Letters from Taiwan: April 4, 2014

Hey y'all! Greetings from the Office of the Taiwan Taichung Mission! I've been here for over 2 weeks, and yet I still feel like it's a mix between a dream and a nightmare! hahaha, time seems so surreal in here! It never really sinks in! I never imagined that I'd be sitting at this desk typing an e-mail home to all of you! It's just a testimony to me that God gives us certain experiences to really make us grow!

We had a pretty great week! I want to thank you all back home for getting the drivers license stuff figured out so fast! Wow! I'm now ready to drive a big ol' VW bus around the busy streets of Taiwan.... welp, kinda wish you guys would've taken a little more time with the whole license thing now, cause I'm nervous! haha

Well, let's just go day by day, or else I'm gonna totally forget what happened this week!

Sunday:

Had a great day at church and got to meet a lot of new members! I always love the first Sunday in a new area! It's a little different here in the Wuquan chapel. We share the building with another ward.... a FOREIGNER Ward!! I know you guys probably don't get why that's so weird to me, but it is! Seeing white people who actually enjoy my presence is actually quite a surprise to me now! haha

Monday:

Such an awesome day... except for the part about finding out that I had some pretty bad allergies to who knows what! I woke up, did some yoga with President B and Elder E (yeah, you totally just read that right... I did YOGA with the PRESIDENT of my Mission), and then got ready for the day. I was feeling GREAT and ready to go. Got down in the office, and all of a sudden allergies hit me like a sac of bricks! My eyes are watering now just thinking about it! My eyes literally couldn't stop watering, which then made my nose nice and stuffy, and then my eyes continued to get worse and worse throughout the rest of the day! It's interesting to me though... I could have honestly just given up and gone upstairs to take a nap, or just rest my eyes for the rest of the day. Instead, I just tried my hardest to get through it and do as much work as I possibly could. I've only been in the office a few weeks, but I've learned that perseverance and endurance is key to our own eternal progression. Other than the whole eye-freak-out-thing, the rest of the day was good. We had Dominos pizza at night with some INCREDIBLE drinks called "dong gua mu si" to celebrate being awesome. President ate a little with us and we enjoyed the "bro" time that we got with him! haha, never imagined that I would be hanging out, eating pizza with my Mission President. Who knew?

Tuesday:

Eyes were feeling SOOOO much better this day. We had a good time as we prepared all of our stuff for a trip we were taking to Gaoxiong on Wednesday. We have some old areas re-opening, so it's my job now to make sure that everything is taken care of in regards to apartments and stuff like that. Other than that, kinda a boring day! ha, lots of free time on our hands

Wednesday:

Back to Gaoxiong again! We went to take care of some apartment stuff goin' on down there, and as we finished with our first task, we looked to the GPS to see if there was anything near by that we could eat. There, in the corner, was a "Dunkin' Doughnuts." Elder E and I looked at each other, and without a word starting driving towards the Dunkin' Doughnuts. We looked for this thing for over an hour... with no success. It was a hard loss, but we made up for it with some WAY GOOD curry.

After the stuff in Gaoxiong was all taken care of, we started moving our way up slowly towards Taichung. We had things that we had to do in almost every area of the Mission, so it was a busy day! One of my weekly highlights, was that we stopped in Tainan. TAINAN!!! My birthplace! It's so alien to me now! I got us lost 2 or 3 times while we were there! haha, I didn't realize how much I really missed that place until I started driving through it again! We ended the night in Jiayi at the English Class there. I'm now the head duffer over the English program, so we try to travel all over and see the different classes! So much fun!

Thursday:

We spent most of the day helping out with Mission Leadership Council! That's the meeting with President and all of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders throughout the Mission. I'll be totally honest and say that it was really hard just to sit there and press the buttons for the slide show and not be able to add my advice to the discussion! haha, definitely one of the most humbling experiences I've had out here. Although it was difficult to watch, I'm still so grateful to be able to serve in the office. I'm grateful that President B has trusted me with these responsibilities, and I plan on fulfilling them all as best I can.

Friday:

BRO TIME!! As the office elders, we spend almost all of our time with the AP's and with President and Sister B. I don't think anything could make me happier! I love being with the 2 assistants right now! Elder E (kicker for the BYU football team when he gets back) and Elder Y, who I met in Daya and I've loved him ever since. The 3 of us get along incredibly well, and so we all spend a lot of time together eating food and just chatting after the work is all done! It's so much fun! Yesterday, after a day full of work and different problems, we all headed over to President's house to eat some of Sister B's home made cinnamon rolls. I'm still in shock that I'm having these experiences! Working out with President, eating at his house, joking around and laughing with him! It's not something I ever really imagined doing! To end the night, we started a new tradition called: "shake night." We just make a bunch of milk shakes and listen to Primary Pop music! What a party! Yesterday, we picked fresh mangoes off of the tree by the Mission Office and turned it into a Mango Milk shake. Yes, you should all be SUPER jealous by the way, cause it was A W E S O M E.

I was reminded of a parable this week that I would like to share!

This story is about a man who woke up one day to see a giant boulder right outside his door. He then heard a voice, it was God telling him that He needed this man to go out and push this boulder with all his strength. The man agreed that he would do it. God told him to do so every day, and the man did just that. Every day he would wake up early and go to bed late because of his diligence in pushing against this boulder, and yet it wouldn't even budge. After a time, he became frustrated with this tiresome labor. Through his exhaustion, he continued on and continued to push the boulder day by day with the same result. The boulder just wouldn't move. The time finally came when the man broke down and yelled out to God: "I can't do this any more! I've done everything you've asked me to do! I've given this work EVERYTHING that I have, but I just CAN'T do it!" Through his anger and agony, the man told God each and every thought that was going through his mind. God patiently listened and waited for this poor man to finish, and then gently, asked him: "What is it I told you to do? Did I ask you to MOVE the boulder? No, I simply commanded you to push against it."

What do you get out of this story? Every time I hear it I almost break down in tears! ha, it touches me very deeply. We have all the commandments of God, and we know what He wants us to do. The first thing that I see in this story is diligence and obedience, although it was blind. Brothers and Sisters, friends and family, DON'T GIVE UP. God has given each and every one of us our own boulder. I'm here to tell you, you probably will never move that boulder, or temptation, even an inch... but if you don't continue to push against it, you will NEVER grow into what God needs you to be. You have a potential that nobody but God the Father truly understands. DON'T CHEAT YOURSELF by giving up and pulling up short! The second thing that I love about this story is an invitation of learning. Just because we see the big picture and think we know what God wants is no excuse to stop investigating and stop looking for the more detailed portion of the truth. We can be like the man in the story and blindly keep commandments that we don't understand, which is definitely MUCH better than choosing disobedience, but if we do so, we will not be able to withstand the pressure which is bound to come. Learn. Thirst for knowledge like your life will depend on it. Cherish and love the teachings of Christ and the words of the Holy Prophets. These words will strengthen and replenish your everything in this fight against your own personal boulder. I love you all so much, brothers and sisters. Know that I'm on your side, and I'll gladly push my boulder alongside yours as long as you'll let me!

Have a great week!

Elder Noll