Elder Jensen Taiwan Taipei Mission: Family

It's been a great week! I'm really loving my time here in Xiangshan. This last week was pretty busy! We went to Taibei again because Elder Diepeveen had a meeting! I just road down with him and then road back with another Elder so I got to spend a lot of time on the train that day!

Our ward activity "Bring your friends to church day" didn't work quite as well as we were hoping, but it still went pretty good! I think that the members really tried to invite people to church. They just weren't too successful. And that I can understand. Sometimes people just can't come to church. But it was still a super awesome Sunday! We had two of our friends from China come to church and also the mother of 7 kids and 2 of her daughters came! They had a really good time and want to come back next week and I think they also want to bring more of the kids! We are also hoping we can get their dad involved! They are a really prepared family!

I have really been trying to emphasize finding families since the conference talk in priesthood session by Elder Eyring and it's been cool to start to see some families coming from it! I love to share with people that this gospel is especially for families! I know that it will bless them! Even if it's only one person it will bless their relationships with their families and I love it! I got to share my testimony in church yesterday and since Mother's Day is next Sunday I shared especially how this gospel has blessed me and our family through our Mom! I'm so grateful for her wonderful Christlike example that has helped shape me and our family! I know that as we build our families on the principles of the gospel they will be strengthened. That's not to say there aren't trials, but those just make us stronger too! I'm so grateful for the relationships that I have with all of my family members.. They're the best!

We also took a trip out to a place I'd never been in our area on Friday and it turns out that it is full of extremely prepared people! It was a beautiful place and a beautiful day. One of the best parts of the day happened right after we'd had a lesson with a college student on the sidewalk. We were starting to head away to find some houses to knock when we noticed this lady on the sidewalk who looked kind of like she'd just been waiting for us! We waved and said hello and she came down to talk to us. She said she had lots of problems and concerns and we asked if we could pray for her. After the prayer she said that she could really feel the communication and already felt a lot better! She got pretty excited! She then accepted an invitation to be baptized! We also taught her how to pray and she felt even better after saying her own prayer! She is super cool! Unfortunately we haven't been able to get a hold of her and she didn't meet us to come to church like we had planned so we'll have to go find her again! But that's okay:) I just thought it was amazing to see how quickly and what a large impact something as simple as a small prayer asking for her welfare and help had on pretty much everything about her!

And one more thing! A long time ago I sent home a picture of the awesome guy that Elder Welch chased down on the bike! Well he's disappeared for a long time now and then Elder Diepeveen called him last week and he answered and said that he has just been in the hospital and unable to talk to us! So he's back on track and we are meeting with him tonight! That made me super happy because he's a really really prepared guy!

I wish you all a wonderful week! And a happy Labor day I think:) Take care! Remember who loves you!

Love, Elder Jensen!

Some messy pie and heart attack!