Week 48 -March 26, 2013

Week 48

March 26, 2013

Hey everyone,

A quick recap of some of the things we did this week... 

We went English boarding, which is basically where you go out to a busy intersection and hand out pamphlets for our free English class. Then we walked 20 minutes and stopped by a less-active’s home but he had actually moved.

Also we had a district meeting. Since I’m the District leader, I had to lead it. I basically just trained about the power combination - extend a commitment, testify and promise blessings. Then after that we did practice teaching. We have a brand new missionary in our district and so he has to practice teaching the missionary lessons in Chinese with me. After that we went up the road and helped a member do some translating with a Filipino member who needed help with her work situation. Later, that night, we went out and talked to as many people as we could on the streets and then we called up some referrals. We had about 10 lessons setup for this week, but only about 2 happened. The other 8 people were no shows.

On Wednesday, we had a meeting at the church with our zone and the mission president from 9 am until 4 pm. President talked about planning better and how the Church wants us to put more emphasis on visiting less actives. My companion and I really wanted to start doing that so we asked the ward for a list of less active people.  But I guess some new law just came out in Taiwan that you can’t give out other people’s information or else you can get sued. So we didn’t end up getting the list...haha so that makes visiting less active people tough.  But it’s all good…. we'll think of something.

 This week, we also went to a meeting for all of the district and zone leaders in the mission. They taught us about our responsibilities as leaders. This week, I did my first baptismal interview. I interview the investigators of the missionaries who want to get baptized in the district. So this week I interviewed this 9 year old boy who the elders were teaching. His dad was a less-active. It was interesting, because I mean, he's nine. So I had to kind of adapt the interview and questions so that he could understand.  He was wild too, running around, wobbling on the chair, typically nine year old stuff, but it worked out.  That is basically what went on this week!

Love,

Elder Chatman

Week 47- March 17, 2013

Week 47

March 17, 2013

你們好!

This week, my companion Elder Powell got transferred and I got a sweet, new companion, Elder Wesemann. He is from Colorado and spent one year at the Air Force Academy. He has been on his mission about 7 months. I also became senior companion for the first time and District Leader. There are eight of us in the district: 4 sisters and 4 elders. As a district leader, I receive a report from the missionaries on Sunday nights about how their week went and then I conduct once a week district meetings. I try to motivate and support the district with their missionary work.

Right now, I’m in the Song Shan area. It is right in the heart of Taipei. Taipei 101 is in our area and there are probably around a million people in our area. (Actually I have no idea, but it’s a ton of people lol). Tons of people in the area, but the hard part is teaching them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We try to talk to everyone we see, but lately we've just been getting a hand in our face or the cold shoulder. It’s fun though and we are trying our best. My new companion was shocked at how hard it was to get people to talk to us. He has been out on the east coast of Taiwan his whole mission and people out there will talk to you. There is prepared people out there though and we are going find them. We are going to try to work a lot more with ward members now and see if they have any friends interested in learning this life changing message. That’s hard too because sometimes when we ask to visit some members they will say, "nahhh I’ll see you on Sunday, no need to come visit us.” Anyways, we are still doing it, trying to make something happen.

Now I want to teach you something cool about some Chinese characters and how they are related to the gospel. I didn’t make this up either. This is real, no joke.

So the character for Holy Spirit is 靈(Ling) (Sheng Ling means the Holy Ghost) and if you look at this character you have the 3 boxes which represent Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost: 3 separate beings. Then you have the 2 half triangles things under them which means people (人means person) so Heavenly Father and Jesus have 2 bodies. Then under them you have 1 line, representing that Heavenly, Jesus and the Holy Ghost have 1 person. So in all, this character is saying God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are separate beings, only God and Jesus have bodies, but God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost have the same purpose. Not sure if any of that made sense to you. Really neat stuff though! I’ll have another for you next week. Peace

Elder Chatman

Week 46- March 10, 2013

 Week 46

March 10, 2013

Hey everyone,

Tough week as far as success goes but we did a lot of work. Our best investigator stopped answering our calls and when we visited him, he wasn’t too interested in meeting with us again. It felt like we got stabbed in the heart!  I hate to see him go.

Tuesday, the bishop called us and said a less active member wanted our help. The less-active’s friend went to the Buddhist temple and did some stuff and now she felt spirits were following her. So we went over there and gave her a priesthood blessing. After that the spirits went away she said. The Melchizedek priesthood is real!

Also this week, I went on exchanges with the zone leaders. I went to Xi-Zhi with Elder Phelps. He is so funny! I love his missionary style.

My new favorite scripture is Matthew 16:26.  It says- “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” How many dumb things do we do over what God would want us to do?

Anyways that’s a rap,

Elder Chatman

View from Jordan's apartment in Taipei.

A meal Jordan ate at a ward mission dinner at Tastys Restaurant.  The meat was a little raw..... :)

Jordan's companion, Elder Powell, pulling Jordan with a rope attached onto both of their bikes.

Another view from Jordan's apartment in Taipei.

Week 45- March 4, 2013

Week 45

March 4, 2013

Hi from Taipei!

Here a recap of last week:

Tuesday, we had district meeting (where all the missionaries in the area meet.) My companion is the district leader and then we have four other sisters and the zone leaders in our district. Tuesday night, we met with brother Huang, an investigator, and had a do or die lesson with him. We asked him what’s holding him back from being baptized and he basically said he doesn’t want to keep the commandments and isn’t really willing to change. So we basically told him that there isn’t much more we can do as missionaries and that were going stop meeting with him until he's ready to do his part. Wednesday, we met with a new investigator who we contacted through a referral from the Taichung missionaries who met him down there. We met with him and talked about God, Christ, and baptism. His concern was that he has to go worship his ancestors with his family and because he is the oldest son. (I guess he is responsible for passing on the tradition or something.) We told him about some ways he can know there is only one God and such and he seemed willing to try it out.

Thursday, we had two lessons setup but one of them cancelled. Then the other appointment didn’t even show up, but we had ward mission meeting and did some street contacting. Friday, my companion had a meeting at the stake center (my previous area’s chapel) and then later that afternoon, we did some more translating for a local member and a Philippine member trying to change her work. Then that night, we met with a solid investigator named David. He went to college at U of San Diego and grew up Christian. We shared about the restoration and had a great lesson. On Saturday, we went out to Xizhi, about 45 min away on bus and attended the sister’s baptismal service. The baptismal font was outside, it was raining, and the water was kind of cold. I felt bad for the 75+ year older lady getting baptized in that, but I’m sure she was warm on the inside. (aka Holy Ghost).

On Sunday, during sacrament, (church time when the members speak) the bishop invited me on the spot to go up and share my testimony being that I’m new in the ward. It went pretty good.  I cracked a joke about Taiwanese thinking I am like Obama and I got the congregation to laugh. lol

Anyways, that’s the scoop for this week.

-Elder Chatman