The Last One

May 28, 2018
Dear friends and family,

Yesterday Jason Cai got baptized. It was a simple but really good baptismal service. Even though his mom isn't a member she was so proud of him. He really has gained a testimony through reading the Book of Mormon daily and one of the things he said in his testimony was that he wants to make the commitment to continue to read the Book of Mormon everyday. He's only 14 years old, but he's pretty mature spiritually. 

On Sunday our Investigator YiCai passed his baptismal interview. He still has a lot to understand and learn about the gospel, but he has changed through learning to live the commandments, especially the word of wisdom. Him and his friend WeiYi (who's a member) are both pretty thug, but along with the bishop they'll help each other remain active and continue to grow and learn. I probably won't email next week so I'll just let you know now that he'll be baptized this Saturday. 

Well, it's been quite the ride. I'm really sad to be leaving Taiwan and ending my service as a full time missionary. I am really grateful to the Lord for everything He's given me, espiecially the opportunity to serve Him here. I don't have the space or capacity to simply write my feelings, but I am excited I have an opportunity to share them with you all when I return home. I truly know this church is true. I have felt the redeeming power of Christ's Atonement in my life and I've seen it in the lives of others. The most powerful source of truth is the Book of Mormon. I know that it is true and this work could not go on without it. I'm thankful for all my companions, all the areas I've served in, and all the people I've met in Taiwan. I don't really know what to feel, these people are my family. If I've learned anything, it is that. I'm thankful to all who have prayed for me and supported me through two years. See you soon!

Elder Daines 

Sprint to the finish line

5/21/2018

I don't have much time to write because we just got back from Sun Moon Lake, we'll send the pictures next week. 

Last week Mark and YiXuan both got baptized! They are so awesome and their testimonies are already to the point where they are self-reliable. Mark already accompanies our other lessons with investigators and YiXuan comes to church early most of the time and has her own seat in the chapel. I am super grateful to have met them. They will both be great blessing to the church in Taiwan, and maybe to the world. Mark wants to serve a mission. He is very intelligent and it is shocking how well he knows the gospel for how long he's known about it. The members were also all shocked by his testimony at his baptismal service. 

Jason passed his baptismal interview on Sunday. We have seen his testimony of the church grow in the last few weeks just by sending him scriptures to read everyday. He's 14 years old and still doesn't understand a lot, but the power of the Book of Mormon is real.

We also had zone conference last week. Elder Huang and I gave our reflections of our mission testimony. I choked up a bit as expected. I'm really going to miss doing missionary work in this wonderful place. 

A lot of other stuff happened too. I don't have time to write about it but you can look at some pictures.

Last thing: I got a traditional Chinese foot massage by a member last Friday. It was the most painful experience of my life. There's a video that will be attached. If you watch it please know that any of my reactions are not acted, I was not faking anything. 

Love you all,

Elder Daines​

嗯

5/7/2018

This last week we had Mission Leadership Conference. Elder Huang and I were asked to do a lot of training on different thing. One in particular was talking about planning for finding activities. When we started we first looked at the list of finding ideas. Some are a little weird such as "bar hopping" and "dumb foreigner contacting". Anyways Sister Teh was confused and a little worried about us hopping bars or acting like dumb foreigners but after we explained it everyone thought it was hilarious. Later President Teh shared a scripture about doing things "with all soberness" and then he said, "well unless you go bar hopping". Haha so that was fun. 

On Tuesday night we sent our investigator Mark the video about forgiveness with Chris Williams because he is working on forgiving someone. The next morning he texted us saying "i got a message from God after watching this video, I know what I should do now, it is really important to me. The next lesson we had with him he talked about how he feels like he accomplished what he needed to do to repent and how he has a testimony of why we need a Savior to truly repent and change. This guy is so smart. He's super ready to be baptized on the 19th of this month and we are so stoked for him! 

I went on exchanges with an Elder Marsh. He's super chill and funny. When we were doing language study in a 7/11 someone bought us coffee and left without us ever knowing who it was. Even though we couldn't drink it, it was nice to see that small act of appreciation from someone who's never met us. We also taught English Class together and a ton of people came including some Mongolians and a bunch of Vietnamese so it was crazy. Also there's a student named Sam and we kept stealing his cigarettes and hiding them different places. 

We are getting zone t-shirts soon which are going to look sick. The company started production on them last week. 

Another investigator named YiCai is the one that's a thug. But last week he made a ton of improvement on smoking and drinking. He started off usually two packs a day and three cans of beer, but by Thursday he got down to 6 cigarettes and half a bottle. We made a goal with him on Sunday to completely stop. We're praying for him to continue to work hard. 

JiaYin passed her baptismal interview and will be baptized next week, she is super solid!

We talked to a kite guy at the park on Saturday, we tried super hard to speak some sense with him but we couldn't get anywhere, the kites were fun though. 

My back wheel kept breaking one morning so Elder Huang and I tandem biked it for a bit. 

Oh something freaky happened. We were in a lesson with investigator named YongChang. This is the guy that's not all the way focused all the time because of hard drugs in the past. He was just complaining how he doesn't understand the scriptures and to give an example he just flipped over to a random page and read a random verse. He read 3 Nephi 18:20 which says:

"And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you."

This is definitely what he needed to read at this time because he's struggling with quitting drinking and he's stressed out at work and he needs to have more faith that God can help him.

Also another side note does anyone else notice that Chapter 18 Verse 20 of 3 Nephi is pretty much what Joseph Smith did and it happened in 1820?? Is this just a coincidence or some crazy troll that God planned because it's funny?

Those are some things that happened. We're going to go to an animatronic dinosaur park right now. Bye!

Elder Daines​

The Final Countdown

4/23/2018

Well this is it. 

One more transfer, 6 more weeks, 42 days.

I really really don't want to leave Taiwan or stop teaching people the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but I know "all things are done in wisdom and order" and that the Lord called me here for the time I need to be here. I will give it my all. If I were to ask anyone to pray for me I would just say pray that I can stay awake haha. 

This last week was AWESOME. Our big boy investigator Brother Shen got baptized on Saturday and Confirmed yesterday! He's amazing. He has a tough background and isn't very social, and it's also hard for him to express his emotions, but he is a very faithful and prepared spirit. We love him so much. He's not smiling in his photo but don't get me wrong he's very happy. He really only met our bishop very well last week. When we had a lesson together he shared his background and conversion story with bishop. Afterwards bishop said to him "if anyone ever tries to pick on you, talk to me." He also asked him if anyone picks on you what would you do. Brother Shen said before he would escape the situation, but now he would face them. We're so proud of him and excited for the future. He said his mom is willing to have us meet her. The one thing I want is for Brother Shen to baptize his mom. We will be praying for miracles to happen.

Our investigator Mark is progressing pretty well. We had a lesson at the McDonalds with another member named Travis. Travis was shocked at how Mark already understands the scriptures so well and relates it to his own life. We are pretty confident he'll be baptized. We're just working on helping him have a stronger testimony. He would be a tremendous blessing to the ward here. 

Sadly we found out that our investigator Jiayin lives in the other wards area. But it's still good because she actually met friends in the other ward. She still has a goal to be baptized next month. They kindof traded investigators and gave us an investigator named YiXuan. Yixuan seems super prepared and completely independent. She comes to church without a reminder and stays all three hours and even wears church clothes. It's awesome!

We have a super thug investigator named YiCai. He loves to hang out with us and just come to the church to chill. Before we would have to persuade him hard to come to church, but now he just comes for all 3 hours. But when we do have a lesson with him he acts to cool to believe in this stuff and he doesn't really talk. We have a feeling he really does have desire but he just doesn't want to express his feelings. We had a lesson yesterday and just tried to be straightfoward with him. That's when we found out he's actually been trying to quit smoking and drinking since he started coming to church, but we haven't even taught the Word of Wisdom yet. Crazy awesome. We have new hopes for him now. 

We have a lot of other cool people we're teaching but I'll just talk about those for now. 

Last Saturday was proabably one of the best days on my mission. A ton of crazy or funny stuff happened and it was thrilling. The best thing was this: There was a high school fundraiser thing that we walked into and we saw an orchestra playing. We walked to the back of the orchestra to the percussion section and off of impulse I grabbed the cymbals and played the last note of the song. A lot of people were super confused but the conductor just applauded me hahaha. It was so fun. 

We are seeing a lot of blessings and I'm so thankful for the Lord for giving me a part in this work.

Alma 29:9

I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

Elder Daines 

丁樂帆長老

Seeking the Lords Will

4/16/2018

Hello Everyone, 

Sorry it's been a while since I've emailed or sent pictures.

These last few weeks have been pretty hype.

Elder Huang and I have gone on a ton of exchanges and also worked really hard in our own area to help more and more people come unto Christ!

I already mentioned two weeks ago on Easter Sunday our Investigator Bill got baptized finally! He's been an investigator for a year and has already read the entire Book of Mormon and the index of the Book of Mormon haha.

We've been working with a lot of people and trying to invite everyone to baptism. 

Our investigator Brother Shen is getting baptized this Saturday! He's the big guy that always wears the black sweatshirt. He is pretty introverted but the more we meet with him the more he opens up to us. At the beginning of last week we taught him the Word of Wisdom which we knew was going to be the hardest for him to accept. Because he's a little bigger he drinks coffee a lot for the energy, but ever since we taught word of wisdom to him last week he hasn't had a sip of coffee. I recommended coca cola to him and he drinks that now when he needs it. Anyways last lesson he said he had never told us this, but he used to have depression pretty bad. His dad also passed away a few years ago and the only father figure in his life which is his uncle isn't even really nice to him. He said ever since learning the gospel he's felt more joy and hope. It's so amazing to be a part of doing God's work and seeing this change in people's lives. 

We have 5 other investigators right now who all have goals to get baptized next month. Some of them came to church for the first time yesterday. Sadly, around this time of year all the high school students are spending most of their time studying for tests, so it's near impossible to meet with our investigators that are in high school.

The biggest thing I've been working on lately is understanding people. Everything we do in missionary work has to do with understanding people. That is why having and seeking the Spirit is so critical, because God knows these people perfectly and we don't. One thing I've been pondering a lot lately looking back throughout my mission is that this is all His work, not mind. I think about the successes, the disappointments, the trials, the companions, the areas, everything is all according to God's will and my agency. This is His work, but that doesn't mean if we do nothing thing's will happen the same. I'm also thankful that despite the many mistakes I've made, through the infinite Atonement of Jesus Christ and true continuous repentance, the Lord find mercy enough to put His trust in me to do His work.The most important thing is learning to give up everything to just let the Lord do His work. I've found if we are truly willing to give up anything, only then will the Lord make things happen and answer our prayers. I'm just really thankful to be serving and really sad to be going soon, but we still have time. A lot can happen in 7 weeks! Elder Huang and I have been really trying to give as many people as we can a chance to accept this gospel, knowing there is a time constraint. In order to do this we NEED to understand people and know if they're ready and what they need to hear. It is a lifelong skill to develop. 

Also one cool thing. Last week we went to the sheep farm! It was definitely one of the most fun P-Days I've had on my mission.

A few days ago my RC's Emie and Maggie from my first area came here with their husbands and kids to eat dinner and brought a cake to celebrate my birthday early! It was awesome haha.

Love you all, thanks for everyone's support.

Elder Daines

Easter Baptism

4/2/2018

Dear friends and family,

This last week felt like forever but it was also a blur. 
Last P Day we went to Zhanghua (my old area) and played billiards with the other missionaries. It was super fun being in my old area!
On Tuesday we started exchanges with the Elders in Nantou. I went with Elder Maughan. We talked to some cool people, but the coolest thing was we added three former investigators in about 30 minutes. 
Wednesday we had English class. My shirt pocket seam was a little ripped so Elder Huang ripped it off during English class to see what reaction the students would have haha.
Thursday we had zone conference. Everything went super great and I feel it was really inspiring for everybody. Also, apprently the Teh's daughter serving in England is training a member that used to be in this ward! We are currently teaching her mom, so after the conference we all went to her work place with the Tehs and met them! It was pretty fun.
We went on exchanges again with the Puli Elders. I went with Elder Sweeten. He's a great missionary and we talked about a lot of good stuff!
Bill had his baptism yesterday! It's been a long time coming, investigating for about a year now. But he finally did it! He's really just dramatic and wanted it to be special, so we had it on Easter. He's super funny and strange though, and also is obsessed with America. 
All in all this week has been super tiring. It's a good type of tired though. It feels good to work your hardest and be tired in something that gives no personal benefit. I'm grateful that I can serve my Savior Jesus Christ. And I'm also very thankful for His sacrifice. It gives me hope.
Love you all,

Elder Daines

The Last 12 Weeks

3/19/2018

Monday:

I got to the train station pretty ​​early. Kai picked me up and when I left he said "goodbye friend" in English. I'm really going to miss him. I talked to an old guy for a lot of the train ride over here who pretty much just wanted to bible bash but he wasn't even a Christian so it was super confusing...

Right when I got to YuanLin we ate lunch with our bishop at a steak place. By the way, I'm replacing my old companion Elder Stroud, here in YuanLin. So it was fun to see him one last time before he goes home. Bishop Kuang is so awesome. He treats his calling like he's a general going to war and that missionary work is the number one thing on his priority list. I love it and we're going to have so much fun working with him. It was the first night Elder Huang and I ACTUALLY did missionary work since we left the MTC. It was crazy to see the missionaries we have become and how we still have super good unity together as we find and teach. Elder Stroud and his MTC comp Elder Horton stayed the night before they had to go to the airport the next morning. Elder Stroud and I talked a lot reminiscing on old times,

Tuesday:

We taught a lesson with a bigger guy named YuJun. He's very introverted and a little slow, but still seems to have interest in the gospel. We did service moving things for a guy after that. We really try to be good about talking with literally everyone, and not missing out on giving anyone the chance to hear the gospel. Later that night we went up to the college but the guy we set up with didn't show up. We still talked to a bunch of people and set up with a different guy there for next week. When we got back we also saw a guy riding on one of those bikes you can rent but it was just in place... I'll send the video then you'll understand. We took time to facetime everyone in our zone and get to know them. It's crazy because there are actually 4 people in our zone that are from Oregon!

Wednesday:

It was PI day so we went ham getting everyone pumped for Pi day when we were out contacting. Especially our English class. We also contacted a girl in a seven 11 and had her watch the Because of Him video. During the video her mom walked in and said "why are you talking with mormons?" We talked to them both a bit after that. They later came to English Class and met with us afterwards. The only problem is that the mom is SUPER blonde if you know what I mean. She just asks the dumbest questions that no one in their right mind would even ask. Not even like pertaining to religion just things that are super obvious. Anyways that sounds a little insensitive but that's our struggles with teaching her right now. One kid in English class named yoyo could write about 25 digits of Pi it was LIT. Also we were in a Tripanionship with another Taiwanese Elder Huang for a lot of the day. He's a super nice and humble. He said he learned a lot from our companionship and how we talk with everyone and we're bold with people too and have such great unity. It was a super nice compliment and I agree that Elder Huang and I have super great unity. We just think the same way a lot of the times. 

Thursday:

This morning we did service sorting medical papers. It was actually super fun because they were all in Chinese so it was a challenge reading the hand writing. On Wednesday we contacted a guy who wanted to quit smoking. He said he's usually busy at his restaurant and we were like "even in the afternoon when there are no customers?" and he said yeah. Anyways today we stopped by his place at around 3 o clock and he was there sleeping on the table. We just sat down at the table and waited until he woke up haha. So he woke up and we shared a lesson. He still just isn't willing to set up a specific time to meet because he's too "busy" but we'll stop by again. I don't know if it was today or not but we also stopped by a house that is a referral from Elder Huang's mom. Just a really old lady and her brother who can't really talk and is kind of deaf too. She's set in her religion but we'll try to come back again.

Friday:

Today we had a ton of lessons planned and so we just did a lot of weekly planning in between. We set some really great goals and plans for the next 12 weeks. We are truly giving it our all. We are busy every minute from 6:00am to 10:30pm. Elder Huang pointed something out to me the other day. There are three things that make this work successful. ONE: Our personal worthiness, hard work, and faith, TWO: the will of God, THREE: the agency of the people we teach. So we feel like we can do more to plead with the Lord that He may help us in our efforts and cause miracles to happen as we put in everything we have. We had 3 lessons in the afternoon. One with a crazy guy that we made sure only lasted 10 minutes, then one with YuJun again. He's definitely progressing, and also came to a baptism that the other ward had. and also an eternigator named Bill. We tried to just hear him out and rely on the spirit to know what to say to help him have faith to set a baptismal goal. He told his whole story for about 20 minutes. Elder Huang and I were both falling asleep AS WE WERE MAKING EYE CONTACT. These last few days have been some of my most tiring but most fulfilling. Elder Huang and I are literally switching off between falling asleep and teaching in the lessons because we're so tired. There's actually not really any pianists in the wards here so I played for them. After the baptism we met with a guy at a 7/11. It was super weird and he was asking the same questions over and over after we explained it clearly. Also he was a little stubborn and would cut us off when we speak. So we asked him if there were any people he knew that were less prideful that we could teach and he said no, so we left. 

Saturday:

This morning we also attended a funeral for the grandmother of a missionary right now in the ward. The rest of her family isn't members, but we went with bishop. It was a good impression because later the mom texted bishop and said she was very thankful for us and feels like she should learn more about her daughter (the missionary's) religion. Today we had a lesson with a guy named Fred. He's super humble because he already knows about the word of wisdom and knows that he shouldn't drink coffee, but it's just hard for him. Also this was the first lesson. We have high hopes for him. We had basketball with two investigators Russell and Jason and then had a lesson with them afterwards. This was their second lesson. They were invited to read the Book of Mormon and pray last time. We asked them if they had read. Russell said he said to 1 Nephi 1:8, and Jason said he read to 2 Nephi 25! We asked why. He said he was just bored haha. Not sure if he's trolling or not, but we'll see. They both agreed to get baptized in the future. We'll set a date with them next week. At night we met with a husband of a member who's had a pretty sketchy past. You can kindof tell that the hard drugs made a permanent damage to his cognitive ability. We're still trying to help him actually understand what's going on and not get so distracted. Our last lesson peeved me. Elder Huang let me know we were visiting a less active member and her son. Apparently she got offended by some other ward members over something super silly and wants to go apostate now. During the lesson I did a lot of listening. It came to a point where Elder Huang asked her, "Do you believe your trials are more serious than Jesus Christ's?" She sat in silence for a bit. She didn't respond so Elder Huang asked her again. And then after a bit more of silence, she said yes. I flipped out. I pretty much just flew my hands into the air and took off my glasses in disbelief. I got pretty mad at her. I literally cannot understand why anyone would think that. It's time like these where it is the hardest to have charity for people. Good luck to her. 

Sunday:

So apparently our ward doesn't really have an organist, so I filled in last minute. It's been a while since I played the organ (or in this case, on the organ setting) but it was fun. We were talking to some of the members that have been here for a while. I met a brother Yang who remembers my Uncle Tim when he served here a while ago. I asked him if he remembers a Ding ZhangLao, and he asked if his full name was Ding Yi Tian. That's him! He has an old picture of him too. We ate dinner at their house tonight. My whole mission I've been trying to find someone that knew my uncle, and I finally found him. The ward has great people and I'm grateful to serve here. I feel like I usually say that about every place, but it's true! One thing that was said in our special conference with Elder Stephenson last week was that where we go on a mission, and which areas we serve in, and which companions we have are all for a reason. That is 100% true. Elder Huang and I also tried contacting with a rubik's cube at a park, it didn't work at first but later we ran into some really cool people! Also crazy miracles are just popping up out of nowhere, like 2 girls, 9 and 11 years old wanted to get baptized when they were 8 but their dad wouldn't let them, but now he doesn't care so we're going to start teaching them! But the greatest miracle was this:

Brother Shen 沈YuJun. He's 23 years old, but is very quiet, soft spoken, and doesn't have a lot of self confidence. But we've met with him a few times and he's really opened up to the gospel. He really enjoys reading scriptures and praying and already has had spiritual experiences at church and at a baptism last week. Then the other night he messaged us saying that his parents are strongly 一貫道 Iguandao (a Buddhist sect) and strongly oppose him coming to church and meeting with us. We were really sad to hear it and feared that he might not be able to overcome this trial, but we testified that he has already felt the Spirit confirming to him that this is the path God wants him to go. Then later he texted us and told us that he fought with his parents and decided not to listen to them and instead committed to come to church and continue learning the gospel. The way he worded it was super lit and self-confident, not like him at all, but really good for him! Super awesome miracle and it just confirmed to me how much strength the Lord will give to those who are faithful and desire the truth. 

So great things are happening and I'm loving every day, even though it's so easy to fall asleep out of nowhere because we're so tired (I'll send a video of a member taking a video of me during ward correlation).

I love this work and I love the Lord.

Thanks everyone.

Elder Daines