You can make the mission bright, please your stomach in it's might, if there's fried rice in your mouth!
(Copyright Tayson Meanea 2017)
Monday, 13 March 2017
I feel like those are going to get worse and worse every time. But do I care? Not one bit. :-) Today was certainly... interesting. After emailing and grocery shopping, we went down to the chapel to go eat with the Zone Leaders and play board games. Since one of our Zone Leaders got injured and can't bike, we went over to the E Zhong Jie to pick up some food for them. On our way out of the parking lot, a guy walked up to us saying things like "Hallelujah" and "Praise God!" to us in English. We got away and went to go get the food, because he was obviously crazy. And then we came back, and he was still there waiting for us. And man was this guy nuts. He only spoke in English, which was actually pretty alright, but he just kept saying crazy things and acting all weird. At one point he asked us to follow him to a classroom to look at the whiteboard, because someone wrote something about our church on it. We go in the room, and it's half of the Lord's prayer from the Bible, and at the bottom was written "Can you finish it?" We told him he wrote that, and he just kind of giggled, then got all serious and stretched out his hands and started speaking what I assume was the Lord's prayer in Greek. I could go on for volumes about all the weird things he was doing, but we finally got him to leave, because he needed to call the police to tell them a lady had assaulted him and kicked him out of a nearby department store because she thought he was crazy. I have no idea why that thought would come to mind. But then we played board games with a bunch of missionaries for a while, which was super fun. I'd never heard of any of the board games before, but they were all pretty cool! Then the night came, in which we found a guy named Dino sitting in the park near our house. We talked with him about religion and the world for the better part of an hour, and he just really had no feeling, just thought there really was no purpose in life, people are all just animals that die and cease existing, there's no bad or good, even to killing people, and I kind of wanted to beat his head in with my Book of Mormon to put that view to the test, but in the end, all we could do is share testimony, give him a chance to feel of the Spirit, and let him remember those moments, that someday he'll have his fair chance to accept the good news and joy that is the gospel. For it truly is all the hope we have in this world, and I see more and more every day how much everyone needs it.
I feel like those are going to get worse and worse every time. But do I care? Not one bit. :-) Today was certainly... interesting. After emailing and grocery shopping, we went down to the chapel to go eat with the Zone Leaders and play board games. Since one of our Zone Leaders got injured and can't bike, we went over to the E Zhong Jie to pick up some food for them. On our way out of the parking lot, a guy walked up to us saying things like "Hallelujah" and "Praise God!" to us in English. We got away and went to go get the food, because he was obviously crazy. And then we came back, and he was still there waiting for us. And man was this guy nuts. He only spoke in English, which was actually pretty alright, but he just kept saying crazy things and acting all weird. At one point he asked us to follow him to a classroom to look at the whiteboard, because someone wrote something about our church on it. We go in the room, and it's half of the Lord's prayer from the Bible, and at the bottom was written "Can you finish it?" We told him he wrote that, and he just kind of giggled, then got all serious and stretched out his hands and started speaking what I assume was the Lord's prayer in Greek. I could go on for volumes about all the weird things he was doing, but we finally got him to leave, because he needed to call the police to tell them a lady had assaulted him and kicked him out of a nearby department store because she thought he was crazy. I have no idea why that thought would come to mind. But then we played board games with a bunch of missionaries for a while, which was super fun. I'd never heard of any of the board games before, but they were all pretty cool! Then the night came, in which we found a guy named Dino sitting in the park near our house. We talked with him about religion and the world for the better part of an hour, and he just really had no feeling, just thought there really was no purpose in life, people are all just animals that die and cease existing, there's no bad or good, even to killing people, and I kind of wanted to beat his head in with my Book of Mormon to put that view to the test, but in the end, all we could do is share testimony, give him a chance to feel of the Spirit, and let him remember those moments, that someday he'll have his fair chance to accept the good news and joy that is the gospel. For it truly is all the hope we have in this world, and I see more and more every day how much everyone needs it.
Tuesday, 14 March 2017
Well, today was a huge mix of things. It seems just as I think I'm getting the hang of being a missionary and things are going well, Heavenly Father tries to help me grow again. Which I should humbly accept as wonderful opportunities, even if they seem like torture to me. This morning we ran into nothing but hard-headed, deaf-eared people. Figuratively. I didn't knock on their heads to find out. But they wouldn't listen to us, and they didn't give a place for the Spirit to testify of our words. I was frustrated. Can't they see that I wouldn't drag my butt to Taiwan and learn Chinese just for fun so I could argue with them? But at the end of the day, the Spirit brings comfort to me in knowing that, whatever their circumstances now, whatever their background, they will all have a fair chance to feel of the Spirit and accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We also met with souls of those whom I feel are really being prepared to hear the word. We met with our minister friend again and his wife, and our Bishop basically shared everything about temples and church organization, and they seemed greatly satisfied in their curiosity. I truly think once we extend the invitation to find out if these words are true, there are two souls who are trying their best to follow God, and who might be willing to learn and do His will. Then that night we me with Ahui. He is a really swell gentlemen who is just about to graduate college, and we had a really good 1st lesson with him last night, probably the best I've ever been in. He asked a bunch of great questions, and him an an RC we brought with us, Chris, really hit it off. I'm excited for him.
Wednesday, 15 March 2017
We went over to our friend, Eddy's house to have him teach us how to do an activity that we're going to use at district meeting tomorrow, and then we met with our friend Matthew (a recent convert). He's doing well. We talked a lot about why bad things happen in life, and how we can always be happy when we place our hope in Christ, and the opportunity His Atonement gives us. Then we explained to him why we don't live the Law of Moses anymore, which is hard enough to explain in English! Then we were basically all contacting today, riding the streets in search of those who are ready to learn about their Savior. And we also met some people at the park who were selling some Nuskin stuff and tried to get us to buy things. But they wouldn't take what we were giving away for free, so I wasn't willing to fork out any cash. That was basically it for today.
Thursday, 16 March 2017
A day where things really got moving! We started by eating with Daniel, who I found out is going to BYU in April, and is living at the same apartment complex as my sister did a little while ago. He was born in Singapore and went on a mission to Canada, so he has perfect English, and invites us to eat with him all the time. Super cool. (You reading this Allyse? :-) Anyways... *cough* After, we headed down for our District training meeting, which went super well. We started booking it back to our area for a lesson that the Missionary Sisters from Dakeng were coming to, because we were passing an investigator to them, but our member got sick at the last second, so we couldn't go in because the investigator is a lady. So we just showed them the house and wished them good luck as they went in. We then had a super cool lesson with a member named Eagle after dinner. And then Lin! Our new friend. We found him on the street on Tuesday, and he set up to meet tonight. It was super late, but he still came, and seemed genuinely interested in our message about Heavenly Father, and set up to meet with us again next week!!! Woot woot! Small miracles, every day.
Friday, 17 March 2017
What a weekly planning session today! 10 investigators! I know that blessings aren't always manifested in numbers, and far be it from me to say that this is simply by mine or Elder Jones' skill, but it is a joy to see opportunities to work with so many people in this area and help them come closer and closer to Christ. Besides that, it was all contacting today. I really like our district training topic from yesterday. It was "having faith to find," and we discussed the story of Peter walking on the water. It was interesting to note in the scripture that Peter began walking to the Lord, focused on him. And then "he saw the wind boisterous and began to fear." Which means he was looking at the wind and waves, and not at the Savior anymore, as soon as he lost his focus on Christ, the world with all it's scary realities and depressing circumstances began to pull him under. Now, let's not criticize Peter too harshly. He is one of only two people I know that has ever walked on water, and once he started sinking, he knew where to look, what power to rely on as his situation became desperate. I have no doubt Peter's eyes were fixed pleadingly on Christ as he called out, "Lord, save me!" And immediately Christ was there, lifting Peter to safety. There have been many times, not just on my mission, but throughout my life when my Faith faltered, when I feared, saw the wind boisterous and doubted whether or not I was good enough to make it through this. And each time, upon finding I wasn't, Christ has always been there for me as I cry out "Lord, Save me!" And I know He's there for all of you. When we look to the Savior, we cannot sink far without His Grace pulling us back to our feet.
Saturday, 18 March 2017
We had two lessons today! Let's hear a "woot woot" from the audience, shall we?? No...? Okay, I'll do it myself later. Anyways. We met with Jenny, a girl who was meeting with missionaries about a year ago and was about to be baptized when she got super busy at work, and stopped meeting with them. Well, now she's back, and we had a great lesson about the plan of salvation. She's slowly getting a feel for why she started learning about the gospel in the first place. Then we spent a while and helped the ward clean the chapel, which was pretty fun. I've gotten to have more and more friends in the ward as the weeks go by. Then that night we sat down with Macy. She works at a real-estate store on a street we walk pretty often, and she was willing to meet with us. We had an awesome member help us with that lesson and she seemed very interested when she left. Also, I saw a crazy guy in front of a 7-11 while we were making calls. Like, super crazy. He was yelling at people and waving his arms. And he also went to other people's tables after they left and picked up the cigarrettes they already smoked, lit them up, and put them in. Yes, everyone is a child of God, but every family has those... interesting children.
Well, today was a huge mix of things. It seems just as I think I'm getting the hang of being a missionary and things are going well, Heavenly Father tries to help me grow again. Which I should humbly accept as wonderful opportunities, even if they seem like torture to me. This morning we ran into nothing but hard-headed, deaf-eared people. Figuratively. I didn't knock on their heads to find out. But they wouldn't listen to us, and they didn't give a place for the Spirit to testify of our words. I was frustrated. Can't they see that I wouldn't drag my butt to Taiwan and learn Chinese just for fun so I could argue with them? But at the end of the day, the Spirit brings comfort to me in knowing that, whatever their circumstances now, whatever their background, they will all have a fair chance to feel of the Spirit and accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We also met with souls of those whom I feel are really being prepared to hear the word. We met with our minister friend again and his wife, and our Bishop basically shared everything about temples and church organization, and they seemed greatly satisfied in their curiosity. I truly think once we extend the invitation to find out if these words are true, there are two souls who are trying their best to follow God, and who might be willing to learn and do His will. Then that night we me with Ahui. He is a really swell gentlemen who is just about to graduate college, and we had a really good 1st lesson with him last night, probably the best I've ever been in. He asked a bunch of great questions, and him an an RC we brought with us, Chris, really hit it off. I'm excited for him.
Wednesday, 15 March 2017
We went over to our friend, Eddy's house to have him teach us how to do an activity that we're going to use at district meeting tomorrow, and then we met with our friend Matthew (a recent convert). He's doing well. We talked a lot about why bad things happen in life, and how we can always be happy when we place our hope in Christ, and the opportunity His Atonement gives us. Then we explained to him why we don't live the Law of Moses anymore, which is hard enough to explain in English! Then we were basically all contacting today, riding the streets in search of those who are ready to learn about their Savior. And we also met some people at the park who were selling some Nuskin stuff and tried to get us to buy things. But they wouldn't take what we were giving away for free, so I wasn't willing to fork out any cash. That was basically it for today.
Thursday, 16 March 2017
A day where things really got moving! We started by eating with Daniel, who I found out is going to BYU in April, and is living at the same apartment complex as my sister did a little while ago. He was born in Singapore and went on a mission to Canada, so he has perfect English, and invites us to eat with him all the time. Super cool. (You reading this Allyse? :-) Anyways... *cough* After, we headed down for our District training meeting, which went super well. We started booking it back to our area for a lesson that the Missionary Sisters from Dakeng were coming to, because we were passing an investigator to them, but our member got sick at the last second, so we couldn't go in because the investigator is a lady. So we just showed them the house and wished them good luck as they went in. We then had a super cool lesson with a member named Eagle after dinner. And then Lin! Our new friend. We found him on the street on Tuesday, and he set up to meet tonight. It was super late, but he still came, and seemed genuinely interested in our message about Heavenly Father, and set up to meet with us again next week!!! Woot woot! Small miracles, every day.
Friday, 17 March 2017
What a weekly planning session today! 10 investigators! I know that blessings aren't always manifested in numbers, and far be it from me to say that this is simply by mine or Elder Jones' skill, but it is a joy to see opportunities to work with so many people in this area and help them come closer and closer to Christ. Besides that, it was all contacting today. I really like our district training topic from yesterday. It was "having faith to find," and we discussed the story of Peter walking on the water. It was interesting to note in the scripture that Peter began walking to the Lord, focused on him. And then "he saw the wind boisterous and began to fear." Which means he was looking at the wind and waves, and not at the Savior anymore, as soon as he lost his focus on Christ, the world with all it's scary realities and depressing circumstances began to pull him under. Now, let's not criticize Peter too harshly. He is one of only two people I know that has ever walked on water, and once he started sinking, he knew where to look, what power to rely on as his situation became desperate. I have no doubt Peter's eyes were fixed pleadingly on Christ as he called out, "Lord, save me!" And immediately Christ was there, lifting Peter to safety. There have been many times, not just on my mission, but throughout my life when my Faith faltered, when I feared, saw the wind boisterous and doubted whether or not I was good enough to make it through this. And each time, upon finding I wasn't, Christ has always been there for me as I cry out "Lord, Save me!" And I know He's there for all of you. When we look to the Savior, we cannot sink far without His Grace pulling us back to our feet.
Saturday, 18 March 2017
We had two lessons today! Let's hear a "woot woot" from the audience, shall we?? No...? Okay, I'll do it myself later. Anyways. We met with Jenny, a girl who was meeting with missionaries about a year ago and was about to be baptized when she got super busy at work, and stopped meeting with them. Well, now she's back, and we had a great lesson about the plan of salvation. She's slowly getting a feel for why she started learning about the gospel in the first place. Then we spent a while and helped the ward clean the chapel, which was pretty fun. I've gotten to have more and more friends in the ward as the weeks go by. Then that night we sat down with Macy. She works at a real-estate store on a street we walk pretty often, and she was willing to meet with us. We had an awesome member help us with that lesson and she seemed very interested when she left. Also, I saw a crazy guy in front of a 7-11 while we were making calls. Like, super crazy. He was yelling at people and waving his arms. And he also went to other people's tables after they left and picked up the cigarrettes they already smoked, lit them up, and put them in. Yes, everyone is a child of God, but every family has those... interesting children.
Speaking of interesting children...Elder Meanea had a sandal funeral, that he videoed and sent to us...enjoy :-)
Sunday, 19 March 2017
Exhausting day... I am so tired right now. Church was good. Nobody showed up that we asked to, but I always like Sacrament. And we had great lessons as well. Then we biked halfway across the city for a Stake Training meeting for missionaries to work with members. Then we biked back home and that was pretty good. I received a lot of guidance from the Holy Ghost at our meetings. He truly is the comforter and testifier.
I love this work. I love my Savior. This Gospel has truly blessed my life more than I ever realized until I lived alongside so many who don't have it. And they need it. And that's why I'm here. I love you all, and pray you'll stay close to the Savior.
-Elder Meanea
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