May 22, 2011 - Idol Worship & I got hit by a truck!

Hello family!
So this week was pretty good. Two days ago we had an investigator pass an interview. He is really good. His name is 林弟兄 and he is about 60 years old. He was a former investigator and everyone in the ward already knows him. His only problem is that he worships idols. He literally has an alter where there is three statues of "gods". He bows down to them every night and every morning. And in the past this had prevented him from getting baptized. But we kinda dug deeper and asked him WHY in the heck he "worships" these idols. He said that the only reason that he does it is because his sons who don't live at home actually believe that the idols can help them. And its a rule that the idols have to stay in the grandpa's house until the one of the sons gets a real house with at least 2 levels so that the idols can stay on the top floor. Or something weird like that, I don't know. But anyway, the only reason he does it is because his sons will get really mad if he doesn't bai bai everyday. He doesn't actually believe in the idols. He believes Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are the only Gods that actually exist. So I talked to the mission president about it and he said that because he is doing it for his family and not for himself, he is allowed to be baptized. That was easy.... OK so the hard part was convincing lin dx that it is OK. So we brought over a member who is in the same situation. It was really cool. When we first got there we had no idea how we were going to tell him that he was allowed to be baptized. Then randomly a thought popped into my head to share the scripture in Mosiah 13:12 where Abinadi is explaining the ten commandments. Specifically the whole "don't worship idols" thing... Anyway. In English its not that cool. But in Chinese it fit perfectly for this situation. In English it says something like, "Do not make unto yourself any graven image". And in chinese it says "ni bu ke wei ziji...." Which basically means that you cant worship idols for your benefit. Kinda. I don't really know how to explain "wei" in English. Anyway. It was cool. Just know that.

I don't think I need glasses, I just think they look cool. Everyone here has glasses that they wear, even if you don't need them.
Oh yeah, last week I went to a special training meeting in Taizhong for district and zone leaders. It was really good.

OHHHHＹＥＡＨ. OK so this morning when we were going to play basketball at the church, and on the way there it was raining really hard. It was 6:10 in the morning, and there was basically nobody on the roads. (when it even sprinkles the Asians all get scared and hide inside their houses). And on the way there, I got HIT BY A TRUCK! yup you read that right, I finally got hit. It was freakin sweet. So the guy came whizzing around a corner and went flying onto the road that I was on and since it had been raining, his brakes were not good at all and he hit the back of my bike. I got knocked wayyyy off my bike. Like I went flying and I landed about 8-10 feet away from my bike (which also got knocked into the air). But luckily, because of my ninja skills, I landed cat-like on my feet... actually I wouldn't use the word "cat-like". You know when... OK when you are on a moving vehicle and you jump off, you have to take a few steps when you land or else you fall flat on your face. well that's more like what happened. And because we are in Taiwan, most people don't have insurance and don't want to get in any trouble so the guy picked up my bike said sorry in English and then drove off. I would have been mad except I wasn't even hurt. I had adrenaline running through my body for a few minutes but that is about it.

Good music would be nice. But I can only listen to Motab, EFY, and any hymns sung by anybody as long as it isn't like "singles ward" rock versions of hymns.
Don't worry about my laptop. Elder Graham can fix it when he gets home.
Elder Luck is 100% back in the game. He played basketball with us this morning.
We don't have that ensign yet. but there is a mission conference this Thursday.

Love,
Elder Graham
PS sorry for the lack of pictures.

See ya in a year,
桂長老
桂俊杰
Elder Graham