8/31/2014 Awesome week here

Hey ya'll,

We had a great week! But every week that I have had since I started training has been awesome. We've recently had some great things happening. The past two weeks we have consistently had 7 less actives at church which, I have noticed, the members are really impressed and excited about. A whole family is starting to become active which has really brought some unity in the ward. 

We had an old investigator randomly call us and set his own baptismal date for the 20th of this month! He is super excited and totally willing to make the sacrifices to do it. He wants to get his life in order and have the blessings of the gospel in his life. His name is 李世淼 and he is a really cool guy. His family situation is really hard but he saw something on the internet about our church and went to the closest church to his house and really felt the Spirit. He really is a miracle guy. Super nice as well. We can't wait to help him continue to prepare to receive baptism!

My companion and I are really getting along well. We are constantly trying to find new awesome people to meet with. My companion seems to always to be trying to learn more and new awesome vocabulary. He is super dedicated to passing off phase 1 before he finishes training. He can definitely do it. One goal that we made is that when we are outside of the house I am just going to speak Chinese the whole time and when we are at home we will speak English. I think this will help him start being able to understand a lot more conversational Chinese and help him feel more comfortable teaching. I'm really impressed with my trainee and his desire to continue to help others and really improve his Chinese at the same time. I know this next week I am really going to focus on helping him learn how to teach lessons solidly. We have some new converts that could use a review so we will be visiting a few of them and sharing the new lessons with them. It will be a great opportunity to help my companion improve his teaching skills while developing the faith of our recent converts. 

I'm really grateful to be serving in 苗栗. Even though our investigators are few right now we are working hard to find more prepared and awesome people to meet with. I also had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the 頭份elders this week. They had a big struggle with health this week but have seen some tender mercies. Elder Shelton and I found two wonderful prepared people and they have already started meeting with both of them. They will also be having a baptismal interview this week and the sisters will be having someone get baptized this week! We should have 2 being baptized this month! We are really seeing the success of hard work and the Lord is really on our side. I love the gospel and being a missionary! 

My Chinese has just been getting better and better. I have learned about 400 new characters this week and my goal is the same for this next week. I really believe that I can have 5000 characters down by the end of my mission. Which has been my goal since the beginning. I really feel the pressure of getting that goal because I only have a half a year left but I really feel like I can get it. :) 

The work goes on and I am learning more and more everyday. 苗栗 is being blessed by the Lord and I'm more enthusiastic about helping others than at any other time in my mission. 

Peace and love,

Elder Meeks

 Here is a joke I made up this week. 

A man sees a line of people next to the ocean. He sees one person in the front of the line walk into the water about waste deep and then walks out. He sees the next person do the same followed by the next. His curiosity is peeked and asks a man standing there, "What are you all doing?" The man responds, "Wading in line."

P.S.S. I was distinguished by my companions mom as the "balding elder" yea.... Haha good stuff.