It feel like this week went by so fast I can't believe it's already P-day again. This week we got to help our Bishop move down the street. It was pretty funny because we started taking bags of stuff down the stairs to the street and Bishop started loading them into a big cardboard box on a little trolley thing and I half expected we were going to attach the cart to the back of a scooter to drive it to the new apartment (that wouldn't be too suprising in Taiwan) but really the new apartment was just down the street which was much easier. It was good to be doing some service after all this time. It was basically all I did in Washington but in Taiwan we don't really do any because of the culture. I like service projects though because you know exactly what needs to happen and what the result will be. All you need to do is put in the effort. Not many things in missionary work are like that because usually other peoples agency is involved!
Another cool experience from this week, we had a lesson with a family where one person only spoke Japanese. Fortunately, our ward mission leader speaks some Japanese and was able to help translate but It really helped me see my progress with Chinese. When we would switch from people talking in Japanese to Chinese it was super refreshing and comforting almost as if they had switched to English! Elder Merrill and I were laughing about that wierd language learning phenomenon where a language that at first sounded like gibberish sounds like meaningful words. Chinese is now meaningful to us but Japanese is still just sounds!
Today for P-day we went to this really big Buddhist temple on a mountain which had really awesome views of Taipei. I could see my entire area from up there and basically every place I have ever been in Taiwan. It felt like I was looking at my entire world from above! There was also some statues of dinosaurs.
I got really tired of just eating an egg and plain oatmeal every morning (I can never find stuff I want to put in it!) so a few days ago I tried pan frying the last little bit of my oatmeal into a sort of oat pancake. Ive transitioned into mixing my oatmeal with an egg and making oat pankakes. Yesterday I had too much liquid and they fell apart and were really gooy but this morning turned out pretty good and I threw some Costco peanut butter on them for a complete breakfast! Haha.
Also speaking of food. We are able to get BYU speachs on our missionary phones now and someone found something right up your ally about insulin resistance. One of. Our zone leaders gave it to us on exchanges telling us it changed his life and he no longer eats candy. We all listened to it and I Have to say it was pretty good. Now everytime Elder Merrill and I see sugary stuff we just say "look at all the insulin!" and when you look at it that way it's a lot easier to not eat sugar! I'll send the talk.
So we are thinking about going to Seminary sometime in the future to cook the kids pancakes. President is always trying to get us to do member work and work with the youth but there really aren't many youth and they are all crazy busy so I figure if we go cook them pancakes once every one or two weeks they will have to start liking us right?!
Got me thinking about Seminary though and this quote from the talk "Laying the Foundation of a Great Work" By Elder Steven R. Bangerter Of the Seventy in the last conference that I think applies well to how Seminary influenced me...
"I believe that it is less a question of whether our children are “getting it” in the midst of our teaching, such as while striving to read the scriptures or to have family home evening or to attend Mutual and other Church meetings. It is less a question of whether in those moments they are understanding the importance of those activities and more a question of whether we, as parents, are exercising faith enough to follow the Lord’s counsel to diligently live, teach, exhort, and set forth expectations that are inspired by the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is an effort driven by our faith—our belief that one day the seeds sown in their youth will take root and begin to sprout and grow."
I think Seminary is a great sower of seeds in the youth, which makes Seminary teachers... great farmers or something! In any case, I think one of the most important thing in teaching the gospel, (this applies to missionaries and Seminary teachers) is to have faith that the teaching effort will have an impact even if we won't see it immediately. Good example of this, remember that...Jewish guy I taught in Washington whos wife got baptized? Well my old companion just told me that he is on date to be baptized at the beginning of Febuary. So long term hopefully all our efforts teaching him will result in some fully fruited faith plants. I guess what I'm trying to say is don't get bummed out if your kids are all asleep and don't seem to be getting anything out of your teaching, they are. It's just all being planted so deep into thier hearts they just don't realize it yet, and someday when the time is right and the spiritual soil of their life is rich for the harvest their testimony will be strengthened by the foundation set for them each morning at 6:15 am.
Have a great week,
Love Elder Neilson
倪長老
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