This isn't the end ....

Well. On Saturday I passed my two years mark which means I am officially 加班ing haha. That just means extra blessings! This time has gone by too quick. 

This week was super fun! We got to go on exchanges with the second ward elders and I had the privilege to go with the legend himself, Elder Zeyer!!!! He is one of the best missionaries I have ever served around and he is only in his third transfer. He has so much faith and knows how to rely on the Lord. We had a great time together and were able to meet with Brother Shen. We talked to him about his smoking problem and he said that he has been smoking less. It's only about two packs a week. So we talked about how Christ can change us and how if he asks in faith, then Christ will help him overcome these cravings to smoke. He reset a baptismal goal for the end of the month and I am excited to see what happens with him!

This week we have been visiting a lot of members and teaching them about the Book of Mormon. By that I mean, we read President Monson's talk about the Power of the Book of Mormon and then we give them a new copy of it, invite them to write their testimony in the front, and then pray about who they can share it with. They have all been very excited to do it! Also we started this new thing that every Sunday morning before church, we have a 'How to share the gospel' class. Right now we are working with the youth and are teaching them simple ways to share the gospel with their friends. It has been so fun! Working with the members is the best! It's something that I wish I would have done since the beginning of my mission. So to all of those who are on a mission that are reading this, WORK WITH THE WARD RIGHT NOW!!! I love this ward and the people I have met in Taiwan so much!! It will be so hard to leave them and I just don't want to do it.

We also had an opportunity to have interview with President this week. What a man. I love him! I think the coolest thing he said to me was when we were just talking about our missions and he said, "I didn't baptize a lot, but I sure had fun!" This is a seventy! I was blown away hearing a member of the seventy saying he didn't baptize a lot! I always imagine them being baptizing machines!! Just goes to show, you don't need to baptize a lot to have a fun and successful mission. 

Well, these two years have meant the world to me. I would do it all over again if I could. I have learned so much and have my testimony has grown so much! I know that this is the Lord's true church and that He has restored His priesthood through the Prophet Joseph Smith. In these two years, one of the biggest things I have learned is the importance of daily scripture study. It is something that I did not do before my mission. It is so vital in keeping our faith and testimony burning bright! I know that as we study the scriptures daily, that we will have the spirit with us in greater abundance! 

Lastly to share a great scripture, Ether 12:41 "41 And now, I would commend you to seek this Jesus of whom the prophets and apostles have written, that the grace of God the Father, and also the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, which beareth record of them, may be and abide in you forever. Amen."

Seek after Christ. He calls us all to follow Him. He wants us all to follow Him. I know that when we make the decision to follow Him that our lives will change. I have seen it in my life and in the lives of those that I have taught.

I can't wait to continue to share the gospel throughout my whole life. This is what has brought me pure joy in life.

Love

Elder 孫

Well this is it

I thought I should take a picture of all the things that have meant the most to me on my mission and have been there for me day after day. 1) Elder Storey (representing all my companions). All of my companions are some of my best friends. I love them all so much and have learned so much from every single one of them! 2) The Book of Mormon. Reading it everyday has brought my life so much joy and is the foundation of my testimony. 3) Jesus Christ. This is His work. I know it. He has been by our side since day one. If it wasn't for Him, none of us would have the chance to serve a mission and no one would have any hope. and lastly 4) what is a missionary without his trusty steed! RANDY!!! I love my bike Randy. He's been through it all with me. It's gonna be hard to part with him

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Elder 孫

Typhoon, temple, two weeks, Tehnan (alliteration.. Mrs. Simmons would be proud)

Wow what a week!! 

This week I had the chance to be reunited with my trainee Elder Nelson! We were able to go on exchanges with them. What an experience. It was so fun to be with him again and see the growth in him. We met some super cool people! One of them was we were biking down this side road by the church on our way to a park and we passed this guy and I said hi and he said hi back and sounded super exited to see us! So we flipped around and started talking to him. When we met him he only had interest in English so we added him for English class. After class we came back to the church to find him and the first thing he asks me is, "what is the difference between the Book of Mormon and the Bible?" :) So we grabbed a member and sat down with him. He told us in that first meet that while he was living in Michigan he went to a lot of churches trying to find truth. He just never has felt like he has received and answer. He literally told us that he wants to join the church and get baptized, but he just needs an answer. He is soooooo cooooool! Also, he played professional baseball here in Taiwan!!! So cool so cool. He is in Shanghai for the next three weeks so I won't be able to meet with him again, but he is gonna get baptized!

The other highlight of the week was we were able to go up to Taibei and go to the temple with one of my recent converts named Hubert. He was baptized over a year ago and we went to do his endowments. Going to the temple is just so awesome. As soon as we stepped inside I felt the spirit very strong. The temple literally is the house of God. I was so happy to see Hubert make this step in his life. I just can't even describe it! Doing a session in Chinese was very neat too. I learned a lot. Also I ran into my former companion Elder 許 and a member from my first area and a bunch of confused Taibei missionaries (they had no idea who we were). It was awesome.

At the last zone conference, President Teh changed our mission standard from seven new investigators a week to one new investigator a day. Some of you might ask, Isn't that the same? Yes, in reality it is. BUT it's all in the attitude my young padawans. It took this daunting task of 7 a week to merely one a day. It has changed a lot. It has helped everyone's faith to find increase. This past week was awesome! We found six new investigators and dropped in two knew goals. I'll talk about them some other time... maybe. Just know that they are super cool investigators.

This week there was supposed to be a big typhoon. Two to be exact. I guess I shouldn't say 'supposed to be' because they actually did come. They just didn't hit Tainan. So the area presidency cancelled church. It was so weird to not go to church. At the end of the day I was thinking about it. I realized that it was a lot harder to focus on the sabbath day and on Christ without going to church! Going to church every Sunday is so important!! It is what helps us keep the Sabbath Day holy! I hope I never have to miss going to church again. To be honest, I don't think I would have ever felt this way before my mission. I would have hoped church got cancelled so I could sleep more! Interesting how things can change in such a short amount of time.

The church is true! Christ lives and the Book of Mormon is the word of God! I love reading the Book of Mormon. It gives me so much power to go throughout my day. I hope you all are reading your scriptures daily. It changes you. Trust me.

Love

Elder Anderson 

My Reflection

Well remember how I said we give a final testimony/reflection at zone conference, here is mine.

"Why?" The question why is something that has gone through my head countless times throughout my mission. I'm sure it is a question that you all have asked as well. I distinctly remember the first time I asked "Why?" was when I opened my call. My family and I were in was knowing that I would be serving in the same mission that two of my sisters had previously served in. I don't know why the Lord called us here, but He did. I served in a few of the same areas as my sisters thinking that I would meet, teach, and baptize someone that my sisters had met. Maybe I did, I don't know. But the Lord knows. He knows why, and that's good enough for me.

When I finished training Elder Nelson in the promised land of Nanzi, I was called to serve in the wonderful city of Yuanlin to be with Elder Zhang. I was there for two weeks and already havinging great time! Then on Christmas Eve I got a call from the assistants telling me that Iwas moving!! As you can imagine, I was very shocked. I asked them where I was going and they said back to Nanzi. After two short and great weeks in Yuanlin I was called to return to Nanzi to be with my favorite trainee of all time. We finished the transfer together and in four short weeks the Lord helped us find, teach, and baptize on of His lost sheep. When the end of the transfer came around, we both emailed President Teh asking if we could stay together for another transfer. We thought we would for sure! but when the transfers came around, I was moving again. Honestly, I was mad. That night I knelt in prayer wanting to express my anger and frustration but all that came to my mind was, "This is the Lord's will." I just didn't understand why. President told me in an email that he seriously considered letting us stay together, but the answer was clear. After ad transfer full of hard work and lots of fun with Elder Jones, I felt I finally understood why. WE were able to help each other grow and improve. There was a lot of learning in that transfer. Through all this time I was very confused, but I know the Lord knew what He was doing... and that was good enough for me.

The next experience is more recent. Serving in this current area, I have never worked with more golden investigators in my entire mission. But sadly, none of them have been baptized. We know that they have received answers to prayers, felt the Holy Ghost, and increased their faith in Christ, but they haven't been willing to make the commitment to baptism. I just don't understand why. One day as I was pondering the fact that they know it's true but they won't accept it, a very clear thought came into my head saying, "Now you know how the Savior felt." He performed miracles, taught multitudes, and served others but yet they still rejected Him. In a talk given by Elder Holland on the topic of missionary work he says, "Why would we believe? Why would we think that it would be easy for us when it was never easy for Him?" On that day, I questioned why. On that day I learned how the Savior must have felt. And on that day, I built my faith in Him.

Isaiah 55:8-9 reads, "For as my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Through these experiences I have come to know that God has a plan for each and everyone of us. His thoughts are higher than ours.There will be times on your mission as there was in mine, in which you will ask "why?" "Why does he or she have to be my companion?" "why do we have to follow these rules?" "Why can't we find new investigators?" or even sometimes, "Why am I here?" I promise you that if you trust the Lord, you will understand. Maybe not immediately, but down the road you will. Don't doubt Him or your leaders. Be as the apostles of old that when Christ calls saying, "Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." that you can respond as they did, "And they straightway left their nets, and followed Him."

This is His work and He knows what He is doing. He is at the helm of this, 'The Old Ship Zion.' Learn to love Him, learn to trust Him, learn to be like Him and all will be well.

In closing, my mission has meant the world to me!! These two years have helped me find and strengthen my testimony of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and their restored church. Through this I have been able to find pure happiness. When I first started my mission I always heard people say that this is the happiest time in their life. I didn't believe that! I felt my senior year of high school was the happiest I could have even been! But I quickly learned that as I do what the Lord wants me to do, I will find pure joy.

The time goes too fast. Don't was a second of it, for there is no time to be wasted. Make the most of the time you have! Love your companions, the people, the language, other missionaries, yourself, and the Lord.

I know He lives. This is His work. Be ambitious for Christ!!!

Don't look forward to this day.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Zone Conference

Well this week was my very last Zone Conference. It was super sad. But the meeting itself was really good! We talked a lot about finding and the skills of finding and then President Teh talked about a lot of stuff and all in all it was great. I had to give my reflection and I think it went well. I didn't cry so that is successful! It was really weird to go and sit down afterwards. As soon as I sat down it felt like the whole world collapsed onto me. I think it finally started to sink in... To close the conference we sang the mission song, We'll Bring the World His Truth. I will admit, that is when I lost it 糟糕

This week went well though. We were able to get 4 investigators to church and one of the people that showed up was some random guy that we contacted that didn't have any interest. But he showed up! The ward members did a really good job at helping the investigators that came and it made me super happy. 

This week we met with Brother Shen and had a super super good lesson with him! He has been investigating the church for a while now and it has been super hard for him to quit smoking. As we were doing follow ups he told us that the other day he had a thought come to his head saying, "Why don't I just get baptized quicker?" Then after thinking that he has really been pondering baptism and feels he needs to be baptized. We talked about smoking and came up with some plans to help him. We then talked about priesthood blessings and his buddy that is a member gave him one. It was super powerful and Brother Shen said during the blessing he had a glimpse of his baptism. So cool! So he set a date for August 12th. He needs to come to church more and quit smoking!

Well, that is about it for this week. I am tired of typing emails.

I love you 

Love

Elder Anderson

1776

Shout out to America for being the greatest country. Sure do love it.

Well, this week was super busy!! With getting tons of new missionaries into the zone we have been pretty much spending every night just calling people to get to know them and welcome them to Tainan. Also we met with the Stake President this week so we had to ask the missionaries lots of questions for that! We have been super busy this week, but being busy is the best!

It has also been super super hot and humid. It feels good. Reminds me how much I love this country. 

This week we did a lot of contacting and we met this guy name Mr Wang. He is super cool and hopefully very golden! He was really interested in church and he came to sacrament meeting yesterday! The ward members did a super good job at welcoming him to church and he said he is going to come every week! We are meeting with him this week and hopefully we can drop in a baptismal goal! 

We have been making a huge push to work with the members. Honestly the biggest regret of my mission is that I didn't start working with members earlier. Elder Grisenti and I just could never think of any ideas but I feel the ideas are starting to flow! The stake president talked to us about that as well and we are super excited to see the results. It's definitely the slowest way to see baptisms, but it is the most secure way. I have already grown a greater love for the ward and doing the work just feels different now! I love it!

We have zone conference this week and I have to give my reflection. Which is just a testimony about your mission. Hopefully it goes well and makes Elder Jones cry haha. 

Lastly, I was reading in my scriptures last night and I read in Jacob. I was thinking about how back in the old days the Lord would destroy those that didn't repent and I thought about how that doesn't happen now (probably because the whole world would be destroyed) but as I talked about it with Elder Storey we decided that maybe it is a personal destruction. That when you don't repent, your spirit is slowly getting destroyed. Kind of morbid but it's true. Daily repentance is so important! Also helping others repent is very very important! Share the gospel with people!!! wooo!!!!!

Love

Elder Anderson

Also huge shout out to my investigator from Fengyuan!! 廖弟兄 got baptized!!! He was so golden!!! I love him!

I just love America. We went to Macdo to celebrate the 4th. Elder Storey ordered the 1955 thingy but what they meant to name it is the 1776

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Busy Week

Well what another busy week here. It took us forever to move out the old apartment and it was just not fun to deal with the landlord haha. But it was a good way to serve the mission. 

Fun thing from the week, I ran into a family from Kaysville this week and one of them asked me if Marissa is my sister. It doesn't matter where I go, where they are from, or what language they are speaking.... EVERYONE knows my sister. 

This week we had interviews with good old President Teh! I sure love him so much. We sat down and he did a temple recommend interview for me and then we talked about some stuff and I asked him how I can improve. He thought about it for a second and then gave me an answer that I never thought he would say. He said, "I got it! Be more excited about playing the piano!" I am sure my jaw dropped all the way to the ground. He talked about how Heavenly Father gives us talents and that we need to use them. He said how he envys that I can play the piano and he can't. So that night I went home and asked Heavenly Father in prayer to give me chances to use my talents to help others. Just two days later in sacrament meeting, a member of the bishopric asked if one of us could play the piano. Normally I wouldn't have said anything, but I volunteered and was really grateful for the opportunity to share my talents. Not the miracle I was quite expecting this week but it was a good one. 

Sad news is the Luo family dropped us this week. It was pretty heartbreaking because they were so prepared to receive the gospel but they haven't yet. They were too fond of their other church and were not ready to give it up...... so sad... To be a little harsh, it made me think of the Savior when He tells us to beware of wolves in sheeps clothing. Hmmmm.... yeah. 

I think the highlight of the week was on Saturday there were two little kids that got baptized in the ward! They were both from all member families but one of them was very special because there family was less active just a few months ago, but the ward invited us to go and visit them and help them out. They became active and their son got baptized! Their family is super great and I love them so much! The mom is from Vietnam and she gave a small talk in sacrament meeting that really touched us. She talked about how her mother in law got in a super bad accident a while ago and had to get surgery on her leg. The doctors said she wouldn't be able to walk for about 3 months. They invited us to go over and give her a priesthood blessing. After one month she was up and about walking all over the place. Priesthood blessings can accomplish miracles. 

Lastly, this week I read my favorite verses in all the standard works. It is in Matthew 4:18-22

18 ¶ And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

20 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.

21 And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets; and he called them.

22 And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him.

These are my favorite because the Savior calls us to follow Him. I love it how they 'straightway left their nets.' They put everything aside to follow the Savior. Especially as a missionary, I have reflected on these verses many times. Every time I read them I ask myself, "What haven't I let behind that is keeping me from following the Savior?" "What is distracting me from His work?" I know that as we ask ourselves these type of questions that we will see how we can more diligent in being ambitious for Him and doing as He commands.

Love

Elder Anderson

Anderson's from Kaysville visit