Shu-feng's Baptism - Complete with Pictures

Shu-feng’s baptism was wonderful.  I was saying to Sister Jarvis that this is the first baptism I have had with absolutely no glitches.  No water being let out of the font.  No one stuck in traffic.  No last minute second interviews.  It was super stress free! 

Shu-feng was so touched by the spirit.  Her mom and her sister came, and as she was sharing her testimony, she was just overcome with feelings of love towards them.  I think it is one of those special moments when the spirit speaks to you by helping you feel the most tremendous love for your family members.  I have had experiences like that before, and they are very powerful.  

She did have to get baptized twice because her foot popped up.  We had told her to relax her body because it is easier to go under if you aren't stiff.  She said she was so relaxed she didn't notice her foot come up.   

It was really special as well because her cousin was able to baptize her.  I don't know if you remember but Shu-feng's aunt and her three children are member of the church. The aunt has for years tried to share the gospel with her family but to no avail.  She saw Shu-feng at stake conference a few weeks back and was shocked and extremely excited that her niece was studying the gospel.  She spoke at Shu-feng’s baptism, and her son baptized Shu-feng. It was such a cool experience because this sister's many years of prayers were answered.  I know that through Shu-feng's good example she will just be the first of many other family members to be baptized. 

We started off the week with a really cool miracle as we were rushing to an appointment.  I saw this lady walking through the park right in front of us, and I felt like we should talk to her. But then she walked away, and we were in a rush. (Not following a prompting immediately regardless of the circumstance is not a good idea.)  Anyway, we prayed before heading into the lesson, and when we finished she was back.  The spirit again was like, "Go!'  So we followed her through the park trying as hard as we could not to look creepy.  We got to a point where I could casually talk to her.  She was a member of another church and really didn't have interest, but just as I started talking to her, this man passed by Sister Jarvis and asked if we had an English class.  She said that we did.  Come to find out he is a former investigator, and he said that he really wanted to find someone who could help him read the Book of Mormon because he has one but he just can't understand it.  Then to make matters even better he said his family were all studying before and also want to read the Book of Mormon.  We set up an appointment.  We will see where it goes but the Lord truly is aware of where His children are.  I feel bad that He had to tell me twice.   

We also had a huge blessing on Sunday.  After a lesson, we saw this guy sitting outside on a street. I had the impression to talk to him, and so I started to do so. As I did, my companion starts talking to this family who had pulled up on their scooter.  They were a really cool family and super willing to meet.  It was such a cool miracle.  I feel like Heavenly Father keeps prompting me to talk to people who aren't interested so that my companion can be in the right position and the right time to start talking to someone else who needs to hear the gospel.  I am happy to be the decoy!

Feathered Chicken Nuggets and Biting Pigs

Backstreet Boys? Yes!

After our branch missionary (BM) leader meeting at the church our BM leader surprised us with a nice little treat.  Baby duck eggs!  I think I told you guys this before, but they let the duck eggs progress until they are pretty well developed.  Then they kill it and sell them.  Then they deep fried it so it kind of looked like a giant chicken nugget.  Like the size of a lacrosse ball.  Well, we ate those.  After taking a bite, if you looked in you could see the baby duck starting to form.  The best part – feathers.  The feathers were starting to form and were very visible.  It was not really crunchy, kind of soft but occasionally you would get a big crunch of well developed bone.  I ate 7.  The other American elders ate 3.  Honestly, it tasted pretty good.  It only was gross when you thought about the fact that feathers were in your stomach along with partially developed duck.  Like a big chicken nugget.  

 Rain washes away parts of the road. 

One of our new investigators said that her daughter had a fever of 41 degrees Celsius.  Which I checked and is about 106 degrees, so I think she might have been a little off.  But she prayed, and afterward, she said that her little daughter’s fever just went away. Now she really believes in prayer.  I hope she keeps on learning and keeps progressing in the gospel. 

 Rain washes away parts of the road.

I feel like I am always thinking about our investigators.  That is obviously a good thing, but sometimes it is hard when that is the only thing that you can and should think about because when they are not doing well, it is sad.  We did see a good change with the wife of a member.  We met her once last week, and it was pretty much us forcing her to meet. Then we met yesterday after church and she was totally different.  She was happier, excited and told us that now she actually wants to learn. 

 Breakfast at a local market

We did a lot of service for our branch missionary leader.  He makes some type of strange medicine that is rice kernels and then he cooks them and then puts some ingredients on them.  He then puts them in glass bottles and super cooks them at like 350 degrees.  I was sitting there putting the baked rice into glass bottles, and at random times, the super cookers a couple feet from me would let out really sharp blasts of steam.  He said not to worry, but I could just picture that whole thing exploding.  Serving him is really important though.  We need his trust and his help.  

  Church member making a mat 

One of the hardest parts is working with less active and inactive member.  It is just so sad – especially when just a while ago they were active and strong.  Sometimes it is especially hard when they used to help the missionaries a lot so they kind of know our style and our purpose, why we are there, and what we are trying to do when we sit down with them.  We try hard to help encourage them to come to church though.  

  Church member making a mat 

We visited a member who lives in kind of a rural area.  The little girl at their house told me not to go close to the huge pig because it bites boys but does not bite girls.  

 Backstreet Boys? Yes.

We had some funny experiences this week that just made us laugh.  One day both of our bikes were broken and unable to be ridden, and we wanted to go back to the member who we got them from.  So we were using them as scooters.  We pushed our way through the streets with one foot on the ground and one foot on the bike.  We got several comments and people yelling at us asking why we did not know how to ride bikes and why we couldn't ride a bike normal.  It was funny.   

Baptism Dates and Real Happiness

I have been thinking a lot this week about happiness and the blessings of the gospel.  We met with an investigator this week who we have been working with for a long time.  When we first met with her, she told us that there was no way she could give up tea and no way that she could be baptized because that would mean she would need to give up tea.  We have been working with her for a while, focusing on those things that will build her faith.  This week we had an “ok, let's talk about baptism” lesson.  

It was such a sad conversation because she said that there was no way she could give up tea.  She said she believes that God and Christ exist and that there are things that she can live without but tea is not one of those things.  We talked about eternal joy and eternal happiness, but she said that she didn't believe in this happiness.  It made me so sad to hear her say this.  So often I think we look for happiness and say that we want to be happy but what we forget is that happiness is a byproduct of righteous living – not the reason that we live righteously.  Elder Wirthland said that too often we look for happiness as the end result, but what we should be looking for is to align our will with God’s and as a result joy and happiness come.  God, of course, wants His children to be happy, but He wants us to be happy as a result of becoming better people – not out of momentary pleasure.

We had a great lesson this week with another one of our more long term investigators.  She has been reading, praying, and coming to church for quite a while, but she is still insisting that she isn't feeling anything.  We invited her last week to bring a question to church.  When we followed up the next day, she said that she had wanted to know how to help her rebellious son and that at church in one of the classes she received her answer.  She also said that she received an answer from the Book of Mormon about how to deal with a woman who keeps asking her for money.  These were huge improvements as she is finally recognizing the blessings of keeping the commandments and the direct impact it is making in her life.

Shu-feng is doing wonderfully.  She passed her baptismal interview on Friday.  It was raining like crazy and our district leader lives in this really far away area.  I was very grateful that they biked all the way up here.  Her interview was great.  

Our lessons this week with Shu-feng were great.  We finished up the commandments.  She is good on all of them.  She was kind of concerned about not being able to buy food on Sunday because she and her family always go out to dinner.  She asked if this counted as buying things.  She seemed very concerned when she asked me this.  I wasn't totally sure what to say.  It was one of those moments where I was just trying to listen to the Spirit, and it was just kind of given to me.  I explained that yes it does count as buying things but that is a difficult situation because her family are not members but that it is one of those things that she can pray and ask Heavenly Father what the best thing to do in this situation.  She seemed really comforted by that answer.  I am confident that she will pray and she will receive answers.  She is so cute.      

Welcome to Battambang Elder Gibson!

I am sending my first letter from Battambang province.  Friday was transfer day, so we took a tuk tuk to the mission home. Then we all boarded a big coach bus that is run by a local company called Capitol Tours.  Well, we left around 2:45ish and road all the way up to Battambang.  We finally arrived at the church at 9:15ish at night.  We made a few stops along the way for 5 min. or so to go to the bathroom or buy some snacks. As we drove up it got very rural and we saw a ton of really beautiful rice fields, palm trees, heavily wooded hills and areas, etc.  Really cool.  

Baby crocodile farm

A little bit about Battambang.  It actually has a decent size city.  No where near as big a Phnom Penh, but it is a decent size city.  Very quiet though.  Not a lot of people around.  Battambang actually has a brand new branch/district building built about a year ago, and it is really awesome.  Finally I am in a branch where regular people can find our branch building.  It is on a main road and it is the big pretty building that everyone has seen before.  So that is cool.  

 Baby crocodile farm

I road through a path/road and my tire got stuck with mud so I pulled off to the side of the road and started to use my hands to pick mud out of the back.  Well, as you know Cambodia has tons of prostitutes and it just so happens I stopped my bike in the general area of one.  Well, she came over and kind of tried to ask me what was wrong with my bike and offer her help.  I got out of there in 1 second.  I got on my bike and said bye bye and road another fifty yards and got all the mud out.  My companion thought it was pretty funny.  

 Baby crocodile farm

Yesterday we got stuck in a huge rain storm.  Huge.  I had to get to the church at 5 to interview an investigator for baptism.  Totally soaked.  That was the first time I was legitimately cold in Cambodia. 

In America people take vans. Here they just jump in the back of a trailer.

So in our mission we have 3 zones in the city (Phnom Penh), north, east and west.  Then each of the 4 provinces have their own zone and then some of the missionaries in Vietnam have a zone.  Our zone is the biggest zone of all the provinces.  We have 5 companionships and 2 senior couples missionaries.  So 12 in total.  We have two districts in my zone and 2 sister companionships.  For the church in Battambang, we have 1 district and two branches and word on the street is that they have started the process to try and make a new branch.  Battambang is a decent size city but nothing too big.  It is actually very quiet.  

Shoes are taking a hit. Don't worry. Super glue fixes it all. 

We do most of our proselyting in the city area, but sometimes we bike out to the member’s houses that are much farther away.  For example, last night we really wanted to meet an investigator so we biked really far up one of the national highway roads and then randomly just took a left turn into a dirt path.  I could not see anything.  Just trees around us.  Pitch black and I was afraid we would ride off the path into the bushes and trees.  No house lights or anything.  Pretty cool actually but we had to really push it to get out to their house so we were super tired.  So yes, people live very far and outside of the "city". 

Yes, I am the only zone leader up here.  The missionaries up here are good.  Most of them are really hard workers.  We share the house with other elders. We have had some fun times, so it is actually pretty fun when we are at home together.  My companion (an American) and I speak Khmae for our planning session at night and then for companion study in the morning.  It is kind of hard I am so used to just speaking Khmae all the time.  Still improving and working on it though.  My companion is great.  

Bridge that sways back and forth violently whenever someone drives over it. 

Early on in the week I came across two scriptures that I love and that really set the tone for our week.  Luke 1:37 "For with God nothing shall be impossible" and Genesis 18:14 “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”  I really love these two scriptures.  They just make me feel so inspired and ready to go.   

Family Home Evening with some member in Sen Sok. 

We have a lot of "potential investigators", with only one that has been taught past the first lesson.  That is kind of a bummer, but we can change that.  We just need to start meeting with the people that are potentials that have met with the previous elders a few times before and really help them to start to progress.  I really want to work with the members, because from what I have seen the members are awesome!  There are a lot of them and many families.  From what I have seen they are willing to share the gospel and are fairly strong.  Right now I am trying to get to know them all.  First, I am starting with their names.  I know that will be the key up here, and I really just want to have the trust of the members so we can start to receive more referrals.  I know this area has a lot of potential and I am really just looking forward to a whole week of proselytizing, plus knowing the area, members and potential investigators that we have a little bit better.  Quite honestly, I just feel excited.

Pig Head Soup and Garrett's arrival in Battambang Province

At Channary's baptism from several weeks ago. 

I am sending my first letter from Battambang province.  Well, last week I was in Sen Sok unitl Friday.  Not going to lie I was ready to go after we got the transfer calls.  It was still hard to say goodbye to some of the recent converts and members, but I was ready to start fresh up in Battambang.   

Part of their supply of bottled water. (They use bottled water so that they don't get as sick.)

Friday was transfer day so we took a tuk tuk to the mission home and then we all boarded a big coach bus that is run by a local company called Capitol Tours.  Well, we left around 2:45ish and road all the way up to Battambang.  We finally arrived at the church at 9:15ish at night.  We made a few stops along the way for 5 min. or so to go to the bathroom or buy some snacks.  It was kind of a long bus ride, but I was able to talk to my new companion, Elder Gerrard for most of the time.  They kept playing weird Khmae music on a TV in the front and weird Chinese movies translated into Khmae.  My back started to hurt after sitting for so long, but it was a fun experience.  As we drove up it got very rural and we saw a ton of really beautiful rice fields, palm trees, heavily wooded hills and areas, etc.  Really cool.  

They cook over open flames. This is the gas used to light the flames. 

A little bit about Battambang.  It actually has a decent size city.  No where near as big a Phnom Penh, but it is a decent size city.  Very quiet though.  Not a lot of people around.  Battambang actually has a brand new branch/district building built about a year ago, and it is really awesome.  Finally I am in a branch where regular people can find our branch building.  It is on a main road and it is the big pretty building that everyone has seen before.  So that is cool.  

So, like I said Elder Gerrard is my new companion.  He is a really good guy from Utah and has been out on his mission for 3 months in the country so about 5 months overall.  I think we will be able to find a lot of success with each other.

At a Pioneer Day activity in Sen Sok. There were 50 children (very few of which were branch members) in attendance. 

I rode through a path/road and my tire got stuck with mud so I pulled off to the side of the road and started to use my hands to pick mud out of the back.  Well, as you know Cambodia has tons of prostitutes and it just so happens I stopped my bike in the general area of one.  Well, she came over and kind of tried to ask me what was wrong with my bike and offer her help, which was nice of her.  I got out of there in 1 second.  I got on my bike and said bye bye and road another fifty yards and got all the mud out.  My companion thought it was pretty funny.  

Pig head soup

As for our area, quite honestly it is not that strong.  We have a lot of "potential investigators", with only one that has been taught past the first lesson.  That is kind of a bummer, but we can change that.  We just need to start meeting with the people that are potentials that have met with the previous elders a few times before and really help them to start to progress.  I really want to work with the members, because from what I have seen the members are awesome!  There are a lot of them and many families.  From what I have seen they are willing to share the gospel and are fairly strong.  Right now I am trying to get to know them all.  First, I am starting with their names.  I know that will be the key up here, and I really just want to have the trust of the members so we can start to receive more referrals.  I know this area has a lot of potential, and I am really just looking forward to a whole week of proselytizing and getting to know the area, members ,and potential investigators that we have a little bit better.  Quite honestly, I just feel excited.

Pig intestines

Yesterday we got stuck in a huge rain storm.  Huge.  I had to get to the church at 5 to interview an investigator for baptism.  Totally soaked.  That was the first time I was legitimately cold in Cambodia. 

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.   

Gorging your Trainee on Cake

So this week has been a bit crazy.  I am training.  I got the call on Tuesday morning.  I was kind of anticipating it because Sister Thomas had been here for a long time and with the training program being two movecalls, if I didn't train soon, I wouldn't train.  So Wednesday morning, we had a special train the trainers meeting with President Bishop, and Friday I went up to Taizhong.  We had a big meeting in which they gave us more training. 

My new companion is Sister Jarvis.  She is super great.  She is from Kaysville Utah and is just a delight to work with.  She has a great attitude.  Her Chinese is awesome.  Poor Sister Morey for having to deal with my horrible Chinese when I got on the island!  Sister Jarvis studied Chinese at BYU before she came, and she lived in China for a while.  She just has a great attitude and is really positive.  I am excited for our time together.   
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->
<!--[endif]-->

We have seen many wonderful miracles together already.  On Sunday our investigator Shu-feng came to stake conference.  She is a wonderful investigator that came to English class and in talking after the class we set up time to meet with her.  She has just been progressing wonderfully ever since.  She came to church and was sitting by Sister Jarvis while I sat next to another investigator.  I came up afterwards and there was this very tiny grandma talking to them.  Come to find out it is her aunt who has been a member for 30 years.  All of her children have served missions, and she has tried for years to share the gospel with her family.  She was so excited to see her niece there.  She started crying and expressing how grateful she was.  She looked at Shu-feng and told her that she has done work for a lot of their ancestors in the temple but that she needs to find the people that she missed and finish the work.  She cried expressing how much the church meant to her.  Shu-feng started crying and then Sister Jarvis and I started crying.  It was such a special moment.   
This wonderful sister who had been praying and waiting and trying for years to help her family accept the gospel comes to church to find her niece there!  It was very much an answer to her prayers.  Shu-feng was very touched by the experience and immediately afterwards reconfirmed her own baptismal goal, which she had previously been a little nervous about.  For so many members here, it is so hard to hold onto hope that their families will accept the gospel, but I have heard story after story that for those who remain faithful, the Lord always provides miracles.   
  
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]-->
<!--[endif]-->

Thursday there was a typhoon hitting Taiwan.  Since we are down south the weather was not too bad.  There was a lot of wind and rain but nothing too extreme.   We had been trying to find time to go visit this less active that the bishop had given us but who lived in the more rural part of our area.  Because this area is so rural we don't have a very good map of it, and we didn’t really have any idea how to get there.   We determined that the best we could do was start riding in the general direction and then ask for directions.  

We rode for a really long time. After passing a train station, and a distant 7-11, we kept riding really far down this deserted road looking for this less active’s house.  We get there and it seemed like no one was home.  We decided to go tracting for a while and come back.  We came back and said a prayer expressing our desire to find this less active and our concern that it wouldn't be very easy to come back very often given how far away it was.  We knocked again and nothing.  

Sister Jarvis 

I decided to call her, not thinking much of it (she has been called many times before), but  she answered.  I told her that we were in the area. She must have looked out the window because she said with surprise, "Oh you are outside!"  She came out, and let us in.  As we sat with her, she was amazed that we had biked that far to get to her house.  She said that she had been wanting to come to church for a long time, but she was afraid.  She didn't feel like she knew any one after so long and was nervous to return.  She said she had been praying that she would find a way to come to church.  It was such a special lesson and a testimony to me that God does answer our prayers.  He heard the prayers of this sweet sister , and he inspired the bishop.  He gave us a day with a whole afternoon to bike in the middle of a typhoon out to this sister’s house to let her know that He does love her and He does hear her prayers.