Elder Baird's Something About Socks: WEEK 77 TAIPEI/TIANMU: Good Things Fall Apart (Pt 2) (Except it's AJR this time instead of Jon Bellion) (And it's 7-11 and not Starbucks)

Well Hello everyone again! For those of you who don't understand the email title, you obviously have not been paying attention to my emails for the past year! You've got to go back and read my email from over a year ago if you want to understand this... Good luck!

Here's the link to my blog.

https://elderspencerbaird.blogspot.com/

It was while I was in Hualian.

So we will start with Monday. Bought a 600 dollar fountain pen. Pretty good stuff!

Played a little piano cause I love that. And that was it!

So then we move on to Tuesday. Tuesday was MLC and we talked about a bunch of stuff that we want to change and it was kind of overwhelming even though I don't technically count as part of the Mission Leadership Council cause I just do translating. But still. Gotta a lot to do!

Anyways, I was feeling a little off and that I wasn't doing good enough and so I prayed for a long time and I felt better! Crazy how that works~~!

Then cam Wednesday. And my people. Wednesday was the day that fell apart. Here we gooooooooo!!!

So I ran in the morning which was lit. It's been a hot second since I've lived with someone who wanted to run so that was awesome.

Then we had District council and things just went long so I just was unable to get my whole training done which was a little sad. But we had to end early because we had a friend show up who wanted to meet with us.

And thus began the oddest lesson of my life...

So. Just for starting off. It was over an hour and a half.

And he talked for probably and hour and a half.

Okay that was an exaggeration for story telling purposes. But he was probably talking for at least an hour of it! And man he can taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllk..

Like he can talk more than I can...

And I can talk a LOT!

So this man is looking for truth in his life. Which is great!

But he wasn't willing to learn truth. He speant half the time talking about how missionaries always said that if he wanted to know what was truth he should pray. But he doesn't want to do that. He just wants to find the original Bible and compare it to the Joseph Smith version to see if it was true or not.

And so I just sat there and felt so bad for him. I was so sad because I just felt God's love fo r him. And the spirit was so strong in the lesson. Testifying that what we said was true. I had never felt that I had taught more with the spirit than in that lesson. Which was amazing! But it was so sad to see his heart too hard to accept it.

At one point he was going off on Joseph Smith and I just stopped him in his tracts and bore the most powerful testimony of Joseph Smith in my life. I had tears in my eyes as I told this man that Joespeh Smith, a man I have never had the pleasure of meeting yet, was a prophet of God. That he was called by God to restore the gospel of Jesus Christ to the earth. That he translated the Book of Mormon so that we, right now, can gain a testimony of the truthfulness of these things.

And that's true. And I saw the Holy Ghost tell him it was true.

And he just didn't care.

He told us that all he wanted to do was convince us that we were wrong and so we said, we don't want to convince you of everything. Let's just say a prayer and we can end this now.

So I'm saying the prayer and praying for him and his life because I really do feel love and sadness for this man. Just hoping that he will one day be willing to accept the gospel.

And as I end my prayer I said "Please bless Mr. Lee and his......" And I stopped. And I had the craziest feeling come over me, honestly it was super uncomfortable, but it was like 'his wife' and I was like, I have no clue if this man has a family let alone a wife. How on earth would I say his wife if I don't know if he has one or not. Are you sure I should say that? 'yah I' m pretty sure'

And so after a wayyy long pause I said 'Please bless Mr. Lee and his wife's relationship will improve"

After that I ended my prayer. He said thanks and then left.

I still have no clue if he has a wife or not or if their relationship needs improving. But I do know that God wanted me to say that to him. Who knows why.

But after the lesson I went outside with my companions and we just said a prayer of gratitude for the spirit in our lesson, because it was so palpable in the lesso even if he didn't care, and a prayer that he would eventually come to the truth.

And I just cried. I'd never cried over a friend before. But I just KNEW that this was the message for him. And it hurt so bad to see him reject it.

And it makes me realize how much it must hurt God when we reject him and his teachings. Makes me want to be a better person for him. And that's what I'm trying to do.

Well since the lesson went so long we didn't have enough time to get dinner before English group. So we just started teaching. I hadn't gotten anything prepared, so we just practiced saying "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog" over and over and over again. Pretty fun!

Afterwards one of the participants came and started playing the piano. And this guy is a legend. He's actually trainging to be a piano professor and is studying his masters in piano performance.

So in short.

He's really good.

So we sat there and listened for like 30 minutes. Eventually I started talking about his life and he shared that his grandma had passed away 2 weeks ago. And that he was really sad and depressed and considering sucicde.

And it turned into a 30 minute conversation about how the gospel will bless out lives and how if he is baptized he will change.

And so as we were talking I was like, "I'm going to invite this person to baptism. My first time meeting with him. And I'm gonna do it! This is going to be the greatest miracle of my whole mission! This will be the story that I tell my children and my children's children and in every talk I ever give! "

So I asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said yes!!!!!!!!!!!!

GUYS HE SAID YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was shocked! I used what President taught us about how to set Baptismal dates and it worked!

After walking him out the door I just feel on my knees and thanked God for this amazing miracle!

That's when my companion is like. I think I know him.

And then my other companion is like, I'm pretty sure I've seen him before.

Isn't he a member they ask?

No, of course he's not. What member is that good of an actor! I mean I had him crying as he said he wanted to be baptized! There was no way! This was my miracle!!!!! The spirit was so strong, there is no way it was fake!

Well

After a few phone calls we learned that he was indeed a member.

Shock

And that's when I learned that it generally doesn't happen like it does in the stories. Not dating and not missionary work. All super different.

So yah, I set a new member on Baptismal date! Go me! Rip

So anyways we get home that night and I'm telling one of my roommates this story and how crazy the spirit was even though he was fake and turns out that 5 months ago HE had set the same member on Baptismal Date!!!!!!!

Crazy......

Gotta love the mission!

So yah that was Wednesday. Crazy day full of the Spirit and odd stuff.

Then the next day we had a lesson with a friend in her shop, and we put her on Baptismal Date! She really knows that this can change her like, and I'm 100% positive she is not a member XD so that was an awesome miracle.

I threw down some illegal u turns trying to park

And honestly I just tried my best and so that was good enough! That was basically the day XDXD

The next day, Saturday, I was feeling a little down cause things had just been meh the day before and I don't like meh days. And I listened to a devotional by Elder Uchtdorf for missionaries. And in it he talks about said "The pain stores may look random and chaotic at times, but they are purposely placed for the Saviors masterpeice' and this brought me a ton of comfort and I really felt God's love for me which is awesome!!!

We met with a friend that night who bought us dinner. Turns our she's not really interested in our message, but she thinks it is super cool that we are so young and out doing this and so she buys us food and chats with us.

Then we went to a members house and this man is so strong in his faith it's incredible! And his 12 year old son is more ready to be a missionary than I was when I got my call LOL! Legeng family right there! Daily scripture study and prayer in the home can change your family!

That's true.

Saturday we had to finish a bunch of things in the office so we just did that kind of busy work stuff. Then we took the train to our area

We met two people back to back who said they would be willing to meet with us! So that was a miracle! Now we just have to hope that they do!!!!

I've got faith

Then Sunday we were hoping that our friend who is on Baptismal date would come to church. And this is when the good things fell apart again part 3.

She texts us saying that it was too much pressure and that she thought it would be better if she just stopped meeting with us for a while.

That was very very sad.

But this is agency.

We then tried to find some LAs, but they weren't home. So we took the train home and then got reports ready for the week.

And that was the week!!!!

It was crazy!

And despite some things not going as we planed for them to go, I felt the spirit and the love of God and the reassurance that I am doing good.

God accepts our efforts. God wants us to try. And so that is what We have to do. Is just try every day to follow him and hear his voice. We've got to get rid of the things that block us from hearing him, and do the things that strengthen the signal.

I invite everyone this week to do better on one thing to strengthen the signal, and to do worse on one thing blocking the signal.

Only 1 thing! So easy right?

But the blessings will be amazing!

Anyways, love you all so much! Shoot me a message if you're feeling like it! Maybe that is the one thing you can do better on this week! Reaching out to servants of the Lord!!!!

HAHAHAHA

Love,

Elder Baird