Week 29 ... I think

After a long day of finding

I hit my 200th day as a missionary on Saturday though which is pretty crazy to me.
Interesting week this one was.

Our investigator pool is still quite dry. My companion even mentioned to me, his whole time he's been in Taiwan, he has never been rejected this bad this often. It's seriously discouraging at times, but there's not much we can do but put our shoulders to the wheel and move along.

Lots and lots of finding this week. I'm actually calling it "looking" now, it seems a bit more applicable haha. Jokes! I love missionary work.

On Monday we went to a little ecology park up in Ba De. It was pretty cool. tons of fish, ducks, turtles, geese. Neat place.

Tuesday, Elder Wayment and I went on exchanges. I spent the night up in Ba De and had some good times with him. We did a lot of finding up there. We ran into a lot of interesting people. This world is full of a lot of interesting people. I love it.

On Wednesday we met with Martin again. He's still doing awesome. Hasn't yet received permission from his parents to be baptized, but
his brother actually showed up while we were meeting with Martin at the family-mart. We talked to him for a bit, and we hope it plays a positive role in getting permission from his parents (and maybe even meeting with the whole family!)

Sunrise in Long Tan

We had one of my favorite English classes so far on Wednesday night. During English class, we teach about an hour of English and then have 30 minutes for a spiritual share. The students were super into the English portion of the class, and as soon as we started our spiritual share, I've never seen them so interested before! I shared a video on how Families can be together Forever. It was a bunch of pictures of families with a little kid singing the song in the background. There were also some clips of President Eyring sharing the importance of families. The spirit was SO strong. I shared a picture of our family and they were all so amazed at our family. Whenever I show our family picture to people, they always say "Wow, 5 boys. all handsome. Your mother is beautiful." And I just say "Yes, yes she is." They also think it's pretty crazy how big our family is. But yeah, English class was great.

Xue hua bing - Snow flower ice...Yum!

On Thursday, we went up to Taipei for Elder McClellan's training. He's our new district leader. While he was in his meeting, I was talking with other missionaries outside. Got to catch up with some great friends I made in the MTC. I also had the chance to meet some great missionaries. We had 18 missionaries get their visa's and they all arrived last week, so I got to talk to some of the new ones. Sister Day saw me and said, "Elder Matua! There's another Samoan kid that just came on island!" Then she ran away... Then I heard her yell, "Elder Matua, In here, he's here!" hahaha It was so funny. But I met Elder Aiono, he's from Las Vegas and yes, he's afakasi! Super great! He's actually being trained by an Elder from PG that knew John Raass and Dallin Pili and those goofballs. They all live in a six-man apartment with, you guessed it, Elder Willes and Elder Tan. And another companionship. One of my favorite parts of my mission so far has been meeting so many great people. People on the street, but also brothers and sisters in the same cause of inviting others to come unto Christ. It's great, and I've made a lot of great friends.

On Saturday we did a lot more street contacting and door knocking. About seven or so hours. Quite unsuccessful for most of the day. After dinner, we knocked doors until we had to turn around and go home. We were being rejected a lot so I told my companion to follow me. We hopped on our bikes and started pedaling. I said a small prayer in my heart that the spirit would lead me to a person who would be willing to even listen to our message. We rode for about 5 minutes until I felt prompted to

There are wild dogs everywhere here

stop. Couldn't really explain why, but I felt prompted to stop at a home. We knocked and a very kind humble man opened and generously welcomed us in! It made me SO happy! We taught him some of the points in the first lesson. Explained what prayer was. He was really attentive and respectful to our message. We invited him to say the closing prayer for us at the close of our lesson. He prayed, and it was awesome! Unfortunately, He was hesitant to set up a return appointment. BUT he told us that we can come over whenever! so we're praying and hoping for some success for him!

Sunday was good, always is good. Just did a lot of finding. Talked to some great people, not too interested, but it was nice being able to talk to people who didn't treat us like we didn't even exist.

I'm absolutely loving my mission experience. Sure it gets  tough at times. That's how it's supposed to be right? I'm still struggling with the language. After six whole months, I'm still trying to adjust to the life of a missionary, but it's all about progression. I feel the Lord in the details of my life, and it's great. Sometimes I feel unworthy for His love. Sometimes I feel like there's no possible way He's watching over me right now. Sometimes, I even feel like giving up! I know He's there. He's my loving Father in Heaven. His love is always there for me, and for you. No matter what. And he's helping me every step of the way. Failing is NOT a part of the plan.
I love you all. Have a blessed week!

Love
Elder Chase Matua