Taught at the feet of an Apostle!!!

Hi to all of the Western World,                                                                          Nov. 30, 2015

What a fantastic week! First of all Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!! Missed ya'll for turkey day but you were all in my heart and I am so thankful to have you all in my life! This week was extremely busy and full of blessings we had: p-day, conference with Elder Stevenson, Exchange with DanFeng, English Class and WPS, Mission Leadership Conference, Exchange with SiYuan, and finally returned home for Church. :) It was so fun! 

As for being taught by an apostle of the Lord, it was awesome! And really just so much fun. Every single missionary in the mission was there. (which never happens)  And in all honesty he was just so: real. It's a Cache Valley thing ;) But it was a great time.

 Pres. and Sis. Jergensen spoke and also Elder and Sister Stevenson. All did so great! I really loved Sister Jergensen's talk. It was about knowing who we are. Mainly, to not forget our identity and to remember that God will always help us if we call upon Him even in this scary big world. I don't know why it just really hit home, she is a great speaker!

 Elder Stevenson focused on having "a vision" for our investigators and for ourselves. I really enjoyed it and we are actually going to take a lot of what he talked about and share it in our Zone Conference so I am pretty stoked for that. Another thing he really focused on was obedience. He gave us this "formula" that he wants us to live by. Obedience+Blessings= happiness. He was really thorough in teaching that when we obey, we then receive blessings. And when we receive blessings we are happy. Satan tries to tell us that disobedience brings happiness, but rather it brings wickedness and the scriptures tell us that wickedness never was happiness. So some awesome concepts, it was a great conference.

This work is the best!

This week I went on exchanges with the super 帥 Elder Liston and Magness. I love them so much. Elder Liston basically gives me all my inspiration for Zone Conference haha. Elder Magness and I had a really good time together. Like when we exchanged back, my throat hurt from talking so much. We talked a lot about seeing the big picture, and how to help ourselves progress not just the work. It was really great and I learned a lot. I am thankful to the great friends I have gained here :)

I love these people so much!

At Stake Conference!!! Cutest Boys in the world!

As for everything else. Live is good. We saw some great miracles, and some big heartbreaks. It's a good thing that your heart is a muscle. And only when you break your muscle down do you actually get it built back up stronger than ever before. Because that happens a lot on the mission. This one new investigator named D is awesome! She came to Church yesterday for the whole block and is super nice and.... 熱心 (you can translate that yourself) So everyone was all over her. Like only Chinese can describe it. 每個人都蜂湧包圍著她. Yeah it was that crazy, so I hope that she didn't get scared. But she texted us after Church and said she loved it and can't wait to meet again on Tues. So I am stoked! I am just a lot more pessimistic after someone just broke my heart. (no need for names) So until the baptism is here, I am just kinda going to letting things work themselves out.

Well I love ya'll soooo much! Thanks for all you do for me and the support that is given! 加油!

Love,

Elder Roe

Elder Elliott's treat for me!!! Happy 20th Birthday to Elder Elliott!

Hello All,           

23 NOVEMBER 2015DAVID ELLIOTTLEAVE A COMMENT

In celebration of my fast-approaching 20th birthday (this Saturday), Elder Roe and I went to my favorite all-you-can-eat hot pot restaurant for lunch today.

Me.

Elder Roe.

View of one side of the restaurant.

​The other side of the mirrored central pillars.

This is the same chain where an English class student took us out to eat on my 19th birthday a year ago.

It’s actually a lot cheaper than I had imagined, and it’s definitely worth it. Everything is unlimited all-you-can-eat: traditional Taiwanese vegetable dishes, dumplings, steamed bread, salad, fruit, hot dogs, chocolate fondue, cake, ice cream, various fried and grilled stuff, and sushi. You can choose your hot pot flavor–kimchi is my favorite–and mix all of your own condiments. There’s a refrigerated area from which you can take all sorts of hot pot ingredients, some meat-slicing machines, Slushee machines, and even ingredients for making your own Taiwanese shaved ice. Because I normally only eat really cheap food, I have enough extra money left ofter that I could pay for my companion and I to eat here every day for two weeks, but that would be kind of wasteful and unhealthy. One meal here can fuel several days of uninterrupted proselyting, anyway.

This week was a great week overall. We’ve started meeting with one of Dennis’s friends (Dennis is the investigator I baptized with Elder Huntsman a while ago). Her name is N. She is lined up to be baptized on Christmas, along with 沈弟兄 (Brother S), J, and A.

A and J are both doing well, and each has come to church enough times to be baptized. The only problem is that neither of them has a very strong desire to be baptized. We’re trying to help them develop habits of scripture study and prayer, which is about all we can do to help them in their current situation.

This week, Elder Roe and I also had the privilege of going to the Taipei temple again with two members for their first time. One of them was 楊弟兄 [Brother Y], who Elder Huntsman and I began teaching my first week here in 土城. 

 Now, he comes to church every Sunday, and he was laughing and smiling when my companion talked to him. It’s great to see how far he’s come in this short time.

That’s about all that’s been going on this week. It’s been a pretty stressful week; Elder Roe was out of the area on exchanges for every day except one. Nevertheless, we saw a lot of progress in our area. Tomorrow, Elder Stevenson, one of the Twelve Apostles of the Church, will be speaking to us in Taipei, which I’m looking forward to. We’ll sing for him in the choir, as well.

From Porter's personal email to me...I will miss you all for thanksgiving as well! To be honest though I don't really care if we have food or not. Like the second year is so much better than the first. The first year you are just like what the heck? Why don't they celebrate this? But now to be honest I don't really care haha. btw, yes I did eat 1,000 yr old egg. It was pretty gross to be honest. I mean I could eat it but I wouldn't say that i would be buying it for dinner tonight either. Yeah there is a lot of weird foods. Well I hope that you have a wonderful day. Love you so much. Be sure to take a thanksgiving picture!

Love,

Porter 

That’s all for now. Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Elliott

Disappointment is felt. Tender Mercies of the Lord appear.

Hey Everybody,

                                                                                                        Nov 18, 2105

This week was probably one of the hardest. It was still great of course just a few disappointments! Our investigator kind of got cold feet. Sort of. She had this super rough trial hit her so that was sad and it just kind of rocked her faith. We had about three days without hearing from her and then she sent us a text saying that she was disappointed in humanity and needed some time to like.... 修正 herself... I don't know how to say that in English. So yeah we were bummed.... we cried. It is hard when you put so much energy, and passion, and time into someone trying to help them and then they let you down. But I am sure that she will come around we have some members that are still able to keep in contact with her. (MEMBERS ARE SO IMPORTANT!) So that is really awesome. 

Other than that I went on exchanges this week with two missionaries that it was their first week in Taiwan. So. much. fun. New missionaries have so much faith. They are a little overwhelmed, but excited, and are so humble because they need a lot of help. I enjoyed it again and made me remember to continue to rely on the Lord. I had lots of stories and journal entries that could 安慰他們. But I am sure they will be very effective servants of the Lord.

My Church house here in Taiwan

We were also able to take a investigator to the Taipei "temple square" tour. He loved it. His wife has been a member for a long time but he hasn't ever joined the Church. Everyone already thinks he is a member because he comes to Church every week to help take care of the kids etc. Like I wouldn't be surprised if they tried to give him a calling haha. 

This upcoming week should be fun. Got some fun exchanges coming up as well as some fun finding activities. 雖然 this week was a little bit of a let down, but God is sooo good!On Friday Elder Elliott and I were both a little bit down. Just a bit sad with all that had happened with our investigator and all. But we prayed  we would have energy and have a bit more desire to go outside and do the work. That night we saw a crazy miracle. We had a lesson set up with a referral we got from 台南 which is in the TaiZhong mission. This guy was golden. Because of the referral system and all it had been a few months since they originally contacted him. But he had been keeping all commitments like prayer, and reading the Book of Mormon etc. Even though he doesn't have a Christian background he already had a lot of faith in Christ because of these invites. We talked about baptism and he was really all for it. Said that he had a lot of guilt and shame from previous mistakes and was really ready for a new start. So we set a date for Christmas and he is willing to work really hard to work towards that. It made up a bit for the big disappointment. I mean it made up a lot for it but we were REALLY down, that's why God gave us such a big miracle. So yeah. I am excited for him! :) 

Fun time with my Recent Converts who came to spend some time with me awhile ago

Other than that all is good! We are looking forward to next week when Elder Stevenson comes. (He is picking up Kyle) So we are having a mission conference with him. It should be super duper awesome!!! (Porter is referring to our brand new Apostle Elder Gary Stevenson!!! His Son serves in Taipei Mission also!)

Love you all hope all is well! 

Elder Roe

Amazing growth the Lord can provide when we turn our lives over to HIM

Hello Everyone,                                                                                                    Nov. 9, 2015

This week was so fun! Zone Meeting was a big success! We all had a good time together, had a good laugh, and had a good spiritual experience. The only sad part was that it was the last time we were all together for a while since this week was transfers. We had a ton of companionship get all switched up so there is a lot of newness. Which is good but different. Right after the meeting I went on exchanges with Elder King out to XinZhuang. We had a blast! :) 

Then later this week went on Exchanges again. I got to go with my grandson!!!! Elder Coletti! He is the best, and hilarious. It is super fun to be in the same district as my son and grandson. (mission family of course) They are both killing it!

My Grandson and Me!! He is awesome.

Something nice was the weather this week. I can't believe it's November. It feels like paradise here. But winter will be here soon so not looking forward to that at all. 

This week was fun and exhausting that I hardly had anytime to breathe, let alone write in my journal. I am the WORST at writing in my journal! But I had a cool experience that I wanted to share with ya'll. 

I was writing last night trying to catch up and started to flip back to previous entries. I went back to a year ago at about this same time and started to read. The entry went something like this:

"I can't do this. I can do it but I feel so down. I am hard on myself but it's hard not to. I look at everyone around me excel, mostly with the language. I feel that for God to send people here to learn this language he must send the smartest of our kind. SO WHY DID HE SEND ME!?!?!? I am as far away from being intellectual as wood on a fence! Yet here I am. Everyday is a struggle I really need help. I know that God is there but sometimes it is hard to feel it."

Yeah pretty depressing right. I found myself laughing at this entry seeing as it was like yesterday when that happened. I can remember the feelings of inadequacy as I was striving to become the person that I knew God wanted me to be.  I continued onto the next couple of days to find another entry like this:

"improvement! Today I was asked a question in Mandarin, I completely understood the question and didn't have to ask for a translation. Then I responded IN CHINESE and here is the miracle: she completely understood! She didn't give me a weird look, or have that vacant look on her face of misunderstanding. Instead she took what I said and wrote it down. I know that God is there and he is helping me daily, I love Him."

Two pretty different entries I would say. I loved it because I was able to reminisce on the past year... the growth. For one, linguistically speaking. Now it is effortless to talk with people and help them with their concerns so that is one miracle. And the other is the growth spiritually. Through the trials of being "not good enough" "desperate" "inadequacy" are when I grew the most. It allowed me to see the love and mercy of God. It made me fully dependent on him. And that is way I improved. I know that regardless of who we are, he knows us and knows how to help us. I feel so privileged to be here in Taiwan. Changing my life and others daily. 

Beautiful view of Taiwan this week

I hope everyone back home is happy and healthy! Love you!

Elder Roe 

An unexpected encounter with a crazy BIRD!

個位好!

How is life?                                                                                                 November 2, 2015

This week was so much fun! Had interviews, exchanges with the assistants, temple day, MLC, and to finish it off the new member/ investigators fireside! So much fun! Tomorrow is our Zone Conference which will be a blast we are really looking forward to it. 

The only downer from this week was TJ. She wasn't able to get baptized because of some health challenges. She still wants to be baptized but will have to work through those first. Hopefully she will be able to get a new date soon and continue on the road to discipleship.

Love this Boy who was recently converted. I love this work!!!

 Yesterday was also kind of a hard night. When the fireside was about to end President asked Sister Akita (we are the same generation) who is in my generation to end with her testimony. It was kind of random but when she started talking we figured out why he asked her. Unfortunately because of sickness she said she would be going home tomorrow! We got to serve together in the South and the West zone so I can say she is a boss missionary. We will miss her like crazy! But that made me sad. A mission is so precious and the people you meet whether it is members, missionaries, and just the Taiwanese you love them all so much!  

On a bus headed to Zone Conference! Port in the back!

Something that was kind of crazy today. I was riding my bike to go do emails but on the way here I got hit by a bird, it ran right into me! I stopped pedaling and was just like "what the heck!" then I looked down and he was sitting on my thigh. He looked like he was gonna kill me so I kinda flipped out. Eventually he flew off but it was a scary moment. Taylor saves birds out of fishing line and I scare the heck out of them haha. 

Man, I miss this boy of mine

Overall life is really good. I am loving our area and our zone. Not too much to report other than I love you all! Thanks for all you do and the support you give me! 

Love, 

Elder Roe

LOVE changes everything

Hey everybody,                                                                                              Oct. 28, 2015

Sorry this week has been a little bit nuts. For example emailing on Wednesday. Today is our temple day, I am soooo stoked!!!!! I feel like time on the mission goes so fast! But as for temple day the time in between feels like an eternity. So needless to say I will enjoy my time today.

Sweet Sweet Experience!!!

 Last week was crazy busy with some exchanges. We had a blast as I went with Elder Magness and Elder Andeline, both of whom I love to pieces! I learned so much from the both of them. Then this week, we had interviews with President Jergensen. I love that man so much, he is so called of the Lord. I felt bad  though I went in there with so many questions I probably made him so exhausted. My bad. Then we went on exchanges with the assistants which was pretty fun. I could never be in the office. I only had to stay in there for like 3 hours and I was dying to get out and talk to some people. We met some really awesome people though that I am hoping that will be willing to meet with them.

Back with my friends in MuZha!!

Also last week was so great! I got the privilege of going back to 木柵 again  to baptize 陳姐妹. She was so great! So excited and just radiating light! I was so happy for her and her testimony was soooo touching!

 She just talked about the influence the Church has had on her son and how when she saw how much they loved him even though they were these 18-19 year old foreigners how touching that was. It was they key to her being willing to listen to the missionaries and take the lessons. She was so humble and admitted that there were still parts of the gospel that she didn't completely understand but that she had faith she would be  able to gain a testimony of it all through obedience to the gospel. That's what I'm talking about!

Love you all,

Elder Porter Roe

Being grateful in our circumstance brings happiness

Hello beautifuls!                                                                                   Oct. 19, 2015

My legs feel like Jell-O. First I guess I can start off with the best thing that happened this week 之一. I GOT MY BIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally! No more riding on strangers bikes :) Seriously whenever I get it after I move it's like my best friend just showed up. Unfortunately he didn't get here without any battle scars. Yup, had a nice big flat. So that was a little depressing, but I got that all fixed and added some good ole' oil and it's as good as new. For the most part. There is still a little bit of knocking in the back that I gotta figure out cause it's driving me nuts. But anyway enough about my bike. 

Porter finding time to enjoy the ride

The real reason that my legs hurt is because I went on Exchanges this week in XinZhuang with one of my favs Elder Liston. We had a blast but oh man, there are some hills over that way. But we had a super duper good time and are loving life. 

As for TuCheng, this week was pretty good. Good and bad news. TJ passed her interview! But she is going on a business trip and will be out of the Country so we have to move it to next week but that is okay! Also C J from my last area is getting baptized so this Saturday I get to back to MuZha again! Super stoked. 

This week was full of learning experiences. I got to talk with lots of missionaries about what it means to be a consecrated missionary. It's still a lot in the thought process. But it is such a important thing. I really hope that I can be the missionary that God wants me to be.

Pretty place with the culture showing through

Also had some of my RC's and members from my first area come and eat dinner with me, we had a blast! I love them all so much! 

Asian architecture is so interesting and beautiful

Yesterday we visited an awesome member! He is 87 but could run faster than me and can do some stretches better than Aggie cheerleaders. He speaks Japanese since he is the older generation and then his next best language is Tiayu and then Mandarin... so communication was interesting but it was amazing what the gift of tongues can do.

A great example of happiness and humility

 

 He lives in such humble circumstances, but was the happiest most grateful person I have met. I think we can all learn from his great example. Well that was about the week, it's a wrap I love you all! 

Elder Roe

The sacred ordinance of Baptism...what does it mean to you?

Happy Monday!                                                                        October 12, 2015

Oh and to my Nephew: 祝你生日快樂你帥哥! Hope it was a great birthday! I am sure it was a busy week, it sure was over here. As for the Asian world is concerned this week we were finally able to watch General Conference! IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!! At first we had a bit of a scare though, they downloaded it for us but not in English! I mean don't get me wrong I love Chinese and all but when it comes to General Conference you go native language every time. But through some miracles we got the English Version and were able to watch it all. I loved listening to all of the inspired talks and messages. The Church is so true! It was so inspired and full of awesomeness.

This week started off really good with our Zone Conference. I think the best part was a training we did on baptism. Everyone was invited to read 2 Nephi 31 and ponder about baptism. The interesting part was to specifically thing about baptism and what it means to you as a individual. We started with anyone who wanted to share their insight and then watched a video. The video was put together by the 傳道部 where they got pictures of everyone from when they were baptized. For some missionaries that was 8 years old and for others that was 20+. It was so cool to see everyone dressed in white about to enter into a sacred covenant with the Lord. 

Eldon and Porter the day Porter was baptized

 

Eldon and Porter the day Porter entered the MTC

Then we had the companionship break off into groups and share with their companionship the feelings they had, had and any memories that they had of their baptism. That was the best part. It was so awesome to look around the room and be able to see all of the missionaries tenderly share about what baptism has meant to them. Especially when we ask ourselves the question, where would I be without baptism? It really changes your perspective. Especially as missionaries I think that sometimes we forget the sacredness and great blessing baptism is, because we aren't careful and forget what it has meant to us. I shared with our Zone some of my thoughts. Which were that of all those that have lived on earth and on the earth today, think of how great of a blessing it is to be able to have grown up with the restored gospel and have the opportunity to be one of the Lord's missionaries. I am sure that in our pre-earth life we did not care much for how much money we would have, what our job would be, or where we would live. All that we cared about was the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because without out it, we are unable to attain the highest degree of Glory that our merciful Heavenly Father has in store for us.

 

I love these people!! My Mission Leader Zone Conference

 

 I am sure that if there was any envy that was going on in heaven it was to be blessed enough to be in the situation that we are all in at this exact moment. In regard to that thought, what do we do with this great blessing? How do we show God our thanks? Do we wake up at 6:30 willingly with a attitude of thanksgiving? Do we go out to contact people in the heat and the typhoons with smiles on our face and the spirit in our hearts? Do we study the scriptures out of pure desire to learn more of Christ and draw closer to him? Or do not? Are we a waste? I know that all of us have all been guilty of the things listed above, but regardless we can change. I think of those I have been able to meet and whose lives have changed because of the gospel and I can't help but think where I would be without out them.

 

 I hope that at the start of a new month after General conference we can see the areas we can all improve in and then act. As for myself, I don't want to be a waste or a disappointment to my Heavenly Father, who has put very much faith and trust in me. He has in all of us. We can't really afford to fall short. But when we do, aren't we grateful there is repentance, something I have to do a lot of daily. haha

I hope that ya'll have a incredible week. The church is true! I love you all and am praying for you always!

Elder Roe 

This is at the MLC, everybody in this pic is in my generation I love them so much!

How great will be your JOY!!

Hello world,                                                                                         OCT. 5, 2015

This week was so busy! So much fun though. It was seriously just not stop all day, everyday. Every single day we had a different activity or meeting so that made it go really fast. But yeah. I will try and give you the whole thing really basically.

So somethings that happened this week, started off with a crazy typhoon, so we had to stay inside a lot so that was a little annoying haha.

HOW GREAT MY JOY!!! THANK YOU HEAVENLY FATHER!!!

Then we had our Mission Leadership Conference which was a blast! So great to see so many friends especially since the majority is from my generation. We had some really great trainings that really had a strong impact. Especially on baptism. I think we are definitely re- motivated to do better. I loved it all! There was a lot of change too! So much in the mission will be different after this week when we go to Zone Conference and announce all the changes so I am really looking forward to that. 

This little family IS going to be stellar members of our church!!!

The best part of the week was by far on Saturday. I was able to go back to 木柵 and baptize 王 and 吳. It was by far the best experience of my mission so far 之一. To see the whole ward again was so much fun! It was like a family reunion. Everything went to smooth and the service was so great! The speakers were great and sincere, the primary kids sang, sort of. And they were both baptized the first time which makes it even better.

 

Sweetest experience of my mission thus far!

 

 I feel like it is such a huge privilege to be here, to serve here, and to meet so many great people. The only downer was that Elder Alder had moved two days before so I didn't get to see him so I was bummed about that. But he moved to the promised land so I'm pretty jealous haha. 

The night after the baptism I got to see them at the big fireside for RC's.(Recent Converts) Luckily Jewel spoke. And she blew everyone out of the water. It was so cool! I was just like "yeah I taught them." So fun! 

 Then we met with our Investigator TJ we met with her to finish up the commandments and we were sharing the ones that are usually the hardest ones to accept: Tithing, Fasting/fast offerings. But she being her super great self accepted them whole heartedly! So that was a relief and big blessing!

So overall it was a pretty great week! Life is great! Hope everyone is doing well! 

Elder Roe