Letter # 33

Hello everyone!

Okay so surprisingly enough the Christmas spirit is strong here in Taiwan. Well at least in my and my companion's apartment. I got the little tree you sent Mom. My companion and I Loved it. My companion's parents sent a bunch of Christmas music. We have been going crazy with that the last couple days. I think a white Christmas might be a little to much to ask for right now, especially when it feels like May in Utah here. Surprisingly they love the Christmas advertisements here. They have green and red and Santa's everywhere. But obviously it has nothing to do with why we even have Christmas......Still fun though.

Well a little about the Investigators.... We still have Sister Zhu getting baptized on the 18th. She loves church and loves coming to all the Gospel classes and stuff. She actually attended a lot of different churches before she met the missionaries. She is gaining a testimony fast and its awesome to see. The 18 year old kid we were teaching is still struggling with his family going against the church and they told him that he couldn't be baptized. We are really praying for him and we had a huge lesson with him on Faith a couple days ago. He said that he would continue to pray for his parents hearts to soften. Oh his name is Kun Ting Lee. Please pray for him!

We also are still teaching the two Chan Families. They are still progressing but they are still praying for an answer to know if what we are teaching is actually true. They need prayers as well. One of the biggest Miracles I have ever seen actually happened last night. Well this story actually starts back about two months ago.

One night...... We were going to visit this member family and give them a card because it was the Mom's Birthday. When we got there the mother was not there but as we were about to leave we had a feeling that we shouldn't leave the area. I looked down the road and I thought maybe we can just knock these doors. As we started knocking these doors just a few doors down from the members house we knocked on this one door. The women came to the door. Actually excited to see us. She came out the door and just said, "come in, come in,". I looked at my companion in disbelief, both of us just kinda had our mouths open thinking that something had to be wrong. As we sat down with her for a while we found out that her daughter is actually a member. Her daughter is away at college. She said that she had been to our Church multiple times but she was actually a member of another Christian church. We also found out that the member, her next door neighbor, they are actually best friends, and grew up together. Their Family name is Lin. As we continued to talk to her we found out that the reason why she never joined the Church is because she could not except that Joseph Smith was a real prophet and really restored God's Church. From then until now we have met with her a few times and continued to teach her the doctrine of knowing through prayer the truth. It all changed when last night when she invited us over for dinner and then for a lesson.

The difference this time is that her husband for the first time was going to join us. We had a great dinner with them I ate my first "Thousand year old EGG" In case you haven't heard of that I guess the easiest way I can explain it is by saying its a black egg. A very black egg. From what they told me back in the olden days the way they made these eggs was by putting the eggs in horse urine and then burying them in the ground for a very long time. After they told me this I obviously wanted to know how they are made now?..........They didn't know.... That of course was very reassuring for me. If you wanted to know how it tasted. Just imagine gagging a rotten egg down your throat. Other than that I guess it wasn't too bad....

Okay, well like I said dinner went great and we met the husband and he really like my companion and me. During dinner we got talking on health and good food and stuff. We took that opportunity to teach them about the revelation Joseph Smith received called the Word of Wisdom. They thought is was amazing that the Church knew about this Law of Health way before anyone knew about that stuff. They were both very curious from that point. As we sat down with them we new going into it that we were going to be teaching the Plan of Salvation. From the beginning we both had a feeling that we needed to teach the Plan of Salvation out of the Bible and compare it to the Book of Mormon.

As we were in the process of showing them all these scriptures they both were just blown away about the doctrine. Doctrine that was clearly in the Bible but nothing that they had ever heard before, or had been taught in their Church. The husband was amazed and he told us how excited he was about this. As we finished he told us that this is so clear, and that is why he had so many problems with religion in the past is because there were so many unclear doctrines. He kept writing down notes and kept pointing and saying "Look, its in there" It was amazing because It all tied back to the importance of Joseph Smith and the need of the Restoration. They believed and they knew it was true. It all helped my testimony so much. They both kept saying how thankful they were. Especially the husband. He kept saying how confused he was in the past, and how he understands now. As we said a prayer to finish the appointment we asked the Sister Lin (the Wife) to say the prayer for us. As she was saying the prayer she just kept asking Heavenly Father to give them the truth. To let them know if Joseph Smith was really a prophet. It was unbelievably touching.

My companion and I left the house with a feeling that I don't think I have ever had in my life. With my email I don't think I could ever explain the spirit and clarity of the lesson taught that night. But it was unbelievable. As I was teaching I felt like I learned about it just as much as they did. Even though I have taught the lesson a thousand times. Also I found out this week that a girl in a Family I started teaching in my old area is getting baptized this Saturday. That made me really excited to hear as well.

So the scripture this week is special. I want everyone to read Joseph Smith history in the back of the Book of Mormon and ponder on why the need for a restoration was necessary. As you do this prayerfully things will become even more clear then they were before.

Okay I gotta go. We have to catch a train up to Taipei.
Love you family!

Wei Zhang Lao