9/28/15 Emails

The fact that I'll be 20 this week has been in the back of my mind for a while. I can't believe that I'm already almost 20! :O That kind of freaks me out! :) 

I liked what you sent me in Corinthians (2 Corinthians 12;10), it was pretty good. Especially since I've left on my mission, I've been trying to look at everything as a learning experience and try to think "ok, what can I learn from this and what can I do to improve?" I feel like missions are a big, 2-year repentance process. We can use repentance to change ourselves; our bad habits, our weaknesses, etc. and turn them into strengths. It's so cool to see how much you can accomplish over a period of time. :) It's not always fun; the things you want to change or the things we need to change are sometimes the hardest, but if we are able to humble ourselves before God, we can turn our weaknesses into strengths. Like in Ether 12:12 or 12:17 or something. I forgot exactly what verse. :) But I do feel like I have been able to make a lot of progress personally and have been able to learn and grow a ton since I started my mission and I really hope that I can continue to do so and change more and more for what I have left of my mission. :) 

I'm also super excited for general conference! I love it so much!!! :D  

I'm jealous of your weather right now; there's a typhoon today. :) I really don't like rain or wind, let alone rain AND wind. ;)

Thanks so much for your love, support and prayers!! :D I love you guys and am praying for you all the time! :) Love you!!  

--

Elder Fleming

Son of Champions (and don't you forget it!) ;)

Sorry I only took one picture this week of my companion wearing a pomello. People do it here in Taiwan for some reason. He's becoming one of them! :) Love you guys!

Ooops! More Pictures (9/21/15)

Ooops! I missed posting a bunch of pictures to go with Elder Fleming's last email.

 Us with our investigator and my new tie! :D

This Week and Also Pictures (email 09/21/15)

    Hello all! Sorry, time is short this week, so this might be pretty quick and short. :/

This week was pretty good. We found a less-active part-member family last week, so hopefully we can continue meeting with them and help them come to church!

     I've been feeling a lot of stress lately, because of the change to senior companion, district leader and I also have to try to help out my companion. It's been causing me a lot of stress, but it's ok. We went on companion exchanges on Friday, which was a nice break, because I got to be the Junior companion for the day (I went to the zone leader's area). That was really nice! Junior companion is a lot less stressful than senior companion! :)

     The ward here is really awesome; they're really great! They're really helpful and willing to help us out! The interview went well and I was able to get some questions answered and stuff from President Blickenstaff. It was really nice to meet with him and address my concerns to him. I also asked him if I could go to an investigator's baptism this Saturday (I met with her and her less active parents back in Yuan Lin and I had given her a baptismal goal to be baptized and a goal for her parents to re-activate so her dad could baptize her on 9/26), and President said I could go! I called up Elder Davis my last companion and he said that she had to push her baptism back a week, so I'll have to re-ask President Blickenstaff if I can go on the 3rd. That would be an awesome birthday present! :D 

      Speaking of, I don't really know what I want for my birthday. If you were thinking of sending a package you can. I don't really need any pants or clothes or anything right now, but if you wanted to send some candy or food I guess. Or you could send money instead, but I don't really need anything that I can think of right now. I don't know how expensive it would be and I wouldn't want you guys to spend a lot on me. :) 

     As for our investigators, they're doing pretty well. We actually went and hung out with one of our investigators all day today. It was pretty fun! That's why I'm emailing so late. :) We went to an art museum (just outside, though), and the beach! The beach was super awesome!! :D But yeah, our investigators are doing well, we just need to keep finding new ones who will listen to the gospel and get baptized! :) 

That's about it for now, I guess. :) I love you lots and you're always in my prayers. :) Love you. :) 

--

Elder Fleming

Went to the beach today. :) I don't know which pictures are good and which ones aren't so I'm just going to try to send as many as I can. :) I also went to the outside of the art museum. It was pretty cool. :) It was with our investigator, Mark and one of his friends, which was really cool! :)

A Mini Miracle Follows

Nicole wrote: I get out of the pool after practice and I go to my bag to get my keys so we can leave...  My keys aren't in the pocket with my phone and my wallet,  so I check my shallow pockets on the front of my pants,  not there either.  So I take everything out of my bag,  shaking it all out to find them, nothing.  I run through the locker room,  and look to see if I had dropped them.  Nothing.  I check the front desk,  still nothing.  I go to the guard room to see if they had picked them up,  nope.  So I go back to my bag,  as my friend is walking out of the boys locker room,  wracking my brain trying to think of where I had put them. The only other place I could think to look were the key slots in the car to unlock it.  I send my friend out there,  and I feel panic start to enter my head.  So right in front of my bag I say a prayer to God asking him to help me find my keys so I can get home.  I then proceed to check the places again.  The first place I check is my pants,  the front left pocket where I had checked three times prior,  but I thought why not once more.  I reached into my pocket,  and it was somehow deeper (like a boys pocket)  and my keys were there.  I sighed in relief and said a prayer of thanks. I'm just so grateful  that that miracle follows a prayer from a person who needed one.  I know God answers prayers.  I know He listens to us.

Elder Fleming replied: Wow, those are awesome miracles! I love miracle stories! I think that it's amazing that sometimes things like losing keys can build our faith so much. It's like in Alma 36:6 (I think) that says through small and simple means, great things are brought to pass. How amazing is it that through losing keys, or calling a friend or saying a prayer can have so much help! I think that's incredible! When I look at my mission--the progress I've made, or the things I've done I realize most of them were just small and simple things that I did, but through those small and simple things, God could work such huge miracles. :) I love that scripture. :) 
-- 

Elder Fleming

Triple Dipper (email 9/14/15)

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a good week (despite sickness and stuff). ;) It's always great hearing from you and seeing how you're all doing! :D I finally figured out how to send pictures, so I hope you got those! :)
     I'm glad RSL won and that new player sounds awesome! It's going to be weird, because I'll come home to an entirely new RSL team! :) 
     I'm good, we have our interviews with President and his wife tomorrow which I'm pretty excited for and Pday today! It's the first one in a while! :D We aren't really planning on doing much though, just buying stuff and cleaning and eating and stuff for this week. :) 
     I'm doing well and the responsibility balancing act is usually ok. We have found people to teach, which has been really awesome! :D We actually had a new investigator show up to church yesterday! :D The new ward is really cool! It's a lot bigger than the ward I was just barely in, and they're actually trying to split into 2 wards soon. :) There are about 80 to 100 active members I think, which is pretty awesome! They all seem to be into missionary work too, which is a huge blessing. :) 

    This week was good with a great trip to the temple, ZTM and a baptism! Those were all super fun and awesome! I'm so glad I got to go to the temple. :) I guess there are 3 other missionaries from my MTC district in my current zone so that's pretty cool. :) Also, the baptism went well. :) the guy who helped baptize our investigator had to do it 3 times (hence, triple dipper). ;) it was really cool and I was really excited to help one of our investigators get baptized! :) 

     As for spiritual things, we had an FHE last night on the spirit and how we can learn through the Spirit and stuff. We were told to write down a question we had in our lives. Then we read Alma 36. It was really cool because I felt the Spirit really strongly and I felt like my question was answered. :) It's pretty cool how God works. :) Anyway, I think that's about all for now. I love you all and pray for you all the time! :) Love you!!

--

Elder Fleming

My companion Elder Dayton right before he shaved his head. :)

Natural Science museum from a few weeks ago. :) 

Pinata at a barbecue :) (ward activity) :)

Cool car we saw the other day and a cool iguana (I'm pretty sure it's an iguana) :) They're not too expensive here! :) 

One of our investigators is an animator and works with a 3D printer and showed it to us! It was super cool!! :D Also, the pictures were his own he had done with his 3D printer! 

The view from our apartment. :)

In Taiwan, we have to get buckets of water to fill up the fonts for baptisms here. Just kidding, the cold water wasn't working so we had to take a bunch of cold water from the sinks and take it to the baptismal font. :) 

Baptism pictures!!!! XD

View from our apartment (polluted day)

More baptism pictures!! 

Other side view from our apartment

Entrance to our apartment and the hall

kitchen and dressing room

More hall and bathroom

Study room and bedroom