November 24 - I'VE MOVED

Happy thanksgiving ya'll!!!

 

I have moved to the wonderful area of Xin Ban. It's on the western part of the island. I serve in a super big city. There are so many people and it is really metropolitan. It looks a lot like the gateway in Salt Lake but a lot more people and a lot more stuff. My new companion is Elder Gerrard and he has been here a couple months longer than me. Elder Gerrard is a great missionary and I honestly believe I have learned more about missionary work in the past 3 days than in my whole mission. He works hard. We are working all the time and I really feel accomplished in what I am doing right now. I'm super tired at the end of everyday but I feel like I have accomplished some good work. Up to this point in my mission I can honestly say I haven't given it everything that I had. Elder Gerrard is teaching me how to do that. He is also not as familiar with the area but we hit the pavement everyday and have already seen many miracles. I've realized that I need to repent of some of my previous habits and really change. I have been trying to do so and I can already see the blessings flow. My Chinese is improving quicker than it ever has, my mind is clear, and I really feel like I am learning to follow the Spirit.

We are teaching a man named S--i D---. He is doing pretty well. His biggest problem is that he believes that every church can get to the same destination. He gave us the biyu that there are a bunch of busses that will get to Banqiao zhan and that when you get on the bus you're not going to ask the driver if he is drunk or if he has driven the route before. Elder Gerrard responded that if it were his salvation he most definitely would. We then reinvited him to ask God if he should be baptized and he agreed. He came to church the next day and had a great experience.

We had a really good lesson with an eternal investigator L-- D--. He has been investigating for a little over a year and a half and has just not been able to find the faith to fully commit. He has a baptismal date for December 25 but has not been to church in a while. We had a super spiritual lesson about how to develop faith in Jesus Christ and challenged him to start to follow the invites that we give him. He was really enthusiastic at the end of the lesson but then decided to not show up to church which was a little depressing. We hope he will find the faith needed to be baptized on Christmas!

At church yesterday we had a great Ward Council. I have heard that the Bishop has not been as warm to missionaries in the past recent months because he felt like previous missionaries had not worked very hard. Elder Gerrard and I just tried to make it really clear how willing we were to serve him and the ward. We discussed specific plans that we had for investigators and asked people for advice and willingness to Peike. People were very enthusiastic and the Bishop seemed to accept us. He then gave us some names of LA's he wanted us to focus on. The Ward has a goal of having a congregation of 100 by the end of next year and next week we are going to meet with the bishop about what us missionaries responsibility is going to be. I'm really excited to be in this new ward.

After church we had an incredibly spiritual lesson with a L--- D--. I am seeing the benefits of really preparing lessons before we have them. Elder Gerrard and I talk specifically about what we are going to teach people and every time it has gone really well. We started teaching about the 10 commandments and we had planned on going through most of them but we got to keeping the sabbath day holy and we both felt impressed to focus on this. Our Peike was absolutely incredible. Up to this point the investigator has not really understood the purpose for coming to church but by the end of the lesson his countenance had completely changed and he said that he was willing to sacrifice his study time for coming to church. He also said that he would have faith and expect God to compensate for the rest. What an awesome perspective!!! We should all expect blessings from God because he wants to give them to us.

I have decided that I am going to start expecting miracles. I believe that the Lord has a work for me to do and that I have not yet fully used the tools and the faith I have to really do what he wants me to do. I am going to start. I have already really tried to change my prayers to focus on this. I believe the Savior loves all his children and while I am here on my mission he wants me to find those "elect" people whom he has prepared and I intend to do so. I have a lot of ground to cover but I truly believe that I will be capable of accomplishing this goal. I want to "leave it all on the field." When I get off the plane in 16 months from now I want to say that from this time till then I gave it my all. I really do love this gospel and see the changes it has made in people already.

 

We most likely won't be eating turkey for thanksgiving so eat tons for me. I think that I am just going to by a whole duck (they have them hanging around on the street every where in Taiwan) and go to town on it. Duck is such an amazingly good food. The flavor is so good! I don't know why but I just really like it a lot.

 

Excited to hear how Daniel's farewell went. :) I'm sure that he did a pretty good job. Wish him luck for me!

 

Love ya'll

Elder Meeks

Nov 17 - Flying Fox in the Freezer

Hey ya'll,

It was a pretty good week. The biggest thing we were disappointed about this week was that a couple of our progressing investigators were not able to meet and we don't really know what to do to help them meet with us on a regular basis. We will continue to pray for them and encourage them to. A few of them have some really good potential if they will commit to keeping invites and meeting with us. Our next step is getting them to attend church every week. 

The ward has been a lot more willing to help us out recently. Our goal is to really start to use those who are willing to help us. We need to become better schedulers. A lot of our investigators are the kind of people that like to schedule the day of our the day before and it is hard for members to help us Peike when they only have a couple of days notice. I've made it a personal goal to get better at helping people to find the time that they have. For some reason people in Taiwan believe that they have no time ever. A lot of them are incredibly busy but they all have twenty minutes every now and again to meet. The trick is just helping them realize where it is. 

I am really grateful for the members of this ward. I feel that because so many people are converts they all have these powerhouse testimonies about how the gospel seriously changed their lives and it is just really awesome. 

We are hoping to find some really good new investigators this week. We have a few potentials that we are going to try and get a hold of and will hit the streets to find some new people to teach. I love starting the lessons with people. It is cool to see people absorb the information and you can see their countenance change as they come to believe the things you teach. I love it. 

We had a member ask us to come over to eat last night and it was really good food. But anyway I don't know how this came up but he told us that he had this animal in his freezer that had been in their for a year or so and they hadn't eaten it yet. The translation to English was "flying fox" it was so confusing. Anyway he was like do you want to see it and we said of course. He pulled it out and it was a flying squirrell. I'll send a picture next weeki. It was the weirdest thing ever. So funny! I guess they taste really good... I'll take his word for it.

Not much to report this week. Love ya'll and have fun!

Elder Meeks

Photos from a Missionary Mom

Andrew's first companion's mom sent me some fun photos.  Sure warms the mama's heart.

November 10 - Going bald but loving life.

Hi everybody!

We saw some awesome miracles this week! The main one being a man that we had a lesson with last night. He was a phone referral from over in Luzhou. He talked to some missionaries in the MRT and they sent his number to us. His name is L--- X--- and has had a very hard life. His dad before he was ten and his mom died when he was twelve right in front of him. He was then raised by his grandma and basically told us that he was tired of being unhappy. I could tell he had such a good heart and was really seeking for the truth. While we were talking to him I remembered a talk that Elder Holland gave about how people that don't know Jesus Christ will sometimes have good feelings when we talk about him and so I asked him if he knew who Jesus Christ was. 

He said he didn't. We then testified that Jesus Christ knew exactly what he was going through and that through getting to know him he would be able to resolve some of the unhappiness and bitterness he had gained over the years. We testified that God was his Father in Heaven and that he loved him with a love greater than anyone. I have never seen the Spirit work as it did. The man burst into tears and asked us what feeling he was feeling. I asked him what it felt like and he said, "So comfortable. I'm content and peaceful." Man what a great opportunity to teach about the Spirit and 

Elder Norris then introduced the tools that could help him to have that feeling with him all of the time. At the end of the lesson he prayed for the first time in his life and said a very heartfelt prayer. We asked him what he was doing after the lesson and he said he was going to read the book of mormon! What a prepared guy! I already feel like I knew this guy for months! 

We had such a miracle yesterday after church. The ward mission leader set up a meeting with the Bishop and all of the ward missionaries to discuss a ward mission plan for next year. That meeting was definitely led by the Spirit. We talked about all of the problems we had been experiencing in Ankang over the past year the main one being finding. Ankang is a harder area to find because nearly every community has a guanli. Therefore it is harder to have effective tracting time. The streets are also a little difficult because there are only two places that have people. So we discussed how the ward can start helping the missionaries find and set up some great finding activities involving the ward for December and January. It will be a big responsibility for both the missionaries and the members and we are really excited to see our plans come into affect. The ward has recently started a schedule where the members have been invited to sign up for one night a month in which they can invite their friends and the missionaries over to eat. We hope this will be an effective finding tool as well. 

This week was a little harder. I just felt like I was not an effective missionary. I was sick and just not feeling really good about myself or the work that we were doing. But we did see some miracles that definitely put the work back into perspective for me. My companion and I's personalities are very different but I hope I learning something from him and that we can work to become more effective teachers. 

 Our investigator A---- and W--- D----- are the two who have baptismal dates and I believe that both of them are going to be able to make their dates. We're praying for them and teaching them every week. We are hoping we will be able to meet with them twice a week. They are both really busy. The biggest problem will helping both of them start coming to church because they are both so busy. We have faith that we will be able to help them do this. We are really going to make sure we start having Peike's for the lessons that we have with them. 

Overall the work of Ankang is on the verge of exploding. With the help of our ward mission leader and the help of our Bishop we are really starting to get the members fired up about sharing the gospel and working with us to help strengthen their ward. I'm excited to see what happens in Ankang in the next year. Miracles are happening and the Lord is using us the way He wants to. I learn more and more that my role in the conversion of others is minuscule. It all depends on the persons faith and their willingness to repent and change. The Lord then uses His power of conversion which is the Spirit. 

Well ya'll so goes another week in Ankang. I will probably be here another transfer so till after Christmas. That will make it 5 transfers in my 1st area... Whew... As we say in Chinese 加油 (add oil) 

Love ya'll,

Elder Meeks

Oct 27 - Pray Always

Sup ya'll,

This was a good week. I really enjoyed the specialized training that was given on Thursday. My favorite thing that I learned there was the doing temple work for our dead is no different then doing missionary work. Those of our ancestors who have died have been being taught they gospel or they haven't yet and we are kind of like the referral system or the missionary that baptizes the golden investigator. Either way it is pretty cool to think about. I am going to start teaching the members about this principle and I think it will be really effective in helping us obtain more referrals from the members. 

This week I have tried to focus on gratitude. I have realized the Jesus Christ is the best example of gratitude. When he visited the Nephites he prayed so many times in gratitude to his Heavenly Father. Just think if we prayed like that on a daily basis. I have recently tried to have a prayer in my heart more often. My favorite time for this is riding bikes between appointments or on our way to finding activities. I have had said some of the most heartfelt prayers of my life while riding my bicycle in the busy streets of Taiwan. I have also had incredible spiritual promptings while doing so. We really can pray anytime and anywhere. 

Elder Norris and I have recently been discussing how to help our area really start to take off. We have also decided that we have too many investigators that for one reason or another are just not progressing. They have been invited to baptism and because of reservations or lack of faith are not willing at this time to make the commitment. We have decided that our first step in helping the area improve is to find a new investigator pool. This is going to be our focus in the coming weeks. We know that it will be hard not meeting with some of our normal investigators as often but it is important that we help find some others who are willing to progress at this time. 

Our closest investigator to baptism is Z----- D------. He has been in Africa for the past few weeks so we haven't been able to meet very often but he just got back. His reservation is that he doesn't believe that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet of the church. Our focus in the next few visits with him is to relate modern day revelation to ancient prophets and also help him develop a testimony of Joseph Smith. Z----- D---- believes the BOM is true but has not yet made the connection between that and Joseph Smith's calling as a prophet of God. We are excited to help him along this process! 

We received a referral from a member for a family that lives next door from him. This will be the first family that I have taught since coming here to Ankang and I am incredibly stoked about it. We invited this recent convert to write his testimony in the front of a Book of Mormon and then pray and ponder about who he could give it to and this is who he said was ready. They are willing to meet and he will help us Peike!!! Woohoo! 

I had a dream last night about myself contacting on the street (I dream in Chinese now, it's super legit). I was using the Book of Mormon in every contact and sharing scripture with nearly every person that I met. My dream also kept flashing back to personal study and I was sharing the things that I studied in personal study with people. I don't think this is coincidence. I believe I really need to start doing this. In my dream it was incredibly successful and even if people weren't interested they seemed appreciative of it so I'm really excited to start putting this into play. I'm excited to see the success that comes from it. 

Charity is the essence of missionary work. We have to have charity towards every person we talk to and meet. It is so important. I have made a goal to pray for charity in every prayer that I say. 

Cool thing that happened this week. My companion and I were both invited officially to be in the traveling Christmas choir. We start practices today and will be traveling all throughout the month of Nov. and Dec. It will be super cool because I get to see every area in Taiwan! I'm really excited to use all that music that you sent me mom! Thanks! 

I've realized that my letters are super long usually... I can write shorter letters if I am being long winded hahaha. 

I've lost weight recently. Mainly do to eating a lot less food. It's amazing if you just stop eating so much you lose weight. Pretty awesome if you ask me. :) Why can't everyone do this? haha

Anyway I know that missionary opportunities are just waiting for ya'll. Just open your mouth and ask. You won't offend people. It's an exciting time in the this dispensation. The Lord is preparing so many people. 

Love ya'll and as my dad says keep smiling,

Elder Meeks

Oct 22 - Life it legit even when it is hard

What's up family and friends?!

We had some great success this past week. The biggest miracle was when we met with the s---j-----. The have been inactive for about 2 years now because of some drama that happened with their son and his marriage. I was on exchanges with Elder Hopper and we were discussing what we could do to help them start their process of coming back into the church. We both had the feeling we should ask them to help us missionaries Peike. When we had the lesson with them and asked them to help us do that they actually had a relieved/excited look on their faces. I believe that the big reason they are not coming to church is because of embarrassment and so I believe this is going to help them out a lot. They both have big testimonies and we really need them in the ward so we are going to be focusing on them in the coming weeks. The thing I love the most about this family is the light that comes into our eyes when we come over. This is probably my favorite thing about the mission to be honest. 

I believe we gave out 6 copies of the Book of Mormon this week. We had many opportunities to share the gospel with people and I've noticed a big difference in contacting when you actually share meaningful scriptures with people that you just meet. It's pretty cool to see people really take in what you say and have interest in what you are saying. I believe using the Book of Mormon in contacting is super effective and will continue to perfect this skill. 

We found a new investigator this week which has not happened in quite a while. He is super golden! He's a 21 yr. old college student who I felt like related really well with us. He was so ready to learn and my favorite thing he said regarding prayer was, "I'm not used to it but I like it." It blows my mind when people are willing to pray when you meet with them for the first time. It takes a huge act of faith in my opinion and it is always exciting to see people open up that channel with God. He set up with us again for the same time next week and we are super excited to keep on meeting with him. 

We are struggling in our area with finding people to help us Peike and also helping people set baptismal dates. We've invited all of our current investigators (excluding our new one) and it seems like we are kind of stuck in a rut. The area is picking up a little bit and I feel like we will soon see some great miracles. We're working hard but we can work harder. We've recently set some goals to improve our companionship studies and our study times in general because both of us are a little weak in this area. I'm ready and willing to change. 

Stake Conference this week was pretty awesome. I learned so much from the broadcast about missionaries and members working together. It truly was an incredibly inspiring broadcast. I am always amazed at the power and authority the apostles use to address us. They speak by the Spirit and command attention. My favorite talk was given by Elder Holland. He said some things that really changed my perspective on what I'm doing and how I can do it better. "Everyone on this earth EARNED their right to be here." "Everyone, at one time, had a testimony of Jesus Christ." "If we bear testimony more effectively we will help people re-discover their testimonies." Some great council. I have been trying to remember this while contacting and while sharing with investigators. In the Book of Mormon recently I have been studying about repentance and have come to realize how much my calling relies on helping people go through this repentance process. It is so important. I have set some goals to become a better teacher of repentance the main one being to truly repent everyday. 

The work goes on here in Ankang. I love the people and will continue to work as long as I am here. I understand that my work now will influence many lives in the future and hopefully in the present. I truly believe in my Savior Jesus Christ. He atoned for my sins and the sins of all. I love teaching about Him and his infinite mercy. People need hope in this troubling time of life and this gospel can bring them the hope that nothing else in this world can. I'm so grateful for my opportunity to be here.

Love ya all and remember to pray specifically for someone you know to have an opportunity to be introduced to the gospel.

Elder Meeks

October 13th - Cool Missionary or Great Missionary?

你们好！你们怎么样？想港是很好！我很爱你们！

This week was great. The question that I asked myself this week is an interesting one. The question was, "Do I want to be known as a cool missionary or as a missionary who worked hard and served the best he could?" I believe that for the most part people think that I am "cool" or "fun". But I have realized lately that this isn't why I came on a mission. I came to be a servant of the Lord and do his work and therefore I need to be better than what I have been aspiring to previously. I do have a goal to never have a companion/anyone I know dislike me while I am on my mission. I believe that is a worthy goal. But I also have realized recently that I need to try harder to do the work. I'm not lazy but I don't put all my effort in. I guess the test of my character will be if I actually do it now that I recognize it. 

I learned some great things during zone meeting this week. The Jinxin sisters did a great job on presenting about studies. An area that I struggle in. I learned some things that I definitely want to apply in my studies. The main thing being that I need to pray about and really ponder what I want to study for the day and then pursue that direction. Most of the time it feels like my studies are very "sui bian" which sometimes has proved very beneficial. But I also understand that having a direction will help me focus quicker which will help me a lot. 

Went on exchanges with Elder Chen in xindian this week. We had a wonderful lesson with a college student named J-----. He has so much potential and will be challenged to baptism next week! 

I've been in a bit of a funk lately when it concerns this amazing area of Ankang. We have just not found anyone really good for quite a long time. Since the first few weeks I arrived here to be precise. All of our other investigators are super willing to meet with us but not willing to make any commitments. I don't really know what to do about it. Contacting is nearly impossible because there are just not that many people on the streets. Our ward is very small and the members all seem so busy and inconvenienced if we ask them to help. On the bright side of things I do see the success of this area happening. I just really want to know what I can do to help it happen. I'm excited for this next transfer and the challenge it will bring us. 

Elder Hales said something during conference that had a big impact on me. He said, "What is said is not necessarily as important as what I hear and feel." I know this needs to be true with missionary work. Because our Chinese is super kelian and we're not amazing teachers we need to rely on the Spirit to communicate to investigators hearts what our message is. Easier said than done in my experience out here. Learning how to use the Spirit has definitely been a challenge for me but hopefully I am still learning how...

We invited W-- D------ last night to be baptized and he respectfully declined our invitation. He informed us that he loves reading the Book of Mormon and finds things in it everyday that he can do to better his life but cannot believe in a God. He has seen for years the hypocrisy of his religious family members and friends and this has led him to a belief that religion is not where he wants to focus his life. He is a great man though. He has strengthened my testimony through his study of the Book of Mormon and will continue to bless my life as we continue to meet with him. 

Conference was an amazing experience. Before my mission I never realized how incredibly important conference actually is. :P I took notes incessantly and felt like I received a lot of answers to questions I had been pondering. I invite you to listen to the counsel of Elder Nielson and specifically pray for 1 person to come unto Christ. A person you could pray for is a Brother Z-----. He is a father who is currently in the process of meeting with us missionaries. He's close to baptism but has not quite developed a testimony of the prophets. :) 

Love you all and I'm super jealous you are on a cruise without me. ;)

Elder Meeks

transfer week

Sup my peeps,




This week was okay. It was another week of a lot of contacting and finding without very much success. But it's all good. Hopefully we will start to see some results. Lately we have been meeting with a lot of LA's and having some success in that area. An old bei bei in our ward has totally started coming back to church. He is such an amazing man and loves us to come and visit him. He also loves teaching us random games and puzzles and stuff. I have seen his countenance totally change and this has been the cause for a lot of happiness. I think that that might have been the reason I was sent here to Ankang. I truly love him. 

Our MM leader has been working a lot harder with us recently and I believe it will start to hasten the work here in Ankang. Until this last month I had only met with him 2 times. But now I can already see how the ward and the bishopric are starting to back us missionaries up. 

We had a pretty great experience with our eternal investigator L--- d-------. He is doing great as always. My companion started sharing with him some great steps to overcoming addiction and I felt like I saw the light bulb flash. He said that he really liked what my companion told him and that he would definitely start to try it this week. I'm excited to see what the outcome of his efforts are. Basically whatever he puts his mind to he will do. He is such an incredible guy. 

We gave out 4 Book of Mormons this week and all of the people we gave them to were super cool! I've found that I really am starting to like just contacting and chatting with people. Every week it gets easier and there are so many cool people in the world. Most people that we gave them to ended up not being interesting in meeting again with us but they definitely made my week brighter. One of the guys we contacted said when we brought up giving him a book, "As long as it is not the Bible" and so we gave him a Book of Mormon and he got a huge kick out of it. He took it graciously. 

One of our investigators has promised to attend general conference with us and I am very excited to see how he will react. He is so well versed in the Bible and the Book of Mormon and has recently taken a strong interest in the Doctrine and Covenants and the Pearl of Great Price. He just doesn't believe Joseph Smith can tell him what to eat and drink because he wasn't a doctor. Funny perspective. But I am really excited to have him come to conference with us and see the prophets speak. 

We have one other investigator who is very close to baptism but does not believe in modern day prophets. His wife is a member and he loves the churches teachings. He already believes the majority of the things we have taught him but has yet to develop his faith in modern day prophets. He also believes the Book of Mormon is true. The problem is he's left for Africa for a while so we are not able to meet with him right now but in the future the plan is to help him see develop his testimony in Joseph Smith, who translated the Book of Mormon, and then explain that the purpose of modern day prophets. It will be exciting to see how he responds. I know it will be good. 





It's been a little harder lately but the mission pres told us when we got on island that at about 4 months you'd start feelin the mission get hard. I guess they call it the mission wall or something like that. It should change soon. The thing that I love is that my language is always improving. I really do feel like I am so blessed. There are missionaries out here who have been here for over a year that have not so good Chinese and it shocks me. I'm so glad I can communicate and understand nearly everything that is going on around me. Even if I don't understand words I typically understand context. So nice. 




The rich, intelligent, and crazies are the people who talk to us here in Taiwan. It's so interesting. The average person really doesn't want anything to do with us. The people who invite us to come over or continue to hear the gospel are the ones who understand that you can learn something from everyone. We seriously meet with 4 geniuses every week. I have learned so much about life from them. 




Well once again I have overstayed my welcome but yea it's been a good week. I find out Wednesday if I transfer or not. I'd personally like a new experience. We'll see what happens. :) 




Love ya'll,




Elder Meeks

A time for finding...

This week was a week of finding. For some reason we were not able to get very many set-ups this week and so we had the great opportunity of contacting and tracting a bunch. A lot of the time it felt kind of ineffective but we had a few cool successes. I've discovered that I am really starting to like to just talk to people about their lives. My Chinese is getting to the point where I can basically understand everything people say. Phase 2 is the bomb! Everyday I hear words that I had learned just that morning. It's really cool. 

We visited an awesome LA family this week. They are they S--- J-----. I love visiting them. There situation is pretty sad but the gist of it is is that they are embarrassed to come back to church. They haven't been for over 5 years. They are totally okay with us missionaries visiting them and they express gratitude every time we come. I'm not quite sure how to help them. We will just continue meeting with them and loving them. We are also going to try and get a couple of members involved. They are a great family. 

There is a recent convert in our ward named W---- J-----. She recently has been called to be a ward missionary so we have been trying to give her some opportunities to Peike. She is still really young in the gospel so we have been using one of our eternal investigators when we ask her to Peike. The investigator is definitely the one teaching her about the gospel and it is so cool. I wish we could use this investigator as a Peike all the time. He has such a strong testimony but has some pretty big Word of Wisdom problems and he is also the oldest son of a very Buddhist family. Therefore his family really oppose. 

We also had a great opportunity to have correlation this week. Our MM leader is really busy and usually has not been to interested in having correlation meeting. This week we really pushed for it and it went really well. He told us that he really wants to start getting more involved. He also believes the members are ready to get more involved in the missionary work. There are many members who are so busy and have really rough lives therefore it is a little difficult for me to ask them to help out in the work. But when they do help us it always goes better. It is a great testimony to me how members make lessons much better. 

There is an older man in our ward who has been less active for a while. But the last two weeks he has come to church. We had the opportunity to help do some service for him last week and he took us to tepanyaki. It was such a great time. I really have grown to love this man. He said he has a new fire in him about coming to church and that meeting with us is his favorite time of the week. He has taught us how to do the Rubik's cube, Chinese Chess, and a bunch of random little puzzles and stuff. Such a great guy. His situation is very difficult as well. He has a daughter who is blind and deaf and doesn't really talk that much. She is 57 years old. He has taken care of her his entire life. Yesterday he was talking about how he used to be so angry at her but after he met the missionaries and understood what true repentance was he had a change in his outlook. He really believes God gave him this challenge to be a better person and he thanks him for it. I really admire him. 

We found a kid through some potential investigators that we have started to meet with. He is doing really well. We are excited to keep sharing the gospel with him. 

We are continuing to meet with W---- D------ who is doing really well. I really enjoy meeting with this man. Lately our visits with him have been a little short because of time constraints but every time we meet with him he teaches me something about how I can be a better missionary. This week his lesson was how we can get Taiwanese people to listen to us. He said here in Taiwan time is everything. Everyone's time is super important. So our goal is to somehow get people to realize the value of our message in a short contact. He told us that we need to start believing that the wisdom and knowledge we have to share is more important then the thing that person has to do in that moment. I thought that was really good advice.

Okay so funny story that I heard this week. I seriously laughed for about 10 minutes straight. There are two sisters in my zone that I'm super tight with. Sister J---- and Sister P-----. We always do P-Day stuff with them. But anyway, last Friday we all went and played frisbee together. Our tradition is to go to breakfast together after. At breakfast they were telling me that the night before the Sister training leader was on exchanges with the other missionary in their apartment. It was about 10:25 and they were gettin in their beds. They were kinda just laughing and joking around... having fun. (It's allowed on the mission). Sister O------, the Sister training leader, asks them if every night is just like a big sleep over and having fun. They are like, "Yea we all have a good time together." Sister J------ then asks, "So sister O------ what is your story? Where are you from?" Just trying to be nice of course. SHE THEN REPLIES, "Well I am planet earth where people go to bed on time and tell them their life stories next week when they are on exchanges." Turns over and doesn't talk anymore. SO RUDE!!! AND HILARIOUS! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sister J------ and Sister P------ did all they could do from bursting out in laughter. Oh these silly missionaries that become robots on the mission. Super sad... But they definitely provide some entertainment for us other missionaries. 

We are headed to the zoo today. It should be a good time. A few of my MTC peeps are gonna be kickin it with us so I am super stoked. 

I am enjoying my mission. My language ability is getting to the point where I can understand probably about 80 to 90% of what is being said. I'm still improving everyday in speaking skills and I know that God is definitely on my side. I don't know how I remember all the vocab I study everyday but it happens and it is such a huge blessing. My comp and I are doing fine, the work here in ankang is going well, and I'm happy for the most part. My goal is to become content. :)

Love ya'll sorry this is so long!

Elder Meeks

P.S. You know you are in Taiwan if people comment about how fat you are all the time. ;) 

Lots of pics!

Go Utes!

We had a wonderful "chat" today on the computer where I broke the news of the Ute win over BYU.  I think there may be some "rubbing it in so many missionaries faces" going on.  Said there would be some "righteous pride" happening in Taiwan this week  :)  

How can you not love a boy who writes his mama a personal letter every week.  

Feeling blessed and happy.  Wondering how I am going to let another one go in 72 days.  :(

Sup ya'll!?

Great week as always. Zhong qiu jie provided us with quite a few opportunities to meet with the members. Our members are so great. They are involved in the work and love feeding the missionaries. We had 2 great Kao Rou (BBQ) invites and we found a new investigator because of one of them. Friend of a member. Very religious Jehovah's witness. It will be fun to share the gospel with him. I had my first opportunity to bible bash. So much fun!!! It was very amicable don't worry. I'm always so impressed by the zeal of the members in Taiwan. They are living in a very non-Christian environment but still manage to keep the standards of the church. 

We meet with quite a few young people and frequently they tell us that the standards we ask them to keep are just to difficult in the world today. I love this quite by Brad Wilcox, "A God who asks nothing of us is not making anything of us." I really believe this is true. God wants us to stretch ourselves, to gain experience, to choose to obey so that we are able to become more like him. It is a gift, not a burden. I still have a long way to go as well. We all do.

We got to meet with an investigator that we haven't in a long time. His name is J--- and he is such a prepared kid. Of course he has one of the biggest obstacles. He is the oldest son of a very Buddhist family. If he could he would be baptized but he is not willing to create the family uproar. He loves God and knows that Jesus died for his sins. His brother and him have their own band in which they sing Christian music. So awesome! I hope that in the future he will find the faith or his parents will soften their hearts enough and let him be baptized. 

We tried to visit a family that we haven't met with for a while. But they were not home. The brother answered the door and invited us in because we had shang ke (had a lesson) with him before. We had the opportunity to teach this man how to pray. He was so confused by the idea of prayer. He didn't understand that he could communicate his own feelings to God. He is attending another Christian church and they read their prayers. It was so cool to hear someone pray for the first time. I'm excited to continue to meet with this brother. 

The outdoor zone conference was an absolutely amazing time. It was definitely the most fun thing I have done on my mission so far. We all got to wear normal clothes which was the best part. Did you know that on P-Day's we are not allowed to wear normal clothes..? Pretty terrible honestly. But anyway I had many awesome conversations with so many missionaries and it was cool to just see everyone so happy. I got to hang out with my trainer for most of the day and with another Elder who I am super tight with. His name is Elder Peterson. He's from Salina UT and we seriously have the best time together. Oh yea something interesting about the Taiwan mission. Nearly everybody is either really intelligent or really talented/famous. We have two future NBA stars, two future NFL stars, 2 or 3 semi pro musicians, super famous DJ, nuclear physicists, tons of military, and I could go on and on. It's so cool. Makes for a lot of fun conversations. 

I had a really cool experience this week. We were calling some potentials and I saw a name and had a good feeling about it. I gave him a call and he answered. I told him I was a missionary and the guy just started telling me how glad he was that I had called. He totally remembered me (I didn't remember him...) and said that he was leaving for New Zealand tomorrow for a 1 year work study. He told me that he had looked the church up online and that he wanted to start going to church and be baptized. WOW! He gave me his email address so he could find a church in New Zealand and then right when I was about to get off he asked if I could teach him how to pray. Talk about a prepared guy. So I did and then he asked me if I could say a prayer for his safety and a good experience in New Zealand. What a great guy. I hope that he will find the church in New Zealand.  

We had a great experience with W-- D------ this week. When we knocked on the door he was like, "Hurry I'm on TV." It was his first appearance on TV and he was so excited. I'm glad that he is having so much success. We didn't have to much time to meet with him and so we quickly just talked about how we were happy for him and that we hoped that he was thanking God for his success. He said, "I was not spiritual at all before I met you. I might be starting to be a little bit." Music to a missionaries ears. Can't wait to keep meeting with him. 

I had a major language fail this week. That sentence is ironic because the word I failed on was the use of fail. There is a recent convert that we visited with the sisters. She was telling us about some legal troubles that she has been having lately and, relating to her case, I said, "Wo xiwang ni hui shibai." Which is I hope you will fail. I meant to say jibai which is defeat them. Lol such is the life for a Chinese missionary. Everyone got a good laugh out of that one. 

So far in my mission experience I have found that my greatest joy comes from less actives coming back. There is an old bei bei in our ward who has a hard time coming to church. This week we visited him a couple times and just spent some quality time with him. He came to church sunday and shared how he feels like we were sent to him and that we were charging his spiritual batteries. Such a wonderful old man. I love him. He has taught me Chinese Chess, Rubik's cube and a bunch of other puzzles and stuff. So great. 

Overall great week. Nothing to complain about. The work goes on. God loves me and in turn I try to love everyone else with a similar love.

Elder Meeks

P.S. I am changing my last name from Mao to Mi. It sounds more like Meeks and doesn't have the negative connotation of Mao Zedong 

Bunnies.. and food.. and gross toes... oh my...