Week 37

Wow! This week was full of miracles! Although numbers don't matter, we were able to have almost 2 new investigators a day this week. And we've met with most of our investigators last week, if not this week. It has been an amazing opportunity to be able to work with Elder Bowler. The first thing I noticed about him is that his attitude is awesome. I love it. He really does help me to have a better look on work and a way to help me overcome the trials that come with everyday missionary life. He's a wonderful example to me. I'm doing my best to try to serve him and be an example of obedience. Elder Bowler is from Arizona. He has two younger sisters and an older brother. He's a very cool kid. He's probably the first example I've seen of true greeny fire here. And I love it! Just a simple desire to go and work and to find and to teach. It's amazing. He's fresh off high school, and will be going to Dixie when he gets back from his mission. This is his 3rd transfer. Sadly, there seems to be no immediate relation with my old soccer coach. But that's okay. he's a great person anyway. And he also likes volleyball, soccer, skating, and diving. He currently doesn't know what he wants to do with his life when he gets back. But I'm also super sad I only got to be with Elder Braithwaite 1 transfer. There were a lot of people that we wanted to help together. He moved to TaoYuan's Nan2Kan3. We actually switched companions -- that's where Elder Bowler was last transfer. We've had some wonderful success with our progressing investigators. We plan to have one, Li3 Chang1 Xian4 李昌憲, baptized this week. Li3 dx is absolutely amazing. He has a small physical handicap, but his faith makes up for the rest. He has already run into the problems of multiple gods and some family opposition, but he has decided to meet with us and to keep going. Recently we taught him the Word of Wisdom. He said, "no tea....that's really hard!.....okay!" He's keeping the Word of Wisdom, Sabbath, and Chastity. He's well on his way towards baptism this week. We still need to teach the importance of coming to church...I don't know how big of a priority it is for him. He didn't come this week because he was tired. We have an investigator Zeng1 dx. His progress is super slow. We've met with him at least 8 times and we're still getting prayer into his life. He says them, but they're always not very meaningful. Mostly because he doesn't know what to say. He hasn't been doing too change in his life. But lately he's been amazing with his faith. Yesterday he called us to ask what he should pray for. As well as he got a rest from his family's work to come to church. He and his dad got in an argument, but he came anyway. I don't even know if he's realizing it, but he's exercising great faith to do what we invite him to do. Yesterday we met a Lin2 dx. He came to church by himself, and he waved to me and asked if he could come to our meeting. I said of course, of course. It turns out he met with XinZhuang elders a long time ago, but then went into a more rebellious stage of his life. He started not to believe in God and had nothing to do with church. But then his life recently has been really hard and painful, and he has a burning desire to change his life from what it is right now. So he came to find us. It's amazing to see how the Lord works. Even though the conversion of Lin dx has taken years, it really has helped him to develop great faith and desire to follow the Lord. You can see a mighty change of heart in him. He setup a baptismal date right off, and will be meeting with us today. It's been great to focus on finding this week, especially different ways to find. We haven't had too much time to think of new ways, but being able to refresh our day with something new and different really does help. And I know the Lord will prepare his children in different ways to help them find their way to us. So we also need to do the same to find them. Thank you for your fantabulous packages, goodies, support, and love- -Elder Liu

Week 36

Hey, there was an earthquake here! Yay! It was super small, but noticeable. It came while I was playing the opening hymn, so that was an interesting experience. Now I can say that I've played piano during an earthquake. That's pretty cool, I guess. Wow! I can't believe Elder Braithwaite is leaving for the next transfer! I'll be staying in TaiDong to work with an Elder Bowler. This transfer has gone so quickly. And there is still much I feel I need to know to be able to fully lead an area. Elder Braithwaite did so much for us when he was here. But I'm grateful to be able to get to know Elder Bowler. I have definitely found it true that you can learn much from your those you serve. I learned a lot from Elder Braithwaite every day. I know he'll do wonders in Nan2Kan3. This week we had some good work, and we saw some cool miracles. Most of them are just the Lord's guidance. We went to visit a Less active member about 30 minutes away (but yes, we contacted all along the way!), and then we went tracting in her area. The first door we knocked was someone who grew up in the Mormon church, but just wasn't baptized. She learned english from english class and went to church a lot when she was really little. She had recently been encouraging her son to go to church because of the good impressions she had of it. She also said she would be willing to take the missionary lessons in June when her schooling is over. It was cool to see that miracle so quickly in our efforts. Her son is taking lessons with the other elders right now. And he's doing really good as well. We'll be working hard to get this family to understand and apply the restored gospel. Yesterday we had a really interesting experience. We had an LA come up to us and wanted us to sit with him. He told us that he didn't want to come to church anymore. He's been baptized 6 months and says that he hasn't felt the Spirit yet, and said his patience was worn out. He hopes God is still real, but he's done for now. It was a unique situation to be listening to him. We asked him a few question to be able to understand it fully. But at the end, I didn't know what to say except for our testimony. I testified that the Lord has prepared for us blessings that we can't even imagine. He loves us more than we can understand. And although 6 months is a long time, that keeping on to that hope for even longer to know these things are real is worth it. I could feel the Spirit testify my words were true. I was infinitely grateful for that feeling. Well things are going well here. Hopefully we'll hit the ground running with this new transfer. I'm really excited to see some more miracles as we work diligently and effectively in the Lord's work! Thank you everyone for your prayers! I feel them every day. I love you, -Elder Liu

Week 35

Hey! Our fireside for the 2nd branch went pretty good.Thank you for all who made the music possible. We played two songs at the fireside. One was "Did you Think to Pray" for violin and piano, and the second was a singing one called "The Maker's Touch". I played a cello part on viola, Elder Braithwaite played piano, and Sister Rosander sang. I think they all really liked it. It was fun to have some music rehearsals again. We had one investigator come, and the sisters had a billion. But it was a good activity, and it was good to see a lot more people from our branch and get to know them. I can't believe it's the last week of the transfer already. I really hope I don't move -- I want to get to know this place even more. It's really hard when you only meet your branch 6 times. Recently, as a mission, we've been learning about "1 minute messages". Basically you give your message in one minute.....yeah, that's simple. But it's really, really hard. Especially since in one minute you want to establish trust, get to know the person, fit a gospel message to their needs, and most important, let them feel the Spirit. It's been weird to get to my point really quick...and then not know what to do. Another way this has been a small trial for me is that it's a lot harder to be able to feel love for people if I don't spend the time to get to know them. But I know this way has been really great for me to use my time most effectively in finding those who really have interest to know more about this Gospel and are willing to act. I'll just need to find other ways to develop trust and love with those I talk to. Whaa! They sent out information on our new Mission President, coming in July. Their names are David Owen Day and Vicki Temple Butler Day. Well....it'll just be easier to copy/paste. I'll put the info at the end. I'm excited/nervous to get a new president soon. There might be a lot of change here. But just as I need to do with all things, I need to pray that this really is God's will. That's all I need to know. This week...has been harder. It really hit me when we were counting up our numbers this week. Of course numbers don't matter -- it's the people. But I noticed the only two investigators we found this week were for other areas. I feel like this week, we didn't contribute anything in our assigned area. But I know that because Elder Braithwaite and I did our best, then that's enough. Of course we still need to improve and to continue to grow. We can still improve in our diligence and obedience, such as always being on time, or getting out to work faster after an activity or something. But the Lord has a greater plan for us. Of course, we just learned in Zone Conference that finding is an act of faith, and sometimes needs to be tested. I know the Lord will let us feel of the blessings as we continually strive to faithfully and diligently do His work. Elder Braithwaite and I are doing just great. He makes up for a lot of my weaknesses and a lot of my forgetfulness. I'm really grateful to have a proactive, diligent junior companion for my first time being a senior companion. It is also nice to have a companion who I can relate to more, being from the same background of Utah and BYU. We have some investigators who are making some good progress. We finally got to meet with some college students who went back to their hometowns over winter break and are back now. We have about 3 investigators who are fully keeping their commitments, which is a big blessing. I will talk about them more next week. Thank you everyone for your wonderful support and love! I love you, -Elder Liu Our new Mission President: David Owen Day, 53, and Vicki Temple Butler Day, five children, Burgess Falls Ward, McMinnville Tennessee Stake. Brother Day serves as a counselor in a stake presidency and is a former stake clerk, stake mission president, bishop, gospel doctrine teacher, ward mission leader, elders quorum president, Young Men president and missionary in the Taiwan Taipei Mission. President and owner, Law Office of David Day, P.C. Born in Long Beach, Calif., to Robert Owen and Linda Sue Day. Sister Day serves as a counselor in a Relief Society presidency and as a stake Young Women camp director. She is a former seminary teacher, Young Women president, counselor in a Primary presidency, Sunday School teacher and Primary music leader. Born in Greenville, Miss., to James William and Virginia Millis Holmes Butler.

Week 34

This week has been really good. I think Elder Braithwaite and I still been adjusting to a new place and new companions. But I think there will always be those problems no matter how long I stayed here. We're trying to do our best to get to know the branch around here. I know that a lot of them just don't come to church, and it's really hard to get to know people who can peike. Right now we only get 4-5 of the same people to peike. We're really trying to avoid overusing people. Recently our exchange with the Zone Leaders was really great. We really saw a wonderful miracle. I went with Elder Haueter. He said at the beginning of our transfer "What kind of miracle do you want to see today?" In which I responded "Uh...a good one?" He just smiled and said "Okay, Let's get one person inside our church building today, and shang4ke4 with them." So I just agreed. We prayed that we could see that miracle, but I didn't think much more of it.But he did! He kept asking if we'd be by the church for our plan that day. We went to a lesson 10 minutes away, made some calls, ate dinner, and a bunch of other things. At the end of the day, we were at the church making calls. We still had to evaluate what we learned in our exchange, so we were going to spend some time at the church at the very end of our day. Elder Haueter just kept walking around outside contacting people while I finished up some calls. He said "hey, wait a minute" to this lady and her friend on her scooter, and asked if she wanted to come into our church. She said "okay, wait a minute" and she drove off. I just thought this was a lame excuse to reject him, and we were about to just go back inside, but he was persistant that she might be the miracle we wanted. And sure enough, after 10 minutes of waiting, she came back and said "I said I would come back." her name is Winnie. We gave her to the sisters to teach, and she setup another time to meet. I have learned that I still need to do better at relying on the Lord. In a way, I can expect to see miracles, because I know I am doing my best to do the Lord's work, the Lord's way. But I also need to realize that these things hinge on other people's agency and my hard work as well. Elder Braithwaite is doing well. Sometimes he gets a little tired and doesn't seem like he wants to plan very long. But I know that's just a reflection of what I need to do better at. So i'm trying to be an even better example at having a good attitude. Love you all, sorry I don't have much time today. -Elder Liu

Week 33

I had a very happy birthday this week! Thank you everyone for making it so. This week we saw some true miracles!...not that the other ones are fake. But it was great to see the Lord's hand in our work. This week Elder Braithwaite and I rode down a smaller road as planned. There were probably people every 3 minutes. But we saw two teenagers across the street, and we turned around to talk to them. One of them stayed around to hear us, while his friend ran off. He was Christian, and has been praying regularly. He also said he was part of the soccer team in his school. He was willing to hear, willing to setup. We sent him on his way. We said a prayer of gratitude, and the first motorcycle we contacted had two kids on it. They happened to be on the same soccer team. They weren't any religion, but they were still willing to setup and learn more. They setup to come listen with their friend, and they'd all meet with us together. We have high hopes for these kids. Hopefully we can present this message in a way that they will be able to have the best opportunity to accept it. Elder Braithwaite and I are doing marvelously. As senior companion I've been trying my best to be able to serve my companion. But really, Elder Braithwaite is too amazing. It's hard to find things to help him with. We've had our little struggles with trying to get our teaching styles together to have more unity, but we're getting over them just fine. TaiDong branch is doing just fine. They're getting some training and some systems going for home teaching, as well as peike schedules and such. It's been a rough start with a new branch, but they're moving along really well. We're trying to switch it up with peikes, and not try to get the same ones as they always do. It's hard because we only have about 8 members who regularly come to Priesthood meeting, which starts first here. And yes, they found out that I can play viola. So I'm playing at their fireside in a couple weeks! Whoo! I might play with one of our investigators, Zeng1 dx. He plays piano, so it'll be cool to have a musical number with an investigator! I'm hoping it'll all be a good experience. This week we were happy with our efforts. Especially with the referral portion of our work. It was a special experience to be able to visit a lot of referrals that members have recently given to us. I think people here are just more willing overall to give this message to their friends. Love you! Thank you for a wonderful birthday ^^ -Elder Liu P.S. In MiaoLi there was a Gao (Kao?) family who knew Chris Pope and his family. If anyone gets the chance, tell them brother and sister Kao say hello! Brother Pope served in MiaoLi when he was here. Coolio stuff. P.P.S. And of course, everyone knows mom and dad here. President Cai says hello!

Week 32

Things here are going great! I think we're having a little bit of a low, when it comes to tangible success. But we're still working hard and doing all we can to help the people here. Elder Braithwaite and I get along quite well. He actually reminds me a lot of Kevin. Someone else in my district, Elder King, reminds me of Chris Pope. I've been blessed to be able to see the things I love in my friends and family in the people that I meet here. I know the Lord is helping me learn to love everyone as if they were your old friends. They are all your brothers and sisters, so there is already that sense of goodness and love in them, as long as you look for it. It's been a little rough trying to get to know the new branch. Our first sacrament meeting was combined with the first branch for the new years, so I didn't know who would be in my branch and who my leaders were. There's been something that has been upsetting me a lot in Taiwan. That is a lot of leaders get so worked up with "Jing1 Shen2 Bing4" or any mental illness. They treat any type of mental illness like a deadly and sad disease, making even depression something to avoid. Some leaders are saying that those with depression don't need to be taught and that they don't need baptism. I...don't know. I'm pretty sure that's definitely not true. But I don't know how to say it in a way that respects their position. Or maybe it's not my place? So far I haven't done anything about it, but that's how I feel. Elder Braithwaite is doing well. I think he's been more affected by our lack of visible success. But I try to set an example to go out to work with a good attitude. I hope I've been helping. I'm praying to try to know how to help him. I think I might need to serve him and show my love more. So far we don't have anyone who has high potential to be baptized. I thought I found 2 this week, but they fanged us on our first visit. It's been hard to have learned to really love them, and then see them so quickly lose their way again. That might be the hardest thing out here so far on a mission. But we're still determined to hit our goals, and to work as hard as we can. I'm so grateful for this opportunity I have to serve the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and strength. Yeah, so TaiDong is....I'm pretty sure just like Hawaii. I would assume is. Maybe few palm trees here, but it's all about the same. The weather changes like crazy. Apparently the combination of a beach right next to a mountain makes the clouds move extra fast, so you can never predict the weather here. I've been super grateful that my companion, Elder Braithwaite, already knows the area. I can't imagine someone trying to whitewash an area -- that would be so stinkin' hard! We call the Taidong area the Taidong Taiwan Mission, because we never see anyone else. All our exchanges are just in Taidong, and we never have reason to leave. It's kinda fun. We get to spend a lot more time with our district. New Years went great! Except....I don't think they do too much here. We ate at member's houses, which was really nice. Our branch is really nice. This last week we only had to buy 2 meals. Yay! It feels weird pulling out money to get full now :P There were a lot of random firecrackers, too. It was my first time seeing firecrackers. They're pretty fun. Speaking of firecrackers, Taidong has a crazy, crazy tradition. Apparently on the...15? of the Chinese new year, they this tradition. Someone volunteers to get paid money by a bunch of people...as long as they get to throw firecrackers at him while he's wearing nothing but shorts and has a little branch to cover his face. They always end up in the hospital. I heard it was 100 years ago or whatnot, the firecracker...was supposed to cure some epidemic in the area or something? I didn't really hear that conversation very clearly. But anyway, maybe this week I'll see a random guy get bombarded with firecrackers.... :S

Week 31

Hello from TaiDong! It was a great opportunity to be able to learn more about Chapter 8 at our special training. I thing I learned and benefitted from most was the training done by the Assistants afterwards. They taught about how to get 30 minute lessons (not 45-50). This is crucial because the Spirit should be the teacher in all we teach and learn. We should not put ourselves in a higher position to answer all their questions and resolve all their concerns, because the Spirit will be the teacher whose influence will be eternal. He teaches to our souls -- disregarding any physical limitations. I am also so grateful to have become Senior companion with Elder Braithwaite. He helps me so much in things I forget and my shortcomings. I'm trying to fulfill my responsiblities to the best of my abilities. We're getting along really well. We haven't seemed to run into any problems so far. Our biggest trial so far has been being on time. But we're finding ways to overcome it :). And haha yes, I actually miss MiaoLi and Elder Su a lot. Elder Braithwaite is originally from Boston, but his family moved to Alpine, UT when he was still pretty young. His Chinese is really good! He speaks really dignified speech. I'm grateful to be able to serve with him. It's his 4 transfer, so I'm only older than him 1 transfer. So we're both still fresh, but I feel we're carrying out the work pretty well. TaiDong seems to be doing good. It's been hard for Guonian because a bigger part of our investigators have been students going back home. But we've done what we can, and we found some pretty great people. Right now we have a lot of slow/not progressers. It's been great getting to know the TaiDong 2nd branch (the divider line is a street the chapel is on. We're the south side). It turns out that our family knows President Cai (the District President) very well. They were at my house last August visiting my parents. Speaking of branches. There are a lot of trees here, which is a little different from MiaoLi. Otherwise the two places are about the same. Oh...right. Also speaking of branches, the Hualian zone of our mission is the last one with branches -- the rest are wards throughout Taiwan! So we're pushing hard to have a lot of conversions so that we can continue to build this place. TaiDong also has a lot of Aboriginese (Yuan2 Zhu4 Min2). A lot of them are Christian. We're thinking it's because of when Portugal was in Taiwan. So it'll be a different challenge to talk to those who already have their own beliefs in Christ. But I'm also super excited to be able to work with the people here. We have some awesome members here. The one most famous with the missionaries is Jerry Lin. He was baptized last year on (normal) New Years' Day. He's simply amazing. He's our Mission Leader for the 2nd branch. Basically he does everything for us. He drove us to the train station, peiked twice, bought us lunch and dinner, cleaned the chapel grounds, bought us a Buddha-head fruit, all in one week. It's amazing to see these kind of examples of Christlike people all over the world! (Like all of you!) The two most likely to be baptized in the near future are a Xu3dx and a Lin2dx. Xu3dx so far only has curiousity, but he is willing to do all that we invite him to do. Hopefully he'll do our invites with enough desire to be able to feel of these invites' power. We just met Lin2dx this last week. He seems to be really spiritual. He came to church, and he said when he meets with us he feels a different, peaceful feeling. He didn't pray after our first meeting, so that was a little disappointing. But he still has very good potential. He expressed a desire for a fulness of truth -- and we haven't even talked about the restoration yet! It's interesting how people understand these concepts deep inside, and hopefully we will do our part to identify these truths from the Savior and His Gospel. Yay! Guo4Nian2! (Chinese New Year). We already got invited over for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. and we have lunch and dinner arranged for this entire week. We've been hearing a lot of firecrackers and fireworks. It was great to see everyone at their houses yesterday, enjoying their time with their family. Hopefully I won't get as fat as everyone says I will for GuoNian :P Thank you for all your emails and letters! I love you all!- -Elder Liu