15 January 2018 - Simplify Our Lives in Christ

"OH the weather outside frightful, but the gospel is so delightful, and there's only one place to go, get them home get them home get them home!"
(Copyright Elder Meanea 2018)

Monday, 8 January 2018

Today was an insane P-Day! We ate at a Tex-Mex restaurant which was really expensive but really good, and then headed over to monkey mountain to go hiking. About halfway through the day we stopped using the regular trail and just followed the paths that seemed more frequented by mountain goats than humans. We even found some cool caves filled with spiders. So we were all pretty happy with our P-Day. 

Tuesday, 9 January 2018
We had an exchange today and also a great lesson with Amanda. She has been investigating for a while (Sister Chen) and she has been coming to church off and on for the past few months. We wanted to help her be more comfortable in the ward, so we invited our relief society president to help with the lesson with her husband. The times got all messed up, but it actually worked out in the end where we had a really good lesson! She is really growing in faith as she continues to experience the goodness of the gospel in her life.

Wednesday, 10 January 2018
Zone conference today was filled with helping us try to simply our lives in Christ. President Teh asked us to come up and write on the board everything that we've been asked to emphasize in the past 6 months and we got a board filled with about 30 things from using the Book of Mormon to remembering to clean the apartment. Then he taught us about being centered in Christ and how it would help us simplify our lives by just trying to follow Him. I feel like that's an important lesson for all of us.

Thursday, 11 January 2018
We took a train up to Taizhong today to go on exchanges with the assistants. We spent the night out with them cleaning some parks and contacting people along the way. The best part of the night was when we went to go teach a recent convert a lesson, and it turned out to be a lady that we taught for the first time when I was on exchanges there two transfers ago! Miracles!

Friday, 12 January 2018
Coming home today was hard to stay awake, but we made it back to Qianzhen just in time to make it to our lesson with a less active Brother Chen. He is blind from a car accident, and has never actually "seen" missionaries since he has been blind since before his baptism, but he is an amazing guy story teller and really badly wanted to have someone help him get to church. It was fun to see him get to come on Sunday!

Saturday, 13 January 2018
Baptism! Today Brother Zhong was baptized. Elder Fuller baptized him, and he was so happy. There were no hiccups, he went under the first time, the font filled perfectly and we had enough baptismal clothes. It was all amazing! He is such an incredible convert. Totally self-taught by the Spirit. We told him the commandments and he just kept them because he knew God loved him. And now he's on the path. He is willing to follow Christ, and his journey has just begun. I am so happy for him and change its brought to his life!

Sunday, 14 January 2018
Good Sabbath today. Brother Zhong was confirmed, and Amanda showed up to church! We also had some guy just show up at church for no reason who wanted to check out the church. His name is Sam, so hopefully that goes well! I love to see the miracles abound.

With Brother Zhong's baptism, this was an amazing week. He was so happy to be baptized and confirmed. He had a long road of changes to make, but to see the hope that Christ brings to his life is priceless. I hope we can all feel that hope every day. Let Him change our lives every day. I love you all!

-Elder Meanea

8 January 2018 - Service with Barbecue Tongs

"Once there was a snowman snowman snowman,
Once there was a snowman, but not in Taiwan!"
(Copyright Elder Meanea 2017)

Monday, 1 January 2018
We took a little P-Day field trip to Elder Fuller's old area called Nanzi. It is in the northern part of Gaoxiong, but we were able to take the subway all the way there, which was pretty convenient. We met up with some of his older members and went to climb a mountain together. It was the one with an old Japanese cave at the top which was super cool! We of course were very safe. ;-) After that we all went to get ice cream together and went home to proselyte for the evening.

Tuesday, 2 January 2018
I went on an exchange with my old friend Elder Barney. He was the one who I took contacting his first night on island. This is my second exchange with him here in Qianzhen. We spent the night on errands for the stake President and bishop. We were checking names and trying to find people who had gotten lost off of the ward records. It was pretty fun, and really cool to see since we've been trying to develop our relationship with the Bishop a lot more.

Wednesday, 3 January 2018
Elder Barney had a great idea yesterday. We've been looking for service through the village leaders here, but not a lot of them have jobs they want us to do or don't Quite trust us yet after 60 years of preaching the Gospel in their Taoist communities, which is understandable. But Elder Barney and I were biking along at night on a bike path we use all the time to get across the city and he commented how much litter there was along the side of the path. So we went and bought garbage bags and barbecue tongs and spent some time today serving the community! It was really cool! I'm glad we finally got to do something to serve the people around us.

Thursday, 4 January 2018
Today's proselyting was good. We got the chapel for a lesson tonight which ended up not showing up, but our friend Joey, who is on his boat right now, was able to start messaging us and he had a ton of questions about all the things he was reading in the Book of Mormon. He read up to Mosiah 18! It's only been a week and a half! We talked about fasting and baptism and he is reading every day and praying for an answer while he is away. It was really cool to spend that time with him and to get to see that progress he was making all because of the little act of faith of reading the Book of Mormon.

Friday, 5 January 2018
Tonight we went and visited a member who had a birthday. We bought 7 guava and a pineapple to give him, and he seemed really happy to have us over. It's fun getting to know the ward better and actually develop a relationship with them. They are such an important part of the work. And the members here are so great and really accept all the missionaries for however long they are here.

Saturday, 6 January 2018
We went out this morning to go to a lesson that Elder Barney tracted into on Tuesday. I, very faithless, thought that she wouldn't be there or would just tell us she didn't want us there, because she didn't seem too focused or interested when we set up with her earlier, but she opened the door and told us that she never really had gone to church before, and we replied that was okay and that everyone was welcome at church because it could strengthen our families. She had to leave for a doctor's appointment, but gave us her contact info and told us we could come back and visit next week!

Sunday, 7 January 2018
Church was good today. Brother Zhong was sick, but they announced his baptismal service in sacrament which is scheduled for THIS SATURDAY! I am so excited for him! Sister Chen was also able to come, and so was a part member family we had been working with earlier. It was a great day. We also had two really cool lessons tonight. The first was a referral from the elders in Shizhong just north of us. He is a guy who has 10 brothers and sisters but his family situation is bad and he really doesn't understand life or God. It was incredible to see his eyes light up as we began explaining pieces of the Plan of Salvation, where before he had been mildly interested in what we had to say. I can't wait to teach him again!

And another week has gone. I love it here, I love you all, and I love the Savior! Thank you all so much for what you do to help and support me. Have a wonderful week my friends and family.

- Elder Meanea

1 January 2018 - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

"The Year is dying, in the night!
Ring out wild bells and let him die!"
(Copyright 1985 LDS Hymnbook. I don't know why)

Monday, 25 December 2017
This P-Day we went shopping for one of Elder Fuller's recent Converts that lives in Gaoxiong. We got him some cool socks from the mall, and then once we had our Christmas shopping done we headed out to the Pizza Hut Buffet to finish off Christmas! The Pizza was really good and it was only about $10 American to eat all the pizza and chicken wings you wanted! Needless to say it was a good Christmas. That night we went and had a thought to check on a kid we had tracted into a few weeks ago. He was still doing good, even though we hadn't been able to meet, and was reading the Book of Mormon every night!

Tuesday, 26 Decembere 2017
We had a lesson with Joey, the man who randomly walked into the chapel last week asking for a tour, and he read by himself to 1 Nephi 16. So that was cool. He works on a boat and is leaving for two weeks, but he found a triple combination on his boat and he's been reading it! That was a fun lesson.

Wednesday, 27 December 2017
Today was just proselytize until the English class Christmas party tonight. The Fergusons are the Elderly Couple who serve around Gaoxiong, and they threw a party for all the English students and invited us. It was fun to get to talk to all of these people who were in the chapel but didn't know much about the church. We met a cool family who hadn't really interacted with missionaries before and they might be willing to meet with the Xiaogang Elders!

Thursday, 28 December 2017
We had our second ward correlation meeting tonight with our new ward mission leader Brother Liang. He is pretty new to the whole missionary thing, so it's really cool to see how the Lord always puts us where we need to learn and grown. It's been fun to help him understand a little bit about how being a missionary works and how he can help us to baptize in this ward.

Friday, 29 December 2017
We were going to have a brunch at a member's house with sister Xu, but she had to go to a doctor's appointment and wasn't able to show up. But we ate waffles with them anyways. It's a really nice family named The Yangs. They both went to school and worked in Utah for a while, so they have a lot of American traditions, including actually decorating for Christmas! After that we had a good lesson with Brother Zhong tonight who has set a goal for January 13! Just 12 days away over here! He says he is really excited, and we helped him to get his family history started.

Saturday, 30 December 2017
We went over to the Yang's house to help them start moving some furniture. They will move up to Taizhong in a couple years to take care of sister Yang's mom. As we were moving stuff, we carried down a human sized paper with calligraphy on it. When we got it to the street from four floors up, brother Yang told us that it was worth more than 10,000 American dollars!!! He said it was a very famous calligrapher, who is also his dad. So that was cool. We also got a surprise phone call today from Joey! He was in Port in Singapore for a few minutes so he called us over Line (the messaging app here) and we had a short lesson about his questions in the Book of Mormon. He'll be on an American naval ship for oceanographic research for the next week and a half. So that's also pretty cool.

Sunday, 31 December 2017
New Years Eve! We went to church and had some good lessons, since it was the last week we stuffed all the information in the last three chapters of the Gospel principles book into one lesson, which probably hurt Brother Zhong's brain since it was about Exaltation, the Millennium and final judgment, but it was still good! We were out contacting in masses of people going to celebrations until it was time to go home. Believe it or not, we accidentally slept through the new year. XD Ah well, there's always the next one.

But I'm grateful to be here in 2018! I'm so glad that I get to spend another 6.5 months serving the Lord and His Children here in Taiwan. I'm grateful that because of my Savior every day and every prayer makes it a new start. I love you all, happy New Year!

- Elder Meanea

25 December 2017 - A Very Missionary Christmas

"Hark the missionaries preach,
Glory to the risen king!"
(Copyright Elder Meanea 2017)

Monday, 18 December 2017
Today was pretty jam-packed. We were hanging around with a missionary until his companion got there, so we found a place to buy a can of peanut butter that was cannery sized. I was pretty excited. We also did some Christmas shopping and also found a giant can of coconut spread, which was also pretty exciting. 

Tuesday, 19 December 2017
We were looking for a Brother Ke tonight and forgot his address but knew what street he lived on. So we rode down the street looking for him, and right as we rode past a garage door opened and he stepped out. It was a cool little miracle. We were able to set up a time to come and meet with him. 

Wednesday, 20 December 2017
Tonight we had a phone lesson with our investigator who lives on Jinmen, the little island right next to China. It was pretty cool! And then we went and ate Douhua with brother Zhong and read the Book of Mormon with him. He's getting baptized so soon! 

Thursday, 21 December 2017
We had a practice for the show on Saturday and our first district meeting with our new district members today! Then tonight we went and visited brother Ke and his crazy son Danny. He's pretty... Off the wall, but it's fun to watch.

Friday, 22 December 2017
We had weekly planning and a surprise lesson this morning. A man walked up to the sisters yesterday and asked for a tour, then they handed him off to us, and we taught him the Restoration this morning. It was a good lesson! Then we went to practice for the show on Saturday, and had our first correlation meeting with our new ward mission leader, Brother Liang. It was fun! We also made Gingerbread houses with a few Recent Concerts. 

Saturday, 23 December 2017
Tonight was the Stake Christmas party, and the fiftieth anniversary of the chapel being built. So that was pretty good! We did our puppet show and watched a couple other really cool performances. I'm sure we can find recordings all over Facebook. Sister Xu was also able to come, so it was a happy day!

Sunday, 24 December 2017
Today we had a short church, just Sacrament and then we had a good ward dinner which a few investigators came to. It was super fun to spend Christmas Eve with them. It's always interesting to eat pineapple cake and a chicken with its head still attached. I felt like we were in "A Christmas Story." Afterwards we drove to a couple of members houses to carol for them with the ward. It was so fun to spread the Christmas spirit.

And I'm here in Taiwan. And it's Christmas. There is nothing else I would want to do. There is nowhere else I would rather be. I just Skyped my family and that is the best Christmas gift I could have ever gotten. We are an eternal family. I could never ask nor expect such a precious gift from Heavenly Father. I love them and Him, and am so glad that I still have 7 months to serve Him. I love you all my friends and family.

Merry Christmas.

-Elder Meanea

18 December 2017 - Christmas Incoming!

"Mission time is here, time for bikes and cheer..."
(copyright Elder Meanea 2017)

Monday, 11 December 2017
We had a good day discovering a treasure of Taiwan, the second hand store! It's basically DI for Taiwan or something like that. Needless to say I found some cool stuff for pretty cheap. And the miracle for the day is that I ran into Brother Cai from Fengshan! He was a recent convert right as I started being trained last year, and his house was one of my favorite stops. We ran into him magically in our area after 3 months of being here. Seeing him made me so happy!

Tuesday, 12 December 2017
We had a pretty busy day with appointments. But a miracle we saw today was that one of our members called us to give her daughter a blessing. She hadn't been feeling good, and it is amazing every time we get to use God's priesthood power to bless His children. That's really what being a missionary is all about!

Wednesday, 13 December 2017
Today's miracle is the friendship of one of our members named Johnny. He usually helps us with lessons in the afternoon because he goes to cooking class in the morning. Well today we had a lesson on a small island thing that is in our area, so he agreed to bus out there with us. We got off the bus too early twice. Had to walk about a half hour, and never found our lesson. But Johnny was so nice and didn't get mad at us. He says it's not the craziest thing that has happened with a lesson. We ended up having to take a ferry back to our area because we couldn't find the buses. 

Thursday, 14 December 2017
Today was all zone conference! There were three zones together for this one, and it was combined with a Christmas musical program, so that was pretty fun. I also got to see my trainee Elder Hansen, which is always fun. He lives at the bottom tip of the island right now, a place called Hungchuen. We also had a miracle tonight! We have been visiting a list of people that our bishop gave us, and tonight we went and knocked on the door of a member named. Huang. When we knocked a man answered who was also named Huang, but not ours. It was the only door we knocked but he invited us back later to teach him. It was crazy!

Friday, 15 December 2017
Today was mostly weekly planning and visiting people, but we met with Brother Zhong today, who really liked the lesson we taught about baptism and how ready he was. We asked him to pray about his date, and he said he would. He is such an incredible investigator! He will be baptized soon, he has so much faith. It has been so amazing to teach him.

Saturday, 16 December 2017
We spent most of the morning out in the nether most parts of our area. We were working on Bishop's list and ran right into the biggest Taoist parade I have ever seen. We had to ride with it for a while to get through, and a lot of people were taking pictures. So that was good. And pretty entertaining.

Sunday, 17 December 2017
Well, 6 members of my zone are moving out, but me and Elder Fuller are staying together! I'm looking forward to another transfer here in Gaoxiong! There are a lot of God's children to help and a lot of work to do. I love you all so much, and can't wait to talk to you at Christmas!

-Elder Meanea

11 December 2017 - Hearken to God in All Things

"Onward Taiwan Elders, biking as to war!
With the Book of Mormon going on before!"
(Copyright Elder Meanea 2017)

Monday, 4 December 2017
Today was an adventure, we went up to Taichung for some things we needed to get at the Mission home and didn't get back till really late, so that was honestly today, but I do love how much we can use our new technology to keep us in touch with all of our investigators. I don't think I've ever appreciated how much investigators need our sustaining influence, or rather that of the Spirit. It is so important to helping them gain their own testimony.

Tuesday, 5 December 2017
We had our exchanges with the Assistants today, they came down from Taichung to work with us for a day. That was pretty cool. We met with one of their recent investigators that lived down here who went inactive two weeks ago, come to find out that it's just a verse of scripture that she read incorrectly, but she was willing to leave the church over it. It was crazy, because she has a really strong testimony, and we asked her if she prayed about it, and she said she hadn't. It reminded me of 2 Nephi 9:29. We have to hearken to God in all things. 

Wednesday, 6 December 2017
We sent the Assistants on their way and immediately started another exchange with a group of Elders in our zone. They are really hard workers and it was fun to be with them. We saw a cool miracle. We were dropping off a birthday card to a member and decided to tract around a bit. The first part wasn't great. But then we knocked our last door of the night and ran into a kid called Shuiping. He was just sitting there gaming, and come to find out he does it after work to make extra money for his family. We showed him the Book of Mormon and he was super interested and wanted to take it and read it. We'll meet with him next week.

Thursday, 7 December 2017
We had our first call in meeting with the Stake Presidency, usually we go over there to Shizhong to meet at the first Thursday of every month, but we were able to call in and keep working in our area afterwards, which is super nice. I'd call it a miracle.

Friday, 8 December 2017
All day today was Mission Leadership Conference. We just discussed phones and protocol and how to get the new phones to the missionaries. They basically just handed us a box of smartphones and told us to get them back to Gaoxiong. And we made it! The best part is Brother Zhong passed his Baptismal interview! He still isn't sure about a date though. 

Saturday, 9 December 2017
All this morning was helping the District leaders get their phones figured out. It took a long time because Technology. And then we had weekly planning and a lesson and ate and had time to drop off a birthday card for a less active member who rejected it. I was feeling pretty bitter until we were leaving and we ran into some guy in the lobby who came up and started talking to us out of nowhere. We talked a little bit about God and set him up. It was a cool miracle!

Sunday, 10 December 2017
We had a good Sacrament, a few of our investigators showed up and we had a good talk on temples which was really good. I miss going to the temple. And then we visited Brother Cai, a less active member who we're trying to help come to Church. Then tonight we ate with Brother Wei our RC and his family and a member family, it was super fun!

I love you all friends and family. I hope you have a great week staying close to the savior.

-Elder Meanea

4 December 2017 - Just because I'm live on Facebook doesn't mean I went home. We just have smartphones now

"Hark all ye nations, hear Facebook's voice!
Missionaries text that all may rejoice!"
(Copyright Elder Meanea 2017)

Monday, 27 November 2017
We went and took a visit of the Gaoxiong 85 today! After eating some Costco pizza of course. The air was a little big smoggy, but it was still really cool. I was up there about a year ago with my trainer when I lived in Fengshan, so that brought back some neat memories. Then that night we went and visited some people who had birthdays in the ward and dropped off some really ugly birthday cards!

Tuesday, 28 November 2017
We had a meeting with Sam today, who is doing great. We taught some commandments, which he had a hard time accepting, but he is still faithfully reading and praying, which will bring him through. Then I did a language pass-off for a sister in our district. Lately we've just been hitting the streets and visiting members, trying to do everything we can to find some new investigators. The ones we have are doing great, but we need to keep finding the people the Lord has prepared!

Wednesday, 29 November 2017
Today we had a mission tour visit from President Muers of the area presidency. We talked about different things we can be doing to merit the miracles of the Lord in our mission, and it was really cool! The focus lately has really been helping us to not just do missionary things, but actually be a disciple of Christ, which is a huge difference. We then had a lesson with Brother Zhang, the son of a recent convert who is trying to get ready for Baptism. He is the last one in his family, so he's really trying to find his own testimony of the gospel right now. It's amazing we get to participate in this work of bringing people unto Heavenly Father.

Thursday, 30 November 2017
Today was absolutely insane! We had a lesson this morning which cancelled, but we were already at Bishop's house where the lesson was, so we just talked to him and his wife about the ward for an hour. After that we went and met with Sister Chen, who is still investigating! It was good to see her after a few weeks, and now that we are getting smart phones, it will be a lot easier to keep in touch. Then we had to run up to a different chapel to do another language pass-off, take the MRT back to our house to grab our overnight stuff, then take it up to the train station just in the nick of time to catch our Train to Taizhong for the meeting tomorrow. I also got to stay with Elder Councill from my MTC district and we made Cheesecake, so that was fun!

Friday, 1 December 2017
All day was the mission council. We just decided on some changes that we can implement to help our mission focus and head in the right direction, and then we recieved our smartphones! They basically helped us set it up with church protections and then sent us on our way saying "Good luck!" We're still trying to figure it out. But it was good! We also got to take the high speed rail home because it was so late by the time we got done. 

Saturday, 2 December 2017
We did our weekly planning today trying to figure out how to use the smartphones, so that was entertaining. It's going to be an adjustment, but it's cool that God let these be invented for his purposes. Then we spent tonight with our Filipino investigators JR and Marvin who we met at the park a few weeks ago. They are here for work and are super cool! We shared the"Light the World" video on our smartphones and then they took us to eat Adobo. A traditional Filipino food. Good day!

Sunday, 3 December 2017
Sorry, this week has just been super rushed and busy, not a lot of cool things to talk about, but every week is full of learning and miracles. And the sacrament. It is an incredibly sacred time and I love it. We spent the day visiting a less active member with the bishop who helped him to find a place where he can get physical therapy for his knee that was messed up in a car accident. He also helped us to administer the sacrament, which this man hadn't taken in over five years. It was amazing to think of the new light the priesthood most likely brought into his life today. I am so grateful for it.

Have a great week friends and family. Stay close to the Savior!

-Elder Meanea