Elder Ogden in Taipei: I Love Zhudong!

On the roof of the Taiwan Taipei Mission Home, overlooking the Taipei Temple

大家好！-Hello, everyone!

To start out I do have to say I love Zhudong (Zh is a hard "J" sound), from the mountains, to the easygoing atmosphere, to the breakfast shop from heaven, to the members and other kind-hearted people, to the crazy guy in our apartment complex named Obama--it's just like a world of its own.

This Monday we went to Zhubei to play basketball and frisbee with some missionaries, including my MTC companion, Elder Anderson. It was way fun to see him, especially since I haven't seen him since he left for his reassignment the morning we found out our visas had come through in the MTC, so just over 6 months ago! After playing around for a bit we went to an all-you-can-eat buffet that was easily one of the fanciest places I've ever eaten. Our zone leader said it was comparable to a $100 Vegas buffet he's been to, which is the equivalent of about $20 in America. I think there may have been a tear or two shed by me. It was quite beautiful. (Only 1 or 2 tears though; I'm not that soft.)

"All you can eat buffet with salmon, BBQ pork, shredded duck, to risotto, spicy tofu, and that was just the beginning!"

Tuesday was our last zone conference with President and Sister Jergensen since they go home at the end of this transfer. It's pretty surreal to think most of my MTC teachers were here when they got on island, and now I'm seeing them off. They're awesome people and I've learned a lot from them, including a training on trusting Heavenly Father on Tuesday that was an answer to my prayers. I'll definitely miss them. This transfer is going to be an interesting adjustment with the new mission president, although I'm pretty isolated in Zhudong so we'll see if I even notice much, haha.

With President and Sister Jergensen at their last zone conference

We taught Alexander several times this week and he's doing really well. He wants to cut his "quit smoking goal" from 3 months to 2 weeks and get baptized next month, so that was a pleasant discovery. It's been cool to see his faith, that was already strong, grow even more as he has been able to devour the Book of Mormon again.

On Saturday, I was able to talk to 李弟兄-Brother Li, an investigator we were teaching in Hualian before I left, who was baptized that evening! It sounds like everything went well with that and he had a good experience and bore a great testimony, so I was happy to hear that. It sounds like things are going great back there with other people we were teaching and that they've found since too, which made me pretty happy.

I was reading in Helaman 5 this week and I came across verses 50-52, which reminded me of Alma 31:5:

"And now, as the preaching of the word had a great tendency to lead the people to do that which was just—yea, it had had more powerful effect upon the minds of the people than the sword, or anything else, which had happened unto them—therefore Alma thought it was expedient that they should try the virtue of the word of God."

I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ has more power to heal and change hearts and relationships, and make us into the people we need to be--more so than any earthly power, any weapon, any philosophy or self-help book, or anything else. Our Heavenly Father has a perfect plan for us, and although in the moment sometimes we may not understand at all why it is the way it is, if we trust in God's plan, all things will work together for our good in the end.

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