The Lord Knows What He is Doing (Even When We Don't)

In Taipei with Elder Steffen

Hello Everyone!

So the this week was pretty great.  I don't have a ton of time to write about it because we just had P-Day last Wednesday, but our days were pretty packed so I've got a lot to write. (Catch 22 for sure...)

So Wednesday we kinda took it easy and went out to the shopping mall in our area to check out what there is in there and around that area. They have a place called Decathlon that has backpacks and sports gear that's pretty high quality for super cheap, so I was able to get some stuff that will be useful here (like rain gear and a bag) and when I go home (like a compact hammock and pillow).  We also ate way too much rice and curry at an all-you-can-eat curry place, that was a big mistake but I don't regret it at all haha.

Thursday we met with some friends including the most recent convert here.  Her name is Martina. She's super awesome.  She's been baptized for like a month, but has just been eating everything up, so basically the review lessons we're teaching are just a formality because she already knows everything on a super deep level.  But it's been a great opportunity to help her get to know more members here and give her opportunities to bear testimony and understand on an even deeper level. We also had our Member-Missionary coordination meeting, which was intense and helped us a lot. They have a lot of members and things they need us to help with here since the area is so big, so our week basically got filled up immediately with people to visit and assist.  That made it a lot easier to find effective things to do to help the ward and find more people to teach.

On Friday, Elder Steffen had a district leader training meeting in Taipei that we went up for, and then the couple missionaries that live right by us named the Yen's(顏), drove us back down to the bus stop where we parked our bikes. When we got there though, the bike Elder Steffen was riding was gone! We had both had to ride old crappy bikes because mine hadn't come from Zhudong yet and his is broken, and those bikes didn't have locks, so one of them got snatched. Luckily it was old and crappy, and the Yans were able to strap the other bike in, hanging out of their trunk and drive us to a lesson in Yingge and then home. After that we were really short on time to get to two lessons, but when we got back my bike had just barely come from Zhudong, so we miraculously had two working bikes to ride and be on time to our appointments!

This week I was really impressed by how merciful Heavenly Father is. Even though we messed up a lot this week and probably should have planned things differently at times, He knew we were doing our best and so things miraculously worked out time and time again. I know that as we do the Lord's work in our own lives and callings, He will make sure everything works out for us to accomplish that thing we need to do, always.
I love you all! 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

Elder Ogden is so happy to have a guitar!  He received it from Elder Cline, who was going home and kindly gave it to Josh. 
"As for the guitar, yeah I'm getting ok at it, I might ask you to send me some tabs in the future but a mission friend I knew had a lot that he was able to sent me so those have kept me entertained so far. All those hours spent on guitar hero as a kid are paying off...lol."