Letters from Taiwan: April 14, 2013

Answers to your questions:

1. The grave sweeping:

Nothing too crazy!! It's just like we do in America, garden work around the graves... the only difference is that there isn't a cemetery gardener taking care of them all year, so there's a little more work to do!

2. My companion! Which one? just kidding!

Actually, Elder D and I are very sad about that right now, we just dropped Elder P off at the Train Station! After just 2 weeks!! So sad! He's going to my old district in Tainan, kinda funny, right? We had a LOT of crazy experiences in these 2 weeks, and I'll fill you in on those in just a bit! He's a Taiwanese missionary from Taipei, he's already graduated from college and fulfilled his mandatory military service, and he's only 25 years old! Ultra stud!

Well, like the subject, this has been one heck of a week!! Crazy people, General Conference, a Baptism, Lessons, Lessons, and more Lessons!!! We've been SOOO busy!! The week has literally flown by! Each and every day has been packed full of things to do!! I'll start from the beginning...

Last Sunday, we got a phone call while we were planning. It was the office, telling us they had a "Golden" referral for us! This guy (apparently) had been beaten by his father and was now living in the hospital, but he saw us missionaries before and decided he wanted to learn about our church and go on a mission himself! Sounds pretty great, right?? I thought so! We get to the hospital on Monday night and tell the receptionist who we want to visit, she tells us he lives in the Jinshengbing ward... Neither Elder D or I had any idea what that meant, but our native companion got this really weird look on his face and asked her to double check the list... she confirms, and then we go on our way. Elder P explains that it's in the Psychiatric Ward... yes, the Crazy House! What do we do? Well, we're missionaries!! We go in to teach the crazies! haha, the three of us were a little nervous until we got to the building... then we got A LOT nervous! This place was absolutely empty. Not a soul in sight. There was a little boxed off room with a staircase inside and an intercom on the outside. We hit the intercom and a lady lets us in... the door just opened automatically, scaring the crap out of the three of us! We enter the creepy little room and there's a creepy, soft voiced recording welcoming us into the crazy house. We cautiously go up the staircase and see two people, a security guard and a nurse. They start asking us why we're there, and then decide to let us in... until she looks at me and then freaks out!! She starts screaming at me and telling me I need to take my cigarettes and lighter and give them to her... ???? What??!! I don't smoke lady!! Ha, she was on that rant for a while until I showed her my backpack and Church flyers, and then she calmed down and let us in. It was the creepiest place I've ever been in, I'm telling you! This place was creepier than the haunted forest in American Fork, creepier than that big balloon, the Beast, at Thanksgiving Point, creepier than any place I've ever been to before!! There was a small group of people that started heading towards us, murmuring and trying to talk to us. Quick side note, every crazy person here (there are a LOT) can speak English!! I don't know what it is, but their English is really pretty good! This guy starts hugging Elder P and trying to steal his pen... Elder P gives him a Church flyer and we start to go into our investigator's room. We were all seriously freaked out now, so we slammed the room door shut, and our little friend watched us from the window for about 5 minutes... haha looking back on it now, it's hilarious!! But at the time it was SO NOT FUNNY! Our "investigator" was totally nuts... some "golden" referral. He wanted to move in with us and be a missionary, but he refused to read out of the Book of Mormon or even consider baptism... we prayed with him and got up. We were so ready to leave this nut house!! We open the door and start looking for the exit... We couldn't find it!! Our first friend rounds the corner and starts running towards us saying, "Wait! I'm Christian!" That was the last straw. We found the exit but it was locked, so we pound on the door until it opens and sprint down the stairs and out the building! hahaha I make it sound a little worse than it really was, but that's how it felt at the time! We've had a good laugh about that for the past couple weeks and my journal has a nice detailed version of the whole story.

The rest of the week was taken up with lessons, lessons and more lessons! We had multiple investigators we're trying to prepare for baptism, one of them was just baptized this last Saturday! The other has extended until May, but he's still willing to meet and still wants to be baptized! We're working with a 3rd to be baptized on the 27th, but he's just been so busy this week that we might have to extend his date too. We met a new guy this week who is working to be baptized on the 4th of May! So as you can see, it's been a busy (successful) week!... and that was only the first 5 days!! This weekend was like the Superbowl for us! GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! It was so incredible this year! We (the 5 missionaries in my area) got the high council room all to ourselves and watched it in English, and I got so much out of it! I'll share more about that in my Weekly Spiritual Thought. Saturday ended with the most wonderful, happy event you could imagine. That's right, WE BAPTIZED! One of our investigators that we've been meeting with got in the water on Saturday night, and made a covenant with the Father of all the Heavens and Earth. It's the most miraculous thing - to witness something like that.

The Conference this time seemed to be focused on uplifting the members and showing us how to make the Lord, our Redeemer, "the rock of our salvation" and warning us to let Christ, the Lord, be in every aspect of our lives! I loved it! Some of my favorites:

President Boyd K. Packer: "We need to protect our Nests." We need to live our lives in such a way that the Adversary cannot steal into our homes.

Elder Dean M. Davies: "Build upon a SURE foundation!" "Anchor our lives to the Atonement of Christ."

Elder Richard G. Scott: "make the center of your home the Savior."

Elder Quentin L. Cook: "Let the peace of Christ fill our lives and blot out our hates."

Elder Robert D. Hales: The Armour of God! "Stand with the Savior!"

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf: "Take courage, find our faith, and keep trying." (later talk) "God's light is real!... Do not dwell in darkness."

And, of course, one of my favorites: Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: "Hold the ground you have already won, even if it is limited... Be true to the faith that you DO have...FAN THE FLAME OF YOUR FAITH." And towards the end: "Be not afraid, only believe." - Jesus Christ

My dear family, friends and anyone else who may come across this, these words are precious treasures. Let them effect your lives, hearken unto them and make them become a part of your very beings! My key point in sharing all these quotes? Christ is our center and foundation. He is the Redeemer and Savior of the world, and if we build our relationships, homes and very lives upon His rock, we CANNOT fall! How many people are trying to tear us down? How many tried to tear down the Savior, as he marched to His death with a cross on His back? Let me answer for you, a lot. Every day there are people trying to tear us down from the mount we have worked so hard to climb. Those evil people who rose their own Savior up on the cross didn't understand that NOTHING CAN TEAR US DOWN, SO LONG AS WE ARE CENTERED ON THE LORD AND HIS TEACHINGS. Christ's entire life was given in submissiveness to the Father, of course nothing could keep him down! Don't you know?? After just THREE days, He rose once more, and took up ALL of His Glory!! Brothers and Sisters, I testify to you, because He rose, we will too. Because He has atoned for us, nothing can tear us down. Nothing. I give you this promise, with the authority of one being called by the Lord Jesus Christ, In His Holy name I promise you this, even Jesus Christ, Amen.

Family!

I'm making the most out of my time here, every time I feel nervous to talk to someone, I just think about how I'll regret it later if I don't do it, so then I just get up and go do it. Speaking of which, I had some delicious food this week! You ready for this? Pig intestine, with rice stuffed inside, and a smaller pig intestine stuffed inside of all that, with some sausage ground up and stuffed inside the smaller intestine... sound healthy? It was really delicious!! I love you all to the moon and back! Have a great week!

P.S. I got a guitar!! for Free!!! Not really mine, I'm just borrowing it until I leave this ward... but it made me SOO excited!! Love you guys! Jiayou!
Elder Noll