August 4, 2013

HEY EVERYBODY!! What a week!! It's been full of lot's of awesome drama and incredible miracles!

     Well, it was move-call week this week! We've been super curious about the changes that are going to be made here... President has been hinting at the changes for the last few weeks now, and it's super big! We've closed down 2 zones, but added quite a few missionaries... each zone has added about 5 new companionships! Almost every single companionship had a member move!... we were very grateful that both of us are still in Daya! Yay!!!

     I had a truly awesome chance to help out with the Dan Jones activity this week... that's the activity where the new missionaries stand on a box and share testimony and then go contacting for their first time. It was a lot of fun! There were 33 new missionaries! So we had about 70 missionaries total in that night market contacting people... super crazy! It was so fun to work with a new guy and hear his incredibly strong testimony! People are so prepared to hear the Gospel! And on our way home, we had a really great lesson with the bus driver. He's really busy, so he doesn't have a whole lot of time to meet with us, but he was really touched by the Spirit, and I truly believe a seed was planted in his heart! 

     We were scared to death on Saturday night, when the Move-Call was supposed to come in... it came at 10:29!!! 1 minute before we were supposed to go to bed!!! Talk about coming at the last second!! We're so excited for this next Move-Call! It's going to be super great as we work with all of our investigators and get them into the water!!

     Elder S is going home tomorrow!!! Isn't that crazy??? I feel like it was only yesterday that we were in Tainan together! I got to go to the mission house today to see him for a while, and that was SO awesome! He's sad to leave, but he knows that he's done his work! He's such an awesome guy! It was super fun to see all the people at the mission house today... I had a few of my recent converts come to find me, and I saw a lot of other past companions! OH, I forgot to tell you! Elder B is now in my zone! I talked with him for a little while today, and then some other elder pulled out a football and we played for a little while. SO nice to throw around a football for a good 1/2 an hour! It reminded me of the times Jessi and I would go out in front of Grandma and Grandpa's house in Cali and throw the ball around! Only, it's even hotter here and I can't take off my shirt! haha! So you guys, be on the lookout for Elder S! You can probably find him on facebook, or just get in contact with his parents... let him rest a couple of days though! haha, he's super exhausted! 

     One of the most spiritual experiences I've had this week happened as we were watching a movie with one of our recent converts. Earlier in the week, I got ahold of a Chinese subtitled version of the Joseph Smith movie (the hour long version that only plays in the Joseph Smith memorial building!!!) and we were looking for any opportunity to watch it with one of our recent converts or investigators. Wow. I'm hit so hard by the Spirit each time I see that movie. This time I particularly like a sentence said by the Prophet Joseph as they are building the first Temple... 

     "We're not just building a Temple... the Lord is building us." Take a second and think about that! It's a little weird, isn't it? Hasn't the Lord already given us our bodies? Have we not already been "built?" I think that, although we have bodies of flesh and bone which have already been built, the Lord has a very specific plan for us, and He is constantly trying to "build" us into the person He knows we can become. Everything we do will influence our future. When we are doing the Lord"s work and doing it the Lord's way, we will grow, and build upon His foundation. 

Love ya guys tons!! You're all awesome! Tell Elder Woods and Elder Rhymer how much I love them! Elder Sheranian should be getting home soon as well, let them all know that I'm still working my butt off out here and LOVIN' IT! :D ... actually, you might not want to say that... they'll be super jealous! ;)

Elder Noll
Here is the video of the "Dan Jones" experience...Elder Noll can be seen twice - but the whole video is really worth watching - incredible to watch these kids sharing the gospel!