Henry Saves Taiwan: In the Midst of a Crooked Nation

P day with Wu DX

A few weeks ago my sister Adelide sent me these verses from Philippians and I have been pondering them ever since:

"15. That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation , among whom ye shine as lights in the world; 16. Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain. 17. Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all."

As I thought about these verses I found that they had a lot to do with my week, and mission in general. In verse 15 it mentions being in the "midst of a crooked and perverse nation," which is true. A lot of people here are bent in their ways and are unwilling to change, but I like to focus less on their faults and focus more on how we are here, "the sons of God," standing as "lights in the world."

This week we didn't get super high numbers or see stupendous miracles but we were able to build friendships with people who wouldn't have normally listened. We were able to provide a lot of service for our friend Zhang DX. He is a very strong Buddhist but we are still good friends. His wife's mother passed away recently and they have been preparing for her funeral for a while. We asked if there was any way we could help and they said yes! We helped them fold paper lotus flowers and were also able to get to know his other family members and they started asking us questions. We were able to share a little of our message and show our love for this gospel. I believe that it may have helped them recognize that this gospel is the light in the world.

a flower I MADE!

Each day we go out "holding forth the word of life," and I have really been able to recognize the power of scriptures when we use them in lessons. Our investigator George went to the hospital again this week and he was supposed to be baptized on this coming Saturday but will still be in the hospital. We decided to visit him with our ward mission leader and he was so surprised that we had cared enough to visit. We told him that we did care a lot about him and we shared a few scriptures about being able to overcome trials with faith and he was very grateful and bore a strong testimony. He still has some questions but has faith enough to accept baptism. We are very excited for him!

Xie DX and his wife just left today for their mission in New York!!! They are awesome!

Another awesome experience occurred this last Thursday when we rode past our investigators (Brother Pan) lottery shop, and he was reading the Book of Mormon! It was awesome and was comforting to see him progress and have the faith to search the scriptures. Though, sadly we dropped by his shop yesterday and he was not there. We called him and he said he would never return (he had gone home to the most southern point of Taiwan.) I will admit I began to feel that I had "labored in vain," and was feeling pretty down. But then I thought that it would be A-OK because he still has a strong desire for baptism and also that as long as I do my part to progress this work, the Lord will provide a way.

I found so much joy this week. We have found several wonderful people while I have been here. This last P-day our investigator Brother Wu took us up to Baling, three different mountain peaks. It was beautiful and we were able to share a lot with him. At the top we were also able to share with the chief of police and give him a Book of Mormon. I found joy in faith this week and definitely saw the blessings from it as well.