view this 10 min you tube video
The Dan Jones Project, Taiwan Taichung Mission at::
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD0kJF3-sBg&feature=youtu.be
Dear Everyone,
Well hello!!! Wow...... how to start.... this is crazy!!!!!!! My new trainer and companion is Elder Long, and he is absolutely amazing!!! We are in Dou Liu, in the smack dab middle of Taiwan, and its so awesome!!! Basically its a tiny town, so we actually tract and ride a lot in rice fields and bamboo forests! So cool!!! The apartment is... well... livable haha, no worries, but we have 4 people in it, and only 1 bathroom and room! crazy, but way fun!! The area is still just a district, but they are hoping to become a stake very soon!!! The Mission president told me that they're putting the strongest of missionaries in Dou Liu so that we can get enough people to create a stake! I didn't quite believe him, until my companion looked at all the missionaries in this area. Every single one except me is a step down zone leader, and amazing missionaries!! I hope I will be able to help, and be able to learn the language soon!! I had to bear my testimony in church yesterday, and that was.... interesting haha! Super cool, but scary!! The food is amazing, just like mama made it haha!!!! I basically love everything about Taiwan :)
So, week recap time!!!
Monday: all I wrote in my journal was "Packing" because I was leaving the next day! haha!!
Tuesday: We woke up at 2:00 in the morning to see Elder Bird off, and that was crazy!!!! sad, but we had to move on I suppose :( After that we finished packing and went to the front runner station at 6:30 in the morning, went to the airport, and talked to a bunch of returned missionaries, and had a ball being in public!! Then to LAX airport, then To taiwan!!!
Wednesday: Literally spent the entire day on a plane, so all I wrote was "It's so crazy that I was just in the MTC, and now am in Taiwan about to preach the gospel!!!" So cool!!!
Thursday: I wrote: "Holy Cow!!!! Longest fist day in Taiwan ever!!!!! We woke up and ran a ton!! Then came back, bought our bikes, did personal study, and had an amazing breakfast!!!.... After that we had orientation, and more orientation!! We then had lunch at a place called Marijuana, and had Hot Pot there (Baha, oh boy) After that we had a ton more orientation, a bit more orientation, and then even more orientation!!!" Wow, quite the day!!! We had a cool banquet dinner, then went and preached the gospel, Dan Jones Style!!!!! In case you're wondering what that is, yes we stood on a box holding a book of Mormon yelling out the gospel to people as they passed. Awesome. That's not how we really do missionary work obviously, but it got us out of our shells haha! Wa! Amazing!
Friday: I said "What. The. Holy. Crap. Today was... well... wow. Ok so we started the day in Taiwan, Taichung at the mission home, and ended.... well, we'll get to that. So we woke up (a little sore from running the day before) and had to do the worst workout ever!!1 (made me more sore). We rean stairs for 20 minutes straight. Then died. Kidding but I felt like it haha! I have never been so sore on my legs!!! Ok, after that we got ready for the day, got our stuff ready to be taken, and got ready to go." ok.. yada yada yada.... oh! "Then, at 10:00, we went up to meet trainers!! In the chapel we learned about "The first 12 weeks program (which we have a goal to finish in 8 weeks) and watched a super cool video about Taiwan, and our "Dan Jones" activity from last night." So then after that I realized the truth of where I was going. So my trainer is a Step Down zone leader (obviously) and he has been here a year and 7 months. Me and him are "White Washing" This area, which means that me and him have no investigators, no referrals, no connections with anyone, don't know where anything is, and just get to go for it. Awesome, but crazy!!! Because of that, Friday night we contacted people for 3 hours straight trying to find people ready for the gospel. Then we got to meet the ward mission leader, a super cool guy who just 6 months ago was inactive, and then "rescued" by missionaries. This gospel means everything to him, and hearing him bear his testimony was a super spiritual experience.
Saturday: "First Full day!! and holy cow was it hard!!! Woke up, played basketball, came back, and showered, then had 4 hours of study!! 4!!! and it was awesome!!! We practiced teaching, read how to be better missionaries, and prayed!!! " Really quick insert, Elder Long is a super cool Elder, and amazingly spiritual!!! I'm so glad I have this chance to learn from him :) anyways, back to my journal "After that we went out and contacted/found lunch (lunch was delicious, of course). Contacting is crazy!! Elder Long is crazy at it!! I've seen him chase down cars, put fliers in windshield wipers, emergency stop to talk to someone, and talk to and pull over scooters!! Crazy right?! But awesome. We prayed for miracles because we had no investigators, and now one to call haha! But we had a lot of friendly people, and got 11 numbers!!!" After that we had the chance to see a baptism!! So cool!!!!! Then, we contacted even more haha, Oh its fun :)
Sunday: "Today.... Goodness gracious, so much happens each day, I don't know how to write about all of it!!!" Let me just say, that is so true, it's like impossible to let you know all that I do in every day haha! anyways... "So this morning we had church, and we had an investigator come to church with us!!!!!" Now here is the awesome part "After church, when we taught him and he prayed, he said something to the effect of "Please help me plant the seed of this gospel in my heart, so it may grow and help me." and we hadn't even read Alma 32 with him yet!!! He's so golden, he's practically already glowing!!" So cool :) After that, really we studied, and contacted, and then went to a family home evening!! So cool!!!!
So ya, there's my week!!! I don't really have a lot of photo's this week to send, but I'll take more this week and send them!! Promise!!!!! The work is moving forward in Taiwan, and I'm so excited to be a part of it!!! I hope everyone's having an amazing time back home, and I'll talk to you next week!!!!!
CTR,
Elder Dawson
P.S. What is my blog address?? Some people have been wondering so they can read it, and I don't even know it haha, if I could get that, that would be awesome :)
the blog address is::
http://dannydawson1207.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment