December 18, 2011

Sorry today will be a brief letter, I accidentally forgot to save my email to President Bishop again and it got erased. :/

We're going to eat lunch today with our recent convert Huang Yi Li. He's absolutely wonderful. We're bringing a copy of the Liahona with a bunch of pictures of the temple, and we're going to help him get excited to go to the temple! He still reminds me of Dad. I can't wait till the battle that ensues after each meal with him about who pays. I'm determined to get him this time. :)

 

 I'm a little bit sad that so many other new members aren't coming. I was really surprised to hear that Trevor's mission president in the phillipines officially came out and said the focus of their mission is no longer baptizing, but rescuing. I'm glad we're a baptizing mission! But I also like rescuing too. Both are good.

I'm excited for christmas. I'm even more excited that on christmas eve we have an investigator that's getting baptized! His name is Wu Rong Tai. He's super cool. The poor guy lives in a mental hospital. But he seems completely normal. We took a member there to teach with us, and the member was able to make good friends with him. Afterward the member told us that Brother Wu probably works there. We've had him interview with the bishop as well, so the Bishop could get to know him, and the Bishop says he seems great and was really willing to announce his baptism this saturday. (This morning we played tennis again with the Bishop, ward mission leader, and 1st counselor in the stake presidency. It's so fun! and we have a great relationship with the Bishop and his family). We're worried Brother Wu will struggle with smoking. he has so much faith. He had smoked one cigarette the day before, but after the interview he was really determined not to smoke. I noticed he was acting a little funny in church yesterday, and asked him what was up. He said he was going through major withdrawals. haha, poor guy. But there's nowhere better to be than sacrament meeting. He went and washed his face a couple times, and prayed and seemed to make it through. I think he'll make it.

other than tennis I'm developing the talent of playing the recorder. I bought one for 100 dollars and it plays really well! My companion Elder Petters and play the ocarina like a star, and so we usually play a christmas hymn in the morning on our instruments. It brightens my day.

I think worrying about missionaries in the zone, and about investigators smoking all mixed together in my head last night. I had this terrible dream last night where I went on exchanges with the first ward elders, and when I got to the seven eleven where we would meet, I saw Elder Wang sitting there smoking a cigarette!
Don't worry it was only a dream. I don't think Elder Wang has a problem with smoking.

I'm also excited for christmas because I get to play prelude music with Elder Ammon Chung at the Christmas activity again. I'm excited for that! 

Guess what else happened this week? President Bishop called us up and told us that one of the best cellists in Taiwan knew our Area seventy, Elder Gong, and when Elder Gong came to Taiwan, he introduced the Bishops to this Cellist, Evelyn Huang. She invited President Bishop to come and be interviewed on her radio station. President Bishop invited Elder Chung and I to play violin and viola on the radio!

So we prepared a couple songs, and played on taiwan radio. It was awesome! She was surprised that we wanted to play, and probably didn't think we would be very good. But it sounded great, it was really blessed. We played "how great thou art" and also a traditional taiwanese song about a flower that everybody loves. Mo li hua. I guess it would translate to... Jasmine. Elder Zhong plays the viola so well. He's amazing!

I thought it was really really fun. I think my favorite part, however, was when she asked about Family home evening.  President and Sister Bishop happened to have made a song they sing every monday night, so they sang their family home evening song to the tune of The Spirit of God. "The Bishop family home evening is starting...
It truly helped me feel once again the importance of family home evening, and family and marriage. It's something that I really haven't had a lot of experiences with in Taiwan. Not a lot of people do family home evening.
I think I will focus on families more and more until the end of my mission.

The zone is doing well. We're really going to need a push this week to find some prepared people and drop them in this week if we're to hit our goal of 11. But I know we can do it!!!
Merry Christmas,

Talk to you soon!
Love, Elder Vernon