August 28, 2012

Hey All,

 Love you and thanks for your support and prayers,

TO answer your questions

  How is your companionship doing? It is the 2nd hardest companionship I have had. I feel that my companion thinks I am a burden, and doesn't trust me. He also has his own way of doing things and isn't open to my ideas, but he is still fun to talk to and a very effective missionary.  

Is he too disobedient that he makes you uncomfortable? Only sometimes but most the time we are obedient.  

What language do you speak together? Most often it is Chinese.  

How are you feeling about your Zhongwen (Chinese)? These last 2 transfers have helped my Chinese because I got to be with a Taiwanese companion, but my Chinese is nothing amazing, I would say it is probably average among the missionaries. So I am happy, but I still haven't had a Chinese dream which is my goal.  

 So this week was interesting but full of miracles. We had 10 investigators who came to church, which was crazy. We also had like 4 investigators set a baptismal date this week, so now we have many investigators and they all seem to be sincerely looking for the truth so this transfer will be good as long as I love them. This week we also got to attend a Michael McKlean concert that was funny and spiritual at the same time, with 2 investigators. During the concert Michael asked us to ask god if he actually loves us, and an eternal investigator asked and she felt he loved her and started crying and set a baptismal date and gave us a referral, so it was  pretty much awesome. Also there was a great song called, “Safe Shores” that made me cry and another that told me that the trials we go through won't last forever, which was a great reminder. On Saturday morning we also got to attend a baptismal service of a person my companion found on the street which was great. I love being on the Lord’s errand.

Dear President,
This week was full of miracles again. I truly stand all amazed. This week was a little harder than last week though, this companionship is a little hard for me and probably for Elder Wang too. I feel that my companion has his own way of doing things and isn't open to my ideas, and he thinks I am a burden, and doesn't trust me or love me which is hard. For example on Sunday he didn't want me to teach with him because there were already 6 people going to be there but I had no one else to teach, so I went and got more familiar with the members until they left and then waited outside the door with it cracked open so I could see and hear him. But I know a companionship is a two way relationship and I can't say I love my companion as much as I should either. I am trying to compliment him every day and praying for him and praying for love. I want to know if you have any suggestions. But we respect each other and often have a fun time talking together and I do think that, as you said, we are doing great things together. I believe that if we were really unified we could do greater things, and sometimes we truly are. I would love any suggestions you have.
You told us to report on any miracles from the concert and mark it as urgent,

Thanks for everything you do,

Elder Sabey

Matt Sabey

Aug. 21, 2012

  Is it Brain’s 26th or 27th birthday?

So it is August 20th here so I am celebrating brains birthday today. I already wrote a letter but sent it to the BYU address, so I hope he gets it.

So this week was great, full of miracles and fun stuff but still a little hard because I miss my investigators in An-Kang. But the good thing is this is where God wants me and I am having a lot of success here. The week before I moved I asked my "to be companion" what Beitou was like and he said it was hard because finding here is hard and there are only 4 investigators. But this last week we found 5 new investigators and they actually had 6 investigators already. This Sunday we had 9 investigators come to church. So yeah, God is blessing us and this area.

 Some favorite miracles:

One day my companion felt we should go to a faraway place because our area is huge and we should try and visit everyone. So we went and at that place I meet a Ye Jiemei (sister) who set up for Saturday and came to church. She was so great. At the same place my companion met another person who also set up for Sunday night fireside. SO a cool planning miracle.

 Another was once while walking I said hi to a girl and stuck out my hand to shake hers but she was a little startled and just walked by me so my companion said hi to her and talked with her for a long time and set her up. During this time I found an amazing family, who set up for church but couldn't make it because family came to visit but are set up for Tuesday. So pretty much god loves us.

  Then yesterday we got to go to Micheal Mcleans fireside and this Saturday we get to go to his concert. I am so excited. He was totally kuazhang (over the top) hilarious but his music was great and  my investigator and companion and I all felt the spirit.

 So about Beitou and my companion-

Beitou- it is a tourist area, famous for its hot springs,( this p-days plan..... JK) so half the people you meet are tourists, but most of them are from Taiwan. It is a beautiful and fun place. The ward seems great and life is good.

 My companion is a really good with people person, when he just got here the ward rarely gave missionaries stuff, now they give us a lot of fruit and food.

So he is a powerful servant who has seen many baptisms. But he is a little more relaxed with rules and has many preferences and personal opinions that are different then most missionaries so it is different but should be good.

I love you all

Elder Sabey

Letter to president

Hey President,
It was great to see you last night and I am glad you can attend our ward missionary fireside.
This week was great,  we saw many miracles, some favorite miracles:

One day  my companion felt we should go to a far away place because our area is huge and we should try and visit everyone. So we went and at that place I meet a Ye Jiemei who set up for Saturday and came to church. She was so great. At the same place my companion meet another person who also set up for Sunday night fireside. SO a cool planning miricle.

 Another was once while walking I said hi to a girl and stuck out my hand to shake hers but she was a little startled and just walked by me so my companion said hi to her and talked with her for a long time and set her up. During this time I found an amazing family, who set up for church but couldn't make it because family came to visit but are set up for Tuesday. So pretty much I have felt that  God loves us.

 I am so excited for this transfer and to see the miracles that await. Beitou is a great place, and the ward is great and my companion is also great so I am happy. I hope to be able to help this area to get a new generation of investigators/ recent converts. AKA baptize the investigators here and fill their places on the board with new names, because most of our investigators have nearly heard all the lessons, and are great investigators with a few different challenges to overcome, but no challenge is too great for god so I believe it will happen.

 Thanks for the work you do and the love you show,
Elder Sabey

An amazing last week in AnKang, I will miss it. But  I worked my tail off here and I believe I have left the ward better than when I got here, which is a way president Holland says we can measure our success, according to Elder Wilson of the 70 who came and visited our mission this week and gave a small talk. So I feel good.  I loved this area, the people, investigators and this last week was full of great experiences with them. I told you about Huang Jiemei, but I never told you she stopped meeting with us for the past 4 weeks which was heart breaking, and she wouldn't answer our calls, but this week she called back, which gave me hope for her and her future. This week I got to attend Zhou Ba's wedding lunch and there meet a former investigator who hasn't been meeting with us for a month but said he now has more time to meet. It was also great to support Zhou Ba because he helps the missionaries a lot and it is so great that at age 50+ he can find a good wife. I love it, not to mention the food.  mmmmmmmm. Then we visited an investigator I tracked into and he said he believes and is willing to give his all to prepare to be baptized, and he bought me a nice pen to use as a parting gift. Li Dixiong, my recent convert, bought me a sticky note pad as a parting gift, and sat by me at church which was great. Qi Jiemei had me over for dinner yesterday to say good bye. It felt good that they all cared enough about me to do something special because I was leaving but in ways it just made it harder. I love this place and expect/ hope to love Beitou, I hear that it only has 4 investigators so I will have another chance to really make a difference and am looking forward to the challenge. 

Spiritual thought-

 Jacob 4 :10 Don't tell the lord what to do but do what he tells you and you will be happy.

Here’s my letter to president,

Hey President,
I had a great last week in AnKang and am excited for Beitou. I always wonder why the lord wants me in the area he has called me to and with the companion he has called me to be with. I guess I will go and find out, but if you have any insight I would love to know. I am so excited that I get another Bendi companion, this last transfer my Chinese really improved, and I am looking forward to more.
 This week I saw some amazing miracles. Once in front of the library, (AnKang's unofficial chapel because the chapel is out of our district) I meet a guy and shared with him the restoration, and set him up, then contacted two high school graduates who sat and we taught them a lesson. As it turns out one of their fathers is a LA who hasn't been to church for 5 years, but this student remembers going to church and the feeling she had there and set up with the sisters here. Both of these set ups went through and went well. Often I find that when we go to a place we go for one lost sheep, but it felt great to find two back to back.
 I am loving the mission and this area and am excited for a new area and new friends.
  Thanks for everything.
Elder Sabey 

Well love you all

Elder Sabey 

August 6, 2012

 
 So this week was cool, it has rained every day, and Tuesday thru Thursday it rained all day, but Thursday was a typhoon day. So we were not permitted to go outside, which I thought I might as well enjoy and seemed like it would be fun. It was not. Although having time to cook a beef stroganoff with noodles from scratch (which tasted great), and time to clean and call people to our hearts content, and do WPS, by 4:00 p.m. I had some cabin fever. I couldn't stand staying in a small apartment for such a long time. So basically I appreciate the blessing of working outside. The typhoon was pretty serious, there was a lot flooding and when I went over a park bridge, I could see the river had become giant and it destroyed much of the shrubbery and lamp posts, etc. In the apartment it seemed hiahao (O.K.) but the park showed me why it was necessary to be inside.

   A cool miracle was Wednesday night: we had to go home because of the hurricane (not the miracle) but before going home we had planned tracking a place for an hour or so and when we had tracked every door, we still had some time so I thought of a place I had never tracked before. When I got there, I felt I might as well start at the furthest away point and work my way forward and so we road our bikes to the furthest point in that area and started tracking and the 2nd door I knocked on let us in, learned and committed to prayer and set a baptismal date. It was totally amazing. The second time that has happened in AnKang. This week I told someone, “I know god exists.”  He asked "Well have you seen miracles?" and I honestly told him "yes, every day I see miracles." He was shocked, and asked me to tell him some and I did. I felt my testimony strengthened but sadly he didn't set up a return appointment. But I feel I will remember that experience, looking in his eyes and saying I see miracles daily. Some other miracles this week: Twice when riding on a road we rarely road on or were on for a weird reason, an investigator (Brother Chen and Sistser QI ) honked at us and pulled us over and talked to us for a bit. It was so great. I love that they stopped us, it wasn't us stopping them.

      I really know that god is directing this work and preparing people. It is so amazing and also so simple. When you meet a prepared person and say read, pray and come to church, they will be baptized because god will answer their prayers and they will receive a testimony and many blessings along with it. I feel that these three things are so important. Also that praying about the truth of the Book of Mormon is important to, because you need to give god a chance to answer your prayers. So I would invite all of you to pray about the truth of the Book of Mormon and again from god receive an answer.

  Spiritual thought: In 1 Nephi 19:2 Nephi sees how miraculous it is that their wives were able be bare children in the wilderness and give plenty of suck for their children while surviving off of raw meat. A true miracle. Then later Laman and Lemuel complain about how their wives had suffered so many afflictions and they could have been partying in Jerusalem with plenty of money and land, and they could have been happy. As if money and land brings happiness. I believe that no matter what happened they would be miserable because they choose not to see the obvious miracles god gave them. Later they even receive the promised land!  I hope we all have the eye to see miracles in our lives, that god gives us. The obvious and less obvious ones and I know if we do so we will truly be happier.

   Love you all

Elder Sabey

Letter to president

Hey president
This week was good but a little harder, mostly due to the hurricane. It's been fun recently finding a ton of new investigators but they all seem to meet, set a baptismal date, set up a time then cancel because they are busy and won't commit to another time. I believe we have around 8 investigators who have a date but haven't meet a second time. I don't know what to do, I just keep calling them. Any advice?
  Elder Sabey

August 1, 2012

I am so happy that Li Dixiong got baptized. It was definitely the highlight of the week. I love how mom said families have their own strengths and weaknesses; Li dixiong's family has some serious weaknesses. His mother and father gave him to his grandparents when he was young, and he recently found out he had an older brother. So it hit me that now he has joined a much more stable family, the AnKang branch family. I love how we call each other brother and sister. It is so cool the first time you ask an investigator to call them brother or sister they almost always say yes and when you actually do it the first time they almost always smile. I am so grateful for this gospel family. It provides a stable environment we can rely on in our time of need and help others in theirs. 

  The next highlight was we had a specialized training meeting where President Day gave a great lesson on the Anti-Nephi Lehis, and how we are going to be like them. We will not be known as Missionaries but the Taiwan Taipei Missionaries, we need to lay down our weapons of rebellion and bury them deeply and be determined to rather face death then go and bury them back up. He had us write down our weapons of rebellion on a paper then go home and tear the paper up and bury it in the trash and be determined never to pick them back up. It was humbling writing down the weapons of rebellion but tearing them up felt so good and I am trying my best not to dig them back up, and for some I am digging the whole in hard ground and it is a slow possess but I am working on it. 

  My last cool experience was my companion and I were invited to share a 10 minute message at a ward fireside and in the morning we practiced it twice and the second time felt good but I was still nervous, but I prayed and went forth and opened my mouth and it just flowed. I didn't stumble and mess up with the grammar, I knew what to say and me and my companion had great unity and it was a powerful 10 minutes. We shared on the importance of member missionary work, used PMG president Hinckley’s quote on pg 160, and 3 Nephi 19 1-2, and committed the ward to give us referrals, after which a returned missionary came up to us and asked if on Monday we could visit her less active mother who was living with her boyfriend. It felt good that she trusted us.

Here is my email to president

  Hey president,

This week was great, Li Zheng Ru got baptized and confirmed. I was/am so happy. He said that when he was about to be baptized he was nervous but as he was baptized he felt a comfortable feeling like a shower but even more comfortable and unique like he’s never felt before. I love him and am so excited for his bright future. He has not had the easiest life but he has made good choices and through his trials god prepared him for baptism. He now has a stable family to rely on in Heavenly Father and Christ in heaven and An-Kang Branch on earth. This week was focused on the baptism and so I felt finding went down a little, and we didn't get anyone to church which made me sad because I don't want to be the companionship who stops the mission from every companionship having an investigator at church. Next week it won’t happen again.

 I also wanted to thank you for the specialized training, I have been trying to be living because of the principles behind the rules and I felt good about it. Also the feeling of tearing up and burying my weapons of rebellion felt great. I will try my best to not dig them up again. 

Thanks for everything,

Elder Sabey      

 I love being able to help others come unto christ.

Elder Sabey