One Month to Go... and some fun pictures!

Hello all!

I have one month left as a missionary and it's looking like it's going to be great! We have 2 super awesome investigators and they are both looking super solid to get baptized in 2 weeks. Both of them are former investigators (where most of my "success" has come from in finding people to teach.) One is 21 years old; his name is S. and he's super cool. We have a YSA girl in the ward sit in on his lessons and they seem to be into each other a bit ;) The best part is that she is also only a convert of 7 months. They would be perfect for each other too! We're always told that the Temple is the ultimate goal - baptism is just the beginning! Anyway, he want's to serve a mission too! Yesterday at church he was asking me a lot about how missions work and stuff and then the bishop announced a mission prep class and he got super excited! After Sunday School, we introduced him to the bishop and he asked about the class and the bishop invited him to come and he's going to meet with us on Tuesday and then right after attend the class!

The other one is about 26 years old and he's about to graduate from college. We called him about 3 weeks ago and met, gave him a baptismal goal for June 21st and then he said he'd be in the US for a wedding for 2 weeks, but still said he could hit his goal. He got back and we met on Thursday, he came to church and he said he still wants to be baptized on the 21st! He also committed himself to read the Book of Mormon for an hour or 2 every day because he has time for it! Tonight he's coming to YSA Family Home Evening ;)

We also had 2 Less active members who were close to being rescued and now all they need is callings from the ward to count as officially being rescued! One at church yesterday pulled me aside and said "I'm definitely coming back to church now." He meant permanently.

Ready for another miracle? We went to visit a less active family (mom and son) in a ghetto part of our area (it'd be a condemned area in the US). They let us in and they are such a happy little family! We introduced ourselves, shared our testimonies and they committed to coming to church. Unfortunately the son hurt his back on Saturday and couldn't move easily and the mom can't drive because of eye/ear problems. Last night we went to visit them and only the mom was home (a friend of the son took him to the doctor), but we stood outside and talked to the mom for a bit and she really wants to come back and said they'd be there next week.

My companion and I are working really hard and I'm trying to make the most of my last transfer. The Lord is helping us so much - I couldn't do any of this on my own. I can't do without Him and it would be a lot harder if I didn't have all of your support at home. Thank you all so much! We have seen so many miracles this week and we were able to exceed "mission standards" this week (numbers the President gives us to shoot for and if we consistently hit all of them, he promises we will baptize every month.) We've been super close on a couple, and having been hitting others regularly, but we're definitely going to see baptisms this month. I hope I don't sound prideful or anything, I'm just happy that the Lord has granted that I can be a part of His work and see so many wonderful things happen. I feel like Ammon in Alma chapter 26!

Good news!
I hit my biking goal! But there's a funny story behind it. I was watching my odometer and when in hit 6887.1 miles, my front tire exploded! Boy, does God have a sense of humor! ;) I didn't fall off or anything, just quickly sunk about 2 inches and then had to walk to a nearby bike shop and pay an old man lots of money for a new tire/tube (the old tire was falling apart and I guess it popped the inner-tube. Anyway, I hit the goal! I've biked the distance from home to the mission home! 

Well, that's what I've got for this week. Thank you all so much for being awesome. Remember that the church is true and God loves you. Remember that through Christ, we can conquer every trial, every pain, and in the end, we will conquer death. Rejoice in Him, for He is your Savior! He will come and it will be in power and glory and every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is the Christ. Prepare for that day now and be worthy of all the blessings Heavenly Father has prepared and has waiting for you.
Best wishes until next week,

Elder Christopher Wolf

Sunburn from all-day bike ride

area where sunburn happened

baptism in new area in May

after a skit

Durian fruit tree at the church building

"Spa day"

"Super studly pants" the ward bought them for a skit - not sure why they love them so much that they wear them around the apartment!

Release Date and Other Stuff!

We recently received this email from the Taiwan Taichung Mission:

"Dear Brother and Sister Wolf:

In just a few short months, Elder Christopher Robert Wolf will be completing his service in the Taiwan Taichung Mission and returning home. Presently, Elder Wolf is scheduled to depart from Taiwan on 9 July 2014."

YAY!! 


Chris is doing well.  Here are a few pictures and snatches of letters we've received from him lately:

They really did use fire!

From this week, April 6th: 

Saturday was "grave-sweeping day" here in Taiwan. Once per year, everyone goes to their ancestors graves and cleans them up a bit. Usually they become overgrown with weeds and so we use sickles and other sharp things to remove small trees, plants and thistles...after 2 hours of scratches and cuts, mosquito and poisonous spider bites (not really poisonous though), and thorns ripping my arm flesh away, I gave up on being the grim reaper and decided to become this guy:

yeah...fire was faster...and bigger...and funner (which IS a word!). I still had to spend 2 hours at night with a sewing needle and tweezers to remove all the small thorns from my arm and hand.

I finished the Book of Mormon for the 3rd time yesterday. I hope to read in once more (about 6 pages per day) in my time left here. I learn so much from it every time and really find strength, comfort and council within it's pages. How is it possible to receive that much good from a book? Simple, it's written by God and it.is.true. Not much more explanation needed. Anyone else wanna do it along with me?

From March 16th:

At ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) on Tuesday the Sister Training Leaders did a cool activity; they wrote every missionary's name on sticky notes and randomly handed them out to everyone and then had us pray to find a scripture that would help that person out. Most of us didn't know the other person too well, but God knows us all perfectly. After praying and finding a scripture then confirming it was right through prayer again, we wrote the reference on the sticky note and then the Sisters handed them back to the correct person. It was anonymous and simple, but was really cool. Everyone said they were helped by that scripture.

This week we tried visiting a lot of less-active members, but most people weren't home. One person we visited was a bit shocked we came by because the Zone Leaders had randomly stopped by earlier that same day to visit him. Coincidence? Of course not! He came to church yesterday.

Other than that, this week was full of finding (tracting, calls, visiting formers and other activities) and riding a lot of bikes (I am about 2 miles short of 5900). 
 

From March 3rd: 

Saturday night we also did the "duoduo challenge". Duoduo is basically a tangy yogurt drink (it's basically just a healthy drink with the same bacteria yogurt has in it). The goal is to drink 21 of them on your 21st birthday, but Elder SS and I didn't know if we'd be together again, so we tried it. As far as we've heard, we are the only 2 missionaries to have successfully downed 21 of them before barfing - and yes, we barfed. a lot. I finished in 5 minutes. E SS in about 12.

 From Feb 27th:  

It's been 10 days since my last email, but that's because we went to the temple yesterday! I haven't had a chance in almost a year, and it was a much-needed break from the world. The Temple truly is a sanctuary and a protection. Just from going yesterday I feel stronger and I was uplifted and reassured and got answers to questions and prayers and I learned and holy cow, I can't even express how wonderful the Temple is! I've wanted to go again so badly for the past 6 months or so and I finally satisfied the craving. If you haven't attended the temple within the past month, it's been too long. Go. Go and get power and strength and guidance for you and your family and friends. 

From Feb 10th: 

Well, this week has been really fast and really good! The biggest news is that one of our investigators was baptized on Saturday! He's been doing really well the last few weeks and finally entered the waters. He was also confirmed yesterday at church and afterward was interviewed by the Bishop for getting the Priesthood soon. It's been a while since I've actually been present for one of my investigators baptisms - several have been baptized after I move to a new area :( So yeah, I'm pretty happy about that)

Chinese New Year is over, but the 10-day long (or more) Lantern Festival is starting and the area I'm in is super famous for it's celebrations. The streets near the church are INSANE. You can't even ride a bike through the streets there at night because it's so crowded. People make there own 'lanterns' and display them for everyone to see. Basically they're like sculptures or statues made of colored cloth with lights inside. It's pretty cool. The official start is on the 13th, but the area is already insanely crowded. It'll make good proselyting. 

  I can now officially text in Chinese. Since this language has no alphabet, in order to type and text, they use phonetic symbols to sound out each character and then once you type all the symbols, a list of characters comes up and you then choose the one you want and move on to the next character. When you consider that most words in Chinese consist of 2 characters, texting is really slow. I finally got it though! Learning Chinese is like learning 4 languages: how to speak, how to read, how to write and how to type. If you include learning to read the romanization of the characters, it's 5 languages. SO CRAZY!

And... one last picture of Elder Wolf (yup, it's food related):