Awesome Week...

Dear Everyone,

  Another week comes and goes. But it felt like this week was super long because it rained almost every single day! I am really grateful that I'm serving down south though. We have a guy in our ward that is super cool and he's going to serve a mission in Taipei this coming week. He has to pack a ton of rain gear because it rains pretty much every single day up there!! I'm very thankful that it only rained 4 or 5 days this last week. 

  This week we went on exchanges with the Elders in Fengshan, Elder Ludwig (trainer) and Elder Hatch (trainee). Elder Hatch just got on island the week that I moved here to Ping Dong so he is still getting used to Taiwan and everything here. It was super fun to go on exchanges with him and remember what it was like when I first came to Taiwan; still adjusting to the food, struggling with the language, and doubting my ability to do just about anything. The Lord has helped and blessed me a lot during my time here and I have certainly grown a lot. The change is really gradual so sometimes I just fail to notice it, but when I really think about it, I have changed a lot. Even though I still doubt myself, and struggle sometimes, I know that God has given me lots of strength. It was a lot of fun to work with Elder Hatch for a day and to see that change. 

  On the exchange we met with an older man that I met on the street a few weeks ago. He's in his late 70s, but is still active working in his large garden. When we visited him, he instantly took us on a tour of his garden and had us sample his different fruits and vegetables. He even gave us two large papayas to take home! What a nice guy! He really likes Christianity and wants to keep meeting with us and come to church, but he has tuberculosis and is afraid that if he goes he will spread it to everyone there. Hopefully we don't get it!

  We met with our friend K... again this week. He's 19 and studying physical fitness so he's pretty strong. We had a great lesson with him about our purpose in life and all of God's plan for us. He really liked it because lately he's been thinking a lot about those kinds of questions. He has trouble coming to church on Sunday though because he usually lives over at his girlfriend's house every weekend in another city. He's a super cool guy though.

  We had an investigator come to church this Sunday that we had met with a couple of times and given a Book of Mormon. He came to church for five minutes and then said to us that he wanted to give us the book back. He had found another copy that he had received about 10 years ago but had never read. He said that he liked the church and everything, but that he didn't need God. It was pretty sad to hear him say that. He has run into missionaries several times in his life and has had plenty of opportunities accept the truth, but he still feels that God is not important to him. Pretty sad. I wish him the best though.

   Next week we have a party for our English class so Elder Lin and I have been making some pinatas! They were a huge success in my other areas because no one has ever seen a pinata here in Taiwan haha. Some of them think it's pretty strange, but they love it.

  On Saturday, Diego came up from Tainan to eat dinner with Elder Lin and me. I've been practicing up on my Chinese Idioms and impressed him by saying a few that even he didn't know how to say haha. It was pretty fun. (a Chinese idiom is a saying with just four characters that make a phrase. For example: Fu shui nan shou means "what's done is done and is hard to change" The characters literally mean: "spilled water is hard to gather") Chinese Idioms are lots of fun to use. Elder Lin and I like to use them on each other to argue with and make fun of each other haha.

  Well it's been a pretty fun week! We're having a good time!! Thanks for the emails! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Stevens 

Visit From Diego