Wow. Taiwan week 37

Wow. Taiwan week 37.

It went like this:

Monday, Elder Gardner's bike fell apart, so that took alot of our time away. And we were recovering from a Typhoon that hit last weekend. We went and ate at Wang Shang Ming's house. He's the First in the Bishop Ric. Tuesday was exchanges in Ping Dong City. One and a half hour bike ride one way. It was a good experience though and we had some really amazing Curry and Vegtibles. We also met with a reall cool simple man that is progressing. Wednesay, we switched back and went back to work. Met with Sun Bei Bei which consists of reading a chapter of the Book of MOrmon with him and Eating Crackers. HE's a reall cool old old man who got baptized a few months ago and raises fish for a living. Thursday was a day of absolute miracles. We had many great opportunities to teach. Mr Xie from Taipei at his food shop. Tornado Chen who want's to help his family situation with the gospel. Which is totaly cool because that is exactaly what we can do. Booking it out to secondary and having a sitdown with Chen Mao Nan who really wants to come back to church. Friday, we found a few old formers. and had a good talk with a recent convert on the steps of the churhc. We also had a good time practicing contacting people two by two. On Saturday, we had ASSISTANT EXCHANGES. So yes, Elder Buenning came down from Tai Zhong and came around with us and had an absolute blast. We had a mass meeting of alot of people tha we got up and taught in front of. THen we had a really cool experience with one guy who completly rejected us at first and then came back and told us to pull into his home. We sat down with him and found out that he has had the worst few days and really just needed somebody to talk to. He's going to get baptised soon. Really great guy. Sunday, our goal of 100 people at church was completely destroyed. yeah. 117. yeah. Intense. We almost didn't have enough seats. So good to see the growth. ANd then today, we went out to Ping Dong and had lunch with the Elders there. It was at a pretty fancy place. It was fun to just talk to them though. I love doing missionary work.

SO yeah that was my week. I hope you liked that overview. not too much detail. sorry just a little pressed for time, we still have to get Elder Gardner's bike fixed today.

Thank-you for all of your help and love.

Love Ya!

-Elder Sanford

Happy Birthday Junie

happy birthday sweetie!!!

She's 13-a real live certifiable teenager.We love you so much June!

Taiwan 36

I've really liked that I get the chance to work out and run in the mornings and it is something that I will do for the rest of my life.

Yes I did get new shoes, but I really want to get my old ones resoled. Is that possible? I like the old ones alot more, not to mention that they are alot more comfortable and waterproof and awesome.

Wow, sounds like there is alot going on and alot of people are getting old. Man.

So yeah, one quick story. There is a kid on our convert action list that we haven't been able to track down ever since I've been here. I was thinking about how Iknew that he was out there somewhere. I remember saying a prayer to find him one night. His family all used to be investigators of the church, but weren't really ready to make the full commitment. The son was the only one, but without that backing, he quickly fell away. Elder Gardner pointed out who we thought the kid was yesterday at church on our bulletin board. His baptismal picture was still up. Standing next to him in a red shirt was his father. I only looked at his face for a matter of seconds. But later on the street, I recognized it as I was riding home quickly to get some food in before the baptism. I passed him and kept riding for about a block before I made the connection. I slammed on my brakes and biked back to him and started up a good conversation. We are going back to their place later this week. The Lord has been working on them for a while and now we're going to be going in for try two. I'm excited.

The coolest thing was that we have been working with a part member family and the oldest son got baptized yesterday. Yeah! The mother is really close behind him and the father expressed strong desire to follow in his son's footsteps as well. The younger brother is going to get baptised in January when he turns eight. So yeah, really great family, really great week. So yeah, the tall one is Zeng Di Xiong. BAPTIZED! party (even though it looks like I was photo shopped in, I was really there)

Thanks for all of the love from home! Tell everyone hello from me. I'm working hard out here! I hope that all is going well with school and stuff back there. Time for another good week of hard work!

-Elder Dib Sanford.

To St. George FAST!!!

It was a quick trip!

A week ago today I made a yummy dinner -- worthy of Sunday dinner status. Sister Carol Crilley and her friend with a granddaughter showed up. What a treat to have a decent meal to share (and the house was even clean--miracle!) They brought an ice cream cake for dessert. Delightful.

We then packed up the car and waited for Junie to get home from Young Womens. Mirielle, Esther, Junie, and I didn't have plans until Friday afternoon, so we were able to MAKE and execute super fun plans: a roadtrip to St. George to visit my sister Jonna, her husband Kimand as many of their children and grandchildren as we could see. Junie came home and it was about 9 p.m. before we could start the trip.

We headed off to my sis' house. When I am the "sole driver", I tend to get a little nervous. I can NOT get tired, well I CAN, but I MUSTN'T (that's a weird contraction!). SO I am glad that someone (I think it was Jonna) years ago told me about the miracle of the Sunflower seed. If you put the seed in your mouth, suck the salt off, crack the shell, careful--Don't swallow it, pull the shell out of your mouth, and eat the seed, you can drive for hours....The reason it's a miracle is I CAN do this and never get tired, not even in the least. I remain alert and functi

onal as a driver. YAHOOO!!!

We got to Jonna's at 1:30 a.m. Thursday. We got in the beds (--comfy!) and slept the night/early morn away. Rebekah had to get her Wisdom teeth extracted so Jonna didn't get home until after 10 a.m. Then Eliza and Elise came. Shortly after, Amelia, Lincoln and Sydnee came. I love my nieces and nephews and the grands, too. It was so good to see and hug them. Here's a pic of Sydnee and one of Grandma Jonna with Lincoln. I didn't get one of Elise. :(

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So here are those wonderful pictures that I promised to send.

I hope that you all enjoy them alot.

There is also a picture of my companion ELDER GARDNER.

He is a beast. And an awesome missionary.

Then there is a picture with Zhuang Jia Rong and his family (minus the father)

and then a picture of Zou Jia Rong and a member that helped her a lot named Han Jie Mei and her little grandchild who likes to look different places and sing and dance on occasions

Then there is a picture of Huang Yu Fang who is was baptised not by me but by her boy friend who used to be a less active but now comes every week and was baptized on the same day as Zou Jia Rong (not Zhuang Jia Rong, I know they're close) which actually turns out to be the same day as a "How to Make Jam" Social that was taught by Zou Jia Rong... (not Zhuang Jia Rong, I know they're close).

Party.

So this past week, we had the chance to have Combined District Training Meeting. It was a really good experience. Each time we have CDTM, we have a chance to have a face to face interview with President Bishop. We talked a little about some of the recent converts in the area. When we were done, he said "Well enjoy Chao Zhou while you can, you may not be there for too much longer." So we'll see what happens. It is half way through the movecall and at the new movecall, there will be 25 new missionaries, maybe more, coming on island.

Wow that rush before school starts feeling came back for a second when I was reading your email. Well I hope that you all have a good time getting into the new school year.

-Elder Dib Sanford.

Sweet Grand nieces/nephews of 2011

Our family has truly been blessed with babies this year (...and one more already announced for 2012). Bryson Glunt came first this year on May 11th. Unfortunately, I can't seem to get a picture of him. I'm still trying to negotiate one. Next came Hazel Cooper on May 15th. In third was Sydnee Miles on July 28th. Last week three offspring from the Merrill's arrived. Scarlett Merrill was born on August 8th, then came Mikey Logan and Alicia Merrill on August 10th, a mere 6 hours apart. Here's a glimpse of five of them. I've only held Mikey so far, but hopefully by the end of this week I'll get to hold Sydnee. Babies are such a blessing and so sweet!

ps--I love ALL of my grand nieces and nephews. All have come to our family in the last 9 years: Jillian, Paige, Joanna, Matthew, Elise, Lincoln, Reagan, Keaton, Katlyn, Sean, Faith, Celeste and Jude. WOW! What a decade of delight!!!

Taiwan week 34

Hey!
Yeah, the whole Allergy thing is done with. They say that it is shellfish. I had eaten a dish with shrimp that I picked out and didn't eat, but I think it still had some sort of an effect. Yeah, whatever it was it's all over now.

So yesterday, I ran into somebody who spoke english. He was from washington. He had recently been in Hong Kong for a year so his english was a little weird, but I talked to him a little bit about the church and found out that he had been to our church a bunch and that in washington his family had been meeting with the missionaries. He said that he liked it but that they didn't have missionaries in Hong Kong. So I took his number and am sending it in the referrals system. I thought that it was a pretty good experience. He was a cool kid. I hope that his family finally gets baptised. I bet he didn't think that he was going to run into missionaries while on vacation..

Ok, yeah, so this week was a good, hard working week. We're going to see some good results from this week, but mostly because of Heavenly Father's help. The more and more I go out and work, the more and more I remember that this only has a little bit to do with me and pretty much everything to do with the Lord and what work he does.

I always hear about being an instrument in the Lord's hand, but this week, I was thinking about it and I got it. I had to turn it into something that I knew a little bit better. All I am is a brush. The Lord is the Painter. You don't ever hear about how amazing that little brush was that Rembrant was holding. No, you hear about Rembrant. And yes, it does matter what kind of a brush I am. I have tried to use brushes that I have made myself or that are cheap and not that great of quality and let me tell you, nowhere near as good. I may be able to put out something that looks good in the end, but if the brush were better, then the finished picture would be of better quality and chances are, it would have taken alot less time. So as I sharpen up my skills, the work WILL be able to move along better, but only because I am a better tool for the Lord. Yeah. Just something I had been thinking about.

Yeah. Good hard working week after getting over the itching. Elder Gardner and I are working hard and trying to focus as much as we can on establishing the church here in Chao Zhou. We took one morning to go and visit an old farmer that lives way out in our secondary area. I didn't think that he would be home, but it turns out that he actually was. Since the last time that we met, he had a lot of stress because of a second home that he needed to sell. He said that he had prayed and that in the end Christ helped him to sell the house and now he is alot more comfortable and happy and less stressed. We're going to try again with him because he actually has a testimony of Christ and how he can help.

Yeah, Esther's talk sounds so good! I remember having to give talks in primary in spanish. That was interesting. I'm sure Esther did a great job.

Well, I hope that you have a good week and get a chance to swing down to St. George. Chou Zhou is a Taiwanese version of St. George. Yeah. Tell them all hello.
Love Ya!
-Elder Sanford