22 Week Remaining- October 27, 2013

大家好 

 

This week I went on two exchanges. As a zone leader we have to exchanges with all of the other Elders in the zone. An exchange is basically where we switch companions for 24 hours and so that we can work with the other Elders. So this week I went on two different areas on exchanges. Pretty normal week this week other than that though.

 

Monday we took the bus out to our ward mission leaders house. They fed us pizza and we got to know him and his family a little bit better.

Tuesday we had district meeting then I went to Banqiao on exchanges. That was a little crazy as some of their investigators are a little different. One guy wouldn't let us speak and just went off about how he hates the Philippinos. We had to just get up and leave because he wouldn't let us share anything.

Wednesday we did some street contacting and had English class that night.

Thursday we went on exchanges again. I went a different part of Banqiao with a Taiwanese Elder. I tried to teach him how to work a little harder.

Friday we met with some of the investigators who are progressing pretty slow right now.

Saturday we had this ward Halloween activity where they had some small activities and some spiritual thoughts.

Sunday we had church and did some tracting.

 

That's what's happening out here,

Love,

Elder Chatman

23 Weeks Remaining-October 20, 2013

大家好。一切都好。

Hello from Taipei. It's starting to cool down over here. Yeah! We saw some cool miracles this week.

One I'll mention was with our investigator 李弟兄 (Brother Li). It was my first time meeting him, but I guess in previous meetings he told the Elders he only met with them because he felt too embarrassed to say no and he also said he didn't want to keep commandments. But this week, after our lesson, he totally changed. We read with him from the first chapter in the Book of Mormon and talked about what we read meant to us and how to apply it into our lives. This seemed to really connect with him and he was touched by the Spirit. Near the end of the lesson he said he wants to get baptized if he recieves an answer that the Book of Mormon is true.

Also this week we had stake conference. It was super cool cuz for the conference they did a broadcoast where Elder Holland and Elder Hales spoke to all of the Asia Area. I guess Elder Holland recently replaced Elder Oaks as being the apostle in charge of the Asia Area. So yeah they gave some sweet talks about being member missionaries and sharing the gospel naturally. Then they showed a video called "I'll go where you want me to go" which they showed during the Work Of Salvation Broadcast but it was the Taiwanese verison. They used members and some of local missionaries and basically did exactly the same as the one they did in America but shot it in Taiwan. It was pretty funny seening in the video people that I knew and places I've been. I'm not sure if the Church put it out, see if you can find it.

Hope everyones doing well!

Elder Chatman

24 Weeks Remaining- October 15, 2013

你們好

Well, after 8 months in SongShan, I got transferred. It is bitter sweet. I loved the area, our converts, investigators, and members, but I'm excited to be able to go to a new area and ward. I got transferred to Tucheng which is the west part of Taipei. It's not as much of the big city as my last area (which was in the heart of the city.) So the people are a lot less hectic and more people are willing to talk to us. My new companion is Elder Bastian from Seattle and we are the zone leaders. He's super cool. He ran track at BYU in 2012. So we love chatting it up about the sports world. He just moved into the area 6 weeks ago so we'll probably have a fun couple transfers together. Right now, I'm just getting acquainted with the new area and meeting the investigators. They haven't had a baptism in our area since like June or July so we are hoping to have some in the next few transfers.

Last Saturday and Sunday,  we got to watch General Conference in English at our church. (This is when the apostles and the prophet speak to the church.) I loved it. Elder Ballard's talk about missionary work was great and we are going to try and make sure all of our members heard it.

It was super weird at the last missionary transfer meeting because the eight sisters I was in the MTC with finished their missions and went home! They gave their final testimonies and then left for home. It is crazy how time flies.

Anyways gotta go. we are going to the temple today.
Love,
Elder Chatman

These are pictures that a member in Taiwan (ma ma Wu) facebooked to Leah.  She friended her and then tagged all these pictures of Jordan for her.  It was so great!!

Dinner with the Ward Mission and ward members at Tastys.

Pday trip to JiLong rock zoo exhibit/ocean.

Jordan and his companion Elder Anderson being shuai(handsome cool) after a party at Bao4 Jiating for Tiffany Bao. She was leaving on her mission to Minnesota.

Farewell party at Bao Jia1ting2's house for Tiffany Pao.

Above and Below - Pday adventure with the other missionaries in the Song1 Shan1 ward- Sister Croft, Sister O'Brian, Elder Anderson, Elder Chen and his companion Elder Bennion that Wu Mama took them on.

Below - Pday adventure continued...flying lanterns that you draw on and guys at the area light on fire and float up into the air.

25 Weeks Remaining -October 6, 2013

October 6, 2013

你們好  

We had a baptism this week for Lai Guan Da. Yeah! I love this guy!! He is super cool!!  He’s the man! He's one of the most prepared Taiwanese people that I’ve taught. While in the English ward, I got to teach a lot of prepared people, but none of them were from Taiwan. It’s cool getting to teach a super prepared guy like Lai Guan Da. We'll go out and contact people and tract all day and get nothing but rejection. You just want to say, “man there’s no one in Taiwan that really wants it.” But then meeting people like Lai just boosts your faith and helps you know that there really is prepared people out there. Like I’ve mention before, Lai was introduced to us by his friend who is our assistant ward mission leader. Money! Finally someone out here who put the Apostle’s member-missionary work teachings into action!

I was talking to one of my previous companions, Elder Wesemann last pday. He was telling me how they were walking down this back alley by their church (which is like a floor in a business type building.) They saw this huge guy walking towards them. The closer he got, the more they were like, “wow this dude is a giant.”  It ended up being the 7 footer, Luke Nevill, who played basketball for the Utes a few years ago. Lol  I guess he is trying playing basketball in Taiwan or China so he was here playing or something. What a small world.

A cool story- I was on exchanges with Elder Gerrard in Xizhi and we were out tracting. We didn’t get anything on the entire street until the very last doorbell. We rang it, a family guy came out and we end up talking to him for like 10 minutes. We got him to say a prayer and gave him a Book of Mormon.  I love the tender mercies of the Lord. That always happens. After tracting or street contacting, for me it’s always been that last door or last contact that has interest.  It is cool stuff.

Anyways that’s a rap from Taipei,

Love,

Elder Chatman

This is Jordan with Elder Bennion and  Lai Guan Da. It was Lai's baptism day. Lai Dixiong was a member referral from Cao1 Dixiong, the assitant ward mission leader, who recently moved in to the ward. Jordan was good friends with him from his English class in his previous area Jin Hua. Cao1 Dixiong brought Lai Dixiong to church one Sunday, where they met him and later started teaching him until he got baptized. Eventually Lai Dixiong moved to Jordan's next area (Tucheng) for work and Jordan was able to continue to teach him as Lai Dixiong had become less active from being busy with work and going out of town/to America for work and such. Elder Bennion (on the left in this picture), Jordan's trainee/son, later moved to Jordan's next area (Tucheng) as well after Jordan fanxiangd (went home) and was able to continue to stay in contact with Lai4 Dixiong. Tender mercy of the Lord....

26 Weeks Remaining- September 29, 2013

September 29, 2013

26 Weeks Remaining

This week we got to do two baptismal interviews. One of the interviews was for the

elders in Xizhi and one for the other elders that we live with. The Xizhi elder's

investigator was found through English class. We have an hour and a half English class

every Wednesday night. For the last 30 minutes of the class, we share a gospel

message and then after class we talk to the students. We setup times to meet with them

to teach them the lessons. The other elders in our ward found there investigator near a

park. They got his number and set up with him later to teach the lesson. He is about in

his 50-60's and had smoked cigarettes for almost 40 years. But he gave it up and got

baptized yesterday. It was really cool.

So let me give you a run down of our investigators right now:

>Lai - this past week we shared the rest of the lessons with him - tithing, fasting, and ten

commandments. He's been the most golden investigator. His baptismal interview is

tonight and his baptism will probably be on Sunday. We found him through his friend,

our assistant ward mission leader.

>Brother and Sister Chen - their son got baptized 2 weeks ago. We found them through

a member bringing them to church. Sister Chen was in Japan this past week so we

didn't get to meet with them. Right now we just are trying to help them recognize an

answer from God that our church is true.

>Li - his sister is a recent convert in the Taizhong mission. We've taught him about the

restoration and prayer. We are taking it really slow with him and helping him to do the

basics - pray and reading the scriptures. At first he didn't know if God exists but he says

he feels like God is answering his prayers. He's slowly coming along.

>Xie - is a police officer. He is super nice but really quiet so its hard to tell what he's

thinking. The last time he said when he prays it feels like he's talking to himself. So we

shared more about recognizing the Holy Ghost and saying sincere prayers.

>Wang - we've been meeting with him since February. He has read the whole Book of

Mormon. His problem is that he wants to be perfect before he gets baptized and is

scared that he'll not be 100% loyal to his baptismal covenant. So this past week we had

this sweet lesson with him about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how Christ doesn't

expect us to be perfect but expects us to try our best and slowly make progress. It

seemed to start clicking with him and he set a baptismal date for the beginning of

November, which is the first time he's set a date! Before he wouldn't commit to a date.

So he's slowly coming along.

So other than meeting with our investigators, we were pretty much out all day street

contacting people and visiting less actives trying to make something happen.

Love,

Elder Chatman

27 Weeks Remaining- September 22, 2013

Week 27 Remaining

September 22, 2013

你們好 

This week we had another typhoon come. But this time, we didn’t get the call to stay in. So it was fun tracting and street contacting people in the middle of intense rain and wind. I had 2 umbrellas get ripped apart from the wind.

Yesterday, we did the confirmation for Lawrence who got baptized last week. The Bishop asked me to do it. That was fun! I did the confirmation in Chinese on the microphone in front of everyone at sacrament meeting. It turned out really well and to my surprise, the members said they understood it.

This week, we had an outdoor zone conference. The mission president had a great idea to change things up and do something fun for zone conference. So for this zone conference, we bused up to a big mountain. Then we went on a hike and received some training up there. The only problem was that the typhoon started coming in while we were up there. So it rained super hard and was really windy, but it still turned out pretty good.

We visited a lot of less actives this week too. We rang the door of one less active melchezidek priesthood holder we went to visit. His wife said through the speaker that "he was in the bathroom". “Right!!?” We told her we would wait. She kind of turned that down, but then we pulled the-“we are in the middle of a typhoon card” and that got us let in the building. We ended up just talking to her for like 10 minutes at their front door because the husband never came out of the bathroom. But we invited her to bring her family back to church. We’ll see what happens.

That’s the scoop out here in Chinatown.

Love,

Elder Chatman

28 Weeks Remaining-September 15, 2013

你們好

quick recap of the week,

Monday - we walked around and tried to visit 2 referrals. Both werent home but we just talked to people on the street around their homes. Then later that night we had family home evening with a bunch of members and our investigator Brother Wang.

Tuesday - District meeting. then we took an hour bus ride to do a baptismal interview for the xizhi sister investigator and then we came back.

Wednesday - had to go to the doctor for my companions ankle then we taught our english class that night.

Thurdsay - went and visited a referal, the guy was gonna mentally slow tho. funny story tho - some missionaries in a different area had an investigator in a hosptal in our area so they wanted us to go visit him. so we had the other elders in our area go visit. they go over to the hospital and it happened to hospital for mental crazy people. they find the investigator and he was a little crazy. I guess a few months earlier he choked the president of taiwan for a few seconds and then got knocked out by the police. and right before he got knocked he said God, receive my soul. and then i guess he like, yeah because of what i did they think im crazy and locked me in this mental hospital.

Friday - we did some street contacting and passed out flyers to our english class. then i went on exchanges to xizhi with elder sosa.

Saturday - elder sosa didnt have any investigators setup lessons so we walked around street contacting and tracting all day. not really any success but its all good. that night was the baptism of the xizhi sisters investigator. she asked me to baptize her so that was cool. their baptismal font is pretty sweet. its outside and looks like a hot tub.

Sunday was our investigator Lawrence's baptism. it went super good. his parents loved. we're hoping they decided to get baptized down the road here soon.

Hope everyone's doin good,

Elder Chatman

A black man's toothbrush is what it says

This was one of Jordan's teachers from the MTC.  He came back to get engaged.  He taught him, The other missionaries there are Elder Anderson, and Sis.Croft 

This is on exchanges in Xizhi out on our #Grind.

This is at the baptism of Lawrence, the young son, with Jordan baptizing him. On the sides are Lawrence's parents. His mom got baptized 6 months later.  

This is at Lawrence's baptism.  He is with his parents and with the ward family (Bao4 Jiating) that introduced him to the gospel.  The girl in the striped green dress is going on a mission this week to Minnesota.

An inactive member that feeds us....Jordan's boy Zhang1 Li4 Hao2

This is the Memorial Hall that is near the Mission President's Office.  They went there on pday.

This is the investigators of the Xizhi sisters in our district.  She got baptized and Jordan got to perform that ordinance.  She asked him to do it. Her name is Kang1 Jiemei.

This is tracting in Taipei. lol.....apartments upon apartments. It makes it real convenient to tract. haha

This is what Jordan eats two or three times a week.  It is a beef fried rice that he likes. It is the Xizhi special. Jordan got it almost every time he went to Xizhi on exchanges.