hey everyone! so this last week was a good one! there wasn’t a ton that happened much different other than we had Elder Evans a general authority came to talk with us! is was super sick! he gave us a solid talk all about the importance in repentance is the work that we are doing here. as we share the gospel we must be focusing on the importance of repentance. literally if you think about it repentace is a miracle! the fact that we can be forgiven and change through the Atonement is such a blessing! im so greatful for the Atonement!

other than that we have been working with many people and had a total of 5 people commited to coming to church but not a single one came. i learned a lot from that experience and hope that i can be able to help them out the best i can! life is good 🙂 we have a total of 5 people that i feel will be making it to baptism here! i hope while i am here. we have transfers this week and i don’t think i will leave yet but no one knows that! haha anyway we have had good success here! love you all! exersize its important! read the book of mormon thats also very important! and brush you teeth as well if you could 😉 haha love you all!

Elder Miner

孟長老

Alright so what is up with this pokemon game?? its literally everywhere in taiwan is it super big in america too? we have developed a new type of finding in our area from this game that everyone and their grandma (i am not even kidding when i say that…. sadly… haha) is playing! you just walk around with this game on and its connected to maps so you just go around and find pokemon its pretty funny! i know that being on your phone is bad but because of this game we see so many people that we have never seen before at the parks! so… we catch pokemon for jesus 🙂

then we met this super sick famliy last week that has been through some hard stuff but as a result they are super prepared for the gospel!! they are the li family the family incudes the mom li ya and then her son just those two but they are sick! we are woking with them and hoping that we can start to slowly help them just see the good side of life 🙂 because life is so good!

other than that we met this LA who has some very hard life situations he is living in a house thats super small and when we visited him he shared with us some of the little food he had which was just some sweet potatoes super simple but it was all he had! love the man, hope to be able to get to know him better.

again i just want to stress the importance of the sacrament and remembering christ. literally no matter who you are it just brings such power its legit! i love this gospel and im so greatful for the chance i have to come and share it with the world 🙂

Elder Miner

孟長老

first off that translation is weird but it just means the good things in life are worth waiting for.. haha anyway…

this week was another great one! we have been able to see many miracles as we have gone out finding and just working hard to bring those prepared to christ! i have literally never been so tired in my mission but at the same time i have enough energy every day to get all i need done! life is the best 🙂

so last week i talked about a past investigator i contacted in tao yuan that came down to visit and play for pday and she is actually baptized now too!!! she got baptized last saturday and she was so dang excited about it all 🙂 and on top of that we have been able to find some sick people to start meeting with as well! we have literally been able to see miracles from just working 🙂 i don’t think i have been so inconstantly happy in my entire mission 🙂 even though we had joanna and yoyo not be able to continue to progress and have lost another lin rong yao we have managed to stay positive.

i have learned a lot just about the power of decision. literally if you decide to you can avoid negative thoughts, sin, feelings of inadequacy, and a ton more. you just decide to use the Atonement of Christ before situations come up and you can strengthen yourself to the point where when they come you can overcome them quicker than if you hadn’t applied the Atonement 🙂 its sick i dare you to try it out! i love guys! hey read psalms 100:3-5 its good stuff 🙂

love you all!

Elder Miner

孟長老

hey everyone! how is life going? life here is so dang good! this last week had a ton of things happen both up and down but… it ended super well! so i went on exchanges with the APs on monday i went with Elder Hansen and he’s in my generation and it was seriously so much fun!! we just had a good time out contacting people 🙂 and that night we met with 田心潔 tian xin jie this girl that Elder Humphries and i contacted when we were together and now we have seen her and start working toward baptism! she is sick! she has a date for the 20th of this month! and she came to church for the first time yesterday!!

then there is a 蔡芯羽 cai xin yu we called her up one day and she was willing to meet! she’s super quite and kind of awkward to talk to sometimes but she’s super sick! she has a date for the 27th! ill let you know what happens with her!

then we are meeting with some sisters! 高惠玉 gao hui yu and 高秋鶯 gao qiu ying they are super sick! they have been meeting with us for a while and have a date for the 20th as well and im super excited to work with them!! i pray that they can get the permission of their grandma because thats the only thing that they are really struggling with right now they are so down for baptism!!! 🙂

then while out knocking on some doors we knocked into this girl she’s 20ish and she is so dang prepared!! we talked with her for like 10 minutes and she then came to english class and met afterwards and her and her little sister set a date for the 27th as well!!! so dang sick! just one problem is that their mom seems to not want them to go to church… it sucks. but im sure we can talk to her mom about it and figure something out… hopefully!

then, most of you probably don’t remember her but i talked about a girl i contacted when i was back in tao yuan that was golden her name is 黃仙蓉 huang xian rong. so aparently she is getting baptized next week!!! she came down here to hua lien to visit me and talk to me about it. she is super nervous to tell her parents because she doesn’t know what reaction they might have… so she just wants to think of the right way to say it. she is so sick though i love her! im hoping that she will be able to talk it over with her parents! pray for her!

life is so good im sure that you all know that 🙂 don’t ever lose the perspective that god has given us through the knowledge of his plan of salvation！ its so true and satisfying. i love you all and i love this church. 加油！

Elder Miner

孟長老

this week was a pretty average week just full of doing the work and loving it! being with Elder Griffin has been great! i feel like we are now starting to click and that this next week is going to be sick! the entire week we had 3 bikes between the 4 of us and then one of them broke… so we have been working with what we have got. its been fun! our apartment has 4 elders and we all are in the same ward. so we are all trying to strengthen our ward but its kind of hard without a bike.. haha! nah its good we’ve had fun! we found a super awesome family down in feng lin 鳳林 its a great place with a lot of potential! so this family we met through english class down there and they are starting to show a ton of interest in our message! so we are stoked for them!

aside from that we have had a pretty average week 🙂 i love 花蓮 hua lien and the experiences i have had here! life is the best and god is kind! 🙂 love you all! oh and real quick invite for the week, go and study the part of our baptismal covenant where it talks about remembering Christ. There is seriously so much power from that! you can overcome any temptation, challange and random mood swing with that simple part of our covenant 🙂 its sick the gospel is the greatest thing.

lastly a little funny story. so we were down in feng lin a super small little town and while down there talking to everyone we walked into this little girl and her little brother with thier grandma. now i looked at them and knew that one of their parents wasn’t asian. so i walk up to this little girl and ask "hey! whats your name??" and this little girl responds with a voice as low as kronk from emperors new groove saying "my name is molly" it was very surprising and really funny! haha! i didn’t know how to respond but it was a pretty good contact haha 🙂 life is good!

Elder Miner

孟長老

so this last week was super nuts!! first i want to say i am sorry for not emailing to the group last week we were in a rush to go play… haha no good excuse i know.. :p but anyway this week was sick!

for last p day we went up tai lu ge gorge and the hike was so sick! seriously hua lien is the most beautiful place i have ever served even more beautiful than tai dong! we took a long hike up along a cliff by a gorgeous river to this tunnel that we were able to walk through in the pitch black and the whole time water is just pouring down on us which felt amazing because its a billion degrees outside and very humid so having ice water showers was the best 🙂

then we went on an exchange this week with some elders in our zone. elders Clark and Swank they are some very great missionaries! i went with elder Clark and we found this super golden girl! she has started to progress already and im stoked! 🙂 her last name is chen.

then we were able to go up to taipei for MLC which is just all the zone leaders meeting with the president and APs. we had a super cool training on spiritual gifts and i can tell you something, we all have plenty of gifts whether or not we see them! i would invite you all spend some time and just count all the gifts you have then, pick one that you want to work on and make it legit!

then in the course of this week my companion Elder Humphries pulled two people off the street and brought them to church to hear a little message and then they both came to church this week!! the first one was this guy that almost hit him (because my companion likes to ride fast through yellow/red lights… haha) but then this guy decided that he wanted to start meeting with us which was sick!!! then the last one was the most legit things i have ever done! while taking the train back from feng lin (that little branch we started down by the bishops house) we struck up a conversation with a monk lady and as we talked with her the entire train ride she eventually agreed to come to church with us right then!! it was soo legit! i attached one picture of Elder Humphries walking with her… haha!

in short this week was awesome and we saw many miracles! also, i am now an uncle!! i am so dang excited! Karren and Jason had their baby this last week! man… god is good 🙂 love you all!!

Elder Miner

I have just got to say i love everything about the mission. every area has been just what i needed at the right moment. and flip the east coast is literally just paradise! the area we are in right now is just booming and we are going to be having 4-5 baptisms in our area this week! sooooooo sick!!

as for this last week though it was legit! first off for preparation day we went out down the east coast for an hour drive to go to a super beautiful beach and we last minute got to see a bat cave! super small and not a ton of bats but it was good! we finished it off with a solid watermelon eating contest in which i lost hard core but it was still a ton of fun! when we got home i had Elder Jensen cut my hair… with a little electric shaver and a fork…. and it worked! then the rest of the week up until saturday was just about average 🙂

on saturday we we had our stake meeting and it was so sick! i was able to meet all the members from when i served in taidong and all the members that i had met here in hualian as well as some from taipei that came down it was sooo legit!! seriously it was an amazing way to end the week with a bunch of friends and a great stake meeting. we had a 70 come a speak and the main point was all about member missionary work and really just knowing and understanding our call and responsibility in the church.

super great week but unfortunately i forgot my camera at home today… so i don’t have any pictures from it… my bad! hope you are all doing good!! love you all! 平安!

Elder Miner

孟天鴻長老

So this week was great as always! to start off we were able to meet with some of my RCs in gui shan and met a lot of members and had a ton of people give us a lot of food! it was super good 🙂 then we had the english party and that was a blast! we were able to have some investigators come and just had a good time which was so fun! I am going to miss them a lot, i have grown to love this area an the amazing people that i have been able to meet there. life long friends 🙂

then on the next day (Thursday) i was taken to the train station and sent to 花蓮hua lien! seriously so sick! my new companion is Elder Humphries he’s also from Bountiful Utah! oh and for those of you that don’t know that is right back down to the east coast, its the next big city above 台東tai dong. getting sent back to the east coast is not a common thing but i am soooo stoked!!! and now i am actually the zone leader down here which i am so dang stoked for!! this place is so beautiful 🙂 Im picking on to the area and investigators pretty well and im hoping that i will be used to it quickly! we have seen miracles sense being here as well!!

on sunday we started the very first little district meeting in a place called feng lin which is pretty far away from our church building. it was so sick to be there and to be a part of history!! we had a total of 14 people there and it was amazing! then in the afternoon on sunday we went to our normal meetings at the church it was great! love our investigators and the work here!! i will send pictures of all these things 🙂

man…. the gospel is so dang legit!!! as i left gui shan to come be zone leader here i was nervous as all get out. but as soon as i got here i was still super nervous don’t get me wrong but literally when i kept in mind my perpose i saw miracles and its coming along so well!! the work goes on, no matter what. there is nothing that can or will ever stop the work of the lord 🙂

​love you all!

This week was soooo legit!!!!! full of a lot of things that happened! so first off monday we went to go visit a member that had a stroke and he is doing so much better although he is not able to walk yet.. but it was great to see him for what might be the last time…. i might move this week! :'( but then we met with 洪鈺婷hong yu ting and it went amazing! by the end she told us that she wanted to get baptized this week!! so we were like… alright, no problem!! so that was an amazing lesson!

then on wednesday we had such a "….what just happened…" kind of day haha so to start we just went and had some fried rice because we have a place in our area that has about 50 different kind of rice haha! but anyway we were then biking toward our apartment to go pick up something from a member. I was in front and as i was biking i was just going along biking pretty fast just because time is precious right? haha but as i am going along i am coming past this taxi that is parked on the side of the road and as i get about 2 feet away from the front door the guy inside opens the door!!! now this is something that all taiwan missionaries imagine happening to them! so i had no time to react so my handlebar hits the door jerking the handlebars sideways and sending me flying through the air! Elder Welch said that i had done a front flip over my handlebars sending all my tracts over the road, it was seriously soo funny!! i don’t have any injuries from it luckly 🙂 i only remember getting up and not being to breath for a bit but after that i was totally fine! then later that day we were out finding and we had been meeting with this investigator from japan! so we had gotten him a japanese book of mormon but hadn’t been able to see him for a long time! then out finding we happened to find him! he saw us from across the road and we were so stoked to see him then as we started to bike over to him he just ran…. he ran so dang fast i have no idea why! haha it was pretty funny not going to lie… so now we just have a japanese book of mormon haha it was a great day 🙂

then we have been able to find some super sick investigators!!! im am so excited for them!! one is April she is so legit, then there is a friend of a girl in our ward and then last is this huang xian rong the way we met her was soo sweet but after our first meeting with her it turns out she doesn’t live in our area ao… we had to give her away but she came to church!! she is so legit! i love being a missionary its so dang fun!! 🙂

then to end off the week we had two baptisms!!! it was seriously the coolest!! we had that 洪鈺婷hong yu ting and 江孟臻jiang meng zhen recieve baptism! the best way to end this week and the training experience!! 🙂 seriosly have been so blessed with this area, companion, and friends that i have made here. i hate transfers for this reason, having to leave all the people you have gotten to meet and love! its ok though i can go out and help more people haha!

here are their pictures! short hair is jiang meng zhen long hair is hong yu ting!

Elder Miner

this is mango shaved ice thing and its sooo flipping good!! i love mango season!

then just some pictures of me and my comp.

and something that ive gotten used to but i thought you would like to see is the toilets here have two buttons… one for the small one and one if its big… haha its good ol’ taiwan 🙂