Dear Mom,

As usual you are right.   I came to a big realization this week.  The Lord called me to a mission. But I had forgotten why he wanted me on the mission. It is not only for the people I will teach but it is for me to improve the skills I have and make me a better person. I also realized that we are not perfect, and we may have learned something in the past but not used it for a while so we need something to jar our memory and get us going again.  Mom I love the work and the people that I am teaching. Hey something that I have found very useful this past week from my study is Preach My Gospel the first chapter at the end of it has a quote page.  I think it would be really good for anyone to read.  Also I got the St. Patricks day package.  My language is improving every day.   Keep praying for me.  I will keep praying for the family.

 

Well everyone this week, I realized how important motives behind things are. We have been teaching a couple of investigators and they weren’t progressing until we explained to them that we simply were trying to help them become better people and obtain the same gifts and blessings we have. I will give a simple promise this week; If you love your  Heavenly Father and you love your 'neighbor' And you sincerely desire to help anyone who comes in your path whether it be by a smile or whether it be by a hug or service, you will see the beauty that is in the world. Remember it is your choice how to live life. It is your choice to take something bad and turn it into good and it is your choice to be happy. I love each and every one of you!   Remember the Lord is walking beside you. Read your scriptures, say your prayers. Trust the lord love the lord, trust yourself, love everyone.

Love,

Elder Green

Oh for the picture you can call that little shuai4ge1 russell

Hello Everybody,

 Alright so apparently I didn’t explain transfers that well. This transfer has been shortened due to the increase of the missionaries normally a transfer is every 6 weeks. I am still in the Fangjia area and probably will still be here for at least one more transfer. The district stayed the same. 

Alright real quick funny story before I get into much of what’s going on. This   morning we went to McDonalds because they had a free breakfast thing going on. And I just happened to be the hundredth person in line and voila before I new it I had a McDonalds hat on, a sign, a gift bag and a couple of coupons and some of the workers crowding around me for a picture!   McDonalds is a lot nicer and higher quality here. I hope America will someday catch on. Also I don’t know if I have said anything about this food yet but they have a really good thing which in English translation is omelet rice. They make a huge omelet put fried rice in it and cheese, and then some dressing on top so goooooooood!  Oh and for a culture thing this week I still have a few mints left from America that I have been holding on to. And the kids love them, it’s crazy!

Just real quick I would once again like to thank everyone for their prayers and their support back home with the language. I Passed off my phase one completely and started phase two. Phase two doesn’t have any test it’s just to kick start learning non church related words. So the next things I have decided to work on are; grammar, tones, and ting1 de dong4 (understanding people.) 

Alright for spiritual stuff. First off the area has really started picking up we are getting in contact with more of the less actives and they are all so cool and we are finally getting on the same page as the ward. It is amazing. Well miracle this week… so a couple weeks ago when we were heading home we contacted a delivery boy and made an appointment with him. And we had a good first lesson then we weren’t able to get a hold of him till the other day and he said “sure, is it ok if I bring my sister too”. Why yes, yes you can." and we had an awesome church tour with them,  two members, and us. Then we had an awesome follow up lesson. Especially because all me an Elder Bee did was lead the conversation where we wanted it to go. And the members did the rest. And it was probably the best lesson we have ever had. I will tell whoever is reading this right now that it is through the members of the church doing the missionary work that the missionary’s will be successful. If you know someone that can use the gospel give their name to the missionaries.  It is much more effective for missionaries to know who to talk to than to just blindly talk with people.  That is a quote from Ezra Taft Benson  “Every Member A Missionary". Also there is a talk by president Hinckley that talks about member missionary work... well any way, to get back to the story. The guy came to church the next day. And whoa it was awesome the ward took him in, the bishop introduced himself and it wasn’t an overbearing member hello either just a friendly welcome.  We will probably have a couple more meetings with him this week too.

 Well this week I would like to share simply about the power of reading your scriptures, saying your prayers and going to church have on your life. It takes less than a minute to say a proper prayer in which you 1 address heavenly father. 2 thank him for anything, or ask him about anything. 3 close in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.  Heavenly Father has given you the ability to communicate with him far beyond that. He wants to hear what you have to say. He wants you to come to Him.  I know without a doubt in my mind Heavenly Father will answer your prayers, maybe not in the way you want or expect it but as you earnestly strive to seek for an answer He will respond. I know he is listening and he cares about each and every one of us. If you put your trust in him, he will put his trust in you. We are all family and if you want to live with your family for eternity simply ask and dilligently serve, and as you do your part Heavenly Father will do the rest. I also know without a doubt in my heart that families are important I don’t know what I would do without mine praying for me and supporting me. So never give up on your family. I love each and every one of you who are reading this. And I hope that this message in some way can help you.

Love you brother, your friend, that missionary in Taiwan,

Elder Taft green

Amy here.. We are a little delayed with this post from last week as we were on a cruise.  There will be a new post tomorrow as well.

March 10, 2013

Wow it sounds like it is really busy at home. I and elder Bee are working hard. It sounds like Brett’s sealing was awesome. Tell him congrats for me. I know Brannon is doing awesome where he is if you could, could you get me Jordan, Drew, and Brannan's, address so I could write them a letter.  Also yes I have written letters so hopefully you all will get them soon. Tell Jaime hello and to keep working hard. That is so cool. Also tell Mo congrats again. Good luck on your cruise and have fun you and dad deserve it!

 Alright so I just finished my first move call. And man what an experience pretty much took everything I learned these past 19 years. Rolled them up into about seven weeks and that’s about how my first move call went. I was re-learning and remembering and applying what I have learned and learning new stuff to. Move calls are usually every 6 weeks but because of the influx of missionaries we had a mini move call for three weeks this move call. And we just found out that I and elder bee will be together for three move calls because of that, so cool!  Well interesting food for the week cow intestine and honestly the taste is rather good it’s just really chewy. And they have seafood pizza so good! 

 Next I would like to thank everyone for their prayers in general and the language specific ones. I am happy to report I finished all 5 of my tests and I have my sixth one Thursday. So I am super excited! It really humbled me to go through this process learning the language learning what I need to learn and what I need to work on and also being humble to take correction. Well on another note my basketball skills have been improving slowly. Elder Bee likes to take a few minutes on our run days and shoot some hoops part of our work out. The temperature is increasing every day and honestly it doesn’t feel hotter than a Utah summer but we’ll see what happens. The only difference is everything is wet. It’s weird.

Alright so miracle this week me and Elder Bee both had a feeling that we needed to go over to the college the other day and look for service. So that’s what we did. We helped an ice cream man for a little bit that we have started to befriend. And then as we were riding we saw a former investigator and set up a time with her it was awesome. But this week I really have to say I was severely humbled and remembered how much you need to rely on the Lord and keep learning. I hope if any of you get a chance to keep watching the Mormon message videos that are posted on my Facebook. Or you can find them at lds.org Mormon message videos. I have started to learn so much and my language is really progressing. And I know without a doubt in my mind it is because of Heavenly Father and his love for me. And I also know without a doubt in my mind the Jesus Christ our big brother died for each one of us and suffered individually for the mistakes and sins that we have made in this life. All for the reason that he wanted us to obtain eternal life and get back to the kingdom of Our Father to live with Him and our families once again for time and all eternity. Read your scriptures, say your prayers. And never forget that you are a child of God the things you can do are un-listable!

Love, Elder Taft Green Lin2 zhong3lao3

 

This past week we received a beautiful video from Tafts Mission, and with permission we are posting it.  The entire video is so beautiful, short and worth watching, but if you are only interested in seeing Taft you will find him starting at about 5:40.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B3QSE9YSj9VYa2NKTGhnQkdOX28/edit?usp=sharing

This document will only be available for a short time.

 

 

Dear Mom,

Thank you for all that you do!  Send my love to the family and thanks for putting money in my account. These first few moves have been kind of interesting figuring out what I do and do not need. Tell Mo congrats from me. Also are you posting Mormon Messages?  And once again thanks for being my mom.

Alright well this week was pretty cool. So this whole mission I have been struggling with being myself and was becoming this cookie cutter missionary, and forgot who I was. This week I finally remembered who I was. I think I will be able to more effectively help the area now. Hey, I wish I could describe how cool my companion is.  He just keeps teaching me every day and he is so amazing with the spirit.  

So I ate at this really cool noodle place the other night that was all you can eat noodles, and man it was so good!  That is one thing I love about this area whatever you want food wise you can pretty much go down the street and find it.  One of the members in this area is so cool he does  rock sculpture and he has some cool stuff. 

 Well miracle time.  This week we were riding to an appointment and this guy started talking to us on our bikes.  It is usually the other way around, and to our surprise it was a guy from the Book of Mormon night. So we gave him another quick lesson got his number again and confirmed for him to come to church.  Also this week we got names from the bishop so we can start helping the less actives of the area. Oh there have been so many blessings here it’s amazing!

The last thing I would like to mention is I realized why Taiwan has felt so much like home..... It reminds me of Snowbird.  Almost everywhere we go everyone we talk to our apartment the sky the trees the animals the people they remind me of Snowbird.  I think this is the greatest blessing of all that Heavenly Father has literally prepared me for this country my whole life.  And it has reconfirmed my testimony of how important remembering who you are is.  I know that I am a child of God and the blessings He has in store for me are indescribable.  He wants me and you and everyone else to receive these blessings, because we are all his family and he looks after us, and loves us.

Read your scriptures, say your prayers. Trust the Lord, love the Lord.  Trust yourself, love everyone!  Never forget that Jesus Christ is walking beside you and when you fall he picks you up and keeps you going until you can walk again.

 Love,

Elder Green