It was a White Christmas in Taiwan!

Hey Family!!!

Wow what a great week. We ended with miracles after miracles. We had 8 souls come to church all who are progressing toward baptism....Also we ended the week with 9 New Souls to teach and 20 lessons with members present..... It was a great week. Those numbers are just to show the amount of success the Lord is allowing us to have. It's not our hand that's doing these things; there is absolutely a higher power involved I know it.

But this Christmas was great. Christmas Eve we unwrapped pjs. Then on Christmas morning we went with Wu momma and Guan Chen at 4:30 in the morning on a "hike." Our original plan was to hike elephant mountain, when you get to the top you have a great view of the whole city including 101. So we set out and decided to hike it, but we turned too early so we started riding on our bikes up these roads that had to be the steepest roads I've ever ridden on. I got to the point where I couldn't even feel my legs anymore, and that it was freezing didn't help the fact. But we just kept going and going thinking we were going to find it. But we got as high as we could on these paved roads hoping to find the train only to hit a dead end and have a view of the actual mountain we wanted to climb up. It was across the valley. We had turned too early. Now we were higher than that one with no real view because of the apartments were in the way. It was a fun experience. The desired outcome wasn't what was expected but the fun while doing it was great. I loved Wu Momma and Guan Chen just rooting us on while they very smoothly road their scooter up the hills while we 4 struggled and died trying to get up there. It was a great Christmas morning spent with those who I love.

Then we came home and did studies we had a lesson in the morning which was great. Then we had another lesson right before the baptism. This guy was golden. We taught him the beginning principle in preach my gospel and set a baptismal date with him. He was sweet. Then we got ready for the baptism. It was a great service. Brother Ye is a stud. I remember back in the day when I was first in Song Shan we didn't like each other much. He always made fun of my Chinese and our relationship just wasn't great. I even got to the point that I just didn't want to meet with him anymore. He always refused being baptized, we invited many times in many different ways. But I guess when I moved and he moved over to Tai Zhong He had a change of heart and decided he wanted a new start with the members here in Song Shan and said that if I come back he will be baptized. Then you can guess what happened!! I came back!!!!! And he got baptized. He shared his testimony after he was baptized it was great, he told of his coming unto Christ story it was great. He had a really rough life like when his dad was mad at him when he was a kid he would take his cigarette and burn him on the arm with it. He still has scars all over his arms from it. He had a really rough childhood. He hates going home, but he also said that the church has taught him to forgive and he's found a new love for his family. It was a great thing for him to be baptized!!! It was really cool I know two main reasons why I came back to Song Shan now one is Wu momma and the other is Brother Ye! Along with many, many others the Lord has placed in our paths. It has been a blessing to be a tool in the hands of the Lord and being lead to those prepared people and sharing with them all that I know and love!! This is the best experience of my life; I love my mission and everything about it. It's the hardest thing I've ever done, but it's absolutely worth it!! The things you learn and the happiness you see in other’s' lives as they live the gospel is priceless!! It's a memory that I will never forget, and with most definitely shape my life the way the Lord wants it shaped.

Then after the baptism we got ready for the ward party, which was amazing. There were many, many people there!! The whole program part of it was based on a family that ran into missionaries. So they were taken to the party and then according to that we had other things like the ward choir, and reading the Living Christ, stuff like that...So My companion and I were the missionaries. We started out by getting rejected by two people, and we looked at each other just in pain saying OK I have a good feeling about this we’re going to find a family, we'll say a prayer. So as we prayed we had the Zhuang family walk out, we said Amen and there was a family, so we contacted them and invited them to the party.....it was a great skit, it worked out really well, everyone was laughing and loving it. The party was great, the ward choir sang, we had a brother read the Living Christ, also had all members share their testimonies about the gospel blessing families and put them on a slide show and watched it, it was awesome because in the middle of the skit as I was supposed to invite this family to come to church with us the next morning I had the impression to turn to the whole crowd and invite everyone to church tomorrow. So I turned to everyone and said are you all willing to come to church with us tomorrow morning, and everyone yelled willing. It was a sweet experience, the power behind that willing was great. Then at the end of the party I used the mic again and followed up. I said now remember what is tomorrow morning, and everyone yelled church. It was great, and a creative way to help all the investigators there know about church the next morning. The best thing though was Sister Chen the professional dancer with the 2 way darling cute daughters. Her husband is way busy because he is a professional dancer also. Tonight he had another show so he wasn't going to be able to come to the Christmas party, but for some reason the show canceled so he ended up coming. When I saw all 4 coming in, I just couldn't help but smile and see that future eternal family walking into the chapel....I looked at her and she just smiled and winked because her husband was with her. I went up to her after and said Sister Chen, baptism!! She said I know. I asked her when, she was like I’m praying every night. Haha, so we're really trying to find ways to help him learn about the gospel so he can progress toward baptism. But because of his work he has a word of wisdom problem so we've got a barrier or two to help him get over. But I think he can most definitely do it. The party was great, so many people came.

Also on Christmas Eve, we went over to Brother Ault's house. He is an American that served a mission here. Now he is here for work. We had a great Christmas Eve party with much food, and a great spirit. Yeah I got invited to play the piano for the thing. I was freaking out. Talk about stage fright. It was all good until I found out that he was going to sing a solo with me playing a song that I've never even heard before. We don't need to go into too much detail of the experience, just know that not much singing happened. Haha it was bad, I felt a little embarrassed but it was great. I tried the best I could, really I put all my heart into it, it's just the effort of my fingers didn't match the want and desire of my heart. Haha, but I can't wait to get back and start up the piano again...I can't wait to take lessons and practice, and practice, and practice some more. It was a great Christmas Eve though!!

This last week was also temple week, on wed we got to go to the temple. It was great; I haven't been to the temple in a while. It was a great feeling to just get out of this dirt filled world and go into a place that was as clean as clean could get, and just being close to the Lord. It was great. It made me think of being in the world and not of the world. How we don't need to go into the temple to get these types of experiences. The home can also be that kind of place. But we need to remember that our bodies are a temple of God. When our bodies are clean on the outside and dirty on the inside we can't be a walking living temple. Just think about it. Looking at any of the many temples around the world, they are beautiful. Think if you walked inside and it was all black and just nasty. It would be an awful feeling. But because the insides are clean the outsides are even that much better. We need to be walking living temples. So we need our insides to be clean. The only way to clean is through the Atonement of our Master even Jesus Christ. Through Him we can become a clean vessel, and be a walking light among the evil dark and dreary streets of this telestial world we live in now. There is so much judging, pornography, vain words, mocking, back biting, plain stupidity. Too much of all those things that make our insides dark. We need to live according to the standards of God. God's standards don't lower because of man's inability to comply to those standards. He's set his standards and we need to live up to them. The temple was a great experience I was also talking to the temple worker. They said just the other day they did a endowment for a person that lived 1000 BC... Can you believe it, the family history in China goes back that far. When I heard that I was in shock. That is so sweet. This church is so true, and God knows how to work things and the way things need to be done. They are getting done too, we need to join in and enjoy the journey of the crosses and hardships of this life, in order to live with Heavenly Father again. I love this gospel, I know it's true!!!

But I forgot to tell you on the phone when I called you guys. About Brother Chen or David. So we called for a week straight, but no answer....We really tried. Then we found out that this last Monday we had president interviews and because the university he teaches at is kind of close to the church where the interviews were held. We called and got permission to go and find him! And oh did we do just that. It was quit the adventure! We found out that the building he was in wasn't even on campus, so just had spent forever trying to find him on campus, just for a fact it is the biggest campus in Taiwan. So we found out he was off campus, we also looked at our watch and found out that it was almost time for interviews, but we didn't come all this way just to get close. We needed to find him. So we just ran and ran and ran until we got to his building. Sweating and out of shape we arrived at the building, luckily he was there. I had the picture in mind of what he looked like, as we entered a gated area we thought another guy looked like him but it wasn't!! So we went into the building looking for him, asking everyone. Finally we get to his room and he's there. He saw it was us missionaries and he was just like sorry, sorry I don't have time right now I have to go to a meeting. Then I asked him to you know a Rick Pettit. He said yes, I told him about the situation. We sat down for minute I relayed what Brother Pettit wanted me to say, and Brother Chen wanted to let Rick know that they have a 1 year old daughter now....But his interest toward the gospel was not there. I just gave him a Chinese Book of Mormon explained why it's important and testified that it was true. I gave it to him and invited him to read it. But other than that he wasn't quite willing to meet with us yet. But give it some time and he'll come around. He was an amazing man though. Just as humble and nice as you could be, it was a great opportunity to see him. But then we had to take a taxi and fly back to interviews to get there on time. It was a fun little journey. It was weird to walk through a college campus as a missionary, it was interesting and brought back some of my college memories. Just tons of middle aged people.

I’m loving this whole mission thing. It's sad that time flies by so fast. But it's a great thing that the Lord has blessed us with this time or probation that we need to prepare for the after world, and returning to live with Him again. All of our new members have been getting temple interviews and doing baptisms for the dead. Man, I can't even explain the fullness of joy that I fill when I get around these ward members. I want to stay here the rest of my mission. I love this area and can't even imagine leaving these members whom I've grown so close with. I just get happier seeing them smile!! It's a great love only developed on a mission and through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

But Josh stop working out, your already bigger than me!! I’m this old man right now!! Geez. Oh well that's ok. hah I love you man. I love all you guys so much. It was great to talk to you guys! Thank you so much for all that you do and the love that you share for me. I love you Dad, Mom, Josh, Trey, Cade, Britton, and Abby. You guys are the best!!

Love-

Elder Rasmussen