This is John, Elder Meanea's father. Elder Meanea's sister normally updates his blog with his weekly letters home, but she was in the middle of finals and traveling for a few weeks so I offered to do it for her... but I am late and slow. We will get caught up though... following is Elder Meanea's letter from December 5th:
Hello my amazing family! It's been a fantastic week here in Fengshan, Taiwan, and I'm excited to share all about it with you. So, without much ado, I'll type it out here as you like it. Just please don't make a comedy of my errors in writing this to you. ;-)
Monday, 28 Nov 2016
We went out and did a bit of shopping today for Christmas. And then we spent a lot of time on the streets contacting. Even though a lot of people don't have interest, I feel truly blessed by Heavenly Father to have the chance to offer this amazing message to them. It's incredible to me how you can start to feel like you love them even though you've never met these people before, but you pull up, and somehow you can just feel that this is an important person to our Father in Heaven.
Tuesday, 29 Nov 2016
We were going to Sam's house today when this guy rolled up on a moped and asked in a British accent, "Hey, you're the Mormons, right?" I said yeah. He said, "That's so cool, I have a lot of Mormon friends and a Book of Mormon, and your guy's chapel in Kensington is beautiful." I was thinking I'll take your word for it buddy. But he was really nice and I'm guessing had some connection with London, but he was still Taiwanese, so that was cool. We biked A LOT today. I can't remember why, but we just we peddling all day long. It was great. I was also thinking today about how the mission really teaches us to be like the Savior. It really pushes us to think of other people, really try and see what they've been through, because I know without a doubt every person I talk to is such a special person to God. He wants all of us to find as much happiness as we can in this life, and I love that I have the blessing of helping others find a bit of the light he offers us.
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| Water Fountain Instructions |
Not much happened today except that we didn't have to teach the little kid's english class. We got to be the doormen for the night. ;-) We also had a lady that the sisters from a different ward set up for us, but she forgot, so we got to contact the ENTIRE DAY. I love the opportunities it brings, not so much the sore backsides.
Thursday, 1 Dec 2016
We had a fantastic DTM today. President Teh gave us a few scriptures to just discuss as a district to invite the spirit and find out what we all need to learn personally. It was a real testimony builder that no matter where we are, what we're doing, God always wants us to reach up. All of us, because he can see what we have the potential to become. Yoda, the kid we've been teaching, also had his baptismal interview today! He'll get baptized next Saturday right before the ward Christmas party, so WOO HOO! I also receivved a package of missionary letters, which I always love to read. It really shows me how induvidual each of our calls are, each of our trials and experiences are, and if the mission has taught me something so far, it's that God always has a plan, and whatever happens, it's going to be for our eventual Good and Glory. God won't leave us alone. We're his little kids.
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| Ward Christmas Flyer |
Weekly planning party! I don't know why, but I just love that we get to do weekly planning. In the MTC it was a bit... less effective shall we say? Because everything was planned for us and we still had no idea what we were doing, but here we actually get to sit down and pray for God's direction for these people we're teaching, what they need to learn and feel in order to come back to him someday. I was also reading in the Book of Mormon today about Alma's interview with Corianton. He said something interesting. "Ye CANNOT understand them." Alma before has said that the things of man are discerned by the spirit of Man, and the things of God are discerned by the spirit of God. Corianton wasn't trying to answer his problems, doubts and questions through the spirit, so he COULD NOT get an answer. I wonder how many times I've tried to figure out why something happens or why a commandment is the way it is with just my head. It's a great reminder that the spirit should be present in everything we do. It was amazing, that night we were praying for our district, and it was my turn, and I pulled out the list to pray for our fellow missionary's investigators, and as I prayed to help Elder Gasser and I understand their needs, love our own ward, and help the people in our district, I felt such a comfort around me, like Heavenly Father was ready and willing to help us do just that.
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| Our own Thanksgiving meal in our apartment in Taiwan |
Pindong. Again. We had a Baptismal interview there. We also started our fast, and went to the hospital to give a blessing to the sister of the Lady in our ward. The lady is the only member in her family, and everyone else kind of looked at us funny, but we went in to the ICU and blessed her unconscious sister. She had a major kidney problem and hasn't woken up yet, but the sister was very thankful for us coming. (note from John, Elder Meanea's companion Elder Gasser shared the following about this blessing with his parents, "We got a call on Friday from a lady in our ward informing us that her sister was in the hospital, and she wanted us to pray for her. So of course I did. Fell right on my knees. But that's easy. Later that day she called again and asked us to visit her sister with her on Saturday and go give here a priesthood blessing. So we went to the hospital and after teaching Elder Meanea how to anoint someone with oil in Chinese we laid our hands on her head and gave her a blessing. Then...come Sunday the member gets up and bears her testimony relating the story I just related to you. But then she added the what I didn't know yet. Later that Saturday the doctors called her and said that "it was a miracle!" Her sister was still alive and starting to show signs of response. What she had usually kills people off fast. So it was a humbling experience for sure to see the Power of God manifest in such an amazing way.")
Sunday, 4 Dec 2016
A ward that meets in our church building had a stake conference, so our Church moved to 2:00. Not a fun time. xD I was so tired the whole time, but I tried my best to listen. It was worth it, because afterwards half the ward sent food home with us. It was fantastic. Two bags of oranges, two snickers cakes, one chocolate cake, and a bunch of rolls. That night we went to the park to contact, and found a really nice old couple, we were trying to start a gospel conversation, but they just talked and talked and talked. I figure we ended up walking about 3 miles with them around the park.... and then they said they didn't need a Book of Mormon because they're budhists.......... (Silently collapses in defeat) I've never walked so far for one contact. But the thing is, no matter what the effort it on our part, I believe in the promise that no effort is lost. Someday, it will do something for them.
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| Food ward members gave us! |
-Elder Meanea
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