February 23, 2014

What's up guys?? Wow. What a week. I'm serious this time... I know I say that almost every week, but it really was an incredible week this week! 

I can't even believe that it's time for Jessi to receive his Call!!! It seems like it was just last month that mom was yelling at me for telling Jessi not to wait and to leave when he turns 18... hehehe sorry mom! I'm so proud of you Jessi, you honestly have no idea how happy it makes me to read your letters about your Mission... I'm anxiously awaiting the news of your Call! 

We had a special week this week... because of the Chinese New Year, many areas and missionaries have been struggling with numbers and finding new people to teach for the last couple weeks, so the Taiwan Taichung Mission does this thing each year called: "Power Week." We cut our studies down a little bit, eat meals on the go, and have a special "mission" that we're supposed to accomplish every day of the week. For example, Tuesday was Book of Mormon day... we taught everyone we met about the Book of Mormon, and we were challenged to hand out 13 copies to people we met on the road and also exchange information so that we could follow up with them. Another day, we had to get 20 different people to set up a time to meet with us and leave their information. On Friday, we went to 15 different houses to confirm 15 different people for church and so on. It was a total blast! Elder R and I were proud to tell President that we hit 6/7 missions while going on multiple exchanges throughout the week! We're stoked to continue meeting with these new investigators as well! It was a tiring week, but we both had a absolute great time working our butts off in the hot sun and the freezing rain! 

We have been working with a couple of really old investigators lately, and one of them is going to get baptized on Saturday!! It's been incredible to watch him change since I've met him. When I met him 3 months ago, he was still smoking, drinking, and not exactly keeping the law of chastity. Now, he's given up the ciggs and the alcohol and he's a wholly chaste man. He's truly repented of so many things and it makes me so happy to just be around him! The Gospel is so incredible guys! If we have ANY feelings of guilt or remorse, the Atonement can literally wipe those things away completely!

One bit of sad news is that Elder R will be leaving me tomorrow! He's going to head down to Gaoxiong to open a new area and train a new missionary! I'll admit, part of me is a little bit jealous, but then I look at where I live and I forget my jealousy immediately! Nantou is beautiful!! I'm going to be with a Taiwanese Elder! He's one of my best friends in the Mission, so I'm totally stoked to be able to serve with him!! It's gonna be so much fun! I pick him up tomorrow, and then we're gonna get to work! 

Yesterday, we had an amazing opportunity to see Bishop Stevenson, over the presiding bishopric of the 70! He has a son serving in my mission, and he came last night to have a fireside and talked for quite a while about some truly inspiring things! It was nice also to see the whole mission get together! I feel so old out here right now because I hardly know any of the Missionaries any more! It's a weird feeling! 

I feel like I should share a quick testimony with everyone about the Plan of Salvation, the Plan that our Heavenly Father prepared for us before this world was even created. First of all, God knows us. He prepared this Plan specifically for us, and it pertains to us in every way possible. Of course, most of us have seen the layout of the basic Plan of Salvation... Pre-existence, Birth, Death, Spirit World, Resurrection, Judgement, and Kingdoms of Glory... but have you ever imagined what YOUR Plan would look like? I know that God had those plans prepared for us. He knows exactly what we should be doing in order to be the happiest in this life. He knows what choices and what experiences will help us grow the most and make us strongest. There are so many times when we will question God's guidance and His commandments, but why should we question those things? He knows so much better than we do! It's our nature to be prideful and to question authority, trust me, I know. But I testify that God is our loving Father in Heaven and that His every command is ONLY for our benefit and each and every effort that He demands of us is ONLY to prepare us for the Eternities. When God commands you, be as Nephi and obey without a second thought. I'm still working on this trait. It's not easy in the least bit, but it's worth the work.

I love you guys! I hope you have an AMAZING week!

Love, Elder Noll

 

February 16, 2014

And so passes the least important holiday in the history of the world... well, the Missionary world at least! Elder R and I took turns trying to buy each others meals in order to celebrate it. It was pretty awesome! There's this convenient store here called Family Mart. I don't really know how to explain Taiwanese convenient stores... picture a gas station, but it's got more stuff in there and there is no place to pump gas. Now picture having at least 5 different franchises on one street, and now you know what convenient stores are like in Taiwan. Family Mart is famous for only ONE thing... the Japanese ice cream machine. It's pretty much a necessity to go to Family Mart two or three times a week to eat this ice cream if you're a missionary in the Taichung Mission! Lately, they've been coming out with some new flavors as well! They started with just Vanilla, then added Chocolate, then a Chocolate and Vanilla swirl, and now (especially for Valentines Day) they've added strawberry. So we had a party at Family Mart on Valentines Day afternoon... it was so good!

It's a great day to be alive mi amigos! I'm absolutely bursting with joy today because the sun is out and shining finally! It's been FREEZING and rainy all week, so we're especially excited to be outside today! I never thought it would be so cold here in Taiwan! I came so close to breaking and buying myself a new jacket (seeing as I don't really have one!) but the coldest part of the year is over and I think I'll make it now! 

I'm going strong on the vegetarian diet, just to let you all know! I've only had meat once this week, and it was only because it was a member who wanted to feed us last night. He's moving down to my old ward in Gaoxiong and he wanted to have one last dinner with us, so we couldn't refuse! I'm feeling pretty fresh though! It's kinda nice to just cleanse all the bad stuff out of my body right now! 

We spent a lot of time in meetings this week! Meetings and companion exchanges! On Thursday, we spent literally ALL day in Yuanlin at the Stake Center doing President Interviews and Planner and Area Book checks. We do that once every 3 months, so I'm pretty used to the process by now... but this time, I was the one who had to check everyone's planner and area book!! I was hit with a pretty big wave of dejavu as I thought back to my first time doing interviews and planner checks! It was a blast to work so close with President Blickenstaff and see how "bro" he really is! He called me "dude" a few times and loves the word "sweet." He's definitely from California! We also hung out with the assistants all day, and they ended up driving us home at night because the buses didn't run that late! We got to the Stake Center at 8 in the morning and didn't leave until 8 at night!! Talk about an exhausting day, but it was so much fun! Just before we packed up and called it a night, Elder R and I, the two assistants and President all sat together and talked about each and every missionary in the zone, one by one. It was an interesting experience to watch the love and care that President Blickenstaff had for each and every one of those missionaries. I was also impressed by how much he KNEW each of them as well! 

The rest of our week was spent maneuvering through the obstacle course of the Light Festival. I'll send some pictures next week... it's AWESOME and an enormous pain in the butt to get through. It's right in the middle of our house / our area and the church, so we have to find different ways to get through it multiple times during the day... it definitely keeps things interesting! 

Oh! Forgot to tell you about P-day last week! We went to Sun Moon Lake again, because last time that we went for the Christmas activity, we couldn't see it because of the rainy weather and all the fog. We wanted to see it at least once before Elder R left, so we scheduled a friend to drive us up there and hang out with us for the day... the weather was worse than the first time, and we could see even less... but it's okay!! It made for some really cool lookin' pictures! 

For my spiritual share, I'd like to share the experience of Elder W (Aunt Sherri, he says he knows you guys!) an elder in the zone that I absolutely love! I exchanged with him this week and we were up really late talking, and he shared with me a small parable that he'd thought of a few years back called: "The Cowboy."  I can't remember everything that he said, so I'll just sum it up.

There was an old cowboy who once had a horse that he was training. This was a hard enough task in the first place, but this specific horse just made it all the more painful. Everyday he'd get up, do the chores, and when the time came, he'd go to the field and try to ride this horse. He'd get in the saddle and immediately the horse would buck violently. He would give it absolutely everything he had until the horse bucked him right off and the old cowboy would hit the ground hard. The cowboy would get up slowly, muscles and bones groaning, and see the horse looking at him, as if it were saying: "stay down. You're tired and hurt, and I can do this all day." The cowboy thought to himself, he could go inside, nurse his injuries and have a nice dinner prepared by his wife, or he could keep going and most likely get bucked off again. He chooses to get back on. Throughout the coming weeks and months, the horse would buck less and less, and eventually the cowboy was able to lead him around the ring. 

What do we do when we come across challenges so fierce that we get bucked off and land on our backs? What do we do when we throw everything we've got at life, but life still hits us back harder? Why should we even try to face trials that look bleak and hopeless? Is it even worth the time? 

Get up. When did God EVER tell us that life was easy? Did I miss that scripture in all my studies? Life is not meant to be easy. There will be a day when we, like the cowboy in the story, will look at our opponent and he will sneer at us as if saying: "stay down. You're tired and hurt, and I can do this all day." We WILL fall down. I tell you now that although we will fall, we are not meant to remain there. God doesn't expect us to go through life without mistakes and without failure. But He does expect us to get up and continue forward. Don't let laziness be an excuse. If you're already the smartest person in your school, learn more. If you're already the strongest on the ball team, or the fastest, or the most talented, WORK HARDER. 

Only with the help and standards of God can we become the Kings and Queens that we are to be, but I'm here to warn you that the road is not an easy one. Never give up.

Elder Noll

February 9, 2014

Well, as the title implies, this week had some miracles in it!... along with a whole lot of food! The first miracle (well, it hasn't really happened yet, but it'll be a miracle if I can do it) is that Elder R and I are now officially vegetarians. We'll be going the next 3 weeks without any meat whatsoever in order to cleanse out all the Chinese New Year garbage that we ate! Remember to keep me in your prayers! ;)

SO!! We had a pretty fun week over here in the beautiful land of Caotun!! On Monday, we hung out in casual clothes all day as we went hiking and played basketball for the majority of the day... it felt really weird not to be wearing a shirt and tie! I felt so underdressed as we were walking around the city! It's weird the things that you get used to on a mission... but I won't lie to you and say that I prefer a shirt and tie! Like that'll happen! haha!

The line of meal appointments continued on throughout the whole week, and I'm feeling so full of food I could burst. On Tuesday, we went to another Thai place with a really awesome family of recent converts and it was SOOOOOO good! Dad and Jessi, you guys would LOVE this place. Everything's really spicy (which, you'll be surprised to know that I like that now) with lot's of different meats slathered in different tangy/sour sauces! We ate so much and my stomach was so uncomfortable for the next 2 days as I digested the spicy peppers and sauces. I thought my stomach was literally on fire. It was totally worth it. 

That same day, we went to the Yuanlin chapel to hold a Zone Training Meeting. It was a total blast to be with the members of our zone and to talk with them and inspire them about how we are going to hit certain goals in the month of February. We also had the assistants to the President come and attend as well, so it was really fun to hang with Elder H and Elder E. I even got a chance to wrestle with Elder E after ZTM and it got me pretty fired up! Man, I miss that kind of exercise!!!

We had some fun working together in our own area for the next few days after that. We met with a couple of our investigators and helped them progress towards their baptismal dates. We have quite a few really great investigators lately, and they're all gaining small testimonies as they struggle along with their individual problems and concerns... It's been a humbling experience for me to work with these people. It's definitely tested my patience and helped me learn more of what it means to serve people and be charitable. We had a member talking in church yesterday about his work (he's an owner of a small restaurant and he does everything from cooking to serving to washing dishes) and he shared a story about an annoying customer who was getting on his nerves more and more as the time went by. Eventually, he thought about the Savior and how He always served with love and patience and never once lost his temper or allowed uncharitable thoughts to enter His mind. This man then said a prayer of gratitude for the lesson he learned about what it means to truly serve God's children. That story really touched me. There have been times when I've been so annoyed because somebody's not progressing fast enough, or they won't keep the commitments that I invite them to do, and I let it get to me and bug me quite often... but it shouldn't be that way. I want to emulate the Savior's example and love God's children the way that He does. It's going to take some work on my part, of course! But I'm determined to do it, and I know that He'll be by my side helping me feel of His love all the while.

When I went over to Zhanghua on Friday to work with a new missionary, Elder C, I had one of the most special experiences of my life. We decided that we were going to go look for a specific less active member to visit, so we found him on the map and headed towards his house.... it was literally up a mountain! We were killing ourselves and our bikes as we rode up this steep hill for a good hour! When we finally found the place, it wasn't there. The street was completely missing! Disappointed and discouraged, we were about to head down when we saw that another less active lived near the mountain we were on. Just by coincidence, the street we needed to take was right next to where we were at the time, so we decided we should go find this guy. We looked and looked, but couldn't find the address. I was in a new area that I'd never been to before, and Elder C said that he had a hard time reading maps, so you can imagine the frustration that we both felt! But we both new that we needed to find this man, so we kept looking. Finally, after an hour and a half of biking, dripping in sweat, we arrived at the door to this little house. We knocked and saw that the less active brother was home! He was overwhelmed with joy to see us and heartily ushered us in to the house to eat guava and chat. Turns out, he and his mother joined the church about 3 years ago! About 2 minutes into the conversation, we heard a woman's voice outside say: "Oh! The Missionaries are back!" She came in, and it turned out to be the his sister! She had been baptized over 3 years ago and she helped her 2 younger brothers and her mother join the church. She's a very active member of the Relief Society Presidency now in Taichung. When she saw us, she was so excited, almost to the point of tears! She said that her mother, an older and frail woman, had fallen and broken her collar bone about a week ago. Even though they had taken her to the doctor and had it operated on, she was still in a lot of pain, and they'd been praying for help. When the active sister saw us, she knew that God had answered their prayers and she then asked us if we could do a Priesthood Blessing. 

How grateful I am to be able to be a tool that the Lord can use to answer the prayers of His beloved children. I was so touched by that experience, and I know that, although I may never see that family again, I will never forget them or the feelings that I had in their home. 

I want to leave you with a small spiritual share today. As I listened to the brother speak in Sacrament meeting yesterday, I marveled at him. He's been a member of the church for just over 3 months, and yet he's so full of the love of Christ and he's bursting with the Spirit. I watched him, and I thought of all that he gave up to be a member of the church. Coffee, tea, alcohol, drugs, friendships, he sacrificed the booming business of an open restaurant on Sunday so that he and his wife could go to church, and many other things that I probably don't even know about. Ask yourself this question... What would you give up for the Savior? Abraham gave his only Son. Many prophets gave their own lives. Early saints gave up everything they had in order to follow God's council! What is it that you can give up to be more consecrated unto the Lord? It's something I've thought long and hard about over the past week, and I felt so touched as I watched this man speak yesterday. God asks everything of us, and in return, He gives us all that He has. Don't ever forget where our standing is with God. He expects us to fully consecrate ourselves unto him, that's not something we can debate! But He promises us absolutely everything we need in return for our sacrifices.

Elder Noll

February 2, 2014

Hey Duffers!! How's it kickin'? I hear that the Broncos are gettin' their butts kicked right now... sweet. ( Dad, how much did we bet again?)

We've had quite the week over here in the land of Betel Nut and sun! Basically, we haven't stopped eating all week. Last P-day, we went to a place like Tucanos and I ate until I was so uncomfortable that I couldn't even walk, so we slept for the rest of our P-day! It was totally worth it. 

We had the chance to go up to Taichung City for a big leadership meeting with President and Sister Blickenstaff on Tuesday and we spent the entire day there! We left our door at 7:45 in the morning and didn't get off our returning bus until 6:00 at night! That was the first night that we had people taking us out to eat, so we went straight to our appointment and had some delicious Thai food! Wow, Thai curry is so delicious!! Dad, you would love the amount of curry that they have here! It's really weird that I like to eat this kind of food now... it's all veggies and rice and fish and stuff! I'm poppin' octopus in my mouth like it's nothin'!! 

Wednesday was pretty busy! We had another couple eating appointments (where I ate dacang bao xiaocang... it's a hollowed out pig intestine with rice stuffed inside, and then a piece of sausage stuffed inside of the rice...) throughout the day, and then had a totally empty English Class! Ha, no one really wanted to come to English during the New Year preparations! 

Thursday is when the New Year actually started! We had an absolute blast as we rode through the pretty much EMPTY streets and screamed "Happy New Year" and "Merry Christmas" to everyone that looked outside of their house... then we'd run up and try to get them to let us in! We never actually got in to anyone's house, we were too 不好意思... but we did find some cool people on the streets! I wish I could explain how alien it feels to be in a big city during the Chinese New Year... the best example I can give you is the opening scene of "I Am Legend" when he's driving through the empty streets of New York! It's pretty similar! 

That night, we had an incredible dinner with many Taiwanese delicacies! Some funky meatballs wrapped in lettuce, some bamboo with mayo on top, some fried fish, mini shrimp, and some kind of yummy egg doinker! Then the host brought out her own home made MASHED POTATOES!!! We all thought that we'd died and gone to heaven! It was a really fun dinner!

They're doing this "light festival" thing this year in my area, and apparently it's only done once a year in different places throughout Taiwan, so we have people from all over the island coming into our area to see this HUGE set up of lights and statues and such! We've already ridden our bikes through it many times on our way to and from visits and it's really beautiful! They haven't even finished it yet and it's already totally awesome. We're pretty stoked to see it all lit up and ready to go (some time around the 14th I guess...). 

So we had a very busy week full of lot's of Dinner and Lunch appointments... highlights would be:

-Lasagna 

-lemon tarts

-KFC

-pig feet (just fat... I'll never be able to play the whole "little piggy went..." game with my kids.)

-PIZZA

-and basically non stop eating! And it's not even over! We've still got about 5 or 6 meal appointments throughout this next week! pray for me guys. 

I want to share today about the love that I feel for my family! I've probably shared too many times to count and you've all probably read those emails, but as I read the emails from my family this week and saw the pictures of Jessi and Alec doing Mr. Springville, my heart just exploded with love and pride! I think back to all the family vacations and outings we've done over the many years, and I'm bursting at the seams with joy knowing that those never have to end. We have all of eternity to be together, and that is all I'll ever need to be happy. I testify that through the blessings of living a worthy life and doing what God expects of us, we will be with our family for eternity. That is worth all the wealth or praise in the world, isn't it?

love, elder noll