Week #59

 Well to start off let me just tell you about last Pday. So when we first got into the apartment, our fridge smelt really weird, but we didn't know why so we were just going to wait until pday to clean it. So when we took out the newspaper to start cleaning it, we discovered a thing of eggs. These eggs had been left in an unplugged fridge... for 6 weeks. So there were maggots everywhere, and it smelt soooooooo bad. But we got it all cleaned up, and now everything is good. We also went to Costco, and there was a member there that paid for the groceries of like 10 missionaries... so awesome.

   

On Wednesday we had a huge miracle. I pulled up to a guy at a street light and started talking to him (he was about 16). And while I was talking to him he told me that his friend was Christian. He said he didn't know what church, but he said that his friend couldn't drink tea (so I figured it was our church). Then he told me his friends name, and he was a member of our ward! So he set up with us to meet on Saturday. And when he came to meet with us, he brought another one of his friends. We had a really good lesson on the Restoration, and both of them were really willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. So pray for them that they will receive there answer!

  

 Also the craziest thing happened on Thursday. We went to go teach an old investigator of the missionaries before us (her name is sister Liu), who is an art teacher. When we got to her house, one of her art students was there (probably like a 30 year old guy). And he seemed to know a lot of things about our church (so I just assumed that he was like an anti-mormon or something), cause he was like making jokes about different things. But anyways we are teaching this lady and her student is also pretty active in this lesson. And then I forgot what we were talking about, but she just turns to her student and says "can we just tell them". And then her student was like "cats out of the bad, I actually have the Melchizedek priesthood, and I was a Branch President in Poland, and the lady in this picture that I am drawing is my girlfriend that I just baptized about 1 year ago". It was the craziest thing. But the way he was talking made it sound like he might be LA or something so I don't really know. But her lesson went pretty well. She just doesn't understand why she needs an organized religion. Because all religions have imperfect people, that say imperfect things, and she feels like she can just follow Jesus on her own. 

   

Well I would just like to leave my testimony of how grateful I am for a loving Heavenly Father who knows all things. The mission is full of ups and downs. Setbacks come at you from every angle. But Heavenly Father knows what we need to go through, and if we trust in him and keep his commandments, his promises will all be fulfilled. And how grateful I am for a loving Savior who willingly took upon himself all of my pains and sorrows. During my mission I have learned a lot about using the Atonement as a source of strength. I love this gospel so much, and although the mission is often difficult, I am so grateful for every opportunity that I have to testify of Jesus Christ. 

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博長老 Elder Bosco

Taiwan Taichung Mission 16-18

Week #58

 Ok so lets start out by talking about the first part of the week which was spent in Yuan Shan. So on Monday we were actually able to get in touch with Iris again, and she was able to come to a member's FHE with us. For the opening hymn we sang love at home, and the Spirit just instantly filled the room. It was a really great experience, and now Iris is back so thats good. 

   

Then on Tuesday Brother Zhuang was taking us out to eat some hotpot. And we were just sitting there eating our hotpot and the power went out on the whole street, so we finished our meal in the dark.

  

 On Thursday we woke up at 4:45 so that we could take the 3 hour train ride up to TaiZhong to pick up our trainees. My trainee's name is Elder Durrant. He is from Mapleton Utah, and his brother actually went to Provo and played basketball with Dallin and Wes so we sort of knew each other before. After we met our trainees, we all sang Armies of Heleman together, and the Spirit was just so so so so so strong. Music is honestly such a great way to bring the Spirit. 

  

 Well because we are both new to the area, we have 0 investigators. So for right now it is just a bunch of finding. We have been able to see a lot of little miracles, and have been able to teach lessons to a lot of people just on street, but we have had a hard time being able to set them up. But on Saturday we had contacted the whole day, and had not been able to set anyone up. It was almost time to head home and I just said a little prayer in my heart that we would be led to somebody. And we talked to this one guy who was parked on the side of the road. He was really cool, and I can't even really remember exactly what we said to him, but he set up with us for Thursday, so that was an awesome miracle!

  

 Sunday was great because I got to see all of the members from my first area, and meet the members in my new area. I also got to see Megan (The person I baptized when I was in CuiHua), and that was really great to see her!

  

 Well although Chinese is a super hard language, Elder Durrant is learning fast. And he is bringing what I like to call that MTC faith. This is such a great area, and I can already see so many little miracles everyday. Stay tuned, because this is going to be a great 2 transfers of training, probably just full of things like baptisms and stuff like that!

   Well I love you all and hope you have a great week!

   

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博長老 Elder Bosco

Taiwan Taichung Mission 16-18

​The Liu family at FHE (Iris is on the left)

 Gu family, before and after of dinner in the dark

​ Me and Joe (English Student)

​ Me and Elder Barker (MTC district)

​Me and Elder Durrant

We also had a visitor from Taiwan! Scott was in a ward that Collin served in and was good friends with him. It was so great to meet him, visit with him, and hear about Collin. And thank you Scott for taking that package back to Collin! You are awesome!

Scott was particularly impressed with Elder Bosco's cardboard self.

And here is a picture of Rob with Annie (BYU golfer) and her mother. He got to meet them and thank them for taking Collin to dinner and for taking care of him in Taiwan

Scott also sent us this video of Elder Bosco singing. First verse is in Chinese and second verse is in Taiwanese.

Week #57

On Pday we went up to the Lotus Pond with the GaoXiong North Zone leaders, who will actually be my new zone leaders.
And one day this week we biked 22 miles in the blazing heat... so that made for a fun fun week.

 

Well this next transfer is going to be pretty crazy. I will be white wash training [white washing means that both elders that were there are leaving so it is an area with two new missionaries and one of those missionaries will be a new one that Collin will be in charge of training]  in ZuoYing. Which is also in GaoXiong, and right next to the area that I was trained in, and they share the same chapel so it should be really really fun. I will be staying with Elder Meng until Thursday (because he is also training) then we will go to TaiZhong to pick up our trainees. 

  

 Sorry this email is going to be pretty short. Both Liu and Iris didn't answer our calls this week so that was really disappointing. But on the bright side we were able to set up with the 4 students of the member in New York that I talked about a couple of weeks ago, and a guy who was been investigating the church in Salt Lake for a little, and we were able to set him up!

  

 Yeah this week just felt like a lot of finding and not being able to find a lot of people from our contacting, but I got more new investigators this week than I have in a long time, so I know that the Lord blesses us for our efforts, even if it does not seem like we are being blessed at the current time. I really like something that my brother-in-law shared with me. "The world judges everything based on outcomes, but in the gospel, the direction we are going, our effort, and our attitude are a much better way of gauging our success."  

We may not always know why we are doing something that the Lord has asked of us, and we might not see immediate blessings or outcomes from doing it, but the Lord truly does see so much more than us, and I know that he is bound when we do what he says. And his blessings will come at better times and in better ways than we could ever imagine.

   

博長老 Elder Bosco

Taiwan Taichung Mission 16-18

Lotus Pond

with Elder Fear (MTC Zone Leader and will be his new Zone Leader)

Lotus Pond

the middle of nowhere

​ Brother Zhuang (one of my favorite people I have met in Taiwan- he just got baptized in July)

the chapel

Week #56

  Well this week was pretty great! Time is literally just going by so fast, like it literally feels like this week was 2 days long. 

I got to go on exchanges with Elder Hansen this week, the last time we went on exchanges was in training, so it was cool to see how far we have both come. [SEE PICTURES] 

During our exchange we were able to meet with Brother Liu (we met him a couple of weeks ago). He is a retired Buddhist Monk, and now he just volunteers for the government. But he is super cool and pretty interested, hopefully we can meet with him again next week.  

   

Remember that one girl that I was talking about last week that we met at a 7-11. Well her name is Iris, and although she is still interesting, she is super cool and has a lot of interest. She is still a little bit skeptical about like why we want to meet with her and teach her. But she really likes that Plan of Salvation and the Book of Mormon. Also she called us on Friday and said that she really wanted to come to our church on Sunday, but ever since she started meeting with us a lot of not good things have come up, and she is facing a lot of opposition from the church that she is a member of right now. But she asked us to pray for her... and she was able to come to all 3 hours of church on Sunday! It was great, so everyone keep praying for her!

  

 Well that is about all for this week, but I was reading this week about sacrifice in the Gospel Principles book. It gives the amazing example of Abraham who was willing to sacrifice his only son that he had waited forever to have, just because the Lord told him too. Thinking about being put in a situation like that just sounds so crazy. But it talked about how we must be willing to sacrifice EVERYTHING in order to build the kingdom of God (Time, Talents, Money, Possessions). Especially once you think about all the Lord has given us. We won't even see our sacrifices as sacrifices, we will think of it as paying back .0000000000000000000000000000000001 % of what the Lord has given us. And the Lord really does appreciate all of the small sacrifices that we make to build his kingdom. And just remember that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love all of you some much, and that will never change, no matter what. Love you all!

  

  

   

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博長老 Elder Bosco

Taiwan Taichung Mission 16-18

Week #55

 Well this week was a little more interesting than last week, just like I promised. There was a Typhoon this weekend. It was supposed to come Saturday morning, but then it didn't. Then Saturday night we were biking back home and it started to pour rain, and so we thought that the typhoon was here, but we woke up the next morning to perfect weather on Sunday. But because they thought the typhoon was going to come they cancelled church, so we weren't able to set up with those one people. But anyways we went home for dinner on Sunday, and then the typhoon came so we had to stay in the rest of the night. But I am safe and everything is good! Also because of all the time we had at night we were able to organize our apartment, because all of the stuff from the old apartment was in it, so now we have a clean apartment again. 

   

We also had interviews with President Teh this week. This was a really good interview for me. Especially since finding people has been pretty hard lately. But he talked to me about how the most important things are that we are obedient, have a love and joy for sharing the gospel, and are sensitive to the promptings of the Holy Ghost. And when we are doing those things to prepare ourselves to receive revelation, God will help us. And even if we still don't find, we are doing what the Lord wants us to do. 

  

 This week after dinner one day, we were just sitting in a 7-11 and this old lady came up and started  talking to us, and she was kind of crazy and just wanted money. Then some Christian guy came up to us and said "my Lord, my God, Hallelujah" and then went back to reading his bible. So I went up to talk to him, and he told me about how all churches are of the devil, and all we need to do is just believe in Jesus and read the Bible. And he was kind of starting to argue with me, and then Elder Meng walked up and another lady sitting next to us turns to him and says "I am also Christian" and so we talked to her and she was pretty cool. She set up to meet with us the next day. We met with her and had a pretty good lesson. Let's just say that she is a very interesting person. She has her own interesting thoughts, and dreams about  how the sun was going to fall out of the sky but then when she prayed and said Hallelujah, she was protected. I don't really know, but she has been reading the Book of Mormon for like 5 hours straight so we will see. 

   

Something that I have been thinking a lot about lately is how much people are distracted by things of the world. Here in Taiwan, and over in America, and everywhere in the world for that matter. Something that I have really noticed on my mission is just how true the gospel is. And because it is true, how important it is that our lives are centered around the gospel. The Lord has definitely given us these worldly things for our entertainment and what not, but these things should never be more important to us than strengthening our relationship with our Savior. So yeah just don't let your mind get caught up in worldly things that you forget what is truly important. Love you all!

   

   

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博長老 Elder Bosco