Monday was loads of fun! We had Christmas choir practice again and afterward hung out at the chapel for a bit and talked with people. Then, we went with our District and some other missionaries to go hiking! It was a fun, easier hike so we had a good time and got lots of cool pictures. Afterward, we walked to the 101 building and saw some sights around there. That is where a big miracle occurred. Because of my current financial situation, I didn't have money for lunch and I hadn't eaten breakfast because of my eating schedule. So I was planning on not eating until dinner but when we were walking around we ran into some members from another ward and they bought me a whole meal. I was so moved. I couldn't believe it and it has just been another tender mercy from the Lord. Then that night, we had a member buy us subway and then give us a 7/11 gift card of sorts that allows my companion and I (after splitting it), to each spend 448 NTD there. And for us, that's a lot of money. I can't believe how much the Lord is blessing me and providing for me at this time. He truly does watch out for his missionaries and even though not everything may be perfect, I have had these great experiences seeing the hand of God in my life and having inspiration come to me that reminds me of skills and things that make me unique and make me feel a lot better about myself. I'm so grateful.
Tuesday was a good day. We had our Zone Conference! It was fun to get three zones together and learn from the President and some other missionaries. Aside from that, we had a lesson with a super solid friend who is making great strides. He's super willing to do stuff and he committed for church! We are definitely excited for him. Then we had a visit with a less active and are trying to figure out the best course of action to help her come back to church. We think we have a good idea so we will have to put it into action soon. Overall a good day!
Wednesday went by really fast. We didn't have much going on so we had some good finding time. We talked to a lot of college students and we got one of their contact information. So maybe that will turn into something. We had a pretty normal day and had English Class at night which went well also! In class we learned that a man that comes sometimes is a member of the church who was baptized 20 years ago but hasn't come since. So now we have a new friend to work with! He has a great family and hopefully, we can teach them and help them come back!
Thursday was another quick day (or so it felt). We did a lot of the same stuff. Just out finding and we were able to have a lesson with our most progressing friend right now! He's such a rockstar and we invited him to set a baptismal goal with us and he set a goal 2 weeks ahead of what we were thinking of. Talk about impressed by the Spirit! We are working on finding right now since we don't have a lot of investigators (3 to be exact). So hopefully things start picking up for this area again.
Friday was pretty laid back. We had a lesson with a dude we met on the street yesterday and he said we could come back to his normal hang out stop and keep on sharing stuff with him so that counts as a new investigator. Not bad at all. We had our weekly planning session so that was a hefty chunk of time and then we ended off the day with a member visit. Pretty good day, no complaints here.
Saturday was awesome. It was basically a preparation day warm-up because we had two big Stake activities in the morning and at night. In the morning we had a Stake Sports Activity! It was loads of fun and we played lots of games and had fun. One really fun one involved hula hooping, spinning around a stick, and then standing on one leg. I was one of the participants and after spinning the 10 times around a stick I fell over 3 times haha. It felt like I was tied to a rope and someone was pulling me down!! It was so funny and I finally made it through everything after falling a good bit. So much fun though! Then that night, we had a Stake Halloween party and I got to dress up as a Jedi complete with a dope lightsaber!! The kids and adults all loved it and wanted pictures with us! Our whole zone was there and all having a good time and dressing up as different people. It was an amazing day. And the icing on the cake was biking a total of 32 miles :)
Sunday was a nice day. We had the normal church meetings and also a few after church. We did have a few hiccups though. When we left the house to bike to church, my companion's bike tire was popped. Then when we went to go grab his metro card he couldn't find his wallet so I had to lend him one of my extras. We barely made it to church on time but on our way back we went and brought the extra missionary bike back to our apartment so it'll get all fixed. That was the exciting parts of the day. We did have a cool street contact with a man and ended up getting his Line so that was cool as well.
Elder Heber Chase Ciminski
謝希伯長老