I have felt the Lord's Love so strongly this week!

Hey everyone!                                                                                               Feb. 22, 2016

 So it has only been 4 days since I last talked to you because of temple day, but life is great! In that time we were able to have L DX baptism and confirmation! It was so awesome, he is a great guy. We found him outside and called him and from then on he continued to meet with us until baptism. It was a cool testimony of how time is up to us and God.

 In the past, he had met missionaries and had actually had them come to his house to visit and share our message but at that time (even though he didn't have a bad feeling) he turned them away. But he felt that now is his time. He has been super accepting of the gospel and despite his very low education has been diligent in study the gospel even though it is very difficult for him to read. It has been amazing to see his change! There was also another investigator baptized the same day that was found in our area! He his so amazing, we ended giving him as a referral since he didn't live in our area and it was super great to him progress towards baptism and happier life. 

This week was temple week, it was so great to be in the temple again! I love the peace that it brings and the revelation that you can receive. I think that I have mentioned this before, but I love that it is in the middle of a big city yet it brings such a quiet peace in the midst of a busy world.

 Sister Lu is off to SLC temple square mission after waiting months for visa clearance.
She will be awesome there!!!

I feel like it was been an amazing week, really been able to feel the love of God. He can change our lives if we let him, we just have to slow done. This week I have enjoyed being with the people I have grown to love so much. For example Li xui fen, li xin kuan, zhang jia ting, liao guo shu etc. They are all so amazing! 

I hope that you all see some miracles of your own this week. 

Also shout out to Sister Lu, she was a visa waiter in our district and this morning she went America temple sqaure mission! 加油!

Love,

Elder Roe

last breakfast with Sis. Lu (Long live tucheng)

What is success?

                                                                                                     Feb. 17, 2016

What a great day I had with this wonderful family.
Man, they are the very best!

Hi Everybody!



How is everyone doing!? It's been awhile since I emailed

because this week is temple week so today we are going to the temple and have our p-day instead of last Monday. This past week and a half has been really fun. First off with Chinese New Year, lets just say lots of fireworks, firecrackers, and food. Lots and lots of food. Like we were filled to the brim. We are so thankful the Taiwanese people are so good to us!

Jewel says, these two will be best friends forever!!!
Even if they have an age gap...baptizing him and Jewel was one
of the highlights of Elder Roe's life!

Spent New Years day with this beautiful family!
 Was honored they would come to my area and share it with me!

 This last week some miracles happened. First off, our investigator L DX is going to be baptized on Saturday! Yay! Super stoked, he is great and I am so thankful I have had the chance with my companion to teach him. It is such a great privilege to get to teach these amazing people. For example yesterday we were meeting with La DX who got baptized a couple of weeks ago. We were asking about that day and he turned to us and said, "I will never forget that day for the rest of my life."

 Even though he has been so successful in life. He has a great family, had a great job, and has lived a long life already he said that all those years none of them have been as full as his life is right now. He said, "before I just looked and life and asked, Is this it? We just come, we live, and we die? What's the point of that. But now, I know. I know where I am going, I have a belief and I have direction. I have a relationship with God, which is something I have never had before. Now my life has meaning, and I now know what true happiness is." It amazes me. He is in his 70's and is so successful but true success and happiness comes from living the gospel of Jesus Christ, making covenants, and honoring those covenants. I am so happy that everyday we share happiness. Chinese has in right seeing as 福音的福 is 幸福的福. It is happiness! 

True success is making and keeping our covenants

Even though a lot happened it feels impossible to share everything that happened. So I am gonna end it here. I love you all so much and am grateful to have you all in my life! Have a amazing week and go see some miracles! 

Love,

Elder Roe

Enjoying the celebrations!

Happy Chinese New year to all my Chines friends!!!!!!!!!!                                               Feb. 8, 2016

 It is a time of lots of fireworks, firecrackers, 紅包, and delicious food! I seriously have never been so full in my life. It's like having thanksgiving every single day for a week. Can't complain! It has been an amazing experience to be able to meet so many non-members in a non-threatening environment.

Our dinner appointment

 Last night was probably one of the funnest nights of my life. We had to dinner appointments, the first was full of great food and company. The second we were invited to by an RC. She said that she had a lot of family there and wanted us to meet them. So they picked us up to drive us to the house. Let me tell you, this was no ordinary Taiwanese house. It was a 老家 way up in the mountains way out of the city. We pull in and it is this sick old style house. Ya know, the one that has three sides (like a square without one side) The doors are tall wood with a cool Chinese saying above the door. Once we pulled in the door opens and floods light into the courtyard. In the doorway to the main room is like 40 people. It was a little funny at the beginning cause it was awkwardly dead silent. (they didn't know we were foreigners so they were nervous that they would have to speak English)

What a great week we've had. Happy Chinese New Year!

 But once we broke the ice it was a party! Words cannot explain how fun it was. So loud, so much food and a huge family reunion. The Grandma that was there was 99 years old! How awesome is that!? When we left they all wanted pics, I felt like a celebrity since there were tons of cameras, with some excited Asian behind it saying look here look here! Anyway we built some good relationships and I think they will be able to become so sweet investigators later on. 

Other than that? There was a big earth quake did ya hear? Yeah that was fun.(He's developed his sarcasm well haha) It was pretty big, even in Taipei but we are all safe and sound. Please pray for the people in the worst hit area like Tainan. There are many people still missing. 

MLC was great! We talked about my favorite thing: working with members. Seriously it is the best way to do missionary work. And there is a big difference between a referral and an investigator. So anyway we will be working a lot closer with the ward from here on out. I am excited for Zone meeting, it should be lots of fun. 

Love you all so much.Thanks for all the support and love you give me! 

Beautiful Chinese Temple

So much food and fun

Elder Roe

The Right Place and the Right Time!

Hello hello!                                                                                                           Feb. 3, 2016

Well this week was a bit warmer than last week:) So that made it a lot better. Last Wednesday we went on exchanges with the assistants and that was fun especially since both are in my generation so we had lots we could chat about. :) Then transfers happened and I am staying another 6 weeks in Tucheng! So that was a little bit of a awesome surprise! 

So excited to stay here with these awesome people for another transfer!

Lots of cool miracles happened this week. One though that I wanted to share was, M J. We were going out to contact for like 20 minutes before our lesson. We were going somewhere that we go quite often but for some reason decided to pull in and park on the other side than we usually do. Then while we were parking our bikes this girl walks past. So we say "hello!" and stop to talk with her. We start having a great conversion and then all of a sudden she says "it is fate that I am talking to you." We were like...what? She said that, that day while she was on the MRT she was actually thinking about Jesus Christ. Nothing in particular about him, he had just crossed her thoughts. Then on her way home she decided to walk a different path that was actually way out of her way, where she ran into us. (Although we all know that wasn't just fate) We shared about prayer and baptism to which she really wanted to learn more. At the end we invited her to say the closing prayer. She did and started to cry. Afterward she was embarrassed and was just like "why is this happening! This is so weird I never cry!" We asked her how she felt inside and she said that it was a good feeling. We then helped her to recognize that, that was the spirit. We are meeting with her tonight and I am so excited to share more about he gospel with her! She is awesome!

Dinner with the Gang

On Saturday we spent like 7 hours helping set up tables and chairs for a huge activity for all the old and homeless people. They are having a big dinner and Chinese New Year party for them in front of the govt. offices so that's how we spent our Saturday. It was good and felt good to do service for those in need. Everyone was pretty impressed with how fast and effective we are.... I felt like it wasn't that hard but we taught everyone some pretty effective things to help them move stuff faster haha. 

Other than that, I don't have too much to talk about. Life is great! We have some sick (slang for awesome) investigators that should be getting baptized this month. Just working on overcoming some problems, so that is kind of cool. Anyway I hope that you are all doing really well and have an amazing week! Love ya'll. 

Elder Roe