3 April 2017 - Big Shock

Low at sea altitude, with monkeys in the trees, we bike on Taiwan's streets, to preach as missionaries!
(Copyright Elder Tayson Meanea, 2017)

Monday, 27 March 2017
Well, actually no monkeys. And the song was to "High on the Mountain Top." I guess I never really checked to see if anyone understood what songs I was parodying. Last week ended quite well for us, resulting in two new investigators, and lot of cool people coming up the pipeline to Christ. We went to a Monkey Mountain near Taizhong, but we didn't see any monkeys. Just a giant Buddhist temple and found some cool old Chinese stuff. After we got back, we went contacting and made some calls. We set up 4 different lessons for this week, so that's super exciting! The first five calls we made all but one set up to meet with us! #happymissionaries. Then we also met a few other cool people just on the way back home from there. Cool stuff every day! 

Tuesday, 28 March 2017
I used to always dream of being called as a missionary to Yellowstone National park. My dream came true today, because we met a Black Bear at the park! Or at least, that was his name. We were walking through a park and sat down with a man who was birdwatching. He was wearing a shirt with trout on it, like you might find in a dresser drawer in a log cabin, and his arms were covered in thick black hair. We talked to him for about 20 minutes and he told us how he went to New Guinea to birdwatch and how his nickname was Hei Xiong (Black Bear in Chinese) because of his arms. He was super cool! So yeah, fun story for the day. ;-) We also met with Johnny again today and tried to ascertain what concerns, or desires, or thoughts of any kind he has. We committed him to start reading the Book of Mormon every day, and believing that God will give him an answer, for in Mormon 9:25 it says that to him who believes, God will confirm his words. It's a lesson I myself still learn quite often. 

Wednesday, 29 March 2017
We ate lunch With Alan today, our eternal investigator friend. He's, well, still here. So that's good. Not much else to say, except he shows us some pretty good places to eat. But the coolest thing happened tonight. We decided to go tracting again tonight in the same area where we met Chen and his wife Uu. They are the night Christian couple we met last week. Well, after a few doors of "No time!" we found a lady who actually stood and taught us for a bit, and then let is in to share about the Book of Mormon. We got let in AGAIN! It was super fun. She had a lot of Christian views, but also something we keep running into a lot is just people who say, "It's all good! It's all true!" And while they are right in that most religions are founded on truths and good values, this is God's church, not man's church. That is where all the difference lies. I also find that I get less and less disappointed at rejection as I come to better understand God's love for His children. It's like this: imagine a dad is on a boat, and his kid is swimming in the ocean and starts to sink. He tosses a lifeline, right? And if the kid doesn't grab it, the dad doesn't just walk away and say, "Well, darn, I tried to help. He had a fair chance." We know that everyone will have their fair chance to accept the Gospel, and it's my personal feeling that this will be more than one chance. These are His children, and He is throwing lifeline after lifeline to them. They may miss many before they grab hold, but each line (Me as a missionary) has to be strong enough to pull the child in if they grab it. So when I get rejected, I know it's just building a foundation for a future lifeline coming their way. 

Thursday, 30 March 2017
I love District Training Meeting's as well. It's a great place to meet with all those that are going through the same types of experiences and dealing with the same challenges you are. As refreshing as that is, it also reminds me that we need to "meet" even more often with a the person who understands our trials even better than them. Christ is truly becoming the rock of my missionary work. I feel as though I really can't do His work without Him. We also had a lesson today with a guy named Wilson. He turned out to be... quite uninterested in church, but we hopefully made the impression God wanted us to, even if he thought we were a gay couple. He asked us how we met and everything. That was weird. Other than that, the Zone Leaders called us and said there was a guy at church who wanted to meet with us, and we got there in less than 10 minutes, but he had wandered off... I don't know. 

Friday, 31 March 2017
Well, I could say a lot of things about today. About the many (3) people that looked very promising but ended up not being prepared...yet. Instead, I will focus on the great things God blessed us with today. We had some rain which was nice, we got some good inspiration during our weekly planning on how to help those who are prepared right now to progress in the Gospel. And then this evening after running around the city all day, trying our best, we attended a baptismal service for the Zone Leader's Investigators. A couple who got baptized, so the whole program was basically about eternal marriage after that. xD But Johnny, Mr. Johnny Tsunami showed up! Even though it was raining and the buses are slow, he showed up. I wasn't sure what to think, then I was talking to him afterwards and asked how he thought it went. He seemed oddly happy, and he told me, "It's hard to describe." I'm not quite sure what to make of that, except that I was praying the whole meeting that the Spirit would touch his heart, and I believe in prayers being answered. 

Saturday
So, oddly enough, President called me tonight. The new missionaries are inbound in just a week, and one of them needs to become a mini Elder Meanea. In Tainan. So... whitewash training anyone? xD I'm so super nervous, but also super excited to start this new part of my mission journey. I also hope that everyone will be really forgiving of me, because I'm not always the best person. Like the fact that I totally am joking right now and since it just said Saturday at the top you wouldn't know today was April Fool's day. Love you. ;-) But today was actually really good! This isn't joking, but Rollins accepted a baptismal goal for May 20th! If I stay one more transfer, I'll be here. I'll BE HERE! Everything is going well for him, and he is super excited to have a goal to work towards. We also did a few other things today, like dropping an investigator who isn't quite ready to go along with the Gospel flow, but Rollins is the coolest thing that happened. And we had a young man from our ward help with a lesson, and they actually go to the same school! And they seemed to hit it off really well. Ah, it's all so exciting!

Sunday, 2 April 2017
Church. I say it every week, and I also say that I say it every week, but it is a wondrous thing. I always feel so great and uplifted here. And I can't wait for General Conference next week (the missionaries receive recordings of the talks in English this next week). It was also really weird that we had 5 white people at church this week, and all of them spoke Chinese. And only two of us were missionaries. Odd. Tonight we went out contacting and found Josephine. She was a Filipino lady that was having trouble getting home, since she doesn't speak Chinese and lived outside of the city. We were able to help her find a taxi with our super awesome Chinese Skills. That was fun, then we knocked some doors and broke our streak of getting let in, but that's okay.

And that's that! I am blown away every week by how much growth Heavenly Father has in store for me. I love more and more sharing this Gospel with Heavenly Father's children here. Especially as Easter approaches, and we all prepare to commemorate the Savior's Sacrifice for us. As I rely on Him more and more each day, His sacrifice becomes more and more real to me. I can say I know He really Atoned for us, and for everyone who doesn't know about it yet, and I'm so happy to be here. I love you all,

-Elder Meanea