Asian time, big changes

YWell we have seen some super dope miracles lately! And we just had a missionary broadcast, which resulted in some crazy big changes! For starters we have less study time, and more proselyting time, and we don't plan at night, but in the morning. Our P-days are now like 21/2hours longer starting at 8:30 until 6:30! so ya know we party longer and have more time to bike to places:) They also reduced reporting numbers, to be more specified for what matters towards baptism.

Let me begin by saying we saw some super awesome miracles with families this week! So we have about 5 solid family investigators right now. And we have been working super hard latetly to get solid dates. So we made the goal that in every lesson we would invite (sensibly) to baptism, and if they had a date we would talk about their specific date. And we have seen super cool miracles, and some cool changes of heart! 

Our bishop drove us out to the edge of our area one day to meet a man and his family. He had recently been studying the Bible, and was done just "following his parents" so he was turning christian. So we went over and Bishop had asked us to prepare about the Plan of Salvation, We arrived and he had 5 kids there. not all were his some were nephews. But they all gathered around quietly and sat and participated when asked. the oldest was in 7th grade. I was amazed and the man is super prepared. When we came back to their house yesterday, the man had read a good chunk of the BOM and is now preapring to be baptized, and is continuing to read and pray. He also likened oour message of the church to christ's parable of the wheat and tares. So moral is miracle.

We didn't have too long in our area this week since on thursday night we stayed with the Zone Leaders, so that early friday we could get on the train for Taipei so that we could watch the broadcast, we stayed the night again with them, then helped them clean a little bit. Then the 2 member families in our area got together and fed us and the Zone Leaders. and then about 4 or 5 that night we got to our area. And according to the commandment of the Misson President we cleaned. He had issued a spring clean order and so everyone cleaned super hard for a day.

But then for P-day we had our Ward Mission Leader, and still RC drive us down to YuLi 玉里 for a sick hike! we got there and ate a little bit. Then we went on this sick hike in the mountains with huge rope bridges over massive gorges. And a gorgeous view. I felt like i was about to get in a kungfu fight with a leapard bent on destroying peace valley bro.

I am going to…

On Tue, Jan 24, 2017 at 9:51 AM, Jason Ray Conover <jason.conover@myldsmail.net>wrote:

This week was pretty freaking awesome guys! so lets get it started of by stating that i have biked a whole freaking lot this week. We biked from our area to up here in hualian city twice this week. And the length of our area twice. And we just had some very well spread out times throughout the week. It was super fun!

So we have been seeing some cool miracles lately because at the beginning of this(last) week my companion good old Elder Cheney, looks at me and says "Elder Conover I'm going to 傳教(do mission) harder than i ever have before, if I am doing anything not at the best possible rate, or way, or anything you tell me." and I said "Let's do it bro." And the following week was super sick! We made a lot of goals to invite everyone we could to be baptized this week, and followed through pretty dang well! 

We have this family that one of our other investigators introduced us to, and they are really cool, and for the longest time we were teaching the mom and a son, but never at the same time they wold only come out one at a time, or not be there. But the last couple weeks they have been meeting with us togehter. And the husband has joined in. We taught the first lesson and invited to baptism, and they were really hesitant and said, "We've been baptized before, don't worry about it." We tried to help them understand that the restoration means that we all need the same baptism by authroity, but no dice. However we went back this week and taught the plan of salvation and the lesson went super well. They were really liking it, and then we explained the three kingdoms and they were all like, "I have never heard of this before just heaven and hell, whats up with that?" we explained that Christ and his decsiples were rejected and killed and that truths were changed, and when the restoration came about truth was restored. And we invited again to baptism and they were happy and willing to receive it. Just another reminder people change, especially when the spirit touches their heart. 

We seen a lot of cool miracles like that and right now we are working with 4 or 5 families and working on getting an 8 person family all together to listen so the miracles are rolling. But even better is the fact that we biked to get free food because a member wanted to buy for us all, so we had to bike 1 1/2 hours up here get food, bike back down. Then the next day we went bottom to top of our area visiting everyone we could and trying to give everyone a chance to come to a baptism with us, which another companionship was having, and we had some investigators that said they'd go. None came... Then on Monday we came back up and biked to the knife shop, up here about a little over an hour and hen up the canyon. It was dope, they had new stuff. I didn't buy any yet....

I would just like to share about the fact that no matter what happens, no matter what you do, or what you have done you can be happy. I promise you this, if you aren't happy now, or you feel like something just isn't quite right, go and learn and LIVE the gospel. Apply it, try it, test it. I promise that you will be happier, i have never been happier than i am now serving everyone. And there are plenty of reasons to not be happy, plenty of reasons to give up, and plenty of reasons to hate what we do. We give up time, money, effort, love, thought, family, friends, work, school, energy, everything excpet religion. And we come and serve. And it is the best thing of my life. I am still me, but i am for sure completely different. If you want to be happy serve someone. Doesn't matter how small, or when, but serve someone. Look, there will be a chance.

Love you guys! Elder Conover

Plan B week

So So pretty much this whole week every time we set up a plan it didn't work out all that well... or in other words we were glad to have plan B this whole week cuz we lived off of it. We have been putting in a ton of work lately and have not been seeing the instant results lately. However the changes are coming! We had the chance this week to go on exchanges! Which was crazy fun, I went with good Elder Seamons, a solid guy just came down and is pretty close to done on his mission now. He is a great guy! While with him i had the worst mosquito attack of my life. Between my wrist and just passed the elbow i had over 20 bite. My arm looked demented, and super gross. It got to the point that i wouldn't even need to scratch because there were just so many bites! We also caught 2 of the biggest frogs i have seen ever! they were only about the size of my hand or so, but still dope!

We saw some really cool miracles this week. We have a family freshly moved into the area, about 2 weeks or so, they have already reffered us to a super nice and very cool family! They are now investigating. And they have introduced us to over 7 of their friends they have met so far. We also got to do service for them! We carried massive bamboo about a quarter mile to thier house! I have learned that bamboo is really bendy and super dope looking as well as one of the strangest grasses ever! Back to the miracles though, that family alone has turned that little town into a very productive area. Previously we didn't do much there because it is about 40 mins north. Not only that though we had another member who doesn't live there but her family does, their niece passed away, and some of the member's sibling have a lot of interest in the church now. Because our ward went down and helped. And she bore her testimony about the change in her family's heart! super cool!

Also for our P-day yesterday we decided that we needed to eat a lot of food. So we came up to the chapel and played some ball with 6 Elders and went hard enough to make us really hungry and then we biked over to a 烤肉吃到飽 an all you can eat BBQ however, this place was way better than the last place! And the six of us ate a very large amount of food! Don't worry i am still able to eat a butt load guys:) 2 hours of all you can eat ice cream meat, seafood, cake, fruit, waffles, sauces, drinks, everything, and all of that is self done/cooked. And it translates over to about 15 american dollars. The tummy leaves a little sick, the head kinda fuzzy, the mouth tired, and happy as can be:) I LIKE TAIWAN!

Elder Conover says "flippin love you homies! and i hope you all enjoy everyday!"

JONATHAN SU

Well this week was pretty sick! haha me and Elder Cheney have spent our times in the boonies of Taiwan! I will start off this email by saying the title has very little to do with anything we did this week but yesterday on our pday we found a row boat in the middle of the mountains not very close to any beach or pond bigger than knee deep water. We thought that was pretty funny🙆 

So Pday yesterday we made it to the ocean!!! we bikedfrom 鳳林 (our home) across the mountains straight to the coast!!! We also found there is a very scenic and isolated highway around the edge of taiwan, running through the coastal mountains giving a great view! unfortunately due to a few distractions and lack of before time planning our P-day we didn't have time to get to the beach. But i pretty much looked straight at America, just saying, i probably saw you or something. However in the middle of our bike ride we caught a crab, he was actually decent sized for being so far from the ocean in the mountains. And we also saw a wild 山豬 or boar. It was roughly 3 ft from my companions left side when we were biking on a super isolated mountain path. Luckily instead of being super territorial (as we have been told by the many aboriginals that hunt them) it decided to run very quickly away. We road away a little way got off our bikes then walked back, decided it was really stupid to go and look for a wild boar right now, so we got scared and left. On the way back however we made some good bamboo spears about 8-10ft long and walked around trying to find it again, after hearing a couple really not fun growls we decided it best to not pursue it at that moment and ran back to our bikes like little girls. Probably one of the most memorable Pdays yet!

That night IE last night we went to visit one of our best investigators named 高偉柏 gao wei bo, He was a little drunk which meant he still hasn't been following the word of wisdom, however he told us that he believed everything we said was true and was willing to do what ever to help him and his family an his whole 村（village） meet the gospel, so that was kinda nice to hear from an investigator we will make sure to remind him he said it if he forgets:) He is a super dope guy!

Also we had another day this week where we had to go from north border area near the south border this week. We had a lot of biking we decided that if any boyscout wants their 50 bike ride passed of they can come knock it out in a day or two with us😂 We had the cahnce that day to go help one of our members say goodbye to their niece who passed away because of cancer. She had been fighting it for 6 or 7 years, and was also a member of the church, so our ward went a did part of her funeral. It was really cool to hear, the sister got up and boar her testimony about the effect it had on her and the rest of her 12 brothers and sisters who are not members. She said that because of our ward's support and shares at the funeral atleast one of her siblings has a desrie to learn more about the church.

I would like every single one of you to know that the Plan of Salvation, is true, it changes lives, and it will change your life, if it already hasn't. Study it learn about it, apply it. All to many times we are very faithful to the church and its stories, but sometimes we forget that we have the same potential as every one of those stories. We have the same chance to feel the overwhelming joy of the plan, and of this church if we simply are willing to learn and to change. I have seen people change with in a matter of weeks simply by hearing a single commandment, or even by being taught a sungle principle. let it work in you. 

I love you all Elder Conover孔杰叡長老

All grown up

Uhhh so the title is totally just a joke... I haven't really grown up at all. I'd like to go head a give a shout out to my dead companion (HA! YOU DEAD) Anyway so if you haven't guessed a lot of things changed this week for example I got my new companion! he is a 帥哥 from Sandy, Utah. He is a super awesome and hard-working guy! Elder Cheney is actually my first companion to be younger than me. So that is pretty fun, i have about 2 transfers ie about 3 months on him. So he has been out to Taiwan for about 4 months or so. he is super fun! he loves to golf and play basketball! And we have already seen some crazy miracles!

So After i sent Elder Miner home, i stayed with the zone leaders for 2 days, and that was pretty fun! We decided we had to be the trio of scarves for 2 days, I'm not entirely sure why but we wore scarves and short-sleeve shirts for 2 days... whatever we start trends. Also i have learned how to play chinese chess now, which is pretty fun! But then we made it more fun, since there was three of us, 2 played and the 3rd made up rules, so you draw a new rule every turn. Sometimes it is terrible like turning all your pieces into pawns or something. But then we finally got the code for my new companion and then picked him up the very next day! 

We came down to our area, and we got started right away! We have been really focusing on expanding our teaching pool lately while trying our best to advance our current investigators! We have seen a lot of cool things happen on the street, like running into a man, that has always desired to know a little bit more about our church, because he doesn't understand what we are doing, but he has never had the chance to talk to missionaries. Or a guy with one little daughter who believes in God but thinks that you can't let signs and miracles be your foundation you just will have to trust and try to do what God says and then you will know. Or even a family, that thinks every religion should talk about what we do, and should focus more on protecting the family. Which has 3 sub families with-in their family.

For our first P-day together we had a great time, we went and hiked with all the elders in the zone, and an RC. Then we all went and got some ice cream together. There is only one small problem... my bike on Sunday exploded again, twice in the past week my derailer has caught my tire and ripped it off. This last time i still haven't been able to get it fixed, And it totally pulled my wheel out of place, but for some reason both times i did not eat face on the road, so that is kinda of nice! So hopefully this time i can get it permanantly fixed! 

Love you guys! just want you all to know that god gives everyone miracles, not just missinaries. he is alwatys there to hear and answer your prayers, and he cannot wait to give you exaclty what you need!

Elder Conover     孔長老

Elder Miner is outa here! Scarves, and this nice dude that remembered Elder Gwilliam from like a year ago and let us play with his stuff