Working hard

Me and my buddy Lego

Yet another great week! today actually marks my 300th day on a mission. Two more months and I'll have been out for a year. Crazy or what?

Elder Stephens and I have been visiting some places in our area that haven't been visited in a while. And we saw many miracles. People that live up in the "top of the mountain" tend to be super humble and really nice. Funny how that works.

We spent two separate days up there and we met so many great people that welcomed us right in, gave us some water, and willingly listened to the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Interestingly enough, some have never heard of Jesus Christ. So it is such a wonderful, happy experience to introduce my Savior and their's to them.

Zhou Dai Xuan's baptism

Our actual investigator pool is really thin. So many wonderful people, just not enough that are willing to keep the commandments of God. We knocked a certain door this week and I will never forget the feeling I got when half their family came to the door. Right away they saw our name tags, and they said "oh don't worry, we're already a part of a different church down the road." They did not want to hear anything we had to say. I immediately felt prompted to just bare my testimony about Jesus Christ and Thomas S. Monson. I really felt like Jeffery R. Holland. they still didn't want to listen to us, but I feel like the spirit began to creep into their hearts as they went inside.

Our area in Liji

More often than not do I see Satan's hands wrapped around people sooo tight. Most don't even know it. The chains of sin and temptation are soo thick, and the worst part is, they aren't willing to accept help.

One of our investigators, Gao Yu Chen, is really having a hard time coming to church. He's Soo close to being baptized, he just has to take that ONE last step. He'll get there! ZhouDai Xuan got baptized on wednesday! such a humble little friend. He got confirmed on sunday.

Life is good. Really good. Hope you guys all have a wonderful blessed week! Until next time.


Love,
Elder Chase Matua

Racing a 9-year-old. He was fast!

Giant spider - no good

Our zone with Lego

Monkeys, rain and more rain

AAAnd we had a great week! Tons of service, two exchanges, plenty of rain, and much growth. Gotta love the mission!

I got to go on exchanges with Elder Tang on Tuesday, and Elder Chand on Friday. They are both great leaders and awesome missionaries. I've learned a lot from both of them. It's cool to see all of the different styles of missionary work. Everybody has their own little touch on the work. Although there are different styles, it's all the same work, and it's ALL done in the same way: the Lord's way. Its awesome how He works.

Thursday we had the chance to do some service for feiyu (flying fish!). He lives WAY up in the mountains. His house is one of the coolest homes I've ever seen. He's pretty much a Taiwanese mountain man. Super nice. Really just lives straight off the land. We moved some rocks, trees, and different things for him. It was super fun.

Last night we had the opportunity to sing at a city banquet type deal. A bunch of the local churches got together to sing for some people that got injured in an explosion a couple of weeks ago in Taipei. It was a neat experience. It was some good exposure for us missionaries.

Sorry this email is a bit scattered. I think one of the coolest things I've learned was from the words of Jeffery R. Holland. I read a talk by him about missionary work. He was speaking to full time missionaries at the time, but I believe his words apply to us all. He was once asked, "Would you die for this Church." He said, "Of course, that's the easy part." He went on to explain that dying for the Church would be easy and that Heavenly Father doesn't need people who would die for the church. What He needs is people who will live for it! I thought that was pretty profound. We need to do all we can to live the gospel to its fullest. He needs His children to stand as witnesses of His Son. He needs us to be lights in this world that is quickly fading. And he knows we can all do it! He's provided for us ways to be lights.

Find a way this week to be a brighter light of Christ!


I love you all, have a blessed week
Elder Chase Matua

Service at the home of Flying Fish....

...the most Polynesian Taiwanese guy I know

Showing my Samoan coconut husking skills

Serving is always fun

Elder Kingston Matua - Returns home

Kingston returned home to us after serving an honorable full-time mission this past weekend. He was released from his full-time service as a missionary on Saturday, July 26, 2015 but says that he will always look for opportunities to serve the Lord for the rest of his life.

His mission has taught him many things. He left a young boy and returned a man. We are so grateful to all of those who uttered silent or vocal prayers on his behalf. We are extremely thankful to those who sponsored him monetarily or through in-kind donations, sending him gifts. letters and emails. We are humbled by the outpouring of love shown by the wonderful people of Hawaii who watched over him, fed him and showered him with the special aloha spirit. Most importantly, we are eternally grateful to our Heavenly Father for watching over him and bringing him home safely.

We love you all!

The Matua's

Final Aloha!

Pretty good week!

We our first official lesson with a family that we have been trying to see for a very long time. They had some great questions and we had some great conversation. We also finished up the lessons with another investigator so now we just keep with her until her baptism date comes around. She is super solid and has been active in coming to church and other activities for the last three months.

We had some good media referrals come in lately. We got to meet some really nice people who show some great potential. It has been very hot here so everyone is just trying to stay cool. Sadly the best way to do that is off limits for us so we just get to look at the beautiful ocean every day, but its all good. Everything is going great over here.

Love you all so much! Thank you for all the love and support while I have been here in Hawaii. Thank you so much to all the family that bombed we with letters. It is always nice to get the nice refreshing love from the little ones. Even though most of them aren't to little anymore.

I love the gospel with all my heart. The fullness of the gospel has truly been restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is there as the most valuable gift and tool that our Heavenly Father has given us. We can all become better by recognizing it and taking advantage of it fully. We have the word of God through the Book of Mormon, Bible, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price. Nothing is too hard with the Lord on our side.

Love you all again. Hopefully this email makes up for the bad one last week. Some of you gave me some trouble for that so I wanted to do better. I'll tell all my stories when I get home. I guess I'm like mom, better with my speaking and not so much the writing. Not sure if that is a good thing or not haha! I guess I will be coming from 90 degrees hot and humid to 100 degrees hot and dry.


Love,
Elder Kingston Matua

Typhoon season, service, Pres Jergensen

My crazy Zone

Another crazy week for the books!

I don't even know where to start. At the begining of the week, everyone kept telling us to go home because there was a HUGE typhoon coming. Thanks to a lot of prayers, it went around our area and hardly effected us. We did get tons of rain, just not big typhoon level rain. I was actually kind of sad. I was really excited to be in
my first typhoon.

Heading to Hualien to meeet
Pres. Jergensen

Wednesday we did some fun service for a lady in our ward. She owns a big chunk of land and she always has the missionaries come over and do some service for her. We pulled some weeds for her, but it felt more like we were cutting down a forrest. It was pretty fun. Plus we were doing it in the rain, so that's cool. Earlier that day we also had Zone meeting which was good. Contuining to get the good shepard feel going. We have some super inspired leaders that help us out down here.

Thursday we had the chance to travel up to hualien to meet our new mission president, President Jergensen. What a spiritual giant he is. I'm not really sure why I didn't get any pictures with him. next time. He's super tall, and just the kindest man ever. He also brought his twin 15yr old sons with him. They're pretty funny. I'm super excited to be serving with President Jergensen.

Me, Aiono and Miner

On Saturday we went up to LuYe again. Many great people, many of them struggling with their testimonies. There are too many ways satan uses to shake our testimonies. I hate it. The Solution is sooo simple. Stick to the basics!

The rest of the week was great. Our ward is trying hard to help others come unto Christ. It is super awesome to see missionary work as such a huge focus. The work here in Taiwan is moving forward!

I'm grateful to have the influence of the Atonement in my life. I'm grateful that I have a knowledge of my Redeemer. It's still not perfect, but it gets me through each and every day. I've been developing such a personal relationship with my father in Heaven and it's so amazing. My prayers are becoming more and more specific and they are more and more comforting to me. I pray for you daily.

Love you all and hope you have a blessed week!


Love
Elder Chase Matua

Doing service after the typhoon

Gum boots game is too strong

The Pacific Connection

In traditional Aboriginal dance clothes

This guy (middle) was SO funny

I found another 'friend' while we were walking in the dark

T-Minus two weeks

But who's counting? haha

Great week! We were able to go up to ward camp for a couple of nights for dinner and activities. The Makawao ward is awesome! The week, other than that was pretty normal.

Love you all! Until next week!


Elder Kingston Matua

Gift tee shirt #1 from the Robinson family

Gift tee shirt #2 and card from the Robinson family

Taidong is awesome

View from our flat in Tai Dong

We had such a busy week. And with the arrival of our new mission president, President Jergensen, we're gonna have another busy one.

Last Monday we went to the BEACH for P-Day! Except for the fact that it was the beach, it wasn't anything too exciting. I live in the coolest place in Taiwan, it's actually kind of a big deal. We did a lot of biking, a lot of riding trains with our bikes on it, then more biking. Our area is so big, and I've only seen a small portion of it. I love it.

Tai Dong Elders

Tuesday we had district meeting. We have a great bunch of missionaries down here. After our district meeting, the zone leaders came in to prepare us for the mission vision for the month of July: "The Good Shepard". We discussed different things we could do to awake the sheep, gather the sheep, and feed the sheep. It was really interesting. The work down here in Taidong is hard to explain. The city is pretty small, so almost all people have met the missionaries. Many people don't want anything to do with us, many people already know what our purpose is, are really nice...but still don't want anything to do with us. There are a few who show genuine interest. Those that have been prepared. THEY are REALLY hard to find. I've been trying to dig in deep lately, really trying to zone in with

These elderly ladies had a massive
pet rooster!

the Spirit. I'm learning a lot about myself. Heavenly Father sure does work in mysterious, yet perfect ways. Sometimes those perfect ways are really rough roads. Lots of "No" "We don't need your religion" "We are Buddhist, we don't need your religion" "No use" "no" "Next door please" "NO". It's super frustrating sometimes. okay, All the time. It's really hard trying to share something good with people that refuse to take it. I know the blessings that come from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know what kind of effect the Atonement of Jesus Christ has on us. I can feel comfort from knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. YOU CAN TALK TO HEAVENLY FATHER!! But they won't give me the chance to help them understand. It's super sad. But you have those that are willing to try it out. We pray with them on the street. They say they feel

A massive Buddhist temple in the hills

peace. They may not be baptized in the next 3 weeks, but a seed was planted. And I guess that's what it's all about. Planting seeds. It brings tons of happiness. And even though I may not see results right away, it's cool to hope that one day, these peoples lives might be changed. And Heavenly Father let me be a part of it.

It's pretty cool, I was talking to Elder Aiono (He's in my zone). I was asking him about his family. We figured our ancestors were probably introduced to the Church at the same time in Samoa. Of course we don't have any solid evidence or anything, but we starting thinking there was a really good chance that they were close friends. Would they have thought that years down the line, their posterity would be serving missions together, bringing joy to the hearts of God's children hear in Taiwan? We were both mind blown. Most of the time, you won't see "fruits of your labors" right away, but God keeps his promises. He blesses those that are diligent and faithful. I only hope for the best with each person I

This guys name is literally "Flying
Fish". He freaked out when I told
him I'm Samoan. He loves talking
about history.

talk to. I love this work.

Wednesday night Elder Stephens and I, and the sisters in our ward sang at a seminary graduation. I was never blessed with a singing voice, but I've already performed like 3 times. hahah I'm not saying it sounds good, I'm just wondering why I always get pulled into doing those things haha. It's good memories.

Friday, A young boy in our ward got baptized. It was cool to see. He was actually baptized by a returned missionary who was visiting last week. That was super cool.

We went up to Lu Ye on Saturday. It was like super farm land. I've seen more people driving there tractors on the street here than I have in Lehi. Crazy huh? tons of people out here are farmers. Lu Ye is a special place though. There was a man from Luye who served

We took our bikes on the train to Lu Ye. Our area
is huge! The sisters in our area came with us

a mission, when he got back, everyone was so inspired by his dedication, so half the city got baptized. (they were also very close relatives).. sadly, they're all now less active. So we get to go up there every week and try to reactivate them. It's great. So many wonderful people. I thought there were a lot of dogs up in Longtan. There are so much more here, the only difference is, these ones will chase you. I got chased for the first time the other day. I was turning this corner and all of a sudden this dog jumps out of nowhere almost as if he was waiting for me the whole time. It was pretty intense. Luckily I got away. I also saw banana spiders for the first time. Yeah. Quinn, I don't blame you for being afraid of spiders.

The Sabbath was great. I've found a new love for fast Sunday's. I was feeling the spirit super strong yesterday. We have a great ward, with many inspired leaders. Our ward mission leader is such a great man. He's kind of got a rough life, but he has great faith. I look up to him a ton!

Tai Dong is beautiful

Well, it's been SUPER hot here. I'm constantly dripping sweat. I'm almost used to it... but then again not at all. I'm not even sure what I mean by that. Today we woke up to gray skies and rain (YES). I'm also super excited because I'm supposed to be experiencing my first typhoon this week! I hear they're pretty fun.

I hope you all know that I love you! Thank you for all of the love and support you show me. Couldn't do this with out any of you! Have a blessed week!

Love,
Elder Chase Matua

Nearing the end

Pretty cherry week!

We got to contact a few people we haven't been able to see lately. Transfer news keeps me here in Maui. Glad to be able to spend some more time with the amazing people of the Makawao Ward. Sad to see a lot of my really good mission friends leaving this transfer. We are losing 26 missionaries and only getting eight so things are kinda hectic around here. Lots of combining of areas.

We got to go to a homecoming party for an Elder in our ward. If that won't make you trunky I don't know what will haha! J/K Just doing what I can with what time I have left. We went to Hana again for p-day but we took the other way and I like that a lot better. Every day I love Hawaii more and

more, new beauty every day.

It is pretty hot here so we try and stay away from town and up in the mountains where it's cool. Things in Hawaii are slow and coming but the few people that we are working with are doing great. I am loving the ward more and more every day. I am coming back here for sure. I got some mean hookups here now too. Maui can be our island now haha! I don't think it is going to be easy to

leave Hawaii. The feeling that I have right now is that it is never going to end. I feel like I'm just going to be on to my next area in a few weeks. It is a hard thing to comprehend that my Hawaii missionary life is going to be over in a few short weeks. I am just keeping busy. I feel like I just want it to end quick like taking off a band-aid, like that will help it hurt less. I also can't wait to come home and help the people there.

Love you all! Make it a great week! "If you're not making someone else's life better, then you are wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other people's lives better." - Will Smith. That's why the church is so amazing. Everyday it teaches us how to do just that and gives us opportunities to do so.


Aloha!
Elder Kingston Matua