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

Sep 4th

Yay Xie mama got baptized!!! She is so awesome and her faith is super 強! I'll talk about that more in a sec.

So this week was actually a pretty rough week in comparison to last week. Brother Fu has been super busy lately so we haven't been able to meet with him and I fear he will have to leave soon. Brother Wan's parents don't want him to meet with us (he's 15) so he said he can't meet with us anymore. That was really sad. This week we didn't get many lessons set up but we tried our hardest. I think that's the important part. We went out every day and tried our best to find and teach. On Friday we went into downtown Gaoxiong for a Training Meeting. It was our zone (North Gaoxiong), West Gaxiong and Pingdong zones. It was pretty cool! We talked about a lot of things. Rule changes and such and discussed Teaching Repentance and Baptizing Converts. We really focused on learning from the 'unspoken word'. Lots of times at meetings, I am looking for good quotes or cool things the people say, but sometimes I am not too focused on the things that the spirit is telling me. It was pretty neat to see what the spirit had to tell me. 

But this week we met with Samson and discussed faith, charity, hope, and miracles. Naturally, we shared parts of Moroni 7. We discussed how through these things, miracles happen. We were trying to get him pumped up to go an tell his parents about baptism again and try to help them understand what it is, but he still seemed a little down. So, we decided to give him a blessing of comfort. Elder Williams, myself, and a member gave him a blessing and afterwards his countenance was totally different. He was so much happier and he was ready to talk to his parents. The power of the priesthood is real! The feelings that he had are the exact same feelings that I have after I get a blessing. It was awesome. I called him last night and he said he's still talking to them so we will definitely know by the end of this week. Pray for him!

We also met with Gryphon this week! So something special about our area is the fact that we also have an English sacrament meeting. They do it for some members from the Philippines and other Americans and we attend it because they need some people to bless and pass so Elder Williams and I do that. Just one hour can bring the spirit strong. Gryphon attended yesterday and a few weeks ago. As we met with him he told us that when he came he has some special feelings. As we brought the bread to him, he said his heart just started pounding and his whole body just felt incredible. After he ate the bread it went away, then the same feeling came back as we gave him the water. We described how this was the spirit and he understood and really liked it! Gryphon needs a miracle. I know the spirit is slowly working on him and he will get baptized. I just know it.

One cool thing: yesterday I really came to understand that God is preparing EVERYONE around me. God puts everyone in our path for a reason. There are no mistakes or coincidences in God's eyes. After planning on Saturday, I said my nightly prayers and I told the Lord where we are going and what our plan was. I asked Him to let us come across someone prepared. As we were biking to a big park to contact there, we met a guy that was sitting on a somewhat high ledge taking a smoking break. When I first saw him I tried to see if there was a way to bike up the ramp to him but it was blocked and then I thought it might be weird to talk to him when he is so high so I thought about just passing him. But now, I realize it was probably the Spirit telling me to talk to him. "Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed" so we stopped and talked to him and he seems really cool. We talked for a bit and he is a Christian and seemed interested in this message. We tried to set up a time to meet with him but he is busy this week so we switched numbers and parted ways. At the park we talked to tons of people but no one was willing to talk. As I thought about it, God knew what road we would take to the park and He knew that this man would be there taking his break. God wanted us to meet him. 

I know that was rather long but it really had a big impact on me. It reminds me of the scripture that says we should preach everywhere and it "mattereth not, for ye cannot go amis."

So Saturday was Xie Mama's baptism! yay!! It went really well! She was so happy! When she gave her testimony it was really cool. Even though she cried a ton, it was still awesome. She talked about how the day that we met her, she was sitting in her house watching tv (which is what she does all day every day) and then it just shut off. She turned it on and it turned off. Wouldn't work. She was super bummed. So she went to the park instead to exercise. That was when we met her. She said she saw us and read 耶穌基督 on our name tags and she was just touched. She said she just felt God's love for her. She used to go to some other Christian church but she hasn't been in a year, and as she saw us she knew that God still loved her and wants her to come back. Then when we talked about prophets she was just amazed! She thought prophets are amazing! and they are :) Last thing I want to say about her is I have learned so much from her about loving God and Christ. Every time we gave her an invite or asked her to follow a commandment, she was always willing and she always said "God wants us to do this so I will do it." She obeys out of love for God and Christ. How many of us do that? I never thought an investigator would teach me so much. She is awesome!!

In my personal study today I read one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon and that is Alma 39. Some people might think that's a weird chapter to like but Alma really gives lots of good advice and teachings. I love verse 4 "4 Yea, she did steal away the hearts of many; but this was no excuse for thee, my son. Thou shouldst have tended to the ministry wherewith thou wast entrusted." Obviously he is talking about the harlot Isabel, but I feel like it applies to everything! Everyone around us is sinning. Sin steals the hearts of many, disobedience steals the hearts of missionaries, it works for everything. But it is never and excuse for us! When we know our ministry, mission, identity, purpose, etc. we need to realize that God trusted us to our ministry and strive to live as He would have us live. 

Well I love you all so much!!!

Love

Elder Anderson

Aug 28th

Well this was probably the best week of my mission. It was just incredible! This week Xie Mama had her interview with President Teh and we had to skype for that. Also we had to translate and that was super great! She is so awesome! President just kept saying that he can see a new light in her eyes and it's so true! This week we reviewed the lessons for her interview and we reviewed the Law of Chastity and we asked if she was still willing to follow it and she laughed and said, "Of course I am!!! I am a grandma!! I'm not going to do any of those things!!" We laughed very hard. Cool story about her: Through her whole life she has loved drinking coffee and green tea. Every day she would drink a ton. But a few weeks ago the topic in Gospel Principles Class at church was the Word of Wisdom. We hadn't even taught her the Word of Wisdom yet, but after that lesson she completely stopped drinking coffee and tea. Just entirely dropped it!! She told us that she knows God wants her to follow that commandment so she will. So awesome! We are excited for her baptism this week! Elder Williams will be the one dunking her so we are just stoked!! 

At the beginning of the week we had lots of time spent out on the streets finding. No one seemed willing to talk but that didn't get us down. Even though it was a billion degrees and people were rejecting us, we kept going. Still didn't get anything. But then one day we were doing calls and like 6 or 7 people set up from one hour of calls!! So awesome! Four of them in particular: Brothers Wang, Wan, Zhuo, and Fu. All people that we contacted a while ago and they never answered but they did an set up! As we met with all of them they all had lots of interest in the church and they all accepted baptismal dates!! The first 3 are for October 1st and Brother Fu is for the middle of September. This just really built my faith knowing that when we are working our hardest, we might not see immediate results, but God will always bless us. 

I want to talk a little bit about Brother Fu. He is very special and has really got me pondering lots of things. Brother Fu works on a freighting ship and is on break now. This job has him at sea for 10 months to about a year at a time. Then they get a few months to rest. He is probably one of the nicest guys ever and really wants to learn about this gospel. When we first sat down with him he instantly told us that he knows that God led us to him. He knows it was not by accident. We taught him the Restoration and he just loved it. When we invited him to be baptized he accepted, but the only problem is he isn't sure when his next boat will come in. It could be next week or next month. Who knows? but he is willing to work towards baptism before he leaves. He told us that if he does this he really wants to be a true follower of Christ. He doesn't want to "draw near to Him with his lips" but he wants to be close with his heart. As I thought during this lesson, I thought about why God had us meet him. He could be leaving anytime, so why? I just thought about how God really does know us all and has a plan for us. Whether Brother Fu gets baptized this coming month or a year down the road or even years down the road, I know meeting him was no accident either. Pray for the best.

Our investigator Samson just told us that his parents won't let him get baptized so he might not get baptized next week. Luckily his birthday is October 16th so he can definitely get baptized in October but we are hoping for some miracles to happen. Especially with Gryphon. There is not much we can do for him. We are just leaving it in God's hands. We are really hoping that when he comes to the baptism this week that he will have a strong desire to be baptized and will change something.

One last thing. This is something that is very dear and important to me and that is the importance of good friends. Our investigator Shark really wants to get baptized but he feels like he can't follow the Word of Wisdom because when he gets with his friends they all drink and smoke and he feels like he needs to also. This is exactly why choosing good friends is so important. If we have friends that give us a negative influence, then we can potentially fall away from God. When we moved to Springville, I had a big choice when it came to friends. Who did I want to be friends with? Deep down, who did I really want to be and who did I want to surround myself with? Luckily my parents taught  me well and I knew exactly what I wanted. God blessed me with the best friends and best families. Don't let people let you fall away from God. Stay close to him. Shark said he will think about it a lot and we will talk to him tomorrow. Pray for the best again.

I love you all so much! Keep the flame burning bright!

Aug 21st

Alright! This week I will try to write more because someone (mom) was not too happy with the length of last week's email. So I'll try better :)

This week was pretty cool! We started it off by going to the Gaoxiong 85 skyscraper for Preparation Day. Super cool! While we were at the top looking out over the city, I just really felt my love for Taiwan just grow even more. The people here are truly just amazing. I am so glad I get to serve my mission here. Ah, Taiwan is just the best!!! Taiwan number 1! :)

On Tuesday we got to go on exchanges with the Zone Leaders and that was so much fun! Even though it rained the whole time (and the whole week) we still had a blast working hard! Elder Fleming and I were able to teach a new investigator for the first time and this kid was really cool. He seems to really have a strong desire to learn about Christ. He told us that he has just felt like a shadow his whole life. He felt that no one ever noticed him and that he just felt alone. After he told us that, we paused for a moment and thought. Elder Fleming and I then bore testimony that we are never alone. Even though we might feel no one wants to be around us or be friends with us, there is always someone that loves us and that person is God. I really felt the spirit strong as we told this kid our testimonies. I hope he can get baptized. So we had our lesson at the church in that area and right across the street from the church is a big lot of land that has a fence around it. Elder Fleming said we should get a picture with it. I asked why? And then quickly remembered that the church has already purchased a lot of land for a temple to be built in Gaoxiong! Aw yeah!! They haven't announced it yet, but it's coming! You wait!! 

On Friday we had a lesson set up with our investigator Sister Xie. She is the one that is like 65 years old and she is super funny! We decided we needed to bring the big guns to this lesson so we went to a member's house. Yep the same member that was in the seventy. We were going to meet up at the church so she could just follow us there. but it was raining... dun dundun (epic music). I called her and asked if she was on her way. This was our conversation:

"Hey!! Sister Xie! are you almost here?"

"It's raining..."

"Yeah!!"

"I don't want to go out in the rain." 

*side note* all my years of being the youngest child and being able to talk my mom into things finally paid off!

"But Sister Xie we REALLY want to meet with you!! We are waiting for you!"
"How are you getting there?"

"Our bikes!! And we are wearing our rain gear!! You can wear rain gear too!!"

"......ok i'll be there soon."

BOOM. Got her. She came and it was a super good lesson. She finally understood why she needs to get baptized again! Even though ever time we have met we have discussed this and the members have always used good examples and she always says she gets it, then the next time we meet with her she doesn't get it... But she gets it now!! We taught lots of the commandments and she will be having her baptismal interview this week!! Pray all will go well!!

We met with our investigator that has super long hair. Really good lesson. We followed up on reading and prayer and he said he has been doing it and he feels he has gotten an answer. He said he believes it's all true! So good!! hopefully he will get baptized on the 10th so pray for that! At the end of the lesson we were talking about English and asked what his English name is. He doesn't have one and he wants one. Elder Williams and I looked at each other and smiled and both said "Samson!!!" Like the dude in the Bible. We told him that this guy is in the Bible and he is super super 強 which is like beast haha. He loved it!

It was a pretty good week for us! Yesterday we did find out the Tiffany will be leaving on the 10th to Seattle. Oh well, hopefully the missionaries there can baptized her!!!

This week in sacrament meeting, one of the youth got up and bore his testimony. He told us of a story of this super old lady that got baptized really late in her life. She wanted to know why she didn't get baptized sooner because she just loves the gospel. In her Patriarchal Blessing it told her that when she was 20 she could have been baptized but the missionary that was supposed to baptize her didn't go on his mission. It really made me kinda scared thinking about the people that I didn't talk to or might not talk to... It really made me want to keep talking to everyone so no one has to miss out on the gospel and eternal life.

Well I love you all! Keep doing your thing!

Love

Elder Anderson

Aug 14th

I am very low on time today, but I want to say two things I learned this week.

1)Pride. It destroys us and only when we truly humble ourselves and repent can we receive blessings. We were a little prideful this week and it wrecked us. When we humbled ourselves, the spirit came and we found a very prepared soul! He asked us about four times if he could bring his friends. The answer is always yes.

just kidding I am only going to share one because I don't have time. Sorry haha

But I will send some cool pics next week and talk about more holy things and such.

God is real. It's sad when people don't know that they have a loving Heavenly Father.

Love you all!

Love

Elder Anderson

Aug 7th

Well this was one incredible week for Elder Williams and I! We have been working so hard and we are both very excited that we get to stay together for one more transfer! This last week we were able to find some very cool investigators! One of them is a 65 (give or take) year old lady,謝姐妹. She was chilling in the park by the church and that day we decided to go park contacting! It was actually going to be the last time that we did it because in the past few times that we have gone park contacting we have found nothing! But 謝姐妹 was sitting on a bench and we went to talk to her. We started talking and we found out she is a Christian. A very serious Christian at that. The topic flipped to prophets and when we told her that our church has a living prophet she was just amazed! We all sat down together and taught her the Restoration. She was just on the edge of her seat when we started talking about the Great Apostasy and Joseph Smith. She loved it all and set up for later on in the week to meet again. We taught her the Plan of Salvation as well later on in the week and she really enjoyed that as well. We gave her a short tour of the church and we had a member with us (of course) and she was asking about how to join the church. We talked about baptism more and she was like "How about now?" Haha we had to try not to smile really big and we told her that there is a process to baptism. She was like "ok, I better get working on that." She even came to church this week too! She sat by a member and after Sacrament meeting we went up to her and the member was like "Yeah go introduce her to the sister missionaries so they can teach her!" Elder Williams and I both said Yahhhh okk... But in our minds we said no. haha.

We also found another guy that is very special. His religion is called 一貫道. Basically they believe in everything: God, Muhammad, Buddha, and any other religion you can think about. Kinda interesting.. But he came to church as well and when we met with him for the fist time it was super hard to understand him because he uses lots of advanced chinese and uses scriptures from the Bible in his speech. So at Sacrament I had him sit by a member that is the Patriarch and used to be in the Area Seventy. Perrrfect. Afterwards the member came up to me and said "When you teach him, come to my house and I will help you answer all of his questions." Can do! Awesome!

Another guy we found is soooo cool! We drives a red plate motorcycle! But to those of you that have never been to Taiwan, that has no meaning to you. A red license plate means that it is the fastest type of bike. It's such a cool bike and I love it! We met with him and taught him the first lesson. He also has a heavy Christian background. He loved it as well! He said, "Wow, Joseph Smith has the exact same questions that I have!" Yeah!!! He was so willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray! He wanted to come to church but he will be in Taibei this month and isn't sure how often he can come back. So hopefully he can get baptized in September!

  We also met with Gryphon this week and we decided to bring the big guns with us and invited the ward mission leader to come too. Gryphon was originally supposed to get baptized last weekend but he has cram school every Sunday morning so he couldn't come to church. The member we brought was such a beast and told how he was in the same situation and he came up with a plan how he would at least come to Sacrament meeting every week and then bore testimony on that. He invited Gryphon to do the same and he was willing! We set a new goal for the 17th of September and he was very willing to work hard towards it!! 

Church yesterday was very awesome! There were literally not enough seats for everyone to sit down! There were 104 people that came! The most that I have had on my  mission! It was awesome!

One last miracle, we were leaving out apartment and we hear someone yell "Elders!!" One, we were surprised someone called us elders and two, they were speaking English. we turn around and there were two ladies from the Philippines in a taxi and they were waving to us. They pulled over to talk and we found out they are members but they haven't been able to go to church for a few years since moving to Taiwan. We gave them the address and they are going to come next week! It was just cool to realize how God puts people in our paths. Even if they are already members. We are Christ's representatives and people recognize that. 謝姐妹said when she say us at the park she was just very touched because she saw 耶穌基督on our name tags.

Being out for a year has been the best year of my life. It took me a while to realize exactly what I was doing and who I was. But you learn quickly. When I first started, all the missionaries kept saying how our missions are the happiest time of our lives. I didn't believe them. I was very happy before I left. But as I have gotten lost in the work and have worked hard on having a better relationship with Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, I have realized that this is the happiest I have ever been. Even though we get rejected daily, I am still happy. Time flies. One of my favorite hymns, "The Time is Far Spent" is so true. Two years is not enough. It goes by too fast! When I first started, I was excited to get home. But now, I don't want to leave. Taiwan is the best place. I am so grateful that Heavenly Father let me come here to represent Him and His Son. The people of Taiwan are amazing and are looking for Christ. I hope you are all doing the same.

I love you all! 

Love

Elder Anderson