2 April 2018 - Missionary Easter

"Oh how lovely was the morning, Angels sitting on the stone!
And how wonderous was there answer, "he has risen to his throne!"
(Copyright Elder Meanea, 2018)

Monday, 26 March 2018
Quite the adventurous P-Day! The sisters showed us the way to a good beach in our area, and we brought a frisbee, so that was pretty much all we needed to stay entertained. Then I don't know how, but I got myself into a challenge of eating 50 Dumplings all by myself at a restaurant in our area. With a little faith and prayer, I got them down and kept them there. It was one of the harder things I've ever done in my life, but that's okay. After that we ran to an awesome lesson with Brother Chen, the guy with the samarai sword. We met up with him and didn't have a lot of time to talk, but he read 81 pages in the Book of Mormon and he said he likes it! That was a super cool miracle.

Tuesday, 27 March 2018
So, things happened today. We woke up and ran to the track to work out, and then Elder Bode started throwing up. So we took him back home, and the mission nurse gave him a mandate to rest for most of the day. He slept for a good long while, and I studied and cleaned the apartment. Have I mentioned I hate tile? Everywhere in Taiwan is tile floor, and it is ridiculously easy to see the dirt on it, so I sweep about every day. I love the oblivoius bliss of carpet, not knowing what kind of disgusting stuff is under your feet, but not caring because it's like walking on a blanket. He got better by late afternoon and trooped it out the rest of the day, which is good because we had a great lesson with Sister Yang, who we call Golden. She took us to dinner, and then we sat down and had the plan of salvation with her, during which we invited her to be baptized on April 28th! She accecpted!

Wednesday, 28 March 2018
After contacting most of today we went early to English class to meet with Jeff, the guy Elder Bode invited to church last week. He is still super cool, and says he wants to learn the story of our Church and Mormonism in English, so that's going to be interesting, and by the end of the lesson he was willing to pray, which he didn't want to do in the beginning!

Thursday, 29 March 2018
I spent a lot of time getting a District training ready for today. It was about finding through our own efforts, so I hid "investigators" all through the chapel that they all had to find, including asking me for referrals. It was pretty fun and they seemed to enjoy it. After that I had exchanges with Elder Miller. He is from my generation and it was a good time! He taught me a bit about planning and doing meaningful activites, which I realize pretty much apply to the rest of my life. I didn't know how to plan before I got on my mission, though my father is a master at it. 

Friday, 30 March 2018
We exchanged back and then did a little weekly planning to finish out the afternoon. That night we met with a guy that Elder Miller and I ran into on exchanges. His name is Jimmy and he lived in Canada for a long time, so his English is better than his Chinese. We sat down and Elder Bode was super excited to teach in English. Jimmy said he was willing to try it out!


Saturday, 31 March 2018
We started off the day by going to an old folks home and doing some service! After doing some warm-up exercises with them, we helped them make little paper fans. There were also some ward members there which was pretty cool. It was a fun activity and all the old people are really nice. We spent most of tonight Tracting talking about Easter and sending messages to our investigators with the church Easter Video.

Sunday, 1 April 2018
And it was a beauitful Easter Sabbath. It was also General conference for most of you! There was a lot of good testimonies about the Savior, and I just want to share mine. I have come to realize on my mission that my life and everything in the world is hopeless if not for Christ. Without Him, the first time we made a mistake we were done forever, nothing we could do to come back to God, and we would all part at death. But that is not God's plan for us. He loves us much more than that. He loves us so much that He sent His Son to suffer and die, that we can all have a chance to repent. There is no greater gift. I am so thankful for the gift of salvation, for the fact that because the tomb is empty, I will be able to live with all my family members again after death. And that is why I'm here! To tell the world the happiest thing that has ever happened for any of us. I hope you all feel that joy as well this Easter Sunday. I love you all, and hope we can all draw closer to Christ together.

-Elder Meanea