October 13, 2013

Hey fellas! How was the week? I feel like I just sat down in here yesterday! Seeing as we had General Conference this week, the week flew right by! Yet we still managed to do quite a bit of stuff this week! Always busy, busy, busy!! 

     A couple really awesome experiences of the week for ya!

Our GOLDEN investigator. He was a referral from the Taipei missionaries that we met a little over 2 weeks ago. We invited him to be baptized after only 20 minutes of meeting him, and he enthusiastically accepted our invitation! He's been to church with us now, and he attended SIX hours of General Conference with us! Even I still have a hard time watching that much General Conference! We had some really great lessons with him this week which were absolutely guided by the Spirit as we worked over a few problems he had, and now he's moved his Baptismal Date to this next Saturday, the 19th of October! We're SO excited for him. He's one of my favorite investigators I've ever had on a mission! 

 

On Wednesday this week, I had a little surprise! We had just started English Proselyting when I got a phone call from a missionary phone number that I didn't recognize. The Elder asked me where we were at and then hung up immediately... weird? Yeah, weird. I didn't really care at that point, we just started doing our English Proselyting. About ten minutes later I looked over to my right to see Elder L (yes, my x-companion) coming to do proselyting with us! Super crazy! Apparently he moved back up to the office to work on a special project because he knee has been giving him a lot of pain lately, so he'll be in there for a while now. Talk about a shocker!

On Thursday morning, we went to the family's house that has 9 children for a super delicious breakfast! Apparently Thursday was the "birthday" for Taiwan! Super fun!! We had a great day contacting some really awesome new investigators and just loving Taiwan! 

General Conference was incredible. I can honestly say that I enjoyed EVERY talk! I think my favorites were the two talks by President Uchtdorf. The Sunday am and the talk he gave in Priesthood. I feel as though I was able to receive personal revelation and change my life accordingly! I hope you will all go back through any personal notes, re-read the talks and look for areas in your life where you can improve personally! Let's take Conference home with us!! 

My spiritual message of the week has to do with callings. When I left the MTC, I was seriously homesick. I wanted to go out and share the gospel, but I was nervous, scared and I missed my MTC District, my family at home, and everything comfortable about the place I grew up in. When I left Tainan, I felt a repeat of the same feelings, but this time, for the wonderful investigators, ward members and my trainer. Both times, I was able to get over it, get to work, and eventually I grew to love those places like they were my own home! When I came to Daya, I was crushed. I can honestly say that I didn't want to come here, and I was even a little angry that God would force me out of the place I loved to go to a place that I didn't want to go. While I was on the train up here, I had the distinct feeling that I was coming here for a very important reason. I couldn't understand it back then, but I feel that I understand more now. When we have this baptism next week, he will be the 4th person I've helped enter the Church up here in Daya. That's a startling number to me. D&C 18: 15-16 tells us: "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father! And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!" I'm so grateful that I've had the opportunity to come to Daya. It brings me to tears to know that God has suffered me to come to this section of His Holy vineyard. I'm sorry that I wasn't humble enough to see it at first, but I know that god has specific works for us to do, and only He knows who should do it. LOVE your callings. LOVE it all, and don't waste a moment of time complaining or pitying yourself because of how hard it might be, or how much you might miss your past callings. Be grateful for the chance that the Lord has given you to Grow. 

Love you guys! You all rock! 

Elder Noll