Come all ye investigators of Beitun, and let us teach about the Lord! Let the truth of Christ's full Gospel do good stuff to your life!
(Copyright Elder Tayson Meanea, 2017)
Monday, 20 February 2017
We had a super fun trip up to a place called Sun-Moon lake today! The weather was a bit rainy, so it was beautiful, and we actually had about 6 sets of missionaries there in all, and a few members, so it was a real party! We toured a cool temple, walked some giant steps, and took a little boat ride across the lake, and then to a smaller island on the lake, and saw some Native Taiwanese musicians dressed up. They really look a lot like American Indians in their tribal gear! I'm pretty sure they hunted monkey and not buffalo, though. Then we came home, changed our clothes, and returned to the streets to spread the good word of the Lord!
We had a super fun trip up to a place called Sun-Moon lake today! The weather was a bit rainy, so it was beautiful, and we actually had about 6 sets of missionaries there in all, and a few members, so it was a real party! We toured a cool temple, walked some giant steps, and took a little boat ride across the lake, and then to a smaller island on the lake, and saw some Native Taiwanese musicians dressed up. They really look a lot like American Indians in their tribal gear! I'm pretty sure they hunted monkey and not buffalo, though. Then we came home, changed our clothes, and returned to the streets to spread the good word of the Lord!
Tuesday, 21 February 2017
Today was a bit more of a difficult day for me, for some reason, but when we came back to do the rest of our studies in the afternoon, I had the opportunity to kneel down and ask my Father in Heaven for help in supporting me in the difficulties I was having. And I know that it doesn't always work like this, but I feel as if the load I was carrying that day was being lifted by someone else. It was truly a testimony to me that my Father is always watching over me, and even though the rest of the day was as difficult as the morning, it didn't weigh on me like it did before. There was a lot of rejection, and not much seeable success, but I just felt loved today. I can't explain it more than that.
Today was a bit more of a difficult day for me, for some reason, but when we came back to do the rest of our studies in the afternoon, I had the opportunity to kneel down and ask my Father in Heaven for help in supporting me in the difficulties I was having. And I know that it doesn't always work like this, but I feel as if the load I was carrying that day was being lifted by someone else. It was truly a testimony to me that my Father is always watching over me, and even though the rest of the day was as difficult as the morning, it didn't weigh on me like it did before. There was a lot of rejection, and not much seeable success, but I just felt loved today. I can't explain it more than that.
Wednesday, 22 February 2017
Rain. Today was destroyed by rain. Have I mentioned that Taiwanese people have a weird fear of rain? If it's raining, people usually won't show up for lessons or activities. So we went inside for our afternoon studies during the worst part of it, then went back out after it was mostly cleared up, and there was no one around. They were all hiding insides, danggit! Anyways, we were making some calls tonight to old contact cards we had, and we were just getting done, when we wanted to call this one last card, a lady that had never answered. I called, and she surprisingly picked up! She was super nice, but told us she actually lived in Beiqu, and said she was willing to meet, so we got to give a referral to the zone leaders tonight! That was pretty fun!
Thursday, 23 February 2017
So... a cool insight from personal study. I was reading in the Book of Jacob today, and everyone always has questions about the Church history and plural marriage and things, and before, I just always accepted on faith that God commanded us to do it for a while and then for His purposes told us to discontinue, but today I read in Jacob a scripture that addressed directly this thing and why God commands His people to practice it sometimes. The point being, is that I've never even seen the scripture before, and I feel like for some reason, it just popped out and made sense to me after I'd exercised my faith in just trusting God's judgement. That's the second time that's happened in he past few weeks. Sorry, I just share interesting things from personal study because we contacted all today, and nothing interesting happened, sorry. xD
Friday, 24 February 2017
A lesson today! Woo hoo!! He was an hour late, and he doesn't actually live in our area, so we had to give him away... but we still actually talked with someone who wanted to hear about the Gospel! Worth it! Then we had a cool lesson with our recent convert, Matthew. We talked about God's love for us, and how it doesn't matter what trials we face, we can always take comfort in the fact that He loves us, and has a plan for us. One of my favorite scriptures has always been in the Book of Mormon, 1 Nephi 11:17. That night we also attended a double baptism! Our zone leaders baptized a lady and the sisters in our ward had a 10 year old girl that they've been teaching ever since I got here that got baptized, so it was a great night!
Saturday, 25 February 2017
A rather uneventful day. We contacted all day until we had another lesson with our RC, Matthew. We had a good lesson with him, and recommitted him to reading the Book of Mormon every day, and just as the lesson finished up, there was a weird guy standing next to our table, trying to act like he wasn't staring at us. Matthew invited him to sit down, so the guy did. His name was Huang, and Matthew told him we missionaries had been helping him with English and teaching about the Book of Mormon, at which point the guy began going off about how all religions are the same, and he just believes in science, and kept giving all these examples of why religion is useless. Elder Burge and I talked about it after, and we're pretty sure he didn't know Matthew was a member at first, and was trying to convince him that religion was bad, and he wouldn't let us get a word in, and just talked straight to Matthew. So, he's a dirt bag, but I was super proud of Matthew, anytime Matthew got to say anything, he always talked about how we have a Heavenly Father we can pray to, and how The Book of Mormon gives us the answer to life's questions, and a lot of other great, super faithful responses. Once the Huang guy figured out Matthew was a member, he lost interest super quick, and eventually left and ignored our offers to sit with him and teach him, but we did get his number. So that was cool in that we saw our RC's strength in the Gospel. Then we went and ate with the Zone leaders, came back and contacted! We also found out that night that I am staying here in Beitun and my new companion shall be Elder Jones! Not the one from my MTC district, but a different one! I guess I'll know by the time I send this how it is! And Elder Burge's dream has come true in that he is headed to Kaosiung! He's been up north in Taichung for his whole mission, and he's super excited to get there!
Sunday, 26 February 2017
A great Sabbath today. I love the promise and hope of every week we get to go and partake of the sacrament. It is such a simple, yet priceless gift. A refreshing chance to once again start anew in our journey toward heaven. It actually brought a lot of peace to my mind. I can testify that any time that we go to Church with a willing and open heart and mind, there is no way there won't be something that will help us on our journey. Then we went to an RM's house to eat Hot Pot after church. He's the Daniel kid I might have mentioned earlier. He's part Taiwanese and served his mission in Canada, so has perfect English. It was super fun. Then we contacted the rest of the night! I also got to talk to Elder Jones, I'm super excited to be his companion, he sounds super cool.
Monday... Again, 27 February 2017
So, it kind of felt like one of those days when it's summer, but you have to go to school for some reason. Because it wasn't P-Day. xD The day got wrecked as well, because we had a 2-hour hot pot with the Bishop's family, and Matthew our RC and Jianhong, an eternigator! So... it was sort of a lesson... the hot pot was delicious... like joy in the Celestial kingdom will be... Then that night we ate with our district before a few people leave, but we were only there a few minutes, because Elder Burge's member friend, Scott, also asked us to eat, so we went to a Japanese noodle place with him and his girlfriend, who is a Taipei investigator, so we gave a tour of the Chapel afterwards, and that was pretty much our night. We were just scrambling to get everything ready for Elder Burge to move and to receive the new leader of the Wuchuan district, Elder Jones the fearless.
And that's my week! Hopefully by the time you all read this, everything will have worked out and I'll be safe here in Beitun emailing next to Elder Jones. I love you all, and am so excited to go forth this week in the strength of the Lord!
-Elder Meanea
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