30 April 2018 - Jeff Said Yes!

"I have a bike here on the earth, it's been so good to me,

I hope it last 2 more months riding, not eternity!"

Monday, 23 April 2018
After some fun buying a new broom for our apartment, Elder Bode and I rode over to an apartment building in our area to meet with Mrs. Wu and Mr. Wang. They just moved from Taipei a few months ago, and had a Mormon friend up there who always invited them to church. They have gone a few times and know it's good, but they didn't really have a chance to meet with missionaries there until our zone leaders ran into them in a 7-11 and invited them to meet. It was a cool meeting and a a cool miracle to see how God gives people lots of chances to accept the gospel. 

Tuesday, 24 April 2018
We met with Flora again, and she is doing great! We brought up baptism and she said that she would think about it. We had a really good lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the power that it can bring into our lives. It was incredible to see her start to realize just how much the Savior can help us, and how more than being just a great teacher, He is our Savior. He is my Savior. We also got invited to the Town hall to teach English for an hour to the accounting department, that was pretty fun! Their English wasn't great, but everbody enjoyed it. We went with the 4th ward sisters and taught them how to "Ask for Directions." We're basically saviors on mount zion for when these people go to America. 

Wednesday, 25 April 2018
Today was cool because we went to the park this morning to contact people, and after an hour of not finding anyone, we were getting ready to head back to our bikes when we decided we would contact the last man we saw sitting on a bench. His name was Mr. Tsai. He is currently homeless and jobless, but before missionaries had met with him, he is very Christian and believes in God, and he had a Book of Mormon before. So we sat down to teach him a little bit and give him his own Book of Mormon that he can start reading again. He was really thankful and kept saying "Thank the Lord." It was cool to see a little last minute miracle in God's hand. 

Thursday, 26 April 2018
I taught the district meeting today, and it was all about Accountibility. I learned a lot from preparing about how Accountibility isn't a scary thing. I shared with them about how my dad always taught me to "Return and report" when I was growing up when anyone assigned me to do anything. It was cool to see how this teaching has helped me be a better missionary. Like we've starting sending a small written report to the Bishop each week about how missionary work in the area is going, and I have seen his attitude towards missionaries become more trusting and he wants to help us work more with our investigators and members. 

Friday, 27 April 2018
Another meet with Flora this morning in which we talked about a lot of stuff. Afterwards we had our weekly planning and met with a super cool referall named Arvin. He was found by the sisters, and was really willing to come meet and learn more. He has some Christian friends and he was curious about what we believe. I think he has real potential to become a super great investigator. 

Saturday, 28 April 2018
We ran into the other Elders investigator on the street while we were contacting, which was super cool because that is the third time he'd met missionaries. We went to lunch together and he showed us this great Panini place near the mall where we were proselyting. Then a big miracle happened tonight. We met with our friend from English class, Jeff, and we taught him about the Gospel of Christ. After helping him understand it, Elder Bode invited him to be baptized. He thought about it and said YES! His date is for the 26th of May and we are so excited for him. 

Sunday, 29 April 2018
None of our investigators were able to make it to church, the curse of my mission, but we still had good meetings and got to know some of the members more. I love how you can grow to know and love these people in such a short amount of time. It's really another miracle of the mission. And that was our week here in the ancient city of Tainan. Elder Bode and I at least have 5 more together, we'll see what happens for my last transfer, but I'm really excited about the work here, and know it's all in God's hands, as are we!

-Elder Meanea

23 April 2018 - 2 Transfers to Go!

"Called to serve him, three more months of mission
miracles abound when we work hard!"
(Copyright Elder Meanea 2018)

Monday, 16 April 2018
We spent the day biking out to a big mall that has a place called "The Harbor" which is a really expensive buffet that is reaaaaaly good. So we ate until we felt ready to die, and then biked back a half-hour to our area and got back in time to get ready to go out for the night! After a good night of proselyting, including talking to a lot of people exercising in a park, we went on home. 

Tuesday, 17 April 2018
Today a member named Mama Lin took us to a hotpot in our area for lunch. It was cool because all the workers and the boss knew her and the missionaries since she brings them here so often. I actually ordered the seafood platter for my hotpot, and you know what? I liked it! Yeah, the mission is a place of miracles folks. Anyways, sorry if the email is a little more sparse this week. It was sort of hectic and we didn't get to meet with a lot of investigators, but we still saw a lot of miracles!

Wednesday, 18 April 2018
We taught our friend Mushroom about the 10 commandments today! She liked the lesson and told us afterwards that she learned that we can express love for our Father in Heaven by keeping His commandments, so I hope that that carries over into the other commandments that we need to teach her. We also have a great member, Sister Chen who really fellowships her after lessons and they talk for a long time. We had to meet in McDonalds since we didn't have a brother there, but that also meant Sister Chen bought us smoothies. 

Thursday, 19 April 2018
We also went on our last exchange from last night. I was with Elder Thorup, who I served with in Gaoxiong before. He is a funny, funny Elder. We had a lesson planned this morning but it fell through, so we contacted some people in the park we were at. We met this nice old Grandma who had been to Salt Lake and seen the tabernacle before, so that was really cool! Then I gave the last District Training meeting of the transfer and we finished our exchange. Tonight we also met with a member who got baptized two years ago and heard about his conversion story. So that was super cool!

Friday, 20 April 2018
A happy and sad miracle today. Happy was that we met with Flora, who is really getting into all the doctrines of the Church. She loves the Bible but is appreciating the insight in the Book of Mormon. We had a great lesson about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and what it helps us with in life. Then this afternoon we met again with Mushroom and had to hand her off to the Anding Elders, because after six months of investigating we found out she lives in their area. xD But it was good, she took it well and we will video message into the next lesson to help the transition go smoothly. 

Saturday, 21 April 2018
I had some coupons for Coldstone, so we went there for lunch with our district. It was still pretty expensive, but pretty tasty. A cool miracle is that we have been messaging a kid we just ran into in 30 seconds on the river. He didn't seem that interested but we got his Line (Taiwan/Japan/Asia messaging APP) and he started chatting with us about how God could help him in his life, and he has a lot of interest in learning about what God's relationship is with him. 

Sunday, 22 April 2018

Lots of Goodbyes today, and a few miracles! We said bye to our district members at church, and then we went to the Su Family's house for a lesson with their cousin that came to church last week! He also brought his mom, and we got to share the gospel with two new investigators that just stepped out of the blue for us! It was so cool, and they really want to learn. The Su family seemed so happy. Then we went to the Sang Family's house for FHE. We took a puzzle we made but kept a few of the pieces and told them to put it together to illustrate the need for a restoration, it went pretty well. And now the transfer is over!

Lots of people are gone, but I'm still here. And I count it a blessing. I'm so happy to have TWO MORE TRANSFERS TO SERVE. Let's make them the best yet.

-Elder Meanea

16 April 2018 - Member Missionary Miracles

"I looked out the window and what did I see?
The world melting at 30 degrees C!" 
(Copyright Elder Meanea 2018)

Monday, 9 April 2018
We had a fun P-Day on the beach and visiting some cool older streets here in Tainan is actually the oldest city in Taiwan, so there is a lot to look at here! Hopefully I've still got at least two transfers left here. After P-Day it was a normal day of contacting and finding new investigators to teach the Gospel to! 

Tuesday, 10 April 2018
We had three lessons today, which made us very happy. The first was with Flora, a lady who really wants to understand the Bible and we are slowly helping her understand the importance of the Restoration of the Gospel. The second was with another investigators named Mushroom, who is really closer to having a baptismal date and has a lot of faith and wants to start keeping all the commandments. The third was with Jeff, our English class friend who Elder Bode invited to church and he came. So that was a full day of teaching, which makes for happy missionaries!

Wednesday, 11 April 2018
We had a full of day of assorted activities. I also ate a blueberry burger tonight, and that was a singular experience, let me tell you. Other than that we taught English class tonight and then got to share about the Restoration to everyone by showing the Restoration video after class for our spiritual share. 

Thursday, 12 April 2018
A bit less eventful of a week, but I got to go on exchanges with Elder Perkins this week in the fourth ward. He is a really dedicated missionary, and we were able to put some good work in while Elder Bode lead the area for the first time! He didn't even get lost once, I'm so proud of him. We both got new investigators while we were on exchanges, so it's always fun to see the miracles that pop up when we are together that give you that little extra boost to keep working hard.

Friday, 13 April 2018
We met with a village elder earlier this week who gave us some opportunities to help him in a park cleaning up as a district, so we went and had a good time between weekly planning and other studies we had to do. Then tonight we had a cool miracle lesson with a Member family, the Su's. We went to their house and had a sumptuous dinner, after which we shared about President Nelson's talk on Prayer, and the wife told us she has a goal this year of inviting 4 friends to church with her, and she wants help to know how to do it, that was so cool! So we will be going back next week to help with some missionary member training. 

Saturday, 14 April 2018
We had an Easter activity for the primary that we helped put on that turned out pretty well! And then afterwards our district all shared two 4-person sized bowls of Taiwanese icecream. We were so close to finishing it off, but in the end there was just some ice we couldn't slurp up. It's starting to get really hot here! 

Sunday, 15 April 2018
We had a great meeting, and part way through the cousin of a member showed up by himself, and he had never come before. The sisters had taught him a little bit before, but he just showed up by himself to the meeting. That was super cool, and Mushroom also came to Sacrament! So there were miracles all around! And we will be meeting with the cousin next week after church, so that's super exciting. 

Miracles come every day, and I'm glad I've learned how to see them a little better. I want to live in the moment every day, because wherever we are, it won't last forever! And I know there isn't a day that Heavenly Father hasn't prepared to bring us joy. So go and find the joy this week!

-Elder Meanea

8 April 2018 - Missionary General Conference

"We thank thee O God for a prophet, who can still ski the slopes 'o so fly!
who tells us to follow the savior! And laughs with a twinkle in his eye!"
(Copyright Elder Meanea, 2019)

Monday, 2 April 2018
Today was a pretty fun P-Day, I haven't been a disappointment to Elder Bode yet! We went and looked at some malls (there are at least 3 major ones in our area) and ended up at this store called "Decathalon." It's basically all the sporting goods you could ever want at missionary-affordable prices. So I am slowly replacing the running shorts I've been wearing for nearly 6 years now with new ones. You can't say I didn't make them last. And then the night was contacting around the city. All in all, a pretty good day. 

Tuesday, 3 April 2018
We had a really cool lesson with an old investigator, Sister Wu. She is a little older, and started coming because a recent convert friend of her said she was going to church and she wanted to come as well. She has been baptized 3 times already in different churches, so she's a little slow on commiting to do it again, but we had a great lesson to help her understand the importance of acting on the things that God tells her to do, and she agreed to bring a question she wanted answered to conference!

Wednesday, 4 April 2018
Miracles. Today we went to the funeral of a member who got in a car accident last week. He was more advanced in age, but it was still sad to see him pass away. The miracle though, came from the example of the family who lost him. After the funeral that day bishop called me over and said there was somebody he wanted me to meet. It was a more somber looking young adult who had been in the back for the whole funeral. He said he was interested in learning about the gospel, and that was all I needed to hear. We shared a little bit about how we can all pray, prayed with him, and set up to meet the next day so he could learn more about his relationship with God. Afterwards the Bishop explained that the young man was the person who hit the member accidentally. He's facing a man-slaughter charge, and if the family had decided to sue him, because of Taiwanese law he would automatically get 2 years in prison. But the family all forgave him, and nobody from the ward hated him. This was incredible for him to experience, and he literally looked at me and said "I want to know why you people are the way you are." God prepares a way.

Thursday, 5 April 2018
I held a district training meeting today, it was about "go about doing good," which is a section in Preach my Gospel I would invite EVERYONE to go and take a look at. It talks basically about living our religion and always watching out for those around us and ways we can help them. If you are learning about your new task in ministering to others from conference, I would suggest you go to page 168 of Preach my Gospel and study about ways the Lord would have you serve your brothers and sisters.

Friday, 6 April 2018
Weekly planning and interviews with President today. It was all pretty good! I really enjoyed my interview with president, he taught me a lot about how we and the Lord are the ones that know what we need to change to come closer to Him. It's really hard for others to see that. He encouraged me to find a time and a place to really ponder what things in my life are keeping me from being closer to the Savior, and in prayer try to understand how I can get past that. 

Saturday, 7 April 2018
CONFERENCE. I could just copy and paste everything I wrote down in my notes and it wouldn't be enough to communicate how amazing this time was. The Spirit was there during the solemn assembly, and it was pretty special that this is the first time I actually had a chance as an adult who really understand what is going on to sustain our new prophet for the first time. I wanted a witness of the Spirit that he is God's prophet, and I believe I felt the Spirit while sutaining him, but I also had the impression that if I really wanted to know for myself, I would have to study it out. And president has given us a challenge to begin reading all of President Nelson's talks for ourself. If you want to do so, here's a really useful link to all his conference talks.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/speakers?speaker=Russell-M.-Nelson&lang=eng&encoded=true

Sunday, 8 April 2018
The end of conference. I get so excited for it and it's over so fast! But I really believe I learned a lot about what the Lord would have me do to be more a missionary that can serve Him these last three months. I know that He inspires us and watches out for us always. I love you all so much friends and family. This is Christ's church, and the Book of Mormon is the tool God gave me to come and know Him for myself. I hope we will all treasure and use it as it was meant to be used.

-Elder Meanea

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

26 March 2018 - Taiwanese Zoo and a Stake 5K Run

"Today while the sun shines, biking all the way
we'll tell all the people to smile today!"
(Copyright Elder Meanea 2018)

Monday, 19 March 2018
We had a very... very interesting P-Day. Some Elders told us of a zoo that they knew and wanted to take us to. We biked about a half hour out there and found out it was a place called the "World Snake King" (Hopefully everybody thought back to the movie Courageous) And when we got there we saw alligators, horribly poisonous snakes, monkeys and tigers. And a really cute little pig. Then after the festivities we went to the Bishops house and had a really good meeting about what we could do to continue lifting the ward. I've never worked with a bishop that wanted so much to lift his ward members and wanted our help. I think this is the beginning of an amazing stay in Tainan. 

When asked why cute little fluffy chicks were in a snakes cage, Elder Meanea said, "snakes get cold, obviously. They need cuddle buddies." ...We'll just go with that...

Tuesday, 20 March 2018
Most of today was Elder Bode's first zone conference on Island! It was really good, we talked about really going out and applying our faith and how we are not responsible for the outcome, but we are responsible for how much we put into it. I just can't comprehend the massive role that faith has to play in our whole lives. It is literally the power by which Heaven comes to our aid, so that seems like a kind of important thing to understand. It seems the more I learn about Faith, the more I learn I truly need to focus on strengthening what faith I have. 

Wednesday, 21 March 2018
We had a good day of proselyting which ended up in us teaching English class tonight. It is the first time I've actually been assigned to teach an English class since Training. How times have changed. It went pretty well, and we met Jeff, who is a cool guy who comes into play later in this weeks story. I realize more and more everyday just how good of a place Tainan is. I'm so excited I hopefully get to spend the rest of my mission here. It's just so awesome!

Thursday, 22 March 2018
We ended up not having three lessons that we had scheduled today, so that was pretty dissapointing, but we still had faith by the end of the day, and while we were sitting in a Family mart after getting stood up, we started talking to a man sitting next to us who had a samurai sword. Obviously we had to talk to him, and come to find out that he was a devout Christian but never went to a set church because they all do things differently than in the Bible. Well did we have a message for him. He agreed to meet Sunday night to learn more, but didn't want to leave a phone number, so I had little confidence in him coming. 

Friday, 23 March 2018
One of the people who stood us up yesterday was Sister Yang. We call her Golden because she is golden. She likes God and the Talmud and wants to learn more about our message on Families. So she called us up and apologized that she had to work the day before and couldn't come, and asked if we could meet right then! We ran on over to a park and sat down with her for about 40 minutes and explained the restoration. When we prayed, she said she felt like God heard her prayer. It was a great lesson and Elder Bode did great explaining the first vision. 

Saturday, 24 March 2018
Our morning was taken up by a stake activity, a 5K! I felt just at home. It was a good little run. And Jeff our friend from English class came to the run. I was talking to some members while Jeff was practicing his English with Elder Bode, and Elder Bode just invited him to go to church the next day on the spot. He said yes! So that was a cool little miracle from my awesome Trainee.

Sunday, 25 March 2018
And he came! Jeff came today and seemed to have a pretty good time at church. The meeting was good and presented a lot more opportunities to get to know members. And then tonight we went to the lesson with the Samarai sword guy. I didn't think he was coming, but who showed up? Him! We had a great lesson and he agreed to meet again Monday night.

So it's been a really good week, always full of miracles and awesome things. I look forward to another one learning better how to have faith and repent, because these are the things that everyday bring me closer to Christ.

Have an amazing week my friends and family. Find the miracles and the joy!

-Elder Meanea

19 March 2018 - New Area, New Companion

"Hello, hello, hello, hello, we welcome you this week hello!
Hello, hello, hello, hello, Taiwan has come your way!
To be a missionary in a very special place and work right now in a very special waaaaayyyyy!"
(Elder Meanea 2018)

Monday, 12 March 2018
I spent most of this week just hanging out with Elder Fanning and Elder Jones before I went to go pick up my trainee. Elder Jones came down from Taichung to replace me, so it was fun to work with him for a couple of days. We got some stuff done we needed to during the day and then went out at night to a lesson with Sister Xie at a members house. She ended up not showing up because of work, but we went and ate with the member anyways, it was pretty good. We shared about why the church isn't perfect, which is a pretty interesting topic. When I say that, I mean that sometimes things don't run as smoothly as some people would like, but I say the church is still perfect because it is established by God and it really does what He wants it to, it helps us grow and be more Christlike. It was a pretty interesting conversation to have. 

Tuesday, 13 March 2018
Today was a day of me not knowing exactly what was going on, I am whitewashing an area, so I don't exactly know where the keys or the sim card is for the phone in that area, so I just hung out another day with the Zone leaders and sat there waiting for my trainee, but I was so happy to get to stay in my area a little while longer because I'm going to miss it so much, so it is pretty much a small miracle for me. 

Wednesday, 14 March 2018
Another curveball this week is that we found out today that some of the trainees weren't going to make it on island for another week and we weren't going to find out until tonight who actually needed to buy train tickets to get up to Taichung for the meeting tomorrow. We had a great last little lesson with Brother Ke the less active and he agreed to start reading the Book of Mormon stories with his 7-year-old son and to invite his wife to the self reliance class! After that, I got a text from president telling me that my trainee was actually there, and that I got to go get him tomorrow!

Thursday, 15 March 2018
An early train to Taichung. I got to sit next to my first trainee Elder Hansen, who is also training this transfer! He will be up in Shalu, north of Taichung a little bit. It was so fun to see him, and he's training really early! We got to the mission home and had a training with president about what he kind of expects from us as we help these new missionaries learn the ropes, and it really stuck out to me that all we need to do is to follow the Savior and they will follow us! And then I met Elder Bode, my new trainee! (Boe-D) He is super awesome and is from Chicago, where my older sister served her mission! We got some food and headed south on the train for Tainan. The first day was really interesting and unforgettable. We got to the apartment and got the number of the member who drove us, dropped our luggage in the room and went to go get our bikes, but we realized we didn't have any... and so we started walking for Costco, because we agreed to meet the sisters there who had our sim card (So we therefore had no way to get in touch with them) so after a 40 minute walk in which is started raining pretty heavily, we made it to Costco late, and they were already gone! So we said a prayer and walked around looking for some wifi to use, but settled on using a convenience store Payphone. We called the member which was the only number we had, and he gave us the sisters number, which was off because it was ours then, and the ward mission leaders number (which was old and didn't work anymore). So, we finally walked another 40 minutes in the pouring rain to our chapel, where we found both the ward mission leader and the sisters. Happy day one Elder Bode.

Friday, 16 March 2018
We had some weekly planning and then got on our way to our first district meeting here. I didn't know anyone besides Elder Thorup who used to serve in my last zone. It was pretty good, we talked about the power of Family history. Then we spent the night going around talking to people and finding prepared souls. It was a pretty good day. 

Saturday, 17 March 2018
We had some service today! We went to a park and helped rake up leaves, and the ladies in charge just loved it. It was pretty fun. Then we also found some people on the roads that Agreed to meet with us. There are also a lot of good investigators already in our area, so that's pretty encouraging. It's a little stressful to try and lead out in everything, but it is teaching me to be more reliant on the Spirit. So that's really cool. 

Sunday, 18 March 2018
Our first sabbath in the ward. Elder Bode gave an awesome testimony on the stand when we had a chance to introduce ourselves. Then we spend the afternoon going around to some more parks to find prepared people to come to church. A member from a different ward invited us over to dinner, which was Elder Bode's first experience eating pig ear! Those are some good pictures. We finished the night with some tracting, and a lady we ran into said we could come back Monday night to teach her more about what we have to share!

It's been a long week, with a lot of changes and a little stress, but I have felt cared for every step of the way. I hope you all feel the same my amazing friends and family. I love you all, and hope you have a great week!

-Elder Meanea