Week 2 In Xihu!!

December 07, 2015

Hi Everyone,

So....week 2 in Xihu... It's been a lot of fun so far! My companion Elder Williams is a really great guy and we have lots of fun together. We've also been seeing some signs of success here, and lots of little miracles here and there.

So this week we met with a member Sister Lu who recently just came back from inactivity. She wanted us to go over with some ward members and to meet her husband who is not a member. We went over with Brother and Sister Shi, an awesome couple in our ward, and also with another member, Brother Chen. We had a great talk with Brother Chen (Sister Lu's husband, their names are different) and the Shi family shared their experience of how the gospel completely changed their lives and blessed their family. Brother Shi used to be an alcoholic, and just smoke and drink all day and trash up their house. They lived in complete poverty. But then they were able to change and now after 10 years in the church they have completely changed everything around and are a great family. We talked a lot with Brother Chen about how the gospel can bless families and we shared the Proclamation to the World with him. It was a great lesson and we all invited him to come to church in two weeks with his family! I hope he can come. It might be a little slower going with him, but we'll work a little bit at a time.

Also we spent a night with the Elders in Yuanlin because we had to get on the train early to go to Zhanghua and get on a bus to go to the temple! It was great! I got to ride up with Elder Lauti. I've rarely seen him since we got to Taiwan but now he's my zone leader and so we got to go up together! This time going to the temple it wasn't raining so I got some pictures! I love going to the temple! When we got back though, we were exhausted haha. When we go to the temple we don't get our regular p-day so it's a little more tiring, but it's worth it!

This week we also met with a guy named J.... He's pretty cool and he just graduated from college and is working. His teacher referred him to come to our English class here and we've taught him a couple times. Eventually, we shared the Plan of Salvation with him this last time and he seemed to really appreciate it. He's been to many churches before, but couldn't seem to find the answers he was looking for. So a few years ago he gave up and decided that we couldn't find those answers in this life and was content just to live a good life. He's a little hesitant to try to search again into what he views as just another church, but he is coming along slowly. He says he wants to know, and wants to be baptized when he knows it is true! He's really cool!

We also tried to go around our area to tract and look for former investigators. We didn't see tons of success, but we got lost late at night, really far from our house haha. It was pretty fun, but it was getting late so we had to hurry up and find our way back. We found a cool arch in the middle of the rice fields. It was really weird to see it when for miles around all there is is fields.

It has been a blast so far. We've also been working hard to call lots of the people that missionaries have met in the past. We have a HUGE stack of papers and we spend at least an hour or two calling through them. We set up someone for tomorrow that we called so it's working! It's a lot of fun here in Xihu! I love you all lots! I'm pumped to skype you all coming up! It's coming up quick!

Love you

Elder Stevens