Week 21

你好!

This has really been a fun week.  Or at least, that is what we tried our best to do.  With things going by so fast, Elder Meeks and I both wanted to make the most out of our time together as training is coming to an end.  It is really crazy to think about how these last 12 weeks have flown by and now also almost a fifth of my mission.  Time really flies by when you are having fun doing missionary work.

To begin the week off, we were able to go over to the 李家庭 (Li family) to having dinner and celebrate their two children's birthday.  It was truly a blast.  The 李家庭 (Li family) is really special.  To start off, they have come so far since I first meet them, especially their children.  When I first meet their children 12 weeks ago, they wouldn't even look at us.  And now, they want to sit by us at Church.  It has been quite the change.  And as for the parents, 李姊妹 (Sister Li) has a really strong testimony, but 李第兄 (Brother Li) is still working on his.  With that being said, he is still growing spiritually.  It has really been cool to see how he is changing too with the help of the gospel.  

As for some things that happened this week, we had two exchanges and zone training.  I went on exchanges with Elder Dickson in 頭份 (Toufen) on Tuesday.  I thought that exchange was really fun.  We did some service for a woman that isn't really able to do much.  She lost her legs as a child, so every week the Elders go to her house and help her move stuff every week.  We also got to meet with a less active and a recent convert.  Both visits were really fun.  For the recent convert, we taught the first lesson, and for the less active we taught about repentance.  The cool part about the less active was that he came to us looking for help.  The interesting part about it though was why he came to meet with us.  He wants to know how to be forgiven for things that he has done in the past, which has to do with abusing drugs. It was a really cool and interesting lesson.

And for the zone training, we went to 竹北教堂 (Zhunan Chapel).  President Day was there too.  They talked to us a lot about baptisms, and wanting to get the numbers up.  They showed us some statistics of new investigators and baptisms which were interesting.  Got to love doing math.  On more of a spiritual side of the training, President Day talked to us about how our effort is never wasted.  Everything we do as missionaries, from teaching lessons to doing basic service to others is fulfilling the Lords work here on earth.

The other exchange I went on was with Elder Leo, who is new to 頭份 (Toufen).  He just barely moved there, so we are still getting to know him.  For that exchange though, it was relatively short.  With all the changes and stuff happening in the mission, investigators in a lot of the areas are really low so we had a zone tsunami in 頭份 (Toufen)  to help them out.  A "tsunami" is pretty much everyone in the zone goes to an area and helps find for the entire day.  As a whole, it was pretty successful for the missionaries there.  They now have a ton of new investigators.  Back to the exchanges part, I went with Elder Leo and Elder Meeks went with Elder Dickson because we do not know the area.  The exchanges I felt went ok, we just didn't really find anyone while we out.  Didn't help that we were finding in an area where there was no one.  We were just biking around for about three hours just trying to find people.  It really kinda sucked in the aspect of biking around for three hours with no success.

As for something cool this week, we got an amazing member referral.  Since this is Elder Meeks last week in 苗栗 (Miaoli), we have been getting tons of 請客 (Dinner invitations).  The 郭家庭 (Guo family), 陳家庭 (Chen family), 羅家庭 (Luo family), and 李家庭 (Li family) all invited us over at some point during the week for dinner.  Back to the referral though, the 郭家庭 (Guo family, an older couple in the ward that are extremely chatty) also invited a friend to come eat dinner with us.  Allen is a 22 year old college student that has a lot of interest in learning about the gospel and is also really cool.  He speaks a decent amount of English too which is pretty cool.  We were able to teach him a little about the church and set up a time to meet again with him this week.  We are hoping that he is the answer to our prayers for some success in 苗栗 (Miaoli).

That was pretty much all that happened during the week, other than the large amount of finding.  Elder Meeks and I are working really hard to try and find some new people to teach so that next transfer I will be able to have some more people to teach with my new companion.  With that being said though, this has been another tough week with just finding people that want to meet with us again at some point.  Just have to pray that at some point in time, they may have interest to meet with the missionaries.

Well, my time is about up for the day.  Thanks for all the prayers and letters.  Have a fun week!

我愛你們,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

P.S.  This week I did not forget my camera and the adapter :)

Elder Okeson and Elder Meeks emailing home at the 網咖 (Internet Cafe)

With Sherley at church, a recent convert, who is planning on going on a mission here in the next year, just waiting to reach her baptism year mark.