Bike Crash!!

Me and My comp had quite the experience this week. lol Started off last P-day, we were riding down the road on the way over to the church.  Me being myself, decided to stand up on my bike and ride with no hands.  Because you know, I looked sick while doing it.  And as I was doing this I was probably going around 15 mph, so pretty fast for a bike.  My comp was following behind me when He decided He wanted to pass me.  Because I wasn't sitting down or using my hands I kind of started veering to the side but I couldn't see Him.  So as He tried to pass me, the gap between me and the curb got smaller and smaller.  He tried to squeeze through but didn't have any luck.  He had the great idea to push me to make room hahhaha, but our bikes ended up getting tangled up and his hit the curb and we both went flying. I went directly over my handle bars and went shoulder first into the ground, and then skidded for a good 5 or 6 ft. My comp hit the curb and went straight into it cutting up and bruising his hands pretty good! And as He skid across the ground ripped a couple holes in his shirt.  The best part of the story is that after like 5 seconds of laying on the road, we both just bust out laughing sooooo hard.  It was sooo funny.  My comp got wrecked pretty good, but I was completely fine.  The only thing I can think of is that we were protected!  The Lord is truly looking out for us.  No matter how goofy us missionaries are he is helping us every step of the way!  I can't stop laughing everytime I think of this story.  Just imagine the local missionaries just running into eachother and wrecking on their bikes!! Hahaha we are so goofy.  Plus tons of people saw us so no big deal. :)

On a better note, Jean got Confirmed yesterday! She has a hard schedule with working in Taiwan and so this is the soonest she could get confirmed.  It was one of the coolest experiences I've had on my mission so far.  A brother in our ward from the phillipines confirmed her in Tagalog, As I stood in the circle I did not understand a word of it.  But the special thing was, as he gave the blessing, I knew exactly when he said receive the holy ghost because the spirit came into the room soo strong.  You may not be able to understand the words, but the spirit of the Lord speaks every language and testifies of truth! I know for a fact that this work is true, the scriptures say God's church will be taken to every nation, kindred, and tongue upon the earth. And I have sen the truthfulness of that!

This week I read the talk "The road to Demascus" by Elder Uchtdorf.  It is a powerful talk, and made me think if I am waiting too much for things to come to me.  It talks about Us as members and none members, are we waiting for God to give us a sign? Or are we actively looking for one? It has changed my mentality,  In Alma it says sometimes you will not be shown until after the trial of your faith.  Faith requires action and when you have a desire to know God is there, Jesus is your Savior, and the Book of Mormon is true. That's when he'll testify to you that it is true, but you have to do your part!

My Dad emailed me this week about Stake Conference back home, I have been reading about it and he helped me think about it some more.  Coming to a knowledge of Christ and Heavenly Father, comes from doing the simple things. Praying everyday, reading scriptures, fasting, paying tithing.  These are the things that keep us close to Him. We all need to work for this because it truly is special!

I am grateful to be a part of this wonderful and true work.  Thank you for all the love and support!  Love you all!

Elder Henderson

The Power of the Book of Mormon

We had a good week here!  Not a lot happened out of the ordinary.  I did break my bike chain, i was going up a super busy steep bridge and my chain just snapped!! pretty scary, i walked it up to the top and then just road down the hill to a bike store.  Got it fixed fairly easily!  
During contacting this week I realized how powerful the Book of Mormon is. On Thursday we contacted 7/11s with a Book of Mormon in hand. Doing this we shared scriptures based on the needs of the people. It was really cool to see the response of the people and they were drawn to and interested in what the book contained. Super powerful, Investigators recognize truth when reading. We had a cool experience last week with a lady. She is Christian and has a strong belief in the Bible. At first she was a little hesitant about the Book of Mormon, but through sharing the story of Joseph Smith and other parts of the first lesson. She started to accept and read it. The gospel just makes sense and has answers to every question we could have. I am very grateful for the opportunity to share. She has started to realize the importance of a modern day prophet and reads President Monson's talks frequently now.  I am grateful for the chance to share the gospel.  By praying and reading with a sincere heart, you will receive an answer it is true!  Hope Everyone had a great Christmas and New Years!!! Right now it's about 85 degrees and beautiful!

                                         View of Kaohsiung from on top of our building!

Everyone wears masks like this, some random dude on the street gave it to me because he said the pollution was bad for my health lol

                                                         My bike chain snapped this week!

                                      Some dude unicycling down the road with a bottle balance on his head

Christmas Miracles! Shengdanjie kuaile (Merry Christmas)

What a week!!! Starting off with the best Christmas Morning!! Jean was baptized! I had the opportunity to baptize her.  It was such a cool experience, she was so prepared and her testimony is soo strong.  I am so grateful for her and the chance to help her learn about the church.  It was definitely an experience I will never forget.

Having Christmas on a mission is definitely a different, but it really helped me to focus on what is more important.  Although presents and Santa are fun, the real reason we celebrate Christmas is to celebrate the birth of the most important man to ever live on Earth. Jesus Christ lived a perfect, humble, and selfless life, and died for all of our sins. It is the best gift that we could ever ask for and it is free, as long as we have faith in Him and show our love, as best we can. He knows we are not perfect and that is why He did this. So we can repent and become better people!

We had a wonderful dinner at a members home for Christmas and they so kindly let us call home! But, Still didn't feel like we had Christmas here!  Its 80° and the Taiwanese do not celebrate it! I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve and do the Lord's work!!!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and have a great New Year!! Love you all!!

Elder Henderson

 

Taiwan is Incredible!!

Taiwan is Incredible.  Every week I'm here I love it more and more!  Besides some of the food,  I could really go for not eating some of this ever again haha.  This week went to the Bishop's house for dinner.  And... for desert we got to eat, smashed up tree fungus in the texture of apple sauce in like this cold soup.  Yeah it's about as gross as it sounds! haha I also got to eat 1000 year old egg, it literally tastes a thousand years old.  But other than that we are doing awesome here!!

We had another great week. Funny story, We were contacting and some dude was walking at like the same pace as me like 10 ft away so I went up to him and starting talking to him. He ended up being awesome and we shared like the whole restoration with him and a ton of stuff. Right in the middle of us talking to him a random lady walks up and just gets in my comps face and is just staring at him.  She then hands her dogs leash to him and looks like she is absolutely crazy.  So after we were kinda just ignoring her and talking to the other guy, she just walked away. But kept coming back and just trying to look over our shoulders and stuff really awkward. hahah So then we finished talking to the dude and she came running up to us and said she wants to meet with us really bad hahah so we set up another time and hopefully will be meeting with her next week!

Jean passed her baptismal interview this week and it is for sure that she is getting baptized on Christmas!! We are sooo excited for her!! It has been a great week here in Taiwan! Love this place and the Gospel! Have a great week and Christmas!! It's still like 70 degrees here, which makes it so weird to think it's almost christmas! But remember the Lord and why we actually celebrate this holiday.  Jesus lives for each of Us and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to testify of this happy and hopeful message.  Love you all!

I've seen this guy in a few pictures but not sure who he is! Buddies!!

Mikey said, some awesome Ward members brought them leftovers!! Such giving people!!

Mikey Loves Most of the Food!! He says this is Meat, rice and Veges!!

Many Miracles and Stinky Tofu

You can follow Elder Henderson's Instagram that is maintained by his mom. His handle is @eldermikeyhenderson

This has been an amazing week!  I want to start off with the biggest miracle of all:  Last night we met with a lady named Gina, that Elder Neuhaus met on exchanges on Tuesday.  He said she was super Christian and didn't know about it.  During our lesson last night we taught her about the plan of salvation and it went really well.  Afterwards we invited her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.  She told us a story,  When Elder Neuhaus first met her he gave her a pamphlet about the church,on the front of it is the picture of Jesus holding a lamb.  She told us that when she was a kid she had a dream and this picture was in it.  She has been Christian because she knew it was Christ, but had never been able to find the picture.  She said when she got the pamphlet she instantly remembered her experience and knew that the church was true.  She told us she had stayed up that whole night reading and praying and already knows it's true,  She will be getting baptized on January 21st! Heavenly Father prepares souls in many different ways.

Our Philippine investigator that is getting baptized on Christmas, came to church yesterday and loved it! It was awesome to see how the ward just accepted her and it strengthened her testimony even more. 

Like I said we went on exchanges this week,  I went with Elder Collett who is from Sandy and has been out for over a year.  I went to his area, Shizhong, which is the coastal area right next to Lingya.  We went contacting at a park and met a cool dude.  We shared all about the restoration and the Book of Mormon.  The spirit was soo strong and it was honestly probably the best Chinese I have ever spoken.  At the end, He told us he would never forget this experience, it had changed him.  That he had never felt something like this.  I then testified to him that it was the Spirit telling him that it was true.  I've never felt so comfortable speaking Chinese in my whole life haha Hopefully he meets with those Elders again!

Another cool experience.  Wednesday night we taught our usual English Class.  Afterwards we did our spiritual share and watched The Restoration, the movie about Joseph Smith's story. If you haven't seen it you should because it is powerful.  After we had a guy named Patrick come up and talk to us.  He has been coming to English class for a while and never wants to meet with the missionaries.  After watching the movie he came up to us and wanted to meet.  So, we met with him the following day.  We talked about the movie and he said he felt something special,  He said He feels like he has the same question as Joseph.  We shared about the restoration and it went awesome! The spirit was so strong and I know it testified to him. 

If you have a willing heart and a desire to know it's true.  The spirit will tell you it's true.    Through reading the Book of Mormon and prayer, it has changed my life, and I have the opportunity to see it change so many lives here.  This gospel is true and brings so much peace and happiness to those who seek it!

I love this church and I love this work! I'm so grateful for this opportunity. Love you all!

And good luck to Dalan Bailey and Charlie Baggett as they enter the MTC this week!

Love,

Elder Henderson

    Oh yeah and I tried Stinky Tofu and it is terrible I don't recommend it haha.

   

                                                  Mikey's silly personality....he's still got it!!

                                            The Man on the left is Elder Henderson's Great Uncle!!

                                                                     Goofy Boy!!