Yo family and friends! What's crackalackin?! (you wouldn't believe how many Taiwanese people say this now, I love teaching English phrases)
We started this week off with a nice hamburger from Kozy burger. That just set up the week to be a great one. We had the opportunity to visit many families this week. We assumed Elder Nelson would be transferring and the ward was in a frenzy. Because Elder Nelson was in Ankang for so long the members really became attached to him. They were all very sad to see him go but on the other hand incredibly excited for him to go help another ward out. I know that he will be such a huge addition to the central zone! He will kill it as zone leader. One of the families, the Luo Jiating, invite us over to their house regularly. They are an incredibly poor family and have so much faith in us missionaries! They put so much faith in the fact that if they help us missionaries out God will provide for their large family of 8 people. The parents both have sever multiple sclerosis. I pray for them and do my best to inspire them every time that I visit.
We have an investigator named Y-- d-----. He believes in many parts of our church. He is an old man and pretty set in his ways though. He has been watching church on his TV for about 30+ years and is not willing to come to church. He says that he needs a spiritual confirmation in order to come. I don't know why he won't try it out. Basically he is just a stubborn old man and doesn't like going out of his house. He has a problem with the word of wisdom and doesn't believe he needs to be baptized again. He is such a great man!!! I really want him to come to the ward and help strengthen the ward members testimonies. He already has a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon but can't seem to make a few necessary connections. We will continue to pray for him.
Our eternal investigator brought a friend to our lesson this week. He actually took us out to this steak dinner and paid for us all. Super nice guy. His friend really wanted to learn about what we had to say. He was an interesting man. He is a professional gambler and makes a lot of money doing it. He studied for 2 years before he started actually trying it. He just joined a different Christian church but we are hoping to help him see how our church can benefit him. Our Eternal investigator really will help him as well. He would be such a wonderful ward missionary. His testimony is already much larger than many members I have known. I pray that he will receive baptism every day.
English class party was a huge success! We had over 50 people there. Elder Liu really did an amazing job putting it together. Elder Nelson and I got people to party. The sisters helped make smores. We had a great campfire sing-a-long and everybody had an incredible time. At the end of the night We had a great spiritual message prepared by Elder Liu. I know that at least one person in the audience felt the spirit.
My new companion is Elder Norris. He seems like a sweet guy! I'm super excited to serve here in Ankang with him. We are definitely going to see some miracles together. Since he is new to the area I have been planning our days out and who we will be visiting. Man it is kinda stressful. But I know the Lord is guiding us and we have already found some amazing people!! I really am going to push myself this transfer. I would love to get at least halfway done with phase 2 by the end of it.
I've been continuing to think about faith hope and belief. First we have hope/belief. Our investigators first have to have hope/belief that they will receive a spiritual confirmation from God about a question they have. When you receive that confirmation you develop your faith. That faith then should enable you to repeat the process. This process is repeated until you have a sure knowledge of that particular question or doctrinal principle. Wash rinse and repeat. Super interesting process.
I'm having a freakin great time here in taiwan. I can't believe I've already been on my mission 5 months. It is seriously flying by. My Chinese is improving a ton and I really feel like I am starting to figure out how to follow the Spirit. It is definitely a hard process but I hope that I am getting better. This life is short. Why not do everything we can to bring others to Christ? That's my invite for the week. (sound like a missionary..oh wait I am!) Look for someone you can mention the gospel to. Don't have to teach them just mention it.
Love you all like a fat kid loves cake (or like I love fried rice which is basically the same thing)
Elder Meeks
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