Week 42- February 11, 2013

Week 42 February 11, 2013

新年快樂

Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year is nothing like I expected it to be. I thought there was going to be crazy things going on - parades, fireworks, celebrations, etc – but not so.  All that really happens is just that everyone in Taipei leaves and reconnects with their families in the southern part of the island. It is about a week long Christmas day where absolutely nothing is open at all and hardly anyone is out on the streets. One tradition they have though is to eat! For this upcoming week, the members are feeding us every day. We have meals scheduled for lunch and dinner with members’ everyday for the next week. And it’s crazy how much food they bring out. I’m not a bigger eater.  I prefer to eat small sized meals every 2-3 hours, but the members meals are not small. They feed you until you literally can’t eat anymore. I’ll finish like 1 bowl of rice, but then they'll be like, "keep eating!" or "What? You are already full?" haha So I try to force a couple more bowls of rice and meat down! The meals are great though. Meat and rice is a great combo!   Don’t get me wrong, they'll bring some weird stuff out every now and then. I don’t even ask what it is anymore. I just eat and try to mix it in with the good tasting meat. This past Saturday, we had Miguel De Vinchi's baptism. It went really well and I was so happy to see him get baptized. He faced a couple of trials this week leading up to the baptism, but his faith was like a rock and nothing was going to stop him from getting baptized. My testimony in the converting power of the gospel was strengthened after seeing him get baptized. He had so many setbacks keeping him from baptism which I kind of expected would knock hold him back like it had for a bunch of our investigators. A bunch of our investigators are unwilling to keep the commandments or other things. But after reading, praying, coming to church, and actually living the commandments, he saw the power it had in his life and he wanted that change. Now I know the converting power of the gospel can have this effect on anyone.

Hope everyone is doing well!

莊長老

Elder Chatman

Escalator in Taiwan. The middle allows carts to go up to the next level of the building.

Elder Phelps, Miguel, and Jordan at Miguel's baptism

Some gangsters in Jordan's English class that he teaches on Wednesday nights.

Jordan tracting in the city of Taipei.

Jordan looking for investigators to teach.

Jordan knocking on doors.