Monday, May 26, 2014

The Best Weeks Are Yet to Come!

Well Elder Anderson and I are going to be staying together! We are both super stoked to stay together! So many great things are going to happen this next few weeks! I really stink...but I really have no time AGAIN! I am SUPER SORRY!

So really fast. This week has been really exciting! We were able to meet with a few of our great investigators and they are getting close to baptism! We have been so blessed down here.

To make up for it I am going to send a bunch of pictures!

Stories:

Had to clear a HUGE spider out of the chapel...literally as big as my hand, maybe bigger! SCARY!

We had a great family home evening with our RC sherry and we ate mashed potatoes! SO AWESOME!!

gosh I can't think...sorry! This week was pretty normal!

OH we bought McDees and went to the roof of our building to eat and wait for the Move Call! Luckily we will be staying together!

Love you all!

INVITE: Set goals and make plans for coming closer to the Lord this week :) What are you going to do and how will you get it done?

Love you!

SHINE BRIGHT!!!!

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Monday, May 12, 2014

Happy Mothers DAY!!!!

So I don't have a lot of time today! But it is TOTALLY worth it because I got to skype my Parents and got to see my studly brother in New Zealand! For those of you who know what a 有辦法 Part is....he has one! That is my boy!!! WHOO!!! Gage is looking like the hulk too! Jeeze! I am afraid he will totally beat me in basketball and arm wrestling and extreme underwater basket weaving when I return! He also is a Dr. Who genius!#TotallyJealous

Okay so a quick run through of the week with my little amount of time!

We exchanged with the Zone Leaders this week! I loved it! The Zone Leader Elder Magnuson is a boss! The only thing is that on that exchange I got into TWO bike accidents...yeah...no bueno (thats not chinese!?!?). One was crazy too cause it was just me standing on the side of the road on my bike writing on a small card when out of NOWHERE this old grandma on a vespa smashed head on into me and threw me from my bike!....she was a big grandma alright!? haha. It was crazy! I have some nice bruises from that one! :) On the exchange we also taught this AWESOME family! I bore testimony of some things that I hold very dear to my heart. The tears were flowing in that lesson. It was powerful and it is experience like that that help me to know that I am not alone in this work but that the spirit is testifying of what I say! I on my own can do nothing, but with him I can do all!

FOR MY PAST DISTRICTS IN 小港...THE NOODLE KING IS GONE!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT! I ALMOST CRIED!

We are teaching this AWESOME woman named Linda. Well in English class some people started asking us some deep questions about God and Life after this Life....luckily for us....that morning we had just taught Linda the Second Lesson (Plan of Salvation) So before we could even answer the questions she whipped out this pamphlet and started saying, all the answers are right in here! She bore testimony and taught! AHHH SHE IS THE BOMB!

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR AMAZING LETTERS! I OWE YOU ALL SO MUCH! IT IS SUCH A HUGE BLESSING TO HAVEYOUR WONDERFUL SUPPORT!

I heard that the returning missionaries on their homecoming speech day had the primary kids sing I am a Child of God in Chinese! That would totally make me cry!! That is so cool!

SHOUT OUT TO MY WONDERFUL MOTHER! SHE IS THE BESTEST EVER! I posted on Facebook about it all, and I don't have a ton of time so go look at that...but She is my angel! She has raised me and loved me and taught me who I need to be by example and word! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH MOM! 

Okay before I leave I have to write this cool miracle!! So during ZTM I got to see ELDER ROBERTS!!! I miss that kid so much! But then the zone leaders asked us some cool questions! They said "Who believes that they could help someone set a baptismal goal this month?" All the hands shot up, "This week?" Same basic thing "Today?" A LOT of hands went down. "Within the hour?" Now it was just me and one other kid with their hand up. Well the zone leaders called me up and said, do you really believe that? Of course I said YES. So they said, "Okay...go and do it...you have one hour. See ya!" I was like...."oh gosh....dang it....what did I just do!" Especially cause president came down to see us! AHHH

Well...Miracles ARE REAL. We went out and the Whole Zone Prayed for us, my amazing comp and I prayed to glorify God in this experience. And it happened. Within 1 min I started talking to a guy on the street....within 10 min we had taught a small lesson and set a goal with him. Within 15 min we were back at the church with his info! IT WAS INCREDIBLE! Everyone was totally blown away! Including us....it was totally the spirit! AN AMAZING MIRACLE! I reckon that right as the Zone kneeled to pray is when I started talking to that man. I guess that the Elders that were over his area just met with him and he was Golden as ever and asked about me and my comp! SUPER AWESOME!

The Church is True. Go and Share it with someone this week! Just share a small testimony or miracle! Make that a natural part of your lives! You will all do that right? I know that as you do that you will be blessed and will help your friends and family to also receive those blessings!! LOVE YOU ALL!

SHINE BRIGHT!

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Ge Sheng Long ZhangLao

葛勝龍長老

I will send pics next week...sorry!

Monday, May 5, 2014

Wasabi is the Windex of Taiwan

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Yes that was a My Big Fat Greek Wedding joke! :) But really...Wassabi is magical. My companion and I went down to a fresh fish market this week, which if you ever ever gone to a REAL fresh fish market...it is creepy...But we got some Sashime(Spelling?) which is just fresh un-cooked slabs of fish that you eat with Wassabi and Soy sauce. Well....when there is about 5 pounds of wassabi in front of two Elders....sometimes a "who is manlier competition starts"....the funny things is that NEITHER of us look very manly as we are eating this fish and Crying our eyes out! haha. The Wassabi is CRAZY! Oh man...I think I actually fried brain cells that day! Not to mention both of our stomachs were in pain the rest of the evening....but It is the experience that counts :)

I started a really cool experiment that I hope everyone can try at one point or another! So everyone should have copies of the Preach My Gospel right?? (GENERAL CONFERNCE INVITE!) Well what I am doing is I am going to take to the missionary lessons!!! I am going through and reading the Preach my gospel lessons in Chapter 3. I am going to meet with myself about 2 times a week. Share with myself the lessons, share scriptures, give myself commitments and invites and give examples to help myself understand better (All nicely provided by the Preach My Gospel). I am then in between visits with myself actually do the commitments, things like Read the Book of Mormon Into and start daily scripture study and pray to find out if this is all true. I bought a new Book Of Mormon to do this with so I can make new marks and stuff. I also am using a study journal to record the questions I have in the lessons and in my personal reading. As well as the answers that I get from the lessons, reading, prayer, and personal revelation! So far I just finished the first lesson and will be meeting with myself again tomorrow! It is really fun and aweomse! You should all try it to! (If you are not a baptized member or for some reason can't get your hands on a Preach My Gospel/have lost interest in church, then just ask the missionaries to come over and help you do this experiment! I am sure they would LOVE to help out :)) I have already learned and grown so much from it!

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One of our most AMAZING investigators is going to America for a few months with a work thing....so if you see any people that are Chinese and don't speak ANY English...it might be him :) so say hello :) haha. We are sad that WE probably wont see him again, but we know that he will get baptized when he returns and we are excited for that!

We are meeting with another amazing Woman named Linda! She is super awesome and can feel the spirit very well! In our lesson she told us, "There is just a big difference between you two and your church and where I went before...it is hard to describe but I can feel it. I like it here more." Can you say BLESSINGS! She is an honest seeker of truth and look, blessings come. Blessings that you can really FEEL! So take that Satan! And yes, that means that all of you that haven't tried it yet or have fallen away...just plllllleeeeaaaasssseeee come back and again FEEL the amazing blessings that God has in store for you! I know your life right now might be pretty good. However, I promise you that it is no where even close to what it COULD be with the blessings that the true restored gospel brings into your lives!

Thank you everyone for your letters and your support on Facebook! I want you to all know that every letter and like and all that mean so much to me!! Thank you all so so much for your love!

So I don't know if I have mentioned this in any other emails, but my Good friend mister Ben-ya-min Johnson out in the land of IDALY! (Chinese pronunciation) presented a wonderful idea that I am now taking part in called the 6 months to sexy. It is this, within the last six months work out as HARD AS YOU CAN and just get big! For those of you that know me well...you know that my two brothers, Dane and Chase are MUCH bigger than I am. So if you have any ideas for gettin big fast. Please let me know so that I can still be king of the hill when we all return :) haha.

I love you all so much!

Have an amazing week and like always,

SHINE BRIGHT!!!

Pictures are

1.) Elder Anderson and I back on the MRT in 小港XiaoGang, My first area!! SO FUN!!!


2.) We are teaching (The man had a stroke awhile ago and so he has a hard time controlling his muscles. Really sad.)

 

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Ge Sheng Long ZhangLao

葛勝龍長老