THE TYPHOON CAME!!!!
If you are thinking that I am talking about the nature typhoon that hit Taiwan you would be wrong (That happened though). I AM TALKING ABOUT THE SPIRIT TYPHOON THAT ELDER FURNER AND I ARE UNLEASHING ON XIAOGANG!!!!! Say what!?!?!? YEAH!!! Now do you all want to know why I am so excited! Because my testimony of Fasting has AGAIN been strengthened and my love and gratefulness for the savior is AGAIN being exponentially multiplied! Story time:
So there is an amazing investigator 黎明鴻 was literally the PERFECT investigator until we shared the Word of Wisdom. He stopped answering and meeting with us...one day after fasting he texted us and said..."Gish...I am sorry, I can't live the wisdom..." I almost died! I was so distraught and frankly angry. But I was NOT going to give up! No way! So we kept praying for him and trying to call and nothing...two full weeks of nothing. THEN yesterday we called to invite him back to church...and!......no answer...oh gosh. What made it even harder was I had decided the day before to do a HUGE fast for 黎明鴻 and I just had a feeling things would work out and then nothing happened and I was so sad. After church I went to see the bishop to discuss the Ward Mission Plan that I am creating and talk about some investigators when BAM!! I look over...and who is it?..黎明鴻!!! He looks at me and says, "Hi Gish....I have a story for you!" Of course I leap out of my chair and give him a huge hug and say "tell me your story!" So he started to tell me how he didn't think he could join the church because of the word of wisdom but he believes what we taught so he still wanted to be baptized and join a church. He went to other christian churches to get baptized there. Then he told me..."when I went there it didn't feel the same....something was missing...This church is true and I know it...and because of that I gave up coffee and everything, I have done it for a week now and I am ready to be baptized." Even me...the manly man that I am (;)) couldn't hold back the teary eyes! I just gave him a huge hug and testified about the blessings he can and will receive. We sat down, taught a lesson and had a baptismal interview! He will be getting baptized this Friday night! I am so excited and thankful to the Lord for his mercy and love!!! AH IT IS SO INCREDIBLE!!!
So this week as many of you know, we got to meet our NEW MISSION PRESIDENT! And let me tell you what...he is an INCREDIBLE MAN! No one is quite as incredible as my Dad! But President Blickenstaff is still incredible! Maybe its the German in him (there you go dad...for ALL the Irish comments...here is a German one for you ;) haha...even though you are 75%Irish by the transitive property. :) haha) So anyways, we were talking about other missionaries and he told me a quote that I will never forget and love! "The difference between the Arabian champion horses and other horses is that the Champions don't look at the other horses." Is that not an amazing quote! I got so fired up to just focus on my goal and to go for it 100%! Of course I wan't to be able to help other missionaries but if I am taking too much time to look at other horses and not focused on my purpose...well then I will lose. And let me tell you what...I am fighting for the Lord right now and I WILL NOT LOSE. I will do anything it takes! Even eating mostly veggtables and weird foods...
I was reading in Corinthians 9-20-23 this week and I realized that in order to truly be successful I need to become Taiwanese, I need to love what they love and eat what they eat (uh-oh) and do what they do! It was amazing as I thought about all the changes I have already made and to make goals for what else I can do to continue to become apart of this amazing culture! This that help are people putting us on the spot to do things like...Teach the Gospel Principles class!
It reminds me of a moment after trek when my Dad had to ask me to get up and give a talk in sacrament! We were sitting there and no teacher came...so what do we do. 'I'll do it!' We just on the spot started to teach about fasting! It was amazing and really helped me build my confidence in my teaching and in my Chinese! I feel like no matter how long I stay here or how good my Chinese gets, I am always going to be blown away when I realize what is happening....I am literally speaking and writing a different language!! There is no way this would be even close to possible with out the Savior and his gifts/blessings!
So I want to just through this in because this week it has actually been making me excited. There is an Elder in Taipei...Elder Gibson...he is the MAN! We were in the MTC together! We write each other in Chinese and have some great plans for business and dates when we get back :) haha. I am super grateful for his influence because he works super hard and his Chinese is INCREDIBLE! It just pushes me to be better and makes me want to be better! I am so thankful I had the opportunity to know him! Please pray for him! Taipei got hit bad by a Typhoon!
THANK YOU MOM AND DAD FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY PACKAGE!!! I can't tell you how incredible real milk and cereal is...oh gosh...so good...and those candies...of gosh...my mouth is watering again!
Advice from my Zone Leader...the Best missionary ever (Elder Wong Wei): "Love your mission." I want EVERYONE to think about that :) It has a great surface meaning and an even better deep meaning :).
As you can see in my pictures I have a list of Pokemon...the first 151....is this a good use of Language study time?....maybe not the BEST...but is it SUPER fun to do and SUPER fun to contact people with?....yes haha. People love it when I ask them the name of their favorite pokemon or dragonball z character or naruto character! The thing about it is that because a lot of that stuff is part of their culture, when I talk about it they trust me more and it makes us better friends which means they will be more open to hearing the message I have to share with them! Just loving people will do WONDERS!!!
I am a little out of time for other funny stories!
But I want to end with an invite and letting you all know that I know this is true and I love you all!
The invite..Watch that video and then go act. Find someone you can strengthen and bless! :)
Ge Sheng Long ZhangLao
葛勝龍長老
