Happy 2-28!

I'm not lying this time. Apparently 2/28 is a holiday in Taiwan for some reason I don't understand. So our internet cafe is full of kids playing loud and obnoxious video games. But hey, why not celebrate it while it's here, mm? :D

Thursday I'm going to Gaoxiong (Kaohsiung) for a full day of training in the Fundamentals from Preach My Gospel: Teaching More Effectively, which is a set of eight lessons the missionary department made to help us be better teachers. Every district training meeting is based on one of these eight lessons.

Unfortunately, neither of our week B investigators rolled into week A. (name) didn't because he's only been to church for all three hours once, and the mission rule is at least twice, and yesterday he had to leave early because he'd had a migrane all night and couldn't sleep. So we'll get him baptized next week. He's really a great person. He's been making friends with the ward members and he made a valiant effort to come to church. As for (name), that was a big disappointment. We had a member offer to drive him to church, we talked about how important it was every time we visited him, and I was sure he was committed to come. Then we showed up Sunday morning and his daughter said he wasn't there. Fortunately, I'm pretty sure this is only a setback. We'll review with him why the Sabbath is important and I'm confident he will be baptized. We just need to rely on the Lord's help with him to make sure we know and meet all of his needs. He's very willing, and every time he prays he asks Heavenly Father to help him be baptized, so he's still doing all right.

We saw a real miracle yesterday at church. A man showed up wearing a white collared shirt and said the missionaries contacted him a long time ago and he never came, so today he decided he'd come dressed up and see if we had church services. He made fast friends with several members and told us he felt really good at church. This was truly God's blessing, and I'm excited to help this man come to know his Heavenly Father more.

I'm still working on improving the cooperation between us and the ward leaders, especially in retention of new members. Our ward, unfortunately, has a lot of new members who will meet with us and have no bad feelings toward the church, but who don't often come to church because they don't feel welcomed. This is why programs such as home teaching are so very VITAL. People need that friendship and love or it's really hard to come to church, no matter how good your testimony is. One thing's for sure, after my mission I'm going to be a 100% home teacher. It's just...it's essential.

I'm sorry I don't really have much else to say. It's great to communicate with you all every week. You're in my prayers, and I wish you all a wonderful start of March. (Where do the months go?)

Love,
Carter