Sunday was the Day of a Lifetime!

Hey guys, how are you doing!!! I know you’re all doing great like always. But I’m doing absolutely amazing. I’m so happy right now it's amazing how much happiness I have right now. I’m so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord with all my heart, might, mind, and strength and be so happy in the process.

But yeah that is awesome about Camille coming to Taiwan. She is going to love it! This place is the best place I’ve ever been. The people are so nice, and the work is just taking off. The Lord is preparing the people so well here so it's amazing. Plus her Chinese is probably already better than mine is right now so she's going to be just fine and is going to love life. It's the best decision she could make right now, it's absolutely amazing. I’m excited to see her when she comes over and joins me in the work, it'll be really fun.

But yeah I heard about that earthquake that is awful. It totally is all the events leading up to the Second Coming of Our Savior Jesus Christ, that’s why it's so important to prepare right now!!

1.Ok, you freaked the crap out of me with that story about dad. I guess you can call that a blessing. Gosh....I’m so glad he's ok.....I love dad so much, if anything ever happened to him or anyone else in the family I would break down. You guys are amazing. I’m so glad that he is ok, and glad that the Lord took care of him. Good thing Josh knew how to get to the emergency room, because if it were me I don't know if I’d know how to get there. But it is so true that we have an amazing support system around us. We are truly blessed to live where we live and have the surroundings that we have.

2. That’s cool! This is going to be such a good experience for Josh. I know he's going to love it, because when you’re serving others you are truly serving God, and that's when you are happiest. So I’m glad he's going to have this opportunity. Tell him if I was home I’d help him raise money, but right now I’m kinda busy helping God save souls. But, my hearts is in it with him.

3. Tell Cade that I support him in all he does. Work hard and you'll have success. I’m glad that he's having such a good life right now. And about those girls that are all over him. Tell him to take it easy he's only one dude, and he's a complete stud, so only the best girls deserve to have a chance at him. Haha, he's the sweetest dude in the world. I’m also glad to hear that he is reading so much. That’s something I wish I would have totally done before I came out here. I love reading. I can't wait to get my hands on books about the church and about business and stuff to just read to gain knowledge. Haha my mission has already changed me so much!!

4. I’m glad Britton still has a ton of friends. He always was amazing. I love hanging out with him. And I’m way glad that they aren't into games as much. That they are using their imaginations instead of saying man were bored, let’s go play x-box or something. I love that kid.

5. Dang, I wanted to hear about Abby’s FHE lesson, will you video tape it so I can see it after my mission please. But she is so amazing, I’m glad to hear that she’s improving and working hard in all the things that’s she's doing. And I’m glad to hear that she loves school, something I couldn't quite grasp.

6. Yeah I love feasting on the scriptures. What I’m doing right now, is I have colored pencils and for each color pencil I have a subject. So whenever the scripture says that word or talks about that subject I color that part in the scripture. Also I wonder how that scripture could help my life and the lives of my investigator. It has really helped me understand the scriptures. The reading is slow, I started in Alma 22, and I’m only on like Alma 45 but I’m understanding it really well, and truly believe I’m feasting on it.

9. Yeah I just got it today. Thanks for all the candy. Haha, I’m going to get so fat. But yeah I’ll plug that in tonight. Thank you so much mom!!! And thank you for the baby pictures they are great, haha I was such a chubby baby, but I guess I turned out alright.

Thank you so much for sharing your testimony. I really appreciate that, I’m grateful for a mom that has a strong solid testimony of this Church and the Savior. I’m thankful that you have helped me build my testimony, and have kept me strong in the faith. I wasn't always the best, but through you I know I gained strength and was able to become what I am today and what I will keep on becoming.

So my week was really good. We once again were blessed beyond measure. We taught 46 total lessons, 31 with members present, and also got 46 set ups in the process with 10 new investigators to teach. It was an amazing week! The Lord is truly blessing us so much. It's amazing what the Lord will do when we'll just do our part, and have faith in him. I have all the faith in Him, and know through Him all things are possible. Something I want to tell you, not because I want to gloat, but because I want to let you know how much the Lord is blessing our faith and hard work. Last week over the Chinese New Year, my companion Elder Daniels and I together got better numbers than a whole zone combined. The Lord is willing if we’re willing. But we have to do our part. The Lord is just sitting up in heaven waiting to bless us, but it's just up to us whether or not we want to accept these blessing he has awaiting for us.

Our bike trip was sweet last p-day. We went into the mountains and found some cool mountain homes in the middle of nowhere. And those pictures with the two guys and our 18 year old friend. The guy in the red shirt I think, I named him Gilligan, because he totally looks and acted exactly like Gilligan on Gilligan's island. It was a way sweet little adventure.

I went on 2 exchanges this week: one with Elder Duff, who was in the MTC with me the one with red hair, and one with the zone leaders. They were both way cool. When I went with Elder Duff I had a cool experience. I said hi to this guy but he had to run into the store to pay money to someone. I turned to Elder Duff and said, “I’m going to teach him a lesson.” So he comes out and I contacted him, then he agrees to listen, so we sit down and I taught him practically the whole first lesson and it was way good. He said when he knows it's true he'd be willing to get baptized, not quite willing to set a date but it was sweet. Then I was able to pray with him right there on the bench and he reset up to teach. So that was a way cool little miracle that the Lord blessed me with while I was on that exchange. And also 2 other guys just on the road, I taught them and set baptismal dates with them on the street. It was way cool. The Lord is so willing to help. So we contacted some good people for them to add to their teaching pool, so they can teach. Then I went with the zone leaders. It was cool. We spent an hour contacting at first, that’s literally the most I’ve gotten rejected since I’ve been on my mission. Every single person rejected me I was getting a little frustrated but I just kept having faith. Then later on in the night, I found a kid that actually went to school in America. He loved Americans, and we hit it off right when I started talking to him. It was sweet, he was way interested and said he'd come to the baptism the zone leaders were having the next day to watch them get baptized. So that was a cool miracle. So yeah both of the exchanges were really good. I was excited, I always like exchanges.

Then on Wed, we had English class. Man I love teaching English so much. I have so much fun with my class. I get told a bunch that they love me as a teacher. I don't know how because my English is not good, but we just have so much fun... We are pretty much laughing the whole class period long. I teach the intermediate class, so their English is alright. But yeah it is so much fun, I love Taiwanese people they are so much fun, and so nice. I love my life and my duty to be a missionary.

On Thurs something way cool happened in the morning. We were going to visit a less active but we never made it into the intersection in front of the church because we taught 4 miracle lessons right on the side of the church.. Haha it was amazing. I pulled two people off the road and taught them, one was a Philippino so I was able to teach in English, that was a way cool experience. I love Philipinos they have so much faith it is awesome. Then my companion found a guy on a scooter, that actually is a member but doesn't go anymore, so he pulled him off the road and taught him, then he called our investigator and tried to get a baptism date. So in like 30 minutes we taught 4 lessons, it was an amazing thing. It just shows that if we set goals, the Lord is willing to help us fulfill them if were willing to do our part. So that was way cool.

Fri-We taught 4 member present lessons before lunch, then I went on my exchange with the zone leaders. It was fun. We just contacted and found some people for them to teach.

Sat- We just taught a bunch of lessons.

Sun was the day of a lifetime! Man was Sunday amazing. We went to church which was great, we didn't have a great turn out only 7 showed up. But after church we were able to have Wu Guan Chen's baptism. It was such a spiritual baptism, he was so ready. We took a bunch of pictures before and we had a lot of fun taking those pictures together. Then we met as a congregation and we had a lady give a talk about baptism, then my companion introduced him because I was baptizing. As my companion introduced him, Wu Guan Chen started to cry, then I started to cry and then my companion started to cry. Haha, at that time I realized how much I really do love him, and am so grateful for the opportunity to have met him and work with him every day. They say that you can't convert someone beyond your own conversion, but I don't know about that, this is pretty dang close. My companion called the other day, and they had a memorized scripture battle. Wu Guan Chen killed him, he has a ton of scriptures memorized. He has the 1st vision memorized, James 1:5, Moroni 3-5, and a ton of his favorite ones. He is such a stud. The other day in the lesson we had him teach a principle, the member that was with us starting crying because he did such a good job. Haha I love him so much. So yeah that was amazing. After we walked out of the water and then into the dressing room, he just hugged me and in his broken English said thank you. It was the most, deepest loved thank you I’ve ever heard. Man I love him. So that was amazing. Then that night we had a party for Melissa, who is actually going to the MTC tonight. That was a really fun party. We just were with the ward. And something way cool happened, Melissa's mom and her younger sister came also who are not members. My companion talked to them, and they want to start meeting. She is such a good example to her family it is awesome to see. But then as I played the piano with the little kid, the bishop called me over and asked if I was the one that baptized him because he wasn't able to make it. Then I said yes, then he was like ok since you are his "gospel elder" would you like to confirm him next Sunday in church. Of course I said yes (I’m way nervous, I’ve never confirmed someone, especially in Chinese in front of a lot of people, but it's going to be a good experience). Then I looked to him after I said yes, and he started crying and gave me a hug. Haha something way important I learned from this experience is how much this gospel should mean to us in our lives. He is so grateful for this chance to become a member of this church. I think a lot of the time, we as members because we always have this, we take it for granted and aren't as grateful as we should be. So yeah Sunday was an amazing day.

This morning was an awesome morning. Melissa the one who is going on a mission and leaves later today for the MTC, she asked my companion and I to go to her setting apart. While we were there, the Stake President asked us to join in on the setting apart as a missionary. It was an awesome experience, to stand in on setting a missionary apart to go on a mission... Even though I didn’t understand a lot of the blessing, the language of the spirit is the same across all languages. It was an awesome thing to be involved in. It was amazing to see the change in her, just after being set apart as a missionary.

Help To Pray For-
Wakini- Our Indonesian mom, her husband found out that she wants to get baptized. And he totally won't allow her to come to church or meet with us anymore. She was bought from Indonesia as a wife, so he pretty much controls her. She said he was really nice till they had their kid then he started to become a jerk. But yeah he won't allow her to come. She is so ready to get baptized, and needs it so much. She has so much faith and is awesome. So, if you could just prayer for her husband or for a way we can help her get baptized.

Yeah that’s our main one we need help with, and if you could just pray for the mission to improve as a whole. The mission is kinda slumpin’ a bit with baptisms!!!

But yeah, it was a sweet week, and I’m ready for another sweet week this week. It's crazy how time out here is moving so fast, I love being busy and being out here on my mission.

I know I was called here on my mission, because Heavenly Father knows there are people here that I can help come unto the gospel. I know Jesus Christ lives and is my Savior. I know that through the Holy Ghost we can receive a testimony of these things...I love this work so much. I’m so grateful for the Lord in my life, to guide and direct me. I know if we want to improve and become happy, we have to trust the Lord then do our part, and we'll be able to obtain Godly happiness. I love my life, and I prayer that I’ll continue to love it as I do the Lord's work and do my part, which is do all I can to bring this gospel to everyone in Taiwan.

I love you guys so much! It's such an opportunity to have you guys as my family!!

Love, Rui Zhang Lao