Dearest Family and friends. I love you all so much! June 30,
2013
Because Christ
Died for us we all will live, Satan will fail, and we can progress eternaly!
This is true. We just need to be patient, one day Sunday will come.
What concepts of
the gospel seem to resonate most to the people in Taiwan? It is definitely
"No success can compensate for failure at the home" Why do you think
that? There are so many people who work so hard and so long because they think
that work or money is most important. So many families are not as successful as
they could be because of this. It is also a traditional belief that has been
losing its hold in this modern age. So it resonates within them. How do you help a missionary who is not being
obedient want to change? Help him see the consequences of being dis-obedient
and being obedient, and the reason for being obedient is loving the lord. What has been one of the hardest experiences
on your mission? The hardest experience is probably just not getting along with
2 companions. If you don't get along with them life and the work go slowly. I
wish I wasn't so prideful then, and could have gotten along better.
Anyway this week
we had an investigator meet with us and he asked a question every missionary
likes to hear. He has been trying to quit smoking and said "I have been
trying to figure out how to quit smoking, and decided to take the Book of
Mormon with me to work and read it when I want to smoke. ... I know that
reading and praying daily is important but is there any specific methods we can
use the atonement to cleanse us and help us change?" I was so happy I
couldn't believe that he felt there was a way to repent before we even taught
him it. It must be because he has heard it in the pre-earth life.
Letter to Pres:
Dear President,
This week was so
amazing! When a day is full of miracles, at night I like lying down and not
going to sleep immediately and just bask in the glory of the day. I always turn
to my companion and say "today was a GOOD day!" This week I did that
3 times in a row.
This week I went
on exchanges with Elder Morgan, he is doing good. He loves motorcycles,
especially bullet bikes, and once rode one 196 mph! But I guess that isn't
really what you want me to report on. As far as the work goes, he is still
adjusting. He is a great guy, but has a hard time contacting people. He just
doesn't know how to bring up the gospel without being awkward so most of his
contacts he gives out English tracts. But he does love the work and loves
asking good questions. I trained him on how to begin teaching and how to use it
in contacting. He loved it and made a goal to use it more. It was fun. I love
that Elder. He has a lot of good stories, and is fun to be with. His Chinese
needs some work. His grammar is all English grammar and he is having a hard
time memorizing so isn't going through Phase one fast. I gave him some tips
that helped me. Some miracles we saw were there was this guy Elder Forbes and I
ran into on the street and set up for that time. He is a English major, so
Elder Morgan was able to use English when he didn't know how to say a word in
Chinese. This guy became a great new investigator.
Anyways our area
is doing great, but our Zone hasn't been doing as great. I think that Elder
Parkinson and Elder You are just a little trunky and so they are focusing on
getting the investigators they have now baptized before they leave, and so
their hearts are not behind their finding efforts. But that is just a guess. I
don't have much evidence to back it up. I know they were working on diligence
this week, and would remind each other to be diligent.
My companion and I
are doing great.
Cool miracles
include an investigator, Lin Michael, we have been working with for about a
month and a half coming to church for the first time, and bringing a friend to
church who maybe loved it more than Lin Michael.
Then a Que Dixiong
meet with us and he asked a question every missionary likes to hear. He has
been trying to quit smoking and said "I have been trying to figure out how
to quit smoking, and decided to take the Book of Mormon with me to work and
read it when I want to smoke. ... I know that reading and praying daily is
important but is there any specific methods we can use the atonement to cleanse
us and help me change?" I was so happy I couldn't believe that he felt
there was a way to repent before we even shared it. It must be because he has
heard it in the pre-earth life.
Also we found an
investigator who set a baptismal date and lives in XinBan so that should help
Elder Parkinson and You. They also found one for us! What goes around comes
around.
Thanks Love you,
Elder Sabey
PS Your training
was just what I needed. I heard it before but the second time I got it. It will
help me sprint to the end!
Spiritual thought:
Gods blessings are
everywhere, this life is for our benefit. Including our trials. God hasn't
given us anything that wasn't for our benefit. So live life like god would have
you live it and you will learn a lot.
Love Elder Sabey
July 7, 2013
Hey dearest family and friends. I love you all so much!
You are always there to support me. I was saddened by the miscarriage. But today
I will go to the temple where all heartaches can be healed. I know that
families can be together forever. In the next life all will be made well if we
obey our covenants. I know that the temple is a Holy happy place. Dia, Brian,
Mom, Dad, there will be people praying for you today in the house of god.
Heavenly Father will hear these prayers. I know the Savior asks for a Broken
Heart as a Sacrifice. I believe now you will be able to offer up a more pure
Sacrifice, and thus better feel the healing power where broken hearts are made
whole, but stronger and purer than ever. I love you and will continue to pray
for you.
I was also
saddened by the Death of Paul Tandberg. I remember their Family as a great
family who had many trials but remained faithful. It is crazy how we really
don't know what the next day will bring. But I Pray and hope it will bring joy,
hope, laughter, healing and love.
Most Emails of my
mission were filled with joy and Good news. I have stood in awe at how blessed
my family has been, this is about the 3rd email with sad news. I am so happy
that the lord is watching over you and he gives us trails for our benefit.
Letter to
President
President,
This week went well here in the West Zone. Especially in
our district. Except for us every companionship went up in total lessons. Our
area went down a little but that was mostly because we were in meetings for 3
of the days, so we were actually really happy with the overall numbers. We were
especially happy about getting 7 investigators to church (2 were late) and one
LA. God blessed us so much. I loved it. We were able to get a recent converts
father to come and afterwards meet with him and they committed to pray together
daily.
On Monday we had a
cool miracle. Our bikes tires were low on
air, so we had planned to go to a rode in WPS and when we got there, there were
not too many people there but we saw a bike shop where we could pump up our
bike tires with air. I did first then as my companion was doing his I started
talking to the boss, and shared the Gospel and asked if we could meet with him
and he said "Right now? Sure." I never said "right now" but
he somehow got that imPression, for which I am grateful. WE started sharing and
about 5 minutes latter his wife comes in and we share with them both. They live
close to our church and get Sundays off. God prepares people!
We also have a Que
DX who is amazing. He has changed so much. Yesterday night we had to go on
splits so I taught him and shared the Law of Chastity. He used to have a huge
Porn problem but has quit it along with drinking even before he meet us. He
loves the Gospel and is looking forward to baptism.
As far as
exchanges go I went with Elder Weng, he is a great missionary. He is more laid
back but is a great teacher and he has good faith. He is on his mission to help
people. He loves his investigators. However he doesn't love finding and he
doesn't study English during language study. I felt you should know. He is
great though. I love how he is totally himself in the lessons and doesn't get
nervous. I was thoroughly impressed. He felt like his fire wasn't big enough
and wanted to make a good goal on it so didn't set one with me but promised he
would set a goal. I will follow up.
Love you
Elder Sabey
To answer questions
Tell us about how
you report and how people report to you. I report to the assistants by phone
every Monday during companionship study and also to President by letter, which
you all get weekly. Missionaries report to their District leaders and the
district leaders report to me.
Also, tell us about your investigators. I have many great
investigators. The one that is soonest baptized is Jerry, He is a great man. He
is unmarried and plays Basketball with us weekly. He meets 2 times a week, and
he came to church this Sunday for the second time. WE are hoping for his
baptismal interview this Sunday after Church! He was prepared. He was already
following the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity before we started meeting with
him.
Love you all
Elder Sabey
Dearest family and friends. I love you! July
14, 2013
This week we had a Typhoon come to Taiwan. It uprooted
many trees. It was crazy because in our apartment it looked not so dangerous or
strong. But the next day when riding to appointments the roads were covered
with leaves, branches and sometimes trees were fallen in the middle of the
rode. We had to stay inside which was nice because I got a lot of stuff I
needed to get done. Namely Elder Peay had sent me like 4 or 5 transfers worth
of numbers and referrals that he had not written down or sent and so I spent
many hours writing the numbers down and sending referrals. I also got all mine
written down up to this week so that is exciting.
Tell us about your meetings--3 days of meetings? That sounds like a lot!
The first was a
leadership council where all the Zone leaders and sister training leaders meet
and make a mission vision/ report on how the last month went. We have a vision of focusing on the Plan of
Salvation and the Atonement so the mission gets the fire to find. It was a
great experience. The other 2 were a semi-annual conference for all the leaders
of the mission including District leaders where we review the fundamentals of
preach my Gospel. I got to train of How to begin teaching= my favorite
fundamental
Does your mission President and wife have any children
with him on his mission? No Does he speak Chinese? Yes, pretty good Chinese.
Letter to Pres:
Dear President
Day,
Thanks for the
Email. It helped. I sincerely hope my Sister in law will be able to have kids
latter. Thanks for spending time looking that up for me. The doctrine helped
but you willing to spend the time and go and look up the doctrine and share
with me your own personal experience helped more. I know you love me. For that
I love you.
I am glad this
week I was still able to focus on the work and even though it wasn't a normal
week due to the typhoon and temple day. But we still were able to find 3 new
investigators and have 30 lessons. I was astonished yesterday when adding up
numbers. Not that numbers mean a lot but I was still really happy. My favorite
part of the week was we were meeting with a great investigator who is trying to
quit smoking and he said "I have recently been feeling Heavenly fathers
love towards me because he has sent you guys to teach me" Then went on to
say something like "and all that
you have taught me has really helped me.. At first it was just interested but
now I realize I was prepared to hear this gospel because I had these bad habits that I wanted to change
and it was then you contacted me." If I came on my mission and worked hard
and never saw success except hear this man say he has been feeling Gods love
towards him it would have been worth it. That one sentence made my day and made
my week. I feel successful.
We had 2 exchanges
planed this Friday and Saturday but because of the Typhoon we decided to cancel
them. I reported on the Tuesday exchange on Wednesday.
As for my
companionship we are doing good. We are working hard and getting good work
done. However we are still not seeing many baptisms. I have been trying to
figure out why because since I have been in Tucheng our area has had the best
numbers but the least baptisms. However we now have many great investigators
and are looking to have about 5 baptized before I go home!
As for my goals I
have been reading a general conference talk in Chinese a day. I love it. I am
trying my hardest to sprint to the end, and I have read to Page 300 of Jesus
the Christ.
Again thanks!
Elder Sabey
Spiritual Thought:
In D&C 121 33 it asks "How long can running
water remain impure? Implying that flowing water will one day be clean and
pure. I love that considering Lehi’s Vision where there is a river of filth. I
believe that river that one day it will be a river of pure water from which the
tree can produce even more sweet and white fruit then before. One day the filth
of the world like the Filth of Sarumon in Lord of the rings will be swept away
to never come back again. We can rest with this assurance for surely how long
can flowing water remain impure? Have patience the day will come.
I would also
ask "How long can a building
without a foundation stand? Not too long. One day the typhoon will come and
sweep out all the filth and destroy the great and spacious abominable building
and only the tree will stand and those holding to the rod of under the
protection of the tree. Imagine that, A river of pure water flowing to a great
tree with white glowing fruit and a rod leading to it. No building of
temptations off across the river. That is the feature!
I love you all!
Elder Sabey
July
21, 2013
Hello dearest family and friends!
You are loved by
me, Heavenly Father and Christ!
This week went so
great. This week we got 14 people to church! 10 investigators and 4 LA's! It
was unbelievable. I was so grateful.
I will tell more
in President’s letter. First let me
answer your questions: What is a
favorite P-day activity for you? I loved Zine Frisbee. I have loved climbing mountains and also
playing board games with the District.
Describe an ideal
Sabbath day for you on your mission. Yesterday was pretty ideal. Tell us about each of your investigators and
what lessons you are teaching them. That would take a long time but I can tell
you about my 4 best! Que He Zong is a humble father who is working hard to quit
smoking and really loves reading the Liahona. We gave him a conference addition
about 2 weeks ago, he has almost read all of it! He says his co-workers think
it is a joke that he wants to join our church because he used to have many bad
additions, you name it, he had it. But he is choosing to believe and change. It
has been a huge blessing working with him.
We will teach him tithing and read the prodigal son with him next.
Zhang Han Teng is
a former Gangster who has been trying to change his life for a long time and
has slowly made improvements. He really wants to make August 8th which is
father’s day to get baptized We are
sharing with him how to build faith and priesthood and giving him a blessing if
he accepts next time.
Chen Jie Xing or
Jerry is a 30 year old single man who also had many ad habits but has changed
slot before he even meet with us. However he attributes his change to the
gospel. I believe his view is corretc. It was god preparing him. The last one is Huang Zhi Sheng who is a
husband of a Recent Convert. He fasted this last week and I shared with him
about family scripture study and FHE! He knows most everything about the church
and is so close to baptism. We fasted with him this Sunday for him to know the
truth of this church!
Letter to Pres:
President!
This week was full
of miracles! I loved every one.
This week we got
14 people to church. 4 LAs and 10 investigators. It was a miracle. One LA Cai
YI Lang we have been working with since Elder Peay. He has been progressing
slowly until finally this week he came. |I think from now on he will be happier
to come because the first time is hardest. He is a fire fighter so sometimes
won't be able to come but other than that all is well. We had family (2 sons
and a dad) come and they loved it. Also Song DX who my trainer baptized and we
have been working hard with him. We had a new golden investigator come who we
called at 6:15 on Saturday and when I called him he said he has been waiting
for our call and asked if we had any activities. I told him that there is a baptism. He came. After the
baptism we meet and he set a baptismal date. The nest day he came to church in
the morning! What a miracle. We had a LA brother and Sister come. Also an
investigator we have been working with for a few weeks come for the first
time and loved it! Also a few other
regular attending investigators!
We also found 5 new investigators. Most were appointments
but one was we got fanged right before the baptism so we went outside and there
was a guy right in front of our church who we got to take a tour and taught him
prayer and he set up and also gave us a service opportunity! I was so happy and
blessed.
This week I went
on exchanges with Elder You who is a fun guy. We taught many lessons together
and he has good teaching skills. We didn't have much finding time but we had a
little wand were able to say a prayer with 2 different people but in the end
they didn't set up :( . He committed to develop a few Christ like attributes
and have more direction in is companionship studies in his last transfer.
My zone got a new
companionship!!! Thank you. I am also glad that there is now a Xin Zhuang
District and a XinPu District. There will be a lot less wasted travel time this
way. Numbers went up over all even
though it was transfer week! That was also a miracle!
Thanks for all
you do!
Elder Sabey
Spiritual thought - 2 Nephi 9 is Nephi talking about the
plan of salvation. He talks about how great god is at the beginning of every
other verse. Like "Oh the greatness and mercy of our god!" Always
with an Exclamation point! I loved it. He loved god and loved glorying in god.
In so much that he couldn't help but bursting into praises of god every 10
seconds as he talks about the Plan of Salvation. I hope that we all can have
the same feeling and let it be seen. This way we can be a light unto the world
which is getting darker and darker and needs more light!
I love you all
and am grateful for the light you are to me,
Elder Sabey
A cool experience.
He is also excited for his last month and we both want it to be the best month
of our mission. His district is so small 2 companionships in the same area but
this way they will have unity and see miracles. That district all got over 20
lessons this week!
Then I went with Elder Hagedorn and brought him to
Tucheng. He is going to be a great district leader. That might we had a lesson with
an investigator Que DX at a member’s house which was cool. Que DX is getting a
baptismal interview this week and so he needed to quit smoking and this member
used to smoke 3 packs a day and quit smoking all at once. So them member shared
his experience and it was great. Then we shared tithing and as I was sharing he
stopped me and said "this is no problem, one tenth is about how much I
would spend on cigarettes before I started to quit smoking." It was a
sweet miracle.
We went over what a district leader should do and I gave
him an invite to have a vision for his district and a plan to achieve it. I
believe he will be a great district leader and am excited about his district.
Other than that we saw a Liu BeiBei get baptized and he
actually meet with us for a while. We gave him his first copy of the Book of
Mormon and invited him to read it. Which he did and he prayed about it to know
if its true and got an answer. In his testimony he said this morning I read in
the Book of Mormon Mosiah 26 where Christ says " This is my church, he who
is baptized into it, him will I forgive."
Got to love the Book of Mormon.
Love you President,
Elder Sabey
PS Don't forget the assistant thing
Spiritual thought:
Christ always is
the example of being what you teach. I love how he tells us to do or be
anything he has already done it. Like baptism. Or like when lawyers try and
trick him and ask what is the greatest commandment he tells them that it is to
love god and others. He tells them out of love and doesn't just ignore them
like I might if people were trying to trick me.
Who we are matters way more then what we teach!
Love you all so
much!
July
21, 2013
Hello dearest family and friends!
You are loved by
me, Heavenly Father and Christ!
This week went so
great. This week we got 14 people to church! 10 investigators and 4 LA's! It
was unbelievable. I was so grateful.
I will tell more
in President’s letter. First let me
answer your questions: What is a
favorite P-day activity for you? I loved Zine Frisbee. I have loved climbing mountains and also
playing board games with the District.
Describe an ideal
Sabbath day for you on your mission. Yesterday was pretty ideal. Tell us about each of your investigators and
what lessons you are teaching them. That would take a long time but I can tell
you about my 4 best! Que He Zong is a humble father who is working hard to quit
smoking and really loves reading the Liahona. We gave him a conference addition
about 2 weeks ago, he has almost read all of it! He says his co-workers think
it is a joke that he wants to join our church because he used to have many bad
additions, you name it, he had it. But he is choosing to believe and change. It
has been a huge blessing working with him.
We will teach him tithing and read the prodigal son with him next.
Zhang Han Teng is
a former Gangster who has been trying to change his life for a long time and
has slowly made improvements. He really wants to make August 8th which is
father’s day to get baptized We are
sharing with him how to build faith and priesthood and giving him a blessing if
he accepts next time.
Chen Jie Xing or
Jerry is a 30 year old single man who also had many ad habits but has changed
slot before he even meet with us. However he attributes his change to the
gospel. I believe his view is corretc. It was god preparing him. The last one is Huang Zhi Sheng who is a
husband of a Recent Convert. He fasted this last week and I shared with him
about family scripture study and FHE! He knows most everything about the church
and is so close to baptism. We fasted with him this Sunday for him to know the
truth of this church!
Letter to Pres:
President!
This week was full
of miracles! I loved every one.
This week we got
14 people to church. 4 LAs and 10 investigators. It was a miracle. One LA Cai
YI Lang we have been working with since Elder Peay. He has been progressing
slowly until finally this week he came. |I think from now on he will be happier
to come because the first time is hardest. He is a fire fighter so sometimes
won't be able to come but other than that all is well. We had family (2 sons
and a dad) come and they loved it. Also Song DX who my trainer baptized and we
have been working hard with him. We had a new golden investigator come who we
called at 6:15 on Saturday and when I called him he said he has been waiting
for our call and asked if we had any activities. I told him that there is a
baptism. He came. After the baptism we meet and he set a baptismal date. The
nest day he came to church in the morning! What a miracle. We had a LA brother
and Sister come. Also an investigator we have been working with for a few weeks
come for the first time and loved it! Also a few other regular attending
investigators!
We also found 5 new investigators. Most were appointments
but one was we got fanged right before the baptism so we went outside and there
was a guy right in front of our church who we got to take a tour and taught him
prayer and he set up and also gave us a service opportunity! I was so happy and
blessed.
This week I went
on exchanges with Elder You who is a fun guy. We taught many lessons together
and he has good teaching skills. We didn't have much finding time but we had a little
wand were able to say a prayer with 2 different people but in the end they
didn't set up :( . He committed to develop a few Christ like attributes and
have more direction in is companionship studies in his last transfer.
My zone got a new
companionship!!! Thank you. I am also glad that there is now a Xin Zhuang
District and a XinPu District. There will be a lot less wasted travel time this
way. Numbers went up over all even
though it was transfer week! That was also a miracle!
Thanks for all you
do!
Elder Sabey
Spiritual thought - 2 Nephi 9 is Nephi talking about the
plan of salvation. He talks about how great god is at the beginning of every
other verse. Like "Oh the greatness and mercy of our god!" Always
with an Exclamation point! I loved it. He loved god and loved glorying in god.
In so much that he couldn't help but bursting into praises of god every 10
seconds as he talks about the Plan of Salvation. I hope that we all can have
the same feeling and let it be seen. This way we can be a light unto the world
which is getting darker and darker and needs more light!
I love you all
and am grateful for the light you are to me,
Elder Sabey
A cool experience.
He is also excited for his last month and we both want it to be the best month
of our mission. His district is so small 2 companionships in the same area but
this way they will have unity and see miracles. That district all got over 20 lessons
this week!
Then I went with Elder Hagedorn and brought him to
Tucheng. He is going to be a great district leader. That might we had a lesson
with an investigator Que DX at a member’s house which was cool. Que DX is
getting a baptismal interview this week and so he needed to quit smoking and
this member used to smoke 3 packs a day and quit smoking all at once. So them
member shared his experience and it was great. Then we shared tithing and as I
was sharing he stopped me and said "this is no problem, one tenth is about
how much I would spend on cigarettes before I started to quit smoking." It
was a sweet miracle.
We went over what a district leader should do and I gave
him an invite to have a vision for his district and a plan to achieve it. I
believe he will be a great district leader and am excited about his district.
Other than that we saw a Liu BeiBei get baptized and he
actually meet with us for a while. We gave him his first copy of the Book of
Mormon and invited him to read it. Which he did and he prayed about it to know
if its true and got an answer. In his testimony he said this morning I read in
the Book of Mormon Mosiah 26 where Christ says " This is my church, he who
is baptized into it, him will I forgive."
Got to love the Book of Mormon.
Love you President,
Elder Sabey
PS Don't forget the assistant thing
Spiritual thought:
Christ always is
the example of being what you teach. I love how he tells us to do or be
anything he has already done it. Like baptism. Or like when lawyers try and
trick him and ask what is the greatest commandment he tells them that it is to
love god and others. He tells them out of love and doesn't just ignore them
like I might if people were trying to trick me.
Who we are matters way more then what we teach!
Love you all so
much!
JULY 28, 2013
Hey family and friends. I love you all so much. I am so
grateful for your support. It is weird in 5 days I will have been on my mission
2 years. I am a little shocked. Luckily I still have 33 days. But I will have a
really short time in Colorado. I will need to get a new license bot just renew
because mine expired when I turned 21, so if you could get that driving test
arranged like Saturday night or Monday morning I would be grateful.
Anyways this week
was great!
Tell us about some of the best lessons you have been in
and given--tell us about who you were teaching and what went so well. I had a
lesson where we taught tithing this week to a Que Dixiong who has been
improving a lot and quitting smoking. We set the lesson up at a members house
with a great family and the Father was so great for him and they talked a lot
about their conversion which didn't leave much time for the lesson so I was
bold and just told him what tithing was and he stopped me as I was promising blessings
and said this is no problem. One tenth is about how much I would spend on
cigarettes before I started to quit smoking. All I did was get him to a members
house and tell him the commandment and he believed and accepted it because of
God and the Spirit.
Also I had a
lesson with a Jerry who is an English class student and is close to baptism and
I had prepared a lesson for him to his needs but about half way through it I
felt I was just talking when I needed to listen so I kept talking, but the
feeling came again and so I finished real fast and started asking questions and
it went way better. I love how even when I ignored the first prompting I was
still blessed with a great lesson.
Tell us about creative ways of contacting that you've
used. I have done balloon contacting; I have done caroling, taken a basketball
and given it to people to hold then talking to them. This way they can't run
away because they are holding my ball. I have some commandment Contacting
telling people about commandments and also baptism contacting where we invite
to baptism on the street to mention a few. I have also done "Ask a Mormon
any question" board contacting.
Letter to
Pres:
Sabey, Matthew John
Dearest President Day
Good news. I received revelation for you! I should be
your assistant next transfer! How does that sound?
This week was great. I got to go on 2 great exchanges and
saw many miracles. I love my zone and was way proud of the work they did this
week. Other than church attendance and baptisms almost all the key indicators
went up.
I am so excited for this last month of my mission. I have
been seeing great miracles. But first let me report on exchanges.
I went with Elder King and we were able to meet with a
few investigators one was deaf so they usually have Elder Weng write characters
but Elder Weng was in Tucheng so we watched little music videos with Chinese
subtitles and wrote simple messages while he was watching. It was pretty fun.
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