Week 75 - Moving

大家好!

This week really has been an interesting week. We felt like this week was probably one of the longer week, but also really fast. We decided to try focusing on a few new things from the week and it really seemed to bring some amazing blessings!

As for the biggest thing from the week, we had a ton of finding, due to cancellations, we had a ton of time of finding in the heat. On Monday, we went out with jackets because we were both freezing, but starting Tuesday, it was incredibly hot, and actually got a little sun burnt, but it was totally worth the miracles that came about. Some of the really cool miracles that happened are running into a member two times in two days and working for "Team Jesus."

The member we ran into was actually an American. We were out contacting on a side road, talking with a driver when a guy comes up from behind us and puts his hands on our shoulders and said "Hey Elders, how are you doing?" Elder Ploeg and I were a little shock, mainly because it was a westerner and he was being super friendly. He said he just got here for a business trip and was actually looking to know where the church meetings were at on Sunday, so we gave him the information and then he headed off again and we continued talking with the driver. Then the next day, we were meeting with a recent convert at our office... McDonalds. For some reason, if we are looking for a place to meet that everyone knows, we meet at McDonalds, and as we were meeting the same guy walks in and sits down just a few tables over. So after meeting with him, we than spent a few minutes with the westerner and helped him better understand how to find the church here. It really was a miracle, that his first day here, he was able to run into the missionaries and then again on the second day. The Lord is always planning on how to make everything work out in the end! :)

As for the biggest miracle from the week, it was from working with the invites from President Jergensen during zone meeting, which is to have a much larger focus on preparing people for the sacrament and attending church. As we were doing weekly planning and talking about how we wanted to help these people come to church, we recognized that we needed to do more follow up with our investigators, less actives, and even recent converts. And as a result, we truly saw the blessings, especially at church as each of our investigators had a "companion" to walk them through each hour of church and be their friend, it really just seemed to be just an amazing experience for everyone. One of the other things we did was we decided to be more bold with our investigators about church. We have a lot of investigators that are doing really well, but because of not coming to church, they are kind of at a stand still. As we have talked with them about church attendance and boldly invited them to act, it really made a difference! As we are inviting for the right purpose, doing it out of love, our investigators will be able to feel it.

This week, we also got to meet with Bacon, who was the result of a scooter contact. This may be something our mission just does, but we literally talk to everyone everywhere. As we are at stop lights, we are always turning to the person next to us and sharing the gospel with them. Bacon is one of those people we actually contacted at a stop light and even though time was short, was able to set up a time to actually meet with her to share a little about the church. We had set her up at the church, and were able to do a temple tour, which was amazing. The sisters that do temple tours do such an amazing job and it does miracles for the investigators we bring, and so we are super excited to be able to be working with her and helping her come to know of the gospel's simple truths.

Probably one of the hardest parts of the week was actually passing off one of our favorite investigators to the other sisters in the ward. We have been working with 林琦淵 (Brother Lin) now for about half a month and should be getting baptized the end of this month, so we were super sad to find out that we needed to pass him off. He is truly an amazing man and his wife (who is a member) is also super amazing. I met them both my first week here and have been working with them ever since, and I am sure that the sisters in the ward will also see miracles with him as well.

Lastly, this week, we found out that Elder Ploeg would be leading/putting together the Christmas choir, so we have also spent a lot of time at the office working with the elders there getting music for the choir so that today (the reason why this email is also soooo late and a bit shorter) we could have choir practice which went really well.

Well, my time is pretty much up. Hope that you all have a great week! Thanks for all the prayers and letters!

我愛你們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

Coolest guy ever 羅弟兄 (Brother Luo). It was his first time meeting the missionaries and was super willing to learn more.  He doesn't live in our area sadly, but I am sure the missionaries in the other ward will love working with him!

Morning frizbee before transfers this week, most of them are gone now.

Week 74 - Patience brings blessing!

大家好!

This week was so incredibly busy, but I loved it. With the exception of Monday, we had all of our days packed, and a couple of times double or tripled booked. But even with so much during the week, it still had its miracles and blessings!

As for a little about the week, Monday was our finding day. Since it is usually a p-day, our day was not set up with a lot of people to visit, but that was a blessing because it gave us time to find as as the rest of the week, we really would not have much time to find new investigators. As the day went on, we just were not able to find much success. We found a few really awesome people, but none of them were really sticking. It just seemed to be a really tough day for finding, but God was watching out for us. The entire week seemed to be really hard, but on Saturday, the miracles came. We really saw that as we first put in the work, the blessings will come, it just may take a little while to get to see or receive them. So, as hard as it is, patience brings blessing.

On Wednesday, we had our temple day! That was such a blast! Going to the temple is always such a fun experience and the day even got better with the evening. We have set up two new LAs(less active members). One of them ended up being a part member family.  We are now helping their children prepare for baptism. The other LA was referred to us just last week. They were both so awesome and it was so much fun being able to help them better understand the gospel! We really have been so blessed in our area having so many amazing people to share the gospel with and it just seemed to get better as the week went on!

Part of the reason this last week was so busy was because we had MLC(mission leader conference) this last week. As President Jergensen, his wife, the assistants, and the temple sisters, where sharing their trainings, it was really interesting to see the focus was very similar to all of the recent talks and stake conferences, church attendance. President Jergensen and his wife really pressed on the aspect of helping our investigators not only set a baptismal date, but also work to attend church each week to partake of the sacrament and have that spiritual experience of attending church. So, for this next month, the biggest thing the entire mission will be focusing on is helping our investigators (including recent converts and less actives) attend church because as they attend church, they can receive those experiences and blessings of the meaning of the sacrament.

Up to Saturday, things seemed to be doing pretty well. As I mentioned before, up to this point in the week, new investigators and just a couple of part of missionary work seemed to be going a little slow, but God really had a plan for us. We saw two huge miracles on Saturday and then one really big one on Sunday. 

This week, really has been such a blessing. We have been blessed to have seen so many miracles and blessed to have had sooooo many people to share the gospel with. Thank you so much for all the letters and all of the prayers! They really make a difference! Hope you all have a great week!

我愛你們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

Photo with some of my MTC district at MLC

Hiking 象山 (Elephant Mountain) with the district minus one other set of sisters due to travel time, they couldn't make the trip in the morning.

Week 73 - Blessings in doing the work

Finding by where my first day in Taiwan was.  The Grand Hotel 

大家好!

This has truly been a week of miracles. Elder Ploeg and I have seen the Lord's hands in His work this last week that it is hard to even express it all, but will hopefully be able to share a few of those experiences in the email this week!

To begin off, we had a blast to the past this week. That day my MTC companion and I have been waiting for, we got to go on exchanges and it was a blast. We got to see how each other were doing on the mission and also have a really cool miracle. During the exchange, most of our time was spent finding as our afternoons during the week are a little harder to set people up, so we decided to go out to a part of the area that we are in that I had not been to before and find at a park their. We started with a prayer, and then started talking with everyone. After only 10 minutes of contacting, we found the one. 陳弟兄 (Brother Chen) was off for his afternoon break when we contacted him. He is so prepared. On the street, we shared the full restoration with him, invited him to baptism and even set a baptismal date with him. With being in Taipei though, we find people from all over the city, and 陳弟兄 (Brother Chen) lives in 板橋 (Banqiao) over by were my last last area was (新埔- Xinpu). We have since talked with the Elders there and they have said he has set up another time and everything, so we are super excited to see how he is doing in the upcoming weeks!

As for two of the biggest miracles that Elder Ploeg and I had this week was actually with setting apart some time to go LA finding. We prayed and then pick two names from off of the ward list that we wanted to go find. The first was... a challenge. We couldn't find the address at all, so after a while, we moved on to the next one, which was the miracle. We found the address and were going to go up the elevator when the guard stopped us. After talking with him for a few minutes, he let us go up and knock on their door. When they opened their door, we asked if 蔡明洪弟兄 (Brother Cai) was there and 剛剛好 (it just so happened) he was there and had a few minutes to talk with us, so we went down stairs and found a place to sit. He was baptized 20 years ago in the States and then when he moved back, just never got connected up with the church again. The biggest miracle was this though: 1. He doesn't live at the address, 2. He was off of work that one day and actually came back to visit his parents, 3. He set up another time for the missionaries in the area that he now lives in to meet with him and his wife and son! After meeting with him, Elder Ploeg and I just turned to each other in amazement. God really had worked that out just right. If we had knocked their door any other day, we would not have found him, but He lead us to know what to do and when to do it! Such a blessing and miracle that I will never forget!

The other big miracle that Elder Ploeg and I had together this week was actually with a mainland China person. She is here studying law here, but is from 福建 (Fujian). The coolest part is that while she has been here, she actually has been the one looking to get to know Christianity, so as we were sharing some of the simple truths of the church with her, we really could see she was prepared. We shared about Jesus Christ and the atonement and how through baptism we can be cleansed of our sins and mistakes. As we were sharing about this we both felt prompted to set invite her to baptism and she accepted! Even better, she lives in our area too, so in the next few weeks, you should be hearing a lot more about 蔡姊妹 (Sister Cai/Juster)! We are really excited to be able to have such an awesome new investigator and are excited to see the blessings that she receives as she is learning the gospel for herself!

This week, we also got to contact a member referral that we were given on Sunday. We set plans and visited him on Tuesday night. The funny part about it was when we got there, 黃全瑋 (Brother Thomson Huang) said "What took you guys so long to come visit me." It was only two days, but he was just so enthusiastic to meet with us. It was just a lot of fun for Elder Sumsion and I, as we were on exchanges, to be able to share the church with him and also invite him to be baptized. Even though he said he is not yet ready to set a date, he is super willing to get baptized as soon as he gets over his two packs of cigarettes. The coolest part was just the other night when we were meeting with him, he told us he has already cut down to just one pack a day! So, we are really praying that he is able get that help he needs to overcome the last pack!

Coolest bike ever!

Elder Sumsion & I

We also had stake conference this week, which was super fun. They kind of announced that the stake would be splitting here at the end of the year, so we all need to prepare for changes. As for my favorite part about it was having three investigators at church. They are all so awesome and it is super cool to see them progress and make the commitment to come to church every week!

As for a whole, this week was so awesome. We were blessed to see so many miracles and even see those miracles move into this next week as everyday is already packed with lessons or some type of meeting, so we we have barely any finding this next week! Thank you so much for all the prayers, we are really seeing the miracles! Hope you all have a great week!

我愛你們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

Sites in Taipei

101 Building at night

Week 72 - Busy doing His work

大家好!

Well, this truly has been a busy week. As Elder Ploeg and I were evaluating this last week, we came to the conclusion time flies and it really felt like we didn't have any time together in the area, which was kind of true. This last week, we had three exchanges and they were all a blast, full of really amazing experiences and learning opportunities. So, looking back, it is kind of hard to explain all that happened, so I am just going to pull out a few things.

To start the week off, I had the privilege of going on exchanges with Elder Leonhardt, who has been on his mission for about two weeks, so I got to be his very first exchange. Even though he has only been on island for a short period of time, it really has been cool to see how hard of a worker he is and also outgoing. As we were finding together, we found a really awesome new investigator, 汪弟兄 (Brother Wang), who just seemed to be that golden investigator. When we asked where he lived, he told us where and it was just slightly out of our area, but in the Sisters area, which is the cool part. After setting him up for in two days, we referred him to the sisters, who actually ran into him the next day while contacting as well. Two days in a row of running into missionaries. He has since met with them and also is coming to some of the ward activities, such as FHE and hopefully church next week!

As for one of the few days that Elder Ploeg and I actually had some time together to do missionary work, we actually got to meet up with a potential that Elder Ploeg and Elder Varney (his last companion) ran into just before transfers. As we met with her, it was one of the coolest experiences because we originally thought we were going to have to cancel because we could not find a male member to help 陪課 (assist teach the lesson). Then about an hour before, Rusty, a member from back in 新埔 (Xinpu) called and asked if we could eat lunch, which was such a miracle. He was able to help us have that lesson with her, 邱姊妹 Ray (Sister Qiu), who is also now a really solid baptismal date investigator. The lesson with her just was flawless. The only thing that kept things interesting was the place we met with her at had cats, which was when we found out my companion is allergic to cats, so he was sneezing a lot during the lessons. He told me afterwards, we will be setting up a different location next time, I agreed. :)

This week, we also got to attend the baptismal service for 呂嘉玲姊妹(Sister Lu), who I got to do the baptismal interview for last week. It was such a cool service and she was even able to invite her best friend to come to the service, which the Elders jumped on and are now meeting with her as well. As for my favorite part of the service, it was actually a piano solo by my companion. One of the many gifts/talents that my companion has is to sit down at the piano and play ANY song you name. He played one of the coolest versions of Be Still My Soul, which lead perfectly into the baptismal service. And then after the baptismal service we went on exchanges with the Elders there. I got to go with Elder Lin, who is Taiwanese, but has really good English. He has been on his mission for just over two months now and really is such a great missionary.

For those three exchanges that we went on, I actually was put with the trainees each time, which was super fun. Elder Lin, Elder Leonhardt, Elder Peterson are all such great missionaries and it just made me think how much potential and time they have in their mission. It was really such an opportunity for me to learn from them, as they all are teaching the most simple way possible, which was really cool. Not to mention, trainees always bring blessings of success, which was evident with all three of the exchanges!

One of the other really cool miracles from the week was that we got two awesome referrals from members in the ward. One of which lives pretty close to where we live. A member, 游弟兄 (Brother You), brought a friend to church which was when we met him. When I shook his hand, his first comment to me was, "I have seen you before." At first I didn't know what to think because it feels like I haven't been here very long, but that was when he told me where he lives. He said he has seen me bike by every now and then. Guess when you are tall biking around on the streets of Taiwan, you kind of stick out a little, so it was kind of cool thinking that even though we may not be able to talk to everyone on the street, they still will recognize us when we finally get the opportunity to talk to them. And then the other, we are waiting to find a time to set them up, but it is a family which we are pretty excited about.

Over all, I really am enjoying my time back here in 台北 (Taipei). It really feels like you only need to walk seconds and there is someone else you can share the gospel with. I really am loving the work here and am super excited to see what the Lord has in-store for us this next week!

我愛你們,

Love you,

柯長老

Elder Okeson

Doing service at the church.  We stamped over 50 boxes of Book of Mormons that would be sent to most of the missionaries in the mission... That took a while...

Finding in Taiwan, one of the funnest things to do.  You meet a ton of people and have such a great opportunity to share the gospel with them, no matter what their backgrounds are. Kevin, which seems to be a very common name here in Taiwan, is a Buddhist, but was really interested in the temple at Jinhua Street (our church), hopefully doing a tour with him here in a week.  Exchanges with Elder Leonhardt