1/6th Already!

Taipei

大家好!(dàjiāhǎo-hello big family)

I've been seeing all the news about our new prophet and first presidency, and all I can say is, while I already miss President Monson a ton (he really was so amazing), through the process of calling a new prophet, my testimony has just been strengthened even more that this really is the Lord's true church on the earth. We really have a prophet who communes with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ to guide the church and hasten this wonderful work! I know it's true and I'm excited for the great things the future will bring for the work of the Lord and this area of the world in particular!

A lot of crazy things happened this week, including the fact that I realized I am already almost 1/6th of the way done with my mission🤤  That is so crazy! It had really flown by and it will only go faster as I go along! When I looked at it that way, it really put in perspective how short this time to devote all my attention to serving the Lord really is, and I need to cherish and give my all to every moment!

Saturday was a special day (and yes we did get ready for Sunday- reference to the primary song, Saturday...) We had the privilege of going with Elder Nielsen's recent convert from here,鄭弟兄-zhèng dìdixōng, to the temple to do baptisms for his first time! He was able to take ancestors [names] and he had a very special, sacred experience, as did we! It was so nice to be in the temple again and feel the peace and presence of the Lord, and it was really cool to see how everything is the same even here, but with interesting twists that reflect the culture.

At the Taipei Temple

After the temple we ate lunch and some AMAZING mango ice with 鄭弟兄, and parted ways so he could visit his mother. That guy is actually incredible, he has been so generous to us missionaries and others, he loves the gospel with all his heart, and he's so humble and willing to devour all the knowledge and experience it offers to the honest seeker, it really is cool to see what the gospel can do for someone who was already so great on his own! I'm excited for what the future has in store for him and his family.

Mango ice

Also crazy but amazing, that night one of our investigators with ridiculously busy work, texted us telling us about a very detailed dream he had that basically [the spirit] outright told him he needed to change work so he could put God first and he wanted to know what we thought. What?? We were a little shell-shocked, but we told him that we knew God wants him to be able to learn what he needs to in order to be baptized and have the means to return to Him, and maybe this was Him telling him that changing his work might be the only way he could give his all to that, but that it was his revelation and he needed to pray about it himself.  We cannot, and should not force him to do anything. He thanked us and said he was willing to go where the Lord leads him, we're just in awe at how amazing he is!

This week was a pretty typical week in the life of a missionary besides those big things.  We actually got quite a bit of finding time which we haven't gotten a ton of recently, but as a result of that we've really learned the importance of talking with everyone wherever we possibly can, and [have] seen a lot of miracles because of it. We actually saw more miracles from talking to people around study times or on the way to appointments than in all of our knocking or street contacting time, which was really interesting, but I guess it's important to be willing to do that kind of work to show diligence to the Lord for Him to lead us to prepared people regardless of the setting we find them!

Random Pictures (waiting to see if Elder Ogden labels them...:)

Another thing we've been trying is really focusing on being friends with our investigators first, so that our desire to teach and baptize them stems from our love for them rather than less worthy motivations, and that we can make sure they know that too. So we've been texting all of the most willing investigators and potentials we have throughout the days and just having nice conversations with them along with asking how commitments are going and inviting them to activities and to meet with us.  It's been interesting to figure out balancing that with our other responsibilities, but we've gotten a lot of people more willing to set up and learn more and a lot of investigators actively keeping commitments and just having better relationships with us, so the technology has definitely been a blessing to the work in that way. 

One cool thing is that this week I got to see some ancient Chinese calligraphy, which is something that not very many people can read or write. It's kind of similar to the characters now, but a lot is different.  It has a lot more circles and curves and it's gorgeous to look at. It's so cool to learn about this language and culture that pretty much outdates any of the common European languages we tend to learn in America by a lot.  It's definitely sparked a love that will extend far beyond my mission!

Again, waiting to see if Elder Ogden labels these.  Looks like a cool place though!

Spiritual thought:

"And it came to pass that after they had spoken these words the Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come, according to the words which king Benjamin had spoken unto them." Mosiah 4:3

I love this scripture because it really sums up what the gospel does for us when we accept it. Just like these people in the previous verse cried unto the Lord to allow them to use the Atonement of Jesus Christ to purify and renew then, when we do the same, we are filled with the love of the Lord and gain a peace of conscience and the ability to find lasting happiness that cannot be found anywhere else. It's amazing to see how the gospel really does change people into something better and happier than they were before. It doesn't raise us above other people, but it will always raise us above what we were previously if we give our all to following the perfect example of love that Jesus Christ gave us as well as using His Atonement! It's something that cannot be described, only experienced, and I'm so happy to be and to help people have that experience for themselves!

I love you all and I wish you the best of weeks and 生活如意！(shēnghuó rúyì-life as you wish or a gratifying life basically)

加油！（jiāyóu)

Elder Ogden

More random pics

So many beautiful pictures this week from Elder Ogden!  Hopefully he'll have time to label some of them, but if not, we will find out what they are in a little over 600 days.  Lol.