing lang!" which is Betel Nut. When Betel Nut is just off a tree, it's a harmless nut. But it's also the same nut that they take, give it a chemical coating, wrap it in a sharp leaf, and then they chew on it to get a high... it's NASTY my friends. It turns their teeth dark red and makes it look like they are zombies. So of course Elder R and I grabbed a nut and popped it into our mouths. Nothing special, but now I can say that I've eaten Betel Nut! No worries, I'll never try the stuff with the chemical... I'm not really into the whole blood mouth thing.

     At the end of the night, we got stood up by multiple people and ended up tracting for the rest of the night. I felt like crap, it was freezing cold, we'd had NO success, we were in a really creepy alleyway with creepy doorbells and big dogs barking at us, and basically the night was not all that enjoyable... but we kept on going and kept on working hard. We got to the VERY last door of the night and ran into an AWESOME family of four. They were so nice and set up for tonight at 6:00, so we'll see how things work out! All I know is that God definitely led us to that family. It was such an amazing tender mercy at that time to me and my companion.

Friday:

     Went on exchanges with Elder H... did I tell you that he's the new assistant to the president? Yeah, the same Elder H that was in my District in Tainan! This story is crazy. We went with him to find a former investigator on a road that we didn't know very well. We started out at a little restaurant where we ate lunch, then we started riding... and riding... and riding... we rode our bikes for an hour and a half straight! That's a LONG time guys. We FINALLY found the house and met with him. He was a very old guy who had had a stroke several years ago, and he didn't care about anything we had to say! It was so sad to see that he had totally given up, but all we could do is invite him to come to church. We left his house and tried to figure out where we were... I looked over towards a round a bout down the road, and I recognized it! We rode towards it, went around the corner and....... saw the restaurant where we had eaten  lunch. Not 2 minutes away from this guys house!!!!! Can you believe it??? The three of us were totally speachless! Welp, now we know! haha

     Elder H is awesome. I really enjoyed talking with him again, and discussing different ways we've grown on our missions. I really had to evaluate myself and everything that I've done, am doing, and would like to do! I've always wanted to be the most diligent, most fun, most likable missionary that I could possibly be, and I kind of reset those goals after exchanging with Elder H! It really inspired me to stretch myself more and expect more out of myself and out of my zone! 

I've already talked way too much today, but I'll leave you with one last experience. We baptized on Saturday. I love being a missionary so much. I was thinking to myself: "why? why does helping someone get baptized make me so happy? I get literally NOTHING out of it. I don't even get recognized for it! Nobody will do anything for me, the only thing that I might get is a blurry, tilted picture! Yet, I've never been happier than when I'm baptizing on my mission." The pure joy of watching someone meet God and knowing that I was allowed to play a role in that experience brings the most perfect joy, it's honestly indescribable. 

I love you all. I know that Families are ordained of God, and His plan is that we will all be able to live together as Eternal Family units throughout all of Eternity! Shall we not go on in so great a cause? How can we sit idly by while their are people out there who don't know the joy that this Gospel can bring? There are people EVERYWHERE who either don't know the blessings of an Eternal Family, or don't understand it! Look around you, find those out there whose lives you can touch. YOU CAN SAVE SOULS. There are people who have not met the church, or who have left the church, and YOU can save them.

 Let's Get R' Done fellas!      

Elder Noll

December 22, 2013

Merry Christmas...and Happy Birthday to the 2 most important girls in my life! Macy and Mom! Mom, I'm sorry I'm late to wish you a Happy Birthday, and Macy, I'm sorry I'm so early! This is the best time I figured to wish both of you a very Happy Birthday! 

It's been a SUPER busy week for us here in Nantou! We started out with some exchanges to start out the week, had some rockin' enlglish classes, had the Mission wide Christmas activity, did some traveling and hit up the baptism of one of my old investigators, and had the ward Christmas activity! Each day had something really important to grab our attention! Let's go day by day, shall we?

Tuesday:

     I went on exchanges to Zhanghua for the day! We ran into President and Sister Blickenstaff as we went to the Zhanghua District Training Meeting, so that was a fun little surprise! The rest of the day was incredibly fun... try riding your bike for a full 45 killometers... uphill... in the rain... with 20mph wind resistance. Suffice it to say, I slept like a baby that night! Also, I did it on a sisters bike.

Wednesday:

     I'm again in charge of the Advanced English class here in Nantou, and I'm loving it! I absolutely love teaching English here and interacting with all the students! I usually try to give them some kind of American music lesson by playing classic rock, or Jason Mraz, or Jack Johnson, or some other kind of American music. They usually get a kick out of it! Did I tell you guys that the Sister A in Freddy's ward is now in my District and she's the English Leader over here? Well, if not, now you know! Kind of funny how those kinds of things work out! 

Thursday:

     The Christmas Activity. I've been waiting for this since the 20th of December LAST year! It's so much fun to see all the missionaries together! We all went up to Sun Moon Lake this year (which just so happens to be in my Zone) and we ended up having a super fun time! It was so foggy and cold that we didn't really see the lake, but they had some super awesome taiwanese stores there and I bought some good Christmas stuff for all you guys... as well as some Aladin pants for me. Yes, they are awesome. I'll send pictures. We went to a big buffet Steak House in Taichung afterwards and Elder B, Elder R and I competed to see who could eat the most steaks. I gave up after 13 because I wanted to eat some other food other than just steak, so I hit up the Mongolian Grill for a while after that... but Elder B and Elder R had a grand total of 22 and a 1/2! Let me tell you, the bus ride home was the most uncomfortable 2 hours of my life... worse even than the time that I had 2 betos burritos between the morning and afternoon practice of hell week my Sophomore year. 

     It was so great to see all the missionary friends that I haven't seen for a while! I saw Elder G from the MTC, Sister W from the MTC, and saw Elders W (my old Zone Leader) and H (in my first District here if you remember) who are both the assistant to the President right now! I saw Elder C, Elder T, Elder B, Sisters B, P, and R, and a bunch of other awesome missionaries that I've served around! It made me feel pretty old to realize that I didn't recognize over 1/2 the missionaries there and to know that almost all my missionary buddies are home already! Super crazy!! 

Friday:

     That's right, I went back up to Daya for a Baptismal Service!! It was the young man who came into Church with his mom just over a month ago! I contacted him, helped him learn all the lessons, and missed his Baptism by just 2 weeks! I talked to President and he told me that it would be fine if Elder R and I went up to see the service. It was incredibly touching (and a little funny) to see the reactions of the members at the chapel when I walked through the door. I served there for so long that I pretty much knew EVERY single person in that building! Most of the time people wouldn't recognize me for 1/2 a second, and then a look of shock would come across their face as they asked me why in the world I was there! It was truly a touching night, and it just makes me excited for the time that I can come back in a few years and see all these members again! 

Saturday:

     The Ward Christmas Party was an epic fail. They had us (the 6 missionaries) along with some other ward members do a Choir and sing some songs to go along with a little skit that they were doing... they just never told us that there was a skit! They just gave us some music and told us to learn the songs... also, thanks to the lovely members of my district, they found out that I like to play guitar and so they asked me to do a solo in Silent Night. Silent Night! How are you supposed to solo to Silent Night??? I just came up with a nice picking pattern and played it in the backround along with a young man in the ward. Super funny. It was fun the play the guitar part for Feliz Navidad though. The 6 missionaries rocked out to it and got the whole chapel dancing along. 

That was basically the whole week! 

Love you guys!! hope you have a great... 2 days!

Elder Noll

December 15, 2013

George, George, George of the Jungle... Greetings from the jungle of Taiwan... yes, that theme song has been stuck in my head for a week straight and, again, yes, I break out in a George of the Jungle yell sometimes on my bike. Judged. 

Nantou is I N C R E D I B L E. I love it in this place. It's REALLY rural and the population isn't totally huge, but the people are so kind and just pure at heart. This first week, I've bought maybe 5 meals. The rest of the time we've been given meals by members, investigators, less active members and recent converts. The ward is really kind to us here and I'm so excited to be here serving them. 

It's super weird to be considered an older missionary now. I feel like time has gone by so fast! I find myself thinking a lot about where I was last year at this time, being trained by Elder S in Tainan. I never thought that the day would come that I would be the Zone Leader in charge of all those missionaries! I remember seeing the Zone Leaders call when I was just being trained and thinking to myself that I needed to be more mature when I answered and kind of show off a little... it's odd to be on the other end of the line! I try to show my Zone that I'm a fun dude, so usually when I answer the phone I yell in a super loud, high pitched voice: "WEEEEIIII!" (That's the way you say hello in Taiwan on the phone)... the reactions are pretty interesting. 

We've had a really good week with quite a bit of success! Elder R and I have been working super hard in all aspects of the work, and it's really showing! We set over 5 Baptismal dates this week and found 2 new investigators as well as worked with up to 10 different less active members! We're planning on baptizing at least 2 people next Saturday and we hope that more will be able to hit that date. It's interesting the miracles that prayer and hard work will bring!

I've got multiple people from my MTC zone (the guys that went in 6 weeks before me) in my zone right now and it's super fun! Elder K, Elder G, Elder C and a few others! We're all having a blast out here! Also, the Sister A that you said moved into Freddy's ward is now in my district. Kinda crazy, huh? 

We're really stoked for Christmas coming up! We're doing the mission-wide Christmas activity on Thursday, and we're going to Sun-Moon Lake! It's gonna be a BLAST!! I can't wait to talk to all of you guys in 10 days or so! 

My spiritual share from this week comes from a visit we made to a man yesterday. He is a VERY active member in the ward, and he invites us over for dinner every Sunday night. While we were there, we asked him about his conversion story and boy did he have a story! When we asked him, he got a little smile on his face, put down his spoon and leaned back in his chair. He looked at each of us and then he started into one of the most incredible stories I've ever heard. The experiences and the little bits and pieces of the story were honestly not all that incredible. It was the sincerity and the purity of heart in which he told the story that made it so awesome. I was so moved by the Spirit and so touched by his testimony that it almost brought tears to my eyes. 

I want to testify that selflessness and love for the Savior brings Spiritual Power. When we are accepting of other people and when we give of what we have, we will receive so much more. I know that this is true, for I see it every single day! I love this work, I love the Lord. I love all of you, and I'm happy to have met each of you and be able to learn from your examples! 

Have a great week!

Love, Elder Noll

December 8, 2013

Well, things have changed pretty drastically in just the past week! I'm sitting next to Elder R (my new companion) in an internet cafe in the mountains of Nantou! 

The week started out with yet another buffet visit for Elder M's very last P-day! I cant believe that hes going home!! It feels like it was just yesterday that I was with him in Gaoxiong! He was one of the first missionaries I interacted with when I first came on island. I met him my first night in Tainan, and he's been following me around ever since! It actually makes me a little sad to see him go! Hes a great guy, and definitely a friend that ill be hanging out with after this is all over! 

On Tuesday and Wednesday, I had my last exchange with Elder M and we got a LOT done! The biggest miracle that we saw, was as we worked with one of my investigators over dinner. This kid has been meeting with us for a few weeks now and he hasn't made a whole lot of progression. He continues to pray and read, but he never felt anything that made him believe anything we were telling him. When we talked to him on Tuesday night, we asked him how things were going, and he said he was starting to feel something! We talked to him for another few minutes about it and then invited him to be baptized on the 20th of December... he looked at us and said: Can I be baptized this Saturday? We were shocked! I wish he could've been baptized on Saturday, but he hadn't learned about everything yet, so we want to help him prepare as well as possible and then baptize him on the 20th of December! Were so excited for him!! 

We had an awesome English party on Wednesday night where Elder M and I did a super bad rendition of Tenacious D: Tribute. It actually turned out really funny and everyone got a huge kick out of it... especially the American missionaries! Later, the four of us (Elder T, Elder M, Elder C and I... AKA THE DUFFERS) did an acapella version of Stand By Me, and then switched to blowing on our name tags (they can turn into Kazoos!!!) and then killed the lights and had a glow stick dance off. It was definitely the hit of the entire night. Everyone L O V E D it and we had an absolute blast putting the whole thing together! And Yes, we did use the glow stick glasses that you gave me last month! 

The weekend was pretty uneventful... unless you count the fact that President Blickenstaff called me on Saturday night telling me that I'd be moving to Nantou to be the new Zone Leader... B L E W my mind. Honestly, I'm super sad to be leaving Daya and Elder C. I haven't been in one place for over 4 months in a LONG time. Daya really became my home, and those members really became my family. I will forever hold a special place in my heart for those memories and for all the wonderful things which we accomplished there. I had a chance to give a talk on Sunday and I almost lost it as I was thanking the ward for their service and love. What can I say, I'm a softy!~ I super excited to be in Nantou now though! Elder R is a super cool guy and I'm stoked to be working with him! I will admit, I'm a little nervous to be in charge of over 30 different missionaries, but I'm super grateful for the challenge and I'm ready to do my absolute best to fulfill my work!

I don't have any specific principle I'd like to focus on today, but I just want to share a short testimony of the Savior. I know He lives. Although I've said that same sentence COUNTLESS times in my life, I truly know that those words are true. Their value has not dimmed over time, and it never will! He lives and He will love us to the end. I know these things, and I know that we can lean on His loving arm whenever we don't have the strength to go on.

I love you guys! jiayou!

Elder Noll

 

Here are a few pictures of Nantou - (Ryan's new area) that I found online... 

 

December 1, 2013

Hola! Li ho! Ni hao! svotyka! anehaseyo! I can't think of any others at the moment...

Welp, it sounds like things are going pretty fun over in the land of Turkey and mashed potatoes! It's the first time I can honestly say I miss American food... we sort of celebrated Thanksgiving over here, but it's just not the same without those American specialties. Mom's mashed potatoes, Grandpa's pumpkin pie, Aunt Francie's chocolate and banana cream pies, the salads and endless delicacies at Aunt Sherrie's place, I suppose Grandpa Happymeal's banana bread is being incredibly missed at this time as well! We (the 4 daya elders, Elder M, Elder T, Elder C and I) went to KFC, the closest place we could find with somewhat americanized poultry, and totally pigged out. Then we headed over to McDonalds to pig out on apple pies and Ice cream. That was about as "Thanksgivingy" as it got over here! Pretty much a blast!!

We had an INCREDIBLE week full of A W E S O M E stuff! On Wednesday, we spent all day with Elder Randy Funk of the Seventy. He actually did a meeting with all of the District and Zone Leaders in the Northern part of the Mission and asked me for a lot of advice on training missionaries (seeing as I was the only District Leader who was training at the same time)! Talk about being put on the spot! He's a really awesome guy! His aura was pretty astounding. He was really kind and SUPER wise! Some of the points he brought up were just so inspired, I feel like I learned quite a bit from working with him all day. We (the Daya District) also had an opportunity to sing at the meeting! Kind of fun! Got us out of having to give any talks!

We spent the rest of the week looking for new investigators and prepping for a huge Thanksgiving party that we had on Saturday night. The party was HOPPIN. Tons of awesome games (I taught them how to play Football) and a lot of food! Granted, most of the food was super Taiwanese, they all tried their best to Americanize it! We found a lot of new investigators there and are so stoked to start working with them! Ward activities are so awesome!!!

Other highlights of the week?

-ran into some Scottish dudes who were in a piping band!

-went to a super awesome buffet on Monday with the family that has 9 kids

Super awesome week! just like every other!

Something I really liked this week, on a spiritual note, came from a Young Women as she shared her Testimony in Church yesterday. She said: "Crying doesn't solve anything. We must face our trials bravely." It made me think of the Book of Mormon, how Laman and Lemual are always 'crying' about what they have to do or how hard something is. If we will just man up, deal with our issues and go forth with Faith, God can work some SERIOUS miracles. We will also change for good. We will become stronger and gain experience. I testify that these principles are true! I've seen them so many times out here, and I've personally gone through many strengthening trials. I'm so grateful that I have a Father in Heaven who is able and willing to test me in order to help me grow. Don't worry. Be happy. (yes, just like the song.) Go forth, and be epic.

Love, Elder Noll

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

October 27, 2013

Wow, I'm so tired today! We just spent all day at Mission HQ with some of my old RC's and friends from Gaoxiong, so I'm pooped! Sorry if this is a boring letter today!!  
I asked Elder Noll how his shoes were holding up:

Shoes?

     Haha, super good... and by "good" I mean "they are flatter than flat and the back is ripped... on both of them..." so they will definitely be my trophy shoes when I get home!! I love them! They even have a hole in the bottom already!! :D

Monday:

     Found a cool little hang-out! It's got a bowling alley, some pool tables, foosball tables, basketball games, and a bunch of other little stuff! You can pay 50$/ hour and just do whatever you want!! Super awesome! We're planning on hitting that up again next week! It was kinda fun to just "hang out" for a couple hours! Something I haven't done for a long time! haha!

Tuesday:

     We had a day full of visiting different members houses and trying to get some referrals from them... basically just doin' the work! We love the members here in Daya SO MUCH!! They're SO cool, and they're all so excited to do missionary work! We also met a cool guy who had met with missionaries before! He tried to avoid us at first, but I wasn't about to let him get away, so I contacted him. It broke my heart as he told me that he knew the church was true and that it could help his life, but he just didn't want it. It's gotta  be the hardest thing that I come across out here in the field. Those people that understand how important these things are, or can be, to their lives, but they still refuse to accept it. It just makes me want to drag them into the chapel and dunk them anyways!!

Wednesday:

     Super fun day. We had a follow up meeting for everyone being trained right now, and Sister Blickenstaff made some awesome American cinnamon rolls! Later that night, we also had the ENGLISH CLASS HALLOWEEN PARTY!!! We (the Elders) pulled off an awesome "room of horror" for all the students to try and walk through... Elder C has some pretty awesome, a little creepy, stuff in that mind of his,  because we ended up making a pretty sick spook alley! For example, Elder M's head on a table next to a bowl of candy... That's enough to give anyone nightmares. Let's just say it was the favorite event of ALL the students.

Thursday:

     Deep Cleaned the apartment after our Weekly Planning Session! Made me think of the little chore lists mom used to make for us every once and a while! We got a nice sweat worked up and made our house nice and sparkly! Then the rest of the day was spent contacting!!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday:

     Lots of finding and having super awesome lessons! Sorry, I don't have a whole lot of time to explain a lot about the rest of the week... but let it be known that it was legendary! I'm so incredibly grateful for each and everyday of my mission, and I find each new experience precious!!! I love Taiwan, and I love the Taiwanese people!

Love you guys so much!! Jiayou!

Elder Noll

October 20, 2013

Macy:

1.Does it get cold?

     I think so, but Elder C is still sweating like a dog... poor guy, I guess I"m just used to it by now!

2. How many baptisms?

     We just helped someone get baptized last week and that makes number 8!

3. Biggest religion in Taiwan?

     Buddhism, for sure.

4.What do they believe?

     They believe in many Gods, and they "worship" almost all of them for different occasions... they also will worship their ancestors and pay their respects through certain actions and such... super interesting! 

Well, we had one heck of a week!!... again... I think I must write that every week in my emails... whatever, every week is "one heck of a week" here in Taiwan!!! (in a good way) This week, we had a BAPTISM!! I'll talk about that a little more later though...

On Monday, we went to a "beach" ... NOT a beach. Someone told us that it was a beautiful place with waves and animals and lots of fun stuff... turns out, it was a dead, barren wasteland with crabs, mud, and overpriced shaved ice. Not going back. It really wasn't that bad, but it was nothing compared to some of the other places that I've been here! 

Wednesday, we had an awesome time teaching English class! Elder C and I are the intermediate class teachers, and our students absolutely love us!... it probably has something to do with how cute Elder C is, cause we've got a class full of girls about the same age as Macy! We're working with a couple of specific students right now, trying to get them to meet with us and start learning the gospel, and it's going super well! We've found two really awesome investigators out of our English class! LOVE IT!

Thursday was Elder C's birthday and yes, I woke up early to make him some delicious AMERICAN style breakfast! We had a really fun day proselyting and celebrating his birthday... we ended the day by buying him a mango pie and hiding in the farthest corner of the chapel to sing and eat it! It was pretty fun! We were interrupted by a single adult in the ward asking me if I could give her a blessing. The four of us then helped her do a simple blessing and it was such a special experience as we did so! The power of the priesthood is so quietly powerful, and it's manifest through faith and hope. The next day she called us to tell us that the blessing had calmed her and given her the strength to pass her interview. 

Friday... Very long day. We went to Mission HQ to have a big specialized training meeting... All about dealing with stress. so fun! haha it was actually a great meeting! I love President and Sister Blickenstaff! They're actually hilarious and INCREDIBLY spiritual at the same time! I don't know how they do it! The meeting lasted for about 4 hours, and then we had to wait for 2 hours for a bus to take back to Daya! The Lord works in mysterious ways! We got on to an absolutely FULL bus. You don't know what PACKED means until you ride a bus at 6:30 at night in Taichung city. It cleared out little by little until we could breathe normally again, and then we just went to work! One by one, the four of us missionaries left to talk to someone. In less than 10 minutes, the four of us were each teaching lessons to different people throughout the bus. I was able to talk to 2 really great families on the bus and gave their information to the Sisters. 

Saturday, BAPTISM!! We've been working with a 21 year old kid for the past 3 weeks and he just got baptized on Saturday!!! He was sharing his testimony last night and honestly almost brought me to tears as he talked about his heart changing when he came up out of the water. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! 

My spiritual message this week is a little shorter, and it's much more of an invitation. We watched a short broadcast for part of our Stake Conference yesterday, and it was specifically done for the Asia area. Elder Holland mentioned a point about missionary work. All of our teaching and thoughts should be about the Savior. He is the center of this Gospel and the key to our salvation! Take some time each day to really think about Him and what He has done for us!

Love you guys! Have a great week! 

Elder Noll