This week for P-day we went on a short hike in a farther corner of our area by a place called Bitan. There were many ruins of former structures including a theme park from the 1980s. Not too much remained except a murual of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and what I think were the footings for a ferris-wheel and some other rides. For anyone who knows me well, anything about theme park history catches my interest! I wish I had some pictures of the Bitan Theme Park to better imagine what it must have looked like back in the day!
We went on two different exchanges back to back this week. One with the zone leaders and one with the traveling assistants (a new assignment president started this transfer where two additional assistants to the president are chosen to simply make the rounds and go on exchanges with ever Elder in the mission). It was a fun time and we had a few cool miracles happen during the course of the week.
First miracle occurred as we visited some returning member families we haven't been able to get in contact with. We didn't have time to visit a lot of members but we chose one that I had visited before but they were never home. This time the doorbell didn't work, and they didn't come the first or second time we knocked but we knew there were people inside because we could hear them. We didn't have a phone number on record to call so we just kept knocking hoping they would hear! At last the son came out and we were able to meet the family. It was some pretty perfect timing too because that family was in the process of moving that very week. If we had not gotten ahold of them at that moment they probably would have moved without anyone knowing, and without an accurate address on record we probably would have lost contact with them forever.
Second cool miracle came in a Family Mart as we were doing language study. We were doing our studies up at some bar-style seating and we were sitting next to a young kid. I looked over and felt a small nudge to talk to him. So after a second I said hello and introduced myself. The kid is a about to graduate high school this year and doesn't believe we can prove God exists, but thinks highly of the religious beliefs of others. I asked him if he had ever tried to 認識 "renshi" (or come to know) God before and he asked me why we would have to come to know God, which launched us into a quick discussion about the Plan of Salvation and how God is our Father, and our purpose in this life is to prepare to return to His presence and to become more like Him. He later asked me how I know that this is true and not just the thoughts of men, which tied nicely into the Book of Mormon. All in all it was a very cool experience of impromptu teaching someone and I am still answering a lot of his questions over messaging in prep for our next meeting. It's so awesome to see how the Lord can lead you to interested people if we are only willing to listen for and act on the promptings He is always trying to give us.
That's about it for the week. The Corona virus situation in Taiwan is still under control. There are a few more cases but we are still safer than a lot of other Asian countries. We are still out doing misisonary work. Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts!
Love you all,
Elder Neilson
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| If you look closely you can see snow white and some dwarves on this cement wall |
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| - Me standing on one of the footings of what might have been a Ferris Wheel |
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| - Elder Meredith and I at the top of our hike |
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- Biking up a hill on exchanges with the traveling assistants
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