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
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