I'll start with the quote of the week from Elder Raley: "Elder
Dickson, you're the beauty to my beast."
Needless to say, it was another
good week filled with failings, miracles, and valuable lessons
learned.
Lunch with George who serves on the High Council
This past week we celebrated Elder Raley and Elder Johnson's birthdays. They were born on the same day, a year apart.
The loving people here made them lots of cake!
P-day was really quite rejuvenating
and at the same time effective in terms of the work. We spent the
majority of the day with a family that is investigating the church: Jian
Jiating. They're the most incredible people. The husband is Taiwanese,
the wife is Filipino, and they have two wonderful daughters. Both are
doctors and have been through a lot of trials over the course of their
lives, but they've met these trials with courage and been strengthened
in the process. They treated us as family as they treated us to a lunch
for Elder Raley and Elder Johnson's birthdays. That night we met with a
fairly new investigator who we contacted over dinner at one of our
favorite restaurants. My companion asked a really inspired question that
provoked just about the most profound answer I've heard from an
investigator. He asked what it would mean to him if there really was a
God in Heaven that knew and loved him and Whose greatest desire was his
success and happiness. After thinking about it for a solid 2-3 minutes,
he responded, "Well...I think we would come to be close friends..." I'm
grateful for the knowledge that yes, God truly does know us and love us
both individually and unconditionally. He is indeed our best friend.
It
was special this week to be able to attend Brother Wen's traditional
funeral services. Afterwards, we met with his son who is going through
rough times. We've tried to meet with him in the past, but it never happened. I was shocked when he came up to us, sat by me, and said
nothing. He was ready to listen. I'm excited to see the gospel heal this
man. We testified of simple truths and were able to comfort him. While
we are not able to understand how he feels, the Savior understands
perfectly and has the power to comfort us whatever our situation may be.
I
went on exchanges with Elder Johnson this week. He's such an incredible
missionary and man; his unwavering desire to do what is right is a
defining aspect of his character. I was privileged to go with him to
visit an investigator of theirs who had been not been moving forward. It's difficult. This incredible man is in his 70s
and has been Daoist all his life. As of recent times, he has come to
know the good news of the gospel. It's blessed him and brought him
peace, but he doesn't want to leave what he has known all his life. I
think he's almost scared that it's true and is searching for some fault
in us or what we have shared with the hope that he can go forward and
not have to make such a difficult decision. As a result, he disagreed with us throughout the lesson. However, the Spirit was present
in abundance, and we were led to testify of one simple truth: "God is
your loving Father in Heaven. He loves you. We love you too. That is why
we are here today." With every principle we taught, we brought it back
to this eternal truth. I have never felt the Spirit in such abundance.
We were led in all we said and the Spirit bore powerful witness of the
simple doctrines we taught. By the end of the lesson, he said he could not deny the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Elder Johnson
couldn't stop smiling through the remainder of the evening. He said it
was like something out of the scriptures to teach with such power and
authority and that he had never seen or heard of such an experience in
modern times. It was life-changing for all present. It was especially
interesting after the lesson and back out on the busy streets of Taiwan. As we biked
by, all stopped what they were doing, smiled, and watched us go by. This
is not normal behavior...the companionship of the Spirit is the
greatest gift we can have. Seek it.
Snail
Last P-day up at Lianhe Daxue
Elder Robbins the track star
We've been
meeting with a less-active member lately. He's a man of righteous
desires, but he's never really understood the scriptures, enjoyed the
Spirit of church, or had a personal experience with prayer...up until
recently. I cannot stress the importance of sincere prayer, the regular
renewal of baptismal covenants through the partaking of the sacrament,
and scripture study enough. These are the greatest indicators of whether
or not those we teach will or will not progress. These are the greatest
indicators of whether or not they will come to know the Savior. These
are the greatest indicators of whether or not we will be happy. Please
do not compromise daily prayer and scripture study for anything. You
will be blessed as you make these things a priority in your daily lives.
When we put God first, all other things fall into their proper place or drop out of our
l
-President Ezra Taft Benson
All is well,
Elder Dickson
With Elder Joly before he left MiaoLi
At transfers this past time, I got to say good bye to my "grandfather" Elder Boyce and see my "dad" Elder Hawkes
"family photo"
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