Garrett and Elder Kong

This week has been pretty good.  Actually it seemed like every single one of our investigators had a problem.  But it seems to be fixing itself.  First off, right now we do not have that many investigators.  We have dropped a lot, and some have just dropped off the face of the earth.  

Rado and Rada are getting baptized on 2/5/12 for sure.  They both came to church yesterday.  Their interview is set.  We waited a week because we wanted them to better understand that they should not be baptized if they were not going to keep the Sabbath day holy.  (Last week they didn’t come because they were helping prepare a Vietnamese New Year celebration.) So, both of them are good.  But we are meeting with them every day this week to review and prepare them for their baptismal interview.  They are doing well, and their parents are still strong.  Their dad will do the baptism.  He is very excited, and the kids are good kids.  Rado is pretty much like Tanner.  He loves to play computer games.  Even though they are pretty poor, they have a computer, which is kind of weird.  He loves to play video games, but he is a good kid.  

The Som family, Devin, and her husband, Heng, are progressing well but could not go to church yesterday because Heng had surgery on either a hemorrhage or hemorrhoid.  He had surgery and was in the hospital.  We went to visit him before church and gave him a blessing.  He is doing well and they are progressing, and he should be allowed to go home sometime tonight. I can only imagine how you are pronouncing their names.  They are awesome.  Every time I ask how church was they always say that they are so happy, filled with joy, that they understand a lot, etc.  They are really awesome.  They read the Book of Mormon, pray, etc.  One of the new goals for our mission is to make daily contacts with our investigators.  We have been trying to do that with them.  Even when we do not teach, we just stop by and say hi, ask if they read and prayed, she usually gives us a little food, etc.  Being with them is so awesome.  And Emma, they have three dogs.  Crazy.  Every time we ride up they are just barking and crazy.  Their names are Robin, Lucky, and Sky.  So, yesterday they were great at church and they came even though many members did not come.  We are about half way through the plan of salvation with them.  

Heng sleeping on a bench in his house with the Book of Mormon on his chest. 

 We have another investigator named Botum.  She was doing well, and she was the one who told us she did not want to learn when we first got here about 5 months ago, but then decided she was ready and came to church on her own.  Either way we have been teaching her, and she is doing well and understands a lot.  Then we got a call while we were planning Tuesday night telling us that she had a problem where she sells fruit and other things.  Quite honestly I do not understand it all because Elder Kong and the other members do not really know how to translate it all, and sometimes they say words I do not understand, but I understand most of it.  She had a problem with someone over in the market.  She told the other lady that that was her spot, or something like that, and then went away.  The other lady attacked her and hit her and she fell on the ground.  Then another random lady came and helped our investigator.  The attacking lady kicked Botum, which is a problem because she is 7 months pregnant.  After this happened, the Police arrested Botum and the lady who helped her.  They arrested them because after Botum got attacked, she scratched the other lady's face and made her bleed.  When the police came, that was the only evidence they saw.  At first, Botum and the lady were not in jail, but kind of in a holding area jail.  At first, the police would not let her go to the doctor even though her stomach was hurting, but finally they let her.  Two days later both ladies, Botum and the lady who helped her, got out of jail, but they had to pay $200 to for legal fees, etc.  Botum and the baby are fine.  She is feeling better.  The sad thing is that the other lady who just tried to help had to pay money too, and she was not even involved. She has 4 little kids at home.  Sad, but Botum is okay.

While all of our investigators have some problems, the work is good.  We are still working with members. We have also been really working with members.  Not just inactive or less active, but active members.  I had the idea that I wanted to do that while I was doing weekly planning by myself as Elder Sok packed.  Then Elder Kong came in and had the same idea, and we just started doing it without really even telling each other.  Initially, the reaction has been, "hy do you want to meet me?"  That is something we are trying to change.  We do not only want to meet investigators and members that are struggling, but meet members who are strong, and help them to be stronger.  Hopefully, six months from now the branch will get much stronger and then our recent converts will be more active because the branch and members are stronger.  So that is what we have been doing.  Overall, the mission is kind of changing things.  They have changed the goals to have 20 discussions with members present and 20 with members/recently concerted/less actives every week.  So, more of an emphasis on working with all members.  

I mentioned we are lacking investigators, so we have been doing a lot of service.  Well, trying.  They sell these huge sticks of sugar cane, probably 8 feet tall.  In order to sell it, they need to scrape off or "shuck" the bark from the sugar cane.  They sell it two ways.  One is in the form of small bite sized circles and people buy them to chew on them, and the other way is they crush them and sell the juice for people to drink.  One of our members sells them, so we went and "shucked" sugar cane for about an hour and a half.  At first, I did not know how to do it, but now I can do it pretty well.  You just hold a scraper, like a big cheese grater but with only one big blade thing to scrap it.  Then you scrap all the bark off.  And we helped her neighbor do hers.  I love to do service, and hopefully, it can plant some seeds.  

Chinese New Year

It is hard to get adjusted to a new area, but it is also super great.  My new area is like mini New York City.   It is so pretty and totally has that New York City feel.  There are kind of dingy, not so pretty parts, but then you will turn a corner and be in this really gorgeous city area with this random modern art in the middle of a park.

My new companion is great.  Sister Lethco is from California and this is her 11^th transfer period.  She has been in Taiwan for about 10 months.  She is a really sweet girl, and we get along really well.  

It has been a little tough lately because it is Guonian or Chinese New Year.  It is basically like Christmas time in the US.  Everyone just tells us they can meet after New Years, which is understandable.  I am sure missionaries in the US get the same thing because holiday times are so busy.  We have a lot of invitations to meet at member’s houses which is super fun, but in between that there is mostly open time.  I think it is kind of exciting.  I like going on random adventures to pop by less actives or part member families houses, but at the same time it can get a little slow.

Today we went with some members to this huge mall.  It was packed!  It took us an hour and a half to find something to eat, but it was cool to walk around the mall.  It was really coolly decorated and had awesome architecture.  It was fun to get to know better some members of our wards.  We went with a lady and her daughter and also a recent convert who is this sister’s coworker who she referred to the missionaries and another sister who is friends with them who has been investigating the church for forever.   

Probably the biggest success of the week was that a less active we are working with, Chan Mama, came to church on Sunday.  Our mission president has asked us to really focus our efforts on rescuing as well as baptizing.  Inactivity is a huge problem in Taiwan, and we are really trying to bring people back.  It is hard.  In my old area, we could hardly ever find less actives who were willing to meet or who were ever home, but here we have found some people who are willing to meet.  We have seen some success, which is so wonderful.   

Something that has really grown within me throughout my mission is a commitment and a determination to never turn away from what I have covenanted and from what I know.  
  
We did have great miracles this week.  On Friday night we had two really good lessons planned, and they both fell through.  We were feeling really bummed, so we prayed to ask what we needed to do, and I felt like we needed to stop by the house of one of our investigators.  We headed over there, and right as we rode past her door, she comes out with her daughter.  They were leaving to go the store.  It was a huge miracle because we had been trying to get in touch with that investigator for days, and we were able to set up and appointment with her, which was wonderful.  

Another great miracle of the week was also on Friday.  A member invited us over to her shop to eat dinner.  Her friend was there and said she had picked up a Book of Mormon and started reading it.  Because she was poor, she wanted to know what the gold plates were (she works with this member who owns a purse store and has a basket full of missionary related materials for customers as well as Book of Mormons to give out when people buy a purse).  Needless to say, she is amazing.  We sat down with her and talked about the restoration and the Book of Mormon.  It was a great lesson and she said she has a lot of interest in reading the Book of Mormon and that she loves to read.  We are really excited about that.   

We also painted our bikes today.  It is common here for missionaries to spray paint their bikes to prevent theft, which is not a huge problem but just like in any place is a possibility.  I didn't really want to paint mine for a long time because sometimes they look really lame when people paint them, but I decided that I need to do it because I don't want my bike to get stolen.  I spray painted my bike yellow.  I really like it; it is very sunny and makes me happy when I see it.