Ether 12:12

Elder Coletti's Letter 05/22/2016:


Good morning from Taiwan!  This week was full of tender mercies from our Heavenly Father.  Elder Francis and I have been seeing more and more success from our efforts, and it is definitely being supplemented because of God's help.

I want to share a really good story that Elder Francis and I witnessed.  Our ward wanted to do service for a Catholic facility called St. Annes hospital or something like that.  It's basically a place that physically disabled children are taken care of and learn how to cope with their physical disabilities.  So our whole ward went there and sang to the children, which was awesome.  As we were leaving the building after our performance, we ran into an old lady from Holland.  Turns out that her name was Anne, who the facility was named after.  She really is Catholic.  As we walked by her she shouted,

 "HEY!  Are you the Mormons?" When I heard this, I thought she was going to start shouting at us because of our beliefs.  So we tell her yes we are, and then she responds, "The Mormons do more service than the Catholics.  I love the Mormons.  Mormons are such good people.  God Bless You."  I was blown away.  This lady has been in Taiwan for 50 years, running this service for disabled children, and yet she still says that the Mormons do more service than anyone else!  This was a big testimony builder to me because of the fact that people do recognize service.  There are times that I am on the mission, serving others, and I feel like I am getting nothing in return.  No reward, so to speak.  But it is little things like this that makes it all worth it.  I learned that we must always be serving others, because we don't know who might be looking at us.  If we are always in the service of God, people will recognize us as servants of God.  And through that recognition, God can work wonders amongst the children of men.  Please always be in the service of God.  We don't know who might be watching.

Now I would like to talk about my amazing companion, Elder Francis!  It truly is incredible how much a mission changes someone.  It not only makes you a better person, but it makes you wise.  There are countless times during the day that Elder Francis' wisdom shines out to me.  Elder Francis truly knows how to prepare people for baptism and to help them repent.  He handles the hard-to-handle situations like a champ and I am so grateful for his wisdom.  I get little tidbits everyday and it has helped me progress as a missionary.

There is a really cool scripture in Ether 12:12 which says, "For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith."  I really like this scripture!  I think that it is so applicable to every one of us!  God will not show himself to us, until we show that we him to show that we have faith in him.  He will only appear once our faith is manifested.  There are times that we think, "If God does this for me, then I will do that." But God thinks, "If you do that, then I will do this for you."  This is a really tricky concept to understand at times.  But I firmly believe that if we will continue to 1) serve God at all times 2) seek more wisdom in this life and 3) show our faith to God, that is when we will recognize the hand of God in our lives.

I love you all so much!  Thank you all for serving me!  We are forever and always 大家(DaJia=Big Family).

Elder Coletti

甜田圈長老

Am I changing for the better?

Elder Coletti's Letter 05/15/2016:

Hello to all!  This week was great honestly.  Nothing of note, but just pure happiness. I love being a missionary and I love serving in Taiwan!

I am so grateful for my companion, Elder Francis.  I feel like I have grown the most in these last 3 weeks serving with him than I have in my entire mission!  Interesting thing: a lot of the time I learn because of being near Elder Francis, not necessarily because he tells me a certain thing. I learn so much from his actions and his example. Being by Elder Francis and his maturity (he goes home in July) has transformed me.  Super grateful.

The mission is so good.  I have learned so much about how to change and work hard.  Something that I have been focusing on is how I am changing, and if it is for the better.  Sometimes it is hard to notice if you are changing.  But I have noticed that when you try to see what has been happening to you recently and what influence it has had on you, that is when you notice how much you have transformed!  Notice the change that is going on in your life, and make sure that it is for the better.  If it isn't, make changes that point you in the right direction. Changes that bring you close to Christ.

Love you all!

Elder Coletti

Happy Mother's Day!

We were able to Skype with Elder Coletti today!  He looks wonderful!

Elder Coletti's Letter 05/08/2016:

Happy Mother's Day!  How is everybody doing?  This week was a lot of fun!  It is starting to get really hot in Taiwan now!  I've just accepted that I will always be sweating now and it's not even the heat peak of the summer season yet!  TaiWan is beautiful and so worth the sweating:)

This week I was reading in  in Alma 34:33, which says:

"And now, as I said unto you before, as ye have had so many witnesses, therefore, I beseech of you that ye do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end; for after this day of life, which is given us to prepare for eternity, behold, if we do not improve our time while in this life, then cometh the night of darkness wherein there can be no labor performed."

I think that this scripture is so applicable to every single one of us!  We do not want to procrastinate change.  We have been given this opportunity on life to change.  But if we keep procrastinating, and telling ourselves that we can change once this is over, or once this happens, then we will never change.  Our father in heaven wants us to prepare for eternity while we are here on Earth, and if we expect to change when we need God's help or when it is more convenient for us, we are abusing the gift that God has given us.  Don't procrastinate!  Change now.  Don't wait for the darkness to come, to realize you want to follow the light.

I love you all so much!  I want to wish a special Mother's day wish to my wonderful Mother!  It's funny how much you realize how much an individual helps you once you don't have them anymore!  Now that I am in the mission field, I realize how much my mama did for me!  Thank you so much Mom for all of the sacrifices that you made on behalf of me and our family.  I can promise that you have inspired us beyond comprehension. 

I love you mama!:)

Elder Coletti

田甜圈長老

1st week in Dan-Shui

Elder Coletti's Letter 05/01/2016:

This week Elder Francis and I had a baptism which was super sweet! His name is Zhou Bo Qian. Some Elders found him a while back . Elder Francis has been working with him and was able to help him progress to baptism. Elder Francis did a really great job with him and I was glad to play (although very small) a part in his conversion. We will definitely continue to help him!

The work is going really well here. We have an investigator, Jiang (ˋ江) that should be getting baptized in 2 weeks if all goes smoothly with her. Also we are working with another woman named Gao (高) who is super close to baptism! All she needs at this point is to decide to be baptized. She has been too church over 10X and has had up to the 5th lesson. She is super awesome and will be great once she commits. We are also working with a 16 year old boy named Mike who is super sweet! We usually try to stay clear of younger investigators because they are usually super immature and not too prepared. Mike is wise beyond his years! We will be starting to teach him about  the commandments soon, so we shall see how he receptive he is.

I absolutely love it here in DanShui.  It is such a beautiful area.  Elder Francis is a great missionary!  I am learning so much about how to become a better teacher from him.  He has helped me in simplifying my approach in order for the investigators to understand the gospel of Christ.

Elder Coletti