Weekly Adventures

Hey there family!

How is everything going at home? I hope things are going well, and that it isn´t very cold up there; and if it´s really cold, try sending some of the cold waves down here to Formosa. These last few days we have been really hot. Yesterday wasn´t so bad, there was a fair amount of cloud cover which let us for the most part work pretty well. Saturday it also rained a little bit, but otherwise, it was just one of the hottest weeks yet here in Formosa. On Saturday before the rain came it was like walking through a sauna to be in the street, insanity.

Let´s go through the fun stuff of the past week. We will start with today. :) PDay!! Always a good day, we started off by playing a little bit of American football. It was fun, just really, really hot, and someone had decided to water the field or something before we got there, because it was all wet. So we were in the mud a fair amount; it made it hard to run. Then after that we got the whole zone together, even all of the sisters and we got on a bus to go to a zoo sort of place. No one had ever been there before, and it was(is) incredibly hot today. It wasn´t exactly the best zoo or Pday I have ever had, but it was cool all the same. I am going to attempt to send some pictures either this week or next week. We´ll see how the computer treats me. :) Right now we are just finishing up the Pday by writing the families and then we have a family home evening with one of our investigator familias; they´re amazing. They have even started to give us lunch every Friday.

Last Thursday was another zone leader´s council in Resistencia. It was another fun adventure of getting up and leaving early. Only this time we got up late, at 4:30 in the morning to leave so we had to get on another bus, one that wasn´t really nice at all to get to Resistencia on time. The training was amazing, we talked alot about the focus of the mission and how we can better help the missionaries see that focus. Then President talked to us alot about the Apostasy and how we need to make sure that we avoid falling into Personal Apostasy. He said that it all begins slowly and sometimes we really aren´t sure what is going on. Afterward, we got in at about 11:30 or so that night, pretty tired. On the whole bus ride home we just talked among us missionaries, about doctrine, our areas, everything. (Elder Mohlman was on the same bus as us with his companion, it was cool.)

This last week we have had some of the best, most spiritual lessons that I have had in my entire mission. We were with this family, and we were talking to them about what they had thought about the Church and everything. They told us they could feel something different in their house since they started participating, and that they wanted that to continue, so they want to get baptized. Then with this other lady - Maria, we taught her the first lesson and told her that it would be God who gives her the answer if it´s true or not. Then she told us that that was what she had been looking for her entire life, looking and praying that God would show her the true path, and true church. She is actually only on a couple month stay here in Formosa. But right before she came here, the missionaries there visited her, and then we got to her here, so she has decided that God is trying to tell her something, that now is the time. We have heard a bunch of stories like that recently - people telling us that we got there just in the right moment, and that it was something they had never expected. It really strengthened my testimony that God really does prepare people, and that he knows how to take the gospel to His children.

I´m happy, and healthy. The zone is progressing really well, we are seeing incredible amounts of success in the zone. I´m loving the mission. I really don´t have any complaints, other than the fact that it´s really hot. Otherwise, I´m loving everything!!! :)

I gotta go!! I love you all!!!
- Matthew