Conference Weekend...

Dear All,

  This week pretty much consisted of us traveling from one meeting to another. Literally I don't think that I've ever had this many meetings in one week before haha.

  We went down with a friend to a small island called Qi Jin that is next to Gaoxiong. We went down there and rode around looking at the sights. It looks like a really awesome place to go swimming...but we just watched other people swimming haha.

  Then we had our zone meeting down in Shi zhong. And to get there, we have to take a train/subway kind of thing. (Chinese is jieyun but I don't really know the English).  It's about an hour or so of travel each way down there!

  Next we went to Shi zhong again because we had a trainer follow up meeting. I'm already halfway through training Elder Grisenti!! It seems like I just barely started, and now we are halfway through the time that we are together.

  The following day, we didn't have any meetings, and all of our lessons cancelled so we spent the whole day either tracking or just talking with people on the street. We went out of the far reaches of our area, to places that we never really go to cuz we never have time. It was pretty fun exploring out there.

   Then we had a big Stake Activity! We went to a place called Cheng Ching Lake and had an athletic event there. I was super excited cuz I wanted to play some soccer or bball, like they had the years past for this activity... but...they changed it up for this year. This year it was a walking scavenger hunt... which was fun. My companion took some good pictures so I will be sending them soon. 

   The next day was pretty fun. One of the members wanted to record Elder Grisenti and I singing a hymn and wishing one of the other members a happy birthday. So we went to a park right next to our house and started singing "How Firm a Foundation." It sounded really good.  During this time a guy was driving through the park on his motor scooter and came up to talk to us. I thought he wanted to talk to us about our singing and church, but I was really wrong haha. He starts going off on how the government in Taiwan is against him and also all the people at his work too. Also that the church was stealing his money! He wanted us to call President Obama and ask for his personal assistance in helping him get his money back! After failing to convince him that what he wanted was impossible, we just kind of gave up and told him we'd try, and then he just drove off. Pretty fun stuff.

   Finally, the day I had been looking forward to forever, arrived!! We watched general conference. We watched all the general sessions and then for the Priesthood session we went down to Shi zhong again. There were so many awesome talks! I was also really happy that Elder Rasband was called. I had a feeling that he would be. And yes, I know Elder Stevenson's son in this mission. He's a really nice guy. Because my last name Stevens and Stevenson are so similar, literally everyone in my ward was coming up to me and congratulating me on my dad being the Apostle haha. I went on with it for a while, but then one of the members (he had good English) read my name tag and called me out on it hahaha.

  My favorite talks were as follows:

  Elder Uchtdorf on the blessings of membership in the Church of Jesus Christ.

  Elder Holland on the love of mothers. Mom I think what he said was completely true. I feel that your love is the closest thing that there is to the Savior's love for us! I grateful that I have such a wonderful mother like you!

   Elder James Martino  on learning of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Many of the people we teach only want to know out of pure curiosity, and they need more than just that to learn the truth.

   Elder Uchtdorf on Daniel's story. Really good about the importance of needing to stay ready and worthy.

   Elder Christofferson on the need for the church organization. Many people I meet here don't really understand why we need an organized religion. What he talked about was really meaningful. 

Sorry I wrote so much haha. I didn't think I would write this much when I started out haha. Well I love you lots!! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Stevens

My Favorite Dessert

Qi Jin