Humbling and Amazing Week!

Transcription from a voice recording

Hello, well right now it is about 6:49 a.m. on Monday. We're just chilling getting ready to go out and email. Well it has been a crazy crazy week. So, last Sunday morning I got a text from president saying I would be moving up to Jiayi to be a new Zone leader. It has been a crazy week. Definitely a little humbling and has helped me to grow a Lot. And so, last Monday I got here and we went to Costco and got some pizza and some food. Then, we came back to the apartment then I met the ward meber we had met her at night and we went out and visited a couple other members. Tuesday, we met with one of the investigators who has a baptismal date for March 3rd. He is actually in a city close to Taipei so we Skyped with him. We had a good lesson over Skype, then that night we went over and met with the Bishop. We played a little Scripture Mastery Jeopardy game with his three children who are 11, 7 and 3. Was super super fun. The little buddy reminded me of Isaiah. He's 3 years old. He is super awesome! We also met with a guy named Ivan and shared the restoration of the Gospel with him. Companionship Unity was definitely there and it was super fun to go back and forth sharing and asking questions. We invited him to be baptised but he said that at this time he has his Buddhist religion that he wants to stick with. But that's okay, we'll keep working with him. Then we had District training meeting. That was the first time a long time that I haven't been in charge and taught one of those. Because I've been a district leader for so long. But it was Elder Farnsworth who came to Taiwan with me. He gave the district training meeting and did a very very good job. It's super cool to be serving around him in a district with him because I haven't seen him since the MTC. On Friday, we went up to Mission Leadership Council which is all of the Zone leaders and sister training leaders and the assistants to the president and president all get together and discuss the work. It was super super cool. It was super awesome to see all the points of view of all the leaders of our mission. Able to discuss and to help each other out. It was a very inspiring and super uplifting experience. We did that then Saturday We went to Doolio where I was just with Elder Strong, I was just in that area with the Elder Strong. We went there to do a baptismal interview now, as long as we do a lot of baptismal interviews and I was able to help with that.And it was a very cool experience. I love giving baptismal interviews because it really gives me a chance to get to know these people and to know their testimony. Spiritually bond with people. I'm grateful for the chance I had to do it. That night we came back and contacted a little bit, trying to set up appointments with some people. We set up with some people on the street. This area is super cool. It's a big city, and I haven't been in a big city in a long time. It's great to see lots of people on the big streets at all times. Sunday we went to church. I got to meet the ward. It's definitely the smallest ward I've served in so; about 40 people. It was crazy to see how small it was. I bore my testimony and shared her and I chapter 10 verse to about coming out of Christ and for my testimony about coming unto Christ. I talked about the power coming unto him. I got to meet a lot of members. The stake president and first counselor are in our Ward. The second counselor is in Doolio and now I met these two,now that I'm serving here. It's fun to know the full stake presidency. The Zone leaders in each Zone get to meet with the stake presidency monthly and I'm excited to do that. It's been a crazy and humbling week. See the Lord qualify his servants because I definitely have not felt qualified to be serving here, but I'm grateful for the chance to do it. I'm grateful for the opportunity to do it. Last night we both had a feeling we needed to go visit one of their older investigators. They met them a couple weeks ago but it is been a couple weeks since we made contact with them so we went to their house. When we got there the wife and 2 kids were leaving. We met them on the street and they were very excited to see us they said to come back on Tuesday and they would meet with us. But, then the grandma said come on inside and talk with us. So we went inside and talked with the grandma and grandpa and shared a little message with them. It was super cool to be able to talk to them, so now we can teach the grandma and grandpa in and the mom and the children. I hope that we can continue to help this family. We also met the super cool guy on the road last night we were talking with him and sharing with him about prayer. Then all the sudden our Ward Mission leader pulled up on the side of the road next to us. He started to accompany the lesson and for his testimony on the power of prayer prayer. It was a huge miracle. So now we're meeting with that guy this next week. It is freezing cold here. Members have been bringing blankets to us to keep us warm at night because there are no heaters in Taiwan. Apartments don't have heaters. You have to buy a personal portable heater and we don't have one. So the members have brought us blankets. It's a lot colder than my last City. That's basically it, we had a great week, and I'm excited to continue. We have zone conference tomorrow and me and Elder Densley will be doing a training to about 20 other missionaries, so I'm excited to do it. We also start exchanges this week I'll be going on exchanges with two different companionship in the zone. The most exchanges i've gone on in a transfer is two or three and now this transfer I'm going on 9. That's a good opportunity to learn from a lot of missionaries and to meet a lot of missionaries. We have to change with assistants next week and Zone conference this week. So, time is going to go very fast. Elder Densley is super super awesome and it has been great to get to know him and to serve with him. That's about it have a good day bye bye

Jiayi City is great, a lot bigger than Chaozhou! Comp is awesome, very great chinese! Zone, super awesome, lot's of very good missionaries! We had a great week, my comp loves to take pics so you will be getting A LOT of pics this transfer! We had a couple earthquakes last night, super crazy! That's super awesome, the year i got here was the 60th year anniversary and they had a huge celebration the couple weeks before i got to Taiwan :(( i barely missed it! We have been starting to run every other morning and I am getting in better shape. (well last week we only ran once) lol but have made a goal to be better! Elder Brenchly is super super awesome and in a week time has already become a good pal of mine!