RICH MISSION MEMORIES: ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON WEEK #56 -- JUNE 16, 2014

ELDER HYRUM RICHARDSON WEEK #56

JUNE 16, 2014

This week was pretty good. I'm amazed at Elder Farrell's example of being not trunkie. I hope that when I get down to my last week on island that I will be just as not trunkie. He's only got four days left of missionary work!

Last P-Day, Wu Mama had two American friends who were visiting, so all of us went with some other members to Danshui! Danshui is an old port on the north tip of Taiwan, and has a market street that is right on the coast. We also took a boat ride over to another part of the port that has a cool bridge. Pictures are attached.

On Tuesday, we attended our big zone conference. I was asked to do the translating again, but it was nice because nobody actually needed the translating there. All of the native missionaries had really good English, so we just talked into the microphone when nobody was listening. It was good practice! I personally think that translating from English to Chinese is easier than the other way around. It was hard, but it wasn't terrible like the first time that I translated. Hopefully it'll just keep getting easier with practice.

At Zone conference, they told us that starting next month, our zone will begin using Facebook to do missionary work as the pilot program for the mission. I'm really excited! There are a lot of investigators that we have right now that will be easier to get in contact with through Facebook. It'll also be nice because some people on the street might be hesitant to give us their phone number, but might give us their Facebook information. I'm excited to use this new tool!

Right when we got to this area, there was a really cool investigator named Jackson. He was really interested in the gospel, and we had a great first visit with him. But, unfortunately, because he was doing his military service, it was hard for him to answer his phone, and he was rarely in Taibei. So gradually, we lost contact with him and stopped trying to call. Well, last week, we were looking through the area book and found his record, which a former missionary had the foresight to right down when he finished military service, which was June 7th! So now we are back in contact with him and meeting with him again!

So, about Brother Hou. He was supposed to have his baptismal interview this week on Saturday. He completely quit smoking on Monday, and we met with him on Friday to review baptismal interview questions and confirm the time for Saturday. He was all ready to go! But then on Saturday afternoon we called him again and he said that he was sick and in the hospital, but then the call dropped before we could talk to him more. So we are still not really sure what is going on with him because he hasn't answered his phone again yet. So pray for him! Hopefully he'll be alright!

There is an investigator that the sisters passed off to us. Elder Farrell and I discovered that even though he's really confused about the gospel and is having difficulty keeping commitments, he is really sensitive to the Spirit in other ways. If Elder Farrell or I were not teaching by the Spirit and just saying what we wanted to, he would pick up on it, and it would have no effect on him. He's a really special investigator who has been an investigator for a really long time. I really hope that he can start feeling the Spirit and I hope that he can get baptized some day soon!

That's about it for this week. I'll attach a bunch of pictures.

I'll have a new companion next week!

Add oil!

Elder Richardson

任長老