Happy New Year to America!

Hello to all!                                                                                                                  12/28/14

Well as predicted last week went so crazy fast! On Christmas Even the outer Zones went to Taipei and had out Zone Conference! It was such a blast! There were some very good and comical trainings! One was on Guo Nian, Chinese New Year.  I don't think I have laughed that hard for a little while!

 The Native Taiwanese missionaries talked to us on how we need to approach it so that we are able to be effective missionaries, they were very creative and gave us some really good advice. That will be a very interesting week, but unlike our new year this week, Guo Nian isn't until February. So we have a little while to wait.

Pres Day's awesome gift to me!

 After that we had Christmas Dinner!!! Oh my gosh, I didn't realize how much I missed good American food! Turkey, cookies, salad, sweet potato, mashed potato, fruit, the works. Needless to say we were all extremely thankful to Sister Day and all those in the English ward who came out to give us a great Christmas meal.

 Lastly, before we left President Day gave us his gift to us: Character, pinyin, English New Testament!!! How  awesome is that!?!?!? Last year he did the Pearl of Great price and D&C. It is so much work, he and native missionaries and those with super lihai Chinese translated it! It will be a super useful tool for us!

After that of course I got the Christmas Skype, which was so fun. It was great to hear how all of you are doing! Glad to see everyone is happy and healthy. 

All together for Christmas :)

This Sunday however was a little disappointing, our golden investigator who let us into his house last week is acting very different now. We called and asked him if he would like to come to Church, he was pretty quick to say no. Later he said he didn't have interest anymore in learning about our Church, our Jesus Christ. MY HEART SHATTERED. I've been through the occasional heart break of losing a race or what not, but this hurts more than anything. To see these people who are so close to getting to know their Heavenly Father and discover his true Church and then they turn their back and walk away. You feel really helpless when there isn't anything you can really do to change their mind without taking away their agency. We can only to what is in our power, but ultimately they have to choose. I know this was what we all signed up for, but I didn't know it could hurt this much.

Christmas Orange

My yummy Christmas Breakfast!

 Then our other investigator who had said all week would come to Church also didn't come. So that was a double whammy. We are hoping that we are able to help our investigators see the importance of Church, because if they aren't able to develop their own testimony they won't be able to progress to the waters of baptism. We just gotta put our heads down and push a little bit harder. 

Well that's about all. I feel like I told ya'll everything in the Skype so I can't really think of anything else to really write haha. I love you all and hope that you guys have a great week. And a great start to your new year! I love you all,

Elder Roe

Merry Christmas from Taiwan!!

First of all: 聖誕節快樂!!!!!                                                  Dec 22, 2014

I hope that everyone has a very very merry Christmas this week! This week is full of fun and is just going to fly by! From our Missionary Christmas Zone Meeting on Wednesday, Ward party on Thursday and then Skype on Friday it is going to go so fast! But anyway we can give a report of the week, so without further adieu,

Merry Christmas from Taiwan

This week we went on exchanges which means for me I got to go out to Zhunan with my buddy Elder Humphries!!!! Oh my heck we had such a blast! At they beginning we were thinking it was going to be a rough night since we are both so new and weren't too sure our Chinese was up to par for us to have much success. But we quickly found out that when we just put our faith in God he will provide a way. We also got to go English boarding, where we go to the train station and just hand out English Tracks.

 I found some super awesome people had a lesson with this girl who I think has a lot of potential! I was thinking how fun it is going to be to meet with her again and then remembered that this wasn't my area... so that was a bit of a bummer. Anyway, we had a really good time together and I learned a lot.

Thanks Mom for the crazy singing Santa hat!

 After the exchanged we met back in Xin Zhu and me and Elder Illu were ready to work! We went up the mountain to some apartments and SUPER RICH HOUSES. We got off our bikes and were just pumped, I don't know what it was but we just had something that night that was really special, we were gonna get work done. We saw a man outside and walked over and just talked to him for a while. It was like that picture perfect moment that you are always hoping for. Our Chinese was good, our hand offs were super smooth and it was awesome. We slid right into asking if we could come inside and share a message with him. He said YES! We tried to stay cool, but as we followed him we looked at each other and shared our excitement/shock. We shared a little bit with him about our religion, and answered a concern that 99% of Taiwanese people have about being able to worship their ancestors. After that he said he really had interest in learning about Jesus Christ. We took down his number and invited him to come to Church and gave him the address.

Pretty Asian Gardens

 Yesterday we called him in the morning to see if he would come, he said he probably could but wasn't certain. When we got to church we started to look around and sure enough, he came! And he also brought his daughter!!! It was a perfect day to come to church because it was also the primary Christmas Program.

 It was the most cute, heart melting thing I think I have every seen. They all gave these little talks which I didn't understand hardly at all but the important stuff I got like: I know I am a Child of God, and I love my family. The man said that he really enjoyed Church and he loved how family centered it was. We asked when we could meet again and he gave us the best response ever!: "Wednesday is when me and my wife are home at the same time, so it will have to be then." This Church blesses families so much and people that come to see this Church always can see that there is a special family element about it. It is so neat!

I hope that everyone has a great week and that they have a super incredible Christmas! Remember to keep sharing the gift with everyone that you meet! I love you all and can't wait to see you this week! 加油!

Elder Roe

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Greetings from Taiwan,                                                                                     Dec 15, 2014

Hoping as usual, your week was awesome! I am also really praying that you guys get some snow cause that would really stink if there isn't any. My week was so crazy, the days were very long and the week went so so so fast!

 

 Last Monday we had a dinner appointment up at one of the colleges in our area called Zhong Hua, we started biking up this HUGE hill. Like in all honesty if I was anything but a missionary you couldn't pay me enough money to bike up that thing it is straight up. We finally get to the top and stop around Huang MaMa's house. Then I ask my companion how much further it is and he was like, "Oh, it's about 20 minutes more that way" and "that way" just happened to entail going further up the mountain. Oh my gosh my legs were burning haha, there is no way I will get fat on the mission just because of these hills. I guess I should be thankful right?

 

Hey I got my humongous Christmas box!!!!

 

 Anyway there is a point to this story, the trip was totally worth it because we met with the member and he brought two friends. We did intros and they were both from Dalu! (mainland china)  I love meeting with them so much because 1. their Chinese is always more clear and easier to understand, Taiwanese accent is a little different 2. THEY ARE SO PREPARED!!!!!!!! Every time I have met a mainland Chinese person they have been so accepted of the gospel and our values. I hope we will get to continue to meet with them.

 

Arrived early and locked out

 We actually taught a Chinese boy for a couple of weeks and then he took his Book of Mormon to class and a professor say it and just "ma'ed" him out about it. And told him he couldn't meet with us or be baptized because China doesn't support our Church and he wasn't allowed to join our Church. (which is false, when they come on the study abroad it is their own choice at that point but we don't want to step on any toes) When he called us to tell us this he was really heartbroken, but said he was going to continue to read the Book of Mormon everyday! I know that when China finally opens to our religion he will be one of the first to come and join the true restored gospel of Jesus Christ! After that I was once again reminded with how blessed I am to grow up where I was able to have this in my life!

This week we also had the opportunity to go and help our Bishop move! I always thought it was fun to help people move but it turned out to be a really really comical day. This isn't a bad thing it is just one of the cultural differences between America and Taiwan. But here when you get married you stay in your house and  your spouse moves in with you and when your kids get married they stay too. So you usually have 3 generations living in the same house their entire lives. So since that is the way it is here, they very rarely move because there is no need. So they whole time they were looking at the fridge and TV trying to figure out how on earth they were going to lift it and move it. Me and Elder Illu just walked it and picked up the fridge and took it down 5 flights of stairs and put it in the truck. It was the funniest thing ever, they were all in shock! They whole day and at church the next day they just kept saying, we can't figure out how you two moved that all on your own! I'm just thinking, well you just pick it up and go.... It's all good just a funny cultural difference. 

We got quiged Pizza! Delicious!!!

Last of all, our investigator Lin JM is going to get baptized on the 27th! we are so excited for her! She is so rock solid and really wants this gospel to change her life and affect her family. She is actually only in Xin Zhu for a little while going to physical therapy but lives in Taipei. So she will actually be their baptism but we are teaching her. It doesn't matter though who gets the number we are just so happy to see her make this decision and become a very strong member in the Church! She is so diligent! Every time we teach she goes through the BoM with all these great questions, I wish I had her work ethic!

Well that's about it! I love you all and miss you all! A huge shout out to my Mom this week HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I hope all your wildest dreams come true! Thanks for everything!

Port and me in Seattle last Spring. 

Elder Roe

My White Christmas!!!

Hello everyone!                                                                                                    Dec 8, 2014

Well what a very crazy week it has been! As many of you know, transfers were this week and me and Elder Illu...... are staying here! Yup! But they threw us a curve ball and transferred out Elder Edmunds and Griffin out and combined our areas! So now it is just me and Elder Illu in the apartment with the two areas. Yeah so talk about a big change. Seeing both of them pack up and leave was really really hard and sad. I'm gonna miss both of them so much they are like my brothers. But they are both in the Taipei Central Zone now so they are gonna do a ton of work. I am excited for them! 

My white Christmas!!!

Yesterday was a great  great great day!!!! We had two people be confirmed and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and a baby blessing! So Church was super full of awesome stuff yesterday.

 On Saturday we had Zhong DX's baptism. The church isn't in our area so me and Elder Illu left really early to get there and start the font to be sure there would be enough water. We started it and then had a meeting and did some other things. About an hour later we came back to check it and looked in and there was only like 3 inches of water!!!! We were freaking out so bad! The baptism was in about 35 minutes. A member then was like "Oh yeah! Because we haven't had a lot of rain all of Taoyuan and Hsinchu have dropped the water pressure so that they can conserve it!" I was like this is not happening. So we went into the next room and prayed. I had no idea what to say other than to just ask God for a miracle. I knew he could do anything, help us find a way to make this work!

 Right when we finished we walked out the door and in comes Elder Nixon. We told him about our situation and he told us, no problem you just turn up the water pressure that is what they did last time. He took us out back to a shed and cranked up the water. We walked back in to see water just spewing into the font. And it was completely ready in time for the baptism with no problem!!! God answers prayers!!! We were so thankful that God was able to provide a way for this to go smoothly. After the baptism we asked Zhong DX how he felt, he told us he couldn't explain how he felt all he could say was he was flying. It was an incredible think to witness. 

Also yesterday Angel was able to come and receive the Holy Ghost. Before the meeting started she told me this had been the longest two weeks of her life to have to wait for this day. After she was confirmed she just had the biggest smile on her face she looked like she was floating. It was the most rewarding thing to see the two of them take the sacrament for the first time as member's of the restored church of Jesus Christ.

Our District

As Christmas season is here we get an awesome awesome opportunity to "Share the Gift" if you  haven't had the opportunity to go to mormon.org and see the video go and do so immediately!

 It is so good. In all of our lessons we have been asking people if they know what the meaning of Christmas is. The answers are all the same, mostly give gifts. Then we start pointing things out like Christmas trees and ask them why there is a star on top of the tree, or what candy canes represent. They are so shocked when they find out that it is all symbolic of Jesus Christ. We are then able to share with them the true meaning of Christmas. Jesus Christ. That God gave us the greatest gift of all, his son. 

I am so thankful for this time we have to celebrate his life. Let us all do our part to share about Christ and bring him into the lives of others! I love you all and hope that you all have a great week!

Elder Roe

A Thanksgiving Orange

Hello all,                                                                                                        Dec. 1, 2014

Well I hope that everyone had a really good week! And that all of your bellies are full to the brim!!! In my opinion there is really no greater holiday. Even we celebrated it in our own little way! We started off the day with some (really terrible) singing of: "The Star Spangled banner" "America the Beautiful" and one more.... that I can't remember. But yeah it was pretty patriotic. Good to be from America.

Man, I just love this work!

 Then that night we went to see a woman by the name of Huang Mamma. I don't know if I have told ya'll about her though so I'll do a quick intro. She is 81 years old, her husband is 87 and is pretty sick so he stays at the hospital. She is VERY wealthy she has three houses on her property that are American style which is crazy. In Taiwan that's a couple million dollars.

 And I'm basically her favorite, well.... maybe not. But she does like us. We will go up and do service for her sometimes. Anyway so we went up there and knocked on the door just to see how she was doing. She was happy to see us and told us to go sit down out side and a table thing she has on her patio.

 She went back inside and then when she came out she had 2 oranges! She gave them to us and then we all talked for a while, looked and the stars and ate oranges. We talked to her for a while, she told us stories of her life. Someone with that much time on them has some pretty awesome experiences. So even though I didn't get to be with my family, eat a turkey, or home made rolls, or ham, or have slush, or pie. It was ok. Because while I was sitting there one the patio over looking beautiful Taiwan, looking at stars, and chilling with Huang Mama it was just as good as all of that. Because I got to spend Thanksgiving with someone else who is lonely and family is far away. I pray that one day she will let us actually teach her a lesson though!

Huang Mama who gave me an orange on Thanksgiving!!!

 

A couple days later we had a Thanksgiving dinner with our ward! And they did such a good job!!! They cooked Chicken and had a lot of food there, including some tasty rolls and salad. It was actually super tasty and was a lot like America. I think the reason they have the party is mostly for the missionaries so that was really nice of them. It was a blast to get to talk with the members for a while and meet some new people! 

This week is going to be a really great week because our investigator Zhong DX is getting baptized! I am so happy that he had made this decision and is going to follow through and enter in to this amazing covenant. I know that it will bless his life immensely! Well that's about all I have for this week! 

Triple Scoop....life is good!

The Church is true. It will bless your life more than anything else!!! Trust in God in all things and you will never be disappointed! I love you all and miss you. Praying for you always!

Elder Roe

Beautiful Progress... and Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello everyone,

Where to start? I don't even know, I feel like I just send an email yesterday! Basically this week we just Chuaned the jiao.(No idea what this means...I'll have to google translate it) And did some missionary work haha.

 We met with our one solid investigator Z Dx. He is just about ready to go! He has his baptismal interview this week! And then will have his baptism the week after! We are so excited for him, I really think that this will give him the needed peace and comfort that he will want and need in his life. The gift of the Holy Ghost is so real! I see it help so much. We are praying we get to see his baptism. Transfers are the day before! So we will see what happens.

Seeing a lot of cool stuff here

 They other thing that we got to do this week which was really fun was have a lesson with Angel who accepted baptism last week! What was unfortunate was that she hasn't been able to get confirmed yet! Her Laoban didn't know that she had to go to Church the day after and actually felt really bad. But said that she could pick any day that she wanted to in Dec. And come to Church and get  the Gift of the Holy Ghost!

Elder Ellu at this incredible structure

 She told us how excited she is and it is just too far away she can't wait! I asked her how she felt after the baptism and she told me that she felt like she was floating! She said that she just couldn't stop smiling, when she got a ride home she said she just hopped of the scooter and started to walk inside and the guy reminded her she needed the helmet! Haha, she said that she was just so happy that she didn't even feel that she had it on. We continued to talk to her about her family in the Philippines, she said that she really wants to share the gospel with them. We told her that there are missionaries in the Philippines and that if she wants they can go and teach her children. She was so excited, she said she didn't even know that they had missionaries there! So She is already being a member missionary and she isn't even a member yet! So awesome!

Something else I really saw this week was they power you have when you learn how to recognize where God wanted you to go. We are having so much improvement in our area and I know it is because we set reasonable, and goals that will push us to improve the area. Elder Illu has been a great example, he spends so much time to think of way we can improve and how we can get the area up to where we know it can be. 

I love you all so much.  I hope that Thanksgiving is just super incredible! I am so thankful for my beautiful family! I miss you all, but I am so thankful that we can have eternal families. And I'm more thankful that I am able to be here and help other's attain that great blessing that God has given us! Everyone eat a piece of pie and turkey for me! 

Much love,

Elder Roe

Miracle Baptism

Dajia Hao!                                                                                                           Nov 17, 2014

Well first things first I hope this was a week full of adventures for all of you because it most definitely  was for me! I guess because of the heading your all probably wondering what that's all about so I'll start with that. 

Typical Griffin position!

So putting that goal of getting a baptisms actually does work every once in a while, even if you have no one to fill it. This week I had the incredible opportunity to attend the baptism of Angel, an incredible woman from the Philippines. I actually have never taught her though. Some Elders in the other Zone found her and taught her all the way through to now. We found out though this week that her house which is on the border of our area is actually on our side in XiangShan! So we get the great responsibility of having her in our ward and teaching the new member lessons!

 It was such a neat experience, after she was baptized we had her share her testimony with the ward. She said the first time she was taught by the missionaries she felt like she was flying. Then today when she got in the water she said she felt like it was a little cold, but when the baptism was performed and she was submerged in the water she felt so warm even though the water wasn't. And she feels so light. It was so great to hear her talk about it, she is a great example and we are so lucky to be able to have her as the newest member of our ward! 

This next part is a little crazy, and I would not have believed it if I didn't see it myself! Elder Illu and I were riding our bikes across a small bridge while we were on our way to go Qiaomen. And I was behind my comp. and I look over on the bridge and I see a huge snake! And if anyone knows anything about me you will know how much I dislike snakes! I slow down and see that it is not just a snake.... Its a cobra!!!!!!!! Yeah I know sounds unbelievable right!? I was like, does Taiwan even have these!?

Yeah, almost ran into this guy this week!!!

 I whistle for Elder Illu to come back and another Taiwanese lady joins us on a moped and the three of us are just looking at it. Then a guy drives by it and looks out the window and see's it so he pulls over and stops too. Then whats even more crazy, he goes and gets a big stick, puts it on it's head so it can't bite, and then picks it up!!!! I was like your are KUA ZHANG!!!!! Then he puts it in a bag and that's that.... Yeah it was the craziest experience of my life. We asked him if Taiwan has a lot of those and he said he didn't think so and thinks that it is pretty rare to find one. My guess is it got out of it's cage or something like that. Full of adventures this week haha. 

Thank goodness for the crazy snake captor!!!

The third thing I found out this week was that I can actually communicate with people! This week I went on exchanges and one of our Zone Leaders came out to my area. We contacted, had dinner with a member, and taught a less active. Since he wasn't familiar with the people or the planned lessons, I did most of the talking. I really surprised myself, an even more surprised that they actually understood what I was saying! I have such a far way to go with  this language but I can really see that God is mindful of me and that the gift of tongues is starting to take place. 

Well that's about it for this week. I love you all and am so thankful for all the support everyone gives me. Share the message of the gospel with everyone! It is such a blessing in our lives and we have an  obligation to share it with others! I love you all, miss you, and pray for you!

Elder Porter Roe 

Salvation isn't Cheap

Dear family and friends,                                                                                      11/10/14


Another week gone! It really does just fly past! So last time I was off to go to the temple. It was so incredible and beautiful! The people of Taiwan are so blessed to have one here and to be able to participate in these special blessings! They do such a good job to keep everything in tip top shape! I always love to see the temples because of how clean they are. Outside the temple is the crazy streets of Taiwan, it's loud, dirty a bit, and has a tad of a bad smell. Then in the temple it is just quite and peaceful. It is incredible what they can do for us!
 

Porter at Taiwan Temple holding the card he got from Brother Roe's Seminary Class!

This week we had the New Missionaries and Trainer follow-up meeting in Taipei. It was so fun to get to see everybody again. It was the biggest group they have ever had. Since they also got some natives that came in right before we got our visas, we had a group of 32 companionship's!!! So insane, everybody is happy and loving the work! It was really really weird to realize that this was the last time we would for sure all be in the same room for a meeting like that together. Just because of the transfer meetings will switch everyone around.

My roomies juggling fruit, and YUMMY noodles

 We started of by watching a clip from both Elder Holland and Pres. Eyring. It showed Jesus Christ's life and Elder Holland spoke about why a mission is hard. He said that we in our own way would have to experience a little bit of what Christ did. We would have a hard time, people would reject us maybe even spit on us. But that is what Christ did. Our job is to go out and find the few that will accept the message of the truthfulness of the restored gospel. My favorite part though, was when he said "Salvation isn't cheap for us, because it never was for Him." So remember that there are going to be those hard times but the reward in the long run is far greater than temporary pain that we may be in right now.

Some kind of Taiwanese Temple

 

After this meeting we went back and are trying to make more improvements. We went to an area we have been trying for a little bit and hadn't met a ton of people. We were trying to find a family to teach, even though that isn't what we found we did find something else. Three new investigators! We were so surprised!  All of them have great potential, they are in high school and college and are pretty open to hearing our message. I am so happy that God helped us that night to know where to go! 

Last night we ate dinner with one of my favorite families I have met so far! However, the just happen to live on the biggest hill ever. So when we go home we decide to keep going up and over the mountain so that the other side is all down hill to our home. We finally got to the other side, and started down.I was so excited so finally relax and just coast. And then the wind started!!! : ( It blew so hard it literally stopped us! I HAD TO PEDAL MY BIKE DOWNHILL! I was so chapped! Hope that never happens again!

Well I love you all, nothing else really to report. The Church is true!

Elder Roe

Will ye go?

Hey Everyone,                                                                                                        11/5/14

Well this week is a little crazy. Yes p-day is on Wednesday. It is because we are going to the temple today! Words cannot express how excited I am! But this all means short email time! So I will cut straight to the chase!

(It is 4:30 am and I only have a few min to hurry and write this today)

Taipei Temple

Yesterday we had Zone Conference. It was super good and a great training had been prepared!

 

 At the beginning about fifteen minutes in our Mission President, President Day walked in. It was clear that he was not expected to come. Of course our first though was, uh oh. But it was actually really really good.

My trusty bike!

 At the end he stood up and told us that he didn't know why he was there. Just that he had been prompted to come and so he came. He shared with us from Alma 27 about when Alma was  rejected by the people then after an angel visited him. He was asked the question "Will ye go?"

 This was his question to us, he said that if we wanted to reach our goals we would have to put in triple the amount of work. Would we follow what the Lord told us to do. We would have to follow the spirit. If you have a prompting to go somewhere that has never had success will you go or will you let the mechanical man slow you down? Following the spirit is the most important thing we a missionaries need to do.

One of my most favorite meals here....egg filled with rice!

Xiang Shan at night!

So After this, of course we were all fired up ready to go to work. We returned to Xiang Shan and me and my companion planned in depth a message for a family we would be visiting that night.

 They Bishop had told us he would like to see these members sealed in the temple. We knew that the Brother had most likely been through the temple because he was a high priest. We shared with the family about temples. And then asked if they had been sealed to their family. The Sister started to say yes, and then they husband responded they had not. We came to find out that the sister had only been baptized two years ago. She didn't know much about the temple and what it could do for us. She was so amazed and the spirit was so strong and tangible when we asked them if they would be willing to set a date to go through the temple! Our joy was incredible as they agreed. This Brother had been a member since he was 28, he is now about 60. And finally they will be able to have an Eternal Family. When we follow the spirit miracles happen! 

I am so blessed to be able to attend the temple today. I hope that we utilize this great tool in our lives. Only through the temple and the priesthood power of God can we have families that will last forever! 

For Halloween I got SCONES!!! My fav! We gave some to the Taiwanese but they weren't that impressed haha.

I love you all and hope that you have a great week! I am praying for you always! 

Elder Roe

A Week of Miracles

Hello again,                                                                                                        Oct. 27, 2014

Wow what a crazy week! So after emailing last week we met up with most of the rest of our zone and headed to.... the beach! Yes you heard me right the beach! My all time favorite place on earth. It was super beautiful. Nothing too special, I just always have thought that the ocean was so awesome. Not to mention China was just over the way. That is a weird thought, then we played football of the beach. It was a good time.

Elder Roe on his Bike!

 We rode back home down the coast which was an awesome ride, especially because it was just in time for the sun to about set. This week we saw so many miracles. This one day we made a very very long trek up this huge hill to try and go finding. We were just about to head back for dinner when there was a girl walking up the sidewalk. So we just thought we would try and talk to her then keep going. We stopped her and talked for a few minutes. Then we asked here a super common question. "Have you seen missionaries around before." Then to our disbelief she said no! I was like, What!? How have you not, everyone has! We asked her where she was from and she said, The Mainland! Yup guys, and gals, mainland China. We talked to her about the gospel and gave her some soul searching questions to which she actually said she had though about before. We introduced her to what could answer those questions: The Book of Mormon. She got really excited and even told us that when she had finished the book she would give it back. We told her that she could have it, and that we could meet and again and discuss what she read! It was so awesome.

This place is awesome!

 Then we ate dinner and started out again, I started to cross the street and then realized my companion had not followed me. I looked behind me and saw him talking to a lady. I turned around and started to talk to her as well. She had stopped to talk to us and then told us that her and her family would love for us to come and teach them! Yeah, I know. Sounds too good to be true right. This NEVER happens. I am so happy that God put us in the right spot that day to find those people who where prepared to hear the fullness of the gospel.

Another day we got a great taste of the Taiwan humidity. We went to help a family move. The mom is from Taiwan and the Dad is from Curitiba Brazil. I was like, Bo would die! So crazy! So the family speaks Portuguese and Chinese. The thing about houses here is that they don't really take up a ton of space but they go up. So this consisted of climbing up four flights of stairs! It was so nuts. So hot we were dying haha. But it was way fun and they were very kind and fed us a great dinner.

Well I love you all so much, this gospel is so incredible. It blesses the lives of others all over the world. From Utah, Norway, Brazil and Taiwan. It is fast and it is true. We are so very blessed to have what we do. I love you all so much and pray for you always! 

Love, 

Elder Roe

Searching For Investigators

Dajia Hao,

Can't wait for this traditional Tiawanese meal! 

Well here we are again! This week has been a great time. We are in a newer area which means that we get to have a lot of time to go finding! Which is really comical and fun. Luckily the people are so polite here that they are usually willing to at least let you start a conversation. Then when you start talk about the Church they just say Fojiao or bai bai! And I'm like, yeah I was 99% sure you were a Buddhist but that doesn't mean I don't want to talk to you buddy.

 But it's alright, we are out here to find the few that are prepared. This Thursday I went out on an exchange with Elder Anderson who is in Zhunan, which means that I was in the same apartment as Elder Humphries. Which of course means we had a blast! Elder Anderson has been in that area as long as I have been in mine which means we were still trying to find out where we were hahaha.

Glad I'm not scared of heights...

On Friday we went out to Zaociao which is in the country a little bit. The train just stopped and it was like a ghost town almost. No one was at the station there to get tickets or anything. It turned out that it is a really really populated area but during the day everyone goes to work in a nearby big city. So that meant we were left with all the older Taiwanese. Which provides two small problems, 1. They are huge on tradition so don't really care for Christianity and 2. Most of them couldn't speak Mandarin. They speak Taiwanese or Hakkan. Which for your info sounds nothing like Chinese to me at least. But something neat did happen. We were walking up a street and there was a group of about 25 kids waiting for the bus to take them home from school. They just stared at us for a while and then just kind of giggled when we waved. Across the street we stopped to make a phone call. I was watching them, a little amused cause I was pretty sure they hadn't seen an American this close. Very often at least. Then with some peer pressure one of the kids got up the courage and yelled out "Where are you from?" I told him America and they all looked at each other and laughed. Then I told him his English was really good! But that was a little advanced because he didn't understand so I just switched back to Chinese. I'm sure he didn't understand me though. They were all super funny and it was cool to talk to them and ask them a little bit about themselves. Then it was back on the train and returning to Xiang Shan. It was good to be back home! 

My companion told me that they found a new investigator which of course I was stoked about. He told me that it was a bit of an interesting situation though. When I asked for further details he told me that he was the equivalent of a fortune teller... I thought oh man there is no way. The next day we rode out to teach him and it was very.... different. However he does have a lot of potential. He really does want to follow Jesus Christ and grow closer to him so I hope that he will follow through with the commitments we extended to him. It was hard to teach because not only did he talk really fast but he used really really old Chinese that I guess no one uses anymore. Luckily we had a ward member accompany us so when we didn't understand what he was saying he could translate. Needless to say I, I didn't do much talking. 

My beautiful Xiang Shan!

Last of all, I talked to a man this week who had been investigating the church for the past 20 years. When I asked him why he was willing to meet with us he told me just because it would have been rude to say no. As the conversation progressed he had a wide array of reasons that he didn't want to accept baptism. He began saying that the reason we were so willing to be in the Church was just because of our families. That is where somehow I got the courage up to tell him that wasn't true. And in my broken Chinese I told him that it doesn't really matter what my family believes. Because I had to, like him, know that this was true. And I didn't what Moroni tells us to do. And I've tested it and I got an answer. I bore testimony that this Book is true and that this gospel is the true restored gospel. And that's why I am here because of what I know for myself and I want other's to get what I have. This broke down the wall a bit and even though I don't know if he will ever convert to our Church. It reminded me that no matter what this is true. I learn more about my self everyday. My advice to anyone whether Church member or not would be: Don't take anyone's word for it. Find out for yourself. Because you can. This gospel is capable of changing lives! I love you all. I'm so blessed to be here! I pray for all of you all the time!!! 

Cockroaches...they will take over...

Elder Roe

p.s. Shout out to my sister for finishing her mission! Your awesome and I love your face as well!