April 7, 2013

 Contacting people in the rain is an absolute blast! But I'll talk about that a little more later...

     How is everyone?? I'm pretty jealous that you've all watched conference already! I have to wait until this weekend to see it! From the e-mails I've gotten, it sounds like it was another incredible conference! 

     Well, this week has been great! So awesome... We're working as a threesome companionship right now, and it's so much fun. The success has gone up too! We talk to SO many people, (300+ this week!) and we've solidified some great baptismal goals. We've got an incredible guy scheduled to be baptized this Saturday, right after we watch the Priesthood session of Conference!! I'm so excited for him! He's been working towards this goal since long before I got here, and I've had the opportunity of helping him reach it - So great! I'm now the new advanced English class teacher... such a relief to be back teaching! I was the English Leader for the last few weeks and I've decided I like teaching the class a lot more! We had a great lesson this last week, it ended with a nice Spiritual thought on the Plan of Salvation. I hope I was able to help them understand a little more why we're all here, I know I felt like the Spirit was there.

     We also had an awesome opportunity to do some service this week! Thursday, we went to do "grave sweeping." Sounds a little creepy, right? It was. We saw skulls (yes, human skulls) all over the ground and stuff! Basically, here in Taiwan, respecting your Ancestors is one of the most important things you should do, so they have a special holiday (kind of like their own Easter) where the WHOLE family goes to their ancestor's grave sites and they completely clean them. Us missionaries, since our ancestors didn't exactly die over here, take care of the no name graves. It's considered very rude if you clean off a grave with someone else's name on it, because you're taking away the blessing of cleaning that grave... a little odd, but really interesting! We spent a few hours clearing out a jungle... I mean pulling weeds. But really, we were chopping down trees and raking around graves and stuff! So cool. Elder P even found one of his ancestor's graves!

     The rain! So, this week, I found out that Gaoxiong rains... often... and hard. There were 2 or 3 days this week where I was soaked throughout the whole day. (whether it was rain, or sweat because of my rain gear, it doesn't make a difference) As hard as it might be to believe, I enjoyed it! Mostly because of the reaction of the people as we contacted them! People here are very afraid of the rain, so when we contact them, it's humorous to watch their reactions! Not a lot of success during the rain storms, but quite a few laughs.

     As busy as the week was, it went by so fast. I can't believe it's already P-day! I have to apologize, I forgot to send a Spiritual thought last week!! This weeks thought is all about "taking upon us the name of Christ." What does that mean? I think it'd be a little weird to legally change your last name to "Christ," but that's just me! I think back to when I was about 12 or so. Jessi, my little brother, was about 8 or 9 and he decided to help his primary chair "take upon itself the name of "Jessi Noll." He carved his name into the seat of his Church chair! I remember coming home from church and seeing one of the chapel's chairs sitting in our living room, and then laughing when I saw the engraving. Our plan was to paint over it, or something... I might be mistaken, but I'm pretty sure we still have that chair! But that's besides the point. My dad has used this story many a time to explain what it means to take upon us a name. He's told us since we were very young that we are "Nolls" and we should act mature and uphold that name. He's explained that bad actions don't just reflect on ourselves, but they reflect on the name that we bare. I think back to those lectures quite a bit now, and I think about what it means to bear Christ's name on my chest. Whether we know it or not, as members of the Church, we bear Christ's name. When people learn of our religion, they will make a judgement. It could be a good one or a bad one, that's up to you. If we bear Christ's name with the honor It deserves, we will become the best missionaries. We have a duty to "be an example of the believers." We have a calling to present ourselves in a way that will bring others unto Christ. I promise you, as you do this, you will see a difference in your own personal life. You will find that as you attempt to bring others unto Christ, you yourself will make leaps and bounds towards our beloved Savior. I testify that these things are true, and I exhort all who bear His Holy name to do as He would.

Love you all tons! You're all great!

Love, Elder Ryan Noll

P.S. I'm going to hike "Monkey Mountain" today, pretty stoked! I'll send pictures home next week! Thanks so much for all the love and support I get from you each week, it means so much! Jiayou!