The Adventures of Two Toddlers in Taiwan

April 12, 2015

Sister Geddes and I were thinking this week- what if we had no apostles and prophets? And then we realized- we would literally be like every other church. There would be good people trying to do good things, but no leadership, no main cause, no link to authority, no tithing and finacial relief, or temples, or "mormons". There would be nothing, no even no restoration. It would have all been for naught. Nothing has strengthened my testimony more of modern prophets than general confernce. I get so excited as the first session started- I was singing so loud a little boy who has watching the chinese part asked me to be quiet haha. And I was so sad after the last session that I had to put my head down afteer sunday afternoon and take a minute.

So News:

Next week Taichung is GETTING NEW STAKE! Im sad I had to miss it and leave, but Im so happy for them
And we had three investigators at church! Yay!

New Area:

We have six secondary areas
its the rural part of GAoXiong (the second biggest city in Taiwan)
the pollution is like smoking everyday lol
Our area reaches the ocean
there are no recent converts :(
The ward is hilarious and crazy

General Conference:

FINALLY got to watch it. IT WAS THE BEST EVER.
I saw my teacher from BYU singing his little heart out in MoTab
My favorite part was thinking about how we really are all unprofitable servants. Really, we have a horrible return rate and we are just overall a seemingly horrible investment. We will not return in this life what is put into us. We wont even come close. The financial math will always leave us at a deficit. But, we buys us back despite that. Infact, he doesnt even see that. And all he hopes is that we do very very few things, very few things than he asks. Then he'll do more than buy us back. He will give us everything he has. The grace and mercy are beyond comprehension, and the more we understand I think the more we truly stand all amazed.

Funny Stories of the Week:

Sister Geddes told me when she was in ShaLu she and her companion went jogging one morning- and completely forgot the keys. So they were locked out and it was Chines New Years, so every shop was closed. They didnt even havea phone, so, they decided they had to go to the Elders aprtment. So, they jogged 20 minutes to the Elders, who of course FREAKED out to see the sisters in at the door. Especially because one was in a towel. They quickly explained why they were there. One elder told them, "oh I was just trying to think of any reason, any reason why you would be here and all I could come up with was maybe you had brought me a new years gift.. which would be nice.. but I couldnt understand why you wouldn't just give it to us at church!" haha
I lost Sister Geddes for a few minutes. The traffic is really thick and we have to bike through a lot of tunnels, so, I came out of the tunnel and couldnt find her (not like you can look behind you in a tunnel). So I just decided to wait. A few minutes later she popped out and was like, "well... I just decided I needed some alone time." Then looked straight ahead an kept biking. What a clown.
We had a new member who keeps refering his mom because he wants her to get baptized. He already thinks we cant speak Chinese, not because he has heard our Chinese, but because we are both 4 months on island so he assumes it is bad lol. So, he is calling us and giving us the referral and telling us her concerns and yadda yadda, and we asked, "okay, so when we call what do you think we should say?" and He starts to panic and is goes, "Well... dont you teach lessons are somthing? I mean,, didnt someone teach you? The missionaries here have pamphlets! Maybe I could give you some. Oh dear." Sister Geddes and I started laughing and wer elike great, now he not only thinks we cant speak Chinese, but he thinks we're morons haha.

Cant win them all.

Anyways, thats all! Here's one of my favorite quotes from conference:

"Man cannot be content with mediacrote when we know excellence is within reach."