Elder Ogden in Taipei: "Mama, What Kind of a Person is That?"

Elder Young, Rusty, and Elder Ogden

Hi everyone,

So to explain the title, there have been a few times we've been walking around and we'll just see little kids point at us and say "Māma, Nàge Shì Shénme rén?" (Translation in the subject). In general people just stare at us unabashedly. Also, there's an occasional time where you just hear middle school girls a few tables down in a restaurant giggling and talking openly about how "帥"shuài (a casual way of saying attractive) the"foreigners" are, assuming we don't speak Chinese. We do. It's not that we're particularly handsome, it's just we have white skin. They think we look like movie stars, because to them all white people look the same. Then they actually get to know several white people and the fascination quickly dies out. We're actually pretty lame, haha.

This week went really great, we were able to see some miracles and minister to some people that really needed ministering.

On Tuesday I had an exchange with Elder Driggs. He's a great guy, and he was really happy because he was trained here way back when. We had a good time visiting some members and non members he knew, and we even got a referral to meet the next morning! That lady was really cool. She grew up in America, so her English is perfect. She has a disease that makes her very immobile and makes her speech very slurred and hard to understand, but she has really appreciated the love and service she's received from her member friend. She said she wanted to come to our church and she wanted to understand God's plan for her. We had a great lesson with her and she said she was willing to read the BoM, but the next day she texted her member friend letting her know she decided to be satisfied with her current beliefs. We think it was probably because of the influence of her mom, who takes care of her, and seemed to have not received a very good (or accurate) impression of the church from their church. So we were pretty sad about that.

On Friday we saw some miracles with members as they helped a friend that didn't have a ton of interest at the beginning to suddenly have a desire, and they got a less active lady to let them drive her to church! All the time we were seeing how the Lord had just lined that night up to work perfectly. That doesn't happen a lot, but when it does it's awesome. I know He remembers all of us, His children, and "he stretches forth his hands unto them all the day long"(Jacob 6).

Love you all!

Elder Ogden

Note from Missionary Mom Des:

I thought I would start adding some details from our weekly chat sessions with Elder Ogden. It is so awesome to be able to see his face and hear his voice every Sunday afternoon. What a blessing it has been. It was a little weird for him at first, but as the weeks have gone on, the conversations have gotten more relaxed and it is fun to hear experiences from him Skyped face to Skyped face, lol.)

This week, Abbie and I got a bonus from Elder Ogden as he played "Happy Birthday" on the ocarina. He also treated us to a song on the guitar. We loved it. Elder Ogden and Mark talked a lot about Taiwanese food. (I love to see the excitement in our missionary's face when he talks to his dad about Taiwanese stuff.)

He also shared a little bit about what they did on his pday last Monday. They went to the Chiang kai-shek memorial. He was a Chinese military and political leader.

Every week, he shares a scripture with us. This week he read out of Jacob 6 in the Book of Mormon. I just want to add my testimony to the one Elder Ogden shared above. The Lord does remember each of us. He "stretches forth His hands" unto us "all the day long". I feel that in my life--even, no especially, when times are tough. I feel it because I choose to feel it and I am grateful for a loving Savior who loves me and has an infinite amount of patience with me.