Week 22

你好!!

Well, to start of my letter, Elder Meeks has moved to 台北 (Taipei).  And with that, I have gotten a new companion, who is 大同半 (Senior Companion) in both aspects of things.  While I was with Elder Meeks, he was 大同半 in the aspect of being older, but I was 大同半 in the aspect of being taller.  With Elder Ure, my breaker and new companion, he is both an older and taller missionary than I am.  He is about 7 cm taller than I am (I am 196 cm), so he has broke to 2 meter barrier.  He has been on his mission for five transfers now (I'm on my third) and has super good Chinese.  He is from California, has three siblings (Older sister, older brother and younger brother) and has grown up in the church just like me.  He also went to BYU before his mission and is studying music education.

As for my second transfer meeting, it was pretty stressful.  What happens is they have everyone up on a power point and then your new companion appears next to you.  So, it is stressful in the aspect of waiting to find out who your companion is going to be.  As for my area, I am still in 苗栗 (Miaoli), so I get to show Elder Ure around, which means that I have to actually know where I am going.  So far, I have been doing pretty well, but we have stayed in all the areas I know pretty well, which is basically the city of 苗栗 (Miaoli).  But for these next couple of week, Elder Ure and I are looking at going to a lot of the other cities in our area, so we will be spending a good amount of money on traveling over the next couple of weeks.  Should be fun.

As for Elder Meeks and my last P-day together, we went with a bunch of other Elders to the 新竹 (xin zhu) beach, which was super fun.  The best part about it was that at the beach, they actually had a bunch of little restaurants/stands that were selling seafood, and it was good.  The shrimp that we got was pry the best part.  After eating, we all went down on the beach and played American football til about 4:30, when we had to go back to home to get ready for our 請客 (Dinner invitation) at 6.  As always, the 李家庭 (Li Family) took us out to eat dinner with them.  Usually we eat at their house, but since with was Elder Meeks last time seeing them, they took us out to an Italian restaurant.  It was pretty good food, but in reality, the best part of it was getting to meet with the 李家庭 (Li Family) again this week.  They really are a super cool family!

As for 請客 (Dinner invitations) this week, we had a ton.  Since Elder Meeks has been here for nine months, he knows all the members super well.  Over the space of 3 days, we had five 請客 (Dinner invitations), and they were all amazing, the best part of it just being that we were getting a lot of authentic Taiwanese food.  However, one of the 請客 was with a Filipino family, so we had some Filipino food which was also super good.

As for teaching this week, we were able to meet with a recent convert that has been having problems with smoking again.  We have started visiting with him about twice a week again to give him support.  He is a super nice guy and knows the gospel super well, just is having trouble overcoming his smoking addiction.  With our visits, we have been working on him with going through the 12 step program, which seems to be helping.  Right now we are on step three with him, but will pry be reviewing step two again with him this week because we feel we may have missed something with him when we were going through it with him.

We were also able to visit with Allen again this week.  He really seems to be the golden investigator and it looks like he may be getting baptized here in the next month or two, depending on if he is willing to keep all of the commitments.  So far with Allen, we have taught the first lessons and invited him to baptism, all of which he accepted without any problems.  So over the next week, we are looking to teach the second lesson and set a solid date with him for a baptismal service.  

Also, we had a member referral, which went really well.  We taught him about prayer and the Book of Mormon, which he seemed pretty interested about.  I don't know if is currently still interested in meeting with us, but I know we were able to plant a seed and maybe in the future he will be interested in learning more about the gospel.

Pry one of the harder things that we did this week was going through the area books.  Before with Elder Meeks, we only went through the one area book that we knew about.  But with cleaning out our only junk room, we found another five area books, which in return mean more people to call.  So over the next transfer or so, I expect us calling everyone in the five new area books.  Personally, I am not a huge fan of calling formers, but that is always because if is always pretty scary when you hit the call button, not knowing if the number is 空號 (Invalid), really the person, or someone else.  But with that being said, it is cool calling and seeing if anyone that meet with the missionaries before would be willing to meet again.  So far, out of the hundred or so that we have call, two people have set up with us for this week, so I will tell you about those next week.

Well, my time is about up for this week.  I hope you all have a great week!! Thanks for all the prayers and letters.

我愛你們,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

Pictures sent home:

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.

Week 20

你好!

This has definitely been an interesting week, especially with all of the new missionaries that came in.  There have been a good number of changes with our district and zone.  Since the new missionaries arrived, they created a new zone, and 苗栗 (Miaoli) is a part of it.  But I will get to that in a bit.

Probably the biggest thing for this week was the finding that we have been doing.  We have sadly not had too much success, but we know that we are working hard, which I guess is the most important part.  For finding, we have been doing two different types, one being contacting and the other is tracking.  Both of them have their challenges and their benefits.  With contacting, we are able to talk to more college students who generally show more interest at first but then do not really want to learn any more.  As for tracking, we generally able to talk to more of the parents and grandparents who don't really want to talk.  They always give us the excuse of being Buddhist or start talking 台語 (Tai yu, Taiwanese) saying that they don't understand.  However, when they do let us in, there in generally a true interest with meeting with us.  Elder Meeks though has told me that generally for every 100 doors you knock, you may be able to actually talk with one of them, which so far in my mission seems pretty accurate.

One of the other things that we have been focusing on more recently is English Boarding, which is inviting people to come to our English class on Wednesday.  So far though, we haven't seen any success from it, but we are hoping that at some point, we will be able to get a few more students. As of right now, we have three people attending the class, and they all speak pretty good English.  Because of that, we have been having a little more fun with the class.  We have been teaching the usual lessons with a little extra.  The little extra are tongue twisters.  The only thing is though, that we have about used up all of the tongue twisters that we could remember, so if you have any suggestions we could use them.

As I mentioned at the start, we now have new missionaries in our district and a completely new zone, which consists of six of the eight companionship are in training, so our zone is really young.  Pr0bably the best part about it though is that the zone is a lot smaller and closer, so we are able to do more things as a zone.  As for our district, we are back up to three companionship, two sets of elders and one of sisters.  Also, for zone meeting, it only took us 30 minutes to get there rather than an hour, which was nice.  Being out in 苗栗 (Miaoli) we are use to travelling a lot, but we always appreciate having things be a little closer to us.  For zone meeting, we did a lot of role playing, mainly to do with setting more baptismal dates with people we meet.

As for my Chinese progress, it is still coming, and there is still plenty to go.  Right now, I am just about finished with phase 1, which is all about religious Chinese.  I am super excited about it because then I can start studying phase 2, which actually teaches you how to communicate with people on the street.  It has about 2000 words, which if you memorize all of them, you are then considered to be fluent in Chinese.

One of the other crazy things that is coming up is the end of training.  Elder Meeks and I have really been having a fun time together serving in 苗栗 (Miaoli).  Probably the biggest thing that I have learned from him is how to get use to finding.  The first time, I went finding with him, he said if it is not awkward, than you are not doing it right.  So far, I have found that so true.  It is always a challenge to just walk up to random people on the street and start talking to them.  But with that being said, the purpose of it is good being able to share the gospel with everyone on the street.

As for weather this week, we have been blessed.  As for the Taiwanese, I don't think they think it is that great because they are now needing to wear winter coats, but for us, we think it is amazing.  It has been about 80 degrees for the past week and we are both praying that the weather continues into next week.

As for the biggest thing this week, we got to listen to General Conference.  It was truly amazing.  The biggest thing that popped out was the number of talks given by the Apostles about following the prophet.  As for a talk that left the biggest impact on me was Elder Jörg Klebingat's talk in the Saturday Afternoon Session.  The six points that talked about all seemed so simple but hard at the same time.  My favorite quote from his talk was: "acknowledge and face your weaknesses, but don’t be immobilized by them, because some of them will be your companions until you depart this earth life. No matter what your current status, the very moment you voluntarily choose honest, joyful, daily repentance by striving to simply do and be your very best, the Savior’s Atonement envelops and follows you, as it were, wherever you go. Living in this manner, you can truly 'always retain a remission of your sins' (Mosiah 4:12) every hour of every day, every second of every minute, and thus be fully clean and acceptable before God all the time."

General Conference has so much amazing stuff in it and I know that as we work to apply the things that we learn in conference, it will be able to affect our lives in ways that we could never imagine.

Well, that was pretty much my week.  I hope all of you have a great week and thanks for all the prayers!

Love,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

P.S.  Sorry about no photos again this week.  We both forgot our converters for our cameras again.  I'll send the photos next week.

Week 19

你好！

This has been another fun week.  Probably the biggest thing this week was that we went to 台北 (Taipei) for the half way training meeting, which was more like three fourths, but was really fun.  One of the other really good news of the week is that the 32 missionaries that were waiting for their visas, finally got them and arrived in Taiwan on Saturday.  And because of that, we are having transfers again this week, so our district will be changing again.

As for going to the Taipei Temple, we haven't had the opportunity yet.  President Day has told us that we get to go about every three months/two transfers.  So, I should have the opportunity to be able to go here in the next month or so.  Also, for General Conference, we will be at the 苗栗教堂 (Miaoli chapel) for Saturday and Sunday, watching it there.  We are both pretty excited to get to listen to General Conference.

As for things that have happened this week, we went to 台北 (Taipei) for the half way meeting.  It was really fun to be able to see everyone that we were with in the MTC.  We did a good amount of role playing and President Day talked to us about overcoming challenges.  The biggest challenge he talked to us about was with the challenge of learning Chinese.  He said it multiple times that it would come with time, we just have to make sure that we are working hard and it will come.

Along with travelling to 台北 (Taipei), we did a lot of other travelling.  During the week, we attended two baptisms and we visited some less actives and investigators that were outside of Miaoli, but still in our area.  One of them being 李世淼 (Li Shi Miao).  It was really a fun week because of that, but because of all the travel, we have yet again started the month of will spending a lot of money on travel.

Another fun thing that happened this week was that we went to 新竹 (xinzhu) to play basketball with a bunch of other elders.  It was really fun, we had quite the experience.  The best part was probably the crowd of people that we got watching a group of white people playing basketball.  We also got asked multiple times to dunk.  Two of the other elders there could, I didn't quite get it.  They bounced off the back of the rim each time I tried.  Guess I will need to work a little bit more on my dunking so that I get do it next time people ask us if we can dunk.

For something weird or awkward things that happened this week, I can't really say there were any.  The only thing that came close was when I was calling referrals on the phone this week.  Elder Meeks told me that generally my tones aren't that bad, but for some reason as soon as I pick up the phone to make a call, I just kind of throw my tones out the window.  That's one thing I will be working on quite a bit over the next few weeks.  As much as he may be enjoying the evening entertainment, I hope I can fix my tones so that they are half decent when I am talking on the phone.

So pretty much, that was the week.  We didn't really have anything crazy happen, but we really have had a great time doing missionary work and are looking forward for this next week.

Thanks for all the prayers and letters,

Love,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

Outdoor Zone Conference

Half way training meeting with Elder Nixon, Love, Karlinsey.

Week 18

你好！

This week really has flown by, there really has just been a lot of stuff that has been going on.  For starts, we have only been in 苗栗 (Miaoli) for one full day the entire week.  The other days, we were out for different things.  Going to zone conference, going to 台北 (Taipei) for meetings, and interviews.  So because of all of that, the week went by so fast for us.

To start off the week, we were finally able to meet with Li Ru Lan.  It was really fun to be able to meet with her and share a small message with her.  We invited her to church, but she ended up not being able to come.  We will see about meeting up with her again and hopefully with Qiu Fang Ping this time as well.

As for 請客 (Dinner Invitations), we only had one on Monday night with a recent convert.  And to answer Mom's question about who we are allowed to eat with and for how long, it is completely open.  The only thing that we are told about dinners are that we need to limit the time we spend with them.  So for members, we can have an hour, but for recent converts and investigators we are allowed an hour and a half. 

For fun stuff that happened this week, we went to Lion Head Mountain.  Don't ask me exactly where that is, but its about an hour and a half bus ride from the 竹南火車站 (zhunan train station).  It was really fun though.  It was an entire day of hiking in the mountains.  And for the fun part, the afternoon part of the hike, we spent it in the rain.  As I mentioned in my last email, there was a typhoon coming through, and it just so happened to go right through where we were hiking, which made it a really fun.  While on the hike though, we also saw some really interesting things.  First of all, we saw the biggest earth warm ever.  It was about a foot and a half long, which surprised all of us.  The second was spiders.  I am not sure what kind of spiders they were, but we all came to the conclusion that they were banana spiders.  They sure looked big enough to be a banana spider. 

For something weird that happened this week, this was the first time that we actually did not have English class.  We went to English class, and were waiting for people to show up, and no one showed up.  Elder Meeks told me that that has never happened before.  So, we stayed at the church for about forty five minutes before leaving and going out to do some work.

For an awkward experience this week, it all centered around a lesson that we had prepared.  We were with a recent convert and thought we were sharing a specific scripture from 1 Nephi, but ended up reading a different scripture.  But the thing was, I didn't understand what was being said in the scripture, so I thought he was reading the right one, and my companion didn't catch the mistake either.  He told me afterward that he thought I wanted to use a different scripture, so he just let me continue.  He only stopped me afterwards I started talking about prayer when the scripture we actually read had nothing to do with prayer.  So, thing I learned, always make sure you tell everyone the right reference rather than the wrong one.

Also, as I said at the beginning of the letter, we went to 台北 (Taipei) for a meeting.  Elder Meeks is still the English Leader for the area, and they have training every transfer for the leaders, so we got to go up for that.  The thing for me though, was that I got to spend some time with some of the other missionaries, one of which was my MTC companion, Elder Nixon.  It was pretty fun to be able to chat with him for a little bit while that meeting was going on.

Lastly, before my time is up, this week, we have had a third companion, 朱長老 (Elder Zhu), a missionary that is currently serving in 台中 (Taizhong), but had to come back to 苗栗 (Miaoli) for military training.  He speaks a decent amount of English, but prefers speaking Chinese.  The fun part about it was that mean we were always speaking Chinese when we were outside and while we were in our apartment.  It really was good and fun for me to practice my Chinese that way as well.

Thanks for all the emails and prayers.

Love,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

P.S.  Sorry about no photos this week, we forgot the adapter for our cameras.  Next week, I will send you some photos from this week.

Week 17

你好！

This has really been an interesting week, we haven't had much success, but we have had a lot of opportunities.  But probably on of the biggest things was that 李世淼 (Li Shi Miao) called us back and said that he again wants us to meet with him and teach him some more, which was pretty cool.

For a couple of funny things this week, there were two that stuck out.  First one was just before English class on Wednesday.  We have English meeting for about an hour before English class to finish preparing for the class, but this week the members decided to clean the church at the same time as our meeting.  As for many of the homes in Taiwan, they do not have carpet, so they have never used or seen a vacuum before.  One of the sisters that was there, was attempting to use the vacuum at the church, and it was quite the sight.  She turned the vacuum on and started vacuuming, but she didn't know she could click the little lever on the back and make the neck of the vacuum move.  Don't know if I explained it very well, but pretty much, she was lifting the vacuum up and down over every spot on the carpet.  It was really quite the sight, but after a few minutes, Elder Meeks and I showed her how to use the vacuum without the challenge of lifting the vacuum up and down on every spot til it is gone.  We could tell she felt a little funny afterwards.

The other funny event was during service on Friday.  We went over to the 羅家庭 (Luo family) home and helped them paint their main room.  It was quite the project, but we were able to finish it, and it looks a lot better than it did now.  The funny part about it was that we created quite the mess, but sadly, we cleaned up a majority of the paint before getting a photo.  But what happened was 羅弟兄 (Brother Luo) stepped on the side of the full pan of paint, and paint went flying everywhere.  The biggest part was that it got all over the floor and we needed to clean it up before it dried on.  But his shoes and pants were completely covered in paint.  One other really cool thing was that happened was that Elder Meeks prepared for Christmas.  It wasn't on purpose, but as we were painting little spots of pain began appearing on his missionary tag.  It really looks like he is prepared for Christmas now.

A blessing that I had this week actually came from something that I thought would be a little bit of a pain.  During district meeting, we found out that we would need some pants for this weeks Outdoor Zone Conference, since we are going hiking.  I did not thing that I would actually be able to find any that would fit.  I went to 洪姐妹 (Sister Hong), the bishop's wife and also Sister Benson's friend here in 苗栗 (Miaoli), to help me out since her and her husband own two clothing stores.  We thought they would be able to help me out.  They actually did have some my size too which was cool.  The blessing was that when I was going to pay, she wouldn't let me.  So I got a pair of new pants for my mission from a member, which really was a blessing.

Also, this week, we went to a 烤肉 (BBQ) with our district, as our last activity.  We really had a good time and really enjoyed the food.  And now, just to let you know, our district has shrunk a little.  It is now just four elders.  It is the same as last transfer, but without the sisters.  It is really different though, just because the sisters were really out going.  But with that being said, our district still is pretty sweet.

As for 請客 (Dinner invitations), we got two really sweet ones.  The first one was pizza hut with some members.  It is amazing to have some western style food again.  The second was actually today for lunch.  A recent convert took us to a 吃到飽的火鍋 (All you can eat hot pot) that was really good.  The quality of it was also really good, which made it even better.  The best part of the hot pot though, in Elder Meeks and my opinion though, was the ice cream.  There was unlimited Haagen Dazs ice cream.  For a little thing of Haagen Dazs here it is 120 快, and all I can say, is that we had a good number of the Haagen Dazs ice cream, so we definitely made our moneys worth at the all you can eat hot pot. :)

Well, my time is about up.  Love you all and thank you for all the prayers and letters.

Love,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

P.S.  We had our first Typhoon here.  We didn't get a Typhoon day, but it was loud enough during the night that it did wake us both up at one point or another during the night.  President day also gave us some statistics on how much rain there was.  Thought you might find it interesting: " In portions of Taitung County, so far we have had 656.5 mm (2.15 feet) of rain since yesterday.  At the time of typing this email, in Hualien County, so far we have had 391 mm (1.25 feet), but the rain has not yet stopped.  In neighboring Pingtung County, some areas report as much as 912 mm (3 feet) of rain since yesterday."  Here in 苗栗 (Miaoli) though, I think we may have gotten a fourth of a foot.  When we went out this morning, it looked like a majority of it had dried up.

Elder Okeson and Elder Meeks

Today at the 吃到飽的火鍋 (All you can eat hot pot) with 杜姐妹 (Sister Du), a recent convert.

And the calm sky before the typhoon hit 苗栗 (Miaoli), it's a pretty cool view.

Painting at the 羅家庭 (Luo Family)

Elder Meeks' "snowy" name tag

Week 16

你好！

It has been another good week, and also the start of the next transfer.  Both Elder Meeks and I have said that it is crazy how fast time has actually flown by.  Some of the reasons why the week was so good was because of the number of 請客 (Dinner invitations) and the other because of the number of 課程 (Lessons).  We came into the week not expecting to have to much, but we have truly been blessed with plenty of opportunities.

So for the biggest things this week was 請客, which were great.  The members feed us 4 times this week and there were three less actives that also gave us some food to take home, which was really appreciated.  We always love getting food to eat and really love it when they send fruit home with us to eat.  The only sad part is that the mangos have now gone out of season, so we are not getting nearly as many mangos as we use to.  But other that, the 請客 were amazing.  We had 烤肉 (BBQ) and a whole varieties of other things.  The only thing about the dinners, was that Elder Meeks has told all of the families the things that I have not eaten or tried yet.  So apparently in the coming weeks, I will pry be getting to try 臭豆腐 (stinky toufu), which will be interesting.  I don't know how excited I am about it yet, but we will see.  

Also, this week, we got to attend another baptism in 頭份 (Toufen).  They had a baptism for a 9 year old which was pretty cool.  Pry the coolest part of the baptism, other than the baptismal event, was her testimony afterwards.  Her testimony was very basic, which meant that I was able to understand all of what she said. Those are always fun days, when you can actually understand everything that was being said by someone.  Also, it help that her testimony was only a few sentences long.

Mainly for the week though, other than going to 頭份, we were visiting members.  Pry the busiest day out of the week was yesterday, Sunday.  We had six lessons over the space of about 5 hours, one of which was also a 請客.  Some of the cool things that happened with visiting members was that we had some lessons where the member also invited a neighbor to come over at the same time, so we were able to share a message with them as well.  Also during a dinner, we had the time to stop by a museum here in 苗栗, which was fun.  It was cool to learn a little about the history in area I am serving in.

As for investigators this week, it still has been a little slow.  We have been working through getting to know the members and less actives a little more to see if they have any friends that are interested in learning more about the gospel.  From that, we have gotten a couple, and we will see this week if we will be able to meet with any of them.  One thing though that I really liked was something President Day told me just this week.  His comments of success were that often we skew what success. 

"The Lord says "No effort is wasted." When we don't see a tangible result (i.e., a baptism, a lesson, etc.), sometimes we think "our effort is wasted." 

Your job is to thrust in your sickle with all your might and leave the harvest to the Lord. Sometimes your job is to cultivate. Sometimes it is to fertilize. Sometimes your job is to plant seeds. Sometimes your job is to pull weeds. Other times your job is to water. And then sometimes your job is to harvest.

We never get a harvest without cultivation. Or without fertilizer. Or without seeds. Our without pulling weeds. Why is it that missionaries who are working hard and doing all these things sometimes think they are not getting success?

It is because they want to be the harvester. There is nothing wrong with wanting to have a harvester, but you have to be careful. If all you want is the harvest so that you and others can see the success, you are not the "one eyed missionary" with the eye single to the Glory of God. He is the Lord of the Harvest. All of the harvest is His--not ours. We therefore do our best in whatever we can do to assist with the ultimate. And sometimes, He will let us see the fruits of our labor."

I think that there is a lot of truth to it.  Elder Meeks keeps telling me that he believes he is a planter, but that for each of us, we just have to find out where and how the Lord would like us to do his work.  For each of us, it is different, but also very important to the success of everyone's' happiness. 

Sorry for the short letter this week, but we are going to 頭份 to do one last activity with the district, 烤肉的吃到飽 (All you can eat BBQ).  Thanks for all the letters and prayers.

Love,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

P.S.  Really weird, but Elder Meeks and I realized today that we have a very rare thing in common.  We both love to play pinocle.  It is really funny, but Elder Meeks tells me that we play it really different than the real way of playing it, with a single deck and with 9s.  Guess the Swenson way is quite a bit different than the original version of pinocle.

請客 with the 胡家庭.  After dinner with the family, we played the piano for 'a ma' (Grandma).  She loves listening to the piano and singing.

Stopping at a 客家 (Taiwan native) museum for a dinner break.  It was pretty cool to see some of the history that they have in 苗栗.  The biggest thing being all of the clay pottery that they made.  It was pretty cool.