大小武長老 (Big and Little Elder Wu)

**Note from Missionary Mom Des-  The pictures in this post were also included in a post from last week.  Just so you don't think you are going crazy...("Wait, haven't I seen this pics before?"  Lol.)

A little service activity

大家好！(dàjiā hǎo-hello big famiily)

Hi so this week was definitely a tough one, but we saw a lot of miracles and I felt the joy of working hard for a good thing that I've always been promised but never really realized until I got out here!

On Monday we did a hike that was super cool, but sadly it would have been cooler if it hadn't rained up until the moment we started coming down  Haha oh well. 

View from the hike

That night we visited a guy that was super unwilling to do anything to gain a testimony so we had to drop him, which was sad, but such is life. Miracles come from dropping, and that has definitely been true with this (situation).

That night we met with Jeven, the guy that we meet at the 7 when I felt the first earthquake, (the one that I never finished telling about haha.) He was gone all Chinese New Year so we hadn't seen him for a while, but we reviewed the restoration with him and he was nodding and agreeing and giving his own thoughts the whole time. Then at the end, he told us from what he had read he knew the Book of Mormon was true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and everything else is true too, and he accepted an invite to baptism! That was super awesome, a little bit of a jump from before, but not unwelcome at all. The Holy Ghost is real!️

The next day we were running all around but we were able to visit 何弟兄-hé dìxiōng (dixiong means brother, by the way, if I haven't mentioned that yet ) at work and he just happened to be walking right where we pulled up our bikes.  We had him meet Elder Vincent and showed him (the) Gospel Library (app) and shared Elder Nelsen's talk about the Book of Mormon (This is the investigator that's read the book FIVE times in 3 years and loves it and finally found missionaries again btw), and he's excited to read that, I love that guy so much.

That day we also ran into 3 cool people and 2 of them were excited to come to a basketball activity the missionaries hold, so that was fun to get schooled by a bunch of Taiwanese high schoolers haha.

We got to go to Yuli (to help out with a big activity), which is the same kinda isolated place as Fenglin, which was a lot of fun.  In the moment I ended up kinda wishing we didn't have to go because it didn't quite feel like the most effective thing, but in the end it turned out ok and Elder Vincent got to know all of our awesome members really well, so that was great. 

Yuli

They've taken to calling us "大小武長老" or "da xiao wu zhanglao", which means "big and little Elder Wu" using the translation on the scriptures in Chinese, "Elder Wu the elder and Elder Wu the younger," (AKA Alma the Younger and his father)  So the tradition with Big Josh Isom lives on I guess, haha. (Missionary Mom Des here...my brother-in-law's name is also Josh and we used to call them "Big Josh" and "Little Josh" when my Josh was younger.) . 

Also I got roasted because I didn't even think of sunscreen and I've been shedding the skin on my forehead in sheets like a snake, so that's pretty sick haha.

"I got FRIED"

We ended up switching to teaching the advanced English class, which is a lot of fun because they love just talking and practicing discussing stuff, so it's almost relaxing in a way to be able to help people and not have the language barrier be nearly as big (their English is way better than my Chinese obviously haha)

On Thursday we saw a lot of miracles. We went English finding and for the first time I felt like we met a lot of people who were excited to talk to us and come learn English (and some Jesus too hopefully ). 

Later that night we went knocking in the rain and met a lady that actually gave us a time we can come back since she was too busy then, and then we met an older guy who has been reading the Bible and thought it was way cool how the book of Mormon and the Bible work together. He was way sick we're excited to get to work with him! 

Friday we met with 鄭弟兄(pronounced "Jung dee shong") and he got to know Elder Vincent.  We got to give his wife a blessing so everything with their soon-to-come baby will go smoothly.  It was so awesome to feel the spirit fill their house as we were able to act as vessels of the Lord in that sense  Then we had a solid coordination meeting and visited that guy from the night before and helped him understand the importance of seeking truth from the source of all truth, his Heavenly Father, rather than friends trying to convince him he didn't need the Book of Mormon or even just us telling him he does need it; that he needs to ask God. He is such a sweet guy, we really hope he can overcome his confusion.

On Saturday, we taught English class and went up the mountain to Meilun again to do studies and some knocking. Looking for dinner up there, we ran around to like six places that were pretty expensive before we found one for a good price, but then the portion size was tiny so we went and got fried chicken too  That was a struggle.

In Meilun we saw a ton of miracles, from "randomly" running into a former who still has potential (investigator) at a 7-11, right after contacting a guy who ended up finding our Line profiles on our English class group chat and texting us to ask for all the details.  He is committed to making time to go.  Then we found a family who's willing to hear us out AND another one who was excited to come to church the next day! We also visited a former (member) who was a little drunk probably and gave us a drink that he was convinced wasn't tea, but I knew enough characters to realize it was milk tea, so that was quite the interesting experience. He's in a rough place for sure.  We'll see what the spirit can do with him

For my spiritual thought this week I thought I would share from a talk by Elder Bednar from April 2008 called "Ask in Faith", which is something I would definitely recommend you all read on LDS.org.  It's pretty stellar. In it he says this: 

"Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other” (Bible , “Prayer,” 752–53). Humble, earnest, and persistent prayer enables us to recognize and align ourselves with the will of our Heavenly Father. And in this the Savior provided the perfect example as He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, “saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. … And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly” (Luke 22:42, 44). 

The object of our prayers should not be to present a wish list or a series of requests but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is eager to bestow, according to His will and timing. Every sincere prayer is heard and answered by our Heavenly Father, but the answers we receive may not be what we expect or come to us when we want or in the way we anticipate. This truth is evident in the three examples I have presented today."

I have really been focusing on my prayers and on my faith this week, and I know that as I've applied the things Elder Bednar suggests in this talk, and acted in faith, we have seen miracles. I know that if you guys do the same, you will be more able to feel the spirit in your lives, and the miracles you need will come exactly when Heavenly Father knows you need them! He loves us all beyond our comprehension, and he knows us His sheep individually, and ministers to us one by one! Please remember that this week when things seem rough, because it has certainly helped me. Have a great week! I love you all!

Elder Joshua Ogden
Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
武忠樂長老
耶穌基督後期聖徒教會的傳教士