Transfer 16 - Week 5

Well family and friends this will be my last rally before I head back home to the freezing depths of a Utah Winter. I hope what I write will sufficiently express all that I want to concerning the past two years. It is also my hope that perhaps this email will makeup for all of my previous emails, which were usually written in haste and without much thought. 

Yesterday was one of the best days of my mission. Coming towards the end of my mission, I was starting to think of all of the people I've taught and served with for the past two years and if I had really helped them or not, if I had actually touched them or not. It may be safe to assume that all missionaries have similar thoughts. Or maybe it's just me! In any case, these were the thoughts in my head as I was biking to church for the last time. Upon arriving, Wang Jian Xing was there as always and his wife came too! They kept telling me how grateful they are and how much they want to come to the Salt Lake Temple with me in a few years but I kept reminding Sister Wang that she needs to get baptized first. We chatted for a while and then my uncle and grandma came! They gave me some gifts and things to take back to family, in particular was a calligraphy scroll that my uncle himself wrote of the scripture John 16:33, one of my favorite scriptures. It's an incredible piece of art. He told me he spent three solid months practicing this style of calligraphy to perfect it, and then, in one sitting, used all of his focus to write it out. He then dyed the scroll using tea leaves to give it a ancient, archaic, almost tattered look and I assure you, it's amazing. I visited the National Palace Museum a few weeks back and the calligraphy scrolls they had in there look exactly like the one my uncle made for me. It's wonderful. 

Another great thing about yesterday is that one of my old friends from when I was serving in Bade came! Brother Fu, his wife and their adopted daughter from Singapore. He had no idea that I was leaving so soon but told me he felt like he should come up and visit me in Neihu! We had a good little reunion and they also told me they want to visit the States in a couple years. I told them when they come they can definitely look me up and I'll cook them up some fried rice at Green Panda! Oh ya!

One other little cool particle was that I received a letter from one of my recent converts while I was in Daxi, Chen Hui Jin. In it she wrote that she was grateful that I taught her the Gospel and that since then she had shared the Gospel with one of her friends and she had since been baptized as well. She included a picture of the baptism and at the bottom wrote,"Thank you Elder Hagedorn!" It was a sweet moment to know that the Gospel had truly started to change her life, not to mention my own. 

I gave my last testimony in church and a nice thing about it is that the bishopric started a new little theme for the month of December which is "Worshiping Christ through Music" so a large portion of the meeting was just listening to musical numbers and it was awesome. Music is fantastic. Perhaps my best church meeting ever.

Regarding the past two years, my English has probably regressed to the point of no return but if it so irretrievable, so be it. I don't think there is any other thing I've done before that has been more fulfilling or gratifying. Yet the main feeling I get now is not one of pride or accomplishment, but of gratitude and realization of a never ending duty. I'm incredibly thankful that I've been counted worthy to serve a mission and blessed enough to be in a situation that I could have this opportunity. There is so much good to be done in the world and serving a mission has helped me realize that these deeds need to be done by all of us, that we all have ample opportunity to do good, and much of it. I've gained a testimony of God and I know he lives. He knows what is best for us and as long as we trust in him, we will gain the happiness and confidence that cannot come by any other way. As his children, we our filled with potential that can only be unlocked through faith in his son, Jesus Christ. Through study and experience, I have felt the reality of the mission of the Savior and it is my hope that I will forever be counted one of his disciples, despite my many imperfections and mistakes. I've learned how to love people simply because they are people; I've realized that the light of Christ is within every single person and there is much to learn; And I've seen that through Christ, we really can, as he has, "overcome the world." 

Oh, and I can speak a little Chinese now, too. 

I love you all. 

Love,

Elder Hagedorn

Wang Jian Xing and his wife! 

Thanksgiving. Costco Pizza. 

​Yep. End of mission. 

Transfer 16 - Week 4

Well first off, our investigator Chen Xin Hua quit coffee and tea cold! We taught her the Word of Wisdom, knowing she drinks tea and coffee, and when we committed her to follow it she just said,"Ya I can do that. I just need to find some drinks to replace them." So we suggested hot chocolate and fruit tea. She said she'll do it! She's a boss. She's probably not going to get baptized until after I leave, however. But it's ok! It's pretty crazy, a lot of members and investigators and stuff are starting to want to take us out to eat, I've actually been full recently! As of late, Elder Kennedy and I have been working on Chinese a good amount. I realized the other day that I've been here for 2 years and my Chinese isn't too shabby, so I told Elder Kennedy that I'm going to start helping his out and that might mean I'll be correcting him a lot, but he said it'd be good so we've started to read the Book of Mormon out loud together every morning and any time he says something wrong, I correct it. Luckily he's so humble! I feel I wouldn't take correction very well... He's also going to pass off Phase 1 next week! So things are going well and we're just trying to work hard and find those prepared! 

Transfer 16 - Week 3

Good news! Sister Wang came back from Zhong Shan so stay with her husband Wang Jian Xing! So we went to visit them a few days ago and we taught her the Plan of Salvation. 

Turns out her son, a returned missionary, would try and teach her many years ago and she still remembers most of it so when we taught her she could grasp the concepts and it essentially wasn't new material to her, but this gave us opportunity to answer some of her questions she's had while reading the scriptures. Overall it was a very good lesson, though slightly rushed, due to the fact that the two of them love to talk, not to mention the occasional bicker that old couples seem so prone to falling into, keeping us from sharing everything regarding baptism so we decided to wait on the invite. She's looking very good though and she will be baptized for sure. We're still working with a few other investigators and they're all doing very well too. Chen Xin Hua has gotten to the commandments and we're meeting with her in a few days to teach her about the Sabbath as well as the Word of Wisdom, cross your fingers! I get the feeling that she's a tea drinker. But so is everyone. Anyway, we've got some big lessons coming up and we're excited to get these people going! We're also going to a Pizza Hut buffet too so be excited for me. 

Love you all! 

Transfer 16 - Week 2

I'll start with the bad news first. The Brother Zhu, who I mentioned last week with the baptismal date you remember? He's long gone. His phone number is non-existent as of a few days ago.

But, Wang Jian Xing's wife is coming back this Wednesday so we'll be able to meet with her!! We were talking to Wang Jian Xing about it at church and many of the members were excited about it too and we're saying, "Oh, I'll help you teach her, just give me a call!". We're pretty excited to teach her, needless to say. The weather was not ideal this week, coming down in sheets of rain, but it was nice to almost feel cold. We met with many less actives this week, them springing up out of nowhere and wanting to come back to church. Two of them came to church this week! More should be coming back next week, as we continue to work with the members in fellowshipping them. 

Looking forward to another good week! 

Transfer 16 - Week 1

It was a good week! Just yesterday we found a new investigator and met with him, teaching him the Restoration and inviting him to baptism. The awesome thing is that he accepted our invite and said he is willing to start praying and reading the Book of Mormon to prepare for baptism! We gave him the date of November 29, the last Saturday of November and what will also be the last Saturday of my mission. I really really hope that we can help him progress and that he will be able to make his date. It would be a miracle! His name is Zhu Dixiong and he said he ran into missionaries about a year ago and they talked to him a little bit but because he was busy with work he wasn't able to meet with him. Now, he has more free time and we perfectly happened to call him a few days ago from an old sheet of phone numbers. We met with him yesterday after church and he's awesome! 

We're also still working with a good amount of less actives too. One of them, Wang Wei Han came to church yesterday! The main thing with these less actives is not so much teaching them about the Gospel, because they all understand it pretty well, it's more trying to find them friends in the ward and integrate them into the ward smoothly. It's a working progress.

Last night we went to Taipei for the monthly new member fireside and I ran into some old investigators from my second area, Xinzhuang, whom I didn't remember. Worth mentioning is their names: Sam and Gimley. They remembered me so they came up to me and started chatting but I couldn't remember who they were. After we talked a minute I started to remember, after all, who could forget those names? Turns out a few months ago they got baptized! I also ran into some other old members from the same ward and it was great to talk to them. It's definitely a humbling blessing to be able to look back and know that you left a good impression. Love you all! 

Transfer 15 - Week 6

Alright so this is going to be quick because today has been a bit rushed due to travel to the temple but this last week and beginning of this week were good! We're still working with those less actives and they are still doing really well. 

Brother Chen shared the full story about his experience about coming back to church. He was diagnosed with cancer and after fighting it for years and being hospitalized, he was feeling a bit reflective about life in general. Right as he walked out his front door to go for a walk, us missionaries biked by and he knew he had to come back to church. This happened about a month ago. We have been struggling with investigators but we have been able to find one good one. Her name is Chen Xin Hua and she's a super funny lady with a lot of faith in God. The only thing is she has faith in all gods. So this week we hope to be able to focus her faith in gods to faith in Heavenly Father. Again, this email is going to be short but we're excited for this coming week and I'll make sure to get a better email off next week! 

Transfer 15 - Week 5

Well this week we saw a couple little miracles with less active members! The first is a college student who was actually baptized when she was 10 and remained active for a few years but when the rest of her family she also did. Now, about ten years later she's in college and has started to feel that she needs to go back to her childhood church because she misses the good feelings she used to have. She tells us that she's been feeling like she doesn't have direction and wants to come back to church. 

Another man is in a similar situation. He showed up at church yesterday so we started talking to him and he told us that about a month ago he saw us missionaries riding on our bikes and felt that maybe he should go to church. A couple weeks after that, he saw us again and had the same feeling. Yesterday he woke up and resolved that he needed to come to church and that's when we saw him Sunday morning! We're excited to start working with them and see them become active! We're still working with Wang Jian Xing's wife but it's been slower because she went out of town this week to see a doctor in another city. We're praying that she'll come back soon because she tends to stay with family for at least a few weeks when she goes to the city. Meanwhile we've just been keeping in touch over the phone but we're definitely looking forward to when she gets back so we can start to really help her progress. 

Love you all!