ELDER RYAN DALE CHRISTENSEN: April 2009

April 22, 2009 - P-Day

April 21, 2009 - Some Favorite Foods

Last p-day we went to a reptile zoo and I got to hold the burmese python! haha my companion was way scared! haha last sunday after church the members were eating chicken feet!!! i tried one its not that bad it just looks scary! haha dont worry mom its way nutrious! one of my favorite meals! can you guess what it is? haha Pigs feet! way delicious! its hard to pick up with chopsticks though!

April 16, 2009 - Elder David A. Bednar

Taiwan welcomes Elder Bednar
Members, missionaries counseled during whirlwind tour of island
By Elder James L. Phillips and Sister Judith L. Phillips

TAIPEI, TAIWAN

At the conclusion of a five-day visit to Taiwan, April 16-20, Elder David A. Bednar praised the faith of local Church members and missionaries.

"We have felt the strength of their testimonies and the power of the Spirit in every gathering," he said. "This has been a faith-promoting experience for Sister Bednar and me."

Elder Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve began his Taiwan tour meeting with the missionaries of the Taiwan Kaohsiung Mission on the south end of the island. It concluded with a meeting with the missionaries of the Taiwan Taipei Mission in the island's capital city of Taipei in the north.

Sandwiched between those meetings were a half dozen member and missionary meetings, plus a stake conference. In total, approximately 5,000 Taiwan members and missionaries were taught in the presence of one of the Lord's apostles. Hundreds more witnessed the various meetings by closed-circuit television broadcasts to outlying meetinghouses.

"We loved the people," said Sister Susan Bednar, who accompanied her husband. "They've been warm, they've been friendly and they have strong testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

The member meetings were conducted by Elder Joseph Chung, an Area Seventy in Taiwan. Elder Chung joined the Church at age 17. As a young man, he served as a missionary in Kaohsiung. Elder Sam Wong, an Area Seventy from Hong Kong, participated with Elder Bednar in the Taichung Taiwan Stake Conference.

Elder Liang Zhi-kai of Yuan Lin, Taiwan, a missionary in the Taiwan Kaohsiung Mission, considered it a high honor to be in the presence of Elder Bednar. "He taught me to rely on the Spirit in my missionary teaching," he said at the conclusion of the Kaohsiung Mission's three-hour meeting. "It is the Spirit that teaches."

Commented Elder Laren Helms of Manassa, Colo., of the same mission: "I learned that people are converted by the Spirit which has no language barrier," Elder Helms, like all of the non-local missionaries in Taiwan, has had to learn to teach the gospel in Mandarin Chinese.

At all of the mission and general member meetings during Elder Bednar's visit, his primary teaching method was to solicit questions from the congregation. He would then respond to the questions, always concluding his comments by asking the questioner, "Have I responded to your question?" He encouraged children and youth to participate along with the adults.

In both the missionary and member meetings, Elder Bednar emphasized that it is the member's job to find and the missionary's job to teach. He told the missionaries that they are now full-time missionaries, but when they are released they will become "lifelong missionaries."

At the meeting with missionaries of the Taiwan Taichung Mission, Elder Bednar emphasized that missionaries must listen, observe and discern when they teach the gospel. Unless such an approach is used, there can be no teaching, he said.

Commented Elder Zanazir Alexander of Bay of Islands, New Zealand, "Elder Bednar brings the Spirit into the meeting. He gives you a desire to change and to do better. His teaching style will help me in my missionary teaching."

At the member meeting in Taichung, Elder Bednar explained to the congregation that the pursuit of gospel knowledge is something that should be lifelong. "Our gospel knowledge is not the responsibility of the Church. That responsibility rests upon each one of us," he said.

At times, Elder Bednar's teachings were short, simple and direct. For example, he taught the brethren attending the priesthood leadership session of the Taichung stake conference with these words: "Living the gospel is not hard, not living the gospel is hard!"

The next morning, at a meeting for new members of the Taichung stake, he emphasized: "Membership is not a spectator sport. New members should not expect to sit on the benches. You will be expected to work." Later that morning, at the stake conference general session, he said: "A testimony alone is not enough; it must lead to a continuing conversion. A testimony is a beginning, not a conclusion."

Accompanying Elder and Sister Bednar during their Taiwan tour were Elder Kent D. Watson and his wife, Sister Connie Watson. Elder Watson of the Second Quorum of the Seventy is second counselor in the Asia Area presidency. Elder Watson served his first mission in Taiwan in the 1960s and in the 1980s was president of the Taiwan Taichung Mission. When he was asked to speak at the member and stake meetings, he did so in fluent Mandarin.

Photo by Elder James L. PhillipsFrom left, Sister Susan Bednar and Elder David A. Bednar are greeted in Taichung by Elder Kent Watson, Elder Sam Wong and Elder Joseph Chung.

When called upon by Elder Bednar to speak at the Kaohsiung missionary meeting, Elder Watson's emotions came to the surface. He told of how, as a young man in 1963 and 1964, he had spent the first six months of his mission working in Kaohsiung. He and his companion were two of the four missionaries assigned to Taiwan's second-largest city. "Everything that I am I owe, in large measure, to my mission in Taiwan," he said to today's 109 elders and sisters of the Kaohsiung mission.

Photo by Elder James L. PhillipsDuring their tour of Taiwan, Elder Bednar, right, and his wife, Susan, visit with Taichung Mayor Jason Hu and his wife, Shaw Hsiao-ling.

Later, he told the members and missionaries in other meetings that in 2009, 45 years after his first mission, that Taiwan, with its 10 stakes and two districts and nearly 50,000 members, is a beacon for the Church in Asia."

Abby Haung, a young single adult from the Kaohsiung 3rd Ward, is a freshman student at a Kaohsiung medical university. She left the Kaohsiung member meeting wanting to know more about the gospel and to come closer to the Lord.

"Everyone is worried about the world economy," she noted. "But Elder Bednar taught us that we will find comfort in our faith and in our families. He answered our questions."

Photo by Elder James L. PhillipsFollowing the Taichung Taiwan Stake Conference, members congregate outside the stake center where they were counseled by Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve. It was one stop on Elder Bednar's tour of Taiwan.

Elder Bednar's soft-spoken, yet powerful messages to the Taiwan saints are captured in a comment he made at the Taipei member meeting. "Because I love you, I simply want to serve and assist you," he said.
Photo by Elder James L. PhillipsElder David A. Bednar, right, visits with Taiwan Kaohsiung Mission President William Hsu. Elder Bednar spoke to missionaries in Taiwan's three missions.

For the members and missionaries of Taiwan, the memory of an apostle's visit will long be held in their hearts. Elder Paul Meyers of Provo, Utah, serves in the Taiwan Taipei Mission. He said he was touched deeply by his mission's meeting with Elder Bednar.

"I came away knowing that I had shaken the hand of [an apostle of the Lord]," he said. "It is something that I will never forget."

April 14, 2009 - P-Day Pictures

Standing on the roof of his apartment with Guiren City in the background

Elder Stockamp

April 5, 2009 - First Baptism!

Hello my beautiful family!

This week was fun! Elder Solorzano (my dad!) since he is my trainer, left me today to go to Kaohsiung City! It was sad to see him go but he left me with good advice. But my new companion is Elder Stockamp, he is way cool, he is from North Carolina. He went into the Air Force a year before he got his call. He went skydiving there!! I am so excited for this move. I hope we can still see success here in Guiren! I met him last Saturday when we went to Tainan City to help clean the graves! haha it was cool we got to wear chinese straw hats. I will send pictures! Man I want to watch General Conference you are lucky! We get to see it in english this week! Who's the new Apostle? Anything good about missionary work? Wow 53000 awesome so 52999 missionaries! haha so cool I am one of them. I am having so much fun! Wow Mexico!!! That is so cool tell Jordan I am so happy for him, and i hope he can write me soon.. does Brinae like her gifts! I figured we are rich missionaries, so everyone will get a gift for their birthdays I am pretty sure the boys are next! Dray I love your picture, you are an amazing artist. I thought Brinae drew that at first! I hung it up on my wall next to my desk so i can see it everyday! Ya don't use wood bats wait until you go pro! Metal goes farther!!!! Dad yes please pray in the celestial room, when are you going next? If you can pray for my chinese too that would be awesome! I am happy my companion is on his 14th move right now, his chinese is way good! I am sure he will be a big help! He dies in 2 in a half months! Sad huh! I am so glad I was born in Guiren! This area is amazing! ok I love you I want to leave you with a lot of pictures today! Alyea my experience was my first baptism on Saturday night, I had to learn the baptisaml prayer in chinese, when I was about to baptise I forgot the words. So I said a quick prayer to remember it cuz I had 1 day to study it! and I remember the words flowed off my lips! I had the gift of toungues dad! The spirit was so strong!

My companion said that my tones were perfect and the baptism was very smooth. I didn't drown him like Nicks! lol. So ya also I watched dai change his life! To go from a bad mood all the time to smiling and loving this gospel and knowing that this church is true! After he bore his testimony and said he thought that he was going to die under the water it felt like a long time but I helped him come out under the water. Then he related it to resurection we die and then Jesus lifts us up! Oh man it was amazing! I hope that helps sweetie! ok I have to go! Have fun watching conference, pay attention and let the spirit be your guide!!!!

Love Elder Christensen

Thousand - Buddha Bodhi Temple

They rode their bikes 40 minutes down the road to Guanmiao to see this Miao sitting on top of the Temple.

Behind Wangli Park, red titles and green walls seclude the Temple of Buddhist Monks. The large 8 foot 4 Buddha is the feature of the Bodhi Temple managed by Master Baiyun Bodhi Temple has 999 Budhha statutes in the private alter. This is why the Temple is called the Temple of "Thousand Buddha's"