Training is OVER?!, Baptizing a Filipino, and Playing 麻將

大家好！

Well, this week has been pretty good I guess. Can't complain. Starting to feel really old though, but I guess that's normal. Yeah, the Sisters in my generation are going home this next week, all except for one I think. But yeah, that means that I am rapidly approaching my year and a half mark. Sad to see some really good friends go, but I am glad for all the adventures still to come.

So yeah, we are officially finished with training now. Yup, Elder Park and I are officially a regular missionary companionship. That means that instead of leaving the door at 12:00, we will leave the door at 10:30, like every other missionary. YES! More time for finding the gold nuggets! But yeah, this transfer was extended by a week to prepare for the new missionaries getting on island this week. That is why Elder Park and I are a regular companionship now. Normally, one of us would've been moving today, but because this is a 7-week transfer, one of us will be moving next week. I have the feeling that I will be leaving and Elder Park will have the chance to run the area, but we won't know for sure until next Saturday. That only adds to my feeling old, knowing that I will probably be moving to either my last, or second to last area! GAH!!!! Where has the time gone?!

Well, in other news, this week Eric will be getting baptized!!!!! WOOHOO!!!! Yup, he passed his baptismal interview this last week, and he is going to be getting baptized on Saturday night at 7:00pm.And we are looking forward to it. I was SOOOO hoping that we would be able to baptize during our 12 weeks together, and I guess it's a miracle that we have the extended move call, so that we could have the chance to baptize Eric. I guess I'll count that! But, we are so proud of him and of all the effort he's put into learning the Gospel. English is his second language, so he has been really brave to take the lessons in English. And despite the fact that he doesn't speak Chinese, he has come to church every week, and he loves it!!! So, we are so thankful for the miracles that we have seen with him. If there is one thing that I have learned in Tainan, it would be patience. We have gone through many different investigators here, and we finally found one who was genuinely prepared. God definitely works according to His own timing!

Lastly, this last week, we played a lot of 麻將, or MaJiang. Most of the Taiwanese bet when they play it, but you can play without gambling and it's just as fun, and not against church policy! I remember that Elder Moore was the first one to teach me how to play when I was back in DongHai. I hadn't played for a really long time, but we played during our P-Day last week, and then we played with one of the 4th Ward's recent converts, Yang Mama. I was so proud when I won last night! Yus, I beat the Taiwanese at their own game! Haha. Anyways, it was fun.

Well, that's about it for this week. Still working hard. Still keeping on going. This may be my last email from Tainan, but we'll see what Saturday brings. Know I love you guys! Keep on Rockin! Talk to you soon! Love ya!

Elder Chase Joseph Millett

雷仕鈞長老

仕鈞 is the new name given to me by Yang Mama. Since I got it from a Taiwanese person, I will probably start using this name instead of my old one from high school, 一鳴. So yeah, my new name is Lei Shi Jun. Cool! Talk to you soon!

Rethinking Our Approach, We're Doing What?, and Some More P-Day Fun

This week has been ok. Pretty slow though. But I guess it was ok, can't complain too much. Eric is doing really good. He is still progressing rather quickly and is getting excited for his baptism on April 2nd. And we have been able to meet with some of our regulars this week, but weren't able to find anyone new, so that was kind of rough. But it's ok.

Well, recently, Elder Park and I have been thinking about how we can work more effectively. Most of the time, if we have some empty time during the day, we ask the question, "Do you want to contact or make calls?" And that is about it. But, this past week, we decided that we needed to take the counsel in Preach My Gospel about working with the members. So, we have made it more of a priority to set up some Active Member Visits during our week, so that we can help them in their missionary responsibilities as well. We have some awesome members, and we know that if we do this we can find more people to teach and build our relationship with the ward. So, that should be good. So, hence the "rethinking our approach."

Well, in addition to changing our own approach, we have had the opportunity to work more closely with our new ward mission leader. He was called a few weeks ago and is definitely trying to make some changes. He has a lot of really weird ideas though, like this last week, we made these pinwheel things out of straws and went to a park yesterday to pass them out to families. It was super awkward, at least for us Elders. The Sisters seemed to have a good time though. But it was kind of fun. I found myself chatting with some Amah's in my very broken 台語, who then asked if I wanted to exercise with them. I happily obliged. They wanted the little pinwheel things too, to give to their grandkids and stuff. We didn't really get to set up to meet with anyone, so it was kind of rough, but the Sisters got like 4 families' numbers, so that was definitely successful in my book. Well, enjoy a picture of my exercise experience.

Lastly, we went to 石頭烤肉 last week for Elder Bradford's birthday lunch. It was super fun. If I haven't already written about it before, Shitou is an all you can eat BBQ restaurant. You just keep ordering meet and you cook it yourself on these little individual grills. It was super fun. Jamal and Ricky came with us. Here are some pics.

Well, let's see, what else happened this week? We found a part member family in our area book and decided to go visit them. The wife, who is a less active, wasn't there, but here non-member husband was. They own a little pudding shop on some back street, so that was fun. They gave us some free pudding because the husband remembers meeting with the missionaries before. So, we are going to try and work more with them. Oh Yeah! We totally got anti'd by some white guy this last week. We were stopped at a stop light and he waved us down to talk to us, then he proceeded to spit out the usual anti-Mormon arguments. It never makes you feel good, because you feel so bad for them! But, Elder Park and I had a good laugh about it afterwards. Just goes to show, you never know when your testimony is going to be tried. But it was definitely an experience to remember, getting anti-Mormon'd by some white guy living in Tainan. Haha. Lol.

Well, that is about it for this week. It was pretty rough as far as numbers go, but it wasn't too bad. We still had some success. Training is just about through, we will find out on April 2nd who is going to be moving, so the time is not far from now. Anything could happen! Guess we'll find out. Love you all and can't wait to hear from ya. Love ya!

Sincerely,

Elder Chase Joseph Millett

雷長老

Jaiyi/Tainan Zone Conference

Jaiyi/Tainan Zone Conference

Jaiyi/Tainan Zone Conference

I'm Teaching in What Language????, Le Language Study, "Party's almost over, makes me sad."-Tony Horton

大家好。

How yall' doin'? We are doing pretty spectacular over here in Tainan. This week has been so good! We have seen miracles here and there, and everywhere for that matter this week. And, in addition to that, we have had some really fun things going on as well. This last week, we went on exchanges, and then on Friday we had Zone Conference, which is always a good time. Needless to say, there will be a lot to talk about during this email, so let's get started.

Well, this week, one of the many miracles that we saw came in the form of a man named Eric. Eric started texting us, having gotten our number from the Sisters. At first, we had no idea who he was or why he was texting in English. Well, we called him and set him up. Eric is from the Philippines. He has been living in Taiwan for 8 years now. He told us that he had been an investigator in the Philippines for like a year or so. But, since he came to Taiwan to work, he had never been able to find the church. He had had missionaries tell him the location before, but he had never been able to find it. Well, we were finally able to get him to the church and meet him. He is honestly, the most prepared soul I think I've ever met during my duration as a missionary. He was so happy to have been able to find the church again after so long. We taught him. We gave him a baptismal goal for April 2nd, which he readily accepted. We invited him to church the next day, to which he also readily agreed. He did come to church the next day, all 3 hours. He said unless he gets called in for work, he has Sunday's free and can come every week. THIS GUY IS AWESOME!!!! And I think the coolest part about it is that he can't speak Chinese! We teach him in English and have him read English or Tagalog materials on his phone. Even though all of our church meetings are all in Chinese, he stayed for the whole 3 hours, relying on my amateur translating skills!!!! But he said he could feel the Spirit and that he really liked it. So, we are going to try and meet with him twice a week to help him prepare for baptism. We are praying so hard and so often for his success. It is experiences like these that really testify to me that "the fields are white, already to harvest." So, please pray that he will be able to progress! Kind of a side note here, it is kind of weird teaching in English again. It's almost harder than teaching in Chinese at this point! 糟糕!

Elder Bradford's birthday celebration at FHE group

Well, this week, I finally got some language study materials!!!! I have just been using my Chinese Book of Mormon for language study, but now I finally got some new flash cards and a study book and things like that. I have started Phase 3 now, which is characters, so that should be fun. And I finally got my own 聽不懂 book, which is a book that I can use during lessons and stuff to write down words and phrases that I don't know. So that should be pretty helpful. But oh man, it feels so good to be able to have something more to study! I feel like, even though it's hard to learn, I can't get enough Chinese! I want to really put a focus on doing good study these last 7 months! But yeah, Chinese is fun. So is Taiwanese. Ah, language. 

Le Language Study 東西

And lastly, training is about over! What?! When did that happen?! Yup, Elder Park and I only have a couple more weeks left together before we split ways. It seems crazy. Time has just flown by. I remember when I was in training, it felt like an eternity! But I guess getting lost in the work really does make time go faster, which is both good and bad. But yeah, Elder Park has taught me a lot, and I'm so thankful for this experience I've had. 

Zone Conference was super super cool. We talked about a talk in the January Liahona called "Knowing the Godhead" by Elder Holland. Basically, the focus was on making sure our investigators understand the Godhead and their relationship to them before we teach them the other doctrines of the Church. It was AWESOME!! So spiritually drained after that conversation. And then we talked about how to better use English class and English proselyting and things like that. 

Lastly, the Church has put out a new Easter video for the year!!! Woohoo! I've learned to love these videos since I've come on my mission. I can never get enough Mormon Messages, I'm a Mormon, and other such videos! Well, this Easter one I feel is really touching. While it is very simple, the message it shares is one that we can all think about. How can we find new life in Jesus Christ? What can he do for us? While we speak of Him and His Atonement on a daily basis, have we ever really stopped to think about what it means? What did Christ's Atonement bring about? I can say that in my life, I have seen many trials. I have had hard times, and weaknesses that have needed to be overcome. And through Christ, I have seen those changes. I have seen miracles. I have seen it bless my own life, but more importantly, I have seen it bless the lives of others. From giving a sudden Priesthood blessing to a cancer-ridden patient at a hospital, to sharing simple, powerful messages of hope to those on the street, the Gospel has made an impact one way or another. I want to end this email with my personal testimony. Christ lives. He is our Savior and our Redeemer. Through Him, we can overcome our weaknesses. We do not have to be afraid. Through his Atoning sacrifice, we can overcome the grave. He did it for me. He did it for you. He did it for all of us. He is our Lord, our God, and our Eternal King. Hallelujah. Praise ye the Lord. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

#Hallelujah

https://www.mormon.org/easter/hallelujah

Love you all and I hope to hear from you very soon.

Sincerely,

Elder Chase Joseph Millett

雷長老

P.S. I love being a missionary!!!!!

​Le Sweater Selfie

#SweaterLife

#越瘦越帥

More Bowling, Mr. Fang, and Livin' on a Prayer

大家好。

我是那個雷長老，那個什麼。。。傳教士。

Right, well. Back to business. 

So, this past week, we went bowling for our P-Day. We went with the FHE group. The only reason they got to go was because of it being leap day. They got the day off here for that. That is kind of fun. So we all went, and it was awesome. I lost as always though. I've never been able to bowl. Pretty sad. But we got some fun pictures anyway. This is Elder Bradford and I lifting Diego. At least I'm staying somewhat strong, (not that he's that big in the first place!) But in this picture is Jamal (far left), Ricky (Next to Jamal), Us/Diego, Kevin (our RC standing in the back), and Felicia (far right). Love those guys! Gonna miss them when I leave here eventually. 

Well, this past week, as far as the missionary work goes, was kind of slow. We have been doing a lot of finding recently. Just riding around trying to find new people to teach. But, this past week, while we were making some phone calls, we called a number that we've had for quite a long time. We managed to get a hold of him and set him up. His name is Bryce Fang. He is a super cool guy who lived in Canada for two years. He started asking us all kinds of questions and telling us why he doesn't agree with the "traditional churches" in Taiwan. But he was super eager to read the Book of Mormon and the Restoration pamplet, so he is looking very solid. We are going to meet with him again on Wednesday. 

Well, lastly, this week, I've been praying, a lot. Like more than I've ever done before. As I said, the work has been kind of slow as of late, and so we have been trying to pray for new people, and for our progressing investigators to continue to progress. At almost every opportunity, I pray for success and for the Spirit's guidance in the work. And it definitely has brought peace and miracles this past week. I think that Bryce was one of them. And then, just this morning, as I was sitting and thinking about the work this morning, I got the impression to read my Patriarchal Blessing again. So, I did. And something that I read inside really meant a lot to me. It spoke of me developing my faith, and eventually having my faith "reach nigh unto heaven," and "bringing about miracles in my life, and great joy." And that really hit me. Of all the things I have taken from my mission so far, I realized that I still have to work on some of the very basics. Developing faith through prayer is an essential part of conversion, not just of investigators, but of ourselves as well. We are to call upon God in prayer at every opportunity. It is a commandment that we pray unto him. And through more diligent prayer this last week, I feel personally that I have seen many miracles, and great joy. So, that is my goal for this week, to continue to pray at every opportunity, and to continue to seek the Lord's will in this, His mighty work. The work of the salvation of souls is not easy, but we have an Almighty Father, willing to listen to the cry's of His children. He listened when the children of Israel where under Egypt's tasking hand, crying for a Deliverer. He listened when His Only Begotten Son said, "Not My will, but Thine be done," as he performed His Atoning Sacrifice. He listened when a 14-year old boy desired to know where truth was, and which church held it. He will listen to us today. He is listening, and He will give us the answers He sees fit, in His time, and in His way. I know that to be true. I have lived and seen it.

Well, that is about it for this week. I hope that all of you had a good week as well. Know that I am missing and praying for you always. Thanks for all of the help, support, and encouragement. The work goes on, and time keeps a rollin'. Love you all and I will talk to you very soon.

Sincerely,

Elder Chase Joseph Millett

雷長老