Elder Ogden in Taipei: Area No 4: 三峽！

Me with ZiSong

Hello everyone!

This was a very exciting and full week. Last Sunday we were able to watch the first presidency Christmas Devotional in Chinese. I enjoyed the talks a lot, and it was nice because the reason we were watching it was because our friend Brother 李(Li), who is working towards baptism next year, wanted to watch it. Originally we planned on going to the Taoyuan stake center to watch it, but getting there takes about 45 minutes and we found out no one from our ward was actually going. So instead, we hit up our friend 子菘 Zi Song to help us get it set up at the chapel. We didn't have any other single adults from the ward come like we were hoping, but we had a friend who was found in the area of his work in Taipei and has been taught by those missionaries for a while. He has since started transitioning to us and coming to church in BaDe where he lives. He came to watch the devo too. It's cool because he, brother Li, and Zi Song are all the same age, single, and really chill, and they hit it off pretty well.

On Monday we had a nice dinner with the Hu family. Brother Hu actually served with my dad on the mission way back when. My dad was his zone leader. That was very fun. They lived in Provo for a while and worked at the Salt Lake temple. Brother Hu's English is perfect. He translates for General Conference, so he's kind of a big deal.

2nd posting of picture to remind you what the Hu's look like.:)

After that our week was full of visits to members, following up with cool people we've met, and getting transfer calls through our Google drive on Tuesday night. I was sent to 三峽 (Sanxia) with Elder Young, who just finished being trained as well. Sanxia is great, it's right across from YingGe, so it borders my last area, which is great to be so close to my friends there. It's pretty different, a little richer and a lot more people, but it's still close to the mountains and it's gorgeous. Our ride to the church is 45 minutes on a bike trail, but it's along a pretty river, so that makes up for the distance to the church.

My new companion is named Elder Young. He's great, he's from North Dakota, and he's really into music as well.

I also realized I don't think I ever really mentioned much what my trainee, Elder Brady is like. He's a great guy. He runs cross-country and has lived in Switzerland and Morocco. He is really into growing plants and farming. He can't stand spicy food, which is quite a shame.

With Elder Brady, the Yan's, and another companionship

They have a really good kind of spiciness here that I think comes from 四川SiChuan (pronounced "sih chwan" (kinda)) province in China, which is famous for it's spicy food. They call that kind of spice 麻辣 ma-la, which means that it leaves a little numb, tingly sensation in your mouth, AND it's spicy. I like it a lot.

I'm loving it here already. The work has some great momentum going and the members here are excited and desirous to do missionary work. We've already seen some great miracles that show that it's going to continue to be that way.

This weekend we had a couple activities involving members (we've actually spent time with members in some way or another multiple times each day so far since I got here), and it's been great for me to meet a bunch of our awesome members of the ward here right away. Many of them live really close to us, including our bishop, and I was able to meet him the night I arrived. At a badminton activity on Friday night, our friend Sister Zhu (she was actually a referral from members in my last area. They were hoping that we in BaDe could teach her but she needed to come to Sanxia where she lives, so I had met her several times and she already knows and is comfortable with me) brought a friend from work! She wasn't interested, but we hadn't even thought to ask her to invite friends to this activity, so we can only imagine what will happen when we remember to do our job and invite her to share the gospel and help us meet her friends haha.

On Saturday we had a friend named XinYi who got baptized and brought her friend to that, who is very nice. She also brought her mom to the confirmation the next day! XinYi signed up for English class online and was apparently completely golden from the moment they contacted her. Then I got here just in time to see her get baptized, which was a great experience. I could tell she was very excited. There was also a cool miracle when we were riding by some kids on the street. We said hi, and when they said hi back, something came over me and I hopped up from the road onto the sidewalk, turned around, and rode back after them. We got them to stop and talk and discovered the older boy had felt abandoned by God and Christ and the people at his church because of something he had realized about himself. He had decided to become an Atheist. We shared about the Book of Mormon and testified to him of God's plan and the truthfulness of the book. He set up to meet the next day! He showed up and after a discussion about what he feels about God's existence right now, we shared the message of the restoration, during which he was contributing, asking questions, and we were emphasizing things about Christ and families and this life that he needed to hear. By the end he understood perfectly well why he needs the Book of Mormon, and was very willing to read it and start praying again. Then he offered an amazing and heartfelt prayer letting Heavenly Father know he is willing to follow Him again if he can find peace and understanding. It was awesome, he's a great kid. It just reminded me of the simplicity and power of the message we share, and how merciful our Heavenly Father is. He really wants us to understand how to find peace and happiness, and He's willing to show us if we're humble enough to ask and have patience.

Merry Christmas everyone! Thanks to everyone who has shared how they're lighting the world! I love you all, 加油 JiaYou!

Elder 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