Taoyuan # 63

Dear Family, We had just eaten our dinner and were about to go exchange back and he had to go to the restroom. I took the trash and then I had to go to the bathroom too, so I went in and didn't see anyone in the urinal but the door to the only stall was closed, and I naturally thought it was Elder Broeder so I messed with the door, and then made some scary noises, and then started just talking to him.... but there was no response... I didn't think anything of it until I was washing my hands and saw Elder Broeder come out of the handicap stall right next to the men's restroom... Hahahahah Elder Broeder said my face was priceless, when I saw him come out of there!! I told him to wash his hands and we got out of there!! Luckily before the guy came out, hahah but I learned a lesson. Not to mess around. But it was so funny!!!!!!!!!! Recently all of our investigators are not really progressing. But I know the power of prayer!!! Please pray for Lin Family, Lu Dx, Wang Dx, Xu JM, and that the people of Taoyuan will have their hearts softened to hear the message of the Restoration. This week there were a ton of miracles!! So many, but I think the most wonderful was finding a potential through a service opportunity!! We go to service every week at the yang lao yuan, and I met a Chen Ama. She didn't like to talk at first and then we started to chat about her family and she opened up a little bit more. She then told me that her husband had passed away, and normally I would just say that I'm sorry to hear that and talk about something else, but I felt that I should ask her if she would want to see him again. She thought for a little bit and then she responded that she would. Then I shared with her the Plan of Salvation, sharing the pamphlet and sharing scriptures, and she was eating it up!! I can't wait to meet with her this week and see if we can help her understand more :) I really felt good at that time. She was so great! Even though she was hard to hear and understand I know that her spirit was eating up the things I was sharing and the Spirit touched her several times. I have started to read the Book of Mormon again!!! I love it, but this time I have a pencil in hand and I am writing the thoughts that come into my mind that testify of the doctrines in PMG and I am learning alot. I testify that the Book of Mormon will bring us closer to the Savior and if we are willing, it will help us overcome trials and heal scars that we new not even existed. Hurrah For Israel!!!! Love, Elder Westover

Taoyuan # 62

Dear Family, Oh my dearest, beloved, beautiful Sarah and Tarah. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ZHU NI SHENG RI KUAI LE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 祝你生日快樂!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love my twin sisters alot. jiu zhe yang. (just like that!) This week was great!!!!!! lots of things learned again. hahah We had a Zone Training and two exchanges and it was super busy. :) but Elder Clyde and I are doing really good. I am so blessed to have a Mission President, called of God who is inspired to help me and other missionaries become more converted to the Lord and to help those that we teach com e closer to the Savior. Presidetn Day has invited us to really focus on the attributes of Christ and to become more like Him. This has made me think about the following: Through out my mission, I have been with just the right companions. Some of them were a little disobedient, and lacked the desire, but I can say that those times I am truly thankful because they were the times that I really went through my own Gethsemane. Earlier this year we had an opportunity to have a Mission Conference and have Elder Holland speak to us, and he got right up in our faces and shared with us his bold, fiery testimony he shared with us that we should remember that we are no better than the Savior. He himself was scoffed and rejected. Took upon Himself every pain and sickness imaginable, and we can not expect that it will be any different. I have been called of to represent Him and so if I am really accomplishing my purpose, I praise my Father for every trial. For just one more opportunity to become like Him. We have a loving Father in Heaven. I know that for sure. Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Ask. He will give it to you. :) Strive to keep your baptismal covenant of always REMEMBERing HIM. Love, Elder Westover

Taoyuan # 61

I love you all. Miracles, miracles, miracles. So many wonderful blessings from the powers of Heaven. Peter Wang, miracle with Elder McKay, an awesome English Culture Activity, service, a wave of humility (naturally because I asked for it), and member miracles. Last, last Sunday Peter Wang, just randomly walked in and come to attend Sacrament Meeting. We went over on Monday, met him and shared the Message of the Restoration with him. He is 50 yrs old, likes to speak a little English, very excited to learn and said that he just feels that he has a great need for God in his life. We set up a follow, up for Wednesday after noon to go back and read the Book of Mormon with him, but it ended up that his father had some medical problems in Taibei and he had to cancel, but my companion told him to pray for his dad. He did and his dad was all good the next day!! Then to go on top of that... We walked out our door the next day to find that he was the new security guard at our apartment building!! Hahah, with his new work he has to work on Sunday. So he couldn't come to church this week, but in our visit yesterday night while we were sharing the Plan of Salvation he said, "If I feel these things are true, I will have no problem with finding work that will allow me to go to church." We are praying that he will feel and we are going to rip of the roof to help him prepare for baptism in September. Brother Lin hasn't drank for two weeks!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much for your prayers. We just need to have his baptismal interview this week and help his daughter prepare for baptism later this month! :) Elder Clyde and I had a period of time this week that was specifically hard to find. No one was wanting to talk, and so we just prayed. We prayed to do what he wanted us to do, and right as we finished there was someone who had broken down. Their battery went dead and was pushing their car back home. :) Elder Clyde and I were very happy and so blessed, at that moment I felt that God was so, so merciful because he gave us an opportunity to help one of our brothers. Even though he wasn't willing to listen, we got to push a car( it reminded me of pushing the sled at football... :D) and it led to us finding someone who was willing to be baptized about an hour later when we finally arrived back to where our bikes were parked. God's plan is so much better than anything we could put together. My exchange with Elder McKay was great! We had a fun time :) He is the one missionary in my generation that I have gone on exchanges with, ever. Haha. Anyway, it was good. It was super cool because we had a miracle member willing to come out that day with us to a lesson. When we got there it ended up being that the investigator went to Taoyuan, but the member, right after they said he wasn't there, asked the lady in the home if we could share with them!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hahah wow. I was in awe.... It was a wonderful lesson. She was from Vietnam. She wouldn't set a baptismal date, but she said if she felt it was true she would be baptized. Super cool testimony to me and a learning moment for Elder McKay and I to always remember to be bold and ask (invite). One of the things Elder Clyde and I wanted to do this month was for every companionship to push for 20 total lessons, but I feel like I have been focusing on that too much the last two weeks. That's what I mean by the wave of Humility that hit me. The end of the week was really hard. We were talking to everyone, doing everything we felt that we should do. Praying mightily, and striving to be diligent, but we still didn't get the 20. I realized yesterday... it's not all about that. This month we are going to go with the vision that you and the Lord have set forth for us. We are going to use the Christlike Attributes to increase the conversion of every missionary. I really loved this: "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." (Matthew 24: 37-39) Love, Elder Westover

Taoyuan #60

Hello!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness :) There are so many things that happen in July every year! Happy birthday to Jared, Jacob, Enoch, Adelynn, Dad, and Olyvia. Happy Anniversary to Anna and Sid, and Joseph and Lisa :) Congrats to Brianna!!! :) This week was awesome!!! Haha, seeing as that we had no Weekly Planning session last week, I think it wasn't too bad! The Lord really helped us improve in bringing an ever increasing number of souls unto Christ. The Mission Vision for the next month is Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel. I'm super excited to see what the Lord will do here with us here as we sincerely desire to become like Christ and seek His guidance to change. This week we saw some wonderful things but the most awesome thing I think was a guy that we ran into two weeks ago on the street and last week we gave him a tour of the church and then this week we set a baptismal date and came to church!!!! :) He (Brother Zhang) is 54 and is just a good guy. He is really sensitive to the Spirit and loves to learn about Christ. He has a cool pipe that he smokes, but next time we meet with him we are going to teach him about the Word of Wisdom. Pray that he'll know that Joseph Smith is a prophet of God, and will have the faith to come unto Christ. Brother Lin is doing ok... It's been really hard to keep in touch with him daily. We do our best to send him a text when he doesn't answer, but because of his work ... he isn't always available. That Brother Yang... the one we found right after a prayer of faith that just had a little baby girl... his wife was there the last time we stopped by and we had a young man with us to share the First Vision. They haven't set a baptismal date yet, but the Spirit was really there very strong, and we will Follow up and love them. I love you all. You are so wonderful. so great, and I pray for each and everyone of you. My family, friends, fellow servants in the Lord's Vineyard, and anyone else (also counts as my friend). I want to testify that I know that God lives. I know that He is a true and living being that wants the best for us. He knows each and every one of us. He invites us all to come into His rest, through the Savior Jesus Christ. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored and we can obtain the blessings of our Father in Heaven through the Priesthood. The Book of Mormon is a testament of the truth of this Restoration. Read it. Hold fast to it, and you can know for yourself. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Love, Elder Westover

Taoyuan # 59

Brother Lin, the one that came to church with his whole family last week, was planning on getting baptized this week, but he can't because he drank tea. But that's no problem, because we are going to reset a baptismal date with him and reteach him as we teach his daughters :)!!!! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is best implemented in the home, and my companion and I feel really confident that this is the way to help him. His daughters grow and learn and encourage him to keep the Word of Wisdom... all so they can be together forever :) * Please pray for him. and for us as we seek inspiration to have good creative ideas to teach his daughters. So we had a lesson with a Liao Family (RC family) and we were really punctual with our plans that we made to teach and start finding. We went to an area that we both had felt good about in our prior planning sessions. We said a prayer and we felt really good about the house that was right in front of us as we were praying. There was a little boy playing on the phone and a mom washing clothes, and then a man sitting at a little table drinking beer. I looked at them and I wasn't really too sure, but Elder Clyde said that he thought we should talk to them. So we started with the little boy and he was too preoccupied... and the mom just completely ignored us, but before we talked to that man sitting down drinking beer, another man (Yang Dx) walked out and was super nice! He asked us to come in and sit down. And we shared with him about our purpose and about the plan of our Father in Heaven. He felt the Spirit and even though he rejected the invite to prepare for baptism and set a date, he said we could come back and share with him and his family. He was super special! Really wants to find and experience how the teachings of Jesus Christ can bless his family. :) That was a super wonderful miracle because it was the only person we found the whole week. We made some plans and set some goals of things that we were going to do to find the "Elect". Sometimes it really is "after the trial of your faith" (Ether 12:6) that you see the miracle, and find that ONE soul... I know that my Heavenly Father loves the people here in Taiwan and everywhere. :) That's it for this week :) Enjoy the pics :) There are so many people inTaibei! this is a picture of the city. His companion took it. pics to come...

Taoyuan # 58

Two weeks ago I got to go to participate in the MISSIONARY TSUNAMI! (a ton of extra companionships in one area doing nothing but finding 9 hours a day. I had the opportunity of participating in it So many miracles and a super great experience. Planted lots of seeds and hope the missionaries there are able to reap the fruits! :) the following is the report of President Day. He'll explain it clearer than I can :) haha. "MISSIONARY TSUNAMI The ancient prophet Abinidi declared: “And now I say unto you that the time shall come that the salvation of the Lord shall be declared to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.” Mosiah 15:28. In latter days, the Lord has renewed this prophecy through Joseph Smith, when he said: “And this gospel shall be preached unto every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” D&C 133:37 Today is the day when this prophecy is being fulfilled. Slowly and surely, nation by nation, missionaries enter and declare this gospel. This past week, the prophecy was being fulfilled by Taiwan Taipei Missionaries who participated in the July 2014 East Coast Missionary Tsunami. During this Tsunami, our mission was able to do the following: Total individuals contacted: 3256 Phone numbers obtained: 572 Copies of the Book of Mormon placed: 144 Set ups: 217 Lesson taught: 226 New investigators: 171 As a mission we exceeded our goals for the Tsunami. We had a goal of having 110 new investigators for the zones on the East Coast. We exceeded that goal by 61 new investigators. Now the goal is to have effective follow up on each name. The Assistants will be helping us with that, as well as all zone leaders and district leaders. There are some key things that need to be recognized as part of this Tsunami effort. First, we need to recognize the companions who remained in the Taipei and Taoyuan areas to keep their respective proselyting areas alive and on fire. Without these missionaries staying and effectively covering two areas for 4 days, the Tsunami could not take place. These missionaries were absolutely critical to the Tsunami effort and we are grateful for their efforts. They are as much a part of the Tsunami effort as those who traveled to the East Coast. Second, we need to recognize those involved in the planning and logistics which made this happen. Thank you to the Assistants, Temple Sisters, Zone Leaders, Sister Training Leaders, local church leaders and members who planned, coordinated, scheduled, called, exchanged, peike’d, and did a variety of other things to help the Tsunami flow smoothly. Third, thank you to the 28 missionaries who left their own areas to travel to TaiDong, YuLi and Hualien for this incredible event. Going out to find, find, find…..And that is exactly what they did. The Lord has stated: “Behold, I will hasten my work in its time.” D&C 88:73. That time has come. Thank you for participating in the hastening." Had a bunch of awesome miracles this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!: Our investigator (Lin Dx) brought his two daughters and "friend" (Ding JM) to church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They all loved it and they are going to come next week too. He is progressing well!! He fasted last week and hasn't drank tea or coffee for a week!! Remember that one older lady in Xinzhu??!?!?! Sui JM. Well last week at the temple I ran into my baby Elder Willes and he told me that she finally came to church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) :) She is going to be baptized some day, I know it. When I was on exchanges this week, we had just finished eating lunch, walking out the door, on our way to an appointment with an LA when I said "Hello, how are you today?", to a man (Eric Yang Dx) just standing in the door way... he responded back in English and we kept on talking to him. He was having some women problems......... hahahah .... after a minute or two I was afraid he was interested in just the English, but because we were in a hurry and didn't have alot of time, I just asked if we could meet with him later that day at the chapel and give him a look at the chapel... he accepted. He actually came and really has some wonderful desires!! He set a date for August 8th and we will see him tomorrow to share the restoration. :) Last week we got to go to the temple and serve there for 4 hours!!! so good..... awesome. We are seeing some wonderful things with little opportunities to serve our members!!!!!!!!! just little opportunities, but it's gaining their trust :) I've been working on the attribute of patience... patience with myself, and love and patience for those that I meet. I've been praying for that and I am having lots of opportunities to do learn about that now. The Lord will give to those that ask. Love, Elder Westover Hualian!!!!!!!!!!!! :) The East Coast!

Taoyuan # 57

Oh my goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so much news from everyone! Congrats to John and Yumiao on the engagement!!!! Congrats to Jared and Laci on the baby!!!!!!!!! Congrats to Joshua and Katie on the callings!! I am so happy. I love it! I feel more and more like the promise of him that looses himself in His work will really find himself. When Elder Holland came to talk to us, he said that if we give it all we have for Him and are completely ALL IN, we won't go home unless it's on a stretcher... so Plan on seeing me come out of terminal on a stretcher because it's all on the feild!! I really have received so many blessings. I have so many things that I would have to be like Enos and pray for a day and a night and a day to list it all out, but I just want to share with you a few miracles. This week we met with an investigator (Lin Dx) that has been having some problems with the drinking tea and coffee, but as we were having our WPS a few weeks ago we had the feeling that fasting would be good for him. Last Monday we shared with him about the fasting and Saturday night we started the fast together. It was super great. He gave a wonderful prayer and the next day it was incredible... in our Gospel Principles class he received some inspiration as to how he can quit and the things he needs to do to accomplish it!! He set another date for July 26th and we will work with him and love him and help him "Come unto Christ". that's it! Love, Elder Westover