Site Seeing, Meetings, And Changing Lives...

Hello Everyone!! 

  We had another great week! I'm sorry that I'm so bad with writing emails. But after writing so many, I just run out of fun ways to start them or fun things to say haha. So I'll just tell you how the week went.

  On Monday I went to the Lotus Ponds with my companion Elder Steele. I've gone twice before when I was in Gaoxiong, but Elder Steele had never been before so I took him there. It was cool going again though. There were a lot more lilies in the pond this time than there were when we went during the summer. So that was cool.

  On Tuesday we went to a District meeting and then went on exchanges with the Elders Porter and Pothier from Chaozhou (a city south of Ping Dong city). Elder Pothier is brand new on the island, he got here 3 weeks ago so it was a lot of fun serving with him for a little bit. He is super tall, about a head taller than me, and really big.  Therefore, sometimes people are a little afraid to talk with him, but he's such a nice guy so they can feel that.

  On Thursday we went up to Taizhong again!! This time was for our Mission Leaders Conference. It was a really good one about Finding. We talked about how we need to prepare ourselves to be ready to find the people who want to hear the gospel. We have to let God know that he can trust us to find and teach His children. If we aren't doing all we can to prepare ourselves, then He won't trust us with this great responsibility. We got back to the Ping Dong train station at about 8:30 at night and while riding our bikes from the station, we ran into a member from our ward. She called us into her bread shop and gave us some super good cream puffs and some pudding! Those cream puffs were super good! Talk about miracles!!

  On Thursday we met with an investigator named L... We've been meeting with him for a while, but it's been hard for him to really live a gospel centered life because he is in the Army here and the people all around him are pretty mean to him. He doesn't want to do anything to stand out from the rest of the people so he falls into peer pressure a lot. We're still working with him though.

   We finally were able to meet with a guy named S... that I had met in a convenient store when on exchanges with Elder Gilbert about 1 1/2 months ago. He just never had time until Saturday night. He came in and he said he had been drinking a little bit at a family get together an hour or two ago. We talked about how the gospel could help him improve his life and his family's and that it could help him stop drinking too. He then told us that he had been trying to do that for many years and especially wanted to do it now because his liver is failing and needs to stop. We taught him about prayer and asked him to say one. He said a simple prayer in which he asked for help to overcome his drinking problem. After the prayer he just broke down and started to cry and thanked us over and over again for coming to help him. He is a really great guy, and wants to do all he can to be a better person so that he can help his family. 

  We've had a great week, and I'm excited to Skype with you all next Monday!! (Monday morning here) I hope we can find a way to Skype you all, because as of now, we don't have anything to use haha. Wish us luck!! I'm happy everything is going well back in the states! I love you all lots. I hope you appreciated all the pics that I sent. They are all courtesy of my companion haha. love you all!

Love

Elder Stevens


Lotus Pond, Goaxiong, Taiwan, April 2016












Mission Leaders Training Meeting, Taichung, Taiwan


Taichung Mission, Mission Leaders, April 2016

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