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