Week 18- August 26, 2012

Week 18

Sunday, August 26, 2012

Hey everyone,

This week we had a zone conference (where we meet with all the missionaries) in Zhubei. So we had to take a 30 minute bus ride and then an hour train ride to the church in Zhubei. We then had a six hour training with the mission president and other missionaries in this area. The mission president taught us about working better with the Church members and having them help us find people to teach. The mission president’s focus is on working with part-member families and to teach friends of Church members. I think this is really smart because now those we find to teach will have Church member friends to support them and help them.

On Saturday, Michael McClean (a Mormon musician) came to Taiwan and did a little concert thing in an auditorium. We took an investigator and went with some ward members to the concert. It was cool to see a bunch of other missionaries there who I haven’t seen since the MTC (2 months ago) and to see that their Chinese is struggling just like mine is. (that’s how it is for everyone the first few months)

We met with Lin Ren Shan this week. He is an 18 year old kid that is really interested in the gospel. He came to church and cried when the youth were singing because he was feeling the Spirit. He is almost done with all of the lessons and should be baptized in the next few weeks.

We also met with an 18 year old sister this week. Her sister is a member and she is planning on getting baptized next Saturday. She is a solid investigator. She knows everything is true. We were just working with her on coming to church. She had to work on Sundays, but recently was able to get Sundays off. So she can come to church every week now.

Yesterday, when we were at an 88 year old man’s house (we've been meeting with him), my companion was- “ Look- wow!” I looked and there was, (no joke), a 6 inch spider on the man’s desk. I popped up out my seat and was-“ what is that thing!” Then it ran away. Guo Bebe (the 88 year old man) wasn’t even phased. He was like –“I’ll just step on it.” Then earlier this week a less active member we were visiting had 3 inch flying cockroaches flying around during our lessons! It was nasty!

Anyways that’s the excitement out here.

Love ya,

Jordan Chatman

 

Week 17- August 19, 2012

Hey everyone,

This week out here in Bade, Taiwan went good. My new companion has been awesome. After this transfer, (transfers are when they switch companions) he only has 12 weeks left on his mission. So he is almost done. His Chinese is great!  So he has been a big help in teaching me. My Mandarin Chinese has been progressing but I still have a long way to go.

This week, we did a lot of work organizing and getting to know everyone in our area. There used to be four missionaries in this area, but now it is just two of us. So we have had to take the time to learn more about our investigators. We needed to see what they have been taught and what their needs are, in order to help them progress.

On Tuesday, we were at a 7-11 making some calls and a man sitting next to us started talking to us. At first, he was just interested in learning English. But then we started talking with him about Church and setup an appointment at the church later that night. We taught him about God, prayer, and baptism. Then yesterday he came to Church. He is really interested in the Church now and the progress is has made in these short few days is awesome.

Church can be kind of an interesting time for us. Yesterday, we had twelve investigators at Church which was a great! It can be interesting because we want to make sure they feel welcomed and understand what is going on. Some investigators are very bu hao yi si…..which means they'll get scared and won’t come into Church unless you go and bring them in. So we spend lot of time making sure members sit by our investigators and help them feel welcome. Yesterday was cool as some people showed up who we had lost all hope for. A less active member came and brought her husband for the first time. He used to be a Buddhist priest in Thailand. He doesn’t understand very much Chinese, but it was good to have him there.  We gave him a Thai Book of Mormon.

Something cool I learned this week was about true conversion. During a talk by Elder Bednar (an apostle of our Church) given at the MTC, he said that a testimony is what you know to be true, but conversion is living what you know to be true. What Elder Bednar meant was - is having a testimony isn’t enough. If we aren’t converted (meaning if we aren’t living what we know to be true), then we aren’t becoming converted and it will be easier to fall away. A great scripture about this is in Alma 23:6.  It says, "…and as sure as the Lord liveth, so sure as many as believed, or as many as were brought to the knowledge of the truth, through the preaching of Ammon and his brethren, according to the spirit of revelation and of prophecy, and the power of God working ^amiracles in them—yea, I say unto you, as the Lord liveth, as many of the Lamanites as believed in their preaching, and were ^bconverted unto the Lord, ^cnever did fall away."

So basically this scripture tells us that as many of the Lamanites who first had a testimony but then were converted by living true to their testimony, none of them fell away from God and the Church.

Elder Bednar gave a great story about when he was on his mission. He said one day his mission president asked him what it would be like if an apostle (leaders of the Church) fell away from the Church. Young Elder Bednar said, “Oh that would be terrible.” But then the mission president said, “It wouldn’t phase me in the least because I’m converted to the Lord. I know what is true and I live it.”  Elder Bednar then went on to talk about how we need to be converted to the Lord and his gospel. I know that as we live the gospel on a daily basis - daily scripture, study, prayer, obedience, etc. - we will be more deeply converted to the Lord.

Love you guys!

Jordan Chatman

Week 16- August 12, 2012

Week  16

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Hi everyone,

We had transfers today. My companion got moved to Taipei. He will be a zone leader there. Also, the other missionaries in our apartment got moved out to other places in Taiwan. So me and my new companion get all of their investigators and area plus our old area and investigators. So now it will just be 2 of us in the apartment. My new companion is Elder Murphy. He is from Provo Utah. He is a really cool guy. Everyone says he is one of the best missionaries on the island and that his Chinese is great. So it will be cool having him train me for this transfer.

Something weird - on Thursday, the mission called us with an announcement saying that something might change between the Chinese and Taiwan relationship. This might cause riots, so to be sure and go inside if we see any riots or anything. But I haven’t heard or seen anything happening. So it’s nothing so far.

We had a baptism on Saturday. It was a twenty year old girl who my companion setup to meet a few months ago. Then she moved to Taipei and she was taught by the missionaries over there. Then she moved back here and we taught her a few times.  So then she was prepared for baptism. So my companion baptized her and I helped witness. It was nice. 

Love,

Jordan

Jordan eating clam soup with chopsticks with whole clams still in it.

The countryside of Yingge, part of Jordan's area

Jordan by the fields in the city of Bade, Taiwan.

Jordan overlooking the countryside of Bade

A cool building that Jordan passed in Taipei when they were doing transfers. Eventually Jordan served in this area. It is Zhang Kai Shek Memorial Hall Station, It is a huge memorial of the great founder of present day Taiwan

An investigator that Jordan baptized this weekend. Sister Zeng. Elder Bowcutt found her the transfer before. She served a mission in Japan about a year later.

This is from the MTC.  A picture of my buddy that plays football at the University of Arizona.

This is at the MTC. It is a picture of me and one of my companions - Elder Relyea

This is a meal that Maguire made for Jordan and his companion.  It is a typical Taiwanese meal

This is a sushi and soup meal made by recent convert - Hilary.

This is a view from our Bishop Xie's apartment.

Scenery from the countryside of Bade.

Week 15- August 5, 2012

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Week 15

Hey everyone,

It sounds like the Olympics have been going good. I haven’t heard about it at all from the people here. Probably because the only thing the Taiwanese are good at are ping pong and badminton.

So this week I went swimming...okay, not literally because it is bu xing (not allowed) but if you saw me you probably would’ve thought I went swimming. On Wednesday, a typhoon hit Taiwan. It really hasn’t bad as I thought it was going to be though. The Taiwanese people made a big deal out of it but it really wasn’t much but rain and wind. We were biking during part of it. It started pouring down rain. You know the kind of hard rain when you are driving and so much is coming down you can’t see anything and your windshield wipers are useless because so much rain is coming down. It was rain like that and we biked in it. Crazy, I couldn’t see anything and our rain stuff was useless. Our mission president made everyone in the mission come home early that night and then made all the missionaries stay home the next day. My companion called the mission president though and he let us out because we had some lessons setup and the typhoon wasn’t much of anything at that point.

So this week, one of our investigators got baptized. She was an older lady, You2 Jie3mei4 that used to be Buddhist but became interested in our Church. She said she instantly knew it and that we had something special. A Church member baptized her. She just one day walked into the church my first week here and here she is getting baptized a few weeks later

Last night was cool. We went over to one an Indonesian lady’s house that had recently been rediagnosed with cancer. She asked for a priesthood blessing. So we gave her a priesthood blessing and then told her how she needs to be baptized and live how God wants her to live. She committed to be baptized at the end of the month. Also, we have another investigator getting baptized this Saturday.

We taught an 88 year old man a lot this week. A couple weeks earlier he was drinking alcohol and smoking. But he has since stopped. This week we taught him about not worshipping any other Gods except God himself. He has a Buddhist God idol thing that he burns this little stick to and bows down to it. They called it bie bie. A ton of people do that here. So we taught him about not doing that and then he got rid of his idol and he has been good since. We are hoping he gets baptized in the next few weeks.

This week I learned a ton about prayer. I’ve really come to love prayer since being out here on my mission. The biggest things I’ve learned are that we have to have faith and believe in what we are praying about. If you remember Joseph Smith, he had great faith when he prayed. Right before the Angel Moroni visited him, he prayed for a manifestation from God and had full confidence that he would receive one. Also I love the Bible dictionary explanation about prayer. It says we don’t receive answers to our prayers because our will and the will of Christ aren’t aligned. But rather we are praying for our own selfish desires.  Something I like doing is having a prayer journal, where you keep track of questions and concerns you want answered through prayer. Then ponder and seek for answers during you prayers and throughout the day. Then write down personal answers we may have received.

Good stuff -I ate bamboo this week and learned some Taiwanese (hello, good bye, do you want to race? - I say that to motorcyclists at stop lights). lol A lot of people here know Mandarin and Taiwanese but Mandarin is the main language spoken.

Hope everybody is having a good summer!

-Jordan Chatman

Week 14-July 29, 2012

Hey everyone,

The highlight of this week was probably Saturday. On Saturday I got the opportunity to baptize one of our investigators named Liao Dixiong, a man probably about in his 30's. That was a wonderful experience and a really happy day for him. Baptisms here are a lot different than at home. We only had 6 people besides us show up to the baptism! 2 of those people were our investigators and 3 of them were a family. At home, baptisms are usually packed and there is a big celebration afterwards- a little different here.

We have a baptism setup for this upcoming Saturday and the Saturday after that too. So this area has been doing great in missionary work. We actually had another baptism setup with this 18 year old girl who works at a shop. Her boss and coworkers were recently baptized. So when we have met with her, it has been good to have them there. So her baptism was setup for late August and on Thursday, we went over to teach her at her work.  When we showed up, she was passed out drunk on the couch! This was not good!! So she is going need a little more help and time!

Otherwise, we've been teaching a lot of people.

I know this is God's true Church again restored to the Earth today! I wouldn’t be out here if it wasn’t.

-Jordan

 This is Jordan's companion, Liao Dixiong, and Jordan at the church.  This is the Jordan's first baptism in Taiwan.  He got to baptize Liao, who is a man in his 30's who they were teaching.

This is a meal at an Italian restaurant there.  Jordan said it is cheaper to eat out there than it is to buy groceries.  Groceries are really expensive. This meal cost $3. 

Week 13- July 22, 2012

Hey eveyone!

It’s amazing how fast the weeks go by. So this week we had 40 lessons, which is unheard of! The standard is like 20 lessons or something and we blew that away. They are so many people here that are interested in hearing the gospel, so we have been really busy trying to teach everyone.

This week I got to go on exchanges, which means you switch companions for the day. I went to a bigger city called Taoyan. I went with 2 of the missionary leader missionaries (a zone leader and assistant to the president). That was cool because both of them are from Taiwan. Their English was pretty good so it was awesome to work on my Chinese with them. I met a ward member while I was with them who is an Aborigine. This means his ancestors were one of the first people to live in Taiwan. So basically like a Native American in America. The Aborigines here look like Native Americans. He was a really cool guy and helped us teach an investigator.
So there is this older lady scheduled to be baptized next week. But she called us this week and said that she didn’t want to get baptized anymore because she has no friends at church and her body just can’t take going to Church (she is like in her upper 70's). So went over there and talked about how what really matters is the next life and how she needs baptism to be saved! Plus we said if she really believes that this is the true Church, then those others concerns shouldn’t matter. So she now is going to get baptized again and said she made up her mind that she wants baptism.
A lot of people hear smoke! My companion guessed probably about 65% of adults smoke! So we have been trying to help a few people give up their addictions. They have read the Book of Mormon and prayed so they know this church is true and want baptism. They just struggle to give up smoking in order to receive baptism! So we have been working with a few people on that!
People here are really poor compared to America. Some of the poorest people in America would be considered rich here! I haven’t seen any houses yet! People live in apartment type things and in really dirty living conditions. But they are some of the nicest people and are happy!  I have heard now 9 languages - English, Mandarin, Taiwanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Tag log, Spanish, and Indonesian.
Some cool things, if some says your name trying to get your attention, you can say "yo"!  It’s real Chinese so I like doing that! The fruit here is really good, especially the mangos! They have the things called fruit milks. It is milk that tastes like the fruit. So good! My favorite is probably the papaya milk!

We do personal study time for 4 hours each day. 

1 hour is personal study - Book of Mormon, Preach my Gospel, etc.

2 hours is companion study - role plays, plan lessons, etc.

1 hour is language study - study Chinese

We do that everyday for the first 12 weeks and then study time gets smaller

The ward is really friendly. We had 14 investigators at Church yesterday! We actually have 2 sets of missionaries in the ward...us and the 2 others we live with. The ward loves missionaries. There is a members in their early 20's that are single and not doing much, so they help us teach lessons.

We get some member referrals.

Anyways to close, I want to say. I know this Church is God's true. I know the Church was restored to the earth today through Joseph Smith. I know that the promise in the Book of Mormon is real! If you read and pray about the Book of Mormon with a sincere heart, you will receive an answer that it is a true book from God. Everyone that hears the message about the Book of Mormon and has sincerely done that, has received an answer! Those that didn’t really read or didn’t pray with a true desire, never received answers!

Elder Chatman

This is of me and the Taiwanese missionaries when I went on exchanges. The one on the left is the Assisant to the mission president, Elder Fang, and the one on the right is the zone leader, Elder Sheng. He is really dark and jokes saying he is black and my brother.

This is at the chapel after a rain storm. Jordan was soaked head to toe!! This happens often when you bike

 This is Maguire, a less active they were helping with great English. He loves the Elders

Week 12- July 15, 2012

Dear Family,

On Wednesday, a couple from the ward here in Bade drove us in their van to Taipei for the temple trip. A temple trip happens once every 12 weeks. Driving here is crazy. We didn’t even have seatbelts in the van we were in. Driving laws are never followed here and they aren’t enforced so people go whatever speed they want, they run lights, they honk at you if you’re in their way and pass slower cars all of the time. It’s crazy. But we made it to the Taipei temple safely. It takes about 45 minutes to get there by car. We went to the temple for a couple hours then came back home. Then later that night, we had an hour and a half English class we teach every week. I teach the intermediate level English. This week I taught them body parts and colors and then talked about the Book of Mormon.

Every day, we have studies for 4 hours. I actually really like studies. My favorite part is personal study. I usually read the Book of Mormon for 30 minutes, the Preach my Gospel booklet, and a book called Our Search for Happiness (by M. Russell Ballard, one of the Church Leaders).

Right now we are teaching a girl named Jan Wen Wen. She is getting really close to getting baptized. She’s been praying and reading the Book of Mormon and knows that this church is true. The only problem is that she works on Sunday so she can’t come to church. We have to resolve that problem and then she'll be able to be baptized. She also has a younger sister that is close to getting baptized but she has the same problem as well. Their older sister got baptized a few months ago and is strong in the Church, so it would be great if they all would be able to get baptized.

My favorite investigator is a lady from the Philippines. She is a care taker here in Taiwan. I like her lessons because they are in English. So I can say a lot more...she has been keeping commitments like not having coffee and keeping the commandments but is having a hard time accepting baptism because her mom from the Philippines doesn’t want her to be baptized.

We had a baptism Saturday and then on Friday we had a miracle lesson. We’ve been meeting with a guy here who is really busy because he works in insurance. He has been struggling with faith. So in the lesson we were like, you gotta make up your mind. We believe you believe in the things, you need them in your life, so take that leap of faith and be baptized. He said yes and will be baptized in 2 Saturdays! So that was awesome.

Then there is an older lady that used to be Buddhist but she felt it wasn’t right. She found our church and knows that is true. We asked her to be baptized and she was like yeah of course. She is awesome and wants these things so badly in her life because she knows they are from God. She will be baptized in 3 Saturdays.

One Friday, me and my companion got to go to Taipei again! It took us 2 hours to get there. We take the bus and then the train. Wow, I never knew so many people could fit in a subway. I literally had people up against me from all sides. You seriously couldn’t fit any more people in the subway. Then right when I think that, at the next stop, more people come in and shove people out the way and squeeze in. It is wild. We went to Taipei because the mission president had a training conference with all of the trainers (missionaries teaching us new missionaries) and the district and zone leaders. That was cool because I saw all of my buddies from the MTC. I haven’t seen them since the plane ride here. It was cool to talk with them and see how they are doing. The only people I didn’t see was an Elder from Australia that I’m friends with and one of my companions from the MTC. They are on like the east coast and down south, almost by the southern tip of Taiwan. It would take them about 5 hours to get to Taipei so they didn’t get to come. I hope I get the chance to serve part of my mission down where they are at for a bit.

Love,

Jordan

A bug trap that they set in their kitchen.  It is full of cock roaches.

This is part of the area where they bike on their mission. 

This is Jordan's trainer with Penny, a member, whose sister was an investigator and the other sister got baptized. Penny herself was a recent convert of less than a year.

This is Jordan eating pea soup at investigator Jimmy's house and loving it!!  HA! HA!

This is Jordan's apartment where he stays in Taiwan.  He shares it with three other missionaries.

This is Jordan's bed....notice the basketball on the floor

These are some investigators that they are teaching. - Jimmy was the investigator, plus his sister and friend

Jordan