Week 37

你好!

This week was quite the interesting week. Through out the week, all of our plans kept changing.  We had a lot of set up, but every night when we were double checking, they always seemed to have something else, which was a bit of a bummer, but seemed to give us plenty of time to find in the rain.  

As for things that happened this week, there were a couple of big things.  First one was actually a referral that we got from a member that lives in 新板 (Xinban).  We had been calling and trying to set up for about a week and a half, and we finally were able to find a time that worked for the both of us.  So, having it all worked out, we had our 陪課 (Member assisting in the lesson) meet with us at their home (楊姐妹的家庭). With it being in Taiwan though, and their road system is a little different, and we couldn't find their 弄 (Pretty much a very small alley, but impossible to find).  Eventually we did find it, and went up to apartment and were able to share with them a little about the gospel with them, but it was a lot harder than most referrals we had gotten because there were a lot of other things in play, including five incredibly crazy dogs. With that being said though, it still was a pretty cool/interesting experience.

As for investigators this week, we were able to take Wei Wei (Yes, that is her english name) to the temple for a temple tour, which was super cool.  We were able to show her the temple and then show her the 金華街 (JinHuaJie) Chapel, which was a super cool experience for her.  She even asked us what she had to do to go into the temple as well, which open up so much more we could talk to her about.  It really feels like she is progressing and we are hoping that over the next couple of weeks, we can help her over come the last few things so that she can be baptized!

As I mentioned last week, we now are Facebook missionaries, which is half true.  Elder Robinson and I have both made our Facebook accounts, but the only thing is that we actually are locked out of them because we have not been able to verify our email accounts because the mission has made a new Gmail account that is hooked up to our Facebook, so we have no way of verifying it until the recorder gets to it.  So for the aspect of doing missionary work on Facebook, it is still in the process of becoming a tool.

This week, we also had stake conference, which was great.  First of all, I found out Greg, a member that works in Suzhou half the time and here half the time, lives in the stake and actually in our district.  So, when ever I go on exchanges with the elders in our district, I will be staying just a few minutes away from where he lives.  So, it really is a small world.  As for the stake conference though, it was all about missionary work, which was great.  We are really hoping that the talks that were given helped boost the efforts of the members so that we can see the work push forward even faster.

As for one of my favorite parts of the week, it would have to have been English class.  Our class had 16 students, which was huge compared to the previous weeks I have been here.  I think it is partly from us being able to do English boarding because we were able to give out so many.  Between us and two other Elders that teach with us, we were able to give out around 500 fliers in the space of an hour, which was super cool because in 苗栗 (Miaoli) we were happy if we could give out 100 in an hour.  Also, with English boarding here, there are a ton of people interested in learning English too, so we get a good number of people that come up to us asking about our English class too, which is amazing.

As for big things that are coming up, 過年 (Chinese New Year).  So far, I have heard two rumors about what will happen at 過年 (Chinese New Year).  Either it will be a ghost town because everyone has gone to their home town or everyone will be celebrating in your area because that is their home town.  With that being said though, everything will be closed, so the ward is actually providing all of our lunches and dinners for 過年 (Chinese New Year).  So, Elder Robinson and I will be having a ton of member visits in the upcoming weeks along with eating a lot of food.  To say the least, Elder Robinson and I are both pretty excited about this part.

Well, sorry about the shorter letter, but I hope everything is going great back home.  Thanks for all the letters and prayers

我愛你們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson