Elder Baird's Something About Socks: WEEK 47 MUZHA: I PAID MY DUES, I learned the rap, I say thanks to God for a dog,

Paid my dues, made it through!!!

Spread the news, I'm on the loose!!!

Making moves, I need some room!!!

Though he's cool, well, don't assume, don't assume, ay!!!

Well Ladies, Gents, boys, girls, and of course my friendly neighborhood spiders. We have a new week! Which means new email! Which means more stories from my life.

Current update. It is typhooning outside. I'm right there with you Floridian missionaries. I don't know anyone serving in Florida so..... That doesn't really work that well.

Anyways let's just start off with the fact that this week was pretty decent. Actually that's a lie. It was a good week!

Let's start with Monday. After I left you guys I went and got my haircut by a member! So it was free! And it actually looks pretty good. Other than.... she shaved off my widow's peak.... I have no clue why. I guess maybe they aren't things in Taiwan, but it is gone. So growing that back out is gonna be really weird.

But then she fed us food. Like you feed most people... And then she was like "Oh you most be allergic to wearing your mask! That's why your face is like that. Here, take this soap and cleaning stuff."

Oh Taiwan. How great your rainstorms and how kind your people.

So now I have like four different soaps that will all supposedly fix my acne... Still not seeing much improvement. Oh well. It's a conversation starter I guess? So I guess I'm thankful for that? Yah who knows....

Anyways I finally set up my Christmas lights. Took long enough. But now I feel all nice inside at night!

Which brings us to my Prayer miracle of Tuesday!

So we all do this little food prayer thing before we eat just cause it is what we are supposed to do, and we do that little "plz bless this food will nourish and strengthen my body and yah" so of course I sit down after cooking some meat for lunch.

And I cut into it and see it is a little red inside and I'm like, 'sweet', I cooked this so well'

That's when God was like "Oh you poor fool, how does he not know?"

And I was like, "What?"

"Wait did you hear that? Oh, turn the mic off, turn the m...."

So I sat there and the Holy Ghost was like, 'That's pork'

And I was like, 'Oh yah it is pork, yum!'

Then I realized that I wasn't completely sure if pork could be undercooked like beef. So luckily I called my mission mom who, bless her heart, told my I was stoopid and that it was supposed to be all the way cooked. Of course she didn't say it like that. But she should have!

So I then put it back on the pan and finished cooking it. But it was so good that I prayed over the food cause I probably would have died, or worse, vomited. So God does answer prayers! Even the little kid food prayer!

Wednesday I met my district and they are so great. Almost all of them are Taiwanese, which means that it is all in Chinese which makes life a little hard, but practice!

Then we started English Conversation Group! We can't say the cl*** word or else we get sued... So that's why it has such a long name. But that went pretty well and we taught all the peoples how to speak the English language. And they always ask super hard questions and I just sit there as a native speaker and realize that our language really is quite dumb. But that is okay.

Then a member got us real apple pie! Like from Costco! Like straight up American! Like not even Taiwanese! Like real! Apple! Pie! it was great.

Then on Thursday I was biking down the road and stopped to talk to a guy. I asked if he had time to learn more and he was like, right now. So I walked with him to a drink shop and taught the first lesson to him on the street and he said he would come to church! I was so excited! A new friend! And another friend at church! I had so much faith that he would come and I prayed and I was really happy.

(foreshadowing.... He doesn't)

Then Saturday. First off, mad respect to all my missionaries serving in the mighty U.S. Of A.! HOOAH! I don't know how yall do it. Talking to white people in Taiwan is just sooooo scary because they are always so mean! Like I was talking to this guy and his buddy came out and he was white and he was like, "oh. Mormons"

"Well actually sir it is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints and we would prefer if you used that name instead of the one you just did."

I didn't say that.

I was just like, oh my goodness he is so scary and not nice and so we left..... But like mad respect to all yalls in America!

Also, we were in this 7-11 and this dog just kept walking in and out. I have videos included! But there was this little girl who was loving it! And she eventually was like, 'A foreigner that speaks Chinese!'

And we started talking with this mom and her daughter only to find out that they were also Christian and that the mom's older sister was a member of our church and that this mom used to go to our Church but was now part of a different one. So that was crazy! We invited them to English, so we will see what happens! But is was way crazy!

Then I was talking with these two Bros in front of a stinky Tofu stand and one of them was like, "I'm a DJ" then the other one was like "I'm a music producer." And I was like, "No way me too! What programs do you use?"

And so we talked about music for a while and one of them was like, "Yah, I was in LA the past couple months and my uncle there is an institute teacher and a member of your Church, He's actually kind of famous down there, his name is Brother Zhang"

No, Way! I started thinking.... I know an institute teacher in LA whose name is brother Zhang.

So I ask him, "Do you have a cousin who's on a mission? Sister Zhang? Terrah?"

And he was like, "Yah that's my cousin"

GUYS!

I was in the same MTC district as Sister Zhang. She is serving in Canada Chinese speaking and she has relatives that live in Taiwan. And here I am talking with her cousin! If that's not the Hand of God, I don't know what is!

So we keep talking and get onto the topic of Rap and I tell him about NF who he had never heard of before. So he pulls up PAID MY DUES. And I knew this was my opportunity. So he starts listening and kind of jamming along because it's such a good song. And I start rapping with it and they're like 'Dang, this guy's cool'

Then the fast rap came and I just KILLED it! I memorized the song while I was home and I just went ham. And they were all shocked and now Jeison and I are Bros. And I know his cousin. He's not a member, so who knows what will happen. Maybe he will learn that there's cool people in the church and want to join! Who knows, But I definitely know it was God's will for us to just randomly meet up! So that was so cool! And I got to rap my favorite song and so we tight now!

Anyways that was a crazy cool miracle!

Then church was great! Mostly... You never know with Fast and Testimony meeting... Somehow everyone decided that they were going to talk about the law of chastity... So I'm sitting next to my friend who doesn't know about the Law of Chastity yet just being like "please don't let anyone say anything too weird!"

And people did.

But our friend was chill and so that was good!

Then we had a fireside that night and we got to sing and that was way fun!

Anyways, I've got things to do today like walk out in a typhoon. It's supposedly not going to stop raining for the next week+ straight..... I'm sooooooo happpppyyyyy and looooking forwaaard to thaaaat.......................................................................... :/

Anyways! Love you all so much! Be sure to write me emails :)))) they make me happy and that counts as service! So be sure to serve someone this week! Like me :))

Love you all so much!

Elder Baird

Something about socks!

What are we willing to give up to come to God? What do we think is more important than God? Anything? Should there be things? Obviously no. Nothing should be more important than God, but sometimes that is easier said than done.

I met this guy the other day and as I started to talk to him he lit up his cigarette. And I just stopped there and was like "Don't you know that's really bad for your body?" to which he responded "Yah, I do".

Which brought up the obvious questions, "Then why do you do it?"

"Cause I'm stressed"

So of course I shared with him that through Jesus we can overcome all of our stressors and it won't be bad for our body. In fact it will be great for you! But we just have to come to Jesus and we will be more happy than we can ever think.

He said that he was fine.

And that left me thinking.

Sometimes we are at a crossroads. And there's two paths. And we ask God, "Where does the first path lead."

"Eternal Happiness. More Joy than you can imagine. And peace and rest in my loving care"

"Hmmm, sounds nice! What about the other path?"

"Eternal Damnation" is the reply.

"oh... That's no fun.... So this one goes to eternal happiness..... Oh.... This is a hard choice! Gimmie a sec.... Hmmmm.... I think I'm going to choose this second path because it looks fun! and I don't have to give anything up!"

When looked at like this we can see that it should be rather simple. But humbling ourselves before God is one of the hardest things we can do in this life. I had this experience about a week ago when I was feeling really low and I wanted to be a good missionary. So I just and pleaded with God to tell me what I needed to change. I put everything on the sacrificial alter and told him to tell me what I needed to get rid of, change, or start doing.

And I sat there and a thought came into my head. It had to deal with communication with one of my friends. And immediately I was like, that is from me, that's not the spirit. I don't need to give that up. That is a good thing that is helping me a lot!

So I sat there for a while longer.

And it came back.

'Nope... Something else Heavenly Father... How about... I will give up punching people! Yep how about that? Okay there we go! I'm not gonna do that because it's bad!'

That obviously isn't what happened, but I sat there and made excuses. But I knew that I was being prideful and that God wanted me to give this thing up.

So eventually I told him I would. If that was really His will. This thing that was helping me so much in my mission. Giving me strength to keep going and doing well. But, if that is what you want. Take it. It is yours. Because I want to be yours.

And I was fully willing to give it up.

And when I did that I felt free. I had given myself in that moment to God. I luckily did not have to give up this thing, but God was really just testing me to see if I would really follow him. At least that is how I would look at it.

So I invite all of you to do this. Evaluate which path you are on, and then ask yourself if you want to go the place where that path leads. And if the answer is no, then humble yourselves before God.

I love the General Conference talk, "What Lack I Yet" And I fully recommend that you go and listen to it and apply what it is teaching.

Pride is the great downfall of the children of men. So don't let it happen to you! Reach out to God for his help and come to Christ. Whatever it is that we need to give up. Whatever it is! When we hold something back from God we are telling him that thing is more important to us than He is. Than God! So start today. Start today to give it up. Chances are you already know what it is that you are hiding from God. So just stop.

I love you all so much and I know that doing this will bless your life more than you could ever ask for! God loves you so much and he wants you to be happy. That's why we have commandments, because through them we really will be able to be happy! I know this is true! I KNOW IT! And if you don't then start today to learn.

What Lack I Yet?

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2015/10/what-lack-i-yet?id=title1&lang=eng#title1

Link to videos for the week.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NePbL8k2QZBfNFSYA