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!)