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
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