Wednesday, December 7, 2016

December 4, 2016 - A Week Full of Surprises!

Well this week was great! We started by going to TaiZhong by high speed train, which was amazing! I got to see my old companion Elder White and some of my current companion, Elder Cox's,  recent converts, and some members from TaiZhong that have become some of my best friends. 

Elder Cox's Recent Converts

My friend, Chris Chen, from TaiZhong

On Tuesday we went on exchanges. Elder Sims came to Taibao with me and did Brother Wu's baptismal interview... He passed!!! He wanted to be baptized as soon as possible. We said it would be probably be at least a week but he said this Saturday, so we made it work and he was baptized by his brother-in-law on Saturday. 

Our Crazy District

Wednesday I saw something that made me laugh. My sweet Grandma Jensen used to joke about riding her motorized scooter to Oregon to visit her son (my grandpa). The people of Taiwan are living Grandma's dream. They ride these scooters down the highway... It is very dangerous but it always makes me smile because they are really doing what grandma would always talked about doing.



Thursday we did service and wrapped Christmas candy into little bags to use as invitations to our branch Christmas party. We also set up a Christmas tree in the church. It was fun to tell the stories of Christmas to the members there. They don't really celebrate Christmas in Taiwan so they are like little kids when they hear about all the ways we celebrate Christmas in the States.


Friday we had to scrub clean the baptismal font because it is outside. It is basically just a box on the side of the chapel. We enjoyed the chance to do some manual labor. We don't get to do much manual labor or service because the people of Taiwan are too proud to let a white foreigner help them.


Scrubbing the Baptismal Font

Saturday was the baptismal service, Brother Wu, who is about 65 years old but he seemed to be like an 8 year old child to me. He was so happy. It was an amazing to see Brother Wu, a man who was so difficult and stubborn be baptized in such a miraculous way. Two weeks ago we thought he wouldn't go through with being baptized and then he had a change of heart and seems to be completely different from the man I knew.  I played the violin at the service... as usual. I am glad I have a talent to share, it is not much but I can do something. 

Brother Wu's Baptism

We were also abducted that day by an investigator who is a little crazy... He told us he wanted to feed us and then we got in his car and he took us all the way to BeiGang which is about 30 minutes away by car!! Luckily we made it there and back in one piece. Then we had a beautiful bike ride across this bridge in our area, the wind was blowing pretty bad so it was bouncing around. Once again, all ended up being okay, but it felt like our life was in danger a lot that day. 


Sunday we had a crazy fast and testimony meeting, you know how sometimes it never has anything to do with church. Haha! There is nothing you can do about it, just smile. Brother Wu received the Holy Ghost during sacrament meeting and got a beautiful blessing from his brother-in-law who has been a member for over 40 years. We got to practice singing songs for the Christmas activity, it was great.

I love you all!! 

Sincerely Elder Erwin 

No comments:

Post a Comment