April 26, 2014

I'm sorry guys! Yet another P-day has come and gone and we didn't have time left to do anything today! I'm going to try my very hardest to be on the computer next week at 10:45am my time! I promise!... but don't count on anything, cause I can't actually be sure ;)

This week kind of flew right by without me really noticing! I haven't slept in my own bed since Tuesday... we had to take a trip down south this week to assist with some Interview stuff as well as instruct Facebook missionaries on how to safely, and effectively, use Facebook to do missionary work... as well as fix all the broken apartments on the way down and back. What with all that stuff, it gave us a lot to do! I definitely wasn't bored! It also gave me a real good chance to get my driving skills back up to par... It might take a little while!

Monday and Tuesday were very normal office days. We had a few lessons and had an opportunity to visit a couple members... it was REALLY nice to have some "real missionary" time! We had this AWESOME F.H.E. on Monday night with this family from our ward. Their son is going to the University of Utah to study computer science or something really fancy like that, so we had a great time as we shared a spiritual message, ate the best curry rice I've ever had, and played some fun games! I love F.H.E.! 

Once Wednesday hit, everything kinda started exploding. We were preparing to leave for the week so we had to pack as well as take care of all the office work and make sure that everyone in the office was ready for our absence... it didn't help that we were having computer problems and you all know that I can work a computer about as well as the monkeys that I saw last week, so the stress level was getting a LITTLE high on Wednesday, but it all worked out in the end. We got out in the afternoon and started on our quest! We hit almost every city on the way down to Gaoxiong this time! We stopped in Caotun (my old area!!!), as well as Douliu, Huwei, Tainan and finally the golden city of Gaoxiong. We spent about a day in each area, looking at apartments, checking out the English Class, handling mission supplies for missionaries who needed them, doing training, etc. etc. It was a really fun week! I really enjoyed getting the chance to see all of the Mission! 

It was a blast to see all of the missionaries and have a chance to bond with them a little more. We stayed with Elder C on Wednesday night, some Elders in Tainan for Thursday and then stayed the night with Elder Z on Friday night. It was a lot of fun! 

Today we went with the AP's and Sister B to see the GIANT Buddha in Gaoxiong. It was pretty epic. You all know how much I love Buddha, so I had the time of my life... poor Elder L is absolutely terrified of Buddha statues, so he wasn't liking life so much there, but he was brave and made it through the whole thing like a champ! I've got some pretty great pictures, but again don't have any time to put them up on Dropbox yet! Give me a few weeks! I promise I'll get them to you eventually! :)

What an incredible thing it is to be able to serve people. There is one act of service in history which has touched me more deeply and I think about it more often than any other... that is the act of Christ the Lord washing the feet of His Disciples. I wish I had time to write out the story, but I'll just refer to it at this time. I love it because it shows that NO ONE is above even the lowest form of service. It is in fact required of us to serve our beloved fellow beings. I promise that when you forget yourself and remember others, you will find blessings which have been kept especially for you. My favorite line that has come to my mind each and everyday of my Mission: "Forget yourself and get to work." You can't say it much better than that! Thanks Poppa Hinkley! (*Gary has given this advice to the boys on several occasions, so that is why he says poppa HInkley :))

Love you all!~ have a great week!

Love, Elder Noll

April 18, 2014

MORE MONKEYS:
Well, as you can tell in the subject line of this message, I spent a day with the monkeys of Taiwan today... it also explains the reason behind the lateness of this message... ("lateness"- is that a word?)

The most important event of the week... (well, it was one of the coolest things that happened this week...) I GOT MY EASTER PACKAGE!!! I absolutely died laughing at each and every entry on that "letter" that you all wrote! That is by far the coolest thing I've seen! You guys are SO awesome! 

These weeks are all so blended together right now! I can't even differentiate between the events from the first week and events that are happening now! Let's suffice it to say that I'm enjoying my time in Taizhong. Driving on the roads of Taiwan is definitely an experience that I would've been fine NOT having, but I'll still gladly do all the things that are expected of me. haha! Now that Elder E, the old Operations Manager, has gone away, I'm left on my own to figure out the problems in the office. It was a little scary at first, but I'm getting the hang of it now! It's so odd to be the one that everyone comes to with their problems, but I honestly enjoy being able to help them out! It's such a blessing to be able to serve the Missionaries in the Taichung Mission and help them have a smoother experience here in Taiwan! 

On Monday, I just about lost my mind! It was the first day that I was the "real" Operations Manager, and it was also the day of the move call so things were pretty chaotic! Not to mention I had to make a "going home" video for all of the departing missionaries. I was pretty stressed out for the beginning of the day, and then Elder B got to the office and I totally relaxed. I love just chatting with that guy. I never really took the time to get to know him before coming out here, but we've really become pretty close since we've come on our missions together. Things were much smoother once all the other missionaries went back to their own areas!

Tuesday was hard in the morning... I had to say goodbye to some of my best friends from throughout my mission. Elder E and Elder H both left on Tuesday! I never really thought that they would actually leave! It doesn't seem like their gone for good! I'll miss those guys! 

Other than seeing them off, we kept ourselves nice and busy throughout the day. We met with an investigator at night and had a blast as we shared the gospel! It's honestly too much fun. 

On top of all that fun stuff, we also got to hang out with Elder W!! Now he is Brother W, but he's still the exact same as he was on a mission so I can't really stop calling him Elder... He's going to America to study at BYU! 

Wednesday was a total BLAST. We went to visit the English program at Daya!!! It was so much fun to see all of the members and all of my friends there! I saw 2 of my recent converts and had a chance to talk with them for a long time, and I also got to see some of the Sisters who I did baptismal interviews for. The change in all of them is so huge! It's so nice to see that the church is really changing their lives! 

Thursday... Oh yeah! Went back to Tainan! We had to drive down to Tainan to help out some missionaries who were having some apartment problems. It was so much fun to go around my old area again and see all the changes! It really has changed a lot in the past year! 

Friday and Today!

We've had a lot of fun! We had so much fun hiking with the monkeys today, I'll try to put the pictures on Dropbox asap so that you can see them all.

This week, I've pondered a lot about the talk that Elder Bednar gave in the morning session on Sunday of conference. Wow. What an inspiring talk! The "load" that he referred to made me think of wrestling and sports in general. You cannot progress, get stronger, build muscle, unless you have a force to push against. Similar to the parable which I shared a few weeks ago about the man pushing against the rock, God gives us opportunities to shoulder "loads" in order to help us grow. My beloved friends and family, brothers and sisters; DON'T SHY AWAY FROM THESE LOADS. I promise that they will push you to the upmost limit and you will feel as though the weight will crush you... but under this load you will find the traction to move forward and progress. 

Love you guys! Have a great week!

Elder Noll

Elder Noll photo bombing Elder "E"...He's going to miss him!

March 12, 2014

Almost every week that I've written an email, I've started off with a line similar to: "Wow! What a busy week!" ... I had no idea what it actually meant to have a REAL busy week until I came into the office! I'm learning so much about planning and goal setting! It's definitely a difficult job, but I know that God wants me to learn these tools better so that I can continue applying them throughout my life! This was the last week of this transfer, so we were a little busier than usual... actually, kinda a lot busier than usual! We had the new set of Missionaries come in from Provo this week!!! It was such a blast to interact with them and be able to be one of the first to welcome them to Taiwan! They all have an awesome fire! 

Sorry, I had to take off to a Baptism today, so I didn't have time to finish my email! I'll just give you a real quick re-cap... well, basically, the only thing that we did this week was welcome all the new missionaries! I'll have to tell you more about that next week, cause I really don't have any time right now!! 

Love you guys so much! I hope life is goin' good! 

Elder Noll

 

Seeing as Elder Noll ran out of time to write more this week, I thought I would add that his wonderful MP wife shared more info on the mission blog... Ryan, along with many other missionaries had the chance recently to sweep grave sites (abandoned or unknown graves). This is an annual activity done by everyone in Taiwan and is a way to show respect to family members who have passed away. The missionaries have the honor of paying respect to those who have no one else. They also get the chance to share the gospel through family history.

Ryan singing a song about geneology

Add caption

 A little more information about Ryan's week: As he said, they welcomed the new missionaries. From what I see, the office crew takes part in the orientation by training on mission operations. After training they are treated to a wonderful lunch (this time at a dumpling house), more training in the afternoon, followed by a banquet dinner. The next morning they are up early for morning calisthenics.

Ryan is on the top left corner

Ryan is in the middle -in  dark gray shirt

 

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

Elder Noll and Elder Buhler :)

Look Grandma Sue and Grandpa Doug...My new helmet (I used my Christmas money! Thank You!!

March 28, 2014

Greetings from Dunder Mifflin. I'm chillin' out here next to Elder Dwight and ready to hit the streets and preach some Gospel!!

I'm lovin' the office! It's a totally different atmosphere in here guys, I wish that I could explain it, but you have to work in here yourself in order to truly understand. I'm not sweatin' my butt off all day under the sun, but I'm twice as tired here in the Office! As a Zone Leader, I found so much satisfaction as I learned to love and serve all the Missionaries in my Zone with all the energy I had. I can honestly say that I fell deeply in love with the rural, empty streets of the Zhongxing Zone. I'll always be able to look back at that time and know that I gave it my all and left nothing left in the tank. What an incredible feeling! 

My last Saturday in Nantou was as normal as any other Saturday. We rode all over and ran into awesome miracles! We got stood up the day before by a new investigator, which we were pretty sad about, but as we rode to the church on Saturday, he totally ran into us on the road and wanted us to take him to the Chapel to sit and talk with him and his Girlfriend!! He's a great guy and he has some real interest! 

That night, as we were going to pick up a less active Young Man, I got the phone call. President called me around 5:00pm and told me that Jessi had gotten his Mission Call!!! I was so grateful for President Blickenstaff calling me to chat with me about Jessi! It was touching to know that he would call me in the middle of a proselyting day to tell me such news... but that wasn't it. After he broke that news to me, we chatted for a good five minutes and then I told him that I had to go get this kid... he told me to wait one more second, he had something else he wanted to tell me. He then proceeded to tell me that I was needed in the Office to fill the seat of Operations Manager. You better believe I didn't see that one coming from anywhere. So I finished the day out and then started to pack up all the stuff that I own so that I could move to the Office the following Monday. 

The Office. It's... different. We spent the whole week down in Gaoxiong because of some Zone Conferences that we were doing, so that was totally sweet. I got to hang around my old area, see my friends down there, and see a bunch of Missionaries that I haven't seen in FOREVER! Wow, it was a special experience to hang out down there for 4 days! As Operations Manager, I and my companion, the Recorder, are in charge of basically taking care of all the Missionaries and their apartments. We spent the majority of the 4 days in Gaoxiong helping the Missionaries buy things for their apartments and moving a bunch of stuff. When we weren't helping out with Zone Conference or moving apartments around, we were driving to our next appointment! So we are pretty dang busy in the Office!

One of the most AWESOME parts of being in the Office is the Apartment that we live in. More importantly, the weight set in the apartment. We've got a full-on American Bench Press along with a full set of dumbells (10-70 lbs) along with enough plates to get about 315 pounds. Let's just say that Elder E and I are hitting it HARD right now, and we're both SO sore!! I'm totally LOVIN' it!! So no worries pops, there's no way I'm getting fat here! 

 

I'm so pumped guys. To know that President trusts me with this just puts an unquenchable fire in my chest! It makes me want to go out and scream out to everyone how totally AWESOME the message is that we share... so I'm gonna go do it! No more talk! I'm ready to get r' done!

Love you guys！ Talk to you next week!

Elder Noll

March 23, 2014

Well, this has been one of the most eventful weeks of my mission, and yet, not a whole lot actually happened! Let's just get right into it, because I don't have a whole lot of time today!! 

So, the week started out with an AWESOME exchange. I stayed in Caotun with a new Elder from Yuanlin, and he's a total stud. He wrestled and boxed in High School, and he's a totally awesome guy! Totally chill, and a hard worker! We had a great exchange, and stayed up late into the night just talking about the glory days... wrestling tournaments, college stories, mission stories and then talked about the future for a long time! It was so much fun! 

On Wednesday, we met with a really awesome investigator. He pretty much has no interest in what we're sharing right now, but he has some real potential! His wife is a member from Costa Rica!! She's pretty less active, but she has a great testimony and we love meeting with their family. We had a great lesson about the Word of Wisdom and why it is that we don't drink tea... he didn't really understand WHY we actually keep this commandment, but as we were teaching him, I realized something. There are so many different scriptures and prophecies that say some thing to the effect of: "you will not be confounded before men..." and I've seen those scriptures and prophecies fulfilled. This man was to the point of yelling and rejecting our every teaching, but we were able to calmly quiet him down and allow the Spirit to come into the home. It was a really special experience for me! 

On Thursday we all got together for a Zone Conference!!! We had a wonderful opportunity to go to Zhanghua and have a pretty awesome training meeting. I was invited to conduct the meeting... THAT was a little crazy! haha, it was pretty weird to be conducting a meeting!! 

Okay, I gotta take off and do some work really quick... 

I'm the new operations manager, so now my time isn't as steady as it used to be. My new P-day is going to be on Saturdays! I'm SUPER nervous to start this new job, but I'm really excited! I get to work with President and Sister Blickenstaff a LOT and I'll probably get to use Facebook and all that stuff too! I don't have a whole lot of time right now, but I'll probably find a way to talk to you guys later... the phone call President gave me when he told me I'd move into the office was pretty comical... You'll love it! Sorry guys! I wish I could talk longer! Love you all tons!!!

Love, Elder Noll

March 16, 2014

I can't believe how fast time has been flying by!! Botch is already getting ready to head home, Jessi is getting ready to head out, a bunch of my best friends are engaged or already married!!! I feel like all I've done is blinked and now everything is so different! A mission kind of makes you feel like you're in a sort of "time vortex" where nothing really changes for you (at least, you don't notice the changes), but you have to watch while everything you ever knew changes on the outside! Not a bad thing, not really a good thing either, it's just a thing! ha, it's kinda hard to explain, ok?? 

We were pretty darn busy this week! Lot's of stuff going on in the good ol' Zhongxing Zone! Grandma Sue, you'll be happy to know that I've used the money that you put into my account for Christmas finally! I bought myself a helmet that will actually protect my head! haha I've been using a helmet that a friend from Taichung gave me for the last year... let's just say it's a good thing that I haven't crashed on my bike yet, because that helmet wouldn't have done anything for me! This one fits almost perfectly and it looks pretty snazzy too!! Thanks so much! 

We hung out with Elder W and his trainee from Yuanlin last week for P-day... they're pretty awesome! Elder W, Elder Wa Trainee, wrestled in High School, so we get along pretty well! 

We spent the week doing what we always do... douggy'ing, exchanging throughout the zone, doing Baptismal Interviews, and douggy'ing some more! That's just what we do in the Zhongxing zone! We Douggy! I don't know what's goin' on in our apartment lately, but we have TONS of mosquitoes! I don't notice them at all when I"m sleeping, but I woke up on Thursday with 45 mosquito bites on my hands!!! ONLY on my hands, because I sleep with a sweater on! crazy stuff. 

We've been working out pretty hard lately, and I've been pretty sore throughout this week! That's a good sign! It's been a long time since I've been sore from a workout! Maybe I'll start to lose some of this gut I've got goin' on!  haha, I better start running harder! 

We had some pretty cool miracles happen this week! We've had a Recent Convert that we haven't been able to get ahold of for the past 2 months or so. He never answers our texts, he rejects our phone calls, and he doesn't come to church or any other activity. We went up to his house on Thursday and dropped off a little note saying that we still love him and that we want to find a time to eat some dinner with him again... he called us back within 5 hours!! We met with him and had a good time, and we all left smiling! 

One of our strongest members in the Nantou ward got engaged and moved to Gaoxiong. We, the missionaries, were especially disappointed because he's a total bro and we used to go to his house every single week for Sunday dinner! He's got one of the most incredible testimonies that I've ever heard, and he loves to share it, so he's an awesome missionary!! He actually came back to Nantou for a few days this week, and we got a chance to see him for a little while!! He took us to meet some of his friends and then he did some proselyting with us. He's such an awesome dude. He's the same guy that let us use his computer to skype with you guys at Christmas time! Love him to death!

We're doin' pretty well over here in Nantou! We've found some new investigators this last week, and they are all pretty solid! We're just so grateful to be out here workin' hard!! 

I just wanted to do a quick share on the nature of God. Here in Taiwan, there are so many different ideas and notions of God. Not many people really understand, let alone accept, the concept of there being one Almighty Being, whom we are all required to worship and serve. Their idea is that their are many different Gods, and we don't have to worship them all, just one that is specific to us. The Gods that they mainly worship are great leaders, kings, or rulers in their history. 

God is real, and existing. He is All Knowing, and He has power over all that He has created. I know that the earth and everything thereon was created under His perfect direction, and everything continues to operate under that same power, including you and me, and all and any that ever breathed! Know that this powerful, unimaginable being knows and LOVES you for who you are, and that His only desire and goal is to help you become the best that you can be. He only gave you a "mock 1" body. You're not done being created yet. Don't give up on God, for He surely hasn't given up on you.

Love you guys!! Keep on keepin' on!

Love, Elder Noll