2-23-2015

2-23-2015

Date: Mon, 23 Feb 2015 12:34:28 +0800
Subject: The Chinese New Year
From: eric.heaton@myldsmail.net
To: heatonjudy@hotmail.com

Hello Family!!

Well this week went by really quickly, but it was super tiring all at the same time so let me explain a little bit about what we did!

It really felt like the holiday started on Sunday as they passed around a small sheet for anyone that wanted to treat the missionaries to a New Years meal.  Naturally we were pleased that they were doing it and excited to be able to talk with a lot of members during the week.  After the list was passed around we take a look at it and... there was only one name on it.  Haha, but it was ok.

We then start the week on Tuesday where we decided that we wanted to head over to one of our secondary areas and do a little more missionary work there.  But as we walked out the door, we could just feel that there was something different about the whole city, the roads were a little more crowded and we could just tell that is was definitely a holiday season and what was usually a empty street quickly became a busy road and we had to work a little harder to be able to dodge all of the traffic that was going around.  But it was good fun because we realized that in Chinese new year people are constantly traveling to visit their grandparents and all of their relatives and its a big chance to be able to see your whole family!

Then on the following Wednesday the weirdest thing happened and they canceled the English class that we hold every Wednesday night because of the holiday, but that was OK with us because one of our investigators invited us to eat a dinner with her family, so we were able to introduce ourselves to them and it was a lot of fun.

The next day was when one of the members invited us to eat a lunch with them.  It was at a nice little seafood restaurant and we were able to eat the lunch with the members whole family on the fathers side, it was cool to be able to meet them, however I didn't really get to talk to them too much because anytime that we weren't saying anything they would switch to the other common language here called Taiwanese and I would get nothing out of it haha.  But the food was really good and I was able to stuff myself, afterwards we did a cool little spiritual share where you put a candle and water in a plate or bowl, light the candle then put a cup on top of it and watch as the water all gets sucked into the cup, but little example of faith and the power of God. haha

Then the next day we had another member treat us to another lunch, this time it was at the beach.  As we got there they already had a nice big fire burning on the sand and were starting to wrap up some sweet potatoes in newspaper, after the fire burned nice and big, they let it go out on its own, then threw the potatoes into the coals and buried the whole thing and waited for a little bit. During which we wasted no time is contacting anyone there that was not a member and were able to actually bring out a good message about Joseph Smith and receiving answers to prayers.  Then the potatoes were done and we had a nice little meal!

Finally the last big event of the week was another meal appointment with a less active's father.  As we got there the less active was there, with another less active, her mother, and her father.  We started talking and having a good time while eating some foods, when the father brought up that he had a desire to quit drinking and smoking.  So we shared a message about how through Christ we can be cleaned from addictions and made plans to help him quit it.  It was a pretty spiritual lesson and at the end of the week he was able to make it to church which as awesome!!

Well that's pretty much all for what we did this week, it was lots of fun and I'm pretty sure that I gained a few pounds from it, but thats just the life of a missionary I guess haha

Until next week!!

Love you all

Elder Heaton