I am really grateful for the opportunity to have another transfer in on the streets of Taiwan. We want to build this area and leave behind a solid foundation on which missionaries can continue to build. We were near 30 sit-downs this week. We have also given away 23 copies of the Book of Mormon in these past two weeks! We are trying to flood the earth.
We have met a lot of Less-Actives who are progressing and who have family members who are potential investigators.
Brother Wang is doing well. He has made a strong commitment for activity in the church and is working toward receiving the Melchizedek priesthood. He is trying hard to serve and make friends at church.
Sister Pan another less-active has remarried a man who is willing to let her come to church and who is willing to come himself if he has the time. She has two unbaptized children. Her schedule and life circumstance has recently changed and is now align with a life in the gospel.
A 12 year old less active boy went to church with us this last week and is ready for the Aaronic priesthood. The members were really excited to see him. He is a really neat kid. I'm glad we were able to find him and that his parents were willing to let him come to church with us.
An investigator, Brother Qiu, came to church. He is a cute 60 year old man. He knows a lot of the ward members already. He is comments in classes and lessons. He remembers things that surprise me--scriptural facts and such. He is really quick, and quickly connects the dots. This last week's Gospel Principles lesson was on the gathering of Israel, and he was really into that. We want to make sure he is preparing for a life long conversion, so we are trying to help him focus on sincere prayers. He is just a really neat man. His baptismal interview is set up for this Saturday, and his baptismal goal is for the upcoming Saturday.
We are trying a new activity that we are excited about. As we interact with members, we give them a list of our new members and encourage them to learn their names. We then give them a specific invitation to call or care for a specific person. I think a lot of times members just don't know who the new members are, and knowing their names is a crucial first step.
I have some miniature-for the strength of youth pamphlets. Whenever I contact a youth, I want to give them one of these and invite them to read through the whole thing and sign their name on the back as a commitment to live these standards. In my first area, I met a youth who had agreed to live the law of chastity previously in a similar way. Someone visited his school class and taught the principles of virtue and then handed out cards and had everyone sign it. When we taught him the law of chastity, he pulled out the card and said that he had been living this law for a while now.
Elder Spencer Harris
