Elder Ogden in Taipei: Farewells and New Beginnings

Map for reference of Josh's new area vs. other areas in Taiwan that are familiar to us.

Hello everybody, 大家好！

This was a pretty eventful week and I am now in 竹東 (Zhú Dong, pronounced joo dong with the o making the "oh" sound), a small city in the middle of nowhere to the east of 新竹(xīnzhú or sheen joo) city on the west coast of Taiwan! Environment-wise it's not much different from Hualien, other than its even more rural. So much for me getting thrown into the big city life like I was expecting. Oh well, it'll just make that culture shock even more pronounced when it does happen.

Zhudong

Zhudong is an awesome place. It's pretty rural; the atmosphere and everything is a lot like Fenglin, but the city is much more developed. The chapel is huge and very beautiful, and the members are all wonderful. Our investigators are also great, we have 3 baptismal dates all of whom are loving the gospel and very excited to be baptized, I was able to become fast friends with all of them.

My new companion is 洪長老-Elder Hong, he's from Nantou, Taiwan, so needless to say his Chinese is very good. He moved from the mission office here to follow-up train Elder Raymond from my generation, so his English is also very good. It's just us here in Zhubei, so my Chinese is probably going to have some much needed help just out of necessity of speaking it at almost all times, haha. I'll for sure miss Elder Vincent's humor and being able to talk to him about anything unhindered by a language barrier however small, but thankfully Elder Hong is really nice and a great missionary, we are pretty similar personality wise so I think we'll get along great.

Before transfers this week we went to Taroko gorge again on Pday. That was awesome, we went a little deeper into the gorge this time and saw some cool temples perched on the side of the cliff and some waterfalls and memorials.

With Elders Davis, Vincent, and Smith

The next two days were actually pretty busy. We knew I was going to leave, so we were able to meet with a lot of our investigators so I could say goodbye and teach them one last time. We had some good lessons from that. We ate lunch with Brother Zheng, the recent convert, and we were able to talk about preparing for the temple, the importance of service, and keeping your testimony strong of the basic truths of the gospel. He asked us for a Priesthood blessing for his big test that's coming up, which we gladly gave him.

On Wednesday at English class, I was able to play Come Thou Fount on the cello one last time with Sister Hansen, who was going home, and with Sister Chu. It was sad to say goodbye to all of the awesome people in English class and in our ward and in our investigator pool, but I know it was time to go serve somewhere else. I feel good about the service I've done in Hualien. I didn't see a ton of success that can be measured in numbers, but several investigators, members, and missionaries expressed that I've really impacted them for good. Our investigator, Lawrence, even called me a good friend sent from heaven and said the things I've taught him will always help him through setbacks and failures. Being able to hear that is really what it's all about, and what's more, I know that Heavenly Father is watching over him and that he will be ready to be baptized before long and have everything that comes from that too.

Thursday was a very stressful day of moving. In the morning we missed our train because a cranky old lady took about 7 hours to write out a receipt to give us and a sticker to put on our bikes so they could be shipped to our new areas, so that was an adventure, haha. It all worked out though. I was just delayed about 2 hours. Then on the train ride to Xinzhu, I sat next to a guy who was way cool and had met with missionaries before. He was really interested to talk to me more about what we do here. That was definitely a miracle I ended up on that train later than planned.

On Friday, we met with all three of our baptismal dates, all of whom are way awesome, like I said. It was really cool with the last one. She said she had prayed about Joseph Smith's experience and then had all these things happen and all these realizations that made her really feel God was letting her know what we had told her was true. The member who helped us in that lesson is way cool too, he's got a sick "Beijing huar" accent because he spent a lot of time on the mainland and he helped translate the Book of Mormon into Chinese. He's a pretty remarkable dude.

Saturday was great. We went up to Taipei to do the Lamb of God performance. That went really well and everyone loved it. All of the people who put it together did a great job. I'm glad I got to participate. It was way cool to hear it entirely in Chinese too.

Yesterday was a great sabbath. We had some cool investigators come, and I was able to meet some great members. That night we rode out to visit a member who showed us is family history all the way back to Adam, and also to
孫子-Sunzi, or Sun Tzu (the writer of "the art of war" if you're a nerd and have heard of that in your life haha), for whom he has finished temple ordinances. That was way sick.

Well, this is getting pretty long so I'll wrap up. I know that the work I'm engaged in is guided by the hand of our Heavenly Father, that He knows His children individually and perfectly, and will always send help to those who are willing to accept it and even those who aren't sometimes. If we choose to follow Him, we will come to know Him too, and then we will wonder how we ever got by without that knowledge.
I love you guys, have a great week!