My First ZTM, Back to Taibao!, and P-Day Fun with Peter

I figured I would start with some pictures this week. This was one of our P-Day adventures last week. There is this really neat exhibit with some "3D Paintings" that you can take pictures with. You stand in a certain place and take a picture and it makes you look like part of the painting. It was pretty dope. There are also some pictures of Peter and I at the BBQ Buffet.

大家好！中秋節快樂！ (Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!)

I have come to love Asian holidays. I am definitely going to celebrate them back home! Haha.

This last week has been super crazy!!! But it has been tons of fun too! I have gotten to have a lot of really neat experiences. I will get to those in just a second. But just know that Elder Clayson and I are doing super dope right now. We are seeing miracle after miracle here in JiaYi. The member referral I wrote about last week is doing really well. He actually really wants to be baptized, and fast! We actually have to explain to him what has to happen before he can be baptized though. And our other investigators are progressing nicely as well. We did have to drop a couple of them this last week though, which is kind of sad, but they still have a chance. The work is going well. Loving life! What more could ya ask for?

Well, this last week I had the opportunity of a lifetime. We expected to go on exchanges with the Taibao Elders this last week. (For those of you who don't remember, Taibao was my first area.) Normally, the way exchanges work out nowadays, we would bring both Elders to our area for a day and we would split the lessons and stuff, but I managed to get special permission to go back to Taibao for a day!!! I WAS SO STOKED!!! I got to go with Elder Fuller, another Elder who was "born" in Taibao. I got to eat at one of my favorite restaurants, LaoDiFang. I got to run into some old members and catch up. They are all shocked at the weight I've lost. It was pretty funny to see their reactions. And not only that, I got to do some good ol' contacting in one of the secondary areas there. And, to top all of that off, before we exchanged back, we got to meet a really cool potential investigator working at LaoDiFang. So, many many miracles, and a tender mercy from the Lord to allow me to go back to an area I hadn't been to in over a year. I was awesome.

Lastly, this last P-Day was very very busy, but very very fun. I had been in contact with my RC from Tainan, Peter, who wanted to come up to JiaYi for a P-Day to hang out with us. And it just so happens that last Monday was also Elder Eisert's birthday, so we had planned to go to ShiTou, the BBQ Buffet with like 3-4 other companionships and some members, so Peter came too. We got to catch up. He is doing so awesome as a new member. He is a Ward Missionary right now, so that is a cool chance for him to share his newly found testimony. We chatted and had fun and stuff. He also told us about this super cool exhibit that had opened up in JiaYi a little while ago with a bunch of cool 3D paintings. We went over there and had some fun. I will send those pictures in a minute. But yeah, a super super fun P-Day. And I was so happy to see Peter again. We have no doubt become great friends.

Well, that is about it for this week. Like I said, the work is going great. Having a blast with Elder Clayson. The transfer is coming up next week, which symbolizes that I'm going to be starting my last transfer as a full time missionary. It feels really weird, especially considering the fact that I was able to spend a day in my first area again this past week. Time really does fly, and way too fast. I have loved my mission, and I am looking forward to these last 7 weeks. I decided that to end my mission, I'm going to read the Book of Mormon one last time with a nametag on. I am going to really solidify my testimony of the truthfulness of the book. And I know that I am going to learn great things from it during these golden years of my service. I love all of you very much and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Elder Chase Joseph Millett

雷龘鬱長老

Exchange Madness, Faith Precedes the Miracle, and Responsibilities of Shepherds

大家好。

Wow! This week has been an adventure. Mostly because we had to go on 2, almost 3 exchanges this week, so that was nuts! But it was so much fun, and we learned a lot from the other missionaries we were on exchanges with.

So, I guess to start off, I can talk about those exchanges. So, on Tuesday, we went on exchanges with the Elders in Minxiong (民雄), an area right above Taibao (my first area.), Elders Frye and Eisert. The way exchanges work here, is that both Elders will come over to our area and we will both work there. It may seem unfair to some, but it is actually a really good system, because we can train both missionaries at the same time. And it makes it so that our apartment is actually a 4-man that night, which is soooooo much fun.So, I got the chance to work with Elder Eisert, an Elder about halfway through training. It was kind of fun getting to work with someone that young again, because I got to help with more Chinese than I have in a while. And not only that, but he is such a funny guy. Our personalities are very similar, so that made things fun. We did lots of contacting and we saw tons of miracles. And there was definitely lots of "pillow talk" at night. But yeah, exchanges are always a great experience. Well, a day after we finished our exchanges with them, we randomly get a call from the Assistants telling us that they would be coming to our area the next day for exchanges with us. That is really weird, only because when we usually go on exchanges with the Assistants, we will go up to Taichung and stay at their place. But because of a special meeting President was having with missionaries all across the island, they decided to just do the exchange with us that night and just stay overnight until they had to go to Gaoxiong in the morning. So it was super fun. I was with Elder Booth, the Australian Elder who trained Elder Bradford. Since we were in Tainan, we really hadn't served around each other, so that was fun to actually get to work with him one on one. We saw so many miracles. One of which I would like to talk about in more detail.

So, the lesson we had set up for the evening had fallen through, so we were pretty much set to contact all night. Well, after going for about 15 minutes or so, we talk to this kid riding his bike down the road by the church. I start talking to him and he has perfect English, which was really shocking. So, we stopped and talked to him for a few minutes and found out he was from Malaysia here in JiaYi for school. He is studying banking and is a super super smart 19 year old. His Chinese is super super good too. Anyways, he said that he was on his way to eat dinner, but that we could set him up for a half hour later to meet with him. We agreed and he left. We contacted some more, met some crazy amah, and other cool people. Well, we get back to the church and we see him walk up. Yes, walk. He comes up and tells us that he just had his bike stolen!!!! Like seriously, 20 minutes from when we met this kid and his bike gets stolen!!! We felt so bad. But he still agreed to let us give him a chapel tour and meet with him. He ended up being really really cool! He had a lot of interest in God and Christ and we prayed with him. We taught him a first lesson and he was moved. He said that he could come to church and we set up to meet with him again. We prayed that he would be able to find a bicycle and a couple days later he had gotten a new one. so that was a big miracle. Anyways, yeah. Faith really does precede the miracle. What we expected to be night of contacting turned into a spiritually powerful lesson and a soul ready to come closer to Christ. It was awesome. Exchange miracles!

Lastly, I've been thinking recently about what it means to be a shepherd. I have been thinking about what the Lord really expects of us. I have been putting so much focus on trying to find new people and working with our progressing investigators that I have neglected, at least to some degree, our responsibility to help and encourage the newer members in the ward. I had a really humbling experience last night in regards to that. We had just finished giving an FHE spiritual share when we hear a member freaking out in the church bathroom. I won't go into details, but very simply, this member of just over a year was in a pretty heated argument with his sister over some money stuff, and was banging on the walls of the chapel and stuff. So, after we were able to calm him down and convince him to stop molesting church property, we had a really neat chance to explain to him a lot of Gospel principles, such as repentance, forgiveness, and of the roles of individual family members. It took up the rest of our night, but this member, who went from breaking his phone against the walls of the church to leaving for work with a smile on his face, taught me an important lesson. We as shepherds are not always going to be out finding the lost sheep. There are times when we must care for the ninety and nine. We were at the chapel at just the right time and in just the right circumstances to be able to help this member in a time of distress. We prevented him from taking things too far and we were able to give him someone to talk to. This experience has really changed me. While remaining focused on our doctrinal purpose of teaching repentance and baptizing converts, I still have a responsibility to follow the example of the Good Shepherd, and care for the whole flock, not just a select few. And the Spirit helped Elder Clayson and I that night to remember that. Below I have attached one of my favorite talks about this. I hope you will learn as much from it as I have. 

Well, that is about it for this week. I am doing so so so so so so good. The work is progressing nicely. We are going out to a 吃到飽 to celebrate Elder Eisert's birthday today, so that should be fun. I love the work and I love being a missionary. It has been the most rewarding and greatest learning experience of my life, and I will take the memories of this time to my grave, and into the eternities. I love you guys and I will talk to you very soon.

Sincerely,

Elder Chase Joseph Millett

雷龘鬱長老

Responsibilities of Shepherds : https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1995/04/responsibilities-of-shepherds?lang=eng