I Made It To Taiwan!!!

Wow!! What in the world is going on?? haha I'm finally in Taiwan and it is so crazy!!  My companion's name is Brad Neuhaus from Tennessee and he is soo cool! He played basketball at BYU Hawaii and is a baller.  We get along awesome so this is going to be fun. He's been on the Island for 7 months, super young for a trainer in Chinese!!  I am in downtown Gaoxiong, which is three hours south of Taichung. It is the second biggest city in Taiwan behind Taipei.  It is so crazy,  people everywhere, speaking 900 mph, and I can't understand any of it! haha Everyone here drives scooters around and I feel like I'm in New York City and going to get hit every 2 seconds haha but I love it!!!!

The First night in Taiwan, before I met my comp we went proselyting.  Me and Elder Booth (One of the APs) were on splits together.  We walked up to a girl and started talking to her, she was super receptive and so we invited her to take a tour across the street at the church.  She agreed and we went.  As we were explaining everything, it just felt right. We asked her to say a prayer and she did.  The spirit was so strong and I know she felt it too.  She is in Taichung, so I hope the Elder's up there can keep teaching her!

The next day we took a three hour bus ride down to Gaoxiong.  This island is soo pretty!  It is sooo humid here and like 95 degrees, I haven't stopped sweating since i've been here!!  We taught a couple lessons Friday and Saturday and it was cool to see me actually speak Chinese (Lessons are the only time I kind of feel comfortable speaking lol).  But Sunday was the best day so far.  Started the day off with a half hour bike to church and it was hard!! Going through so much traffic with a broken bike.  When we got there everyone was trying to talk to me and I couldn't understand a thing haha needless to say I was pretty flustered.  We got into sacrament and I decided to say a prayer for comfort and assurance that Heaveny Father would help me through this.  Nothing happened at first and I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting, right after I finsished, a crazy member in our ward started clapping.  It was really funny.  After church a guy randomly walked into the Building want to speak English with the "American Missionaries".  We told him we only teach English on Wednesday's but we would love to share a lesson with him.  The lesson consisted of him speaking English and my comp speaking Chinese.  I was saying much because I can't speak Chinese very well lol.  But my comp gave me the opportunity to bare my testimony about Jesus Christ.  As I did,  the spirit came into the room like a huge wave over us all.  I have never felt the spirit that strong when bearing testimony.  I know he felt it and agreed to come to English on Wednesday and probably share another message.  This experience answered my prayer,  I know as long as I am here and working as hard as I can, Heavenly Father is there and he is willing to help me in everything I do.

Then another story from last night.  We were proselyting around a cultural center and trying to talk to as many people as possible.  No one was listening and we started getting down.  I asked if we could say a prayer for guidance on where to go.  As the prayer ended, I had a strong feeling we needed to talk to a lady standing about 20 feet away.  We went up and starting talking to her and she was very receptive.  As we were talking, her 3 kids and sister walked up.  They all listened and agreed to meet with us this next week!! I know Heavenly Father is guiding us to his Children who are prepared to received the Gospel and I lucky enough to be an instrument in his hands. 

Thank you for all the love and support!! Talk to you next week!

Love

Elder Henderson

Week 8 - Last week in the MTC

Last week here in the MTC!! I am so excited to get out to the field! Time, in some ways flown by and others it feels like forever haha but anyway about it I leave this Tuesday at 5:50 AM!  I fly to San Francisco, then straight to Taipei, after i get there, I'll have 2.5 hour bus ride across Taiwan to Taichung! I am sooo excited!

This week hasn't been too exciting besides getting ready to leave.  On Sunday we had Vai Sikahema come and speak to us. It was awesome, he talked about​​ how one person can have a huge impact.  The coolest part about missions is that God has called us each to different places because there are certain people that only a certain Elder's can help.

Last night we heard from Lynn G. Robbins who's in the presidency of the 70.  He talked about how developing Christlike attributes for ourselves can help others! Really cool.

Good chapters

Alma 32

2 Nephi 31

If you get a chance watch Elder LeGrand R. Curtis Jr.'s talk about the Book of Mormon from this last conference, it was one of my favorites!

And Elder Bednar's!

Thanks for all the love and support,  I promise I'll actually have stuff to talk about now haha, next email will be from TAIWAN!!! 

1 Why Chinese is Hard!!

2.Sleep over

3.Floral Friday

Week 7 in the MTC

Another really good week here at the MTC! I am only 13 days away from leaving to Taiwan!!  We get our flight plans and I can't wait to get to the field!  Not a lot of new stuff happened besides Elder Bednar coming last night.  It was such a powerful talk, He talked about the importance of General Conference.  We are so lucky to be able to hear from chosen prophets from God every six months.  He said we need to Ask, Seek, Knock, and Dig.  Dig means to read, ponder, and study the words and really try to apply them to our lives.  D&C 1:38 Whether it be my mouth or by servants, it is the same.  

Sorry don't got a lot to right about today.  That's the life of a missionary in the MTC lol.  More to come in the next weeks though!

Good Chapters I read this week:

Mosiah 4

Helaman 5

Alma 42

Uchtdorf's talk this conference was incredible, if you get a chance, read it this week!

 District Buddies

 District Buddies

 Elder Stout - Friend from Home

Rockin his Best Friend necklace he got from his Baby Brother!

MTC Week 6

By far the best week of my mission so far!  It started last Friday with a pretty crazy experience.  We were chosen as the "best" Chinese district and so we had the opportunity to host three Chinese Government Religion officials. They are here in the US studying Christian Religion and wanted to see what the Mormon Church does and how missionaries learn Chinese.  We all introduced ourselves and it made me laugh because they were ALL filming us as we tried to speak Chinese, it was awesome!  With the Three of them they brought like 6 others. I'm not technically sure who they all were but there were a lot of people.  This was a huge deal,  the MTC President was in our classroom along with two members of the Seventy.  The coolest part of the experience was that I was in a room with like 9 Chinese people who I couldn't understand, but I felt the spirit.  I hope they did as well because this could be a big thing for the Church.  Who knows maybe missionaries in China are a lot closer than we think.

Conference was amazing.  It was so cool to watch with so many missionaries and the spirit was so strong.  I love how much the speakers focused on Jesus Christ, the Atonement, and the Book of Mormon.  Elder Holland's quote that was used a couple times really hit me hard: "We cannot sink lower than the Atonement's light can shine." It so important for us as missionaries to help people realize that however far off the path they think they are, their Heavenly Father is always willing to help us all return to him, it's just a matter of us reaching out towards him. Since I've been here and during the talks I realized how important the Book of Mormon is in helping people realize the importance of the church. Elder LeGrand R Curtis Jr.'s talk was powerful, as he told many stories of people being converted through discovering a Book of Mormon.  Gary E. Stevenson talked about the Book of Mormon truly being another testament of Jesus Christ.  The Lord is mentioned in 1 out of every 1.7 verses, which blew me away.  One of my favorite quotes "As we look to the Book of Mormon, We look to the Lord."

One of the best stories from the week:  A man in my ward, Will Thomas, who is in the tabernacle choir emailed me this past week, he talked about how my mission and how they were preparing for conference.  He told me about the final song "Let us all press on". When I saw him on the screen the spirit hit me soo strong and it brought tears to my eyes.  The  words have brought a totally different meaning to that song for me.  I went into that last song looking for him the entire time, the words hit me so powerfully and i started to cry.  about 3/4 through the song I hadn't seen him yet, but as the choir sang the last line of the song, He got a complete close up.  The spirit hit me so strong, I know for a fact it wasn't a coincidence that the camera was on him that last line,  because the spirit needed to testify to me of the importance of this work and he did it through him.

I'm so grateful for this opportunity to serve and help people realize they have a Heavenly Father who loves them.  I know this is the best thing for me to be doing with my life right now. 

Thanks for all the prayers and support! Until next week!

Elder Henderson

Link to Let us all press on from Sunday Conference. Final shot is of our Dear Friend Will Thomas!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw-o212ben4

The first 4 pictures are friends who went into the field this week! All Chinese speaking but serving in the US.

                                             The Chinese Government Religious officials

                                          More Friends from his zone leaving for the Field!

Long time Friend Hayden Brown Arriving to the MTC, preparing to serve in Ghana Africa!!