This week we were finally able to find a bit of success finding new investigators and some of them are going to be really solid and get baptized. Still had a hard time getting anyone to church though. Next week is the week! Everyone is saying this is like the coldest it has been in Taiwan in forever and no one dared go outside yesterday to come to church!
So I will just start listing off the crazy events as they happened!
First on Wednesday I made the purchase of my life. My kickstand on my bike was broken so I went in to fix it and the store had a cheap bike computer. I bought it and now will be keeping track of how far and the time I spend biking for the rest of my mission! I am really excited about that! So far we have biked about 40 miles.. It turns out even the places that are super far away feeling are only like 5 miles.
Wednesday night we went down to Zhunan for English and before class we pass out fliers for the class at the train station. A really drunk white guy from New York started talking to us! He said that things are going really down hill for him and that he needs help. He thought finding a job here wouldn't be a problem but he's had like 4 jobs fall through and he's an alcoholic and he lost his girlfriend and his phone and his belt. And he was telling us he thought he was going to die that night. So I told him that instead of going and doing something he shouldn't he should come to English class with us! He agreed to do so and we walked there with him. He drank his last beer on the way and then went clean inside for the whole hour and a half. He was saying he's ready to become a mormon and move to Utah and immerse himself in Mormons and he is done with this path and he is changing! It was really cool! I gave him a Book of Mormon and testified that Christ can help him change his life. Unfortunately we haven't heard anything since.. He lives pretty far out of our area.
Thursday was pretty normal we met with a boy named Ronald and a man named Kevin. They are both looking pretty good! They both have dates but need to come to church if they want to meet them.
Friday we went down to Toufen for interviews with president! The other Xiangshan Elders, Elder Diepeveen and Elder Joly accidentally got on the wrong train and ended up leaving our mission and going into Taizhong. That was pretty exciting! But Friday was just a really good day! We found a lot of new people that day! And President got to the chapel and it turned out he didn't have the keys to it. I was the first interview and he said okay we will go do it in the car until the other Elders get here with the keys! I may be the only person in the mission to have had an interview with president in his car! It was really fun;) Hahaha he got me really excited to baptize people. He is such an awesome man and leader! He said to really expect to baptize and work hard and it will happen. I'm really expecting to baptize people in the upcoming months.
Hmm.. Saturday went really well too. It was absolutely freezing though. We got pretty soaked on Friday and a little wet Saturday too.
Sunday! Church was good. We are really working on getting to know and develop relationships with our ward. That is going good! After church everyone started shouting "Snow! Snow!" and running outside! It was super funny! It was kind of like sleetish snow stuff and it just came down for a minute or two but it made everyone's day! It was the first time most of them had ever seen anything like that! It hasn't snowed here in like 100 years or something! So that was really fun!
Also we had a family of three come to our ward family home evening that night with us and they really enjoyed it! It was super cool to see our ward talk with them and become friends and they said they felt like a family! That family said they will be coming to church next sunday and I can't wait!
That was my week! It was pretty good! Things are going great here in Xiangshan and we are getting close to helping some people be baptized. It was great to see lots of prayers to be led to those who were prepared start to be answered this week. We were led over and over to the person or place where the person would be that was ready to receive this message.
I will share one experience. We were knocking and it was freezing and I was beginning to wonder if we had planned to go to the wrong place because there was no one home and nothing happening and we were just cold;) Well then all of the sudden this kid walks around the corner from out of nowhere and we started talking to him and prayed with him and then come to find out that he has always wanted to learn about Jesus but hasn't had time because of school. He is in 9th grade I think about Koby's age. We invited him to learn this gospel and be baptized and he accepted without hesitating! It was really cool!
I know that God is leading and guiding and watching out for us! Sometimes prayers take a long time to be answered so we can learn how to be more sincere. I am finally learning I have to put in some effort on my part. I can't just pray for something and then forget about it and expect an answer. But I know as I work for it the answers do come. Heavenly Father loves each of us. His son Atoned that we may overcome our personal weaknesses. I know this church is true. Have a wonderful week everyone! I love you!
Elder Jensen!
~簡長老
The whole ward celebrating the kind of snow! And us with Wendy!
More out in the snow with the ward and a cool house we found!
Part of the family we brought to FHE! And my favorite people in the ward those are some cute kids!
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