Week #20

This week being Thanksgiving and all has really given me the opportunity to reflect on the things that I have blessed with in my life. I am especially grateful for a loving Savior, Jesus Christ, who was willing to give his life for me so that I can be happy and have hope. I am also grateful for the opportunity I have to be here in Taiwan telling others about Jesus Christ.

 We had a couple of baptismal goals set for the beginning of December but sadly I don't think any of them are going to make it. It is really hard to get people to come to church here. Most of the people here work everyday and for very long hours, or it is the only day that they have off of work, and they would much rather be out playing with their friends.

 Don't worry, although I am in Taiwan, Thanksgiving did not go uncelebrated. On Thursday the four of us elders went and had hamburgers for dinner. And on Sunday, this family from America who is in our stake invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. So we were able to enjoy turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, and all of the other good stuff. This week  Elder Heath and I were able to have a super cool miracle happen. We were going to go contacting in a park for about 20 minutes, but it was dark and a little cold so there was nobody really in the park. We decided to go anyway, and we approached this girl on a bench. We started talking to her a little bit about our message, and she told us that her sister is a member of our church. Later on in the conversation she told us about how her and her boyfriend have been having some issues and so she just decided to come to this park and she texted her boyfriend to meet her there. She said that she didn't really know how to deal with her current situation so she had been praying, and then right about when she got done praying is when we went up to talk to her. We testified of the Book of Mormon and prayers. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she was willing to read it. We haven't made contact again with her yet, but that was just another reminder about how God is watching out for all of his children.

 I am so grateful for all of you and the love and support that you have for me. The mission is easily the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but there is no other place that I would rather be.
Love,  Elder Bosco

Thanksgiving in Taiwan

hamburgers for Thanksgiving

Elder Heath getting his teeth cleaned

And a nice note from Bob and Gloria DeWitt:
 Greetings from Kaohsiung! Gloria and I had a second Thanksgiving dinner with your missionaries tonight. Our first was on Wednesday night last week when we had 48 people to dinner, ten of whom were missionaries. Tonight’s menu was the same as Wednesday's: roast turkey with homemade cranberry sauce, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, yams with marshmallow topping, green bean casserole, homemade dinner rolls, green salad, and tropical fruit. For dessert, I made pumpkin pie, which we served with whipped cream. After dinner, Elder Bosco and Elder Heath shared a message about gratitude. Gloria and I are so grateful that your sons and daughters have chosen to be missionaries, and we’re grateful for their service. Thank you for raising such fine young men and women and allowing them to come so far away and for so long to serve the Lord. We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. We love your missionaries! 
 Sincerely yours, 
 Bob DeWitt 

Elders Bosco, Hansen, Graves, Grisent, Potts, and Heath

with Sisters Lundquist and Scharff

with Bob and Gloria DeWitt

Week #19

   This week we said goodbye to one of our best friends in the ward, because he is moving to China to start a new job. He was always such a great help to us missionaries. He will definitely be missed, and new missionaries in this area will have no idea how much of a help he was in the area.

   

This week our recent convert had a couple of days off from the Navy so he was able to come back. And after training he is moving to the part of the Navy base that is in our area! We had a really good lesson about the priesthood. He is really preparing to receive it, and he talked about how he understands the importance of being worthy to have the priesthood. He was also able to help us in a lesson, and he shared a great testimony about coming to church and about how he was able to overcome his Word of Wisdom problems. And at church he was just really comfortable sharing his testimony in all of the classes. He has been doing really great and I am excited to continue to see his progression.

  

 One night at dinner a couple came up to us and talked to us and gave us his number. When he came and talked to us he was speaking some English so we were afraid that he would just want to talk to us because we are foreigners and we speak English (there are a lot of those). But we were able to meet with him yesterday and it was an awesome lesson. Him and his wife were really interested in how our message could help their family. And he might even let us help him paint his house (which could be a very rare service opportunity) so I am really excited to see what happens!

  

 This week we were invited to the Relief Society Thanksgiving celebration to do the spiritual share. When we got there, there was about 6 people there, and they had us do the spiritual share which we thought we were going to do at the end. So after we did that, then about 30 more people showed up and we are all just crammed into this tiny room (sorry I don't have any pictures). So everyone probably thinks that us missionaries just showed up to eat their food. 

   

In the spirit of Thanksgiving I am so grateful for the opportunity I have right now to serve the Lord. The mission has by far been the hardest thing I have ever had to do, but it has also helped me appreciate all that the Lord has blessed me with. I have been so blessed to grow up with the Gospel in my life. I have been blessed with the best family that I could ever ask for, and I am so grateful for them and the blessing they have been in my life!

                                                                                       Elder Bosco

Week #18

Funny story of the week: We were meeting with this one guy for the first time, and so we were introducing ourselves. When I showed him my family picture he asked me if my dad had 4 wives. Because the night before he had looked at a very incorrect website about Mormons.

 This past couple of weeks has been really hard in terms of finding new investigators, but we have a lot of really great current investigators. Elder Heath and I have really been trying to stress to our investigators about reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know if it is true, and how if they know if the Book of Mormon is true, then they will know that everything else is true. I don't know if it is because of our language ability of what, but it has kind of hard for them to do that for some reason.

 Something else that has been really hard is getting our investigators to come to church. Our church starts at 8:30 so it is "too early" for most people, and it is hard for members to pick people up because everyone drives scooters. We usually have about 2-3 investigators at church a week, and this past week we found out that one of our investigators that comes every week probably live one road outside of our area.

 Lately I have really been starting to see my language improve. I still can't understand everything, and speaking is still incredibly hard, but I can understand a lot of what is going on now. I have had a couple of members tell me how much my language has improved. I owe a lot of it to my companion cause he always takes time out of his language study to help me with mine, and he has helped me a ton in the language department (and all other departments)

 Our recent convert told us that when he comes to church this week that he wants to give a talk and bear his testimony. He went to the army right after getting baptized so he doesn't always have Sunday off, but when he does, he is excited to come to church. And he was really excited to tell us that he put "Mormon" on his military application. He also has introduced four of his friends to us (one of which is one of our most progressing investigators)

 I am really starting to love it here in Taiwan. The people are really great (especially the old people that I can speak Taiwanese to). Sorry that this letter is a little bit shorter, but I love you all and am so grateful for all of your support! Elder Bosco

Here are some cool pics that apparently don't need explanations because he didn't send any...

Week #17

This week we were able to have zone training meeting and we talked about being representatives of Christ. A lot of people here have their own idea of who we are and what we are here to do. I am not sure exactly what they think of us, but most of the time it leads to them not wanting to talk to us before we even say anything to them. Thats why it is always important that we are correctly representing Christ. No matter where we are or what we are doing, people should know that we represent Christ.

 We have been meeting with a group of 4 friends lately. They pray almost everyday and read the Book of Mormon. We were able to meet alone with one of them that has progressing faster than the others. She prays everyday, reads the scriptures, and she is trying to give up tea and coffee, and we haven't even taught her the Word of Wisdom yet. But when we invited her to be baptized, she felt that she is not prepared and she wants to be baptized next June so she can be completely prepared. So we are trying to help her know that she does not need to know everything in order to be baptized, because she is a lot more prepared then she thinks she is.

 Lately we have been trying to meet with more members and visit more less active members. We went to one active sisters house to give her a Birthday card. When we dropped off the card, she invited us to meet with her family next week (her husband is a non member). Then at Church on Sunday, they were all there, and after church the husband came and found us and invited us over to their house for dinner on Saturday.

 This week I ate some more dou hua (soy curd pudding stuff) and I actually kind of enjoyed it. Things are changing, but I am still planning on liking Panda Express when I get back.

 A lot of people just think that we are like every other Christian church, and that we are wanting them to just come to our church. I know that this Gospel can help everyone with at least one aspect of their lives, and I know that people would come to know that if they listened to our message. But for some reason our church just has a really bad reputation around the world. Which is really sad because you can definitely see the difference between the people here who have the Gospel and the people who don't.

I am so grateful for all that the Gospel has done for me in helping me be the person that I am today. Elder Bosco

​ Round table dinner 

 Elder Heath and I at Hot Pot