March 3, 2013

We asked Elder Noll some questions this week and figured we'd post his answers - If you want to skip down to his main letter - It is in a different color at the bottom :)

1. How much time do you have in the internet cafe each week? Do you have enough time to read our lengthy emails in the cafe... do you download them... should we keep our emails brief to allow you more time to write?

     I've got plenty of time! Don't worry about it! Make them as long as you want!
2. What's the guitar status? Would you like for us to send you sheet music with the next package?

     Right now, I have an ukulele that a friend has given me to borrow for a while, but no guitar yet! I'm still not sure if I'll buy one or not, I don't know if it would be worth it! But I'll let you know when I get one or not... as for sending music... I don't know! I think it would make the package pretty heavy!! I'd love it, but I don't want to make it too inconvenient for you guys!
3. Do you miss your mommy? Are you ever homesick?

     Of course! I could lie and say I never get homesick, but that would be stupid! Of course I get pretty homesick sometimes, but I don't want to bother you with those feelings, because the feelings of missionary work fill up those empty spaces! I miss all of you more than I could ever explain, but there's work that needs to be done!
4. Are you excited to transfer?

     Um, that's a hard one! I'm pretty nervous actually! Elder S is most likely going to move, but there's still a chance that I could go somewhere else! I'm excited to not be a trainee anymore, but I'm a little nervous about what that means! I'll let you all know how it goes next week!
5. Do you ever feel unsafe?... With the people? Traffic? Apartment?

     YES! Elder S is very abusive and he throws things at me... no not really. haha I wish you guys could experience the roads out here, they're an adventure that's for sure! It's like New York roads with no side walks... imagine riding a bike around there... oh yeah, and then add 1000 mopeds in the bike lanes and cars parked on the side of the road and people walking in and out, and cars going 50 mph a foot away from you and then you'll know what being a missionary in Taiwan is like!

6. How is your bike holding up? Any repairs? Did you choose the right model or should we have gone with a different one?

     My bike is doing great! It's working pretty nice and I think it was the right one to go with!
7. How much money do you get each month for food/incidentals? Is it enough?

     We get 6850 NT every month, and it's enough! The food is INCREDIBLY cheap here, one of the most expensive restaraunts here is McDonalds... and it's no more expensive than it is in America. Most places, you can get a full meal for 50-100 NT, so I'm doing fine!
8. What are 3 things that every Junior and Senior in High School should do right NOW to prepare themselves to serve right after high school? Would you have done anything to prepare differently?

     1.STUDY the Scriptures (especially the Book of Mormon). Don't just read them, really study them and let them start to shape your actions.

     2.STUDY Preach My Gospel. Again, don't just read it, study it. Do the activities in the little boxes, turn to the scripture references and use the things you learn.

     3.Learn to forget yourself. There is absolutely no room for selfish feelings in missionary work. This is one of the hardest things to do, and I think it's one of the major keys to success on a mission. We're not here for us, we're not here to learn a new language, we're not here to try some new food and have a 2 year vacation. We're servants of the Lord and we're here bringing souls unto Him.

     What would I do differently? TONS! I would have taken Dad's advice and studied Chinese more, I would have taken Mom and Dad's advice and taken some Institute classes, man, I would have just listened to my parents more! They're pretty smart people! I wish I would have started better scripture study and prayer habits, I wish I would have attended the Temple more regularly, and I wish I would have shown love for my family more.

     Well, there's all the questions for you! If you have anymore then feel free to shoot them out! Wow! this week has really flown by!! It has been SO busy! Since Elder S is our District Leader, we've had to do 2 exchanges this week and we've had a lot of lessons on top of that!

     On Tuesday, I went up to 北區 (the North district of 台南 tainan) for exchanges with our Zone Leaders. I was with another missionary named Elder S... that's ironic isn't it? I leave Elder S to be with Elder S... anyways, that was pretty fun! I learned a lot, and I got to use the Zone Leaders bench press (highlight of the week) and it was cool to work with some new members and such. But it was definitely nice to get back home to my beloved 東區 East district! I love my ward and I love our investigators so much! Wednesday we went home teaching with our Bishop and met a really great less active family and then we had English class that night! Not the most eventful day, but English is always fun! I love teaching English here! I'm the advanced class teacher and my class is pretty awesome! We basically spend the entire hour just talking about what happened during the week!

     Friday was Elder H's birthday so we took him out to a really expensive all you can eat buffet kind of place. It was the most delicious hot pot I've ever had! They literally had anything you could possibly imagine! And the meat was all ultra fresh! They cut it right in front of your face! After the lunch, we went on exchanges and I had the chance to act as Senior companion in our own area for the first time! Kind of really fun! I had so much power! haha, it wasn't THAT cool, but I liked it. We had a few lessons the rest of the night and then we headed home to do our nightly planning. Nightly activities are a lot different as a senior companion. Not as much time to write in your journal because you've got to call everyone and confirm for the next days lessons and you've got to call the members you want to teach with you the next day and a whole lot of other stuff! So that was pretty fun to experience!

     The rest of the week was pretty uneventful! Except for yesterday! We're at church, sitting in Gospel Doctine class and we're talking about the Holy Ghost. We start talking about how the Holy Ghost doesn't have a body of flesh and bones, and the 85 year old woman sitting next to me says: "Yeah, He's like Satan!" Hahaha, the missionaries in the room couldn't even hold it in! The funniest part was that no one even bothered to try and correct her! So there's the spiritual message for the day... the Holy Ghost is like Satan. Not really. The other comical event of the week happened Saturday night as we were going back to our apartment. We have a guanli, a doorman, whose name is Papa Wu. He's about 60 or so, and we like to mess with him a lot and joke around with him. He really likes us and loves talking to us whenever we're heading out the door. This night, when we got into our building, we couldn't see him anywhere! We decided he must be upstairs smoking or something. As we wait for the elevator to come down, Elder S told me he thinks that Papa Wu is coming down in the elevator... so he gets up right in front of the doors, and right when they open he sticks his head in and says "Boo." Turns out he was right! He scared Papa Wu so bad that he just backed into the elevator and leaned against the wall! We went in and asked him if he wanted to go up... he said he needed to get out, but we'd already pressed the button so he proceeded to yell at Elder S while I just cracked up as I watched. It was definitely a weekly highlight!

     The Spiritual message this week is a little bit of a call to action! I received it yesterday at church as I was listening to a lady bear her testimony. She said: "We cannot leave Christ, we have things that He expects us to do! We can't just leave Him!" Think of all the promises that we have from Christ and from our Father in Heaven. They are numberless! One of my personal favorites is this: Matthew 11:28-30 "Come unto me, all ye who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest..." Christ is constantly volunteering His strength and His love, but when it was his turn to labour and become heavy laden, who was there to help him? Who was there to carry His yoke? There was but one, and he was compelled to do it by the guards who were taking Christ to the hill where He would be crucified. Christ had nobody to lift him and share that burden, even at the end, He needed to experience the feeling of a spritual death and that was so painful that He cried out in agony, "Father, why hast thou forsaken me?" We have things to do. We know what they are, and we know the consequences of disobedience. Our Father in Heaven and our Savior have asked of us to set the example for those around us. We have a call to action and we must answer that call.

     I love you guys! It's great to hear from you, and to those of you who I've received letters and e-mails from, thank you so much! It means so much to me to hear from all of you! I can't wait to hear from you and I love you so much!

     BTW Steph, I love your new found language ability! It took me and Elder S a minute or so to find out it was a joke! We thought it was Cantonese at first! Hahaha Love you!

羅正杰長老