Lessons learned from President and Sister Day

Hey Everyone,                                                                                        June 29, 1015


Alrighty, so for starters: I am still in 木柵! Yeah I know crazy right!? But my son left me! Elder S was the one that moved. luckily he didn't move too far he is still in Taipei so that is okay I will still be able to see him :) But I have a great new companion. His name is Elder Afrom Stansbury Park. He is a perfect example of what a missionary should be. He is quiet but has a great spirit about him, I am really excited to work with him. He is actually the same mission age as Elder S so he just finished training so still pretty young. It'll be a really fun transfer though. Basically after last week we set everything to base zero. Except for those that were really progressing we dropped. So that means lots of time to find etc. Poor Elder A, like his first day in 木柵 we had about 4 hours of contacting. But it was a blast! And we found some prepared people so that was good. That is the whole goal, find PREPARED people not just people. There is a huge difference.

The real Capt. America

This last transfer meeting was AWFUL!!!!!!!!! So many missionaries who I love so much went home. I cried. Okay not totally but I may or may not have been teary eyed. Along with it being Pres. and Sis. Day's last transfer meeting, It was pretty heart wrenching. I have learned so much from them. It is hard to really explain in words but their example has helped me so much. Something that they really had a knack for was a catch phrase principle. Just a few are: Rip off the roof, you have beautiful feet, bring honor to the family name, are there giants in the land? and will you go!? Yeah I think the saying, "guess you had to be there" really has to be taken into account here cause unless you were here, you have no idea what most of those mean. So since that is the case I will say this, they have taught me, never give up, never give in, and never go home. I am so grateful to them and all they have taught me. I love them to pieces. This is their last day and President J will arrive tomorrow. Lots of craziness!

Elder A; my new companion! He is an awesome missionary!

Something that I learned from this week was from a street contact. It was the end of a night and I saw a guy sitting on his scooter. We rode over to talk to him and right from the get go he was not really wanting to talk. I felt like I should give him a few opportunities though, so I kept asking him some questions and like most Taiwanese people after 3 minutes they start to open up. He told me he didn't have a religion, and didn't believe in God. I asked him why that was and he responded that it was because he couldn't see or hear God. 

The cool part came after that though, the thought came into my mind to use this little comparison. I asked him if in this world there is love? He responded: "Yeah, but very little!" (very pessimistic) I told him while that may be true, it does exist and that is the point for what I wanted to share. I then asked if he could see love (this part makes mores sense it Chinese since they way it is asked clearly distinguishes it as a object) He said: "Well... no." I said," that is right we cannot see love but we can see the result (結果) of love". For example if I bought some food for someone to eat, it would be because I love them which is a form of love.

Mango as big as my face! Booyah!

" So can you see my actual love"? No. But you can see the result of it for sure. I then told him that God is the same. While we might not be able to see or hear him we can see the results of him existing. (If this doesn't make sense I am sorry translating is rough sometimes) For example we have: religion, scriptures, leaders etc. Just like you cannot deny love, neither can you deny God. This seemed to catch his interest and he was at least willing to give me his cell phone number so we will give him a call and see where it goes. But it was a great learning experience. 

Other than that? I had to 突然 give a talk in Church yesterday. It was a good experience. But I have to admit I never thought I would be able to talk for 15 minutes in Chinese. God is a God of miracles! :) 

That about sums up my week. We are working hard and I am stoked to still be in 木柵! I hope you all have a wonderful week! I love you all!!!!!

Elder Roe

Opposition in All Things...rough week

Hello all,                                                                                     June 22, 2015

This week was a week. A week that is actually a little bit hard to describe. It was a little bit crazy and a little bit rough haha. We really worked our tails of but things just didn't quite work out as planned. So yeah, but it's alright we have a plan! So this next week will be awesome no worries!

Lunch with my old friend! What a great surprise.

 Brother Wu did not get baptized this last Saturday, which was a bit disappointing. It was a rough day since we had a few investigators with a goal for last Saturday and none of them pulled through. So we are back to the drawing board. Resetting goals, and seeing what needs to take place to help them progress and answer their questions. We are also going back to the very basics and trying to implement two hours of finding a day into our missionary work. We really hope that by doing this we will be able to find those who are prepared! Keep us in your prayers ok!

 The upside to the week was that we had 4 investigators come to church! HUGE tender mercy! Of those that came two are really progressing we hope that we can help all of them continue to have a good uplifting experience so that can build a relationship with God.

Pres Day has done so much good for our mission and for me!

I cannot believe that the transfers are already here! I can't believe that I have already been in MuZha for 3! The transfer is this Friday and basically the whole mission will be there since it is Pres. and Sister Day's last  one before Pres. Jergensen arrives. It will be a crazy day! There are so many great missionaries going home it will be a day full of tears haha. 

Sorry this week wasn't very eventful. We are just trying to focus on the little things and crank things up in our area. I love you all and hope that you have a incredible week!

Happy Father's Day Dad....miss you. Hope to be just like you someday.

Elder Roe

Picture: My RC Jason was in Taipei so he came and ate lunch with us! :)

An Unforgettable 19th Birthday in Taiwan!!!

Hello family and friend,                                                                     June 15, 2015

Thank you all so much for the Birthday wishes! It was a great day full of happiness and mangoes!!!!! So obviously it was awesome haha! So the big question of the week is: Is W baptism still on for this Saturday? And the answer is: I cannot answer the question cause I don't know. It is pretty common after you share the commandments to find one that will be a little bit of a trial to overcome. And we got to the part about tithing.... and then we hit a snag. He is really just feeling that there is no way he will be able to live off of his salary and pay the tithing with it. We talked a lot about it and did everything we could think of to help him understand the importance and blessings of tithing. We even threw in a good object lesson. But he didn't really budge. I learned a pretty important lesson from that. No matter what you do, say, to make something to look good, in the end they have to make the decision for themselves. Even though tithing really is a good thing and there is nothing deceptive about it he has to make the decision and receive his own answer that is really is from God. And that if he decides to follow it he will be blessed and receive God's help. I just hope he can come to the conclusion soon and still make his goal! Keep him in your prayers. I know that he will for sure get baptized one day and reap the blessings!

This great lady took us out for hot pot to celebrate my Birthday

Other than that our investigators have been really 不穩定 the past couple of weeks. We keep trying to find the prepared ones. We did have one really neat experience this past week that I would like to share though. One day we had set apart the entire afternoon for finding. We went into it with a lot of prayers, believe me... a lot of prayers. But when the time came I really had no idea where to go. We really wanted to follow the spirit and be guided. I asked my companion and he wasn't sure either. So we started biking and just did our best to listen.

Awesome view of my beloved City. Great hike!

 

 My poor companion was so 辛苦, he had no idea what I was doing. Luckily he is the best guy ever and doesn't complain. We biked and biked and biked. And let me tell you, the humidity here is unlike anything you have ever seen, felt, or can imagine. We went up the mountain, down the mountain, back up the mountain, down the highway, through the park. But every person that we talked about just... wasn't feeling it. They weren't prepared yet. So we just kept moving. The whole afternoon was like that. I though, "oh no, we aren't going to see any success and we were so hopeful! We had about 20 minutes left. We were riding down the rode and I saw a 同學 aged kid walking down the side walk. We rounded the corner and I slammed on my breaks! The impression to talk to him came stronger than I can describe! Poor Elder Scovel was a little startled by my abrupt stop haha. But I told him what I had felt.

He gave me pineapple for my Birthday

 

 The only bad thing was we looked a little ridiculous standing there around the corner waiting for him. So I tried to make it look as normal as I could.. probably wasn't very successful though. We stopped and started to talk to him. He had great questions about prayer and God. We started to share about who God is and how we can pray and talk to him about anything! He was super willing to hear more. The even better part is that he lives next door to the Church. Yup, talk about convenient. God provides miracles! And the spirit really can lead and guide us. It was a neat experience. Sometimes we might stop them and all the needed was that simple message for now and there isn't much of a 結果. But regardless it helps those we talk to. You can feel it. A mission is so great! 

Another bday gift from a friend

My favorite: Mango smoothies!

Hope that you all have a fantastic week, and go swimming or something. Summer is the best time for swimming :) I love you all! 

Elder Roe

pic. love taibei! Another  awesome hike (Also, Porter said he would be getting his bday pkgs from the mission home today.....so thanks Grandma Linda and Mom and to thank everyone who sent him a bday wish ...it was awesome to read all of them and it made his day!)

Rollerskating

大家好!                                                                                            June 8, 2015

How are you all doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!? Today is a BEAUTIFUL day here in Taiwan! So hopefully it's the same for you and ya'll can go outside and enjoy summer. Oh yeah, HAPPY SUMMER! Congrats to making it out of school! That in itself is a accomplishment so sure! We had a great week this week full of awesomeness! We are having lots of improvement in our area and our investigators are doing really awesome! Especially W, he came to Church this week and even came to the New Member/Investigator fireside last night. He has his date set for the 20th of June so we are getting everything prepared for that. I am really praying that it all goes smoothly, 1. because I want him to be happy and not have any problems, and 2. because that is most likely my last Sat. in MuZha and I would LOVE to see him get baptized. Tonight we are sharing the Commandments with him so please pray for him that everything will go really smoothly! 

What an incredible hike

Something was shared by our member in Church yesterday that I thought was really awesome that I want to tell ya'll about. Mostly cause I think it really relates to us as missionaries and people. He has a adorable little daughter named Sonny, and she loves to roller skate. During here roller skating class (Since this is Taiwan they have classes for roller skating,  don't ask questions) he noticed something that he thought was really interesting. The teacher would randomly out of the blue yell 跌掉! (trip) And all the little kids would just fall to the ground. at first he was just like what they heck are they doing? Why is the teacher making my daughter purposefully fall to the ground. But upon further observance he learned the 原因.  1. They would practice falling so that when they did fall they would now how to fall without getting injured. 2. They would fall, so that they would practice how to get back up.

This one looks a little crazy to Mom!

We practice falling so that we can't get injured.  We don't know when we'll fall but when it hits, it hurts. BAD. But God has provided us the tools we need to not get injured. We have the teachings of prophets, scriptures, church leaders, and most importantly prayer. We might hurt, and get scraped up a little bit but we don't have to get injured to where we need drastic measures to heal. When the trials come the faith you have is what will determine whether or not break or endure.

We can't always control when we fall, sometimes we pick up so much speed and we get going so fast that we lose control and fall. Or other times there is unseen gravel, or debris that cause our wheels to jam and send us to the ground. Regardless of the reason the most important part is that we get back up. Each time we get back up after a trial or hardship we are just practicing for the next piece of unseen gravel. 

The lush landscape of Taiwan, what a view!

And just like when I child falls and gets back up, perhaps with a few scrapes and tears, the parent is there in a flash with loving open arms. I am so grateful that, that parent understands everything he is the creator of my spirit. So I think it's fair to say if anyone knows how to help me heal it is Him. 

I hope that when we all fall we will use our preparation, fall with grace and be sure to get back up.

I love you all have a great week!

Elder Roe

MC alum turned missionaries in Taiwan together again

Hello,                                                                                                          June 1, 2015

This week was so great! And full of adventures! Monday through Friday had every afternoon packed full of meetings! So that was a little bit rough. But this week was our trainer trainee follow-up meeting. It was the biggest meeting ever! So many people. But it was such a blast to see so many missionaries. It's crazy how many people you get to know on a mission but then when you get transferred you basically never see them again except for meetings like this. But everyone was doing really well and we learned a lot on how we can improve.

MC alum serving in Taiwan! Great to meet  up with these friends!

 

This weekend was also our Stake Conference! It was really good and really long. They do things a little bit different here in Taiwan and have about 20 speakers for stake conference. Which was little fun to here everyone's different point of view and such but man, it made me tired. You really gotta focus during those meetings. Because when they are nervous they talk as fast as they can and not very clearly so you have to pay attention. I think I got more out of it than any other conference since I had to be so engaged haha. I guess God has a sense of humor. 

Anyway this week was rough when it came to meeting with our investigators. They were busy and so were we. But that left a lot of time for us to find. We met some really great people with potential. But I think the one that I am most excited for is Huang Li's mom! We went to their house to eat this week and as it turned out Huang Li wasn't even there, he was at work. I thought that was significant because she wanted to feed us even though the member wouldn't be there. So that shows she at least likes having us there.

 

 

My friend Gan ...love this guy!

 

 When I first came into the house she told me that she had been reading the BoM a little bit. She said since she had no religion, she was doing her research so that she could pick one! What!?!?!? Yeah that's what I like to hear! At the end of the night we talked to her about the book. And told her about what we need to do in order to know the truthfulness of the message. She was really interested, and she was really willing to do what she could to know for herself that the Church and what we share is true. I was so excited for her. I think she will really progress because before when I had brought up anything about the Church she would just kind of blow it off. But now it is her who wants to talk about it! What a miracle. 

Well I hope that you all have a great week. Keep the smiles on your faces and remember that God Loves you! 

Love Elder Roe