Week 22- September 23, 2012

Week 22

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Hey everybody,
This week was exciting! To start last week, I got the call that I was going to be moving to a different area. My two companions got the call that they would both stay there but train two brand new missionaries. So on Thursday, they had to go to Taipei for a meeting to learn about how to train the new missionaries. So that means I stayed and spent the day in my area with Elder Beck. He was an elder who I was in the MTC with (his companion who is from Singapore, also had to go to the meeting in Taipei). So Elder Beck and I spent the day doing missionary work. That was an adventure because we've both only been here about three months. So our Chinese isn’t the greatest but we managed to get through the day. We had to teach the law of chastity later that night to a family which was interesting because teaching that subject in English is hard enough. We had never taught it before but it turned out okay because we brought a member that helped us. Then later the next morning, we woke up and traveled to Taipei for the meeting to find out where we were being transferred. That was another adventure because we had to take a bus to the train station, but none of the buses would stop for us (probably because we are wei guo ren -foreigners). It wasn’t until a Taiwanese grandma came to the bus stop that a bus finally stopped. We took the bus to the train station, but we weren’t really sure which stop to stop at and then which MRT subway to take.  The MRT station is huge and confusing. We both can’t read Chinese characters because we aren’t supposed to be learning those yet. But luckily some ladies started talking to us and they were members of the church. So they help us find our way. So at the meeting, I found out I was getting transferred to Jin Hua. This is the same area that the temple is in and I got a native companion. This area is sweet. The church is right next to the temple. It was super nice and is four stories tall. We are also a part of two wards (groups of people that go to church at a certain time in a specific boundary), the Jin Hua ward and only English ward in Taipei (probably only English ward in Taiwan). So yesterday, I met both of the wards. We go to both of their sacrament (church) meetings. However, first at 8:30 a.m., we had a lesson with an Indonesian lady that only speaks Indonesian. Luckily she has an Indonesian member friend whose English is perfect. She helped translate for her during the lesson. We also had a senior couple missionaries (older people on a mission) help us teach during the lesson. They are called the Kitchens (Elder Kitchen was the first missionary to come to Taiwan back when it was opened for missionaries). Later at 11 a.m., we had sacrament meeting (church meeting) in the English ward which was really weird. There were mainly all white people! I haven’t seen that many white people in a long time! But it was cool because the ward is really diverse. We had an investigator from India show up out of the blue. There is a member from a small country by Ghana in Africa. There are also Canadian, European, and Philippine members. We met with a Philippine sister after church and we set up a baptismal date with her.
That was my week. It is going be good having a native companion. His English is really good and it'll be great for my Chinese. It was sad leaving Bade. I am going to miss a lot of people plus we had four other people that should be baptized in the next two weeks. But I’m excited to be in this area.

Love,
Jordan Chatman

A family, Lin, that Jordan and his companion are teaching that are close to getting baptized. Curtis and Janet ended up getting baptized (the 2 kids)....see later photos

Jenny, a lady Jordan and his companion werere teaching that wanted to get baptized but her mom didn't want her too. Filipino that is Catholic

This is the view from Jordan's apartment in the city of Taipei.

Week 21 -September 16, 2012

Hey all,

Sorry I didn't have time to blog this week.  Transfers are on Friday.  Both of my companions will be training new missionaries so I will most likely be moving somewhere.  We get a new group of missionaries in this week. Gotta go!

Love, Jordan

My companion from Taiwan, Elder Shu. Right now im in a tri-companionship - Elder Murphy (my step-trainer) and Elder Shu

This is a typical soup meal in Taiwan

Common type statues in Taiwan

Different types of food Jordan ate on his mission

Stinky Tofu

Elder Murphy, Jordan's companion dropping off a Liahona talk to Qiu1 Jiemei and family. They are investigators

Daxi, part of Jordan's area. This view is from the top of the hill looking out from Ba1 de2

Week 20 -September 9, 2012

Hey everyone,

I had another really busy week. We visited a bunch of less active church members (baptized members of the church that don’t come consistently) this week. The mission president wants us to visit more of the less active members because in Taiwan there are about 50,000 members of our Church, but only about 10,000 are active! So that is not good, there are millions of people here and only 10,000 active members!

We had a baptism on Saturday. The lady that was baptized is an 18 year old girl named Zhang Yan Ting. We had a great turn out of people at the baptism and one of the young single adult ward members baptized her which was great. It’s a tradition here that you have to bear your testimony (say what you believe in) in sacrament (church), the Sunday after being baptized. She was really nervous about that and went up there and only said 2 sentences! But that is ok, she is learning.

We did some tracting this week (going door to door and knocking on them, seeing if people have interest). Tracting is not really successful here. No one has any interest. As soon as we say we are missionaries, they start shaking their heads and waving their hands. Then they turn around and shut the door on our face. Sometimes, they won’t saying anything and just clasp their hands and start bowing, symbolizing that they are Buddhist. Then they close the door, ignoring us completely. It’s a cool experience though.

We have a bunch of baptisms scheduled for October, so we're working to help those people progress and get ready.

That is what is going on here. I know this Church is true. God is Love

Love,

Jordan Chatman

This is at Zhang's baptism.

Week 19 -September 2, 2012

Hey everyone,

This week was a little different. It was like ghost week or something to the Buddhist religion. So they believe these Buddhist ghosts come at night or something, I’m not really sure what it is. But anyways, so everyone gets these big tables and places food on them and they leave them out over time to feed the ghosts. So we would be riding around on our bikes and we would see everything from Pringles to skinned chickens sitting outside people’s houses. They also burn these paper things, so the city was filled with smoke.  It is so much so, that you can barely see while you are going around. Then earlier this week, we were walking down this alley and ran into a Buddhist celebration. They had a big king type chair and on it a dead pig that was dressed up with a crown and stuff on it. Then lying on top of the pig, there was a skinned goat.  Then they were all around with burning incense and bowing down to it. It was definitely different than I have ever seen. I wanted to film it but I am sure that would be disrespectful, so I didn’t.

This week, we got another companion who is from Taichung Taiwan. His companion isn’t here yet, so he was with me and my companion this week. It was cool having a native to practice Mandarin with 24/7. His English is really good though.

This week, like usual, we were crazy busy meeting with people. We have a baptism this upcoming Saturday, so we are excited about that. The sister being baptized is awesome. She just had some trouble getting to Church.  So that’s what took her so long to get baptized, because other than that she’s been prepared for a long time.

Another investigator is a kid named Lin Ren Shan. He is preparing to be baptized at the end of the month. We thought he was ready, but then we met with him this week. He was like “Yeah yesterday I got baptized in this other Christian Church, but I still want to be baptized in yours.” We were like, huh? I am not really sure why he did that. We had to explain again the restoration and talk about priesthood authority to baptize. I think he understands now.

Recently, we have been visiting a lot of less actives. Our mission president wanted the mission to pick up its efforts in that area. Yesterday, we visited with a father who hasn’t been to church in years. Most less active visits are good, but this man was a little different. He was like “yeah I don’t really think I want to come back to church.”  Then my new companion, Elder Shu, started bearing his testimony about how he knows this Church is true and the blessings we get from it. Then, the man just cuts him off. He says, "stop, just stop." (He said that in English too, which was weird). He was like, “I don’t want to hear it,  …..joining your church was a mistake.”  So that visit didn’t work out too well, but there was not much else good we could do.

This week, we had to teach a lot about why we live the commandments. A lot of people here struggle with things like drinking tea, smoking, pornography, or not keeping Sabbath day holy - those are the big ones. We focused on why we keep the commandments because like President Uchtdorf said, knowing the Why of living the gospel is what provides the motivation and courage to keep fighting and living the right way. My favorite scripture for teaching this is Mosiah 2:41. It says, "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and ^ahappy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are ^bblessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out ^cfaithful to the end, they are received into ^dheaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it." This scripture is pretty much self-explanatory. If we are righteous, we are so much happier and are blessed now, spiritually and temporally, and we'll be able to live with God again. How cool is that!

Alright, that’s it for this week. I hope everybody is doing well.

Love,

Jordan Chatman

Jordan, some of the other missionaries, and investigators, at a Micheal McLean concert in Taiwan.