August 18, 2013

Hello outside world!!! You know, everyone tells me that they would get super bad island fever being trapped on an island this small for over a couple months... but honestly I just love it! Everyday is better than the last! Of course, there are times when I'm overcome with longing for my family, my friends and the comforts of home, but then I just contact the next person and I feel the love I have for this place and my Lord engulfs me in arms of comfort! I feel like the outside world is SO far away! 

First things first, Thank you all for the awesome Birthday wishes! They are greatly appreciated! I'm especially grateful to the Family (mostly mom!) for the awesome "party in a bag." Elder L and I partied hard... well, as hard as you can when you've got a curfew of 10:30 haha! We ended up using those little blowie things to try and hit each other in the face and that went on for a good 30 minutes... don't worry! We got pictures! I do have to apologize though, we weren't able to take any pictures outside with the hat on! We were in meetings all day and we're not aloud to take pictures except for on P-days! But everyone got a kick out of it, and I got some pictures of our apartment for you guys! 

The subject title (of the email) reads: "Wu ai wu jia." 吾愛吾家 It means "I love my family!" This is a very special kind of award ceremony that they have here in Taiwan, and it's done by the Church. Usually it's done up in Taipei, near the Temple, but this year they decided to do it down here in Taichung! Our Zone was invited to sing a couple of songs for the big event, and it was incredible!! People from the Government were there watching and everything! We had a wonderful sister in our ward helping us direct the choir and putting the pieces together, she's an absolute musical genius! So cool! Also, side note, our last Zone Leader was Elder P (apparently I went to school with him) and he has been replaced by a guy named Elder T, another guy I went to school with and hung out with a couple times! Talk about a shocker! I got to exchange with him twice this last week and it was an absolute blast!! We got tons done, and It was super fun to do missionary work with someone from home!

I had an awesome Birthday yesterday! My companion brought a HUGE card to church and had almost everyone in our ward sign it! My Zone Leaders brought me a real CHEESECAKE and we pigged out on it while watching some Mormon Messages in the kitchen after church with our Recent Converts! I continued to get phone call after phone call from all the Recent Converts, past investigators and past ward members throughout Taiwan to wish me a happy birthday... including President and Sister Blickenstaff last night! That was fun! haha Over all it was just an incredible 3 days! Ha, I feel like I was just in here yesterday, so I really don't have much more to write about! 

Last thing, The incredible spiritual experience I had this week. As we were preparing this song for the big ceremony thing, our director had us do this really weird thing to practice. We read the lyrics out loud according to the timing of the music, but we couldn't focus on the singing. We just had to read it out loud and put as much feeling into it as possible. At first, I felt like a flippin' idiot... but as I started to get into it and really pay attention to the lyrics, I started realizing how much the words I was saying really meant to me. It was a song about the Resurrection and how it will free us from all sorrows and burdens. After realizing that, we went out and sung with all the power we had!... and to a zone of missionaries, the power of the Atonement is what drives us everyday, so you can only imagine the power those words had to us at that time. I don't think there was a dry eye in that room, especially among us singing. Music has such an incredible effect, and I know it's one of the best ways we can praise our Lord! It was such a powerful experience, and not one I'm likely to ever forget.

Love ya guys! Have an awesome week!!

     Love, Elder Ryan Noll