We are thoroughly enjoying our callings here and have seen much success in the family history work. We spend most of our Sundays speaking in Sacrament meetings about the importance of family history. In fact, we just visited the last of the 29 units in our area last Sunday. The Gaoxiong Family History staff also comes with us to provide Family Tree training to all the members, including the youth, during Sunday School, Priesthood/Relief Society, or after meetings under the bishops' directions. During the last few meetings, we've had between 60 - 80 people participating with about 10 questions (you know how Chinese don't like to ask questions) in average from each unit. It was great!
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| Shi Bin - Entered FuJian in 1163 |
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| Lu Gong - An Official in the Song Dynasty 7th Century |
Sister Du杜 from GangShan was inspired to do her family history almost 10 years ago. She started saving money for a trip to 四川, China since her ancestors came from Mainland China. Last November, she heard a talk about family history again and thought it was time for her to go to China since she has made some contacts with folks in the old village. In January of this year, she went to the temple to do some work for her ancestors and was prompted by the Spirit again to go to China. She decided to go at the end of January. She was scared to go alone, but the Spirit was with her and helped and protected her along the way. Many things happened while she was in China. Her distant relatives had been waiting for her to come and presented her with a clan book for the Du family. She was thrilled to have all the new information that she had prayed for.
She came back safely to Taiwan with renewed dedication to family history work. On April 20, 2013, a 7.0 earthquake hit XiChuan 四川 again in the same area where it hit several years ago in 蘆山縣，雅安鄉, her hometown. The place was leveled. How grateful she was that she heeded the promptings of the Spirit and got there before the earthquake. We are so grateful to hear her testimony.
Wednesday night is our Family History Night at the Center and we enjoyed seeing people coming in to browse, to ask questions, to print out their FOR's and most of all, to share their testimonies of family history with us. During the month of May and June, we have help about half a dozen people traced their family history back to the first emperor of China. It wasn't our goal to do that, but it sure was a great boost to all of us that the Spirit of Elijah was there to help us along.
One sister brought in her husband's clan book to see what we could find out from the records. Her husband is not a member, but kept telling his wife that she should take the book in and see if anyone could read it because he couldn't. After studying the clan book, and reading other references, her husband's line was traced back to the first emperor of China. She was so surprised. But the best thing was that her husband told her: I told you those people in the church were good! He even comes to church with his wife now. How the Spirit of Elijay works with members and non-members alike. The surge of interest in doing genealogy and family history is not an accident, it's been foretold in the scriptures. We are so grateful to be here to see how it's working on the people here.
We do miss being home. We'll have missed 3 baptisms, including Kai Davis, who is in the 9th Ward, 2 ordinations, one new baby born in June , and another one Cami and Kong are having in December. But the children assured us that they are happy that we are serving a mission, and they are being blessed for it too. Unless there is a problem, we won't be coming home early, even though it's hard on Grandma.
Elder Davis is still having some issues with his heart health. But the doctors in Taiwan are excellent. They quickly identified the problems he has with his heart, and he is under medications to fix the problems. We know guardian angels are with us to move us along.
We miss St. George even though it hit 117 degrees. We hit 95 today, but the humidity is around 80% making it somewhat uncomfortable. Our home-teachers came last night and found that our living room was at 90 degrees with the central air going full blast. Brother Qiu, the air-conditioner man, came right over to fix the problems when he heard that we were having problems. It's nice to have the support of the local members.
Hope all is well in the homefront. We miss y'all and can't wait to be home again. We know the gospel is true and the Book of Mormon testifies the divinity of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We would like to leave you with our Mission scriptures:
"Wherefore, I the Lord ask you this question-unto what were ye ordained? To preach my gospel by the Spirit, even the Comforter whichw as sent forth to teach the truth". ~ Doctrine and Covenants, 50:13 & 14
In the name of Jesus Christ.
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