Happy…Easter?

Hello! It's so good to hear from all of you again. As you can tell from my subject line, Easter snuck up like a ninja...nobody in Taiwan really even seems to know it exists. Even the church members, when we said, "Hey, Happy Easter!" said, "Oh, is it Easter?" and went on doing whatever they were doing. We didn't even sing my favorite Easter hymns in Sacrament meeting. :( But that's ok, because in our studies this morning we focused it all on the resurrection, so it worked out.

The Taibei Temple, I guess, is roughly comparable to the Boise Temple. I say that in part because it looks pretty much the same and it's pretty small inside. There are two, maybe three, endowment rooms and one or two sealing rooms, I think. I'm not sure. The interior, though, is really cool, especially in the entrance area. They have some furniture, vases, and wall scrolls with a very Chinese feel. I just like it because it's the same feel as in every other temple, but with that touch that reminds you you're in China. Yeah, our zone went, which is roughly 20 missionaries, and there were two sessions--one in English and one in Chinese. We are not allowed to go into the shops or anyplace surrounding the temple; after taking pictures we got straight on the bus and rode back to Taizhong. For meals we just brought stuff with us. I brought typical road snacks along with a loaf of bread with ham n' cheese baked into it. Oh yes. I love Taiwanese bakeries. Yes, only the four northern zones (out of eight total) get to go, and it's once every three months. Yes, the handbook is more detailed now, and the Taizhong mission rules are even more specific than that. You might like this one: "Do not perform bike tricks or take your hands off the handle bars while riding." ;o) So don't worry about me eating gravel. Thanks for sharing your mission experiences with me. Really, I do enjoy seeing the parallels (and differences).

Well, this week was pretty good. I just wrote you not that long ago, but Elder Mohr and I have seen some miracles this week. We still didn't get many investigators to come to church, but the good news is that the one who did come is a new person, Zhang HaoYan, and he's very willing to keep progressing. I was worried he wouldn't like church because he's just 15, but it turned out he had friends in the young men's class. His parents don't fandui, so I am feeling very optimistic about him. We were also blessed to reach our goal of 64 new investigators, even surpassing it by one. Things are going well. I also had the chance to study the accounts of the resurrected Christ in the four gospels and in Jesus the Christ, and when I read the words "Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen..." I felt the Spirit testify to me that Jesus Christ did indeed rise from the dead and he lives today, a glorified and resurrected being. Which reminds me of something I noticed in my Book of Mormon study recently. In Mormon there are a couple instances of 'Being' as a name for Christ. I pondered on the meaning of such a title, and I realized that Jesus is a being with a capital B because He is really the consummation of all we hope to Be. Every being on this Earth ought to hope to one day Be what He is. And if that's our hope, we need to work every day to develop the qualities he possesses. Preach My Gospel chapter 6 has really helped me in this regard. I hope I'm a little more charitable, patient, faithful, and diligent than I was before my mission.

I love you all so very much.

Love,
Carter