Letter # 27

Well Hello everyone.

This week went well for the most part. I can start by saying that It has truly been a refining process for me the last few weeks. Realizing the personal weaknesses that I have has been a painful process,of course, but a slight sigh of relief knowing that I have a good amount of time to become what I am supposed to be.

My companion and I got into a bit of an argument. Basically the argument was about how much different we are from each other. It progressed to the point when I did not have much desire to go out and work with him. I ended up asking him "What it is that we can do?" We ended up kneeling down in prayer and as he started giving the prayer he started to cry and apologize to God for what had happened. As he gave the prayer I realized how quickly the argument was my fault and how low my personal pride had brought us. After the prayer was over Elder Woo stood up and being a little embarrassed to ask me; if he could give me a hug. For their culture I will tell you that is not the easiest thing to do for them. In other words "they don't do that". I felt so ashamed and embarrassed. Mostly because I knew better. As a missionary who has been out as long as I have I realized how much more growing up I need to do. A lot of growing up.

This last week I have really reflected on why is it that I am doing the things I am doing. As I reflected I realized how much praise I still seek from man and not so much the Lord. And How much every decision relates back to my own personal selfishness. Most importantly, the true Love and Charity that I feel I lack so much in my heart. Like I said, this past week or so has been a refining period of much prayer.

Other than that the work is going fantastic. We now have added even another person with a Baptismal goal! It is a 28 year old women who is in my English class. After class, two weeks ago, she came up to me and said "so are you guys like priests or pastors or something" I told her that we could set up a time and answer that question! (Ha ha TRICKY TRICKY). She is now into the Book of Mormon and praying every day. I am really excited about her because she is unbelievably smart. She seems to understand what is taught! Awesome!

Oh, on a funny note one of our Investigators is a Chinese Doctor. What I mean by that is that he not a normal doctor. He does the Chinese medicine stuff. It’s called (Zhong-Yao). He does the Acupuncture and all that weird stuff. People pay him a good amount of money to do it too. Personally I think it’s all a load of junk. Some of the treatments are so weird. They stick needles in their head to help them sleep better. Ya I would pass out too if someone stuck a bunch of needles in my head. Well ...He drinks his own urine. Yes, drinks his own pee! ...everyday. He is convinced it’s good for you. But he told us this when we were teaching him the word of wisdom. It was so funny!

Well my companion is going home in three weeks. He does not talk much or ever about it. For me, if I was going home in three weeks it would be a little difficult to not think about it. But he is not really going back to much. For those who don't know...He is from south Taiwan 27 yrs old and went on a mission after being a member for only a year. He is going back to a lot of debt because he bought his family a house when he had money. Then invested the money and now it’s all gone. He has sacrificed more than any other person I have met in my whole life. Lately I have been messing with him about finding a wife. President told him in an interview to find a wife as soon as possible. So I have been teasing him and pointing out old women for him... HA ha. He hates it. It’s funny because the President's wife even mentioned someone for him to come back and date. Some girl from Taipei that just got back from Temple Square serving a mission. I had fun with that one too!

Oh Mom, I almost got killed. I was riding my bike "reasonably fast" trying to make it through a green light. With a bus on my left not realizing the bus had a blinker sign to turn right at the light. I will just leave it at....I was fairly lucky! Don't worry I'll make it off the Island alive.

The scripture for this week is Mosiah 13:1-7. It’s about the Prophet Abinadi. I read this in my personal study a couple days ago. It’s awesome!

Love you all.

Love Peace and Chicken Grease!