Go ahead and LAUGH!

禮拜一快樂!                                                                                                 May 25, 2015

Hello dear family and friends! This week was so great! Let me tell you why! 

We met with one of our investigators, one that I have not been able to get a read on. Just seems a little bit off. I mean he is a great guy and all but whenever we meet he just seemed really distracted and not there. The sisters were originally teaching him but later turned him over to us. This week however we kinda got him talking... and then he admitted that he liked one of the sisters. How cute is that? haha, Not really more just kind of annoying because at that point I was like, okay his desire towards the gospel is probably ZERO. But however we still met with him that night. But to my surprise, not only did he show up, but he proceeded to set a baptismal date and then came to church this week!!!! Teah I guess the lesson learned there was you can't judge a person based on who they like. Not sure if that is what I was suppose to learn but I guess that is one key principle right? 

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This week finished up my first full transfer with my son! Holy cows that went sooooo fast!!!!!!!!!!! A member asked me how long I have been in this ward and the automatic answer was like "oh like a month." Umm nope try like 2 1/2 months. I have loved this ward soooo much! I really feel like they are my family away from home. My RC's are so great, my companion is awesome, and life is so good. It makes me so sad to even think about next transfer probably getting moved. So say a prayer I won't! haha just kidding. I know that God's will is all that matters so I will be excited to see what he has in store! 

So tall!!!

One of my favorite moments this week was in Elder's Quorum. Huang Li was there sitting in the back. (This is the one with autism) and I was like in the middle of the classroom. During the lesson he whispers out a little loudly: Luo Zhanglao! (This is Porter's Chinese name)

 

  I turn around to look and him, once he saw that I had his attention he grabbed his bag, unzipped it and started searching for something. He then pulled out a stuffed whale and started making whale sounds then said, he wants to kiss you! Haha! I couldn't help but laugh. And then he was off looking for something else. I love him so much. It reminded me the importance of just laughing, and being happy. So everyone, do your best to find something that is joyous. And laugh a little. Remember, if you don't laugh, you cry. And crying gives you a headache! I love you all!

Elder Roe

When you least feel like it: PRAY

Hello all,                                                                                  May 18, 2015

How are all of you!? Happy Monday! It's a great day! Then only bad part is when I come to emails I draw a blank of what to tell you guys... I promise though that we are super busy and working hard. This week was really good and we were able to meet with a lot of people and help them continue to progress. We are starting to really see some miracles. Investigators who have been so busy are finally able to meet again and are keeping commitments. So things are looking up. The only trend that I wasn't a huge fan of was that we got "fanged" like crazy!!! We had a totally of 7 lessons that got stood up. Come on people! But what ya gonna do right? 

One actually turned out in a really tender way. Last night we had set up with a investigator and I had called him in the day to make sure for the 40th time that we were still good to meet. He was all like "oh, yeah yeah it will be no problem, no problem and all!" So we head over to the Church, and this guy is notorious for being late. So we wait, and we wait, and we wait, and he doesn't show up. I call  and call and call and he doesn't answer. I was, I guess you could say, not happy. I don't really like it when people waste our time. I mean really if you don't want to come just tell me so we can go find someone else who wants to hear what we have to say. Finally after much prayer he answered and told me he just got to 木柵.

Prayer changed my heart

 At that point, I should've just relaxed but I was, as they say, not happy. So I asked if he was still coming and he said sure, I responded that we would get on our bikes and meet him halfway. We started down the road and I was, as they say, not happy. Not really the best attitude going into a lesson. But we found him on the sidewalk and he didn't seem to care that much that he had stood us up for so long. Which didn't add to my happiness level. (Let me clarify, I wasn't angry. I just really would have liked it if he would have informed me a little earlier) Anyway we had some important things we wanted to share with him so right then and there on the side of the loud noisy street we started our lesson.

 To start out I asked if I could say a prayer, and as I said the prayer something miraculous happened. Peace, and comfort came over me. (<--wow that sounds cheesy) But really, all of the bitter feeling I had had up to this point left. I prayed more fervently that we would be able to have the Spirit with us as we spoke and guide our lesson. As we entered into the lesson the Spirit was so strongly felt. The investigator was focused and engaged. As we came to a close it came to the topic of baptism. And I asked him to choose a date that he felt he could achieve. And the tender mercy came as he said June 13th. I smiled, that's my birthday. And I couldn't think of a better birthday gift. I really hope that he can prepare by that date. Not for me of course, but I really know that this step of baptism and entering into a covenant with God can bring us closer to him than anything else. 

The power of prayer is real! At that time I have no idea why I offered to say the prayer, but I know that I needed to. I needed to let go of the things that were bothering me if we wanted to have any progress. It's so true that the times when we have the least desire to pray are the times that we most need to pray. I am so grateful that God gave us such a simple 方式 for us to communicate with him.

Our trusty bikes are a blessing

They work continues and this week we are going to be thrusting in our sickles with all of our might! I love you all and hope that you have a great day! Go get a Jamba Juice... that sounds really good. 加油!!!

Elder Roe

My Happy Mother's Day wish from 6,000 miles away

Happy Mother's Day!!!!!!!                                                                    May 12, 2015

 Who knows where the world would be without our incredible Mothers! I know that I for sure would not be where I am without mine. So I hope that everyone got the opportunity to celebrate and be around family. One of the most awesome things that I saw this week was the amazing members in Taiwan's desire to have their family with them. We had so many people come to our Mother's Day activity and even more to Church. There was a common trend among all of them. Many of the people that came was because they asked their Mom's what they wanted for Mother's Day and the response was that the most valuable gift that they could give to them is to come with them to Church and all be together there. HOW AWESOME IS THAT!?!?!?!? It really made me put things in perspective. What is really important in life? I was thinking if I was in that position I don't know that Church would have been my first response (I would hope it would) I probably would say something like, "well chocolate is pretty good." Yeah it was humbling.

My Superman, Porter and I hiking in Oregon in 2013

 Also talking with you guys was so much fun! Good to see no one has
really changed that much. Except for Beckett, he is growing up so fast!!

Our beautiful Beckett

This week we saw one huge miracle! One of our investigators who has not even picked up the phone for the past three weeks finally answered!!! And that day he went with us to an activity and then he came to Church the next day. Crazy! So that was a really great miracle. Except that day in POURED!!!! Yeah it was true tropical rain. It's so strong it like hurts and the humidity makes you soaked even when you have a umbrella. So that was the only downer.

HL fed us great pizza

Also another miracle. Is that our RC who has autism fed us dinner! (first miracle) And then after that he said that we were going to visit his friend. He took us over and met the greatest family ever the had THREE kids!!!!! Yeah rare in Taiwan. And he was super willing to listen to what we had to say and set up again. At the end he asked ME for MY cell phone number. I was like you for sure can have it! MIRACLES!!!

Well I am sorry but since I just talked to you all I am kind of out of things to say. I think I kind of told you everything so.... hopefully next week I will be full of more things to say! You are all great and I love you. Thanks for the endless support and love! 加油

Elder Roe

Yeah this is the rain....

Unending, humid, tropical downpour

One Awesome Investigator!

Howdy everyone,                                                                                      May 4, 2015

Sorry everyone this week is gonna have to be super fast. Basically not too much happened in the past 3 days. I feel like every time we have temple week that is kind of what happens. Other that just doing your every day to day missionary work nothing really happened.

We have a new investigator named HD he is super awesome! His brother is actually already a member in our ward. We have started meeting with him and I think that he is my favorite investigator I have ever taught because he asks more questions that anyone I have ever seen. And I'm not just talking about your average questions I am talking about some hard questions to answer. He says that currently he leans more to the atheist side. So I will be really interested to see how he progresses. He said that he will be willing to do this experiment and find out if God exists so it should be good.

My 1st Mango Smoothie of the season!!!! So stoked!!!

Also this week I ran into a really cool guy from Australia. Okay wow I didn't realize how hard it was to teach in English. I felt super choppy and it was hard to share. Luckily he was really nice and had a lot of interest with what we shared. But I am glad God sent me to Taiwan. I feel a lot more comfortable teaching in Chinese. Well basically that's about all I got today. The Church is true. God lives and Jesus is our Savior. We are truly so blessed to have been born in the times with the fullness of the gospel. I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Capt. America, Asian Style

Elder Roe