Teaching and also getting wrecked at basketball by 12 year olds again but hey at least I can work an oven...

No pictures from Elder Ogden this week, but that's okay because we got to see his cute face via Skype!

Hello! 大家好!-dà jiā hǎo

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there, 母親節快樂(mǔqīnjié kuàilè)! In regards to my opening line, on Saturday, we were getting ready for a Mother's Day activity and our young men's and elder's quorum presidents were fiddling with the oven to keep warm some meat they had brought already cooked, and they asked us for help. In Taiwan they really don't use ovens hardly ever, so between that and the fact that the buttons were all in English, they were struggling a little bit. Thankfully I was an expert at pushing the "broil" button, so all was well haha. Thanks mom!  (Side note from Missionary Mom Des...I guess I still need to teach him a little about ovens seeing as "broil" would have continued to cook the meat, instead of just keep it warm.  Lol.  😂😂)

This week went really well.  It wasn't super eventful other than a lot of our investigators were able to start progressing, even some we were worried wouldn't have desire, so that was great to see.

We met with Lawrence, the guy who is hoping Christ can help him be a better father, and it went super well.  We were able to share about baptism and how it helps us recieve the power of Christ's sacrifice which can help him have that continual improvement he wants and have an eternal family and everything, and he was way down. He said "Oh yeah, if I can know this is all true for myself then of course I'll follow Jesus Christ." And then we were like "It's a good thing that's exactly what we're here to do; give you the tools to receive a witness of the truthfulness of our message directly from God for yourself" so that was pretty sick.

We also got to go around a little bit playing basketball with people at random courts inviting them to a tournament we're organizing at the church soon, and we were able to meet a lot of cool people and get thrashed by junior high Taiwanese kids many times, it was sweet haha.

I'm back in the war chapters of Alma again which, like I said in the MTC, is one of my favorite parts of the Book of Mormon. I've been learning a lot about the affect of small and simple things, and how what we put into our life, we get out of it. 

Moroni lived his life by teaching his people to always remember God and keep his commandments, and was always relying on Him and then going and taking action by building up the fortifications of his cities and defending himself against the Lamanites by stratagem. On the other hand, Amalackiah wins power by deceit and flattering words and murder and whomever lets him have even a little control in their lives, even when they still feel in control the whole time, they end up getting more than they bargained for. So it is too with us...if we're building up our spiritual armor by reading the scriptures and praying every day and always striving to improve in every aspect of our life and helping others and not giving Satan so much as a foothold in our minds, we'll be in full control of our lives and we will have peace of mind and heart and like the Lord promises many times in the Book of Mormon, we will "prosper in the land". Conversely, if we're getting complacent with those best things or even feeding our mind with outright bad things, we're going to get what comes from that. 

That's true in sharing the gospel with people and it's true in really any aspect of our lives. I'm grateful I can share with people those small and simple tools in their lives to help them develop that relationship with our Heavenly Father!

Thanks again to everyone for all of the support I get from you guys! The next time I email will probably be from somewhere near Taipei, since I have been here for so long chances are transfers will take me away from Hualian! I'm sad at the prospect of leaving here but I'm ready to take what I've learned here and hit the ground running wherever I'm needed! Have a great week! Love you guys!

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