Fenglin is now my second home, and also I can declare the gospel AND get wrecked at basketball, in all corners of the world, at the same time

No new pictures this week, so I thought I would share this one again. 
The Elders and the bowling alley. :)

So this week went pretty well, it was a long one, but a lot of great stuff happened.

Monday, we went to visit He dixiong (brother He) at his work and were told that he finally quit! After so long of hating his hours and the environment and everything about his job he just up and quit! Now he's being a little strange when he texts us for some reason, but [quitting his job] is definitely progress on his desire to be baptized, so we'll take it for now haha.

Tuesday, I was on exchanges to 鳳林-Fenglin for I believe the 5th time.  It's starting to feel like my second home honestly, haha. We taught an incredible recent convert who's super cool and had an awesome conversation about Christ's grace in trials. We also taught a guy we [found] last time I was down there, and did some more knocking [on doors]. There's some interesting people in Fenglin that's for sure.  It's quite the place.

Thursday, we went by the same investigator that stood us up when we found that one really cool investigator a couple weeks ago, and he was gone again, but his son was home. He had perfect English and was pretty cool too.  He was willing to talk with us again so I guess we just need to keep getting "fang'ed" (stood up) by that guy if we're lacking in potential investigators haha.

That night we were also able to visit a cool guy Elder Vincent knocked into on exchanges. He lives in a village of shacks by the beach and has some health problems, but he's way nice and super humble and wants to learn how he can have power from God to conquer his problems, so we're excited to help him get that. He also likes to say "America.... Number one!" in English a lot, so he's a funny guy.

Friday, we were able to oversee a basketball activity at the church and get wrecked (AKA schooled, bested, etc) by a bunch of Taiwanese dudes, which was sick. We had two investigators come with friends along with a bunch of members so it was a pretty good turnout.

Sunday, we had an Asia area conference where we saw Elder Anderson and several other general authorities broadcast out to us.  It was really good.  They talked about praying and relying on the Lord and then going and acting.  They also talked about focusing on good things versus better things.  It was pretty solid even though we could only listen to it with everyone else with the Chinese voice over. It was funny to hear them try to say greetings or places in Chinese before the voiceover would kick in and they'd make a joke about it and the missionaries would laugh and then the rest of the people would laugh when the voice came in 5 seconds later haha.

I was reading in Alma 43 and 44 about how Captain Moroni and the Nephites totally wrecked the Lamanites because...

1. They were defending their families and freedom and religion from people who hated them for it and wanted to enslave them.
2. They had the Lord on their side and...
3. They actually thought to wear more than a freaking loincloth. 

Looking in 44 when the Lamanites have been thoroughly wrecked and Moroni stops the fighting for a bit, it amazes me how even though Moroni was wrecking them and probably had every right to show no mercy on the Lamanites (considering he didn't ask to have to defend his family with the shedding of blood), but instead, he gave them a way out by demanding they make a covenant to never attack them again, and then go in peace. He wasn't going to be swayed for any less than what he knew was right, but he was meek enough to be willing to take the high road, which I thought was a pretty good example of "strong self restraint" as a part of meekness as Elder Bednar put it.

I know we have a Father in Heaven, that He sent His Son to go through everything we would have to go through completely and utterly alone so we don't have to, and if we turn to Him those things that are impossible on our own become possible through Him. 

I love you guys, have a great week and remember to do the little things for people and yourself both physically and spiritually, they really do add up!

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