September 29, 2013

Hey guys! End / Start of yet another week full of miracles!! Wow, this week was really something!!... but I'll get to that in a bit! 

Alright! Well, it's been such a great week! Having a new missionary really does bring so many miracles! Everything we've been doing lately has been completely revolving around Faith and Diligence! We've been praying a LOT, we've been working really hard, and we've just been having a great time as we do it! This week, we met 4 New investigators, 2 of which have goals to be baptized in October, and we're continuing to find more and more prepared souls! I can't even tell you all how happy and humbled I am to see these great answers to my prayers!! When Elder C joined me in Daya, having just baptized, we had ZERO investigators. That first week was spent contacting every day... this last week has been spent teaching every day! We've grown so close to many of the families in the ward and we've found a good amount of investigators to add to our teaching pool! 

One of our favorite families in the ward, is a family of 11 that lives on the outskirts of our area in a mansion... seriously! We've visited them 14 out of the 17 days that Elder C has been here! They used to be VERY less active, but they've been coming to church for the last month now, and they're loving every minute of it! The dad is now preparing to receive the Melchezidek Priesthood, and they're getting ready to help their little 7 year old get Baptized next month! Since we have the Zone Leaders in our area (we share the whole area), we've been working together to save this family, and we love them so much! We enjoy going to their house to eat dinner and to play with the kids and to share the Gospel with them! I love each time we round the corner to their house and hear the 9 little screams of: "The Elders are here! The Elders are here!" and then they'll come sprinting out, jumping on our bikes and trying to help us take our bags inside! It's one of those tender mercies to have a family treat us so well! 

We had a really great Zone conference this week and had a great chance to see a lot of missionaries that I haven't seen for a really long time! I probably haven't told you, but do you remember Young from my high school? He's the one that was in Dan's ward and he was from Thailand? He's in our mission and he's now the Assistant to the President along with one of my old Zone Leaders, the super buff Singaporean guy! We get to go on exchanges with them tomorrow, so we're pretty stoked for that! 

Yesterday we met an absolutely GOLDEN investigator... every question I asked him, he would answer with so much feeling and longing to learn! He's been to church quite a bit up in Taipei, and when he graduated he came back down to Daya... now he just wants to get baptized! So we set a date for October with him, and he's going to start meeting with us regularly so that we can help him hit that goal! We're so excited for him! 

My Spiritual thought for the week has to do with Crocodiles... I don't know if any of you have seen the video that President Boyd K. Packer did with the "Spiritual Crocodiles" but it's really an awesome video. It talks about how when water buffalo will go to drink, the crocs will sneak up on them and then pull them into the water. There are times in our lives when we think we're too thirsty to resist that water, times when we think that we must break the commandments in order to have fun or to get the rush that we want... I want to tell you that we need not approach those dangerous waters in order to quench our thirst for fun and adventure. There are dangerous things lurking in those waters of Sin and Apostasy! We won't see what or where they are for the most part, but I tell you that they are there and it's better for us to do are utmost to avoid those waters and the demons within. Go to church, pray, read the word of God. These things will keep us away from Sin and will prepare and strengthen us so that we will be able to avoid every temptation! 

I love you guys! You're all my favorite! ;) Have an awesome week!!

Elder Noll

Arrival of the new missionaries (with their trainers)

Lunch for the newbies and their trainers

Elders Noll and Buhler at the Taipe temple

 

September 22, 2013

I only have one word for you guys this week... well, two in Chinese... Kaorou!!! or as we like to say in the U.S. : BBQ. That's right! It's Moon Festival time on the great island of Taiwan, and that means that it's time to bbq! We must have gone to 10 different bbq's this week! It was nuts!! I've had so much meet and funky Taiwanese food in the last week, I think it's gonna last me a life time! We also roasted some marshmallows and taught the people what s'mores were! That was pretty fun!!

For this weeks questions:

 Emotional / Physical well-being?

     So dead man... I just spend each day hugging my knees until its time to go home... nah, just kidding! I'm great! Can't wait to get out the door each day and go preaching!! I'm thinking of extending another 6 months... what do ya think? ;) 

 

 Training is going super well! Elder C is such an awesome guy! He's a little quiet, so sometimes I feel like I talk too much, but that's not much of a surprise, is it? I've always talked a lot! We're just workin' on Chinese and doing our best! He's such a great guy! 

Well, we had a pretty great week! We did a lot of finding and meeting members of the ward this week so that I could help Elder C out with getting used to Daya and all of the her miraculous beauties! We're having a blast! It's been fun to be around Elder M again, a little De ja vu ish (SO not a word, but whatever) but it's been a lot of fun! We had some Zone Leader exchanges, baptismal interviews, new investigators and all that jazz! It's been so nice to work with a certain family here in daya... they have NINE kids!! We've been visiting them for a long time now, they're a less active family, and we just baptized their nine year old daughter and now they are all coming back to church! I'm not kidding when I say the reward for our work with them is overwhelming... not only spiritually, but physically as well! They fed us 4 out of the 6 nights this last week!!! And they fed us A LOT. 

We're working with a couple new investigators that we found this week, trying to get them to make it to church and pray and all those basic first steps! It's amazing the miracles we see when we apply ourselves and trust in the Lord! I love it! 

sorry, the letter is a little short this week! My Spiritual thought this week has to do with overcoming trials. Think of the story of Job. He is described as "a perfect man" not only by the narrator of The Book of Job, but he's given this title by the Lord Himself! He's then, quite literally, put through the refiners fire. His whole life is turned upside down, inside out and then hung out to dry... as these events start, he begins by complaining that he was ever born, never cursing God, but feeling sorry for himself. Throughout these trials, he changes. He gains testimony after testimony of the mercy of God, the Resurrection, the Plan of Salvation, the law of Repentance etc. Could he have gained such steadfast testimony of these principles had he been allowed to keep living the blissful life which he had before he was tried? Perhaps he could have, but to me, I feel that trials help us build our testimony like nothing else ever could! Be grateful for those trials and know that God has picked it especially for you. He will not allow any trial to have power over us, but He has given us a promise that we will not be overtaken if we will do what is right and rely on His arm. 

Love ya guys! Bye bye! 

Elder Noll

September 15, 2013

Well well well! It's been quite the week!! I'll start by saying that I got the package! The shirts fit perfectly and I'm lovin' the little treats and the football program! (Elder B was lovin' it as well) Thanks so much for that! I was in serious need of some nicer white shirts!! Hopefully these will last me until I go home... 
Which brings me to my e-mail today! A year ago this month, I stepped into the biggest adventure of my life. It's changed who I am forever more, and I am so grateful that I made this decision. I've been thinking about how happy I am to be here a lot lately... Even though I still have a full year left to be a missionary, I feel like it's not nearly long enough! I know now what it means to sacrifice everything and do what the Lord would have me do, and let me tell you... It's worth every thing. There is nothing we can sacrifice that the Lord cannot repay. And if we do it with a willing heart, He will repay us 7 fold. I know this is true because it is what I have experienced since giving up my life to come here and help others find their lives. 

     I guess the reason I feel so grateful right now is because I had a chance to attend 2 baptisms this week for 2 different people who have become beloved family to me. One was the baptism of a 9 year old girl, whose family we helped bring back to activity (they have a family of NINE children!!). The other, was the mother of our earlier recent convert, and she is our miracle story for the week. 

                                                      ...

     We've been meeting with this family for over 3 months now. The family consists of a mother and father with two children, a 6 year old daughter and her 17 year old older brother. The Father wants ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the Church, so he didn't know that we were meeting with this family... but, with the permission of his mother, we helped the 17 year old get baptized and have been working with his mother ever since. The issue we came across had nothing to do with a lack of faith or repentance or a desire to be baptized, it had everything to do with the fact that the husband didn't want her to have anything to do with the church and he didn't know that she was attending... Now, as missionaries, we are told that when a spouse wants to be baptized, they need the permission of their husband or wife in order to do so. This was the issue we came across. We fasted, prayed, fasted some more, prayed harder than ever before, talked with President Blickenstaff, talked with the mother, fasted and prayed more as a group, and finally got an answer. On Wednesday afternoon, we talked to the mother about what she thought she should do. She told us that she felt SO strongly that she needed to be baptized FIRST before she could talk with her family and fix the issues which were in their home. We later went home and prayed for a while, discussed the situation from all angles and decided that we agreed with her. We then called the President and talked with him for a while, told him of our feelings and her own thoughts, and he ended up telling us he agreed that, if this is the revelation that we received, then we could go forth with the baptism. On Thursday afternoon, at seven o'clock, Elder L and I finished the work that we were sent to do here in Daya together by baptizing this family. It was one of the most spiritual experiences I've ever witnessed as I watched our recent convert, her son, step in the font and use the Holy Priesthood to baptize his mother. On Sunday, Elder L and I were invited to join in confirming the gift of the Holy Ghost on her, and welcoming her into the fold of God. Such a humbling and incredible experience, I couldn't hold back my tears as I watched her and her son glow with the Spirit of Christ the Lord shining through their freshly cleansed bodies. 

     I couldn't hold that little spiritual share in any longer, so I just thought I'd get it out in the beginning today! The rest of the week has been great! I picked up my new companion, Elder C (from Portland, Oregon), on Friday and brought him back to the promised land... which means that Elder L is not with me any more, but we found out on Saturday night that he will go to Hengchun (that's in Pingdong... the farthest south you can go!) today! The other news? My new zone leader is ELDER M!! My companion from Gaoxiong! Even funner, we share the area with the Zone Leaders so we see them and work with them on almost a daily basis! We're pretty excited to work together again! 

     Elder C is super awesome! We're going to be working pretty hard these next few weeks looking for new investigators and trying to really build up our teaching pool again! WE'RE READY TO TAKE ON THE WORLD!! 

Love you guys all tons!! You're all awesome!! JIAYOU.

love, Elder Ryan Noll

September 8, 2013

Hello! I'm here! ... well, it's been such a fast week that I hardly know what to talk about!! It's been the first week in the last year that it hasn't rained even once... quite an accomplishment I think! Some things that I'll get out of the way before I start to get into the real stuff:

 

I haven't gotten the box yet, but I'm going to Mission HQ on Friday to pick up my new trainee and hopefully the box will be there! I'm not sure how many of my old shirts I'm gonna want to keep... they're pretty nasty! That's just kinda what happens when you're riding for miles under the tropical sun in Taiwan! 

Alright! What a great week! Let me tell ya! On Monday - Friday was basically full of strict road proselyting! We're trying to build up our teaching pool once more, seeing as we've had quite a few of investigators drop out in these past couple weeks... as hard as it is to ride under that sun for hours every day, it's so much fun. Carrying the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most amazing thing anyone could ever do. I'm so privileged to be out here Preaching Repentance to this people! 

On Saturday, we were making lunch for a family in our ward, and I got stuck with the desert portion of it... so we decided to make a big chocolate cake! It wasn't until we were at the Chapel that we found out we had no pan to bake the cake in!! hahaha so we pulled out one of those HUGE cookie sheets and baked it in that, just praying that it would turn out okay! As it was baking, one of our Investigators just randomly walked in and said he had a teacher that wanted to talk to me...  I said: "Us?" (meaning Elder L and I) and he says: "No, she wants to talk to YOU." ?!?? Talk about being a little nervous! So he takes me downstairs as we leave our cake to bake in the oven, and meet this guys teacher. She's a leader in another Christian Church school somewhere in Daya and she came to check our Chapel out... apparently we were stealing her student. She was super nice, and we had a great talk with her about the way our Church worked and gave her a whole tour of the Daya chapel. In the end, she was really happy about it all! She didn't say a whole lot, but we were laughing with her and chatting... the sad part of the story is that our investigator didn't come to church yesterday!!! Man! He had a goal to be baptized next week, but it didn't happen. We're still praying that he'll come back to us! The happy part is, even though we left the cake cooking in the oven to teach a lesson, it came out perfect... the work of God always comes first!~! haha

Yesterday was incredible. We had a great Church meeting, as always, and then spent the day preparing and inviting people to come to a musical fireside at night. The fireside turned out SO good! We had a chance to throw together a couple musical numbers and invited the 3 wards to do some of their own musical numbers with the choirs... music rocks!! Elder L and I put a musical number together with the Sisters in our District that turned out pretty awesome... "I Hope They Call Me On A Mission." I put together a little arrangement with Guitar, Ukulele, Piano, and a little miniature flute thingy-ma-jig... It was super fun! We also did "If You Could Hie To Kolob" and "Because He Lives" which both turned out super incredible! I love those songs so much! 

My Spiritual share for the week is, yet again, about the song "Because He Lives." I testify to you all that He does live. He lives and loves us. He may have suffered His life for us, but as much as I know He died for us, I know He rose from the grave and was exalted to stand by the throne of God, and inherit His own throne. He did these things that we might also be able to overcome the atrocities (I'm impressed I still remember that word!) of the world! I love Him so much! He is my Light, my Joy, and my Song! 

    

I love you guys tons!

Elder Noll

September 2, 2013

Well, here I am again! I'm chillin out in my lazy chair, inhaling the smoke and body odor of the people around me playing League of Legends, writing another e-mail to all of you!... are you still reading? ha, this must be around 100 or so e-mails by now! If you're still with me, props to you! 

     What a week! Starting last Monday night, my week was just totally thrown in to panic/crazy/excited/nervous mode... I got a call from President Blickenstaff calling me to train in Daya for the next 2 move-calls!!! I can't honestly say I'm that surprised, we don't have many people NOT training in the Mission right now, but I can't say I'm not a little excited/nervous! So I'm good to stay here in Daya for the next couple months! SO HAPPY!!! 

     On Tuesday, we had a meeting for all the missionaries who will be training this next transfer. It was pretty great! President and Sister Blickenstaff shared a lot of really awesome stuff and helped us know what we need to do as trainers and all that good stuff... along with some HOME MADE CINNAMON ROLLS!!! (Don't worry mom, they were ALMOST as good as yours are...) So delicious. Once we returned to our area, we had a full day of contacting ahead of us... along with 90 degree temperatures in the middle of a muggy, humid city. I honestly don't think I've ever been so hot in my entire life. Including the week Jessi and I spent with Grandpa doing construction in the Desert. I've NEVER sweat so much ever before. But we just kept right on pedaling, singing hymns, wearing big, ol', smiles, sharing the gospel of everlasting joy!! And as we did that, we found a miracle. We had been contacting for over 2 hours, and as we were on our way back to the Chapel, we ran in to a former investigator. HE was STOKED to see us and as we talked to him, he set up for 10 minutes later to meet with us in the Chapel! We gave him a church tour and helped him set a Baptismal goal for later in September. Wow. The Spirit was so strong and we were so happy and humbled to have been instruments in the Lord's hand in welcoming this lost lamb back into the fold of God. 

     Those were the most exciting events of the week! I'm so excited to train and to continue serving in DAYA! The Promised Land! My Spiritual thought for the week is this:

     On page 193 in the Hymn book is one of my favorite hymns: "I Stand All Amazed." I used to think the chorus was a little weird... why should it be "wonderful that He should die for me...?" I now understand a little more. It truly is "wonderful, wonderful to me" that He has laid down His own life for my sake. That one action has changed my whole life. I am who I am today because one person decided to suffer for me on a cross on Calvary. There is no one person whom I love more, to whom I am more grateful for than for my God who suffered His Only Begotten to come down to this earth and suffer for our sins. I do stand all amazed, I do find it Wonderful that He loved me enough to do this for me. It is the most wonderful thing that has ever, and ever will, happened on earth and in the Heavens above. I love my Savior. I'm eternally grateful that He has redeemed my soul from the gates of Hell and He has changed my life forever. In His Holy name, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Elder Noll

We have 22 new missionaries arriving in September!

To prepare for their First 12 Weeks, new trainers have been called.