11/4/2014 - Awesome week

我親愛的親戚朋友們，

Wow, this last week has been great! Mission Leadership council, zone meeting, two exchanges with awesome missionaries, personal in-depth reflection on what I can improve, trying to discover how to become an inspirational leader, setting baptismal dates with two amazing people, miracles galore! 

First off the mission leadership council was just an awesome experience. When you aren't a leader it is a little hard to understand why the goals for the mission are set the way they are but being in the meeting I can understand why it is the way it is now. I really think the vision and goals that were planned are inspired by God and that they are achievable through a combined effort of all of us missionaries.

 I really liked the focus on the Plan of Salvation as the "why" of missionary work at the beginning of the meeting. We all have a similar goal. To obtain peace in this life and eternal happiness in the life to come, some people just don't know they have that goal yet. It is our job to teach with spiritual power as Ammon did when he taught King Lamoni. I have been studying those missionary chapters a lot this week and realized I want to become like them. I want to be able to teach with the spiritual power! I also loved the focus on finding quality investigators not quantity. I also have been semi disturbed that it takes 30 investigators to have one be baptized. This obviously represents that there is more focus on quantity/numbers than on the actual person.

 I actually had an interesting idea that would kind of test how much "spiking" is actually going on throughout the mission. For maybe 2 weeks just tell people that other lessons on the street do not count. Simple as that. If I guess right you would see a drop in new investigators of at least 50% but I think the quality would increase. The focus would be instead on getting people to meet with you a second time instead of "spiking" them to new investigator status (in order to boost numbers). This is just a thought I had based off of the missionaries I've served with and the patterns I've observed over the past year and a half. 

I had the chance to exchange with Elder Monson in Luzhou. His companion and him are doing great! They are reaching nearly all of the key indicators and their relationship is great. I know they will be very sad when they are not serving together anymore. Elder Monson is excited to go home but who wouldn't be with less than a month left? They are baptizing a kid from China this week and I had the opportunity to interview him. Really prepared guy who really wants to develop a testimony. 

I also exchanged with Elder Tsai. He is also doing great. Him and Elder Gerrard are really great friends and are really working hard to accomplish the mission vision. I've served with Elder Gerrard before and I know that he is doing everything in his power to do things the right way and be obedient. He was probably the best example I have ever had in a companion.

I've been studying the notes I took in the Council a lot and have really tried to figure out how I can inspire my zone members to fulfill all the goals that we have put for. I have decided that frequent follow up is a critical way that we can know the status of their progressing investigators and can give advice in helping them progress. Also with frequent follow up they can feel that we actually love and care about them. I believe our zone is on track for every companionship having a baptism in November and 2 in December. 

Speaking of baptisms we had a miracle happen this week. Up until this week we did not have anyone with a firm baptismal date. We have really been praying for guidance on how to improve this area of our work. We invited tons of people on the street and invited every single one of our investigators. Finally I had the opportunity to meet with two investigators we have. Their names are R--- and H---- and they lived in Irvine for a few years. The missionaries starting teaching them there and when they came back we got in contact with them. They have been very hesitant to set a baptismal date because of their lack of faith. But while we were meeting we discovered the reason they met with us is that our church is different in the fact that our leaders don't take a salary and that 19year old boys are willing to drop everything and pay to serve for two years. We really honed in on this fact and helped them understand that they could understand why we are doing it if they are willing to pray, read the scriptures and continue to attend church. At the end of the lesson I felt inspired to tell them that if they did these things they would be ready for a baptismal date of Dec. 6th and my companion and I were shocked when they agreed! God is blessing us for sure! Miracles are in abundance. 

I have a lot of personal goals and I have 5 months left to accomplish them. I am more motivated then I have been on my entire mission. I honestly believe that I am feeling the Spirit more often than I ever have in my entire life. It feels good. I just want to do what God wants me to do. I'm super thankful for everything God has done for me in my life. Especially for giving me a great family. 

The area I'm serving in is so busy! It is right in the heart of Taibei and is about 10 minutes from the temple/mission office. It is really cool serving here because I get to see a bunch of missionaries that I love all the time. There are lots of activies that we get to participate in and I get to see tons of members from my old areas because they come to the temple on Saturdays. Super awesome! 

Well ya'll peace and love and have a great week!!!

Elder Meeks