Week 47 - New Missionaries

你好!

This has been another amazing week, which a couple of twists and turns. To begin off with, just a transfer ago when I got here, there were two missionaries in the ward. Last transfer, we got two more for a total of four missionaries, and just this week, we got two more missionaries. So here in 新埔 (Xinpu), there are six elders which is a huge change. Also, if you add in the senior couple that are temple missionaries, we actually have eight missionaries in the ward.

As for just explaining our district now, it is the six of us elders and then a set of Elders from the 新板 (Xinban) ward, so there are eight elders in the district, which is super fun. This also mean that district meetings will always be at our chapel, which means there will be no travel time, which we are super excited about. For the last two transfers, we have been having to take about a 20-25 minute bike ride to district meeting, so we will be saving a lot of time by having district meeting here in 新埔 (Xinpu) instead.

As for English class this week, because of the new missionaries coming in, we actually only had four missionaries teaching, so I actually had the opportunity to teach the Advanced class, which was super interesting. The other elders were in Taipei for picking up the new missionaries and a few other meetings. Some of the people in the Advanced class really have good English and then I think a few of them come to the advanced class because that is where there friends are, so there is a bit of a range, but in general, they are all pretty good. We pretty much spent the entire time doing a survival type game of having to pick different things and how they would help you survive in the wilderness if you were to be stranded. So, it was pretty interesting experience, but am looking forward to being back in the intermediate class with my companion.

As for some of the things that happened this week, there were pry three big things that stuck out. While contacting this week, we actually contacted someone from Myammar, which was one of the most interesting contact, especially when she thought we were officials that wanted to look at her passport. She could only speak a little Chinese and no English, so trying to introduce ourselves as missionaries was almost impossible. The only thing I think we were finally able to communicate to her because of language barriers was that we believe in Christ. When we were just barely starting the contact, we naturally thought she was from Taiwan and that our tones were just super bad causing her to not understanding us, but then finally we figured out she was from another country. She actually had to pull out a map because neither of us understood the Chinese translation for Myammar. So to say the least, that pry was one of the most interesting contacts I have had so far on my mission and the first person I have ever contacted from Myammar.

The second big thing was contacting this week, and everyone we contacted that actually stopped to talk for a moment lived outside of our area, which was interesting. We have currently been working on finding some new investigators, and everyone we found this week just lived outside of our area, so for the neighboring areas, I am sure they are loving the referrals.

For the third big thing, we working with one of our investigators. Esther is a devoted christian that was actually found from out English class. We have been working with her and she actually came to church this week which was amazing. The hardest part though is helping her understand the importance of authority. The other challenge that we have been having recently with her too is just that neither of us have worked much with people that have a strong Christian background. Here in Taiwan, most people just have a small belief in God, so when you run into someone that really knows the Bible and has a strong belief in it, it kind of throws a nice little challenge at you. With that being said, she really is progressing great and is loving how much the Book of Mormon is clarifying parts of the Bible for her.

This week, we also got our first 情客 (Dinner Invite) in a while, and it was with our ward mission leader and then all of the missionaries in the ward, so it was quite the party at their house. The other really fun part about it was that it was an opportunity for us to be able to introduce ourselves better and also get to know the ward mission leaders family as well.

Well, my time is about up, thanks for all the prayers and letters!

我愛妳們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

P.S. As for something coming up this week, we are having a member of the seventy coming to tour the mission, so we are having to do a lot of prep. The other thing is that we will be up in Taipei for about 8 hours this week for devotionals with the member of the seventy, so actual timing for missionary work is going to be a bit different this week.