Weekly report November 14, 2011

I cannot even believe it's been another week. I think I've been twice as busy, so time has been flying by at at least double the speed.

It's been a great week, mostly. We had another investigator just up and disappear. I hate it so much when that happens--they refuse to answer your calls or anything. It's so sad because if they would just talk to us maybe we could resolve their concern. But the Taiwanese culture is about "face" (just another word for pride). If you can't keep a commandment or you are afraid to get baptized you just try to avoid seeing the missionaries ever again so you don't lose face. I love these people too much to just let them vanish. We'll be praying that we just run into him on the road this week.

We have some really promising investigators, though. One is a nineteen year old kid who likes coming to church and has been willing to live every commandment we've taught him so far...except baptism. He's afraid his family would oppose. We're working to help him work through that. Another man has been struggling for a long time with a heroine addiction. We met with him and the bishop, and that man has more faith than I've seen in a lot of active members. He wants very badly to be baptized and begin a new life; he wants to wash away his past sins. He believes in the power of Christ's atonement. We gave him the 12 Steps to Addiction Recovery workbook made by the church, and he currently has a goal to be baptized on Christmas Eve. There are some really great people here in Tainan, and I'm loving the chance to work with them.

Not sure what else to report on. Hm. I got to go on exchanges with Elder Dong this week. He's the district leader and he's in my old area of the Tainan 3rd ward. It was fun; I got to go see some old investigators and I got to visit my recent convert and good friend (name). They're trying to slowly convert his wife, because the other three in the family are all baptized. She's super fierce, though. Yells a lot. But she's got a good heart, so I think with time she will come around.

It rained a ton this last week. My goodness. Thursday it rained all day long without ceasing, and all the investigators who set up to meet with us released our pigeons (it's a Chinese expression that means stood us up; didn't come to their appointment). However, Heavenly Father answered our prayers. It was really cold and rainy after lunch and we prayed that either the rain would stop or we'd be strengthened to be able to work anyway. Shortly after our prayer, we felt that the rain was a little warmer and just a bit lighter.

I'm afraid that's all I can think to say about this week. Sorry this letter's a little shorter. I want you to know I love you all so much, and I pray for you. Have fun and good luck in this week's day-to-day.

Love,
Carter
阮長老