Homeless guys like water bottles, and also even the ding dongs get led to cool people when they're doing the Lord's work.

Elder Ogden has not uploaded any pictures for this week yet.  Busily engaged in the work of the Lord. :)

Hello everybody!

This week was awesome, we saw a lot of miracles and I learned a lot about myself and following the Spirit!

To start, on Monday, we had kind of a chill PDay, and then we visited with a less active family whose mom particularly seems to want to come to church.  It's just overcoming the inertia of having stuff she can do for work and stuff around the house that has been a challenge. On Thursday, we were able to visit with a brother who hasn't been to church for a while for the same reasons.  It's been cool to see them open up as they realize more and more that they really are needed and loved in the church and the ward and that they do have friends at church. We shared the new Ask of God video about Joseph Smith's first vision with the people we visited and testified of the Restoration and those lessons were some of the strongest spiritual experiences I've felt since I've been here.  It was really cool, and I could tell it helped them a lot I'm grateful the Lord has lead us to visit them!

On Tuesday, we were able to teach a man who we invited on the street to English class, and he came with his son and had a lot of interest in having his son learn about Christ so he can ensure he is raised with good values, because he feels like he's not a very good father (even though he really is).

Wednesday, we applied some things we learned at our zone conference in English class, and it went really well.

Thursday, we had a lot of time for finding, including after we got stood up by an investigator. I had a quote my dad sent me about when that happens remembering that the Lord knows where you are and that we need to look around for prepared people He places in those moments.  We turned and talked to this guy who was skateboarding, and he had perfect English and was way sick.  He also thinks the Book of Mormon sounds way cool, so we're excited to share with him. The Lord definitely makes sure people get found even when he has nudge the ding dong missionaries a little haha.

Friday, we had another meeting in Taipei because Elder Vincent is the English unit leader for our area, which means he oversees English class and did trainings and leads discussions on how to improve. We got a lot of good ideas from that as well as some Costco pizza, which is somehow even better when you're in Taiwan and haven't eaten good pizza in at least a month and a half haha.

Saturday, we had a solid lesson with Silence, who has been struggling with being able to rely on God more than man.  I think he got what that really means a bit better so hopefully he starts to get his questions answered as he prays sincerely. Also, we went finding for English class at this giant festival in a park, which went pretty well although it was definitely outside of my comfort zone walking through those crowds of people. We talked to some cool people though, so it was worth it. And also there was a homeless guy who kept yelling "American! American! I love you! American! BYU!" which is always a blast and then he stole Elder Vincent's water bottle. That was a blast and a half haha.

This week I thought I would share a thought that Sister Hansen, one of the sister training leaders in our area, shared at district meeting. She went old school with some good old Leviticus 1:2-3--

"2...If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord, ye shall bring your offering of the cattle, even of the herd, and of the flock.
3 If his offering be a burnt sacrifice of the herd, let him offer a male without blemish: he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord."

We observed that this kind of thing probably was not the most fun thing in the world to do. The children of Israel probably were not huge fans of taking the best animal in their herd and sacrificing it, even seeming like they were wasting all that good meat for results that weren't immediate or apparent. But they did it, because they loved the Lord and they trusted His promises, and their will was in line with his, so that desire to follow Him was stronger than their temporary desires for the easy road.

So it is with us.  Sometimes we are called upon to do stuff that takes us out of our comfort zone or doesn't exactly seem the most fun, like going to a park festival with crowds of people to try to get people to come to English class when you don't even particularly thrill at the idea of going to hang out with a small group of strangers, or giving a talk in church whether it's in your native language or Mandarin Chinese. It's important to remember though, that God knows what He's doing. If He has trusted you with a challenge, it's because He knows you can handle it, and one day you'll be dang glad you handled it with faith and perseverance and a live of God and your fellow man. 

I'm grateful the real, literal power of the Savior has given me the strength and hope to do this, and I'm thankful for the person I am becoming as I do my best to align my will with the Lord's, and let that take preference over my temporary desires. I thought that was a really cool perspective sister Hansen's thought taught me, I hope it helps you as you remember it when the less-than-fun parts of life come! I love you guys, have a great week!

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