Unexpected Journey

Well. What a week. This week was super super fun and awesome! We had lots of weird things that happened though but nonetheless it was very awesome!

It all started with Monday night. We had Zone Conference on Wednesday and our district leader wanted to do exchanges so we did them right after preparation day until Tuesday night. I was lucky enough to be with Elder Barker!! For those of you that don't remember or don't know, Elder Barker and I used to be on the same baseball team and in the same stake back in Kaysville! It was sooo fun being with him! He just finished training and holy cow he is a beast!! We hit the streets super hard and had a blast! We were doing what we call 7 sit downs which is we go to every single 7-11 or Family Mart that we see and talk to the people sitting down inside. We were going for a while and we see this man sitting in the back of the 7 and we went over to talk to him. He just looked soooo sad and bummed. We asked if we could sit down and talk to him about Jesus Christ and he said yes. We talked with him for a bit and talked a lot about the Book of Mormon. He had tons of questions and we answered. The spirit was super super strong! We exchanged information and he set up for another time! Sadly he didn't come to his lesson but in those few minutes that we were talking to him, you could tell that the spirit was working with him. By the time we left he was smiling and it was just incredible. I don't know what will happen with him. Hopefully he will accept the gospel. We'll see!

Then on Wednesday we went down to Zone Conference in.... Forever healthy 永康 (that's its literally meaning) down in Tainan. Super fun! I was able to see lots of friends that I haven't seen in a while so that was great. In the meeting we talked a lot about new stuff for English Class and some other trainings and then we did a musical program for Christmas. The night before I found out that I need to play the piano for like 5 people so that was fun. One of them was really touching. A sister missionary was singing the First Noel and she really needed someone to accompany her and so I did and before she sang she was crying and told a story about how much this stuff means to her (I'm not going to say details because it is her story) and as I was listening I just felt really grateful that I was able to be a part of this and help her out. I think for the first time in my life I felt grateful that I know how to play the piano. Really touching. Probably won't ever happen again because I hate the piano. Oh and Sister Teh always calls on me to play the piano! President knows how much I hate it so I think he tells Sister Teh to always call on me haha. 糟糕 then we barely made it on the train to go home after and yeah.

Then it was a week full of contacting and working hard! On Saturday we had our ward Christmas party and that was super great! There were so many potential investigators there! So we ate as fast as we good and then just talked to everyone. Tons of fun! We found one potential that we actually tracted into! We asked him who invited him and he said it was us! We were super surprised! Then he said he was busy this week but he could set up another time! He was the only glimpse of success we saw from it but he seems very promising.

Well, on Saturday night I received a call from the Assistants. Normally when they call they are asking me to play the piano so I was super bummed. I answered and they told me I was moving! WHAT. Then they asked where I thought I was going, I told them that President Teh probably traded me to another mission for some Books of Mormon (Book of Mormons?) we had a good laugh. BUT they said I was moving back to Nanzi to be with Elder Nelson again!?!?!?! CRAZY! I was so shocked and so surprised! I was only in Yuanlin for 2 weeks! What happened was some local missionaries got their visas to go to the mtc so we had to do a few transfers and I was one of them that was transferred. It was super hard to leave Elder Zhang! He was not very happy about it haha. We had a blast together! But it's fun to be back in Nanzi with Elder Nelson!

Last, as I have been pondering lately I have just been thinking of the question 'Why?'. Like "why did this happen?" "why did we meet him?" "why did this cool miracle happen and then they never showed up again?" "Why did I get called to the same mission as my sisters?" "Why was I in yuanlin for 2 weeks and why am I moving back?" As I have thought about these types of questions I cannot find an answer. The only answer I can think of is from Isaiah 55:

 8 ¶For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

I know that God has a plan for each and everyone of us. We have no idea what is in store for us in this life. But (because of the Christmas season) we need to 'put one foot in front of the other' and keep going! We are meant to be happy! this is a happy time to be alive! Even though the world around us is dark and evil, God and Christ will help us! They know what they are doing!

That is it for this week! Super pumped to be ambitious for Christ with one of my best friends!

PEACE

Merry Christmas

Love

Elder Anderson

Elder Barker from Kaysville who was on Miles' baseball team

Elder Bradford from the MTC

Saying goodbye to Elder Sims

Transfers

Transfer

Well this will be a short email but yeah. Deal with it. Anyways. This week was a great week! Elder Zhang is super cool and we laugh a ton and are having a great time! We spent about 95% of the week out on the streets finding people. I have felt like the Lord is testing my faith and patience. No one would give us the time of day to hear a happy message about Christ. But that's ok. I have learned a lot this week. I have really understood the phrase that 'some people sew and others reap'. Granted, we would all want to be the people that just reap all day every day and just baptize the world. But that is unrealistic. 

Let me tell ya, this week I have already grown so much closer to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Transferring areas was really hard because I really loved my last are and companion but I am loving this area and companion just as much! Even though we don't have any investigators, we are strengthening ourselves. It makes me think of Alma and Amulek. After Alma found Amulek they sat down and ate some food and such. But it didn't say that they immediately went out to baptize. Alma stayed there for a little bit with Amulek. I imagine during this time they were preparing themselves for the task ahead. They were strengthening their faith. Elder Zhang and I are preparing ourselves by going out and giving it our all. All day. Every day. I have been reading my scriptures and praying more than ever before. It really has brought a new light into my life and into this work. What gave me comfort this week was that the people we met that actually had interest, live in different areas. But it made me feel good because we are helping someone come unto Christ.

I don't really know what to say because this week was all rejections,soooo 

Merry Christmas!!

Be ambitious for Christ!

加油！

Love

Elder Anderson

Miracles and Transfers

Well I am out of Nanzi and I'm in the new area of Yuanlin! It's my old district haha. When I was in Xihu we were part of the Yuanlin district. My new companion is Elder Zhang! He is from Taibei and he is super cool! He just finished being trained so we are going to be having a lot of fun this transfer! 

Leaving Nanzi has been really hard. I loved that area sooo much and I loved being with Elder Nelson. Serving with your best friend makes the work so much better! This week was incredible!

We were able to find many new investigators and one of them being a Mexican named Jesus (I don't know how to type the little accent thingy). He is a miracle in and of itself. A few months ago Elder Williams and I were biking and I saw a little food stand that had a sign with a burger on it and it looked really good. I told him we need to go there sometime. So we did. Turns out it is owned by Jesus and his wife who is an LA from the Philippines. He would come to church every once in a while and it was awesome. Then we were in the library at the church and noticed that there is a Spanish Book of Mormon. Like what? Why would that be here. Sadly we kind of forgot about it for a while...... but then this week Elder Nelson and I were determined that that book is there for Jesus. We stopped by his stand and talked to him about it. He was so willing to listen and to read it was awesome. He came to church this week and I am so excited for him! Never thought I would teach someone from Mexico in Taiwan. I love that man!

Another good one:  We were out contacting and we were talking to this guy that didn't seem to have much interest and then all the sudden a lady just comes over to us with a big smile and waving and speaking English. At first I thought, sweet! Golden investigator! But then we started talking to her and we found out she is a member from Nicaragua that is going to school here. She wanted to know where the church was so we tried to explain it to her but she doesn't speak any chinese so it was difficult to give her directions. So we gave her a number of a member and he helped her out! On Sunday nights we have a Sacrament meeting in English because there are many foreigners here. People from the Marshall Islands, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Ecuador and America and she was able to come. She bore her testimony about how she had been praying for a 3 months to be able to find someone to lead her to church and she came across Elder Nelson and I. It was just so touching to know that we were the answer to someone else's prayer. Remember, that everyone around you could be praying for your help. 

Most of our investigators right now are all new so there isn't much to report on that sense. But this week was just incredible. We came across old formers that said they could meet, or we met tons of people with interest, finding members and LAs and just having tons of fun. The church is true. God loves us and He loves everyone around us.

Even though I'm not in Nanzi anymore, I know that Elder Nelson will do wonders there. He is a very capable missionary and it has been awesome to see him grow these past two transfers. I have I expectations for you!!! (I know you will read this!!!!) :)

Elder Zhang and I have a lot of work cut out for us but we are just so ready to BE AMBITIOUS FOR CHRIST!

Last bit, I have been listening to lots of conference talks and songs recently. I keep listening to one that I really love and that is the song from Priesthood Session 'Ye Elders of Israel'. This song is just so powerful. I love the third verse and I feel it is very applicable for this Christmas season. It says: 

"We'll go to the poor like our Captain of old, we'll visit the weary, the hungry and cold. We'll cheer up their hearts with the news that he bore and point them to Zion and life evermore."

大家， I want nothing more than to be like our Captain of old. Think of how many hearts we can cheer up with the gospel of Christ. Think of that member we met on the streets. Just because we were out following our plan we didn't find any golden investigator but we found a lamb in need of His help. Go and Light the World like our Captain of old!!!! 

I love you all! 

Love

Elder Anderson

Life

Well this week... was a week. That's for sure. Things have been a little rough for us down here in 楠梓。 The hearts of the people are getting hard. But our faith is not lacking! We did have a few pretty cool tracting miracles! Last Monday we went tracting and it was the last door of the street (of course) and a 14 year old boy answered and we started talking to him and teaching about the Book of Mormon. Then his mom had to take his sister to cram school and as she was coming to the door we got a little nervous because usually parents just ruin everything when it comes to teaching. But she was totally cool about it. We talked to her for a bit too and she was really nice! We set up another time that we can come visit them so that was a great miracle! 

We have been working very hard but to little avail. No matter, we are still inviting people to come unto Christ. As you all know, us missionaries have a purpose that is stated in Preach My Gospel. I love how it uses the word 'invite'. It's not an easy way out saying that everytime you see someone you just say "Hey come to church! Yeah!! Church is good!" no. It's doing all you can to help them come unto Christ and you invite them to learn more. Then it is all in their hands. 

We had stake conference yesterday and that was awesome. There were 3 members of the seventy there because President Teh was there :) awesome. Talked a lot about loving the Savior and looking towards the future. Super great

Low on time. sorry mom

This week I have been listening to a lot of this past conference. Between this and stake conference I just really felt the spirit and I felt so grateful that we have the restored priesthood on the earth today and that we have a loving and living prophet guiding and directing us today.

I really liked Elder Uceda's talk about how he prayed with his lips in the morning but after his story he prayed with his heart. How many of us just pray with our lips as we go about living? I'd say the answer is too many of us. Praying with your heart is a lot like putting mayo on a hot dog for the first time. It's a game changer and you will never want to go back to your old ways. 

Well I gotta go but I hope you all will be ambitious for Christ by Lighting the World this Christmas season!! 

I love you all!

Love

Elder Anderson

Siiiick!

Yes, this week I got sick :( Just two weeks ago I was telling Elder Nelson that I had never been sick on my mission and I have never had a companion get sick. I was very proud of myself. But I guess I never knocked on wood (being the superstitious baseball player that I am) because I got sick. It was miserable. The mission nurse told us to stay inside for a few days and so honestly, not much really got done this week....

So sad... Even when we went outside it was really rough because I was resisting the urge to throw up. Also, it was really cold this week! It got down to the 60s! So everyone here is busting out the old winter coat and they think we are super 厲害 because we aren't wearing a jacket.

However, we did try our best and we did meet with Sister Xia this week. She is a very golden investigator that really loves learning about the gospel. She is the one that can't come to church because of work. We talked with her a lot about that and the member helping us talked to her too and it was just so sad that she did not have any faith in the Lord. All she kept saying was 『沒有辦法』 Which I detest hearing. She did not think there is anyway that things could change to allow her to come to church. Really sad. Pray for her!

We are very optimistic about this week because, well, it can only go up from here! 何弟兄 didn't answer his phone this week so that is a little nerve racking but he will answer this week.

Lastly, I have recently decided to find a few minutes each day to read some of the Old Testament because I have never actually read it (how many of you actually have?). But I did find a very cool scripture in Genesis 18:14. This is the Lord telling Abraham and Sarah that they will have a kid and they were very doubtful. Then the Lord said, "Is there anything too hard for the Lord?"

So true. Remember that. No matter what is happening in life, remember that Christ knows what you are going through. You may think that things will never change or that something you want to do in life is too hard, but remember, there is nothing too hard for the Lord. He is always there to help us and guide us. 

Be ambitious for Christ and have faith that He will work miracles!!

Love

Elder Anderson

Another week has come and gone

Another week has come and gone. Where does the time go? This week went pretty well for Elder Nelson and I. We started the week off by playing some tennis and that was super fun! I'm not good at tennis but it is still a blast to play! We had a great time with that. This week we did a lot of finding though. Eh it was actually half and half with finding and lessons. It went pretty well. We are still working with 何弟兄。 He is doing pretty good. We switched his goal to the 10th of December just to give him a little bit more time. We started teaching him the commandments and we taught the Word of Wisdom this week. It went well. He hardly ever drinks tea and he was super ok with keeping this commandment. It's been really surprising that throughout my whole mission, I have never really had any investigator that has had a problem with keeping the word of wisdom. Even though everyone here drinks tea every day, they are totally ok with giving it up. Really cool. But yeah, 何弟兄 is looking pretty good. 

We have another investigator with a baptismal date for the 17th. He is pretty cool. He is 15 years old and super funny! We have taught the first and second lessons with him and he really has a desire to get baptized. He came to church yesterday and thought it was pretty cool! 

So I don't know if any of you remember me talking about an investigator named Victor, but for the past month he has been super busy and could never meet. He has such a strong desire to get baptized and follow Jesus Christ but he has been too busy. We have tried so hard to get in touch with him but to little avail. Finally we realized that he wrote his address on the English class record so we decided to go visit him!! We visited him and he is just so sad. He said he has been going through some hard times and he doesn't even know what to do. We asked if he had been reading and praying and he said no. So sad! We just bore testimony that God gives us trials to help us grow. But we can only grow if we turn to him during times of trial. We talked a bit about the people of Alma and how they had their trials but the Lord 'lightened their burdens' and gave them strength to endure. It's SOO true. I just love it how the Lord doesn't take away our trials (well... I don't LOVE it but....) instead he gives us strength to endure them and to learn from them. He said he can meet with us this Sunday so pray that all will be well with Victor!!

A few funny stories from this week: We were contacting the other day and I pull up to a man with his head down and said "Hey! 晚安！" He looks up. He's white. Shocker! We started talking to him. Turns out he's from Bath, England (if I remember right, isn't that where some of the worst books every written take place??). I start to contact him and I can only say about two sentences before my English just gave up on me. I literally could not muster a word of English! I tried so hard but the only words that came out were in Chinese. Super rough. He was really nice though. Told us he was Buddhist (that was weird) and we chatted about religion for a second and then we left. Nice man. Poor English...

Another was last night we were going to a member's house for dinner and another member that was coming brought her friend who belongs to some other Christian church. Naturally religion was brought up and she asked lots of questions. We got to the Godhead and she was telling us about the trinity and how they are all one. The member said, "Well they are all different beings." The lady said, "No Jesus and God are the same." Another member said, "They have the same purpose and will but Christ is the son of God. He is God's Son." Then the lady was like "Yeah! Exactly!" and she ended it at that. So apparently, since I am the son of Greg Anderson, I am Greg Anderson. Not too sure how I feel about that..... hahaha.

Well, last thing. I have mentioned before that President Teh has really been getting us to use the Book of Mormon in every single contact and just all that we do. I have noticed that as we do it, results have been very different in a good and bad way. Before we would just talk about Jesus Christ and stuff and as I thought about it I realized that to the Taiwanese people, we are just another Christian church. Even the other Christians think we are the same as them. But as soon as we bring out the Book of Mormon, it makes us different. They don't like that. It has sparked lots of interest in some people and others are very mean about it. For the first time on my mission, people are actually becoming very rude to us. Normally the worst rejection was they said they are busy, they don't respond to you, they pull their scooter up a little farther, or they just say no thank you. Now we get people telling us not to preach this, ask how many wives we have, call us a cult and what not. Normally that would make me very angry.  But it just makes me soooo grateful that I have a knowledge and testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. There are so many lost people. So many conflicted views. It makes me proud to stand up for what I believe and know that the Savior is right there next to me.

So my words of advice: Be ambitious for Christ by always always always standing up for what you believe. Never ever falter. I know it will bring you happiness and joy.

I love you all!

Be grateful for everything this week! And especially be grateful for Jesus Christ and His atonement! 

感恩節快樂！！

Love

Elder Anderson

Some classic 冰 from this week. Elder Nelson got a very chocolately one and I decided to take the healthier route and go with kiwi. Very delicious. Very not healthy. Very worth it

This week was also super super super polluted!!! The pollution scale said it was a 10 out of 10. Yikes. You could literally feel the dirty air entering your lungs. Not too fun.

Living the Life

Well this was another good week for us in the land on Nanzi! Gryphon was able to get baptized and that was super awesome! He has a real strong testimony on repentance. He loves the idea of a new start. As he shared his testimony at the baptism he talked about how he hopes that he gets chances to share the gospel with people around him. He is a tutor and he hopes he can teach his students about Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. Our ward mission leader was just giving us the thumbs up the whole time haha! Gryphon is awesome!!

Other than that, we did a lot of finding and had a lot of meetings. We had to leave the door early just about every single day this week for various reasons. The rule is when you leave the door early, you have to make up the studies that we missed. So there were many days that we had to spend the afternoon doing studies leaving us only the night to go out and proselyte. Really rough but we gotta get those study times in!

We went to a meeting this week at the 市中 chapel and that was awesome! I was able to see Elder Fleming (my trainer) for the last time. Crazy to think that he is going home at the end of this transfer. Time goes by wayyyyy to fast!! But President Teh had us go around and talk about ways that our companions serve them. For me, the best way that Elder Nelson serves me is just being my friend. It's so key that a companionship is also a friendship, not just business partners. Elder Nelson is one of my best friends and I'm so glad that he is my companion!! 

We also had interviews with President Teh this week! As we were waiting, Sister Teh was talking to us and asked us what we had for breakfast. I don't know why but she always asks us. Our answer: toast.... response "anything else?" nope just toast. "Any spread?" uhhhhh nutella. Nice. Nailed it. simple and delicious. Sister Teh got a good laugh out of that. Interviews were great. It's not every day that you get one on one time with a general authority. President Teh is the best!

We met with Brother He this week and it went pretty well. We just gotta help him continue to see how the gospel can help him and help him know that God exists. But he came to church again and he is looking pretty good!

Last thing, yesterday we met with an investigator from English class. Normally she brings her son, but he had cram school so he couldn't come. We taught Sister Xia the Plan of Salvation. She is just so prepared!! It was awesome to teach with so much unity with Elder Nelson and the member that came with us. Super powerful. Every question she asked, we used the Book of Mormon to answer. We talked about how Christ was baptized on earth and she asked who baptized him. We said John the Baptist and then she said "Oh yeah he needs someone with the Priesthood to baptize him!!" YES. 沒有錯. So great! She really has a strong desire. We shared 2 Nephi 31:5 about how since Christ was baptized, we all need to be baptized. She totally agreed. Yes, she accepted a goal for December 17th. We just gotta help her get to church on Sunday's because she works from 9am to noon. 有信心有辦法

Life is great here in Nanzi. We wake up everyday and just are ambitious for Christ all day every day. Never stops. We have been practicing some Christmas songs with the Elder's quorum and it has just made me more grateful that Christ was born. We would all be done for if he was never born. The hope that He gives me keeps me going.

I love you all!

Love

Elder Anderson

ps the second coming is near because the prophets always teach that there will be all these crazy things that will happen... thus, the Cubs winning the world series = the second coming is almost here!

Elder Fleming (Miles Trainer) and Miles before Elder Fleming goes home

Gryphon's baptism

A Bible, a bible ...

Well what a week for the good old Nanzi elders. Elder Nelson and I are having a blast and are constantly seeing miracles.

Recently President Teh has really been focusing on using the Book of Mormon all the time. Especially in finding. And teaching. And just all the time. So we have been doing just that. The difference it has made in our work is huge!!!! We have found some really cool people! But we also run into some people that really don't like it (I'll talk about that in a sec)

So this week we met with 何弟兄 who is the man we talked to last Sunday. He is super great! We shared the first lesson with him and he accepted a date for 12月3日。 He also came to church for all three hours!! He participated in the Sunday School lesson and even stayed after to practice singing some Christmas songs! He seems to really have a strong desire to come unto Christ.

This weekend we went on exchanges with the Zone Leaders because they needed to do Gryphon's baptismal interview! Gryphon passed and is getting baptized this Saturday! We are super super excited! His whole conversion process has been a long one. Elder Williams and I found him in my first few weeks of being in Nanzi. But we have seen tons of miracles to help him down this road. So good!!!

While on exchanges, Elder Nelson and Elder Musgrave met with a family that we added from English and they have lots of interest and are willing to learn, but we are going to have to work to get them to church. 

Speaking of English class, this week's class was awesome!! Elder Nelson and I taught the advanced class and for our spiritual share we decided to do what Elder Funk taught us in mission tour, and that is to teach with using just the first 12 verses of 1 Nephi. Super effective in teaching the first lesson because you start off talking about families, switch to prophets, use a little bit of 聖靈 and at the end Nephi says he knows the record he is writing is true. So awesome. We added this family and another investigator that we are meeting with tonight. Very good.

So we were at the park and we were sharing about the Book of Mormon and we came across this lady. She said she was already Christian. So we talked about restored truths and talked about the Book of Mormon. She literally said, "A bible a bible, we already have a bible. We don't need another bible!!" She LITERALLY quoted 2 Nephi. As she said this I almost busted up laughing. Just proves the Book of Mormon is true because it prophesied of this! We wanted to share that scripture with her soooo bad! Especially when it says, O thou fools who shall say a bible a bible..... classic. Then she told me "If you really want to be saved, I exhort you to never teach of this again!" I was really surprised because I have never had anyone get so up in my face like that here in Taiwan. It was hilarious. Needless to say, she did not set up. She wouldn't even let me show her the introduction...

Well I am kinda low on time. But we received a cool referral this week from 壞北 I mean, Taibei. It is a family of four that is moving to our area and they want to meet with us! We are going to meet with them this week and we are pumped! 

The church is true! 

I love you all!

Be ambitious for Christ!

love

Elder Anderson

Samson

SAMSON! Yes. He was baptized and confirmed this weekend and it was awesome! He is a great man and he really has a strong desire to keep learning about Jesus Christ. He really wants to go to the temple in Taibei so that is very exciting! His baptismal service was great! Before he was baptized, the ward mission leader and bishop told him to but an elastic in his hair and tuck it down his shirt because they were nervous that it would float up when he gets baptized. So while they were discussing how to do it. I whispered to the ward mission leader and pretended to clip his hair. He and the bishop got a good laugh out of that. But Samson is great! He said when he met us on the road that he was going through some hard times but once he started to learn about Jesus Christ, he realized that those things weren't that important anymore and that there is something that is more important and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. So true. Sometimes we all get caught up on some dumb things that we forget what really matters most. 

Honestly, this week was pretty rough. Elder Nelson and I worked our tails off but just could not get anything rolling. Super weird. But we did our best and that's what is required of us. BUT, we did see some awesome miracles yesterday. So the cool miracle was we set up a potential investigator to meet with us at 7:30 last night. I confirmed him the night before so we were ready to teach him. Turns out, he just stood us up. BUT while we were waiting for him, someone else showed up. He is about 16 years old and he self contacted us a few weeks ago. He gave me his brothers' number when we met him and it was really difficult to get in touch with him so we never could get a chance to meet with him. But he decided to come and see if anyone was at the church. None of us would have been there if that other man didn't set up and confirm. Even though he fanged us, we still had a miracle. God works in mysterious ways. Oh yeah haha the best part was we gave him a tour of the church and showed him the baptismal font and talked about what baptism is and how someone got baptized the day before. He thought it was so awesome and he said "When do you have baptisms??? Can I come!?? I want to get baptized!" haha he is used to other churches where they just baptize everyone the first time they meet them and such. We told him it is a process and he seemed ok with that. Super cool!!

We also met with a new investigator on Sunday that is super awesome! He set a goal for December 3rd and said 

So this morning I was on the phone with the Zone Leaders and we were talking about some things and President Teh was brought up and they told me that there are quite a few missionaries in our mission that when they email President Teh, they just bash on him and go off on how bad of a president he is.. Well let me tell you, this made me rather angry. I feel this happens a lot in the church. People feel like they know more than God. Our leaders ARE called of God. There is no doubt about it. I hate when people talk bad about church leaders. I feel it's a lack of faith. don't ever do that!

This week we had Elder Funk (Asia Area President) come and visit our mission for a mission tour. It was super awesome! Ever since President Teh has come, all of our meetings have been focused on two things: 1) working with members and 2) Using the Book of Mormon more effectively as we teach repentance and baptized converts. These two things are so basic but we tend to overlook them a lot. Elder Nelson and I worked really hard to use the Book of Mormon more in our finding and teaching efforts and it sure has brought the spirit into the work. There is a different feel to the work. It's awesome!! At the end, Elder Funk was telling us that it is a great day to be a missionary in the Taiwan Taizhong mission. Everyone in Taiwan is now in a boundary of a stake in Zion, we have the ONLY general authority as a mission president in the church, we are celebrating 60 years of missionary work in Taiwan, and the Lord is hastening His work in Taiwan. It's so true. As he said that, I receive a very strong confirmation that President Teh is called of God to be here in this mission. Makes you wonder what the Lord has in store for Taiwan.. or China? 

Life is great. We are enjoying everything. Spam was delicious. Elder Nelson and I really learned that God is a 4th watch God. Meaning he comes after some struggle and work. So true. We are being AMBITIOUS FOR CHRIST and living the dream

I love you all!

love

Elder Anderson

No harness, no safety straps. just climbs up there. At one point he was sitting on the top of the sign haha

Samson Baptism!

Mana from heaven!! Elder Nelson is addicted to spam now!!!

SPAM

Ok before I move onto holy things, I just need to vent about our AC man. So a few months ago our neighbors below us said that our AC was leaking so we had to call this man to come and fix it. A week without AC and 2,500元 later it was fixed. Or so we thought. A few weeks later the neighbor complained again and I was not going to have it. I looked at our AC a ton and never saw a leak. Then I think the Lord taught me a lesson on humility and I eventually saw the leak. called the ac guy back and he said he has to take it out again. I asked how long it would take. He said 3-4 days. Great. 3 weeks later he brought it back. But then he forgot a part and has to bring that back this week!! Agh. Elder Nelson and I had some good laughs about it. Amidst the frustration we were able to tell some classic construction worker stories and had some more laughs. Lesson: Don't trust AC men. 'How long will it take to fix?' '2 maybe 3.....' '2 what? Days? Weeks? Months?' That's kinda how I felt.

Now onto the holy things.

This week went pretty well for us! We were able to find some cool people out street contacting! We had a day where no one was accepting anything we had to say then we saw this man sitting on his scooter on the side of the road. We started talking to him and he said that the missionaries used to visit his family when he was a little kid! We talked a lot about prayer and that God always hears our prayers. You could just tell that the spirit was working on him because he was thinking really hard about the questions we asked and such. His name is Titan!! He invited us to come to his house tomorrow to teach him more!! Super excited!! Except he says he has 8 cats..... pray for us. 

Samson passed his interview last week so we are very excited about that!!! He told our Zone Leader in the interview that he wants the blessings that comes after baptism. He said that I told him there is more to do after baptism and that is what he wants. He always tells us that he has seen this gospel make his life happier. When I asked how he knows it's true he said that the night before he came to church he prayed and asked God if it was true. The next day in sacrament meeting some member gave their talk and as he was listening to their talk, he received a spiritual confirmation that this is the true church! Really made me think that we can learn a ton from sacrament meeting speakers and that we can receive answers to prayers if we listen to what the speakers have to say! I say that rather hypocritically because before my mission, sacrament meeting was a battle between my smarts and my mom's elbow. Me trying to be smart to find ways so she doesn't know I'm a sleep and her elbow slamming into my ribs to wake me up. I sure missed out on a lot of spiritual opportunities. I hope you all don't do the same!

As a missionary you meet a lot of people every day. I have come to notice that all the people around me truly aren't happy. You can just tell! "What do you think the purpose of life is?" Their answer every single time "I have no idea. Never thought about it." How is that even possible!??? "Do you think this question is important?" "Yeah of course!!" But they never want to learn more. It's sad just to see these people wandering through the mist of darkness not knowing that eternal life lays ahead of them. We went an visited a former investigator and he invited us in and as we were talking you can just tell that he is so sad! The whole time we talked to him all that I could think is this man needs the gospel soooo bad!!! President Teh talked about it in his weekly email, the gospel is the only thing that can really bring us happiness. the world has nothing to offer in comparison to what God has to offer. Everyone needs to realize their identity and purpose.

We are very excited for Samson's baptism this week. Seeing someone enter the waters of baptism is very special. 

Church is true. 

I'm out of time

Be ambitious for Christ

Love

Elder Anderson

Haven't played ball in like 5 months so Elder Nelson and I decided to go play at the park. Got invited to do some 3 on 3's. Super fun!! Got to teach the ways of American basketball and the gospel! Perfect!

Fixing to have a FEAST this week!! Elder Nelson has never had it before. He's in for a real treat!!!! Manna from heaven!

You have heard of the 'Hotel California' but have you ever heard of the 'Motel California'?

yes the characters 加州 mean California

Earthquake

Yeah this week we had another earthquake. It was super small BUT when you are on the 15th floor of a building, it shakes for a lot longer. We were in our room talking and then boom, earthquake. We didn't really know what to do at first. most of the time I feel like, I don't want to move so 'If he dies, he dies". But we figured we should do something, so we opened the door to see when it stopped shaking. It went on for a solid 2 or so minutes. Even though it was relatively small, it is still scary. For all of you that are in Utah and have never experience anything more than a snow storm and icy roads, earthquakes are pretty scary. You just need to experience it to understand.

Wasn't conference just the best thing ever?? If watching conference didn't get you pumped to go do the Lord's work, then you gotta fix something. After watching conference it just strengthened my testimony so much and it made me want to just shout it from the rooftops that Jesus is the Christ, He is our Savior and Redeemer. My favorite talks were from Elder Oaks (for obvious reasons) and Elder Yamashita! Not just because he was Asian. It was just a great talk and I loved it! ah, I just loved every single talk! It's so amazing that when you bring questions that you need answers to, the speakers will answer your questions. Sometimes it's not the way you thought you would get an answer, but you know when you receive an answer. I also really liked Elder Ballard's talk. Just remember: "To whom shall we go?" I talked about this with my dad last week and it is just soo true. Have you actually ever thought about where you would be in life if you didn't have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ? My answer is, I have no idea. And I don't even want to know. As I read this talk, it was hard for me not to think about one of my dear friends that decided to leave the church. This talk gave me such a strong desire to reach out to him and try to help him come back. As I pondered this desire, I knew this is exactly what I need every single day. We all need this desire. Last night while contacting, not many people accepted us. As a matter of fact no one did. But You still feel satisfied when you know that you desired for the welfare of their soul and bore a powerful and sincere testimony of Jesus Christ.

We met with Victor this week and taught him the word of wisdom. Even though he smokes he told us that he is willing to entirely drop it. He has such a strong desire to be baptized. It's awesome

We met with another investigator named Roxy. Our first lesson with her went terrible because of certain complications that would take too long. We though she wouldn't want to meet again, but when we sat down with her we asked what she remembered. The first thing she said was the Book of Mormon and that she wants to read it.  Yes, there is power in the book. Don't forget it.

Well I am out of time, but I love you all and remember

Be ambitious for Christ!

Love

Elder Anderson

Gaoxiong Temple Lot

Elder Nelson trying Stinky Tofu (I love it!)

Mango Ice

Typhoon rain

Visit with my recent convert

Just had to take this.

Another Typhoon

Taiwan has recently decided that they are going to try to have as many typhoons as possible. Not the best decision in my opinion. But yes this week we had another one but it wasn't as serious. And our apartment did not flood so that was awesome!!

We received a referral from some missionaries in our zone and this man is so golden! His name is Victor! Victor is such a great man. He has such a strong desire to learn how to have a better relationship with his family. Family is soooo important to him!! Even though he is unmarried, he still lives with his mom and sisters and we can just tell he wants to love them more and have a better family. His desire to learn from Christ has given me a stronger desire to follow our Savior. Victor is great! We taught him the Restoration this week and as we talked about apostasy, we said that people started to reject God and his prophets and would even kill them. His response was, "What??!!! Why????" I have never seen anyone respond more violently to apostasy than him haha. It was awesome! When we invited him to be baptized, Elder Nelson invited him and said it very clearly and in very good chinese and Victor didn't even hesitate. He said "I do!" Yes!" In English of course, bu then in Chinese he said that he was very willing to get baptized and he set a goal for October 29th! Super excited for him!

We met with Samson this week and I feel a lot better about him. We originally planned to reteach the first lesson but as we started following up with things, we felt we should talk about baptism. So we did. We shared some scriptures in 3 Nephi that he really like. We were kind of stern with him too... Sometimes it has to happen. But then we talked about what happens after baptism and confirmation. We told him he HAS to endure to the end otherwise this will all mean nothing. He was like, "Duh, of course!" That made me feel better :) So things are looking up for him! Now we just need to get him to cut his nasty long hair haha. 

Gryphon is doing pretty well! He came to sacrament meeting this week and it was really good. I was glad he was there because our Ward Mission Leader wanted all four missionaries to bear their testimonies. It was really powerful. I'm glad Gryphon was there to hear. And while we did that I saw Xie mama had a big smile on her face and I was fortunate enough to have my good friend Hubert from Xihu come and visit :) He liked it all too :)

Yesterday's Elders Quorum was sooooooo awesome!! So Elders Quorum and High Priests gets combined sometimes so the High Priest Group leader gets up for his lesson. And you could tell that he prepared a super super 還好lesson and it was not going very well. I was translating for a member from the Marshall Islands and I think even he was bored.... BUT good old Elder Jia (the Emeritus Seventy) raises his hand to talk and he gets up to the board and writes 'Baptism, Retention, and Enduring to the End'. And just kind of got in everyone's faces about how this church does not do a good job at retention and enduring to the end. Totally just switched the entire lesson. So 厲害！ He talked about that a lot, then he stopped for a second and President Li the stake president gets up and talked about the same thing, and then President Zhou his counselor does the same thing and the spirit was so strong. Then the group leader talked again and tried to get back to his poorly prepared lesson but Elder Jia gets up again and changes it back and we talked a ton about retention and then President Zhou shared D&C107:99-100 " 99 Wherefore, now let every man learn his duty, and toact in the office in which he is appointed, in all diligence.

 100 He that is slothful shall not be counted worthy tostand, and he that learns not his duty and shows himselfnot approved shall not be counted worthy to stand. Evenso. Amen."

Easily one of my most favorite scriptures. It was just the best lesson ever and I felt like I was watching conference because these super strong members were just telling us all this stuff about how to increase the ward's numbers and everything. Ah it was amazing!! I know I did a pour job at describing it, but just remember that it was awesome! And remember to always fellowship your ward members because when you do not have a friend at church, most the times you will go LA. Don't let that happen with anyone you know!

Well that is about it. Nanzi is the promised land

I love you all!

Love

Elder Anderson 

Then he takes your AC to fix it right before the typhoon (ruining my beautiful caulk job) and I have to use an entire roll of duct tape to defend our home. Just call me Tim from Tooltime (Home Improvement for all of you uneducated people out there)

When they come to fix your AC.... 15 stories up. Asia

Trainer and District Leader

None of you except for like 5 people can read that. But this week my love for stating that 'I know what my companion says is true' has grown a lot. This week we had some very awesome and very powerful lessons. 

Let me just start by saying, hello. Next, This week was just a fantastic week. Our street contacting went very well and we met tons of people that have lots of interest in the gospel. Even though we had tons of them not show up to their lessons, we still found some great investigators. We met with Samson this week and we discussed baptism more. He says the problem is his dad and him don't have a good relationship that is a big reason why they won't let him get baptized. We discussed the importance of having a good relationship with families. I am confident that Samson will get baptized next month. Well let me rephrase that, I am confident that he COULD get baptized next month. The thing that I am rather doubting is his faith and desire. Those two things are sooo key to baptism. He says he has it but I don't really see it because he only reads his scriptures every once in a while. We have been focusing a lot on teaching REPENTANCE and baptizing CONVERTS. I have noticed that in the scriptures there are very very few times where it mentions baptism without the word repentance in the same verse. We are trying to get Samson a greater desire to read and pray. So pray for that. 

We met with Gryphon on Saturday and that was AWESOME!!!! The spirit was so strong throughout the whole lesson. We came up with a plan for Gryphon to talk to his teacher and be able to come to church. We was willing to show his faith and talk to his teacher. He did. I talked to him on Sunday and he said his teacher was ok with it! He won't be able to come every week, but every other week he can come to church! We set a goal for the 29th of October and it looks very very hopeful. 

We also met with another investigator named 柯弟兄. He was a referral form the 岡山 elders from a month or two ago. Those Elders taught him for a bit then found out he lives in our area. The elder that referred him to us has mentioned many times that we should just drop him because he can't come to church because of his work. I just didn't feel it was right to drop him yet. We met with him this week and taught the last half of the Plan of Salvation. We started right off with Christ's Atonement and we read Alma 7:11-13. When it comes to Christ's Atonement in the scriptures, those verses are my all time favorite. So powerful and right off the bat the spirit was in the room. It was amazing. At the end he said he wants to go to the Celestial Kingdom and we talked about what we have to do to go there. Obviously the first thing was baptism. Yet again, we proposed a plan for him to talk to his boss about being able to come to church on Sunday. Yet again, he was very willing to do so. We shared 1 Nephi 3:7 and after he read it, he looked up with the biggest smile on his face. He just thought it was the coolest scripture!! As we were leaving, he said "Today's lesson was awesome and it felt different. I liked it." YES. He said he asked his boss but he hasn't gotten an answer yet. No news is good news? Pray for that too.

Good news, we don't have to teach the little kids english class anymore. Miracles everywhere!

Because of time I will end soon. But we got another referral from other missionaries and he will get baptized. I can just tell. We haven't met with him yet but he came to church yesterday for all three hours and he loved it. He really wants to have a happier family so he talked with the bishopric for a while to discuss what to do. Super great.

The church is true. Never forget it.

Another typhoon is coming.

So is conference. 

Love you all!!!

Love

Elder Anderson

Typhoon

That subject was was creative and hilarious but only a few people will know the story behind it (Zac and Parker :)) So fun.

But I must have yelled that 10 or more times this week because of the giant typhoon that we had. Water was coming into our apartment from everywhere. We were at war with the elements. The aftermath looks a lot like the east wind storms. Full grown trees are uprooted, signs are just everywhere, glass all over the street, and parks are destroyed. Normally during a typhoon you stay inside and do calls all day, but we had limited time to do calls because we were running back and forth trying to stop all the water and we had to evacuate our study room. Super lame.

But this week did not go as well as we hoped because of the weather and other things that happened. So our power week wasn't the best. Monday and Tuesday went well though. On Tuesday we were able to meet some really cool people while contacting that seemed to have sincere interest in learning about Jesus Christ so I am excited to meet with them this week. 

But we did meet with one of our investigators this week (the one with all of the questions). I have been seriously considering dropping him because it doesn't seem like he has much interest and doesn't seem to have a desire to change, but he comes to church and then I found out he has been reading the Book of Mormon so I just couldn't drop him. But we finally taught the whole first lesson with him. He took lots of interest in prophets. As we invited him to be baptized he said he wasn't sure about this because: one, he felt like he hadn't read any doctrine taught in the Book of Mormon and two, he doesn't know if there is a living prophet. We discussed the Book of Mormon first. He said he felt it's just a story and it doesn't teach anything. But we said that he has already read lots of doctrine, he just doesn't notice it. We talked about how Lehi was a prophet and how we need to listen to the prophet's words so we know what to do. And when we don't listen, then we are in trouble.. We discussed that a little more and he was rather surprised! Then he said he wants to listen to President Monson's words so he can know if he really is a prophet of God because he seems to doubt. These two things made me realize that when we read the Book of Mormon it is so key to open our eyes and heart to the real message that it conveys. It is much more that a history of the America's. When we do that, we will find what the Lord wants us to know. We will learn why we have it. And I also learned that it is so important to believe in a living prophet. Don't doubt. "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." I know that everything President Monson says is the word of God. It is what God was us to hear and learn. I hope that we can all start preparing ourselves spiritually for General Conference next month. We still have a few weeks so it is perfect to start preparing now!

Tranfers have come and gone and I am with Elder Nelson and still in Nanzi! He is a beast and brings a lot of faith and fire to our companionship so I am excited about that!!

Hope all is well, 中秋節快樂！！！

Love

Elder Anderson

Sep 11

I hate having email subjects. I never know what to say for them. So sorry that I am not creative like everyone else in the world. 

Well this was a great week here in the promised land! To start off the week we went to a place called 西子灣. It is super pretty! It's out on the other side of the bay in Gaoxiong. Right next to the see. We went to a cool overlook of the city. Also we met a cool family from Idaho that are members! Despite the Boise State Broncos shirts that they were wearing, they were super nice and it was so great to see some members. I loved it!

A cool miracle from this week was from our contacting. We had our time to contact and we decided that we wanted to teach the restoration and give someone a baptismal goal on the streets. So we were going and such and we came across a dude that was really cool. We started talking to him and started teaching him. He had lots of interest. So as we finished we invited him to be baptized on October 15th and he accepted!! We met with him last night and he was still good for it! He wants to learn! Awesome!

I met a guy from Mexico that makes really good burgers.

I'm kinda low on time and my thoughts are really scattered..... ummmm...

It rained a lot and then it was super crazy hot. 

I can't think of anything else... sorry.

But we are really excited for this week. To end this transfer, Elder Williams and I want to do a power week in which we have crazy high goals that we plan on hitting and we take hardly anytime to eat meals so we can go out and work. We are really excited! 

Keep praying for Shark, Gryphon, and Samson :)

love you all!!1

Love\

Elder Anderson