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