Exchanges (lots of exchanges)

Elder Ogden with a drinkable vinegar beverage

大家好!(da4jia1hao3-hello big family)

So this week was pretty interesting to say the least. We went to Taroko on Monday which was AMAZING, so beautiful, and I got a couple cool little 原住民-yuánzhùmín, or aboriginal, things to take home.

After district meeting on Tuesday I started "exchange to 鳳林-fènglín pt. 2 featuring, Elder Shope", which was exciting as always. We talked to a cool soldier from Taipei, doing his mandatory military service, at dinner and then went down to the same little 原住民 (aboriginal) village I had gone to with him last time. [We had a] lesson where we had a guy who was a little tipsy and not really all there, drop us because he couldn't get baptized when he had originally planned on, so that was quite the experience to say the least haha.

Fenglin

Elder Ogden and Elder Shope

Fenglin

Later in the week I got to go on exchanges with Elder Bagley again, which was really awesome. He goes home soon and he had a lot of wisdom to dump on me, especially about goals and a vision for myself with God's vision for me.  It really changed my outlook and I've already seen blessings from the changes I made as a result of that.

Elder Ogden and Elder Bagley

Friday was a little rough for me.  My Chinese was really struggling for some reason, and even though I stuck to my goals for contributing to finding people, we didn't find anyone willing to learn more. The next day was about the same, that is until we were heading up the hill to a place called 美崙-měilún when Elder Nielsen just got compelled to keep going and lead us on a different route than normal. We were puffing up the hill and a young man just says hi to me and I figured "might as well", and I stopped and talked to him. We had a really nice conversation and he was pretty willing to agree on a time to meet with us. Then, we met a sick firefighter at the top of the hill and hit it off really well with him and he was down to learn more. Then, we were able to invite a guy who had been meeting with missionaries to finally try prayer, and he accepted. Then, we taught a member referral who had no previous knowledge about the church at all and up to that point his willingness and interest had been kinda lukewarm, but as we taught him the Plan of Salvation, based on his member friend's feelings, he started asking about repentance and forgiveness and what that's all about, and for probably the first time on my mission I was able to really feel like I helped someone understand things they didn't get, address their concerns, and truly teach according to their needs! That whole night I just felt led by the spirit and we were on fire, it felt so good to be an instrument in the Lord's hands in that way.

Plan of Salvation--Chinese style

Cool thing: So, we were talking to this sick guy with perfect English and suddenly the 7-11 started shaking and my first thought...(Missionary Mom Des here.  This is where Elder Ogden must have gotten distracted and forgot to continue this kind of important story.  Lol.  Hopefully we will be able to hear more about his earthquake experience next week...)

Spiritual thought: I was reading Jacob 7 the other day about Sherem the Antichrist, and it was so interesting to me the methods he used to convince people that what he was preaching was correct. He didn't tell them a way they could come to know for themselves, but instead he used flattery and deceit and false logic and "too good to be true" promises to persuade them. That's something I love about the work we do here and the way we are told to do it. We invite people to do the same things we have done, and have their OWN experience, and come to feel for themselves the truthfulness of our message. It just made me think about how the Gospel is given to us by our Heavenly Father to help us achieve our potential as His children and return to live with him, and if knowing it was true was as easy as listening to someone throw logic at you and living it was as easy as Sherem wanted the people to believe it was, then what would be gained from it? What growth would there be? If we could stay the way we are and receive the perfect happiness the gospel promises without doing anything for ourselves, why even come to earth? It wouldn't make sense. 

I really learned this week that life is about struggle and joy, about being left by yourself for a bit and learning to rely on the Lord, and when the dust settles and you're still standing strong and determined, that's when the blessings come and you will reach your potential in the end! Finding joy in the midst of hard times, when the success just isn't coming, is something I'm having to learn, and I've definitely been much happier for it 

I love you all and I hope you have a great week! Remember to look for the little things that show the hand of the Lord in your life, and you will see them, and do the little things that invite His hand into your life and it will come!

Elder Joshua Ogden
Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Kumquats

More info from Josh's letter to Missionary Mom Des...

I'm glad to hear people are overcoming challenges! The only way Satan can win when we're not doing bad things is get us discouraged and make us stop doing good things, so when you're feeling like giving up, just say "screw you Satan!"and keep going instead!

I thought I'd share a bit about the church [building] since I forgot to in my group email. Our church is 3 floors, with the offices on the second and the gym and chapel on the 3rd. There's three wards that meet at 8:30, 9, and 1:30 (the first one has sacrament first which doesn't really make sense but oh well haha.) A lot of the time in Taiwan the chapel will just be a floor or two in a building, especially in Taipei and the other big cities, and in Fenglin it's just a rented unit that used to be a restaurant or something. 

We've been helping the wards get a mutual program (program for the youth of the church) started recently, and the most they're able to do is one activity a month with all of the wards in Hualian combined.  Then the wards are on their own to do whatever young men's or women's activities they see fit.

For my spiritual thought this week  I thought I would share what I learned from reading in Enos this week. It was so cool as I was reading it because I noticed a pattern he goes through whenever he receives an answer to his prayer: 

• The process:
1. He has a righteous desire
2. He prays, but not just that, he "wrestle(s) before God...continually", "pour(ing) out (his) whole soul", "with many long strugglings"
3. The Lord grants his desires "because of (his) faith in Christ, whom (he had) never before heard nor seen"
4. Because Enos has faith in the Lord and knows He CANNOT LIE, his "soul did rest"
5. Then, he "seeks diligently" to make his righteous desire happen, "(declaring) it in all (his) days"
6. Then he has hope through the Atonement that he will one day "go to the place of (his) rest, which is with (his) Redeemer,...(in the) place prepared for (him) in the mansions of (His) father."
I loved that because I've really been focusing on improving my prayers and as I've applied these things it's helped a lot and really helped me have the spirit more in everything I do. It's also interesting how first he starts out by repenting, and only when he's done that does he ask the Lord for things, most of which are non-self-centered requests, and there's just so much to learn from that one chapter that I never fully realized until this last time reading it! 

More info from Josh's letter to Mark...

I have yet to get sick here, which I probably just jinxed myself, but I have come close after I had to eat a squid meatball 🤢 .  There had also been various fish paste foods that have made me want to claw my stomach out, but for the most part the food has been good.

Baseball field in Hualian or Fenglin