Week 24- October 7, 2012

Week 24

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Hi everyone,

Another week has gone by fast. It is amazing how fast the weeks go by. This week our main focus was a Philippine sister named Rosemary and a young man from India. Both of them are really close to being baptized this month, so we are really trying to help them get there. We also met this guy from Canada. He left everything he had in Canada to move here and marry a Taiwanese girl. But when he got here, her parents were against it. So she ended up leaving him. Now he is stuck here without a job and has been really depressed. He had been doing well in Canada, but since being here his life has been messed up. So this led him to meeting with us. We were helping him learn about our purpose in life. The lesson we had with him went great and he is willing to stop smoking, drinking and everything else, to turn his life around. Then yesterday, we called him to invite him to church. But he's now going back to Canada because his old job opened up. So hopefully, the missionaries over there can keep teaching him.

Also, this week, we went on about a 30 minute MRT ride to Xin Zhuang, where this recently converted (newly baptized member) man from Africa lives. He had not been heard from recently, so the bishop wanted us to go see how he's doing. So we went out to his house, on the roof of this apartment, which was really hard to get into. All the people there only spoke Taiwanese, so I couldn’t understand. Luckily, my companion speaks it, so we finally got in. After all that though, he wasn’t even home. Oh well, it was the effort that counts.

Last night, we had a fireside for all of the newly baptized people and investigators (people wanting to learn about the church). That was really spiritual until one of the speakers, a new member, started singing and clapping during her talk and talking about her reincarnation. (not something we believe in!) Yeah -not sure about her situation... 

We didn't get to watch General Conference (a broadcast from our prophet and his apostles.) They tape it and then a guy from the old ward in Bade, translates it into Mandarin Chinese. It is for everyone in Taiwan that wants to watch it in Mandarin. But we'll be able to watch it in English next week.

The city is good. It’s just like a crowded Las Vegas here. Biking is crazy because the drivers are crazy and it is packed with scooters and taxis and cars.  We're in the middle of downtown. We live about a 15 minute bike ride from the temple. We live in a really nice apartment. It is really small, just one big area and a bathroom. Some of the other missionaries in the area have big apartments but they live in the ghetto. So I love it where I’m at. Taipei isn’t as nice as everyone says. Before in America, everyone said how nice and technologically updated and stuff it is, but it’s pretty dirty and not that nice. There are some nicer areas though.

The wards here are good, probably around 75 to 100 people at church. There are 8 missionaries in the Chinese ward - us, the assistants, the temple sisters, and 2 other elder.  The English ward members are awesome and really supportive.

That’s about it here. This gospel changes lives!

Love,

Jordan Chatman