October 3, 2010

Dear fam,
So........ coooool story for you guys.... you might even freak out a little. I know I did. So in my last package that you guys sent me, you gave me a copy of an article from the New Era, and I told you guys it probably happened around the area that I am in because we have one of the most famous night markets in Taiwan in our area. Anyway, we found that the guy from the story not only lives in the city that I serve in, not only is he in my zone and in the stake where I am serving, but he is in MY AREA and in MY WARD!! Did that just blow your mind?! Cuz it blew my mind right out of the water bucket. Anyway, I think I’m going to type in my journal entry from that night:
9/28/10
Sooooooo today was cool. Tonight we went to visit a member family. The Cai family. (1Tim 4:12 written in the margin) and they were great. All we did was get to know them and let them know us, where we are from, our families etc.. And then we asked them if we could help them in any way. Then Cai di xiong got up and left. To answer our question, Cai jie mei just said "eat the pineapple I gave you" and then she laughed. sad face. But then Cai dixiong came back with the latest Liahona (September 2010) and opened to "Miracle at a Stoplight". He told us that this story happened here in feng jia. Elder Thomas and I were like... "oh that’s pretty cool". But then he explained more. The guy in the story, Su meng wei, still lives here! Him, his wife and his 5 children. He even holds the melcheizedek preisthood. But he is less active. What happened is he married his wife, had 4 kids, but then him and his wife got in lots of fights and that’s why, in the story, he was having a bad day. Anyway, he still got a divorce but then he married a woman who had 2 kids already. But before he married her, him and his kids got baptized. And according to the Cai family, his wife and her kids are members as well. Here is the problem; her parents didn’t approve of them getting married in the first place. So to satisfy her parents, they got a divorce and they aren’t technically married. But they still live together and do all the things married people do... So when they had their interview to get married in the temple, the stake president said they couldn’t go because legally they weren’t married, and thereby were technically breaking the law of chastity. So because he couldn’t go to the temple, he stopped coming to church. So Cai di xiong gave us his number so we could work on them coming back to church and hopefully to the temple! He lives about the distance between our house in Kaysville and church. So close!
Ok you are out of my journal now.
I read a cool talk by Arlene Calkins from the sep 2008 ensign called "casual gratitude".It’s really short but I’m sure you will still like it.
ummm what else happened this week... deng yi xia.
My scripture of the week is john 14:26 notice how it says remembrance. I think it’s pretty deep.

I can’t wait for conference! Yes mom, we made it just fine with the money we had. The members rarely feed us. Which I think is awesome because it’s always something really gross like squid. Ewww! This week we did lots of cleaning at night and we found out we have a wok and two blenders and a juicer thing and lots of random stuff like that. Favorite food.... hmmm today we will be eating kal rou (bbq) and its sooo good. It’s an unlimited amount of food and its all meat! But it’s expensive! like 9 US dollars. I don’t think there is anything I need. ..except for less distractions... haha!
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See ya in two years,
桂长老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham