Elder Ogden in Taipei: Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Wow, I'm loving my new area! It feels a lot more like Taiwan to me, with all the concrete houses, old signs and cheap food that will still fill you up! I loved the people in my last area, but in terms of the layout and the fact the chapel is next door instead of a 45 minute bike away, I'll probably like this area better. Sanxia was really hard for me, but this last week as we were taking advantage of my last few days to visit and strengthen our members there, I realized I had still seen many miracles and helped many people during my time there.

One thing that really helped me realize that was just something simple that happened as we were visiting sister 羅 Luo and her two kids. She is a lady who was less active for several years, ever since that ward split off, partly because no one who knew her knew that her house had ended up in our ward boundaries (she's right by the border). That is, until we came knocking at her door having seen her house on our area map. She tried making some excuses and procrastinating at first, a little while later we were in that area with the bishop and decided to stop by her house, and that did the trick. She had been struggling with depression and was too embarrassed to ask for help, but the bishop saw that she needed help and didn't really take "no" or "I'll check and get back to you next week for an answer", he just ministered to her, which is what she needed. That also got her son and daughter back in contact with the church. They are both really cool, they just have a lot of stuff going on in their life and haven't really made room for the gospel. It's been great to be able to strengthen her and become friends with her and discover how funny she is without her even knowing she's funny.

Last Tuesday when we went to visit her, I really had to use the bathroom so right when we got in there with her family I borrowed the restroom. Then we had a nice visit and the Spirit was really strong. She mentioned that her neighbor definitely needs the gospel, she just doesn't know if he'll be willing to admit it, so we made plans to help her talk to him and stuff, and then asked her to say a prayer. After all those months of helping her and her family, the prayer she gave was "Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Elder Ogden to use our bathroom" haha. It made my week. I was glad to be of service.

As for my time in Muzha, it's been great. We have visited several part member families, all of which were pretty cool, and one of which we realized I had met them before. Last year when I was in Zhudong we went to Xinzhu for P-day and this sister and her husband came down to play with us and the sister missionary who helped baptize her. What a small world. The husband is really cool, they have a lot of potential.

We also found a guy our first day after meeting with a friend at his fruit stand. He told us he hoped God could help him get more people to help out since some employees were quitting, and we asked him if he had faith God could help him find new workers and he said yes, so we said a great prayer with him and walked out and there was this guy sitting outside a 7-11. It had started pouring rain so we decided to wait for a little bit and chat with this guy. Funny enough, he said he was looking for work! He also shared about some challenges he has and mistakes he had made. We shared about how the Book of Mormon can help him and he set up and appointment for Saturday. Then as we turned to leave, the rain had stopped! We pointed out that little miracle to him. When we met with him, he talked about how he had always thought God was just a myth, but then we testified of the power of prayer and mentioned that we actually knew a guy looking for people to work for him. We also told him that right after praying with him for that, we had met him, which could be an answer to the fruit guy's prayer and also to the prayer of this guy's heart. He was pretty convinced by that. He was super willing to keep all commitments (he said it was either that or keep rereading Harry Potter for like the 3rd time since he doesn't have work or even a TV haha). So that was cool. I know the Lord's hand is in this work.

Fun Fact: Chinese has a character that's "囧" (pronounced "jiong", with the tone being at the lower end of your voice and kinda dipping). So it sounds kinda funny, and it means like window but that meaning has kinda faded into it being used as a written slang that means awkward, because it looks like a guy grimacing. That's the benefit of a language made of pictures that look like a 5 year old drew them, you can have things like that. They even write it "囧rz", which makes it look like the guys head and then he's bowed down on his hands and knees in despair if you can see it. Chinese is the best.

Sincerely,

Elder Ogden

Note from Missionary Mom Des: Sorry. I don't have a translation for what he is saying, lol. Mark caught about 90% of it and said that he is basically just leaving a nice goodbye message for the members in the Sanxia area. He lived and served there for nearly 6 months of his mission.