Week 71 - A very busy week!

Hardest part of being tall. Eating at Cozy Burger with some of the zone members between conference on Saturday

Sunday Dinner :)

大家好!

Well, just want to start off this letter by saying I love being back in Taipei.  The people here are so nice and everyone is so prepared. My favorite part is that you don't really need to travel at all.  You walk two seconds (if that) and there is another prepared person to share the gospel with us.

Some of the highlights of the week was actually getting to go on exchanges with Elder Willes this last week.  He was my old district leader, so it was really fun to get to talk with him again and also get to do some missionary work with him. We saw some really cool miracles.  The two miracles we saw, in the space of three hours because we exchanged from dinner to just before studies the next day, so we only got to go out doing missionary work together for a short period of time, were so amazing.  We found a really prepared college girl who actually set a date on the street, came to general conference on Sunday and then Sunday afternoon attended a baptismal service! So, that was a really big miracle from just inviting others to act.  The other was on the way home.  As we were biking, we ran into Brain, who just got back on Thursday night from being in the states for 5 or so years and wasn't sure where to find the mormon church here in Taiwan because he was baptized in the States.  So, it was such a cool miracle that we were able to meet him, and he even told us he was wanting us to meet his family as well, so we will be hoping to meet with them here in the near future! Such a huge blessing.

This week, we also had zone meeting which went really well. The biggest thing I felt I learned from zone meeting was the meaning of inviting someone to baptism.  An invitation is an opportunity for someone to change. For example if we don't let someone know that there is a problem, it will never get fix.  As missionaries we have been called to invite, to give people the opportunity to change for the better and to have that new start. I really have been loving this opportunity I have had so far for share that invitation with everyone all over Taiwan.

The biggest thing from the week had to be General Conference.  It was such a cool opportunity to learn and be able to learn from the leaders of the Church.  One of my favorite things about it all was the personal things I learned.  The biggest thing I was thinking about during conference was how to be a better missionary because time really is going by fast.  The answer was simple, be simple. A lot of times as we share the gospel, we may over complicate things, but as we simplify the way we teach things, the spirit will also be able to teach simply and even more powerfully than we could by ourselves.

Lastly, I want to do a little bit of math with everyone.  This was something Elder Willes also shared with me that I thought was super interesting.  It really gave me a different perspective on things.

    There are 737 Days in a Mission for a Taiwan Taipei missionary.

    63 are spent in the MTC

    Therefore 674 days spent in the field serving the Lord or 16176 hours

    In a week, there are 168 hours, of which you are only actually about to do 37 hours of missionary work because of sleep, studies, planning session, and meetings.

    Therefore, only 22% (37 hours/168 hours) are you actually able to serve the people of Taiwan.     Use every minute to serve the Lord because your mission time really is not that long.

Time really has flown, but I truly am grateful for the 22% of time I have been given to serve the Lord and invite everyone to come unto Christ! I love my mission and am so grateful for the experiences I have also been able to have.  It is truly one of the biggest blessing that we have been given to be able to serve!

Well, my time is pretty much up. Sorry about the shorter letter, but I hope that you enjoy the photos.  I will try to send a few more next week as well.  Have a great week!

我愛你們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

Running into an less active on the street. Was one of the coolest miracles.  We will be meeting with him again on Tuesday! Such a blessing of finding on the street.