Gifting Pineapples in Taiwan

Another wonderful miracle story from the week: We have been working with a Young Woman, Wu Jiemie, whose mother is a recent convert and has wanted to be baptized herself, but her dad is very opposed.  She has been praying and really seeking to develop her own testimony.  We have been praying as well and trying to seek little inspiration for how to help gain her father's approval.  Last Sunday, we went with a member of the ward to sing to her dad who is in the hospital. (He has brain cancer).  This member is named Guo Baba.  He is the most wonderful member missionary.  He is probably 75 years old and rides his bike all over the place helping the missionaries, visiting members, and attending church activities.   He told us earlier that we needed to be at the hospital at 3 o’clock because we were going to see Wu Jiemie's dad.  We didn't argue.  We got in there, and he right away makes friends with the dad and testifying about how the gospel has blessed his life.  

Sister Thomas, Ruby Chen, and I 

Anyway, the dad was grateful for the visit, and as reported on Wednesday by his daughter, he no longer is saying BAD things about the church.  I had been thinking of others things we could do this week to soften his heart, and I thought that we could maybe buy her dad a “hope you feel better” gift.  On Saturday, Sister Jarvis and I bought a pineapple and dropped it off at their door with a note.  That night I get a call from her dad thanking me for the pineapple and saying that maybe he can come to the church someday and meet with us.  This was a completely huge improvement over before when he was very negative and antagonistic about the church and would hide from us if we were over.   The Lord truly does love His children, and He is watching out for them.  I have found again and again on my mission that it is in following the little promptings and in constantly asking our Heavenly father what more can we do that we see the biggest miracles.   

  

That is a way in which I want to improve.  I want to be constantly seeking for promptings to follow and ways in which to be an instrument in the Lord's hand.  How easy it is to look on promptings as a burden that need to be obeyed rather than a blessing to be sought after.  

Chen Jiemie and I. She is a really awesome member who took us to see some of Tainan's tourist sights last P-day. It was super fun! 

We met a cool family this week while tracting.  I had felt prompted to go down this street.  I actually at first disregarded the thought because it looked like an older more traditional street, which often leads to people being less willing to listen.  As I passed it, I felt prompted to turn around.  We decided to go down this street, and we met this woman and her husband.  They are older – probably  in their 60s.  They let us in.  I think initially it was just in an effort to be nice, and as we were teaching, the husband was nice, but it was clear that he didn't think what we were saying was super important. He kept trying to catch us in our words.  We got through it, and the mom was actually listening with great intent.  They said we could come over again, surprisingly enough.   

We went back on Sunday night.  It was an interesting lesson.  Chen Dixiong, the dad, again kept trying to catch us in our words.  We gave him some promised blessings, and he was like, "Sister Gibson you keep promising me things just to get me to join your church."  I told him that he didn’t  have to join our church to have the blessings we were talking about but that he could see the blessings right now through prayer, scripture study, and keeping the commandments.  He wasn't mean as much as just disbelieving and confrontational.   

A bunch of companionships that met at a burger place one P-day. 

We were able to get through the lesson, and as we were finishing and Sister Jarvis was talking to the more receptive mom, Chen Dixiong turned to me and said that he really wants his children to have the church in their lives.  He said that he invited his son to meet with us, but his son said no. He said he doesn't know how to help his son choose a better path.  We talked about how he, as the father, could set the example for his son to follow.  He also told me that he believes in God 100%, but he feels like he hasn't done his part in his life to follow God.  It was an amazing moment.  He is still not wanting to up and join the church, but he revealed a very important part of his heart.  He said that his main concern, and why he couldn’t accept what we were teaching is that he then wouldn't be able to participate in ancestor worship.  For a lot of people this is a big concern because to them that is how they honor their family.  It is like if we were told we couldn't go visit our grandparents’ graves.  It is very hard for people to think about giving up that part of our life.   

We were running really late, and we really needed to leave.  We talked about how our church respects our ancestors, but we just use different methods and that we wanted to teach him about it more next time.  He said that I was just going to go home and find some more bait that I could offer him next time and that is why I didn’t want to talk about it then.  I told him that no, we had a rule about when we needed to be home each night, and we needed to go home so we wouldn’t' be late.  He doesn't agree with everything you say, and he is trying to point out the flaws in what you say. But at the same time, he is loving and funny about it.