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