September 6, 2010

The Rain Came Down and the Flood Came Up

But the house on the rock stood still! ;) So yes, the typhoon. Just a disclaimer for the future: you don't have to worry about me the next time you hear something like that. They still send us out proselyting unless it's seriously too dangerous. Then our leaders order us to stay in our apartments and call investigators or something. So yeah, don't worry in the future if a typhoon or earthquake comes. I mean, we get some of each every year. This year's typhoon was actually not that great as typhoons go. We'd have periods of really heavy rain and wind for about 15 minutes, then it would almost stop raining. Then it would start up raining again, then stop. It didn't even flood the streets. Apparently last year on 8/8 they had a huge typhoon and there was water up to my waist. This year was really mild.

As for the language, I'd say it's getting better and better. I'm finding myself able to understand what people say to me nearly all the time, or at least know what they mean. I'm learning even more vocabulary for the missionary lessons, etc. It's a real blessing of the Lord--I may have had the gift of tongues at the MTC, but nothing makes that gift take off like being surrounded by the language and talking to the people all day every day.

We met this really cool kid yesterday. He's about a year younger than Dillon. We taught him the first lesson, which is about the Restoration. At the end, we asked him when we could meet again to teach him more and he said "Can you teach me right now?" Really super willing. His only obstacle so far is that his parents don't want him being baptized, because they already did their religion's baptismal-like thing to him when he was a baby, and he can't go join another church. Yeah, Taiwan has some strange religions. There's one called YiGuanDao that basically believes everything. They believe in five holy people, including Buddah, Mohammad, and Jesus. Basically their thing is that all those people are the same and all taught God's truth. I'm so glad our church has the testimonies of two separate nations that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world. He was not just some good teacher who's on the same level as Buddah. He's our God, our Master. It's out of love for Him that I came out here and work my hardest every day.

Well, I guess I'll close then. I sure love each of you, and I know Heavenly Father is watching out for you. Keep up your daily scripture study. That is truly vital, trust me. You need that constant nourishment to protect yourself from the tricks of the adversary. I love you all so much and I'll talk to you again next week!

Love,

Carter