February 24, 2013

Good Morning America!... I guess it's more like, good evening, but it's morning here! How's everybody back home? I feel like the week has gone by so fast! It's only been about 3 days since I last wrote home, so I don't actually have a whole lot to say! Some things I could tell you about... we have a new investigator this week, he's awesome! He's a really young guy and has PERFECT English, so the lessons are all in English! It's kinda weird teaching in English after using Chinese for a couple months! Well, the situation with him is that his parents want him to wait a while until he can get baptized... he wants to wait a while too... how long is a while? About 5 years!!! Ha, as much as I'd love to just change his mind and get him baptized as soon as possible, I know I can't do that myself. Our goal right now is to just teach and invite him to keep commitments and let the Spirit change his heart. He's doing so well already! We last met with him on Wednesday night and we asked him how the Book of Mormon reading was going... he was already in 2 Nephi 20!!! In 3 days he read about 100 pages in the Book of Mormon and he told us the entire story up to that point!! Isn't that incredible?? We've gone a couple weeks so far without having any steady investigators and it's been a little sad! It's definitely inspired me to go out and work harder, but at the same time it's really sad to watch people reject something that will save their lives!! So now, we've got 2 new (ultra awesome!!) investigators and it's all due to the blessings God has given us. We've been working harder and God has blessed us so much!

     Yesterday, we were talking during companionship study about some previous investigators who wouldn't answer our phone calls anymore and trying to figure out what to do about them. We'd given them about a weeks break of us calling them, and we were trying to figure out why they wouldn't answer! Elder S left the room to go to the bathroom or something and I decided to pray. I just felt so sorry for those people who I'd grown to love and I was trying to figure out why they didn't want to talk with us! I just asked God to help us find some more Investigators and to help those who left to come back. Elder S came back and we continued talking... when all of the sudden, Elder S pulls out the phone and tries to call an investigator who hadn't answered a call in a month... all of a sudden his face changes and he says: "Elder... he just answered!! Wait.... I can't hear anything! NOOOoOO!" so he hung up and called again... and he answered again! He said he could meet with us in an hour! We met with him and found out that he'd been going through some seriously challenging times for the last month and he was in serious need of friends and comfort. We didn't even talk about baptism because he was just so sad! We prayed with him and we continue praying for him. I was so happy! I can't even describe the joy that I experienced as he answered the phone! It was so nice to see him again, but it was just as wonderful to know that he came because Heavenly Father was answering my prayers.

     That's about all that happened in my 3-4 days since I've e-mailed last! I'm sorry it's so short! The rest of the week was very normal! It's been Power Week all week, which means we leave the door a lot earlier and have a specific goal for the day that we're supposed to focus on. That's been a blast!... and totally exhausting! haha not really, it's been really fun and I've seen a huge increase in our numbers because of it! On Friday, I went on exchanges with the Guiren elders and I met some of their less active members and investigators. On Saturday, we had a baptism to attend! The Sisters in my ward had an investigator being baptized Saturday night, and our recent convert was baptizing her! Our recent convert (we baptized him the 2nd Saturday I was here) has been SO SO active ever since his baptism and he was really excited to baptize someone... also he was a little bit terrified. We had to practice with him about 100 times and he was still so scared! He had to baptize her about 5 times before her hand would go in the water! He said the prayer great each time, he just couldn't get her all the way in! Eventually she went all the way under and they could come out, our recent convert was smiling bigger than the girl he just baptized was! He just looked so happy and it made me so happy to see him exercising the priesthood!

     After the baptism, their was a little get together with food and all the members welcoming the newly baptized sister. I was picking some food out, and another one of the sisters' recent converts came up to me and told me to eat a piece of the pork. She kept telling me how much she loved it and how good it was, so I just took a piece and put it in my mouth! It was really good! A little spicy and very, very chewy! I asked if it was bacon and she started giggling... then all of her little friends cracked up as they told me it was pig ear! They were pretty surprised when I told them I liked it, and even more surprised when I got a plate full of it! 

     So that's the week! To end my e-mail, I'll share my short spiritual message! I was looking at my quote wall just this morning and I saw a scripture that I put up there about 2 months ago. It's in 1 Corinthians 13:11. It says: "When I was a child, I acted like a child, I spake like a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things." I've looked at that quote a LOT of times over the years. I first came across it about 2 years ago when my friend shared it with me and it's just always stuck with me! I was thinking about it today and I thought to myself, how do we become a man, and what "childish things" do we need to put away? In different cultures, there are different definitions of men. Sometimes, in order to become a man, you have to do some kind of special task or test. Sometimes you just need a beard! But what does it mean to God to become a man? I think of the story Elder Holland shared in the last conference, about the disciples on the sea of Galilee. Christ calls them Children even though, in their culture, they were very much men! A thought came to my head, that there is only one way to truly become a man. Through and only through our Savior Jesus Christ can we truly grow into manhood. In order to put away those Childish things, we must change. We must repent and turn away from our sins forever! That is what it truly means to become a man, and that was part of the call that Christ gave to His disciples that day in which He called them children. I can't say that that was His only reason for calling them Children, but I feel as though it could have been a lesson he was teaching them. I know we can all become the people God wants us to be if we will only put away those things which hold us back!

     I love you all a ton! Miss you guys each and every day and you're always in my prayers!

 羅正杰長老

Ryan and his companion at a baptism (I have blurred out the face to protect privacy)

My silly, happy Elder!

Elder Noll says this is a picture of Moses at the park :)

February 19, 2013

Hi guys!! I'm sorry I couldn't write on Monday! I was in Taizhong with the rest of the mission listening to a member of the 70 speak to us!

      Sorry mom, as missionaries, the Chinese new year is pretty much the same as any other week for us except for the member meals each day so I don't have any awesome pictures for you! I'll try to get some soon to send to you all! The one thing that I saw A LOT of was Bai Bai (bye bye) -  it's where people send things off to their ancestors by burning it! Kinda cool, huh? Everyday for the last week has been cloudy with smoke because EVERYONE is bye bye-ing! Guo Nian was a blast though! It was a little hard at first because our investigators all went to their old childhood homes so they weren't in Tainan, but it was a great opportunity to teach some other people and find new investigators! It was also an awesome opportunity to work with the members so much! We met with members every day, every meal last week! (one of the contacts spoke English). It's always a little weird when someone starts speaking English to me here! I'll go up to contact them and give them a friendly Ni Hao, and then they'll give me a sentence in English and it'll throw me off! That doesn't happen very often though, Chinese is just a little more natural to contact someone! I find that things we say in Chinese just don't translate at all, so it's a good thing I don't have to try contacting people in English here!

     So I've got a long week to tell you all about! We had a full week of huo guo (hotpot) which is just a big fondu pot that you throw anything into... I think I told you about that last week... Almost every meal was huo guo and it was really good! Yes mom, I will never complain about your taco soup again! 

      So this week, I went on exchanges with Elder H, an elder in my district, and had a great time visiting with their investigators and working with him. We visited some less actives and 1 other investigator and it was really cool to see how other missionaries work! We contacted, and we contacted and we contacted some more! The coolest experience we had throughout the week happened yesterday! I was talking with a guy on the side of the street while Elder S was waiting behind me. He decided he would pull out the phone and call one of the random numbers we have in the phone that other missionaries have given us through referrals. As I was talking to this guy, all of a sudden his phone rings and I can tell he's talking to someone who wants to meet him! I think to myself, he's probably talking with a missionary! I turn around and see Elder S on the phone!!! He picked a random number, on a random list of people, and it just so happened to be the man that I was contacting that very minute!! I think God is answering a prayer here!! He was really busy and didn't want to set a specific time right then, but he was really interested in meeting us again! That was a pretty crazy experience!

     The best thing to happen this week though, was the experiences I've gained out of personal study in the mornings and applying them throughout the day. There were a couple things that really stood out to me that I want to share really quick! One thing that I noticed pretty early in the week was a line in the New Testament: "But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose." A very simple line that I've never really thought about before. It's just the end to another healing story, isn't it? Of course it is, but I think we can learn something about the way Christ is, and about the way that we "arise" from this simple line of scripture. First, Christ just took a minute of his precious, very short time on earth to bless somebody. That's incredible enough, right?? 

     Think to yourself, you've been maimed or hurt, or you've sinned and you're pained from the guilt. You see Christ walking down the street and you've heard that He has the power to heal anybody. You ask Him to heal you and He has the love and patience to do as you ask. That's enough for anybody. To have been touched by the love of Christ. But next, Christ takes you by the hand and helps you to your feet. I think of the sports I played in High School. Both of them, Wrestling and Football, involved knocking somebody down. Their was always that one guy on the field though, who would help you back up if you were on the ground. I always had a lot of respect for that guy, and it showed that he was a guy of class. It's humiliating to be knocked down against your own will! I hated it! Sometimes, if the hit was hard enough, you don't even want to get back up! Christ is that person who lifts us off the muddy turf, He's the coach who picks us up off the mat after getting pinned, He's the loving father who will comfort us and encourage us to keep going, and He's the motivation to get back on the mat, to go back on the field and play one more play, wrestle one more round. It's a little weird to compare Christ to these roles that are FAR below Him, but it has helped me understand Him so much more. I've had multiple coaches in football, wrestling and even gymnastics, who have uplifted and motivated me to do better. My father has been that saving grace when I wanted to quit and when I thought I couldn't go any farther. My mom has been the one to hold me and tell me I did great even when our team lost every game that year. Christ is all of these. Not only will He heal us of our transgressions, but He picks us up, dusts us off, and keeps on walking with us.

     The next piece of spiritual truth, which goes along very well with the last, is a quote from the Prophet Joseph Smith: "Hold on, Fear not, for God will be with you forever." We all have those times where we feel like we're at the end of our rope, where we want to just let go and give up. I tell you now, that it's worth it to hold on. Don't be afraid, don't let go. God will not leave you.

     Love, Elder Ryan Noll

 

February 10, 2013

過年到了!! It's the Chinese New Year!! Yay! The Chinese New Year is an awesome time to be a missionary! Everyone is a little more receptive when you greet them with a "Xin Nian kuai le!" and they'll smile and talk to you a little longer! It's also great because the members feed us at every meal!! Since Thursday, I haven't made a thing of food for myself! The members here are so incredible! We've been to a couple really fancy restaurants and some other members have taken us to their house to eat "huo guo" (it's directly translated as "hot pot." Its really similar to fondu but they put absolutely anything in it... anything.) and I've had some pretty funky stuff to eat! I'm not even sure what most of it was! Yesterday we had a TON of seafood, I ate a couple things that had some long, slimy tentacles on it, something that looked like a meatball but DEFINITELY wasn't, and something that I'm pretty sure is still swimming in my stomach... but it was all pretty amazing!! I've got to say, the people here can take some really weird looking food and make it taste incredible!

     This has been another great week! Our investigator who was supposed to get baptized on the 27th has to move his date, because he wasn't able to make it to church this week, but he's still so great. I met with him this last Friday and his testimony is so strong! I was telling him a story, a wrestling story, and all of the sudden he just says "wait, you wrestle?" Apparently he used to do a form of MMA in High School, and he says "we're gonna have to schedule some extra appointments so that we can wrestle a little bit!" hahahaha I thought he was joking... no, he was dead serious! It was pretty funny. I talked to him a while, after the lesson, about wrestling and ground work and all of different styles and stuff. It was really cool to connect with him like that! He speaks really good English too, so I could actually explain wrestling styles! He's doing really good, and he continues to learn and grow in the Gospel. I'm amazed at his testimony of the Atonement and his dedication in keeping commitments. He's better than I am at reading the scriptures, and whenever he has questions, I can tell that they come from deep within his heart. It's such a weird experience to be out here, teaching in a language that is still pretty foreign, but knowing that I'm helping people change. I think to myself sometimes how weird it is that I can understand the bubble-gum language that I've always found so annoying! I think the reason that I found it annoying is because I really just didn't understand! It's beautiful to my ears now! Every once and a while, I'll be talking with someone and then, all of a sudden, I'll think to myself: "I'm actually having a conversation in Chinese!" I remember in Junior High, when I was taking Chinese. I took 2 years and I couldn't have asked: "Where is the Bathroom?" ha but now I'm able to actually teach a 30 minute lesson in Chinese and I've only been studying for 4 months! That's not even possible! It's been such a tender mercy to know that God is mindful of me. To know that He understands that Chinese is hard!! People ask all the time, how we can speak Chinese so well in so short a time. Honestly? The answer is that we're missionaries and we've just got to do it! We've been called to be here, we've been told to learn the Chinese language, and we've been promised help to do so. We've been set apart specifically for this work, and we have some incredibly specific blessings that God has promised us. I know that God has blessed me so much. I know that he's promised me blessings if I will work to receive them. 

     So this week, we've been working hard at continuing to find people. On Saturday, we had an incredible day where we talked to almost 80 people total! That means that we shared a 1-2 minute message and invited them to do something. That's a lot! We had 3 people make appointments with us, and we had 3 other lessons all in a total of about 5 hours! We've really been working hard on better contacting, and it's starting to pay off!

     Yesterday at Church, as I was taking the Sacrament, I looked around at the people sitting next to me. I was sitting with 3 of our recent converts and I was watching a fourth as he passed the Sacrament with another less active who had recently returned to church. I was hit with such a feeling of pride and love as I watched all of these people respectfully bow their heads after partaking of the Sacrament. I did the same and started thinking about what the Sacrament does to people. It changes us. There are two very interesting stories in the New Testament that I've been studying this week in which the Lord refers to the Sacrament (in a way). The first, is the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Christ asks for a drink, she talks to him for a while, and He offers her a drink that will let her "never thirst again." He tells her if she drinks of this water, she will receive Eternal Life. The second story takes place the day after Christ feeds the thousands with bread and fish. They come to find him to ask him for more bread! He tells them that if they eat of his body, they will receive Eternal Life. He compares his body to bread as well. Have you ever paid attention to your stomach as you take the Sacrament? On fast Sunday it's especially noticeable! As I take the Sacrament, my stomach really doesn't do much. I don't feel any more stuffed than I did before eating the bread. BUT, I can literally feel something filling my body with warmth and comfort. I can't explain it much better than that! As I took the Sacrament yesterday, I felt it cleansing me and preparing me for the rest of the week. It's like plugging a laptop in to recharge before going on a big car trip. We NEED this recharge EVERY week for the rest of our lives! Not only is it a commandment, but it's one of the most precious blessings we have! We can partake of this small particle of bread, drink a tiny little thing of water, and be filled for the week. This next Sunday, I challenge all of you to write in a notebook, the feelings that you have as you take the sacrament. Not the feelings you have after church is over, not during Sunday School in the next hour, but at the time that you take the Sacrament, write down everything you feel. I promise that when you write it down, it will become clearer to you what you're feeling and you'll have a record of that precious experience!

     I'm so grateful for all of you and the influences you've had on my life! I look up to so many of you more than you probably know! I'm grateful for the love and support many of you have given to my family, and I'm grateful for the examples you continue to set for my younger siblings! I'm doing great here in Taiwan, it's warming up quick! I'm loving the people, the food, the weather and every other aspect of this beautiful Island... but most of all I love being in the service of my Savior. I love that I'm able to be a part of this great and marvelous work, and I'm constantly in awe that I've been blessed to have this opportunity.

Until next week!

 

加油!!!

羅正傑長老

 

 

February 3, 2013

Hello everyone! Another week flown by and here I am, drinking my delicious donggua tea, with a load of new experiences to share with you! This week has been just as great as all the rest!

     So I'll start with the weekly report and finish up with my Spiritual thought of the week!

Monday:

     Monday was just our normal P-day activities! We hung out with a recent convert and he took us to Anping to get some of there famous Douhua. (Douhua is like sweet toufu in a sweet kind of soy milk stuff with different funky stuff inside... yeah, not exactly a very clear explanation but I don't really know what's in it myself! It's good though!) And then at night, we have a group of investigators we meet with every night. This night they took us to a new restaurant that opened up. Authentic Thai food! Oh wow, it was incredible. I had the curry rice and thought I was in heaven! It was incredibly cheap too! For a GIANT heaping of rice, an egg, and a big fried piece of chicken, it was only 2 American dollars! I love Taiwan!

Tuesday:

     We played ping pong with another recent convert who is about 16 years old and he kicked our butts! I should definitely work on my ping pong skills if I want to compete with the members here! So that was fun, but the best part of the day was going to a members house and having a quick lesson with them. These members have two little daughters that are absolutely adorable and you can literally see how much this family loves them! I love watching them during sacrament meeting because there is just so much happiness and love between the four of them! It makes me miss you guys a lot, but it makes me so happy to see that they have such a strong family! I had a chance to share my "conversion story" with them about visiting the church historical sites. I feel like I had a good testimony before going to New York, but my testimony was purely in Christ. I believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and I believed the Book of Mormon was true, but it didn't have much of a personal connection for me. Visiting those sites, specifically the Sacred Grove, rooted my testimony and I will never forget the personal growth because of that experience.

Wednesday:

     This was another finding day! It was completely spent looking for other people to teach with not much success, but I know that as long as we're working hard, God blesses us. We spent the entire day finding and literally had no visible success. No one set up to meet with us, no one even gave us a telephone number! We finished the day with English, and then had one of our investigators come meet with us randomly! We sat down with him and asked him how his Book of Mormon reading was going... He read 20 chapters in one night just because he couldn't sleep!!! Isn't that awesome?? That's like 2 hours of reading for me!! He's got a baptismal date for the 23rd of this month and he's so prepared to be baptized!! I love that guy!

Thursday:

     Another finding day! Nothing much really happened today!

Friday:

     We had an English meeting in Gaoxiong where I saw Elder G. He's doing great and is loving Taiwan! His trainer used to be Elder S's companion and Elder S. tells me good things about him all the time!

Saturday:

     We spent almost all of Saturday helping the ward deep clean the church! While we cleaned, we took some breaks and met with some less active members and had some success in getting 3 less actives to church on Sunday! It was great! That was just about all we did on Saturday, and then at night we had a big meeting with the bishopric and presidencies where we just discussed the monthly plan... fun, right?!

Sunday:

     I love Sundays! Church is always great to see our less actives and investigators show up! I have to tell you, Church is so different as a missionary! It's pretty stressful trying to get people up on time, making sure they're coming, making sure they're not buying breakfast on the way over, and then making sure they have friends to sit next to, making sure they're not confused as they're listening... making sure they ARE listening! As stressful as it is, I still love it. Taking the sacrament calms it all down real fast! So that was basically our Sunday!

 

And that's the week in a summary!! Now on the the important part, the Spiritual side!!

 

This week, I had a chance to read President Uchtdorf's talk in conference, "Of Regrets and Resolutions" - October 2012 Conference, Saturday Morning session. I loved listening to that talk in the MTC! When I first heard it, I just thought about how I should work as hard as possible in the MTC and I wanted to be able to look back and have no regrets! Now, looking back, I have none! I loved every minute of the MTC and I really worked hard! I think we can always work a little harder, but I can honestly say I gave it my all and I enjoyed each and every moment at the MTC. Now, I'm starting a new chapter. The MTC was like the introduction to a book, or like the chapter heading, now I'm actually smack-dabb in the middle of the story! Here in Taiwan I don't think it's possible to relax, especially not on the roads, but I know that each day I need to give it my all and really put in 110% as I go about my day! This talk makes me want to ride my bike a little faster, talk to at least 2 more people, study harder and pray longer! As I read this talk this last week, I thought back to an experience I had in High School. Mom, Dad, you're sure to remember this one! It was my senior year and I was wrestling at the JV Rocky Mountain Rumble, I had gone undefeated and now I was wrestling for the 145 championship. I was so stoked, I was feeling nice and rested and I was really ready to just tear this skinny little guy apart! The match started and we were pretty even! I'd get a take down and ride him for the round, and then the next round he'd do the same to me. I remember he was up with just a little bit of time left so I really needed to score, I took a risk and scored!! Overtime. I was exhausted... but I still had control and was determined to win. We started the round and neither of us moved, we just watched each other for a second... we tied up and I snapped him down. I still remember the feeling of giddy joy as I leaned on him, thinking I was about a second away from winning!! I got careless and tried to spin around behind him to get my points... I over-spun and he got behind me, thus, winning the match. Even today, almost 2 years later, that match tears me up. I can't stand reliving it, but I can't help it sometimes! I still have nights where I relive every second of that match, and I tense up as I go through the motions that would have won me the match. How sad is that?? This was a pointless High School wrestling match!! Can you imagine the regret we would have if we got to Judgement Day knowing that we slacked off at the last second?? That would absolutely harrow up our minds for eternity!!

     So my message, and invitation, today is this. Live life to it's fullest. Have no regrets. When something needs to be done, do it and do it with a smile and with all the energy you can possibly muster! Now, this is a different invitation than "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!". This invitation is to follow the Master and to do as He does. This is an invitation to come unto Christ and Live the way He showed us how to live. Loving, forgiving, and ACTING until the very end.

 

Love, Elder Noll

 羅正傑長老