Week #85

   Well this week was another pretty good one. At the beginning of the week we were still getting fed because of the New Year, and at one of the members houses I had some of the best food I have ever had in Taiwan. There was like burritos, chicken and potatoes, pasta, a super good thing called 年糕 (Nian Gao), its basically like Fried Mochi and its super good. But also like nobody answered their phones this week, so we didn't really get a whole lot of things set up. 

   

This week I got to go on exchanges with Elder Huang. It was so much fun, just like the good old days back in QingShui. But it was super awesome to see how much each of us has grown in the past year. It was just good to reminisce on all of the good times that we had together in that area.

   

Speaking of QingShui, the craziest thing happened the other day. So I don't if I ever told you all this story but when I was with Elder Collett in QingShui we were contacting at a 7-11 one day and I sat next to this lady who ended up being a less active member and she wanted us to go visit somebody name Teresa Cai. And so we went to go visit her and we get to the address and it is just this massive, creepy, abandoned looking house with a huge yard. The first time we went there was nobody there and then the second time this ladies sister answers. And the sister is super crazy and keeps telling us these weird stories about the dad being in America but then he is actually just sitting inside of the house. Anyways it ended up just being a really strange thing and it felt like I was in some sort of detective movie trying to figure out who all of these people are. But anyways fast forward to now. This one lady that is from Taiwan but lives in Los Angeles  came back and showed up at our ward on Sunday. And after talking for a while we found out that she is the Teresa Cai that the lady wanted me to visit in the first place... the world is small. 

   

When Elder Huang and I were on exchanges we contacted a guy named Allen. He had studied in Georgia so his English is pretty good. He comes from a traditional background, but he is super open to learning about other religions. We met with him on Friday and had a good lesson on the restoration and the Book of Mormon, and then he came to church on Sunday and said that he enjoyed it and learned a lot. So hopefully he can continue to progress.

  

 Lately as a mission we have been trying to find creative ways to let others read the Book of Mormon. Basically just giving anyone a chance to read the book and let it speak for itself. So something we did is we just went up to people and told them we were doing an experiment, then we invited them to open up to any random page in the Book of Mormon and read it, then highlight a part that they liked or that they thought was important. Yesterday the first person that agreed to do it was a college student named Zeus. He opened up to Alma 54 and highlighted the first part of verse 22 which says  22 And if it so be that there is a devil and a hell, behold will he not send you there . when we asked him why he marked that part he said "I believe there is a devil, and I believe there is a hell, and I believe I am going there." He said that he doesn't think he is a very good person and that he wants to be better. We talked to him about how he could become better through Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon and he said we could meet with him another time. We are not completely sure if he was serious or if he was just messing around because he was with his friends. But that was a pretty funny/ cool experience that hopefully turns into something good. 

   

Love you all!

--

博長老 Elder Bosco

Taiwan Taichung Mission 16-18

Week #84

 Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快樂! This whole week was basically just spent being fed by the members and looking for New Investigators. During the Chinese New Year time it is super hard to get people to set up with you. So we had a ton of time this week to find new people to teach. And we were super blessed to find somebody pretty much everyday who I felt had sincere interest in learning the gospel. At least half of those people do not live in our area (most of the people we talked to this week did not), but I love a quote from Elder Bednar during the April 2017 general conference. "As missionaries strive to be ever more worthy and capable instruments in His hands and do their best to fulfill faithfully their duties, then with His help they “cannot go amiss”—wherever they serve. Perhaps one of the lessons the Savior is teaching us in this revelation is that an assignment to labor in a specific place is essential and important but secondary to a call to the work." So hopefully these people will be able to meet with the missionaries in there areas!

  

One cool person we did find this week lives in our apartment complex. He is from the Phillipines, but I think that his wife is from Taiwan. We have talked to him before but only for a short time. But the other day we were just on the way out from doing studies and we were able to talk to him and he shared with us about his belief in God and how he likes to read the Bible. So we were able to share with him about the Book of Mormon and we should be able to set up a time to meet with him this week. 

  

 3 of the other super cool people that we found this week (2 of them don't live in our area and the other one we are not completely sure yet). But they were all dads and they had a lot of the same thoughts on families as we did. Those contacts just felt super natural as we were able to talk about the importance of families. Honestly we still got rejected a ridiculous amount of times this week, but just being able to find those few people who are interested truly make it all worth it. 

  

 The sad news is that Brother Zhan will probably not be getting baptized, and if he does it might not be for a while. Apparently the lady that has been living with him for 10 years is not his wife. And she does not want to move out, and they don't want to get married, and he doesn't really want to do anything about it. We are hoping that we can continue to meet with him and strengthen his testimony so that he has a stronger desire... so keep praying for him!

  

Have a good week!

--
博長老 Elder Bosco
Taiwan Taichung Mission 16-18

Dinner with Scott before he moves to Malaysia

All you can eat BBQ place

year of the dog display at the park,

 people outside the church playing pokemon

 that sign says "home of the socks"

The things on the wall say "Jesus is the Lord of my house" and " come and be baptized" 

removing stickers from a members wall

eating with members

Zone Conference

Week #83

  This week I have more time so hopefully this letter will be a

little bit better than last weeks. The hike last was super fun. It was

pretty cold and raining a little bit but I got some pretty good

pictures so thats all that really matters. and we went with a bunch of

members too so that made it super fun.

  

This coming up week is Chinese New Year so it is going to be super

fun. We are going to be eating a ton of food. People are alot busier

so its a little bit harder to set up with investigators. But I am

pretty excited because Yuan Lin is a place that a lot of people are

from. What I mean by that is my first Chinese New Year the area I was

in was more developed and newer so when a lot of people went home for

Chinese New Year, there was nobody there. But I feel like a lot of

people will come to YuanLin for Chinese New Year. Also it will be a

great opportunity to work with the ward and build better relationships

with them.

  

This week we had Zone Conference and it was super great. instead of

the usual thing where people just give trainings and stuff, it was

basically just a huge discussion between everyone. The two things we

talked about were how we can use the doctrine of Christ in order to

better fulfill our purpose, and also how we can be more accountable to

each other and the the Lord. It was really good because it gave me and

everyone else just a bunch of thoughts on what we can do to improve

which is great because that is what life is all about.

  

Finding has been super difficult lately. We just haven't been

willing to find anybody who is willing to listen, and the people that

meet with us once we are having a hard time setting them up for

another time. But this week should be a good one and hopefully we can

get the work going better again because it has been a little slow the

past couple of weeks.

  

Brother John was not able to pass his baptismal interview this week.

there are still some things that we need to review as far as

commandments that we didn't think he had problems with. But he still

has lots of faith and I hope that we will be able to help him soon.

  

Something super cool happened this week we were just contacting and

we stopped and talked to this lady who it turns out was a less active

member. She hasn't been able to come to church because her daughter is

sick. But she said she has been thinking a lot about church and these

kind of things lately, and so she was really glad that we stopped to

talk to her. It was super cool and we should be meeting with her after

Chinese New Year.

  

I will end this email with a scripture that i read today. Helaman 12: 1-3

1 And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the

hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his

great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their

trust in him.

2 Yea, and we may see at the very time when he doth prosper his

people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their

herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious

things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them

out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their

enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in

fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people;

yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget

the Lord their God, and do trampleunder their feet the Holy One—yea,

and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great

prosperity.

3 And thus we see that except the Lord doth chasten his people with

many afflictions, yea, except he doth visit them with death and with

terror, and with famine and with all manner of pestilence, they will

not remember him.

 

 No matter what circumstances our life is in. We should always

remember the Lord and his infinite goodness to us, especially as we

prepare for the sacrament each week. 

Love you all. 

Happy Birthday Ella! I can't believe you are 5!

-- 

博長老 Elder Bosco

Taiwan Taichung Mission 16-18