July 27 2014 Letter

Hey Mom!

Well I am sorry to hear that your application for the Marriott school was placed as an alternative. I can understand how that would be quite a downer and pretty discouraging. Don't give up though! You can still apply again come August and whatever comes it will work out how it should.

Do you remember what happened almost 4 and half years ago? This would have been about the very end of February or beginning of March. I was in my junior year of high school. I was taking my classes, 3 AP classes in fact (Calculus, Physics, and U.S. History). Do you remember that throughout all of February I went to every single early morning conditioning training in preparation for high school soccer tryouts? Never missed one. Do you remember that I went to try outs and that there was well over 100 people trying out? And remember that I made it to the last day of try outs? Do you remember what happened?......I was cut. Didn't make either team. Do you remember how sad and distraught I was? I was so sad that I just said I am done with soccer. I don't want to play anymore. Even several Seniors told me that I was good enough and should have made the team. But Dad talked me and reassured me into playing with my club team for the fall, my last fall to really be able to play on a competitive soccer team. And you know what in retrospect I look back see how much there was that blessed me from what happened, even though at the time I had a vision and desire of what I wanted to have happen (to play on the high school team my junior and senior year). I had much more time during the spring that I could practice and prepare for my AP tests that I got a 5 on the BC Calculus test and a 4 on each of the Physics and U.S. History tests. Then even though that last year of competitive soccer we weren't the best or anything, we all just had a fun time just more kind of playing for fun.

Then even look at what has happened over the last couple years. Went to the MTC, came home, going through probably some of the most difficult trials and times of my life. Making it back out, staying in the MTC the full 9 weeks. There are no such things as coincidences. If I had gone to Taiwan at any other time I would not have been trained by Elder Dailey (which I still feel and know with my heart that he was exactly the one who needed to train me). I mean even look at it. I was called to the exact same mission again. As my mission time goes on and I talk with others, I have come to learn just how rare it can be that a missionary who had a call previously gets the exact same call the second time. It doesn't really happen that often.

So keep your chin up! Heavenly Father knows exactly what you need to do and where you need to be. 

So my last area that I was in was the ZhongXing Zone (中興地帶), I was serving in Zhanghua City (彰化市), and I was in the Zhanghua 1st Ward (彰化一支會). 

Also while it is on my mind, yes I did get your package as well as the big letter you sent. I love the talks you included! Especially the one by President Monson about the Goliaths we face. Thanks so much for sending the package! With some of the cookie packages I would put them in with my oatmeal, soymilk, banana breakfast. Really yummy! :D Today though I made for breakfast a chuabing (the tortilla thing with an egg on it) and added on it this time mango. Super yummy! :D I don't know what I am going to do when a few months pass by and the mango season ends. Or even when going back to the states where there aren't really any good mangos. But so yeah you can maybe send a sweater in a package to wear for the winter time, that way I am not just having my rain jacket only (like it was last winter). 

So I feel actually that Elder Randall and me are doing really good. Like this past week we have really grown a lot closer. We did go on exchanges at one point and talked with the missionaries we were on exchanges with about finding the middle ground to work well together (basically we have come to the conclusion that Elder Randall and I work really well in different strengths that differ from each other). So we are working to become even better building off what each others strengths are and working as effectively as possible. But so this past week (actually just a couple days ago) we got our Duanchuan, or short term missionary.  He is from the Nantun district here in Taizhong and will be with us for 10 days. So not actually set apart but opportunity to see what being a missionary is like. He is 17 and is still in High School. And yes we can tell and know that he is still 17. I know I am only 21, but even at times I still feel too mature for my age and really work at just trying to be a kid sometimes and enjoying the childhood joys and wonders in my life. The best way I can explain how our duanchuan is is that one you would need to watch a MASH episode from season 4 about when Hawkeye helps patchup a really big marine who then while he is still at the 4077 healing up goes crazy out of the way of always trying to repay back Hawkeye and Honeycutt. But like he is kind of oblivious of how he acts or is treating others. Our duanchuan is good, but funny too how much still is like a kid. He has a really good testimony and isn't afraid to share the gospel at all. It's like when I was little and we would go to parks or other places I would insist on running out in front leading, but I honestly had no clue or idea where we were going so I would always look back at you and Dad to see where we were going. Our duanchuan very much is like this. So it makes me feel like Elder Randall and I are like parents and helping teach and such our duanchuan. That is what we are trying to find the balance right now with our duanchuan is letting him have fun but also teaching and kind of disciplining him a little. Like he has sometimes kind of acted like he is the one running the show and calling the shots (which no he is not). But I am just a more quiet person and not super mean or harsh in speaking towards people. So I don't ever snap at him when he has done sometimes things like that. But he has actually been doing really good now on the 3rd day. It was kind of cute and funny that he was so tired this morning that he fell asleep during the first 20 minutes of personal study. Granted I feel bad that he has to sleep on the sofa because we literally have no other mattresses. Elder Randall and I each have one mattress (which more feel like the spring boards of a bed) and then underneath a wood plank board. Not really much, but no way am I giving up my bed! Have to face some realities duanchuan! Plus I am too big for the sofa. So is Elder Randall. And so is our duanchuan. So it doesn't really fit for anyone. But we will make do for the week.

But I think having the duanchuan has helped Elder Randall and I to grow closer and build our relationship. To be all honest the first day I had a hard time having our duanchuan because his personality is exactly the one I do not like and if had my choice I would just leave and let be, never really being a friend or anything to a personality like that because it doesn't fit well with mine at all. But it is something I see more now with Dad's comment that you can't run away as a missionary. You can't fight as a missionary. All you can do is humble yourself. Which actually I have been doing more now over the last couple days and today while studying on Charity in Preach My Gospel really stood out to me more. Charity is the pure love of Christ. It is the love that Christ has for every single person. It made me think of a scripture that I read recently as I have carried in the Book of Mormon nearing the end of Mosiah. I think it is in the beginning of Mosiah but it talks about how Christ has never taught nor the prophets never taught that salvation can never come for any person. Christ's salvation is given to every single person. That means the ones that make bad choices, the ones that ridicule, hate, kill, harm, criticize, and destroy. He still has love for every single person. That is what it means to have Charity. When you can love every single person. No wonder the Lord taught to love those that despise you, to love your enemies. Even more Charity is gift. It is something we need to ask for....all the time! But one other particular part that stood out to me is how those who strive to have charity they avoid things such as envy, lust, covetousness, etc. You can't have these feelings and have charity and love for someone. They simply can't coexist. You can't see someone as a child of God, truly love them as the Savior would and be happy for them if you have these competing feelings of envy, lust, etc. It made me really feel how small my charity and love is and how much I need to grow and improve my charity. Something the mission does. Makes things so much crystal clear of what you need to improve, change, and add upon.

Yeah as for English class this past week guess how many people we had (this was the day of the typhoon, which wasn't really that bad and also the rain gear I have is fine. Works really great for the rain storms. The lighter rain is when things get annoying because you can start to get wet with light rain or start to sweat a lot because it is still fairly hot with the light rain)? We had a total of 20 people. The Beginning class didn't even have any students so the Sister missionaries joined our intermediate class. But yeah hopefully this Wednesday with no typhoon (which people always get scared about) we should be back up to hitting 100 people. We also really emphasized in our Ward correlation meeting with the ward mission leader how we want more members attending our English class to help during spiritual share, help with meeting with investigators afterwards, and getting to know non-members. And I was super happy that our ward mission leader was a boss in following up and reporting about it in Ward Council yesterday and in priesthood opening exercises. So hopefully it goes through well that more members attend.

Well this is pretty long now. I hope all is well with you! Let me know if there is anything I can do! Love you lots!

Elder Roo

July 20 2014

Hey Dad!

Sounds like so much time and money have been going into renovating the carpet and painting the walls. I feel like it will be so different and not like walking back into the home I was accustomed to. I can't imagine it taking up too much of your time though. Unless you are the one who is painting and getting all messy! :D

In all honesty I don't really feel like I was spilling my guts over an email a couple weeks ago. I just kind of type what comes and what flows. That's why maybe sometimes I don't really write much about areas or people or such because I just write what comes from the heart and from the mind. Sometimes I don't write a lot about people and things as well because in all honesty Dad the people I have been privileged to meet and be associated with actually have their own unique stories and I never seem to be the missionary that is actually involved with baptism. Like for instance back in Zhanghua I ended up making one of my best friends in Taiwan, Ian, but he was not in my ward. He was Elder Kou and Chiang's RC that they taught and baptized. But we saw each other many times and would hang out on P-day's and he helped to sit in on lessons with us several times. Was I ever the missionary to teach him or baptize him? Nope! About the other investigator he kind of slipped out of my emails because within a matter of days giving him a baptismal goal, him finally coming to church that Sunday for sacrament meeting, and then emailing you about him that Monday, that Monday night I called him to see about when we could meet during the week (he didn't set up after church the day before) and he talked about how that he was just going to read the Book of Mormon at home over the next month. I really tried hard to listen, understand him, discern his needs and such. I talked with him for about 20 minutes on the phone from reviewing over some things of the Message of the Restoration, him saying about how in 3rd Nephi (we gave him this assignment to read) the Savior instituting the sacrament used wine but we were using water, and so on. I several times talked with him about mine and Elder Oldham's purpose and that we would be there to help him, inviting him at least 4 or 5 times to keep meeting with us, but he was pretty set upon reading the Book of Mormon himself at home over the next month (his wife didn't even oppose against meeting with us or anything). So he said we could talk again with him in August. 

So Dad, a mission is exactly what the Lord knows you need to have. I am not a flying stars and colors boy who comes home with 50 baptisms on my shoulders. I am still not quite sure what kind of missionary Heavenly Father exactly sees in me and wants me to become. I do strive to always humble myself and come before him, desiring that I may know His will and submit myself to his will. I will share something with you. I feel that never before in all my life have I felt more the difference of having a spirit and a body. The spirit child of a Heavenly Father and a body of earthly parents that is corrupt and contains within it the natural man. I have felt more than just one occasion how much the spirit yearns within to be obedient and do what is right when the body is yearning, lusting, desiring after things of the flesh. It's actually interesting that coming to Taiping there have been a couple times now where I have slept through the alarm because of just how exhausted I have been (in part from how hard we are working and in part because I still work through my weaknesses and having doubts and worries that tire you out, that yes I working to drop and let be).

Dad, I understand the lessons and things you share with me and tell me with about the 3 points. The thing I want to bounce back and say is about point 3. I know, I know to go out work and have fun. That I don't need to stress. May I make a point though as well. I am not an Elder Rodeback or an Elder Ellison. They have their very specific missions for them and their needs. They have served in very different parts of the world compared between all of us. But missions are not about comparing, even trans-mission comparing, or even same generation comparing. So yes Elder Rodeback came to love his mission and didn't even want to be back. Elder Ellison has the unique personality and gift to love just about everything and everyone he is involved with. I wish I could talk with you face to face. I love my mission with all my heart. I echo what Dave Collings said that it is one of the hardest, trying, and pushing to your limits experiences that I would not trade away for anything else. I love my mission for what it has taught me and given to me and will still yet give to me. To take from Bianca Collings email is a funny saying that also I heard once or twice my MTC teachers tell us that I believe to be true. My MTC teacher often said: "state side missionaries come home gospel scholars, South American missionaries come home wet, European missionaries come home fluent and Asian missionaries just come home humble". 

I believe it very much that Pat gained his conversion and very much is a gospel scholar now who knows the gospel principles and doctrines in his heart. I know that Cody is always wet it seems, but he always has a smile and laughing even when he is wet. For me I don't think I have ever had a more humbling experience than my mission and wish sometimes that I was just that much more humble to acknowledge the Lord and all he has blessed me with. So with kindness, please do not continue to think or compare that I am like Pat or like Cody or that I turn out exactly as you see them. The Lord has been refining me and continues to keep me in the furnace right now of my mission until next year when I come home and have become the man the Lord has destined for me to be. So maybe instead come down on knees not seeking that I become like a Cody or Pat but that I may be more and more humble enough to always be coming to the Lord to seek His will and become what He wants me to be. And if this happens, it will all work out. I will come home not quite the same but refined to be who Heavenly Father wants me to be for the next stage of my life. 

So as for my new area, it actually has a total of 6 missionaries in it. Elder Randall and I, then Elder Ward (the one from my MTC district) and his trainee Elder Aimes, then Sister Tsoi and Sister Parkinson (who are the Sister Training Leaders and serve in the Taiping ward and Dongying ward). Elder Ward and Aimes cover most of the northern part of Taiping while Elder Randall and I cover most of the southern part of Taiping. It's been fun and interesting always moving to a new area and trying quick to get adjusted. There are a fair number of factories like in my last area, so there is a mixture of different Asian people here. Tracting so far has actually not been as good as I would like, but the contacting is a lot stronger and people more kinder and willing to listen. With Elder Randall sometimes I feel like what Ozzy Osbourne is saying about coming off the rails on a crazy train. Seriously with Elder Randall he is very energetic, also quite a loud person, who loves to talk. It seems like from just coming out of training with Elder Bennett (who was my Zone Leader down in Gaoxiong) he didn't get as much to talk, but being with me who is a little more naturally quiet he talks a fair deal more. I actually have had a few people sometimes ask if I am the senior companion or if he is (which I don't like, but I am just not naturally as talkative and out there kind of guy as Elder Randall). But Elder Randall is really good and has already taught me a lot. One thing we do with the other Elders around here since we have the stake center is set up basketball on Saturday afternoon and invite investigators, RCs, and others to come and play. It gets way fun and feel like my basketball is now going to improve. We also play each Monday morning with the other Elders and some members. 

But so to give you and idea of where Taiping is, it is just east outside of the city. I can bike to the Mission home in about 20 minutes and be in downtown Taichung. As with the 9 year old boy right now, Wu, we are trying to get set up with his aunt to meet with his mom. Wu's older sister has already been baptized. Apparently also his dad may or may not be in their life at all. So his mom is pretty hard working going to work at like 9 in the morning until 11 at night (because we went by with the ward mission leader in the morning at 11 to try and sit down with Wu and his mom, but she wasn't there). So that is our next step right now with him (his aunt by the way is a member). Yeah, over the last 3 weeks the companionship I am in has had 3 baptisms. The weekend before I came there were 2. Then just last week there was 1. I don't really toot my horn about it or anything because I really was not involved with them at all. The guy, Jerry, baptized this past week had been in Cambodia for the previous two weeks teaching English as part of a College program. So I had never met him until the baptism that night. Like I said I have never really been the missionary to be having all the baptisms. I really do desire and hope and feel in my heart there has to be at least a couple more people that I can really help in being the one to learn of the gospel, come unto Christ, and be baptized. But yeah another big part of my responsibilities right now is being English Leader. It may not seem like much but actually has a lot of things to do and sometimes stress. I mean before when I was in Zhanghua and being English leader it wasn't too bad. I had 10 missionaries to lead, and we were averaging about 65 students a week at the end when I left. But now moving here, it is so much bigger! I got here and found out that besides just the Dongying and Taiping missionaries, the Wufeng missionaries would stop teaching at a school and join together with us at the church. So now I have 12 missionaries to lead, and with the two English programs combining together we have for the last two weeks both times hit 98 students coming and attending. I feel like we are going to burst the classrooms!

We had a really good investigator (I never really like the term golden and actually I don't think once I have ever said it on my mission, it is much over used and just about every single missionary says that about every single investigator; me I just don't like it) that I added from our English class to meet with us at a different time. We taught the first lesson about the Restoration with him, and he really shared a lot and expressed a lot of his own feelings and thoughts (which was way awesome). We invited him to be baptized and he accepted a baptismal goal for August 16. The sad part though is that we now know he doesn't live in our area but lives in the Dongying area. So we are referring him and will introduce him to Elder Christiansen and Elder Williams on Wednesday after English class.

Other news...this Saturday or Sunday Elder Randall and I are going to have a duanchuan (a short-term missionary) from Nantun in Taichung be with us for 7-10 days (don't know how long yet). So it's going to be way fun! Hopefully not too hectic or anything and leave a good impression for Brother Wang (the duanchuan). 

So the first picture, this little sucker came walking out during personal study! I was reading scriptures and looking down and just see it go walking by my feet and then towards Elder Randall's desk. We sprayed it with bug spray but it still was twitching for like 3 or 4 hours afterwards. This has been the biggest one yet that I have found inside an apartment.

Next is at Shitou Kaorou (basically a buffet, yes we are probably spoiled here in Taiwan that we can eat at buffets and still budget it in with monthly expenses). It was Elder Ward's 20th birthday. So all the Elders from our district as well as some members and some investigators went and ate together. Ended up being 500 kuai per person since we paid for Elder Ward.

Next is later that day we went to the Department store next to the Mission office and went to the book store. I got Ender's Game in Chinese! And no I am being good and not reading it right now. But my goal is to be able to read it when I come home.

I have a few more pictures I will send. But this has been about it for me over on the island of Taiwan. I also don't really think the Typhoon will affect us much here in Taichung. We are about at the safest part of Taiwan when it comes to Typhoons. 

Love you so much! Miss you always! Love the family as well!

Elder Dayley

July 13 Letter

Hey Dad!

Sorry for this week being a little shorter email. Here is my letter to President:

Hey President!

So this week has been intense! Elder Randall is such a strong missionary. He has already through what he has said and not said helped me to start to be stronger, believe in myself more, and strive to have greater faith. That is one of the invites that I really have enjoyed you have given us is what can we do more to have greater faith. I feel within me that Taiping and Elder Randall will help this to come to light more and teach me to be a better missionary and give more of myself.

I feel one of the coolest experiences this past week has been a 9 year old boy we have been meeting with is that when I first met him (Elder Bennet and Randall had already met him before) he hadn't been praying at all. But we taught pretty basic about prayer and really urged him and invited him to pray that night. When we came back a couple nights later he said he had been praying, and so we taught the first lesson to his understanding and invited to start reading (by the way his older sister, 11, is already baptized, so hopefully we can get her to be a good example). But so when we have followed up with he says he has been reading and praying, liking it and says he has a desire to be baptized. We will help teach him to make sure he understands and knows what baptism is and has the right desire. But we love him and are way happy for him.

In my studies I have really been pushing to read both the Book of Mormon as well as Preach My Gospel (sometimes I haven't been able to get to Preach My Gospel) but I think every day this past week I got to both of them and it has really helped my studies to be that more focused and helping our investigators or preparing for the day.

Love ya!

Elder Dayley

But yeah this week has been a learning week and helping to better prep me for making the changes in my life, my mind, and making me even that much better of a man. Elder Randall and Taiping are going to make me grow in many ways, one in particular I feel is like you said just go out and do, don't sweat or fret, just be and enjoy.

Also my bike won't break down. My bike is one of the few Taiwan Taichung Mission bikes that hasn't had problems. I just bought new tires for my bike (like outer tires) a couple weeks ago because they were so worn down that they were starting to rip. But everything else is working A-OK.

Funny story for you. Last week we went to visit that 9-year old boy, Wu. When we showed up his older sister was outside with some other neighborhood kids. The sister was joking around saying she is an African. So joking back I was saying oh your African? you have very white skin. But instead of saying skin, I said....butt. Skin is pifu, butt is pigu. So probably my biggest language flop I have had. Elder Randall couldn't stop laughing for a minute.

Love you so much! Miss you lots!

Elder Dayley