Taiwanese Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!!

Yesterday was 8.8 which in Chinese is "BaBa" which is also Baba, so it's the chinese father's day! :)

This week was good. We found out some of our investigators, Shandi and Ryan and Katie (the mother with the kids that hate primary) are getting baptized next Sunday!! It's soooo good!! I have a dream that the little boy will serve a mission.

This week has been interesting for other reasons...I decided to study "trials" and "afflictions" for personal study for a couple days. It's really interesting...people have some really rough lives. I used to think Taiwan was full of sweet, cute, innocent people who are so sweet and lovey...but I've found there are a lot of misconceptions when you don't understand. The more I'm understanding the language, the more I'm learning things are just as hard here as anywhere, and people actually have really difficult lives. I've learned (as I bike down the street and have to turn my eyes from certain pictures, places, and people) that pornography and other vices are just as strong here. There is a rash of DVD and dirty stores very near our apartment. Ugh. There is a lot of corruption in other ways as well. Outside of our old apartment building, there was an eye sore of a concrete structure; half-built and abandoned. Apparently people will have people invest in the building of an apartment building, then the contractor or company will split with the money before the project is over with millions of dollars in their pockets. We've had a lot of people share their hard stories with us just this week and it's been sad. People whose spouses have been unfaithful or have had thousands of dollars stolen from them, etc. It's just sad. I'm not bashing Taiwan by ANY means, it's just that I know now that Satan's hand of mischief and destruction is just as strong here than anywhere else. And it hurts a lot of really good people (member and non-member). But it's amazing how Heavenly Father uses the sorrow people experience for their greater good. These people suffer because of the choices of others, but it's ultimately for their benefit because it brings them (hopefully) to their knees and brings them to Christ. We've been trying to help some people with real doozies and it all ultimately comes back to Christ. Anything can be overcome through the Atonement. Through Christ, we find the strength the forgive. We also can find the comfort and healing we need. I love the talk "Come What May and Love It" by Elder Wirthlin, especially the part about the principle of compensation. All the sorrow we experience will be compensated 100fold if we are faithful in following Christ. There's another talk "Broken Things to Mend" by Elder Holland that talks about that.

Anyway. All in all though, this week has been really good. I love you all!! I pray for you all!!

Coley