Christmas Time

awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwweee yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaah its a good christmas and not very white.... but it is actually super white!!!! We started the #whitechristmas around here. People getting baptized everywhere!!! Its the best Christmas ever!!!

anyway, i have had a great week, we had exchanges and fun and games. But what i want to say to everyone is to just think about what it means to have christmas. Because, i can tell you they don't really celebrate christmas here. But it reminds me all the more of what ts for. Even our church members need to reminded its not about what we do but rather why we do it! I sure love every one that i can talk to, and everyone on this list. I just want to say Christmas is the best time of year because it is truly a sacred time of year all over the world, no matter what religion you are. Its a time of remembrance and preparation. Improvement and service. 

love as he did. i love all of you!

we had a christmas concert and it was legendary!

Choirs and Carols

This week has been pretty awesome! so we have been doing a big choir thing lately, we do it every year. But it is so fun! we travel around with a ton is missionaries and perform for different things and then we can just talk yo everyone that attends! it's creates a great face for our church and helps people see us and give them an opportunity to interact with us. and we have a ton of fun singing Christmas songs!

We have also been doing Carrefour caroling. a large grocery business all over the island has partnered with us and they have groups of us go.around and Carol in their store with speakers and music. It is so fun. we have seen tons of success from it! What we did is we made our own little info card, and then we kind of just put a QR code on it, to have people scan and they can ask us (literally me and my comp) questions through line, and we can invite them to activities and to meet the missionaries. After 5 stores have done this we have over 100 people on this line and several people are met and set up through this activity!!! SO fun!

Also i had some super fun exchanges this week like with good old Elder Heaton, and ELder kleine and Elder Bird! man it was so fun! also the weather has  gone from summer to winter and back 2 times and we are back to winter witht he rain. IT IS COLD..... i dont like it!!!! psych it is so fun!!!! we wear sweasters all day long now a days! and we get to do a ton of fun stuff!

It’s all over now folks

Man this week has been crazy! We saw so much happen this week, we had 2 times where we had extra missionaries sleep with us, and we saw them off around 5AM, we had the new missionaries come in finally! A week late, they slept with us, and we were up witht hem around 5AM again, and within 48 hours we had a follow up meeting with half-way trainers, we had district leader training, welcomed the new missionaries, did welcome things with them and then we also held MLC, and then hwe had exchanges with some of my good friends!!! This week has been crazy!

So i had the chance to be with Elder Kaufusi and Jorgensen on exchanges, I spent it with Elder Kaufusi, he is such a good guy! we had a ton of fun! and I was so impressed with his work ethic and focus on finding and helping families into the gospel! WE had the chance to really go and do the missionary work and it felt so good with him! HE is quiet but dedicated, and isn't afraid to open his mouth! I love that guy!

I think we are past the "busy season" though so i think we are ready to rumble for this transfer. Elder Walters is so fun to be with! I am also so thankful for him! HE does such a good job at finding important tasks to do and then completing them! Its so nice, i can trust that he will finish anything he starts, and I know if he ever needs help, he will ask It's so fun with him!

Hey guess what! I love all of you!

Elder Conover

New Companion!

Alright, so I got a new comp I will greatly miss Elder Johnson he was awesome! but now I got Elder Walters, who is only 6 weeks below me, he is awesome! He comes from the town of Las Vegas, and is one of the best pianists ever! he is super legit! He has been down on the east coast for a while, but now he had come back around to help me out! We have had some fun stories already because we both love to tell stories so we have been sharing the stories of our lives! he is hilarious!

So this week, we had a sweet PdAY out at elephant nose mountain, on the coast of keelung. Which was super sweet! we had a member take us out there and it was crazy fun we hung out with elder Jensen and Giordano, and the office elders there were a few sisters that came but mostly we had a couple elders. We found a little bunker outlook and climbed Inside that, and hiked up to the highest point nearby and it was beautiful. the members were so awesome!

so we had my new comp show up a day early and got him on Wednesday, but then we ended up having some serious problems on transfers, the number one thing was the babies didn't come! so we have trios all over right now! hahaha but the rest of everything went super smooth! Luckily everyone had a smooth sailing trip. we still don't know when the new missionaries are coming... oh no! 

We have had the chance these first couple days together to be fairly busy we have had things to do so far and have been truly enjoying it. though we had a frustrating sunday, we had soooo many people sleep in and cancel on us, I was sooo sad! But then we also heard from one of our awesome investigator  who just got back to Taiwan, that they have been having second thoughts the last few weeks(they've been gone) so we just need to see them. but they made the member friend nearly cry with disappointment so I felt super bad, but we told them both no problem we are gonna take care of it!

great week! Love all of you! -Elder Conover c

Pretty Legit

So this week has been super fun! We are getting near the end of the transfer, and this week marks the end of our transfers. and I will have to be getting a new companion oh no!!!!!! thats ok this coming transfer is gonna be so awesome!!!!

So this week we had a super fun thanksgiving activity we had a ton of members bring friends it was super awesome!!! We had a ton of fun, they had a fun little dance we all jumped in on. And then our RC also brought one of his friends he has wanted us to meet for a long time. and he was super nice, and had a little curiosity about what we are doing here. 

Also last week we had the great chance to start creating new tracts for the mission use, we have been using the same ones for a long time, and we all feel that they could for sure use some improvement. And President just had us make the content and create the tract and then we just sent all that stuff to a good friend of mine a member from an old area, and having him design and fit everything around as it should be! I am so excited to see what happens!!!

We have smartphones completely launched now, which is super awesome every companionship has theirs and it has been crazy to see the work speed along! Makes quite a few things easier and faster especially contacting members and investigators they are way more likely to answer over "line"which is super nice!!!! It has been awesome to see the missionaries stepping up, overcoming distractions, using everything to their advantage!!!!

Reunion

I had the chance to gather my whole generation this week!!!! And then we went on an exchange! Man it was so fun! Elder Jensen and I got to be companions for a day! And we let everyone know that Our whole generation was together and that we were companions! It was so fun, and it was really well times, I needed his help and it worked out well we had to move the exchange back to this week!

and we had a great week!!! We met some awesome people, a guy from cananda, who is a healer for another church, he told us in the most respectful way he thought our church was wrong. And told us our church will block the healing of people... hahaha But he is super nice!

We had a great chance to help an investigator who is returning to the phillipines do a blessing and stuff to help her be at peace she plans to be baptized when she returns in december. And her friend plans to do so with her!!

last pday we barbecued on the roof and played pool... it was amazing!

wind up

Well we have had quite the week! It was super fun, so we had the chance to go on an exchange here and there, and then we had a great chance to cancel one the day before cuz we are kind of mean! hahahaha just kidding.

I will be straight i dont remember a ton of what happened because we are swapped to the smart phone or planning and everything which means, i dont write it down, and i dont remember as well.

But what we did do was a training for 30 of our greats missionaries. To get their own phones and to get started, and they will pass ot down the line, it was pretty stressful while we were preparing cuz the idea was we need to be able to answer all questions that are pitched but it went really well!! So it was super fun! And we got to all hang out together!

I have exchanges with to of my old comps this week, Elder Fitzpatrick and i had a ton of fun, we just got to teach of few people, one oif them was over skype call!! cuz he is up in tamsui and then Elder Cheney and i are together right now, because he came up from taidong he has to stay a few extra days to do some stuff, so we get to hangout the next little while! But i am actually exchnaging with Elder Walters a great guy that was in the MTC with me, good guy!

pretty good week, we ate some shanghai food last week with an RC
we got to see some one we found and taught get baptized this week!
this is what happens when missioanries get smartphones

LIFE CHANGING

Alright folks my life just got thrown for a loop so starting from last tuesday (day after i emailed you) it was announced to us we are getting smartphones. Since then i have now got one, and will have service on it today.... WHAT!!!!!!! i know lets give a quick story.

So the missionary department was like, how can we be better. Well our missionaries carry a little nokia and some missions also have an Ipad, well, lets put the two pieces together and expand to like 9 other international missions! And ours is one of them! And i get to be in the front side, i will be training a bunch of other people on how to use them coming in the next couple days!!! super crazy!

We had a super fun week! so we had a bunch of work to do this week, we have been on a smaller side of people we were really progressing down the line for a while, but we have been really focused on simplicity and spirit filled lessons, and as we have been doing the preparation needed we had a great week! we set We re-set two of our good friends dates and set another 2 new ones!!!! And they have all decided it is time to prepare and to change! WE also had an awesome week of people at church, we had a really cool memebr that has been struggling the past little while to come to church and be believer. But the last few months he made the decision his life is better here. HE brought to super cool friends to church! And they both want to learn more!

We have seen some super cool miracles as to what the lord wants for us! We had an awesome zone conference this week, and president and sister Jergensen gave a rousing training on having a vision, and our Zone Leaders did a great demonstration and additional training to help us all apply it better! I had the chance to really ponder this week, what is MY VISION, and what is the Lord's do they allign? I made some notes and plans and thoughts and i am going after it now, it is going to be amazing and has been quite the eye opener of i could be so much better if i had done this earlier in my life. 

I highly recommend making a vision of what you want out of life, or schoool, or work, or any of those things and then make goals and plans to make it happen.

Elder Conover:)

Promptings

Alright so this week has been really cool!

We have been finished up with all the crazy fun of transfers now we are preparing for the coming zone conference! I am so excited i have found one big thing that has changed since i have been out here is my desire to learn, grow, and improve has become a driving force for me. I have found my need and my desire to be more than who i am always have been, i want to be an effective messenger of the truth and i want to help more people so i am working and trying to change and it is so fun!

This week has been awesome we have done a ton or stuff. So our english ward has been on fire lately with bringing people to things to meet us and inviting them to come and learn about things. We have had a ton of really awesome phillipino members bringing their friends. And we have a new couple in the ward form honduras. And they are awesome! They gave us a really cool talk last sunday about working in the church and doing the things god commands. Brother Mauricio gave a really cool thought about how if just half of the members of the church brought one friend a year to help get baptized then within 20 years we would have 1 billion members!!!! how cool is that! that is 1/7 of the current population! I never new how fast that would work! pretty sweet!

The chinese ward has been super cool too! We got a new ward mission leader this week! It is gonna be really fun to see the changes our ward want to work with us super bad! They are great people that just want to help the church to grow and improve!!!! I love serving here we get to see so many miracles. The hand of the Lord has been manifest to me often and many times a day through simple things that don't "normally" happen!

we had a beach P-day last week!!!

WET indoor and outdoor

We have had a crazy week this week! So for starters there was a typhoon that went nearby Taiwan, so for about four days we had a constant rain and wind all along the mission! From Taidong to Miaoli! Which really put a whip on my feet, to quote my fantastic companion, "my feet feel like frozen raisins." We decided to turn off the AC sometimes! hahaha.

But the coolest thing that happened this week, was our good friends周世樵 and 張育誠 got baptized! Not only that but 周世樵 made some huge changes and actually invited people to his baptism! And decided that he would be baptized with the other guy! Originally he kept telling us "I don't want to be a zoo animal for people to look at." But then he later realized they weren't there for that, but to support and welcome him! And even after 3 days of rain, and a constant down pour and another activity happening, our ward was super supportive of them and we had a great turnout! 張育誠 gave a fantastic testimony, got everyone laughing he is a super solid middle aged sales man, and he is naturally good with speaking, so it was fun to see him up front bearing testimony for the truth! And then we also had a good friend 董宇峻 the old missionary i just replaced here came back up to see the baptism! He is a good friend of mine, i love that guy!

We have had some really cool people start showing up, we just met with one of our youth, he is about 15 and he brought to friends to play ball, and we asked if they would want to learn about the church, and they both agreed, so we shared a little restoration with them, watched "because he lives" and then gave them Books of Mormon, they both are planning on every week whent hey come to ball, they will just meet with us and then come to church the next day! We are excited we could use a few extra youth!

We also got to go ice skating again this week but for free! Our investigator that just got baptized has a little cousint hat is a figure skater, and her mom took us and him over there for free! Elder Johnson started to learn how to do the pretty little spin jumps! i was still working on the spins!!

Love all of you! Elder Conover

General Confrence

Man i love the prophets and apostles. I firmly believe they are all prophets, seers, and revelators. They are set apart by God, for the imparting of his word to us. They do it wonderfully! So i know most of you saw it last week, but due to translation needs i just barely watched it yesterday. And it has once again reminded me of the need for improvement. I felt an amazing theme throughout these sessions was the need for humility, repentance, and being reliant on the Lord.

This has also been a big theme for my life lately. I have shared a little before as to some of the lessons i have learned with this new transfer. And also the things i have learned from my companions. I just want to again share my thoughts as to the fact that all things come by and through the merits of the Lord. My favorite saying lately has been "relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save." I love this saying just reminds me that no matter what you do, you cannot earn anything of yourself. In the end, success, happiness, peace, salvation, and exaltation are gifts of God given through the merits and mercy of "HE who is mighty to save" I love my Savior, he truly has sacrificed himself for all, including me and you. And he speaks to us today, by the mouth of holy prophets and also through personal revelation. I have ran across Ether 12:41 lately. And just want to say, those who seek find, i would follow the counsel of the scriptures and also those who are currently writing scripture;) It will bring much joy to our lives.

We have had a really fun week, we met some super cool people! I got to go back up to 北投(beitou) where i was first "born" to teach someone we thought was a phillipino but turned out we went up there and she was not, so long story short she is not someone we needed to go up there to teach we could have had the sisters up there do it! She came to church last week, but we didn't see her, they just gave us a name, number, and said call! So that was pretty fun, they took us to a crazy nice house way up on the mountain and they kept like 30 dogs! i have never been to a house that literally smells like a dog! they are awesome though! super nice, and most are injured in some way! It was a great little experience. We also had two of our awesome friends pass their baptismal interview!! It was so cool! We also had one of them randomly call us and ask if we wanted to BBQ with his family! So we did, his family is loaded, it was fun! they love us, we will slowly baptize them all!:)

Love you all! Elder Conover

HIGH stakes

SMan this week has been a crazy one again! So we have had to go to the Training with President this week and the other leaders of the mission. So a group of great people all together! Some of best missionaries I've known and President told My companion and I that we were gonna do a training for a time limit of about 45-1hr minutes. He let us know the day before. Man my nerves were high!!!!!! Elder Johnson and I talked a ton, and woke up early that day. And when we were setting everything up we were just so anxious to get going! Eventually the Lord allowed us to do well, and everything went smoothly. We have been really focusing lately on relying on the Lord. And I have come to know in a very real sense that ALL things come of God, whether allowed, or done for us. It is all of God, there are things he wants done, and if we align ourselves with his will, he will allow us to work miracles. If we rebel against him, we are left to our own power and knowledge which if you have ever tested is 不多！ hahaha.

We have also been meeting with some super cool people lately! We called an LA and he ended up bringing his girlfriend along with him to the meeting. We have had the priviladge to continue working with these two, as we are working to get him active and her baptized! But super cool miracle. We went to meet them and we had not had time to lesson plan what we wanted, but as we focused on her and the whispering of the Holy Ghost. The lesson went really smoothly and I felt very easily to invite her to baptism. The very second i invited the Boyfriend fearing the pressure would worry her. Jumped in and went off for 5-10 mins about not needing to be in a rush and to not worry if you don't want to and stuff. Well she was just looking down at the BOM(which we just used to teach the Plan of Salvation) looks up at My companion then glances at her boyfriend and says "I've decided i will attend." shocking all three of us with the dedication behind her voice. I truly believe the Holy Ghost had made clear to her the the Plan was for her, and all things were true. Giving her the confidence to say i will be baptized!!! Super cool miracle!

Aside from that we also had exchanges this week! I went with Elder Smith and Elder Cheney! Elder Smith is a champion! he is currently one of my favorite people! Because pretty much what we did all day was to just go and work hard all day and just enjoy what we were doing the whole time! HE is a killer missionary! And Elder Cheney my old companion back in Hualian! HE is back down on the east coast but he came up and chilled with me for the day! He is so awesome! We had a really good day our exchange got cut short a little but we got to teach and find and work so that's all we need:)

Really good week! The Lord has blessed us greatly.

we had a fun week

WHAT UP!

This week has been insane! We have had some crazy stuff go down, we are about half way through all our exchanges for the transfer we are just starting week 3:) It has been fun to work with so many amazing missionaries! So i had the chance to exchange with 2 Elders i knew in the MTC they are actually one transfer above me, but they are both fantastic men! The first was with Elder Clegg for good ole' Idaho, we have been good friends for a long time now, we lived together for a while, and he was my DL back in HuaLian! And Elder Bagley a famous actor for the church;) We had a ton of fun!

We also had one of our investigators get baptized!徐子翔 He is so sick! Poor guy though so another ward in the chapel had a baptism before us, and the missionaries that were filling the font forgot to plug the font, so when they came in 5 mins before the baptism, and had 0 water in the font they freaked out, and we didn't know that until we opened the font for our own guy, and it was only half way full! He was a tall, strong guy, and the baptizer was a short, small guy. But after a few tries, and some creative maneuvering we got it!

We saw some super cool miracles this week! So we had some random guy show up to a dinner on Sunday night, and literally the first thing he said to my companion was, "in just a minute lets switch phone numbers; we can find a time to talk." hahaha we talked to him over dinner, and he was pretty much just telling us how to teach him, and when to call him, and what he wants to do. We laughed a good while after he left! Just because God was like, "I don't think you have enough blessings.... Here is this guy you can talk to!" 

I have been learning a lot lately from my companion about communication. My Comp. Elder Johnson, is probably one of the most sincerely reliant upon the Lord Elders i have ever met! He teaches me everyday how to be a better man, and missionary! But i think the NUMBER 1 thing in our companionship is we are trying to work better together at accomplishing what we are called to do! He is awesome.

I would like to take a quick second and thank all of my past companions. They have all been amazing men! Truly grateful for their examples, love, and work. They have shaped me. They have changed me, and they have helped me grow closer to Heavenly Father. They have been great shapers in my life. You are all awesome.

I love all of you that receive this, and i love all of you who I see, and I love all of you who i can contact, and I really just love all men.

Elder Conover

Mission home roof top

In and out

Well it has been a week and a half! of going in and out and with and without in every where! So i need to clarify i am just in central taipei where all missioanries have to come through. I am not in my first area, but that would be fun too!

It has been a great week! So we had a couple exchanges to do this week we had about 3 this week, i got to hangout with Elder Kimmel, Elder Clegg, and Elder Heaton. Some very fire missionaries! they are so sick! I have had the chance this week to enjoy running around NTU台大(which is pretty much a mini city) but it is with walking and biking instead of driving and riding.

I have been n the temple and i dont wanna take for ever i wanna go eat and play, so we will see you next week, i love you guys, this weeek has been sick god has blesssed us with much success and exceedingly fun opportunities.

i shaved my legs for the first time in my life it was fun

Back in black

Well all things have come back together, i am now back right where my very first steps were in taiwan. I am serving in the Xinan（信安）ward and i also cover the english ward! right here in central Taipei! I see a ton of foreigners running around now! 

My new companion is a champion missionary by the name of Elder Johnson, a great guy who was born in Taiwan, lived in Shanghai for a few years, but lived for the vast part of childhood in good ole Idaho! He is a fantastic guy! super humble and really loving! 

We had a great last little bit in Tucheng(土城) with Elder Fitzpatrick, i was sad to say good bye! we were starting to see some major changes! We had met some really cool people!, but they are all still doing really good! I was sad to only spend 2 transfers there but i am excited for the upcoming new challenges of being in the middle of Taipei City! I have the opportunity to work with a more missioanries and members now, so it will be cool to be a little more involved in things. This week has been a great learning experience for me... I have learned a lot from my new companion and have been grateful for his patience!

This week i have learned a big lesson on sincerely relying on the Lord all the time, and to really recognize like it says in Mosiah chapter 2"you own nothingness" and also "Relying wholey upon his grace, mercy, and merits" I have come to know very quickly i am weak, and need a ton of help! I have seen the way that heavenly Father works and the way Christ can help us. I have been a afirst hand witness to their power and their miracles, and have been a reciever and a giver of their love, and Grace. I will thank My savior Jesus Christ and my God Heavenly Father for all they have given me, and for the opportunity to give the same to other people. Please never forget "your own nothingness" because "even if we were to thank god with your whole soul we would still be unprofitable servants" But He loves us and enjoys our work and our praise and will bless us for our service and our obedience!

This week has been full from finding, teaching, moving, attending two wards, meeting new members and investigators, meeting more missionaries, having a lot longer time to sit down than i would like, and pretty much doing anything i could think of doing. It was actually pretty crazy we originally had all the new missioanries coming in on wednesday, but due to some strange problems we had them get here on Friday night! so we had a ton of missioanries not in their area! we had like 21 new missioanries come in! pretty crazy weekend for everyone!

Love all of you, Love God 加油

Elder Conover

Make over

Well a ton of things have happened this week most of them causing change in the area but it was also make over week for our companionship! So we started with a haircut but not any haircut a 100$NT with a hair wash haircut. It was fantastic, i sat there as they rubbed my head and washed all the extra hair and stuff off. And then they had a bunch of good smelling stuff to use to do my your hair with after, it made me happy! #i love it!

In terms of missionary work though it has been quite a good week! I had the chance to exchange with a good guy named Elder Ehinger (read Ae-hanger) Which was truly a joy! i went down in to their area 三峽 sanxia, where we spent a joyous 24 hours roaming the streets taking investigators to member held gospel classes, and setting people up, as well as helping build up the english class, which is one of the most successful ways of finding people here in taiwan because everyone likes it, and many need it! We also had an amazing lesson with their best investigator who is struggling on faith and confidence. But the lesson went really well really taught by the spirit with her, and helped her truly prepare for baptism. We invited her to start repenting everyday and she told us she has already been doing that! hahahaha we didn't know what to say after that aside from laugh and compliment her work! He is a good missionary it was a pleasure to be with him!

Our week had some good rain we were on the outskirts of a Typhoon so we had rain on and off all week. And we have been being very thorough about who we want to meet with and not, So we have been giving the area a make-over as well. We have been identifying who is prepared and who is not. So as these things happen we have dropped several names from our board, that were not ready, and are making room for God to fill our teaching pool again. I have seen that as a pattern, Heavenly Father will wait for you to make room for his work and his needs before he finally gives you what you want. So It has been fun across my mission when i am willing to align myself with His will, miracles roll:) I await His guiding hand.

I have learned something about myself, I don't like people not foloowing through on their word. Christ has told us "let thy communication be pure" and :"let no corrupt communication proceed forth out of thy mouth" We had several people this week decide to tell us something and do another, which is common in the field, But everytime it reminds me, If you cannot claim your language and your desires in front of someone, you need to change, your goals and desires are the things that you should be adament on. Just as the desires and goals of the saints should be in line with God, you need to stand up for what you want and work for. I encourage anyone who actually reads this to "man-up" and take your words and line them up with your desires and goals, and to "let no corrupt communication proceed out of thy mouth" Live your promises and let your actions prove your words just as the Lord does with us. I can promise you that God will bless you with all that you need to accomplish your righteous goals, and you will be much happier and excited to deal with anything that you must face. God prospers the righteous.

Elder Conover

Patience is great

I will have to be a little bit fast this week because i have some stuff to do, but i will be back in in a bout 30 ish minutes after i get off. But this week has been a ton of fun! So about a week or two ago i told y'all that i got stood up on a ton of lessons well a good part about that is that about 14/16 were at the chapel and we given them 10 minutes and two calls before they are "stood up" just our companionship rule. Well i realized i like to just play around on the piano, and i had my baby teach me some basic playing form on the piano, and whenever we were waiting for a lesson i just sat at the piano, i can now read the notes, and play them. very very very slowly. But hey my top hand "be still my soul" is getting pretty decent!hahaha

this week has been cool, because we have seen a lot of movement that our investigators were lacking, we have met a ton of really cool people this transfer. Right now we are working with a very large investigator pool. But this week we had the cahnce to take 3 of them and either move their date back and reset a more solid one that i think they will hit next month. or re-set a new one! so it was super cool to see some of the commitment happen this week. I have also learned that i often have very high expectations and when not met i become frustrated. But never with anyone else just with my self. So i have been really learning the value of patience, Which is enduring well or as Pres. Utchdorf says "enjoy to the end" because when it doesn't work out just perfect well deal with it, readjust plans and go again.

I had the opportunity to do an exchange this week with a good companionship that is training right now. I went with the trainer, Elder Keleman from provo Utah. He is a great man, and a good missionary. We had a ton of fun together because the first day we taught a couple really fun lessons. And when we went out the second day we went on a bike ride to find a mystery address, to help give a member's friend an address. We ended up biking over into the taoyuan zone, oops, so we biked back figured out the directions and then we biked over to where the sanxia elders live pretty much. So we blessed the cool guy, he was super sick. then biked home and sent him home for his own area.

We also have been helping a few investiagors we have 2 really close to baptism they know all the commandments we are just working on their personal desire to truly endure to the end. But they should be ready for september baptrism! we are hoping with in the next 2 weeks maybe 3 to get them baptized... they are sick!

It has been a good week, i would like to share my testimony of church attendance.

I have come to the realization and revelation that church isn't there to go and listen to a speaker and see if they bring the spirit to your life. Church is about you worshipping the lord, and building a relationship with him. Our church is so special because no matter what is said it is a time for you to bring the spirit into your life, to repent, to change, and to grow closer with the lord. It also strengthens our families and we go together. In the Book of Mormon it says "they did meet together oft to talk of the salvation of their souls" build friendships is good, but the reason you are there is to worship. And is your personal duty not the Bishop's not the speaker or the teacher. You get out what you put in. I love that principle! go there ready to PARTICIPATE in the service! i absolutely love church and love the Lord, it is a great priviledge to worship Him. And i know you can come to feel the same joy as I do through your preparation and participation! 

Elder Conover

life is good

No way!!!

OSo i will be honest right here, there was quite a long week this week, full of lots of things happening but actually very little happening. We had a ton of people set up this week, and come and meet with us, but about 90% stood us up. So we had a pretty long week in terms of we had to do sudden change of plans and usually that meant street contacting. But we still had a ton of fun! 

First i want to share we went on our exchanges with the AP's this week and i had the opportunity to go with the new Elder Johnson! He is so awesome! Truly a great example of missionary work. Because on the exchange i would say its safe to say he has changed my mission. He showed its not only about what your doing but what your striving for. He is a very humble guy! Super hard working, and has such a big desire to improve. But the biggest thing is that we both just were excited to work, but we worked together, it was one better than the other. Even though Elder Johnson is for sure much more powerful than i he is still so humble and great at making you feel needed. I'm sure he could baptize the nation on his own though. We had a ton of fun, had a chance to really help some people there. And teach a few lessons and contact on the streets as well as work with a member or two.

 We did this thing we have been starting recently that has been really effective, we bring an extra BOM every visit and we bring it out with high lighters. We mark our favorite scriptures and read them, and ask the member to share and mark a few, then we tell them, this book is now yours you have one week to deliver to a friend. At first the member was like i dont know anyone, but as we read the spirit brought about 3 or 4 names to him! really good exchange!

then the remaining week was filled with time, we had about 16 potential lessons stand us up, but on the bright side i am slowly learning how to play the most basics of piano!!! we have about 10 mins of time waiting in the chapel before we decide that they aren't coming of course with a call or two. But i just sit at the piano and my companion teaches me how to read, and really basic playing skills! You should know my "be still my soul" top hand only, top line is get ting pretty good for about grand total of an hour of practice/learning😉

However i would say CROWNING moment of the week! Sunday morning we got up and got ready and start biking 40 mins later we got back to my old ward, at 9am to attend zhou zhong yue"s confirmation! his family is now on track for eternal marriage! He is a great miracle! We helped his wife be active again, he is now a member of the church, and their adorable children can now grow up in the covenant i look forward to the day they can be sealed together for ever!

Companions in and out

So this has been quite the week! We had the chance to go and do two exchanges this week! so this week i had 3 companions;) haha just kidding but i did have a ton of fun! I am to the point where the vast majority of people i go on exchanges are younger than me, especially right now we have 3 companionships in training right now! so it has been really fun! Because they are all very driven missionaries!

We had the chance to meet some really cool people this week! so we have been meeting with an LA and oart member family, with 2 children unbaptized 18/19 and they are really only LA atleast they say because theu don't know anyone when they moved here years ago! But we have been trying and trying to get them on a baptismal date. We have asked 2 or 3 times! but they keep giving us silly excuses that might seem real to them. But we sat down with them, and at the end of reviewing plan of salvation and gospel of jesus christ we invited, and it came out again. Then My temporary companion was like "it isn't about do you have time in (2months) on that exact day, it is about are you willing to work for it." and they kind of looked down and thought and then agreed to work for it. They still didn't set a date but they said they will work for the baptism. That was a really cool experience.

We also had the cool chance as we were contacting on the way over to an investigators house, we stopped a lady on her moped, and she pulled over and talked with us after the light trned green, and we ended up setting her up for the next day, she couldn't met that day, but set up for sunday. Well she showed up with her two kids!!!!!!!! and had a really good lesson with her! and her kids are super legit thier 5/8 and both have great english! But we have her set up again and hopefully she can bring her husband next time. But they are gonna be an awesome family to start teaching! We have been really blessed in this area to have a couple of families to teach and make the teaching process so much sweeter, they are much harder to find time and help understand the gospel, but they are so worth it!

this week has been great we nearly killed oursleves on a hike from heat last week, hosttest day of the year......

Summer is here

Well we have either had heavy rain or heavy sun for the last week! It has been fun to know that summer is here and is ready to give everyone a big sunny blast to the face every morning! We have had quite the week this week! So to kick it off we decided due to heavy rain to postpone our hike, and we would go up and play ball in the taipei jinhua chapel! It was awesome had a bunch of the old district in xindian over there to say hello! And we played for a good solid couple of hours, and wore our selves out pretty efffectively! haha

But this week we had the opportunity to have a district meeting with our new district and get to know everyone! So it was just so exciting to meet everyone! we have some really good missionaries around here! We are going to explode all over the west taipei!

we also had the chance for a great training from president! It was literally awesome! it lit a fire, we are setting a awesome mission wide goal to get more baptisms! we have some awesome fire and the leaders throughout the mission are setting everyone up! We are getting this place lit up! so the first thing they trained on for this was simply the power of the book of mormon, which is truly powerful! literally i can share several miracles just from the last few days about the book of mormon. But i will simply say if you have any question that your wondering about open the book and read it, you dont necessarily need to find any place to read just open and read from it. You will find answers on every page. It will strengthen you, and support you through everything. And it will lift you beyond your wildest dreams becoming someting so much more.

We also had the chacne for exchanging this week! i got to go with our district leader! Elder Diener man he is a champion! We had the chacne to book it over to shulin to meet up with a member and eat. He has been struggling a little on activty and then he is going to one of the worst places in taiwan to do the mandatory military service, for 3 months. But he is a great man, just a little confused right now about what he needs to be doing. But he is a sincere man! We will continue to work. Then he got sick from eating an unrefrigerated hard boiled egg. So we took care of that the next day. He is a powerful missionary! 

Life is good everyone, be excited to live, be excited to go and do no matter what it is! I read in 3rd nephi yesterday during my language study i was reading in chinese because GREAT practice reading ancient records. But i came into the verse that jesus asks the multitude "which of you taking thought can add a single cubit to his stature" so DONT WORRY ABOUT IT dont complain dont delay go and just do guys! life is good!

Love you! Elder Conover

Scroll letters 

Bamboo blown over from Typoon

Blisters from wet feet working in dress shoes

Old things pass away, All things are made new

IE transfers!!!!!!!! Elder Puzey is outa here! i got a new companion! Elder Fitzpatrick of Sunnyvale, California. A champion i met back in the MTC he is older by 1 transfer. But man he is a great man! We have had a great time!

Step 1- when you recieve a new companion make sure you give hima good tour of the area, and then right before a large typhoon hits bike over into the north side of your zone to give a baptismal interview and make sure he is on a bad exchange bike that skips as he tries to ride up the hills! 

good  Step1: check! 

Step 2- when the typhoon makes it to you, make sure you have to bike across a large bridge near on coming traffic with crazy winds whipping down the river, and ensure you have to bike agaisnt the large part of the typhoon winds after you get off the bridge and can enjoy screaming hymns at the top of your lungs. 

good step2: check!

Then just have fun running around helping people pick up mopeds and clean up fallen bamboo, and then grab a flimsee hand saw and help people clean up the wreckage of their bamboo crushed house, needless to say we had a dope service opportunity while we were riding along the road, found an old grandma with a huge grove about 8ft across and 10Ft thick of bamboo got ripped up in the wind and crushed thier house luckily at that time they had not been injured but the house severely damaged they had 6 people working sincne 7am until about 8pm to clean up and didn't come close to finishing. But we had the chance to jump in shirt and tie and saw up some bamboo, and some crazy drunk guy told us we couldn't leave nd Jesus says we have to saty and do. for the record he had just barely walked over there and he had no intention of helping. He was pretty funny.

I forgot the camera i had some good picks of trees ripped up and my new comp butnext week

love you guys.serve all love god obey:)

Elder Conover

HOLY COW#baptism

Xholy cow! this has been crazy! this is the last P-day of the transfer! i hope everyone is ready for some change! It is fun to see how fast time goes, and it only ever gets faster! We have had a great adventure lately! tons of miracles because God lives and loves us!

We had zhong heng（忠恆） get baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this week we are coming off of temple day so that expalins a little of the strange set up of emails! and i only have like 4 days to cover, but i can share this story with you.

There once was a ward, known as TuCheng, they had some really good people, and so one day the missionaries decided "let us feed these people with the true goodness" IE-waffles. So they called the mission president and borrowed a nice waffle maker, they made the preparations for nearly a month, this in joint with a follow up activity right after of course. They invited many people, and the day arrived, yesterday in fact, with church ending at 5pm the activity starting at 6pm and well over 40 hungry people there, the mess began bacon in the pan, pre-cooked pancakes and sausage(they were actually just hot dogs soaked in bacon greese) in the oven, eggs being whipped for scrambling, and the largest of bowls for waffle batter, constantly being added to from a smaller bowl! With the taiwanese at their backs, fruit being washed, the missionaries worked, and within an hour the feast began, everyone attacked the delicious food like wolves on a sheep. The missionaries just kept cooking! after a while the feasting slowed. Then they were gathered to the chapel area for the following activities, with tummies full, and hearts enflamed. The sisters began to help some right testimonies in the Book of Mormon, a volunteer member helped make posters, while the Elders trained on how to do a proper Dan Jones. For on the coming of Friday we shall use all that we prepared! The crowd was crazed, members intranced, and the investigators in love!

And that my friends is the story of why i slept so well last night, it also set quite the fire below our members! They are ready to go and looking forward to this friday night, when THE MEMBERS TAKE ON THE STREET PEOPLE!!!!!!! you can just imagine that in your best fight night voice.

Any way great week! we loved it i want to simply say, Prayer works, because we literally talk with God not just to him, He talks back! He listens and answers. He prepares all that we need. We need only work for it and ask him. He will give all that we need. If you ever feel you are talking to a wall, get out of a routine, try something new, actually think on what you are saying. ponder as you pray give time for him to talk back, and prepare yourself to act and recieve ANY answer.

Love you all

Elder Conover