Go Have An Adventure!: "Michael Jackson" is getting baptized!

Sorry for the late email!! We are planning on attending the temple this week and so our p-day was moved to Wednesday from Monday. We will get the opportunity to attend to the temple, which is absolutely fantastic! I'm really excited for that! It will be in Chinese! This week has been amazing and each week gets better and better!

Da peanut butter cheeseburger!

Eating with my boys!

A Gorilla at the zoo!

Monday October 19, 2015:

For p-day this week we went to the zoo! Super fun! Afterward, we went to this burger joint and they had this hamburger that has peanut butter on it! Elder Scovel was telling me that it is amazing!! I decided to try it and it turned out to be amazing!! Really good! Who would have thought?!;)

Wednesday October 21, 2015:

Today we met with an "eternal" investigator. His name is Paul. He has been one of Elder Scovel's investigators for a really long time! He has already gone through all of the lessons, but he takes everything way to far. He is an extremely intelligent individual, and he researches EVERYTHING! When Elder Scovel was starting to teach him with his last companion, Paul started doing research about our church. He stumbled upon some Anti-Mormon stuff online. So, now he is all paranoid about our church. He was an engineer and made quite a bit of money! However, he lost his job 5 years ago and hasn't gotten a new one since. This week he ran out of all the money that he saved. He is really sad, but honestly just an amazing person! He is so curious about our church and just wants to find the truth, which Elder Scovel and I love!

Saturday October 24, 2015:

Today had to be one of the funniest days of life! Elder Scovel and I went finding and we were having some pretty good lessons. We were in the middle of a lesson with a girl that we found, when all of a sudden there comes this man! He was riding on his 1960 vintage GIANT bike jamming to Michael Jackson's "Beat It". He comes to an abrupt stop right in front of us and shouts in english, "HEY! I like your style!" He was rocking a straw hat, along with a white glove that Michael Jackson would wear in his prime. So Elder Scovel was teaching the girl we were with before and tells me to go talk to this man by myself. Elder Scovel and I were both teaching different people right next to one another. I asked the man what his name is and he says: "Call me Michael Jackson." Honestly, the funniest person I have ever met! I feel bad because I don't have a picture of him but I will get one as soon as I can! The whole time that I was talking to him, he just sang Michael Jackson and did all of his dance moves! He then starting talking about how he is SanXia's Jay Chou! Jay Chou is super popular here in Taiwan. At the end of our lesson with "Michael Jackson", he started following us saying, "Alright who are we going to find next! Don't worry I know Mandarin so I can translate for you!" I ended up telling him about our church and when and where it is. I really did this so that we could depart from each other because we had a lesson coming up with one of our investigators and we had to go meet with her. At the time I thought that Michael Jackson was going to be a one time thing, however...

Sunday October 25, 2015:

HE CAME TO CHURCH! During sacrament, I was sitting next to a member, when all of sudden I felt some one tap my shoulder. I turn around to see Michael Jackson! He came to church, with the same clothes he was wearing the night before, rocking some cool shades, smelling like cigarettes and basically everything else that you could imagine! I honestly did not expect him to come to church! He came and it just showed me that miracles can indeed happen in the presence of the Lord. They say that cigarettes are the best possible smell to smell at church because it shows that people want to change and become better. Later that night, we had FHE (Family Home Evening). In Taiwan, it is the craziest event! So, just imagine a little apartment room fitting an ENTIRE WARD of about 40 people. It is basically just a dinner party and it was so much fun! People walk around and talk, they say how terrible my chopstick skills are, they tell each other how awesome they are, they laugh, eat, and basically have a party... haha. So much fun!

FHE in Taiwan!

Monday October 26, 2015:

We met with Nancy again, and again she bought us lunch.

She is honestly SO nice! Love her! She was talking about how her health isn't very good. She is having intestinal problems in her older age. We offered to give her a blessing and she accepted. Elder Scovel decided that I would give her the blessing for the sick and afflicted. It went really good! It really is crazy how much I have grown since I have been here. Before, with Lin Da Ge, I was really nervous and didn't even know that we were going to give his grandchild a blessing....in Chinese! This time, I could speak Chinese better and I knew exactly what I was saying! I felt a lot more confident with the blessing! It was a really cool experience. Then later that night, we met with Lin Da Ge. It was a rough week for him. We didn't meet with him once last week because he wouldn't answer his phone or open his door when we yelled for him at his house. He caved and drank alcohol this week. He felt terrible about it! He didn't want to meet with us because he felt guilty! He felt like he had let us down. When we finally met with him, we told him how much we loved him and how we would never be upset with him. It was really spiritual.

Tuesday October 27, 2015:

Two miracles happened today! The first: Paul (the "eternal" investigator) got a job! It was because of our church that he got the job! One of our members helped him find a place that he could work! I really think this will be a turning point for Paul's conversion to our church. The second: Michael Jackson is on date to get baptized! We taught him the first lesson and it went great! At the end of the lesson, we asked him if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and get baptized. He looks up and says, "Of course I will! Jesus is my friend!" I love Michael Jackson! I should really learn his real name though because we don't want to be saying, when he is about to go under the water for baptism, "Michael Jackson, having the power of the..." haha that would be quite humorous!;)

I love you all so much! Thank you for being such amazing role models and examples to me in my life. I want to invite everyone to stop judging people by their covers. When I first met Michael Jackson, I didn't expect him to go to church at all! And then we he came I was absolutely blown away! I never expected that. But, then I felt pretty bad. Who was I to instantly judge the type of person he is. I learned that anyone, no matter what they look like or sound like, is a child of God and deserves to be treated like so. My invitation is to look at everyone like they are a child of God, because that is who they are. No more judging by their cover but rather by the 2nd chapter... possibly the 3rd;)

Wo Ai Nimen!!!

Elder Coletti